Frugal Things That We Have Been Doing

We have been really busy around here doing a myriad of frugal things. 

I have been doing our Federal and State Income Taxes. We have to file 7 forms this year because our taxes are so very complicated. I was thinking that I would either take them to a tax accountant or get Turbo Tax. But since I have done them for 50 years, I decided that I can do them and save the money that I would spend on the tax software or accountant. I have been working on them all day so that is why I haven’t had time to write until now. I am taking my time and hope to finish them by Sunday.

Hubby has been working with the insurance agency to lower our homeowner’s and car insurances. He brought the draft of the new policies home for me to look at. I like what I see, so we will sign them and he will take them to the agency in the morning and pay for them. This will save us about $180. a year.

I deposited 3 rebate checks into our savings account.

I returned two items that were defective when we purchased them. I got replacements that were perfect.

I returned toothbrush heads that Hubby purchased at Amazon that were the wrong ones. I sent them back and they are crediting us for the full amount.

I found the right toothbrush heads online at Walmart and ordered them for free pickup at my store. I picked them up while running other errands near there. 

I only grocery shopped once this week so I have not spent my full grocery budget. I am accumulating grocery money because the chicken order from Zaycon Fresh will be due next month and I want to make sure that I have enough grocery money to pay it.

By only running errands once per week, I am saving on gasoline.  Gasoline prices have really increased here over the past month or two.

Hubby has been having trouble with the Green Mountain Decaf Breakfast Blend K-cups that we purchase through Amazon. They only make a half cup even when you put the coffee pot on the large cup setting. It has happened before and with two different coffee pots. It’s like the water won’t go through the cup. When you open it to remove the cup, you get scalded. He was telling my son about it and my granddaughter said to him that he should write the company about the cups. So he found the Keurig website and tried to send them his complaint but it wouldn’t let him. So he called them. He got a customer service rep who was of no help. So he got a supervisor who understood his complaint. She asked him how many K-cups he had. He told her 5 boxes of 12 and about 6 from the 6th box of 12. She asked him if Fed Ex could pick them up so that they could get them back and have them tested. He said sure. She said she would replace the 6 boxes. She shipped it overnight so he wouldn’t be without coffee for long. The K-cups arrived today and she sent him 6 boxes of 24 cups each. Wow! We weren’t expecting to get double the amount that we purchased. He will try the new cups and see if they work the same as the Amazon ones. If not, then I would say the problem may be the Amazon ones. We’ll see.  But anyway, it pays to tell the company when you have a problem. We have had no problem with any other brand of K cup.

We have been doing the usual to save on electricity and natural gas. We don’t let water run in sinks while we brush our teeth or do dishes or pots and pans. We use our dishwasher on the energy saving cycle. I use the express wash cycle on the HE washer. I use 6 balls in the dryer so that the clothes dry faster when I use the dryer. It has been hard for me to hang laundry while I have my broken toe. We take navy showers.

I used a $ 100. Amazon giftcard that was given to us for our last subscribe and save order that arrived. It had the coffee in it that I spoke about above.


We ordered pizza and wings when our family was here last weekend. I paid with a Domino’s gift card.

We have been eating most of our meals cooked from scratch here at home. This week we have been finishing up leftovers from last weekend. I did make taco meat one night- two pounds of it. I froze 1/2 of it after it was cooked for future meals. 

I made homemade pumpkin bread to go with our breakfast on Monday. I made two loaves and sent a loaf home with my son. My DIL and granddaughter love pumpkin bread.

My Hubby paid a fortune for a hearing aid about 3 years ago. It has been back to the manufacturer at least 7 times with problems that they never seemed to be able to fix. It went out of warranty just before the 6th time. Hubby contacted corporate and told them that they should make the repairs free to us because they has never been able to repair it correctly during the warranty period. They said to have the place where he purchased it ship it back and they would look at it again. They sent it back and said it was fixed. Within a couple of days, there was so much static and it wouldn’t go away. So they said send it back. The woman who has been shipping it back each time called him a week or so ago and said that the company is sending him a brand new upgraded hearing aid with a full warranty and that she would call him when it came in. She called today and scheduled an appointment for him to come in and have it set to his hearing. If he hadn’t stuck with it and complained to corporate, we would be out buying a new hearing aid.


What have you done frugally lately?