A few frugal things
Yesterday, I:
-made whole wheat pancakes to use up some buttermilk
-cut one of my kids' hair, a job I don't particularly love, but which I figure has saved me almost $2500 so far.
(I'm assuming $15/cut, between the price of the cut and a tip, but I'm not sure how accurate that is, since I've never taken this kid anywhere to get a hair cut.)
-used up some leftover grilled vegetables by making a fajita bowl of sorts...grilled onions and peppers, a few leftover shrimp, the last of a bunch of cilantro, an avocado half, and sour cream.
-bought a black wool pea coat online for Lisey. My girls all have black pea coats from Old Navy, and Lisey is a little too big for hers this year. I saw the coats were on sale online and I used a $40 credit card reward I had from Old Navy to buy the coat.
It was $35 on sale and if you spend $50, you get free shipping. So, I added a denim skirt to my shopping cart, which bumped me right over the limit (I'd have had to spend $7 on shipping, so adding the skirt only cost me an extra $8 in reality).
And given that I had my $40 reward, the total cost for the coat and the skirt was only $10. Yay!
(I would have used Ebates to get 2% cash back, but I was having trouble getting my $40 reward to work on the site, so I had to place my order by phone. Boo.)
-went to the library to return a pile of books that happened to be due that day.
(Good thing I happened to sign onto the library website that morning! That would have been a big late fee, and might very well have qualified as a stupid tax.)
Of course, we walked out with a pretty large pile of new books.
The library is such a fantastic resource for my kids...if I had to supply them with purchased books, they wouldn't get to read nearly as many as they do now.
(and my house would be positively overflowing with books.)
-stopped at a drugstore on the way to use my $2 Lindt chocolate coupons (which I read about on Katy's blog)
Yay for batching errands!
-stopped at a local market on the way home to buy some chicken, cilantro, and a jalapeno
The chicken isn't particularly frugal (!) but it comes with no packaging, is local, and tastes somewhere around 97.8% better than grocery store chicken.
No jalapenos were to be found, so I asked if they were out of stock. The produce guy said he'd check in the back, and a few minutes later, he came out with these chopped peppers in a bag and gave them to me for free (he'd cut the bad parts out of the jalapenos they had.)
Of course, I like free, but what I like even better is that we're eating peppers that would have been thrown out.
Schweet.
-made dinner, which I happened to not feel like doing, and which happened to be chicken cakes with cucumber relish, which I read about on Nom Nom Paleo and which has been sitting in my to-try pile for a bit.
(Could I say "which" a few more times in a single sentence? I think not.)
Daylight faded before I was done, but I did cook up one teensy test chicken cake before the sunlight totally disappeared.
They're a bit like the fish cakes we love to eat around here, and we always have some tartar sauce with those. So, I mixed up some mayo, cilantro, and chopped red onion to make a sort-of-tartar-sauce-ish thing to eat with the chicken cakes.
What frugal stuff have you been up to lately?
P.S. I did do other things yesterday too, like, you know, school with the kids. I just was listing frugal schtuff here. 😉
I cut all our boys hair too. It was pretty bad at first, but I'm getting better at it. There's 4 of them so this is very frugal:)
The chicken is definitely frugal, no matter what it costs. Quality food is a small investment with huge dividends (according to my grandmother, who will be 91 in a few weeks. She still works out.).
I cut my son's and husbands hair and I share you dislike for it. My eldest son is 22 and he gets his cut by a professional now so I only have to do 3 haircuts every 4 weeks. I don't feel guilty that I spend $35 on a haircut for myself every 8-10 weeks. I figure with the money I save I don't need to get mine done at Great Clips anymore, I've had too many bad haircuts there, I have paid my dues.
And the fact that long hair can wait a while between haircuts makes it much more frugal. I usually end up getting mine cut about twice a year, and at that frequency, quibbling over a few dollars isn't worth it to me.
I'm able to cut 1/3 boys' hair. My husband is pretty set on getting his hair cut by a professional and my 5 year old is VERY specific about his longer locks. There is no way I could do his layering. I tried it once and it look like a bowl cut. I do save us a boat load on my hair as I find hair modeling opportunities whenever I need/want a cut and color. I'm usually able to go to high end salon, and the most I've ever paid for the services is $40 for product. Pretty good considering it would have been over $200 for all of the services I received...and I get the high end experience too 🙂
"(and my house would be positively overflowing with books.)"
You say that like it's a bad thing.
I'm thinking no-room-to-walk level of overflowing, myself.
I started cutting my own hair this year, after I got sick of paying $29 to have it cut at the cheap hairdressers. It was already layered so I figure that hides any small mistakes!
Those chicken cakes look really good. I will definitely be trying them!
I haven't had anyone cut my hair in over 20 years - giving up on modern styles helps a lot... well, that and having naturally wavy hair so I don't have to worry about being perfect!
Have you ever let your husband cut your hair? I only did that once. 😉 But I always cut my boys' hair, and hate every minute of it. So do they, now that I think about it. http://charlottesempire.blogspot.com/2013/08/save-money-by-cutting-your-familys-hair.html
Uh, no. I don't think he'd be brave enough to try that!
Frugal things? Hmm. I mow my own lawn! I use some of the clippings as a treat for my chickens, the rest goes into my compost tumbler. I dig the weeds out of the lawn and give them to the chickens and or the compost. (No weed killer for me) No fertilizer either as I have the compost. And I NEVER use pesticides!! So how much have I saved so far?
Your mention of the peppers brought a similar good memory back. I suspect one reason that you got the free peppers is that you are nice to people. One Thanksgiving when Giant was selling turkeys for some ridiculous price like 19 or 29 cents a pound we went into Giant to do our shopping and to get a cheap turkey as well. The cheap turkeys were all gone, so my wife, who is also very nice and pleasant to everyone said Oh dear, OK Thank You. Or something similar. Whereupon the man said wait a minute, went into the back, and came back with one of their 59 cents a pound turkeys (All turkeys were dirt cheap that year) marked it down to 19 cents a pound, gave it to my wife and wished her a Happy Thanksgiving. We thanked him and talked for a minute. It turned out that he was fed up with all the people who had shouted at him and swore at him and said nasty things to him because he didn't have any 19 cents a pound turkeys left, that when my wife was nice to him - well - we enjoyed our turkey even more that year.
As an aside here, we now shop more at Giant just because of that one kindness! Such treatment can be returned by businesses several fold. On the other hand bad treatment can lose them business.
I had my own business once and always welcomed complaints. Instead of not returning a customers complaint call I would call them right back and let them have full rein, with me just making sympathy noises. After they had finished and they were feeling a little embarrassed at the things they had said to me, I would say what would you like me to do to make this right? What they wanted was almost always less than I was prepared to do. I would then, almost always, do what they wanted. And we had a customer for life! I just cannot understand companies who will not correct their mistakes or even call you back.
Just saying.
I loved reading all of this!!!
$15 a haircut is pretty spot on - Especially if you go to a salon like Great Clips. Hubs pays $10 (includes tip) for his at a local barber shop.
Frugal activities from yesterday... I carpooled to work, brought leftovers for lunch like always, transferred some extra money from my checking account to my investment account, heated up some leftovers from the freezer for dinner, did not spend a single cent all day, and got tonight's dinner ready to put in the crockpot this morning.
Thanks for letting us know that you shopped at a local market and that the quality of the food is so much better. This message needs to get out more often!
How do you get your kids to eat such "adult" flavors. I have a still nursing daughter but want her to eat a healthy diet and I want her to enjoy the meal we make for ourselves. I never thought a child would eat a jalapeno though!
Well, I'm not gonna lie...Sonia and Zoe are occasionally not enormous fans of the things we eat, but I figure that repeated exposure will work its magic like it has with Joshua and Lisey (who generally are game for whatever I serve now.)
I think that when possible, it's good to serve a wide variety of things as early as you can. There's no specific reason that toddlers can't eat cilantro and soy sauce and curry and whatnot...it's not like all their systems can handle is mac and cheese and chicken nuggets, you know?
I definitely agree - I grew up eating filipino food my whole life and the only thing different about what I ate as compared to my adult family was that they'd cut the meat or vegetable pieces smaller for me and exclude a chili pepper from my plate. I'm hoping that I will instill the same practices when it comes to feeding my own children. And to always encourage my children to taste before they say they don't like something... and for them to have to taste it each and every time it's made. Tastes change 🙂
I'd like to make a suggestion (or two) lol
**Keep your child/ren away from any kind of fast food for as long as you possibly can. If they don't experience the whole "happy meal" thing, they won't know what they are missing (which honestly is a good thing). Avoid it as long as you can.
**Another thing, never make a big deal about it - just put it on the plate and not talk about it (oh look how healthy, it's so good for you, etc).
That not making a big deal is great advice... something I would have went against most likely since I wouldn't have even realized it. Another question for you all! - If they don't like something and refuse to eat it, do you make them something else, or do you let them just not eat?
That depends on the kid. If they're young and are just refusing dinner foods all the time, then yeah, I don't serve them something else. But if it's something in particular that they consistently don't like, and they're not just refusing things across the board, then I am more prone to be merciful.
Honestly, though, consistency in refusing to serve alternative foods has proved to make my picky eaters turn into children who eat a wide variety of foods (Although I suppose it's possible that they'd have outgrown the pickiness on their own? I don't know. I have such a small sample size, it's hard to say what's the cause of their open palates.)
boy's haircut at a lowend barbshop: $18 + tip
Ooh! So maybe I've saved myself more money than I previously thought. Yay!
Our library sends out e-mail reminders 2 days before books are due. With out that service I'd pay a LOT of stupid tax.
"Free peppers that would have been thrown away"-I'm impressed with the store emplyee, he could have said no we don't have any, or he could have given them to you bad spots and all, but he took the time to cut off the spots and bag them for you, Woohoo for customer service!
Cutting hair is a lot cheaper. I think all your food looks amazing! Great way to reuse cooked vegetables too!
Yesterday didn't feel very frugal as I went to Costco and Goodwill. I spent $100 at Goodwill, but considering I got three pair of pants for my son, two lamps, two pillows, a toy truck, three pair of shoes for my son, a new dish towel, three beach towels and a brand new pair of cowboy boots for my husband, it doesn't seem so bad. We googled the boots and they alone are $200 new. Everything was either half off or I was able to use my 20% discount card (awarded for donations).
My husband and I ate leftovers (again) from our Michigan vs. Michigan State party on Saturday. We elected to "eat in" even as it was our 8 year anniversary and we do like to eat out. Frugal indeed! We will be having leftovers tonight and tomorrow night. My two week menu gets a huge break on the grocery bill because of so many leftovers! That saves money because we already bought the ingredients from Aldi. So I have almost a weeks menu that I can transfer to the next two week pay period. Weee!
Made a big batch of marinara sauce this morning. Usually I use tomatoes from my garden but they didn't do well this year so I used canned instead. But it still costs a fraction of buying pre-made spaghetti sauce and I don't have to worry about having an allergic reaction from "mystery spices".
I love Nom Nom Paleo!!
$15 is probably on the cheaper end of what a hair cut would cost. Of course, I've only ever gone maybe twice in my life to get one. I can't justify $15 for a hair cut when a good pair of clippers only sets you back $40. 3 cuts and you've already gotten a return on the investment. I really should keep track of how often I cut my hair and figure out how much I've saved over my lifetime.
I consider library fines a way of supporting the library, so I'm a bit casual about them, and wouldn't consider incurring them a stupid tax for our family. I do appreciate the automatic reminders I get from my library, though, and have more than once renewed online to avoid fines.
Missing the deadline on a rental from a private company, though, would really make me wince.
..... or, you could return all library items on time so that other patrons can also enjoy them in a timely manner, and support your library by making a donation, however small it may be! 🙂
**Had dinner at church (last night). $12.00 for 6 meals that included (a very generous portion) pork & rice, corn, cornbread, salad, dessert & either tea or water.
**Brought my own breakfast & lunch to work (yesterday). Today, I did bring leftovers for lunch but not my breakfast but only spent $1.80 on an omlette with cheese grits (in the cafeteria at work).
**Will be having leftovers for dinner tonight since it's just me & my 2 sons eating at home tonight. Hubby & my 2 girls will be out at dinnertime.
**My coworker gave me a big bag of pinecones he picked out of his yard & I'm gathering some baskets up to display them on my porch. Free decorations!
Grocery store had apples and pears on clearance.Bought 8lbs apples for. $2.35 and 3lbs pears for $1.30. Made some applesauce and peeled and cutup the rest before freezing. 🙂
I baked biscuits at home instead of buying them from the bakery (more nutrients and way cheaper) and I usually do the same with cakes. They come out the same at around 1/3 of the retail price - we eat of a lot of cake here to at the end of the year, it probably makes a big difference.
http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/episodes/2013-2014/made-in-bangladesh
I've also cut my son and husband's hair. We stopped by our farmer's market this weekend and picked up some fresh veggies that are usually a little cheaper than the store and we used a coupon to buy our first Christmas gift of the year.