Cutting Costs Recently

I won a $10.00 Top’s gift card playing the Monopoly game. That will buy some meat the next time I go there.

Instead of going out to breakfast at Kalamatta’s Restaurant on Sunday, we cooked at home for my son and grandson. Hubby made waffles and I cooked the bacon, sausage, and eggs. I really wanted to go to the restaurant. But I decided it would save us the $80. it costs including tip to just cook at home. My son helped Hubby get all of the patio furniture out of the shed and get the snowblower put in there. West took our winter coats, gloves, and hats down to the storage bags in the basement. He also took a few bags of groceries to the pantry for me. They are a big help to us. After that was all done, we played rummy which is free entertainment.

Just as my son and grandson were leaving, my other son called. So we had a long enjoyable chat.

I cut open a free sample of toothpaste from the dentist to get the very last bit out. There is always enough left to brush my teeth at least two more times. The larger tubes have even more left in them. So don’t throw them away. Use it all.

One of the hems on a rather new dish towel came undone. So I repaired it.

I scanned many receipts into Fetch.

I took inventory of my canning jars, lids and seals. I have enough for this year so I was happy that I didn’t have to buy any of those things.

I baked 8 potatoes the other night. I used two for dinner and made potato salad with the rest yesterday. Thinking ahead when you bake something saves on energy. Fill up that oven.

My new gas and electric smart meters were installed yesterday. I wouldn’t let the girl put them in until I read our meters and wrote the readings down. She was standing right by the meters when I went out there and she said she would read them while I wrote them down. I immediately went in the house to look at my last bill’s readings which was created on April 17th. I realized that she had read the electric meter wrong. She had added 1000 kwh’s. I have never used that many kwh’s in 11 days or a month. My electric readings are very consistent over the 15 years we have been here. So I went out to tell her and she was very apologetic and said she would change the reading to correct it. What I actually used in that period of time was 184 kwh’s. I am glad we were home because they take the old meters back to the company. Then you have no proof. The gas reading was correct and appeared on the gas meter. But the electric meter started at 000000. They have to take the electric meter to the company and the reading and then they add the usage from the old meter and new meter together. I would have been shocked if I had a bill in May that was 1000 kwh’s more than we use. I will be calling the company tomorrow to make them aware of her mistake and make sure they have the correct reading. I also want to ask them how this all works online. They left no literature on it. But the moral of this story is that you should always read your meters when the company is replacing them.

Our landscaping company came last week and did the weeding, trimmed all the bushes, and mulched our many gardens. The owner decided to charge us the same amount as last year. I was thrilled because I am sure his costs went up the same as everything else has.

I discovered water in the cabinet under our kitchen sink last week. Hubby could find no connections in the pipes that were leaking nor was the garbage disposal leaking. I have run the dishwasher twice since then and no water is leaking from that. So he has finally determined that the seal that holds the sink into the stone countertop needs to be resealed. It seems to be worn out in spots. He will be removing the old seal and installing a new seal today. A tube of that stuff is a lot cheaper than hiring a plumber.

I have washed a few loads of laundry in cold water this week and hung them to dry. When I spring cleaned my laundry room, I cleaned out the cupboards. I found a container with a bit of homemade powdered detergent in it. I am using it up instead of throwing it out.

This is Walmart + week. There are many benefits that members will have. It started yesterday. I will be taking advantage of the gas savings and the express delivery and perhaps a few more things.

I have started a new batch of vanilla using new vanilla beans and a very cheap bottle of vodka.

We continue to keep lights off in the daytime. I turned our heat off tonight finally. We will see if we will be able to keep it off.

I have started to reread 4 bookshelves of books that I own. As I finish each one, I will donate them.

Hubby is now only going to therapy once a week instead of twice. That is saving us gasoline and one $25. co-pay a week.

Peacock will be expiring soon. We have enjoyed it but not enough to renew it.

We are eating all meals at home this week. Have you noticed that beef and chicken rarely go on sale anymore? The word online is that fresh fish and seafood will be the next thing to skyrocket in price. So if you like fish, shrimp, or scallops get them now. I have been watching for sales these past few weeks on beef. Finally Top’s has their NY strip steaks on sale at $11.99 a lb. I purchased 6 of them yesterday. I will continue to pursue the sales on beef but it is very rare that I will see any. Pork is cheap here but nothing else.

That is it for today. How are you cutting your costs?

I am almost done with the post I have been working on. So that will be up when it is finished.