My Frugal List: First half of September
We had Hubby's company picnic this weekend. They always have lots to do. I enjoyed the BBQ and cotton candy. They always do a kids pinata but this year they did an adult one too. It was so funny to watch. It was filled with little plastic bottles of liquor. You had to spin around five times and then swing. No way my vertigo could handle that so I just watched.
They do several free raffles for the employees. And Hubby won one.
We always sign up to be on the clean up crew. We brought home lots of leftovers. I made trays for several of the younger single people to take home food too. They were shy to come up and make it themselves but were grateful when I handed them trays already done.
Hubby and I stopped at some yard sales. I spent $1.
Hubby spent $4.
YD is keeping busy at school. She brought art supplies with her. Her new friends and her are painting lots of rocks they found on campus. She is making some for gifts.
I am using up the produce from the garden.
I made 2 zucchini pies. 1 was dairy free. Half of each went into the freezer for future meals.
I chopped up more hot peppers for the freezer. Does anyone else wear googles and gloves when the chop them up? I have to or my hands are a mess for days after.
The next day I picked some more veggies.
We made homemade pizza.
I use plastic bags from cereal as the liner between the slices. We had if for lunch 2 more days.
We went out east apple picking. We had a great time.
We stopped at a farm and picked up 50 pounds of potatoes for $15.
Our house project is finally finished. The electric company finally came and changed the wires. We started it back in April. It sure looks good though.
I shopped sales, used coupons and Ibotta and stocked up on a few items. Clearance racks are my favorite.
I have been going for lots of walks. This is my favorite time of year and I want to enjoy it as much as possible.
I started Christmas shopping. I had Kohl's cash and a coupon. I love their clearance. I got 6 gifts for people for $51. I earned another $10 so I will go back next week.
Laundry is still be hung outside. The men washed and vacuum the cars this week. Leftovers are being eaten or frozen for future meals. The AC has been used once in September so far.
What frugal things have you been doing lately?
You got some great deal there. We can pick large bags of potatoes free here.
ReplyDeleteI'm on my way. I will bring some clearance ketchup and we can make french fries.
DeleteWOW, WOW, WOW is all I can say. You are doing great. Oh how cool on the GC and all the goodies you brought home. I love painted rocks - they are just so sweet!
ReplyDeleteYou guys are on a roll for a great month.
Thank you. I told Hubby he should spend the GC on himself. He rarely does. He is looking at things for the truck.
DeleteYou’re doing great! I always enjoy your frugal posts. What a great prize your husband received.
ReplyDeleteThank you. We were very happy. His company is very generous.
DeleteLove your finds on the closeout racks. We are spending the summer in the mountains at a small rv park - near a couple of towns that are more tourist destinations than we realized. I am finding that the clearance racks are pretty small pickings up here but I have found a few things to take back home with us. When I was an administrative assistant (many, many years ago) I worked in marketing for a big Fortune 500 company. I had to arrange lunch and snacks for all day meetings - at least once a week. One of my mentors was a very senior executive assistant and a single woman (as was I at the time) and she had a lot of frugal habits that I learned from. After the meetings she would quietly call all the admins and tell them that there was food outside such and such a conference room - or in the closed marketing/sales meeting rooms near the lobby. We all kept plastic ziplocks in our desks and we would go and take food before the catering folks got there. It was usually sandwich makings, desserts, snacks, etc. The admins, while well paid for that time, were making much, much less than our bosses. This really helped all of us as the cafeteria while subsidized was still expensive and many of us worked through out lunches due to work pressure. I would frequently take the veggies from the veggie platters and then make soup on Sunday while I caught up on laundry and cleaning. Then I'd have soup for the week for suppers, etc. We worked long days and sometimes I would be just too tired to cook and this avoided me stopping at fast food restaurants on the way home. Only a handful of us took advantage of this - some openly laughed at those who did things like this! We also used to go through the "waste" basket in the supply room - some people would put spiral notebooks, partially used note pads, pens and pencils from conferences, etc. in there and we would then go through it and use it at our desks or at home. Crazy waste in those days! Thanks for reminding me of all that! Mary
ReplyDeleteI never wear gloves when chopping up peppers. Maybe I should because I often touch my face without washing hands after chopping peppers, and it is not a fun experience. :)
ReplyDeleteI have eczema and they really bother my hands. I will get a flare up if I don't wear gloves.
DeleteHi Mcoia and you did really well for the week and produce picked from our gardens is the best and tastes wonderful. The yard sale finds are great and so is the gift credit card your husband won in the raffle :).
ReplyDeleteBit late but our freebies were a dozen free range eggs from friends. In the home we leveled up the floor in the kitchen using ply we already had as the kitchen unit we took out was on the floorboards and left a large hole where it was as the surrounding vinyl was installed on boarding. With paint we already had left over from another job to paint the walls and the side of the cabinet where the sink is and the boarding for the floor. DH cut the piece of plywood with our jigsaw after making a template so the job cost us nothing :).
Our savings last week added up to $208.34 :).
Internet listings and sales.
- Made about $25 from the sale of a 5 layer cotton eye mask and bread bag that I made.
- Listed 10 items on a free listing promotion saving $16.50 on usual listing fees.
Purchases -
- From IGA on special I purchased 5.47 kg of rump steak for $9 kg and pork thin sausages for $3.95 kg saving $114.05 over purchasing them in Woolworths.
- Also from IGA on special we purchased premium minced beef for $10 kg and 2 x 725 g packets of corn flakes for $3 ea saving $17.30 on usual prices.
- At Aldi we purchased 6 x avocadoes, bananas, kiwi fruit and macadamia nuts saving $9.39 over purchasing them in other supermarkets.
- In Kmart we purchased a pair of slippers on clearance for DH for $5, two pillows each and an electric kettle for backup supplies saving $51 over prices in other stores.
In the gardens -
- Planted one garden bed with capsicum, tomato and basil seeds and another bed with heirloom sweet corn and dwarf bean seeds.
- We used our grey water pumped from the grey water tank to water fruit & berry trees and about 1/3 of our back lawn.
- Used saved shower warm up water to fill hand washing water bottles and to clean the bathroom and toilets.
- Reused house dusting water to water the shrubs in the gardens around the home.
- Used some town water in a 4 lt ice cream container each day for the kangaroos and wallabies to drink as it is so dry.
- Watered in the newly planted 3 vegetable garden beds with town water from the drip irrigation system.
House maintenance -
- We took out one kitchen cabinet in the kitchen so we have room to have our new 90 cm oven put in.
- I swept behind it and DH scrubbed the walls and floor to clean it. The cabinet was sitting on the wooden floorboards so DH had to cut some ply we had to fill in the hole so we have a level area for the stove to be installed in. I still need to paint the walls and the side of the kitchen unit where the sink is.
- DH put up a stainless steel bench we purchased beside the sink and then the new stove will go beside that.
Hope everyone else had a wonderful week as well :).
Sewingcreations15 (Lorna).
You have been very busy. Have you gotten any rain? I am glad that you got some of your gardens planted and are able to use the town water for that. You are so clever in saving and using your water. You got a lot of good deals this week too.
DeleteMcoia we had a little over 1 mm in rain yesterday but not enough at all and it is really dry out here.
DeleteSo dry that when we fed two wallabies our bread ends that the male was trying to guard it all for himself by growling at the female he was so hungry. DH used to be a wildlife carer and has never heard a wallaby growl so things must be desperate for them. The female redneck just snuck around him when his back was turned and got some bread too which we are glad about. The local policeman and farmers are putting down starving kangaroos and wallabies that can't be saved and the creeks have no water in them and there is little grass around for them to eat.
This is why we are leaving water out for the kangaroos and wallabies and feeding them our bread ends and apple cores which they love to help some of them stay alive.
Hoping when it rains we get substantial rainfall to fill the creeks, stock dams and everyone's water tanks here.
Sewingcreations15 (Lorna).
That is very kind of you. The poor animals.
DeleteWhat a great use for the cereal bags as a layer between slices of pizza. I could do that with burgers too as they can be hard to get apart if not thawed.
ReplyDeleteHow neat that your dh won a door prize at the company picnic.
That was so nice of you to make trays for the younger single people. You're exactly right, sometimes people are shy about those kinds of things.
What a great deal on that ketchup! Good deal on the potatoes too. We've been cooking apples as a side dish with dinner and enjoying them so much.
I use the cereal bags for all foods to keep separate. I have done if for burgers as well as french toast for the freezer. I look at it as wax paper. I don't buy wax paper so I use cereal bags instead. Hubby and my son love cereal as a snack so they go through them often. I keep a baggie of them cleaned in the drawer with foil and Ziplocks.
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