My Frugal List: Week of August 27, 2018


Thank goodness for the HANDY HUBBY! I don't know what I would do without him. Youngest daughter did her sheets the other day while I was at work. She texted me saying something was wrong with the washing machine. She said everything came out dripping wet. I asked her did she accidentally shut it off mid cycle. It is in our kitchen and it has happened before. She said that she didn't but maybe my son or hubby did. She hung everything up to dry.

 I went to do laundry 2 days later and low and behold, during the spin cycle the washer starts beeping with an error code. Hubby was home and looked it up online. It said clogged pump. So out came all of the soaking wet clothes that YD and I hung up. There was a puddle of water at the bottom of the washer so I bailed most of it out. Then hubby took apart my washing machine. There is a little filter in the pump to collect things that somehow make it down there. It was packed. $1.72 in coins, bobby pins, a button, a sock and lots of hair and grossness. I cleaned it out, scrubbed it for good measure and gave it back to Hubby. He reassembled the machine and it is working great again. Hubby thinks it would have cost about $300 to have someone come in and fix it. It took about 2 hours for Hubby to fix it. Thanks Hubby. YD will now check all of her pockets before she does her laundry because she is the only one that wears bobby pins. 


Since Hubby had everything pulled out, he also cleaned the dryer lint hose. 


I made chicken stock from the bones of a chicken I had in the freezer. I made chicken orzo soup with it. I froze 2 more quarts for soup for another day. 

I made more sauce with tomatoes from the garden. My sister came to help. She has never made sauce or canned it and wanted to learn. Unfortunately half way through straining the tomatoes, my electric motor broke. Thank goodness my sister was here to help hand crank the rest with me. Hubby will look at the motor when he gets a chance. We got 5 quarts and 3 pints of sauce out of it. 


My sister brought spiral sausages to grill when she came over. One is pork and one is chicken. They were very good. I did them with string beans  from my garden and baked potatoes. There was a bunch leftover so we had some the next day. 


She also brought dessert. She is so good to us. The Cheerios were for a friend of hers that was staying with her for the week. He ended up not eating them so she gave them to us since she doesn't eat them. 


I started a batch of horseradish pickles with cucumbers from my garden. They need to sit for 2-4 weeks. I used a pickle bucket that I got from work that was going to be thrown away. I get lots of free buckets from work. I give them to family and friends. 


I worked 4 days total this week. I covered for a coworker who had a death in the family for one day. My work hours are going to drop drastically in September and October because it is a very slow time for movies. I will take whatever I can. All meals were brought with us to work and school as well as drinks and snacks. 

I was supposed to get together with a few friends for dinner. We try to do it once a month. It was only going to be 2 of us since everyone else bailed. I suggested we just get dessert. It was a lot of fun and much cheaper for both of us. We are both frugal people and live on a budget. She is a single mom and had to cook her kid's dinner anyway so we just went out an hour later. 


The garden is still providing very well. My new lettuce should be ready to pick any day now. I sent my sister home with a bunch of veggies and a pint of dill pickles and a pint of sauce. I tried to give her more but she is going away next week and said she wouldn't be able to eat it all before. 

I got my check from jury duty. There are very fast. I deposited it and change from my change jar into the college fund. 

We paid for our son's 3rd semester of college. No more stupid loans (student loans) in this house. He did pay for a portion himself since we feel it is important to have some skin in the game. We follow Dave Ramsey's plan and are on Baby Steps 4, 5, and 6.  

I made lots of dog food for Oreo. She really helps prevent food waste in our house. 

Our youngest daughter passed her road test on the first try. We are very proud of her. We readjusted our budget so that we can pay the new amount for the car insurance. She will be driving a car we have had for a while. OD used to drive the same car. She had to redo her budget to include gas expenses now. 


We got lots of freebies this week but the best one was a full drum kit. Hubby is so happy!


My son keeps us well supplied in bread and bagels.  They are trying out a new kind that is not for sale yet. I will be a taste tester anytime. They were very good. 


I made more jam with the free tart cherry juice that I had gotten. I pureed up some cherries that I had gotten on sale that were in tha freezer. It came out great. 

I met a friend for breakfast.  That is the only meal we ate out. I used a gift card to pay for it. I brought her some pickles and veggies. She gave me a coupon for a free cookie. I bought it home for YD since she was the only one home that day. My friend also gave me some empty baskets and a few items that she wouldn't use to put towards raffle baskets for my church. 


I always fill up my gas tank on Tuesday or Wednesday. Now YD does too. 6¢ off a gallon helps keep the price down. Some weeks it is only half a tank. 


I had gotten a survey from our electric company a few weeks ago. I filled it out and they sent me 2 LED light bulbs. It took me about 5 minutes. 

I redeemed a $5 gift card for Walmart from Kellogg's Family rewards. Hubby used it towards a purchase he was making. 

Hubbies truck is back on the road. He did all of the repairs himself with help from our son or me. 



I cleaned the top and inside of the dresser in the office. Everything is nice and organized. Hopefully it will not become a dumping zone for crap again. 

I did all of our regular everyday ways to save: used coupons, shopped sales, used Ibotta, did full loads of dishes and laundry, hung laundry, used water from washing produce and canning for potted plants, and I paid bills online. 

What did you do this week to be frugal?








Comments

  1. I'm jealous of your gas prices! That's 25-35 cents a gallon cheaper than here. We tend to run one of the highest in the nation in gas prices. Not something I want to lead in:).

    I will be curious to see how your pickles turn out. I haven't made the fermented kind before. Horseradish dill sounds wonderful. I've been making quick pickles and putting jalapeƱo pepper strips in there to zest them up. I'm not sure if my cucumber bushes will produce more, or just die. They aren't looking wonderful.

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    Replies
    1. I have never done fermented pickles either so I am hoping they come out good. My second planting of cucumbers just started giving some so I should still be getting them for a while. Something had eaten a bunch of my original plants so I had to replant half. It is nice because it has spread them out. I have lots of babies on the vine.

      Sorry your gas is so high. Holiday weekends are the worst. They always seem to raise the price. We are going to a BBQ but it is the next block over so it is nice and easy. Have a great Labor Day.

      Delete
  2. Hi Mcoia and it is wonderful indeed to have a handy husband as I have another handy husband here and also I must admit I am rather handy too as well as mechanical. Between us we can fix most things without paying someone to do it for us which costs a fortune. You did so well this week with your savings on everything.

    Our savings added up to $153.90 in savings last week :).

    Here's what we did to get organised, build our pantry and save money

    Salvaging - - Saved 10 bakelite drawer pulls from an old wardrobe that fell apart literally in our garage. I will resell them on the internet as they are now collectable and worth a lot to those restoring old furniture. They are running out for sale on the internet for 8.50 - $12.00 ea :).

    Finances - - Banked more money into our home deposit bank account 28.07% of the way there.
    - Listed 18 items on eBay using a free listing promotion saving $29.70 in listing fees.

    Purchases - - Purchased 10 strong memo note magnets with bull dog clips for the fridge for $4.20 saving $16.79 over buying them locally. We use these for important messages, lists and our perpetual shopping list on the fridges and freezers.
    - Purchased a used "tightwad gazette" on eBay saving $27.81 over purchasing it new.
    - Purchased another 10 punnets of strawberries for 0.95c per punnet saving $15.50 on usual prices.

    Trades - - A friend gave us 50 x 4 lt mylar bags to say thank you for giving his family some vegetables previously saving $20.35 over purchasing them.

    Hair cuts - - DH and I cut his hair at home with the clippers saving $30 over getting it cut elsewhere.

    House organisation - - Deep cleaned the vegetable freezer and rearranged the frozen garden vegetables oldest to the top newest to the bottom.
    - Sorted through the rest of the power tools and bits and pieces in the shed and damp dusted them and the tools and bits and pieces and the plastic storage containers. We then sorted out all the tools and bits and pieces into tool boxes and storage containers and put them on the shelves. There is so much more room in there after we broke down the cardboard moving boxes and stacked them behind the shelves in there.

    In the kitchen - - Washed, diced and froze the 10 punnets of strawberries in the freezer for desserts and jam making.
    - Blanched and froze the broccoli picked from the gardens making 10 more meals for the freezer.

    In the gardens - - Picked 1.3 kg of organically grown broccoli and a bunch of silver beet from the gardens saving $13.75 over purchasing it in the shops.

    Hope everyone has had a wonderful week :).

    Sewingcreations15.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I can fix some things but Hubby is much better at it. That is wonderful that you are so mechanical. Thanks to YouTube you can watch as you go now.

      You were very busy this week. I love the Tightwad Gazette. Hubby found a free copy of the complete series a few years ago for me. It is probably harder to find it by you then here. have a wonderful week.

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  3. It's "lo" and behold, not low.

    ReplyDelete
  4. We had that same problem with our washer awhile ago. Hubby is handy also. So he fixed it. We only ate it once this week and it was paid by a gift card we had. Hubby cut his own hair. Instead of going out for labour day weekend, we had a bonfire and invited friends. So much fun! I harvested spaghetti squash, tomatoes, herbs, garlic, ground cherries and I sold some excess veggies. We also stayed away from the grocery store which helps. I worked extra this week also. And I also will next week.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I haven't been to a bonfire since I was a kid. You must have had a wonderful time. You did great with all of your garden goodies, They really do help cut down on buying groceries.

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  5. Oh and I forgot, we harvested about 10 lbs of potatoes and hubby made 19 jars of salsa.

    ReplyDelete
  6. What a great week!
    Dishwasher started leaking so I ordered a new gasket and hubs will fix when it comes in
    Harvested a ton of oddly shaped carrots, 1 even looks likes an atom bomb
    All the weeding is done and weed barrier down in the garden, next up manure, seed, mulch and wait until spring to see what pops up
    Very little grocery shopping, just what hubs needs for lunches (thankfully he is willing to eat the same 2 turkey sandwiches every.single.day)
    Returned many items to the hardware store to offset new purchases
    Sold 2 items via Nextdoor


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gotta love a handy Hubby. I love Nextdoor. That is where we got the drums from.

      Delete

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