December Frugal's...last one for 2015!!

[cdttmm]

On an eat-up-all-the-food-in-the-house mission. It's going well, but tonight is the night to hit BJs so that I can take advantage of a load of coupons before they expire.

Just found out a reimbursement check for some work expenses will be available tomorrow, Friday. My very kind co-workers submitted the paperwork for me -- it was on my list of things to do and they beat me to it!

Getting two pots of tea out of 2 tsp of tea leaves with this new tea I just bought -- excellent quality. It's so great to be drinking green tea again!!!

Still using the Snuggle Safe heated discs that we have for the pets to justify keeping the thermostat at 58 degrees F. The cats seem happy so I don't feel compelled to keep the house any warmer. I can always just put on more clothes if I'm cold.

That's about it for the moment -- not much happening on the frugals front over here other than the usually daily stuff.

[Williamsmith]

I remember back in the 1970s turning down our thermostat into the low 60s, heating wih supplemental wood burning stoves installed in our fireplaces, wearing hooded sweatshirts and tossil caps, thick heavy socks, drinking lots of hot tea and cocoa, using electric blankets to get to sleep. But that was the Energy Crisis.

What at inspires you to keep your furnace turned so low and just how much money are you saving in the name of frugality? Or do you just like it that way......

[bthatch]

Dec 08 & 09
Welcome to the thread bthatch lots of great ideas and information here

--ate out with friends last night but, ordered two apps instead of a full meal and was more then full and really enjoyed.
--finishing up the pot of soup and chicken today....it went a really long way....froze several servings for later.
--volunteered for 6 hours today...they bought a light supper as we worked extra hours over supper time to move over
the new Gift Shop
--wrapped a few more Christmas gifts...have everything set up on the dining room table to I don't need to put it all away.

Thanks Danna!

[sylvia]

I am a firm believer of "eat up all the food in the house" , getting my family to do that is the problem.I donated a few boxes of Christmas decorations now I only have a large bin and two medium ones. YAY!!!I looked through Goodwill and couldnt believe how much Christmas stuff they have!!Tossed old papers and magazines for recycling and now time to try to pay off those smaller debts by th end of the year and get a fresh start in 2016!

[rosarugosa]

I have some frugals to report: Bus ride was free Friday night because pass reader was out of order. This wasn't anything clever on my part, but it did save me $3.65. I did a Pinecone Research survey yesterday and earned $3.00. DH & I took a long walk in the woods yesterday for free entertainment. We made a delicious frugal dinner at home last night. I made a salad, and DH made linguine and clam sauce. I'm always happy with oil & vinegar, but DH likes more salad dressing variety. I've found I can make some pretty easy creamy dressings with plain yogurt, olive oil, lemon juice, and some herbs & seasonings, and I think it's probably a bit healthier than the creamy dressings you can buy.
Groceries came in well within budget, and this is a non-Trader Joe's week, so we won't offset our restraint at TJ's. We will be going to Costco's today for our usual monthly run. I have the $150 gift card I got for an award at work. The trick will be to shop there as we usually do, and not be like, "hey, we have free extra money, do they have any special caviar offerings for the holidays?"

[Williamsmith]

Is it wrong to claim rewards points gift cards from a major credit card company I used to pay many of my bills this year. I had my credit union debit card compromised this year and an unauthorized charge of over $600 so I decided to use a major credit card for all my point of sale purchases so that if compromised it would be easier to rectify and less risky because it's not attached to a checking account. So after doing that, I just got $100 gift card. Frugal?

[rodeosweetheart]

Not sure if these are actually very frugal, but they are in the spirit--bought a 25 dollar Culver gift card, for which you received a free value basket, so we then had the value basket for dinner out--splitting it, since that is enough for two aging adults (darn it.)

Decided in lieu of writing a check to a charity on this paycheck for tithing I will put a dollar into every Salvation Army kettles I pass this season, so got off to a good start yesterday with 3 kettles passed. It's fun.

Contacting two Craigslist sellers about potential Ford F250's for my husband, since car he received from his brother now needs 1700 more work, and he could then get rid of the F150 from my dad (1988) and the van from his brother (2004.) Wish someone would give him a free F250.

[rosarugosa]

Williamsmith: I love playing around with credit card rewards! In my opinion, it is a frugal if you aren't spending more than you would spend with cash to get the rewards, and if you are paying your balance in full every month.
Rodeosweetheart: Is Culver a restaurant? I am unfamiliar with the name. I do the same with the SA kettles, although I'm a little conflicted since I don't agree with all of their program, and they are a religious organization. However, they truly did save a dear friend of mine who might have ended up in the streets otherwise, so I'll always be grateful for that. And those people are standing out there in the cold!
We had a flurry of errands to do today and we were disciplined and focused and stayed on task and within budget for everything. I bought two large bottles of POM juice (on my list) at Costco, and it was on sale for $2.70 less than their usual $8.99 price, so that was an unexpected savings. Despite the gift card, we actually spend less than usual at Costco. I'm going to move the money budgeted but not spent at Costco for the month into extra in the savings account (in fact, I think I'll do that right away before my good intentions get derailed). I needed a new laptop mouse (old one died). I had researched online and found that Sears had what I wanted for $5.00 less than Amazon, so that was one of my errands today. I declined the product insurance I was offered on this $12.99 item - are they serious? Does anyone insure their $13.00 purchases? Geesh!

[SteveinMN]

I decided to use a major credit card for all my point of sale purchases so that if compromised it would be easier to rectify and less risky because it's not attached to a checking account. So after doing that, I just got $100 gift card. Frugal?

So long as you're not paying interest on the purchases, I think it's frugal. You're just being rewarded for being a frequent customer. True, if you look all the way behind the curtain, products cost more because merchants charge to cover the cost of credit card transactions. But it's rare that you get a discount for paying with cash these days anyway.

[cdttmm]

What at inspires you to keep your furnace turned so low and just how much money are you saving in the name of frugality? Or do you just like it that way......

We heat with an outdoor wood boiler, so the less wood we have to burn the better IMO. And, we just generally like to keep the indoor temps lower than most. We find it easier to adjust to the outdoor temps when we leave the house for whatever reason.

I made the big shopping trip to BJs last week. Used a load of coupons to save money on things that we would have bought anyway. Plus, managed to upgrade our membership to the rewards membership, which will give us 2% back on all of our (qualifying) BJs purchases. I figure we'll recoup the $30 plus some so it was a good deal.

There has been a lot of free food at work lately so been saving a bit on food expenses in general. Of course, it's not always the healthiest of choices...

Got a nice little surprise from my other job -- a $25 gift card to a local grocery store. It's not a store we usually shop at, but it's not out of the way to go there so will use the gift card to get stuff we would have bought anyway. Considering that I've only worked enough hours at that job to make ~$200 this year, a $25 gift card is a pretty awesome bonus!

Made a Chinese inspired soup last night from ingredients we had on hand. Plenty of leftovers for today, too. Plus got motivated and baked two loaves of homemade bread.