We had our sprinkler system lines blown out by the company we use. This saves us money by preventing frozen lines over the winter which can be very costly to repair. I am also happy that our water bills will go down because we won’t be watering the lawn now. Our last 3 month bill was about $200.
Hubby moved the sprinkler system lines under the new garden. They were in the way of two rose of sharon bushes that are going in there. Now the landscape company can dig there and we don’t have to worry about them cutting the lines. It would have cost us many dollars to have the sprinkler company do this.
The heating company we use came and informed us that the induction motor in our furnace is very noisy and is probably on it’s way out. They want $ 701.+ taxes to replace it. We don’t want it to die this winter but we also don’t want to pay that price for it. Hubby did some research and found he can purchase the motor for about $200.+ tax. My son has installed a few of them so we can get any advice on doing it from him. Plus Hubby is an engineer and he says he can install it in about 20-30 minutes.
The only money I spent on groceries was $35. on fresh produce and dairy at Walmart and the cost of the chicken that I wrote about earlier to can. I canned 24 jars of meat this week.
I repaired a curtain in one of the guest rooms. It was coming apart where it hangs on the rod. They don’t make things the way they used to.
I had Walmart deliver me 6 cases of canning jars. I will need them over the winter. I am glad that I did because I heard yesterday that they are going up in price.
I only did 2 loads of laundry this week. One of clothing and one of sheets and towels. I used the Eco wash and cold water. I used the wool balls in the dryer to cut down on the time necessary.
We ate all meals at home last week. Hubby’s birthday is this coming week. I asked him if he would like to go out to dinner. He told me he likes my food so much better than eating out. He wants ground meat and hot Italian sausage lasagna and I have all the ingredients already. I will make a roasting pan full. We will cut the leftovers into portions and freeze them. I will probably also make him a carrot cake which is his favorite.
I cooked a dozen eggs in the instant pot so that we had easy breakfasts. Using it once to eat them all week saves energy. We continue to cook bacon in the microwave container. So much less mess and the container goes right into the dishwasher for easy cleaning. But first I save that bacon grease to cook with.
We continue to caulk around our windows to get them ready for winter.
I cleaned the garbage disposal. I don’t buy any special product to do this. I put some baking soda down that side of the sink followed by a little vinegar. I just let it sit while it oozes up. Then I run the disposal with just a little water for a few seconds. It works great! I do it once a week. I hate odors.
Hubby planted grass on the sides of the driveway and he has faithfully hand watered it every day for a few minutes. He continues to maintain the gardens each week.
Spectrum is our cable company. They and Disney were in a dispute over money for the Disney owned channels. Disney pulled their channels from Spectrum for 11 days. They said they were not going to credit customer’s accounts. However, they had a change of heart and they have credited everyone who was missing those channels. I don’t know what the credit is yet because we have not seen our bill. But anything is better than nothing.
Hubby replaced the drum in our Brother printer. This is the second time that he has done it. It sure beats buying a new one.
For those of you who don’t know, Hubby had a heart attack last October. Since then he has a lost a lot of weight. Taking over weeding the gardens and maintaining the bushes and flowers has given him lots of exercise. He told me a couple of days ago that he hasn’t felt this good in years. So I will have to get him on the treadmill this winter for his exercise.
Well, that was it for last week. What did you do frugally?
4 replies on “Frugal Things We Did This Past Week”
Hi Precious. Hubby replaced the toilet parts in our bathroom recently, b/c it was running. We received our monthly water bill and it was about $30 more than normal. He went back and adjusted things to be sure all was working ok. He did have to water our lawn yesterday for the first time this summer. So our bill will be more next month also, but it is cheaper than him having to put in a new lawn.
The last time we had our furnace inspected, they suggested replacing the starter, but hubby said no, and he bought a part to replace it when it fails. Hopefully not for awhile.
We had daughter’s birthday here at home on Thursday. We had the brisket hubby cooked, mashed potatoes, bread, salad and fruit. I made a birthday cake instead of buying one and bought ice cream that was on a good sale for a treat to go with. Happy early birthday to your hubby.
We had a couple of tailgates yesterday for the local college game. Hubby used some of the .99 cream cheese I had bought earlier in the week to make smoked cream cheese as an appetizer. I had Ritz crackers to take along. I made some peanut butter brownies with chocolate chips to take also. I had all the ingredients on hand to make them. Both of our offerings were huge hits.
We went to our town’s yearly flea market this morning. We got a couple of small things for the little girls, a few other things for Christmas, and a meat marinade container from the local Tupperware dealer for hubby to use for his smoked meat. I also saw a vender who had different used balls for $1 each so hubby picked out a decent basketball and football for the girls and the neighborhood kids to play with here. We spent about $50 in total, which I thought was pretty good for what we got.
Hi Chris,
Good job on Hubby fixing the toilet. Your birthday dinner was wonderful. I am sure your daughter enjoyed it.
Score on making everything from home for the tailgate.
I miss having a flea market. We had a huge one near where we lived in AZ, We spent many days there. You got a head start on Christmas. Fantastic!
Let’s see.. It was a very busy week.
• Painted the front and back door. Both new since May.
• Sprayed around the house and set off bombs in both garages to get rid of the fall spiders.
• Packed lunch and water for work everyday.
• Worked from home one day (I drive 130 miles round trip to work).
• After 17 years in this house, I had a option for different internet service. The original service gave, at the most, 3 mbps, this was very restrictive when trying to work from home. NONTHING ELSE COULD BE CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET BESIDES MY LAPTOP – and if it was cold and snowy out it had outages for days. Let’s not even talk about when schools were out…. Starlink finally came available and I ordered it the same day, got the equipment 2 days later and set it up. I now get up to 200 mbps. I had to pay around $600 for the connection and equipment fee and service is $40 more per month than my previous service, but at least I can use something I am paying for. AND I can work from home more saving ingas/car wear. I’m serious – 17 years with only 1 service option and the service was horrible.
• Rode my recumbent bike 20 miles per day, 6 sets of stairs, 3 sets of squats. Took all meds as prescribed. Staying healthy is invaluable.
• Stayed to my way or eating. High fat/moderate protein/low fat. This time of year with Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas sweets, it is very hard for me. As well as suppliers and vendors bringing sweets.
• Got bloodwork and telehealth with doctor. A1c is 5.1. all other tests came back great. Came off 1 medicine. She said I am her poster child.
• Ate all meals at home, except 1, and it was a sit down – not drive thru. Restaurant is a locally owned Mexican restaurant and I try to patron 1X per month. I live in a very small town. We have a pizza place as well.
• Work is very busy with stress coming from everywhere. The mental stress is very high as well. There is not a lot of females at my C level, but I sought out another female that I could talk through my frustrations with about how there is still a different standard for women and if you communicate strongly you are labeled a bitch and difficult to work with and I listened to music to bring the stress down. If you haven’t yet heard Dolly Partin’s new song What’s Up listen to it. I got out back and scream What’s going on and it helps.
• Turned the water heater off during the day when I am not home
• Turned off the a/c.
• Repaired a shelving unit that had pulled away from the wall. Inserted ankers in the wall to prevent the screws from pulling out again.
• Picked the last of the tomatoes. ☹ Very sad about that. Picked tobacco peppers, 5 bell peppers, a bunch of banana peppers, ghost peppers, and these purple peppers. I have 4 watermelons coming on. 2 pumpkins, 3 cantaloupe, and some gourds. Added soil and fertilizer and planted more lettuce in the raised bed – then something got in there and dug in the soil down to the ground. Sigh.
• Gave the love of my life, my Bassett hound, Flash, his meds ever day. He has enlarged heart but a great quality of life so I hope I have him for a few more years. He was given to me as an adult so not sure his age, but probably 10 or 11.
• Bought only a few sale grocery items this week. Made sure to buy nothing that I would not normally use.
• Tried to have no food waste, but this time of year the tomatoes rot faster than I eat them and I had a few that did not get into the freezer soon enough and a piece of Havarti cheese that has molded on the end – end piece was all that was left so no cutting it off and eating the other part.
• The back tire on my car started making a strange noise. Since I drive so much, I made an appointment immediately with Firestone Complete Auto Care to have it checked out. Good thing I did because it was a wheel bearing going out instead of the tire. They replaced the wheel bearing, rotated and aligned my tires, and got an oil change. Maintaining my paid off 6 year old car keeps it running with a high MPG for several years to come. Not to mention keeping me safe from breakdowns on the side of the road. Not a safe world right now.
Hi Wendy,
Wow! Thanks for sharing. We all learn from each other.
Have I told you how much I hate spiders? They give me the creeps. That is quite a round trip for work. That must hurt when you have to buy gasoline. That is terrific about the internet. I bet you are loving it after all that time.
You are so right about staying healthy. Good job on all that exercise. I was just thinking about all the holiday and birthdays we have in the Fall and hoping I can stay strong enough to stay away from the sweets.
Beautiful A1C! Keep up the good work.
Yikes! So sorry that you have so much stress at work.
Smart to maintain your car. If only more people realized that doing that let’s you keep a car for many years. Ours is almost 11 years old.