Ninety percent of our meals were made at home this week including homemade chicken soup, taco bowls, and turkey sandwiches.
Leftovers were eaten other days. Waste not, want not!
For entertainment, Hubby and I watched the NCIS, FBI, CSI, and Equalizer shows that Hubby had saved on the DVR.
Hubby planted the daffodil plant that my son and daughter in law had given us for Easter. We were thrilled to see that there were 3 bulbs in that pot.
We are still going through our home and getting rid of things that we no longer want by donating them. Hubby took all of our old electronics: computers, cellphone and tablets to the electronics pick up at our town hall this morning. This did not save us money but it is saving us space and clutter.
I inventoried our canning jars not only for the seasonal things this year but for more meat. We have been using up the meat that was canned in 2021 and 2022. So I need to put up a lot more beef and chicken. I do have enough jars, rings, and new lids.
We have been making lots of pudding for snacks this week. I also have celery and carrot sticks that we eat with homemade veggie dip.
If you have a thrift store close to your location, run in there when you are doing other errands and see what they have. You never know what you may find. I rarely find clothes but often I find cheap books and greeting cards. It only takes me an extra 5 minutes when I am out.
We got our electric and natural gas bill for the past month. It would have been $ 193.09 for 31 days but we got the NYS Energy Credit on this bill which New York is giving to everyone. So our bill after the credit for $24.23 was $168.06. We are now having very cold weather for this time of year. It has been in the 20’s at night so I expect this next bill will be higher.
We have been doing the usual: one to two loads of laundry a week using cold water and hanging most to dry. We have been cooking either on the range top or in the countertop 11 in one oven. The dishwasher is run once to twice a week.
Hubby will be giving me a haircut today. It has been a year and a half since I have gone to the hairdresser and I am enjoying saving the $ 140. I was spending going every 5-6 weeks.
What have you done to save money this week?
7 replies on “Things We Have Done To Save Money This Past Week”
Hi Precious! Hubby bought the mulch this week and has been spreading. I helped today. We still have more to do, hopefully will get it done sometime this week unless it rains a lot like they are predicting. He also did the mowing, fertilizing and filling in a few places with grass seed that he didn’t fertilize yet. Last weekend one of the tv stations had a Looney Tunes marathon and we watched some of the old cartoons, they are still funny.
This week was older granddaughter’s real birthday. I went out and got some ice cream novelties and we had a sing happy birthday party with the little kids on our street in our front yard. The ice cream was $28, but I put the leftovers away for summer fun times around here.
I went out to lunch Friday with some of my Y friends and used a gift card to pay, and just had to give cash for the tip. I ended up bringing part of my lunch home and hubby ate it for dinner. I cooked a few nights and eating leftovers some nights too. I stayed in my grocery budget this week. Will report when we get our gas/electric bills. We paid our other bills today. My credit card was a lot more than normal, b/c it had our upcoming Disney cruise balance on it. We had saved for it, though.
Not only do hubby and me cut our own hair, but I groom our own doggie to the tune of $72 savings per monthly cut!! Hubs always uses his Dodge credit card for his p/u repairs. He has $25 in rewards but Dodge offers to double it to $50 if he used his rewards this month. So, hubby had some work done on his pick up truck (rotate tires etc). The bill came to $52.79. We only had to pay $2.79 after they calculated the rewards. Score! We got our Over 65 Property Tax reduction application returned to us ‘DECLINED”. I was very respectful and called the accessor and just asked them to explain what formula they used to come to this negative conclusion. As the assessor and I went through the math he realized he made an arithmetic mistake. We were then APPROVED. That’s a savings of abut $1300. All accomplished with just one, respectful, phone call. It took about 4 months for our new Medicare insurance to get into full swing. Now, no more co-pay billing is coming our way. That’s a savings of a few hundred per month. Our new electric monthly reading bill has finally been mailed to us. Thanks to all the new eco appliances we purchased, our bill came in at $105 for a winter month. I am grateful for this!!! We still refuse to eat out in any restaurant, but to us Italians, FOOD IS EVERYTHING and we will NOT compromise. Cooking at home is paramount and I still continue to buy top quality, almost organic food. Sadly our food bill has jumped from $500 to $700 a month but we don’t care. We’ll cut other expenses but will NEVER jeopardize our home cooked meals (for example: San Marzano tomatoes, direct from Italy are at times $5 a can vs the .77 cents for the Tutterossa American brand). We will use one of each BUT we’re not giving up on the Italian brand completely. It makes the sauce, over pasta taste soooooooo good. NOT giving up on quality. I am growing San Marzano tomatoes in our garden, but without the authentic Italian soil and breezes, mine will never taste like the real thing. So, we continue to pay top price! Worth every penny.
Hi Cindi,
You have been on a savings binge. I am jealous of your property tax deduction. They only give it to people in town who make under $29,000. a year. We don’t qualify for the star enhanced either. However our assessor did not raise our assessment for this coming year of 24-25. I am thrilled after all the increases we have had. I will bet your sauce is delicious!
Don’t be jealous. The town raised the income level for the current year based on the COLA 8.5% increase to Social Security the previous year. But my town is filled with a bunch of wise guys. I just got a notice from them that they raised the assessors value of my home by $60,000. That means any savings I was going to enjoy has now probably been supressed. Laterally.
I know the feeling! So sorry! Are you going to grieve it?
We have been busy in our garden, we already planted carrots, beets, dill, spinach, kale, onions, snow peas, lettuce, potatoes, cilantro and parsley.
We save a lot eating fresh plus canning, freezing and freeze drying.
I cut my husband’s hair and trim his beard about once a month. I take a seat and he trims my long hair every couple months. I like his work and I get compliments on the braids he does for me. My sister decided to grow her hair longer, so she now has my husband trim her hair for her because the salon was getting expensive and they always cut her hair too short.
Her husband is not so good with the shears, but she still cuts his with the clippers with an attachment. I have another friend that has him cut her long hair for her. I am ok with it because she is a friend of mine and her husband is friends with both of us. I don’t really think about how much money we are saving because we are happy with the results every time.
We are ending our heating season of burning wood. We saved hundreds every month as compared to before we had the wood stove put in. Our March electric bill was only $44. Big savings.
Hi cwa14n3,
Nice group of veggies and herbs in your garden. I can too.
I wish I was talented enough to cut Hubby’s hair. He does do his own beard. Hubby does cut my hair. You are saving a fortune on the haircuts.’
That is huge savings on your electric bill. Thank you for sharing.