November Frugals!!!

I'm always telling DH that the really frugal folks make chicken soup with the last of the rotisserie chicken, and he finally did it this time! So we had chicken sandwiches twice, soup tonight, and there's enough for soup one more time. Yummy!

Did some usin' up tonight. Got in a cooking mood and made a rice and bean dish for myself for lunches/breakfasts, a beef soup for tonight and a dessert from the leftover s'more stuff from this summer. Now to tackle the dishes . . . uffda.

We found a dog bed for our dog at Big Lots for $25 that was $60 on Amazon and got 4 packages of Hanes underwear for 1/2 price. Our dog was looking cold in the mornings so we had been looking for a more snuggy bed for him.

DH is getting on board with frugal living more. He found some closeout dishwasher detergent marked down by 66% and stockpiled most of it. It is funny because he initially wanted to leave some for others, but this was at the local store and I don't think a lot of the people here comparison shop much. When I went back a days later the rest was still unsold so I bought up the remainder.

As you can tell if you read my other thread, I figured out if I buy Ecos free and clear at the local store it costs 10 cents a load. Some the other laundry detergents cost the same for the same size bottle, but they are less concentrated so they cost 30 cents a load. I probably average a load of wash a day, so switching to Ecos will save $73 per year.

We have a bunch of food made from mostly from scratch in the fridge - rice, quinoa, assorted sausages, roasted chicken and roasted onions and zucchini.

Finally, some frugals!

- Saved a visit from a plumber and even having to go out to buy some drain cleaner by cleaning two slow drains mechanically and then using good ol' baking soda and vinegar and stopping up the drain. Took more than the 7 minutes that product on TV needs, but I didn't poison anything (including me) and both drains run freely now. (Note to self: do drain-clearing work before meals.)
- (speaking of white vinegar) I don't think I've mentioned this in Frugals before, but I've been using white vinegar as a dishwasher rinse aid instead of the commercial stuff and it's been working just as well. It must be refilled more often, but that's no big deal.
- Sunday and today were no-drive days.
- I've been eating breakfasts and lunches out of leftovers and random ingredients in the fridge and pantry. Haven't had to buy groceries just for those meals.

Thanks, fidgiegirl. I don't have much in the way of frugals. I continue to bring my lunch daily to work. Run errands in town either before work or after work (I live 40 miles from town). I fill up at a gas station that is consistently less expensive than all of the others by at least .10/gallon. From a local farmer, I purchased 30# of ground beef at $3./lb which includes the packaging. This meat is grass-fed meat and no dyes, hormone injections, etc. It is very lean with no fat when browning. Glad to be supporting a local farmer and getting "natural" beef, not factory-farm hormone-injected meat:D. So between the venison and the ground beef, I should not need to purchase any meat (other than poultry or pork if I want it) for at least the next month.

Wow, November clearly is not a very frugal month. I guess that's not too surprising though. I don't do a lot of holiday gifting and shopping, but I'm finding that I'm able to pay for a significant portion of it this year with gift cards and cash back from credit card rewards.

Frugals for the last week:
- Monday, Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday were no-drive days.
- Took advantage of ebay and a T-Mobile promotion to buy micro-SIMs for my birthday/Christmas present (used iPhone). Total for two SIMs: 99 cents. No activation fee, either.
- Dropped our bagged leaves at the local compost site (saving all I needed for our compost heap). Was going to have to make a separate trip to get rid of branches and brush, but apparently our garbage collector will take two bags of them each week for free with our regular pickup.
- Found a code for a free Redbox rental (only $1.29 or so, but whatever...)

DH discovered last night that one of my headlights is out. So he is planning to replace it tonight himself.

Yesterday I spent the day in my pajamas. No driving or going out. Caught up on some stuff around here.

I got Ty an ipod nano for Christmas. Target has a coupon for 10% off until November 27th. And last week they gave you a $10 gift card with purchase. So I got the ipod & warranty for $133 and got $10 to spend. Cool! The coupon had a picture of both the ipod touch and the nano. When we scanned it the screen kept saying that the purchase wasn't enough. So I'm guessing they only intended it to be used with the more expensive touch. But since it had a picture of the nano on the coupon and it did not specify what type of ipod, I got the 10%.

I also got him a $25 itunes card for $20 at Bed, Bath & Beyond. So he's pretty much set. I just need to get him some stocking stuffers.

SteveinMN,
I'm intrigued by the white vinegar idea for the dishwasher rinse. Does it leave any vinegary odor? also wonder if it works on hard water.

If I've done this right, I will have my first no spend/no drive day I think for the first time in the month of November. Yesterday was no spend but did drive to church to work at a funeral - brought home flowers for the Thanksgiving centerpiece as well as some extra sandwiches and fruit.

Thanksgiving dinner here with all bringing something to share. Then we will have our niece and 2 nephews here for the weekend - we've decided that rather than driving to the half way point on Saturday to get them home, we will take the Northstar train. They will be very happy! And we won't have to drive!!