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Haven't seen a thread for March yet.
One of my projects for 2022 is a t-shirt quilt. I asked my mom some quilting questions, and she said she no longer has interest in quilting so I can pick up any quilting supplies I want. I'll save $!00 or so, and can give the supplies away to my crafting group if some or all don't work for me.
My goal is to stay on budget this month - paid my excise tax which is an irregular expense - and am controlling what other costs I can.
Thinking ahead to what to do for my parents' 60th anniversary this summer. One DB has already said he has no money to contribute - waiting to hear from the other one. My goals are to hit my strict budget 8 months of the year, so there is leeway for some one-time expenses like this. They do not like parties, my mother does not like travel, and they have pretty much what they need. There are some home repairs they won't pay for themselves but could use which is where my line of thinking is going at this point.
Good for your parents for maintaining a long and (hopefully) happy marriage. Your gift of repairs sounds perfect.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yppej
Yes Jane, a happy marriage.
I think home repairs is a excellent gift.
Used gas buddy to find gas at $3.97 a gallon. My regular place was charging $4.19.
I am not tempted to spend money on gazingus pins lately.
My civic activities occupy my time.
My fear of even worse inflation makes me feel I must keep as much money in reserve as possible.
And if we all die in World War III what is the point?
Well, we're all going to die at some point, so if you don't want to see a point, ok. If one has specific items needed or repairs to make, I think now is the time to move on it, because of inflation. They are only going to be more expensive in the future. But I'm still trying to be frugal and use what money we have to stretch as far as we can. We've been doing well with our no-waste food goal, which only requires us to be mindful and disciplined about what needs to be used, and when. We have not been doing as well with our not eating out goal, which is pretty much on ME, because sometimes we are out later than anticipated and I just do not want to come home and cook. We also use gas buddy to find the cheapest gas on our route. This week, I used my cc points to purchase some items we needed on Amazon. (I bought more masks - please don't tell jeppy, lol) Planning to hold off on my next purchase until the card cycles and I have more points to spend. For a fun frugal (besides the usuals of library DVDs and watching our cats....) DD and I have free tickets to a local theatre production this evening, which has had great reviews. We'll eat dinner at home before we go, so the only cost for this evening out will be the gas to get to and from.
Neat ideas and goals early morning.Enjoy the free play!!
For as long as I have the new dog my expenses are up. She is double the weight of Amy so eats double. They are on expensive wet food because of Amy’s sensitivity. Plus grooming and possible vet expenses until I find her a home.
I can't take credit for this one, but DS turns the heat way down during the day. At first I thought it was so he would be able to hear if a package is delivered, but it's turned into every day, so now I think it is so if I come home unexpectedly he will hear my car pulling up or the key in the lock and can race up to his room and avoid me. In any case I still have slightly over half a tank of oil which may get me to summer.
Early: I hope you enjoy the play! I am looking forward to having more live performances on the agenda again!
The play was great - very funny. I love community theatre. It's a small venue and was not terribly crowded, and we still masked. We don't go often to live local events, but I have really missed them. And they are usually a great bargain! The small city close to us has a lot of free concerts outdoors in the summer, if you don't mind searching for parking and walking in large (for us) throngs. We also enjoy neighborhood garden tours - but those lead to plant and yard envy, which can be costly, lol. Dh will not go - he says if he can't see it, he can claim he has no idea what I'm talking about, and thus does not have to help replicate what-ever-it-was that DD and I saw, and wanted. He's only about half kidding....:~)
LOL, early. I think I agree with your dh.
DH is so pleased with himself. He sold $400 worth of metal to the metal scrapper.
He has been cleaning out our basement in preparation for our move. Over the past several months he’s had two other hauls like this one.
The metal scrapper is less than a mile from here so it’s easy to get to. They pay immediately for most metals, but for copper they mail you a check because they want to make sure you’re a solid citizen with a legitimate address that can be traced.
Good for him, IL. That's a nice chunk of change!!
I dare not show DH tjis post because he will adopt your husband’s point of view as his own. He likes pretending he doesn’t know what I’m talking about when I start describing some thing I want him to make.Quote:
Originally Posted by early morning
So today I decided I didn’t want to spend 120/month on dog food. So I ordered dry food to mix with Sarah’s wet food. That will lower the cost significantly. The others are on wet only because of sensitivity.
I am trying to not speed so I don't use as much gas. If I get behind someone traveling the speed limit I do not let myself pass them.
I need to get back on track with the frugality efforts. So far, we are just making an increased effort to turn off lights in empty rooms (we are not very good about this) and trying not to be so quick to turn up the heat when it feels a bit chilly (which will only get easier as the season progresses). I picked up some books at the library today, which is always one of my favorite frugals.
Did not go for groceries today. It is light and warm enough now in the evenings I can go during the week after work if I need to. I think I have enough to eat for the week anyways.
I got $192 trade-in on my Mac computer to buy a new Mac computer. The new one is half the price of the old one with thus discount because of price dropping over time, me dropping down in memory and model. There were several non-frugal things associated with this purchase but I won’t mention them because this is a thread where we talk only about frugality!
LOL il - that's why I don't post here much:|(. WTG on the computer purchase price! I hate buying tech. It seems new computers always come with less of what I want and more of what I don't. No decent spreadsheet, too many games. And expensive to boot! I am impressed with your financial acumen in this manner! The other day, as I was washing baggies and looking at a stack of mending, I was bemoaning my lack of frugals these days. DD started laughing and said that my frugals are there, they are just ingrained into our way of life and I should shut up, already. Made me laugh, which is cheap therapy, after all.... So can I count that as a frugal?? ('cause believe me, I have plenty of non-frugals in my life.... :~))
Still using Gas Buddy. My regular station came down by 10 cents per gallon but is still 12 cents a gallon higher than the Gas Buddy best picks.
Does anyone use E15/E85 gas? E15 was $0.05/gallon cheaper than regular this morning so I decided to give it a try.
I enjoy buying tech items, and I'm constantly surprised at how reasonably priced they are. As I recall, my first computer in 1995 (1 gig) was around 3K, with another big chunk of cash for a monochrome printer--and they were huge and bulky. My dream all-in-one computer today, with a huge screen, large SSD drive, and lots of RAM is about $800. But I don't need one at the moment.Quote:
Originally Posted by early morning
Jane - I suspect that the prices wouldn't seem expensive to me if I actually understood and liked what I was purchasing, lol. And the first computer we purchased when the kids were in school WAS much more expensive. Still, I am more Luddite than not, I think! I may understand the need to "keep up with the times" re: computers, smart phones - and I will use them to the best of my (still rather nascent) ability. But I do not really LIKE having to do so, in the main. I tend to think of things I resent spending money on as "too expensive" when in reality, I just don't want to pay for them. More of a problem with my mindset, I think! :|(
That's a common attitude, I think. There are expense categories--like household repairs--that annoy me no end. Technology enriches my life in so many ways--from grocery delivery and banking to entertainment--that I'm happy to spend the money.Quote:
Originally Posted by early morning
Early: Google has a free spreadsheet program that seems to function just like excel, at least in my limited retiree usage.
I like new technology! I dislike having all the old tech stuck in drawers, etc. For example, I actually have a first generation Amazon Fire Tablet. Still fires up. lol.
Will be going for groceries tonight. I stretched it from my usual week to a week and a half. One thing I brought to work is a jar of peanut butter I am eating by the spoonful. May as well use up what I have on hand with food prices what they are.
I never liked peanut butter all that much, but in recent years, it's become one of the staples of my diet, for breakfast, by the spoonful, preferably Teddie!
I could see I was finishing my month under budget so I got three pairs of more commodious jeans. Although I am fairly confident I will continue to slowly lose weight I have worn the three pairs I have that fit so much one is fraying at the seams and not presentable for work and I am tired of wearing geeky dressed up pants other days. Now I have a good pair for every day of the work week and I will wear the worn out pair doing yardwork.
Looking ahead next month my expenses will include real estate taxes and car inspection for which I don't anticipate any repairs but you never know, sometimes they say wipers or lights need replacement. I still have half a tank of oil I am hoping will last the rest of the season since it's now over $5 a gallon.
I don't think our oil company always necessarily has rock-bottom prices, but they do offer a cap each year that they always honor, and this year we were capped at $3.05 per gallon, with the current going rate being $5.00 per gallon. We were very glad for that cap last week when we got a delivery that cost $457 instead of $750.
We came in under budget for groceries. We sent flowers to a friend who had surgery, but my dog-walking for the week covered the cost of the flowers. I don't factor the dog-walking money into our budget since that income has been pretty variable.