Tag: frugal things we do

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

– I mailed a package at UPS with a few items to my granddaughter. I used my AAA membership to get a 5% off discount of $.56. Those pennies add up!

– Remember that switch that the A/C company didn’t have on the truck when they came to fix the A/C? Well, we got a quote in the mail Thursday informing us that it will cost $239. to replace it. That is after the guy coming out without a switch on his truck and charging us $139. What a rip off! Hubby looked up the cost to us for a switch and it is $5.39. He bought the switch we needed and will fix it himself. 

– Since I needed to fill up our car with gasoline at Top’s after all of our trips recently, I stopped into Top’s to pick up some items that I did not realize were on a great sale when I shopped a week ago Monday. I got three boxes of Angel Hair pasta for $.69 each and Folger’s coffee for $ 1.99. The Folgers coffee was limit 1. Hubby stopped at Top’s when he went by on his way to the barber and got another can of coffee.

– Since our A/C was off I cooked 2 turkey tenderloins along with two baked potatoes in our toaster oven in the kitchen. I love one pan meals. The turkey will give us 4-6 meals and the potatoes will accompany 2 of them for Hubby.

– Being an organized person and doing things in advance, I checked our stash of candy and gum for Halloween. I have determined that we have enough and I do not have to buy anymore. Everything was purchased either for free or at a deep discount.

– Someone thought it would be fun to put their empty Coke can in our mailbox. I laughed and added it to our bag of deposit cans and bottles.

– I took a full bag of bottles and cans to Fast Cash and received $ 1.05 in deposits back.

– In the same plaza as Fast Cash is Panera Bread. I stopped and purchased 6 bagels for Hubby. I used  one of my gift cards that I purchased at a discount two years ago to pay for them. I kept two bagels out for Hubby to eat the next couple of days. I froze the other 4 bagels in two’s using “used” Ziplocs. Yes, I wash them out and use them over and over again if they have not had meat in them.

– Rather than purchase flavored cream cheese, Hubby made some cinnamon flavored with a block of plain cream cheese that I had, some cinnamon, a little milk, and some Equal.


– I also had a free pastry on my Panera Bread account that was expiring tomorrow. I surprised Hubby with a vanilla roll bun for brunch. He loved it.

-One of our outside faucets broke. Hubby went to the hardware store and purchased the part for $ 2.50 and repaired it. 

– I washed just one load of sheets and towels and a full load of clothing last week. I hung everything except the towels to dry.


– I surveyed our produce drawers and noticed that I had red, yellow, and orange peppers left that needed to be used up very quickly. I used them to make a chicken stir fry for dinner that night. 

– Hubby needed to buy Shims for a project in our backyard. I used $ 9.53 in rewards at Amazon to get the bill down to $5.04.

– I got rebates in the amount of $ 6.00 this past week.

– I had enough points on one of my rewards credit cards to get a cash back credit of $100.

– We had some more stones come loose on the house. Hubby is doing the work to cement them back in place. This DIY saves us a couple of hundred dollars. 

– I made another bottle of lens cleaner using rubbing alcohol and water.  

– At one time, I had about 4 pair of reading glasses. All but three have broken over the years. Rather than buy expensive ones online, I went to Dollar Tree and found ones that were as good as I had. I purchased 3 of them for just $1.00 a piece.  

– I spent some time organizing shampoos, body washes, and deodorants that were down in the basement. I put them in locker boxes and brought them upstairs. They now have taken up residence on the shelves in my master closet. They are closer to the bathroom where we use them. I know that I have 12 bottles of shampoo, 14 body wash, and 15 deodorant for us. So it will be a long time before I will be purchasing any of these things unless they are free after coupons.

You will notice that most of my frugal things are little ones that happen all of the time and they add up to big bucks over a year or years.  That is because the big ones only come along once in a while. For example: When we switched auto and homeowners to a different company a year ago. Or if YOU have a mortgage and pay PMI and your house value has gone up enough to own 20% of your home, so you call and have it removed. 


So please share with us what you did to be frugal this past week.

These are the things we have done frugally the past couple of weeks.

I signed up for free samples on Amazon. We got our first one. The writing on the packaging was rather hilarious.

On our reunion trip, we purchased no meals or drinks during the trip to our destination or coming home from it. We just ate snacks and drinks that I had packed at home. I had packed an assortment of chips, granola bars, organic Honeycrisp apples, almonds, candy bars, Baby Bella cheeses, mozzarella sticks, turkey pepperoni, avocados, Slim Jims, Parmesan Crisps, bottles of water, and bottles of Diet Snapple Raspberry Iced Tea.

We purchased no food or drinks of any kind at the hotel. My son and DIL were nice enough to feed us breakfast on Sunday before we returned home.

The Hilton Hotel cost us $123. a night for two nights and $5.00 a day for parking. Plus all of the taxes and surcharges that New York state adds on. I purchased the hotel through Priceline using a $5.00 off coupon and used Rakuten to get cash back and by using my rewards card, I also got cash back.

I brought home from the hotel the leftover body wash, lotion, shampoo, 2 K cups, and 2 non dairy creamer.

I used up the last $.20 off a gallon of my gasoline reward points to fill up the tank for our trip out. We used our EZ pass for all the Thruway trips which gives us a discount on tolls.

At the Buffalo Zoo we were able to pay the senior admission for the two of us and children’s admission for my granddaughter. I thought they might question me because she is so tall but they didn’t. These discounts saved us $7.00. Parking was $5.00 and saved us from parking on the street and then walking a long way. We brought plenty of iced water and snacks with us from home so we purchased nothing there.

At Niagara Falls, parking would have been $10.00. But on certain days, if you are a NYS resident and over 65 years of age, you park for free. It was a Tuesday and it happened to be one of those days. We also brought plenty of water and snacks with us.

I purchased the newest Samsung 10.1 tablet for Hubby on Amazon Prime day. We saved $30. over what it would have cost us prior. I also used my almost $20. in rewards cash to help defray the cost further and I earned 6% back in rewards. I had also purchased a $25. gift card to use and got a $ 5.00 promotional credit.

I purchased some Queen vinyls for my granddaughter earning 6% back in rewards. 

In my quest to be more frugal and intentional, I have been working on cutting back what I spend on household products. We use a lot of liquid soap in this house. Not only is it expensive but it seems like I am always buying it whenever I go to Walmart where up to now I had found the cheapest price. So I have been researching a cheaper price to buy it in bulk. On Amazon, I found that I could purchase a good quality soap with good ratings in bulk. I ordered 4 gallons for just $.07 an ounce and it will give me back reward cash. It also will last a while. The only down side is that it won’t arrive for a month but I think I have enough to last me until then. We are also being more intentional about using less of it.

I bought 2 LED 3 way bulbs, that are warrantied for 22 years, for our reading lamps online at Amazon for $19.95. At our hardware store, it would have cost me that for one.

I drink V8 juice quite a bit for breakfast. I was on my last bottle so I was looking for a great deal. I purchased the above pack of 24 for $ 6.16 at Amazon which was a superb deal.

We went to Russell’s Steakhouse , our favorite restaurant, for dinner one night.  It was a celebration with Alexa of our anniversary one week late. We received a gift certificate for Christmas. It covered all of the bill except for $20.74 plus a $35.00 tip. Alexa loves going there as much as we do.

I have problems with my hands when I use my tablet. I noticed that Alexa had a gadget on her cellphone that goes on the back and lets you hold it between your fingers. She told me that they sell them for tablets too and are called Pop Sockets. I purchased one on a Prime Day to get 6% back in rewards.


I read the electric and natural gas meters and submitted them to the company so that I wouldn’t get an estimated bill. We only used 450 KWH’s and 3 CCF’s of natural gas in the past month. Our bill was the smallest ever for a July one: $ 81.50. Of course, we had no A/C for three days but we also didn’t run it when it wasn’t needed.


We know that there was a power surge while we were away at the reunion because all of our clocks were flashing when we came home. We have had a lot of them lately especially when we have a storm. The A/C repairman told us that it is feasible that it could have blown out the switch on our A/C. 


The cost of the repair for the A/C was  $ 139.32 just to come out. They did not have a switch on the truck so he took the bad switch out and twisted the two wires together which will keep the A/C running until they can put a new switch in. We don’t know what the switch will cost yet but it is the cheaper of all of the scenarios that could have been the problem. Bottom line is that we are very happy to have A/C again. Heat index the three days after it was fixed was 100. 

I have gotten very good at keeping the SUV under 2000rpms when I start up from a light or stop sign. This allows me to save on gasoline. No jack rabbit starts for me.

The only school supplies I purchased on the sales this year are these 4 notebooks at Office Max. They were $ .10 each. I use them for keeping track of various things here. I am well stocked on everything else we need. 


I returned two Sim cards that Hubby bought accidentally to Amazon. They are not charging me shipping to send them back. It was easy to get the code on my phone to have UPS scan it,  package them, and ship them back.

I ran all of my errands on Monday doing the 8 mile trip in a circle to save on gasoline.

I froze three bananas that were leftover. I will make banana bread when it is cooler in the Fall.

We were able to turn off the A/C on Monday evening. Temps at night have been in the sixties and daytime 70’s. It’s comfortable since it isn’t humid like it was.

I post my frugal things weekly when I don’t have company. I do it so that you all will sometimes glean a tip or think about things that you haven’t thought about. Some weeks they add up to quite a bit of money; others not so much. But I want you all to realize that the little things add up to big money over the period of 6 months to a year. Saving on these things in good times allows us to continue saving money in our investments so if there are bad times we can weather them easily.

I don’t get much feedback on these type of posts. I can easily change this Wednesday post to something that would be better for all of you. So let me know if you like this particular kind of post or would benefit from something else.

Feel free to share what you have done frugally the past couple of weeks. 

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

– We watched fireworks from our home. Neighbors at different ends of our street put on quite a show with lots of big stuff. We didn’t have to drive and use gasoline to go anywhere. 

– We cooked at home from scratch every night.

– I got another free $5.00 Amazon gift card. I used that gift card to defray the cost of 3 ounces of organic stevia.

– Even though we paid for mulch through the landscape company a few weeks ago, Hubby had to go and buy 5 bags to replace what got dug up with the tree. This will give us extra as needed. He purchased it on sale for a total of $10. at Home Depot.

– I went to the YMCA and exercised 3 days last week. I have also been doing a lot of walking.

– I purchased some more boneless chicken breasts at Aldi’s for $ 1.49 a lb.

– I purchased salmon fillets for a sale price of $10.99 a lb. at Top’s. I love salmon and this is a good price here.

– We were rebated $19.68 in credit card reward points. 

– We celebrated our 52nd wedding anniversary with a home cooked meal. 

– We do not exchange gifts on our anniversary. But I did give Hubby a card and made a carrot cake for him.

– I collected warmup water from our shower and used it to water our hanging baskets.

– I read my library books in 2 and 1/2 days and  returned them. Cheap entertainment!

– We have been using up free toiletries that have been just hanging around here.

– We continue to cut our electric and natural gas bill as much as we can. 


– Scanned the grocery receipts into Fetch for rebate points.

– Returned Hubby’s soda bottles and cans for $ 1.25. 

– DIY: We had some squeaky hinges on some of our doors. Hubby oiled them all. Now when I get up at 4 in the morning, I won’t wake Hubby up.


Feel free to leave a comment and share what you did frugally this past week. 

These are the frugal things we did the past 7 days.

We only had the A/C on for about 24 hours. It is off at the moment even though it is extremely muggy outside. The temp in here is 73.

I deposited 7 checks into our high interest savings account yesterday.

I repaired all of the clothing that needed to be, sewing on buttons, patching, etc.

I got an emergency visit and Xrays at the dentist on Monday at no charge because it was included in the discount plan that Hubby had already paid for.

I paid my dental bill yesterday for the root canal(20% off with our plan) with my credit card to get the reward points. We pay our credit card bills in full every month. 

It has been hot and humid here and it is supposed to continue the rest of the week. Up until yesterday, we had not used our sprinkler system. But we made sure to only water the minutes that we felt was necessary. It is not frugal to let our grass and bushes die.

I purchased 5 packages of reduced price meat on the Target $5.00 giftcard deal along with two regular priced items. A friend purchased two of them from me. I dropped them off on my way home from Target. 

We have sparklers left from two years ago that will be used to celebrate the 4th.  


I purchased bulk sea salt and bulk legal pads from Amazon because they had the best prices for me.

We harvested cherries from our tree. I see pies in our future. 

I paid $5.99 each for two rotisserie chickens on the way home from the dentist yesterday. I was not up to cooking after 2 and 1/2 hours in the dentist’s chair. Rather than go out to eat or get fast food which would have cost a lot more, I bought the chickens. Each will give us 4 meals. So the cost per meal is under $ 1.50 or $.75 each for the meat. I took all of the meat off the bones and used the food saver to divvy them up into meal size portions.

I went to the library on errand day and returned books. I checked out two more books and a movie that we had wanted to see. Pictured is the movie and the book I will read first.  We watched “Red” at my son’s home. “Red2” was $3.95 to rent on Amazon. The library was free.  

On errand day, I checked out a consignment shop in another town. I have decided that I will put the clothes that I am now wearing on consignment with them when they no longer fit. Some of them are getting loose already. 


I washed our SUV out in the driveway. It was so dirty and buggy from our trip across the state.


We continue to keep the sun out on the windows where it would come in and heat up the house. We are keeping lights off in the daylight. I continue to wash in cold water and hang clothes to dry. 


I redeemed Fetch points for a $10. Walmart gift card and Bing points for a $5.00 Amazon gift card.


What have you done this past week to save some dollars? Please share with us in comments so that we can all learn from you.    

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

We drove to visit our family. I filled up the gasoline tank getting $.50 off per gallon with rewards. I paid $2.299. I used the 2% back credit card. We got such good mileage this trip that we still had 100 miles in the tank. Hubby says we got close to 30 miles per gallon coming and going. That has never happened before.

I made our lunch for the trip out. I made a simple salad for me and a PB&J sandwich on a wheat thin for Hubby. We drank Snapple diet iced tea and water that I brought in the cooler. No stopping for calorie laden fast food and no extra money spent.
 
On the way back from our trip, we drove straight through. I munched on almonds and Hubby munched on a granola bar that we had packed.

We still have not had to turn on our A/C. It is a pleasant 72 degrees in here. Being it is June 26th, I am pleasantly surprised. Let’s see if we can get through July 4th without it.

We just got our electric and natural gas bill. It was $93. for the past month. We had still used some heat during that period. But the cost is coming down. Now if we don’t have to use A/C, it ought to come down even more. 

I grilled a large package of chicken thighs outside last night. I put some on my salad. The rest I froze in strips to use on future salads.

I washed the laundry from our trip in cold water and hung it to dry. Then I quickly ironed what needed to be. 

We were invited to a graduation party out of town. We have prior plans so we will not be going. I needed a card to send a gift to congratulate the graduate. I checked my  card stockpile and already had one I could use. I always stockpile cards that I may need all year in January of that year.

I cleaned my fridge and realized that I am overstocked on produce. We will be eating a lot of salads so that it doesn’t go bad. I have a small zucchini that needs to be used quickly so I will make zoodles and have spaghetti and homemade meat sauce tonight. No wasted food in this household. 

I had a miscellaneous check of $ 8.09 to deposit this week.

I continue to save plastic grocery bags in empty Kleenex boxes. Our state has banned them effective January 1, 2020. Some markets like Wegman’s are getting rid of them sooner. I use these for wastebasket disposal so I am stockpiling them. It will save me from purchasing wastebasket sized bags.

We have not turned our sprinkler system on yet. We have had plenty of rain. Hubby has been watering the flowers by hand.

Hubby loves insulated water glasses. One of his came apart. He glued it back together. That saved me from having to replace it.  


I have been cutting chives from our back garden to put in my eggs each morning.


I brought the chocolate chip muffins and cookies that I had baked as a gift for my family.


My son put new brakes in the front of our SUV while we were visiting. Even with buying the brakes, giving my son a Lowes’s gift card, and a large box of Swedish Fish(which he has loved since he was a kid) as a thank you, we spent about $150. less than our garage wanted to put them in.  


I purchased 4 lbs. of cheap strawberries and froze 2 lbs. for future use. 


What have you done to save money this past week? Please share with all of us.

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

We purchased a dining set (table and four chairs) for our patio that was 30% off. Home Depot said they would come and put it together for $ 99.00. Hubby put it together in about 2 hours time. That was an easy $50. an hour savings. 

We were able to use the umbrella from our old patio dining set on this new one. 

All meals were cooked and eaten at home from our stockpile.

Hubby purchased me a Little Giant Step Ladder with a safety bar. It was on sale and we are getting 1% back through Rakuten and credit card rewards. I think I was making him very nervous climbing on that little stool(like kids use at the sink) to reach the high shelves in my cupboards. I actually could not reach the top shelves with it. So I will be much safer using this.

I needed some G Hughes SF Honey Mustard sauce. Amazon had the best price this time so that is where I bought it. It is so good with chicken.

I will be depositing $65.22 in miscellaneous checks into our savings very shortly.  

Hubby mowed our lawn and did the weed whacking.

I read our meters for the electric and gas company.

The landscape company when they were here told Hubby that they don’t think the tree that is half dead is going to make it. Hubby had figured that out. So he trimmed most of the branches off of it so that we could put it down by the road for the brush pickup by the town this week. He and my son will dig it out when my son has time. We have a beautiful peony bush that we are going to transplant from the backyard to that area. 

Hubby had to go to the gas station that is close to us to fill up the lawn mower container. He ran some errands in the area for me while he was out. That saves on gasoline. 

I made a batch of muffins and a batch of cookies today as a gift.  

I returned some library books and got a couple more. 

It was warm yesterday but we still didn’t use the A/C. We used cross ventilation and the ceiling fans. Hubby finally took the glass out of the storm door in the breakfast room and replaced it with the full length screen. It was lovely to have the fresh air while we were eating dinner.  

We have been too busy to get up to the gym this past week. So I have been riding the recumbent bike and doing lots of walking. 

We still have not had to turn on our sprinkler system. But Hubby has been hand watering all of the flowers. 

The hummingbirds are back so Hubby has been filling the feeder with his homemade sugar water for them.

I used some Amazon reward points to order some ear drops. I have been bothered by an earache. 


I ironed quite a few tops and shirts for me that I had washed in cold water and didn’t want to put in the dryer. I hung them to dry.  It is cheaper to use the iron than the dryer. 


I cut open the toothpaste tube to get all of the paste out. When we have squeezed as much out with the key that we can, there is still about 3-4 days worth left. I paid for it so I am going to use it all. 


I made homemade taco seasoning.


That was it for this week. What did you do frugally this past week?

These are the frugal things we did last week to save a bit of money.

I cooked a 10 lb. ham that I purchased around Thanksgiving for $.89 a lb. We had 3 dinners from it and I used the food saver to package and freeze 12 more meals for us. There is also a package in the refrigerator for sandwiches and to fry for breakfast. That will save us on breakfast meats and cold cuts.

Hubby had worn a hole in one pair of his LL Bean jeans. We patched it for him to wear around the yard. But he needed to order more jeans. So I went through Rakuten(formerly Ebates) to Raise.com and purchased a $50. LL Bean gift card after discount and coupon code for $43.82. I will get $ .45 back from Rakuten. 

My son and grandson came to breakfast on Saturday this past weekend. My son and Hubby went outside to remove the tree and got a surprise. There is new growth on it. We are hoping that because spring was so late this year that it will grow and bloom. So they will wait another three weeks to see. If not then they will dig it out.

My lilac bushes are in full bloom. The smell is wonderful. I have been cutting some to put in a vase in the house. No purchased flowers for me once everything starts blooming.


We needed cushions for the chairs of our new patio set that we purchased on a 30% off sale. Since we had $ 250. in Lowe’s gift cards that were discounted ($50. off)on a Top’s deal last Nov.-Dec., we used some of those to purchase them yesterday.

I have been doing something new. I am curious to see how much extra income we accumulate because of coupons, random checks that come in the mail that we weren’t expecting, my senior discounts, Kohl’s cash, Raise.com discounted gift card amounts, Ibotta, Fetch, Checkout 51 amounts, Rakuten, gas savings from points, cash back from our credit cards, etc. You get the idea. I am treating all of these amounts as extra income because without doing these things we would have had to spend our income. I used to track this a few years ago but got bored with it. But I have decided to do it again. Grocery coupons don’t give me much because I don’t use many. But other retail store coupons do.  I do not include bottle returns because I put money out for the deposits to begin with. I also do not include the grocery savings that they show on my receipts which is the difference between the retail and sale price. They show it as savings. I don’t consider it savings unless I get to keep money in my pocket right away. I rarely pay full price for anything. This past week’s amount was $ 53.41.

I hand washed a shirt that is bright red because I didn’t trust that it wouldn’t turn my other laundry red. I am also hand washing underwear to make it last longer. All of my new tops are also being hand washed. I don’t want them to shrink right now. Everything is hung to dry and then I iron what needs to be. 

I only did 3 loads of wash in the washer these past couple of weeks: one was towels, one was sheets and one was clothing. I hung all to dry but the towels. We don’t like crunchy towels.

We have not turned on the A/C even on the really warm days because I am hoping for a lower utility bill. This bill will have partial heat on it too.

We have not had to turn on our sprinkler system at all because we have had enough rain to keep everything green. 


I signed up for the Hilton Honors Rewards Program.

I have been trying to use up the small bottles of body wash, shampoo, and hand lotion that I got from my two hospital stays this year. 

The landscape company wanted an additional $ 750. to put mulch down in our gardens. Hubby said it was just too expensive compared to doing it ourselves. However, he has not even ordered the mulch and our gardens badly need it. So I convinced him to contact the company and order it. He also ordered 4 more flowering bushes. He is negotiating with the company manager to bring the price down on the mulch and labor to put it in. UPDATE: Hubby got the company down to $500. for the mulch. Plus they are doing it tomorrow. Win, win!

What have you done this past week to save a buck or two?
 

These are the things we have done to save money the past week.

I grocery shopped on 6% Senior Discount Day at Top’s. I got a $3.49 bag of carrots for free with a Monopoly coupon.


I took back a bag of Hubby’s soda cans and got a $2.00 deposit refund.

I found the same jeans that I love on Amazon for $10.00 less than I had purchased them at J. C. Penney’s.  I now have 4 pair and I think that will do me for now. I earned points on our credit card and got a rebate on Rakuten(formerly Ebates).

I received a $6.00 rebate in the mail.

We have a dead tree in the garden in the front yard. It is a good size but not too big to handle. Hubby and my son are going to dig it out and let the town take it on brush day. I loved this flowering tree but Hubby thinks the harsh winter and wind killed it. Rather than have another expensive tree killed, we are going to replace it with a huge peony bush that we have in a backyard garden.

Our garage that maintains the car wants $750. to put new back and front brakes on our car. My other son has said he will help put in new ones with Hubby. That will save us quite a bit of money.

I booked a 2 night stay for a trip that we are taking later in the summer. I used Priceline and got a great rate. I also used a $5.00 off coupon that Priceline gave me for signing up. I went through Rakuten and will get $ 5.15 back after we travel.  I also got reward points on my credit card.


We did not eat out at a restaurant or get fast food this past week. All food was made and eaten in our kitchen.


I did some hand wash and hung it to dry.


We have not spent much grocery money the past few weeks. So I took money for a birthday gift out of it and it also saved me a trip to the bank. My gift purchase was made using a 15% senior discount, $5. in Kohl’s cash, a $5. coupon and a 20% off coupon. I love stacking these.


It has been so cold here that we have had to use the heat again a couple of mornings just to take the chill off. But we have not had to use the A/C on the warm days.

I took back a couple of library books and got 3 more.

Only turned on the oven once to roast a chicken. Most meals were either cold or done in my electric fry pan. 


I picked up an application for our dental office discount. We will fill it out and return with the lump payment a week or so before our next appointment. We have determined that it will save us money especially on major work which will be 20% off.

Our state is changing the way they give the Star Rebate on school taxes. Our town sent us a newsletter explaining the changes. You now have two options, one of which will probably save us some money, I stopped at the town to get more info. Anytime we can save a little more money, we are in. We will be applying for the new way when it becomes necessary.

So what have you done to save money this past week?

These are the things we have done frugally this past week.

I cleaned out the refrigerator as I always do before I grocery shop. I do this so that I can incorporate anything that needs to be used up into meals for the week. While doing this, I realized that the limes were getting older. So I washed them and sliced them up, put them in freezer bags, and froze them. I do this with limes and lemons. Then when I need just a few slices for a dish I am making, I just pull them out of the bag. We like the limes on Mexican food and the lemons on fish. I also use them in my ice water that I drink throughout the day.

It was time to make seasoned salt again. I have been using Tawra’s recipe for a long time. It has saved me a lot of money. It uses the ingredients above. 

I put it in a container that matches my other spice containers. All I have to do now is find my labels. Here is the recipe. Up until now I had been using a recyled container. 

I started wrapping my granddaughter’s birthday gifts. It is hard for me to believe she will be 12 soon. I can still vividly see her in the hospital when she was born. Once in a while, I need something at Dollar Tree. When I go there, I always pick up a tube or two of wrapping paper. So all I had to do was go to the bedroom closet where I keep my paper in a wastebasket and grab the birthday paper. That saves me from having to run to the store when I need paper for something. At the beginning of each year, I buy all of the greeting cards I need that year. So I have the card too. 

We got a nice surprise this past week too. It seems that back in 2016, we overpaid our co-pays for prescription drugs at the drugstore. We got a letter from our prescription drug plan refunding us $14.19. That will be going directly to savings. 

We ate all of our meals at home last week. I used the toaster oven and air fryer for some and only used the oven once for the large chicken and veggie sheet pan meal. Now that the heat is off, I am trying to reduce the utility bills as much as I can. We just got our monthly bill which was high for this time of the year.  


We only used the car twice this past week. Once for grocery shopping and some errands and once for Hubby to get a haircut at his barber. 


I cashed in more Fetch points for another $10. Walmart gift card. I love Fetch. 


I had $15. in Kohl’s cash that needed to be used by yesterday. I was not going to be able to use it. So I gave it to my DIL and she got my granddaughter some clothes for the summer using that and some coupons. Priceless! When you know you can’t use something, give it to someone who can so it doesn’t get wasted.

I got an invite to Amazon’s Early Review program and earned a $3.00 gift card for doing a review.

We have had so much rain here that we have not had to turn on the sprinkler system yet. That saves on the cost of water. 

On the few hot days that we have had, we have not turned on the A/C. 


I keep the lights off except at night. We use the daylight to our advantage.


We have a new Goodwill about 3 miles from us near Top’s. When I go to Top’s, I stop in and see if they have anything I need. So far they haven’t but I will continue to look when I am in the area.


Well that is all for the past week. Please feel free to share how you have saved with all of us by leaving a comment. 

These are our frugal things this past week:

– My treadmill did not survive a move from one room to another very well. I have an elevation error and another error. So rather than try to find someone to come out to fix it, I have been watching You Tube repair videos. I am learning a lot. I think we can fix the problem ourselves and I will be working on it this week.  

– I used my crock pot for most of our meals that I cooked this past week. Other meals were not cooked like salads. Anytime I can save on natural gas and electric I will.

– Finally, we were able to turn off the heat on Saturday. Sunday was humid and 86. Most of my neighbors turned on the A/C. We just kept the windows closed and it stayed quite comfortable all day. It has been cold some nights but 2 blankets on the bed keep us warm.

– I received a $3.00 rebate in the mail. I save the little checks until I get a stack of them and then make a trip to the bank to deposit them when I get our cash for the month.

– Hubby did his weed whacking himself. This is saving us extra money that we don’t have to pay the landscape people we hired. We were able to cut the amount of time that we needed them each month this year.

– I ordered  a set of headphones for Hubby that are wireless bone conduction headphones. You can use them if you have a hearing aid which Hubby does. He has always loved his music and it has been hard for him to hear it. These work beautifully and Hubby is so enjoying his music again. I purchased them for about $97. when they were a special. They are here.
This was priceless to us. 

– We cleaned the garage on Saturday. It had so much salt on the floor from the winter. Hubby was able to get it up with a scraper and then he washed the entire floor with the hose. We swept all of the water out so it dried pretty quickly. I did not see one live bug while we were doing it so having the pest control service is working for us. 

– We did not eat out this week.

– My cherry tree had beautiful blossoms this year and it looks like we will have tons of cherries again. Now we just have to get to them before the birds do. I freeze them to use for baking over the winter. 

– I hung most of the laundry this past week. I bought new underwear at a specialty shop. They told me it will last a lot longer if I hand wash it and hang it to dry. So I am taking their suggestion.

– I took the electric blanket off of our bed. So I needed to dig out the blankets that were stored for the winter. We have a California king size bed and the blankets are huge. But rather than take them to the dry cleaner, I washed them myself doing one at a time. 

– I only ran errands once. We had a return to make via UPS so I took the package there. I also picked up Hubby’s scripts at the drug store and returned a bag of bottles to Fast Cash while I was out. I am enjoying not running around more than once a week and it is saving us gasoline. 

– We have been watching the college softball playoffs for entertainment. 

That is all for this week. Please feel free to comment and tell us what you did frugally this past week so that we may all learn from you too.