My Frugal List: Week of September 17, 2018


Hubby and I went on a date to a free home show. We try to go every year. We get to see what new items have come out and we get to talk to several vendors for similar projects. It is held at a college nearby and has free parking and free admission. We brought our reusable water bottles and apples in case we got hungry. We even got some freebies. It was a nice way to spend the morning. 


I went back to the eye doctor. My eye is doing so much better. The top layer is totally healed. The second layer (there are apparently 5 layers) is not fully healed yet. I have a second kind of drop now and I go back in 2 weeks. 

My ear was bothering me so I put some drops that are homemade in it. It is 1 part vinegar to 1 part alcohol. My ENT told me about this years ago when I would constantly get swimmers ear. I do it twice a day for 3 days when I start to feel something. Most times it goes away. 

The garden is still going well. I made another batch of sauce. I canned 4 quarts, we ate some the night I made it on pasta and I kept some in the fridge for pizza. 


I picked peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, pole beans, thyme, parsley, sage, basil, and carrots. The peppers are going crazy right now. 


 We have been eating lots of delicious food.  I cooked a chicken in my crock pot that lasted several days. We had broccoli rabe pizza, half with sausage and half with chicken. I prefer it with the chicken, Hubby loves the sausage. It is the most expensive pizza we make at home. It costs us about $9 to make. It is so good. We also had tacos, teriyaki chicken, beans and franks, pasta with meat sauce, quesadillas, egg sandwiches, bagels, steal cut oats, HB eggs, tuna and PBJ. 


I cleaned out my upstairs freezer that is with my refrigerator. I pulled out all bread pieces (there was a ton thanks to my son) to make breadcrumbs.


I also pulled out scraps and made a huge batch of food for the dogs. 


My freezer is all cleaned and organized now. I know what needs to be used up soon so I will be doing that. I know what we have plenty of and what I need to buy before the fresh fruits and vegetables are gone. 


One of our rolling garbage cans broke. The wheels came off. Considering the thing cost $80, you would think they make it to not break so easily. Hubby had to drill a whole in the axle and put a pin in it.  It took Hubby about 20 minutes to fix and it is better then new. 


Remember all of that corn I bought. It came in a huge paper bag. I used it for all of our dry garbage all week. It is bigger then our garbage can. It really held a lot. I did freeze the rest of the corn on the cobs. 


YD has been very busy. She has had float build several days this week. They feed the kids since they are there around dinner time. They were going to throw away the extra pizza but YD spoke up and said she would take it home instead of it going in the garbage. She got fed free 2 times this week from float build. 


Open House was this week at the high school. YD is in the Honor Society and they have to help out that night. They have snacks and water bottles for the volunteers. YD grabbed a few extra chips at the end of the night as they were cleaning up. 

Senior Breakfast was on Sunday morning. YD helped set it up and clean it up. She is in Student Government and they run it. She is the historian and a senator. The adviser wouldn't let her pay the $10 to get in since she went at 6:45 a.m. to help set up. No one else showed up until 7:30.  The breakfast started at 8:30. They had a very nice breakfast of french toast, pancakes, eggs, bacon, home fries and juice. They played several games and she had a great time. When they were cleaning up, the adviser asked if anyone wanted to take leftovers home. 2 kids did. YD was one of them. Her friend only wanted the french toast so she took it all. YD took everything else. The bacon had been sitting in a tray with a lot of fat, so I reheated it up to get most of it off. We will happily eat all of it. The container in the back is pancake syrup that is unopened. The other girl took the open one home. 


I got lots of freebies this week. These goodies cost me 3¢ at Staples with another $10 off a $10 purchase. 


I sold 2 items on eBay. I got 100 free listings so I added a bunch more stuff. 

YD's car was dead after school one day. I picked her up and Hubby and I went back when he got home from work. He jumped it and she hasn't had a problem since. Hubby's truck stalled and wouldn't start. He used our AAA membership and had it towed to a local shop. It was a free tow with the membership. There was a bad crank position sensor and they fixed it that day for $60. Considering 2 cars had problems this week, I think we got lucky that it only cost us $60 and a little time. 

My son brought goodies home from work.


 So did Hubby. Hubby's office gets bagels, muffins, rolls and fruit every Monday and Friday. He worked very late Friday doing an upgrade and most of Saturday. There were some rolls and bagels left and they would be thrown out by the cleaning crew over the weekend. He brought them home instead. We will happily eat them. 


As you can see we were given lots of leftovers. We are very happy to take them. I HATE food waste and they really help keep my grocery budget low. Friends, family and coworkers are always happy to eat them. 

I washed a ton of baggies from cleaning out the freezer. I washed only full loads in the washing machine and dishwasher. I hung most of our laundry. We only used AC once this week. I used coupons, shopped sales, and used Ibotta. I used old boxes to ship out items and I took boxes from work that would end up in the garbage. We ate leftovers, bought meals and snacks to school/ work and bought our reusable water bottles with us. We paid bills online. We did all of our other day to day things that keep us frugal.

What did you do this week to stay frugal? 










Comments

  1. Hi Mcoia and everyone :).

    You did really well with getting so many leftovers, the coupon items so cheaply and picking so much from your gardens really helps with keeping the grocery costs low.

    I have some exciting news to share is that we are also now in the market to buy a property :), having checked out local prices around town and out of town (much lower than we thought in certain areas), with the deposit we have we can well buy a lower priced established property and do some minor renovations to make it suit us.

    This week we have seen 2 properties one acreage that didn't suit and was quite mountainous with not a lot of usable land and a residential property with a 3 bedroom house on a half an acre just on the outskirts of town. The second has promise so we are strongly considering that one and maybe putting in an offer after a second look next week. We are also waiting on a real estate agent to show us a property out of town on 2.4 acres of land which we are very interested in looking at. We will keep you updated :) .

    Needless to say not a lot got done this week apart from a steep learning curve on how to buy a property, expenses involved, ringing a solicitor for conveyancing/legal costs,comparing what other houses sold for recently in the areas we are interested in, quotes from garage companies and inquiring about the first home buyers grant.

    Our Vicky challenge added up to $172.22 in savings last week :).

    Finances & internet listings -
    - Saved more money into our saving for our house deposit bringing us to 28.57% of the way there (in reality our house deposit for a ready built home in our area could well be closer to 50 - 60% yay ).
    - Listed 10 more items in my eBay store on a free listing promotion saving $16.50 on usual costs.

    Hair cuts -
    - DH cut my long hair short saving about $60 on the price of having it professionally done.

    In the kitchen -
    - Made a 1.171 kg batch of chocolate walnut brownies (thank you Gardenpat for the recipe you gave the link to earlier) with buttercream icing for $12.28 saving $95.72 over buying it in local shops here. Didn't realise what a horrendous price they charge in the shops for 1 slice of this :o .

    Usual frugal things -
    - Hung washing on the line to dry, saved grey water to water the lawns with, used dish rinsing water to water seedlings and fruit pot plants on the veranda, only turned on our electric hot water system when water needed heating and heated our home with free firewood we cut from a friends farm.

    Have a wonderful week ahead everyone :).

    Sewingcreations15 (Lorna).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Congratulations! That is so exciting. I am so happy for you and your husband. You have been working so hard saving so much. I wish you the best of luck while you search for a home. There is a lot to learn but I know you will manage it. It can become very stressful so take a step back to think if you need to. Don't be persuaded to do something if you aren't sure about it. Have fun house hunting.

      You did great this week as always. I love walnut brownies. They are ridiculously expensive to buy. I prefer homemade anyway.

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    2. Hi Mcoia and thank you for your encouragement :). Yes I know what you are talking about with pushy salespeople and neither of us are persuaded by them. Having a background of owning a secondhand goods store and being an ex licenced motor dealer haggling is in my blood and I won't pay more for anything, and my husband says I am a force to be re-conned with :) and he is happy for me to do the price negotiations .

      The property prices here are going down and not up so it is a buyers and not a sellers market so I will be haggling hard on the prices and am not afraid to put in a low offer.

      Walnut brownies are one of our favorites too along with a little chocolate fudge too. You are so right that they taste so much better homemade probably because ours has no artificial preservatives, colours and additives we can't pronounce anyway :).

      Have a great week :).

      Sewingcreations15 (Lorna).

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  2. I love all the free food you've gotten! I too hate food waste and strive to use everything up. A few weeks ago, I accidentally pulled some applesauce out of the freezer instead of pasta sauce (which really confused my husband, because he wasn't sure if I was making some sort of weird apple-based pasta for dinner, as he was the one dumping the sauce on the noodles while I picked my son up. Fortunately, we solved the issue via text). Since then, I served the applesauce with my son's breakfasts, gave some to my daughter, then used the rest last night making waffles and muffins. And I too make breadcrumbs out of my bread ends! I really need to make some, but I just haven't been home long enough to do that lately. It feels so good to use up every last bite!

    Good for your husband on fixing the garbage can! My husband fixed my electric pencil sharpener last week, which I really appreciated- we have a pencil sharpener in the laundry room, one of the ones like we had in school when I was young, but it's nice to have one right next to my chair, so I really appreciated that. Saves time, money, and an extra trip downstairs for me. :)

    Glad you had a great week, especially with not having to spend too much on car repair!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That would have confused my husband too. I can say I have never had apple pasta. That is great that your husband fixed your pencil sharpeners. Glad we both have handy husbands.

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  3. What a great week you had. Fantastic! Oh my, free bacon!!!! My heart be still - I love bacon.
    Hope this week goes as well.

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    Replies
    1. We love bacon too. I am not supposed to eat it often so I need to restrain myself. Thankfully everyone else is happy to eat it all. I caught YD daughter snacking on some last night. I guess it is OK since she is the one who brought it home.

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  4. I would be as big as a house with all those bakery items. I am a bread aholic.

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    Replies
    1. I am not the size of a house but I am not as skinny as I was in my twenties. We all love bread. Guess I know why I didn't lose any weight this summer.

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