July Frugals....I am back so I will start!!

July 02
Happy Canada to us all....I have been here reading but, have had a really hard, sad winter will post separately when I am up to it.......


Now for frugals....I need them...lol

--Chicken dinner from legs and thighs bought on sale, with enough for supper tonight in crock pot.
--Chocolate pie, made with a pudding mix, milk, Greek yogurt and a couple of packets of cocoa mix in a
chocolate crumb crust (from freezer) served with sourcream/brown sugar and fresh local strawberries.
Mostly to use up and was delicious. Not much leftover but, sent some home with dsil
--only using a/c when really needed and mostly in the cheaper hydro hours
--only washing dishes,clothes and using dryer in the cheaper hydro hours
--decluttering AGAIN and cleaning out excess food storage AGAIN.

--all spreadsheets caught up (they got behind over this winter) and ready to keep that way!!!

That is all for now...hope everyone has a good month.

Thank you! I am doing more cooking at home. We've been going out a lot, as my stamina is low, due to treatment. And, my work contract hours were cut in half, so my income is down. When I feel up to speed, I love to cook!

I was doing pretty well with bringing tea to work as well as lunch, but between yesterday and today I've hit the vending machine three times! Argh! A grand total of $3.75, so not a ridiculous amount of money, but I really don't need to eat peanut M&Ms!

Been confining our driving to only what is necessary. And we've been eating at home and entertaining ourselves by watching "Mad Men" on Netflix.

It was overcast this morning when I left for work and the forecast was for cloudy and rainy all day. I closed up all the blinds and set the thermostat to 78 degrees. The sun is starting to peek through the clouds so I'm glad the house is closed up and hopefully the A/C won't turn on as a result of my diligence. I've found I have to set the thermostat to 75 degrees over night though in order to sleep. It's just too darn hot and muggy otherwise. Of course, at work it's so cold I have to wear layers in order to keep from shivering!

Nothing big planned for the 4th of July. We used to always through a party at our house, which always ended up being quite costly, IMO. We can see the fireworks from our deck so no reason to go anywhere or to spend money. Just hang out and have a relaxing evening at home.

Hi danna!!

Hi, danna - we have missed you and hope things are getting better for you. I don't feel particularly frugal - I'm at a conference in DC - but all expenses will be reimbursed plus we get $71 per diem so I will come out ahead by quite a bit, still we are being as frugal as we can with taxpayer money! Big plus - water taxi from conference to hotel is cheaper AND more fun!! Other than that, not much happening on the frugal front.

Danna, hope things are getting better.

I have been cooking more vegetarian meals and found an Indian grocery where I can get some items I need much cheaper. Between that and the farmers market I should be able to not spend a fortune for good healthy food.

Through diet in the last six months I have lowered my cholesterol so I don't have to go on medication. Frugal to avoid the expense of medication and more md visits.

Cooking at home each night with the intention of having decided by lunch what I'll prepare for dinner - and tomorrow's lunch! Freezer and pantry fairly well stocked so groceries are mostly fresh produce and loss leaders.

Posting lots of etsy items - a friend was cleaning out his mom's house and offered me all his sibling's clothes from the 50s. It's a lot of work to wash, line dry, iron, photo and post but they are so fabulously vintage. And has saved me a tremendous amount of time and gas running around to garage sales to buy stock for the etsy shop - like they fell from heaven!

chrissieq, if you feel comfortable sharing your Etsy shop link, that would be cool. If not, that's ok, too.

flowers, excellent work on the avoidance of meds. Amazing how healing - or harmful - food can be.

early, so fun about the water taxi!!

Speaking of running around, we did run around to two salvage shops today. We are looking for hinges and glass doorknobs. We ended up getting door hinges 2 for $5 at the second shop vs. $20 each at the first shop. As for glass doorknobs, DH is going to order some on eBay for a good price that he spotted. We are fixing up a door that was used as a replacement but didn't completely match because they used shiny hinges and it has no knob.

I read this article and thought it was in keeping with our ongoing discussion of frugality, which helps me so much to stay on track. http://www.wisebread.com/frugality-a...of-self-denial

We went out to lunch with a friend, so fun.

Went to JoAnn to pick up just a very few things and used my teacher discount card to save about $2.

Our house project is costing waaaaaaay more than expected, so we've canceled our Yellowstone trip for this year. I expect this will save us $2000 or more. :( I am sad, though my back has been bothering me so not sad to give up the drive. Instead we will still visit a friend on the SD border and hit three state parks next week. We'll get a few stamps in the State Park Passport and see some parks we wouldn't likely have otherwise seen.

Chrissieq your shop is cute and I favorited it and saw that you saw mine aunthattiesattic

Yesterday I was at Publix getting dog food and vegetables. I saw that my favorite luxury coffee, Caribou Coffee was on sale for $6.99 (reg $9.99) for 12 oz. I spent about 10 minutes thinking about this purchase. I already had enough starbucks coffee at home which I got at Costco for about $10 for 32 oz. At least enough to last me until I go to costco to buy some more. Even better, I can get Folgers 48 oz for about $12 at costco.

So...
Caribou on sale: $6.99/12oz= $.58/oz
Starbucks: $10/32oz = $.31/oz
Folgers: $12/48oz = $.25

Even though this coffee tastes good and I would save $3 off of the regular price, I left it at the store. I am glad I did. I like starbucks and I like folgers, there is no need to pay twice as much for a little better coffee.

That is my daily frugal from yesterday.

-DO