March 2015 Frugals

[Stella]

We have loads of frugal fun on our docket this week.

Tonight we are going to a friends house for a whole family slumber party. We are going to have homemade pizza and the kids will watch a movie while the adults hang out and play cards. In the morning, we will have an egg bake and go to mass at their church. In the afternoon we are picking up a couple of the kids' friends and taking them to an abbey to help the monks with their maple tapping for their maple syrup festival later this month. There is free hot cocoa and pastries.

Monday is Cheyenne's 11th birthday. 11! What the heck is that madness? The weather will be nice so we are going to try to get outside.

Tuesday we are meeting a group of other homeschool families at the free zoo. We will throw a few bucks in the donation bucket, but it's much, much cheaper than the other zoo.

Next Monday we are getting together with a few other homeschool families for a belated Pi Day party. We will have pizza, pie and some math activities. It should be fun.

[Ali]

I bought an almost brand new jacket from a local charity shop yesterday for the bargain price of £7 ($10.50) - it's brown cord, shaped in at the waist and fits like a dream. Today I went to a jumble sale with a friend of mine and for the princely sum of £1 ($1.50) I bought a dress, a skirt and four tops. I also splashed out on a cup of tea and a slice of cake whilst I was there :-)

[bke]

Thanks again RR!

Today is a no spending day. There isn't much else to report.

Stella, I think your family sleep over sounds like a lot of fun! I hope you enjoy yourselves.

[cdttmm]

It been a busy week and I was tempted to get take-out for dinner after hitting the gym this evening. But I didn't. I came home and made some butternut squash soup from the freezer (that has been in there since 2008!) and a hunk of homemade bread. It was actually quite a delicious meal and I'm glad I resisted the urge to get take-out.

Ate up another package of pasta from my infamous pasta stash. Gah! It was a spicy red pepper infused angel hair pasta and I now understand why I didn't eat it sooner (another package of pasta with a "best by" date from back in 2008) -- it was so spicy I could barely eat more than a few bites at a time. I'm glad it's gone now. Only seven pounds of pasta to go!!!

Bought dried cherries, almonds, and pumpkin seeds to make homemade trail mix. Way too many snacks being bought at work as of late. Hopefully this will help!

Made a batch of chocolate chip scones last night. Didn't really work out quite as I had envisioned, but they still taste pretty good. I suspect they won't last more than another 2 days!

Lots of food related frugals, but not much else. I'm sure there are other possible areas for frugality...will have to examine my habits and see what opportunities I can find!!!

[rosarugosa]

Ali: excellent score, especially if you needed those items!
CDTTMM: We succumbed to takeout last night - Kelly's for clam chowder, fried fish, scallops and shrimp, so not cheap either! However, this was the first time we got takeout in 2015, so I'm not going to feel too bad about it.
For actual frugal news, I just changed our electricity supplier from National Grid to ConEdison, with a rate change from .16 to .11 per KWH, so I think that's a win. It's a fixed rate for 22 months with no early termination penalty if a better deal comes along. I changed my Mom over as well.

[cdttmm]

Saved 10 cents per gallon when I filled the car with gas yesterday! And got free dog-sitting from some friends who agreed to watch my three pups while I was in NYC for the day. Plus came home with 3 dozen free farm fresh eggs from the farm's chickens yesterday. Woo-hoo!!!

[SteveinMN]

A real frugal (amidst a bunch of someday-not-very-frugal): neighbors of ours "inherited" some furniture from a parent who was moving, so the ripple-effect furniture was placed on the curb for free. DW spotted a dresser/sideboard which she thinks will work very well (with minor modifications) as a changing table/place to store grandchildren's supplies. Yes, it looks like we will be grandparents; DD and DSiL just told us Monday night.

Other frugals:
- had an onion-soup recipe that calls for sliced cooked chicken. We didn't have any on hand but really wanted to make the soup. I looked at the price of frozen factory-farmed chicken breast slices -- and bought a rotisserie chicken instead, which provided the required chicken as well as enough for dinner for us, lunch for me, and bones for soup someday.
- found a kibble for our dog that is better nutritionally than what she's been eating and about a dollar a pound cheaper, to boot. It also has the virtue of being semi-local, being manufactured in Wisconsin.
- AT&T discontinued the plan I've been using on my phone. I'm not comfortable dropping a level yet because some months we use the phone a lot. So I moved to the next plan up, $5 a month more, but with unlimited minutes and three times the data. And an auto-pay discount that erases the $5 a month higher price. So more service for the same price. Not a bad outcome.
- lots of no-drive days. Those long ago stopped automatically being no-spend days. But at least I'm not moving the car...

[Blackdog Lin]

I ended up having to run to "the city" by myself yesterday as DH wasn't up to going and it needed done. I spent the entire hour-and-a-half drive there thinking, since he wasn't with me "ooh, I can stop and shop here. Ooh, will have to check out there, haven't been there in years. Ooh ooh there's that place I've read about online with all the clothing bargains. Gotta check that out."

I didn't shop ANYWHERE except the necessary reasons (2 stops) for the trip. I even had stuff to drop off at Goodwill, thought I should go in and wander through, and couldn't talk myself into it: "what exactly do you need Lin? Well, since you asked.....nothing. But thanks for asking. Why don't we save the time and money and not go in after all. Fine."

I was pretty proud of myself. And gassed up the car at 10c/gallon less than what it is at home as an added bonus.

And today thought I should go to the store for veggies, didn't want to, so came up with a menu for tomorrow that will utilize the giant head of cabbage in the crisper that needs used at any rate. (anyone tried that skillet thing they call crackslaw?)

Awful glad to hear from both bke and Stella - welcome back.

[early morning]

Life has not been frugal lately so I'm looking for the little things.... DH was able to fix the diverter in the shower so that we can actually USE it again. DBIL is in hospice and we've been there a lot so I've been trying to eat before/after going to visit at least SOME of the time, although eating with family is an important thing and we are not in a position to eat at anyone's home during this time. Glad the snow seems to be over, so the urge to get another set of rims and snow tires for my poor little tractionless car is receding. Hopefully I can find a good deal over the summer so as to be ready for NEXT winter. Getting out of the lane was a real challenge this winter. Now we need gravel badly, and drain tile around the barn, and, and, and... *sigh*. Got my taxes done for free today, though, which is wonderful. Mom treated for lunch today (since we got her taxes done too!). Sold a few things at our antique booth. Bought coffee after visiting tonight using a gift card DH received for Christmas. Little things, but better than no things!

[rosarugosa]

Early: Sorry that your DBIL is so sick. Spending more on meals right now is certainly justifiable under the circumstances.