View Full Version : August Frugals
New month, new frugals thread. Enjoy! :D
Our visit to Lansing has been moved to Monday, today as long as the rain holds off we are heading to the beach. We will stay for a couple of hours and just come home for lunch.
I have to say that the free Apple movie making class has been a hit around here. My son showed my husband some cool things he didn't know about I Movie and they made a mini movie on Tuesday night. It's a spy thriller So for anyone who has kids between the ages of 8-12 next year and is near an Apple store, you might look into signing them up. It was truly 100% free.
Found out why our dental visits this year have been coming back as us owing 100%, the Dentist does not have the correct dental insurance information. Phew! Now to get my bill adjusted, which won't be a problem just need to drop off the card. This is a savings of $400 off my bill.
School supply shopping tomorrow. First we will hit our current bucket and then the store. I think all they really need is paper, folders and some new scissors. I will have the classroom shared supplies to buy though, so that will add it up. We will do the new shoes the week before. DH last year couldn't understand why I waited to buy shoes till then, vs. spreading out the cost. Hmm, because their feet will grow as soon as I buy the shoes lol.
I'm going to kick this off by reporting a few frugals of my own from yesterday (Aug 1), but I might get excited and throw in a few that happened at the end of July. I know you will all forgive me for breaking the hard-and-fast rules we follow around here. ;)
I was in NYC for the past few days attending an education conference. Fortunately, I have family I can stay with in NYC so there are no hotel costs associated the trip. Also, because we're all big pet lovers it means my dogs can travel with me, so no costs associated with boarding the furry children -- yay! I had a coupon for a free drink at Starbucks so I stopped on the drive down and got myself the only drink I ever buy at Starbucks -- a green tea (hot, not iced). Of course, since it was free, I opted for the largest size. ;)
The conference itself was quite reasonably priced: $1.40 for educators. I saved myself even that small fee since I was a speaker. It was a bit nerve-wracking, so perhaps I should have just paid the $1.40 fee, but it was good experience so I shouldn't complain! I took the subway to get around the city and when reloading my Metrocard put the maximum amount on it ($50) so that I could get additional $3.50 in fares free. I have to be back in NYC several times in August and September so this will not go unused. Across the street from the conference was a Dunkin' Donuts/Baskin Robbins. I never buy anything at Dunkin' Donuts and had a $5.00 gift card so I used it to get ice cream yesterday. Of course now I have a whopping $0.76 left on the card that will probably never be used. I ate dinner out one night, for a grand total of $17.50 (including a generous tip). I'm sure I could have eaten someplace for even less, but I appreciate the fact that even though it is NYC the server at my favorite hole-in-the-wall place recognizes me when I come in every 2 months of so and knows what I'm going to order.
Ran into a friend at the conference and she offered to get me a free pass to a three day conference at the end of September. Assuming she can truly make that happen it's a $150 savings so that would be a huge win. It's a conference I would definitely like to attend, but hadn't considered going in part because of the cost. But a free pass would definitely make the difference.
Aside from that, I'm just doing the usuals. Trying to limit our use of the AC to see if we can continue to have electric bills with a negative balance. While my partner is traveling for the next week I'm going to make a concerted effort to eat what is already in the house instead of grocery shopping. And I'm going to do my best to stay home as much as possible. Mostly because I will need to travel back to Austin at the end of the month and really need a few weeks at home to get things in order around here!
Okay, that's all for now. Looking forward to hearing reports from others!
We had a rough night with Charlotte, who is either not feeling well or teething badly, so Zach took a sick day. Extreme exhaustion is not a good thing when you work with electricity. :) We took turns napping this morning and Peanut seems to be feeling better, so we are catching up on housework. We've fallen behind since Zach has been working on a project with our friends in the evenings the last week.
The girls and I did some planning for the coming month for school. That will help me keep my homeschool budget in check. I know what we are working on every day for August, so I can tell myself no to all the lovely things I see and want.
Last year we were on a four day a week school schedule with the fifth day as our cleaning day. This year we are going to tackle one "zone" a day for chores, which will take about half an hour, and the fifth day will be Preschool Day. The girls are going to be my assistant preschool teachers. They are so totally excited. The girls want to read to the little kids and we made alphabet flash cards with pictures of stuff James likes. A is for Avengers, for example, and C is for Captain America. :) I did that with the girls too and they liked it. They seemed more interested in that than A is for Apple, B is for Ball. I wouldn't do it at all with a three year old if James wasn't interested, but he really is. He sees his sisters doing schoolwork and wants some of his own. We'll also do one art project or sensory activity and something active. Yesterday was our first preschool day and we made ice boats for the water table and made a masking tape bullseye on the floor for a bowling-type game. That was actually a hit with everyone, even the teen I'm watching.
I work in a fabric store and I also sew, so it's very easy to be tempted to shop. So I made a rule for myself: I can buy any fabric I want, but then I must finish a sewing project that uses the same amount or more fabric (it doesn't have to be the same fabric), before I can buy more. It's been working so far. I've been very motivated to finish some of the projects that I've had sitting around, and I've been admiring the fabric I see at work without feeling the need to possess it right away.
I bought 10 spools of thread on clearance for 38 cents apiece, when they're usually $2.79. Because these were all different colors, I'll use these for patchwork projects where you won't see the thread.
I saved $50 by not buying two books that I spent at least five minutes standing in front of the bookrack trying to convince myself to buy. I was so close to talking myself into this impulse purchase, but then I thought of all the library books I had at home, and I put them back on the rack. Victory!
As usual, fine work all around, frugal friends!
We used a Museum Pass from the library today to go to the Minnesota History Center and see the 1934 New Deal artists exhibit. It was interesting but we were rushing a little because we also wanted to pull a box with photos from the library at the History Center. A semi-famous Minnesotan lived in our house for 40 years and we were hoping there might be photos of our home among the papers, but there were only 5 photographs, and none were taken in our place. Oh well! The library portion would have been free, but the exhibit passes saved us $22 on admission for two adults! Wow!
That's kind of cool about the semi-famous Minnesotan.
Made dog food today. Turned on the new central AC today bc predicted to be 95. Then we got a T-storm and it's 69 so I turned it off. The air actually seems a little chilly!
Today has been a pretty good day financially speaking. I know I've bween talking about it for awhile but today I officially paid off the house. Yes, I put the debt on the restaurant to do this but it still feels amazing.
We listed the house with a realtor today and feel pretty positive about that too. She felt the house was worth almost as much as we had originally paid for it so hopefully, when including the money we recieved from the land contract, we'll get all our money back out of it.
I won some silly sweeps the other day-some sort of bamboo cutting board set that I wasn't too excited about. Today I found out that its actually being given to me in the form of a $46 amazon.com gift certificate. More christmas money-woohoo!
Aug.02
Way to go with all the frugals you all are doing great........
--my mine frugal started a couple of weeks ago when I found two, (one almost new) push mowers for $45.00 at a yard sale.
And, yesterday I sold our too big gas mower (6 years old) for $80.00...it was still in great shape...so win, win for everyone.
Since I did not have the power to start the gas monster, and this yard was too small to maneuver it around this is all good.
--sold 3 more items from the garage for a total $50.00
--over the last two days I have sort/purged and clean the entire garage and now know everything I have in there.
(except for on cupboard with doors that I filled with many boxes of nails/screws/and who knows what else....I will deal with them at
a later date...but, for now I can't see it all and it is not taking up too much room)
--still eating down and only buying on sale items
Today is a no driving/spending day.
I have already forgotten where I read this but I saw a suggestion about making pancakes out of muffin batter. Mix the batter as usual and cook it like ordinary pancakes. A sweet, potentially healthy twist on muffins/pancakes without heating up the oven. Sounded kind of fun to me!
We went to a Tigers game last night with our son's baseball team through our Church for Lutheran night. The boys tickets were only $8, so a bit of a savings there (though the seats were really high up, lol). I did bring a couple of bottles of water for each of us and we parked in a further lot (Ford field parking, only $10 vs. $20-$25). Kept the treats to a minimum of cold and refreshing frozen lemonades. We were able to go out on the field and saw the presentation of 5 of the 6 trophies to our school for the league they are in. AWESOME! And the Tigers won 10-2 :cool:
Yard work before it gets too steamy out, birthday party for my great nephew. My niece requested no gifts.
Worked on digging up a bush that's an obstacle to getting the leaves out the back gate so I can do them this fall w/o impediment. It was hot and I broke my shovel! Got most done.
When I recover (I'm currently supine, sucked of all energy) going to take a shower and run to the thrift store in search of a used stovetop coffee percolator.
Aug 4
so far today...........bke I like the idea of muffin mix as pancakes, of course I put way too much sweets on pancakes so the calorie count is way too bad...lol
--spent $60.. together with Dd at Rexall Pharm. all ideas an sale for stocking up and recieve a bonus 50 air miles
--leftovers for supper
--library for entertainment
--chopped and froze a large batch of fresh cilantro bought on sale---good for winter cooking
Not so frugal today, unfortunately. I did end up buying some fabric, but this was a specific color I needed to finish a project, and the quilt shop had ordered it specially at my request. So I felt compelled to pick it up. However, I then spent many hours yesterday evening working on that project and reveling in the colors. I just need to remember to create projects where I can use some of the fabric I have, rather than getting too picky about the colors.
I did turn off the air conditioning last night and opened the windows. It's been cool and breezy. What a relief from the heat. It's a little warm in here now, but I'm going to keep those windows open as long as I can.
We had a nice frugal weekend so far. The big girls and I did a mosaic project, a cross shaped stepping stone. It turned out really pretty. It's a trial run for a fairy castle we are planning to build for the garden. It was easier than I thought it would be. I think for the castle we'll go to the reused art supply store Kelli told us about a while back. They had some mosaic stuff last time we were there. Mosaic could be addicting.
Yesterday I printed off a coupon for a free drink at a coffee shop. Zach and I went there last night since Dad is going out of town for the week and we won't be able to get out in the evenings. It was fun. Good coffee and live music.
My mom and I talked yesterday and I think she is going to buy me a Delivery pass for Coborns Delivers, a grocery service I use frequently. I usually stock up at Costco every three weeks or so and fill in with stuff from Coborns. It's $5 for delivery for orders over $50, which is worth it to me to not have to drag 5 kids to the store. For $100 you can get a delivery pass, which can be used to have any amount of groceries delivered anytime. I think I will buy twice a week, which should cut down on food waste since I can buy perishables when I need them.
Our family day activity today was walking the Walk for our Neighbors walk at the park by our house. Each person who walked, including babies and dogs, transferred $100 from a challenge grant to a charity that prevents people from being evicted from their homes. It was perfect weather for it and the turnout was huge. It was good FFF and a nice chance to do some good.
Time for some pantry cooking--the shelves and freezer are getting really full. Made some egg salad to use up eggs and some pickles that I didn't care for on their own but were fine as an ingredient, braised lamb and empanada dough in the freezer finally got assembled into baked empanadas, and frozen bananas, blueberries and a few cherries made a very nice smoothie. I also had the last few steak fries in the bag (not enough for a meal side dish) as my afternoon snack...
That's kind of cool about the semi-famous Minnesotan.
Made dog food today. Turned on the new central AC today bc predicted to be 95. Then we got a T-storm and it's 69 so I turned it off. The air actually seems a little chilly!
Have we had a homemade dog food thread?
Have we had a homemade dog food thread?
Yes, quite recently: http://www.simplelivingforum.net/showthread.php?5188-Homemade-Dog-Food&highlight=homemade+food
I think for the castle we'll go to the reused art supply store Kelli told us about a while back. They had some mosaic stuff last time we were there
I was there yesterday for a goodly amount of time selecting cute greeting cards while my mom selected sewing kits and appliques. I daresay you will have a good chance at spotting mosaic stuff! :)
Today was a wonderful day. My DH drove about 45 minutes south of the Cities to the Cannon Valley Trail and did about 14 miles of biking. We packed a delicious lunch so no stress about where to eat that was GF and we were able to enjoy the gorgeous weather.
On the way home we stopped at Lowe's since it's not a place we get to very often and we had some items to return. When we were remodeling, my DSis so kindly gave us some items they had left over from moving their washing machine. When we didn't need all of the parts, we tried to give them back - nope. Tried to convince them to return them - nope. Wouldn't do it. So we finally did. And there was $46 worth in that bag! Wow! So we spent it all up right then and there to save a trip back to Lowe's. :) No worries, we had a list. :)
Here at home we have had a scrumptious meal of kielbasa, peppers and potatoes in a foil pack. Beverage was a ginger-peach tea and pomegranate juice. Lovely.
DH has worked a lot of hours this past week, which means Rosa has been mostly at home eating salads (with some wine to wash it down over the weekend :) )
So seriously, that salad spinner is earning it's keep, especially since it was free. I brought a salad for lunch every day last week, and had salads for supper Weds, Fri, Sat, & Sun nights. Market Basket was still running the $3.99/lb lobster deal through yesterday, so DH bought four more, which means there was lobster in the salads last night and tonight. Love the salads even more with lobster in them! I prepped two heads of lettuce tonight for dinner and lunches for the week (and thought that Rosemary would be proud of me).
I spent some time at the mall today (and didn't think that anyone would be particularly proud of me). I've gained a few pounds since I stopped smoking, and I have no tolerance for tight clothing, so I bought three pairs of Levis for $75.00, which I thought was a really good deal.
I also needed some black trouser socks (and I can hear Kelli laughing at me, but not all socks are interchangeable, and I really did need some new dress socks, those guys don't last forever). I ended up getting my six pairs of socks for free by opening a new Sears charge, because I just have an old Sears charge, which doesn't even make any sense to me, but I'll take the free socks.
I also needed some black trouser socks (and I can hear Kelli laughing at me, but not all socks are interchangeable, and I really did need some new dress socks, those guys don't last forever). I ended up getting my six pairs of socks for free by opening a new Sears charge, because I just have an old Sears charge, which doesn't even make any sense to me, but I'll take the free socks.
The charge card part is the funniest part, actually! :)
early morning
8-5-12, 8:36pm
Spent two days at the World's Longest Garage Sale (DD and Dsis spent three, so they found more stuff). Bought some great items to resell, and some practical stuff to keep. Picked up some birthday gifts for DD and a couple items for DH - some C-clamps and two funnels with long flexible metal ends. Got a few things I've been wanting - some plants for my tiny pond, a small cupboard to put by the fridge, yet another picnic basket for storing stuff. DD bought a huge amount of lovely Waverly fabric for $5, in the form of drapes. It will make great overnight bags, purses, etc. Also got a half-peck of red plums for $1. They are delish!
Got a free wire rack that I'm going to use as a potting bench. Also bought a used garden cart to use for the mulch I'm having delivered next week, and the seller had a bunch of free gardening supplies too (Kelli, think I was in your neck of the woods getting this used gardening stuff!). We've gotten by without a wheelbarrow but this is a major project. I cleared about 400 sq ft of lawn and am making a flower/edibles bed. Also planning to mulch some areas of the yard that we want to landscape next year - will cover the grass with cardboard, then mulch.
DD wanted to have a "summer party" so some of her friends are coming over tomorrow. Entertainment: badminton and croquet, and just running around of course. Food: watermelon. Frugal summer fun!
We had been talking about having a porch built on our house since moving in, and never landscaped that side of our house (nor had the previous owner - just lawn).. well, we finally did it this summer. To keep costs down, it is unfinished inside (3-season porch); we'll eventually finish it. And we're painting the outside ourselves - I started on that project today. It is lovely to have a refuge from the mosquitoes.. and with the sun exposure it will get, we should be able to use it most of the year even though it's unheated. I'm planning to grow some spinach, kale, etc in there and see how it does this winter.
We told the builder that he could leave any scrap wood that they wouldn't use on another project, so now we have some wood for a few small projects. DD has been wanting an insanely costly doll bed - so today DH and she built one based on the catalog photo.
Otherwise... line-dried 3 loads of laundry, ate at home despite working (garden/painting) most of the day from 8am-7pm.
Kelli, that art store is so much fun! Thanks for the suggestion. We went back when you first talked about it and it's a great place to go when you want to do something creative, but you aren't totally sure what.
We had such a nice FFF kind of evening. Zach hauled the canoe across the street to the lake to take the older three canoeing and I wandered over to the live music they had at the amphitheater. It was a Scottish/Irish band. I met a friend of mine, a lady about my mom's age who is from France. Her husband is the one from Japan who has been teaching Cheyenne some Japanese. We had such a nice time chatting and listening to music. She played with baby Charlotte. Cheyenne is obsessed with languages and now wants to learn French too and my friend is willing to spend time conversing in French with her. One of Cheyenne's friends, a girl her age, moved here about two year years ago from France and also spends time with this lady speaking in French, just to keep their skills sharp, so Cheyenne may join them.
In the evening Zach went to bed early because he had an early start today, so I went to another friend's house and watched the Olympics. It was fun.
This week is full of FFF. I'm going to work on the front garden area this week. Thursday evening I am going to attend a neighborhood swap party/potluck at the house of the friend I was hanging out with at the park. We are also planning to make some watermelon sculptures this week. I am looking forward to that.
For our date this week, since Dad is gone so we don't have a sitter, we are going to feed the kids a simple dinner one night and make steaks for ourselves out on the deck after the kids are down.
I have freezer meals ready for Tuesday and Friday. Tuesday Zach has basketball, so I have some frozen turkey fried rice. Fridays I'm usually tired, so I have some homemade macaroni and cheese frozen. I also made a big batch of muffin batter yesterday and put a bunch of it in the fridge. We had muffins for breakfast today and will have them again tomorrow. My mom used to do that and I don't know why I had forgotten that. It's a good, simple way to have a homemade breakfast without much work.
Today is the Feast of the Transfiguration, so I am making a sour cream raisin pie because grapes are traditionally blessed on this day. I am going to use a package of badly broken graham crackers to make the crust.
DD's summer party was a lot of fun for the girls, and cost was $4 for the watermelon, a small amount of which remains.
3 loads of laundry line-drying outside. Probably dry and waiting for me, since it's very warm and not humid today.
I'm planting the new landscape bed bit by bit. I bought a few perennials on sale and split them before planting; also moved and split plants already in our yard.
That reminds me, Rosemary - I was going to make a little chart to put by the dryer to track how many loads we save of dryer use by hanging up the laundry outside. We're already at 5, and I read somewhere that it's approximately a .50/load savings to hang. Plus, it's meditative. :)
Originally posted by Fidgiegirl.
I read somewhere that it's approximately a .50/load savings to hang.I wish data like this was made more readily available to consumers.
Re: the .50/load savings... seems low to me, surprisingly low. I would have guessed a buck or two.
I wish data like this was made more readily available to consumers.
Re: the .50/load savings... seems low to me, surprisingly low. I would have guessed a buck or two.
Well, I think it was some blogger, so it was probably highly individualized to the person's situation. It would depend on your local utility rates, as well as the efficiency of your dryer. And older one will be less efficient, and electric is less efficient (right?). How would each of us do the math on this one?
early morning that's a good deal on those plums. I love plums.
Rosemary, the party sounds like fun!
Last week my friend, who works at a company that makes displays for Target, Walmart, etc. brought us some of those little tents that they use to display what the full-size ones will look like in the store. Her company was getting rid of them and they are a good size for AG dolls. She brought three, but I don't want that many so we asked a friend who's DD is friends with the girls if she would like one. Our kids will share the other two. Only Cheyenne and Bella have AG dolls, but James likes them for his bears and things too.
Cheyenne and I had a mom/kid date. We got some inexpensive fleece ($3 or so for a half a yard) for her to make a sleeping bag for Isabella's doll. Bella's birthday was last month, but Cheyenne hadn't had a chance to make her present yet. Isabella made Cheyenne a sleeping bag for her doll, so Cheyenne feels it's only fair now that they have tents. After we got the fabric we went to the Adoration Chapel at church for a little quiet prayer time together. Cheyenne likes that and so do I.
I am loving the porch and not being eaten by mosquitoes as I type this.
"It typically costs 30 to 40 cents to dry a load of laundry in an electric dryer and approximately 15 to 20 cents in a gas dryer." -- from
http://www.laundrylist.org/en/faq/35-general-laundry-questions/51--how-much-energy-is-actually-used-by-the-clothes-dryer
Of course this will vary from year to year based on local utility rates.
We had to replace our dryer a few months ago and the new one is clearly more efficient than the old one - dries in about 75% of the time. So I will be interested to see how our gas bill changes this winter, when I use the dryer.
The other benefits of line-drying - the meditative time, the amazing stain removal power of sunshine, and the wonderful scent - are incalculable bonuses!
fidgiegirl
8-6-12, 10:24pm
Aw, sweet Miss Cheyenne.
Rosemary, how wonderful about your porch!!
We just had some fun watching a comic book close on eBay. It was sitting at $51.00, and we watched it during the last minute. At 6 seconds left it jumped up to $82.00. WOO! Love those snipers!
New garage door installed today. We had bought it on Craigslist for $50. It cost $125 to have it installed and the old one taken away. We were going to have them install a used garage door opener we had trash picked, but it wouldn't work with sensors and they are required to install them. So either we'll install it, or even if we have to buy a newer one with sensors we'll save a bunch by installing it ourselves. It would be good to have the sensors, truthfully.
I wish data like this was made more readily available to consumers.
Re: the .50/load savings... seems low to me, surprisingly low. I would have guessed a buck or two.
Really? I can't imagine it would be that high. I live alone and all my burning appliances (aside from the dryer) are gas but still my electric bill runs somewhere between $38-50 bucks per month and I have just started to hang some items out on the line. I can't imagine that I'd be able to shave another $8-10 off my bill each month just by hanging all my clothing. It's so low already.
I promised the minions that if they cleaned the living room really well today we could have a tea party lunch. We were going to have egg salad sandwiches and salmon sandwiches for lunch anyway, so this costs me a pot of tea and 15 seconds spent cutting the sandwiches into finger sandwiches and it is working as a motivator. It's all about the framing. :)
Speaking of framing, I got some cheap frames last night for some pictures I really love that were frameless. $5 each. I am going to hang the pictures in the living room today.
Tonight is National Night Out, which I had forgotten about until yesterday. I am not sure if we will go or not, but I am trying to think of something to bring. I think our side of the neighborhood is desserts. I am considering banana cream pie because I have everything I need to make that. I think for my swap party on Thursday I am going to use up some lemons and make mini lemon and berry tarts. I'm actually getting tired of desserts, but I need to think about what I have on hand and how much time I have to make stuff.
I remember at least 10 years ago(because I was living somewhere else), the electric company said the average dryer load cost $2.50. That seems more in line with what I would guess. I know a few monthes ago I dryer dried clothes for a couple of weeks due to being sick and it being rainy out and my bill was up about $15.
According to this (http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/dryers.html) website $.50 is about right for an electric dryer.
I bet it varies a lot by area though.
flowerseverywhere
8-7-12, 10:52pm
I wish data like this was made more readily available to consumers.
Re: the .50/load savings... seems low to me, surprisingly low. I would have guessed a buck or two.
you can get a handy gadget called a Kill-A-Watt here in the US. It costs $20 and you plug it in then the appliance into it and determine how much each appliance uses. We realized the extra fridge in the garage was costing us $25 a month which we quickly got rid of, but the freezer only $4 which was so worth it. There is probably a similar gadget in Canada. It is really easy to figure out your exact costs. After we used ours we passed it on, and probably families have used it so the original $20 cost has paid off for countless families.
thinkgreen
8-7-12, 11:07pm
We have a Kill-A-Watt meter and it measures how much electricity any 120 volt appliance uses. However, it will not measure dryers or stoves because they are 240 volt appliances. You will notice that they require a special plug in the wall. The Kill-A-Watt meter works for just about everything else though.
Really? I can't imagine it would be that high. I live alone and all my burning appliances (aside from the dryer) are gas but still my electric bill runs somewhere between $38-50 bucks per month and I have just started to hang some items out on the line. I can't imagine that I'd be able to shave another $8-10 off my bill each month just by hanging all my clothing. It's so low already.Maybe it's just me, and my way of thinking, always believing that my frugal ways and efforts afford me with a much larger savings factor.
Originally posted by Aqua Blue.
I remember at least 10 years ago(because I was living somewhere else), the electric company said the average dryer load cost $2.50.This reflects, more, my way of thinking... Then again, with my old antiquated washing machine and dryer, who knows what the electric use value would be.
According to this (http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/dryers.html) website $.50 is about right for an electric dryer.
I bet it varies a lot by area though.Great site, and very helpful.
Flowerseverywhere. I totally forgot about that nifty little device.
Excellent point, Thinkgreen.
The car has sat parked since Monday, we've had a couple bike trips up to the Y and library but otherwise the kids and I have stayed home. No plans to head out till tomorrow. We are expecting cooler and raining weather today. I'm taking advantage of it and doing some baking and making soup (I know low 70's not really cool but for August and the hot weather we came off last week, I'm taking it!).
We repurposed an outdoor cushion holder for a new outdoor toy holder for the kids. We had been using an old plastic toy box but after 5 years outside, it was done. I've been pricing my kids out grown uniform pieces to sell at our schools uniform resale. I don't buy boxes of envelopes, just use up misc. ones from inserts.
My husband and I decided it's time to switch bedrooms with the boys and give them the bigger of the two. My youngest currently sleeps in a trundle drawer and it's just time for a regular bed. They are 9 and 7 and we won't be trying to sell for at least 2-3 more years. The plan is to sell their baby/kid furniture and use the funds for a new to youngest son bed, bedding and paint for both rooms. The trundle drawer will store their games. Their toys are not stored in their bedroom so it does stay very neat (well aside from their "collections", lol). My DH will be building some shelves in a recess for their books (it's been on the agenda for awhile now for some of my books). The closet where the games are currently stored will become our movie and craft closet, clearing out the area under my desk and making the corner shelf in our living room less cluttered.
I'll actually be buying paint tomorrow for their old/our new room. I'm going to take advantage of our cool weather over the next week and hopefully get it done.
Making up a menu for the next couple of weeks, groceries tomorrow.
Wow -- I can't believe that we are already a quarter of the way through August! Feels like the summer is escaping me! Trying to stay frugal, but it has been a challenge. Picked more blueberries from our bushes yesterday, then made a blueberry compote to eat with ice cream. I thought about making a blueberry pie, but I'm trying to avoid gluten as it seems to be helping with my allergies and I'm not quite ready to experiment with gluten free pie crusts. So compote with ice cream it is! :D Doing my best to eat at home while my beloved has been out of town. For the most part I've been doing okay. Did go out to dinner one night, but that was planned. The refrigerator is getting pretty bare so I'm gong to have to go grocery shopping before he gets home since I will be at a conference the day after he returns.
Trying to limit my driving as much as possible and have been mostly successful. Also keeping the AC off as much as possible, but today it is supposedly to be humid all day so I've already closed up the house and put the AC on in order to cool things down and dry them out. Hopefully that will mean I'll be able to keep it off for the most part during the hottest part of the day.
Picked and ate some tomatoes from the garden yesterday. Definitely looking forward to more of those!
Wow, that's about all I have to report. Really not much happening as of late...can't decide if that is a good thing or a bad thing when it comes to frugality. ;)
cdttmm, if you want a baked fruit dessert without pie crust, try a fruit crisp or simply baked fruit with or without nuts. No crust, no flour of any kind.
decemberlov
8-10-12, 12:02pm
Does anyone do any food shopping off of Amazon? I'm going to start comparing prices there with supermarket prices but from what I see they look cheaper and have a decent amount of organic products.
fidgiegirl
8-10-12, 6:19pm
I haven't, decemberlov, but know people who have Prime who do.
I have done the subscribe and save, there is no shipping. I actually just did it for some toothpaste that my boys use. It's a pain to drive out to Whole Foods and they are the only ones sorta nearby that carry it. The tubes ended up being $1.50 cheaper and will come 2 to a pack every month (I'm going to adjust it next month to two months, then I'll have a decent supply).
There is a brand of vegetable broth powder that I can only get from Amazon, that I buy with subscribe & save. I've also bought many varieties of tea from Amazon.
Friends over for dinner, frugal fun! Kids played badminton until the mosquitoes chased everyone home.
I have been spreading mulch all week, putting newspaper under it... and ran out of newspaper today. While pondering what to use next, I was looking at the rafters of our garage where we used to have all our moving boxes from 8 years ago (we used some, gave some to friends here and there). And I saw several boxes that I realized were full of packing materials from that same move, including packing paper.. perfect! I will have enough to complete the project, it's free, and it's clearing unnecessary stuff out of the garage. (We had kept all the moving stuff because we weren't sure if DH's position would turn into long-term employment - thankfully, it has.)
I've bought coconut and almond flour, tea, coffee, gelatin, coconut oil, and more using Prime. Amazon has saved me a lot of gas over the years.
Today was mostly a grocery shopping day for me. I went to Costco, Cub and Penzeys and, although I spent $200 I have pretty much everything I need for two weeks. I will probably have to get bread and milk and bananas next week, but not much else. I made a two week menu, made a list and I stuck to it like glue.
Tonight's FFF is glow bubbles. I found this on Pinterest. I am making bubble mix from water, corn syrup and dish soap and then cutting up a half-off 4th of July glow stick and dumping it in the mix. We'll see how it works. I'm out like $.75 if it doesn't and if it does I think they'll really love it.
Zach and Charlotte's Godfather finished the drywalling in the family room today! Now onto the mudding, priming and painting, but this is a huge step forward.
Another Pinterest thing I am trying is freezing fresh herbs from the garden with olive oil in an ice tray. Then I'll put them in a bag and use them this winter for various recipes.
awakenedsoul
8-11-12, 9:27pm
Just mopped my floors with hot water, a T of Borax, and a few drops of dish soap that I bought in bulk at Costco. Made a batch of drop biscuits. I used up the raw milk that had soured and made buttermilk biscuit dough. Baked two of them in my toaster oven, (that I bought used at the Salvation Army.) This way the house stayed cool. Put the dough in a glass container, (also purchased at the Salvation Army) and will use it for homemade biscuits the rest of the week. Ordered a loaf of goat's milk soap from a family in Indiana. It's $36.00 and will make 11-12 soaps. I just have to cut it and cure it. Ordered raw cheese from the distributor for our Farmers Market. If I buy three, I'll get the fourth one free. It's incredibly delicious! Harvested zuchinni and heirloom tomatoes from the garden. Shared some with my neighbor who gives me her horse manure that I compost. Helped another neighbor with her three dogs. She has trouble controlling them, so we went for a walk together with my German shepherd. They did so well! They really calmed down and stopped all their madness. Did a ballet barre at home, watered the vegetable garden, and am going to work on my knitting now.
Aug 11
--Had company again for 4 days...two nights supper from a large family pack of chicken bought on sale..
--too hot to do much but, sit around in the house playing games and cards and out under the shade tree, one lunch out but, not expensive
--this company is now retired and amazing they are not wanting to go shopping all the time made for a very nice visit.
--used up most of the leftovers for lunches and suppers yesterday and today
--cut up the excess peaches and froze them, cut the kernels off the excess corn on the cob and froze
rosarugosa
8-12-12, 7:59pm
Hi everyone, hope you all had a good weekend!
I earned enough points to get another $25 Macy's card from E-Rewards. I also got my free toothpaste sample in the mail. I ended up taking last Weds off and DH really wanted to go to Trader Joe's, so we bought some things and used some of the $150 promotional credit that we had gotten on the new credit card to pay for it, so it was actually free. (I've been using that credit for unbudgeted small indulgences, and $90. of it remains unused). I've got my lettuce prepped for the week ahead. DH made the shrimp/scallop/peach/mango with basmati dish with mojitos for dinner last night, once again making it quite painless to eat at home instead of going out :)
We took some beautiful walks through Lynn Woods Weds & today. Today's walk was especially wonderful. We went to the Stone Tower, the Steel Tower, & Walden Pond (not the famous one). I had not been to the towers before, so I was very excited! I guess they are old fire towers, and the Stone Tower is really beautiful.
ETA: I created a Lynn Woods album in my profile if anyone is interested. The next time we go I will take some pictures of the rose garden to add to the album.
fidgiegirl
8-12-12, 8:56pm
Hi all! Doing well, it seems!
We got our new dog this weekend (see Animal Rescue thread for pics) and so that was NOT a frugal, except that they did give us all the shampoo/meds he needs to get started. So that's good. That was definitely the highlight of the weekend.
We picked up some stuff at Menards yesterday to take advantage of the 11% rebate.
I just made this pretty low sugar, GF recipe - buckwheat banana bread. DH declared he could have a third piece! Not being a big buckwheat fan, even I liked it. It would be a repeat. http://thetomatoknife.com/2012/01/buckwheat-banana-bread/comment-page-1/#comment-667
Off for a walk, and a bath. Then the weekend is already over! Yikes!
early morning
8-12-12, 9:36pm
Spent the day working on my Dsis's house, and took a dozen eggs and some cookies. In return for working, she bought me breakfast and lunch, and sent me home with 6 ears of corn, some cut- up watermelon and muskmelon from a reunion she attended last night, and frozen (local,wonderful, bought on sale with a coupon) pizza. We also went out for a Starbuck's treat, but she had a free birthday coupon and I still have money on a gift card, so no expense there. So DH, DD and I will have pizza and melon for lunch tomorrow (but mine is already packed up for taking to work). AND we got a lot accomplished! Before I left early this morning, I put two loads of laundry on the line, that had been washed in cold water after a nice long soak. Often I wash at night and hang after dark, or hang out in the AM. I did hang my better dark work clothes inside on hangers, to keep them from fading. DD will do our biweekly grocery shopping tomorrow at Aldi's.
Tussiemussies
8-12-12, 10:07pm
Just mopped my floors with hot water, a T of Borax, and a few drops of dish soap that I bought in bulk at Costco. Made a batch of drop biscuits. I used up the raw milk that had soured and made buttermilk biscuit dough. Baked two of them in my toaster oven, (that I bought used at the Salvation Army.) This way the house stayed cool. Put the dough in a glass container, (also purchased at the Salvation Army) and will use it for homemade biscuits the rest of the week. Ordered a loaf of goat's milk soap from a family in Indiana. It's $36.00 and will make 11-12 soaps. I just have to cut it and cure it. Ordered raw cheese from the distributor for our Farmers Market. If I buy three, I'll get the fourth one free. It's incredibly delicious! Harvested zuchinni and heirloom tomatoes from the garden. Shared some with my neighbor who gives me her horse manure that I compost. Helped another neighbor with her three dogs. She has trouble controlling them, so we went for a walk together with my German shepherd. They did so well! They really calmed down and stopped all their madness. Did a ballet barre at home, watered the vegetable garden, and am going to work on my knitting now.
Wow, you were really busy!!! Glad you're getting to do some knitting, hope it is relaxing for you!
Tussiemussies
8-12-12, 10:10pm
Hi all! Doing well, it seems!
We got our new dog this weekend (see Animal Rescue thread for pics) and so that was NOT a frugal, except that they did give us all the shampoo/meds he needs to get started. So that's good. That was definitely the highlight of the weekend.
We picked up some stuff at Menards yesterday to take advantage of the 11% rebate.
I just made this pretty low sugar, GF recipe - buckwheat banana bread. DH declared he could have a third piece! Not being a big buckwheat fan, even I liked it. It would be a repeat. http://thetomatoknife.com/2012/01/buckwheat-banana-bread/comment-page-1/#comment-667
Off for a walk, and a bath. Then the weekend is already over! Yikes!
Congratulations Kelli on the adoption of your new dog! I know my dog brings so much love and joy to our household, and I hope yours does too!:)
Tussiemussies
8-12-12, 10:15pm
Our garbage service --waste management --is now weighing the recyclables you put out at the curb. Don' know how they do it -- but anyway you get rewards! We just got in the mail from them 4 $10.00 coupons for Bed, Bath and Beyond. We usually go there for these nice coasters that match our rooms. I need fleece sheets for the winter too so this will be a big help. DH an I will just check out twice in order to use them all.... : )
PS I realize they are consumer coupons but I do need things from there anyway!
fidgiegirl
8-12-12, 10:36pm
Before I left early this morning, I put two loads of laundry on the line, that had been washed in cold water after a nice long soak. Often I wash at night and hang after dark, or hang out in the AM. I did hang my better dark work clothes inside on hangers, to keep them from fading. DD will do our biweekly grocery shopping tomorrow at Aldi's.
I did the same one day (just getting back into the swing of hanging clothes after many years of not doing so) and was amazed at how slick it was! By noon everything was dry and ready to put away! I had to chuckle yesterday, I realized that DH had never - or at least rarely - hung laundry to dry in his life. I am kind of anal about how I do the different garments and have all these little tricks I developed as a teen when I had to hang loads and loads and loads to get them to dry faster and less wrinkly, etc. I even group the socks so they are all together and I can match as I'm taking them off the line. He didn't have any of those tricks - YET! Little by little, he will learn, too. :) I am enjoying the clothes umbrella a lot. Though today with work on the horizon and the threat of rain all day, we used our dryer for probably the first time in three weeks. Pretty good!
fidgiegirl
8-12-12, 10:37pm
And thank you, Tussiemussies! :)
It was bath time tonight. I had me a good ol' belly laugh. He looked like that shrimp character from The Muppets.
https://encrypted-tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR4dpJBe83F6kbOr_xItGwHU9u_T53BF piGJCy7MuMr8XAyZV06bw
Aug 12
--cut up and froze more cilantro instead of letting it go bad
--cleaned out te fridge so I know what I have....so little waste these days
--had the last 2 eggs for lunch from a carton that was due dated today
--was going to buy a thingie to roll up the toothpaste (the new tube is so large and soft plastic it
unrolls every time you roll it up)...but, was out in the garage and found one meant for other tubes and
it worked great.
Tussiemussies
8-13-12, 12:18am
And thank you, Tussiemussies! :)
It was bath time tonight. I had me a good ol' belly laugh. He looked like that shrimp character from The Muppets.
https://encrypted-tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR4dpJBe83F6kbOr_xItGwHU9u_T53BF piGJCy7MuMr8XAyZV06bw
Aaaawwweeeee! How did he take to his bath? I cannot read the animal rescue forum because I am very sensitive to all things animal but was wondering what breed he is and how old he is?
fidgiegirl can you post a pic of your new doggie? Can't even find the animal rescue forum!
Rosa I love your album. Beautiful!
Kelli, congratulations on the new dog! LOL. I love Pepe the Prawn. I remember my childhood dog looking like that after a bath.
We had a nice quiet day at home yesterday. Zach went and got some mud for the family room walls, but that was it for spending. I made pancakes and scrambled eggs for brunch and we spent the afternoon alternating between resting and puttering around the house. The big girls played outside with their friend and we went to the evening mass. This weekend was that glorious mix of productive and restful that I wish everyday could be.
Today I am going to work on food prep for the week. I am going to make some granola with Penzey's apple pie spice and some crostini for bruschetta. We are still getting a lot of tomatoes and the kids love bruschetta. I am hopefully going to finally get around to freezing the fresh herbs in olive oil too.
I have some cucumbers and lemons to use up so in the next few days I am making spicy garlic chicken with asian cucumber salad and a lemon turkey dill stroganoff over spaetzle. If I still have lemons to use after that I'll make lemon curd.
I am also going to work on my mending basket this week. It's gotten a little full and it's time to tackle that.
The family room is now fully drywalled and partially mudded. By the end of the week we should be ready to prime and paint. Having that done is going to make such a huge difference in the rest of the house. I keep looking around the house thinking that I need to come up with a storage solution, but really the problem is that my family room is out of comission. Once that is back I can move the furniture back in, move the out-of-season and not-yet-grown-into clothes to the shelf my FIL made for them in the closet he built and move the games and puzzles in there.
This winter's project is going to be the garage. We are pricing garage heaters on craigslist. That will expand the ability of the garage to be used for a workspace and classroom space for building projects in the winter. Zach and I have been talking about how to organize everything. He built some amazingly awesome shelves from the old wood paneling in the family room, but now we need to organize the stuff that is in them. We also have a peg board for organization. Now we have a bulky space-hog cabinet to tear out and adult and kid sized workbenches to build. I think this can be done pretty cheaply with cardboard boxes and my label maker helping to organize the shelves, slices of pvc pipe screwed into the wall to organize the shovels, rakes and other implements of destruction :), scrap wood for the workbenches, old jars with the lid screwed onto a piece of wood for hardware storage and the buckets Zach's dad made plus some cheap trash bins for scrap material storage. Zach is pretty good, actually, at coming up with cheap organizational ideas. He gets that from his dad.
fidgiegirl
8-13-12, 8:59am
Ok girls, sorry for the confusion.
Here you go! Gus!!!
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8423/7765878544_9870fe2589.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/7733846@N05/7765878544/)
IMG_1748 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/7733846@N05/7765878544/) by fidgiegirl (http://www.flickr.com/people/7733846@N05/), on Flickr
Gus! Adorable! And very lucky to go to an understanding, loving home. Thanks!
Working hard to be frugal over here, but seems I have little to report for some reason. Hope that is a sign that my frugal activities are all just becoming so habitual that I no longer label them in my brain as "frugal" and that instead they are just "normal"! :D
We got another electric bill the other day and for the 5th month in a row we have produced more electricity via our solar panels than we have used! Woo-hoo! Of course, this has been for April through August which are obviously our super sunny summer months with long days and the ideal angle of the sun to our solar panels, but I'll take it! We have more than a $90 credit with the electric company at this point so we'll see how many more months we can go without having to pay an electric bill. The electric company now has a rewards program that you can sign up for where if you use less energy you can get gift cards to different places including Whole Foods, which is where we frequently shop. So I'm going to sign up to see what we might be able to get. If nothing else, it will serve as a motivator to find even more ways to reduce our use of electricity.
I hard-boiled a dozen eggs yesterday. I've found that if I make a dozen at the beginning of the week I will eat them throughout the week and they are a good, relatively cheap source of protein. I've also just started to focus on using more beans when making salads for the protein as well. Seems like this could be a good trend when it comes to reducing our grocery bill.
The black belts from my Tae Kwon Do school are going on a retreat this weekend and the non-black belts were invited to join them on Sunday. Although I am very committed to my TKD school and I love everyone that I train with, I opted out of the retreat. Mostly because it would involve 4 hours of driving (roundtrip) and taking a ferry to and from an island off the coast. I decided that the time commitment + the additional expense was not worth a few hours of training time. Instead, I will go to the gym and train on my own or with a few other students who are not going on the retreat.
The weather finally improved here and I was able to mow the lawn and do some weeding of the flower beds. Made for a frugal evening! I rewarded myself with a bowl of ice cream topped with homemade blueberry compote from our own blueberries plus some honey from our beehives. It was a nice way to wrap up the weekend!
That's all for now. Have a great week everyone!
I needed a desk for our guest bedroom/my music "studio," and I also needed a portable piano stand for my electronic keyboard. My last stand was flimsy, wobbly, and finally broke, so I got a serious, heavy-duty one this time for about $50. DH and I were walking home the other night, and found that someone had dismantled a large wardrobe and had left the pieces next to a dumpster. A quick look through the pile, and I found a beautiful, completely flat wooden door. Most of the hardware had been removed already, and it was easy to remove the remaining pieces. I put it on the piano stand, and presto! Instant large desk, upon which I can keep my very small keyboard and still have room for papers and other items. Whoo hoo!
After years of warding it off, my wife and I decided we finally had enough uses for a blender to justify purchasing one. So, on Saturday night, armed with a lot of enthusiasm but not much information, we bought a middling-priced (but on-sale) blender at the local discount emporium. When we got it home, I did some research on the Internet and found that almost everyone who owned this model more than a few months broke it (despite the warranty). It stayed in the package as I scouted craigslist for blenders. I found an excellent clean used one just one-third of a gallon of fuel away and the same price as the new one. Got it Sunday, used it this morning. Perfect! We also returned the unpacked blender and got a price adjustment for something we'd bought for DMiL that had gone on sale Sunday, too (probably would not have burned the fuel to do that alone). Not as frugal as not buying it at all, but not a bad deal all around.
awakenedsoul
8-13-12, 2:04pm
Wow, you were really busy!!! Glad you're getting to do some knitting, hope it is relaxing for you!
Yes, I love knitting. I didn't realize how tired I was on Sunday. Layed down to do some deep breathing/relaxation, and I fell asleep! Ended up taking a long nap and going to bed early. Sleep is so rejuvenating...
Collected and cleaned seed from a cilantro plant that had gone to seed. So now we have fresh coriander seed.
Fun to have such a duel use plant.
flowerseverywhere
8-13-12, 6:24pm
my house sold today so we are starting to try to eat every morsel of food in the house as I am not packing any food. With my garden I should have virtually no food bill this month.
My garden is in full swing so I made roasted veggie sandwiches on homemade foccacia bread tonight with some feta cheese on top. Holy cow, they are good. I found the recipe on all recipes. Tomorrow I am making a crockpot vegetarian chili with all the garden veggies.
fidgiegirl
8-13-12, 8:05pm
Congrats on the house sale, flowers!
We started our fall cleaning a little early since my mom is coming soon to help us with some painting. Last year I hired someone to help with this, but this year I am using my homegrown help. I assigned Bella to watch the babies while we cleaned (watch the babies as in entertain them, I was right there) because she is awesome with younger children. They played barber shop and restaurant and stayed completely out of my hair.
I assigned the 13 year old I am watching for the summer to get things down off of shelves and dismantle light fixtures for cleaning because he is taller than my by several inches. I assigned Cheyenne to wash the stuff from the shelves and the light fixtures because she is extremely detail oriented. Later on the 13 year old helped with the little kids, especially James, and Cheyenne vacuumed, washed, dried and organized my kitchen drawers. She did a beautiful job. Better than I would have, actually.
Everyone was rewarded, not with money, but with screen time. They used it to watch a documentary about WWII, so it was pretty much a complete win for me.
Tussiemussies
8-13-12, 10:53pm
Congratulations flowers everywhere on the sale of your house.
The focaccia sandwiches sound terrific!
Tussiemussies
8-13-12, 10:54pm
We started our fall cleaning a little early since my mom is coming soon to help us with some painting. Last year I hired someone to help with this, but this year I am using my homegrown help. I assigned Bella to watch the babies while we cleaned (watch the babies as in entertain them, I was right there) because she is awesome with younger children. They played barber shop and restaurant and stayed completely out of my hair.
I assigned the 13 year old I am watching for the summer to get things down off of shelves and dismantle light fixtures for cleaning because he is taller than my by several inches. I assigned Cheyenne to wash the stuff from the shelves and the light fixtures because she is extremely detail oriented. Later on the 13 year old helped with the little kids, especially James, and Cheyenne vacuumed, washed, dried and organized my kitchen drawers. She did a beautiful job. Better than I would have, actually.
Everyone was rewarded, not with money, but with screen time. They used it to watch a documentary about WWII, so it was pretty much a complete win for me.
Stella you always have such creative ways of doing things -- it's so inspiring!
fidgiegirl
8-13-12, 11:04pm
Score on the help, Stella! :)
Here I am having some mixed emotions tonight. Everytime I hear about someone else's misfortunes I am reminded of my own wonderful life and have this weird mix of happy for me and sad for the other person. It also helps put things into perspective. I am a little disappointed at our July spending, but then as part of the grab bag of emotions I feel like I shouldn't be! It was strangely wild. I am tracking now, but not in the daily, effective sense. However, two months of complete data is more convincing than anything that we need to reign in. Aside from two camping trips in July (cheap as far as vacations go!), nothing stands out as having been so super spendy, except maybe one medical bill that will be reimbursed. I guess I did pay some insurance premiums. For the first time in a year (and that was a fluke month involving earnest money for a house purchase) we spent more than we took in. And that is pretty unnecessary.
So one concrete way I would like to fight back is by eating up the freezer. I made lists this weekend of the contents of basement freezer and fridge freezer. We really shouldn't have to do a big grocery shop for the rest of the month, especially now that it's cooled down enough in our neck of the woods to feel ok eating things like chili. And if it's a hot day, we have a lot of meat we can grill. So that's a focus, for sure. And with DH over in Door County for the week, I should be able to easily feed myself with food on hand. He will go to restaurants, but he is with his parents, and they are pretty good about cooking most meals in. We traded his sister our lawn mower in exchange for the week at the cabin. She was going to buy it for $100, and she charges $25 a day at her cabin, so it was a wash.
On the good news, eBay sales and "found" monies have our car fund up to quite a bit already. A good start!
Bumming that my side job possibility never did work out . . . we could probably put it to good use! But I can find more money than that through some of the ninja frugality measures from the boards. :)
This weekend we are going to add a second veggie bed at my parents' property. We will be in a goodly amount of veggies next year! All we have to pay for is the edging. They have plenty of aged manure to fill the bed with and it will sit all winter.
Tussiemussies
8-14-12, 12:46am
Score on the help, Stella! :)
Here I am having some mixed emotions tonight. Everytime I hear about someone else's misfortunes I am reminded of my own wonderful life and have this weird mix of happy for me and sad for the other person. It also helps put things into perspective. I am a little disappointed at our July spending, but then as part of the grab bag of emotions I feel like I shouldn't be! It was strangely wild. I am tracking now, but not in the daily, effective sense. However, two months of complete data is more convincing than anything that we need to reign in. Aside from two camping trips in July (cheap as far as vacations go!), nothing stands out as having been so super spendy, except maybe one medical bill that will be reimbursed. I guess I did pay some insurance premiums. For the first time in a year (and that was a fluke month involving earnest money for a house purchase) we spent more than we took in. And that is pretty unnecessary.
So one concrete way I would like to fight back is by eating up the freezer. I made lists this weekend of the contents of basement freezer and fridge freezer. We really shouldn't have to do a big grocery shop for the rest of the month, especially now that it's cooled down enough in our neck of the woods to feel ok eating things like chili. And if it's a hot day, we have a lot of meat we can grill. So that's a focus, for sure. And with DH over in Door County for the week, I should be able to easily feed myself with food on hand. He will go to restaurants, but he is with his parents, and they are pretty good about cooking most meals in. We traded his sister our lawn mower in exchange for the week at the cabin. She was going to buy it for $100, and she charges $25 a day at her cabin, so it was a wash.
On the good news, eBay sales and "found" monies have our car fund up to quite a bit already. A good start!
Bumming that my side job possibility never did work out . . . we could probably put it to good use! But I can find more money than that through some of the ninja frugality measures from the boards. :)
This weekend we are going to add a second veggie bed at my parents' property. We will be in a goodly amount of veggies next year! All we have to pay for is the edging. They have plenty of aged manure to fill the bed with and it will sit all winter.
Hi Kelli, sounds like your plan of eating up your frige/freezer stocked foods is great...you always seem to barter or get eBay deals when you need them too, you are lucky that way. You are blessed that you will have a ready plot of land for a second garden. When we move, hopefully in the spring we will have to start our garden from scratch. I'm not a fan of the lasagna method so DH will be renting a machine that will cut the top layer off--the grass. Lucky you!
flowers -- congrats on the sale of your house!
Stella -- nice job putting your "homegrown" help to work! ;) I love the fact that you assigned jobs based on strengths -- smart move!
Kelli -- I was just reading yesterday about some research that shows how it is more important to cultivate a feeling of compassion toward other people than a feeling of empathy. If you'd like I can try to find the article or direct you to some of the other research about compassion that you might find interesting. In the meantime, perhaps this short article will help http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/10_steps_to_savoring_the_good_things_in_life :)
As for frugals happening over here...I went to dinner last night with some friends. We trade off as to who pays each time so dinner was free this time for me. We walked across the street for ice cream afterwards, but I was the only one with cash so I offered to pay. Fortunately, I had a $10 gift card from many, many, many years ago, which was still accepted and I ended up paying a grand total of $2.52 for our ice cream! :D
Was organized yesterday and did a load of laundry early so that I could hang it out to dry since today it will be too humid to line dry anything heavy. I do have one of the beekeeping suits outside on the drying rack now because it should dry despite the higher humidity today.
Picking up a little side work today to complete later this week. It should net me about $50 -- not much, but something to add to the pot and it's a super easy project so I really can't complain. Need to stop by the pet store and get some more canned cat food for my darling felines. I have a $5 off $20 coupon that I am excited to use -- I do love a good 25% discount!
Yesterday I ate up the last of the blueberry compote that I had made. I think we can probably pick blueberries two more times before the season wraps up. Not the biggest haul we've ever had, but we did okay. We had a few tomatoes from the garden yesterday, too.
In the not frugal category...our alarm system has been on the fritz so the alarm company will need to send a tech out to repair it, which will result in a repair bill of some unknown amount. But without the alarm system we have no smoke detectors so this is a necessity and we'll just need to roll with it.
Okay, I think that's all for today!
I think I have finally won the battle against aphids on my heliopsis plant without buying anything to do it. So nice to see flowers on it at last.
I am trying to be more conscientious about using up food with mixed results. Made some sour cream chocolate chip muffins to use up some sour cream. Just froze about a cup of leftover rice which normally would go to waste. Tried a recipe for loaded baked potato salad to use up some potatoes.
I am currently in freak out mode over tuition fees for the boys. This happens every time. I get the bill the middle of August that is due on August 31st for $15000 or whatever and I panic. I eventually get out my calculator and deduct the pending aid from the amount due. But I always worry that something will go wrong and we'll owe all the money. Now add in the fact that we haven't heard anything from Tyler's college about what we owe for him. With Ty I am kind of worried that he may have done something incorrectly and we'll be on the hook for everything. lol
We don't really need to do much to get Ian ready to go back to school. But we are still getting Tyler's stuff. Luckily it is a bit more frugal because he has decided to use some of his graduation money to get some of the clothes he needs. And he can use the fridge &/or microwave that Ian has because Ian never uses it. We got him the exact back pack that Ian has and it ended up being half of what we paid for Ian's. Woot!
Tyler needs to be at school on Saturday for marching band camp & xc camp. Not sure yet how that is going to work for him but it ought to be interesting. Also on Saturday Ian comes home from Germany.
fidgiegirl
8-14-12, 6:02pm
Thanks, cdttmm for the article.
Azure! Nice to see you! Glad you are still plugging away at the frugals!
Congratulations on the house flowers!
Azure, I am glad to see you back!
Cleaning is continuing to go well. I don't know if I'd call it fun, but it's a frugal way to spend our time, anyway. Today Cheyenne wanted to watch the kids and Bella wanted to clean. Our friend we are watching for the summer helped me move furniture to clean underneath it and I found my checkbook that I've been missing. Yes! I started removing stuff from walls where we'll be painting in a week and a half.
For FFF the kids went out to the pond and caught (and released) frogs and built an artificial snail habitat from a plastic box. They did a pretty good job. I'm letting them keep the snails for a day and then they are going back. This fall we are going to get a woolybear caterpillar and save it over the winter to watch it hibernate, cocoon and turn into an Isabella Tiger Moth.
I am going to attempt a no spend week + (until payday next week) except for milk, bananas and shampoo, which I already know I will need. My mom will be visiting this weekend and Grandpa is taking the kids to the Franciscan picnic at the friary. That's always a good time. I have tons of food. We can take a walk or something for date night.
Zach messaged me today that there are some elderly guys from his Knights group, along with some priests, who are in nursing homes now and don't have many visitors. We are going to volunteer to visit them as a family as part of our monthly service hours. The kids will love it. More FFF!
fidgiegirl
8-14-12, 10:04pm
Zach messaged me today that there are some elderly guys from his Knights group, along with some priests, who are in nursing homes now and don't have many visitors. We are going to volunteer to visit them as a family as part of our monthly service hours. The kids will love it. More FFF!
Wonderful!
Aug 14
--unfrugal was an evening out with old work friends....a baby shower for a first time grandmother (might seem odd but, we all love her and know how please, excited and unexpected this is for her) cost was a bottle of wine, most I left there and $20.00 toward the gift.
BBQ dinner provided by the host.
A great evening with good friends...priceless
--lunch today was leftovers
--sent out forms for a refund on new glasses...(OMG they are expensive these days)
--emailed Kraft Co. regarding a really not great new salading dressing I bought and could not even eat...they are sending me a refund.
My frugal today was to walk to the nearest Salvation Army, where locals put out their garden produce and folks can take or leave what they want. I got incredibly fresh purple onions, tiny potatoes, yellow squash. From home I got green beans off the plants in the yard and tomatoes off the vines and Serrano peppers off the bush. From a left over BBQ we went to, we were gifted corn on the cob. From these, I made squash corn cake with peppers. Using my own eggs and flour and spices. The beans and more corn and chopped tomatoes were cooked slowly together to make a lovely medley. It was a very nice meal, and 75% of it was free to me!
It amazes me to see all the different ways people are being frugal. Very inventive.
Stella, Zach's message to you about people in the Knights group started me thinking about the situation the priests are in. Since they aren't allowed to have families, they are in a really tough situation when they wind up in a nursing home. In addition to what your family is going to do, do you think your church groups might work together to work with a designated priest or two throughout the year? The groups could share ideas about what to do and then be responsible for interacting with one or more on a regular basis. Or if part of the choir goes into to have a sing a long with one, they could get all the Knights group together plus any of the church women that might be in the particular nursing home.
Amaranth, I think that's a lovely idea. It actually came up because Zach's Knights group was talking about that issue. They are affiliated with a nursing home in our area that is run by some nuns. They do some fun stuff for them once in a while, like their Father's Day BBQ, but they realize that there is more need for regular visits. I would definitely like to see more of this. I was thinking it could possibly be a good project for the girls Little Flowers Girls Club to do too. I bet they'd love a visit from the choir. Cheyenne is going to be in the children's choir this year. I'll suggest it to the leader.
I think this will be a fun thing for our family. My kids are really comfortable with older people. I think it's absolutely as beneficial for the kids as for the seniors. I was thinking that maybe we could combine this with some history studies too. I bet the older people would have a lot to tell the kids about 20th Century history.
Today is mostly a stay-at-home day. We do have to go to mass this evening (Feast of the Assumption), but it's rainy and kind of peaceful today. I think we'll putter around the house, bake something and maybe have tea in the afternoon for a celebration.
Zach was tired last night, so we hung out together in our room and chatted while he and Charlotte snuggled and I tackled most of the mending basket. I repaired a quilt, a sweatshirt, some pajama pants, a dress, a sweater and an apron.
Stella, that all sounds like it could have a great impact and be lots of fun too.
If the older kids could learn to do oral history interviews, they could learn a lot and really connect with the priests in a more wellrounded way.
In addition to asking them about how various holidays were celebrated in their family of origin, they could ask about hobbies, pets, other family members, what their schooling was like, what careers they would have had if they hadn't been a priest, and more advanced things once they could more readily comprehend the answers such as
What were some of the most interesting discussions you had in seminary?
How did your family stretch their rations in the 1940s?
If you could start a Monastery or facilty to focus on a particular cause, what would you choose, and what would your group do?
Danna could you tell me how you use the frozen cilantro? We love it fresh but its never occured to me to freeze any for future use.
This has been a stressful month for me. I have 4 employees. One whose wife left him, taking everything, had him arrested on b.s. charges and left him homeless. Another is a single mother who has been on the edge of homelessness for the last 3 weeks. A third who is about to be thrown out of her house for stupid reasons and the fourth just doesn't like her job anymore and is getting ready to leave work at any moment. I have been on disaster "standby alert" waiting to see where the bottom is going to fall out first. On top of all this, business is really lousy and I'm not in a position to do much to help any of them. At the same time, I feel like any day I'm going to wake up and be entirely without a staff to run the restaurant.
On a positive note, I really enjoyed catching up with everyone's sucesses this morning!
Let me fill you in on my frugals...
I recieved the Ipod shuffle that I won. Not sure what I'm going to do with it. I won't use it and ds isn't interested in it for some reason.
We bought all his school clothes at once in ONE STORE this year-amazing! I bought him 2 pairs of shoes at Payless for $30 using sales and a coupon. We bought his shoes there last year and they lasted the entire school year.
We've been canning pepper sauce from the garden little by little. People have begun to bring us more produce as well-a few cucumbers, zucchini, peppers, etc. People love to give dh peppers.
We've all been hearing about the drought and how food prices are going to rise. Dh and I decided to stock up on several items that we know we'll use over the next several months using the remainder of the Walmart gift card that I had won. I chose several items that I never find cheaper in other stores like the bath soap dh prefers as well as the $3 a bottle wine that I like so much and canned goods. I bought 15 boxes of cereal for between $2 and $2.50 a box. They store well and will definitely be eaten. I'm only purchasing items we eat regularly so keep the waste to zero.
We're doing the same thing for work. Buying multiple cases of items we use on a daily basis hoping to stay ahead of the price increases enough that other restaurants will have to break down and raise prices before we do.
Amaranth I love the questions you came up with. I was thinking they should do interviews too. Zach has an interview with his great-great grandfather James, who was at the Siege of Vicksburg, that James' daughter did for a school project. Priceless!
bke, stocking up sounds like a really good idea.
We ended up making an Immaculate Heart cake by baking a cake in a square and round pan, cutting the round cake in half and putting them together. We are frosting it in blue (Mary's colour) and using double impatiens for the roses. I made a sword from carboard covered with foil and flames with carboard covered with foil and coloured with markers.
My frugal today was to walk to the nearest Salvation Army, where locals put out their garden produce and folks can take or leave what they want. I got incredibly fresh purple onions, tiny potatoes, yellow squash. ...
This is a really good idea. I wish they'd do that in our area. A few years ago I found myself with several boxes of tampax that I knew I'd never use, and it was the hardest thing to find someplace to donate it - if the Salvation Army or other places had a corner area for donations like these - fresh fruits and vegetables, hygiene items - it sure would make a lot of sense because their shoppers would be the most likely to really need it.
Tussiemussies
8-15-12, 10:39pm
Hi Amaranth, that is a wonderful and kind idea to visit the Priests. I am sure there are many nuns in the same position too...
Stella your ideas of having the children's interactions based on certain themes is really great. You always come up with great ideas for your children to do. On another note, I cannot believe how much mending you got done! I must work in slow motion because I wouldn't have accomplished that much...
bke, your situation sounds so difficult. I am sorry for these people and I'm sure you feel the same. Is there anyway you could ask some former employees for some help if you need it, until they can train someone?
We have been frugal, not going out this past weekend or cooking any specially foods with special ingredients. Haven't spent any money at all lately except for the food basics and we are trying to limit our water usage by implementing military showers and always turning off the faucet while brushing teeth and washing hands. It would be fun to have a thread on how to save on utilities which is what we are really working on... :)
Thanks for the compliment Tussiemussies!
A friend of mine babysat for free this morning so I could take a load of stuff to Goodwill. I was tempted to stop at Caribou on the way home for a coffee, but I resisted. My friend and her 12 year old daughter used some more of our homemade bubble mix to entertain the kids. They had a good time.
I've had a lovely, productive morning getting ready for my mom's visit.
I am trying some new recipes for dinner tonight. One is a recipe for spicy garlic chicken and another is a recipe for a cucumber salad. Both sound really good and are inexpensive.
The girls and I were discussing plans for Christmas. I usually start thinking about what I want to make and buy this time of year so I don't end up in a December crunch. We are thinking of possibly reprising our pre-Christmas trip to an indoor waterpark in Wisconsin Dells as our Christmas gift to the kids. Because it's the off-season you can get some pretty good deals. $129 a night, if you go on the right days, which is pretty awesome for seven of us with two days at a waterpark and it covers presents for everyone. I think the kids have really gotten into the mindset of wanting experience gifts. Cheyenne was talking about her birthday (which is months away) and trying to decide what she wanted to do on her birthday rather than what she wanted to get.
I will also help the girls make some small things for each other and their siblings and I'll probably make them some pajamas.
Tussiemussies-All I can say is that we'll get through this like we have everything else in past. I'm just kind of waiting to see how the cards are going to fall before I start offering what few resources I have to get employees through this. If I offer financial help to someone now, it may not be the one who needs it most in the end and I can't help them all.
Thy guy I mentioned is being helped by his parents (good customers) and is staying in a hotel for now until its decided if he's going to face charges. The single mother found out she's getting a fairly large check from unemployement and has managed to pay this month's rent and will have next month for sure. It's just kind of up and down at the moment and I'm hoping that they won't all disappear at once. (Fingers crossed!)
Well last night wasn't the most frugal of my life but it was so pleasant! We went to Midland (aka: civilization) for the evening. We drove around and saw some new areas of town while looking for a restaurant. We didn't find the place we were looking for but did see several very nice neighborhoods. We're beginning to realize that it may be possible for us to move there in a few years since housing doesn't seem to be as expensive as we had assumed it was.
We ended up having dinner at the mall. Teryaki chicken with vegetables and soba noodles for 3 for $18 and change.
We spent the bulk of our time in the bookstore and even dh found a book to purchase! We've been together for 16 years and this is the SECOND book he's bought or read in all that time. I read 3-4 a week! Anyways it was a finance book which is great. It feels like another step towards FI3 being a team project.
I purchased a book about surviving a major disaster. Its really positive-not about being afraid or paranoid but about being educated and prepared with the necessities to survive the aftermath because you can never ever be prepared for every possible disaster scenario. We bought ds a fiction book and spent a total of $50 at the book store but I'm not going to sweat such a rare expense. I did spend quite a bit of time looking at books about food preservation but didn't find the perfect one so I skipped buying one at all.
Gas was 15 cents less a gallon in Midland so I filled the truck up while there.
Today I went to Riteaid to use up several dollars in register rewards that were about to expire. I was dissapointed that they didn't really have what I wanted but I bought the following for $2.13 out of pocket: 2 facial tissues, 2 kotex, 4 boxes of coffee nips, 2 boxes of Special K cereal, and 4 king size candy bars. I was really hoping to stockpile several boxes of tissues but they were out of stock. All in all, not too bad of a purchase.
Went to the outlet yesterday to buy t-shirts @ EB and also get underpants. Also bought some stretch camisoles on sale @ the Jockey store because they keep me A LOT warmer in the winter @ school. I mean it makes the school bearable.
I am thinking A LOT about the idea of going no-spend clothing for the entire next two school years. This would begin on the first day of teacher week (8/27) and end on the last day of school in June 2014. I am thinking I'm going to do this because I must stop buying clothes and must wear the ones I have and wear them out.
I know I probably shouldn't have spent that money yesterday, but those EB t-shirts (short sleeved and long sleeved) are pretty much the base of my wardrobe both winter and summer and I wear them all the time and they wear out fast. I have some shabby looking ones but they must be replaced. Also, had to have SOME white underpants after having bought a bunch of hot pink ones on sale on Ebay last week.
Right now thinking about how I could get through 2 school years w/o buying anything. Think I'd have some items (bras, underpants, athletic shoes) that I'd allow myself to purchase if what I had was worn out and unwearable and I was down to nothing (although I have so many underpants now I doubt that's going to happen) and maybe $50. in reserve for some cute thing that I HAVE to have at some point during the 2 year period so I can have one freebie w/o thinking I blew it. Still working on the details but I really think I'm going to do this...
fidgiegirl
8-16-12, 7:11pm
Wow, everyone! Big stuff going on . . .
bke, I was thinking, you could eBay that iPod shuffle. Or maybe someone on Craigslist. They go for about $45 new, so maybe if you Craigslisted it for $35 they'd get a deal and you'd get cash. Something to think about. I hope everything settles down at the restaurant soon.
I have managed not to buy food this week and only eat from what we have. However, tomorrow for lunch I'm going to get a Jimmy John's lettuce wrap during my training. I ate up the rest of what I could think of for lunch today (with no refrigeration). For dinners, we're still good. Though I need to get some breakfast stuff for DH. Anyway, I made it a whole week! And with just little ol' me, I hardly made a dent!
I joined Costco last month to get the Costco price on a new car (actually, didn't use it, negotiated for an even better price) but I decided I'd stick with it for the year for the gas savings.
Today I went for the first time to see how frugal it actually was to buy rolls of aluminum foil by the gross.
Well, I don't know how much I'm going to actually use this store. I don't know how many of you belong to any of these warehouse clubs but it seems like to me that they are set up to encourage waste. Some guy ahead of me in line was buying 6 romaine hearts of lettuce. What about the rest of the head? Won't he get sick of all that romaine heart lettuce before he uses it up?
This place looks like the favorite place to go for people who are preparing for Armageddon. Seriously, #10 cans of all kinds of stuff. Is if for people who do institutional cooking? I only bought 4 things that I KNEW I would use. I did also write down SEVERAL prices of items I always purchase so I can make comparisons. The organic Vanilla soymilk was also a tremendous savings. But there are only a few items in the grocery area that I can use. Too many things are prepared and have ingredients that I can't eat. Plus, I don't eat that much prepared food anyway. I prepare most of my own food.
However, I do need a stick blender and when I buy that I will get it there. And there are some things that I will buy over the course of the year that will more than make up for the cost of the membership (the gas savings alone will do that.) I just want to be careful to not overbuy in any are that I wouldn't normally spend.
Anyone here who can report on these "clubs?"
Blackdog Lin
8-16-12, 9:20pm
Well, yeah, we don't buy six heads of romaine lettuce when we're there - it's not preservable and it would go to waste.
But we think our membership fee more than pays us back with what we do buy at the warehouse (in our area we only have Sam's Club, no Costco). We have a "list" of items that save us muchos denaros - we go 3-4 times a year and stock up on our "essentials". You just have to have a price list (mine is very informal - it's in my head.)
What we save big bucks on, that doesn't go to waste: trash bags (the big ones); aluminum pans (for DH's outdoor cooking and my sympathy-food visits); aluminum foil and plastic wrap (mucho cheaper and much better quality than we can get at Wal-Mart, and I only have to think about buying foil or wrap about once every 2 years); zip-locks (can't have too many of these, around our house); dishwasher detergent; boullion cubes; pasta and rice and beans and sugar and flour (if you are able to divvy up and preserve for your household's use - we use enough of these items to do so); and the odd items like parmesan cheese and bagged peanuts.
I know everyone has different needs/shopping habits, but for my money the warehouse store is awesome for stocking up and saving money at the same time.
Yeah, I do think I'll be able to save enough money to more than make up for the membership fee. But I also really want to get some real SAVINGS out of it. I started my price list today. Will add to it as I return every now and then.
SteveinMN
8-16-12, 10:17pm
Anyone here who can report on these "clubs?"
My wife and I are still working off that barrel of maple syrup we bought back in 2007... :D
Seriously, we don't have a membership, but I could see how it could work. We'd have to go with Costco since Sam's Club is Wal*Mart (off the list) and we don't have BJs around here. But Costco sells enough stuff in quantities the two of us can use. Yeah, it's six cans of chunked chicken bound together with plastic, but the price is good and (factory birds aside) it's usable enough over time.
I'm less enamored with the idea of buying hard goods at Costco because I'm a little finicky about them. Club selection in any hard goods category is not as wide as it is at dedicated stores, and I prefer to (over)research purchases and home in on the one model that does what I want it to do. It may sound like I'm an@l retentive about it, but I have had very few instances of buyer's remorse over the years, and I happily use the item until it dies, so I don't want to mess with the method.
My wife sometimes goes with her daughter when she shops there; that seems to be good enough for us.
We have a Costco membership, but we also have a family of 8 that entertains a lot. There are a lot of deals there for us. We actually buy the 6 heads of lettuce and use it, but it's almost the same price as the 3 heads of romaine from the grocery store, so if I thought we'd even eat four of them I'd buy it and give the rest to a neighbor. Their organic, humane society certified eggs are cheaper than the free range eggs at the regular grocery store. You have to buy two dozen, but eggs freeze and, in my experience, it's not hard to use them up. Their vanilla is a good deal too.
I go through two dozen eggs a week and a Costco sized box of oats in a month, so it definitely works for us.
Today....sigh. We avoided a trip to the emergency room, but not for lack of trying on the minions part. I did end up getting a take-and-bake pizza just to get out of the house, but I found a random $20 bill I had forgotten about, so it came out pretty much even. Seriously considering wrapping James in bubble wrap and duct taping him to a chair. This would be frugal because of the medical bills it would save me. LOL. :)
Apparently my mom is coming for two weeks now. Hmmm. I am happy about this on one level and nervous because she, Zach and my Dad can be a bit of a volitile combo under the wrong conditions. It could be some good FFF if it goes well, though.
I am still working on my curriculum for the year and I've been finding lots of excellent free resources. Really almost an overwhelming amount.
I'm laughing right now because when we joined Costco, I figured I'd save the membership fees on leafy greens alone! We're a household of 3 and we buy those huge packs of lettuce, and never waste any. We eat a lot of salads. Other things that are generally good deals: organic eggs, organic butter, coffee, fruits/veggies in winter (in summer everything is much fresher at the farmer's market), frozen organic green beans, Greek or regular plain yogurt, organic dried figs, organic chicken stock, organic chicken and turkey. Really depends on how you eat, whether you save or just end up spending more. We don't buy prepared foods and I think that's where some food budgets may really be blown there.
fidgiegirl
8-16-12, 11:08pm
I'm kind of losing interest in Costco. We'll continue to buy some things there, like DH's lunchmeat, because he doesn't care if he eats the same thing all the time. Nuts are a good price (keep them in the freezer to last longer). But even TP and that . . . it just takes up so much room, and then we use more because we HAVE more. I'm rethinking Costco a bit. But I like the laundry soap and dish soap . . . so I guess there are a few things I do like there. When I was single I crunched the cost of a club more than once and it never would have worked out in my favor. But then I was renting a room in someone's house, too, so didn't have the storage space. If I'd had my own home it might have been another story.
We use my in-laws membership, so no $$ off our back. That is really nice of them.
I did decide to make a lunch for tomorrow. It felt silly to plan on Jimmy John's. Not like that's anything special. So I feel good about continuing to eat up our food.
A friend came over for dinner (chicken breasts and broccoli on the grill, yummy) and a doggy walk. Good to see him, it's been a while.
I'm kind of losing interest in Costco. We'll continue to buy some things there, like DH's lunchmeat, because he doesn't care if he eats the same thing all the time. Nuts are a good price (keep them in the freezer to last longer). But even TP and that . . . it just takes up so much room, and then we use more because we HAVE more. I'm rethinking Costco a bit. But I like the laundry soap and dish soap . . . so I guess there are a few things I do like there. When I was single I crunched the cost of a club more than once and it never would have worked out in my favor. But then I was renting a room in someone's house, too, so didn't have the storage space. If I'd had my own home it might have been another story.
We use my in-laws membership, so no $$ off our back. That is really nice of them.
I did decide to make a lunch for tomorrow. It felt silly to plan on Jimmy John's. Not like that's anything special. So I feel good about continuing to eat up our food.
A friend came over for dinner (chicken breasts and broccoli on the grill, yummy) and a doggy walk. Good to see him, it's been a while.
I don't feel Costco works for me. I can't use all of that stuff. I know most of their stuff is good quality, but I don't think I save money by using it. Even Costco gas which is a huge draw, is just as cheap at the "member" stores like Safeway. I'm sure it's great for folks who need to buy more, but for me...it just makes me buy more.
One thing paid for it for us. Twice now they have had Einstein Bagel gift cards at $50 for $40. So we got enough to pay for our membership. Now we have enough cards for a year of visits to EB. I go to Costco for their Rot. Chicken. One makes 4 meals or so for us and lots of chicken stock. No one else here has such big ones for the price and Sams Club adds too much seasoning.
I also get their raspberries (consistently good) and their frozen fish. Oh, we get our nuts there too. But our shopping is very limited. No clothes, furniture, Xmas presents, big ticket items, etc.
I believe costco has a high rating for how they treat their personnel. That makes us feel good. The glucosamine is such a great price and flour...
Tussiemussies
8-17-12, 9:00am
We don't go to Costco because there is only two of us and our dog. I make out better when there is a sale at the grocery store and I have coupons for the items...
try2bfrugal
8-17-12, 12:52pm
We finished our second no cost refinance last month so that will save us thousands over the life of the loan, if we stay in the house. For free fun we have been going to the dog park in the evenings. It is cute how we are getting to know all the other dogs and their owners. Some of the regular dogs will greet us at the gate with a little happy dance. Most of the owners are warm and friendly, so it is a nice place to chat and let the dogs play followed up with a walk around the lake.
I get free products in return for writing reviews for Amazon, so this month so far I got an emergency light and a new Nesco roaster for free. I will get two more items next week. Twice a month I have to decide between adding more clutter to the house against the thought of turning down free stuff. So far taking the free stuff has been winning out. :) I am not allowed to give away any of the products, so what I don't use I can only keep or throw out. They do that so people won't order things just to sell on eBay. I get why they do that but it makes it a hard decision when the lists arrive of what to pick for review and not get any potential landfill items. I have been trying to pick consumables or smaller things that do not take up much space. Sometimes it has been easy - like getting a free solar charger for cell phones or rechargeable batteries.
We saw the new Bourne movie last week with Costco discount tickets. I also got some sort of free play tickets through Goldstar for a local play to see in the fall. (The tickets are technically free but they still have a service charge of $7.50 each.) So it isn't really free but we still get to see the occasional play for less than the regular cost of a movie that way.
I went to the ethnic market for produce this week and they had a bunch of stuff on sale for 25 - 33 cents a pound so I loaded up on that. A local grocery store had an email coupon for 25% off so we went and bought the weekly loss leader meat combined with coupon. So between the two stores I spent about $30 for 45 pounds of produce and meat for the week.
I went shoe shopping and instead of buying the shoes on sale with a great coupon I went to REI and got a couple of pairs of more expensive comfort shoes on sale but for twice as much. I decided that to be more minimalist I should just go with a couple of pairs of high quality shoes instead of a stockpiling a whole bunch of cheaper brands that weren't nearly as comfortable and might not last as long.
I have a Costco membership through my FIL. I normally use it for gas if I'm by it, otherwise it depends. I have bought the lettuce, berries, organic carrots ( we go through the 10# bag in two weeks), almonds, rice, cane sugar, sausage, Canadian Bacon, and cheese. I maybe go once a month, sometimes less often. I have to budget for it though and don't use it for a weekly shopping trip. It's the four of us so somethings don't work out.
The closest Costco is a 15 minute drive, so I do plan it out when I need to go so that I hit a few other stores by it.
Bke, is the Midland your mentioning Midland Michigan?
Steve--Funnily enough, one of the prices I wrote down yesterday was for the 32oz of maple syrup that was $4 cheaper than I've found it anywhere. Next closest is Trader Joe's which I've always thought was a phenomenal deal.
Tiam--I don't have any "member" gas stores like Safeway around me and actually Costco is on the way to work for me. So I def think I will use their gas and save the 20-30 cents per gallon each time.
Sweetana--yes, the raspberries are a wonderful deal! I looked for them yesterday but they didn't have them. But that really is an extravagance for me. Not something I normally buy in the grocery store so should I really be buying them @ Costco?
Which brings me to another point I think Costco is set up for: impulse buying. Steve said he's had buyers remorse after having purchased stuff @ Costco. I can see how that would be the case. Yesterday, I was all over that all steel Swingline stapler because I have one at work and certainly need one @ home, right? And I really do need to start buying those expensive dinner napkins my sister uses because they are such a good deal @ Costco, right? Never mind that I never use napkins or any paper products beyond toilet paper and an occasional paper towel--usually just use tea towels for napkins. This is what I'm getting at regarding making sure I don't buy more stuff just because I have this membership. It's fun to go in there and everything but I don't know that I would renew my membership next year.
My goal is to consume less, not more.
Fidgiegirl-I have thought about ebay and Craigslist over the years but have never tried either one. Maybe now is the time since I have a product I'm confident someone would be interested in. Perhaps after school starts and life settles down a bit...
Mara-I'm talking about the one and the same. Its the closest real town around for me. I drive an hour just to get there! How well do you know the town? You can send me a personal message if you prefer. It might take me a couple of days to respond either way since its the weekend.
I don't really have many frugals to add. Today was a no drive/spend day.
I did get ds to try some reconstituted evaporated milk on his cereal today. We have about 20 cans of the stuff and would like to talk him into using some of it because it was free. I don't cook enough with milk to count these days because we make most things at work. Anyways, I asked him to give it a couple of days before he decided if he liked it or not.
Enjoy your weekend! I'm off to work.
A few frugals to report! I got a check for some work I had done back in the spring and someone who I had done some part time work for last fall called and told me she found a check that she forgot to mail to me (how does that happen and how did I not notice?!?) and to top it off, I got 3 rebate checks in the mail today. All together that definitely warranted a trip to the bank. :D While I was out I filled up the gas tank and got 10 cents per gallon off with my rewards card. And I stopped at the pet store and got cat food and used a coupon for $5 off a $20 purchase. Also took advantage of the trip out and dropped off a bag of clothes and shoes at the Salvation Army.
Ate some tomatoes from the garden for lunch and going to make some stuffed peppers tomorrow with our pepper bounty. Trying to be good about eating at home -- especially since I scheduled three meetings out next week. One is over breakfast, one is over lunch, and one is for coffee. Ack! But they will all be productive meetings so I can't complain that there will be a small cost involved to eat out. Fortunately, all three people that I'm meeting with are also frugal-minded individuals so we are going to inexpensive places and we'll each buy our own.
We're thinking about implementing a technology reimbursement plan for our employees at work. If it gets approved by the executive team as part of our new budget, then I should have $1000 to put toward a new laptop, which would be awesome! My current laptop is at least 5 years old and it has seen better days. If it doesn't get approved, then I'm going to have to make do with what I've got for a bit longer, which won't be the end of the world. Just makes video conferencing a little annoying.
rosarugosa
8-17-12, 7:52pm
DH and I had MD appointments this morning, and went for a drive along the nearby coast afterwards. Stopped at a beautiful oceanside park and went walking along the rocks: perfect weather, wonderful views, swallows, butterflies and dragonflies - and sweet-smelling rugosas of course. Beachcombing along the rocks looking for seaglass and I found a pair of sunglasses, and they turned out to be Raybans. Checked online and they retail for about $125.00. So DH has a nice new pair of sunglasses, at least until he loses them somewhere! So the park was FFF and the sunglasses were a serendipitous freebie. (BTW: this wasn't the type of park with rangers, or a lost and found or anything, so while I felt a twinge at profiting from another's loss, it still seemed more sensible to take them than letting the tide take them away). I "needed" steamed clams after that time spent by the ocean, so we went for lunch but used more of that credit card "free money," so lunch was almost free - I did tip in cash. And the steamed clams were small and sweet and delectable :)
My team and I were presented with awards yesterday by another manager to recognize our work during a very busy hiring season this year (30% increase in work volume over last year). This other manager is someone I work very closely with, and he is being promoted to a new role. When he presented me with my award and said how much he valued working with me, he got all choked up and teary, and gave me a big hug. I was so touched. When I spoke of it to one of my employees after, she said it had been touching to witness, and made her feel so fortunate to work at a place where such wonderful working relationships develop (she has only been with us for about 1.5 years). So it was an enormously gratifying experience all around. I get to choose something from an online awards gift site, and my choices are things in the $200 - $300 price range, e.g. Cuisinart all-clad stainless cookware, GPS, Kindle Fire, Kitchenaid mixer are some of the choices. So we can get something very nice that we really don't need - I can honestly say that the hug was the best part :) I was also really pleased for my employees - they are such a good crew and work so hard; they definitely deserved the recognition.
I "needed" steamed clams after that time spent by the ocean, so we went for lunch but used more of that credit card "free money," so lunch was almost free - I did tip in cash. And the steamed clams were small and sweet and delectable :)
Rosa, I probably would do quite a few non-frugal things to enjoy another meal of steamer clams ... it's been years.:) Thanks for the fond memories!
rosarugosa
8-17-12, 10:10pm
Steve, I wish we could cyber-share food, but we're not quite there yet! I want to add that the free money really was. We got a new card that gave us a $150 credit the first tiime we used it, and we always pay off balances at the end of the billing period. So I used some of those credit dollars for lunch.
Bke,
I guess I didn't realize you lived in Michigan (I obviously have not payed attention very well). I knew Azure did but not you. I really don't know Midland well. I am near Selfridge Air Base so probably about an hour and half from there. Well depending on I-75;) .
Hoping to harvest lots of tomatoes soon, just need them to turn. I have been making refrigerator pickles, so easy. And wow are they easy to grow.
Received money from our schools uniform resale, picked up one short sleeve polo. The boys really are good till the weather cools down, then more long sleeve polos will be needed.
Was able to prime and do the trim in our "new" bedroom with what I had on hand. We are switching bedrooms with our boys to give them a bigger room and get my youngest our of his drawer trundle. Hoping to craigslist their baby/youth furniture to cover the cost and come out ahead on their room. Apparently we can get some Fat Head stickers for their rooms at deep discount from a friend who works for Quicken. Add in an inexpensive bed from Ikea and some new comforters and paint and we are done. DH will be building shelves with wood we already have on hand,
Will be working security at our school every Tuesday, which entitles me to a free lunch. I'll be doing hot lunch duty and that entitles my oldest to a free lunch every time I do it. Since he only gets it one day a week, the bulk of his hot lunches will be free.
Continuing borrowing from our library. Books and movies. I love our interlibrary loan system :cool: It's nice and free (I'm sure my taxes pay for it, and believe me I get my monies worth;) ).
No air on since that horrid hot few weeks. It's looking like it's not going on any time soon. I hope we don't need to turn it back on.
I am pricing new fridges, ours is going as much as I am trying to ignore it. Sigh...The current one is 12 years old. I'm going to see if I can fix it at least for the time being.
School starts soon, I'll be baking extra this week for snacks and dessert.
I need to new Epi pens for my youngest, but I have a coupon for $20 off on groceries when I fill a prescription at Meijer. The prescription is $50 for two pens.
Aug 17
bke--freezing cilantro--I have read you can so I thought I would try some just chopped and put in ice trays with water (have read since water and olive oil are better). I thought I would use them in rice/rice noodles and cooked veggies. I will let you know thought it was worth a try since I seem to waste a lot of it.
--Had a friend who does yardwork do a bit around the house today...fixed my downspout/pulled up 5 dying cedars/hostsa (the ugly ones) and rose bush that were all in the front yard crowding everything it all looks nice and open and I think what is left will grow better. He also,
cleaned all the weeds out of a 4' by 12' bed in the back yard which I am going to mulch and add in some Rose of Sharons to create a hedge mostly for privacy. He only asked for $20.00 but I gave him $40.00 and I figuered that was a bargin price and for that he took it all away.
--Took a container of Turkey Soup out of the freezer and heated and used it up with some pasta with a tomato meat sauce it made a really yummy soup for supper all from leftovers.
--been getting some exercise doing yardwork, it is so nice to be able to get out and not feel overwhelmed by the heat and humidty.
Also, not needing the A/C on with this better weather, love it.
--spent some time at the library yesterday and relaxed reading a bunch of new magazines for Free...you do have to like Free
--Dd lent me an amazing book I read last night, should be a must read for all called "Fish Tank" A Fable for out Times by Scott Bischke...Whoa
--filled all my soap containers detergent/hand/and dish from the larger containers bought on sale at Costco...it does make one feel frugal..lol
Wow -- everyone is rocking the frugals this month! Way to go!!!
Yesterday was a pretty frugal day around here. My partner and I both wanted to get out on the trails and do a long run in preparation for the race we're running at the end of September. So he extracted honey in the morning and I cleaned up around the house and did a little work for my job. I finally arranged for someone who responded to my Freecycle post to come pick up the cases of chewing gum (no joke -- cases!). So that cleared out a little space -- not that there isn't loads more stuff to go!
After a long afternoon run, shower, and quick nap to recover we made a huge dinner consisting of salad from a spicy greens mix and stuffed green peppers. The salad greens were from the farm where my partner works so those were free. We added some chopped sweet pepper and cherry tomatoes from our garden, so also free! I stuffed the peppers with brown rice (made up the rest of the bag of rice so have some leftovers for later this week), black beans (last batch from the freezer), mushrooms, more diced sweet peppers, and lots of cheese. Didn't turn out to be the best combo I've ever used to stuff peppers, but they were perfectly edible and used up a bunch of items so that was good. We'll have leftover salad and peppers today for lunch and/or dinner. I had a craving for ice cream last night, but there was none in the house. I decided to make some chocolate tapioca pudding instead. So used up the milk that was about to go bad and the last of some hot chocolate mix that would probably have gotten thrown out eventually. I must have done something wrong because the pudding did not want to set so we ended up with something closer to chocolate tapioca soup. Who cares? It was still so good!!! :D
Today should be another frugal day. We'll finish extracting honey and my partner has to go back to NYC tonight so we'll mostly just hang around the house doing some chores and enjoying some time together. I do have a Tae Kwon Do class this afternoon and since all the black belts are away for a retreat I'll be the ranking student and will get to lead class -- should be fun!
Ok, this is going to sound like a big bunch of nothing but I've needed a real thermos for school because I have to hide my kitchenette and can't make coffee until I've been at school nearly 2 hours!
I just bought the Thermos on Ebay for half what I've seen it on all over the place. I looked online @ all kinds of places and just wasted a half hour wandering around Target last night (yes, they sell Thermoses in basically every department of Target.)
I have been looking for this Thermos for about 2 weeks and finally purchased it for about 1/2 off the going rate, saving about $10.
So was that a frugal action? I mean I spent an inordinate amount of time looking around for this stupid deal. I think I found a good one but jeeze! isn't my time worth something? I don't know whether I'm a victor or a schumck!
So was that a frugal action? I mean I spent an inordinate amount of time looking around for this stupid deal. I think I found a good one but jeeze! isn't my time worth something? I don't know whether I'm a victor or a schumck!
It certainly seems like the best deal you could find...
What does the money you saved buy you? A couple of days of groceries? This month's gas bill? That's something. As for the time taken, what would you have done with the time you spent shopping? Did you learn anything that would make a search for another item more efficient? Did you pass on going to fun events to buy a Thermos?
I see simple living as a continual trade among time, energy, and money. If my choice was "buy a Thermos" or "get together with family and niece who is leaving next week for overseas", I wouldn't spend a lot of time looking for a Thermos. Otherwise, I could keep looking. It's only once you become obsessed that the time you lose becomes non-frugal.
domestic goddess
8-19-12, 11:36am
Most of my frugality this month has been what I didn't buy. I've just stayed out of the stores, because I"ve been a bit short on cash. But I did pick up a pair of swim goggles for each of the girls for $1 at Five Below, and they had school supplies for a good price, so I think we can get some of their stuff there. DD went to the Back-to-School Fair for the first time (she and the girls qualify), which relieves some of the pressure. We still need new gym shoes (honestly, sometimes I feel like binding their feet!), school shoes, backpacks, and some of the supplies that they like to pick out, like notebooks and folders. Can you believe that what is on the cover of the spiral bound notebook matters to them?! Well, all that stuff is still on sale.
try2bfrugal
8-19-12, 12:11pm
Ok, this is going to sound like a big bunch of nothing but I've needed a real thermos for school because I have to hide my kitchenette and can't make coffee until I've been at school nearly 2 hours!
I just bought the Thermos on Ebay for half what I've seen it on all over the place. I looked online @ all kinds of places and just wasted a half hour wandering around Target last night (yes, they sell Thermoses in basically every department of Target.)
I have been looking for this Thermos for about 2 weeks and finally purchased it for about 1/2 off the going rate, saving about $10.
So was that a frugal action? I mean I spent an inordinate amount of time looking around for this stupid deal. I think I found a good one but jeeze! isn't my time worth something? I don't know whether I'm a victor or a schumck!
It you like looking for deals then it is part entertainment, too. I am self employed so I have to always search for the right balance between deal hunting and working. Deal hunting is more fun and easy to get caught up in.
Readsomething
8-19-12, 5:20pm
bunnys, I can SO relate to your Thermos hunt! Sometimes I have the worst time biting the bullet on something vs. continuing to hunt for a deal. A Thermos would be exactly the kind of thing I'd look for a deal on.
Right now I'm mired in a hunt for left-handed kids' scissors. DD had two pair that I bought last year -- one for school, one for home. We can't find the one that was sent to school, so the one that was meant for home will be used for school when we take in her school supplies later this week (school starts THURSDAY, ack!). I see that Amazon has the scissors for $4-something, but they are considered "add-on" items, which only ship for FREE when they ship with $25 worth of other items, EVEN THOUGH we have a Prime membership. It's annoying, because the scissors thing is exactly the reason why we HAVE Prime -- I only want a $4 pair of scissors, not $21 worth of other stuff.
I see that Amazon has the scissors for $4-something, but they are considered "add-on" items, which only ship for FREE when they ship with $25 worth of other items, EVEN THOUGH we have a Prime membership. It's annoying, because the scissors thing is exactly the reason why we HAVE Prime -- I only want a $4 pair of scissors, not $21 worth of other stuff.
What I hate is when they price something in the $24+ range so you have to buy something else or pay the shipping. That's why I didn't buy my thermos on Amazon.
Also, I'm a lefty and never buy left-handed scissors. Aren't a lot of scissors now ambidextrous? I have two pairs like that and I grabbed them @ Staples or somewhere like that and they were cheap.
You all have made many good points about the fun of the deal hunting. And deal hunting for the Thermos was fun for me--until I wandered around the Target for THIRTY MINUTES last night and came out with nothing. It's a lot more fun to deal hunt on the internet where you can jump right to what you want and see it from many different merchants than to haul your butt out to the store and wander around aimlessly trying to find it in the store. And don't even think of asking clerks where it is!
Aug 19
--exercise from weeding and doing some more tree trimming(funny you get a little work done and then you seemed to see a lot more that needs done) lol
--leftovers for supper from last night
--shopped today and only spent $25.00 at one store need to go to another later this week but will go on way home from Aqua fit.
--No Frills has Unico pasta and sauce at $.77 each no limit....some good veggies and pork at $1.47 a lb. (a bit more fat then I would like but still a really large roast for $10.00
--don't know if I mentioned this one had a salad dressing from Kraft I was really not pleased with it almost tasted off...I email and Friday received a coupon for one new free bottle...well worth an email.
--I have done no shopping beside food in serveral weeks...even had a Dsis visiting and we did no shopping that is an amazing thing with this sister. She has retired and just says there is really nothing she needs...made it easier to have her visit/
early morning
8-19-12, 9:05pm
Spent the weekend celebrating our birthdays with my twin cousin - just us two. We used to do everything together - then our paths diverged a bit in our twenties- but when we turned 40 we vowed to celebrate together again every year, and this was year 16! For the past 13 or so, we've been spending a weekend in a cabin owned by another cousin of hers, at a lake. We take what we need (sheets, towels, food) plus books and lots of movies or TV series we want to watch. We drive around the lake, eat crap no one at our homes will touch (but we love), watch movies, stay up late, and mostly laugh and kvetch. Cost? We always leave a thank you card, replace what we use (TP, soap, etc) and try to fix some little item or two. The cabin is charming but in much need of repair - the floor tilts like mad, the pump needs coaxing, and flushing the toilet is best left until really necessary - and there are tons of small things that need attending- we focus on those. This year I mended some curtains, and we filed the door latch keeper so the lock works without having to jack up the door. In the past, we've installed a new shower head, replaced the fridge light, bought new extension cords to replace some that looked rather sketchy, rewired a lamp, fixed a pull chain on a wall light, reglazed a window, shored up the front step to the front stoop (a temporary fix that is still in place 5-6 years later).... We have a ball, and usually spend very little.
danna -- good reminder about emailing companies with complaints about products. I used to be more diligent about doing that when I wasn't satisfied and they often send a coupon for a replacement. I've found that some companies will also send you coupons for products that you send them complimentary emails about.
Ate up the leftover salad and some of the leftover stuffed peppers for lunch and dinner today. Made another batch of chocolate tapioca pudding -- this time it set up and I think it is because I added eggs. The recipe on the back of the box doesn't call for them, but almost every recipe I've ever seen for tapioca pudding does, so thought I would try it and it seemed to do the trick. Now the key is to not eat the entire batch by myself tonight. :D
Harvested our garlic crop today. Turns out we harvested it a little late, but I think it will still be fine. Now it just needs to cure for a few weeks. Got some weeding done in the flower beds, too, so that was a good way to spend a few hours today.
Went grocery shopping on my way home from the gym today and remembered to bring my grocery list (which I stuck to!), a few coupons, and my cloth shopping bags. Forgot to bring the empty milk bottle for the bottle refund. Oh well, can always do that next time.
Beautiful weather here so no A/C -- have the windows open and I'm enjoying the cool evening air. I love this time of year!
early morning -- sounds like an amazing weekend!
fidgiegirl
8-19-12, 9:51pm
early, very fun.
We made a crock pot meal but then got invited to dinner, so put it in the fridge for tomorrow. I would have passed except that it is DH's sis and BIL and we have not been seeing them as often as we'd like, so when they have an opening, we take them up on it.
Gus's hair is doing better, but his eye infection seems to be back, so we are going to contact the rescue and hopefully it will be something covered by them, since it was something he had when we got him and we've only had him a week and it's back. But I'm doubtful, because they day we picked him up they declared it cleared up so they may not cover it. Either way is fine but I at least want to try.
I finally ordered groceries and planned a few meals mostly from what we have on hand. I always end up finding a deal or two on the Coborn's website and stock up. Like, ground turkey wasn't on my list, but there is a Quick Sale item at $3.00 savings per package and we will use it eventually, so into the freezer it will go. Not really in keeping with my goal of using up the freezer! But that was too good a savings to pass up.
Not much else!
flowerseverywhere
8-19-12, 11:11pm
as I had posted previously we sold our home in seven days so as we prepare to move we are trying to eat everything we have. Since I have a garden we have really good fresh food to supplement the crazy stuff. Tonight wasn't too bad, some chicken, frozen corn, fresh tomatoes and a few french fries from the end of a bag.
I have a huge pile of stuff to bring to goodwill for tax purposes, at the same time I know there are many struggling people out there who benefit from our donations.
sold some little things on ebay, we are not big ebay sellers but if it is cheap to ship and worth something we go for it.
fidgiegirl
8-20-12, 7:59am
Inspired by bunnys I am contemplating a no-spend month for September (not 18 like you :) ). Just something to break this spending streak, like something to snap us out of it. But if DH isn't on board, I might not do it, or do a modified version. Otherwise I'll just breed resentment in myself. I floated it last night. He was not super receptive, but this is sometimes how it goes with my WILD IDEAS. :) He may come around yet . . .
Readsomething, are there any pantry food items, other office supplies, or toiletries you will need in about 2 weeks anyway that you could order from amazon to get the scissor + other items up to $25?
Early morning, that sounds like a fun way to spend your birthday. Great that you can help with the maintenance on the cabin, too. Do you and your cousin ever do any projects for yourselves while there like teach yourselves how to do something new or do something like components of the Artist Way course?
Fidgiegirl, hope you can get some meds for Gus, but at least could probably get info about what infection he had and what they treated him with.
Flowerseverywhere, congrats on the speedy house sale!
Fidgie: I'm just thinking no-spend on CLOTHING. I could never to 18 months no spend everything. I'm even intimidated by the no-clothing thing.
You should consider a month with very few spend days. I did that for awhile. I would do like 5 or 6 spend days and it wasn't that tough at all. (I know it would be nearly impossible if I had kids.) I would do my spending on days I knew I had to spend--like if I was going to the doctor and knew I'd have to make a copay. This REALLY helped me cut down on my spending
This is turning into a busy, productive month. My mom came on Friday and was originally scheduled to leave for the week and come back, but her work plans fell through and her company is having a hard time finding a place for her to go on short notice, so she is probably here for two weeks. I am really excited. We are painting, reorganizing and redecorating.
I feel a little spoiled. She set aside some of her bonus to help me get the dining room/kitchen/bathroom/entry level in good shape. We're getting a cabinet to organize homeschool stuff, refinishing my furniture, getting a second bench for the dining room table, buying artwork for the walls, buying a rolling cart that slips under the desk in the kitchen, getting a storage bench for the entry area and recovering some chairs. She also bought me some new towels and a new rug for the bathroom, a really nice toaster oven with two shelves for toast (I can finally make everyone's toast at once!) and a rotisserie and a new coffee pot. She's painting my kitchen, entry and bathroom too. None of this is costing me a dime. I am so grateful for my mom's help! We are going to start the school year off on such a good foot.
Next week we're going to paint and organize the family room.
Tussiemussies
8-20-12, 11:06am
Wow Stella, that is so sweet of your Mom. She sounds like a very generous person...
early morning
8-22-12, 9:41pm
Amaranth, cuz and I haven't tried learning anything or doing a project over our holiday - it's a simple getaway from the usual stress, lol. We've done quite a few projects at other times though - we work pretty well together. Stella, can I borrow your mom? Her visit sounds wonderful! Had a meeting today and was presented with a cake - brought home the left-overs. DD and DH baked me a brownie, so I'm pretty well over-sugared, lol. We went to my fav Chinese buffet for dinner, and DB picked up the check for everyone! I thought that was sweet...and saved us some money! No more eating out until our anniversary. We're doing a short road-trip up to Bay City, MI - just a couple days. It won't be free, but it's our 35th, and we want to do something! We'll probably just drive along the coast of Lake Huron as far as Bay City, check out the town, and head back home. We spent a day there when the tall ships were in last, and it looked pretty interesting. Bke, is that anywhere near your restaurant? I'd love to stop in for a bite!
Finished decluttering my clothing today. Took 5 grocery bags of clothes and 14 pairs of shoes to Goodwill. This is the first decluttering I've done and I can't stop opening my drawers and patting my neat piles or organized clothing. I'm going to start doing more decluttering. It's really nice.
Went to the salvage grocery store yesterday to buy turkey breasts to make dog food. Going price there is always $1.19 per pound and it's mostly meat when cooked for the dog food. Very little skin/fat/bone to throw away and very easy to deal with. Have started adding a tablespoon of flax oil to the recipe because I want her to have some Omega 3's to offset all the Omega 6's she's getting with all that meat. Also have decided that both the dog and cat are going grain free, effective immediately. When I made doggie's food tonight I used sweet potatoes instead of the rice I've been using.
Also, the one thing this salvage store always seems to have coming out of their ears is peppers. Every conceivable type and they are cheap and usually beautiful. Bought 6 red peppers yesterday for 3 bucks and made stuffed red peppers today which would have normally been a much more expensive dish.
Spent most of the day cooking. But finally broke down and got the percolator I've been looking at on Amazon rather than the other site I saw it on bc even though it was a couple more bucks on Amazon, it was free shipping. Also bought a shaper on sale to wear under jeans as my stomach is OUT OF CONTROL. I'm kind of spending more on clothing than I should be but I want to have everything I need before I start my 2 school years w/o purchasing clothing. I don't want to realize I have to have something 1 week in and compromise my resolve.
Early morning-So nice of you to think of me but I'm probably close to 2 hours from Bay City. I live in Clare County which is in the middle of the state. I hear a lot of nice things about Bay City but have never really spent any time there. 35 years is definitely worth celebrating-I hope you have a nice trip! I wish we had more free time. I feel like our place would kind of be a possible central location for all the Michigan people to meet at and get to know one anthther better but its just not going to happen anytime soon!
Yesterday was supposed to be a no spending day but in the evening one of our customers knocked on the door offering some letters that fit our marquee sign. Dh had told him about a bunch of ours being stolen. He paid $5 for the ones he found at a yard sale. I gave the man $10 to make him feel appreciated. It was enough to pay for the little chain saw he had bought for himself and yet MUCH cheaper than new letters would have been for us so it was a win-win situation.
We've been canning sauce, keeping shopping to a minimum and basically just kind of laying low this week. Tonight we're going to go to a car show-ds like to do that each summer. Its free and we'll have dinner at home before we go so it should be fairly frugal fun.
I'm tryin' to be frugal. Cooked dinner tonight using up some ham from the freezer, pasta, part of a jar of pasta sauce, etc. Using things I had in the pantry, fridge & freezer instead of buying something. Then my husband came home. He just couldn't have a pasta dish without a mountain of parmesan. So he went to the store and bought some more. :doh: We had some. Probably enough for 3 normal people ...sigh
FIL sent us a check for $500 to be used for the boys back to school. Lucky break (answered prayer) because we were just over $200 short of being able to cover both tuitions. Well, all of Ian's and the 1st half of Tyler's. The rest will either go to help pay for books or used later for the other half of Tyler's tuition.
rosarugosa
8-23-12, 8:47pm
Bunnys: I hope you don't take offense if I say you are cracking me up with your tale of spending a lot on clothes lately to prepare for a long stretch of not buying any clothes (presumably because you have so many), only because this sounds like something I would do!
On that note, I finally bought the dragonfly polo shirt from Talbot's. It was marked down to $9.00 with free shipping, and I could resist no longer. I was talking to DH about it, and I was saying how even if it cost $1.00 that I don't need it, and he said, "But you want it, and you certainly have the $9.00, so you should go ahead and buy it." So I guess I can blame him :)
BKE: I don't live in MI, but I was thinking recently that with your ninja frugal shopping skills, you could probably sell tickets to a frugality lunch and learn type of event at your restaurant. I'll bet you would have some takers.
Bunnys: I hope you don't take offense if I say you are cracking me up with your tale of spending a lot on clothes lately to prepare for a long stretch of not buying any clothes (presumably because you have so many), only because this sounds like something I would do!
I don't take offense. Sadly, it's true. But I have to say the things I've bought were mostly to fill in holes in my wardrobe so I don't break my vow. I do know that this is the last thing I have to buy before I start my new 2 school years of no clothing purchases on Monday morning!
Today, I cleaned my new car myself. Took 1.5 hours (inside and out.) Normally I don't clean my car at all so I can't really claim that I did this and saved 10 bucks I would have spent at the car wash so I don't know if this counts as frugal or not.
Also today my new Thermos arrived. I got a Thermos for $9.99 including shipping on Ebay because I make coffee in the morning and then I make coffee once I get to school and so I'm throwing out about 1/2-1 cup of coffee from each pot each day and coffee has really gone up in price. I also ordered a stovetop percolator bc my drip coffee maker was shot and I hope to very quickly figure out how to make the perfect amount of coffee for my hour in bed in the morning and then to see me through my morning at school w/o making more.
Went to Target and bought a $13 black leather belt because I have needed one for 2 years and I don't want to break my vow of no clothing purchases when I make it. I only spent $13 instead of the $35 I could have spent because I only wear a black belt about once every 2 weeks and I just don't care enough to spend more. This belt will still last me several years. Also got some inexpensive makeup as I'm going back to school next week and I hardly have anything. Also stopped by Costco to fill up with gas because it was on my way.
Watching the news streaming online tonight for... entertainment? Hey, it's free!
Speaking of belts, and it's not really my frugal score, my SO just found a reversible (black/brown) braided leather belt at Goodwill for $1.99. I didn't buy anything today, and I'm working my way through my freezer.
Hi guys! I have barely been online this week with my redecorating project and my mom visiting, but it's been fun catching up on all your frugals this morning.
We have the dining room painted and are halfway done with the entry area. This weekend we're going to paint my old buffet and give it new drawer pulls and knobs and refinish the table. It's looking so cute! Since my dining room doubles as a school room I'm going with a kind of "natural history" theme to the artwork.
The main artwork may cost some money, but I'm finding printable public domain images for some of the small stuff. The main artwork is going to have a very loose "horse" sort of theme. I'm getting a print of a Leonardo DaVinci sketch of a horse, a Japanese picture of a horse, a photo of some seahorses in blue and an old photo of a dinosaur that had been assembled with moose horns back in the day. The smaller artwork is public domain images of birds, butterflies, bats, eggs and a diagram of a human heart.
In the bathoom I am going to combine public domain images of ocean themed things, coral, a narwhal and sea urchins with some pictures of sea monsters. I am going to paint a sign to put on the etarger that says, "Get Kraken". The entry area will be simple with just an old embroidery my mom did of a bunch of flowers. I have two embroidery pieces I've been working on for years, some birds on dogwood branches and a peacock, that I will add when I'm done.
I bought a set of pfaltzgraff dishes for 75% off at Meijer. I love the colors in them. and it is so nice to have a matching set of dishes again. It's been years. But it was an impulse purchase and that is something I really need to put a stop to. We are going to be struggling with tuition for both boys this next 2 years. Ian is a junior and once he graduates he will be on his own for grad school and he knows that. He is also getting an on campus job this year which will help.
I expect once both boys are at school the heat/electric bill will really drop. Especially since I will also be at work during most mornings/early afternoon. Also water & food bills will drop. I also thought we'd be making fewer trips to see Tyler run or march which would save gas & entry fees, but looking at the schedule I realized that almost all events are within an hour of us so we could possible be going to a lot more than I thought. There are not nearly as many xc meets as in high school but when you add in the marching band it is probably about the same. So I'm not sure what we'll do. I LOVE XC and we've been looking forward to seeing him in an excellent marching band. But I guess we'll probably have to make decisions about which ones to skip and which to attend.
I take lunch and a snack with me to work every day because even though I might be scheduled until 10 which would only require a snack (getting up at 4:30 means I'm hungry all day some times lol) I rarely actually get out at the scheduled time. So Thursday I took in a lot of leftover things, the last hardboiled egg, some wasa crackers & cheese, pbj, cucumbers - a real smorgasborg. I am trying crack down on buying lunch items at work.
Had dinner last night at my nephews wedding. I bought a few groceries before I left work but I'm not sure when I'm going to be able to finish. Today we are going to see Tyler & take the boys to his long overdue graduation celebration dinner. Tomorrow we will be at the Detroit zoo. I am walking in the Walk on the Wild Side for Hemophilia walk. DH & Ian will be going but not walking. So not a frugal weekend but we figured since I would be going anyway we might as well make a day of it. I think it is our first outing of the summer. So I am not going to fret about the money spent.
domestic goddess
8-25-12, 4:35pm
Have finally finished most of the girls' back to school shopping. It is fun to see them so excited about buying school supplies! I always thought there was something magical about fresh, new notebooks, unsharpened pencils, unopened glue, and all the neat stuff you have to get. There is magical potential there.
Still have to pick up a couple of things, but school starts late thiis year due to construction being done in the building, so that's okay. Why do teachers want 5th graders to have felt-tipped pens? The nasty things soak through the paper. I really don't like them, but I'm old fashioned, I guess. My preference is a good fountain pen.
As far as frugal stuff goes, we've been pretty fortunate. Both kids qualified for free supplies at this year's back to school fair, so that was a big help. We were also gifted with some of the things they didn't get, and I have picked up most of the remainder. Still, this "free" public education is expensive! And, as usual, it comes at a time when we have some other obligations. But we will get through it.
On the plus side, I finally have a full schedule for next month. With the physical limitations I have, I really can't take care of our larger, complete care patients. And houses with stairs are a problem for me, too. Obviously, I can't keep doing this job much longer, but it is good to have work while I look. Read through some ads the other day and found several interesting options.
I have gotten away from tracking expenses lately, so am ready to get back on track in September. Have also finally finished the paperwork required for inheriting my mom's IRA, though still have to contact the lawyer about some other funds she has. Not that these two are more than peripherally related, but I am finally getting back to doing the things I should be doing. No more moping about!
DD has a coupon for a free session for dgd1 and several others at a local gymnastics center that we can use for her birthday party at the end of Sept., so the biggest expense for that is taken care of. She wants me to bake cupcakes, and we will either make some other treats, or buy some inexpensive ones. That is the one thing that seems to be going smoothly.
Today I made a berry/cherry cobbler and some chik'n salad. Had two sweet potatoes left over from making dog food so put them in the oven w/ the cobbler. Will have that for 2 lunches along with spinach/garlic/olive oil/lemon juice. Very good.
Also fixed the front screen door that has been a work in progress for something like a year and half. I didn't want the school year to start without it fixed. Put on a new door handle as part of the fix but can't get it to work right. I'm not very good at these kinds of things but this will have to do. The main part is that I fixed the broken glass door frame and got that back in. I am so sick and fricking tired of stepping through the d@mn door! And it looked like crap too.
It has been raining all day so I'm debating whether or not to go down to the river park to do my walking. It will be sooo wet! But on the plus side, I will probably be the only one down there so I'll go bc I love having the park all to myself.
fidgiegirl
8-25-12, 6:25pm
Hi every body,
Here we are trying to use up food still. Made a chili today and chopped peppers, onions and melon before they went off.
We bought a new dining room set (not frugal) but trying to sell our old one to make up part of the expenditure.
Going to a movie tonight and will use a gift card for part of it.
Hugs all!
The usual frugals here. Cooking meals and eating at home. Line drying laundry whenever we can. Keeping the A/C off as much as possible. The biggest non-frugal has been too much driving. Running errands without a list and forgetting something important and having to go out again. <sigh> Of course, if this is the worst the non-frugals get then I guess I shouldn't complain!!! I've been taking advantage of the nicer weather and trying to get some work done in the flower gardens. They were sorely neglected this year and it shows! But I'm making slow progress so that is encouraging.
In other exciting news, today we got a new tenant for our rental property. Looking forward to that income to help pay off the mortgage on that place!
happystuff
8-25-12, 6:57pm
My short haircut has started to grow out and the back was really "not working". I've been putting off and putting off going to get it cut because of the expense for just a little trim. Finally talked dd into cutting it for me. Just a simple cleaning up along the neckline to even things up - and it looks great! I'm so proud of her! And I feel like I have a whole new hairdoo!
Aug25
--had bought 4 large deordants at Costco about 1 year ago and now they seem to not be working on me...I have this issue with
shampoo/conditioner so I am sure it will work again after a break, my first thought was to buy a new different brand one and my
second thought was this would be a good time to try baking soda....so I have put some in a washed out face cream jar and am
using it. Whoa it is working amazingly.
--making sure I am eating up all the fresh fruit and veggies I have bought....if I feel like we are not getting to them I am chopping up and freezing.
--no shopping not even yard sales this week
--still shopping the sales for groceries (mostly the only thing I am spending money on these days..lol) and still using them up.
One big frugal this month was that my vacation was cancelled at work due to staff changes and conflict with boss' schedule BOOOOO HOOOOO! DH promised me a long weekend in Maine in Sept. in a dog friendly inexpensive housekeeping motel or cottage. Going to the MFA to see Photo exhibit with library discount coupon. Will split a sandwich or sub on the way home. Making pickles beets today and will can them. Always using stuff in fridge, pantry and freezer and cooking from scratch. Haven't been posting because our stuff is pretty mainstream but I like to pop my head up and say Hi!
early morning
8-26-12, 2:12pm
I too am suffering from the same old same old, especially when the net result of those savings plus unexpected expenses (and the occasional small treat, for shame!:|() is a loss... but it could be a worse loss, I guess! Laundry is on the line, darks hung inside out and my best things on the coveted shady line, lol. I opened the house this AM, turning on the fans to bring in cool air, then closed it when it started to warm up too much. Fans are still going though! DH and I helped DSis yesterday, and she fixed us lunch and bought us dinner and coffee. We brought home leftovers, and had those for our lunch today. Too hot to cook, so dinner will be grilled steaks (chicken for DD) and microwaved potatoes - in my trash-picked microwave- and sliced tomatoes from our garden - which is now only a few tomato and pepper plants. We went to a few yard sales yesterday, and I spent a quarter on a totally unnecessary froufrou, but that was all we bought.
We have a huge, huge reorganizing going on here! I have been cleaning out and reorganizing my cabinets. I had been thinking about getting some of those pull out cabinet inserts, but now I don't think I'll have to. My mom pointed out that I still have a lot of things in the same place they were when I grew up (I live in the house I grew up in) just out of habit. I took that to heart and really thought about how I do things. I'm changing things up quite a bit and editing things out, so now there isn't anything in the back of any of my cabinets except my angel food pan and bundt pan, both of which are only used a couple of times a year. I might have to post some pictures later.
Next week's plan is to put together some preschool materials. I was an assistant teacher at a Montessori preschool while I was in college, so that's what I'm going with (more or less) because I'm the most familiar with it. Instead of large sensory bins, I'm thinking of making small, individual sensory bins that can be stored in shoebox sized containers. I'm thinking a dinosaur bin, a construction bin, an ocean bin and an animal bin, mostly because I already have most of the stuff for it. The girls and are also going to make our own lacing cards based on the girls' drawings. We'll glue the drawings onto cardboard from pasta or cracker boxes and laminate them with clear contact paper, using a paper punch for the holes. We'll do some sort of sorting activity, most likely with stuff we already have. We'll start with that and work from there.
I put another bottle of water in freezer because we don't freeze much and I heard it's cheaper if the freezer is fuller.
Well-to-do neighbors moved to Spain three years ago and visited here a few months ago and gave me all these clothes they aren't keeping to do with as I want. So I've been taking them to the nearby consignment shop--12 at a time allowed--and they are selling well (fairly expensive clothes, plus a tux), and so far have $140 in account there. Two more months for taking fall and winter things and then I'll be glad to have them all out of my house and have the money to put where all our money goes--on the mortgage.
Doing well with fewer car trips to mid or other end of town, by doing several things each time.
Eating well according to Vata dosha of Ayurvedics. Plus decided to lose 8 lbs in a month. Due to being on Prednisone, I've gained 10 pounds in the last 8 months or so, which typically happens on Prednisone. It's okay except I don't like my stomach and face now, so eating 2/3 or 1/2 what I was before to see if that will do it. This is cheaper, and almost all veggies and fruit and oatmeal. Greens every day for calcium means not buying calcium pills, which I hear aren't as absorbable anyway. Several DVDs from library.
fidgiegirl
8-28-12, 6:53pm
I should take some time tonight that DH is at his Fantasy Football draft to do the tracking. I am getting better at keeping up, though to be honest, it hasn't made much of a dent in our behavior. As I noted in the personal economy thread, since figuring our our Real Hourly Wage again, it seems like we're spending even more and more and more. Lots of little things, and then they add up to big things. So maybe I need to go with the whole picture questions rather than for each individual purchase.
Anyway. Also over at that thread it made me realize I was just about ready to launch a little micro-enterprise back in June and then never pulled the trigger. I had the website all done and ready to go so not sure what stopped me. It is for personal technology training/coaching and bigger group trainings. I posted it to Craigslist and my FB. We'll see what happens. This thread as well as a conversations with a friend who is trying a similar business reminded me to put it out there. Hopefully I didn't offend her, though. I sent her a message that I've had this in the works for a while. But I didn't ask her permission or her forgiveness. There is enough business out there for everyone, and we are looking at different niches, anyway.
Going to throw together something for the crock pot for tomorrow, just not sure what. Still plenty of food in the freezer and cabinets, but we need a few staples. Maybe I will send DH the list and he can pick up on the way home.
I've been doing a lot of spending this week but fortunately its created some long-term savings.
Ds's allergy medicine was on sale B1G1 free so I purchased 8 months worth for $30. If I buy 30 days worth at a time its $20. I also bought several bottles of dish soap for 49 cents each. I'm getting quite a stockpile of cheap soap. We use quite as bit of it plus I think of it as a versatile, gentile cleaner that could come in handy if life ever turns financially for the worse.
We stopped and bought CO2 last night saving the delivery fee.
Gas was going up 30 cents last night everywhere we looked. Fortunately we found a station that hadn't raised its prices yet and filled the truck.
I'm really becoming addicted to shopping at Krogers! I used coupons for 10 free granola/protean bars last night. Sometimes I wil grab one of these to eat at work when I don't have time for anything else. We also purchased 60 gatorades and 30 Propels at 67 cents each. It sounds like a lot but the gatorade helps us stay hydrated as recommended by a doctor and the propel is better than soda for ds. PLUS I like the idea of handy beverages if we somehow have water shortage issues.
My best, coolest, biggest shopping brag of the night (yeah I'm a bit excited/proud of this one-haha!) was purchasing 10 jars of Planters dry roasted peanuts for 75 cents a jar! Expiration dates are as late as next May. Dh loves to snack on these and they've been running about $4.99 a jar so this was a big find.
This is our last big weekend of the summer coming up. In some ways we're looking better than I thought we were but its still going to be a long winter financially. I"m really aiming for a variety of items in my stash so that we can have lots of options food wise without spending or going out if necessary. Gas in$4.09 a gallon as of last night.
Mail this week has included shampoo and starbucks coffee samples.
I recieved my $20 amazon.com gift code from a sweepstake win this morning. That brings my total to $66 to put towards Christmas shopping.
I have been seriously cleaning out my pantry today. Tossing stuff, vacuuming it out, scrubbing it down... The way I shop and cook has been developing over the last few years as our family has basically doubled, first adding James, then Dad, then Travis and now Charlotte. I think this fall's cleaning is helping me get a feel for what is and is not working in my kitchen and with my shopping and menu planning. I think this is really going to help me be more efficient in the future and cut down on waste.
fidgiegirl
8-30-12, 5:54pm
Sounds like an informational foray into the cabinets, Stella. Well done! It's freeing to declutter, even if it's painful to see the food waste.
bke, WOW on the allergy meds and the peanuts!
We sold our dining room set yesterday for $250 on Craigslist. But don't rejoice too much . . . we bought a new set last week for $375 on CL! Ay ay ay!!! But September has the no-spend challenge awaiting . . . man o man do we need it!!!!!!!
$125 for a new dining room set? I think that is pretty good Fidgiegirl. Most people would have spent alot more and recieved a lot less for their old set. Some day I'm going to explore/master the world of craig's list and ebay! I just know there's money out there for me to make and/or save! I'm thinking some sort of part-time income after I sell the restaurant...
We spent $15 to take ds bowling as one final outing before school starts next week. We ate dinner at home first and didn't even purchase a beverage at the bowling alley so it was fairly frugal. We spent $12 on some necessities at the dollar store while out (school supplies, cleaning products and cheap cookies for dh). I'm proud to say I didn't throw any extras into the cart.
Stella I need someone like you to come organize my life for me! I'm all about piles of paper everywhere. You are so impressive.
fidgiegirl
8-30-12, 7:05pm
$125 for a new dining room set?
I know . . . except we just bought the other set 3 months ago or so!!! :)
Some day I'm going to explore/master the world of craig's list and ebay! I just know there's money out there for me to make and/or save! I'm thinking some sort of part-time income after I sell the restaurant...
Overall, we do pretty well. I don't know if we could make serioius money at it, but we earn a little extra pocket money and get used goods at decent prices.
Plus we've saved a lot in trash hauling. That's one way you could start. Just post free unwanted items - even broken ones, and ANYTHING, it seems, will get taken. We are very up front about all of the condition of things and it STILL gets taken. We are simply amazed sometimes. We have given away: snowblower (broken - too old), power washer sprayer (broken - just the sprayer), chainsaw (broken - DH spent 6 weeks in a community ed class trying to fix!!), even a garbage can that was almost destroyed, perfumes, toiletries, tampons!, bike trailer that was missing parts, fabric, prom dresses, dog bed, dog food, camping toilet, rooftop luggage rack, luggage (broken!)
Sold: bikes, furniture, surplus antiques, car racks, dog kennel, camper, canoe paddles, local sports memorabilia
Bought: current modem ($50 cheaper than retail and works great), current dining set (and former :laff:) - antique round table that extends to 85" plus six chairs, patio set - table, four chairs + adirondack chair and footstool for $75, floor lamp
GOT for free: dirt! (lots of it!), garage door opener, wheelbarrow, fireplace tools,
Sorry, I got a little carried away with this list. I am quite sure it is not even complete!! I have been Craigslisting since about 2004 when I needed money to go to India and got lots of petsitting jobs off of it. And the buying/selling naturally kind of followed. Ok, it was fun to make the list. If you made it this far, you get a prize!!
Aug 30
--trip to Costco and only spent $100.00 between Dd and myself...a lot of good stuff almost all on sale.
--combined errands to save gas
--did the intake interview to volunteer at the city seniors home, it is so close I could walk, volunteering is not necessarily frugal but, it was keep me busy and feeling useful without costing anything....I think a win, win
Don't think I've spent any money since last weekend. Yesterday and the day before I did my laundry and hung enough of the 3 loads on the line to only have to dry 1 load.
Took my lunch to work every day this week--haven't gone out once. But tomorrow is Friday (the last day of Teacher Week.) If my department wants to go out, I'll go with them.
But totally wasted a bunch of gas this week running back and forth to school. Yesterday (Professional Development) went to the host school, came back home for lunch (gas was less than buying lunch out would have been--way less) then went back, then came home again before going back to my school to take class fees in the evening. Then came home and went to the park to walk doggie. I went all over the place yesterday. Not very frugal.
But the dog has been trying to dig out of the yard this week because I haven't been home and she's bored. Which would not be a good thing.
Thanks for the compliment bke! I kind of enjoy organizing. It's funny because when I was younger I absolutely hated cleaning and organizing.
We're having a pretty frugal weekend so far. We drove out to the Wisconsin border today (under an hour away) to have a picnic with my great-aunt B. We tried to talk her into letting us bring food, but she wasn't having it. She always insists on providing the food and she is such an excellent cook. She made a ham and brought rolls for ham sandwiches and we had pasta salad, watermelon, rice pudding, grapes, pretzels, B's famous molasses cookies, Swedish almond cake and chocolates. It was a feast. As always she sent us home with the leftovers. The ham should give us at least another meal and the ham bone will make some good split pea or navy bean soup.
While Mom was here we started having a snack at the table in the afternoon as well as our breakfast, lunch and dinner. Snacks were previously kind of catch-as-catch-can and harder to plan for. The kids really enjoyed the planned snacktimes and had such a good time with it that we plan to continue it over the year. It's going to make it much easier to know what I need for the week.
We are also getting back to real slow food dining. Don't get me wrong, we've always been eat-at-the-table people, but lately we've been slowing down and taking a little more time to enjoy it and making it more of an event. Pretty place settings, good food, wine. We used to be more like this, but since about the time I was on bed rest with Charlotte I'd been struggling just to get dinner on the table. Now that I've got everything back to good I think we're going to be back to dining like this permanently. It's frugal in the sense that it brings a lot of value and satisfaction for the money. You have to eat anyway, you might as well enjoy it.
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