August Frugals

[rosarugosa]

We've had a lot of really hot, humid weather, so I'm going to give us a pat on the back for avoiding restaurants and takeout. We did eat out once, but that was a pre-planned get together with a friend. We talked ourselves out of takeout yesterday and ate food we had in the house instead.

I went over budget on Chewy, but they had a deal where if you spent $100, you would get a $30 credit on your next order, so it should balance out next month, and we won't need to spend as much on cat food at the grocery store this month.

I greatly overestimated the cost of the sump pump replacement, so we were able to cash flow that with no problem in addition to the eyeglasses and exams. We have some big OOP medical expenses coming up this month, but it looks like we can cash flow those, and have some cash in reserve towards an upcoming vacation. So there have been a few things that I thought we would have to tap savings for, but we did not need to after all.

I've got my art purchase debt down to $812. It went down a little more slowly because I also spent money on some presents for DH's upcoming birthday. I bought them all on eBay though, so I got good value for my dollars!

[Tybee]

Great work!!

[happystuff]

Sounds like you are doing well, rr!

I'm not sure how frugal I've been. Went to Cosco with a sibling (I don't have a membership) and ended up spending over $100. BUT... we are stocked now in several basic food items that we use a lot. I also splurged a bit on one or two items, but... oh, well. LOL.

Going to the movies today with dh and child to see Twisters. Haven't been in a theater since Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - lol. Child has free passes so it's a "free" outing!

[rosarugosa]

Happy: If you don't go to Costco regularly, I don't know how you could visit one and not splurge at least a little bit! At least their products tend to be good quality and value.

[happystuff]

Happy: If you don't go to Costco regularly, I don't know how you could visit one and not splurge at least a little bit! At least their products tend to be good quality and value.

Yes, I definitely splurged - lol. BUt, as you said, I got some good products and the "bulk" will definitely last a bit and not need to be purchased from my regular grocery store. And I TOTALLY admit to having really enjoyed just walking around and looking at stuff. lol.

[rosarugosa]

We were probably one of the last households in the US using Verizon DSL for internet access. We were pretty happy with it until recently. One neighbor described DSL as having the speed one would expect from two hamsters running in a wheel, but everyone on social media in our town was always complaining about Comcast, so we were reasonably satisfied with what we had and didn't have much in the way of complaints.

About 2 months ago though, it seemed like one of the hamsters died and the other broke a leg. My laptop worked fine at my mother's house (Comcast), so the problem seemed to be with DSL. The last time we had issues, I worked with a Verizon rep via chat, got a new modem and then all was good, so I figured I would try that again.

Well the chat took over 2 hours this time and bottom line is that DSL is old tech without much support. I got handed off to 3 or 4 different reps, who kept suggesting products that upon further review, were not available in my area. I can't even begin to say how frustrated I was with that exercise in futility without a lot of profanity. (I did get a bunch of housework done while waiting for chat reps to respond, so it wasn't a total waste of time, but still so painful).

I had heard that T-Mobile recently became an option in my area for home internet with pretty favorable reviews. I had a very decent chat experience with T-Mobile, two days later we had our new router, got it set up pretty easily, and our internet service is so much better now.

The other factor was our landline. I know, I know, but we want to keep this number we've had for 40 years, and this is also the number my mother knows to call if she needs me, so I think I have some justification here beyond being an old stick in the mud who doesn't love change. Because we now would have only one service with Verizon, the cost of keeping a landline with them was going to be crazy. T-Mobile doesn't do home phones, but they recommended Ooma. After some online research and a brief chat and phone call, we have a device coming next week and we'll be able to port our number to Ooma.

So Verizon threw 40 years of goodwill out the window with my hideous chat experience. Good bye Verizon!

As for the frugal part, we had been paying $142 per month for phone and internet. Going forward, we'll be paying $65 per month to T-Mobile for internet, and we're getting a $200 special offer prepaid visa card from them. We'll be paying a little under $8 per month to Ooma, and we did have to pay $110. for a device from them (prepaid visa from T-Mobile more than covers that cost). So we'll be paying $69 per month less than we were before. We pay $16 each per month for our Tracfones, so total telecommunications cost for our household will be $105.

[happystuff]

Wow! A lot to go through, rr, but glad it all worked out to your benefit!

[RedSpruce]

Company was here for a week and left Friday. We provided accommodations. They provided all meals, entrance fees and gas costs. We had a great time travelling around showing them the area.

However, when they left we realized we were down to $200 in grocery money for the rest of the month for two of us. Hmmm…time to get creative. We now have $120 left, but food for two weeks at least. I want to do a pantry inventory and challenge. Seems we have lots of food in the house yet. I just am not sure what’s left to use.

[RedSpruce]

Pantry inventory and menu plan drawn up for the rest of the month.

phoned a store I purchased something from, and had to return via mail. They are refunding the item, but not shipping. That’s still puts me ahead by quite a lot.

Hubby received a cheque from the government for $1900, related to taxes. We decided to give each of us $400 and deposit the rest in our EF and savings account.

[rosarugosa]

RedSpruce: We often follow a similar strategy with unexpected $$, a portion to have fun with and then most of it to savings.