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We eat lots of bagels around here. I always buy them at night at our local grocery store..they sell a variety pack of 12 for $4.00 because they want to get rid of the leftovers before the next morning when the fresh ones come out. We use them for pizza bagels for quick meals on busy nights and the kids love making their own!Quote:
Originally Posted by bke
I am very proud of myself. I was coming up to the end of my car lease, didn't want to the buy the car (it had some issues) and couldn't do another lease, since I will be driving rather far when my office moves to a new building next month. I was all ready to buy a new car, but decided to look into how much I could save going with a good used car. I am now the proud owner of a 2011 Honda Accord all thanks to Hertz. They have this used car division here and the cars are all retired rentals. Mine was less than a year old, only had 20,000 miles on it and was in near immaculate condition. This is a great option for anyone in need of a new car, but also looking to save a little money.
Welcome to the frugals thread, both of you!
I turned a senior citizen bed safety rail from a garage sale ($2) into $15 on CL today. More work than I would have liked to do so, though. Duly noted.
Got a lot of free items at a garage sale today and many are now on eBay. That dude was one of the most motivated I've ever seen to get that stuff OUT of there! We mainly got books.
Our best score was a stability ball for $1 today but when DH pumped it up for me he ruined the inlet with whatever pump he used so consequently it is now in the trash. Boo hoo, I have been watching for an inexpensive one for weeks and was super excited. He felt really bad.
We are batting around a financial plan for how to save for our next car as well as start knocking down the mortgage. Not much clarity yet, but it gives new meaning to our frugal endeavors. In brainstorming we came up with a few ways to rejigger what we are already doing to set aside more.
I have some yogurt going, a quart from whole milk. Yummmmm yummmm. I might strain this batch for Greek. Funny, I bought store yogurt while we were in between travels and I didn't like it as well as I used to. My homemade, whole stuff with pineapple in it or nectarines on the edge of sweetness - divine.
Right now DH is eating air popped popcorn on the couch next to me. I had some too but never eat the second round where he pops the old maids. :) We were also reflecting on how since I am gluten free now we have a lot less desire to go out to eat. Too much of a PITA.
I am going to look at the July numbers and see what we come up with.
After a week of house guests and crazy schedules, a normal day and a normal dinner. :cool: Today's frugal: oven-baked chicken with a cracker coating. Dunno about your house, but every box of crackers here seems to end up with a bunch of half- and third-crackers and whatever disintegrated over the time the box was open. They're not good for dipping or putting stuff on, so when the bag is that close to empty, I put the crumbs into a reused yogurt/cottage cheese container and stuff that in the freezer until there is enough (freezing keeps the high-fat-content crackers from going rancid so quickly). Then whirl them around in a blender or food processor or just crush them with a rolling pin, add the herbs and spices that make your brood happy, apply a thin egg wash to the chicken, roll in the cracker crumbs, and put in a lightly-greased pan. Easy-peasy.
Mmm great idea Steve. I just composted some stale crackers but I bet they would have worked for something like this as they weren't too far gone.
I forgot a frugal from the other day. We bought a dog grooming clipper at a garage sale, brand new, for $5. When we get another dog or two they will be dogs who will need groomed. So, inspired by cdttmm here on the frugals thread a few months ago, I have been thinking I would attempt to learn how to groom them myself. Now, just to get those dang dogs!! :)
Bought some clothing last night. I don't think I've bought anything since last January. Got it on Eddie Bauer.com
2 sweaters--saved 40 bucks each
2 pairs of pants--saved another 30 or 40 bucks each
1 dress--saved like 30 bucks
Spent $99. so free shipping.
also bought a pair of shoes on Zappos for 35 bucks off
I very rarely buy any clothes that aren't on clearance and never buy anything that isn't at least on sale.
Don't feel like I'm doing very well lately with frugality as I've been dealing with purchasing a new car and trying to sell the other one for as much money as possible. When it comes to cars (buying or selling) 10% difference can mean thousands of dollars and so I really don't want to think about it any longer because if I mess up 10% that's a lot of money so the pressure's on.
Thinking of buying a stovetop percolator for making coffee as the drip coffee maker I've got has a cracked pot and the top that covers the water well is broken as well. Don't want to spend another 20 bucks on a drip coffee make when if I buy a stovetop percolator I'll never have to replace it. I've picked out some I'm interested in but the one I really want makes me pay for shipping unless the purchase is at least $50. and this percolator isn't that expensive and there's nothing else on the site I want or need. So I'm kind of between a rock and a hard place.
I don't trust ebay and am afraid of it and don't want the hassle of bidding against other people.
I was inspired to begin a fairly large garden project yesterday. I'm removing a bunch of grass and planting an area that borders my vegetable garden. I have many plants to divide for the shady area and bought a beautiful plant that I've been eying for the last month, waiting for it to go on sale, for the sunny area. It's a St John's Wort hybrid and the bees absolutely love it. I'll plant other things around it, so it will be an accent. I had to buy some edging - I've learned the hard way that it pays to put this in to keep out turf grass, the most annoying and invasive plant ever. Anyway, this is frugal because I'm using mostly my own plants and digging up sod is a free, time-consuming activity...
Tonight we had a church potluck. Every summer I organize summer potlucks, which in the past have been at members' homes. This year I decided to do it differently and it was SO much easier. Instead of matching people up with dates, I just assigned a date and assigned food types to people as they committed to come. I brought my raw ingredients to the church to cook while we cleaned up since we don't meet regularly in the summer. We have enough leftovers for 2 nights' dinners - bonus!
bunnys - I have seen a lot of stovetop coffee pots in thrift stores, as well as electric percs. Some vintage stores in the area have them as well. I have also seen at garage sales.
Truly, though, my gut says just go for a purchase on the site with the shipping. You're a person who researches her purchases thoroughly, and if you know it's the one you want, you'll be happy with it. You'll be able to use it right away, and once you've had that puppy for a few years, you won't even remember the few dollars you spent on the shipping.
One thing I try if buying online from a smaller online retailer (i.e. not Amazon) is to Google "coupon code for _____." Usually RetailMeNot is the top result, and then on their site they have all the active and past codes listed for a given online retailer. I've saved a few bucks this way in the past. Good luck!
Rosemary, nice garden project. We are going to do some moving/splitting in a few weeks as well. The rental has overgrown front beds that need to be made smaller and simpler in order to look nice. We need to get edging for those, too. The plants that get taken out are going in a different bed over there or coming to this house.
Just an aside that cats don't need outside grooming interference - they are totally self-sufficient as far as that goes. Just saying. . .
Bunnys: This is the stovetop percolator I've had my eye on. It's glass, so it could break, but I like the 8-cup capacity and the fact that it's made in the US:
http://www.lehmans.com/store/Kitchen...094145#1094145
I learned about this company from someone on the Forums.
I don't do the bidding thing on E-bay either, but I have bought "Buy it Now" items, which are just regular purchases that I've paid for with PayPal. No bad experiences so far.