Tag: frugal things we do

This July has been the one of hottest on record here. I think we had one day that wasn’t in the 80’s or 90’s. Because of that we have used more electricity to air condition our home and to run our dehumidifier in the basement to keep my pantry dry. So I cut back in other areas by not doing laundry as often, using cold water when I do wash, hanging clothes to dry, making sure that no lights were on in daylight, turning off computers when they are not being used, and watching very little television. Hubby has set our air conditioner for 75 instead of our normal 72. We saved on natural gas by not using the dishwasher and  washing dishes by hand with a minimal amount of hot water. We have an on demand tankless water heater so it is not as expensive as having a standard water heater.  I also did very little cooking with our gas stove. Most of our cooking has been on the grill or in the air fryer.

We have been watering our lawn every other day in the early morning when it is not as hot out. We have been using the sprinkler system timer. Finally, we had a soaking rain so we shouldn’t have to water for a few days.

I have been saving the shower warm up water to water our outdoor hanging baskets. 

We have received $8.00 in rebates and I submitted $ 17.00 in rebates for two bottles of liquor that Hubby wanted. He has been restocking our bar bottles. 

Our fan would not work in the master bathroom. Hubby traced it to the timer switch. I ordered a new one and paid for most of it with reward points. It came quickly and Hubby put it in. It is nice to have that fan back to get the moisture out of the bathroom after showers. 


Instead of watching television, I have been reading Behind The Green Mask:U.N. Agenda 21. What an eye opener that book is.

I have not had any shorts to wear all summer because of my weight loss. I have looked and looked for shorts that aren’t ripped or so short that I won’t wear them. It has been impossible to find ones I like. So I went to Running’s today in the hope that they might have a pair or two that I could use for the rest of the summer. It has been pretty hot wearing my jeans. They had none left. I will have to keep looking or go without until spring. If anyone who reads from Buffalo has seen shorts anywhere, please let me know by leaving a comment.

Our meals were all made at home from scratch with the exception of one weekend night, I made a frozen pizza.

My son and grandson came to visit on Sunday. We had scrambled eggs, bacon, apple juice, and homemade cheddar biscuits for breakfast. It was so good to see them.


I have been using the treadmill and recumbent bike every day for exercise.

My subscribe and save order came last weekend. They kept telling me that the Hubby’s Green Mountain Decaf K cups were out of stock. They said they would notify me if they got them back in. They never did so I wasn’t expecting them to show up. As you can see, they did. The panty hose are for a project. I bought the cheapest ones I could find. They are fine for what I need them for. The Gatorade both liquid and powdered are for my stockpile. West loves the sugar free Ice Breakers so they are a treat once in a while for him.


I paid $7.78 for 12 cans of spaghetti sauce that I use as a base for my homemade sauce or $.65 a can. I paid $ 1.29 per can for 12 cans of Campbell’s Chunky Chicken Noodle soup. Both deals were a phenomenal price for me.  My entire order came to $92.40 which comes out of my stockpile budget.


We have been cooking enough for two days each time we cook to save both time and energy.


The SUV needed a bath so I washed it in the driveway using the pressure washer. I also cleaned the windows and inside. I do not pay for car washes in the nice weather. 

What have you done the past couple of weeks frugally?

We have been busy accomplishing some frugal things the past couple of weeks.

The stockpiling continues for the fall and winter. I am doing it early while I can get out. If the numbers in just one area of our state due to the sickness go up, our governor will close things down in the state again. I want to make sure that we are as prepared for the second wave as we were for the first. If we don’t get a second wave, we will be prepared as we always are for the winter.

Hubby sent for a $5.00 rebate on our new Water Pik. The last one broke after 4 years. Hubby called them to see if it was under warranty. It was not but they did send him the rebate form. The rebate came quickly yesterday. 
 
I purchased two face masks for me and two for Hubby from Vera Bradley. We love them because they give the best coverage I have seen in cotton masks. They also allow you to breathe. Mine were a pretty flower pattern and Hubby’s were a solid black. They are washable and dry quickly overnight. This has allowed us to keep the disposable ones in our stockpile in case of emergencies or to only use while the cloth ones are drying. No need to buy any more disposables which cost a pretty penny.

In my quest to replace disposables for items that I can use over and over again, I purchased these two cloth mop heads for my Swiffer which I can use for quick cleanups on the tile floors in the bathrooms. No need to ever again purchase disposable wet ones.

Along with the mop heads came this beautiful Thank You note from the family run business who made them. I bought them through Amazon. They are out of stock right now but hopefully will get more stock back in if any of you are interested.

Yesterday, I pulled every piece of meat, fish, seafood, veggies, fruit, etc. out of my chest freezer. When Hubby and my son emptied it a couple of weeks ago to move it, things got put back with no organization. The oldest items that were on top ended up on the bottom. It is now in some semblance of order with the old products on top so that I can use them first.

The only exception are the turkeys. They are on the bottom of the freezer. I have two left that I purchased last Thanksgiving. They are twenty pounders so they will be good to roast this coming Thanksgiving.  It’s too hot to roast them right now anyhow. With meat and produce prices going up, we may not see cheap turkeys this year at Thanksgiving. If prices go up, I am prepared to cook for our family. 

Hubby has been keeping the A/C at 75 degrees. It is not as comfortable as I am used to(72) but it should help with our electricity bill. My body seems to be getting used to it. I expect the bill will be high because of the 80 and 90 degree temps that we have been experiencing the past two weeks. The weather people are saying we have a few more days of this before the temps go down. 

While I was away, Hubby finished picking all of the pie cherries from our tree. Then he froze them on a sheet pan and put them in a ziploc in the freezer. We will definitely have some cherry pies this Fall. 

Hubby has the sprinkler system set to water in the morning every other day. The water bill will be high but we won’t lose the lawn, trees, bushes, and flowers in this heat. He has been keeping the hanging baskets well watered every day.

I am back to working out on the treadmill and bike every day. While I was spending time with Alexa, my exercise did not get done and my body was feeling it. I am also religiously following my diet. The diet went off the rails while I was spending time with family. One thing I have learned is that my body does not like carbs. UGH!

We were in need of a dozen white lined paper pads, some erasers to put on pencils and some pens. Fortunately, Staples was having a back to school sale online, so I got a great sale price on all of these things along with free shipping. I was also able to apply reward points to help pay for my order.

My daughter in law took home all of my frugality books among some other ones. I am happy that she will enjoy them. I also gave her clothing that she could use. Some that she couldn’t, I have donated this week to Salvation Army.   

I returned all of the bottles and cans that had collected since February to Fast Cash. I was happy to see they were open again and that there was no long line.  It added up to $12.45 in cash.

I filled the SUV and lawn mower can up with gasoline on Monday getting $.30 off a gallon using my Top’s reward points. So I only paid $1.859 a gallon. 

I earned another $ 15.46 in Amazon Reward cash to use on any necessities that we need. 


Hubby needed a new hose to be able to water the hanging baskets,  flower pots on our deck, and wash the car that our 25 ft. hose doesn’t easily reach. Our hoses are worn out after the past ten years. He saw this one that is 50 ft. long and highly rated on QVC for $ 44.99 plus $5.50 shipping. He asked me to order it. I researched to see if I could get a better price. I ended up ordering the very same hose at  Amazon for $ 29.32 and free shipping with my Prime. If you are a QVC shopper, always check the prices elsewhere before ordering with them. I find that 90% of the time someone else is cheaper than them.  This little bit of research saved us $ 21.17. 

I washed all the sheets, towels, and laundry using cold water, sale detergent, and sale laundry sanitizer the day my family left to go home. I dried the sheets and towels in my dryer using the wool balls. Our laundry I hung to dry. 

My son gave us a cucumber he picked fresh from his garden when he came out last Friday. We used it this week and it was delicious. 

I continue to stockpile water by filling up Hubby’s Diet Coke empty 2 liter bottles with tap water.

What have you don frugally the past couple of weeks?

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

I went to the market with my son. I looked for Crystal Light Peach Iced Tea because I had not been able to find it where I live.  I got 7 containers. Hubby was almost out and he drinks it all the time.  It was on sale.

My daughter in law and son relayed us across the state to get us to my home. That saved us a fortune in not having to rent a car one way. A tank of gas was cheaper. My daughter in law got to see my son`s new home and meet Ludo, their new dog.

We were going to stop at a McDonald’s drive thru on the highway going
back to our home for breakfast. My son let us know the night before that he
would have a nice taco lunch ready for us.  None of us were hungry on
the drive knowing that we had a nice lunch waiting. So we drove straight
through and saved money too. A few hours after lunch my daughter in law
headed back to her home and my son drove us to the Buffalo area to my
home. I am so thankful to them for all the driving they did to get my
granddaughter and and me here. I have a terrific family. I am very blessed. 

My son’s family gave me some empty cat litter containers.  I use them to store dry goods that are in plastic bags to keep any bugs out.

I baked a loaf of chocolate chip pumpkin bread for my granddaughter because she loves it for breakfast. I baked raisin, pecan pumpkin bread for Hubby because that is his favorite.

While the oven was still hot, I baked pizza for dinner for us. 

I was going to bake chocolate chip cookies for my granddaughter. But one of my markets had chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal raisin cookies, and July 4th cupcakes B2G3F. She was very happy with these chocolate chips. Now I won’t have to heat the oven up the rest of the week. It’s in the 80’s here this week.

My travel alarm is dead. I was about to buy a new one for $18.  Then I realized I could use my cellphone alarm. Not spending money was a win.

My granddaughter loves Five Guys.  I treated my family to a take out meal  there during the week I was there.  I  was thinking about doing it the night we got back but I knew I would be too tired from the trip.  So I had Hubby thaw a pound of grass fed ground beef and I quickly made burgers.

I had my son stop at Market 32 on the way home from doing something else so that I could pick up some hamburger rolls to bring home for our return dinner last Saturday evening. That way I could just cook and then relax after our long trip.

Hubby removed two large limestone rocks from our front gardens. He did this by breaking them apart. They were too heavy for us to lift. By doing this, we didn’t have to pay to have them removed.

We watched the first two Kingsmen movies on Hulu. They were so good that I can’t wait to see the prequel being released in September. Of course, we will wait until it is on TV.

Last Friday, I took my son out to dinner while my daughter in law and granddaughter went to a birthday party. I took full advantage of my 10% off senior discount.

I had to go grocery shopping to get some things that my granddaughter likes. Hubby was reading the Sunday morning paper and found a $5./50. Top’s coupon that I was able to use. I stocked on Red Baron Classic pizzas because they were on sale for $ 3.50 each. I also picked up 5 cakes mixes for $1.00 each and 5 frostings for $ 1.99 each for my stockpile. I got 5 dozen eggs for $ .99 each. Hot dog and hamburger rolls and hot dogs were on sale too. I picked up 2 large bottles of French’s yellow mustard for $ 2.00 each.  Some of these things are usually at the best prices of the year right now.

The clips that holds the glass in on one of my cupboard doors broke. I ordered some from Amazon so that Hubby can fix it. If it happens again we will have them. I paid using reward points so I only had to pay shipping out of pocket.

Hubby did all the wash while I was away. I washed all of mine that I used while I was away using cold water and hung them to dry.

We received our gas and electric bill while I was away. It was $24. less than this time period last year. It pays to conserve.

What have you been doing frugally? Please feel free to share in comments.

I am working on a blog post about how we are changing our grocery shopping due to the extremely high prices that we are seeing in our markets. That should be posted some time next week.  
 

These are the things we have been doing frugally:

– Hubby grilled 4 large chicken breasts (purchased on sale 4 months ago for $ 1.48 a lb.), that I had cut in half lengthwise, with our homemade BBQ sauce on the grill on Memorial Day. We had tossed salad to go with it. This has fed us all week.

– We have our own cookbook with all of our recipes that we have used over the years. One of them is Hubby’s Mom’s homemade BBQ sauce. Here is the recipe. When we grill with a batch, I add a little cornstarch mixed with a little bit of cold water to thicken it a little so that it is easier for Hubby to baste the chicken with it.

– We love it and make it frequently. I made a double batch on Monday that gave us an extra quart for when we BBQ again. I just keep it in the fridge.

– On Tuesday, I made a huge potato salad to go with the rest of our dinners this week. I had red potatoes that needed to be used. This time of year, potatoes do not last long. It will be great to have a new crop in the fall. 

– This is the end of the potato salad that we had tonight with the end of the BBQ chicken. 

A lot of people would have a problem eating the same dinner 5 nights in a row. But it does not bother us in the least. We only had to cook once to eat all week and that is a win win for us especially since it has been a very warm week here. We had temps in the high eighties and 93 one day which broke a record. I am not complaining since we only turned our heat off last week because it was so cold. The heat has been very enjoyable when we can go into the A/C in the house when we need to.

– I finally got my new purse which was my Mother’s Day gift from Hubby. It was ordered in April( using Rakuten) and was delayed almost a month before we got it. Because of that QVC has given us a $10.00 credit that is in our account for our next order. We will use it on a necessity. Hubby had bought me this brand of purse back in the early 1990’s. It has served me well but it had bit the dust. So this is my new one and I expect that I will get many years of use out of it. Blue is my favorite color so that was a bonus.  

– For some lunches this week, we had Sahlen’s hot dogs which were $ 8.99 for 3lbs. on sale this week. I made mine into chili dogs. Most other lunches were salads. We have been fasting though breakfast and keeping our eating windows within a 6 hour period.

– Hubby submitted a grievance to our town regarding the tax assessment that they want to up us to. They heard him state his case via telephone in a 5 minute time period last night. They informed him that they will make a decision around June 6th and we will get a letter from them informing us of their decision by the end of June. 

– Other than those things, I have been doing the usual laundry and air drying. Cleaning and picking up. Nothing exciting.

What have you done frugally this week?

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

– We cooked outside on our grill every night except two. The weather has been just beautiful.

– I made homemade spaghetti sauce and Italian sausage in our pressure cooker. The pressure cooker is so much more energy efficient than the most energy efficient slow cooker.

– The meal above was for two dinners. Cook once eat twice is the way I like to plan.

– Hubby fertilized all of our flowers and bushes with fertilizer that we have had for years. I bought a large bag years ago. 

– I was able finally to get more Lysol Laundry Sanitizer. Amazon finally had it in stock so I got two.

– We ordered some extra cloth masks on Amazon. We have enough now so that I don’t have to wash but once a week. 


– My surgical masks that I ordered 6 weeks ago finally came. I wasn’t sure we were going to get them.

– I weeded our patio pots in case we want to plant tomatoes and peppers this year. I don’t know when the nursery will open so that I can get plants. Perhaps if my son goes to Niagara Produce again he can check to see if they sell veggie plants.

– I cut chives from our garden and made some chive and onion cream cheese. I love it with celery. 

– We realized before Hubby used the grill that there was a leak when he hooked the tank up to the grill. So he took the part off and is going to try to repair it or get a new one. We have been using the grill without this part for the time being.  

– I am hoping our bank will reopen in a week. I have a lot of checks to deposit. 

– We have been spending a lot of time in the backyard just enjoying the sun and heat and our flowering tree the past few days. We enjoyed a fire in the fireplace last weekend when my son and grandson came. We went from winter to summer here in a matter of days. I turned the heat off on Tuesday. Yesterday it was 78.

– I spent a lot of time looking over our budget for the year. I always look at it around May or June to see if it needs an adjustment. Then I look over the past 5 years or so to see where we have been so that I know where we are going. 


– While looking at it, I realized that our gas and electric bills have taken quite a dive since 2015. We were spending close to $2000. a year back then. We are now spending about $1580. a year. Paying attention to conservation really does keep money in our pocket.


– I added water to disinfectant concentrate to refill our spray bottle.


– I made another bottle of eyeglass cleaner from alcohol and water.


– For entertainment, we have been watching movies on Amazon Prime, reading, doing a jigsaw puzzle, and watching car races when they are on. 


What did you do frugally this past week?

We had a wonderful day on Saturday. It was sunny and warm. My son and grandson came to visit. We were so happy to see them. I just wish I could have hugged them.

I actually placed an order on Friday night at Tim Horton’s for 20 TimBits and a dozen donuts to be picked up on Saturday morning. It was easy and it was ready when I got to the drive thru. The Tim Bits were to treat my neighbor’s(who have helped us so much) kids for breakfast. The donuts were for us. They made special red, white and blue donuts( United donuts) just for this weekend so we made sure to get 1/2 dozen of those because they were making donations to our local hospitals for each one purchased. It is the only food we have purchased out since this all started.

While we were social distancing on our patio, we got quite a treat. Here in western NY they had a WWII flyover to thank all of the heroes who are working in our hospitals. About noontime, they flew right over our backyard on their way to the hospital in the next town. They used two WWII planes which were flying quite low. It was beautiful and the meaning ever more so. Click to enlarge the picture. 

My son, while he was here, went to Niagara Produce for vegetables so Hubby asked him to bring back two hanging impatiens for our porch. He came back with these beauties. 

We have also been enjoying our flowering trees. Our purple plum had beautiful pink blossoms that didn’t last very long. This is our pear tree in bloom. Our cherry tree is about to bloom. 

I asked my son if he would go to Tractor Supply to get our propane tank filled. He did and we learned something new. They only charge for the actual propane that they put in the tank. The place where we have always gotten our tank filled charges for a full tank no matter how much is in it before they fill it. So the last time we had it filled there in 2018, they charged us $ 19.00. Tractor Supply only charged us $ 9.00 on Saturday. Hubby said it was almost empty. That is a huge difference plus Tractor Supply is much closer to us. So we saved on the cost and will save gasoline in the future. I did not know that they had propane until recently.  

I finally took note of how much gasoline we had in our car. I was surprised to see that we had only about 1/2 tank. I had thought we had almost a full tank. So I made a trip to the Top’s gas station and filled up using the $ .40 off a gallon that I had earned though grocery shopping. Yesterday was the last day to use those points.

I had roasted a chicken on Thursday which gave us a chicken dinner that night and on Friday night. Last night, we had the chicken cut up on Caesar salads. Today I used it to make chicken salad for lunches.

How is your weekend going? Do anything frugal? 

These are the frugal things we have done recently:

– Hubby mowed the lawn himself.

– We took a walk in the yard, scrutinized the outside of the house, and made a list of the minor repairs that need to be done from the winter.

– We sat outside in our front yard seating area to get some fresh air since it was so beautiful here on Saturday. A few neighbors came by and chatted from a distance.

– We watched the NFL draft.

– We picked out an area that we are going to plant crocus bulbs in the fall.

– I finally was able to get a slot for another Walmart pickup this week.

– We continue to cook every meal at home. I cooked a turkey breast yesterday that will give us many meals. We had taco salads, filet mignon, and chicken stir fry this week too. Breakfasts continue to be eggs and bacon or sausage. 

– We received our electric and gas bill online. It was $ 172. It was higher than last year but it was much colder for the month plus I have been doing extra laundry because we wash a load of towels every night. I also seem to be running the dishwasher more often.

– Hubby washed the floor in the garage to get all the dirt up from the winter. It was so easy this year because we had the floor epoxied this past October.


– I rearranged my freezer again to make more room.


– Hubby and I have been watching a lot of movies on Amazon Prime so we are very happy that there will be new ones starting May 1st.

– I watched about 10 You Tube videos on how to cut Hubby’s hair. It is so long that he can’t stand it anymore. So now I just have to get up my nerve to do it.  

– I have been keeping a close eye on produce so that none of it gets wasted. We eat a lot of salad with our meals.

– We aren’t using any gasoline because we rarely get in the car except to do a pickup or go to the drugstore. BTW, Hubby ordered a prescription a few days ago and the drugstore is having trouble getting it. So we are hoping they get it soon or we will have to have his doctor order something different.


That is all we have been doing frugally. Please share what you have been doing.