View Full Version : January Frugals
May everyone have a creatively abundant, simple, and frugal New Year!
earthshepherd
12-31-10, 5:24pm
:cool: I am trying to cook from scratch all through January!
sugarbowlbaby
12-31-10, 5:26pm
What a great idea Ellen. I think I could actually pull that one off. Hmm, you've just given me something to ponder!
I made three batches of homemade granola today. Two are for home, one is for work. I also made a big batch of peanut sauce, half of which I used with homemade summer rolls for lunch and half of which I tossed with some rice noodles and broccoli slaw for lunch for the next two days at work. I also made a big batch of Senate Bean Soup that should give us dinner for tonight for everyone and dinner for tomorrow night for DH, James and myself. The girls will be out with Grandpa tomorrow night.
crunchycon
12-31-10, 7:07pm
Defrosted my freezer and inventoried. I now know what I have stockpiled for meals this month - it's amazing what I'd Half-forgotten!
CreekyAttic
12-31-10, 9:46pm
Deleted
January frugals.... where to start...
We did our budget for 2011 last night. I want this to be the year where we tell our money where to go and not the other way around. We are going to do a modified "envelope" system for groceries, household expenses, clothing, medical expenses, and a a few other categories. Other bills will be paid directly out of our checking account. I feel really good about starting the year this way, and hope I can maintain the discipline it will require.
January will be a month of eating down the pantry (moderately stocked) and freezer (well stocked), to funnel any extra funds towards debt reduction to jump start this goal. I will inventory this weekend.
I finally today was able to finish clearing away Christmas. It sure feels more spacious with the tree down. Also cleared up the remainder of the boys 2 day sleepover. And for the frugal - I found a quarter under the recliner a boy slept in lol Now that there's room we've got the card table up & a jigsaw puzzle started. We'll work on it over the weekend. So that's nice frugal fun. Bought the movie Stardust from the video store for $2 & we are watching that while we wait for midnight.
Got ds a few bowls & plates from Goodwill & a few pieces of silverware at the dollar store to take back to his dorm room.
I am dreading getting the electric bill next month. Not because the temps have been particularly low but because all the other usage. An extra computer plugged in. Boys up all hours playing video games. It's been great having everyone here but..... Guess I'll have to redouble my conservation efforts next month.
Happy New Year to you all! Best wishes for a year full of peace, good fortune & lots of love!
Ooh... can I join in? I got rid of the $10 monthly fee from my credit union by switching from Premium Checking to Value Checking. I just was not using the extra services that were available. Also, I got rid of HBO and Showtime. I enjoyed a free three month preview, but they are not worth paying an extra $24 a month for.
early morning
1-1-11, 1:07am
Ventured out to Aldi's today, and kept to my list, mostly. Generally I send DD alone, she's much more disciplined than I. Had to go to the evil Wally's for a tube of caulk, so I went ahead and picked up some greeting cards for next Christmas, and three tins Mom can use to give cereal snack to her neighbors next year. Holiday things were 75% off, but there was nothing else I needed or wanted, most of it was just crap - really!
I work most of the day today, but I have lunch, tea and snacks ready to go. I'm still feeling stuffy, so that will likely help me avoid getting treats like cocoa or a latte at work. It's Saturday, so we've got live music in the shop and I'm working with two of my favourite coworkers and our park supervisor, who is one of the most interesting people I know. Although, come to think of it I really love all of my coworkers. These mornings are usually pretty relaxing and fun for me, and I can't imagine we'll be too busy until later in the day with people sleeping in a bit today. Kind of like getting paid to spend time at a coffee shop with friends.
We now have a small white board that is erasable on our chest freezer with the inventory of what's inside. This way we can erase and change the numbers of items less and even add some to the bottom. Tried using a file card before which was difficult to update. I'm also in the cook from scratch challenge. Brought up chicken broth and bought some chicken breasts on sale and made soup and set aside some cooked chicken breast aside for sandwiches. Made rice to go with the soup and set it to one side. I don't like what the rice does if it's put in the soup pot...I also would do the same for noodles/pasta for soup.
We're planning another soup-in-your-socks party for Feb. We'll make 4 yummy soups and bread and friends will bring their appetites, appetizers, deserts and assorted beverages.
We also are planning to get our seed order in early and have found a site that has corners for making raised beds and we'll use trex or some kind of composite to make them last. These beds will go in our "front" yard where there is steady sunlight an increase our yield along with the back yard garden. We live in the boonies and don't really care if it isn't common practice to garden more than flowers in the front.
fidgiegirl
1-1-11, 11:26am
I wanted to go out this morning for breakfast (after going out to dinner last night, sheesh . . . ) but DH was too hungry so he put the kibosh to the idea. It's just as well.
Spent time yesterday organizing upstairs. Was embarrassed to find a pair of unworn, brand new sandals. Doh! Put them with the other sandals to get use out of them this year.
DH has brought in $60 from eBay/CL sales and has more listed. Good boy.
Here I am going to save up for a new bike in 2011. I have two cool used vintage ones but when it comes right down to it, I don't love riding either one. I figure each would sell for a bit (in the spring) since they are cool and in good working condition. Then I can put that, along with my other $$, toward a new one! That plus my technology committee pay from school should be enough!
We are going to power up our retirement contributions this year so our take home will go down. This forum may take on a renewed significance then. We will see!
Ooh... can I join in? I got rid of the $10 monthly fee from my credit union by switching from Premium Checking to Value Checking. I just was not using the extra services that were available. Also, I got rid of HBO and Showtime. I enjoyed a free three month preview, but they are not worth paying an extra $24 a month for.
Way to go Stacy! Good for you - rethinking things is always smart. I would like to drop our cable channels down to pay less but DH doesn't want to lose all his hunting & science channels.
New year, new forums. This is very exciting and so motivational. So today we hung around the house, took down the Christmas tree. and did some odds and ends. I recently inherited my grandmothers recipe books so I read all about Italian cooking and how their authentic meals differ from ours in America. I made Pizza Rustica for lunch and started with a light broth soup with escarole. Tonight it is fend for yourself leftovers.
I have been cleaning out the freezers and am looking forward to a very frugal grocery shopping month.
Tina
I organized the bookshelves in our office, which have to this time been all of DH's science books, and made a half shelf for my writing reference books so that I can work in there without having to go upstairs to look something up (and be distracted by 10 things on the way). This is frugal because I am certain that DH will rediscover books he had forgotten and be less tempted to acquire new ones. And maybe he'll even find a few he can bear to part with.
Our refrigerator died right before we were heading out of town and so on our return, the new refrigerator has very little in it. I've been managing meals for 3 days from our pantry and separate freezer, including a vegetarian dish for a potluck this afternoon.
Home again with DH after 2 weeks of visiting family. We made sandwiches and brought drinks with us for lunch on the trip so we didn't stop for fast food along the way. I've been really working on making dinners at home (before we went away) and making enough for 2 days each time; I really hope I can continue this in the new year. I'd love to be better at long range meal planning; I'm sure that would help a lot.
This past week I ordered a new water filter (Berkey) since our tap water is so atrocious tasting - and I like to drink water. I'd been buying bottled water, but not only was that expensive, but all the plastic bottles were troubling, even though they all are recycled. The Berkey filters will filter about 3,000 gallons each, and cost $99 for 2, compared to 70 cents/gallon from the store. The filter will pay for itself before the year is out.
And the filter will double as an emergency water source since they claim to filter out bacteria, virus particles, etc. in addition to all sorts of other things dissolved in water.
Another big savings about this was I did not order the $109 filtration structure that the filter was made to fit in, but rather drilled a 3/8 inch hole in the bottom of a plastic tupperware vessel, screwed in the bottom of the filter through the hole, and put it on a rack over a collecting gallon bottle. It is very simply, works very well. And the water makes the tap water taste good. I've also been using the filtered water for icecubes, tea, beef stock, oatmeal, etc. :)
earthshepherd
1-1-11, 4:53pm
We now have a small white board that is erasable on our chest freezer with the inventory of what's inside. This way we can erase and change the numbers of items less and even add some to the bottom.
This is brilliant! :doh: I think I will try this too! Thanks!!
hey everyone! great to see you here!!
i've just been having a great discussion with my fella and his folks about frugality -- they are black belt tightwads and were giving us some ideas on how to work together and save. my fella and i have been living together for almost a year, and it's taken that much time to get used to each others' different ways of doing things, but i think at this point we are ready to set some more detailed joint financial goals and work toward them with intention.
we set up a joint checking account before we left for scotland, to which we will both contribute a set amount per month to pay for household expenses, groceries, gas, etc. i came up with a budget that i think we can do if we set our minds to it. and honestly, seeing how his folks live has been a great motivator. they are not rich by any means, but have been able to retire debt free including no mortgage, and take some great holidays just by working together. hugely inspiring! i want to be like them in 20-30 years!
it's the first time either of us has had a trustworthy and responsible partner to work with, and we are excited to see how much further we can go with a little more attention and co-operation!
madeylou-would love to hear what your fellas folks said about how to work together and to save. trying to keep DH interested.
-planned the next 2 weeks meals
-spent the day at home
-ate leftovers for lunch and dinner
Mighty Frugal
1-1-11, 7:31pm
Had a low key, no cost NYE with my goobers and dh. Today has been pretty relaxing. Kids just played with their Christmas toys, and watched movies. I've been reading my new Chapters book (Protecting the Gift) I bought online-free shipping. I had a $25 coupon that I paid $10 for! Yeehaw
madgey that is excellent! We have been having a similar conversation today about working together and setting goals.
When Zach and I got married we were pretty young. I was 24 and he was 20. He'd been out of high school for all of a year and a half. Five minutes later we were pregnant and off to the races building our life and family, which has been super fabulous and I think we've done a pretty good job of it, but we definitely had some growing up to do. Nothing out of the ordinary, just the usual growing and maturing that happens in your twenties, figuring out how things work, adjusting to parenthood and all that.
We were talking tonight about how it feels like we've really reached a new phase together and we're more on the same page than we ever have been. When we first got married both of us were in that headspace you have when you are a kid that makes your daydreams seem far off and kind of unattainable. Now we've got some experience under our belts. We've got a little more confidence in our abilities and the day to day of family life isn't quite as daunting. We have good kids and a good marriage and we want to build on that and accomplish some further goals together. It kind of feels like learning to play an instrument or learning to cook. We had to put in some time to master the basic skills and gain experience, and now we're ready to let loose and use those skills to create something unique together as a family. We're ready to write our story. It's really exciting thinking about it.
Hello! I've put off grocery shopping for a couple of days now and have been eating from the pantry and freezer. I'm quite happy to have used up some of the leftovers from the freezer (some diced cooked turkey and spanish rice turned into a great fried rice for breakfast this morning).
Same old same old around here. Grocery store spent $47.27. Trying to stick to $50.00 a week so I'm right in line. Did stop at Target and buy Quicken. I want to keep track of categories in spending and I decided this was worth the price.
Other than that just working towards cleaning out, organized the pet supplies cabinet today. Found treats and heartworm medicine hiding in the back. Good, less I have to spend this month. ;)
Resisted the urge to eat out yesterday in spite of jetlag -- had a nice steak dinner at home instead for about 1/3 of what it would have cost to eat something less fancy out. I had thought about getting a couple of videos, but was too lazy to walk to the video shop -- turned out they were having a Harry Potter fest on HBO, so we watched that instead before conking out at about 7:00 pm. I hope we get over our jetlag soon...
lhamo
Jan 01 & 02
Starting and hoping to stay very frugal...
--used up due dated milk and three types of cheese to make 2 large casseroles of Mac and Cheese = Supper yesterday, lunch today and a lot for the freezer..
--box sitting a door as I undecorate from Christmas and giving a lot away
--all spreadsheets are finished up for 2010 and started for 2011
--bought a DVD for Dsil for her birthday in Feb. on sale for 1/2 price other then that two no spend days
Glad we are all here..
....We are trying to stay hopeful DH's appt at the Cancer Centre on Dec. 31 did not bring good news his kidney cancer has spread to both lungs
he is being put on a chemo drug therapy that we hope will work...all prayers and good wishes are more then welcome.....
1/1 - Stayed home, ate leftovers for lunch and cheese and crackers for dinner.
Today - went for a long walk at a local park. There was a $2 parking charge, but it was worth it to be able to walk in such a quiet and pretty place. Ate leftovers for lunch again today. Tonight will be cornbread, greens, and leftover adzuki beans. I'll have cornbread for the week, and enough leftovers for lunch tomorrow.
Big spend at our grocery delivery service today, but they were running a big special on meat so I scored several packages of roasts, chops, chicken, etc. that will go in the freezer.
Planned meals for the week and bought all the ingredients, including what I need for tortilla-making at work. While that's not a frugal, it's a load off my mind. I don't have to face the crowds at the mega grocery store to pick up the stuff.
Beef barley tonight with ingredients on-hand, including some produce that's about to go off.
I have decided to stay with my existing ski club rather than pay to join another, so that will save $100.
Not much else to report! Oh! Went swimming at my new favorite pool for $5. I like St. Paul Parks & Rec. Nice facilities for what I need and can't beat the price. I'm about to renew my fitness room privileges for an entire YEAR for $30. Beats having fitness equipment take up room in my teeny house, that's for sure! And no guilt if I don't go all summer because we're outside enjoying wonderful weather.
Back to work and back to routine. I think it will be good for all of us, especially Mr. Corky, the sweet doggy!!
@Danna, just looked back and saw your post. Very sorry to hear your news and sending supportive thoughts your way.
(((Danna)))
Thank you I am so needing them this week.. We are being hopeful but it has been hard...thanks again.
Danna..keeping you both in my thoughts...do try to keep your chins up!
Oh Danna, wishing the best for you and DH.
Mighty Frugal
1-2-11, 6:38pm
Danna, positive thoughts and prayers sent your way...
{{{{Danna}}}} That rots, big time.
Back on topic: found brand name tomato sauce on super special and way cheaper than the generic. Rolled out with two cases - that should last us about 6 months.
I also discovered www.thegreatcourses.com and bought a few. So far, I've been pleasantly surprised at the quality of the material and instructors. I had been looking for something to put in the DVD player for my morning exercise/stretch period, but just couldn't bring myself to buy an exercise DVD. Redeeming social content and learning opportunities for a fraction of the cost of a movie...
Danna I am sorry to hear the news. Prayers coming your way.
Yesterday was a quiet stay at home day. No driving. No spending. Worked on budgeting stuff.
Today I went to cvs to get the eggs that are on sale for $.99. I have $3. in cvs bucks - free eggs! Not so fast - not an egg in the store. >:( Since I was in the area I stopped at Meijer to return bottles & get some parmesan cheese for dinner. The cheese was on sale & there was a coupon for a free pack of Philly cream cheese w/purchase. Cool!
Dinner was pasta w/caramelized onions, salad & artisan bread. So good! And inexpensive.
In looking at the budget for the next 2-3 months I realized just how tight it is going to be. Several big expenses. I think I'm going to have to reduce the grocery budget. I'm not too happy about that. I think I need to change my attitude about it & try to make it a positive thing.
I saw that egg price Azure, I wonder if our locations will have any left. We go thru so many eggs!
Danna, I am really sorry. My thoughts are with you and your DH.
Azure, if Aldi is by you and if you don't already shop there. They have packs of shredded parm for a couple of dollars. Much cheaper than Meijer.
We spent the day in yesterday except for church, lovely service and maybe the Pastor was hungry but we were done in 45 minutes vs. over an hour. Returned two redbox videos, rented with codes from the Groupon deal and picked up a newspaper. Lot's of coupons for thing we use, like dish tabs!
Tracy
danna, i'm thinking good thoughts for your family. let us know how we can help!
just wanted to follow up with the folks who asked what tips my future inlaws gave us for saving money and working together. the biggest things were to have goals and track what you're spending, to talk about how you're doing quite often, and to make it fun. they know that ifthey save money, they get to go to portugal or the states (their two favorite places) which is a great motivator.
they also had some logistical tips, like freezing leftover immediately instead of just chucking them in the fridge. they also make big batches of food and freeze them so that they're never scrambling to put dinner together. a for-instance: they found shrimp on sale one day a few months ago and came home and made about 12 servings of prawn thermidor (shrimp, mashed potatoes, and bechamel sauce) and put them in the freezer. so for far less than one pub lunch out, they now have 12 servings of a very elegant dish available. they do this all the time, and they reorganize the freezer every few weeks to make sure that things get used up.
basically, it was all the same stuff that amy d. talks about in "the tightwad gazette." but it's really inspiring to see it in action for a couple of weeks.
in other news, we go home early tomorrow morning -- leaving for the airport at 3 am! eep! no sleep till pittsburgh! we are both excited to get home and level up our teamwork.
Jan 01 & 02
Starting and hoping to stay very frugal...
--used up due dated milk and three types of cheese to make 2 large casseroles of Mac and Cheese = Supper yesterday, lunch today and a lot for the freezer..
--box sitting a door as I undecorate from Christmas and giving a lot away
--all spreadsheets are finished up for 2010 and started for 2011
--bought a DVD for Dsil for her birthday in Feb. on sale for 1/2 price other then that two no spend days
Glad we are all here..
....We are trying to stay hopeful DH's appt at the Cancer Centre on Dec. 31 did not bring good news his kidney cancer has spread to both lungs
he is being put on a chemo drug therapy that we hope will work...all prayers and good wishes are more then welcome.....
My very best wishes to your family.
Yesterday was a quiet stay at home day. No driving. No spending. Worked on budgeting stuff.
Today I went to cvs to get the eggs that are on sale for $.99. I have $3. in cvs bucks - free eggs! Not so fast - not an egg in the store. >:( Since I was in the area I stopped at Meijer to return bottles & get some parmesan cheese for dinner. The cheese was on sale & there was a coupon for a free pack of Philly cream cheese w/purchase. Cool!
Dinner was pasta w/caramelized onions, salad & artisan bread. So good! And inexpensive.
In looking at the budget for the next 2-3 months I realized just how tight it is going to be. Several big expenses. I think I'm going to have to reduce the grocery budget. I'm not too happy about that. I think I need to change my attitude about it & try to make it a positive thing.
I was thinking two things when I read your post......I absolutely hate it when you go specifically for a sale item.....I always assume it is rogue out of control super couponers who cleared the shelf....the show TLC aired this week "Extreme Couponing" did not do much to change my feelings. :)
Also, we too are facing some big expenses of our choosing for the next several months and will be trimming the food budget as much as possible. I am trying to focus on healthy eating, using up what we have stored and being creative.....a personal challenge. Good Luck.
So I cooked up some sweet potatoes I have stored in the cellar and planned to make sweet potato pecan biscuits, they are great fresh and you can freeze them and than cook them as well. Of course I went to the store yesterday and neglected to get heavy cream for them.....wondering if I can just use milk.....any ideas? I refuse to spend $2.00 worth of gas to drive to the grocery store to buy something that will than put me over my $50.00 per week grocery limit. Yep, this is my biggest worry today......made me stop and think how thankful I am. :) But I still have the milk vs cream dilemma.....anyone?
Jonathan, good news! Libraries also carry the Great Courses! Don't spend any more $$$ without checking out if you can get them directly at your library or through inter-library loan. I work in a library and we have these with a sign that encourages people to expand their education for free and in their own free time. Think of it! Learning Art History in your jammies!
I've been wanting some cute little egg poachers I saw on a blog, but before I cave and spend money on something like that I'm experimenting with different tricks for poaching eggs. I love poached eggs, but they do get messy. This morning I used ramekins and found that to work relatively well.
This week we are back to school. I have just recently realized that we have not yet been to the newly remodeled library nearby. We got out of the habit of going to that library while it was closed for construction and it reopened this past summer. I think we are going to check it out sometime this week. I went online this morning to the library's website and copied down some events that were of interest to us, mostly stuff for the girls.
I saw that egg price Azure, I wonder if our locations will have any left. We go thru so many eggs!
Danna, I am really sorry. My thoughts are with you and your DH.
Azure, if Aldi is by you and if you don't already shop there. They have packs of shredded parm for a couple of dollars. Much cheaper than Meijer.
Tracy
I do shop at Aldi regularly. Is the parm. good? I would love to spend less on it - my DH goes through it like you wouldn't believe - but I've been burned by off-brand parm. before & I've been afraid to try it.
make sweet potato pecan biscuits, they are great fresh and you can freeze them and than cook them as well. Of course I went to the store yesterday and neglected to get heavy cream for them.....wondering if I can just use milk.....any ideas?
You could use 3/4 cup regular milk and 1/3 cup of butter to substitute for 1 cup of cream. (Increase or descrease proportionally if you need more or less cream.) I would mash the butter into the mixed dry ingredients first with a fork, add the other wet ingredients and then slowly add the milk incase you con't need all of it. If it's a skim milk you are likely to need less.
If you have sour cream, you could probably use an equal amount of that instead.
If necessary, you could freeze the sweet potatoes in recipe size portions until the next shopping trip or make something else like sweet potato pancakes or soup.
I have found Parm-Reggano :cool: there in chunk form (I am on the East side of the state, Macomb Michigan) and the brand I have been getting lately is their EdenVale Cheese Maker's Choice Shredded Parm. Cheese. It's in a round container. I think it's $2.99 for 5 ounces.
We finally hit the remodeled library today. It was really nice, although to be honest, except for the fact that they've made it greener, it wasn't functionally all that different than the old library. James got his first library card.
I've been researching some homeschool stuff today and I'm pretty sure I have enough material to last us quite a while without spending any money. We had been kicking around the idea of taking a field trip later this week to the MN Zoo, but decided to go to Como instead. Even with two free passes to the MN Zoo from the library we'd still be looking at $20 for the family and Como is free.
You could use 3/4 cup regular milk and 1/3 cup of butter to substitute for 1 cup of cream. (Increase or descrease proportionally if you need more or less cream.) I would mash the butter into the mixed dry ingredients first with a fork, add the other wet ingredients and then slowly add the milk incase you con't need all of it. If it's a skim milk you are likely to need less.
If you have sour cream, you could probably use an equal amount of that instead.
If necessary, you could freeze the sweet potatoes in recipe size portions until the next shopping trip or make something else like sweet potato pancakes or soup.
Thanks so much.....I will try the butter and milk mix....never occurred to me.
-- made soup and roasted sweet potatoes and beets yesterday, which turned a variety of marginal veggies into tasty food
-- cancelled my home phone and internet in Canada, since I am in Australia for the next 8 months at least, and possibly even longer than that. It went from $90+ per month down to $6.95 to keep my email address (which I need for work).
-- made soup and roasted sweet potatoes and beets yesterday, which turned a variety of marginal veggies into tasty food
Does not get much better than that!!!
Our family has a Y membership and one of the new "perks" is free Pilates classes to members. I took the first one last night and remembered why I loved taking them so much (It's been about 8 years).
Found still in really good shape jeans for my oldest at the thrift store on Saturday at their half off sale (they were $1.25 after the sale). Never enough jeans around here with those boys.
Stella, it's great to hear about the possibility of no additional expenses for school. How are the girls doing?
They are doing great Tracy. Homeschool has made such a huge improvement in our lives. Cheyenne is back to being her happy, helpful, positive old self again. It flows so naturally with us it's been really amazing.
There are a few things we want to get for homeschool, but we're asking family members to get them for Cheyenne for her birthday. A subscription to National Geographic for Kids and Ranger Rick, for example. At $15 each it's less than they usually spend on her and she would really enjoy it. Dad is switching his usual Children's Museum membership to James' birthday and getting Cheyenne a Historical Society membership and Bella either a MN Science Museum or MN Zoo membership. Those will give us tons and tons of opportunities for field trips for free. Other than those things, though, we really have had an easy time of coming up with stuff to do and learn about.
On the frugal front, Cheyenne has developed a habit of taking a long bath in the afternoons. Mostly I'm fine with this. It's her time to wind down, relax and rest. The problem is that she's going through shampoo at a furious rate. I know she loves to wash her hair and she loves the smell of our shampoo (Trader Joes Citrus), but we've got to slow it down a bit. I'm taking a cue from a tip I read from Amy D and a tip from the Frugal Family Fun blog and combining them. I've put a little shampoo in the bottom of one of those foaming hand soap dispensers and mixed the rest with water. She can use two pumps of the foam to wash her hair. It still has plenty of the nice citrus scent and it lathers just fine, but it will extend the shampoo a lot longer. Since she washes her hair almost everyday I don't think diluting it will hurt anything. It's probably better for her hair than the large amounts of shampoo she is apparently using now.
flowerseverywhere
1-4-11, 6:36pm
My dentist recommended a book- he had just gotten it at the bookstore, but my library had two copies sitting there! I get so used to the library I forget not everyone uses it.
A nephew announced at Christmas he will be a new dad- I made a fun quilt with a pattern I found on Youtube "one seam flying geese"
It was fun and fast and came out really cute. His wife will love it to. I'll see them next month at another nephew's wedding so will give it to them then instead of mailing it.
Nephew is getting married, DH suggested I make him a quilt as I have stacks of scraps. I got started and I think I'll finish it by the wedding.
Jan 4
Thank you all for your caring posts we are getting our heads around it all and will deal...
frugals for today
--leftovers from last nights fijta's tonight
--made myself a daily calendar from a $.50 journal
--line dried a load of towels inside
--did a little sorting in the big freezer---we need to not shop for serveral weeks
--smoothies for lunch with banana and berries from the freezer and milk due tomorrow
fidgiegirl
1-4-11, 11:01pm
@Stella, I got a little smile from your shampoo dilemma. :) Sounds like you've found an effective way to solve the issue with no nagging or fighting needed!
I should really turn in but wanted to just share that I am getting my second book off Paperback Swap. I had set it up weeks (months?) ago and now I'm getting one - a meditation book. That's good because I liked the book when I got it from the library, but it was sooooooo much that I couldn't get my head around it all. Now that it's going to be mine I can take it at my own pace.
Have a great night all!
reading through this thread, i am so glad that we seem to have made it over from the other boards more or less intact. so many great ideas and so much inspiration here!
we got home last night after a marathon travel session which actually wasn't all that bad in the scheme of things. all our flights were on time. the biggest bummer was having to go through security 3 times (once for each flight) and the fact that since we had to get up at 3 am scotland time to make the first flight, we were going through the whole 18 hours on almost no sleep. but i'm grateful that the weather was fine and there were no delays. it's so nice to be home!
ordered chinese food last night because there wasn't much in the house and we were too spent to cook. have lots of leftovers for lunch today. a quick look through the cupboard shows that we also have everything we need to make our favorite lentil soup, as well as yummy costco wild salmon filets in the freezer, so we're good for dinner tonight. will do some meal planning and shopping today for the rest of the week. i want to have the freezer stocked asap, because my company is about to go into beta production on jan 17th and i will be crazy busy.
one more thing -- my fella got me a highly rated espresso machine for christmas, so i'm going to figure that out today. even without an income, i still tend to stop in for coffee at my favorite place because i can't replicate it at home. now i think i'll be able to!
Yesterday was a no spend day.
Thankfully, we passed all inspections and the guys are hard at work, drywalling our new home.
I recieved coupons in the mail for 3 free excedrin products. I will purchase these and share them with whoever it seems appropriate. I have started keeping tylenol and cold medicine in the office at work for employees. These are items I get for free. I felt like I was giving away products I was buying for my own use and the cost was starting to bother me. By collecting the free items, there is no out of pocket expense and I don't judge anyone for never supplying their own. I think I'm going to do the same with tampons for those days when someone has an unexpected need.
Coffee this morning was a free sample from Folgers. Not great but the price was right. I have enough left for one more day.
I entered my coke points, collected more swag points and continue to do my quad readers stuff. I have gotten enough free postage stamps that I can use them at work as well as at home. Hopefully after the move, I won't have to buy postage stamps at all.
Monday - Lunch was a box of a Ramen noodle thing at work (purchase price was .50, but had a coupon for .50 off, so had gotten a bunch of these for free). Dinner had petite steaks (pkg of 10). Cooked 1/2 of them for dinner, along with cutting up some scrubbed potatoes for oven fries and sprinkled with herbs.
Tuesday - this will be the other 1/2 of the steaks cooked up. The side dish will be pasta salad that I had made on Sunday, so this should just about use the remainder of that. Lunch at work was a salad I brought from home (lettuce, tomato, hard boiled egg sliced, shredded cheddar and part of a cucumber) with homemade Italian dressing.
Wednesday - Will again be the same type of salad as above for work. Dinner will be skinless, boneless chicken breast sauteed then simmered in Cream of Celery Soup. Will make Brussel Sprouts as a side mixed with butter and ground nutmeg.
Thursday - Will oven-fry some more chicken breast. Will make a from scratch Ranch Potato Casserole (boil potatoes, cube into a baking dish, add a bottle of ranch dressing and 16 oz sour cream together and spread over the potatoes, then cover in shredded cheese and bake for 1/2 hour). For lunch - have not decided on what I'll be bringing yet.
Friday - Will take out some bacon and have BLT's for dinner. Carrot and celery sticks with dip will be the side dish. Any leftover bacon, I will make a Broccoli-Bacon salad with chopped onions (I make a coleslaw dressing that I pour over this). I'll use that for a Saturday side dish.
Saturday and Sunday - I haven't decided on yet. I will bake cookies for SO for his treats for his packed lunch for work. He prefers sandwiches for his lunch, so I make these daily. Also I had saved older Gatorade bottles and make homemade version of Gatorade for his lunch as well. It's a lot cheaper and you control the sweetness. (1/8 tsp. Morton Nu-Salt; 3/8 tsp. salt; 5 - 8 tablespoons sugar, 1 packet of unsweetened Kool-Aid or generic brand, mix with 64 oz of water and pour into containers). I use 5 tablespoons of sugar. Calculating the cost to be about .10 to .15 per 32 oz container instead of the on-sale price of $1.00 per 32 oz. Gatorade or off-sale, regular price of $1.50 per 32 oz Gatorade.
I went grocery shopping today and spent $105. Last week was $86 or something like that, so combined I'm doing fine on my monthly budget. Today's was a little higher because I splurged on some convenience-y things to keep from eating out the rest of the month. I got Trader Joes frozen Italian meatballs, a package of pot stickers, a box of roasted red pepper and tomato soup, a jar of organic marinara sauce and a jar of alfredo sauce. Any of those would be the start of an easy meal everyone would like and none of them were all that expensive. They would make a full meal for under $8 for 5-6 of us which is much cheaper than eating out.
I cleaned out the upstairs freezer and made an inventory list, inspired by someone here. Later today I'm going to clean out the fridge, which is mostly clean, but I want to rotate the stuff that needs to be used up to the front of the fridge. The kids and Zach gravitate towards the front of the fridge, so that will help things get used up.
I'm also going to do a little food prep today. I'm going to hard boil some eggs, make a big batch of summer rolls, a batch of crostini for bruschetta, a batch of asian style dressing (for a dipping sauce for the kids) and another batch of peanut sauce and another batch of granola.
I think I'm getting a good pattern down for daytime food. It took a while to get back on track after we started homeschool. Breakfast is always a big jar of smoothie and, if people want, an egg and toast, some yogurt, some oatmeal or some granola. Bella is my breakfast eater. She sleeps late and doesn't eat much at lunchtime. This used to bother me because I worried that she'd get hungry at afternoon Kindergarten, but they do have a snack there and she never complains. She's addicted to granola so I think between that and the smoothie she just gets really full.
Lunch is 2-3 things rotated through the week. This week I've been having either bruschetta or blue corn and veggie nachos. Some weeks are soup and summer rolls. Some weeks are crostini with blue cheese and raisin spread or bagels with cream cheese and veggies. There's always plain old pbj (whole wheat bread, natural peanut butter and homemade or farm made jam) and apples if neither option sounds appealing. Snacks are usually fruit, veggies, nuts, popcorn, edamame, yogurt or string cheese. Sometimes peanut butter or cheese on whole grain crackers. I keep a huge bowl full of bananas and a drawer in the fridge. Cheyenne is my grazer. She'll have a little here and a little there throughout the day. James eats in spurts. He's by far the hardest to predict.
Dinner is what it is. I make one thing and that's it. No arguing, no fussing from kids or parents. I don't care if they pick things out or don't take something they don't like, but they don't get seconds until they've eaten firsts of everything they took. It's pretty low drama. The kids are used to it so they don't whine.
I like this pattern. It's relatively healthy and relatively easy. The older kids are able to get their own food most of the time. It is easy to plan, which makes it easier to be frugal and the kids are able to clean up after themselves for the most part. I'm finding there isn't much food waste because for the most part we're just eating what we want. I'm good with that since the kids are choosing from healthy options.
I mended three sweaters that have been in my mending pile for a while. Also had a no-spend, no-drive day today.
The biggest thing (that I just learned about) will be that I've landed work on a project that can count as an internship this semester. This means I won't have to hunt an internship this summer - and won't have to pay extra tuition for it since I've already paid the max tuition for this semester. That's worth at least a thousand bucks right there.
early morning
1-5-11, 9:21pm
Hanging laundry in the house - too cold outside, not to mention it's DARK. Found some past-their-prime ****tail shrimp hiding in the freezer. Added them to some stir-fry teriyaki, and they were fine. Dropped off library books to avoid a fine, put a bag of trash out at Mom's. Sadly, none of that will off-set my payroll tax increase, since I can't pay into SS. Oh well...
Frugals so far this week:
Monday--made one trip to the strip mall where DD bought books w/ her Christmas gift card, DS#3 bought video games with his, and I bought DS#2 new winter boots. New boots are a little big, so might be able to wear them next year too. If not, they'll pass down to his brother. Entire trip took 40 minutes. I love how those kids shop.
Tuesday--drum instructor called off sick, so saved $20.
Wednesday--Free dinner at the hospital cafeteria w/ a coupon earned by being such a stellar (don't laugh) employee!
Except for the boots and groceries, have not spent any money yet this year.:cool:
I am just so bummed....I was trying to see how many days I could go without spending anything and I was doing great......today I was trying to figure out how to get a PDF file of the new David Bach book to my Kindle and not knowing what I was doing I sent it through e-mail and they charged me $1.80. Uggg. It was a free download available today only, and if I had just taken my time I figured out how to get it to the Kindle with the USB cable and that didn't cost me anything. Now a "free" book cost me $1.80. Oh well moving on, live and learn. Now at least I know how to do it.
Other than my learning experience I haven't spent one red cent in three days. Haven't left the house (I telecommute) so other than regular living expenses I haven't spent a dime and no gas usage. Woo Hoo!
Jan.05
--oatmeal with frozen berries for breakfast, smoothies with mostly just milk, yogourt and stuff from freezer, supper a cont. with about 1serving of chilli from freezer
added 1 leftover serving of fijta's from fridge and 1/2 cup of frozen corn. Served with toast, cheese and sour cream and it was very good.
that is all for today...I am eating out of pantry/freezer and fridge and have not shopped for anything since Dec. 28/10...
A somewhat frivolous but frugal discovery: I read that one could 'make' 'champagne' from inexpensive chardonnay using one of those CO2 chargers that are used to make soda water. I purchased one at a yard sale a couple years ago and today tried it on some 'good enough' chardonnay.
It works. http://www.simplelivingforum.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=136&d=1294375923
Next I think I'm going to try that on some 2-buck Chuck. ('Charles Shaw' - Trader Joe's least expensive, but OK wine at $2/bottle.)
@TMC, well at least it wasn't toooooooo painful a learning experience.
@Gina, tee hee, that's one of the more creative frugals I've heard of. ;)
I am making my own chai to take with me to work. I am so tired and reeeaaaalllly want to stop at Caribou, but my waistline AND my pocketbook will thank me.
Here we go again . . .
I like the champagne tip. Creative!
I am planning for a low-key day at home. We're going to work on the girls' room today while Daddy works on our room. We got on the subject of oceans the other day during a homeschool lesson, which brought up questions about salt, which brought up questions about crystals. I found a recipe for a science experiment making crystals from epsom salts, so we're going to do that today. I already had everything we needed for it.
I wasted $30 yesterday due to poor planning and a bad attitude. Dh and I failed to communicate about dinner. I was irritated when I went to Rite Aid and spent $10 more than planned. Then we went to McDonald's *shuddder* for dinner and spent another $20. Today we have dinner plans in place so we won't waste money dining out.
sugarbowlbaby
1-6-11, 1:05pm
This may not seem like a frugal right now but it will greatly pay off by the time Christmas rolls around again. I have been keeping my eyes open at Amazon.com for gifts for the kids and grandkids. I will more than likely buy items for the adults on my list as long as it is something I would by buying for them anyway. My only rule is that I don't pay full price for it and I don't place the order until I have $25 worth in my cart so I don't have to pay for shipping. Also, I'm not paying sales tax this way either. Actually, there were a couple of things I purchased at Walmart at an incredible price. I have budgeted this early expense in to my monthly spending so I'm not shorting anything else.
grandsons August birthday...Imaginext Lost Creatures Playset (was $29.99), paid $9.99
granddaughters December birthday...Baby Tickle me Elmo (was $29.97), paid $15
grandsons Christmas...Dragon World Fortress (was $49.97), paid $24
Zach is taking Cheyenne out walking to the store to get trash bags today. They both need a little fresh air and exercise and it gives him a chance to stop at Culvers with her for a treat. We have so many free ice cream coupons it's insane. He wants to get the kids in the habit of walking to run errands as much as possible.
Zach and I sat down and hammered out some financial goals for the coming year. It's actually pretty exciting. We've paid off my second to last student loan, the Big Monster, while deffering the last and we are now starting work on the last student loan. Our final debt. It's about $8,000, which feels a little daunting, but there is a good chance, if we can stay on track, that we can pay it off completely in about a year and a half.
first day back at work! and we realized that, even though our kickstarter project has been a huge success, the money we get is not going to keep us going very long! we ordered some stuff we needed today -- zippers, thread, fabric -- and got great deals on everything, which should help. i also picked up another sewing machine so i can stay up late into the night sewing in the comfort of my own home.
i could use your help/ideas on one small thing. my studio doesn't have a kitchen, and this time of year i want to eat a hot lunch. first i thought of buying a microwave, then a thermos. but seriously, stopping to think about it, this is the kind of problem i should be able to solve without spending any money.
so my idea is to take my chili tomorrow in a wide-mouthed pint mason jar, wrapped in a dishtowel or two and set inside a tote bag. if i put it on the radiator when i get to the office (usually about 20 minutes later) and perhaps run a bit over hot water over the outside when i'm ready to eat, it should at least be warm by lunchtime, right? or not.
anyone got ideas? or should i just shell out $20 for the thermos? :)
OK, I'm posting a lot today, but whatever. I need to get this off my chest. Cheyenne's birthday is coming in the middle of March, just about exactly when I am probably going to have her youngest brother. In the interest of sanity, I am giving myself permission not to host some crazy elaborate and creative party where I make everything myself and spend all of $30 because I'm frugal and virtuous.
I talked to her today and gave her a budget of $200 for her entire birthday. Presents, party and all. $100 of this will be the money my grandma sends her every year. We have a huge group of friends (really more like siblings and cousins than friends) who normally do birthday parties together, so I wanted to make sure we could make this work. We're talking 25 people plus three of Cheyenne's friends.
She and I researched her options online and I think she came up with a reasonable plan. Her one and only "thing" gift is going to be a pair of rollerblades and pads. $50 total.
She's splitting her parties into a "friend party" and a "family party." She's going to invite her sister, her best friend, two friends from school and her Dad to go rollerskating on a Saturday morning in February. That's $5 a person, $2 a person less than it would be any other time of the week, and 10AM-12PM is really long enough. That's $30. By inviting some of the younger kids to the rollerskating event we don't have to invite them to the family party, which is twice as expensive per person. We're up to $80.
The last Saturday in February everyone is going to come here for pizza, chips, kool-aid and a cake. The pizza will be from Little Caesars, $5 a pizza, five pizzas for a total of $25. I am asking one of my friends to make a cake in lieu of a birthday present for Cheyenne. She loves to bake for parties. This is one of those times where I'm going to take people up on their offer to help. $5 for aldi chips and cheetos and some kool-aid and we're at $110.
That evening Zach is going to take only kids age 5 and up (most are more like 10-12 years old) to a place that has unlimited laser tag, mini golf, bumper cars and other fun stuff for $10 a kid. The general rule in the group of friends is that adults pay for themselves at birthday parties and the laser tag place only charges if you are actually playing. Most parents won't. That's $90. If we did the actual birthday party package it would be $13 a kid and I'd still have to buy pizza for the adults and little kids. That alone would be more than $150.
So, $200 total, $100 from our pockets and birthday planning is officially off my plate. I don't have to think about it. I don't have to make anything. I don't even have to attend most of it. I get to sit my big pregnant butt at home and sleep knowing my kids are having a great time. It's more than I generally intend to spend on birthday parties, but given the circumstances I'm fine with it.
Madge I have an extra thermos I don't use. If it's not cost prohibitive to ship it to you I'd be happy to send it to you. E-mail me and let me know.
aw, thanks stella! i just emailed you.
i think you're very wise to sort out the details of the big birthday now before things get even crazier with the arrival of the new baby. plus it gives cheyenne 2 months to look forward to it!
@madgeylou, what is your business?
@stella, there you go. A perfect example of simpler-does-not-always-mean-cheaper. You have saved yourself a bunch of stress and given Miss Cheyenne a chance to plan and budget for herself! Yeah!
so my idea is to take my chili tomorrow in a wide-mouthed pint mason jar, wrapped in a dishtowel or two and set inside a tote bag. if i put it on the radiator when i get to the office (usually about 20 minutes later) and perhaps run a bit over hot water over the outside when i'm ready to eat, it should at least be warm by lunchtime, right? or not.
I don't know if it would get hot enough for eating, but a concern for me would be keeping food at a warm but not hot temperature for several hours. Perhaps not in chili, but in some foods, that could be an invitation for bacterial growth and food poisoning. :0
@fidgiegirl, i just added it to my sig! we are making cute custom vintage-style dresses in all sizes. we're just getting started so the URL leads to our kickstarter page right now, but we should have our real website up by the 17th.
@gina, good point -- i don't tend to think much about food poisoning, especially when food is sitting out for just a few hours. but it's a good thing to remember!
Jan 06
Madgeylou I think you should get the thermos...the rule is cold food needs to be kept cold and hot needs to be kept hot....
--first grocery shopping in a week and only spent $65.00 between Costco and Bulk Barn
--lunch and supper from freezer and still using up the mystery containers in there...lots of surprises and lots of good meals..
Even in a thermos, it can be a challenge to keep foods really hot. "Wet" foods like soup & chili seem to do best. I pack DD's lunch every day and what I do is fill the thermos with hot tap water to warm it, then with boiling water to get it as hot as possible... I heat the food until it is very hot and put it in the thermos, wrap it in a dish towel, and put it into the insulated lunch carrier. With all this prep, food is warm, but not HOT, at lunchtime.
...so, in short, I think a mason jar would be unlikely to keep your food hot. A possible solution might be to set a mason jar in a crock pot full of hot water, but that sounds like a big hassle compared to getting a thermos that will last for years.
This has not been a very frugal month. Our garage door opener died and we had to replace it in the coldest month of the year, but luckily DH was able to do the work. Our refrigerator died a few weeks ago and also required replacement. And the car's "check engine" light is on and I have to take it somewhere to get the diagnostic code read. Hoping it's nothing serious. DH and I both need new glasses, and I just learned that I need to have orthotics made.
*Sigh*
Aside from that, I'm doing all the usual frugal stuff. Homemade food for all of us, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. A healthy diet. Decluttering so it's easier to find and use what we already have. Wearing lots of layers.
Madgeylou, how about a crockpot? Do you have one laying around....if not I'm pretty sure you can get the little dipper ones for about $5 - $6. The last thermos I bought was $10.00 and that was a medium grade one from Target. The crock pot would be cheaper and would definitely keep your food hotter than even a thermos.
So disappointing, we have a Garmin GPS for traveling and it died today. My first thought was I really don't have it in the budget to replace it, and I was pretty upset that it is only about 18 months old. Than it occurred to me to check the website, they perfectly describe the problem we're having and that they do repairs....I'm waiting for a response to see how much the repair could cost, it has to be cheaper than a new one.
Paid some bills and realized that I have a little extra money at the end of our month so I set up a new direct deposit savings plan today. That will add up slowly but steadily.
Madgey I am going to mail out that thermos this weekend. Enjoy!
I have a bad sinus infection and Cheyenne saved the day today for dinner. She remembered that we had bought potstickers at Trader Joes and suggested having pot stickers and an asian noodle soup for dinner. We made the stock ourselves from veggies we had on hand, including some green onions and parsley that were about to go bad, some carrots, celery, ginger, garlic and a few whole cloves and whole peppecorns. The stock simmered while I went to the doctor and when I got home we strained the broth and added some pea pods and broccoli slaw that needed to be used up and some rice stick noodles. I added some chili flakes to mine. Healthy, easy, tasty and absolutely perfect for a day with a sinus infection. We had the chicken potstickers for some protein. Everyone loved it, even James, and we used up a bunch of veggies before they went bad.
We decided that we're going to make some extra asian-inspired stock this week to freeze for baby time. It's easy to add random veggies to and we could use the frozen potstickers in the soup if we wanted to make it even easier.
The auto repair place read the diagnostic code for free and suggested we turn off the "check engine" light and see if it comes back on. Yaay for them, I will definitely go back there.
Dinner was a really good stir-fry with some fresh & frozen veggies and cashews. Lunch was leftover lentil soup.
Stella, my DH and I used to refer to pho as "Vietnamese sinus medicine." Hot soup is great for a sinus infection.
Yumm Pho! It's our magic cure too...
So my frugal for today is this - I have a collection of tubes of my groovy organic version of chapstick, which are all at the point of my digging out the remainder to use it. I just got all 15 or so of them out, and, using a toothpick, dug out all the stubs of lip salve and put them in a tiny jar, and melted them together. Now I have a jar in my bedside table which will likely last a year or more. I've always hated throwing those out with product left in them...
Aaaagh -- left Seattle just over a week ago, and I'm craving pho already thanks to you guys. SOmeone post a recipe over on recipes, please :) There are a couple of places here that make it but not near home. Putting them on the list of restaurants to try with DH.
My MIL/FIL have come to Beijing so that MIL can get her heart problems diagnosed more definitively. Two of my SILs came along for moral support, and another will arrive in a couple of days. So much for sticking to a food budget this month -- four-five extra adults to feed for who knows how long! Good thing is they don't like Western food so we'll be eating mostly local dishes, which are generally cheaper to make. And we will also most likely not go out/order in much. So may save some there.
lhamo
As part of my challenge to myself to spend no more per month on food that the food stamp allotment for a family of four, I have not bought any convience store food/coffee, etc. My wallet has the exact same amount of cash that it did a week ago.....hmm.....I think I'm onto something.
Today is a work day for me and I'm taking my leftover summer rolls from the other day for lunch. Dad is taking the girls out for their Saturday night date, so Zach and I are having leftover soup for dinner.
Zach and my friend's dad are going to be working on finishing the basement, so another friend is watching the kids. In exchange we've offered to watch her kid on Martin Luther King Day since she generally has to pay someone for that. Zach is making grilled cheese for himself, my friend's dad, my friend and the kids for lunch. He makes a wicked grilled cheese, so it's kind of a treat even though it's cheap.
fidgiegirl
1-8-11, 11:38am
So my frugal for today is this - I have a collection of tubes of my groovy organic version of chapstick, which are all at the point of my digging out the remainder to use it. I just got all 15 or so of them out, and, using a toothpick, dug out all the stubs of lip salve and put them in a tiny jar, and melted them together. Now I have a jar in my bedside table which will likely last a year or more. I've always hated throwing those out with product left in them...
Smart!! That kind of thing adds up! You also saved on plastic packaging by not buying more until you completely used up the first ones.
fidgiegirl
1-8-11, 11:45am
We ordered Chinese last night from our fave place. We get it about every other month or so on a Friday night. Disappointingly, the portions were noticeably smaller. This bothers DH more than it does me, but still a bummer.
I wanted a coffeehouse coffee really badly all week, but made some at home every day. That satisfied me and also kept me a lot less wired. Strangely, though I was tired, a strong coffee would have made my stress at work greater because it makes me so jittery.
early morning
1-8-11, 12:34pm
Still doing all the normal stuff- lunch to work, take my own coffee for the drive, cook at home on the nights we are home, keep aware of gas prices and fill up at cheapest spot. Managed to eat/use up some leftovers that were getting questionable. Beefing up the calories for the (dumped here) barn cats by adding a spoonful of fat saved from the turkey carcass cook-off to their dry dinner. Got a large, 3 wick candle from DS for Christmas a year ago, and it has burned out the wicking with lots of wax left. DD and I cleaned out several nice candle jars and made 3 new candles from the wax. I wouldn't always bother to do this, but we love the smell of this candle! Looking at budget categories to try to cut to make up the difference of my tax increase, higher fuel oil prices, increased water charges, and the addition, sometime this year, of sewage charge, plus the cost of mandatory hook-up, destruction/backfill of our tank, BAH!
As part of my challenge to myself to spend no more per month on food that the food stamp allotment for a family of four, I have not bought any convience store food/coffee, etc. My wallet has the exact same amount of cash that it did a week ago.....hmm.....I think I'm onto something.
This is a GREAT idea! Is this for your family of four?
got to eat out last night for free (except for a tip) which was really nice. we have been cooking and eating at home other than that and making coffee at home, too. the espresso machine i got for christmas from my honey is AMAZING. the coffee is by far the best we've ever been able to make. this will make a shockingly huge savings for us, i think.
got a plan for tonight's dinner and lunches for next week -- will finish up our meal planning for next week tomorrow. i must spend a little time cooking this weekend!
stella, thanks again!
redfox--Yes. This is copied from my blog:
I am setting myself 2 large goals for the year. One is to save $1,000 per month toward the kid’s college educations. (Actually the 10 year goal is to do this for the next ten years, but I digress) The second goal is to spend less each month on food (eaten at home and out) than is the largest possible food stamp allotment for a family of four. This site http://www.ehow.com/how_5637204_calculate-food-stamp-allotment.html (http://www.ehow.com/how_5637204_calculate-food-stamp-allotment.html) gives the figure as $588 per month for a family of four. I am reducing that to $420 per month as my children only eat 60 meals out of an average 84 meals per month at my home. The rest they eat at their father’s home. Two of us pack lunches from home, two of us buy school lunches (which they could get free, if we qualified for the full food stamp allotment.) I am allow to drink the free coffee at work and eat cookies that a co-worker brings in, if I chose. If someone gives me a basket of food, I’ll donate it to the food bank. My purpose is to show that it’s not that hard or unhealthy to eat on the amount of the allotment if wise food choices are made.
My grocery bills are almost always lower than this figure. The big change for me is not buying soda and coffee when out.
Fawn - I am TOTALLY inspired! I'll present this to my DH tomorrow as we review our goals. Thanks.
I just found out that a friend of mine, Cheyenne's best friend's mom, has been in the hospital since Thursday with a head injury from a fall that included bleeding in her brain. I'm making a big batch of potato leek soup and some homemade bread to take over to their house for dinner tomorrow. I know they like potato soup and it's easy, inexpensive comfort food. I'm very worried about her.
-- Back from a business trip, thanks to the "no eating out" challenge I was able to spend significantly less on food than normal and still bring home the rest of the open packages of cereal and crackers that were part of my grocery shopping.
-- Set the air conditioner temp up 3* higher (I'm in an Australian summer now).
-- Hung up laundry to dry at the hotel even though I had access to a clothes dryer (I don't have one at home, and have noticed much less wear on my clothes in the last six months since I moved here).
Stella - I hope your friend recovers.
Thanks Terri!
I am making a big batch of steel cut oats for breakfast. I love steel cut oats. It's such a simple treat. Lunch will be more leftover summer rolls with sweet chili sauce and for dinner I'm making another batch of potato leek soup and some popovers. I work today so I want to have something easy when I get home and this uses some of the 20 lbs of potatoes I bought on a too-good-to-pass-up sale at Christmas.
I took some buttermilk I had frozen a few weeks back out of the freezer to make pancakes tomorrow night. I'm thinking either blueberry pancakes or banana pancakes with bacon. I'm rearranging my menu a bit. Tuesday will probably be clam chowder or turkey wild rice soup and homemade bread.
Had an unexpected savings when I called Progressive to adjust our billing date. Apparently because of the state we live in, we were eligible for a $120 savings/year on our policy by going paper free. Well that sounds awesome to me!
*still eating at home, tried out two new recipes. Need to tweak the first and for the second I need to find a cheaper price on some cheese that the dish called for (we really liked the meal). While cheaper than eating out, the meal really cost more than I normally spend on a home meal. We don't eat out often, so I don't know if I can really call it a true savings (though it was about $8 less than if we ate at Subway). If we ate out weekly or a few times a week yes, but it's more like once or twice a month for subway or panera.
*DH got another contract job! Always helpful.
*making up some cookies and mini muffins for snacks for the week.
My day to make soup for church - we do this once/month with 4 soups - and I made twice as many garbanzo beans as I needed so I have some for DD's lunch and my salads this week. The soup I made was modified from the Gypsy Soup in the Moosewood Cookbook - garbanzos and sweet potatoes, some vegetables, lots of spices. Very tasty, and everything was in the pantry.
Just got our utility bill for December, and I'm very happy with it! It was a fairly cold month (in other states it would qualify as bitter cold, but this is Minnesota so I have to qualify it), and I think that we saved about 30% compare to previous years between the insulation we added to the attic last year and the plastic I put on most of the windows this season. The plastic makes an unbelievable difference. We don't feel the cold air streaming off the windowsill when it's 10 degrees or colder outside, like we have in past years. Definitely worth the $10 in materials cost once/year.
I have been really focusing on our food budget this month in the hopes to have extra $$$ to put towards a home improvement project we are doing. We are finishing the basement and plan to pay cash to do so. We had some leftover 2x4s that were used just as braces when we built our barn in the fall so we have used those. We have some leftover faux stones that we will use to build the wall behind the woodstove. The woodstove we had installed when we built the house 7 years ago as we always knew we would finish it. So as I find some extra $$$ Dh is using it to buy materials. Our goal is to have it finished by Easter, paid for in cash and I am so lucky that DH is so handy and can do all the work himself. We built our house this way him and I, something we are very proud of, and although we couldn't do it in cash our mortgage isn't even half of what this home is worth because we did most of the labor ourselves. Thank goodness we are still healthy enough to do this.
@Rosemary, well done. You can reuse the plastic next year, too, at least we do with 3M brand. Just need new tape. Your soup also sounded awesome.
Rosemary, I've always been interested in trying the plastic, but cannot understand how it would work with shades and curtains. Your thoughts?
@TMC, I hope you will keep us updated on your farm project. I am feeling kind of adrift right now and would love any inspiration about future goals and the groundwork people are laying NOW to meet them. It sounds really neat what you are doing and what you could do.
Here an unfrugal day. Took Grandma out to lunch for Applebees, though that was her Christmas present and worth every penny (well, the time with her was. The food never is there, but she likes it . . . ). Then we went to Walgreens and were going to buy cough drops ($1) and ended up spending $28! :doh:
Well, at least we are set for lunches and meals for this week without having to go to the grocery store.
Rosarugosa, here's what I do with the plastic. I pull shades up. I apply the tape around the sides of the woodwork - the edges that are not facing you, and the bottom ledge of the window if it is wide. Put the plastic on. With a small pair of scissors, cut a hole where the pull cord for the shades is. With tweezers, reach in and pull out the cord. Reinforce the area around the hole with clear packing tape so that it won't rip farther, but is open sufficiently to use the shade. We have drapes on a few windows and I just use them in the normal way - the plastic in no way interferes with them, although it is easier to remove them from the window when applying the plastic.
Thanks, Rosemary, for taking the time to give such a useful and detailed answer!
TMC, increasing your farming sounds like fun!
-- Still eating at home, and keep putting off grocery shopping so have been eating out of the pantry and fridge/freezer. A lot of stuff is getting used up.
-- Repaired a flat tire, cheaper than replacing it. It's been a bad car week for me, flat tire last week and then today I got rear-ended (hard) on my way to work. I'm lucky to have good insurance which will pay for a rental while my car gets fixed.
I did not do so good this week. I am over on the grocery budget by about $25. First time in a few months that I've been over but still... I am quite annoyed with myself. Not sure where I went wrong. Well except for today - I was tired & forgot to get something out of the freezer for dinner so I went to the store & bought taco fixings.
The reason I am tired is that last night, just as I was getting the pizza bread out of the oven, we got a call from DD's house that she was having a seizure that had lasted for 10 minutes already. Ended up being 14 minutes all together. Plus she'd had an 8 minute seizure just 2 hours earlier. But the thing that freaked her care giver out was that one side of her face started drooping badly. So we ran to her house to see what was up. And ended up taking dd to the ER just to be on the safe side. She is ok. Though, when the nurse was trying to put in an IV he couldn't hit the vein. Kept poking around. Deja went into a seizure. Blood went everywhere. We have to up her meds & call her neurologist on Monday for a follow up appt. We were at the ER for 4 hours which is not too bad. We brought her home with us for the night. She was snoring by 1 or or so but I couldn't go to sleep. I was too nervous. So today - overspent on the grocery money. Not to mention baking chocolate chip cookies & eating way too many of them.
We were STARVING by the time we got home. Did not stop for fast food on the way home. Probably only because there were no fast food joints until we actually got back into town here. LOL And we did have pizza bread we could warm up and it was delish.
So I can not spend any more money on food this week! I think I can do it. Payday is Friday.
The electric bill which is due on the 24th was $20 less than I had estimated so I'm happy about that.
My sister brought over a whole bunch of chocolate covered pretzels that are still good but not as fresh as she likes to sell in her candy business. Tyler will be able to pass them out to his track team for a treat.
We've begin our austerity by cutting $20 per week out of our regular grocery bill. Next month we'll jump to $50 per week if all goes well.
We also started a menu planning calendar, alternating nights, and committing on the calendar what we're cooking. This will give us lunches the next day too. And we both locked up our one credit card AND our debit cards! We've started with the envelope system.
Our menu planning is based upon various grains as our main dish, with animal products no more than 2X a week (eggs on Sunday & a meat side mid week). We have the most awesome rice cooker and a cookbook which has recipes for cooking hundreds of things in it - risotto, polenta, buckwheat groats, etc. That and the crock pot will make winter meals sooo easy!
Then in March DH goes to Hawaii for work with his company for 10-12 weeks, and has a handsome per-diem. He will likely bring some home to add to savings, and it will be just me. I can eat very frugally while he's gone, and all our bills will be reduced. I'll miss him though!
I cleaned up the fridge yesterday while making snacks for the week. DH eats a couple of hardboiled eggs every morning so I took care of those and made mini blueberry muffins, mini chocolate chip muffins and some chocolate chips cookies. Snacks are all set for the week, I had all ingredients on hand except the chocolate chips. I did end up adding in some chopped chocolate for the remainder of the mini muffins as I used 2/3rds of the bag on the cookies. Oh I also added some leftover m and m's from Halloween to some of the cookies for my oldest.
Dinner was a hodge podge of salads, soup, home made bread, mac and cheese and little bit's of leftovers from the last couple of nights. Fridge is clean! I also managed to make up a couple of freezer lunches for DH with some odds and ends. Just had to boil some fresh noodles.
Stayed home except church yesterday. I have a return to do today and volunteer at school. Otherwise I can just get stuff done at home. My right hand isn't working so well right now due to a thumb/palm injury so everything is taking a bit longer to get done.
On thursday my DH had a bunch of photographers ove for show-and-tell and we were swamped with all kinds of extra yummy food and even beer. Last night we went to a party at friends house and they sent us off with an enormous amout of leftovers including a bottle of wine. Will assess what we have and set up a plan for eating it. Will only need to buy a few basics. DH is doing a small DIY electrical project for a friend and we will insist she pays us with fresh eggs from her chickens.
since i've been making an effort to be more transparent with my financee about our finances, i am noticing something about myself: i always want to pay for everything. i think this stems from a feeling that i'm financially better off than most of my friends and family, and so i should pay.
but (1) that's not really true any more (hello, no proper income for a year??) and (2) even if it were, that doesn't really mean that it's my job to pay for everything all the time.
another friend pointed out to me that i tend to leave ridiculously large tips as well, and i spose that's true -- i usually leave 20% as a baseline, a bit less if the service sucks, but never less than 15%.
thinking about this, i am coming to understand that it's kind of condescending to assume that i'm doing better than everyone else, and strikes me as more seeking-for-approval/taking control than pure generosity. i also have to admit that sometimes i feel resentful when others don't chip in at the level i think they should.
anyway, all this is to say that i think it will do me some good to focus on paying my fair share rather than the lion's share.
lunch is packed for today, todo list already has some items checked off, and it's not even 9 am. let's go, monday!
Madgeylou-While I thnk its wrong for you to feel like you have to be so generous to others with your money, please consider keeping your tips at 15-20% if the service is decent. Servers live off there tips. In the state I live in, minimum wage for servers is $2.60/hr. Oh, and if the service is lousy, don't tip or leave very little-there shouldn't be a reward for doing a bad job.
We found a set of practically new curtains and the decorative rod from a home we had 10 years ago. These will be perfect for the picture window in the new house. I'm not sure how much the savings is vs. a new set.
We've been selling tables and chairs from the restuarant-some in very good shape and others that are quite old. We've made $190 so far. Not a lot but some of the items have gone to places where they are really needed. One woman said her grandchildren had been eating dinner while sitting on cardboard boxes.
Madgey I am the same way. I don't know why, I make less money than most people I know. I guess it's a personality thing.
Zach and I added up how much money we have spent eating out in the last several months and I was a little shocked. It was almost $200 a month. This time period included two trips, two birthdays and two out of town guests, but it's still more than we want to spend. So far this month, thanks to the Eat at Home challenge, we've spent $8.15. That was on pie and coffee on a date night, so I'm OK with that. Date nights are important to us. Other than possibly attending the lasagne dinner at church at the end of the month and maybe one more date night treat, I am hoping to eat at home the rest of the month.
Our DIY basement remodel is one step closer to finished. The dressing room will be done by the end of the week! That is going to make laundry so much easier for us!
I am on a huge savings kick. We want to take the kids to see their Grandpa in Arkansas this summer, to their great-grandma's in Indiana this fall and to California when Zach graduates next winter, plus pay off my last student loan a year from this spring. That's an ambitious set of goals and I'm not 100% sure it's all going to happen, but I'm hopeful.
I'm making a list today of easy meals so I can have ingredients on hand when I have the new baby. Once a week for the next several weeks I'm going to make something to freeze. A lasagne or a soup or something like that. I'm going to make up a chart with meals and instructions to make it easy for Zach to take over food prep in the first couple of post-partum weeks. That should reduce the desire for take-out and keep things low-stress around here.
I am menu challenged. I was never able to coordinate a full week menu and made whatever came to mind. There were days I missed a good meal because I had no clue what to make so we'd eat out. This January I will create a monthly menu and put together my own cookbook of meals I do from scartch. I got some simple index cards and will write down whatever I am making. This is a big one for me, but I think I will improve that part of my life-I also stared a winter pantry in the basement where i have stocked up on things I use-tomatoe pastes etc.Bags of rice and macaroni. I also store my potatoes down there. It keeps everything nice and cool.
I made up a menu plan today for the entire month after I have the new baby. It's all easy stuff that doesn't require much work and could be completed by Zach if necessary. I made a list of things to make and freeze before the baby gets here, a list of the pantry and freezer items I'll need to complete the menu and a grocery list for each week with my staples (milk, bread, yogurt, etc.) and whatever perishables are required for that week's menu. I'm going to print it all up and put the menu on my bulletin board and the grocery lists in a folder on my desk. Zach and dad will be shown the folder so they'll know where it is.
The first week's worth of food will be stored in the upstairs freezer. The second, third and fourth weeks of food will be in the downstairs freezer in those huge ziplock bags sorted by week. So week 2, someone who isn't me (Zach, Dad, Mom if she's visiting, a friend who comes over to help) goes down to the freezer and grabs the bag labeled Week 2, brings it to the upstairs freezer, takes the list labeled Week 2 and goes to the store to get that stuff. Easy, healthy, still relatively frugal and totally hassle free for me.
Yeah. I'm crazy into the nesting right now. Crazy. :D
Called dd's house to check on her & heard she woke up feeling great this a.m. Called her neuro. to make the follow up appt. & was told that the Dr. is completely booked through July so they would have to talk to her & call me back. They did not call back >:( so I'll have to call again in the morning.
In frugal news - I had to run to the credit union so I decided to give Goodwill 1 more try in my search for winter boots. And apparently the 3rd time really is the charm! I had to get rid of my old boots because they were rubbing my heels so badly. The boys have a pair of outgrown boots that fit great so I was wearing them & the padding started bruising my leg. So I have been looking for boots at Goodwill, Walmart & Meijer without luck. Wore the new (to me) boots on my 2 mile walk with the dog. I think they are going to work out fine. And for only $5.99.
The trip to Lansing, however, turned out to be a waste of time & gas. But I have towels hanging to dry. Dinner was a roast chicken & roasted acorn squash, rice & 3 bean salad. I think I'm going to put the carcass in the freezer to use for broth later. The leftover chicken is in the fridge where I hope it will remain uneaten until I can use it for chicken spaghetti.
Made chewy granola bars & cut up celery for snacks.
Thanks for the menu tip Stella. That was really clever labeling in weeks.
Well it's a good thing I got things so well planned yesterday as I ended up in the hospital last night with high blood pressure. It's not preeclampsia right now, so that's good. My blood pressure spikes when I sit up or stand and is relieved when I lay down on my side, so I'm supposed to spend a lot of time laying down right now. It's not strict bedrest, but they want me to take it seriously and really rest.
Zach has decided to activate my month-long menu plan now. I'll need to adjust it a little, but it should mostly work. He said if necessary we can repeat the plan the following month. It would still mean not having the same thing more than once a month so it shouldn't get too boring.
Really, it's like I had a sense that something was wrong. I have Cheyenne's birthday entirely planned, a well organized meal plan in place, good, detailed lists of household duties and schedules in place and a plan for homeschool in place so that it's relativley easy at this point for me to hand the reigns over to other people. Our back-up plan if things get worse for me is to have my mom come and she would take my lists and rock them. She knows how to delegate.
adding ours if i can remember all of them; dh needed a winter coat; got $100.00 from his mom for xmas so the cut he got cost us 9.00
using gift cards at our major supermarket and they have lasted this long; 100.00 also. yes we are very lucky to have these gifts
its white sales and we looked at getting a mattress pad; a new one; looked at the old one and nixed that
dh said there was a leak in our camping mattress so we blew it up; started a fire and camped in front of the fireplace; well we left the camp mattress out thinking we were going to look for the leak; well it is still almost full; so no new air mattress!
i had a doctors appt.; dh dropped me off on the way to work and i walked home; oh and doc said he would see me back in 3 mths. i said no make that 6 mths. i have health problems but i am cutting back on my doc. visits; 20.00 a visit
stopped coffee and caffeine due to allergies; oh and cremer; so i have come up with warmed sugar water; not alot of sugar and have regular water as well; i have a sugar addictiion; you could put sugar on a cow pattie and i would probably eat it:)
free calendars from all the businesses; credit unions
we cooked at home all weekend; well a good part of last week
guess i will close there; but sure makes me feel good to write this down
Stella, hugs to you. I'm glad it's not a full bed rest situation but it still must be hard. Yeah, I'd say you were definitely some kind of an intuition thing.
early morning
1-11-11, 11:34pm
(((stella))) Best wishes headed your way! I actually spent money on clothes at a real store today. I'm feeling a little queasy about it, lol. But DD and Dsis went to Target this afternoon and got some really great buys, so after I got off work we went to a different one. I bought myself a robe, long and soft and fuzzy and HUGE- for $7.48. It's eggplant, and really pretty. Now I can pass on the one I salvaged from a friend's rag-bag. It's ugly and smaller than I like. I've not had a new new robe since DH bought me one before we got married (in 1977!). For DH I got slippers, 2 thermal shirts, a light-weight jacket, and a pair of PJ's (flannel pants, long-sleeve t-shirt) and spent $30 total, including tax. I think I'm ok with that. Other than that, I got free dessert today at lunch, since my boss bought a birthday cake for a co-worker. Dsis bought DD and I dinner and we split the coffee. Took my lunch, coffee, water. I drink more coffee at work, but the art teacher makes it in his storeroom. I watch for sales on the good stuff, and contribute a bag once a month or so.
I had my first push-back from a friend regarding my year of no-buying. He replied by saying, "Oh, yeah, I tried that..." and then listed his many reasons why his attempt failed. Everyone else I have mentioned my vow to has high-5'ed me.
My frugal today was to go around my sweet house and look at all the pretty things I've lovingly arranged, and just enjoy them. I plan to do that a lot this year! And when I find something I don't enjoy, off it goes.
Thanks for the good wishes guys!
i still have yet to spend money on anything non-essential since i came home! R and i are doing great on our budget and eating heathy food at home.
it snowed a bunch last night, and mu grandma has a dr. appt later, so i'm staying home and working from the couch until it's time to take her. i'm going to make some borscht and try not to drink espressos non-stop! this week is the calm before the storm -- next week our website opens up to all the folks who signed up to get shifts on kickstarter and it will be a busy couple of weeks fulfilling those orders. trying to get some easy meals into the freezer this week to make that easier.
Take care of yourself Stella-I hope the next few weeks go smoothly and safely for you and the baby.
We've been shopping for stuff for the new house. Blinds, closet hanger bars, etc, etc. Its so tempting to buy things when you find them instead of continuing to bargain hunt. We skipped out on purchasing the first curtains at $50a set and found some others for $15 a set. Needed 3 sets and saved $105. An area rug and unusually small bed side tables have also been on the list. We ended up at a furniture store after making several other stops. We found rugs and tables that we liked for about $1500.
We left there without making the purchase thinking we would probably be back the next day to purchase them. Our next stop was target (I never go to there for some reason) and we found rugs that we liked more than any others we had seen. We bought the curtains there, an 8x10 area rug, a matching runner rug, throw pillows for the couch to tie it all together and we only spent $345!
Then last night I found night stands on line that are the perfect size for about $75 less a piece then the ones at the furniture store. These have 3 drawers each to create some much needed storage space in the new bedroom.
Things are starting to come together little by little.
Madgey I am so excited about your new company! I'm giving myself some time to this coming year to lose some of my baby weight and then I am hoping to buy some nicer new clothes. I am seriously considering one of your dresses.
Today is the day we paint the dressing room. I still can't decide between two colours of blue, so I've been playing around on Behr's website trying to make a decision. The good news is I think I'd be happy with either one. Sigh. Maybe I'll call my mom and see what she thinks. Anyway, it's feeling so amazingly good to be at this point of the basement remodel. The shelves will be back up in there by the weekend and it will once again be a functional space. We still need to carpet, but that's going to wait until the bedroom is done too. All in all we will have added two full rooms of functional space for about $2500. Doing this has already saved us almost $16,000 by giving us the room to have my dad move in and relieving us of a lot of expenses for over a year. That's a pretty good return on our investment. I'm very pleased.
My next project is to find the perfect quilt. Part of me wants to make one and part of me wants to smack some sense into that other part of me and remind myself that this is not the time to start a project of that magnitude. I'm practically on bedrest. I may settle for a cheap white duvet cover that won't add anything or detract from my colour scheme and just call it good for a year.
Stella, I was talking about quilts to a friend of mine who sews - we both agree that making the pieced top is the easy part. Quilting a bed-sized quilt on a regular sewing machine is a tremendous pain, and there aren't a lot of sewing shops around here that have big quilting machines to rent. She commented that she's begun making duvet covers instead of quilts. She can still piece them but it's a lot easier to assemble them compared to a quilt.
However, given your situation, I am just providing this information and not suggesting a new project for you! :) Ikea has lots of duvet covers at reasonable prices.
Frugals - had a couple no-drive, no-spend days; have been busily organizing the house and devoting more time to writing. Cooking at home - even got through the weekend without a meal out. Today I'm making yogurt, and it's my friend's turn to cook dinner on our rotating schedule.
On the way to work, got the dog's county tag for $5.00. This needs to be done so that one does not get fined by the county. Most of my neighbors do not get the tag, but I don't want the chance of getting fined. Saves money in the long run.
Tonight I am getting a friend's church's bookkeeping records (need to be verified by a non-member) so I just make sure that all checks written are linked to an invoice from the last year -- earning $25.00 for a simple evening at home. Will be eating homemade leftover dinner from last evenings food.
For SO I had baked chocolate peanut butter chip cookies for his snack and lunch snack. I used one devils food cake mix that I had on hand, 1 egg, 1/3 cup vegetable oil and peanut butter chips that I had on hand. Mix all together and dropped by rounded tablespoon on to greased baking sheets - 325 for approx 10 min. Cooled 1-2 minutes and on to wire rack for complete cooling.
Looking at pantry items -- tunafish for sandwiches for remainder of week for him for lunch. Myself - homemade sesame seed bread with butter and a salad for lunch at work.
Finishing up blackberry gelatin with canned blackberries in it. Next dinner dessert may be a dessert salad using items in pantry -- lemon gelatin (dry form, not mixed with water) mixed into a Cool Whip (purchased for niece/nephew for their visit over the holidays, but they weren't able to come), sour cream - add drained pineapple and mandarin oranges and refrigerated for at least 2 hours.
Rosemary that's a great idea! I am probably going to borrow that one when I'm ready to make something.
Things are still going well with eating at home even though I'm not cooking much. Last night Zach made turkey burgers with avocado and a salad. I said this on another thread, but I'll say it here too. I think that this extended period of him learning how to cook is going to be so good for us in the long run. It's been hard being the only person in the house who is capable of making dinner. I really appreciate the attitude he's had about this whole thing. For some reason cooking seemed intimidating to him for a long time. By the time our new baby is a couple of months old I think Zach will be feeling pretty comfortable in the kitchen.
The kids being able to do the dishes makes a huge impact too. Just think, in five years there will be four people in this house capable of making dinner and six capable of washing dishes! Actually, I forgot my dad. He actually can cook, not that he ever does. Anyway, that is going to be sweet!
I was a little worried that going off of work so early in my pregnancy would make it difficult for us to save as much as we had planned, but Zach is getting a ton of calls lately for jobs, so it works out to even more money.
Last night we made a stop at Once Upon A Child (used kid's stuff) to see if they happened to have the baby gate we wanted. They didn't, but they were having a $1 sale, so we got a couple of pairs of jeans for the girls for $1. We also got James a nice set of shirts for church and the girls spent some of their Christmas money to get themselves each an outfit. Cheyenne spent $8.50 on a really pretty sparkly red dress that looks beautiful on her and Bella spent $6 on a really cute red ruffled skirt and a cute, kind of punky looking black shirt. She looks so cute in it. We ended up going to Target for the gate, where it was on clearance for about $30 less than we thought it was going to cost, so it ended up being a very good trip.
thanks for the kind words about my business, stella. i feel a lot like i did just before we launched our kickstarter project: anxious about whether people will like the fabrics we have, whether they'll think the dresses are as lovely as we hope they will, etc. but also excited to learn what our customers want. i'm trying to focus more on the wanting to learn than the anxiety. :)
i just got a load of slip fabrics (vintage slinky nylon) which are beautiful. i may have to make myself a slip today!!
we have a lot of snow, and i'm mostly writing and thinking today, so i elected to stay at home. some of my best ideas come while puttering around the house, doing laundry, washing dishes, etc. so that's my plan for today. stay home, try not to drink too much coffee, and think brilliant thoughts. yesterday i wrote a blog post about the joys of double-knit polyester and that was really fun -- i haven't written anything in a while.
at any rate, all that is to say that today should be another no-spend day. i have everything i need here at home!
Priced lenses for new glasses locally but ended up ordering them online again. An entire pair of new glasses can be bought for less than the sale cost of the high-index lens adder at local places - which probably farm out the work to similar operations, since it still takes 2 weeks to get glasses from them.
Organized the closet where I stash gift items and made a list of what I already have for the year's birthdays and other events. Cleaned up the gift bags and related items after the December whirlwind. Buying gifts ahead saves us about 50% on total costs for gifts, because I buy things when I see them, rather than dragging myself to the store to buy some unidentified item for a particular person - which is a torturous activity.
We are back on the envelope system again for food. DH likes to use the debit card to accrue air miles. I don't get a good sense of what we are spending on food when we do that.
fidgiegirl
1-13-11, 6:45pm
@Azure, how is DD?
@Stella, you sound like your spunky self - are you sure you're resting? ;)
Nice to catch up after a few days. I don't really have anything spectacularly frugal to report except that I renewed my fitness room membership at the rec center for $30 for this year. Can't beat that, even I go infrequently. We have made our food at home all week.
I did want to ask you all a favor: over the summer, on the old boards, one of you shared a delicious cookie recipe, I think it was from Diana in WI? Well, I saved it to my dead computer but lost it once that died. Anyone mind sharing again? Thanks girls!!
We haven't been hearing from bluerosemama anymore or much from Jeppy (now Yppej, right?). Pipe up if you are lurking!!
Today's frugals:
-Harangued the roofing company to get a tarp on the leak until the insurance company gets the claim processed so no more water coming into my house
-Had a free 2 hour consult with a financial planner, and discovered we have friends in common. She was AWESOME, and coached us through some decisions.
-We're eating out of the pantry, and sticking to our slimmer grocery budget & cash envelope plan, including dried beans.
-We got notice today that our water bill has dropped, and we now have an extra $200 a year to put into retirement. Yahoo.
-I am continuing to enjoy all the beautiful objects in my house and appreciating what I have already bought, thereby not buying anything else!
Thanks for asking FG! DD is doing fine. I think she bounced back faster than I did! Neuro office further annoyed me when I called back & learned that DD's dr. is out of the office for the week. Which is fine - except they didn't tell me that & apparently weren't going to call me back until the dr. returns. Talked to the nurse about some concerns. She was going to talk to the head of the clinic. But she never called me back either. So I called her back at 5 minutes to 5. :~)
Well, we paid our share of DS tuition before it was due on 12/31. Then we got a bill for another $971! :0 But I did not panic (well not more than a minute or 2 lol) & waited a few days & some more financial aid came through. Now we are at -$423!
Finally balanced the check book tonight. Balanced to the penny! Since I round up the check amounts there was an extra $24.93 to save. Yay!
I'll type the cookie receip up a little later today after errands. Yum!
Tracy
Yeah, fidgiegirl Zach called me out on that too. I am not good at resting and I am paying the price for it. He's arranging to have the kids go hang out at our friends' house on Saturday while he works so he knows I'll actually do what I'm supposed to. I tried to do way too much today and got bit in the butt.
Today I am going to be good and stay home in bed most of the day. We're all prepared now for me to pretty much camp out in the living room for a while. I'm going to do the reading and writing lessons with the girls in the morning. I can do that laying down. Zach is going to help them plant an amaryllis bulb that was on sale after the holidays and make some sprouts for salads and sandwiches for a science project. He's been the math teacher for about a month now (he's passionate about math and I'm not) so he'll do that too. He's been working with them learning about money, which involves a lot of calculating, but also planning and discussions on frugality, which seem to be going well. The other day Zach and Cheyenne were out and he realized he had forgotten his debit card and needed gas. He asked Cheyenne to borrow $20 until they got home and she asked him if he was going to pay her interest. :)
Cheyenne got her hair cut last night. They had a special at Fantastic Sams for $10 for a haircut and it looks so cute! This is going to make her hair so much easier to deal with! I kind of had a moment when I saw her with her cute new haircut in her pretty sparkly vintage-style dress she bought with her own money. She didn't look like such a little kid anymore. She's almost seven and Bella is 5 1/2 today.
He asked Cheyenne to borrow $20 until they got home and she asked him if he was going to pay her interest. LOL
You have very bright girls Stella.
Dh has been doing a great job of selling things we need to get rid of before the move. We recieved a $100 deposit on a riding lawn mower and another $21 towards more tables and chairs.
I on the other hand have simply been trying not to spend any more than necessary. I'm mainly pretending that Rite Aide doesn't exist as I almost always participate in buying their FAR items. Less in the house means less to move in a few weeks.
Recent whim I've resisted:
Buying 2 pair of jeans. (still have 2 pair that i reach for often)
Buying more vitamins. (still have more then enough to see me thru 'til nearly summer)
Buying vodka & olives for weekend enjoyment. (this was harder than the freakin' jeans & b-12...but there is already a bottle of pinot grigio chillin' for Golden Globes night!)
Buying more antiperspirant. (don't lean away when you read that. actually, i forgot to throw a new one in the card while shopping this week and i still using my crumbly Lady Mitchum)
Stella, I had no idea you were expecting another bundle! Wow, I really have been skimming the board for the last 6 months.
Madge, good luck with the new biz. Looking forward to seeing the online catalog of creations.
I am just going ahead and actually accepting people's offers of help. Tomorrow Zach is doing a big job for a friend and he is getting another friend who lives nearby to watch the kids. This will put a couple hundred bucks in our savings account, will be fun for the kids and because there will be a bunch of adults at the friend's house won't be too difficult for the friends either.
Sunday we are taking a friend up on an offer to have the girls go over to her house to watch movies with her kids so Zach can work on our basement. Monday Dad is home and is going to help out while Zach does a job for Dad's friend. More money for savings. Wednesday Zach has to stay late at school to make up for the fact that he's staying home Tuesday for my most-of-the-day series of Dr appointments so he's taking a neighbor up on her offer to have the kids hang out at her house for an afternoon. He'll make as much tomorrow as I would have made all next month of work, so that's a big help.
In a semi-frugal, I am going to ask my friend who cleans houses how much she'd charge to come once a week and just clean the kitchen, bathrooms and floors until a few weeks post-partum. I know she charges less than most places, so that's why it's semi-frugal. Also, I think it will be a big value for the money. It will keep a baseline of cleanliness that I think the rest of the family can then maintain and actually, if it frees Zach up to do jobs here and there, it will more than pay for itself.
fidgiegirl
1-14-11, 6:28pm
@mara, thanks!!
@Laurel, once I read that one can melt down the remains of old deodorants and combine them into one container, let it solidify and voila, able to use it all up! I have never tried but thought it was a good one. On a related note, I have also thought it would be an interesting exercise to have a thread about what we haven't bought, just like you just listed.
Here we used a Panera gift card for lunch. That's about it! There was a thread on the old boards about using up GCs and I want to still try to do it.
Looking at a three-day weekend with two meals out. But they are a good excuse to see family, so I find them worth it. I maaaaay have to have huevos rancheros. Eggs don't agree too well with my belly, but once in a while I indulge, and am craving these ever since I saw them advertised by the Byerly's restaurant.
Jan 14
Stella the mother in me here saying sorry you aren't well but glad to see you are at least trying to rest...
I haven't post all week but have been busy
--today at No Frills having their $1.00 days--many good buys, but the best was $1.00 a lb. for Pork Sirlion Roast limit of 2 but they were each 8 Lbs,
they are cooked up as a roast and one as pulled BBQ pork in the crock pot.
--family coming for a late Christmas get together so I am doing a whole turkey dinner with the $.77 a lb turkey bought in Nov.
I cooked it up today so we will have more time with them tomorrow. It is all craved, gravy made and soup pot on....
--fresh oven baked beans at Costco at $.97 for a large 2 litre cont., they are no preseratives, low fat the catch was they were due dated Jan25
but I still bought 6 cont. and froze them up into freezer bags for later use...great buy
--DH and I went out for a very nice supper, even had dessert using the gift card Dsil gave us for Christmas....I am not saving them but enjoying them now
--banana bread with bananas in the freezer
all I can think of for now...
Thanks Danna!
I have an entire day of nothing stretching before me. I'm excited and a little nervous. What does one do with an entire day of nothing? I'm thinking I'll nap, read, knit, maybe sew and embroider a little. I'm going to call my mom and a friend in California and talk uninterrupted. I might take a bath, read some blogs, or maybe even write a little. Dad is considering taking me out for dinner. Don't get me wrong, I love the energetic pace of our household on a normal day, but I literally can't remember the last time I had an entire day with nothing I had to do. It's going to be a lovely, laid back day.
okay i am back as these make me feel better; stayed at home one evening and i made a special snack and we listened to music; couldn't have had a better restaurant; today we got two new cd's, two dvd's and five books all for free at our local library!
always warms my heart to see these; how we are living so lovely but simpley
oh i forgot the best of all; neighbor was throwing away a piece of artwork; well i grabbed it up and we took out the artwork and put our $10.00 years ago poster gone warped into the frame and voila; framed and finished for zero dollars!
dh didn't say anything negative i was proud to see that i had picked up someone elses garbage; but man i mean it was an expensive frame; the picture wasn't my style either so that will be donated
I tried a new grocery store today, it was about 20%-40% cheaper for most things. I don't love the produce quality, but staples and canned goods will be coming from here from now on.
I bought a set of rechargeable batteries rather than continuing to buy batteries for the camera, flashlight, etc. It should pay for itself after about 6 months (and I will be here in Australia longer than that)
I'm using some leftovers to make into a pasta dinner tonight. The January eat at home challenge is still going well.
Not so frugal - had to replace my cell phone charger today since I left the old one in the hotel room in Brisbane earlier this week, when I was racing to pack and get out to the airport before flooding closed it down. It's my only work phone and I need to have it charged at all times. But I will cut myself some slack because it was a natural disaster that caused me to be forgetful. Odds are good that it will not happen again.
Got the freezer defrosted, moved inside from studio, and inventoried. Found enough in there for many meals! Nice...
Inventoried and rearranged the fridge freezer. Hoping DH will respect the placement of items in a logical order and keep them that way. Put list on paper and put paper inside of cupboard. Pulled food for the week...homemade pizza with grilled zucchini and pepperoni, leftover meatloaf for sandwiches or meal, made some turkey soup and also defrosted ham slices for meal/sandwiches. Made up a list to put on fridge to remind us both what to make. Friends who are great cooks have invited us for supper so no-brainer we're going! Will bring a bottle of wine and some freezer jam and hearty appetites! Got some great things at the swap shed so I cleaned them up and tomorrow they will go to the consignment shop. I may ask her for a check this week and put it aside as cash. We call an envelope in my bureau drawer the "bank of Merski" and leave some $ in it to pay for gas or something when the bank isn't open. We don't like ATMs.
Our annual Soup Party is Feb. 5 and already have a great bunch of people coming. We hardly spend any $ on this we have most of the ingredients for 4 soups. Friends will bring appetizers, bread, desserts and wine or beer. Great informal get-together.
early morning
1-16-11, 12:43pm
Balanced my checkbook and found a double entry for gas, so we're $20. richer than we thought, lol. Property tax bill was lower and reflected the credit we get for DH's disability. Not much, but helps offset my payroll tax increase (well, return to pre tax-cut level, anyway). Discovered the celery and an onion were way past prime, so chopped them up and made celery-tomato soup, and put some celery on a sheet to dry. Ate some odd leftovers for lunch yesterday and today - not wonderful, but filling. Still using up the 2nd bag of wood pellets as kitty litter. The cats have adjusted, there is NO odor even after the pellets have turned to sawdust, and cheaper then the rabbit food we'd been using. Still 100% field-friendly, which is most important. I have 3 indoor cats, 2 litter boxes, scoop daily, change every 2-3 weeks. I'm making a screen, so I can salvage usable pellet when I dump a box. Don't remember who posted that tip, but THANKS!!! (But the sheep aren't happy- they LOVED stinky rabbit pellets)
In the "best things in life are free" category, James went back to bed at 9AM today after a tough night with a cold and the girls get to watch TV on Sunday mornings, so Zach and I had breakfast and coffee together at the dining room table, just the two of us. It was nice and quiet and we had fun talking about our plans and dreams for the future.
After mass a friend of ours who is in charge of hospitality gave us a huge bag filled with leftover cookies and donuts. The donuts will be a treat tomorrow and the cookies are going in the freezer for future use.
James took another nap this afternoon and Zach and I napped too. Napping is my favourite frugal activity. It's such a luxury! Zach is making meatball sandwiches for dinner and we're going to play cards with the kids. This evening he is going to work on the basement and I am going to continue knitting the blankets I'm making for the kids. It's such a nice way to spend a Sunday.
DH set up a Roku unit so we can watch streaming movies from our Netflix account, now downgraded to a much cheaper subscription. The payback for this will be a few months, and we'll get other movies from the library. It's our frugal date strategy!
And, today is our 14th anniversary, so last night we had a wonderful date of beer & fish 'n' chips at a local pub, then went to the Picasso exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum - WOW! This is the best part of city living... It was great to know we've been frugal so we could afford an inexpensive night out. Neither of us are into compulsory gift-giving, so it was the perfect anniversary date!
My two dogs were going through dog food at a rapid pace and has been getting pricey to feed them. Now, whenever I am cooking something I know they can eat/nutritious for dogs, I make extra or I save the leftovers. (with picky eater dd, I can often end up with leftovers.) So now the pooches eat two or three home cooked meals a week, usually a rice base with leftover veggies and protein.
We are attending Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University a 2nd time (free). DH and I had a "budget committee meeting" tonight and we are whipping our budget into shape.
fidgiegirl
1-16-11, 10:33pm
@rvk62, how smart!!
@redfox, good idea with the Roku. We have thought of that, too, but no action yet.
My frugals for today were kind of more like "preventive maintenance" on our money. Pulled the credit reports and checked them. I am going to cancel one card that I never use. Also did a comparison of online savings accounts for our car fund. Our high yield checking has a limit for the big good rate and we are right around the limit. So we are going to maintain that account at the limit (it pays 2.6% or something like that) and siphon off surplus into this other account at 1.09%. If it's going to just sit in the bank (a good thing!) it might as well do something for us. Hoping to have a sizeable chunk for our next car when DH's goes (knock on wood).
Tomorrow I will insurance shop. Boo, but necessary. Might raise some deductibles to pay less premium. Thank God that now we have a good EF, we would be ok to pay a higher deductible.
We stopped at the store to get the ingredients for a specific dish last night and I managed to leave without purchasing a ton of extra stuff. Little by little the cupboards are emptying out.
Dh found a little end table in the garage. I have no idea when and where we inherited this scrappy litttle table. Dh sanded, reinforced, and stained it over the last few days using only items we already had at home. Now I have a lovely little table to put beside my chair to hold my books and magazines. Until now they've just been in a pile between my chair and the wall. THe table really turned out well too.
We are friends with a gentleman that owns a local mexican restaurant. We realized that he can get our favorite brand of tortillas at an inexpensive price through one of his suppliers. We used to order them from the manufacturer but the price got to be $40 with shipping and we stopped. Felipe can get them for $12.50! We brought home one case last night and he's going to order us another next week. Huge score for us!!!
In celebration of the tortillas dh is trying his hand at making carnitas and salsa verde today. I'm crossing my fingers that they turn out. This is one of the things we miss the most from living in Chicago. Any of you make carnitas and want to share your recipe? We simply searched on-line to find recipes that sounded similar to what we were used to eating. Dh has about 4 different recipes to try.
Today is totally not a frugal day. Zach did a job for a friend of my dad's today and we are spending every last penny to outfit the family room with large muscle equipment for the kids, especially James. I nearly had a literal hypertensive crisis this weekend watching him. We're in the middle of a Minnesota winter and that kid needs to move almost constantly. Most of the stuff currently inhabiting the family room will be moved to it's rightful location in the basement this week leaving the family room nearly empty. I never have known what to do with that room. We don't watch nearly enough TV to make it worth dedicating an entire room to it, so I think it's new function as a sort of indoor gym for kids is a good idea for now. I consulted with my mom, who has advanced degrees in child development, and she thinks it's a really good plan.
Yay, Stella! Sometimes expenditures support long term frugality. Your kids' health (and yours) is an important place to invest. BTW, when is your due date?
I went to the co-op today & got many bulk items & basics, and still stayed well under budget. I splurged on a scone there, and a pot roast on sale. It will proved several meals for us. I chose to forgo my fav soy vanilla creamer, as it's $3.50 for a quart! It's been a luxury, and now it's back to plain ol' moo juice.
redfox, do you have to have wireless internet for the Roku unit?
I went online and checked all my "points" cards to see if I had enough to get anything. By using my Airmiles I got about $1,000 of baby equipment for my daughter and son-in-law for their new baby. :) I didn't pay one dime - not even for shipping!!! That was the deal of the century.
Then I found I had $50 worth of points for a gift certificate for my same daughter for Zellers.
My Shopper's Drug Mart points got me $60 off!!!
That was a good shopping trip I'd say *patting myself on the back*. :D
redfox, do you have to have wireless internet for the Roku unit?
We got a modem as our Mac broadcast unit wasn't doing it...
And our hot water tank just went TU. Dammit. The recently partially populated ER fund will disappear tomorrow. <sigh> oh well.
fidgiegirl
1-17-11, 9:44pm
@Hattie, score! The points only save us money if we use them! :)
Redfox, sorry to hear about your hot water heater! That's a bummer! Thanks for the encouragement about the play stuff!
Hattie that is amazing! Congratulations on your new grandbaby!
Well it turns out to be a pretty good time to be shopping for toys. There were a lot of clearance deals out there. We got a pop-up tent and tunnel for $15, originally $30. We got ball-pit type balls to go in the tent for $10, originally $15. James likes tents, tunnels and ball pits when we go different places and so do the girls. We got a riding toy like the one James' best buddy has for $23, one of those Fisher Price popping vaccuum things (his favourite at his buddy's house) for $12 and hula hoops for the girls. I think those were $6. Oh, and a big red bouncy ball for $3. All the kids I know love those. We didn't even come close to spending all the money Zach earned today. I didn't get any climbing stuff, but I might watch craigslist for that kind of thing. I haven't decided yet if I really want to commit to that kind of a space hog.
We'll see how this goes.
http://www.energysavers.gov/
Very interesting US Dept. of Energy website comparing various energy saving options, plus tax credits.
redfox--that is very cool site. Thanks for sharing it.
Stella, everyone needs large muscle space in the winter! I use our treadmill far more than the tv. I am, in fact, walking on it right now. I'm sure the new model of room use will pay off. With my daughter being older now, there are fewer things like that which she can do in our limited space, but sometimes she'll go outside just for 10 minutes and trudge through the snow, or run up and down the stairs a few times.
Today will be a no-drive, no-spend day. DD is home sick.
Haha! Rosemary I do the same thing with the stairs. When the girls get squirrelly I tell them to run up and down the stairs 10 times. They actually like it. I think you guys are right. This isn't as unfrugal as it seems. The girls were looking at me like I had a second head when I told them we were going shopping to buy a bunch of toys. :)
Zach looked at the beams in the cieling of that room today and decided that we are going to add a $10 swing and $15 rope ladder and $10 hand rings from IKEA to the room. We'll use an old mattress as a cushion underneath the rings and put everything up high enough that James can't reach them.
So far it's serving its purpose. James has been happily riding on his riding toy for about half an hour. When everything else is set up they are going to have so much fun.
well, we're still holding steady, eating at home and keeping our spending to a minimum. i did go out for a glass of wine with one of my besties last night, and really enjoyed it!
the website for wear the shift launched yesterday, and i was really relieved that our beta testers seem to be finding stuff they like easily enough. i had nightmares that i'd get a whole bunch of emails like "your fabrics are heinous!" i think this is an idea that i can really make work if i can just connect with the right people ... which i have lots of ideas on.
i'm really motivated because i want to make some damn money! it's been too long.
early morning
1-18-11, 4:28pm
madgeylou, the shifts are wonderful!! Good luck on your launch. This hasn't been a frugal week - I ordered a specific, personalized memorial throw for my uncle's funeral, and had it sent rush - but that's why we pinch and save, after all - so we can do things that are important to us (and others, sometimes!). I am hoping that it will bring years of comfort to my aunt and cousins...which would make it more frugal than another basket of flowers. On another note, our thrift store visit netted DH 3 nearly new dress shirts, one of which he will wear to the funeral with a yard-sale suit and brogans. (The whole family isn't much on fashion trends - a suit is a suit, as long as it fits!) Also bought 2 ties for DH, a warm throw for all the cold people in my living room, 3 pillow shams for blanket/throw storage, several large florist vases to make our own arrangements in, a book for my classroom, an old home made rabbit pull toy, and some nice silk flowers that will wind up at the cemetery, whenever DH wants to go visiting. Spent $15, and I was OK with that. Ate leftovers most of the weekend. The celery I was trying to dry refused to cooperate so it was frozen into herb cubes. Today at work I was able to vist a book store to get some classroom books (thank-you Title 1!) and bought a book for DS for his birthday, a box of Christmas cards for DD, and a nice spiral journal for me, spending $10.
fidgiegirl
1-18-11, 6:46pm
@Stella - One thing people always seem to want to get rid of is those little mini trampolines. Now whether or not you want one is another question :)
A decidedly unfrugal 24 hours. No water yesterday, so off to the pub for cheap eats. Today, water. New hot water tank (could not afford tankless, darn it all), and the plumber took 2 payments - so kind of them! Nonetheless, $1650 was hard to do... but doable (850 now, 850 in a month.) And a local business, super cool folks.
I really need a shower! Luckily I could take the day off work, and utilized my time to make a pot roast, cook beans for chili later in the week, make bread, and clean up the flood mess from yesterday. Hot, home-baked rolls to go with the pot roast - nearly done! Yummmmm.
That's a good idea fidgiegirl!
Early morning, sorry to hear about your uncle. It sounds like you gave your relatives a wonderful gift.
I think hula hoops are my new best friend. Those cheap little toys have kept the girls doing active play for hours. They are so versatile. They can use them around their waist, around their arms, around their ankles, as a kind of jump rope, as a hole for beanbag tossing or part of an obstacle course. It's great.
The large muscle room was money well spent, I think. James has had about a 75% reduction in mayhem since we installed it. That's a huge help.
I'm on medication now that allows some of my restrictions to be lifted, although going to the doctor is now apparently my new part-time job. :( On the plus side I can take over some of the cooking and cleaning, so that will save us some money.
Stella ,
Your large muscle room sounds great - when I was a kid my best friends father hung two swings in their cold unfinished basement and we spent all winter down there just swinging up a storm.. I can remember rushing home from school so we could get swinging (and talking of course...after all that's what girls do!). It was a great winter pastime.
Jab
Thanks Jab! I am so excited at how that plan is working out. It's supposed to be -20 here tomorrow with -35 windchills so it will be really nice for the kids to have something to do with all their energy.
Last night Zach painted the dressing room half of the Never Ending DIY Basement Remodel! I am so excited there aren't words for it. Seeing him finish that half (minus the carpet) gives me much hope that the other half, our bedroom/my sewing room are actually going to be completed before the new baby arrives. Which, by the way, is likely about seven or eight weeks away. I don't think I've ever said this at the end of a pregnancy before, but that kind of snuck up on me. This weekend Zach is enlisting the help of two of our friends' tweener boys to help load up the truck to take away all the stuff we are getting rid of. They too need something to do with their energy in this weather so their moms are lending them to us for free.
I talked to my mom and she is planning to buy Cheyenne the magazine subscriptions I want for her for a birthday present. That will save me $45 or so and give us some good homeschooling material.
We somehow seem to have slowed down our milk consumption lately. That is going to save us a ton of money. We buy milk at a small family owned dairy and it's not cheap. I think it's partially because I'm not baking much. Home baked goods both use milk and almost demand a glass of milk to be served with them.
fidgiegirl
1-20-11, 8:42pm
I got about 15 books from the library today. Imagine my surprise when I went to the hold shelf and found that I had piecemeal reserved that many . . . I am previewing some bread books to see if I should buy any of them. Also got some Newbery Medal books since I have a new goal to read them all. I also got some IBS books and two of them look really good. Maybe I will find some answers to my gut problems.
It's been a frugal week: I haven't spent anything or been anywhere all week. Home with sick daughter. Taught her to sew yesterday and today we mended a couple of her clothing items together.
Rosemary I hope your DD feels better!
Fidgiegirl I had to laugh picturing you picking up all of those books. I've done that kind of thing before too.
I desperately needed to get out of the house yesterday so I went to my friend's house for some girl time. We watched a movie and just hung out talking until almost midnight. It was fun. Sometimes it feels like the only way to escape the house in the winter is to go somewhere and spend money. It's much easier in some ways to be frugal in the summer.
It's cold today, as my fellow Twin Citians can attest. I don't know this first-hand, mind you, because I'm not going outside today if it can be helped at all, but the weather report is not pretty. :) In anticipation of the brutal cold I bought some fun tropical fruits for a snack today. We're going to talk about the tropics and explore all the many uses of coconuts, one of the fruits I got for us to eat. I always think it's fun to see all the creative things people can do with one type of plant. The fruits weren't super cheap, but they weren't super expensive and I think we'll have some FFF and some good learning time with it.
earlymorning, thanks for the kind words about our shifts. we've got about a third of our beta testers' orders in at this point which is great. it's been a huge learning experience already, and we're getting better every day.
i haven't spent any non-essential money for more than 2 weeks now. kind of amazing, that. we've been eating in, drinking coffee at home, and working our way through some TV series on DVD at night. we're about to finish up season 1 of the sopranos -- i only watched a few episodes when it was on TV so am really enjoying it. it's a lot funnier than i remember!
there's quite a bit of snow on the ground right now, so i'm girding myself to head out into it. i have a lotta work to do and can only really do it at my studio. i think if i can get my car out of the alley where we park it, i'll be all right. otherwise i will grab a bus.
have a great weekend, y'all!
Thanks, Stella. I told my daughter that she had perfect timing - being sick during the coldest week of the year! It's actually been like a mini-vacation, staying inside in the warm house all week and not dealing with messy boots, coats, hats, gloves, scarves... and still being cold despite all of that. Her fever is finally down in the realm of normal, so I think we're on the end of the virus.
Despite that, DH is working from home today and I am going out to have lunch with friends. It's cheaper than therapy! :) I gladly admit that a solid week at home with a sick almost-8-year-old is vastly different than one with a 4-year-old-or-younger child. We had a lot of fun, and zero frustration.
Today's frugals: well, this one involved spending money, but I outfitted my daughter for next winter, including a down vest, plus bought two items for niece/nephew gifts, for a total of $18.50: big online Lands End sale and used my credit card cashback to buy an additional discount certificate for LE, which I immediately used.
Also sold another book on Amazon. This will bring my monthly earnings from book sales to nearly $70. I went through the book shelf again last night to do some more purging, but I don't think any of those will yield enough to be worth a trip to the post office.
HI everyone. Not too much to report here. We've mainly been frugal by eating what's in the house and not buying any more than necessary.
I did go to Rite Aid and get 3 rolls of toilet tissue for tax only-16 cents.
The cheapy lights we had bought for the new place look terrific. Seriously, no one would ever guess that we paid $12.50 a pair for these things!
We continue to purchase remodeling supplies on the credit card for the cash rebate. Of course, we're paying the card off in full each month.
My car insurance premium went up, so I reduced coverage to take it back down.
Cancelled my internet service and then was lucky to learn my building has free wifi anyway!
Got control of my grocery spending by making a COMPLETE list of foods for a month, drew cash out to pay for it and I have to stop shopping when the cash is gone. Plenty in the freezer for when that happens.
Did not renew my magazine subscription.
Found the least costly cell service for my situation.
Library books instead of buying.
I had passed a 'test' yesterday, early in my year of no-buying. I had things to drop off at Goodwill, and it has been my fav place to decompress after work. My corner bar, and just as addictive as a drink. I felt a strong pull to go in, and I didn't. The experience was palpable, I felt the pull physically. It was so interesting to just resist, drop off my donations, and go home. I am still pondering how I can shed a frustrating work day ion other ways...
rosarugosa
1-22-11, 5:44am
Redfox, Chocolate works for me!
The dressing room is done! The walls are all up and painted, the cieling is painted and the shelves are in place! I am so excited I could burst. By a week from Monday our bedroom will be finished except for the new carpeting also. Eeek! This is actually going to happen. We will actually have a bedroom of my own before the baby comes!
This makes things much more organized, which makes it easier to take care of things and easier to find things, which should make for much more efficiency in clothes buying. I have all of the kids clothes that are waiting to be grown into by someone organized by size into bankers boxes, so when I realize, for example, James, has reached size 2T, I can just pull out the box of 2T hand-me-downs, transfer the non-fitting 18 month clothes from his basket to the 18 month box and I'm ready to go.
I've sorted most of the linens into clear bins with an attached top (no losing the top now). Two for blankets, one for bath towels, one for beach towels, one for old towels (for spills, etc.), one for twin and crib sheets and one for full sheets. Smaller linens are in wire baskets like we have for our clothes. One for pillowcases, one for wash cloths, one for dish towels, one for cloth napkins, one for baby blankets and one for rags. Bed linens are stored near the top since I am still usually involved in changing them and towels, rags, dish cloths, wash cloths and napkins are stored near the bottom where the children can reach them. This should make it easier for people to use cloth instead of paper products for clean up. One of Cheyenne's daily chores is to check the linen drawer in the kitchen to make sure there are enough dish towels, wash cloths and rags and fill it if necessary. One of Bella's jobs is to change out the towels when needed and check the bathroom supplies. I think it's a good system.
I think I've narrowed down why I don't love the craft cabinet and table in my dining room. I'm not into the particular ccolour of wood they both are. It doesn't really fit with my style. The problem is that both of those pieces of furniture currently fall into the mine-but-not-mine category that has occasionally caused drama with my mom and grandma, who like them, but not enough to keep them at their house. Technically, they are now mine. They've been given to me and I've even been given permission to get rid of them, but what I really want to do is paint them, which might cause some hard feelings I'd like to avoid. OTOH I'm kind of over hand-holding people in their OCD about the value of stuff. Grandma has a spotless house because when she doesn't want something, but still sees it as beautiful and valuable, she foists it onto a relative. Mom is better about that, but still has some attachment. This stuff isnt' antique, I'm selling the antiques. I'm thinking of talking to my mom, the more reasonable of the two and the one this stuff belonged to last, and just telling her my plans to paint them. Explain that I don't want to spend money on new furniture and I actually like the style of these two pieces, but not the colour and that the alternative is that I'd be getting rid of them and getting something different. She may not freak out.
early morning
1-22-11, 11:40am
Stella, I really dislike the "I'm giving it to you but I still want to control it" thing. My mom used to do that all the time; she would give us something and if we got rid of it or changed it, be angry. She was also bad about giving us monetary gifts, and then specifying what we could do with the money. I think your plan to talk to your mom and then do what you need to do is a good one. My mother and I were never able to actually talk about things that involved any sort of divergent points of view, sadly. Painting furniture to make it more pleasing to you and your family is brilliant and frugal, IMHO! This has not been a frugal week for us, but I've managed to pack lunch for each workday, and pull together quick dinners when we managed to make it home. Car-pooled a bit for family events. Resisted the thought that I "should" buy a new shirt and slacks for Unc's funeral. I have plenty of clothes, but not a lot of nice clothes. But, I think I looked fine, and no one seemed to care :) . I did find a new pair of black flats in my closet, which was great, since my old dressier shoes leak terribly. Here's hoping tomorrow will be a no-spend day, as there's no chance of that today.
Finally made my own laundry soap. Pretty easy and works well. Continue tweeking meal ideas to stretch the grocery dollars..lots of slow-cooker meals, creative left-overs, getting the most out of every grocery item purchased or grown.
On other people's cherished stuff: My parents gave me a lot of stuff over a period of time when they were downsizing. I kept it in boxes in closets. When we were moving last time, I finally decided that I wasn't going to use it and there was no point in paying to move it and then having to find space for it. I haven't regretted getting rid of it. My parents probably assume it's still packed away in boxes. Anyway, Stella, the table is yours now and you should make it work for you. There are several furniture stripping products that are available now that aren't as toxic, should you want to stain it a different shade. I'm thinking that stain might be a longer-lasting finish than paint for a heavy use item like a dining table, if it's just the shade of wood that's the problem. Either way, redoing the furniture to make it yours is a great summer project.
Another at-home, no-spend day. DD is mostly over the bug; I've got a lighter version of it. I went "shopping" in our freezer this morning and pulled out some things to thaw for the next few days. I've been making a gift for my best friend's birthday. Sold yet another book on Amazon; up to $85 this month.
Having a very tight money month this month due to unexpected bill. Mostly staying frugal by only eating from home ...with a supplementary treat from the Starbucks card I recvd for Christmas. Having to be so careful this month has really put some decisions into focus. Decided to go in with a group of friends to purchase a gift for our mutual friend's 40th birthday. My friend who was organizing asked if everyone could donate $50-60 to the gift (we are buying a house cleaning gift card.). Admitting I couldn't afford to contribute this amt was really hard at first, but once I did, I felt really good. I think my frugality is coupled with my growing ability to accept my post-divorce life.
fidgiegirl
1-23-11, 11:40am
@Rosemary, isn't it amazing how that Amazon stuff adds up? That was one of the components in my debt payoff. I snowflaked the money.
Here I can't say I feel super frugal but not spendy, either. Need to place a grocery delivery order today.
I bought 10 swims at the local pool for $45 for a $5 savings.
Am practicing my breadmaking. If we were to be successful in putting into action the whole approach in the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, we could eliminate buying bread. And since we both like good bread and DH takes a sandwich almost every day, that can add up for us. However, to get set up for this I will need to spend some $$ on a baking stone (we have been wanting one, anyway) as well as an oven thermometer. Maybe a trip to Williams Sonoma is in order. I think I will also buy the book from Barnes & Noble since DH has a ton of gift certificates to there.
I am in kind of a shoppy mood lately. Not good.
I have a batch of cinnamon rolls on their second rise. Mmmmmmmmm
hey fidgiegirl,
are you talking abput no-knead bread? if so, we have been baking ours in a cast iron dutch oven and it works GREAT. makes just fantastic bread. even better than the baking stone IMO. here's a post from mother earth (http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/2007-12-01/Easy-No-Knead-Dutch-Oven-Crusty-Bread.aspx) on how to do it.
we are holding strong, but have gone a little bit over budget for the month. not a big deal, it's our first month of budgeting together. we'll get better as time goes on.
fidgiegirl I've been in the mood to shop lately too. I think it's a little bit of cabin fever.
We skipped the Italian dinner at church today and had spaghetti at home for lunch. That saved us about $15. Other than that it's been a pretty standard day. The girls had a friend over to watch movies and now they are at her house playing with dolls. James, Zach and I have napped most of the afternoon. I think dinner is going to be something simple and easy. Sandwiches or scrambled eggs or something like that.
flowerseverywhere
1-23-11, 7:38pm
made hamburg rolls for dinner tonight. Super easy, healthier, and tasted great for probably 1/5 of the price of store bought.
My motivation was to avoid the 0 degree weather but the effect was frugal.
spent the day today cleaning my sewing room. It helps me not to buy anything else when I realize how much I have. I have several started projects lined up to finish.
Rosemary, what kinds of books do you have luck selling on Amazon?
Jan 23
Frugals the last week
--line dried 3 loads of wash
--oatmeal for breakfast 3 days
--large pot of meatball, mac and tomato soup, lasted serveral meals
--took DH to lunch using gift cards from Christmas
--really trying to use down fridge, cupboards and pantry...too much in them to even organize and inventory,,,maybe next week
--trying to keep the heat down but it is very cold.
--limiting trips in car and using way less gas
--sold a cabinet I no longer needed on Kijiji for $40.00
--
flowerseverywhere - the books i've sold have been quite an assortment - cookbooks, math books, photographic books. I have a particular strategy: I list books to sell, and only if the going price (lowest used + $4 shipping, this total needs to be at least a few $ less than the new, free shipping price; my books have all been very good/like new condition) is $10 or more. Books that are worth less than that, I either take to the used book store, which pays peanuts, or donate the the friends of the library. A couple of the cookbooks that I sold were out of print and the going used price was astonishing.
Frugals - No groceries needed this week. Spending of any kind should be minimal. Planned meals for the next 2 weeks. Made a large batch of granola, and cooked quinoa for several days' breakfast for DD (her current favorite). We have a day off school later this week and we'll probably use a free museum pass from the library.
We just had a surprise visit from step-daughter and found out grandchild number FIVE is on the way!!! WOO HOO....We are over-the-moon happy but I'm in such a spending mood for baby stuff now. :D Three grandsons already here, another due any day and now this baby due in Sept. I swear I could just go crazy buying things. This will be step-daughter's first child so they need everything. She showed us a rug she really, really wants that is $450! Ouch...I really want to get it for them but I'm afraid if I suggest it to Hubby he'll kill me. *S* I think I'd better turn off the computer and stop window shopping online before I get myself into trouble. rrrrr
rosarugosa
1-24-11, 5:16am
Rosemary, Is $4.00 the media shipping rate for a book?
flowerseverywhere
1-24-11, 7:16am
Thanks Rosemary. I volunteer at the library and volunteers have first crack at the donated books for half the booksale price if we want to buy them (50 cents pb and $1 hardcover, half that for kids). They get thousands donated each month and it is overwhelming. I have toyed with the idea of buying books to sell but even after looking at ebay I just can't get a handle on what might sell. After two days of their big book sale days they put everything on sale for $3 a large bag so for $1.50 I could get a ton of books. I have bought hundreds of just about brand new books for my grandkids which their parents love. I get astonished at how many books don't even look like they have been read. Our book sales generate over $20,000 profit for the library.
We have a strategy as to what sells for books on amazon. We think esoteric, quirky non-fiction is usually a hit with someone, religious stuff esp. buddhist stuff, weaponry, cookbooks.
Work continues on our lower level for MIL's future living space. Made sausage bean and kale soup, hummus and will bake chicken thighs for eating this week. Put a cat door on the door into the pantry which is much neater that what we had. I guess we're over the new house complex where we're afraid to do anything...sorta like the new car complex which ends with the first scratch or spill.
Looking at trying my hand at Celtic calligraphy and illumination a la Book of Kells as a change from watercolors. I need some creative expression.
Last night I realized I had an unusual frugal to report: We went an entire week without eating out. Seven days. That only happpens if someone in this family is sick in bed-lol! I guess that's why there was so much money left at the end of the week.
Ds wanted to go to the movies saturday. We compromised by stopping to rent a couple of movies and by snacks at a friend's store. Total spent: $12. And we got to snuggle under warm blankets while we enjoyed our flicks.
Recieved another $40 towards the sale of some used tables and chairs. I don't know how much we're getting total but I just keep putting the money away as dh gives it to me.
Cheyenne and I made her birthday party invitations on the computer last night. They turned out really cute!
I am considering making my own laundry detergent this week. We're going to need laundry detergent soon. It will depend on how well I feel this week. It's so up and down. Some days I can take on the world and some days I can barely get out of bed.
I am needing some social interaction to hopefully counter some of this cabin fever I'm feeling. We're hoping next week to have Zach's best friend, who is going through a difficult break-up, over for dinner. We also want to invite Cheyenne and Bella's best friend, her brother and parents over in the next week or two to play games. I'm also thinking of hosting a craft night where people can bring their knitting, needlework or whatever and just hang out in the living room eating spinach dip and talking while we work. I have several friends who would probably be interested.
So far in January, I switched my workouts to the morning so DH and I carpool to the Y. This eliminates a trip.
early morning
1-24-11, 7:35pm
Yesterday was a no-drive, no spend day. That combo is very rare, sadly. Hung two loads of laundry in the house to dry. Fixed a simple dinner of chicken chili, cornbread, and coffeecake last evening, before DS went back up to school. This AM - dropped books off at the library on my way to work, avoiding an addition to my fines :|(. Took coffee and lunch. Got oil changed on the way home (frugal in the long run!), picked up outside cat food at the dollar store. It's really cold, so we also fed the cats some warmed up hot-dogs left from a cookout last summer. We don't eat hot dogs... Dinner tonight was some of this and that, including some doggie-bag stuff from our dinner out for DS's birthday on Saturday. Lunch is gathered for tomorrow for me to take to work tomorrow. I have to drive to a meeting in the afternoon - hopefully they will pay mileage!
Jan 24
--the last two days have been no spend, no drive--too cold to go out unless one has to--a big bonus of being retired...
--speaking of retirement it has been 15 mths now and I seem to have gotten into a really good pattern of using couple of older outfits for in house till they wear out....when I go out I wear a better pair of jeans/pants and a top, and I have become very good about changing the minute I come in. Some weeks this outfit is lasting all week before it needs washed. This is using up older clothes I already had from working and saving the newer clothes to make them last. Have bought very little since retiring. Also, only showering/shampooing every second day even third sometimes. Saving lots of water/soap/shampoo
----doing a lot more e-mail and sending e-mail cards instead of phoning or mailing people.
--two more loads of wash line dried in the house
--
Working hard to eat out of the pantry. Had a brain freeze about dinner, but then grabbed the last of sone frozen shrimp, pasta and spicy red sauce and made yummy meal. I have been cooking so much as part of my frugal plan that I am constantly washing dishes!
fidgiegirl
1-24-11, 10:36pm
I echo what someone said about quirky books on Amazon. I used to do the best with non-fiction that was kind of academic but rarely texts (though I had a few home runs on textbooks, they were usually too heavy to justify shipping for what they would fetch if anything). I found that if I had ever heard of the book (Oprah's book club or a popular author), forget it. Pennies. It's kind of trial and error, but if you get good, you can make some good side money. I enjoyed it for a time and have tapered off now. My best find was a hardback book about Ghenghis Khan's brother. I bought it for 0.50 and sold for $107. Next best was an Archeology textbook - again, bought for 0.50 and sold for $75. Those were anomalies but fun to remember!
Our frugal today was stopping and using up a Blockbuster gift card on candy bars. $0.37 for a King size Butterfinger and a Kit Kat. We hate knowing that the stores basically pocket all those little dribs and drabs left over on all those gift cards floating around in everyone's wallets and purses. :D
I had one of my last sessions of my ski club tonight. You may remember a few months ago I was very frustrated and ready to leave the group. I had found one closer to home on the same night and considered abandoning this one for the closer one, but it would have been another $100 to join the new group, so I decided to stick it out, and I'm glad I did. I don't think I'd join it again simply because the drive was difficult in the evenings, but I got to know a few people, figured out that, duh, we needed to do a fast supper if I had to fly out the door again shortly after getting home, and plus my technique improved so that always makes it more fun. :)
We are thinking of getting iPhones when Verizon comes out with them. DH really wants one and frankly, I do too . . . but the will be $300 each plus $30 each per month for the data plan. Hmmmmm . . . . that's a lot o' buck for a few conveniences. But when I think of it as, say, avoiding buying a GPS, or not having to travel with a laptop, anyway, I reallllllly want one!!! He and I will have to talk about if we are going to get rid of the landline and maybe the DirecTV. Maybe this will be the push if he wants this bad enough - a trade.
DH & I were having iPhone lust too... and then I ran the numbers for an annual cost. Holy moly. We're doing the other end of things - cheapest, lowest cost plan, and I may even go to a Jitterbug. An old lady phone!
Dropped one cell phone. DW and I now share one. Savings: $50/month.
I guess today was my use things up day. Used the last of the fried apples in my oatmeal this morning. Leftover lentil soup for lunch. For dinner I made au gratin potatoes using the last of the potatoes that were getting soft. And coleslaw using the last of the cabbage.
Frugals: no-spend day. A friend is coming over for lunch, which is cooking in the crockpot right now so I can get to my exercise class and still have lunch ready on time. Planning free activities with friends for the day off school later this week. I cooked for 2 nights last night, and will make another meal for 2 nights tonight, so dinner will be taken care of for 4 nights this week.
On the "everything" phones - my thoughts are that they are bigger than a "just phone", heavier, and far more costly, both initially and monthly. My "just phones" don't seem to last more than about 2-3 years before they develop problems. Easy enough to recycle and replace them. Most "everything" gadgets don't do everything as well as individual items do, and the individual gadgets are likely to last a lot longer, and perform their purpose better (photos from any phone vs photos from a camera are a good example).
fidgiegirl
1-25-11, 6:37pm
I'm not willing to share a phone. I must have been single too long :D
I know, looking at the potential expenditure is pretty much shocking . . . we will keep weighing it out!!
The funniest thing came in the mail... my Mom, bless her darling heart, sent me a book titled Lighten Up: Love what you have, Have what you need, Be happier with less, by Peter Walsh.
She had originally gotten for someone else, and thought it more appropriate for me... so... she is obviously hearing my decluttering & simplifying process, and I know she supports me. And now I have another book... telling me to have less. OMG. For $26!!! Does this author REALIZE how silly it is to publish an expensive, hard back book about having less?!? Oy vey.
Mom urged me to read it & pass it on, which I will do. Or sell it! Though more likely donate it to my local library.
redfox that is kind of funny!
I think we are going to get netflix again starting today. It would be good to have access to documentaries and Discovery type shows for the kids and it's not very expensive.
I think for a fun craft project today I'm going to teach the girls to make friendship bracelets. I have so much embroidery floss it's embarassing, so it wouldn't cost anything. I feel like lately I haven't been much of a fun mom and I miss being fun as much as the kids miss it. It's time to get a little of myself back.
I am considering making cupcakes for Cheyenne's roller skating birthday party next month. I know I said I wasn't going to stress myself about the party, but cupcake making is fun for me most of the time. I think I'm going to make chocolate cupcakes with malted vanilla buttercream frosting and a whopper candy on top for a decoration. Non-frugal confession, I am considering buying her a pair of absolutely adorable cherry red rollerskate earrings I found online for a birthday present. They're only $5 with shipping.
I'm honestly feeling a little down lately. Two couples we are close friends with are going through bitter divorces, it's January, I'm uncomfortably pregnant, I have exactly two pairs of pants that still fit me and I need cheering up. I need to inhabit a world full of friendship bracelets, chocolate cupcakes with malted vanilla frosting and cherry red rollerskate earrings.
Saturday took the turkey carcass out of the freezer and made soup - it's so good! I've gotten spoiled with homemade soups- Progresso, etal just taste salty/metallic to me now.
Stella, I am ready to join you in the chocolate cup cake and friendship bracelet world. Stuck inside due to a storm. My companions? Two pent up dogs and a cranky 11 year old. I had my DD help me make dog biscuits to keep everyone happy. I think this will count as a frugal today. One good thing about being home is I am not tempt to spend.
I'm not willing to share a phone. I must have been single too long :D
:-) We do not use the cell phone much as we have a home phone for all our primary calls. Sharing one is not biggy as neither of us use it often. It is a no-bells-and-whistles-phone. Just makes calls (no text, internet, ya da ya da).
We are on a plan to pay off our mortgage in the next 2-4 years so every bit helps.
We rarely eat out, usually only if we travel out of town (even then I tend to bring food along:-). At home we both enjoy cooking and have many frozen (made by us) tempeh wraps if we just want to warm something up.
i'm amazed by how much money we are saving by eating at home and taking our lunch! my burn rate has seriously slowed down and good thing, cause my nest egg is shrinking by the day! it's also seriously more efficient to bring lunch than it is to go out and get something. i can eat in 15-20 minutes and be back at the drafting table.
i made shepherd's pie for dinner and it's in the oven now. we're working our way thru "the sopranos" and will probably be in bed kind of early. perfect winter evening!
fidgiegirl
1-26-11, 8:24pm
We are on a plan to pay off our mortgage in the next 2-4 years so every bit helps.
Awesome. We hope to be there at some point, too.
DH did a preventive maintenance frugal, albeit 9 months late. I was ready to hire it because he wasn't doin' it. He only had his license plate on with one screw. That's right, for the last nine months, his front plate was held on with one. screw. So I was like, "I'm calling the body shop to have your other screw drilled out or we are going to lose that plate and kick ourselves." Well, then he went out and used some nifty-dandy zip ties and problem solved. :D
I am super pleased to be doing well thus far in my buy-nothing year. The only items I am purchasing are food, toiletries, gas for the car, and clothing IF absolutely necessary - though nothing is anticipated; I have plenty of clothing. Of course, in the last week we've had to buy a new hot water heater, and my car needs work... so the cash outflow is fierce right now. Ah well.
We are getting a new 30 year, heavy duty roof, as our 10 year old (of an expected 20) cheap-o 3 tab has wind damage, so we had a leak over the holidays. And because the new material won't match the old, State Farm is paying for the entire roof to be replaced, not just the 1/4 that leaks. We had some interior damage as well, but we can fix it ourselves.
SF gave me the option of cashing us out for the interior work, so we are getting a check for $1175, which covers our deductible and then some! That means a new roof AND my husband is being paid $175 to repair sheet rock & re-paint our hallway - we already have all the stuff we need to do this, so no materials outlay at all. I am very pleased! Some days, it works out.
early morning
1-26-11, 10:55pm
redfox, that's great! Our newish roof is compliments of the last big hailstorm. Saved us a huge expense. Not much in different frugals today, but I did find out I'll be paid mileage for the meeting I had to drive to yesterday. Mileage pays more than my car uses in fuel, so that's a good thing!
Mouse was in the pantry - AGAIN - so we parked the cat on a shelf until he caught the bloody little beastie. Yay for cats! I like mice - in cages! So I cleaned out the cupboard - AGAIN - put the chewed on pasta in the squirrel food, the ruined half-bag of flour in the compost, and baked up the brownie mix. (Box was chewed, bag inside was not) Grrrrr. I though we had all the holes blocked - drat if I can see how the little monsters are getting in there!
Last night we took the kids to McDonalds for an ice cream cone, but mostly to let them run around the play area and get out some energy. Totally worth the $5.
We finally got netflix again and I can already tell that it's going to be a sanity saver while I'm on restrictions. Yesterday I let the kids watch a National Geographic program about the science of dogs while I napped and DH and I watched a movie after they went to bed.
This weekend is the St Paul Winter Carnival so I'm going to take a look at the event schedule and see if there are any fun, free or cheap things we'd like to do. Mostly we're planning to work on finishing the basement this weekend, but we need to have some fun too.
My keeping the heat at 60F almost all the time has paid off. My gas bill (heat and hot water) was only $35! It was DOUBLE that this time last year.
Found out today at work that we might very well be getting a bonus in the next couple of weeks (will find out next week). Any extra money gets thrown at my credit card ($3500) and savings for major dental work (I'm putting it off as long as I'm not in pain).
Canceled a trip out west later this year. Will save about $1100 that way, which means I can put all that towards my debt! Extremely little eating out, much less than I used to (we're talking local hamburger type joints), taking my lunch, much less meat in meals. I've still been buying soda and snackies from the machine at work, but today I got a 24 case of Coke at Walmart and a big bag of pretzels to take into work on Monday. That will help a lot.
Bella and I are making her birthday present to Cheyenne today. It's a "mermaid mirror". We got a framed wooden mirror at Michael's for $3 and are gluing sea glass and seashells we got for a birthday party decoration two years ago onto the mirror. It's going to be really cute.
I just got our check okayed from the homeowner's insurance to do interior repairs from roof leak damage ourselves. Since a bit of extra is going in the bank, I am replacing a tattered garment I wear daily, which should have been replaced 6 months ago. I've been mending and patching it, and now there's little to patch to, so I am throwing caution to the wind and spending $30 for a replacement. My big expense! Guess I won't be that crazy grey haired in the disreputable garment with holes and tears any more...
fidgiegirl
1-29-11, 11:38am
We went to a benefit for our school last night. It was amazingly organized and so fun. The event raised nearly $30,000!!!!!!!!! We will be using the money for classroom technology. Outstanding.
We upped the deductible on our homeowners from $500 to $1000 and had a reduction in premium of over $100. Today I am going to pull out my dough from last weekend and bake up a loaf of bread. We are going to clean and go skiing. A nice, no-spend day - well, except that my DH went and bought a print off Craigslist today. He makes extra money on eBay anyway and hasn't bought antiques in a long time so he must have really wanted it. He was thinking about it for over a week. We now have another print of a moose (this one being killed by a pack of wolves!) in our house. :D
fidgiegirl how do you keep your dough in the fridge? At what stage of the rising do you stop it to put it in the fridge?
fidgiegirl
1-29-11, 2:15pm
Well, I am not an expert. I am just following the directions in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. According to their recipe you can let it rise for two hours and then put it in the fridge for up to two weeks. Mine was in for a week, though, and it doesn't look super. I dunno, am trying it anyway. It just went in.
We went to a benefit for our school last night. It was amazingly organized and so fun. The event raised nearly $30,000!!!!!!!!! We will be using the money for classroom technology. Outstanding.
WOW that is absolutely amazing!!!! Congratulations!!!!! What did they do to raise that kind of money (if you don't mind my asking)?
fidgiegirl
1-29-11, 2:30pm
What did they do to raise that kind of money (if you don't mind my asking)?
They had solicited TONS of donations from local businesses as well as Disney, airlines, etc. Then they packaged them into groups for silent auction and live auction. The teachers contributed experiences to bid on, like a pizza party with a certain group of teachers, or Principal for a Day (went for $1600!! Twice!!). Then there was also a "Fund a Need" portion where people were just giving money to the goal. Six people gave $500. We also played Heads and Tails. You paid $10 to play, and then you placed your hands on your head or your tail. The auctioneer flipped a coin and if it was heads, all the people with hands on head stayed in and the ones with hands on tail went out. It was repeated several times until only one person was left. The winner split the proceeds with the school. It was suuuuuuper fun! Plus they were so organized - people knew what the auction items were ahead of time, and everything went off without a hitch. That's crucial for future success, I think.
Today is a stay-in day until I go to church at 5. After the service, there's a surprise b-day party (this is a big birthday) for my choir director, thrown by his wife and daughter. NO gifts were requested (the couple is trying to get rid of stuff), so I'm just going, having a fun time, and then home. I'm studying all I can today.
Tomorrow is regular church, with our annual congregational meeting afterward, so the food at the fellowship time in between will be more substantial than usual. Will get more studying in before going to another area church for a special service in the evening with a speaker and food following it. Will also see my feller. :)
I found movie gift certificates I'd gotten at work over the summer as I want to see "The King's Speech."
They had solicited TONS of donations from local businesses as well as Disney, airlines, etc. Then they packaged them into groups for silent auction and live auction. The teachers contributed experiences to bid on, like a pizza party with a certain group of teachers, or Principal for a Day (went for $1600!! Twice!!). Then there was also a "Fund a Need" portion where people were just giving money to the goal. Six people gave $500. We also played Heads and Tails. You paid $10 to play, and then you placed your hands on your head or your tail. The auctioneer flipped a coin and if it was heads, all the people with hands on head stayed in and the ones with hands on tail went out. It was repeated several times until only one person was left. The winner split the proceeds with the school. It was suuuuuuper fun! Plus they were so organized - people knew what the auction items were ahead of time, and everything went off without a hitch. That's crucial for future success, I think.
Wow, great! Sounds like a very fun evening.
Auctions are a TREMENDOUS amount of work. Basically, you're soliciting donations of stuff, and then setting up a retail store for that night. The database work to get everyone registered who attends, and to get every item in a system to then sell it it HUGE. I have done exactly 2 auctions as fundraisers, and unless I have a staff of several people, I am never going to do another one...
early morning
1-30-11, 11:29am
Frugals: been at home since I got here Friday afternoon from work. Dsis has been here every day trying to give away a kitten she rescued (we live on a busy road and have pretty good luck re-homing all sorts of stuff) and has brought either lunch or dinner Fri, Sat, and today. (thanks sis!) I cooked off some on-sale leg quarters for chicken salad and for stock. Found a free genealogy search online so I've been amusing myself finding old relatives from the comfort of my computer chair, and putting together lists of cemeteries to visit (fff!) when the weather breaks. I photo-collect family and other interesting tombstones, lighthouses, old grain elevators and old water towers - again, much fff for me. The rest of the family thinks I'm nuts... sadly, I'm not good about documenting my collections- but I'm getting better!
Jan 30
Last couple of days.
--STILL eating out of pantry and freezer (I need to stop buying more)
--really good oven fried chicken night before last and pot of soup last night from leftovers and veggies, enough for lunch today
--no spend for the last 3 days
--went to see "Kings Speech" using a coupon 2/1 plus a old gift cert I in among papers cost for movie was $.46 for the two of us and bought water and granola bar from home
They had solicited TONS of donations from local businesses as well as Disney, airlines, etc. Then they packaged them into groups for silent auction and live auction. The teachers contributed experiences to bid on, like a pizza party with a certain group of teachers, or Principal for a Day (went for $1600!! Twice!!). Then there was also a "Fund a Need" portion where people were just giving money to the goal. Six people gave $500. We also played Heads and Tails. You paid $10 to play, and then you placed your hands on your head or your tail. The auctioneer flipped a coin and if it was heads, all the people with hands on head stayed in and the ones with hands on tail went out. It was repeated several times until only one person was left. The winner split the proceeds with the school. It was suuuuuuper fun! Plus they were so organized - people knew what the auction items were ahead of time, and everything went off without a hitch. That's crucial for future success, I think.
WOW - that is amazing!!! You must live in an area of fairly wealthy folk. *S* Our local museum is looking for fundraising ideas and that is why I asked you. Unfortunately we live in a fairly poor area. I do really like the heads and tails idea. I think I will suggest that one to our group. Thanks for your ideas!!!
Well, my frugals were imposed my a winter storm that knocked out power from Weds am until Sat pm. Stayed home and read, napped and tried to stay warm. Ate out of the pantry by cooking with sterno, with the exception of one trip out for hot coffee and a movie (I needed to warm up...the house was freezing.). I read all my library books and then some. Cooked the meat that defrosted last night when power returned. Not frugal: going out to replace some of the food that had to be pitched.
Fidgiegirl that is amazing!
I've had boring frugal days. The only really exciting thing from this weekend is that we are now one single, solitary wall away from having our basement remodel finished, except for carpeting. :cool: My best friend's dad has been helping Zach and they have been having a good time. I am SO READY for this to be done!
Tonight's dinner is grilled cheese sandwiches, popcorn and fruit. I've been out of commission most of the day and DH is making dinner.
Tonight Zach and I may have a cheap date night going out for coffee and then coming home to watch a netflix movie. We're really enjoying our date nights lately. I think we both know that it's going to be hard to get them for a few months after the baby comes so we're taking advantage of it while we can.
fidgiegirl
1-30-11, 9:39pm
WOW - that is amazing!!! You must live in an area of fairly wealthy folk. *S* Our local museum is looking for fundraising ideas and that is why I asked you. Unfortunately we live in a fairly poor area. I do really like the heads and tails idea. I think I will suggest that one to our group. Thanks for your ideas!!!
You are right about a wealthy area. Plus, it's their kids who will benefit. That's powerful. Hope you can use some of the ideas!
@early: so fun to see "FFF" pop up again on the boards. We haven't been using that acronym in a few months!
@danna: how is your DH?
@redfox: I don't envy you organizing one of those auctions. What a colossal amount of work! But what a great outcome, too.
@stella: when is baby coming?
Here we didn't have such a frugal weekend, but our spending WAS in line with our values and I found it worth it to spend our life energy on it. One was a trip out to eat with my mom and dad to Texas Roadhouse (my first time - yum!). The people, oh the people! I have NEVER seen such a busy restaurant. But once seated, it was great. Since we live an hour apart, it's nice to meet halfway. No one has to host and neither party has to drive the whole hour. We can just enjoy each other.
Tonight we had dinner out at Café Latté with family, too, my DH's side, but for a sad reason (see the adult in a group home thread). It was nice to be able to talk with no one fussing over serving food. We also picked up 6 pkgs of assorted breads for $6.
Other than that, this weekend I returned a dress that I won't be using. I had bought two for the benefit and decided to keep the other. Since I am trying to lose weight, it seemed silly to hang on to it. I hadn't worn a dress in like four years anyway so certainly the hope is that by the time I need to do so again I will be a few sizes smaller!!
Went skiing at a new park today. Didn't stay very long - it was just a hair too difficult for us and I didn't bring adequate ear cover. Too bad, because the snow was really nice. Lesson learned! And, and! I got a new trophy bruise :D
Have a fantastic week, all!
fidgiegirl I'll be full term in five and a half weeks. I'm in full-on nesting mode.
Zach and I had a lovely date last night. Netflix wasn't working so we just went out for coffee. We talked about the kid he mentors who is obsessed with the idea of becoming a marine biologist and is depressed feeling like there's not much he can really do to work towards that goal. I suggested to the kids mom (one of my close friends) that she try getting him into an intro to scuba diving class at a dive shop my boss is involved with. It's $30 for the intro and $15 of that is credited towards certification classes if you decide to take them. Zach lit up when I talked about that and seemed really interested in the idea of taking that class himself. Our anniversary is coming up in a month so I think I might give Zach a $30 gift card to the dive shop to take the class too. He's been working insanely hard for our family lately between school, working, finishing the basement, childcare and housework and he's done it uncomplainingly. I think this would be the best $30 I've ever spent on an anniversary present.
I did our taxes this weekend and realized that some of our education expenses for the girls may be tax deductible in our state. The MN Department of Revenue even had a handy guide to expenses that would be considered tax deductible. I didn't save reciepts from last year, but I'm glad I found this out in January so I can save them for this year.
Jan 31
fidgiegirl Thank you for asking. He has been on Chemo drug therapy for about 2 1/2 weeks and is only feeling a little more tired then usual generally he seems to be tolarating the meds well so we are just hoping they are doing what they are suspose to being doing......
frugals in the last couple of days are mostly the same old same old.
No spend because mostly we have been in the house with all the cold we have been getting, so I have started doing some deep cleaning...lol that means actually moving things when I vacuum.
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