Five Frugal Things | Whyyyy do my hems keep coming apart?
1. I mended some washcloths.
I don't know why I have such bad luck with these, but the hems on my washcloths and towels frequently come undone, even when they're fairly new.
I sewed this one and a few older ones up, which was a nice quick job.
2. I mended a potholder.
One of my potholders was having a little malfunction.
(Which, incidentally, was made worse by me ignoring the problem and washing it multiple times before repairing it.)
I thought perhaps this would be un-fixable, mainly because it would be too thick for my sewing machine.
But I trimmed the frayed parts, gave it a try, and happily, it went through my machine!
It's a slightly odd shape after the repair, but that's ok. Still very serviceable.
3. I used a small package for a return.
Mr. FG bought me some earrings for Christmas that don't quite fit (I have teeny ear piercing holes, apparently!), so I needed to send them back.
Since I'm paying return shipping, I put them in a small padded envelope from my stash, which should cut down on the shipping costs as compared to the box they came in.
4. I used Romaine for wraps instead of Bibb.
My Aldi sometimes has heads of Bibb lettuce, but they had none this week. So, I decided to just use Romaine leaves instead since I already had a bag at home.
(Sizzling Korean Lettuce Wraps are what we were eating, in case you were curious!)
5. I called Cigna AGAIN about my bill submission.
This out-of-network stuff is no joke, people.
I resubmitted everything the way they told me to, and I got an EOB back saying that the bills were duplicate submissions.
Ummm, yes. That's because they told me to resend them! I even included a letter explaining what I was doing.
Anyway.
I called, and after a long phone conversation, it sounds like they are going to take care of this and get checks sent to us.
I will believe that when I see it. My expectations are a little bit low at this point, but I'd be delighted to be wrong!
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Your turn! Share your own five frugal things in the comments.
We changed cell phone plans and it will drop our family bundle a good amount.. It was a necessary move just a time and energy suck!
Caught a deal on my oldest sons Drivers Ed class and saved $90 off regular pricing.. Of course it adds another thing to calendar in during a busy winter season.. but it was worth the savings and I really will appreciate the transportation help this summer!
Bought my Turbo Tax at Sams Club with their promo discount, bought my youngest a winter coat.. maybe winter will finally come to Ohio.. Will earn some money back with the Plus Membership..(which I paid for b/c I do all the shopping for my work.. and since I use MY card I earn back the % 🙂
Planning on making a *Stone Soup* in the crock pot today so dinner will be ready with kids going in different directions this evening.. I am sure there will be complaints.. it will use up a bunch of freezer and pantry stuff... I will make cornbread to calm the masses.. lol
Planning to ALDI while the girl is at VB.. limited time.. means less time to peruse and buy stuff I really don't need!
Your fifth one makes me laugh... I *totally* get it!!
Thanks, Kristen, for five frugal things on a dreary day! Keeps my mind on my blessings and God's provision.
1. Spent all day yesterday at the hospital for pre-surgery prep. I took cheese sticks and a drink but drinks and healthy snacks were provided. I noted everything insurance would pay for and what might be helpful in our home. I'll check with a friend for one item that I could use. This class was immensely helpful and they invited us to take an additonal snack which I did since I was going to visit my uncle for probably the last time. The free snack held me until I got back home at seven and ate a bowl of leftover soup.
2. Sunday we did our grocery stop at the small Krogers near our church. On markdown I picked up 3 huge avocados for .99, a tub of broccoli coleslaw for 1.29, 100% whole wheat bread for .79 and a quart of Dannon low fat yogurt for 1.29. They also had marked down shrimp appetizers from New Year's. The 1.00 shrimp toast with a large salad made for a lovely lunch.
3.. It has been the start of a difficult year. I wrote 5 sympathy cards Sunday and still needed two more. I made a stop at Dollar Tree and bought several. I love the Hallmark cards for .50.
4. My oldest daughter and her husband moved into a new apartment and had an open house. I went down with a friend Friday and helped put together food. I took with me a pan of brownies, peanut butter cookies in a muffin tin with a mini Reese's cup stuck in the middle and some orange cranberry bars. Total cost was around 5.00 and it was all her desserts. We made turkey wraps(1.00 for 16 tortillas, Smithfield turkey for 1.79 per 8 oz, a 2.00 block of cheese, spinach and avocado salad dressing she had), a relish tray for about 5.00 and she had a coupon for 25 free pimento sandwiches as a welcome to the neighborhood coupon. She made a cheese plate using at cost cheese from the cheese shop where she works. Food leftover even though the crowd was huge!
5. My middle daughter is coming home from the weekend. Her birthday is the next weekend so she asked if she could invite friends for breakfast. I'll do an eggs(.88 for 18), French toast, fruit and maybe splurge on bacon. Still a pretty cheap birthday meal!
Thanks for the opportunity to start the day on a positive note, Kristen!
I hope your surgery goes well! Rest up and recover well.
You could've called this *2 irritating things & 3 frugal things* 🙂 We could all probably write a book about insurance issues; why they make it so complicated, I'll never know, but hubby says it's so some people give up and they don't have to pay. He claims their whole plan is to wear customers down. Cynical man! 🙂 And I'm with ya on the towel thing, mine come apart quickly too. Poor workmanship?
One does wonder if they are just hoping to not have to pay the claims. I know that rebate companies are set up that way on purpose, but I'm not sure about insurance. Your husband could be right!
I think insurance companies are also picky because sometimes medical professionals order meds/treatments/surgeries that benefit them or their practice financially (not to say it doesn't also help the patient, but it definitely isn't always necessary), and at the expense of the insurance company. Also, I really believe that some people would take advantage of their insurance companies if they were able to-the industry has worked hard to close any/all loopholes. That's really to the detriment to those of us that need specific care and are honest.
Based on my experience, it IS in the hopes that people will give up so the company doesn't have to pay what it should. For me, keeping insurance honest is like a part-time job.
When I got so ill I needed a wheelchair, it took six months to get approval; I was so weak I needed an electric chair not a mechanical one you use your arms to propel. By the time I got the chair I was well enough to use a mechanical chair and I told the doctor I wanted to return the very expensive ($26,000. Not a typo, twenty six thousand for the chair) chair so someone else could use it. The doctor told me NOT to return because he knew from experience that the company was waiting me out to see if I died first. They expected me to die and if I turned the chair back in and my tumors came back and I needed an electric chair again that they would just wait longer than 6 months next time. I also had some much blood during the transfusion that I was advised to get an HIV test. My own doctor told me to get it under an assumed name in a public clinic and to pay for it cash. The doctor said the company would see an HIV test as confirmation that I lived a "questionable" lifestyle and would find come pretext to deny me insurance in the future.
Your doctor has some good insight.
I've been focused on trying to be as thrifty as possible lately, so here goes:
*Menus include a pot of beans per week with some smoked something thrown in, homemade corn muffins. My people like beans, so lucky there.
*Ordered a skirt from Academy that was too tight - free returns at their store which is only a mile or so from the house.
*Instead of making a separate trip to Trader Joe's for wine, I bought it at HEB for about $4-$5 each and got a 10% discount - we like to enjoy a glass of reasonably priced wine now and again...
*Hubby and I are being Rock Stars at packing our lunches. Barely any food goes to waste! The downside of us eating what we buy is that the fridge looks deceptively empty most of the time.
I love HEB! I miss it so much that when I visit my parents in San Antonio I volunteer to do the grocery shopping just so I can go back to HEB. Thankfully, there is an HEB owned Central Market near my house so I don't have to haul tortillas home from my HEB pilgrimage.
Happy New Year!
1. Have been to the stores only once since Christmas. Our Sears is selling off their Lands End, and bought some things on their heavy discount (a pair of jeans for my husband, two winter hoodies and sweatpants for my boys for $80). Bought myself a shirt from Eddie Bauer for $7 combining clearance and awards, originally $50.
2. My boys keep getting holes on the pant knees on all their non-Lands End sweats (that have reinforced knees). I have taken their idea to start reinforcing pants by placing iron-on patches on the inside of the pants, this way they don't look so mended either.
3. I was going to buy new shoes for the boys as well, but found that I had two pairs bought from a consignment sale this fall that fit them well now.
4. My older son has to stay through dinner at school for play rehearsals every day. I have taken him dinner in a thermos or packed sandwiches instead of buying out.
5. Scored with coupons at CVS as well, which I don't so well with routinely. A moisturizer (originally $20), cleaning supplies and toilet paper all for $20. Avoided the Christmas clearance chocolate 🙂
Bonus! Received my $200 wellness award from work which I get every year for different activities such as tracking exercise. I chose a gift card for Home Depot, 4th one now in a row. Last year we started a small deck building with the gift cards, and so I think we have to keep expanding it now 🙂
I love when Mr. FG's work gives him the wellness program options. We can get paid for doing stuff we'd be doing anyway!
I also go to the gym anyway, but it's satisfying to see it logged somewhere! This year there were some workshops on finances as one of the options for the wellness program, which was interesting. I did one on budgeting, investments and retirement. Now if I only can apply them in practice...
1. Haven't eaten out since the end of the year (honestly, we're eating healthier and buying less packaged things, so it's actually a little more expensive because we were eating off $$ menus frequently. But it'll pay off in health benefits, and I'm sure we'll figure out how to lower our costs)
2. Have eaten up leftovers and processed/frozen things about to go bad. I did have to throw away 4 yellow zucchinis because they went soft and changed color before I could get to them.
3. Snagged a free can of tuna, a giant tub of organic salad greens, and sliced cheese (with no weird ingredients) from work/a friend.
4. Went through my kids' clothing and bagged up a bunch of stuff to bring to the local consignment shop. Also have a bag of GW Outlet stuff to bring in.
5. I've been walking on my lunch break. Free exercise, a nice break, and a chance to chat with my coworker.
1. Took a bunch of stuff to Thrift. Decluttering is my JAM. I also almost bought a sweatshirt hoodie vest but put it back at the last minute. Walked out empty handed!!
2. Burned a bunch of papers ( EOB, insurance policies, tax papers etc) : 7 shoe boxes full...in our neighbors outdoor wood furnace ( with permission of course)....these did not end up in our trash or recycling bins...the shoe boxes were burned as well.....
3. Did not feel like cooking last night AT ALL....powered through....made onions and mushrooms with brats.....20 mins and done....did not pick up supper or go out....and the mushrooms needed used up!
4. Got a $49.47 class action settlement check from a YEARS AGO claim on vitamins with fluoride. Put it into my son's savings account.
5. Bought laundry detergent at Walgreens for 1.99 on sale with a 1.00 off coupon and stocked up! This is a great deal and it is a laundry detergent brand I actually liked!
Hems tend to keep apart when you're around 40, no kidding. Keep calm and sew on.
1. Returned some items my daughter got for Christmas, and didn't need, for a $20 store credit
2. Have a baby shower and child's birthday coming up. Will re-gift brand new items that we did not use/need
3. Bought my son 3 small gifts, for his upcoming birthday, using a gift card
4. Bought cake mix, frosting, and sprinkles from Family Dollar to bake a birthday cake for my son
5. My son wants to go to Red Robin for his birthday dinner, so signed up for a free birthday burger
I'm with you on the insurance. I started a medication in October that has to be repeated every two months and should not be stopped suddenly. Imagine my surprise when I got a letter stating that the medication was now denied! Luckily, the doctor's office had already jumped on that one, and I got an acceptance letter the very next day.
I think the newly mended potholder is cute. It looks like a puzzle piece.
My frugals:
1. Even though we've been getting a ton of rain, I'm still trying to hang up laundry to dry, usually in the house.
2. I had to hem some towels, too! It's not just your towels, Kristen. What are they using for thread, I wonder?
3. I found a great sale on some cleaning tools, just as several of mine bit the dust all at once.
4. I've got $10 in Swagbucks waiting on me at Amazon. I took an online survey and will get $2 in my paypal account. I initially signed up with this survey company through Swagbucks.
5. I have to chuckle at my work outfit today. The shoes are Goodwill, the slacks a hand-me-down, the shirt is Goodwill, and the jacket is ThredUp. I bought my underwear new, though.
Dealing with health insurance stuff is the worst. It takes diligence, patience, and a willingness to pay very close attention. I shudder at the thought of how much money is left on the table by folks who don't know how to take care of this stuff or give up a little too easily.
And dealing with long term care insurance is even worse. I have been jumping through hoops for my 95 year old mother, who paid into this policy for 15 years, for five months now. I don't know what they are thinking, but it is no way to treat the elderly who have been responsible for their entire lives.
I don't have a list to share, but I did stumble across this article that I thought the community would enjoy. It's the story of a lifetime of frugalness that resulted in millions of dollars being left to charity.
https://www.seattletimes.com/life/lifestyle/social-worker-in-washington-state-left-a-surprise-when-he-died-11m-to-help-kids/
Beautiful story! Thanks for the link. Sounded like an amazing and honorable man.
1.Home sick on Sunday, but a great day for hanging sheets on clothesline. Knowing bad weather was coming. Hard part was remaking bed when I really just wanted to crawl in, sheets or no.
2. So many leftovers, haven't had to cook much. Freezing what can be used later.
3. Making small batch of pickled beets, which hubbie loves.
4. Packing his lunch every day with leftovers....but wait-- there's more still in the fridge.
5. Still feeling lousy today, so it's re-box and put away Christmas ornaments. Was sitting there thinking how brilliant it was years ago to save lightbulb boxes that held four bulbs. The kind with the padded dividers. Haven't broken one yet using those.
I'll be back later with my FFT, but I just wanted to share this. In the never-ending quest for cheap, cheaper, cheapest, quality of all textiles has gone abysmally down. Quality of the cotton, quality of the thread and especially, greatly increased stitch length combine to save every possible penny in manufacturing costs. Those long stitches with cheap thread fail very easily these days.
Here's my solution: I buy decent quality stuff at Costco and immediately zig-zag all four sides. It's much easier when they're brand new. So far, no issues with anything since I instituted this practice.
Ah, but for my old dish towels, it's patch, patch, patch. I received two new ones for Christmas that are the same red as about half my existing towels. I will meld both practices and sew (and re-sew) all of the red ones at once so I don't have to rethread the machine.
Ha! I have the same problem with my dish towels. Ugh. But I do fix them.
1. I bought a REALLY nice toddler bed for our grandson from someone on NextDoor for only $20.00! My daughter is excited!
2. I bought two pieces of art from somebody else on NextDoor for a grandkid's room for $5.00. Again, my daughter is excited!
3. I bought a gorgeous wood-framed mirror on NextDoor from yet another person to replace the truly cheap and ugly plastic-framed hall mirror we've had for years and years.
(Do you see a pattern here? LOL!)
4. I bought four corned beef briskets for half price and put them in the freezer.
5. I'm going to have knee replacement surgery on Monday, and this afternoon I'm picking up a walker and other home recovery equipment from a place where you can borrow them free if charge for up to 90 days.
6. BONUS! I froze a half gallon of eggnog leftover from the holidays. I use it to make French toast.
That's my Five Frugal Things!
I hope your surgery goes smoothly and that you have a quick recovery!
From someone who has has both knees and a hip replaced within a year, ,make sure that you have some sort of booster seat for the toilet. The new knee does not like to bend right away! Best of luck to you and be patient!
I had been having the same issue with my dish towels and my wash cloths. I started putting two rows of stitches in them and it's has solved my problem. Doesn't take much longer to put a extra row.
Ugh insurance woes. :(. Thank God for insurance, but still, there’s so much rigamarole sometimes. I’m endlessly glad that my husband takes care of this for us. If it were my responsibility it probably wouldn’t get done. â€â™€ï¸
Very frugal week for me. Yay!
Costco had LED lights for $5 for floodlight style for 6 bulbs so we were able to change all our outdoor bulbs from halogen to LED.
We tore a bed box spring apart, he will scrap the metal, I can use the cover as a drop cloth for painting and the padding on a footstool I need to fix. Recycled the whole thing.
FIL got hit with a I'm holding your computer hostage and he called the phone #. He is 86. Very scary for him, they wanted $3000 for total fix or $1500 for semi fix. They took control of his computer. Who does this... I got him fixed up just cost me my time and some free programs or free ones thru his bank. Told him don't ever do that without calling us first.
Meijer had a stack of Chobani yogurts for .25.
My very short list for Christmas was for new towels. Mine are JCPenney -25 years old. Still work too ha ha. I ordered thru Kohls and got them for $5 each, because they cancelled part of my order they sent me a $5 sorry so I got 5 towels for $20.
My Co-worker switched to Xfinity cellular, it is 0 dollars if she keeps her data under 1GB. You have to keep Xfinity tv or Internet to have it free but I still feel there is some kind of a catch.
Good going with helping your FIL. I can't stand that kind of trickery!
Five frugal things this week:
*had a weekend long trip to our hometown across the state for Christmas with our extend families-planned ahead for meals and didn't stop to eat out
*I almost placed a grocery order for pick up on Monday. Double checked the list before finalizing, and realized that nothing on the list was a need. I didn't place it at all.
*Menu planning; saves so much money.
*Used a "mperk" for cheaper gas while out of town. (It is the midwest store Meijer digital coupon.)
*I printed some coupons for my shopping trip on Friday. I will be doing a small stockpile of cereal with the coupons and store sales.
Man, it sounds like life is fraying at the pieces! (har har) 🙂
If it helps, I buy my dish towels from Target and I've never had them fray on me before.
This week:
1. I got a few packages in the mail. I promptly saved the tissue paper inside to wrap presents.
2. This weekend we're making blueberry wine, courtesy of some cheap frozen blueberries we bought at Costco.
3. We've been doing better cooking at home! We fell into a takeout rut during the holidays; it feels good to get back to normal.
4. I watched a free yoga tutorial on YouTube this morning.
5. I washed our laundry with homemade laundry soap
I've received a few nice dishtowels from Williams Sonoma (I think that's the official name)as gifts. I've had them for over 10 years and they still look new. I use them a lot too! They're not the terry cloth though so maybe that's the difference. My sis crochets me dishcloths- they are great and FREE.
1. I hang our laundry to dry. Good secondary use of our wood stove heat and does provide some moisture to our dry home.
2. Realized I don't have two of the ingredients for the meal I had planned for today but I switched to a meal I can make instead of going to the store.
3. Studying geography with the kids and we had a big craft. I rummaged around the house and found all the parts we needed to put it together. I love NOT going to craft stores when it comes time to do crafts.
4. This week it is getting down to -40 degrees F and that means plugging the van in and running a long time before we can go anywhere. So we are either not going out at all this week or the few times we are for Dr visits and such we are clustering our other errands. Starting the van less this week saves a lot.
5. Even though the days are super dark we switched all of our lights to LED last year. I feel good about keeping a few on now while doing schoolwork with the kids.
I can't even imagine weather that cold. Brrr!!
1. Repotted my Christmas cactus into a bigger pot I already had and found just enough potting soil in an old bag to top it off
2. Used essential oils and over the counter medicines to avoid the doctor’s office after we contracted the plague..true story:)
3. Bought a new to me pair of pajamas at the thrift store for $4
4. Stayed home for 5 long days (with sick and whiny children) and earned martyr status by not losing my temper
5. Found lots of great workout videos on YouTube to spice up my fitness routine
Nice mend jobs!
1. Returned some empty water bottles (we don't use them often, but had some). Our return totaled $1.40.
2. My husband and I are flying to a speaking engagement. It would be $30 for a checked bag, but it looks like we'll be able to fit our things in our personal bags since it's a quick trip. $30 savings
3. I plan to pack coffee and lunch for the drive to the airport. I estimate we'll save at least $5-10 doing that over eating out, not counting it's healthier.
4. We're buying a new to us stove. Paying $50. I don't know what new stoves go for, but I'm guessing this is $100-300 in savings.
5. I've also done little things around the house, like using holey socks for rags, shaking vinegar in the almost used mustard bottle when making dressing and cutting open the tube of toothpaste to get a few more uses. Each of these only saves pennies, but it adds up and is less wasteful.
Frugal fail. Took my daughter to dunkin donuts and filled out the survey for a free donut. Took my son the next day, but I didn't read the fine print...you have to buy a med-lg drink to get the freebie. 🙁
1. Returned books to the library on time, picked up books on hold.
2. Eating from the pantry this month and only buying essentials from the grocery store.
3. Received a $79 check from the doctor's office likely from my son's surgery back in 2017!
4. Resumed physical therapy for my shoulder and since we're in new calendar year, using my FSA for my co-pays instead of out of pocket after I used up all the money before my last session in 2018.
5. Went through my kids' clothes (again) to purge outgrown clothes and move some new ones into their drawers. Plan to pass on the outgrown clothes to friends with younger boys and donating the rest to a local clothing charity. Plan to make a few repairs, but overall they have more than enough for now and I don't need to buy anything for a while (except maybe underwear, haha).
Re: packages, I’m a big fan of the Ship-It online USPS packages service. If you have a scale, you can see what size package is cheaper (not always the flat rate!) and there’s a slight discount for doing it online. Best of all, at least at my PO, you can skip the line to drop off, woo! Downside: if the flat rate is cheaper, you either need a stash at home or bring tape to the PO to package it up there. Still, I find it very useful.
Nothing outstanding this week.
1. Didn't pay to rent any movies over the holidays, all were ones I own, or checked out of library, or told TiVo to record for me.
2. Continued to eat down the freezer. There's a lot of smoothies on my table as I consume the last gallon of frozen bananas. They're part of the 50 lbs of "unsellable" ones I bought for $3, maybe two years ago. I'm buying frozen strawberries to go with.
3. Making Overnight French Toast to use up the baguette that my roommate bought. The rest of the meal will be whatever's in the fridge. And smoothie, of course.
4. More free yoga at the library, which is when I check out/return library books, natch.
5. Continued to hound my insurance company to be sure they pay for absolutely everything they should.
Not Frugal: taking three kids to Mary Poppins Returns, including popcorn. Wow - I'm not used to those prices. There were good reasons to do it but frugality was not one of them.
yes, but frugality means you can do those things - & they will probable always remember that day
I am working on our finances for the year and submitted our forms to get rebates on our Medicare payments ($600 each) from our secondary insurance. It pays to read the fine print.
Next up is doing the survey and setting wellness goals to earn money that I use to help pay for prescriptions.
Determined not to buy any books this year. I am using the library and books passed around by book club friends.
Went out to lunch with Hubby instead of dinner. We brought home enough to provide one person with a lunch of leftovers.
Volunteered to be part of a beta test for an online program of interest so got it free for time spent. I'm retired so that is a good deal!
This ended up being a holiday break /back to school count- so two weeks 🙂
1) Packing lunches for all four of us.
2) Made sure to fill up the gas tank. Prices were still below $2.00 a gallon before I started the work commute this week.
3) The kids treated us to Mary Poppins over the holiday. They (with mom help) did some pet-sitting for the neighbor and she paid them in a movie gift card.
4) Made sure I signed the kids up for Spring sports now! Taking advantage of the early bird discount
5) I was able to swap a day at work- I took off last Thursday and worked inventory on Saturday. This provided child coverage during thelast week of school break and one less day of having to come up childcare during their break and a normal work week for me and hubby.
hmmm...
1. Used up several potatoes that were starting to sprout
2. Shoveled my own driveway and got a workout at the same time. 😉
3. Dried a load of clothes before they got forgotten in the washing machine, start to smell and need to be washed again. (Not that I ever do that... ahem.)
4. Set up my phone bill to be automatically paid and eliminating the chance of late fees! (Not that I've ever done that either... 🙄 )
5. Wrote a list on the back of a used envelope. 🙂
Okay, let's see what I can come up with. I shall call this one
FFT - The Broken Pelvis Edition.
1. I'm not getting around easily these days, so I'm saving on gas by not going anywhere.
2. I have purchased exactly no post-Christmas marked downs. No gift wrap, no candy, no craft supplies - zip, zero, nada.
3. I resisted the urge to run er, hobble to the store on Monday. I waited until my regular shopping day to buy Red Curry Paste so I could try Kristen's latest recipe. It was awesome!
4. Did my usual grocery shopping routine inbb a different order. Hit Grocery Outlet on Senior Morning for 10% off my entire purchase - yippee! Then I went to the 99 Cent Only Store across the street. Did so well at both that I skipped Costco entirely, which was good, because two stores just about wore me out.
5. Not using much in the way of OTC pain meds. Just rest and my trusty 20 year old heating pad.
1. Even though we are busy all week with our State Farm Show I cooked a bunch of food so we had meals ready when we got home.
2. Got an extra large rabbit cage free from FB marketplace- we raise rabbits and those cages are over $100 new!
3. Took advantage of free food at the Farm Show and all the cool swag.
4. Found a lot of free handouts on health and safety and various Ag/Animal Science to use for the rest of the homeschooling year.
5. Used or free parking pass to attend the Farm Show everyday! Lots of demonstrations and hands on activities to count for homeschooling.
Diane C- Sorry to hear about your injury! I hope it heals quickly!
Amy- I wish gas was under $2 here. What a bargain!
Here are my five frugal things:
1)Shopped around for car insurance. We ended up staying with the same company and saved $200+.
2) Bought bruised bananas at 35 cents/lb to make banana cranberry orange bread. I used the fruit basket that was sent from my in-laws that had oranges and tangerines.
3)Needed 2 windshield wiper blades and DH got them on sale for $8 each.
4) Sold some stuff on Ebay. Ebay claimed that I owed 80 cents to USPS due to a inaccurate weight to ship a package, so they charged me for it. The next day, they refunded me $1.60. Um, okay...
5) Went to the movies with DS2 to see Aquaman. We used a $50 gift card that someone gave us.
Most of my frugal bits this week are food and stock related. Because VAT went up as of 1 Jan, I bought some extras and some post-Christmas clearance items at the end of the year and this means the cupboard shelves are still pretty full.
1 I made muffins from (slightly) browning bananas
2 Leftovers have been dutifully eaten at subsequent meals (bonus: able to clean fridge before weekend produce shopping)
3 Stuck to shopping list (discount and special offers) at two shops
4 cooked and froze meals and meal ingredients
5 Freecycled clothes, books, and less favorite kichen utensils that had been kept just in case (for over 7 years)
6 Bought 2 items of winterclothing at reduced price. They were on my list and we are expecting frost and cold. I'll be cozy and warm!
Don't know if I have 5 this week bur I'll see what I've got 🙂
1. Out with friends for breakfast & one insisted it was their shout - so nice
2. I live in a new location so spent some time on google maps today to find shops closer to me & plan errands
3. Got to work earlier than normal - less traffic & quicker (no idling in traffic) so saved petrol
4. Stopped using a hairdryer - finding out what my hair does naturally & surprised it doesn't look much different - & saves time getting ready!
5. Oh, I forgot I changed my loan repayments to fortnightly but the most minimum possible so that all the extra I pay goes 100% to principle
there you go; I did it 🙂
Let's see.....
1. Made frosting myself. Had never done it before and it was so easy!
2. Used the frosting on a chocolate cake made from a box mix using can of "coffee soda". No one in thr house liked the soda but they sure liked it in the cake so I'll be able to use those up for sure as treats.
3. Tried to make liquid hand soap from reg bars of soap but didnt work, did a load of towels and finally remembered to use it in place of laundry detergent.
4. Mealplanned since the new year, used a lot from the freezer, so grocery spending was very low. This week will be a bit more spending because we are out of things. The empty frig and freezer makes me feel like I accomplished a project though. I
can imagine how Frugal Girl feels!
5. While not really frugal, I noticed on first paycheck of the year that medical/Hsa was not deducted and questioned HR straihht away. Turns out it was a glitch for numerous paychecks and will be fixed appropriately for next check. Double deductions then much better than not being on plan!
I hope you'll see this, Kathy. I have had no luck making liquid hand soap either, but here's that does work for me. Use a Method-type foaming soap dispenser. When the soap is gone, refill by pouring about an inch worth of liquid hand soap into the dispenser. Then carefully fill with water, leaving enough headroom for the screw-on pump. Shake well and you're set! Use slightly more or less, depending on the water hardness in your area, until you like the amount of foam the pump produces. Then mark the bottle with a Sharpie to make future refills easier. I buy the refill bags of Method Hand Soap when I find them on sale. They now last a l-o-n-g time.
If the pump gets scungy, use a toothpick to clean out the crud, then swish in hot water to make it like new again.
Once you realize how much added water they add to make foaming hand soap, you will never buy it that way again. Unless, of course, you need a new dispenser!
Thanks Diane, awesome tip!