View Full Version : March Frugals!
rosarugosa
3-5-17, 10:51am
Good morning! I've got a few frugals to share. First the little stuff:
A free bus ride the other night because the fare collector/card swiper was out of order
I redeemed Bing search points for a $5.00 Amazon credit
I did a Pine Cone Research survey for $3.00.
Then some bigger stuff:
We really watched our grocery spending in Feb. I've been more successful in pulling DH into the budget planning, and that is key, since he does the grocery shopping. So although we started the month with what looked like a budget deficit, we were actually able to put an extra $300. into savings, which I transferred yesterday. We didn't go to Trader Joe's at all for the month, and we skipped our monthly Costco run. I pondered whether the Costco thing was just deferred spending, but our list for March isn't unusually large, and I did actually move money into savings, so I think it was a real frugal. Skipping TJ's just eliminated some recreational grocery shopping. We still ate very well all month, which is not surprising news to anyone on this forum, I'm sure. :)
We went to a concert last night (Melvin Seals and the Jerry Garcia Band) at the Cabot Theater in Beverly. We had bought the tickets a few months ago, and they were pretty reasonable at under $90. for the two of us. We ate dinner at home before the show, each had only one drink at the show, and there was free parking at the venue. So we had a great night out for pretty reasonable money, compared to what we could have spent.
In anticipation of losing my job I had been paring down my spending. The axe fell on February 10th and my spending for February is just under what I am receiving in unemployment benefits though it was a short month. My goal for March is to eat less and shed some extra pounds while saving on groceries.
rosarugosa
3-5-17, 11:22am
Welcome back, Yppej! I'm sorry to hear about the job loss (or not, if the job was that toxic). Anyway, wishing you well, glad to hear from you again, and glad your frugality is helping you manage your current circumstances.
Our monthly average food spending is down 21%. Eating more at home and out less. Food waste from the fridge is almost nill. As I prepare more meals at home I work through the dregs in the fridge before I go buy more groceries.
Today? out of the freezer: 2 bags garden ratatouille, a bag grated zucchini, a bag of chopped bell peppers. This is ALL simmering on the stove. I added some ground beef/italian sausage precooked from the freezer. I'll cook up some Quinoa pasta later and and layer this like a lasagna with cottage cheese and mozzarella and bake off in the oven. It will be dinner tonight and lunches all week for the hubster.
Breakfast this weekend, finished up stale sourdough purchased last Saturday. As toast? It was great!
early morning
3-5-17, 7:34pm
Nothing earth-shattering here. Since my old computer died last summer and my new one didn't come w/good software, I've not been tracking my spending. That plus supporting an unemployed depressive son has played hell with our day to day finances. I guess I need to cough up the money and buy Quicken. I've tried quite a few free online programs and either they want account info to automatically plug in charge and bank entries, or they are too unwieldy, or have too few categories of spending. Quicken isn't all that wonderful, either, but I'd found ways to make it work for me. Anyway - my main frugal is that I spent the weekend on a girls-trip to a lovely bunch of quality antique shows and didn't buy a bunch of little stuff, even though I was sorely tempted. I did buy one large piece and a few small things that are actually useful, but I'm ok with that. AND DB donated points so our hotel was free, and breakfast was included, which helped keep costs to a minimum.
Received a coupon in the mail for $10 off any $20 or more purchase at Shopko including clearance merchandise. Used it to buy a new feather duster and a set of flannel sheets for our bed. The sheets were on clearnace for 11.99 and the feather duster was 8.99. Add the tax and subtract the $10 discout and we got out of there for $11.84. Not bad for a couple of items we actually needed. Our 2 sets of flannel sheets have developed holes this winter. Our previous dusting wand, one of those long skinny polyester ones, got commandeered for cleaning out the reusable dust catcher cup in the vacuum cleaner so it lives in the garage and is pretty dirty now. I'd say we did well!:cool:
rosarugosa
3-17-17, 4:53am
What an amazing deal on sheets, MaryHu!
My best recent frugal is that I got my annual bonus from work and transferred most of it into savings. The only bonus splurges were a check to the local humane society and tickets to see The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time this weekend. I opted for pretty reasonably priced tickets too, I could have spent over $400 for 2 tickets and I spent about $170 instead. It looks like our seats are pretty decent, and we don't really need to be in the very front of the theater.
We hadn't spent one night away from home in nearly a year, which is unusual for us, as we enjoy travelling. Instead, we've been staying close to home, working hard and chipping away at our debt. However, we were given two free nights at a casino/resort down in Laughlin, Nevada, which is our go-to spot for quick and cheap getaways. We also got free tickets to see Kenny Loggins (think theme songs from "Footloose," "Top Gun," and "Caddyshack," among a zillion other hits)! Kenny was GREAT...I haven't had more fun at a concert in decades! (He's also very handsome now that he's sporting a more George Michael stubble than a Moses style beard.) We had a wonderful time, got some new shoes at a great footwear outlet store for an amazing price, and entertained ourselves by walking and admiring the scenery. Really, really great!
early morning
3-18-17, 11:57am
Well, won't be spending any more money at ModCloth, since they just announced they are now affiliated with/owned by the Evil Empire.
I attend a weekly weight management support group through my insurance company and have learned a lot. My teacher strongly endorsed the brand of Dave's Killer Bread as being highly nutritious--indeed, it is excellent. I'd been buying it for months, but it was a bit on the pricey side, even though I would normally only have one slice a day.
I decided to look for a reverse-engineered recipe for the type I like, found it, then bought a second-hand Zojirushi bread machine. After one failed attempt and a few tweaks to the recipe, I came up with a great facsimile at about a quarter of the cost!
As a side note, I wanted to share the happy news that through attending that class for about six months now--and making about a million small and relatively pain-free changes--I've managed to get my A1C level OUT of the pre-diabetic range! I'm still overweight and don't exercise enough, but I have lost SOME weight and am exercising far more than I did before (which was never/none/zilch/zip/nada).
I would not have known about this free class if I hadn't thoroughly researched my insurance company's website and taken a lot of action to get myself educated and enrolled. If you have health insurance, it might be worth doing some detective work to see what's available. My class is a lot like a Weight Watchers meeting--without publicly disclosing weight numbers--apparently. That's good, because I had already researched WW and wanted to join...but it was too expensive for our budget.
Great news Selah! I love that bread but never buy it because of the price. Would you be willing to share the recipe?
iris lilies
3-24-17, 12:53pm
Weight Watchers doesn't disclose anyone's weight. Just saying.
Bread. What about ice cream? Has anyone tried Halo Top? It is amazingly good. An entire pint is only 240 calories. Some varieties are more.
I am not a big ice cream fan so I dont eat alot of it, and I suppose to a real ice cream fan it wouldnt be that great, but it is fine for me.
I have been getting some online deals to help with my job search from Vistaprint for business cards to bulk printer paper. My son (a media and communications major) loves researching deals online and has been a great help to me.
Meezer_Mom
3-25-17, 2:31am
I've been re-reading some of the personal finance books I've collected on my kindle, and doing something of an inventory of ideas that I have implemented, those I should and those that aren't pertinent to my life. Then trying to instill some new habits.
For example, due to some recent development, my bank's closest ATM is now twice the distance. I spent nearly a year with sciatica issues so that distance was hell to walk, so I got into the habit of using another bank's ATM because it was more convenient. Fees were $5+/pop. I'm better but still recovering. Nonetheless, pushing myself to make the effort to avoid the added fees. Reading was the reminder.
Another is to have water when eating out. I'm eating out less, and there are times I *really* want that iced tea, but I'm pushing water more. The habit here is what do I *want*. And that I don't need to order out of habit.
Last year I'd gotten into a pattern of drinking too much soda from the vending machine at work. Again, I'm pushing water and tea bags from home.
Today I read a chapter on hobbies. Except for seeing the occasional movie in the theater, I really don't spend much on them. I've been taking my own snacks for months. Being physically limited, frankly, I haven't engaged much in my other hobbies - knitting, crocheting and learning to sew. Feeling better, I want to resume them. I have had a lot of yarn given to me so it remains cost-free.
Minor adjustments by an old frugalista who's still open to change.
I attend a weekly weight management support group through my insurance company and have learned a lot. My teacher strongly endorsed the brand of Dave's Killer Bread as being highly nutritious--indeed, it is excellent. I'd been buying it for months, but it was a bit on the pricey side, even though I would normally only have one slice a day.
I decided to look for a reverse-engineered recipe for the type I like, found it, then bought a second-hand Zojirushi bread machine. After one failed attempt and a few tweaks to the recipe, I came up with a great facsimile at about a quarter of the cost!.
Would you please share this recipe? I love Daves!
rosarugosa
3-25-17, 7:06am
I broke my 2017 clothes buying fast and got a pair of black work pants at Talbot's yesterday. I'm including it here because I had coupons that brought the price from $99 to $29, so it was a really good buy. There were a couple of other things I was interested in, but they have such frequent deals that I'm going to hold off for a 25% promo or something similar. I'll be sticking with neutral staples and steering away from the more frivolous stuff at least.
Meezer_Mom
3-25-17, 7:15pm
Way to go, Rosa!
Meezer Mom: Do you use a debit card to make purchases? Lots of places offer to give you cash back from your debit card purchase which is just another way of making a withdrawal from your account rather than having to use an ATM. Most don't charge a fee for this service. Might save you a few buck in fees.
rosarugosa
3-26-17, 5:34am
Good point, MaryHu. Another possibility is switching banks. My bank reimburses us for ATM fees we incur from other banks, which is pretty cool.
early morning
3-26-17, 10:56am
yesterday was a no-drive no spend day. I don't get many of those! Today will be a planned spend day - I need a few groceries that ALDI does not have - small sandwich buns and sour pickles- for a carry-in dish. I will, of course, hit Starbucks while there - I'm down to 4 fancy coffees out a month. Of course that's times 2 or 3, depending on if DH and/or DD are along, lol. Got all of our taxes figured and filed last Monday for free - I always feel better when that's done. Found a box of my glass zoo animal figurines from the early 60s in with a bunch of stuff we moved from Mom's house - they are priced and packed to go to our antique mall booth this afternoon. Got most of the mail-order plants planted before the rain - they arrived during a freezing spell here and I was worried about them, but they are in and they looked pretty good. I have another batch on the way and no place to put them, but we'll figure it out!
Meezer_Mom
3-26-17, 11:01am
Thanks for the suggestions Mary and Rosa. I use an ATM card and cash because I was a victim of identity theft. My current bank offers some peace of mind. There are enough ATMs to use provided I make the effort to go to them.
I am keeping my groceries in the $30 to $40 a week range for myself, trying to eat mindfully and stop when I am full. So far I have lost 2 pounds. It also helps that I saw the layoffs at work so while I was still employed stocked up on several staples when they were on sale including olive oil and toilet paper.
frugal-one
3-27-17, 12:35pm
Made tapioca... it didn't turn out. It was runny. I must have miscounted and not put in enough tapioca. So, I made popcicles out of it. They were REALLY good, surprisingly.
I closed out March with spending below what I received in unemployment compensation. The challenge will be to stay on track during months when I have real estate taxes, homeowners insurance or auto insurance.
Found a few Taster's Choice individual tubes of decaffeinated instant coffee in my cupboard (think I used them to bake something one time). Trying to clean out the cupboards so decided to make iced coffee and used organic vanilla half and half. VERY GOOD. Like it so much I went and bought a container of Taster's Choice instant coffee. There are a number of recipes for different coffees on line to try.
I claimed a $5.00 Amazon gift card from doing daily Bing searches today. I went to the library and borrowed a brand-new book for free, and bought 4 paperbacks from the sale room for a grand total of $2.00. (I like paperbacks for commuting purposes since they are lighter, and I share them around and then eventually re-donate them. I call that 50 cents per book well spent!)
I did end of the month budget reconciliation and was able to push $200 extra into savings!
DH picked up an extra shift at work today, so he gets frugal points too.
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