Tag: frugal things we do

These are the things we have been doing lately:

– My granddaughter is a history buff. She just soaks up everything she reads. Right now she is reading about WWII by borrowing books at her library. Hubby and I had a WWII book that we inherited from Hubby’s mother. But we thought we had donated it to our library in Arizona when we moved to NY.
I was thrilled when I found it in our basement bookcase this week. The book is 68 years old. The binding was coming off the book so Hubby researched online how to fix it. He followed the instructions on how to glue it, did it and let it dry. It is as good as new. We probably could have looked for a bookbinder but they are far and few in between since the internet. So we saved some money by doing it ourselves. My granddaughter will love it. 

– I made a mandarin chicken teriyaki stir fry for dinner one night. We had almost enough leftover for dinner the second night. It had plenty of chicken but needed more veggies. So I sauteed more peppers and onions and added them to the heated chicken dish.That gave us more than enough for our second dinner.

– We are now exclusively using our Eco egg for our laundry. Every drop of laundry soap is out of our home. The egg is doing a great job cleaning our clothes. 

– Our cellphone wouldn’t work. I kept getting what some people were saying was the “black screen of death”. Hubby tried to fix it by taking the battery out for a few minutes and then putting it back in. It would work until you turned the phone off and then I would get the black screen again. It was useless. I talked to my son and he said, let me bring an old phone out and perhaps we can switch the sim card. 
When he came out this weekend, he decided to do some research on the bad phone. He found that the peel on the phone had been updated recently by Sprint and that a lot of people were saying to uninstall it. That the update was causing a lot of problems with the cellphones. He tried to uninstall it and it wouldn’t. So he disabled the peel and made sure that no update on it would pop up again so that Hubby nor I would accidentally install an update on it. The cellphone is now working perfectly. Yeah!  We thought we might have to buy a new one and the cost was between $600.- $800. when you are not renewing a plan. We still have 5 months left on the contract. Yikes! 


– We are eating from our stockpile and have been for a couple of months. Right now we are trying to eat up everything in the fridge. It is pretty full. There is way too much cream cheese. I will have to get some bagels today at Panera Bread because they are discounted on Tuesdays. I still have a lot of money on our Panera gift cards that I purchased 2 years ago. So I will just have the $6.99 cost taken off one of the cards. If anyone else knows how to use up cream cheese or has a good recipe to do it, please share in comments. 

– It is so hot and humid here that we have had the A/C on almost non-stop(only a day here and a day there that it was off). Our electric bills this summer were running $25. more per month than last summer. I am doing my best to keep the shades and blinds closed as the sun moves around the house. We hardly use our stove and oven. I can’t wait until we can turn it off permanently.


– I sprayed the entire perimeter of the house for bugs again since we had heavy rain. The spiders are liking to come in since it got a little colder at night. 


– Our favorite local garage keeps e-mailing Hubby saying it is time to bring the car in for an oil change. Hubby checked his paperwork to see what the mileage was last time and checked the mileage on the SUV now. We still have many miles to go before it needs to be done. I am glad he didn’t take their word for it. They have no idea how little we drive every month. 


– Our John Deere riding lawn mower was giving Hubby a little trouble last time he mowed. It just shut off by itself while he was doing it. He checked and it looks like it needs the filter changed. So rather than have the John Deere place do it, Hubby will do it himself. He found the best price on the one it needed at Amazon. It was only $ 4.51+tax. 

– I had my yearly mammogram and my every other year bone density scan last week. Both were good.  Make sure all of you women get yours done when they are due. Your health is your most precious asset!  Take good care of it!


Please feel free to tell us about your frugal endeavors in the comments.

  

Here are the frugal things we have been doing:

1. Our rug shampooer stopped working. Instead of buying a new one, Hubby did some research and determined that it could be one of two parts. He ordered both. The pump ($27.) fixed it and the trigger assembly($ 6.) has been put away for when that goes. It seems the trigger is usually one of the first things to go in these machines. Since our machine is no longer made, parts are hard to come by. The pump was the last one that I could find online for ours. For a few dollars, our shampooer is working like brand new and has already cleaned our great room carpet. The carpet is white and looks brand new instead of being over 8 years old. 

2. The handle on one of our bathroom toilets cracked. Hubby got a new one at Home Depot and it only took  a few minutes to install. No fees or inflated parts from plumbers. Our cost was $ 5.98. 

3. I cooked enough boneless fried chicken for three meals yesterday. The chicken was on sale for $ 1.69 a pound. I used 2 eggs, seasoned bread crumbs and flour for the crust. We had a piece of chicken, some stuffing and broccoli for one dinner. The other meals will be chicken parmesan with noodles and homemade sauce.

4. I washed and detailed our SUV instead of spending a fortune at the car wash to have it done. 

5. My sister was going to donate a lot of paperback books including James Patterson ones. I asked her if I could have them instead. She is bringing them next week when she visits. That will save me many trips to the library to borrow them. Since I love James Patterson, I will enjoy these all summer and fall. Thanks Sis!

6. We have gotten rid of another prescription drug with good healthcare habits. By being taken off that drug, it saves us $200. a year.


7. I no longer buy K-cups for me. I started filling my own reusable one a number of months ago. I buy coffee in bulk on sale and use coupons. I have cut our coffee costs in half. Now I am going to try to persuade Hubby to get rid of his and I will buy bagged decaf coffee for him. 


8. I don’t buy coffee out while running errands. I have my coffee at home and also have a refillable to go cup to bring if I want some. Right now in this heat, I just bring a refillable cup of water.


9.  My grandson let me borrow the game “Ticket To Ride” for when my granddaughter visits so that I don’t have to buy it.


10. We have spiders this time of the year. I hate them but instead of hiring an exterminator to keep them out of the house I use spray that I buy at Walmart and spray the foundation outside the house. I also use cheap glue boards in the garage and basement that I purchase from Amazon. All of this does the trick.

11. We were getting low on wine glasses. Over the years, we have broken a few. With company coming, I found these wine glasses at Dollar Tree. So for a total of $4.00 they do the job and are kind of fun.


These are all easy things that save us money. Saving money is a necessity when you have been retired 17 years on a fixed income. 

I will pop in again before the summer is done.

These are the things we have done frugally the last few weeks:

– Baked 4 loaves of pumpkin bread. Froze 3. We load that oven up when we do use it.

– Made our own tartar sauce.

– Used our air fryer at least 3 times a week to save the energy of using our oven or toaster oven. The air fryer takes so much less energy as do so many other small appliances.

 – Been eating out of the pantry, freezer, and fridge for weeks now. I rarely go to the grocery store for anything but veggies, milk, and half and half.

– I have only been doing 2 loads of wash in the HE per week and then hanging them to dry.

– I found an outdated bottle of acetaminophen so I called my pharmacist. He told me since they are pills they are probably good for another year or two. Obviously, the manufacturer wants me to buy more. But I would never take an outdated pill- prescription or OTC without calling him. So always check with your pharmacist before you even attempt to use an outdated medicine.

– I asked my dentist for Poligrip samples in case they are needed. He stocked me up but told me not to use it until I am fully healed. He also told me that Polident to soak my denture is a waste of money. Cleaning it well with water is all that is necessary. I will run a test with it since I use those tablets to clean my toilets.  

– My son gifted me very expensive name brand cleaners and hand soap this weekend. They are all natural which is what I use. Five cartons of all purpose cleaner, hand soap, window cleaner and toilet bowl cleaner. I was ecstatic. He was gifted many cartons so he shared with me. I will not have to buy these things for at least a year which is a huge savings. 


– Our heat is off and we will try to keep the A/C off as much as possible. We have many ceiling fans and other portable fans we can use.

– We must be doing something right. When I read the electric meter to submit to the company, we used 200 less KWH than last month. I know part of that was the furnace clicking on and off but we have done everything possible to lower our electric bill the past 4 weeks.  Most of our cooking has been on the grill and in the air fryer. We have also been eating lots of salads. I am going to try eating one tonight to see if I can do it. I was able to eat chicken yesterday. Lights are off during daytime hours. TV is never left on for noise. Computers are off when not in use. Our gas usage was also down but that is less heat and rarely using our stove.

– I deposited two checks into our savings yesterday.

– I purchased another pair of jeans and a top on sale and defrayed the cost using $20. in Kohl’s cash.   

– The last two weeks I have not had to make a huge breakfast for my family because they have brought and paid for donuts. This weekend I will again start cooking.

– I am still enjoying flowers from both of my sons families that they gave me for Mother’s Day. They have lasted a long time. I know have 4 white roses as good as the day they were delivered in a different vase. Soon I will have blooming flowers outside that I can cut and put in a vase.

– I washed the car and cleaned the interior and windows. That saved us $30. to $40. depending on which car wash I took it to. We never pay for a car wash in the good weather.

– I am no longer using K cups for my coffee. Now if I could only talk Hubby out of his. I am using a disposable cup with ground coffee. I had a B1G1F bag of coffee that we purchased when we were in Florida in January. It has been in the freezer to keep it fresh. Right now I am using that and then will use up free Dunkin Donut coffee samples that I have. MY DIL was kind enough to let me know that $5.99 is a good price for the large cans of coffee. Since it was on sale this week, I picked one up. I don’t care what brand of coffee I use as long as it is strong. Hubby is stuck on Green Mountain Breakfast Blend Decaf.

– I have been walking every day for exercise. On the days it rains, I use the recumbent bike. 

– Hubby went to the greenhouse at Niagara Produce and purchased two hanging baskets for the front porch. They were the best nursery price in town.

– I am again stockpiling tap water in used and washed out bottles.

– Hubby has been cleaning and organizing his work benches. This way he can find his tools and doesn’t have to run out and buy a duplicate. He is doing a great job. I am very impressed.

-We did our own bug control when spring finally arrived. I don’t want ants or spiders in our home. A large container of insecticide is so much cheaper than a bug service especially since we buy it at Walmart.

– Finally they are putting the road in behind us and will start building houses again. This should break up the wind and eventually save us on heating bills. 

– I sewed two buttons back on two shirts. They came off in the washing machine. 

– I cut three pair of old jeans off to make shorts. I will not have to buy any shorts this year. I have two new ones I bought last season for going out and these for hanging around the house.

– We are going to sell our weed whacker that we replaced on Craigslist.

– I took Hubby’s bottles to Fast Cash and reaped $ 6.30.

– So far I have charged all of my large dental bills on a cash back credit card. I will continue to do that right through getting my permanent denture. This will give us a nice wad of money back. We always pay our CC bills when due. I love making money off the CC company. We never pay interest.

That is about it for now. Please feel free to share with all of us what you did to save some money lately in comments. 

Wow!  The winds are howling this morning! It must be the warm front coming in.

I will continue my frugal things list:

35. Spectrum is giving a free cable box for an extra TV for one year to prior Time Warner Legacy customers. So we ordered it. We will see if it is truly free. Spectrum just went digital here and I have a feeling because of that the rates will go up.

36. We hang our laundry to dry as often as we can. I use dryer balls when we use the dryer to cut down the dry time.

37. I also wash our clothes using laundry eggs.

38. Our Dyson stick vacuum is on it’s last leg. Since it cost us $299. and it 8 years old, we are looking for a cheaper alternative. The one I have costs about $600. now. So Hubby has been researching which one to buy now.

39. We try to use our big oven as infrequently as possible. We use our toaster oven a lot. But when we do use the big oven, we use the convection which saves 1/3 of the power.

40. We make as many things from scratch as we can. When we eat meat, we stick to the 3-4 ounces per person. We do make at least one meatless meal during the week if not more.

41. I mend our clothing when it needs it as to not lose the garment. Those garments are always good to wear around the house.


42.  Hubby has a Coke or two a day. We each drink one cup of coffee in the morning. I drink water the rest of the day and Hubby does when he is not having a Coke. We drink no juice. I gave that and soda up a long time ago.

43. We reuse wrapping paper and bows or any other decorations that come on packages. I also use the Sunday comics to wrap the little one’s presents.

44. Hubby deep cleans the carpeting with our rug shampooer. We don’t pay for commercial cleaning. I have off white carpeting in the family room and it looks almost new even though it is 8 years old.

45. When the A/C is on, we cook outdoors on the grill or use our small appliances outside so as to not heat up the kitchen. Slow cookers, pressure cookers, skillets, etc. work well out there.

46. We eat a lot of fresh local produce once it is growing season here. We love summer salads as a main dish or a side in the nice weather. 

47. I bake our muffins or quick breads from scratch.

48. We conserve water as much as possible using the navy shower method, only putting as much water in a pot to boil something as necessary, never letting the water run in the sink whether we are brushing teeth or rinsing dishes. I reuse boiled water to feed our thirsty bushes and plants outside.

49. We rarely eat out but stay within our $100. per week “Other Budget” when we do. Since we like a very expensive restaurant, we save our money up until we can afford to go there. Otherwise when the no cooking bug bites me, we do cheap takeout with coupons. For example: Our Arby’s just renovated the inside of the restaurant. So they sent us a coupon for 5 roast beef at $ 1.99 each. We will use that coupon before it expires. We will buy nothing else. These sandwiches freeze really well.

50. We try to stay as healthy as we can so as to not have to pay expensive medical bills or drugs.

51. With the exception of winter, we wash and detail our own car. In the winter, we only get the SUV washed on the outside and undercarriage to get the salt off.

52. We rarely pay to go to the movies but when we do we get Senior discounts and never pay for food unless it is a special occasion like taking our grandchildren. We watch our movies when they come out on Netflix or Amazon Prime. We make our own popcorn.

53. We always take advantage of senior discounts at take out places, restaurants, our grocery store, etc. when shopping.

54. We don’t leave TV’s on for noise. Someone has to be watching it to have it on. 

55. We close our shades and blinds on the sunny side of the house during A/C season and open them on the sunny side of the house during heating season. This saves energy.

56. We always return the soda and beer cans and bottles for the $.05 NY deposits.

57. I buy rice and beans in 25 pound bulk purchases and store it in long term containers in our basement. I just fill a container to use upstairs.

58. Things like butter, whole turkeys, turkey breasts, hams, legs of lamb, corned beef, cranberries, and blueberries are purchased once a year when they are at rock bottom prices.

59. I also buy chocolate candy on after holiday sales to use in baking.    


60. I am not buying salad dressings unless they are free. We are using up our stockpile and will make our salad dressings when the stockpile stash is gone. 


61. We use about 1 purchased tall kitchen trash bag a week in the kitchen. All of our waste baskets are emptied into plastic bags that we get shopping.


62. We recycle everything that we can which saves on bags too.

63. For exercise, I have been walking a lot. Who needs to belong to an expensive gym? Not me!

64. I preview the Sunday coupons the week prior. If the coupons are good and they are for things we use, I will buy one extra paper besides our home delivered one. I do not buy an extra every week.

65. I added 4 more liters of tap water to our emergency stash.

66. We are doing a new to us jigsaw puzzle as entertainment.

67. We have a stash of paper and office supplies in our basement. I ran out of post it notes in my desk so I shopped there for more. Sure enough we had plenty.


68. We rarely use paper towels- only for draining bacon. We use microfiber towels for washing windows and cleaning.

That’s it for today. It is now snowing like a blizzard outside. UGH!  I will continue this list soon.

We had company for the Easter weekend which kept us very busy. We had an Easter Egg Hunt for my grandson. We had to do it indoors because it was very cold and the lawn is pretty muddy this time of year. He enjoyed every minute of the searching. We enjoyed watching him.

Because I have been so busy, I have not had time to post. Our next company comes on this Thursday and will leave on Saturday. It’s a busy time for us this month with two more weeks of company visiting after that.

So today’s post will give you some things to ponder on if I am not on here regularly. 

These are the many things Hubby and I do frugally:

1. Cooked most of our Easter dinner from scratch at home. It was a ham which Hubby sliced for us. I made a 9X13 pan of the best picnic potatoes that we have ever had. We had pineapple slices that baked on the ham while it warmed through. I also cooked corn and baked rolls. The only thing that was not from scratch was the Carvel Ice Cream Bunny that I purchased on sale with a $ 4.00 off Click to Card Q.

2. I cooked the bacon for the potatoes in the morning while we were making breakfast. It called for half a pound. Everything is better with bacon.  

3. Within the past couple of weeks, I roasted a small turkey which gave us seven yummy meals. 

4. I placed another order with Zaycon Fresh for 36 lbs. of premium hickory smoked bacon. With a coupon code I paid $2.99 a lb. I rarely find bacon below that price except the Smithfield we bought last week which Hubby does not like. And this is Premium bacon.  So my sister in law is splitting the order with me. She can’t pick up orders in her area during the work day so I will do the pick up and just give it to my son the following Sunday. We eat bacon a lot especially for most of the Sunday breakfasts that I cook for my family. It will cost each of us $ 53.82. My cost will come out of my $ 75.00 per week grocery budget.

5. I stayed away from the 50% off Easter candy sale yesterday. I still have plenty for baking and the little ones left from Valentine’s Day.

6. My son helped Hubby put in the new wooden post that our new mailbox goes over. So we didn’t have to hire someone. Hubby put the mailbox together and installed it yesterday. He also put the new metallic numbers on it. A $50. giftcard helped defray the cost of all. 


7. We got our refund check from our old insurance company. We had renewed with another company and consolidated both the homeowner’s and auto insurance so we got 8 months premium back. It is a large check that I will deposit this week along with some other checks so that they earn us money.

8. We invested thousands of dollars today. It is definitely a buy time.

9. I am drinking up odd K-cups that came in a variety pack that no one was crazy about. But rather than waste them, I am using them. 

10. We sent a gift to my granddaughter that she will get this week. I  saved 33% off with a sale.

11. I cut up all of my old frayed dish towels into rags and put them in the rag bag in the garage.

12. I put two books on hold at the library for me. I also marked my calendar for their big book bag sale.


13. We are now using every ounce of our toothpaste. I have a key type thing that helps us get the product all the way to the top of the tube. Then I cut the tube to get the last remnants out. There is usually about 4 brushings worth left.

14. Not only have heat bills been high this winter because of supply and demand and the cold but we got notice that our company is raising the rates. So we will be very careful with our energy usage from now on. 

15. We paid for the fertilizing of our lawn for the entire year upfront. This gave us a 5% discount.

16. Hubby didn’t seem too keen on washing the outside of our 21 windows. I do the inside.  So I got some estimates from window washer people. When Hubby saw that they wanted $300. he changed his tune. We will be washing them a room at a time.

17. We shredded all of the paper from our files from last year that we didn’t need to keep.

18. My sister and I call each other almost every week. We take turns using our free long distance.

19. I grocery shopped on Monday. The Flips and Ehrmann’s Grand dessert were free after coupons. The turkey breast was $.99 a lb. with Top’s Super Coupon. The grapes were $ 1.48 a lb. and the tortilla wraps were $ 2.49. I don’t need anything else this week.  


20. Hubby found a great price on a router that he has been researching. Meanwhile we have used our old one that has been on it’s last leg for more than a year. My  wireless computer is always going down. It’s a real pain.


21. When I go to the bank, I will go to CVS to use my ECB’s and run some other errands down that way. This saves me on gasoline.


22. I am saving my gasoline points to use when I get very low on gasoline. So far I have accumulated enough points to get off $ 1.30 per gallon. I hope to have more by the time I need the gasoline.

23. I cleaned the inside of my dishwasher using $ .05 per pack lemonade Koolaid that I purchased years ago. First I took the arm and all the other removable parts off and cleaned them.

24. Hubby cleaned and polished the top of my gas range. We only use the degreaser pictured above. It works so well with a minimum of effort. Hubby sprays it on and them lets it sit 20 minutes. Then everything wipes clean. A little bit goes a long way.

25. I am researching a birthday gift for my DIL that will keep me within budget. We spend the same amount on every adult person in our family. 

26. I ordered a year’s worth of vitamins for us from Puritan Pride. I find they have the best sale prices.

27. We ate Hamburger Helper Taco one night for dinner. It was AWFUL!  I never buy this stuff except when it is free after coupon. I won’t even be doing that again.

28. I mailed in a $ 5.00 Beer Rebate.

29. I fixed a broken zipper on my favorite fleece jacket. 

30. We loved watching “Roseanne” last week. I used to watch it way back when she was on before. Hubby and I are looking forward to the show at 8PM EST tonight. It makes me laugh!! Everyone needs to laugh in this day and age. I watch very little network TV but this a show worth watching.

31. I froze some celery and carrots that were getting old to make future soup.

32. I still take my navy showers.

33. Every penny that we spend is scrutinized and tracked. If you watch your pennies, your dollars will grow.

34. We rarely buy anything unless it is food, clothing that is a necessity, or gifts.

My fingers are getting tired, so I will continue this topic the next time I post.

Meanwhile what do you do that is frugal? Join the conversation by leaving a comment.