April 2015 Frugals

Lessisbest: I continue to be amazed by your grocery shopping frugality!
I had new soles put on a favorite pair of boots that are quite a few years old, but I couldn't part with them. It only cost $30. and they are like brand new! So it was cheap, saved me the time & energy of shopping for replacement boots, kept a pair of boots out of the landfill and gave business to a cobbler :)
I also got a fairly decent annual merit increase at work, and I'm going to bump up my 401k contribution by the amount of the increase.
Tomorrow there is an Earth Day/Clean up the Woods event at Lynn Woods, so going with DH and a friend. There will also be free pizza, live music, and probably T-shirts (there were t-shirts last year), so good, free fun. I'm mostly excited about the cleaning trash from the woods part though; that is my idea of a good time, and it's supposed to be a nice day!

Refilled my dogs prescription using the online vet pharmacy and got it filled for 4 months as opposed to 2, which saves me a few bucks on shipping.

Used up some black beans from the freezer (I bought dried beans, then cooked them in the crockpot and froze them) to make nachos for dinner last night. Perhaps not the healthiest of dinners, but it was relatively quick and it had been a long day for both of us.

Checked my bee hives. The three remaining colonies are going strong and I should be able to split each of them at least once. This will help me to get started on my queen-rearing project with a smaller outlay of cash. Our new packages of bees arrived from Georgia last night so the next few days will be very beekeeping focused!

Combined trips yesterday to minimize driving.

Not much else in the way of frugals as of late, at least not in the expense-cutting way. But I am teaching 2, maybe 3 summer classes, and have already been offered 8 for the fall semester. So the increased income side of things is going well!

File this under resourceful rather than frugal, but in the month of April so far I have earned $898.50 (!) extra above and beyond my Wholefoods salary, which was pretty good this month, when I add in my gain-sharing portion and the fact I worked on Easter Sunday and got holiday pay! That extra money came from my house mate's rent (who hasn't been around for the last two weeks) and my jewelry business :)

My road trip will be well-financed, and I have actually planned ahead and reserved camping in a few places so as to avoid the stress trying to find a campsite after all that driving. So that means at least five nights are already paid for.

To treat myself just a little, I have purchased new hiking shoes (the first in about 12 years), a new hiking day pack with a hydration bladder and a new very nice straw hiking hat (purchased at REI with a gift card I won at work)! I have a little money left on the gift card so I will treat myself to my second pair of Smart Wool hiking socks (how I ever went this long without trying these socks is beyond me, but I guess it was the sticker shock for one pair of socks that always put me off before).

All this purchasing was decided last year when I was hiking around in Utah during the height of a blistering summer not really prepared well enough for the conditions. The only thing left for me to get is a new bathing suit (my first in about 15 years) and I should be set to be on the road for almost a month! I am SO EXCITED and I CAN HARDLY WAIT! Seven more weeks!!!!!!!!

Apr. 15
--Large bag of onions I bought a couple of weeks ago supper cheap...some grated and put into small bags in freezer and the rest caramelized and
bagged for the freezer for onion soup, quiche or were ever they will add lots of flavour.
--leftovers for supper
--sorted and put away summer and winter clothes....now I now that I need very little of anything.
--still cleaning out the garage but, it is looking really good and after the garage sale in a couple of weeks it will be great.

I finally summoned up the nerve to propose to DH that I start using small flannel cloths instead of toilet paper for "number ones." To my utter shock, he was very enthusiastic about it, as I am the chief consumer of toilet paper in our household of two. I cut up a fitted sheet that my mother had given us when we moved, as I knew we would never use it--it was too hot for DH's taste, and it had just been taking up space in our linen closet all winter. So far, so good, and the consumption of toilet paper has decreased dramatically!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Selah

I finally summoned up the nerve to propose to DH that I start using small flannel cloths instead of toilet paper for "number ones." To my utter shock, he was very enthusiastic about it, as I am the chief consumer of toilet paper in our household of two. I cut up a fitted sheet that my mother had given us when we moved, as I knew we would never use it--it was too hot for DH's taste, and it had just been taking up space in our linen closet all winter. So far, so good, and the consumption of toilet paper has decreased dramatically!

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You can also include a squeeze bottle bidet as an additional cleansing action and eliminate even more TP. You can find YouTube instructions for portable bidets or squeeze bottle bidet. Amazon sells different models as well.

Selah, I've been using pea green washcloths for a good while for urine and our toilet paper consumption is greatly reduced. I prefer the cloth but haven't graduated to the portable bidet.

Frugal birthday for DW. She's pretty well got enough "stuff". So I scrubbed up the bathroom to a high shine, lit her favorite candles, and gave her a gift bag (recycled) containing a bag of her favorite salty snack, a cold bottle of her favorite pop, and a couple of books I thought she'd like from nearby Little Libraries. She loved it! She spent a few hours soaking with no worries about me (I was at a board meeting) or the dog. She still misses the hot tub she had at her old house. A standard tub is not a great substitute, but the entire ensemble worked great.

Other frugals:
- Started the dog on flea-and-tick medicine and the dog threw an allergic reaction to the primary active ingredient. A bath, some petting, and a few Benadryl later, she was fine. But when I called the manufacturer, they apologized and then gave me the steps we needed to get a refund on the product we had left. Didn't expect that. Since it was almost $50, the refund is quite welcome -- though some of it will have to go to another flea-tick preventer.
- Musgovian chicken soup on the stove right now. I didn't need to cook any more this week, but I had leftover stock from preparing another meal so I decided to use up bits and bobs and the chicken trimmings in the freezer. I can always freeze this soup if we don't go through it fast enough. I can use that take-and-bake loaf of French bread I found in the freezer, too.

Grocery day -
Spent - $21.40 ($8.49 of it for meat)
Total spent in April - $74.30 (out of a $125.00 food budget)
Took the weekly survey on-line and received 50 more gas points.

-Followed hubby to work so we could get gas (at the same place I purchase groceries) and we saved 40-cents per gallon and filled both cars from one pump. Since it was Administrative Professionals Day (formerly known as secretaries day), he purchased a gift card for his "secretary" and got 4X the fuel points, used a coupon I had for a free greeting card, and put them in a pretty basket with 3 Mylar balloons attached to it from the Dollar Tree, along with big bag of her favorite candy - M&M Peanut - purchased with a coupon.

-Made a double batch of Super Simple Banana Cookies (using 2 ripe bananas).

-Put together all the saved chicken fat and chicken skin and made schmaltz (rendered chicken fat) and got it in the freezer.

Steve - cleaning will win hearts. Good job. :)