Jan....2017...Frugals

Jan.01/2017
Happy, Safe and Frugal 2017!
--ate leftovers from the fridge all day...and from open chip bags from the pantry...lol
--did not do spreadsheets for most of last year so set up all new Net Worth, Income and Expense Sheets.
--put all the Christmas stuff away and stripped beds from company and washed up all the sheets/towels
all on the cheapest time our hydro has....have cleaned up the house and remade the beds....bring on new company anytime
This always feels good to me.
--I always feel that having a tidy, clean and organized house makes me able to have be more frugal.
--made new Christmas gift tags for free from this years Christmas cards...admittedly very few.
But, since I am giving fewer gifts the tags I have will last a really long time.
--Have made some decisions about giving much less to most family this year...they all keep saying they want to
go on with Christmas present but, there is very little interest on their part in what they give. It all seems very last
minute and like a big inconvenience to them. Since I would be more then pleased to stop or at least limit the amounts
that are spent, that is what I will be doing this year.....very freeing.

Happy New Year, Danna! Looking at my old records recently, I saw that in 2001 we spent over $2000 and had a list of over 30 people to buy for! By comparison, in 2016, we spent about $440 on a much smaller group, most of the gifts being amaryllis bulbs and most of the gift-giving being related to fairly obligatory workplace giving.
I think 2017 is going to be a challenging year. We're saving $900 on our HO and auto insurance, and DH finally cancelled Onstar on his car. That would put us up $1200, but we got our property tax bill and that looks like an $800 annual increase, and my health insurance premium has increased by $300, so we're actually only $100 ahead. I guess ahead is still better than behind!
I just earned my monthly $5.00 from doing Bing searches, and I'm going to open another credit card with a $200 sign-on bonus. Oh, and we've been eating lobster salad in abundance, not sure if that counts as leftover cleanup, lol.

Happy New Year, everyone! 2017 is going to be a needs/must frugal year! 2016 was bad for us, family and budget-wise. I stopped tracking purchases when my computer fried. My new computer didn't come with any software and I did not have the energy to find free tracking programs. DS quit his job hoping for a better one (which he sorely regrets - hopefully lesson learned there!)- and then had a MAJOR car breakdown, which we fixed, in addition to keeping him in his current housing situation. He still is looking but has some hopeful leads currently. I lost my mother, and we (DB, DS, and myself) inherited a passel of stuff which was almost overwhelming, but which we are slowly liquidating for enough to make it worthwhile. I updated all the sales info yesterday, and my portion to date offset the cost of a much needed trip this past Oct to visit other family, so I guess I'll count that as a last-years win!... I also found a free tracking program online that doesn't make me input any account numbers and doesn't try to download bank info, yay! I input my data and am back on track with tracking, which will be very helpful. The past two days we stayed in and spent nothing. Today is the last day of my holiday, and we are going to restock our two antique mall areas, eating a planned, inexpensive lunch out (buy 2 get 2 free, 10% off the 2 we pay for). DSis is buying coffee for us all at a local coffee shop, her treat. Should be a nice, frugal day out, and I'm looking forward to it! Rosa, I've not gotten our tax bill yet. I am hoping for NO surprise increase!

Today I am going to work out by going to the pool and leading an exercise aquatic class. While I do not get paid, I do get some great health benefits. I have to tally up the total expenses this year, but I am thankful that it is almost done. We seemed to have spent approximately the same as last year, and we had a few one time expenses. However, I think there will be some cuts this year.

Nice to hear from you, Laura; it's been a long time!

Happy New Year, everyone! Started the year out right by decluttering--recycling and donating lots of stuff. (Did you know that Goodwill accepts magazines and resells them? I've bought many that way, like old editions of YogaJournal, that I can't afford any other way.)

Downloaded two free apps to help me achieve my weightloss and fitness goals--one that reminds/tracks daily water consumption, and another one that functions as a food diary.

Saved on a gym membership by agreeing with a friend to meet 3x/wk for walks. This should give me the support I need, as well as a welcome social outlet. These days, the only people I "see" are students I see through webcams, and DH of course.

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Originally Posted by rosarugosa

Nice to hear from you, Laura; it's been a long time!

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Yes, I have been all over the place, but I come back here to ground myself.

Jan 02/17 Welcome back Ljevtich
--no drive, no spend
--sorted all my coupons into categories and tossed the outdated ones.
--started sorting papers for Income Tax
--reading a book on Dealing with Life 's Changes free from the Library sale in the fall
--forgot one yesterday..followed a tip when making up your bed to put a fleece blanket folded in half
across the bottom....wonderful sleep last night not cold feet or calves (when Pajamas ride up to the knees).
Great for anyone who has cold feet...I do even when the rest of me gets too warm.
I wasn't in a rush to get up and jack up the heat first thing...a good thing.

Danna, cool, I used to participate in No Drive/No Spend days. They are fun challanges. Keep it up! How many No Drive and No
spend days are you shooting for this month?

If I eat cereal for breakfast, I like Kashi Go Lean. Aldi's used to carry a knock-off, but they dropped it. At any rate, ran to the local Kroger at lunchtime today. They had KGL on sale 2 for $5. Both boxes had a $1.00 off coupon, so I got 2 boxes for $3.00. That should last me awhile. I think it usually runs over $3.00 a box.

I had a can of chili with beans, with a piece of potato bread on the side, and it lasted me 2 dinners. It was an old Weight Watcher's tip to eat chili or a bean type meal, but they advised doing it on the weekend instead of the work week and keeping any gassy side-effects at home....

we had some south Alabama friends who served homemade chili over rice with bread on the side.
It was good. Thankfully beans do not bother me. Lots of milk products do.

Jan05/17 frugals over the last couple of day Irises Lily....I am happy if I get in 2-3 No spend No drive
so I am trying to keep that up...
--Dd made a pot of chili and shared with me between us we had 6 servings...very good
--took the last half of large bag of carrots bought for Christmas dinner and roasted them to use as a side
to the chili tonight, still lots left for tomorrow.
--used a $1.00 off coupon for canola oil 1.42 litre that was on sale for $1.99 final price $.99 Re. price $5.99,,gotta love that
--$.88 days at Food Basics today so stocked up on Tomatoes, beans and tomato sauce
---boiled up 8 eggs that were coming up to due date and had egg salad sandwich one night (on bread toasted from the freezer)
--pulled everything out of fridge and cleaned/organized/purged and inventory to use.
that is all for now

Today, it is raining and yucky. Normally I do the water aerobics at the campground, but not when the temperature is 59F and windy, it is not a place to be.

Instead, I decided to make more oatmeal/dried fruit/almonds for a total of six servings. That way I have it ready to just heat up during next week. Had my breakfast of that oatmeal mix, green tea & lemon, and already had a Liter of water. Feeling healthy AND productive!

I coveted a cast iron Dutch oven but I had forgotten about that desire until saw my friend's Dutch oven at Christmas time, hers is a flashy red enamal number!

Then I started pricing them out and I remembered that I did not want enamel, that is s unnecessary and it chips, I want plain cast iron.

Then at Goodwill yesterday there was a 5 quart Lodge cast-iron Dutch oven for $15. So I bought it. And it is big enough for most things we need to cook in it. Great timing! It is
not, however, an old Lodge piece. It is "new" and I am not sure how good are the new ones, but it will last my lifetime, that is for sure.

Noticed my lettuces were passed their prime, so prepped them for salad and ate most of them yesterday. Found some stale brownies I had frozen - thawed them out somewhat, chopped them up, and with ice cream and chocolate sauce they made a nice quick dessert. Our local gas station has been about 25 cents cheaper than any other place on my route for a few weeks now, so I've been filling up there when I get to half a tank (every other day, if not sooner - I drive a lot and my car's tank is small...) I don't like my tank to get very low in the winter. I'm still hanging most of my heavy laundry in the house and not overworking my decrepit dryer. I'd like to hang it all but at present, don't have the space. When the Christmas tree leaves, the drying rack will go back into the bay window, yay! Most of my frugals are the same old thing - taking lunch and coffee to work, not eating out much, keeping the heat lowish, buying groceries at Aldi, using my credit card for everything and spending the points for things we need, and for some small treats, from Amazon. Yay for free cat food! :)

Went to Goodwill yesterday and emerged very pleased with my haul. Before we left Bellingham, my stepfather gave me a bike he wasn't using after he upgraded his own. It took awhile to get it in shape, but then I needed a helmet. I priced them out, but the one I wanted cost $27. Too much! Found the same one at Goodwill, clearly rarely--if ever--used, for $3.99. Score! I also managed to get some stemware I'd been looking for, for a crazy low price of $0.69 each, plus a top and some other bits and pieces. Total cost: $14.85.

This is kinda/sorta frugal, in that I kinda saved a huge batch of lasagne that I made too dry. I cut it up into squares and froze them, but it wasnt very good. So, I froze cubes of tomato spaghetti sauce in ice cube trays so that when we eat the lasagne, we can put a cube of sauce on top. That has made it edible.

I remember back in the days of our black belt frugality I wouldn't even make lasagne, it was too expensive. Three kinds of cheese! Nope, we couldn't afford that.

Just bought a new dining room table. Am very excited. Found it at Habitat for Humanity and the price was 65 dollars but it was half off table day, so got it for under 40 dollars. Crawling around underneath it, found an inspection date of May, 1928, so that is awesome. I love furniture from the 20's--it is veneered with quartersawn oak, on casters, and has a really cool sort of vibe. Unusual in that it is not round. I have been looking for years, and this one just jumped out at me. Only one leaf, so if it is not big enough, I can always use it as a library table, but it is certainly big enough for us and visitors, and I love the wood. Will post a photo when we get it back together and in the dining room--it is out of the cold, but it's too snowy to get the old table out right now.

What a find, Tybee! And Irish Lillies--that's so funny. "Three cheeses? THREE?! Oh, HECK no!" Definitely been there...and sometimes still do...that!

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Originally Posted by Selah

Went to Goodwill yesterday and emerged very pleased with my haul. Before we left Bellingham, my stepfather gave me a bike he wasn't using after he upgraded his own. It took awhile to get it in shape, but then I needed a helmet. I priced them out, but the one I wanted cost $27. Too much! Found the same one at Goodwill, clearly rarely--if ever--used, for $3.99. Score! I also managed to get some stemware I'd been looking for, for a crazy low price of $0.69 each, plus a top and some other bits and pieces. Total cost: $14.85.

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A bike helmet is something you should always buy new. Even a relatively minor accident could damage it in a way you couldn't see but that could make it worthless in another accident. Also, the plastics in a helmet degrade over time, so you Should replace after several years. With a thrift store helmet it might be ten years old and you wouldn't know. $27 is worth it to keep your brain safer. I think they only way I would buy a helmet from the thrift store is if it was still sealed in the original package.

DH made an amazing pot of chicken stew/soup using thighs, which are pretty cheap and very tasty. The cumin and turmeric are the special ingredients making it so delicious. We've got enough put away in the freezer and refrigerator to feed us two more meals, so this involved economy of effort as well as $$.
We came in well within budget on groceries this week and the monthly Costco run.
I needed several small items so I bundled the purchases together to get free shipping from Amazon and Bing search points paid for half of my purchase.

Found a 1980's vintage Levi's flannel lined jeans jacket at WSU surplus for $1 that I should be able to sell on Ebay for $50 or more.
Found a pair of high end shoes at Good will for $5 that should get about $35 or so on Ebay, found a $5 bottle of perfume at Goodwill that might fetch $25 on Ebay.
Had a couple of pretty cotton scarves from India that I got at a yard sale last year for 50 cents in hope of selling on Ebay that didn't sell. Since they were long and narrow (12" x 60") I cut them into six peices each and hemmed them and now have 12 new pretty handkerchiefs. They are so soft and my old ones are all falling apart.
Earned $500 for spending a couple of days over the holidays painting my boss's office at the library. WooHoo! I'll probably donate most of that to my sponsored kids. All my Ebay money goes to them too.

We are eatin' in:cool: 6 days straight now. chili/cornbread x2. Spaghetti squash/bolognese x2. Baked chicken/roasted veggies x2. And we're brown bagging lunches too.

It's a wagon I hop on/off waaaaaay too often.

Just sold a rare book on Ebay for $125 plus shipping for which we paid 50 cents at WSU surplus. Unfortunately now DH who found the book wants to put it all and more besides to the purchase of a banjo! Nevermind that he's got 3 or 4 guitars, a ukulele, a dobro, a mandolin and who knows what else. Oh well. Not so frugal after all:|(

Had garden produce from the freezer for dinner tonight: Homegrown tomato soup and green beans.

Mary Hu: Well at least the book partially funded the banjo!
Gardnr: Sounds delicious, especially the spaghetti squash bolognese. :)
We came in within budget on groceries, even with a trip to Trader Joe's, which always makes it more challenging. DH got a good deal on haddock at Market Basket, because the employee messed up when she was skinning the fish, and threw in the piece she had messed up for no charge, so we got almost 2 lbs of fresh haddock for $6.99. He made a yummy haddock/risotto/spinach concoction for dinner that was way too much food for two people, but we managed to eat it all anyway. Yesterday we walked in the woods, I walked 1.5 miles home from the hairdresser (DH had dropped me off), I visited a tiny old cemetery in the center of town that I've been passing by for over 50 years, and I got Richard Russo's new novel, Everybody's Fool from the library on the way home, which is pretty exciting.
My last frugal is vicarious, but the best one of all. One of my employees just refinanced her condo for a much lower rate. I had helped her a bit with rate shopping, etc. and she had been coming to me with advice for improving her credit score over the past couple of years, so I felt really good for providing assistance and she'll be saving more than $200 per month!

Everybody's Fool was great!

Another week has passed. We went out for a burger Friday night. other than that? Cooking at home for lunches and dinners and continuing on freezer foods and emptying out the fridge. one more meal of carrots and 3 apples and we are completely out of produce and look Mom....NO COMPOST:cool:

Hubby is doing the Costco run after work tomorrow. Produce....that's all we need for the next week. Yea us!

Used our last "buy one entree, get one free" coupon at Q-doba yesterday. Since we took it to go, had drinks at home & since their entrees are so large we got lunch AND dinner for 2 people for $8.27.

Costco & bakery outlet & Grocery Outlet store run today (about 35 miles away, we do this 4 or 5 times a year) plus we'll hit the thrift stores in those towns as well.

The high end shoes and perfume I got at Goodwill about 10 days ago for $10 have both sold on Ebay for a combined total of $55.50 (and the customers pay the shipping). Pretty quick turn around.

I have an offer from Chase bank to open a checking account with them and get a $300 bonus. I have to keep $1,500 in the account to avoid fees, have a direct deposit go to them and must keep the account open for 6 months to earn to bonus. Whenever I get ones of these offers whose terms I can easily comply with, I take it. My boss says it's no big deal to change my direct deposit and then change it back in 6 months when I close the account. That works out to an annual interest rate of 40%! With interest rates so low this is one of the few ways I can earn something worthwhile on my liquid money. In the last 4 years I've made $675 from different banks around town and online with these offers. The terms are usually pretty minimal. This is the first time I've had to change a direct deposit to one of them. Got to earn some interest somehow!

I started a new contract job last week. Long commute. I did a cost comparison for reducing costs for the 2d bus system I need to use. A 7-day pass would be $14, the 5-days pay as I go $12.50 BUT if I get an interagency transfer in the morning for that trip for 50 cents, I can bring down that added weekly expense to $8.75. That's something.

It's in kind of a remote area that doesn't have a walkable convenience store or restaurants so I'm constrained to taking lunch and snacks.

It's work. Not a career move. It'll keep the cat in kibble for now while I get some other things in my life re-aligned and on track.

Today I plan to go to a museum offering free admission, the gym and then the grocery store. I have some Kroger freebies to gather before the digital coupons expire.