Tag: frugal things we do

We continue to live a frugal life style. I know it isn’t easy with everything going up especially food, household items, utility bills, gasoline, insurances, taxes and many other items. But we still try to do the best we can.

We have a natural gas stove. The grates that go over the burners have little black rubber feet on them that keep them from rocking when you are cooking. One of the feet had worn off one of our grates. It was driving Hubby crazy when he would cook. So he decided to do some research on how to replace or fix it. To replace the one grate was over $50.00.+ tax. Yikes!

So he kept researching and was able to find a package of 10 rubber feet for $12.99 on Amazon. You needed a special glue to put them on. He found that for $ 8.79 on Amazon. We got free shipping because we had ordered something else that day. So for a little bit of work, Hubby will make the repair for $21.78 plus tax and have 9 spares in case any of the other feet wear away.

Everything seems to be breaking around here. The corner of a bin on the door in my refrigerator broke. Hubby looked to see what a new bin would cost. It was $ 56.00. I said to him, “Don’t we have any super glue?” He said yes we do. So he fixed the piece with the glue and it seems to be working.

We have two bedrooms closed, the vents closed and “snakes” in front of the doors to save on the natural gas bill. The other day I noticed a draft coming from the bottom of the outside door in my breakfast room. Since I had one snake that I was not using, I put it in front of that door. Hopefully that will help.

Chicken breasts have been nowhere to be found the past couple of weeks. Most Top’s Markets have advertised them for $1.99 a lb. this week. However, our store has them for $ 1.79 a lb. That is because a Top’s store near us has a grand re-opening. They are honoring those prices at our store. I went to my store when it opened yesterday morning hoping to get some to pressure can. I was wondering if they would even have them since I know that ads are made up weeks in advance. The store was already quite crowded when I got there. I went right to the chicken case. People had the same idea that I did. The chicken was going fast. I managed to get three large packages, about 15 lbs. The packages shows it at $ 1.99 a lb. but they took the additional $.20 off a lb. at the register. If I happen to be near that store again this week, I will stop in to see if they have any more.

We had another snow storm this past week. We got another 13 and 1/2 inches on top of the 22 inches that we got 10 days or so ago. Hubby used the snowblower to do the driveway and sidewalk and I shoveled the porch. Fortunately, we are able to do these things and do not have to hire someone to do it for us.

I filled the car up with gasoline using my $ .20 off a gallon that I had earned at Top’s. Every little bit helps these days!

I shipped a Valentine’s gift to my granddaughter at UPS. I got 5% off using my AAA card. Fortunately, my grandson is out here enough that I can give him his gift.

We continue to eat economically by using the appliance that uses the least amount of energy to cook. I now have an electric fry pan that is large enough to easily cook an entire pound of bacon. We use it all week to eat with our eggs.

I used the toaster oven to roast two turkey breast tenderloins for dinner last night. We will have leftovers for dinner tonight and I will make turkey soup from the rest of the meat. That should feed us for the rest of the week. Not bad for $ 6.49 for the turkey.

What have you done to save money recently? Please share with all of us.

Happy New Year to all of you and your families! I hope you all had wonderful holidays as we did. This is the first year since we have been married that I didn’t have to do the holiday cooking. We spent Thanksgiving at one son’s home and we spent Christmas at the other son’s home. It was wonderful!

My son and my granddaughter came to visit for a few days the day after Christmas. While they were here, we went to the Amish store so that I could add some spices and bread flour that were needed to our pantry. She loved picking out some fudge, cookies and other goodies for herself. We also tried their glazed donuts which they are noted for. They didn’t disappoint but now it is time to get back to some healthier eating.

For this new year, I am making no New Year’s resolutions. I have decided to do a theme instead. That theme is going to be “Self Sufficiency”. I know that it is hard to be totally self sufficient but we are going to strive to do whatever we can to rely on ourselves while spending as little as possible doing it.

I know it is only January but I am planning my container garden already. This year besides tomatoes, I would like to plant lettuce and perhaps peppers. I may plant some things in grow bags along with using my big pots. We love salads here and produce has gotten rather expensive and is about to get another huge increase this month.

I have been baking bread the past few weeks in my new bread maker. Because there are only the two of us, I divide it into thirds and only use 1/3 at a time. The rest gets frozen until we need it. We do have some rolls in the refrigerator and low carbohydrate tortillas, croissants, and English muffins in the freezer. With the exception of low carbohydrate tortillas, we will not be purchasing them again. We use very little bread so it will be easy and a lot cheaper to make our own. If I can find a good recipe, I may attempt to make our own low carbohydrate tortillas. Does anyone here do that?

I have Walmart Plus so I can get groceries delivered. I actually have a small order of fresh things like eggs, heavy whipping cream, 1/2 and 1/2, sour cream, Two Good vanilla yogurt, lettuce, cucumber, chicken breasts( $ 2.06 a lb.), etc. coming today. You all know that I hate driving in the snow but the virus has also blown up here so staying home is the right thing to do for us. My sister’s family got together for Christmas Eve and Christmas day and now 5 out of 8 of them have the virus. I have been praying that they all get well soon.

Today, I will be cooking a ham in the Instant pot if it fits. If not, it will have to go in the oven. This will give us many meals. I portion our meat so that I eat 4 oz. and Hubby eats 6 oz. I will serve augratin potatoes and spinach with it. After a few days of eating it, any meat that is left will be portioned up and frozen with the exception of using the ham bone and some of the meat for homemade bean soup.

Meat has gotten so expensive that we will be eating more meatless meals. I have a real problem spending “tens of dollars’ for any kind of roasts. We do have a couple in the freezer( purchased while they were still reasonable) but I will be buying no more unless the prices come down. I don’t see that happening any time soon. Right now, chicken and ground beef seem to the most affordable. But if they go much higher, I will be using them like condiments. I am remembering the 1970’s and early 1980’s right now. We ate a lot of bean type meals, peanut butter, pasta with just a small handful of ground meat thrown into the sauce to get our protein requirement. We also ate a lot of salads with a few tidbits of meat.

Hubby has always been our repair guy. If he can easily fix it, he does. Two days ago while vacuuming, our Dyson decided to not stand up on it’s own anymore. So Hubby immediately went to You Tube to research a fix. He found a video that showed that it was a loose screw. However getting to the screw was not easy. But by following the video, he did it and as you can see, the vacuum now stands up on it’s own again.

We have had another monthly electric and natural gas bill since we last talked about it. The cost of our natural gas went up 24% and the electricity went up 7% more than the same period last year. I was shocked when I opened the bill. We continue to not use as much electricity as possible. I try to not use my gas oven or range top. Small appliance use is so much cheaper. Anything that we can do to keep it down we are doing. Since our family left, I have closed off those two bedrooms until we no longer need heat. I have the vents closed, the doors closed, drapes and tight fitting shades on the windows and snakes in front of the doors.

I used up chicken, leftover from Hubby making chicken piccata when our family was here, to make a noodle and chicken skillet dish for dinner last night. We will eat some of the leftovers for brunch today. We waste no food in this home.

Our doorbell just rang! It was our next door neighbor with one of her little sons. They wanted to wish us a Happy New Year! She said that we are always bringing Timbits to her boys so they wanted to bring some to us. How nice of them to do that! They will be a great treat.

Well, my 9 lb. ham is not going to fit in the Instant Pot. Shucks! So I am just about to put it in the oven at 325 to warm it through. That will take about 2 hours and 10 minutes. I will do the augratin potatoes in the microwave because the oven won’t be hot enough for them. It will cheaper than using the natural gas stove top.

Hubby is and has been watching all of the football bowl games. So while the ham is cooking, I will check my planner to see what else I have scheduled for today and do some work in my 2022 financial planner.

I hope you all have a terrific start to the New Year! Are you doing anything to save money this year?

• I cooked up a pound of bacon all at once so that we can just reheat it for the next few breakfasts.
• We received 2 rebate checks in the mail that total $14.21. Every little bit helps!
• I washed a load of clothes using the ECO mode on my washer. I used cold water. The tops and some lingerie were hung to dry on the shower rod and the rest were dried using the ECO mode on our dryer. I also used 6 wool balls to cut down on the dry time.
• A beef roast is cooking in my slow cooker along with some carrots, celery, and onions. This will be dinner tonight and the next few nights. I thought about slow cooking it in my Instant Pot. However, I dropped the bottom piece of my slow cooker the other day and something broke. Hubby took it apart the best he could, and said in his estimation, the part that broke should not affect the functioning. So I decided to try it out today to make sure. If it doesn’t seem to be working, I will switch it over to the Instant Pot. But so far so good.
• While I was peeling and cutting up some carrots for the slow cooker, I cut some into sticks so that Hubby could have snacks this week with dill dip.
• I planned out my meals for when we have company after Christmas. It looks like I have everything I need with the exception of eggnog. I will pick that up later this month when I go out for my haircut.
• I spent some time today putting next year’s appointments, etc. in my 2022 planner. I am striving to be very organized this coming year.
• We are keeping all of the lights off since dawn here. They will not get turned on until sunset.
• I have put our non electric lights, flashlights, candles, and lighters in the main living area of our home so they are handy if we need them tomorrow. We are going to have major winds up to 65 miles per hour which they are predicting for tomorrow afternoon and evening. I hope we don’t lose power.

• My new bread maker arrived today. I am loving the smaller footprint. Now I can leave it on my counter. I will be making a loaf of bread tomorrow. This machine will save me a lot of money on breads and rolls in the future. My 20 year old one was on it’s last leg.

Did you save any money today?

We have really been busy the past few weeks doing a number of frugal things now that summer is ending.

Hubby and my son finally hung the Shaker Style Cabinets in my laundry room. We got such a great deal on these. First we used about $138. in Home Depot gift cards towards the purchase price. I got these gift cards for 80% of the cost about 3 years ago. I hang on to cards until we need something. Then because of a delivery issue that was Home Depot’s fault, they credited us $ 127.01. So these large beautiful cupboards only cost us $ 180.30 including tax out of pocket for the both of them. I really needed the storage space for my laundry products and for some cleaning products that we keep handy. I had drawers under my old washer and dryer. But the new ones don’t have that function. We have hardware on order. I am on the hunt for liner for the shelves, then I can load them up with all the things and decorate the room.

Our tomatoes have been really producing. We have had enough to share. We still have many green ones on them and more blossoms. There have been lots dinners of BLT’s and grilled cheese and sliced tomato sandwiches. I may have to can some for sauce. They seem to be ripening all at once now. They have saved us a fortune over buying them. The cheapest that I have seen them here is $2.99 a lb. Plus mine are organic.

I received $ 6.54 in rebate money. On my last grocery order they substituted 2 $6.+ cans of meat with 2 $ 8.+ cans of meat for the $6. price. Score!

We got our electric and natural gas bill 2 weeks ago and it was only $8.00 more than last year. Considering we had company and it was a lot hotter this July and August, we were happy with that.

Hubby and my son are going to finish a project in the basement. We need large sheets of materials. My son built a trailer that he hauls behind his van so they will be able to fit what we need on it. That will save us the delivery charges. I am very excited to see this get finished.

My grandson came to visit for three days. My back has been giving me “fits” so my plan to take him bowling and to play miniature golf got postponed. Instead we spent an entire day from early morning until about 8PM in the evening playing “Ticket To Ride”. That is such a fun game.

He and Hubby watched “Ninja Warriors” on Friday night. My grandson belongs to a Ninja gym and competes so he was happy to watch this show.

I cooked things that he enjoys like chicken strips, homemade pizza, etc. for dinners. I also made sure that there was plenty of Hershey’s ice cream.

We were invited to our friend’s home a couple of weeks ago for a party. We did not go because there was going to be lots of people there and the Delta virus was spreading like crazy in this area. We wished we could have gone. This was two years in a row that we missed it because of the viruses. She had a second party this weekend and gave us a jar of her homemade pickle dip which is delicious. She also gave us a container of brisket, pulled pork, and stuffed jalapeno peppers all wrapped in bacon all slowly cooked in her smoker. All of the food is scrumptious and has and will make a total of 6 meals for us. She is such a good friend to think of us. We will pay her and her husband back by sending many homemade soups to them this Fall. They love my soups!

I purchased another 100 count roll of Forever Stamps before the price went up.

We changed the furnace filter and put our Green Gobbler liquid down the kitchen sink on the 1st. The filter gets changed when it is dirty but the liquid gets done the first of every month. I hate paying for Roto Rooter.

We have been mostly eating from our pantries. Very few items have been purchased the past few weeks. I only look at the loss leaders in the sale ads now. When we see something that is a great buy, we get a few. We also have made sure not to waste any food. Every morsel gets eaten.

Our 3 month water and sewer bill came and was $63.00 less than last year’s for the same period even though it was hotter weather. I believe the savings was because of all the rain we have had. Our sprinkler system senses when it is raining out and does not turn on.

Our landscape company, on their monthly maintenance visit, trimmed one of our larger trees so that the branches would no longer hit the roof especially when it is very windy. This is not something they have ever done for us before. We were happy because we were going to hire a tree guy to do it.

That is about all we have done except the usual that we do all of the time. What have you done frugally over the past few weeks?

These are the things that we have been doing to save a little bit of money these past couple of weeks:

• We have picked 5 tomatoes so far from our container garden. Unfortunately, we had to throw out a lot more that developed tomato rot. In all the years that I have planted tomatoes, I have never had this before. I had to research to find out what it was. Seems in this heat we need to water them a little more often. We were thinking they were getting plenty of water by soaking them once a day until the water ran out the bottom of the pots. Evidently we need to do this twice a day. Also the soil needed calcium. So instead of going to the garden center to buy it, I found out that I could water the soil with some milk. So I got out my stored dry milk and mixed it up and did that this morning. Hopefully this will solve the problem.
• A few nights this week, I made chicken BLT’s using cooked sliced chicken, bacon and lettuce that I had purchased on sale, and our tomatoes. They were so delicious and so easy. In the summer, I love easy!
• I sewed a button back on one of my favorite blouses, right after it came off in the washer, before I lost it.
• I went to the bank and deposited some checks that had been sitting here into our high interest account until I can decide what we want to invest it in. When checks sit in the office, they make no money at all. I know I have been very busy the past couple of weeks but that is no excuse.

• I read the current 2 free magazines that I get. Hubby read his Handyman magazine that is gifted to him every Christmas.
• I contacted my cable company to get credited for an outage of our cable TV, internet, and telephone.
• I hard boiled a dozen eggs in my pressure cooker. We use them for breakfasts, egg salad, and for snacks.
• I cooked up a pound of bacon for breakfasts this week.
• My wedding ring is getting loose again on my ring finger. The ring guard no longer worked. So instead of going to a jeweler to get one, I ordered one online that will suffice until I am sure that I won’t lose any more weight. At that time I will have the ring resized.
• I traded some fiction books with a neighbor for some books that she had that I hadn’t read.
• We had quit B.J.’s, which is a warehouse club, very early this year. We decided to rejoin because they sent us a coupon to sign up for a year for $25. I was hoping that their shelves would be better stocked than when I quit. They were. That day I shopped for items that we needed that were a lot cheaper than my grocery stores. I only spent a little over $71.
• My son switched all of our cellphones to a new carrier. Because of that we got a new G5 phone for free. I researched prices online and got a great price on a protective case and a screen protector. This cellphone is bigger than our last one so we couldn’t use the old case.
• We are working on using up a huge box of free dental supplies that we have collected over the past couple of years from our dentist. We have way too much toothpaste and floss.

We have also been doing the usual to save on our utility and water bills. What have you been doing the past couple of weeks to save a little money?

After two funerals in the past week in our extended family, I need some normalcy in my life. So it was time to get back to posting.

These are the things that we have done recently to save money in our household:

• After a funeral service in a city about two hours away from our home yesterday, we took the scenic route on our way home. It took no longer than taking the Thruway and saved us $ 4.34 in tolls. I am always amazed at how beautiful New York state is.
• We did not stay for the luncheon afterwards because Hubby’s back was not good yesterday. So we left right after the service. Our plan was to pick up some fast food to eat in the car on the way home. We had not eaten breakfast and when we left the church it was going on 1PM. However, we ended up driving straight home and just ate some leftovers about 3:30pm. We planned to go to Subway later to get wraps for a late dinner but neither of us was hungry.
• But this morning, we were ravenous. So I ran to Panera and got bagels. It was Tuesday discount day so they only cost $ 6.99 for a dozen. I still have 3 gift cards that I purchased on a discount almost 4 years ago. So I paid with one of those. BTW, for those of you who followed me when I was on the Keto diet for 2 years, I got very bored with it. I needed a new plan. So I count calories every day and try to stay under 1400. The bagels are pictured above after Hubby ate one and I had a half of one. Hubby wanted cinnamon cream cheese but I can’t find it anywhere since Covid started. So I purchased a container of cream cheese and he made his own again for about the fourth time. He says it is better than store bought.
• While I was out, I stopped at Top’s for a few things since it was 6% off your total bill Senior Discount Day. We got a lot of produce, Kosher salt to make pickles, and milk that was needed.
• I also filled our car up with gas since we used almost all of it yesterday. The price at the pump was $ 3.09.9. But after Top’s points I was able to get $.50 off a gallon which brought the price down to $2.59.9 per gallon.
• Hubby ordered what he thought was the replacement filters for our air cleaner in the master bedroom. When he got them, it was the generic that you have to cut to fit. He just traced the old one and he was able to get 4 filters out of one pad. We had purchased two so we got 8 filters instead of just 2. Nothing like stumbling on a bargain to make us happy.
• Hubby asked our landscape company to do some lawn work. They already do all of our weeding and gardens and fertilize the lawn. But we have some areas on the side of the house where crap grass had taken over. Also the town reseeded the area of our lawn that they dug up to fix the water pipe. They used cheap rye grass and it was full of weeds. Our grass is a mix of blue grasses. So we wanted those areas redone. The landscape company sent us an $1100. estimate. I told Hubby to go for it. But Hubby said no. He is going to do the work himself in the Fall. He felt their estimate was too high for the work he wanted done. I guess that will save us most of the $1100. since we already have plenty of blue grass seed.
• We got our July natural gas and electric bill and it was for the exact same number of days as last July. Since that time we have had a rate increase. We used a lot more electric than last year but the same amount of natural gas. However the bill was about $ 10. less than last year’s. I was very happy about that!
• Lastly, we had enough points to get a $100. cashback reward that will show on our next credit card bill.

Hubby and I were looking at our net worth yesterday and realized that we are almost to another new milestone. So we are saving like crazy to reach it. So you will see a lot of money saving posts the rest of the summer right up to the end of winter so that we can reach that goal.

Feel free to leave a comment and share with us what you have been doing to be frugal and let your savings add up!

These are the things we have done frugally:

• We have stayed home since Hubby injured his foot. Since he did not want to go to an emergency room or urgent care, I did some research and spoke with a medical person. We came to the conclusion that he either has a minor fracture or a tendon injury. I have made him rest his foot and wear his orthotics in his shoes when he does have to move around the house. Ice and ibuprofen are on the agenda too. This is what a doctor would have told him to do. It is slowly but surely getting better each day.
• I received a free $10.00 Amazon gift card.
• I mailed a Christmas gift to my sister using my 5% discount at UPS. I reused Amazon packaging for it.
• I wrote and mailed 27 Christmas cards using cards I purchased cheap after Christmas a few years ago. I will need to buy some more Christmas cards this year at the after Christmas sales.
• I used Forever stamps that I purchased a few years ago for the cards.
• We have cooked all of our own meals. No takeout.
• We received a $100. gift card for Christmas last year for our favorite restaurant. It expires on Christmas this year. So it looks like we will have to order takeout or waste the card. I have to figure out how to keep the food hot while I am bringing it home. We live quite a distance from the restaurant.
• I ordered some household items from Amazon and got $10.00 off my $40.00 order.
• I have done quite a bit of wash lately using the HE’s. Everything was hung to dry except sheets, towels, and blankets. I dried those in the dryer using the wool dryer balls.
• I made Hubby an apple pie because he was craving it and I have been spoiling him while his foot is healing.
• I made a new tuna casserole that Hubby loved. I have also made macaroni bacon goulash, shrimp cocktails, Buffalo chicken wings, NY strip steaks, loaded hamburger nachos, stir fry chicken, and turkey soup for recent dinners.
• We have been rotating the food in our pantry using the oldest first. I have also been keeping the inventory list up to date.
• I ordered a Walmart + order to be delivered.
• We have been keeping the heat at 68 during the daytime and 64 at night.

Feel free to share in comments what you have done frugally recently.

These are the frugal things that I am doing around our home these past few weeks.

This is the turkey that I purchased for $.48 a lb. this week. I put it in the oven before I ran some errands this morning. I did not stuff it because we are not eating it tonight. When it comes out of the oven, I will let it cool and put it in the refrigerator overnight. That will make it easier to slice and dice. Then I will food saver the meat up into portions for our future meals. I will also make gravy to freeze for future meals.

I will cook down the bones and skin in my crockpot to make chicken bone broth. Mine always tastes better than the ones you can buy in the store.

I have finished all of my Christmas shopping. I picked up the last gift that I needed today.

Yesterday I shipped two large Christmas packages. I wanted to get that done before the rush of packages after Thanksgiving. I used my AAA card to get a 5% discount on the ground shipping. That saved me $1.41. Not much but it all adds up!

I have finally finished my last grocery trip until the Spring. When we need fresh things, I will order it and have it delivered from Walmart. It snowed here two days this week. And even though it has all melted, I know the big one is coming.

I am working on writing my Christmas cards. I purchased them last year after Christmas on discount. I will be using Forever stamps from way before the last stamp increase.

I have watched about 5 episodes of “Little House on the Prairie”. It is full of commercials which is driving me crazy but I am handling it.

I made my last trip to the bank until after the New Year and maybe well into the year. I like doing this once every few months instead of monthly because it saves me a lot of gasoline.

We are opening the shades and blinds when the sun is out to help with the heating. At night they are all closed up.

I had been having a hard time finding tissues. I finally found Scotties today and even though they were expensive, I purchased the last four that I think we will need for the winter.

A couple of the buttons on my good winter coat were loose so I sewed them on tighter before I lost them.

I washed all of our lighter weight coats in warm water and soap before we put them in storage for the winter.

Our boots are all ready to go in the seating bench in the garage which is where we take them on and off if we go out. The brush and scraper are in the car for the winter and the snow tires are on.

Two of our bedrooms have been closed up for the winter and the snakes are ready to be put in front of the bottom of the doors. I will do that tomorrow.

I went to B.J.’s and got bacon, guacamole, Skinny Pop, cans of corned beef, powdered ranch dressing, and Hubby’s favorite Caesar dressing because the prices on these items are cheaper there. I did it on the same trip to the bank.

I scanned all of my recent grocery receipts into Fetch to get reward GC’s.

And as usual, we are careful about how much energy we use in the house.

I continue to work out on my treadmill and recumbent bike here in our home.

That is it for now. What have you guys done frugally the past few weeks? Feel free to share with all of us in the comments.