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Nice job, everyone, in kicking off 2014 with a frugal first week! Not much to report over here other than the usual stuff. We're making a half-hearted attempt to eat down the stock pile in the chest freezer so I pulled out some corn chowder for dinner last night. The leftovers will be tonight's dinner. I spoke at a conference today and received two gift cards to Dunkin' Donuts as a thank you. I'm guessing they are $5 each and I'm not much of a DD consumer, but I would imagine they will come in handy at some point. I'm going to work tomorrow and plan to stop by the mall afterwards cto return a Christmas gift. It came from Macy's so I'm assuming I'll get a store credit. Not sure what I'll do with it since I don't really need anything from Macy's. I'm sure I can find something to spend it on, but I'd much rather put it to good use then spend it just to spend it. Not much else going on. Trying to keep warm in these frigid temps without simply resorting to turning the heat way up in the house!
Oh thought of one frugal that some of you might find slightly amusing. Months ago, one of my students gave me a coupon for $5 off a $75 purchase at a local grocery store chain. She told me her mom had received the coupon, but that they don't usually shop at that store so they weren't going to use it. It's not my usual grocery store, but I do stop there to buy a few things occasionally because they have the best prices for half-and-half and fresh mozzarella, but I never spend any where close to $75 in one shopping trip there. The coupon had an expiration date of 12/31/13. So I went grocery shopping on 12/30/13 and carefully bought only those items that I knew were cheaper at this particular grocery store and that I knew we would eat. I was so proud of the fact that at the register the total came to $75.64 before applying the coupon. I didn't think I would be able to get it so close to the $75 minimum purchase! Somehow I suspect that my frugalista friends here can appreciate my desire to do a little happy dance in the checkout line!!!
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Gardenarian: That's great that your local credit union has good IRA options. I'll admit to not thoroughly researching that angle. I had just heard so many good things about Vanguard that I went with them.
Steve: That sounds like a great deal on the free Chinook Book!
Stella: This is goofy, but at first I thought that was a new profile pic, and I must say that I didn't like it very much! Those black bananas just aren't a good look for you :)
We're about to have a big change in our lives, because DH is going back to work full-time after 4 years. We were a little reluctant because we're living well enough with our current income, but this is a nice job that we think he will really enjoy, and it's going to make quite a difference in our ability to get some big things accomplished as well as boost our savings. So the challenge will be to continue to apply those frugal skills and avoid lifestyle creep!
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January - 7 - Everyone is so sick of the fridgid weather but I do appreciate the time I have had trapped at home to get things accomplished. DH had a doctors appointment today and said he would buy a salad for lunch afterwards.
By being two steps ahead of him I had thawed chicken and was able to throw him together a chicken salad from home instead. Probably saved ten bucks.
Kids were home from school so we ate out of the freezer. Unearthed some frozen wedding soup for them with peaches and home made bread. Dinner was hot ham and cheese sandwiches and asparagus soup made with frozen asparagus from the garden.
No spend day just trying to keep warm.
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We went 4 days without even starting the car! During that same period of time the only spending I did was on 3 Sunday papers for the coupons. I have a nice employee that works at the local gas station as well and she was nice enough to deliver the papers so I didn't have to go out in the cold.
Dh is really into saving at the moment and is encouraging me to stockpile freebies. Its so much easier to do my "work" when I have his support/help. He ordered a 50 lb bag of sugar for me today. Sugar lasts indefinitely and is a good preservative for other foods.
I've been trying to find nice ways to include my father in our lives more now that my mother is gone. I don't want him to be alone too much but need to balance things so he doesn't feel like I'm supervising him. We ran BBQ ribs for a special at work Saturday. I invited dad over for dinner at closing time and we ate some of the leftovers. They were delicious and something dad wouldn't make for himself. This was cheaper and more casual than going out to eat.
Today I am focusing on making my shopping list for tomorrow. I will also do a few sweepstakes. I did manage to print a couple of new rebate forms last night for cleaning products. Those are always nice to get for free.
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Still trying to be frugal but it's a battle...
- My car hasn't moved since Saturday. I am hopeful the battery has not frozen solid. No need to drive today, and black ice is still quite prevalent, so I will wait till tomorrow when I have lunch scheduled with friends. I might heat one of those microwaveable body packs (think blue ice but warm) and put that on the car battery for a few hours to warm it up to, oh, maybe 0 degrees? >8) I'm hoping that not moving the car does not mean paying for a jumpstart.
- Dinners (and, as a result, lunches) have been exercises in clearing the freezer and pantry and enjoying food gifts I received for Christmas. Short ribs were kind of a bust (tasty but expensive meat and way too much fat and bone to make it worth doing again); tonight is (thawing) shrimp with sun-dried tomatoes and chiles (new recipe).
- I've been putting together paperwork -- health care reimbursement plan claims, supporting docs for taxes, etc. It'll be nice to get the money back but filling out spreadsheets is not the most fun I think I can have.
- I did score a camera lens off Goodwill's auction site. It's a good intermediate size for me; if I don't like it, I should be able to flip it for double-triple what I paid for it.
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Jan. 7--No drive/no spend for me. DH did drive to work. I put a roast in the crockpot yesterday morning and am glad I did. DH helped his Dad change a tire and got home so late that we probably would have ordered out if supper wasn't ready already.
Jan. 8--Took DS to doctor and ran a few errands to save gas. Bought a huge 15 lb bag of grapefruit for next to nothing and a huge box of fruit snacks clearanced to $1. Don't usually buy those, but they will be nice treats for DD. Resisted temptation to stock up on 50 cent wrapping paper. Nice price, but I don't need any! Lunch was leftovers, and dinner will be at home. I am thinking maybe egg salad sandwiches...
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I made a triple batch of wild rice soup tonight and I will freeze half of it. In sort of a comedy of errors, I initially I thawed my beef stock instead of my chicken stock. Oops. French onion soup it is, tomorrow night. :) I think we will survive.
Yesterday my neighbour brought over homemade banana and blueberry muffins. The kids had that and some fruit and peanut butter for lunch and the oldest kid and I split a fantastic coconut peanut soup another neighbour had brought over. Most of lunch was free.:) Bella is tiring of soup, but loves casseroles, so on Saturday I will use the leftovers of the big batch of wild rice I made for the soup ($10 for a huge bag at Costco!) in a wild rice casserole.
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Didn't leave the house Sat-Sun-Mon (just too cold), so all no-drive no-spend days. Ran my couple errands Tuesday while I was out anyway to my volunteer gig. Had a marvelous dinner today of tempura shrimp and veggies, using the last of the bag of shrimp we bought for a Christmas treat before Christmas (expensive, but we got 4 meals out of the bag, so I would definitely purchase it again), and I ended up spending only $1.02 for some proper fresh veggies to go along with the shrimp.
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Lin: How did you like the maple syrup? We got a quart that my BIL produced on his property in NH at our holiday gift swap, which I considered to be a great score.
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Jan 08
Last couple of days have been so cold I have barely left the house...
but, don't want to think what it is costing to heat the place...
---did go to Costco today and got a good order mostly to stock up, but did not over spend
great buy on Dishwasher tabs 120/$15.99 bought 2 so will not need to buy for the rest of 2014.
---using a journal I had for a day planner, just write a date on each page works great.
---sold 4 items on Kijiji for $27.00 person got a really good deal but, I have the money and they are out of my garage.
---paying Dgrandson to shovel the drive, good for him to learn and helps him have a little extra and a lot less then I would
pay someone else to do it. Win/win.
---box of bran cereal with near expiry date so I made a double batch of muffins...very good.
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