September Frugals

re: cloth sandwich bags. Modern "oilcloth" is vinyl, which is not food-safe. If you hunt around on the internet you'll find long discussions dedicated to whether various waterproof or water-resistant fabrics are actually food-safe, including PUL and nylon. I think cotton, like Stella suggested, is probably best.

My mom and I got great haircuts today from advanced students at a well-known beautician-training school - for the same cost as your average walk-in place.
DD has been thrilled this week to take leftover soup for lunch in the food jar. I am thrilled that she's been so easy to please!

Gosh it's been so long since I posted on this board! Have had frugals, but was really busy over the summer with school for me and taking care of the kids.

I am volunteering one day a month in our school lunch room. Apparently new this year is a if you volunteer, your child gets one free lunch each month. He only buys on pizza day, so only four times a month but having to pay for one less is nice. Then I was told to take home some of the excess produce on the counter. It was excess from our food bank for our church and the produce was going to go bad if someone didn't take it. I scored a bag of carrots, onions and a couple green peppers. They are all fine, but I guess wouldn't last till next weeks pickups. Last week someone gave me organic apples and tomatoes and then another person gave me plums. The apples became applesauce and the tomatoes became roasted tomato soup. My friend didn't know you could make applesauce from red delicious apples, I was a bit confused by that but yeah for me.

Found out that I should be receiving some money soon from my Uncles estate. It was unexpected when I got the note from the lawyer a few months back, but will be put to good use. I went back to school this summer and I am doing it without loans. This money (I don't know the exact amount, but probably about a grand) will help pay for my winter/spring semester.

Haven't turned the heat on, we had some iffy nights last week but the house did well in maintaining it's temp. Quoted out our new hot water tank, I finally found the plumber we used in the past (they changed company names) and he'll be doing that in a couple of weeks. I'm hoping with the new tank that our gas bill will go down a tad.

Last weekend we went to the Renissance Festival here in Michigan and were able to get in for free. Our friend received 8 free tickets from her aunt who is a vendor. We did spend a small amount on some food, but not having to buy tickets made it possible to go. It would have been $60 for the tickets without any discounts.

This is a small one, really only saving $60 but, it is a relief not to have to worry about. My husband was really busy at work in the spring and because of that we were able to pay our boys tuition in full. We also only have 6 more payments on one of our cars and it's all ours, paid off early! This year is got new brakes, a new battery and new tires. Our friend is very car savvy and changed out the brakes and battery just for the cost of parts and a bottle of something;).

Rosemary I have wondered that about oilcloth too, which was part of my decision to use cotton. The other part is that I have a lot of cotton fabric on hand and no oilcloth and I'm cheap like that. :)

mara61 welcome back! I'm happy to see you here this morning!

I have almost made it through the whole week without buying groceries. I will have to go to the dairy tomorrow for some more milk.

My kids seriously need to get out of the house today. I think we are going to have to go to a park or something like that.

I am determined to add a nice chunk of cash to savings out of the next two paychecks. Hopefully about 2/3 of the total amount. If I am able to do that we will be going into the winter with the most money in the winter fund we have ever had. I don't know why, but that makes me feel motivated to save even more. I think I might possibly be able to save another $1000 between now and our trip even with Zach laid off.

I have my class tonight and I am excited about it. This is going to be a long week for me. I thought that Zach was going to be done after today, but it looks like he may be working tomorrow. He and my dad also have an all day Knights event on Saturday. Anyway this class will give me some much needed adult time. Dad is watching the monkeys.

Rosa: Check out the forums on the Early Retirement Extreme blog. I'm impressed by the number of intelligent participants there. Many of MMM's readers found him on Jacob's site. Congrats on being debt free-it must feel amazing! I used to do Pinecone research way back when they actually gave you $5 a survey. I kind of got burnt out for some reason and stopped participating but its something to consider doing again.

Last night's shopping trip was a frugal sucess. I used several coupons and ended up spending only $32. I brought home the following for free: 2 hair conditioners, a shampoo, lg. jar of pasta sauce, and a bag of reese's minatures. It really pays for me to plan ahead and make my purchases at the larger, farther away stores. I bought Hall's cough drops across the street last week because ds needed them. I paid $1.79 for an 18 ct. bag. Last night I bought 2- 40 ct. bags with a coupon for 68 cents a bag.

So the strangest thing happened last night. We stopped for an early dinner at the mexican restaurant we frequent here in the middle of nowhere. We stepped into the place and look directly at Edward James Olmos (Almos?), the actor. It was him and the woman he was dining with, 2 men at another table, and us. I've seen famous people several times when living in NJ and Chicago but here, the only celebrities that ever come around are the kind that kill animals for a living on television. Funniest part is that aparently the younger generation doesn't have a clue as to who he is. One of the servers didn't know who he was and the waitress working for me this morning didn't know who he was either.

Tried making dutchess potatoes for the freezer with the free potatoes gotten with purchase... I used the diffuser and they retained the water. So today I made potato soup instead with the mess. Not as good as usual but ok. Got 2 pairs of Coldwater Creek jeans, a pair of Merrell shoes, and a wonderful thermal lined hooded sweatshirt for $25 (retail in excess of $300) at a nearby thrift store. Lucked out and was able to cash in on their senior discount.

Looked up Edward James Olmos and have never seen anything with him in it???

BTW I used the diffuser for canning this year. It is one of the greatest things IMO. It diffuses the heat of the large kettle and prevents it from overboiling. I also used it earlier after I made soup to keep it warm on the stove. Nothing sticks or boils over.

mara, welcome back!

bke, I know who Olmos is! Neat!

Used up a bunch of food at our house, including preparing a soup for the crock pot tomorrow with zucchini, green beans and corn that were on the verge of going bad. Also made the broth from junk I had in the freezer, you know, in the scrap bucket for broth-making. Threw in some cauliflower that had been lingering in the freezer. Threw in some brown rice. We'll see how it all comes out. Made brownies for DH's lunches from a mix we had on hand and threw in some marshmallows that were hanging around (result: meh.). Made a pot of iced tea. Made chili and cornbread for dinner!! Ran the dishwasher twice!! OMG! Really busy evening in the kitchen. But now I have freezer lunches for six days (leftover chili) plus whatever comes out of this other soup experiment. I almost went to Jimmy John's today because I ran out of freezer lunches. Instead I whipped up a sandwich and tossed it in a cooler since I wasn't going in to the office right away. I was lovingly thinking of all of you as I did it :)

We had lunch brought in for the event I was coordinating most of this week. Most people didn't eat their side salads, so I got to take them home. I have had nice salad several times this week for virtually free! And a few cups of fruit. And I also snagged the leftover pastries for the kids -- and myself (guilty confession!). Now you know why I haven't posted on the health and fitness thread this week! That and the fact that I was working 12hour days. Glad its over and looking forward to the weekend.

Oh, I get to submit my taxi receipts for reimbursement when I have these off-site work events, so that's another frugal plus.

lhamo

lhamo and fidgiegirl-great frugal food saves!

It seems to be my turn to have the cold that everyone around me has suffered from lately. Thankfully, I stocked up on cold meds during our shopping trip earlier this week instead of buying the expensive stuff locally. I hate taking the stuff but its not possible to work with a runny nose and a cough either.

Dh put $40 worth of gas in the car this morning. That should be the only spending we do today.

I rented a dvd from the library earlier this week, for some frugal entertainment this weekend. It only costs $1 vs $3.17 if I were to go to the store for a movie rental.

Here's one I feel guilty about. I love nice quality leather bags and purses. Preferably large shoulder bags. I only own one at a time but I like higher-end bags. The last two cheap purses that I owned started falling apart almost immediately where as, the last expensive one I bought, lasted several years. I spent $100 on a large shoulder bag while out shopping the other night. I have been searching for one for months that was to my liking. Its a great size, sturdy, and should last for ages but I feel really bad about spending so much money. It was originally $209 but marked $99 at TJ Maxx. I haven't convinced myself to take the tags off of it yet...

There isn't anyone available to cover for me at work this weekend so the bulk of my afternoon is going to be spent resting. I don't feel too bad but I want to make sure my health keeps improving.

Have a great weekend everyone!

bke - an Olmos sighting - that is awesome!

A few frugals here, some not-so-conventional. ;)

I've been letting our cats outside into our fenced yard when I am out there to watch them. They have taken to peeing outside. An unintended frugal as this saves on cat litter!

Did a great job of eating at home this week. Even managed to take lunch with me to work yesterday saving me between $6 and $8, which is likely what I would have spent at the sandwich shop. I need to make this a habit!!! I only go to work 2x per week, but it still adds up.

Saved 10 cents per gallon on gas with my rewards card. Managed to plan it such that the gas tank was practically bone dry, thereby netting the largest possible savings!

Got promoted to the next rank in my Tae Kwon Do class, which meant I had to dye my belt brown. Everyone has managed to screw this up and had to dye their belts a second time. I followed the directions exactly (not my strong suit!) and was successful on my first attempt. Saved myself from having to spend another $6 for dye remover and more dye. :) Decided that after two years of consistent TKD training that I would spring for a new uniform. Actually decided to buy two in order to make laundry more cost effective. I was regularly washing small loads of laundry because I needed to wash my uniform so this will minimize that, hopefully.

The garden is waning but managed to gather about a half-dozen cherry tomatoes so will eat them for lunch along with some mozzarella that I bought on sale and the last of the free bread from last weekend's honey festival.

Re: sandwich bags. I have some commercially made ones from a natural living store & they are nylon covered in cotton. You might need a serger for that combo, though.

BKE - Olmos! How cool! He's a great actor.

I am looking at a kid in braces as of Nov., so I need to see how much we can sock away until then. If I pay cash, I get 5% off. I am hoping that the price is in the neighborhood of what it was last time. If so, we already have most of the cash we need. Friends have been quoting higher prices lately, though, so I am thinking of calling for an estimate or something to prepare myself for sticker shock.