rosa: Yes! I'm pretty sure you are right -- Honeybells sounds familiar! Hmmm...maybe I'll have to just try one to see what they are like. I just remember when I read the description in the card the first year we were going to receive them I didn't think they sounded like something I would be all that excited about. But maybe I should actually *try* something before declaring that I don't like it. LOL
The brain is wider than the sky. -- Emily Dickinson
Jan.13--No spend, though we did drive to visit Dad. Made enchilada casserole in the crock pot to use up lots of stuff from the freezer/pantry. Line dried laundry. Downloaded some free ebooks. Watched movies and read books from library. Found several books online that I want. Was tempted to buy them but will check interlibrary loan first. Supper tonight will be scalloped potatoes made with ham fr the freezer.
TMC, it's great to budget ahead. I would suggest, though, if you have not already thought of it, that you budget ahead for some bigger-ticket expenses. For example, a four-figure property tax bill arrives on our doorstep twice a year. Not the kind of payment we can swing in a random month and not the kind that can be put off, either. Car and house repairs also fit into this category. You may already be doing this. But, if not, month-to-month could yield some real surprises.
Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington
Originally Posted by SteveinMN
Thanks for your advice. Luckily we do already do this. We have automatic transfers into various savings accounts, college, taxes, home maintenance and have accumulated some pretty hefty 401K accounts.
Despite these savings I knew we still had a lot of leakage, little things that added up to a lot spent on what? Halfway through the month I'm very pleased with what I have found and eliminated. It will allow me to put more money where we want it to go.
This week I'm doing pretty well at using up leftovers. Well, when the boys were home there weren't a whole lot of leftovers lol So far I have used the remainder of the rotisserie chicken in chicken a la king.
DH used up some bagged salad for dinner on Monday. He heated up some chicken nuggets and tossed them into the salad for a filling dinner.
Last night I used up the leftover rice & soy sauce marinated chicken in fried rice. Yummy. Too bad we're out of kimchi
Tonight I think I'm going to put some diced ham into the leftover scalloped potatoes. Plus warm up the leftover chicken a la king. It'll be a leftover buffet .
Now I am very tired of chicken lol
I got some reduced price ground beef at Meijer so it was only $2.39/lb which is about the lowest I've seen it in some time. I'm thinking chili sounds good.
I noticed that we had Jif Hazelnut spread on clearance at work. And I remembered that there was a coupon on Cartwheel for Jif. So today I bought 3 jars using the cartwheel plus my employee discount and Red Card 5% and got them for $2.05 each. That should last me a while!
I washed a blanket last night and when I took my clothes out of the dryer I put the blanket in but didn't turn the dryer on, thinking the residual heat would dry it somewhat and today I am hanging the blanket to finish drying.
The only spending yesterday was my Dh's doctor visit co-pay. But it was a frugal because he has finally been taken off blood thinners which will save us a lot of money! Plus he can now take motrin for his arthritic pain which will be cheaper than what he had been prescribed. And it works better than the rx too. So Yay!
A few warm January days sure make it easier to keep the heating costs down for the month -- woo-hoo! Now if only they could be sunny as well so that our solar panels would provide more of our electricity...but I'll take what I can get!
I think I found a way to break my afternoon vending machine habit at work. We had a bunch of dark chocolate mint Lindt truffles in pantry. They are good, but not great and we got a little tired of them...I know, I know, how does one ever truly tire of dark chocolate? So I brought them to work and basically decided that if I need a chocolate/sugar fix in the afternoon then I need to eat from stash and not hit the vending machine. It's only been a few days, but so far it's working. My vending machine habit was only costing me about $5 per week, but $5 is $5 and I'd much rather save it then spend it!
We had students on campus today for orientation, which means we had a handful of student volunteers as well. Our office provided the volunteers with lunch, which meant I got free lunch, too. Not the healthiest of lunches (Mac-and-cheese, rolls with butter, salad, cookies and soda). There were lots of leftovers so I stashed the salad in fridge at work and will eat it tomorrow (although I'll bring my own salad dressing because I didn't like the one we had). Free lunch number two! I sent the leftover Mac-and-cheese home with one of the students who I know is a single mom. Most of our students are not too proud to accept the offer of leftovers, but I always want to be careful about making them feel uncomfortable. So I packaged up the leftovers in a way that it wasn't obvious what it was and then asked her if she thought her kids would want Mac-and-cheese for dinner. She said yes and thanked me for thinking of her. I felt good about helping her out and not letting the food go to waste.
The free lunches also mean that I've been able to out off grocery shopping for a few extra days. I don't care if the meal options are unusual for a few days if it means the next trip to the store can be that much more well thought out.
Doing well on my efforts to decrease the number of loads of laundry around here. It helps when my dearly beloved is out of town because I'll opt to wear something else rather than do laundry just because I want to wear a certain article of clothing. Him, not so much. Getting better about using the absolute minimum amount of detergent, too.
Watched a movie via Netflix last night. Definitely still getting our money's worth out of our Netflix subscription. But I really should log on to the library's website and check out those options as well. There are some movies I'd like to watch that aren't available on Netflix and I don't want to pay to rent them via iTunes if I don't have to.
The brain is wider than the sky. -- Emily Dickinson
Didn't get to make the scalloped potatoes since DH ended up not getting home from the doctor until 7 pm! He worked overtime last night and has physical therapy tonight, so I probably won't get it made today either. We've managed to eat at home despite all this, and the overtime pay will be nice, but I struggle to get dinner made and on the table after 14+ hours on my own with two fussy kids two and under who do not want to nap. The baby doesn't want to sleep at night, either, so I am really exhausted! Anyway, I went shopping yesterday and bought some quick and easy convenience foods. Not the cheapest, I know, but better than ordering in, which I am always on verge of doing when DH is gone all day and at night, too. Hats off to single parents everywhere. I have no idea how you do it...things have been this way since September when DH got hurt, and it's killing me!
My big score while out shopping was a bunch of kid's pjs clearanced out to $2.50 and $3.48. I stocked up and used my Red Card for another 5 percent off.
Hang in there Kat, it will get easier.
Its been a fairly quiet week around here. I filled in at work yesterday instead of taking the day off making pretty good tips and lowering payroll.
While at the store the other day, I noticed several empty Coke boxes by the recycling. I tore them apart and took home coke codes from nine 12 pks. and 2 cases.
We used coupons for dining out that night saving ourselves $10-13 dollars.
Gretchen Rubin-- The Happiness ProjectI didn't want to look back at the end of my life or after some great catastrophe and think, 'How happy I used to be then if only I'd realized it.'
I understand what you're saying about the convenience food, I feel guilty when I break down and buy convenience food too. But I have to say I think you did exactly the right thing. There is only so much of you to go around and it is still cheaper than eating out or takeout and probably healthier too.
Somedays if everybody is fed and fairly clean that's all the accomplishment you need.
Hi everyone!
Haven't felt particularly frugal this week. It's AMAZING how a lack of meal planning results in more spending and stress for us. I spent some time this evening making us a custom shopping list (since we order online, it was easy because they have our "master" list already in the system of everything we've bought in the last six months or some such time) so we can make the lists more easily. I am also going to make a list to hang on the fridge of meal ideas we have on hand. I don't like planning something for Monday, Tuesday, etc. because sometimes we just don't feel like making it that night. But if we at least know, ok, we bought the stuff for spaghetti one night, for burgers and home fries another night, for salads and soup another night, we can save the agonizing and feeling like "there's nothing in the house" desperation.
Hang in there, all . . .
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