July Frugals

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Originally Posted by danna

July 01----Happy Canada Day 145 years old.....
Welcome iforonwy


--spreadsheets all up to date, accounts balanced, and my net worth climbs some every month..yeah
--company for supper tomorrow and I have everything in the house to make a lovely meal
--sold stuff on Kijiji today for a total of $65.00
--made fresh spring rolls with shrimp for supper all from stuff that needed to be used up and bought previously
my challenge this month is to only buy stuff I use.
--only running the A/C when needed which has been pretty good considering the temps and humidity.

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Hi Danna,

Tonight I watched the July 1 fireworks from my apartment by opening the vertical blinds and watching them reflect in the windows of homes on the next block up from where I live.

No need to go outdoors to watch the usual display. What surprised me was there were no kids setting off firecrackers in the neighbourhood this year. Fireworks are prohibited here, but kids always managed to buy them, maybe in a different area, and someone always ended up having an accident by holding them in their hands instead of throwing them down on the ground. Many kids had suffered bad burns by doing this, so it was great to have a safe July 1st celebration with no injuries this year.

When I was raising my kids, the neighbours would gather to watch a display by our local firemen.

Thank you for the welcome. It's a return for me as I used to post on the old boards. I discovered YMOYL back in about 2000 and started to log all expenditure and we tried to live off one income. Good job that we did as DH retired early (ill health) in 2002. We then had some very good luck regarding an inheritance and so I was able to "retire" in 2003 and we downsized. We then lived off DH's retirement pension incomes until mine kicked in in 2009.

We learned the mantra of "we have enough" but have managed to save and travel (extensively) over the years since.
Member Suzanne will atest to that! We have managed to visit each other a number of times over the years!

Thanks again, just off to package up the one item I have sold on e-bay this week. Only 99p but every little helps and it means that I need to walk the mile+ to the post office.

Entering a very tough financial period. DH doesn't have any photo classes till Sept. so one of his paychecks is gone. My pay goes entirely to mortgage and lucky for us I have good health insurance. We need to pay all of our insurances in August and haven't saved enough to cover them all. We will sit down and figure out how to cut back expenses severely without allowing us some FFF this summer. Will not go to New Bedford Folk Festival easily $75 for tix and gasoline but will go to lowell. $10 for parking. gas to get there and a donation. Will spend energy clearing out things to make more efficient room for my etsy stuff and his online book sales. Planning to do a flea market. Cut back a little on etsy buying (I have some back inventory). Eat down the freezer, work in garden and enjoy being together...

Hung a load on the line today.
Going for a 2 hour walk for fitness (me and doggie) in 95+ weather. (There's access to 2 springs on the walk for a drink for doggie.)
Only ACing one room.
Library later today.

Merski, good luck . . . sounds like you have a good plan.

Tiam thanks for the tip!

Merski, you can do it! Maybe we should start a thread on ideas for some good summer FFF. I bet we could come up with a ton of them.

I did minimal grocery shopping this week. The kid I am watching for the summer is at his Grandma's this week, so that will save me some money on food.

I RSVPd to the next neighborhood Women Who Cook event. That should be fun.

I am looking into a free gardening workshop I saw on my community gardening listserv for the girls. That's about it today. Pretty run-of-the-mill stuff today.

I forgot to mention that I have actually been doing a good job of tracking my spending this past week.

Not much of interest here - too hot to be creative, >:(. Line drying all laundry; washing up bedding from house-guests, covers and throws from winter/spring by adding them into wash loads that are small, instead of making more loads of wash. Trying to buy only things that can easily be re-sold - actually living with our inventory, lol. Attending only free events, or those that benefit an organization that I wish to support. Went on a garden tour last Saturday, and one homeowner gave me a Red-bud tree and a Rose of Sharon start. Haven't planted them yet, but will try to do that Wednesday since I'm off work. Finally got all my spending updated and the checkbook balanced. Grocery bill was pretty low this past month, and should be this month too - we don't eat as much when it's hot! Last winter was pretty mild here so our level billing is down by $171 per month. I know, I know...and that's with the thermostat at 65 most of the day, and 55-60 at night. We seriously need more insulation or something!

Made red, white and blue bread (cherry/blueberry/coconut) to bring to volunteers who are helping at my organization this week. Because I was using different size pans and doubling the recipe, I had a little batter left over--put it in a mini-muffin pan and will bring those to my co-workers tomorrow. All ingredients were out of my pantry and I really needed to use several of them up. The 4th of July will be going to my sister's neighborhood in the morning to see their children's parade, and then working at a holiday celebration--a fun, old-fashioned holiday festival. Technically it is work, but I would much rather do that than be at the huge, crowded city event, or sitting around at home. My family is going to try and come to our event if my nieces are behaving well. I hope so--I would love to make this a family tradition...

July 2
It sounds like July is off to a good start

--Dsil and Dd and grandson for a holiday lunch--had BBQ chicken thighs, Salad and a new to me that I am calling Fresh Spring Roll Salad
it was excellent and I will make it again.
--holiday so we have an extra day at the lower hydro rate so washed and dried up some bedding.
--leftovers for supper