September Frugals

[Azure]

Thank you to everyone for the good thoughts & prayers. I really appreciate it.
Danna - I pray Sept. is a better month for you as well.
Kelli - Thanks for all your ideas. Ian is looking for a job on campus this year. Hopefully he'll find something soon. I don't want Tyler to have a job during the school year. He has enough going on already. He has a hard time with some subjects and he needs to finish drivers ed and retake the ACT. He doesn't need any more stress in his senior year lol
I am can't think of any kind of a home business I can do. I don't think I want to work recesses, I'm not real good with disciplining other peoples kids. And I remember the ladies from when my kids were in elementary school and they always looked so grouchy. lol Also not crazy about being a cashier. I'm not sure how much of my problem is fear, or lack of confidence and how much is laziness.

We took Ian back to school on Friday and on the way home we got a call that MIL was not doing well so we stopped to see her on the way home. She was doing terrible. We didn't think she was going to make it through the night. She did and was put on a new medicine that really helped her and she was looking much better on Saturday. But we aren't sure how much time she has left. So I went back and picked Ian up in Ann Arbor so he could visit with his grandma. Took him back on Sunday in time for a mandatory dorm meeting. MIL in still hanging in there.

So there hasn't been much frugalness going on around here. We're going through a lot of gas.

At the dollar tree I got some The Works tub cleaner. Not the kind in the spray bottle but the thicker stuff in the squirt bottle. I put the cleaner in a spray bottle about half & half with water and used it. It worked great that way.
I've been decluttering. Took a big box of clothes to Goodwill. Setting aside some things for a yard sale.
We're out of dish soap. I was going to go buy some today but I do have some Dr. Bronners I can use.
Friday is payday. We are out of fresh veggies except carrots & onions. Only about 1/3 loaf of bread. And we're out of cash. I am going to try my best to stay out of the store and make do with what we have. I made a loaf of bread last night. It is supposed to be sandwich bread. We'll see if DH & Tyler will use it. I don't think they've ever used homemade bread for anything but eating for it's own sake. We'll see how it goes.

[Azure]

I am jealous of your Stephanie Plum score, Amelia Jane. Those books crack me up. They are so totally improbable but so amusing.

Well, didn't stick to the no buying plans today. The homemade bread is great for toasting but kind of dry for sandwiches. And I didn't like the way the Dr. Bronners worked on the dishes. Maybe I used too much? But I got my favorite bread B1/G1 so it wasn't too bad.

I had defrosted a chicken so I roasted it and then used part of it for chicken pot pie. yum! I knew if I just served the roast chicken DH & DS would wolf the whole thing down. Now I have the other half for something else. And the carcass for stock. I also used up the last of the bag of frozen peas & carrots.

After I rest my feet for a bit I'm going to use up some bananas in muffins w/chocolate chips.

[early morning]

Yesterday was half-price day at my favorite thrift. I spent $6.50 total, and got 2 vintage wooden tennis rackets and 4 vintage badminton rackets (these will sell), a nice copy of Reader's Digest Practical Problem Solver (14 cents! I have one and will give this one to one of the kids), an unused journal (from the Smithsonian Museum store, with old floral prints), 6 mugs to use as gifts, 2 partial boxes of lovely Christmas cards, 3 silk scarves (I use these for lots of things), and 2 pillow shams for the sofa, or for DH's myriad of pillows. Of course then I had to run on down the road to our favorite non-local grocers, Jungle Jim's, (http://www.junglejims.com/) which is always an adventure. I managed to spend an unplanned $30 there, but bought some hard to find items, a couple bottles of interesting beer, etc. Actually I spent a lot more than that overall, but I was/will be reimbursed for all of it, and got points on my Visa card to boot. Today it was back to work with my packed lunch, coffee, water, and snack, and tomorrow will be the same. Watched a borrowed video tonight, and pulled together a fast dinner from leftovers. It's nice and cool here at the moment, so the air conditioners are off, yay!

[bke]

Hi everyone, I'm back in the game again. I just needed a break I guess. Now that school has started and we've gotten through our busy season at work, I feel like I can start focusing on being more frugal again.

Its cold in the house this morning but I refuse to turn the heat on. I have the door closed to the room I'm in to keep it as warm as possible.

I drank free coffee this morning while doing my video values for Rite Aid this month.

After spending $3500 in hospital costs last month and finding out that my mother has to have more surgery next week I have finally, after many years of trying, managed to go vegan. Some part of me just said, enough is enough, and I'm easily suceeding at doing this for the third week. I know that doesn't seem like much but it really feels like its gonna stick this time. I consider this a huge frugal because of the on-going health benefits of changing my habits. Plus, I'm spending less on food by not eating expensive meat and dairy products.

We are going out to dinner for free tonight-my parents treat. I'll probably be stuck with salad and not much else but that is ok-its my choice. My guys on the other hand, will have a nice prime rib dinner with all the fixings for free. A very nice indulgence for them.

I'm going to the library today to pick up more vegan cook books to look through. I like doing this and its much cheaper than buying them.

I'm doing swag codes and sweepstakes today for any freebies I might win. This is something else I haven't done much of lately. Its fun frugal entertainment.

Not much else to add for now. Hope everyone has a great day!

[fidgiegirl]

Nice to see you back, bke!

Not much to report here. A coworker gave me some crackers she didn't want to take home after generously providing food for a meeting. No one else wanted them, so I will have some with my leftover dinner tonight.

Not much else to report! Oh well!!

[rosarugosa]

Hey BKE, Glad to see you again. I was wondering if all was well. Is Swagbucks worthwhile? I recently signed up at Donna Freeman's behest, but at the rate I'm going, it's going to take me a year to earn a $5.00 Amazon gift card.

[Marianne]

I'm still getting tomatoes from the garden, so I'm still making spaghetti sauce, salsa, etc. I try to get enough in the freezer to last us a year. Nature doesn't always cooperate, though.

[Stella]

I am getting on a more frugal kick. I've been continuing to process tomatoes. This time I made a big batch of plain roasted tomatoes that I can add to soups, make a sauce with or add to chili.

Yesterday we went to Half Price Books to get a copy of Little House in the Big Woods. I have most of the Little House books, but over the years a few have been lost. I got it for $2.99. I wanted to own it rather than getting it from the library because if my kids are like me, those books are ones they will reread time and time again. So far they are loving it!

I also got an Usborne Encyclopedia of Oceans for $3.50. We're doing an ocean study prior to our California trip. This book also has links for each page on the publishers website. For example, on the shark page we can watch videos of different kinds of sharks or take a quiz about sharks.

The girls begged for a stamp kit on heirogyphics. It was $7 and I relented because it goes well with out Ancient Egypt study, but if they get bored of it we can give it to my nephew who is absolutely nuts about Egyptology. Yesterday they were writing each other secret messages in heiroglyphics and decoding them. It was hours of fun.

We also went to Harriet Alexander Nature Center yesterday. The kids loved it. They especially liked looking at all of the animal skeletons and pelts. We went walking on their marsh boardwalk and saw lots of butterflies. It was a nice, quiet afternoon.

Today I am going to take the kids to a playground in the morning so I can hopefully wear out the boys with fresh air and have time in the afternoon to work on laundry and read with the girls.

Tomorrow we are going raspberry picking with a friend of mine and having a picnic. We'll have raspberry dutch pancakes for our dinner.

We've been planning out our trips for the year to help keep costs down. We'll be hitting 18 states by March and we've gotten through planning for three of them. We are giving preference to free activities and inexpensive food places and double checking all of our memberships for reciprocity with museums in the places we are traveling to. We're staying with family members in several cities so that will cut down on the cost a bit.

We've decided that we won't buy any drinks on the trip (except for the odd coffee for tired grown up) but we will all have our water bottles with us. We'll try to eat out only once a day and when we are with my mom or grandma we will keep the eating out to a minimum and eat at home. We're going to keep healthy snacks like whole grain crackers, string cheese, fruit, trail mix, granola, veggies, raisins and peanut butter in the cooler so we can make meals from them. When we are in the Southern part of the U.S. (where it's not -10 in the winter) we will use Zach's mini propane grill or the camp stove for some meals. We can make hot dogs or hamburgers or, on the stove, breakfast. I could hardboil eggs for later. I'm aiming to keep the eating out for the month we are gone under $600.

[bke]

Rosa- I like swagbucks. I have it set up on my tool bar so its easy to access. I simply make a point of doing enough searches (often random stuff) to earn points on any given day. I also answer the daily poll and click on the survey page for a point even though I don't complete the surveys. I average about 10-12 points a day. At the moment I have 3265 in points and $10 in amazon.com gift certificates. In the past I have redeemed probably $20-25 in amazon gift certificates. I like books and know I can use the points towards free books if I so choose but will probably use my points towards Christmas presents.

I have been cooking up a storm this morning. I haven't been well prepared food wise the last two days and its making me hungry and cranky (just ask my dh-lol!) I made spaghetti marinara with vegan meatballs thinking it would be enough for two meals and then turned around and ate the whole thing in one sitting. I also made a batch of maple dijon potatoes and green beans that should last 3-4 meals. I have the last of a batch of vegan chocolate chip cookies in the oven as I type this. I should make it through the weekend pretty well now unless the guys decide that something looks tasty and helps me eat it.

We were given peppers and tomatoes by various people in the past few days. Dh made sauce and canned 8 jars this morning.

We recieved new last night that our school district was given a grant by the state that makes both breakfast and now lunch free for all enrolled students k-12. Meh, I won't look a gift horse in the mouth. Savings is $250- 300 a year I estimate.

While probably not actually a frugal, I bought some vegan cupcakes at a bakery about 45 minutes from home last night. They are so stale that I threw them away. Seriously poor quality! I emailed the ladies that own the bakery and politely told them how dissapointed I am because I would want someone to repect me enough to tell me.

Today is a no spend day.

[Bastelmutti]

We've decided that we won't buy any drinks on the trip (except for the odd coffee for tired grown up) but we will all have our water bottles with us. We'll try to eat out only once a day and when we are with my mom or grandma we will keep the eating out to a minimum and eat at home. We're going to keep healthy snacks like whole grain crackers, string cheese, fruit, trail mix, granola, veggies, raisins and peanut butter in the cooler so we can make meals from them. When we are in the Southern part of the U.S. (where it's not -10 in the winter) we will use Zach's mini propane grill or the camp stove for some meals. We can make hot dogs or hamburgers or, on the stove, breakfast. I could hardboil eggs for later. I'm aiming to keep the eating out for the month we are gone under $600.

I think I mentioned that on our long road-trip this summer, we brought our espresso maker and popcorn popper in a plastic tub along w/ other kitchen stuff, and we used them a lot. We also filled an iced tea dispenser every day (sometimes mixed with lemonade) and used our water bottles. Be aware that some places (Florida!!) have awful water from the tap, so we ended up buying water here and there, despite our best efforts.

Definitely try the hotel-room grilled cheese - bread and cheese wrapped in foil, grilled with the hotel-room clothes iron. Awesome! We also relied on hotel breakfasts a lot, but they were pretty dire. I would get some extra fruit and stuff to round those out if you book motels w/ "continental breakfast."

If you are stuck and need to do fast food sometime, I recommend Wendy's - we were working with a group that contained a celiac and a vegetarian & everyone could eat there. Even my hamburger-loving DD2 decided to have a baked potato one time instead of a burger. The salads are also pretty good as far as fast food goes.

Also, we planned a couple of special lunches/dinners out to try regional foods - we had BBQ in Alabama and seafood in Florida. Those splurges were worth it.

And two words - hotel. pool. Awesome fun at the end of a long day of driving!