October Frugals - Late Edition!

I can't believe we made it to 10/9 without a Frugals thread - yikes! Well I don't have much, but I have at least a couple of things. Last month was financially challenging and I ended up reluctantly transferring money from savings to make ends meet. This month is shaping up to be equally challenging,at least partly because my FSA is depleted so we have to cover some medical expenses out of pocket. In addition, property tax bill was higher than expected and water bill was higher than expected. I REALLY don't want to tap savings again though, so hopefully we can do a better job of rising to the challenge this month!
We came in way within budget for our monthly Costco trip, even after skipping last month, and groceries were within budget for the week as well (last week too). DH made us yummy dinners this weekend with stuff from the freezer and from the cupboard.
Today was a rainy dreary day, so we stayed in and I mended our summer coverlet before washing/storing it for the winter. I also hemmed a pair of thrift-store jeans I had bought in the spring. I think basic sewing tasks are a good frugal use of time & energy.
That's all I can think of for the moment!

In an effort to look on the bright side: Family Luncheon day at Mom's care center, so free lunch for me. Bought groceries at Aldi, stuck to my list except for remembering some things I didn't have on it, and some unexpected produce. (Aldi produce is sporadic at our particular store...) I stopped to feed Dsis's cats and she had left me a bag of apples! That was nice. I did buy Starbucks for myself and DD - i refrained from getting the large ones - and dropped hers off at work. She was a little busy so I stayed and helped for an hour or so. Off tomorrow for the holiday; hoping that DB will check on Mom so I can have a no-drive, no spend day. If I have to go out, I'll have to get gas, at least. Our vacation is looming, DS hasn't found a job and now his car is overheating - so I really really need to pinch pennies.

Extremely unfrugal month so far. My son had a crisis which necessitated a 12 hour drive to where he lives last week, along with 4 days in hotels then another day spent driving back. My husband's family is having a potluck to watch the debates tonight and my husband decided to drive back to see them--an eight hour drive today--and I begged off, which did save us a hotel room, as he can stay with his brother, but the budget is shot this month. The two trips are also about 200 hundred in gas money.
It will only get worse as my goddaughter is getting married this month and I had to buy the ticket (450 dollars) and will have to pay for the hotel (300 dollars) and fly out there. I am thrilled and honored to be going, but getting scared that I can no longer say yes to family events as simply cannot seem to afford them anymore.
Christmas is coming and I want to be frugal--well, I don't want to at all, but will have to be, and feeling under the gun from family expectations.
I really don't have any frugal accomplishments for October and it's freaking me out. Since making the transition to part time work I am very stressed at lack of money and all the demands I cannot meet. Yesterday elderly parents requested we come see them--that will be another thousand dollars if we go. I cannot keep this up.

Friday went to a yard sale that had Talbot clothing. I found a 3 pieces that I love and fit perfectly for a grand total of $10! They are pieces that I can mix and match. I am thrilled. Was planning on going to shop later in the day to Ross's that just opened in the area. Cleaned out my closet and got rid of almost all fall/winter clothes last year. So, I HAD to replace a few items. Now I am set. Prices even better than if I had gone to the thrift store!

Great score, frugal-one! I managed to get a no drive, no spend day in yesterday. Today, not so much. Termite/powder post beetle spray of house, barn, shed - whew!! DH ran out and picked up fast food before I got home to dissuade him, so I ate with good grace, lol. At least he was horrified enough by the price at the tasteless chicken-shack to move on the cheaper burger bistro. I filled up my gas tank, and am watching the OPEC discussions with trepidation. Thankfully our fuel price for the winter is locked in.

Our daughter's wedding was in September and even though planned, those expenses sure added up! My goal for October is to come in at or under budget on every single budget item. So far, so good.

We volunteered at church tonight and brought home a few meals of food. I also worked 2 catering jobs this past weekend and have soup in the freezer from one, ate some wonderful apple crisp and lasagna. I've been working 3 days this week and last so my lunches are provided and I make sure my newly-retired husband knows what is for lunch here so he is not tempted to run out and grab fast food.

Still haven't turned the heat on here in MN though tonight is supposed to be the first freeze - will just add another blanket to the bed.

I walked across the street and used some digital coupons at Dollar General for the first time today. I left with a free package of cookies for ds and some cashews for myself. Total spent-1.25 for $5 in groceries.

Tybee: maybe it is time to create some new xmas traditions that don't involve spending $ on things. Also I would put your parents as priority over others in regard to travel. Can your parents come visit you?

Frugal-one: Great score on the Talbot's stuff. I mostly wear Talbot's stuff that I buy at Talbot's, so that is amazing!
A recent conversation at work gave me the insight that I can pay our medical bills with Amex instead of by check. I would rather not have medical bills of course, but at least we can get the 1% cash back by using Amex. Medical insurance cost is going up by about $25 per month next year and is going to skyrocket in 2018, so we need all the frugal hacks we can get!

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Originally Posted by Tybee

Extremely unfrugal month so far. My son had a crisis which necessitated a 12 hour drive to where he lives last week, along with 4 days in hotels then another day spent driving back. My husband's family is having a potluck to watch the debates tonight and my husband decided to drive back to see them--an eight hour drive today--and I begged off, which did save us a hotel room, as he can stay with his brother, but the budget is shot this month. The two trips are also about 200 hundred in gas money.
It will only get worse as my goddaughter is getting married this month and I had to buy the ticket (450 dollars) and will have to pay for the hotel (300 dollars) and fly out there. I am thrilled and honored to be going, but getting scared that I can no longer say yes to family events as simply cannot seem to afford them anymore.
Christmas is coming and I want to be frugal--well, I don't want to at all, but will have to be, and feeling under the gun from family expectations.
I really don't have any frugal accomplishments for October and it's freaking me out. Since making the transition to part time work I am very stressed at lack of money and all the demands I cannot meet. Yesterday elderly parents requested we come see them--that will be another thousand dollars if we go. I cannot keep this up.

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Sorry to hear about your emergency trip, Tybee. Hope all is well. Frustrating when we can live day-to-day very frugally and then, as Dave Ramsey would say, Murphy comes to visit. Guess all the more reason to live as frugally as we can when we can.

I had very few little extravagences this week. I shopped for food a little bit at Costco/Target. Almost bought a book online, but I'm trying to do a "wait and see" on purchases these days to cut out my 1-click knee-jerk reaction on Amazon. I feel like books are my "end of the day martini"--almost like I deserve a book for my hard work during the week. And many books on kindle are about the price of an expensive cocktail, so I treat myself.

But haven't bought my Friday night book yet. Since we're going to the library to donate 117 books today, maybe I'll actually borrow a couple instead. I don't do it more often because the library is about a 15 minute drive and it's not near any other places I run errands to, so too often I wind up never getting around to returning books and I run up fines. So the library is not that much of a frugal option for me (from a $ as well as a life energy and community goodwill POV).

My library has e books, e magazine and e audio books. I love it, I can go to the lbrary at anytime, day or night.

Lunch was the last piece of pizza leftover from Th night dinner.

That's about the only frugal this month so far:(

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Originally Posted by Aqua Blue

My library has e books, e magazine and e audio books. I love it, I can go to the lbrary at anytime, day or night.

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I love that feature, too. I subscribed to BookBub, which sends me a daily email with recommendations to buy/download eBooks. If the books aren't sufficiently cheap/free, I put them on the virtual "for later" shelf at my library. Only rarely do I pay a couple of bucks for them. Needless to say, I'm a few books behind...

I was getting ready to go to the store on my Saturday, but I also went back to sleep this morning and am moving a little slow. So I decided to look in the fridge for some things and realized I have a lot of food already! I am eating all the little bits of yummy things, I had a lunch thing with hummus, olives and feta that had a lot left so I got crackers to finish it up. I am going to make a salad to eat the feta. I have half a pizza (kale, mushrooms and feta) left to eat as well. And then I made a jar of tea rather than buying the canned tea I like. In a quart jar I put one black tea bag, one fruity tea bag and 2 packets of stevia and then chill it. So freebie food and no waste.

I kept telling hubby that we did not need to go out shopping. I could feed us well from the refrigerator and the freezer for a whole week. I think he just loves going shopping at the grocery store. Tomorrow we take Mom for her weekly visit and I will have a struggle to keep him from buying more.

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Originally Posted by Teacher Terry

Tybee: maybe it is time to create some new xmas traditions that don't involve spending $ on things. Also I would put your parents as priority over others in regard to travel. Can your parents come visit you?

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No, my parents are too old and too ill to travel. At this point, who we go to see is kind of on a triage basis, as my son was in crisis mode. Any phone call from now, my parents could be in crisis mode.

If you can think of xmas traditions that don;t involve spending money on thing or spending money on travel across the country, I would love to hear them!

Friday was a no driving or spending day. Today we had dinner out. Paid $15 for a family of three by using coupons.

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Originally Posted by Aqua Blue

My library has e books, e magazine and e audio books. I love it, I can go to the lbrary at anytime, day or night.

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In my neck of the woods lots of Libraries are being closed or are very limited in days/hours of operation. :(

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Originally Posted by Tybee

No, my parents are too old and too ill to travel. At this point, who we go to see is kind of on a triage basis, as my son was in crisis mode. Any phone call from now, my parents could be in crisis mode.

If you can think of xmas traditions that don;t involve spending money on thing or spending money on travel across the country, I would love to hear them!

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If your parents want a visit, are you expecting to see them soon and again at
Christmas time? Do you normally travel to them?

If you already spent travel money seeing your son for an emergency, surely he and his siblings would understand that another visit isn't possible. i am not sure who travels where in your family. But believe me when I say it isnt necessary to do the winter travel thing, everyne will srvice if there is no Christmas togetherness.

Just yesterday I was wondering when the first of the holiday stress posts would go up here. It is a hard time for many.

I am sorry that your income is cut in half, that surely does take adjustment.

We have pretty much eliminated the holiday gift-giving from our lives (except for obligatory work gifts), but back when we did exchange gifts, we would sometimes have a friend or family member bake cookies or not return a gift for a gift due to being out of work or something, and that was more than fine. I mean, these are people I love and if I wanted them to suffer financial hardship to get me yet another thing for the holidays, then I wouldn't be much of a friend, right? We also found that people were very quick to agree to eliminating the gift exchange when we proposed it a few years ago, so I think sometimes the expectations are more internally imposed than imposed by others. I'm sure the dynamic is different when children are involved, but for us that wasn't the case.

We don't exchange many gifts either - we (the women in the immediate family) do things together instead. More fun, less do-dads. It's not always cheaper, however.... we sort of consult on what sort of year we all had, what our upcoming plans are, and do something accordingly. Sometimes it's a simple over-night to a spate of antique shows, or a trip to Cleveland - which we all love, for various reasons - up to a five-night New England venture that included a stay in the Rose Island Lighthouse. We always have a great time, whatever we do. We do a modified, day only trip/event with some extended family, as well.

Did a lot of travel (for me) for work last month, so I'm looking forward to a large mileage reimbursement. Since I drive a pretty fuel efficient car, it's sort of found money. We are planning a trip to see DH's last remaining aunt in a week, and she is insisting that we stay with her. I had a pretty good hotel deal, since it's off-season, but it was still around $700, so that will be a nice savings. We will buy groceries - we have to eat wherever we stay!- and do most of the cooking, which lets me feel better about staying there. On one hand, I was looking forward to walking on the beach at night and early morning (our not-to-be hotel was right on the beach) without a five minute drive, but on the other, $700 - Aunt's place it is, lol. Hopefully we will be able to meet up with some of the cousins, too. I sorely need a get-away. So those are frugals in the making. We've been better about eating at home or getting inexpensive stuff out this very stressful week, which has involved lots of extra, but necessary, driving. This coming week looks no better...

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Originally Posted by iris lilies

If your parents want a visit, are you expecting to see them soon and again at
Christmas time? Do you normally travel to them?

If you already spent travel money seeing your son for an emergency, surely he and his siblings would understand that another visit isn't possible. i am not sure who travels where in your family. But believe me when I say it isnt necessary to do the winter travel thing, everyne will srvice if there is no Christmas togetherness.

Just yesterday I was wondering when the first of the holiday stress posts would go up here. It is a hard time for many.

I am sorry that your income is cut in half, that surely does take adjustment.

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I guess I get the honor of being the first Christmas stress post--sorry to derail a frugal thread.
Yes, the travel thing has come down to us being expected to do all travel. My son in Oregon wisely said a couple of years ago, no more Christmas travel for him, and it has been very difficult when we have tried to go places inteh winter. We always travel to my parents, but not for Christmas, although it would be a nice thing to do, but potentially hellish, as has all the Thanksgiving and Christmas travel been the last few years--stranded by terrible snowstorms for days on both holidays.

We did an all together summer reunion which def. worked better than the holidays. But that was only 3 months ago, and the kids seem to expect multiple trips a year now, and I can't afford it, and have expressed disappointment that they will not make the effort to come to us.

I can't actually afford any of this travel anymore, as it is decimating savings.

Tybee, Try very hard to just NOT do it. Let them know now that you cannot afford it, you hate the uncertainty of snow and you saw them all in the summer! You are the mom. You get to make the rules.

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Originally Posted by nswef

Tybee, Try very hard to just NOT do it. Let them know now that you cannot afford it, you hate the uncertainty of snow and you saw them all in the summer! You are the mom. You get to make the rules.

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Thanks, Nswef, good advice.

I did a few of the "rush around and drive drive drive out of state in snow country" holidays decades ago and then bowed out. I was always able to use work as an excuse. I used to tell DH " why dont you drive north to visit your parents during the summer when all of the chaos of siblings and their many children arent interfering with you just havng a nice visit with your parents. "

But he still made that Christmas time journey sometmes. It took me a while to figure out that he preferred visiting his parents when his sisters were there because he got a bit bored hanging out with just the old folks, even though they have a farm and he was able to do practical work for them to keep busy.

Now that we are retired it doesnt matter when or if he leaves for the north, there is no schedule and he can dodge snowstorms easily if they get in his way. His dad is still alive and wont be around forever, so his visits are important.

At the moment DH is in Switzerland with his sister. They are visting elderly aunts and cousins. I am betting that this entire trip costs less than $1,500 because the Swiss relatives are putting them up and they will be driving them around, also lending autos if necessary.

I didn't leave the house yesterday and I'm not leaving today:cool: and I hate to shop so no $ spent online either. I took a fabulous 1hour nap.

All I need to do for the remainder of today is invent dinner out of what is in the house.

Tybee: You have no need to apologize. I'm sorry you're going through this, and the financial pressure of the holidays is certainly a relevant topic for the Frugals thread!

You are right, rosarugosa, making the holidays frugal is a great topic to explore.
Today I bought brown paper to wrap Christmas presents, since I collect yard sale ribbon all year and I read someone said to just always use brown paper and vary your ribbon for any occasion.
I even have black ribbon--wondering what occasion that would be appropriate for!
Wrapped four library book sale books for Christmas present, and used raffia and green ribbon on one and cream and a gold stripe for the other. They do look very pretty!

Tybee, last year I wrapped all my gifts in brown paper, and used brown jute cord and made brown paper tags. Everyone seemed to think it looked very cool. I'm not really into Christmas, so it was my un-Christmas look, but you could definitely tweak to make it more festive in a classy way.

Why not only buy gifts for kids-no adult gifts. About 8 years ago we agreed with all our friends not to buy gifts because we all had too much stuff. I would explain your financial situation to your kids and say gifts only for grandchildren and no traveling except for your parents who can't travel.

We had a pretty frugal night out on Saturday. Went to local theater to see musical based on Silence of the Lambs. It was a great show for only $25 per ticket. Before the show we did takeout and drinks at home and split two subs, so we only spent $20 on food for 4 people and everyone agreed it was plenty.
On the other hand, I went grocery shopping yesterday since DH was working all weekend (he usually shops) and I spent $91 - yikes! This was probably a combination of factors. We spent way below budget the past few weeks, so larder was a little emptier than usual. I also get a little excited at the grocery store (wow, look at all the good things to eat!) since I don't usually do the shopping, although I didn't really buy any crap other than one $3.00 box of cookies for DH. I also went to Big Y instead of Market Basket and their prices are definitely higher.

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Originally Posted by rosarugosa

Before the show we did takeout and drinks at home and split two subs, so we only spent $20 on food for 4 people and everyone agreed it was plenty.

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That's what we do quite often instead of eating out, too. I really like it, because you usually get better quality food at a lower price. As we are usually 2 or 3 couples, cooking is upon you only every second or third time. And even this is fun, as we often try new recipies.

Currently, I'm sitting home with a bandaged foot, no work for me this week. Saves some gas, about $50 for the week ;-) Instead, I'm selling some stuff on ebay, this will hopfully be a $100 extra...

DH gets credit for the last frugal of the month. We usually buy and eat a lot of Halloween candy throughout October and we get hardly any kids at the door. This year we waited until yesterday to buy, and DH knew candy was really cheap at Walgreen's. We got 5 bags for $8.00 (Snickers, Reeses Cups, Milky Ways) which is pretty inexpensive.

Well, this week a mixed bag. Went to my goddaughter's out of town wedding, where the "businessperson's breakfast" at the hotel we were at cost 21 dollars. Yowsers.
On the other hand, my husband collected leaf bags from the city and I found three thrown out geranium plants in them--we had a hard frost last night, so not sure they will make it, but I will try to resuscitate them!