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2015 What Did You Do Frugal Today Challenge

24K views 236 replies 16 participants last post by  frugalwarrior2 
#1 ·
Starting this one since the old one "disappeared and I happen to like this one even if it is the same old same old.

Cricket can you sticky this one?
 
#2 ·
I'll go first! Today we got a Husky diamond plate aluminum truck tool box for a mere $25. It's in excellent condition and it looks like a new one would cost approximately $300. We plan to use it for a storage box and bolt it to our dock for life jackets and other HydroBike accessories.
 
#4 ·
LL-oh you'll miss him when he's gone. lol And I know right about now you'd like a trial run! lol

Hit the church Rummage sale late.
Got a small office fan and a pioneer DVD player for $5. each.
garbage bag of felt for DD's craft business $4.
and a love seat,3 chairs for $80.

We got clearance ground sirloin last week so I made 7 burgers and 4 hot dogs at once to save propane. This is not a steak holiday. Opened a can of beans,had some Aldis cookies,a few chips and called it good.
 
#5 ·
FW - lol - yep and I told him the only reason I was going to let him live was because it was cheaper. He smiled because he knew it was true. Ya gotta love 'em!! :)

But today's a new day and I'm driving back to Louisiana - just short of 1,000 miles. It will be an overnighter. When I drove up Thursday I slept in the vehicle and probably will again tonight....or later today as I've been up since 2 am. I know some people think I'm crazy for sleeping in the car but when I travel like this I only sleep a 3-4 hours at a time and cannot justify a hotel room. (In the past 9 months I have done this 9 times. At $75/night that's $675 savings.) I will be stopping at Aldi's to get water and snacks to reduce buying "road food". Plus I will pick a few other things because I don't have an Aldi's in Louisiana and don't know of any cheap places to buy food - yet. Keeping track of receipts because it's a tax deductible trip.

I ordered a new laptop yesterday and went through swagbucks. earned 1400 points. About 7-8 keys are now failing so I have to restart the laptop once or twice to get all the keys to start working again. A family member works for a computer manufaturer and told me to order it off of QVC - it would be cheaper than they could get it for me.
 
#6 ·
Yesterday was Saturday and $ Generals $5 off 25 and still needed milk, bread and cat food. Last thing I wanted to do was stop ANYWHERE on the way home but knew those 3 things alone would be about half the $25 so...

Wandered around trying to find things to make up the rest of the 25 without just spending needlessly. Looked at $1 bags of chips at least twice and walked away both times. Went back to the cat food and there were 4 bags of the 3 lb 6 oz Friskies for $4.50 with $2 coupons off one on them. Cool. So that was $10 for 13 lb 2 oz . Ended up getting 2 lg canisters Coffee Mate for stockpile as that is on my need to stockpile list so got them to finish out the $25. Actually I ended up paying a couple dollars over the $20 but all things were needed and not just picked up for the sake of picking up so won't complain.

Rode in to work once with hubs so no gas used that day however the reason was MY vehicle wouldn't start. Course it started right up for him that evening. Actually it WOULD start but wouldn't stay running. Did this once before and it ended up costing around $220 or $240. So...

Rest is same old same old but even the same olds help save

Full loads only in washer and dryer timed for shortest time possible

Dishwasher still being ran once a week with full loads. I admit we use paper plates often here for non messy type food. Not every time but often. When I can pick up a big pkg for $2 or less I figure it pays for itself over time and less for me to deal with in the meantime. I'm tired when I get home and the less I have to deal with the better. Won't lie :) .

Working on making a "Needed for Stockpile" list. This is going to be VERY important soon and if I'm wrong (n and for once I hope I am ) then it will help with a longer term plan I'm trying to work out.

Going back thru older posts on here to get more ideas. Reading Homesteadmamma's old post From riches to rags and back again.

Entertainment is reading, computer, TV. Luckily I don't even WANT to really go anywhere.

Watching electric, lights etc as much as possible. Also water. Our water bill is really not bad at all but for some reason it's been more the last 3 months than before that. Only by a very few $ .. 5 to 7 .. but that's OUR 5 to 7 that I prefer to keep and not give it to them.

Using grocery bags for trash where I can to save on buying more "real" bags. Sounds petty but after looking at the price a couple weeks ago since I haven't bought any for probably 3 to 4 years ( stockpile and using the grocery bags ) I figure using them saves about 40 to 50 a year. Again, not a lot of money to most people but that's money I'm not handing to someone else.

Doing as many errands as I can on the way home from work as most thing are directly on the way home.
 
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#7 ·
Forgot to mention we got the diamond plate truck box at a garage sale.

We use grocery bags for trash a LOT, so you're not alone there. We went so far as to buy one of these when we redid the kitchen. We weren't sure we'd like it because we were using a bigger one, but we actually love it and wouldn't be without it now. If/when we leave this house, it's going along with us!

We also use some tall kitchen bags in other trash holders, but it's not the wet stuff like the kitchen trash, so when it's time to haul trash, we dump the tall cans into a thirty-gallon black bag we use in the kitchen for dry trash, and reuse the bags in the tall cans to save a few pennies. Using a thirty-gallon bag in a trash can that would normally use a tall kitchen trash bag may seem like overkill, but it saves a tall kitchen bag and provides a cheaper bag for lightweight stuff. We always manage to fill at least two of them, the one in my tall sewing room trash and the one from the kitchen. For the icky, heavy stuff like cat litter, we use large contractor bags which are expensive but very reliable for stuff we really don't ever want to clean up after a cheaper bag breaks, so any time we can use the cheap black bags we do just to save a few pennies.

We used a $5 off $25 coupon yesterday too, buying two new double shepherd's hooks for hanging plants. They were half price so two came to $30 and we got $5 off that which paid for the regal geranium. :)

We've always used a rag box which really cuts down on using disposables like paper towels.

We seldom buy groceries that aren't on sale.

I've gotten really good over the years at repurposing things so I can reuse what we already have, or salvage something never intended for what I use it for, and save money by making do and often getting some really cool and unique things as a side benefit.
 
#9 ·
used my AARP CC for everything again to earn points.
Took Dmom and DD out to lunch at the Chinese restaurant. For 4 combo plates (took a dinner to DH) w/ tip it was $40. I had a $26 points reward credit so out OOP cost was $14. for 4 lunches and there was,as always, enough for everyone to have another meal.

DD hit the used book store and caught the buy 2 get 1 free sci-fi sale on paperbacks. Then she also found several in the free pile.
 
#10 ·
Was supposed to be a spend however the vets office was closed... holiday. Didn't even think. So other than wasted gas for the trip ( unscheduled nail trim ) haven't spent today. Luckily it's only about 10 to 12 minutes away so not bad.

Have enough gas for back and forth to work for MAYBE 2 more days.

Electric at a minimum considering it's about 90 degrees outside. Air on 77 with a fan blowing.

Eating at home and using what's here. Fixed brownies for nibbling. Course having the oven on didn't help with the air... sigh

Working on plan to try to pay off Bank of Hell before they pull more shi*(&
 
#11 ·
I used a package of eight shelf supports I got for a quarter at a garage sale a couple weeks ago to install the two new shelves in the new/used media center we got at SA a couple months ago. Finally, that's done. Unfortunately, the shelves cost us $20 but I'm preferring to ignore that, and it's worth it anyway because they look nice. It still only cost us about $50 all told and it's way nicer and more useful than any of the ugly TV stands we've seen the past few years. Now we're debating if we want to move everything into it yet today. It's going to take a while. I'd like to get it done but our backs hurt already and that old analog TV we're using till it dies since the flat screen died weighs a ton. Then again, it would be great to see it all installed and everything done.

I also used a plastic storage basket I got at GW Saturday for a dollar to install on a shelf in the media center, where an analog TV was originally intended to go. Remember those entertainment centers? With the doors over the TV that no one ever closed anyway? But that will be nice now to cover up all my Wii stuff, WW stuff, and the two shelves to hold the DVDs. The basket will be used to round up all my WW and Prevent papers and books (except cookbooks) so I can finally find them. The basket was one of the things I went back to GW for on Saturday, that I should have bought Friday, that led to us getting that great diamond plate box for our dock. I'll admit I was feeling badly about the extra gallon of gas to go fetch the GW stuff, but not anymore! Not when I've waited years to score one of those boxes. But I digress, a specialty.

I also rounded up a fancy-looking plastic fridge tray I salvaged for free a while back, that fits nicely in the media center to be used as a drawer. We'll put all the owners manuals, extra remotes, and miscellaneous that always seems to accumulate in that to tame that clutter.

And of course I salvaged a free piece of paneling at our local waste transfer station to fill up the big giant hole in the backer, which was all open to provide venting for the old analog TV that used to be in this cabinet. Nobody sees it anyway so the fact the paneling doesn't match won't matter. It's closed up now to keep dust out and keep things from falling out the back of the cabinet.

It's finally starting to come together!
 
#12 ·
Stopped at S.A. near a fair we were going to because the rain hit so hard they closed the fair!
I got 2 lg. bookcases at $19.99/25% off=$14.99 and a sugar container (diner style)$1.99
Also got a NIB Gemco set of oil/salt and pepper and grated cheese containers for $4.99 It matches the new drinking glasses w/ the lines around them.
Their books stank so they got passed over. I have to go back and get the bookcases tomorrow. I could have gotten 33% off but we went back to the fair and DD was w/ us. (Dh was all lets stand them sides ways and save 8% more.)
I passed and saved DD's life lol.
 
#13 ·
Used some odds and ends of nails and screws to put the backer on the media center, and installed a third shelf since there was some shelving left over from the two other shelves and we might as well use it. I was informed we still own VHS tapes that need storage and the shelf will work well for those. :sigh: But as far as I know, it's completely done now and we can put it in place and move into it. Maybe tomorrow. I sure hope we like it. We like the color and style.

We're having planned over stuffed flank steak for supper with planned over salad. Tasty!

Husby made granola cookies which are extremely tempting and delicious, using up some older shortening, 49-cent spice chips from GW, and granola cereal bought for .88 a box which is now a problem because he didn't eat it over winter like he planned, so now it's cluttering up my freezer and taking space I need for my WW stuff. If I wasn't so cheap I'd throw it all out for the critters, but unfortunately I refuse to waste it. Maybe I'll put a box of it in the dog food later this week.

The roofer has promised to fix our brand new still-leaking roof at no charge, so I guess that's sort of frugal.

Using up some potatoes for supper that are starting to sprout.

Sending leftovers to work with Husby for his lunch tomorrow, like most days.

Oh, wow, totally off topic but freaky accident near here today. It's just on the news. Car hits deer, deer is launched into windshield of an oncoming car, where it goes through the windshield and kills the front seat passenger. I don't know why these things still shock me. I've heard so many weird critter/car stories over the years.
 
#15 ·
2 loads of wash in cold water and hung outside to dry. Same old, same old :)

Made a homemade potato salad. The potatoes, green pepper was a freebie.
Eggs from my chickens.

Got a few groceries. Minimum. Trying to use up things around here first.

Sorting out things to put up on craigslist. Did 3 ads today.

Planted some horseradish plants the other day. Free from the son.
Also some chives. Finally got all our hostas in the ground that I found
last year on a craigslist ad.

Still keeping my electric log book.

Nothing real exciting. Just doing what I have to do :)
 
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#16 ·
Made brownies yesterday to nibble on. See they're all gone today

Went into store today to get bread for office. Came out with only the bread.

Got enough gas on the way home that should do the rest of the work week. Plan on business filling my tank first part of next week as I do all the errands and running for the business.

Not much more. Watching electric and see now a light that needs turned off. ARG...
 
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#17 ·
watching the electric bill plummet now that DH works at an office again. Unfortunately it can't out pace the increase in gasoline and the price hike.

Dh fixed the DW for free (just a bit of stray sticker plastic)
Made Dh eggs I bought at Easter to use them up. used the sale cheese and sale milk.
Played UNO and talked about Jobs (sigh)
repurposed 4 tubs instead of buying 4@$8.99 each and the extra crap I would have bought from the store. Saved the gas too.

Used so old spray and wash on really stained jeans and it all came out
Found some clearance Fabrese in my stockpile for the new furniture $1.50 for the Kroger brand.

Saved 2 XL pill bottles for future use as storage of small items
 
#18 ·
I think the key to being frugal is being CONSISTENT.
It maybe dull, boring, and certainly not exciting, but it is all the
little things done daily that add up.

Using up leftovers for lunch.

Building a rabbit cage. Once I get a few built, then I sell off some used ones.
Not sure which keeps me more busy, the chickens or the rabbits.
I just know that I can always find something to do.

Looks like rain today. Holding off watering the outside flowers to see if
we get the rain or not. No sense wasting time watering and then they
get a double dose from Mother Nature.

Trying to stay home most of the week. The less I go to town the better.
Usually 2x a week in the summer is my goal. 1x in the winter.
 
#19 ·
Using up little things in the fridge and freezer.
Unfrugal... found stuff that is going to have to be tossed. The kid took out chicken breasts and they didn't get fixed.

Thought we/I was watching the electric pretty dang well until I opened the bill for last week of May/most of June to the tune of $240. Highest one yet. Yes, it's been boiling ass hot but dang. So while everyone was gone for awhile today I turned it up 2 degrees. Honestly can't hardly tell the difference. Plus it doesn't feel like the 80 it says it is. We keep it on 77 and lately that feels far below 77. Wondering if the thermostat isn't wonky. We haven't had a bill that high since we've been here although Duke raised it 7% January and last year 3% so there's that. Still think the thermostat is wonky,

Did manage to lower the water bill last month a very minor $3. I'll take it. It's a gallon of milk.. almost.

Still shopping sales etc but this month has been a bust as far as staying in budget on groceries. Special food, otc meds, bandages, wraps. All added to the list. Kid fell down the stairs. HUbs had a bad infection so ....

Trying to stay out of the stores or anywhere else for that matter. Working on getting tiny areas decluttered a little at a time. I look at them and want to walk away.

At work too Hubs has been wanting Wendys for lunch. So I went and bought and brought in REAL food.... he still wants Wendys. What can I say. Not out of any household money. Out of his sold money and anything to get him to eat. 131 weight on a man that busts ass doesn't go very far.

Going to color my own hair either today or tomorrow although I always do my own. Was going to a couple weeks ago and just couldn't get with the program.

One of the prescriptions the doctor prescribed for him when we got to Walmart was $400. I told him to call the office and see about another one. He did and doctor said it had to be that one and there was no generic. This infection was seriously bad.... open and just seriously nasty. They called drug company and they called the next day They asked a few questions and that was it. I figured we'd have to fax income tax returns etc but nope... we got it as low income at $60 instead of $400.
It's still bad even now but he goes back Thursday.

All but his Wendys once in awhile... eating at home.

Stopping for gas at the cheapest place on the way home from work. Big difference one mile to another station makes...as much as 10cents a gallon for the same thing. Won't drive out of my way but they're all in a row. I figure I need it more than the oil kings.

Wishing I had made at least a few container garden things. Peppers, tomatoes. SD your greenhouse is fantastic.
 
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#20 ·
Today at home (closed on Mondays )

He's gone and kid is still in bed as she works midnights tonight 12 hour shift so turned the thermostat up a degree when I got up. May turn it up one more. Will leave until right before he comes home.

Made brownies again last night for snacking. Kid was going to go get ice cream but they decided on the brownies instead. Already here in stockpile and Cool Whip already in fridge ( BOGO ). Cool and works.

Staying home and doing some more cleaning, laundry and decluttering. So if all goes as planned no gas used.

Planning on filling up gas tank this week from the business account again versus personal.

Going to look over the sale papers and see if there's anything I really want to put forth the money and effort to get this week.

Winn Dixie had 80/20 hamburger this past week for $3.49 and hubs got several pounds of it. Haven't seen it that low in several years.
 
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#21 ·
Wow, that seems expensive for hamburger. :(

I took a spin on my HydroBike, about two miles, I think. It was a workout! No gym fees and smelling other people's stinky sweat for me! :D

I'm staying home, too. Trying to figure out what to make ahead for the rest of the week, since I know I won't want to cook for a few days after surgery tomorrow. Cheaper and healthier than buying restaurant food.

Just doing the usual around here, I guess.
 
#22 ·
SD normal price around here for 80/20 is about 4.99 a pound. If you go above that to ground round or 93% you can reach $6 a pound. Or more. Cheaper to eat steak in a way. The irony of it is there are beef cows EVERYWHERE. Go figure. Same with oranges.
 
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#23 ·
Doing laundry and hanging it on the line even through it looks like rain.. Maybe it will hold off a while. Taking some leftover mac and cheese and putting a can of tuna in it for dinner tonight.. I have the air off for now as running in and out.. going to work on basement this afternoon to try to get it in order..lol Guess that isn't going to happen.. Got to go to work.
 
#24 ·
Got my dh on board and excited about paying off our home equity loan at a quicker pace. Decided that this would be a good place for me to document our progress. Focusing on saving, earning, no waste through frugal living with help us obtain this goal.
Here are some of the ways we came up with-
1) When I have overtime that money can be used if not needed for household emergency. The few extra dollars from my raise will be added each paycheck.
2)We will limiting our use of credit card, we thought it was fine because we always pay it in full at end of month and we were making "1.5 % back on all purchases"- The problem is we don't think about the purchases as much as if we were paying cash.
3) Need to limit the internet use on my phone to free wifi areas and remember to connect to it. That will save $20 a month.
4) Dh signed up for evening referee jobs at the school which will bring in extra income.
5) Our respite care income will go towards the loan.
6) Dh will do the majority of the grocery shopping as he sticks to the list better than I do.

And what did we do frugal today?
We stayed home instead of going out. Made supper at home. dh decided to listen to a football game on the radio. This saved price of ticket and gas to drive there. Did not buy lunch at work, saved $2 ,cook gave me a few fishsticks that were left over. Been taking quicker showers, put shampoo in pump bottle so I use controlled amount. Turned off extra lights. Baked scalloped potatoes and dessert at the same time in the oven. Left oven open to warm the kitchen after it was turned off. Took the short cut home which does not take me through downtown and tempt me with stopping. I did need to fill the tank with gas however. If I would have had cash I could have saved a 3 cents a gallon. Used debit card.
Furnace definitely needed this evening as temperatures are dropping tonight and frost expected. I like the house cooler with my hot flashes and dh dresses extra warm so usually frugal in this department.
...$25 towards the loan today through online banking from a estimate of what I saved today.
 
#25 ·
Groceries for the next week were $70 for DH and I. We came home to an empty fridge. I bought to replace some basics too.

Walked away from the $10/lb. butter (yep! You saw it here!). Found it at another store for $4.

Hubby and I are putting our thinking caps on for a frugal yet meaningful anniversary tomorrow. It's our 35th. :)
 
#26 ·
We bought a desk at ReStore for Husby's office, which we're remaking from top to bottom. The office, not the desk. Unfortunately we had to drive to another state to get it, but since it was only $24 and the price had dropped $19 since we were at that store last week, the low price made the trip worthwhile and the cost reduction covered most of the gas and the rest was made up by buying gas at the cheapest station, savings on grocery items bought at the chain store vs. locally, buying close-out items from Office Max for my office, driving the speed limit, picking up some other office items at thrifts, and saying no to ourselves a lot at Harbor Freight.

We also got a $14 refund from Harbor Freight because several items we bought last week were on sale for lower prices this week, so they refunded the difference. The remainder of the HF items were on their ad for very reasonable prices.

We once again talked ourselves out of the 130-piece tool kit for $30 which was a suck-em-up deal. But we decided that, somewhere in the garage, we have one or more of those pocket dealies that fit over a five-gallon pail, and we have lots of duplicates of hand tools. So we're going to set up our own tool kits for free with items we already own. We concluded we should have at least two.

As always, took the cooler with water, pop, and snacks so we didn't have to buy food, although we did have lunch at Wendy's after deciding to save money over eating at Grizzly's or Grandma's. I had a really good BBQ chicken salad, Husby had an artery-clogger double bacon cheeseburger.

Hit the close-out section at the grocery store and got a lot of deeply discounted groceries. Also shopped their ads and saved quite a bit from that, too.

Instead of leaving the covers for the truck box home, we left them on for the 120-mile drive down, but of course had to have them off on the way home. We saved gas by leaving them on for the drive down, and noticed a drop in mileage with the wind hitting the tailgate all the way home.

Husby needed wire racks for hanging files for the file cabinet he bought at ReStore last week, and found the two sets he needed at GW, NIB, for $3 each. At Office Max, we found the exact same product for $15 each so saved $24 right there. :ndance:

I needed some clipboards for work and got two on clearance at Office Max, then found two more at Savers for $2 each. One of them is the storage type I had been eyeing on Amazon but had decided not to buy because they were too expensive and I didn't need them that badly. I was happy to get it. Now I think I'll be able to work down on the dock sometimes in the summer and not lose pages into the lake if there's a wind, because I can put quite a few pages inside the clipboard storage. Or use it for pens and other office items.

I got a wireless mouse I need for my office for $10, marked down from $30. Hope it works. Wireless mice and I have had issues in the past.

Bought a service cart for the garage. Where have these been all our lives? It was $110 which IIRC was more or less half price. We're going to set it up with all the tools we're always looking for in the garage. It should save us a ton of time and help us get much more organized, so we're not wasting time and getting frustrated looking for simple items. And we'll have a rolling table now to set tools on instead of trying to balance them on the sawhorses, which has resulted in damaged tools at times in the past when they've fallen off onto the cement floor.

A good time was had by all.
 
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