Tag: frugal things we do

This past week has been very strange frugally to say the least. I have been doing my usual clean out of every nook and cranny. These are the things I have found:

– I was cleaning out and disposing of underwear that is way too big for me. Hidden in the back of the drawer was a wad of cash. Why? I have no idea. But I counted it and it was $205. I believe that I may have started to stash it at the end of last year for 2019 birthday gifts and then forgot about it. Anyhow it will come in handy to add to our Christmas money for gifts.

– A few years ago my daughter in law gave me a gorgeous heavy cable knit LL Bean sweater. It disappeared shortly afterward. I have never been able to find it no matter how hard I looked. I finally thought that I must of left it somewhere and stopped looking for it. I was very disappointed. This week I  decided to clean out Hubby’s sweater drawer since he hadn’t gotten to it in a few years. Under a stack of his sweaters I found my sweater. It is about 4 sizes too big for me but will be terrific to wear in the house over other clothing this winter to keep me very warm. Perhaps we can lower the heat a little.

– Last June when we went to visit my son, daughter in law, and granddaughter to celebrate my granddaughter’s birthday, I came home and could not find one of my new tops that I brought out with me. It was not in my luggage. So I assumed that I had left it in Albany. My DIL and granddaughter looked all over for it and they could not find it either. When my granddaughter was here to visit for a week this past summer, she and I went to J.C. Penney’s to try and find the same top. They were all gone. I was disappointed because it had been my favorite coral top. This past week I was cleaning out expired medicines and found the top in a storage box that holds my nebulizer and medicine for it. I am asthmatic and use my machine rarely for an attack. I always take it with me where ever I travel. The top of the box is a solid color and when I took it off, there was my top at the very top of the storage box. After washing it, I now have my favorite coral top back. I believe that my
luggage had already been taken to the car when I found the top on the
bed and quickly shoved it into the storage box. But I forgot that when I got home.

They say good luck comes in three’s so that should have been the end of my luck. But it wasn’t. A few days ago, we got a check for $331. from New York state as a rebate on our school taxes. I will add that to another rebate check and deposit it in our savings.


These are the other frugal things we have done:


– I cooked all of our meals from scratch. We were planning on going out for Hubby’s birthday and mine this week but it is restaurant week here in the Buffalo area. It will be so crowded so we are pushing that meal out for sometime in the future. Hubby will cook my dinner on my birthday as I did on his.

– I washed a load of towels and sheets in the HE washer and used my dryer with the wool balls to dry them. I also washed a load of clothes this week.

– We ran the dishwasher just twice this past week. 


– I read a book on my Kindle in my spare time which I did not have much of this past week. 


– We had to turn the heat on the end of last week but we have it set at 68 during the day and 65 at night.


– I went to my hairdresser and had the works: shampoo, color, and highlights. I had just had haircuts the last couple of months so I needed this badly. But the money I saved the two months I only got cuts, I used to pay for the works. Except for cuts, I will be good for the holidays.

– Hubby went to the barber for his $13. haircut. 

– I got a great deal on Amazon for corn chips, Cheez-It’s, and Doritos for snacks for Hubby and my grandson so I stocked up. 

What did you do frugally this past week?  

These are the things we did frugally this past week:

– We still have not turned on any A/C or heat. The weather has been flip flopping. Some days it is warm and others it is cool. But so far we have lived without both of these things.

– I picked up my free Pop- arazzi Nail Polish at CVS with my free coupon they sent for my birthday month. 

– I went to the bank for our cash for October. I ran 4 errands while I was in that town.

– I picked up the free vanilla cinnamon bun at Panera for Hubby.

– Found a 50% off code for our tire changeover place and scheduled our appointment.

– I returned my two library books that I read but did not pick up anymore because I don’t have the time to read them in the next two weeks. If I get some time, I will read one on my Kindle.

– I received a B1G1F  birthday coupon from Bar S Franks. 

– We have been making really simple meals like shrimp cocktails, Chef’s salads and bacon and eggs for dinner. Tonight though I will be making a Hoisin Pork Tenderloin.  

– I redeemed points on Bing for another $ 5.00 Walmart gift card.  

– I baked two loaves of banana bread using really ripe bananas that were frozen. One loaf will be used for our Sunday breakfast. 

– I washed just one load of clothes this week using cold water and then hung them to dry.

– I received a birthday coupon for a free dessert from one of our local restaurants. Not sure I will use it. But if we go there, I will get it for Hubby.

– I have been using up things in the fridge including condiments and sauces, Our condiments are out of control again. I use all recipe’s ingredient search for this.

– Picked the last of our chives for this year. 

– We got our free to us flu shots. 

– On days that the weather permits, I have been continuing my 1-2 mile walks in our neighborhood. We have 5 ponds that I walk by and I am always looking for ducks or geese which are frequently there. 

– I filled the car up using gas points to defray the cost.

– I have been using up toiletries from our hotel stay and my hospital stay earlier in the year.  

– Shopped Tops on Senior Discount day to get a 6% discount.

What have you done frugally this past week?

These are the things we did frugally this past week:

1. One day last week, I was running errands for almost 4 hours. Knowing that I would not be home for lunch, I packed some turkey pepperoni, a mozzarella cheese stick, and a bottle of water. I stopped at a beautiful local park on the way to do an errand and sat and ate lunch.

2. I went to the library and took out two books to read.

3. Hubby has been craving the bacon macaroni goulash that I haven’t made since before my surgery. So I made him a big pan from scratch and he ate many meals  from it. I just fixed myself other things that were on my diet.

4. I went to the drugstore to pick up a prescription. When they checked me out, the prescription cost me $90. I was shocked. I had never paid more than $50. for it. I asked the pharmacy tech why it was so expensive. She advised me that I was in the Medicare gap. Well I knew enough to know that was not possible. I have only gotten a couple of prescriptions this year and you fall into the gap after many, many expensive prescriptions. But rather than argue, I paid for it and came home and called my prescription drug plan. They laughed when I told them what the pharmacy tech told me. The woman I spoke to said you aren’t even near the gap. She told me the reason was that the drug now had a generic and since they didn’t fill it generically, it cost me $90. for the branded drug. I asked her how much the generic would have cost me and she said $10. So I contacted the pharmacist and they said since I hadn’t opened the prescription, they would take it back and credit me. It took me two days of messages and phone calls to get the doctor to write the generic and then to the pharmacy to get it taken care of. I finally picked it up on this past Monday and they credited me the difference of $80. It was worth the aggravation to save that $80.


5. We had another stone fall off the house and Hubby said there were 3 more loose ones. So he cemented them back into place and grouted those and the ones he had done prior. So they are all fixed for winter.


6. I have been reading a new book that Hubby purchased me early as a gift for my upcoming birthday. It is eye opening. 

7. We had Hubby’s family birthday party which I made from scratch except for dessert which I purchased. He enjoyed every minute of it.

8. We enjoyed watching the Buffalo Bills win their third game. They are undefeated so far. 

9. Our garage door had gotten really dirty. So Hubby scrubbed it with Dawn liquid soap and water and it looks new.

10. I washed the SUV in the driveway again. It won’t be long before we will have to pay for car washes to get the salt off. 

11. We have had no A/C or heat on at all. Even though we just had a stretch of 80 temps, we were very comfortable in our home without the A/C. This has paid off. I just got our electric and gas bill and it was only $ 70.99, the lowest bill we have ever had in the 10 and a half years that we have owned this house. The meter charges and supply charges alone were $51.+. of that.

12. We will need to have our snow tires put on again before the end of October. So I am keeping my eyes open for a discount coupon. 

13. We cancelled our YMCA gym membership effective the end of this month. We were not using it enough to justify the $48. per month charge. Between our treadmill and recumbent bike, we can get our exercise without having to leave the house and that will be a good thing this winter.  I walked a mile and a half outside in the neighborhood this morning. It was crisp(52) and sunny!  

14. I donated another bag of clothing to Goodwill. I am slowly but surely getting rid of all clothing that no longer fits me.


15. I ran one full load of clothing and hung it to dry.


16. I only ran the dishwasher twice this past week.

What did you do frugally this past week?

These are the things we have done frugally this week:

– Saved $25.00 on my Walmart grocery shop using free gift card rebate money

– Purchased spring mix, guacamole minis, croissants,  and angel food cake at reduced for quick sale prices

– My son helped Hubby bring our bench seat in from the garage to a guest bedroom. It needed to be off the floor for some garage work to be done. They cleaned the dirt off the feet before they brought it in the house. I then went through the shoes and boots and donated a few pair that we are not using. By doing the work with help from my son, we save by not having to hire movers to get all of the things out of the garage.

– We still have no A/C or heat on. I read the meters for the utility company. They were the lowest we have ever had for both electricity and natural gas. I will let you know how much the bill was next week.

– I received another $5.00 Walmart gift card from a rebate and another $5.00 rebate in the mail. 

– Hubby made French toast in the electric fry pan for our Sunday family breakfast. I made two eggs for myself. I cooked a lb. of thick cut bacon that I purchased at Aldi for $3.79. It was delicious so I know where we will be buying our bacon from now on. Hubby ate the leftover French Toast for breakfast the next day. It heats up beautifully in the air fryer.

– I had a can of crescent rolls in the fridge that needed to be used up. So I thawed some cocktail hot dogs and made pigs in a blanket for dinner one night. Hubby ate them a second night and I had salmon. The piggies without blankets are what I ate. I made  small salads for a side.  

– I made some SF banana strawberry and some SF peach jello as dessert treats.

– I watched “The First Wives Club” on Amazon Prime for entertainment this past weekend while Hubby watched a lot of football games. This movie was very enjoyable and gave me some good laughs.

– We watched our Buffalo Bills beat the NY Giants for entertainment on Sunday.

– We had two meatless meals this past week: a large tossed salad and an omelet. 

– We have been incorporating veggies and fruits into every meal(even breakfast) to use up our produce.

– We have really been enjoying our aster in one of our front gardens. It truly pays to buy flowering bushes or any kind of flowers that are perennials because they don’t have to be replaced year after year. So we have 4 more being planted in various gardens tomorrow. Our hanging baskets( these are the only annuals we plant every year.) are still in full bloom and as beautiful as when we planted them in May.

– I shampooed the SUV carpeting this week.  


– Hubby made the last container of hummingbird food this year. They will all be heading south soon.


– Only did two loads of laundry – one with towels and one with clothing. The clothing was all hung to dry.


– Only ran the dishwasher twice this week using homemade dishwasher detergent.


– Enjoyed a free telephone call with an old friend. Priceless.

– Cut chives from our garden to put on Hubby’s baked potatoes.

– Gave myself a manicure and a pedicure.

– We calculated our net worth yesterday. It is a must to always know where you stand especially when you are retired.

– I have not been sleeping well. The little bit of money that I spent to buy some Melatonin was worth it’s weight in gold. Who knew that 10 mg. would knock me out and let me get 8 hours sleep?


– Hubby took the 4 hour course in New York State that lets us get a reduced price on our liability coverage. The discount is good for three years.

– We did not eat out which I think is a huge drain of money from anyone’s budget.

– Our cellphone is paid for through the end of the year. So we are researching a cheaper plan to switch to for next year.

What did you do frugally this past week?

These are the things that we have done frugally this past week:

– I used a $5.00 off coupon to get Hubby’s and my winter coats dry cleaned.

– I received a $3.00 rebate in the mail.

– I cashed in my Ibotta rebates for a $10.00 Walmart gift card.


-I received a $5.00 Walmart gift card from Bing.


– I washed two loads of clothing and towels in cold water in the HE using the crystal eggs to wash;Hung the clothing to dry and used the dryer with the wool balls for the towels to cut down on the drying time needed.

– Grocery shopping was done for just needed items this week. I did no stockpiling there.

– We have been grilling our meat outside to use up the propane. We don’t like storing it over the winter. 

– I washed some windows on the outsides using a bucket of water, vinegar, a little dishwasher soap and our squeegee.

– Hubby trimmed the rose bushes and transplanted a bush to a front yard garden.

– I renewed my library card and took out one book to read.

– Hubby continues to get everything off the garage floor to get ready for the work that is going to be done on it in mid-October.

– I stocked up on toilet paper and garbage bags at great prices from Amazon.     

– Entertainment this week: We had company for dinner last Tuesday evening. We had family watch the Bills game with us on Sunday. My son bought us an early take out dinner that afternoon. 

– The A/C has stayed off and we have not turned on the heat even though it has gotten cold a few nights. 

– I soaked the apples I purchased in a solution of 1 Tbsp. of baking soda and 6 cups of water for about 15 minutes, rinsed them well, and dried them. Studies have shown that this removes most of the pesticides. I don’t purchase rinse to do this.

– I filled up two 2 ltr. bottles(from Hubby’s Diet Coke) with tap water to add to my water stockpile. 


– I returned a bag of cans and bottles to Fast Cash and got $2.60 in deposit returns. 

– Picked up a 90 day prescription that had no co-pay. 


– I am continuing to save plastic grocery store bags to stockpile for my wastebasket disposal. It won’t be long before our state’s ban goes into effect.


– With the colder weather kicking in my arthritis is starting to bother me, so I soaked in the bathtub in epsom salts which always makes me feel better. I added epsom salts to my errand list because I am getting low. 

– We will use the leftover turkey taco meat for taco salads again tonight. We love these and don’t mind eating them two nights in a row. Waste not, want not! 


What have you done frugally this past week? Please share so that we can all teach each other.

I made 2 loaves of French bread from scratch. I did not use the bread maker. It was all done by my hands. They turned out well. I have frozen one loaf for the future and we using one when we have company for dinner tonight. Hubby wanted it to put the gruyere cheese on in his French onion soup that he makes.

Hubby is also making homemade chicken piccata with linguine or homemade zoodles and a tossed salad. We will have SF chocolate pudding with SF Cool Whip for dessert.

We are serving Moscato with dinner. And there is plenty of liquor and beer choices for the evening. Our newspaper this weekend had a $5.00 off coupon for a liquor store in the next town. I had to go for my yearly mammogram and the radiology place is very close to this liquor store. So I stopped there and bought some libations to fill in the gaps in our bar.

I received $ 6.00 in rebates.

I got a $10.00 gift card for Walmart from Ibotta. That will get used the next time I go there for groceries. 


Speaking of Walmart, they finally have grocery pickup and delivery at my store. This will come in very handy this winter. I have a $10. off coupon code for my first order. Do any of you use these services at Walmart? If so how do you like it?

Hubby needed printer paper. I thought I had some in a box in the basement. Sure enough, I found an entire case that I got a while ago at Office Depot on a deal. So we won’t need paper for a few years.

I did just one load of wash using cold water and hung it to dry. 

We have kept the A/C off and I am hoping that we are done with it for this year. 

My son and grandson came on Sunday for breakfast. I made scrambled eggs, sausage, and cut up a cantaloupe. They ended up staying through lunch so I served snacks – tortilla chips with cheese dip, cookies, and my grandson wanted some Cheez-Its (his very favorite snack). 

I have gone down another size in clothing so my jeans are getting quite baggy. But I am going to continue to wear them until I go down another size.  I have a good belt that will keep them in place. I would like to wear them as much as I can this winter. I don’t plan on going out much because I hate the cold and the snow. Also most of my tops are short sleeved. I will make due with the few new long sleeved ones and just wear a sweater with the short ones. 

We only have about 12 boxes of kleenex in our inventory. I decided unless I see it for close to free, I will not buy any. Hubby and I will use our handkerchiefs. 

Hubby wanted a pair of jeans from LL Bean. I used Rakuten to get 2% back, a 20% off code, and a gift card purchased from Raise at a discount. I had to pay no additional cash out of pocket.

And last, we were getting low on toilet paper. Eighty rolls that I ordered from Amazon arrived on Sunday.

If it seems like I am doing a lot of shopping lately, I am. It is just our normal stock up before the winter.

Today, I went and paid our huge school tax bill of $4648. I was not happy when that arrived. Our assessment this spring went up another $33,000. It had just gone up 2 years ago by $20,000. If they raise us again, I plan on contesting it. So today was not a frugal day. However, I was able to pay it from our checking account and did not have to pull it from an investment. So that part made me happy! 

Please feel free to share what you did frugally last week. We all learn from each other. 

These were the frugal happenings here this past week.

Hubby hung hooks in the garage so that we can get the glass/or screen for our back door off the floor. It has been leaning against a wall behind our garbage cans. He also hung hooks to hang our spare chairs and get them off the floor.

I ordered a year’s supply(10 cans) of 30.5 oz. Folger’s coffee from a deal at Office Depot through Rakuten. They ended up costing me about $4.50 per can after the rebate. I won’t have to buy coffee for me for well over a year.

Leaf Filter people came at no charge and put up flashing that they should have done when they installed the filters on the gutters.  

Our security alarm people came out on a repair call. We had a code pop up on our control panels that we had never seen before. When we called them, they said they had to come out to fix it. The repairman found that something had never been connected in our control panel when it was installed. That is what caused this code and a failure. It took over 9 years to fail. He also said another code would be caused to pop up too so he fixed that also. Hubby had also asked them to look at one of our motion detectors that was giving us trouble. Hubby decided to replace it and since technology has come a long way in 9 years, he had all the motion detectors replaced.  Because the alarm company didn’t install the system properly, he waived the $120. fee to just come out to the house. He also only charged us $25. for labor. It would have been close to $150. Yes, we had to pay for the motion detectors but we saved about $245. in total.

I washed one load of clothes with cold water in my HE washer. I tried to use my dryer to dry them with the wool balls. The dryer was giving me trouble. It didn’t seem to be heating up. So Hubby went outside to make sure that nothing was blocking the air from going outside. He found no problem. I switched to a different setting than the one I was going to use and the dryer worked. Then about 10 minutes later I cancelled that setting and went back to the original one and it worked. Whether it will continue to work when I use it, time will tell. It is getting old and I purchased it used when we bought it and the washer. So I am researching washers and dryers to see what our next purchase will be just in case it is dieing.

I took the inside of my dishwasher apart and cleaned it really well. Then I ran some citrus Koolaid through it on the short cycle. This keeps it working efficiently.

I have been using up our fresh produce so that none of it goes to waste. If you are throwing produce out you might as well just throw the dollars in the garbage.


Hubby has been watering our hanging baskets really well this summer. The sprinkler system does not reach those. They look as good today as when we purchased them.

Our air conditioning has been off for days. I am hoping to not have to turn it on again.

I washed the SUV in the driveway.

I filled the car up with gas getting $.50 off a gallon with supermarket points. 

I have not been spending a lot on groceries the past few months because we have been eating out of our freezer and pantries. So there is a great deal on chicken this week and I will do some stocking up for the winter. But not as much as I thought because my inventory shows I have about 25 lbs.

I complained online to Hormel who sells the Jennie O turkey breast that was so awful. They sent me 3 – $5.00 off coupons. One good on Cure 81 ham and 2 that are good on one product up to $5.00 each. The ham one expires in October 2019 but the others are good till October 2020. It pays to take the time to complain. They also sent me a full list of the products they sell which is very helpful for figuring out how to fully take advantage of them. 

I have a busy two days of shopping to do. So I switched this Wednesday post with my Tuesday post. Tomorrow will be Tuesdays.

So what did you do frugally this past week? Please share with all of us.

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?

These are the frugal things we have done the past week.

I already told you about Hubby’s purchase of shelving for the garage. It is all up now except for the bottom shelf which will get put up after they do our garage floor.

My son brought his jack so that Hubby and he could jack up the shed. In the meantime, Hubby was cleaning the garage and he found his jack in a cabinet. They worked on this last Sunday.

My son took my origami shelving unit down into the basement from the garage. I had him place it where I wanted it. I haven’t decided what I will use the shelves for. I think I will be rearranging things down there and then making decisions. I plan on spending an hour a day this week doing that.

I washed a load of clothing once last week using cold water to wash and rinse. I hung everything to dry.

I washed a load of towels along with some guest room sheets. They were dried in my dryer using the wool balls which cuts down the dryer time by 20-30 minutes.

Our A/C has been off most of the past week. It has been cooler and a lot less humid. We have been enjoying the fresh air blowing in through the windows. We have had some nice gentle winds those days. 

For entertainment, we enjoyed watching the Buffalo Bills pre-season football game. We played board games with West. 

I have been doing a lot of walking around our neighborhood. I want to slowly work my way up to 8 miles a day. I have been invited to go to Disney World for their 50th Anniversary in 2021. Now that I am getting healthier, I want to see if I can walk the parks down there and not have to maneuver a scooter. My family walks about 8 miles in a park each day when they go. So by working on this now, I will know whether I can do it or not. If I can, the bonus is that I will not have to rent a scooter for a week.

I am getting low on quart size storage bags. They are wearing thin from being washed again and again. I got a great deal on Amazon . It works out to $.05 a bag which is a terrific deal. Better yet I paid for them using reward points. These are storage bags only not freezer bags.

I got my Rakuten rebate of $ 17.03. I got a mail in rebate of $6.00.

My liquid hand soap order that I told you about in a prior post arrived yesterday. That was about 2-4 weeks earlier than they said it would. I always worry about liquid things leaking in shipment. This was packed so well that it never would have leaked. This 4 gallons will last us a long, long time.

A friend, who started blogging way back when I did, mentioned that she uses fold over blank cards for gifts.  I am getting low on my blank cards that I sometimes use, so I searched on Amazon for these blank cards . They were $24.50+ tax for 100. They do not come with envelopes but due to a bulk purchase 16 years ago when we lived in Arizona, I already have envelopes that will fit them. I am always looking for a cheaper way to do things. This purchase will cut my card using price to less than half of what I normally pay. I can use them for gifts or even just when I need a card to mail. I have many ways that I can dress them up including my stamps and ink pads. 


I bought some more bagels at Panera Bread yesterday for Hubby. They are cheaper for 13 on Tuesdays…just $6.99.  I bagged them up in portions and put them in the freezer. He can just pull one out the night before he wants one. I paid for them with a gift card. 

Hubby made some more homemade cinnamon cream cheese spread for his bagels.


Hubby and I had our teeth cleaned. Two cleanings, flouride treatments, and exams twice a year, for each of us are covered in full by our discount dental plan. Hubby also had some work done and we got a discount of 20% on that.

I repaired a pair of shorts for Hubby.

Knowing that we were going to be out a good part of the day on dental cleaning and errand day, I put 2 nights worth of chicken in the crock pot to cook on low. All I had to do for dinner later was steam some broccoli and make Hubby some rice.

What are the frugal things you have done this past week? Please share with all of us. 

These are the things we have done frugally the past week:

We had our driveway sealed. It had been three years since we had had it done. The man who does it for us has been doing driveways for almost 50 years. He is $50. cheaper than anyone else and does a fantastic job. Final cost to us was $97.20. He has usually done our driveway every 2 years for us. I guess we forgot to call him last year.

Top’s has been running 4 day only sales at the end of their sales week. This past week, they had Jennie O Turkey Breasts on sale for $.88 a pound – limit 2. I got 2.  It is rare that I can get meat at under $2.00 a lb. so when I do I get a couple.  They also had a head of iceberg lettuce on sale for $.88. I got one. I love turkey and it is especially good on my diet. So those went into the freezer to cook this fall before the large turkeys go on sale at rock bottom prices.

We are debating fixing a burner on our gas stove. The igniter is not working. Hubby watched some You Tube videos on how to do it. You can’t just buy the igniter; You have to buy the entire part that the igniter is in. It costs over $60. It also means turning off the gas while he is working on it and pulling the stove out from the wall. It will be a lot of work to install the part too. Hubby asked me what I thought. I told him it is the smallest burner on the stove so I rarely use it. We have three larger burners that I use a whole lot more than that one.  I use small appliances more than I use my stove top. When we have an extended family meal, I can always use the electric fry pan in lieu of the extra burner. The stove is over 9 years old and most likely will need replacing in another 5 or so. So I won’t miss that burner. We will see what Hubby decides to do. I am leaning towards doing nothing.

Hubby was told by his specialist to keep a bowl of snack size chocolate bars in his nightstand next to his bed. Hubby sometimes has low blood sugars during the night which wake him up. He then eats one or two Almond Joy snack size bars which bring his sugar up. These bags of bars rarely go on sale and are expensive for the little bit that comes in a bag. He is down to just 4 bars left. So I decided to see if I could buy them in bulk. I found I could get 3- 20oz. bags Jumbo bags at Amazon for about $8.78 a lb. which is way cheaper than what I pay now. There was no shipping even though it wasn’t Prime so this will save me the cost of gasoline to go out and purchase them too. I have logged this price into my price book but I will always be on the lookout for a better price. I can’t find these bars on a Holiday clearance. I have looked many, many years.


Somehow a screw came out of one of our downspouts on our gutters. Hubby found a screw to replace it and fixed it.

I have a shirt that I love that is too big for me that I have kept along with a couple of others to wear around the house especially when I am doing cleaning, cooking, and baking. The one I love developed a tiny hole so I repaired it. It’s comfy and I don’t want it to fall apart anytime soon.  

We joined our neighbors for an evening in front of their fire pit. I brought cheese and crackers and they provided the drinks.  

I read two free books that I downloaded to my Kindle from Amazon. This saved me driving to the library which saved gasoline. 

We also watched two free movies on Amazon Prime this week. I loved  “The Book Club”. I hated “Clue”.  We watch our movies for free. We don’t care if they are years old. We rarely go to a movie unless we are taking a grandchild.

Since we had some rain this week, we didn’t have to use the sprinkler system to water a few days.  

We have been cutting chives from our backyard for our scrambled eggs and whenever Hubby has mashed or baked potatoes.


We got two separate bills in 2 separate envelopes for an appointment with the same doctor. Hubby wrote one check for both of us and put all of the slips and check in the same envelope and mailed it. We saved a stamp.

When I went to the bank to get our monthly cash on August 1st, I combined the trip with doctor’s appointments. I cashed a rebate check that will also be used for our monthly cash.


Hubby and I went to our annual appointments with our primary doctor. Those visits are free to us. Our doctor actually has a sign on the front table near the receptionist that states: All annual wellness checkups are no cost to you.

Hubby has been putting up wire fencing around the bottom of our shed so that the wild animals can’t live under it this winter. He finished it today.

I took a survey for a test product.

I did my own manicure and pedicure using polish I had on hand. 

When we went to the family reunion, I had to go to an emergency orthopedic appointment in Albany. I received the bill this week and I was double billed for the X-rays, and the the doctor who read the X-rays. I called them and they are  sending me a corrected bill and reversing the extra charges to health insurance companies. Always check your bills when you get them because there is a lifetime cap on your medical insurance and you don’t want to be billed incorrectly. Nor do you ever want to pay more than you have to. 

At
a neighbors garage sale, I purchased a beautiful frame for just $2.00 to use in making a gift for someone. I also purchased a spare
hand mixer because mine is on it’s last leg. I like to have backups
ready when things break. Especially backups that cost just a couple of
dollars.  

We have our A/C on right now but it is set at 75 degrees so it doesn’t run a whole lot. We think we can turn it off tonight for a few days because cooler temps are on the way.


I have only had to run the dishwasher every 3 days by packing it full when I do run it. I use my homemade dishwasher detergent and vinegar as the rinse agent.

We have been getting estimates to have some concrete in our garage repaired and then have the floor sealed with an epoxy paint. We settled on a company who has been in business for 31 years and did not require a deposit. They also had a very reasonable price and honored a $100. discount coupon that had expired.  Weather permitting, it will be done the end of October.

Lastly, we caught the mouse who we think has been living in our garage. Just in case there is more than one, we are putting new sticky traps down.  

What have you been doing frugally this past week? Please feel free to share with all of us. We learn from each other.