Frugal Things This Past Week

This is one of my favorite lamps. It resides in our master bedroom. We have owned it for about 30 years. It was starting to give me trouble. It would flicker on it’s own when I turned it on. I was worried about a short in it so I unplugged it and told Hubby. He took it apart and found loose wiring and repaired it. Now it works perfectly. I am so glad that I never considered throwing it out.

I went to the salon and had my hair done. She told me the roots and highlights were fine. She just did a cut for $30.00 plus a $6.00 tip.

Having a lot of eggs in the fridge, I boiled up 11. We used them for a quick breakfast, some snacks and Hubby made egg salad one day.


I cleaned out and sanitized the inside of  my refrigerator checking to see what produce needed to be used up. So it has been worked into my plan for the week.


Rather than take the turkey breast back to the market, Hubby diced it up and we are using it for chicken salad and to make turkey soup. It’s easier to eat in small pieces. I have another turkey breast in the freezer that I purchased the same day as this one. I am hoping it is not tough. I can tell you that I will not be buying this brand again.

I have made a list of items to stock up on in the next few weeks. They are things that I believe may go up in price soon. I already stocked Monday on 2 cases of canned whole potatoes at $ .49 a can. Hubby loves them roasted. I no longer eat any potatoes so rather than buy a bag that can’t be used up before it goes bad, I will use canned roasted or in stew all fall and winter into the spring. 

I washed two loads of wash with cold water. They were hung to dry.

There are so few homes in our town for sale that the two homes that were put up for sale in our development the past couple of days sold within days. People were bidding the prices up. It is good for the seller but it is going to kill us when they reassess us for taxes in the spring. Add to that the new homes that are being built in our development that are selling very quickly and we are in big trouble for taxes. Moral: Sell now if you want to move.

I blanched three of the four ears of corn I bought and froze them so Hubby can have them over the winter. 

My friend who had the party this past weekend makes a dill pickle dip that Hubby loves. She surprised him with a 16 oz. jar of it when we were leaving to come home on Saturday. He is enjoying it immensely. She reuses jars as I do.


I started a list of Christmas gifts that I need to buy. I will be working on those over the next two months and hope to have all my shopping done by the end of October.

I was able to buy a 3 lb. bag of Lakanto Monkfruit Sweetener that was $22.99 using credit card rewards.

Since our state is getting rid of plastic bags the beginning of next year, I am still saving every one I get including large packaging like toilet paper wrappers, Amazon plastic shipping envelopes, etc. I use these to empty wastebaskets which saves me from using extra tall kitchen garbage bags or trash bags. I put them in empty tissue boxes and stack them in the basement. When we had a cat, I would save the empty cat food bags for the same purpose. 

Hubby needed a new piece of medical equipment. Fortunately it was covered under our medical plans. There was not even a co-pay. 


We had some tortillas that were getting old. Hubby made himself a scrambled egg, onion, cheese and sausage wrap for breakfast. He also made a few others to put in the freezer and just nuke when he wants one.


For entertainment, we have been watching preseason football games, watching You Tube, reading some free books on our Kindles, and doing a puzzle. 

I have been running the dishwasher every other day using up a container of homemade dishwasher detergent and using vinegar in place of Jet Dry. 


For exercise, I have been walking, going on the treadmill, and going to the gym.


We are supposed to have a cool down today. I am glad because it has been 88 during the days. So I have been collecting scraps of wood at the dumpsters where they are building in here. We will be ready to enjoy our outdoor fireplace in the evenings with the cooler weather.

We needed to stock on air filters for the furnace since we were getting low. We stopped at Lowe’s and the prices were expensive and they no longer carried a package in bulk like I used to get. The guy that checks our furnace for us every year told us a long time ago to buy the cheapest filters you can. He said other filters block air flow and that is not a good thing. So I ordered 12 filters from Home Depot for $.98 each and picked them up there so that I didn’t have to pay for shipping.

What have you been doing frugally this past week?