Five Frugal Things | I don't need the math credit!
1. I got a CLEP exam refund
After several days of burying my nose in college algebra CLEP test prep, I emailed the nursing program coordinator to ask a question and YOU GUYS!!
I found out that I don't actually need the college algebra credit after all. (!!!!!)
My advisor gave me the wrong info; the new policy goes into effect for the nursing class that starts the semester after I want to start.
You know how I almost cried when my advisor originally told me I'd need to take college algebra?
Well, I nearly cried tears of joy when I read the email saying I didn't need to take it. That was such a huge weight off of my shoulders.
I'd been working so hard at prepping, and I was feeling pretty overwhelmed because the official practice test had a lot of stuff I'd never seen in my life before!
And now I am deliciously, wonderfully free. I never have to know how to solve things like this:
Anyway. I had already purchased the CLEP voucher, but happily, you can get a refund if you ask for it within 7 days. Whew!
(Although honestly, I wouldn't even have stressed about the $90 because I was just so freaking happy that I didn't need to take the test.)
2. I submitted therapy receipts to insurance
If a therapist is in-network, the practice usually submits the paperwork. But when you see someone out-of-network, you usually have to submit those receipts yourself.
Years ago, it was a pretty annoying process, involving actual paper mail. These days, though, it's pretty quick and easy because it can all be done online.
Still, sometimes I put it off! But this week I logged on and got the receipts submitted.
3. I submitted for a covid test reimbursement
I have a stash of tests here, but Lisey needed to buy a covid test when she wasn't near home. So, I submitted her receipt for reimbursement.
4. I got a free propane tank
I used to order my propane refills from Propane Taxi, and they had a referral program where you could get credits for sharing your link with other new customers.
I think I shared it on Twitter years ago, so I had some credits in my account when Propane Taxi changed over to being branded as Cynch. Luckily, the credits transferred, even though the referral program is totally different now.
So, I used the credits to order a propane tank for $0 out of pocket. Yay!
(The referral program has changed, but you can still get $10 off your first order if you click on my referral link. Cynch will accept your current standard-size grill propane tank for exchange; no need to order one from them unless, like me, you actually do need a tank!)
5. I...
- sold a build-a-bear for Zoe on eBay
- added my girls as authorized users on my credit card, to help passively build their credit
- bought yeast at Sam's club (warehouse clubs are THE place to buy yeast!)
- made coffee at home every day
- got gas at BJ's when I happened to be nearby
Most of my life is frugal (though i thought of plenty of things to add to my "Not Frugal" comnent a month or so ago) but it doesn't seem newsworthy this week.
1. I did a bunch of baking to put together a basket for a large group of people. I made two kinds of cookies and two kinds of muffins using ingredients on hand. I did use two sticks of butter and some brown sugar that a neighbor gave me. She said they weren't going to use them. I shared some of the baking with the neighbor. I also included a few bags of mandarins, purchased on sale at Lidl, with the basket to round it out a bit. A huge shout out to the muffin tins Kristen recommended several years ago, using them negates the need to use muffin liners or grease.
2. I made a big batch of chicken tortilla soup to use up some cooked chicken from the freezer as well as half an onion, frozen bell pepper, and the end of a bag of tortilla chips. It will be dinner for a few nights.
3. I continue to read and listen to digital books borrowed from the library. I just started reading Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom, a non-fiction book, and it promises to be good. I love that when you borrow a book from the library you feel free to ditch it you're not interested (no sunk cost to warp your thinking).
4. This morning I will go to yoga class in my not new and fashionable clothes. The more I read about the destruction caused by fashion today the more I keep wearing the same old same old. I am currently reading Unraveling and was horrified to find out that most wool sheared in the US is thrown away these days. The economics dictate this.
5. I didn't buy this or that, just food lately.
@K D, Ha. I just read your #4 and had to laugh given my #3 today. My husband sells his wool on Etsy and hand spinners buy it quickly. But we have Merinos, which have very nice wool. Most people with small flocks now have hair sheep, which shed and don't need to be sheared. Their wool, however, is very coarse, and not really in demand by hand spinners.
@K D, I was going to type of my frugal things, but it'd be a near repetition of your list. Lots of the same things week to week: not buying things I don't need; eating at home; reading books from the library or friends.
@K D, A huge shout out to the muffin tins Kristen recommended several years ago, using them negates the need to use muffin liners or grease.
Could you tell us which muffin pan Kristen recommended?
I have the USA pans brand! https://amzn.to/3T2KymT
@K D,
"Most of my life is frugal (though i thought of plenty of things to add to my “Not Frugal” comnent a month or so ago) but it doesn’t seem newsworthy this week."
This is how I've been feeling lately. I have been saving a bit but I'm actually spending money on myself for the first time in ages so I don't feel all that frugal when I buy some food on sale or something like that.
@kristin @ going country, I used to have Babydoll Southdowns, a miniature sheep variety; they were smaller than my Irish wolfhounds and used to torment the dogs by running underneath them if the dogs trampled on the grass they wanted to eat. Anyway, their wool was so soft and fine that spinners who saw them would ask to be on the list to buy the wool, uncleaned even, the next time we sheared them. The year we went on a long vacation across country, we took the last two with us and I have some great shots of them in the back of the pickup, eating away.
@Lindsey, now you have to do another guest post just so we can see your sheep in the pickup pics too : )
@Laurae, I have the same muffin tin, but I didn’t realize you didn’t need to grease them. Thanks for mentioning that tip!
*I mended more socks.
*We got gas several times this week more than an hour from our house because it's so much cheaper (and we had to drive past for several appointments and meetings).
*We went into a Walmart to walk and waste time while waiting for our son's plane to arrive. We noticed eggs were way cheaper than any we've seen recently, so we bought 5 dozen.
*I called my favorite maple syrup people and asked her to set back 10 gallons for us. I know that sounds like a lot, but it lasts us at least a year. My family likes real maple syrup, and this farm sells it so much cheaper by the gallon than anywhere else I've ever seen. I love buying right from the producer!
*Instead of stopping at a convenience store to buy more water when we ran out while being away from home ALL day, we got a gallon at Walmart.
Yay! So happy for you.
Let's see if I can think of anything notably frugal this week . . .
Our judo sensei decided it wasn't worth us going to the national tournament in Texas because for our novice students it's just practice, but the entrance fee is high and they're required to buy a blue uniform (to differentiate the opponents with white--like home and away uniforms, I guess). So we're just going to the smaller state tournaments instead which still require travel and staying overnight, but at least don't charge as much for the actual tournament. Slightly less pressure, too. 🙂
We're having friends over--one adult, three kids--today sort of last minute to watch our sheep get sheared. Had I known they were coming before my husband went to the store yesterday, I would have asked him to get things like deli ham and chips for lunch. But I didn't know, so instead I'm making sloppy joes with the bread I baked yesterday and my very plentiful ground beef. We have lots of oranges and I also baked cookies yesterday, so I can serve a nice lunch that is much cheaper and actually healthier than if I had had the option for the easy way out.
Our shearer is at least 75 years old (and yes, still shearing sheep, which is an incredibly physically demanding activity, but apparently kept him young) and shears now just as a retirement thing. He only charges $10/sheep, which is INSANELY cheap. I guess he just likes traveling around his old Agricultural Extension Agent stomping grounds and talking to fellow sheep enthusiasts. My husband has sheared our sheep himself in years past, but is very, very happy to pay around a hundred bucks to get it all done in an hour, rather than the days it takes us to get it done. Especially considering he sells every fleece for a profit.
We finally have insurance that will cover routine dental once a year, so my husband finally went to the dentist. It had been, um, years (not even sure how many) since he went. There was nothing wrong with his teeth, but it was nice to get the confirmation.
And finally, I was baking bread yesterday, so I made some hamburger buns with some of the dough to make green chile cheeseburgers for my visiting MiL, who loves green chile. Warehouse stores may be the place to go for the cheapest yeast, but sourdough yeast is free. 🙂
@kristin @ going country, I am jealous of $10 per sheep. We paid $100 per miniature sheep to get them sheared and had to look long and hard to find someone to do it!
@Lindsey, My friends pay that much for their alpacas. On the other hand, alpacas are just kind of mean.
Frugal wins this week:
1. Closed my daughter's Greenlight card and opened her a checking account. The Greenlight card was $4.99/month which I will save now that she is old enough to have her own checking account (with $0.00 monthly fees with minimum balance). I'll take the $59.88 savings for the year!
2. We ate 6 dinners at home and used a gift card to eat out Saturday.
3. I started seeds this year in side. This saves me a ton of $$ because I already had many of the equipment from previous years and use my own compost. I also tend to buy a lot of flowers which can get pricey very quickly.
4. We eat meatless dinners 2-3 times a week.
5. In an effort to eat healthier, I stopped purchasing many snacks like cookies and ice cream. The unintended consequence has been a slightly cheaper grocery bill. Fingers crossed, this also results in a lower cholesterol number too :).
@sarah, Regarding your #5, a while back we stopped buying most foods with added sugar (we still buy pasta sauce (no sugar added when possible, and jam for my youngest's beloved PB&J sandwiches), and it really does help! The other day my son was waxing nostalgic about corn dogs, and I knew all the frozen corn dogs we used to get had sugar in the batter, so I made a batch of cornbread muffins (with no added sugar) and stuck hot dog chunks in them, and they were a hit. 😉
@Karen A., cornbread should never have sugar in it anyway. Take it from an expatriate Southerner.
@A. Marie, I have very little childhood cornbread experience (growing up in Northern Ohio, we didn't eat much of it, and I'm sure what we did have had sugar in it) but I love it now. The recipe I have did call for 1 tablespoon of sugar, and I meant to put in a tablespoon of xylitol, but I forgot--and nobody noticed. So I wonder why it even called for that teeny amount in the first place 😉
@A. Marie, I love it with sugar included, to make what BFF would call "Yankee cornbread, as sweet as cake." Heh. The people who think sweet tea (gag) is worthy of drinking cannot dictate to the rest of us.
@Rose, OK, you can have your corn cake and eat it too. But for the record, I don't do sweet tea either. I'm a sugar minimalist.
@A. Marie,
Amen!
@A. Marie, I can’t stand to drink any sweetened drinks including sweet tea, no sugar in my coffee, never any soda pop! But I do love sugary cornbread, lol.I use the Trader Joe or Krustacz mix from time to time and it is sweet. Such a treat.. more like a cake then bread,right??!
@A. Marie, I’m a southerner too and I don’t put sugar in my cornbread. My mother didn’t either. However, pretty much everyone in her large family did and almost everyone I know does.
@A. Marie, we don’t do sweet tea either. In fact, we seldom drink tea at all. We cut out almost all added sugar long ago. However, we do buy a carton of Breyers chocolate ice cream for each of our birthday months, and we eat bite sized Dove promises daily (one for me, and 2 for hubby)!
@Rose, and @ A. Marie,
Growing up in a Yankee family, we rarely ate cornbread, and if we did, it was a rare thing. Now that I live in Ohio with a husband who grew up with parents from Appalachian Kentucky, I have come to appreciate all types of cornbread....hubby insists on corn cake, and I have no quarrel with that. 🙂
@Liz B., IDK--both my parents had literally never ventured out of New York City and we ate cornbread--sweet Yankee cornbread--often. But then my mom frequently whipped up some quick bread for dinner: biscuits, popovers, whatever.
@Rose,
Yum. I would have loved that. My mom was always on a diet, so we usually didn't have bread of any kind with dinner. (Eye roll).
@Karen A., what a great healthier corn dog version!
@Juhli, Aw, thanks! I can't take full credit; I remembered reading somewhere online about corn dog muffins, and after looking at several recipes decided to just use the cornbread recipe we like, rather than experiment.
And I agree with all the anti-sweet tea commenters; when I traveled down to Georgia for the first time to visit family, I was amused that when I ordered an iced tea I had to specify "non-sweet" unless I wanted a glass of hummingbird nectar.
Bit the bullet and contacted a pest control guy to take care of my mouse problem.
Posted my second set of car cans on Marketplace for free-they took 3 months to arrive and the order had already been replaced. Company said I could keep the second set.
So, so happy for you! I’m an English major and just looking at that algebra problem made me a little nauseous. I definitely would have cried tears of joy. Yay you!
I finally did some meal prepping this week to save on last minute food spending.
I returned some clothes that didn’t fit before the return window closed.
Not a lot for this week.
@Beth, I felt about the same as you did when I looked at that algebra paper. I did fine up to a point in high school math, but always hated it--and then I met my Waterloo in pre-calculus. (Fortunately for me, so did the rest of the class. We'd all have gotten C's or worse if Mr. Phillips hadn't curved the grades.) So I too am very happy for Kristen.
That's how I feel about algebra; I can do fine in it, but I hate it. I have exactly zero passion for the subject!
@Beth, I wanted to cry just looking at that problem. My husband could solve that easily, but I think I have school-induced math trauma from bad teachers. I will say years of teaching my kids elementary math has made me much better at doing simple calculations (addition, subtraction, etc) in my head, but higher math beyond simple "solve for x" is beyond me.
@A. Marie, I actually taught my own high school calculus class my senior year. The "real" teacher was the principal of my high school, but she told me she had too much to do so I should teach it. But after I finished my undergraduate college math requirements I forgot everything. Couldn't possibly take Kristen's test.
@Karen A.,
That problem is bananas! I would have started crying if I was ever faced with trying to solve something like that. No way does a nurse (unless doing research, maybe) need to work an equation like that one. I have a hard enough time trying to help my 7th grader with his algebra!
@JDinNM, You might be surprised. I tested out of calculus in college because of my high school classes and thought I'd forgotten it all. But when my kids were wrestling with it in high school, dribs and drabs came back to me.
@Rose, I had that exact same thing this week with my high school junior. His was a trigonometry problem (I think?), and I couldn't remember how to do the problem myself exactly, but I had this weird "intuition" that zeroed in on exactly what he was doing wrong. When I found the lesson that problem referred to and actually read it, I was right!
Wow! I’m happy to hear that you don’t have to take the CLEP test. I know this is a relief.
1. When picking up a prescription this week, I requested a refill of the at-home Covid tests that I'm entitled to under my insurance coverage. I don’t need them right now, but I understand that in May of this year, these will no longer be available. With the 4 that I received via USPS, I now have a little stash. These can dwindle quickly when someone in the household is sick.
2. I did some grocery shopping this week and scanned my receipts to iBotta and Fetch. This is a sllllooooowwww process, but I have derived some benefit from this.
3. The installer from the big box store where I purchased my dishwasher refused to put it in. He said the valve was old and I needed a plumber. I had prepaid for installation and was supposed to be issued a credit. I was not. Although I attempted to clear this up with a phone call, I was unable to do so. I brought my paperwork to the service desk at the store that I purchased it from and was finally issued a $215 credit. BTW, there was nothing wrong with the valve which made me wonder if this is intentional.
4. I have been working on my budget changing to an every dollar approach. We have always had a loose and fluid budget, but inflationary pressures are making it more difficult to maintain.
5. All the usual things - batching errands, using library resources, brewing my own coffee, cooking from scratch, buying in bulk when appropriate, and drinking primarily filtered water.
Wishing everyone peace, good health and prosperity.
@Bee, The exact same thing happened with my latest dishwasher installation. Hm....I guess maybe it's a thing to refuse to install?
@Bee,
My daughter purchased a playset at Christmas for her nieces and nephew and paid for installation, so their very busy dad wouldn't have to build it. The installers never came. My son-in-law finally went ahead and built it himself, and my daughter had to get her installation fee back. What's going on here?
@JD,
quiet quitting?
I’m swing it in all kinds of customer service.
@Bee, I had the same thing happen with my dryer! They acted like they couldn't do it and I needed a "professional"! When they left, I hooked it up myself! I was as simple as unhooking the old dryer and hooking up the new dryer. I went back to Home Depot, and got my fee back, and took back the extra stuff they made me buy to do the install! It was ridiculous how helpless they acted, and how I was easily able to figure out how to hook it up myself - no help needed! I think it a ruse!
@Bee, Hmm this does seem very common then from the other comments. We had the exact same thing happen with our dishwasher, they said they couldn’t install it because it was too complex but then my husband installed it himself without difficulty. I’m assuming whoever installs these is not actually trained and needs to just be able to plug it in, which maybe is the case in newer houses but not old?
@Bee,
We just recently had to replace our dryer and decided to do the washer along with, since they were originally purchased at the same time. The associate helping us advised their service team would not install with the existing "aged" hookups, hoses, etc and if we wanted them to install it, we would have to pay $75 for all new equipment. Instead, my husband unhooked and moved everything. The delivery people placed the washer and dryer exactly where we wanted it, took the old ones and left. My husband easily hooked everything up using what we already had. I feel like the associate helping you should have been more helpful in explaining their install guidelines. I'm glad you got your refund!
@Bee, Boo on the erratic installers!
I know it has been mentioned before but will say it again: Before tossing unused Covid tests, check the online data base for the list of tests whose expiration dates have been extended. covid.gov/tests
@Bee, There's definitely a disconnect between purchase and installation. I needed a new fridge last year and paid for removal and installation. The guys removed the old (elderly and massive) fridge and then said they couldn't install the new one because of the water connection tube coming out of the way, which had connected to the old fridge's icemaker. It just needed to be turned off and made to not leak since the new one doesn't have an icemaker. The main installer said I had to hire a plumber; he wasn't allowed to touch the water connection thing. I asked if they could tell me what to do and I'd touch the thing and get it done. I just needed directions. Maybe they didn't expect that from a gray-headed lady? The guy stared at me and then said he'd do it. He did -- it took about 1 minute -- and the fridge was installed in no time after that. So many fridges have ice hook-ups, why isn't that 'rule' mentioned when you pay for installation? Annoying.
On the frugal front, the new fridge uses way less energy! It's been so noticeable on my energy usage 11/12 months the past year. The 18-year-old enormous fridge was way past its prime.
@Bee, I feel like I need to stand up for installers. We bought a new washer and were charged exactly $5 for delivery, installation and hauling off the old one. While they were here and I was babbling while they were installing, I mentioned that we had an old fridge in the back of the garage that I wished they could haul off, too. And they did! No extra charge. But the guy almost ruined it all by saying, after I thanked him profusely, "My mom taught me to always try to help old people." They had this nifty piece of equipment that looked like a dolly that they slid under it, moved it in place and pressed a button and it went up to the level of the truck so they could just slide it on---no backs were strained in the process.
@Lindsey, Yeah, I, too, have had great installers. Ordered a new induction stove - the cheapest they had. Negotiated a deal on delivery with take-away of my old stove (ancient and harvest gold, or did I not need to mention ancient?) ... anyway, got the delivery and install for free. I had put a package together for the guys - a dozen eggs each and some baking, as well as a $20 each. (times are tough).
well, when they got the old stove out and were uncrating the new stove, they discovered that the side had been dented in. Not badly, but obviously. I had waited WEEKS for the stove, they had already taken out the old stove, and we were all SO sad. They figured it would be another month at least to get a replacement...
The guys called their store and negotiated the maximum discount for me ($300 on a stove that was $1500) and I gladly took it.
I am not house-proud, and the dent is really not noticeable, even if it is on the hallway side. in fact, I have to remember to go look at it to see it.
In the end, I feel very happy to have received a decent discount, and I know some of that was 'cause I was treating the guys right. I really didn't want that old stove back!.
I have had good installation experience too. Just not this time. The big box store charged $50 for delivery, $175 for installation and $50 for haul away. That’s a chunk of change. In long -ago times (pre-covid), these charges weren’t nearly so high and it was much easier to get customer service when needed. I really miss good customer service. I called my plumber who brought with him an assistant and charge me less than the HD install price. I learned a lot this week.
@Bee, Is this part of fear of being sued? Technician doesn't do it right and kitchen floods or electricity sparks and starts fire, and the company is liable?
@Bee, now I feel like hubby and I got conned as we bought a new washing machine in September and had to buy the "newer" hoses, etc. But, in retrospect, we have very hard water and no water softener so perhaps we saved ourselves a headache. But hubby is very handy.
@Auntiali, And they took the old washer with them even though if they didn't we could have put it out for trash pickup when the town has metal pickup once a month.
@Ecoteri,
How do you like the induction stove? We are thinking about getting one.
@Sandy B Hill, Oh, I LOVE it. had to replace a few pots and pans, and one of my cast iron frying pans is a bit rounded on the bottom so it isn't touching the stovetop - I am learning how to make it work however might trade it with one of my kids. Had to replace my presto Pressure Canner for an Induction version, however that canner owed me nothing as I have had it for 20 years and many jars... and I will pass it on to someone in my community. There is a learning curve - don't walk away when the burner is on high, for example, water boils SO FAST and therefor pans can (and do) boil over. oops. The speed of heating is comparable to gas (FAST) while not putting those dangerous fumes/chemicals into the air and my asthmatic lungs. I am delighted with it and wish more folk knew about induction - it would help replace "Now you're cooking with Gas" with a much healthier option for you and the environment.
As for the pots - most work, they need to be steel (so cast iron works) = aluminum or copper doesn't, but steel clad copper or steel clad aluminum does. I have kids who are using coil electric stoves and my older/spare pots so I am just trading with them.
Haven't LOVED a new appliance ever, and I love this stove.
Wow Kristen I can very well imagine your excitement and joy of not having to this math test! I am very happy for you.
My frugal things:
- I sold something at ebay in less than 24 hours. The buyer picked it up at my place. My first time ever that I placed something on Ebay.
- I mended a few things. Tiny holes in expensive Longsleeves, straps of one of my backpacks, frayed hems on one of the plaids etc
- I went through pantry, fridge and freezer and gathered anything which is either a grain, nuts, almonds etc - chopped, grinded, whole pieces and turned that into granola. Some leftovers coconut oil, sesame seeds, flaxseeds just about anything I threw together. So glad to have the tasty granola and nothing went to waste. I learned about the existence of granola and how to do it from your blog Kristen. Thank you for this!
- I resist buying tomatoes, cucumbers etc - not in season and therefore expensive, and strictly stick to seasonal vegetables. Alina, the Ukrainian lady is amazed how many different and tasty dishes you can prepare from celery, leek, root vegetables, all sorts of cabbages etc.
- I am in the midst of spring cleaning. Yesterday I went to the basement and made a list of all things I want to get rid of and asked the city via email to come and get the stuff. They will pick it up in two weeks. It is for free twice a year per household.
- My son with the kids and wife is coming from Vienna for a 10 day visit. I am busy preparing meals for the whole gang - also my youngest son is coming from the North - and with the three boys, extended family and the Ukrainians whom I will be feeding I am very well advised to do some cooking in advance and have the other meals planned out!
And that is all I can think of right now
Getting a free propane tank is great! When we left FL, we gave our neighbors 2 tanks and they were pretty full. My husband started a job at a small hardware store and they installed a propane filling station. During the training, they filled an older tank that wasn't very pretty. But my husband didn't care! We're back to 2 tanks!
Painted my bathroom and got the paint and supplies from the hardware store where my husband works at a discount. But what a pain it is to paint over a dark maroon color; and there are no windows in the room. Needless to say, I had to prime it first. And the spots where I didn't prime it well, you can tell and I've been having to paint those areas a few times. But its coming along nicely and looks way better than it used to. It definitely has lighted things up.
Sold an older faux-wood filing cabinet, and the woman gave me an extra $5.00 for meeting her closer to her home rather than having her come out to mine. And I didn't realize it until I got home, but I would never have taken it. I was just happy to get it out of my house!
Contacted Chewy.com to update my auto ship. With only 1 dog in the house now, the biscuits and treats do not go as fast, so we don't need to have it delivered as often.
Bought all my St. Patrick's decorations at Dollar Tree. Had to go to several stores to find what I wanted, but now to put it all together for the party next week.
Not frugal: Spent my yearly bonus on tickets to see Springsteen, so no extra out of pocket costs for me. I'm a die-hard fan and it was worth it to me to spend that money to get better seats. I figured I am the one who worked for that money! (And I did get a raise too, so that money is being invested, I just spent the bonus money.)
@Maureen, The Boss is priceless. Have fun !
He and I watched a children's riding competition at the Hampton Classic horse show some years back. We were the only spectators. I didn't recognize him for a long time because he's so much shorter than I am and shorter than I expected. womp womp. (My daughter won that competition.)
@Maureen,
What a great way to spend your bonus! I would love to see Springsteen in concert again. Last time was in the mid-80s, something I will never forget.
@Rose,
How awesome is that?? I would have been a blithering idiot, once I realized it was him.
@Maureen, very cool on the Sprinsteen tickets. I'm am in NJ and the Boss is from NJ and he's playing a performance arts center in Newark NJ. Those tickets were outrageously priced so I didn't even try to get one. I saw him at Giants stadium in the mid '90's and he was great. Now I'm watching Youtube videos of him performing in the mid-west and west and seeing empty seats. But hey, I can see him and I didn't spend any big bucks money. Plus I get to see Jake Clemmons - the sax player and nephew of the "Big Man" the late, great Clarence Clemmons play. He such a cutie patotie in my humble old lady, but not as old as the Boss, opinion.
@Auntiali,
The prices to see him here in SW Ohio were way too high for me to even think about going to see him in concert. I'll look up those YouTube videos, great idea! I was lucky enough to see Clarence Clemons play with the E Street Band back in the day....he was a fantastic musician.
That’s wonderful news for you to not need the algebra and also to get a refund on your CLEP test. Double yay!
Perhaps not so much frugal as just some ways we didn’t spend money:
A few weeks ago, I contracted Covid again ( first time was two years ago). The headache and frequent sneezing were miserable but now I’m fine and very thankful. Since we stayed home until I was no longer contagious, we didn’t spend money on a dance lesson, 2 dance events, and eating out with friends prior to one of the events. As well, we didn’t drive anywhere for 5 days so our cars’ fuel tanks stayed full.
I mended some socks and a cardi, “shopped” my closet to avoid some Spring clothing purchases I had been considering, started some seeds for flowers to be transplanted in warmer weather, made an apple crisp to use some lingering apples, made some cards for friends’ upcoming birthdays.
I'm glad you are recovering from round #2 of covid!
And yeah, wasn't the sneezing crazy this time around? I read that it is common with the current variant.
I can't think of much this week. That means I didn't buy a lot, right? Maybe?
- Made CI's banana bread to use up the boatload of elderly bananas cuz the 9 lbs of discounted bananas were just sitting around.
- Still rocking the public library, including for my book club.
- Finished making hats for earthquake victims/the homeless from leftover yarn.
Congratulations on not having to take the college algebra CLEP test!
Not a very exciting week frugality wise for us.
1. Found a $20 Whole Foods gift card DH had purchased so I used it when I dropped off a return to Zappos
2. Dropped by Costco after Whole Foods since it was close by and picked up a pre-made taco kit for Friday night dinner. We had enough left over to have it again Saturday night
3. Purchased produce while at Costco so I could skip going to the grocery store this week
4. Bought artificial flowers that were so sale so I could make 3 spring wreaths for less than what one pre-made one cost
5. Pulled out several items from Mom's hoarder house that I'm going to try to sell (e.g., new in box ceiling fans, many new in box door knobs and lock sets, and new in box security lights).
1. Free entertainment--hiking in our nearby parks, playing PS3 games we've had for ages.
Read library books, some borrowed through our wonderful free ILL system.
2. At the grocery store, found 8 cents in the self-checkout dispenser. I joked with my husband that I earned some money at the grocery store. 😉
3. Cooked all meals at home, at all meals at home. Husband was on a work trip, but he opted to stay at an army base, in a (heated) cabin rather than a hotel. He says it's quieter and nicer anyway, even if he does have to walk to the bathroom, which he doesn't mind. He also used a folding bike and the metro to get around the city some days rather than drive.
4. We had a record rainfall (3 inches in one day) and one of my sons very skillfully used our "water farm" to collect a lot of rainwater for the future dryer days. I think he collected 12 gallons or something like that.
5. Used up some cooked ground beef in lasagna, found some nasty bruised apples in our fridge, but cut out enough good parts for my morning oatmeal. Found a better deal for some grocery items through Amazon Subscribe and Save (coconut flour, tea, instant coffee).
Ack. #3 should be "ate all meals at home." Except for my husband, obviously, who brought a microwave with him to use in the cabin, and got some $1 frozen pot pies for some of his meals. I also baked some trail bars for him to eat on the road, and they lasted him all the way there and back so he didn't have to buy expensive keto bars for the trip! I'd forgotten that one.
@Karen A., holy moly, your husband actually travels with a folding bike and a microwave? Sounds like an interesting guy.
@Anne, My first thought, too!
@Anne, Ha, yes, he is interesting. 🙂 His meetings were in a very dense metropolitan area, with lots of good trains and public transit. The folding bike was clutch for traveling through the metro; he bungee corded his laptop case to the bike rack and, with the bike folded, it made a nice "wheeled suitcase" of sorts. The last time he went out there he took Amtrak, so he had to carry everything with him, so this helped a lot.
This last trip, though, he decided to drive rather than rely on Amtrak--there were times he worried the train was delayed too much for him to get to his first meeting on time--plus, he said, the Amtrak porters in our town were not sure about his bike! Driving also meant he could take a small microwave we'd saved from two houses ago, and use that to heat up meals in the cabin rather than just eat cold food. Hot food is such a morale booster on trips.
The bike also came in very handy when it was clear one of the metro trains was going to be late; he just unfolded his bike and rode up to another stop to catch a train that was on time.
FFT, More Travel News Edition:
(1) See my FFT of yesterday over at the NCA for ways I'll be economizing during my upcoming visit with JASNA BFF in NYC. (There, that sentence should win me the acronym award for the day.) Undying gratitude to BFF not only for being a gracious hostess, but for having all those museum memberships!
(2) One travel tip that didn't make it into my official five yesterday, but came up in the comments, is this: I’ll be traveling with clothes I plan to drop off at a thrift store near BFF's apartment the day before I leave. This will save room for whatever I may pick up in the course of the visit. On the JASNA 2009 tour of England where BFF and I met, I was the only one on the bus who wasn’t paying a lot extra to ship books and souvenirs home; I was able to get everything into my luggage.
(3) Even if I can't work in a birdwatching tour of Central Park (and Flaco the escaped Eurasian eagle-owl may be up to here in paparazzi anyway), I can watch birds from the roof of BFF's apartment building. I once had the thrill of looking *down* at a red-tailed hawk flying along toward the Hudson at about sixth-floor level.
(4) And I've also made a date for lunch with my managing editor at my former company, who is herself now on the verge of retirement. This is mainly frugal in the sense of maintaining a collegial friendship of almost 40 years--although I can safely say that we won't be lunching at the Four Seasons!
(5) Finally, Betty will be cared for in my absence by my widowed next-door neighbor, with backup from the Bestest Neighbors. So I won't have to pay for cat-sitting--although I will be sure to bring back nice souvenirs.
@A. Marie, I miss the Four Seasons. What a beautiful restaurant! I once had a party thrown there in my honor (sniffle). Another time I managed to light the menu on fire because I wasn't paying enough attention to the candles. Luckily, I'd reached a place in my life where I laughed it off instead of being mortified.
@A. Marie, " I’ll be economizing during my upcoming visit with JASNA BFF in NYC. (There, that sentence should win me the acronym award for the day.)"
Oh, I hear you! Every time I go to NYC I have a ritualized statement "Damn I can't believe how expensive this place is." The hard part is to limit myself to once.
I have wondered about an acronym guide for frugal websites. CI still makes me pause, (Cook's Illustrated?), and ATK took me ages, (America's Test Kitchen/s?).
Most of the family-and-friend initials I just skip over and take them in the sense of "someone important to the poster."
@A. Marie, oh yes, I did love to buy books whenever I traveled, my favorite souvenir. The suitcase would get heavier and heavier. Only once did I decide to ship home a box of books early, as the situatio was getting out of hand.
@Rose, I miss the Russian Tea Room and Mama Leone. Which tells you how old I am, since Mama's shut down in 1994 or 95, as I recall.
@A. Marie and Rose,
I once had lunch with designer Judith Leiber at the Four Seasons in NYC. I was curating an exhibition of her handbags in my workplace museum in PA. She invited me and treated.
@Lindsey, The RTR was owned and run by the father of a friend of mine. Mrs. Leiber is revered here in the Hamptons--her house (she died a couple years ago) is now a museum to her bags.
@Rose,
Revered here too. I have two of her original handbags, one of which I wore to meet her. Embarrassingly, the gold chain strap snapped during the lunch. Mrs. Leiber took it from me, asked me to remove my contents, and handed it to an assistant to take back and repair. I also have a handwritten letter on her embossed stationary, the invite to the lunch.
My kids and I went on a very cold and rainy nature group walk this past Friday. I was tempted to treat them to drive through hot chocolate, but I waited until we got home and made some on the stove while they listened to an audiobook. Cheaper and healthier.
I meal planned and am cooking from my ingredients.
I am starting my own seeds this week and have already got some growing from a few weeks ago. So much cheaper than buying plants.
I saved all my yard leaves this fall to make decomposed leaves. They have been sitting and getting nice and rich for my plants. I'll use them to half fill a raised bed. I've also saved some shrub roots that I'll help fill the raised bed with. Less garden soil that costs money to fill beds = a win.
I'm reading and teaching from library books rather than buying the picture book package from the curriculum we're using. I just get the teachers manual and scour our library for the necessary books.
Just a question about out of network therapist bills. When you submit them, do they actually reimburse some of it? Or does it just count towards your out of pocket deductible? I'm in the same boat, but thought it was just a lost cause. Thanks for your help!
@Beth H., Not Kristen, but for my insurance, out of network therapist bills are not reimbursed. Sigh.
@Beth H., my insurance sends me checks for whatever they owe me. At first it's nothing, as my deductable is included ($350, I think?), then once that's covered the checks get biger. [Long screed deleted about how messed up the process is, including their losing 18 months' worth of submissions.]
@Beth H., It must depend on where you are in your payment year. Reimbursed if your plan allows for therapist reimbursement. However, if you are still working on paying down the deductible, it will just count toward that.
So, it depends on the plan you have. Sometimes the main point of submitting them is to prove you've reached the deductible, and then in-network services are covered at a higher rate.
Or if you have a year with a lot of therapy (ask me how I know! lol), you sometimes reach your out-of-pocket maximum, and then even out-of-network services are covered.
As with almost everything related to health insurance, it's super helpful to be very familiar with your plan!
And being familiar with your plan also helps you catch mistakes that insurance companies make. In my experience mistakes happen pretty frequently, and it can be a very good use of time to catch and contest those mistakes.
@WilliamB, I just feel obliged here to rant about this. My husband and I are now of Medicare age and everything is easy breezy. But thirty years ago we had to pay all bills then submit them to insurance. This was either a total scam or the insurance company only hired people with IQs below 50. Bills were routinely "lost" or "never arrived" and I knew this wasn't true. I always pictured a giant barrel, into which all incoming claims were deposited, then a monkey was hired to draw out one per week for processing.
It was enough to drive one's blood pressure into the stratosphere.
@Anne, It's amazing my blood pressure isn't - I can only credit good genes. The most recent outrage is my insurance company changed its address in 2021 but didn't advertise the fact. The bills never made it into their system and the envelopes were never returned to me.
The most amazing part may be that this isn't the worst offense.
I didn't know about the authorized users trick -- that seems like a really good idea. Also, that's excellent news about you not needing the test, albeit kind of annoying you got told the wrong info and spent all that time studying and worrying. Still glad you didn't have to go through with it, though!
Here are my weekly frugal wins:
https://www.toloveandtolearn.com/2023/03/07/weekly-frugal-wins-tulip-orders-cheap-medicine/
@Torrie @ To Love and To Learn, I was lucky - My dad did the same for me when I was a teenager. It's a great way to put your kids on a good path financially but you have to have a kid who is financially judicious and you need to educate them on how credit works. I know SO many kids who got credit cards in college for a free t-shirt and then had debt to deal with because they were never taught how to manage it.
@Kristin - that sample problem made me cry just looking at it! Hooray for no Algebra requirement for YOU 🙂
I purchased some needed lamps and rugs for our home. I am calling this a frugal win because all of the items purchased were things I have been eyeballing for months now and since I waited so long to actually purchase them, I got discounts on every single one.
I placed my annual order for flower seeds. After all the seeds were in my cart I got pulled into another task and my cart sat full and unpurchased. The company that I order from sent me a 10% off coupon overnight and I applied it and checked out the next morning. I also got free shipping.
We purchased a tiller for our garden instead of renting one. Rental prices are sky high and we would have had to spend far more than the cost of buying the tiller ourselves just to rent it once. This expense will more than pay for itself this Spring and result in a more bountiful harvest as I am working to amend our soil & create a more nutrient dense environment to grow veggies/fruits in.
I am taking my son to the beach for a few days over Spring Break. When I looked at the cost of a flight and rental car I quickly made the decision that we will drive our own car to the destination saving us $800+ even after the cost of gas and some treats along the way. The cottage that I booked has a small kitchen so I will plan meals in to save additional money and we are in a location that is walkable to the beach and other free attractions - like the beach!
Meals eaten at home, leftovers taken to work and repurposed as needed. Blinds opened to let in loads of natural light. Spotify for free music, Prime video for free movies. Spring cleaning in stages to check items off the chore list and enjoy our home more.
@Angie, I am now about to offer you unasked for advice, so may only annoy you. However, all the research is showing the tilling an established garden destroys valuable webs that have been forming underground and, in fact, results over the long run in poorer harvests. A guy named Jeff Lowenfels has written three books about soil that explains it all in scientific detail, but there are many articles in magazines that can be accessed on line giving the same information in easier to understand terms. Even soil amendments can be added to the hole you dig for the transplant and around the stem on top of the soil, sparing the soil bacteria and soil fungi enriching your soil if left undisturbed. Also saves you money in hiring tillers and your back in using them.
@Lindsey,
Interesting!
I love reading the comments as they remind me of frugal things I did that lead to other frugal things!
1. I often use the library for audio books and sometimes for paper books. There was a book I wanted, but when I put it on hold, I saw that I was #145 in line. Yikes! But then I noticed that there was no waiting for the cd version. I don’t even have a cd player in my home anymore, but I do in my car, so I went that route and picked it up the next day. (Bonus is that listening to the cd actually sounds better than connecting my phone via Bluetooth for a audiobook.)This leads me to #2.
2. I still drive my 10 year old car that has a cd player. (Many new ones do not!) I was coveting a new car on the lot recently in a location I drive by daily. But I didn’t stop, didn’t look up the details, told myself that my current car is just fine, it’s paid for, it's not broken, it’s not ugly.
3. My husband and I decided not to buy each other bday presents this year. Instead, if we want something for ourselves we can pick out exactly what we want when we want it. This way neither of us wastes money on something the other person doesn’t really want or won’t enjoy. We still treat the other person extra special on their day and enjoy a nice meal. My birthday came last week and I haven’t thought of anything I really want or need right now, so I’ll save my own bday purchase for the right time!
4. I sewed several holes and pocket tears to keep clothing items in business for myself and another family member who is learning to be more frugal.
5. I switched from drinking a 50 cent per can sparkling water to a 15 cent per bag tea packet each day. That’s 70 percent less per beverage! Mind the pennies and the dollars will mind themselves. My absolute favorite tea is Good Earth, Sweet and Spicy.
@Penny from Boring, OR, your #2: I recently replaced my 25 year old station wagon that had ... you guessed it ... a cassette tape player. So my new-to-me used car is an upgrade to ... a CD player! I feel so modern. ;-}
1. I sold a jersey for a band I like, and ironically one of their roadies came down, from the town they come from, to buy it from me LOL!
2. Not sure how frugal this is, but I gave away a coat I had that was too large for me - to a person I know who had NO coat. I guess it was something nice to do??? It seemed appropriate!
3. I had some returns to do for clothes that did not fit, and I was sure to do that before the return period was over! I forgot to do this once a while back, and I have been way more diligent about making sure to get returns, returned on time!
4. I had to message a company that I bought a necklace from to use their warranty. Long story short, the necklace broke but they have a lifetime warranty. I was able to use my warranty, and get the SAME necklace returned to me (if it was no longer in stock you just get a gift card for the original price paid).
5. I remembered to cancel an online service that I had been meaning to cancel. I forgot to do this last month, and ended up being charged for another month. I remembered this time to do it before it charged me again - so YAY!
6. My son and I have not gone out to eat in a very, very long time now, and I never buy coffee (except to use in my house LOL!). I was kind of proud of this because I used to spend a lot of money eating out, and now we NEVER hardly EVER do that!
Yay on not needing the credit!!!! I was honestly wondering if the college would cut you a break if you asked but figured you had likely pursued that already. Go you, Kristen!
FFT
—My husband and I have been treating ourselves on the weekend by making “fancy” coffee at home using chocolate mint flavored coffee with homemade chocolate whipped cream on top. Chocolate whipped cream may be the most dangerous thing I ever learned how to make—it is wonderful on everything! 😛
—We’ve been cooking from the freezer and pantry as much as possible. Creations lately have included blueberry coffee cake (using blueberries frozen so they wouldn’t spoil during last year’s bout with COVID and flour stored in the freezer for even longer) and enchiladas to clean out the fridge.
—Onions were 59 cents/lb at our local store, so I bought several pounds to dice for the freezer and caramelize in the crockpot. Of note this time was the realization I could use my apple corer to cut onions, thus drastically reducing time spent chopping and crying. Why didn’t I think of this sooner?!
—We rearranged our closet in part by repurposing a little secretary desk we already owned. This pretty desk unfortunately didn’t work anywhere else in the house, but it makes for a great dresser, and the fold-down desk is a handy clothes sorting surface. Bonus: The desk was a $40 Habitat Restore find to start with. Once inside our closet, it looked built-in! Thanks to the desk, we have finally cracked the code on a closet arrangement that works for both of us and is easy to maintain. It took a year of learning the space, but that meant our one new purchase of a $50 bamboo clothes rack (placed perpendicular to the secretary desk-turned-dresser, exactly fitting the closet’s weird side nook) was very deliberate.
—While rearranging our closet, we went through our clothes and extra linens. Anything that was past saving was turned into rags (I held back two sets of “house project” clothes), and anything of mine in good-to-new shape was set aside for a friend’s daughter. I’m the same size as a twelve-year-old, apparently. 😛 Our starter/VERY polyester curtains will also get a new life at the haunted house my friend’s family helps with in the fall, which makes my spooky heart happy.
Great news on the test!!
1) Used up more CVS free offers to buy tea. I've had a cold, so the tea has been awesome & needed.
2) Also used a $20 grocery store reward to pick up a few things we needed.
3) I've been submitting my receipts daily to Fetch, as they have a daily reward offer (on top of your receipts). I haven't won anything big, but the points do add up if you're doing it daily. I tend to keep my receipts to use throughout the week, and/or pick up receipts I find around.
4) Used a Panera reward for lunch on a busy day. But, avoided buying Panera again yesterday, when I wasn't feeling well. I made a cheese quesadilla & fruit smoothie & called it a day.
5) We've continued to use up random things in our fridge & freezer. So far this week: I used the last of a jar of blueberry jelly in my son's smoothies, my husband made himself dinner with the lonely singular steak I found in the freezer, and I made pumpkin muffins out of the puree I found.
Am glad you don't regret the revising you did and good news on the $90 back.
1) resisted two temptations to dine out and stuck to my "use up what we have" momentum. Restaurants are so expensive anymore.
2) cleaned up a few areas of our home and found missing items my husband had on his shopping list, phew ! I knew they were there somewhere.
3) fixed kitchen sink faucet (first time by myself !) And stopped irritating and wasteful link.
4) mended PJ bottoms and darned some expensive compression socks to keep them going a while longet.
5) got set up for my health care supplemental insurance at a very good rate...stitch in time mentality
100% agree on buying yeast--I got a pound at Costco and the unit price was incredibly low. I just keep it in a ziplock bag on the freezer door. Also, I learned that you don't need to dissolve/proof active dry yeast! King Arthur Flour had an article about it. I dump it right into the bread machine and it works perfectly.
My FFT:
1. I found a cheaper phone plan and will switch over today. Phone plans in Canada are a lot more expensive than in the US (generally,) so I'm glad to save a little.
2. I finished a test-version of a pair of pants that I'd like to sew, which I made out of old curtains. I already own all the fabric and notions for my "real" pair.
3. We socialized frugally over the weekend. We went out to friends one night, and had people over for ravioli and veggie sides another night.
4. I baked hamentaschen over the weekend, having bought the ingredients at the discount grocery store. Butter is so expensive right now! Kind of blows my mind. I also, once again, ground the poppy seeds by hand and (once again) promised myself that I'll buy a spice grinder next year (but we know that I won't because I can't bring myself to buy it just for this one recipe haha.)
5. I in the process of downloading a textbook from the university library (it's several hundred files that need to be individually opened, downloaded, and re-filed on my computer.) This is legal where I live--I'm allowed to make a single copy for personal use--and even though it's kind of annoying, this book costs something like $1200, and there's no second-hand market for it.
@Meira@meirathebear, I just had to look up what "hamentaschen" are. It seems they are not well known in my neck of the woods. They look delicious! I started baking challah a few years ago and it has become one of my favorite recipes. I always find it exciting to learn about new dishes.
@Meira@meirathebear, I found an old electric coffee grinder at a garage sale. After a through cleaning, it performs very well as a spice grinder and does nt take up much space.
This week
1. Bought a new-ish AP test prep book at Goodwill for $1. My husband is going to start tutoring a student in this content area and wanted to get some practice tests, so this find was well timed!
2. Sold a few more things on eBay. I'm finding out what does and doesn't seem to be worth my time.
3. Bought someone's whole Rae Dunn mug collection on FB Marketplace. I paid $2 a mug and these will be perfect for gifting for family members and end of the school year teacher gifts!
4. Cooked and ate at home every day. Made regular coffee pot coffee. Little things add up over time...
5. Enjoyed a "free carwash" as I like to say. I had to run errands on a rainy day. My van needed a rinse so it was perfect timing.
@Maggie, your "what does and doesn't seem to be worth my time" is exactly what I've been grappling with. And it's different for each of us, right? It takes me 2 weeks to go through a loaf of bread, so it doesn't make sense for me to buy the ingredients and equipment to bake it myself. And I love to cook and try new recipes but I've resolved to stop making elaborate "one of a kind" dishes with pricey ingredients that won't get used for anything else, that I won't want to eat every day for a week, that won't keep or freeze well, and that I can get at a restaurant on the rare occasion that I have a craving for it. I no longer host Thanksgiving and other holiday meals for a ton of people so I don't even remember what some of my kitchen appliances and tools are used for. Why do I have an ice cream maker? And a Professional French Mandoline? Sigh ....
So glad the test was avoided! I'm sure you would have done great, even if it had to be taken, though!
My FF this week:
1) With egg prices so high, I froze raw eggs over the Summer and can wait a long time before needing to buy them. Savings- $30
2) Since our youngest is graduating college, there's no need to spend $ on classes/books anymore. (That is, unless he goes for his Master's degree. He is looking for a job but continuing school is the back-up plan) Savings- $50,000
3) My hubby has taken a job closer to home. That will save on gas. Savings- $4,000/yr
4) I found gluten free flour/cookie mixes on clearance for 79 cents a box. I'm giving them to a family member. Savings- $20
5) Our son works at a pizzeria and brings home a free pizza as a job perk. Savings-$52/mth
I am so, so happy that you don't have to take algebra. It was the bane of my existence for all of high school and college and I can confidently say that (after almost 10 years as a nurse), I have never used. I think you will be just fine.
My frugal wins this week:
1. Ate at home. I know that this is the norm for most folks here but my husband and I usually have a date night when I am home, plus my house is somewhat of a construction zone at the moment.
2. Freezer meals. I am slowly trying to work on getting my freezer in the kitchen under control and then working on the deep chest out of it. Saves money and less food waste
3. Found my friends birthday gift on the pre-loved market. I found a pair of shoes I know she will love in amazing condition on a pre-loved site. Gotta love the hunt.
4. Cleared out my yard myself. As I was pulling up 6 months of weeds, I was telling myself that this is why people get gardener's; but then I was reminder that I like getting my hands dirty in the yard, how much I want to start my summer garden and how for a yard this small it is not a necessity. And then I kept pulling up weeds.
5. Bought Costco rice. I know buying isn't always frugal, but I have put off buying the Costco size bags of rice for long time because I have a small kitchen and I hate clutter. But I cleared space (where I don't have to see it lol) and finally broke down.
Yes; if this were information I felt confident I would need, I wouldn't mind taking the class. But this is stuff that is really not going to be relevant to me; it's going way beyond when you need for the low-ish level chemistry classes you need for nursing.
Why would a nurse need to know how to solve that algebra problem? For that matter, why would 95% of us need to know how to solve it, whatever our occupations? Hooray that you don't have to take that test!
My Frugals:
1. I ordered another five pound bag of ground beef organs and scrap to top my dogs' dry food, and portioned it out for the freezer myself. I save 50 cents a pound by buying it in larger bags.
2. I wanted to make a seat pad for my thrifted wooden sewing chair. I found a couple of fabric quarters at Walmart for much less than at the fabric stores and used batting and thread I already owned.
3. I used a gift card to buy some more bird seed. Between nest building and migration stopovers, my feeders are emptied regularly.
4. I opened my mailbox to find three un-requested Covid tests, sent for free by my husband's prescription service.
5. I used the tag end of a pack of ground beef (not the dog's beef!) to mix up a little taco meat, and served it on a homemade cassava tortilla from the freezer. I threw in leftover cauliflower, cooked onion and shredded greens from my garden. My tacos may be weird, but I like them.
@JD, Chemistry has a ton of math. I'm not sure about that particular equation; perhaps no one has created a Math for Nurses course yet.
@WilliamB,
You are right about chemistry. I took chemistry in high school and was disappointed to find it was much more math than I had thought it would be. So dull. I much preferred biology. I just don't see many of us needing to know how to solve such equations as that one Kristen showed 🙂
Although I will admit; my DH, who never took geometry in school, ended up needing it almost daily in his jobs, and taught it to himself with the help of a little paperback book on basic geometry.
I’ve been making oatmeal in a water bottle. I put oats in half full water bottle and let soak over night. In the morning I cut off top of bottle and add nuts and dried fruit and have muesli.
Sleeping in hammock with bivy bag and down sleeping bag very cozy and warm, even cat approves.
Using dawn to clean everything. Clothes dry hanging over hammock. Even washed my hair with a dab. Feel as clean as those oily ducks in commercials.
Seeing ocean, mountains, desert, cities, plains, and hills, nothing cheaper than by pack.
Feeling vicarious relief for you re the algebra test! That problem you showed? Why, just why?
I KNOW. Geeeez.
My husband and I are retired, but he still loves his work and chooses to work part time.This is frugal AND healthy , as it brings him joy and also provides extra income.
We continue to eat almost exclusively AT HOME. The few times we have tried meals out locally, the service and quality have gone so far down since Covid,and the price so far UP that we no longer enjoy meals out.I have always loved cooking and the kitchen is my happy place,anyway!
Frugal habits from our early days of marriage remain ingrained. The things we did to save money are habits we still maintain. I find frugality to be a fun adventure,I have never ever felt deprived in my life,though all the cycles of our lives. I get Joy from living well, for less.
I have a “SPEND TO SAVE” philosophy that works for us: I will splurge at the grocery on shrimp, a nice steak, quality breads, good coffee, and specialty items that we love, in order to eat well AT HOME. No matter what i spend at the grocery,it is always better than the awful restaurant meals! We also enjoy vegetarian eating,so we do eat bean meals, lentil meals, and stir frys regularly.
I splurge at my consignment store: I LOVE CLOTHES. I went to catholic school and wore uniforms for 12 years.Went to nursing school and wore uniforms for all my career. I love to get dressed nicely and I love quality brands and boutique items.Our local consignment store serves up great clothes on the cheap. I don’t scrimp.But I spend very little.Got my whole winter “wardrobe” for less than 150 dolalrs this year. I happened to stop by on a 50% off day!
We find local entertainment in our state parks, the river nearby, local theater, $5 movie days, long walks in the local riparian park, bike rides, and hikes. We watch Ted talks and discuss. We love youtube and podcasts. I use a treadmill, no health club. My friends and I meet on each others patios for our happy hours. with a 5 dollar bottle of Trader Joe wine and homemade appetizers..
Living well for less can be a joyful way of life when you get the right mind set! Your blog is one of the BEST!!!!!
@Madeline, I had to laugh about your uniforms for 12 years comments. I, too, wore uniforms at my Catholic boarding school, but I came out the opposite of you---I love, love, love not having to make choices about what to wear. (and, I never learned to like makeup either, so another area where I saved money and aggravation.) Not long after we got together, my husband pointed out that I still wore a uniform, in that I would buy 5 of the same shirts of pants, usually in the same colors, and would just wear those day after day. I was always clean and tidy.
As a joke one time, my staff all found shirts identical to mine and wore them to a staff meeting. It was a complete bust as a joke because I never noticed until they told me at the end of the meeting.
We lost our "traditional" health insurance a few years ago and joined Christian Healthcare Ministries. (I know these can be controversial, and I'm not interested in debating its merits.) We have been SO pleased with them. Might be worth checking out for you and your girls.
Yes, several members of my blogging group are in these cost-sharing healthcare organizations; there are secular ones as well as Christian ones.
I brought a pack lunch to judge a debate tournament over the weekend.
On the way back from the tournament we stopped at the mall to get my ring cleaned and inspected.
I refilled the car with Costco gas while in the area.
I planted lavender seeds hoping that I will have a few full grown lavender plants in the fall when we put in the garden.
I am digging out the old (hopefully very dead) St. Augustine grass by myself rather than paying for it to be done. This will be a long process so it will end up being my frugal activity for many weeks.
That math problem you posted is calculus and seems crazy that is would be of the CLEP! I took unnecessarily took calc in college when I could have gotten by just repeating algebra. I remember none of it, though I did better than most student's whose major required the class.
This week/weekend I had a terrible cold that grounded me for four days.
1. Our regular grocery stopping was pushed out by almost a full week and we didn't starve.
2. I took a Covid test that was free from our insurance - it was negative.
3. I was able to use up two partial bags of rice that were different grain lengths (because I was so sick I just didn't care if they matched). Spanish rice was just as yummy!
4. Also made miso ramen soup using up some aging ingredients.
5. No socializing, no spending. Just enough energy to flick my thumb on TikTok. I'm good for a while there.
Like Kristen, we added our kids to be authorized users on our credit cards when they started driving, for gas and emergencies. My daughter just commented to me yesterday that my "credit utilization was unusually high last month" and it was affecting her credit score. Hahahaha! Yep, that was the charge for a condo we are renting for an upcoming vacation. It will all be paid off before the due date but I appreciated the heads up, dear daughter. 😉
Don't keep us in suspense! Is the answer "C"?
1. I hate unhooking my shower curtain to wash it, which usually brings the curtain rod thundering down on me, but there were some stains starting at the bottom. I filled my bathroom trash can with hot water and a little bleach, balanced it on the edge of the tub, and soaked the bottom of the curtain to clean it without unhooking it. I'll wash the whole thing in the washing machine at a later date.
2. Going through my houseplants to see what can be tightened up and what can go to plant heaven.
3-4-5... Planning for leftovers when making bigger cooked meals. Trying to eat more protein for breakfast, (chicken soup yesterday, cold pizza today), as a healthier move than just poptarts, which I love but don't have a lot of staying power. Keeping eagle eye on grocery store sales. Cruising for library books.
So, if I remember correctly, the answer is the last one (230). I had chosen 203 and it was wrong!
How you get to 230 is beyond me.
@Kristen,
The first expression is 50, and then just rearrange the second one: 4 times the original plus the sum of 3 ten times: 200 + 30.
If defense of algebra, one might not solve elaborate equations or use summation every day, Yet everyone here does balance costs and unit prices, calculate which purchase is a better value, determine limits one what one can spend. That's using algebraic tools.
Congrats on not needing the algebra!! Hope you informed your advisor so she won't be dealing out any more panic attacks!
Well, these last few weeks have been so expensive, my frugal attempts are a mere pittance by comparison. As we speak, my water heater, which started leaking all over the garage this weekend, is being replaced. Apparently it was original to the house, which is now 19 years old, and it rusted out. Cha-ching!
But I:
1. Uploaded the Fetch app and am building points.
2. Uploaded the UpSide app and have $5 so far.
3. Was desperate to wash my hair and take a shower, and was seriously considering going to a motel for that, as I don't have any friends I would feel comfortable asking to borrow their shower. Then, I thought about the Y membership I have through Silver Sneakers, so I got up early this morning and drove a few miles to the Y and got cleaned up. Yay!
4. Pruned my own crepe myrtle instead of waiting til my lawn guy starts mowing the lawn again. They are supposed to be pruned in late winter, and I know my mower man would happily do it for me, but the grass won't need mowing for a few more weeks. I have two branches I couldn't get, so he may have to do those two. He probably won't charge me extra for those 2, but I will give him extra anyway. Luckily, I can take as many loads to the dump as I wish, since it's free for residential loads, so I pruned the butterfly bushes as well and have already taken one load.
5. Got another First Reads Kindle book from Amazon, as it's a new month.
6. Had to buy more laundry detergent, but I saved my old jug and filled it halfway with the new, then added water to both jugs. I always delete those and any liquid shampoo and conditioner, and they work just as well.
Oh, and our mail-in pharmacy switched OTC orders on us (did i mention this last week? can't remember), and once I contacted them, they sent the right stuff, but told us to keep the other. So I have 4 tubes of Gold Bond Lotion for diabetics, which I've never bought before. I was going to offer it up in my gifting group, but decided to try one tube--and I love it! My dry skin felt so much better and it lasted all day! So an accidental frugal, but I'll take it--and keeping all for tubes!
My frugal things are a repair it, replacement part, and make it kind of week.
1. I repaired two bathroom towel rings and a shelf
2. Realized that buying more replacement parts for a wall mount dispenser would cost more than buying new, which considering how long I extended its life already with replacement parts and its appearance I figured it was time to thank it for its years service (which wasn't bad considering I bought it new in box at a yard sale) and replaced it. Of course I installed it myself.
3. Used leftover chickpea water to make egg free "mayo" for the recipe which I think makes it taste better than regular mayonnaise. I used the rest of the chickpea juice to replace the eggs in a pumpkin brownie recipe because I was curious how it would work and taste. It was a delicious experiment that also helped me use last fall's frozen pumpkin puree and a brownie mix I don't know I bought in the first place.
4. I bought a replacement silverware basket for our dishwasher to replace the broken and unrepairable one.
5. I bought replacement sponges and planted seeds I had leftover from last summer's container garden into our family gift Aerogarden. The seeds have sprouted and hopefully this experiment ends in bok choy.
1. I made all our meals at home.
2. I used up food from the fridge and freezer.
3. I cut up shirts for cleaning rags.
4. I combined errands.
5. I used gift cards to get some books. I used a gift card to buy coffee at Starbucks.
1. I took my dog to the vet across town. He practices in a poorer neighborhood and therefore charges tons less than the ones in suburbia. Sadly, we got bad news: my 15 year old dog has a cancer tumor on the bottom of her muzzle. We just noticed the swelling this weekend. The only treatment for it would be to cut off her bottom jaw, the vet said, but putting her through all that misery would not prolong her life. He also told me that the end is coming soon; her rabies shot would be a waste of money; and to take her home and love her until she's in pain. (She doesn't exhibit any pain right now unless you touch the "bump".) So we're going to enjoy the weeks or months we have left.
2. Found a very dilapidated paperback book -- a murder mystery-- in the used bookstore's "free" basket. Took it home and read it outdoors in the sunshine this weekend. Great story! Very enjoyable frugal activity! My roommate is now reading it. Frugal tip: don't judge a book by its (torn) cover.
3. Got a Whopper Jr. burger, no fries or anything else. Found that the meat patty just fits my yeast-free hamburger buns (I have a food allergy and can't eat regular bread or buns). So that was a $3 meal. Was able to fill out a survey that will allow me more freebies. I also do this with Long John Silver's. Gave roommate the discarded hamburger bun, which she made into a BBQ sandwich with leftovers she had. Other leftovers made me a salad for another meal.
4. Arranged with a friend a deal where he'll put together some items I had to buy in boxes -- a compost bin, a steam cleaner for the floor and a clothes rack. Right now, I'm just too jittery to do that myself. As per Abigail Perry's book "Frugality for Depressives," I am allowing myself some leeway on DIY things. You do what you can when you can and don't beat yourself up for what you can't do super frugally.
5. Cleaning out kitchen cabinets and taking surplus items to Goodwill. Our local Goodwill gives store coupons for 20% off donated merch when you bring them your discards. So our unneeded old 12 cup coffee pot will be traded in for some clothes from their "GW Boutique," as I call it. If I can find the right color tag that signifies 50 percent off, and add the coupon, whatever I get that day will be 70% off. Not bad!
@Fru-gal Lisa, Thank you for mention of "Frugality for Depressives." Had not heard of that one; I just looked it up and see it has an important viewpoint to present.
@Fru-gal Lisa, I am sorry about your dog. I hope you can indulge his every whim in his last days. And how wonderful that the vet was so straight forward about things like not needing to spend money on rabies shots. Not every vet would have done that.
Aw, sorry about your pup. It's so hard, knowing their time is limited. Sigh.
@Fru-gal Lisa, So sad to hear about your pup. A friend who got similar news used the remaining time to totally spoil her puppers- sleeping on the bed, people food, all the walks, all the love. it was a gift to have the time, and to give relief to her furbaby when the time came.
Your self-compassion for #4 is lovely to read - followed by your impressive #5 cleaning and donating. Not sure if I have that kind of push on the 'bad' days - you give me hope that it can be possible to do some things, even when feeling challenged by others. It isn't all-or-nothing, thank you for the reminder.
@Fru-gal Lisa,
Thinking about you and your pup with love.
I got nothing, but Kristen had enough for everybody today! A lot of vicarious sighs of relief are being heard around the world for NO CLEP TEST! And a $90 refund to boot. We can all go back to our regularly scheduled programs and stop reliving our math anxieties.
1. We have a trip planned to Great Wolf Lodge in April. This is not frugal, but we were able to use a discount code from my employer to get 25% off our stay. We will bring breakfast, lunch, coffee, snacks, and drinks with us. I was able to pick up two MagiQuest (a game that Great Wolf Lodge has) wands off Buy Nothing. They typically cost $30-$40 each. So now we will just have to pay to get them "recharged" when we get there.
2. I made baked French toast using a loaf of bread my daughter's daycare gave us. This will feed my kids breakfast all week.
3. The zipper on my winter coat broke. I got the coat off Buy Nothing a couple of years ago. Zipper replacements cost about $40 where I live and this coat was starting to get some small holes in it. So, I bid on and won a new-with-tags Eddie Bauer down parka off Ebay for $42.
4. My husband is selling an old gaming system and video games on ebay. He has made about $500 so far, which he says is more than he paid for all of it.
5. My husband and I have been wanting to try one of the boot camp-type home workouts. I found P90X and 30-Day Shred at our local library. I had it sent to the library closest to us and this library does not charge hold fees.
Oh, hooray!! What a relief that you don't need that math credit! And getting a refund is icing on the cake.
My FFT:
1. My husband and I needed something to wear for a themed-dinner on Saturday, so I checked Goodwill first. $7 later we both had clothes that worked great.
2. The Flashfood app has been pretty slim pickings since the ice storm happened (maybe because so many people needed to restock their spoiled fridges??), but today they finally had a produce box available! For $5 I got 7 yellow peppers, 2 red peppers, 4 apples, 7 oranges, and 2 mandarin oranges.
3. I mended a pair of snowpants.
4. We decided last-minute to go to a church potluck and I found things from my pantry that I was able to quickly make and take for a dessert and side dish. I was happy to not have to stop at the store on the way.
5. It's 'March is Reading Month' and I've been ordering lots of books from our library and through interlibrary loan to keep my kids (and myself!) well-stocked with books.
Yay, Kristen! I'm so happy for you that you don't have to take the CLEP test plus you got a refund! Great news! Congratulations!
I have a few I can share....
1. The local food pantry operates out of my work building and sometimes the stuff they can't keep til next distribution, they share....I got 2 free loaves of specialty bread. I actually had just used up whatever bread we had in house & didn't have chance to make it to store for more, so we were able to use that right away.
2. Hubby wanted takeout so bad, but I've been trying to cut back on eating out so instead I bit the bullet and made soup and sanwiches at home and we were all fed plus we saved money.
3. I needed a new pair of sneakers soon. Youngest daughter had just bought a new pair for herself and offered her "older" pair to me. They barely looked worn. I tried them on and they fit, so I saved money plus I've already received compliments on them 🙂
4. Last weekend we spent a relaxing weekend at camp "winter camping". My sister in law and her family came down too. I had already had all the food planned out, so on Sunday when we got back, SIL and her family came over and made homemade pizzas for us all for dinner and didn't want me to contribute anything as they ate our food on the weekend.
5. We have a little free library in our neighborhood. I dropped off some books and picked up a few more to read.
6. Saved with rewards coupons on 2 different purchases this past weekend. It's nice when I remember to use those "coupons".
Oh, I'm so sad that you don't like algebra. Such wonderful logical thinking used there.
But that problem you showed? Almost like trying to translate another language and you don't know what one 'word' means....in this case, I assume that sigma notation is what messed you up? But if you knew that the sigma just meant "Add up the things when n=1 and when n=2 and all the way until n=10" then it wouldn't be hard.
I know in our culture we start thinking of a 'math brain'...but science has shown there is no such thing. If we found reading hard, we don't brag about that...we are encouraged to keep trying, our parents will read to us, we have teachers that help us read...and adults NEVER say "oh, you just don't have a reading brain"..... so if our literacy rate is high, that means our math skills should be high too...
Sorry for the rant.. I think mathematics is a beautiful art form so I'm disappointed when people give up on it.
@Ann, maybe that has more to do with the teachers than the students.
@Ann, you are 100% right. Applause. I don't understand the stigma around math. It's a logic puzzle.
I'm not exactly giving up on math. 😉 I got through high school math myself, got an A in a math class my first semester of college, and I have been teaching math to my children every year since 2004.
I also got through all the math in my chemistry class last semester with an A.
So, I have functioned just fine in all the math I've needed to do in my life. And had I needed to actually take the CLEP test, I'm pretty sure I could have passed.
But all of that does not change this fact: I do not enjoy math. One can be highly functional in something and STILL not derive joy from it.
I am very capable of feeling joy and interest in a variety of subjects, but man, math has just never been that way for me. And I think that as long as I worked hard at it and did what I needed to do, that's fine. We don't all have to enjoy everything. 🙂
1. Husband had to travel to one of the villages and he believed the weather report and took only a light jacket with no hood. The report was wrong: it was 36 below with a wind chill of 50 below zero. There is a small store there and he was going to buy a coat because it was not just cold but dangerous to be under-dressed. The village has a FB page, so I put out a plea to rent a coat and for $20 he was properly clothed and did not have to haul a new coat home with him, just gave it back to the owner.
2. Sold 2 books on eBay and one on Amazon. I miss the old Half.com!
3. Found another old packet of mung bean seeds for sprouting. I finally sprouted them and the chickens were in heaven. They are starved for fresh food at this point.
4. My teen helper came over to shovel off the roof. This was a six hour job and he refused payment because he is home schooled and this counts as phys ed. I stuck $100 in his jacket pocket anyway. This is frugal because we were approaching maximum snow load and this is an old house so I was not about to wait and see if we could make it for another month until things start to melt, and hiring someone would have cost a lot more. It did give my heart of lurch to see him jump off the roof onto the snow pile "for fun."
5. My wheelchair weighs 420 pounds and while it powers its way through my garden and snow and pretty much anything else, it is very difficult to get in the van. You have to put down tracks and drive it up them into the vehicle and it still requires some brute strength and some dexterity so you don't bash it right through to the front of the van. I convinced the husband to buy a lightweight chair (35 pounds!) that folds up with the snap of the back headrest and can easily be lifted into the van. My original chair cost $28,000 and, unbelievably, insurance paid the entire price. This was out of pocket for $2,000 but I had been saving for it. When we went to buy it, they wanted to charge $500 for handling to Alaska. I asked what extra handling they had to do, since the packaging would be the same and it was coming Fed Ex so no special company for the mailing. After some discussion and that I was willing to find another company, they charged only $100 for shipping and handling. So I saved money on that but the most frugal part was that my husband won't end up with a back injury from trying to load the heavy chair. I will still us that one for gardening but this new chair, which I would have been too weak to use back when I got the first chair and could barely standup, will make our lives easier. I may someday end up so infirm that I need the other chair but for now this feels like I have wings.
It hurt my brain just to read that practice question:) I’m happy for you that good news about math requirements came!
1) I used Hallmark reward coupons/freebies to pick up 4 cards today for $1.18 total. Using 3 for teacher gifts & 1 for a birthday card.
2) I checked out Tightwad Gazette (that I only knew of from this blog) from the library. In the two minutes of reading I’d had so far I’m already gaining so many ideas!
3) My husband brings home youth group leftovers sometimes (usually pizza). The other night it was a plate of homemade cookies that parents had brought. Yum, free dessert!
4) Needed to fill in some gaps in the girl’s spring/summer wardrobe & found a children’s sale plus a 20% discount code. My in-laws also graciously asked what they could buy, and we were able to send specifics to the sizes/items wanted.
5) I hosted a Thirty-One party for family/friends. I received $50 in free credits, and used that on a new purse, 2 tote lids, an item I’m going to gift, and toward a large utility tote.
Yay for no algebra!
My FFT are basically a bust this week. I’ve been doing all the normal things mentioned here, but unfortunately our oven/microwave combo decided to go on the fritz. Long story short, it is 18 years old so over 1/2 of the replacement parts are no longer available. And there went my hopes for an easy repair. So after $159 for the repair call, I still had to buy a new oven/microwave combo. Luckily I recently received news of an insurance payment due me so the cost of this new appliance is covered & we won’t have to dip into our savings. I also bought from a local appliance store who had what I wanted in stock in THEIR warehouse, cutting our wait time in half. They also have their own installers & repair people.
Hooray for you, Kisten, for not needing to take that test! That is some scary looking math!
For my FFT, I did a hideous amount of nasty yardwork and installed, by myself, a 16-foot privacy panel on our chain-link fence that we bought on sale a few weeks ago at Harbor Freight. Heaven only knows what exalted sum a landscaping company would have charged.
Also cooked all of our meals at home in February excep DH's birthday lunch out, cut DH's hair, persuaded him to buy some steel-toed work boots on a 50% off discount after he chipped a chunk of bone off his big toe, and have driven so little since I retired that $20 filled the tank after three months since the last trip to the station.
Yipeee-ay-I-O for not having to suffer through the CLEP Test or class for Algebra!!!! Soooooo glad for you!!!!!
Semi frugal, our bathroom plumbing was still leaking. They came back to fix it for free including parts. We paid for the original work and I am glad second trip was free.
They used 3/4 of a roll of paper towels mopping up water even though I left them a shop wet dry vac. Yep, I am super cheap I squeezed the water out of the towels and dried them. I can use them as they are clean.
More free food at work. I am a broken record on that one. They had auditions over the weekend and the weather was so bad no one came. Lots of leftovers.
Our neighbors moved and he did not want to haul his snow blower so they gave it to us. It is larger than ours so yay! An electric start to boot! Woot!
I made a very detailed freezer inventory. I only had 1 freezer burnt ham piece to toss. I planned this weeks meals on things I need to use up.
Well...I spent $$ today but it was mostly frugal (shhh - that's my story).
Bought a Sear Kenmore sewing machine for $45 with all the attachments, and it's a free arm. The old Singer Dinah I had finally gave up the ghost - it has plastic gears, the older machines have metal gears and stand up better.
LED light bulbs at Home Depot, thought I did well at a big box for $20 Cdn...went to the thrift store, and bulbs were $1 each, same style.
Picked up 2 new door knobs for the front/back of the house. Bit of a situation coming up where I want new locks. These are black with a handle instead of a knob. I think they are easier to open when carrying things in & out. Best, they are keyed alike, so I didn't need to pay to have them rekeyed. Each lock came with 2 keys, so that gives extras, as well as one each for my son & I. I've been painting the interior door knobs glossy black...and learning how to get the different style of knobs off.
Cotton button up shirt for $2...now to implement the "one in - one out" policy.
There is a rafter building place in town, that puts out their off cuts and scraps in 8'x4' boxes, free for the taking. Whenever I'm in town, I drive by to snoop. I keep cardboard boxes in the vehicle all the time - just for this. Usually it's ends of lumber, that burns well in my cookstove. Scored on plywood pieces today, all at least 4' long. Two pieces were 1" thick! Not sure what I'll use them all for - but on a farmstead, they will get used. Some slat pieces (1" wide, and thin)...stopped in the wood storage shed and zipped those on the chop saw to 12" lengths for kindling.
A few days ago I painted the fan/light fixture over the kitchen table. It was pretty awful, being white with a "gold" band on the ends. The blades are now fern green, metal bits that hold the blades on, and the base are glossy black.
Math major here popping in to say that the answer is E. 230. I had fun solving it.
The flip side is that I regularly faint in medical situations and just thinking about the material you have to learn about the body for your RN program makes me queasy.
Isn't it great how we all have different interests? :-) Glad you get to devote your time to yours instead of learning more algebra!
Yep, that's my attitude exactly. I personally cannot imagine what it's like to NOT be interested in the human body. And I can't imagine what it's like to get queasy over body stuff.
But I fully accept that not everyone is exactly like me; heck, some of my own kids can't even stand to look at a scratch! lol
It's so good that we are not all the same. We need some people to be lovers of math and some people to be lovers of the human body, or the English language, or any number of other things.
1. Bought a full sheet of Masonite and saw it had a squashed corner, so I asked for discount and was given 10% off. It never hurts to ask!
2. We needed some basic toiletries and I was surprised by how much the big A was charging. So, I looked at the Target website and paid about 1/2 what it would have cost through the big A.
3. Shipping was free because my order exceeded $45.
4. Didn't get a haircut; it is getting so long that I wonder if I could sell it when I finally get around to getting it cut. . . nah, it isn't that special. (Should I save it in case I ever need a wig, perish the thought!?)
5. We built a table for our neighbor using salvaged lumber from another neighbor's project. This is at her request, to use for the "sweetheart table" at her wedding reception. Awesome wedding gift, because she really wants it, and we only had to buy a little bit of hardware and some tung oil for finishing it.
Oh yay for not having to take the CLEP! Woo hoo!
1. We realized we had some older “legacy” savings accounts at Capital One, and newer accounts (performance savings) have much higher interest rates. So DH created new savings accounts, transferred our money, and closed the old accounts. Go check your savings accounts, folks– especially if they are older and at Capital One!
2. Continue to cook from the freezer. Sour milk and rhubarb into rhubarb cake, and deer into a delicious Eastern European-style soup.
3. Finished two skin care samples and a loose-leaf tea last week.
4. I had ingredients on hand to make brownies from scratch when we had neighbors over one evening, instead of running to the store for a mix.
5. Dropped donations off at Habitat for Humanity ReStore and Goodwill, including a bag of worn out clothes which they can recycle. I love getting things like that out of the house. I was also thrilled to find a like-new pair of sweatpants and a pair of sleep bottoms at Goodwill for a decent price.
I remember telling my kids to double check advisors because they oftentimes give wrong advice. Lucky you caught it.
1. Redeemed coupons for a free full-size, sugar-free ketchup and free box of parmesan crisps to sample and review.
2. Redeemed a coupon for a free small bottle of lotion from Bath and Body Works and didn't buy anything else.
3. Shopped at a neighborhood Walmart that is closing and everything was marked down 25%, so I got things like juice, baking chips, plant-based meat products, after shave and candies that I would maybe normally buy usually at full price. I went about a week after the news came out and many of the more desirable items were gone, but I still found some gems here and there.
4. Redeemed Swagbucks for $25 to be added to my Paypal account.
5. Helped a friend who is a new foster parent of 22-month-old twins at their therapy evaluation appointment yesterday as an extra pair of hands. She bought me a fruit tea from the local bubble tea shop as a thank you which was much needed after 2 hours of wrangling active twins!