November Frugals!!!

I will start this month because I really need to save some money!!!

Nov 01 & Nov02

--spread sheets up to date and ready for new month...year to date balances are really good in
some categories and not so good in others:|(
I have enough in savings for some projects I have to face but, would feel better not digging into that.

--Really not wasting much food and it does show on the grocery bill, but of course I still have way too
much stockpiled to need to keep eating that down.
--went to two church brazers today but, only parked once and walked to the second one, good exercise for free.
Only bought a wooden bee house for the backyard, made for recycled wood and the money was going to a good cause.
Didn't spend anything else. But, saw a lovely idea for hats and mitts made from old sweaters lined with fleece.
They were selling these mitts for $20.00 a pair. I am thinking a great idea for the youngest on my Christmas list.
--Have picked two older outfits to wear around the house, wear then out then start on others, reminds me that I also,
have too many clothes, and as I have been losing a few pounds I need to use up what I have and not buy till I need lower sizes.
--watched t.v. and read while drinking really nice hot tea for entertainment last night.
--will be trying to rethink every penny spent (even if we don;t use those anymore ......lol)
--Again I am Challenging myself to the 100 item decluttered this month on the theory that a decluttered house
is one that you can find what you need and not rebuy.
;)

Thanks for starting the thread danna, and sounds like you are off to a great start!

I made my own furniture polish and "non-petroleum jelly" for my poor ol' nose . . . my other body care thread. That was all from supplies that were already on hand. Also dug around and looked for our Murphy's Oil Soap instead of believing my DH that we had none. :) Score.

Meal planning saved us a bunch of unnecessary trips to the store last week and was so much less stressful. I am going to start a book with the meal plan on one side of the page and the freezer inventory on the other side. That way we can look back through the meals we've used in the past. I know some were winners but we've forgotten about them.

Accumulating baby goods is going frugally so far, have received a few gifts, have some maternity clothes from a friend but I believe they will be too small for me (should still try them on to be sure), we got a pack n play in good shape at a garage sale, someone has offered me a free stroller but it is not in hand yet, my close girlfriend is going to sell us some nice items and give us some others . . . so that's coming together. I am trying hard not to get too much stuff because I know it will come, and also that the new baby won't need too much and I want to see how our daily living actually pans out. For example, will we really walk upstairs to change diapers? Doubtful. So no changing table. But maybe it will turn out that we do, and we can get one later. So that's that.

I cashed in a jar full of change and ended up with $45 for my trip to NOLA next week. I didn't think I had that much! Pleasant surprise.

Congrats Fidgiegirl!
Grandchild was born this week, but with two older siblings and two older cousins close by he needs nothing. Their next door neighbor bought over a bag of older boy clothes so I went through them with stain remover and had to do some minor repairs, but lotS of usable clothes for the oldest. They also have so many toys! So I showed up with lots of healthy food, cleaned the house top to bottom while mom was in the hospital, and am taking the other ones on some day trips while mom gets some rest. She appreciatedcoming home to all clean beds, bathroom and even clean kids. Can't think of a better present than that.

That would be an awesome present!! :D

fidgiegirl I have not been on much lately I have missed your wonderful news!

Congratulations!!

flowerseverywhere that is truly a great gift any new Mom would be thrilled to get!!
And, Congratulations to you too!

Thanks everyone! :)

Frugals so far:

- We're eating out of the freezer and pantry this week. So I picked up the few items we needed at the supermarket down the street. Despite getting a few unlisted items on good sales, I still walked away with a very low bill and it was a no-drive day to boot.
- Courtesy of the 100-item October declutter, I found enough moisturizing creams (for both DW and me) to line a small drugstore shelf. We will not be buying any more moisturizers for the next several months!
- (I don't think I mentioned this one earlier) A magazine I subscribe to "cleverly" decided to make its subscriptions automatic-renewal. The magazine keeps coming and they send you a bill. When I discovered that, I called them and opted out. First, I'd rather read magazines electronically than sacrifice trees (this is not a magazine to archive). Second, I can borrow that title from the library (or even read it there) if I want to. Third, I think it's sneaky to just keep sending it; I wonder how many people will be cowed into paying the bill because they don't really know when the subscription is over.
- Local mechanic (literally; he's two blocks away; we could push the car there if we needed to) did the 30,000 mile service on DW's car and chose not to charge us for swapping the summer tires for winter tires. I wasn't quite so lucky at my last visit (different mechanic). So that's probably about $20 saved.
- Got a free sample of coffee in the mail last week and made it this morning. We don't like it as much as our usual (ALDI Donut Store blend) but it wasn’t bad and the price was absolutely right. lol
- Found a Web "service" that DW got roped into (she thought she clicked all the right boxes but those folks are pretty sneaky). The service charges $22 and change a month. I paid last month's without knowing it was more "service" than she thought she was getting. I won't be paying this month, if I can help it. DW cancelled the service. I hate how sneaky those companies are...

Kelli, I think you are being very prudent in how you are planning for baby. When are you due? I am so excited for you! It's not totally public yet (as in everyone but my mom knows) but we are expecting another little girl in March, Veronica Rose.

The kids were put playing the other day and brought home some squash. One of our neighbours, I think one of the families that has their house in the city here and a farm in the country, (kind of a strange, but awesome trend in my area) had a table in front of their house loaded with squash and a sign that said "free" on it, so they picked me up a couple. I'm going to make it later this week with pork chops and cornbread stuffing.

Yesterday I brought a meal to a friend who is recovering from surgery. I made a big batch of 75 Swedish meatballs. I gave her about 15 of them with some egg noodles and gravy and a salad and froze the rest for easy weeknight meals. Next week our neighbourhood is providing a meal for a homeless shelter for teens. I'm scheduled to provide the vegetable. I didn't just want to bring frozen veggies, even though they would be cheap, so I'm thinking I'm going to make a salad. I can get a ton of lettuce at Costco for $4 and make my own dressing. I'll probably add some chopped apples and walnuts too, which I already have.

I downloaded a free "budget envelope" app to track my spending. So far I've been really good about adding my expenses and it's really helping me stay accountable.

I signed up for Amazon Prime and Amazon mom and I've decided to try out their subscription program. I get a $25 credit on diapers for signing up and I put my diapers, wipes, paper products, vitamins and some cleaning supplies that are used regularly on subscription. I get free delivery and 20% off the cost of the products, which was competitive to begin with. It shouldn't take long to make up the cost of the Amazon Prime subscription and it's one more thing I don't have to go to the store and get.

We are starting to make our Christmas gifts. The kids decided it would be a fun homeschool project and I am planning far enough in advance that I can take things bit by bit and get discounts. This week I bought a soap making kit at Michaels using a 40% off coupon. I saved $8. Next week we will make candles, also with a 40% off coupon, and the next week we are going to make coiled fabric baskets using scrap fabric and piping, which I will get using yet another 40% off coupon from JoAnn. In December my friend Rose is going to teach the girls how to make a doll quilt (which they will make for each other) and I am going to make it simple for everyone by getting a bundle of precut fabric with another coupon. This is all coming out of my education budget (I have all of the books I need for the year) so the money is doing double duty. Education and gifts all in one. Can't go wrong with that!

I bought some reusable baby food pouches. I have found myself sometimes avoiding making things like soup, smoothies or oatmeal, that are both very inexpensive and healthy, because of the mess factor with Charlotte. For $10 I got 6 reusable pouches that I can give to Charlotte. I tried it this morning with oatmeal and it was mess-free.

We looked on the History Center website last night and it looks like they are doing their Black Friday event again. Last year Zach and the big kids camped out and got a free Historical Society membership. We were hoping they would do it again so we could make it a tradition. I'm so happy they are! We got a lot of great use out of that last year.

Flowers everywhere, that is the best baby gift ever!

Congratulations, Stella!

Wow Stella, you are a bundle of energy! Congratulations.
In our consumer society I think long and hard before giving presents. Gifts of food, experiences and time are so much more meaningful to me and I know to the people who receive them.

I made out a Meals for a Month chart for November. This helps decrease those "No idea what's for dinner, let's go out" incidences. It also minimizes trips to the grocery.
I am making a quilt out of scraps. I did have to buy batting but all the fabric and thread is from leftover pieces.
Made a big pot of veggie soup and froze six portions for future lunches.
It has been not too hot and not too cold so we have not had to use the a/c or heat.

My beautiful leather Israeli briefcase, which some kind soul left out next to the dumpster, got a nice facelift. It had handles but no shoulder strap, so I took a matching belt I had but wasn't wearing anymore, and took them both to the great local cobbler. He made a great shoulder strap out of the belt! No waste, and I got to spend my money supporting a true Old World artisan, instead of just throwing things away and buying something new.

I also researched online how to "block" a woolen sweater. I'd bought a gorgeous blue merino wool men's jumper at the charity shop for about $3, but it was too small overall. I washed it, stretched it, and dried it so it became a size larger with some "give" in the right places, and now I have a fabulous sweater myself!

Good quality aprons are expensive here, for some reason...most Israeli women don't wear them, as far as I can see, and so most aprons for sale are imports from Germany. Instead of forking out on that, I bought two good quality tea-towels (dish cloths) and will be sewing them together to make my own great apron, for about 1/10 of the price.

I found a gorgeous men's Versace navy blue woolen blazer by a dumpster, and snatched it up. A trip to the dry-cleaners, and a switch of the shoulder pads and some extra tailoring done by the wonderful Russian seamstress in town, and I'll have a kickass, elegant, and classic garment for about $30 USD!

Now if I can only find someone to dump an L-shaped desktop, which will be my next project. I need a real desk!

Selah, super resourceful of you!

Stella, congrats! You were good at keeping it under wraps. :) I am due in early April, so the little people will be just about the same age. Awwww . . .

Nice to know about the baby food pouches.

We went out to eat, so count that against our frugal points. :) The rest of the day? Laundry, laundry, and more laundry, possibly cleaning crap out of the basement in order for more demolition to take place.

Congratulations, Stella. You and Zach are building quite the dynasty there!
Selah, I believe you are the most inspired scavenger ever! It is amazing how people throw away so many good things, but I guess it's a plus for those wise enough to make use of them! I enjoy hearing about your rescues.
Tomatoes! I have bags and baskets of late season tomatoes that we're eating and sharing. Does anyone do fried green tomatoes? I'm thinking that is something we should try.
A quirky frugal that won't be useful to most folks, but is still going to save us a bundle - I've scaled down my Nicorette to a quarter of the lowest dose piece, and I'm "rolling my own" gumballs with a bit of Nicorette and some non-nicotine gum. I'm probably in placebo territory here, but I don't care as long as it keeps me happy and keeps me away from the cigarettes! And I'm honestly not even tempted at this point. This latest step-down in dosage is saving me $65.00 a month.

Thanks everyone! We are excited.

Mondays are my big cooking day. I'm making Italian meatballs, potato leek soup, a chicken casserole, filling for chicken pot pie, filling for bacon and Swiss chard quiche (using the last of the garden chard) and both a wheat bread and cornbread stuffing to go with pork chops.

We are using up some homemade pitas for lunch today for pita pizzas. We had the rest with hummus and cucumbers yesterday for lunch.

I bought some rotisserie chickens at Costco for $5 each and today I will take the meat off the bones and make stock from the bones and my bag of frozen veggie scraps.

I found a Twin Cities roller rink that participates in the Kids Skate Free program, where at various times passes can be used for kids 10 and under to skate free. That will probably be our next big kid outing. Now I need to research other cheap big kid activities for the winter. Little kid stuff is easy. Big kid stuff is often more expensive, but with Groupons, Happenings book discounts, and free days, combined with always-free stuff like the art museum and Raptor center we can have a lot of fun on a budget.

stella, congrats! and it's nice to know that female power will dominaate at your house, girls rule! haha.

It's nice for the boys to have both older sisters and younger sisters. They will know a lot about women. They'll have older sisters form whom to take orders, and younger sisters to protect so getting the female/male dynamic both ways. Well, that is ME projecting a lot onto your tiny kids, haha.

Congratulations, Kelli and Stella on your awesome news!

Thanks!

Hey Stella, I forgot to tell you that the JoAnn flyer has a 60% off coupon in it this time for the 10th and 11th only. Maybe you can use it on your project, do you get their flyer?

Bryce has been a selling maniac on eBay. He sold a crock pot lid from our one that broke for $10. Now he sold the magazine and drink holder from the Nordic Track that we gave away for free, and got $15 for that. Today a deer stand went on CL and we got $20 for it.

We have discovered an easy way to do sales on CL for certain types of items - ones that if they didn't sell we'd give them away anyway, and ones that wouldn't be damaged by weather. Instead of going to all the trouble to make arrangements with the buyer, we just put it out on our front step and they leave the money in the mailbox. Has worked every time, people are generally honest, and we save a whole bunch of hassle. Nice.

I'm going to meal plan and order groceries tonight.

Ooh, thanks for the heads up Kelli! I am going to look for that.

Thanks for the congrats everyone. Iris, I've thought the same thing about the boys. They will be very used to women. Jamie told me the other day that a good husband fixes things and has conversations with his wife and a good wife reads a lot of books. :) He's going to be a catch. LOL.

We visited Half Price Books today and found about 40 westerns for an uncle who lives in a 5th wheel trailer and loves westerns. We are going to box up and ship to him for Xmas. He reads them and passes them off to the VA Hospital.

Frugal part: We thought they were $1 each, as marked, but they were rung up at 50 cents each. Woohoo. Great Xmas present for small amount and he loves these authors.

I didn't get quite as much as I was hoping done on cooking day so I will finish some of that up today. I did get a good start on it though. Mostly, though, I'm taking it easier today. I need to make a batch of laundry soap this week, but that's not today's project.

I think today will be a no spending day. I always hesitate to say that too early because it feels like tempting fate. :)

Congratulations, Stella! That's wonderful news!

No spending today.
I have the house to myself this evening so I had yogurt for dinner. No cooking Yay! I'm thinking about popcorn for a snack later.

I finally got my new glasses. Sooo cute. However, we cannot adjust them to fit without hurting. So they are going back. :( I did spend way too much $ on them so I guess it's a good thing all-in-all. But I could not find another pair I liked today. I'll have to try again another day. The next pair is sure to be less expensive and I will have the excess money go to Ian's new glasses.

On the semi-frugal side, we never have enough suitcases. The one extra is so big & heavy we don't dare use it for the trip to FLA. what with the weight & size restrictions the thing would have to be practically empty to go for free. At work today I saw that we have one of those upright wheeled suitcases with 4 pieces on clearance for $30. I have a 5% discount certificate from pharmacy points. Plus my 10% employee discount & 5% Red card, I could get it for about $24.

On the un-frugal side Mike drove down to Chicago today. He is picking Ian up at O'Hare. Yep, Ian is BACK! Yay! lol But it is definitely not a frugal drive. About 4-5 hours one way. Drove the car instead of the gas guzzling jeep but that is still a lot of money.

ETA: Just looked on Cartwheel and there is a 10% off for Embark luggage! I can't remember if the luggage in question is Embark or not. I hope so!

I hit a few thrift stores this week. Found an LL Bean tote for $5, two Bean turtleneck shirts for $4 each (all these were new), Tom. Hilf. khakis for $7, a new Talbots blouse for $5, a really cute Talbots purse (has roosters on it, made in Italy with leather trim) for $5, new LL Bean rugby-type shirt for $4.

For some reason there's lot of new LL Bean stuff in thrift stores and I'm lucky enough to get them. They're timeless and should last a long time.

Must stay away from these places for awhile. Well, a few weeks at least. I'm afraid I'll miss a good deal.

Your deals are always amazing ponymom!

The girls and I started working on some embroidery UFOs last night. (unfinished objects, not embroidered UFOs, which I have actually done before :) )Mine is a big peacock wall hanging I started when the girls were little. I had invested a fair amount of time in it and discovered that I didn't like how a piece of it was turning out. I lost interest because I didn't have the heart to put in the time to redo it, but now, these many years later, the emotion is out of it and I can tackle it without frustration. I think it's going to be really pretty. It's funny how emotional crafting can be. Anyway it's frugal fun for me and will result in a frugal piece of wall art.

Yesterday was a no spend day and I anticipate another one today. My birthday present delivery for one of the girls best friends should arrive today, a $7 book on how to throw a flower fairy tea party, and my paper products and diapers should arrive tomorrow. I am really loving Amazon Prime so far. It's cutting back on my errand running time by a ton.

Wednesday mornings I watch my friends kids and we have a little "preschool time" for everyone. The big girls like to help and it's good social time for the little kids. Today we are making handprint turkeys and is am bringing out the Lincoln Log bin. We have Family Formation at church tonight and homeschool co-op on Friday so it's a busy week socially with no extra expense.

Well, it's a good think I decided to go ahead and get the suitcase. Ian got home today and the one he is using is absolutely shredded. Not sure what his other case looks like but I can't use it anyway since it is on the ship with the car and won't be home until January. The cartwheel coupon was useless though because the suitcase was the wrong brand.

Stella, congratulations! What happy news!!!


Don't have much to share right now...still having no drive days for myself until we test out my car. Had a no spend day for myself today and yesterday. Need a lot of new clothing but that will have to wait. I usually buy from Eddie Bauer but their clothing, especially tops, quality has gone down. My husband wore an Eddie Bauer shirt that he has had for over ten years, but a lot of the tops I bought in the summer are so thin they are see-through. Oh well when I am able I am going to buy the pants that Tradd talked about from LLBean and pick up a few tops.

Haven't cooked the last two days so we just had nice sandwiches for dinner and DH had some soup we had on hand. It was tempting to eat out, but we didn't do it!

We need to have the damper replaced on the fireplace. They make them differently now and they are supposed to be much more effective. It goes at the top of the flue. Instead of paying for one from a company, DH bought one himself and we will hire someone from Angie's list to install it for us. That will be good savings there...

Not very frugal days here - we spent a long weekend in DC visiting our son - the trip coincided with our 33rd anniversary! We got a good hotel deal and had pre-paid our train tickets but DC is not an inexpensive place to visit despite the free entertainment. But well worth to visit our son and his girlfriend.

My sister is here from Seattle now and we keep our costs pretty low. Did spend $5 on postcards/greeting cards at the Mpls Institute of Arts to send to family. What a great museum with free admission every day! We are having a Scrabble tournament of sorts - basically playing til we drop! Today we will meet up with another sister to do a little thrift shopping and lunch out.

She came along with us last night to serve dinner at church so we all got a great free meal!

Congrats to Kelli and Stella! What wonderful news!!!

I've really been struggling on the frugal front this summer. Things have just been turned up side down for months. BUT, I finally have a few to share....

I bought 48 packs of gum for $7.96. We will sell the bulk of it at work and my guys will enjoy a ton of cheap chewing too.

I used a $4 Kroger coupon and stocked up on those nasty ramen noodle things. Ds loves them. I got 20 packs for free.

I did 3 separate rebates this week for free: deodorant, pizza, and a cleaning product.

I booked our hotel room for Christmas. Its only $69 a night!

I called to pay a doctor bill today and received 50% off for taking the time to do so.

I have managed to lose 24 lbs this summer. I can now fit into the jeans I wore when I was 25 and dating dh. Last night we went through several boxes of old clothes and I tried on a ton of stuff. I have a brand new wardrobe. I even fit into a brand new winter jacket that I never wore before because it was too small. The best part is that most of these clothes are of much better quality that I've bought in more recent years so it feels like a real upgrade. Dh helped me clean out my closet, removing anything that was too big or too grungy looking to keep.

Staying home.:)

Hi folks...
I am still here just didn't get around to posting lately
---last Sunday was our yearly Library Book Sale...it was amazing this year...$3.00 a bag, I bought 3 bags and got
12 books (frugal, money, diet and mysteries) also, 50 magazines new enough 2011/2012 regular price they would have
average 5.00 each. No worries about winter reading or driving to the library in bad weather.
But, now I have to go to the Decluttering posts and confess I have brought in more then I have let go of....lol....a good bargain
is hard to pass up.
--cook at home all week, curries, and soup and leftovers.
--volunteering at Seniors home and walking there is my exercise and no drive/no spend day
--sold at pattern I had bought and never used for $2.00 for $10.00
That is all I can think of for now.

Tomorrow is the day our neighbourhood is bringing a meal for the teen homeless shelter. They sent a list of things the shelter requested and one of the options for a vegetable was green bean casserole. The mom in me was a little concerned that fresh veggies and salad aren't on the list. :( On the other hand, I have everything I just bought fried onions at Costco for cheap for Thanksgiving, so I have plenty on hand and I do have some canned green beans, so it will be inexpensive. I guess green bean casserole is still healthier than starving and they will probably eat it.

Stella you are right to worry but, I am sure they know what will get eaten best...bless you all for helping.

--Very large pot of soup from two roast chicken carcasses I had previously frozen, adding lots of veggie and lentils I
am sure it will last us for several days. Used up lots of bits and pieces I had froze along with a lot of veggie water.
--pulled out the warmer sheets and Pajamas to start wearing there is no denying winter IS here.

That's all I can think of today......

Nov 10
--finished the last of large pot of soup for breakfast and lunch
--got more then enough exercise working in yard, everything is ready for snow.
--clean furnace filters keeps the house cleaner and hopefully makes the furnace work better too.
--no drive and no spend day

HI, everyone. I have been desperately UNFRUGAL and need to get back on track. So I looked in here and discovered a new grandbaby and two upcoming new babies....what great news! Big congratulations to all...when I saw Kelli's news, I wondered if Stella had seen it and then to see Stella's news.....yahoo! I can see I need to check in more often, not only to get myself on track but to find out what's going on in the community.

Blessings to all....we are celebrating Remembrance Day today...frugal activity for sure.

Have two loads of wash on the line. Put rags out overnight and they were almost dry this morning, which was surprising, as it's chilly here, high 30s this am, it's about 40 now with a nice breeze. Paid some bills online. DH fixed our washer last week - the switch that won't let it pump out or spin with the lid up went bad and it thought the lid was up all the time. New switch was 35 bucks. No we have no switch and it works fine. No small children or animals helping with laundry (washer is in the basement, which is off-limits to company and animals, lol) so safety should not be an issue.