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Frugal Things The Past Few Days

These are the frugal things we did recently:

  • Purchased a ham on sale for $ 1.49 a lb. at Tops
  • Purchased a rib eye roast for $ 9.99 a lb. which is one of the cheapest prices I have seen in a long time. Aldi’s had tenderloins on sale for $7.99 a lb. but they did not have any. The cashier told me that they were gone right after the doors opened this morning. They only had a few. I did not feel like making another trip this week to see if they get them in. The rib eye will be for the holidays and the ham we will be used over the winter. Both pieces of meat will get stretched as far as I can stretch them after the holiday making soups and casseroles from leftovers.
  • Purchased bra hooks and eye replacements to mend 3 bras. The bras are otherwise in good shape. I did not want to spend $40. each to replace them. The hooks and eyes only cost me $ 6.70+ tax because I used $ 6.00 in gift cards to help pay for them.
  • Hubby told me he needed underpants. Instead of going out to buy them at outrageous prices at J.C.Penney’s, I grabbed a package that I had put in our stash of underwear for him that I purchased there before the prices started to go up. I paid $19.99 for 6 pair. The same pack right now costs $34.00. It always pays to buy ahead especially with inflation.
  • Mended a sweater.
  • Hemmed two pairs of jeans.
  • We have made easy dinner meals: soup and an English Muffin with butter, Parmesan coated chicken with macaroni and cheese( 2 meals), cheeseburgers and French fries and a pizza.
  • We did treat ourselves to take out lunch from Panera Bread on a day that I was running a slew of errands. We each got a Pick Two and I paid with one of the gift cards that I purchased 4 years ago. I now have only $ 8.96 left on those cards. So I decided to purchase 1 $ 50. Panera gift card at Top’s with a Christmas bonus point that gave me $ 10. off of it. That will probably last us a year or more. I mainly use it for the bagel deal on Tuesdays when Hubby has a craving for them.
  • My son and grandson came for breakfast and we played rummy for a couple of hours afterward which is cheap entertain. I love rummy!
  • I ended up buying one more Christmas gift which I got on sale for 37% off.
  • I am changing over to Mint Mobile for our cellphone. I got a deal for $15. per month for the next three months and then 3 months free. Then I will revert to the $15. a month plan for the future. I was paying my son $ 596. a year for our phone on this account so this will save us a lot of money. We really only use the cellphone for emergencies and calling or texting family.
  • Hubby and I have both used our dental plan recently which pays for our cleanings and X rays. We also brought home a big bag of dental goodies. It is always nice to get these items free.
  • I uploaded my receipts to Fetch which gave me 1500 points for a Rite Aid receipt plus other points from grocery trips.
  • I am working on our 2024 budget which I will be sharing with you in future posts.
  • I made and baked a cherry pie. Those cherries from the tree in our yard that we froze taste so good in autumn and winter.
  • I have only done 1 load of wash this week using homemade detergent in cold water and hanging it to dry.
  • The Medicare hospital bill that they denied has been taken care of. The woman there told me they made a mistake and the correction had been made. She sent me copies of all of the paperwork. That saved me thousands of dollars.
  • I delivered 3 Christmas cards to my neighbors after the mail came today. I usually mail them but most of them haven’t since we lived here. They just put it in the mailbox. So this year I decided to save the $ 1.98 and just put them in their mailboxes.. BTW, get your stamps soon because they are going up to $ .68 each from $ .66 each on January 21, 2024. I will be getting a roll of 100. We seem to be able to make them last for 2 years or more.
  • My son and DIL are not going to have their usual Christmas fondue on Christmas Day. They are going to have it the weekend after New Year’s. So they will be coming out the weekend before Christmas so that we can all exchange gifts. So I picked up a whole bunch of meats, cheeses, and beef jerky to make a charcuterie board for us all to munch on. I will add black olives, stuffed olives, and nuts along with some pork rinds for crunch. The meats and cheeses are on sale this week at Aldi’s for great prices.
  • We continue to keep our heat at 64 at night and 71 during the day. When there is a sunny day, I open the shades and blinds when the sun is on them and close them when it is not.

That is it for now. As I stated I will be posting about our 2024 budget by the end of the week. It is going to be very tight because we are saving money for something that is very important to us in 2024. One post will then turn into many.

Please feel free to leave a comment and share with all of us what you have been doing to be frugal.

12 replies on “Frugal Things The Past Few Days”

I got a bargain spiral ham and rib roasts, both from Kroger delivery. It’s nice to get meat bargain these days.
In our early years of marriage, I often wrote letters to my family in Texas and Oklahoma. I’m thinking stamps were a dime then, but I’m not sure. It’s crazy how high they are now. Thankfully I have a little stash of forever stamps and don’t mail much as almost all bills are paid electronically

Hi if you do stuff,

It is a delight to hear from you. I hope you and your family are all well.

It is nice to get a bargain. Enjoy those meats. Don’t you just love delivery? I love it although it does cost a bit more. But it so convenient here during the winter because we get so much snow.

I can remember my Grandma putting a nickel stamp on an envelope to mail when I was a kid. I have a stash of Forever stamps too but will be needing more than what I have for 2024. The only bills that we don’t pay electronically is our medical bills and our water and sewer bill. But I also send a lot of greeting cards during the year.

I hope you have a Merry Christmas and a Blessed 2024!

Hi Precious. Daughter is all better from the Covid and nobody else in her family has gotten as of today. The 10th day is Friday.

I got a ham today also. They are .89/lb at Kroger this week and I went today instead of tomorrow for my grocery shopping b/c they had a promotion where you could get a 5% discount today only if you are 55 or over. So, of course I went, and the store was crowded. I also got pork tenderloin BOGO and various other regular groceries. I saved about 1/3 on my bill by using all the sale prices, coupons, etc. so was happy. I also stopped by Meijer to get my free prescription and got a couple things there that Kroger doesn’t have. One thing was a free half gallon of milk. 🙂

On Sunday we went to the local university’s women’s basket ball game and had a great time. I wanted to tell your readers to be sure and check their local universities for free or low cost things to do with the sports teams, music/art dept events, lecture series and other things that might be offered. The tickets we had would have cost $10 each, but we got from daughter. Parking was free. Very enjoyable, frugal time, especially if you don’t buy a bunch of things from the concessions.

Hubby is down to 2.5 weeks until retirement. They are having an open house for him at his office this Friday afternoon, so the kids, grandkids and I will all go. He is only the third person to retire from his company.

I will be interested to read about your budget process for next year. I know with hubby retiring that some changes may need to be made to ours. I have mostly been doing the “reverse budget” method where I put in savings, sinking fund, etc from his net check and then spend what is left. I am not sure how that will work on a retirement income? Plus the income coming in will not be weekly like it is now. But I do budget a month ahead, so this month we are living on November’s income, if that makes sense. I know I will need to adjust the sinking fund.

Hi Chris,

I happy to hear that your daughter is on the mend. I hope no one else does get it.

What a bargain that ham was especially with another 5% off. The rest of your shopping was terrific. We don’t seem to have many coupons anymore except the digital and they really are not that good. I do better with Fetch and Ibotta.

The sports games are fun. Enjoy. Free entertainment is the best.

That time is flying! Tell him Congrats from us! That is so nice that they are having the open house for him. You and your family will have a terrific time.

I do understand sinking funds. Our budget method is easy. We track every dollar on Quicken. More when I post. Retirement is no different than when we were working. We pay the bills and save the rest in a number of different ways. It was really no different for us. I have always cut back when I can and that gives me more to save. If you want a free tracking site, Dave Ramsey’s Every Dollar counts is wonderful to get you started.

When the Medicare renewals came around this year, something irked me about my current Plan K. It’s a monthly low cost ($81 a month each of us) BUT I still had to pay 10% of all medical procedures, office visits, tests, yada, yada, yada. My husband, who has intense heart problems, thought I, could possibly need surgery this upcoming year, so I decided to get a much better (more expensive) original Medicare (Plan N @ $219 a month. gulp!). I switched the both of us, even though I’ve never been sick nor have any problems.
Well, my dears, guess what? I’ve just been diagnosed with Stage Two breast cancer! I had been suffering with a respiratory illness since October 28th, so my dr ordered a CT scan and lo and behold, there it was, two nodules in my left breast. Never mind the respiratory problem anymore. I have bigger AND more expensive medical care coming up in 2024. Can you imagine? I made the right decision and I didn’t even know it! Here I was thinking DH would need care and it turned out to be me. UGH!
I have to tell you, when you get a diagnosis like this, your life changes instantly. I no longer care about politics or the price of eggs. All I want to do now is get better and get back to living my best life (camping, gardening, hiking, being with my girlfriends at the pool club this summer, going to the Grand Canyon finally (we’ve put it off for far too long). I love my house and I am so blessed to be living here. DH put up the bird feeder and I get to sit in my kitchen and watch all these beautiful birds. It may sound silly but trust me, it’s not! I just want to enjoy every single day of my life and not worry about any other nonsense.
I’m glad I have a stocked pantry. It’s going to come in handy now. I’m glad I got all new stainless steel appliances. We enjoy cooking in our kitchen more than ever now. Who knew? And I’m looking forward. Not backward.
I think this Medicare move I made is going to save us a ton of money. the old plan used to cost us between $200 to $300 additional to the $81(X2=$162). Now once we pay the monthly premium, we will owe ZERO. No more co-pays!!! No more additional monthly payments!!

Hi Cindi,

I am so sorry that you have breast cancer. I will keep you in my prayers and hope that your treatment works and you can continue to lead your best life. Nothing matters more than your health and your family. Those are the most important things.

It was a shock when Hubby had his heart attack. So I know how your perspective changes. We do the things we want to do but frugal things are very
important to us because it is how we acquire the things and money to do those things. It is also the way we are extremely charitable and have been that way our entire marriage. Now at our age, we enjoy a simpler life without the hustle and bustle.

You certainly made the right move with the medicare change.

Please keep in touch and let us know how you are doing,

Cindi, thank you so much for letting us know what is going on. I was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer in 2015. It was a hard year, but I made it through and still have a good life. Thank you for posting your new blog. I will go and check it out. I saw you had closed down your old blog.

A friend! A friend! Do you mind me asking what therapy you underwent? I won’t know my plan till this Thursday when they get the results of my biopsy. I feel encouraged knowing you made it through. TTYL.

Cindi, the email I subscribe to your blog with is my private email, if you can see it. If not, Precious has my private email, and I gave her permission to share it with you. I used to have an email for you a long time ago but can’t find it.

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