What Did You Do Frugal Today Section 11

[jjoj]

Good morning, everyone! Frugal for here today is making meals to freeze and either grilling or using the crock pot for our dinners this week, making tea by the gallons, drinking lots of water, and trying to resist buying soda except as a treat now and then. I have been experimenting with the ac-only turning it on at noon or afternoon and turning it off before bedtime. It seems to be comfortable and I'm really hoping we'll be able to see a difference in our electric bill. We will see. Other than that, I am returning and picking up library books. My excitement for the day. Take care friends, and enjoy this beautiful day!

[Lee]

Goodmorning!

Karen, sounds like you have a busy day planned! Enjoy.

In a little bit Dh kids and I are going to the Westside Market, I hope to find some good deals on fruits and veggies. I am ready to go now but since its driving to downtown Cleveland, traffic would be a bit heavy.

No daycare kids today so just the 4 of us. I think were going to turn the sprinkler on again for ds right now he prefers that over the pool. Which is fine by me. Having breakfast lunch and dinner at home. Did turn the air on to 79, its darn hot out there and I lost the air/no air battle. As long as we can still pay plus we still are on budget so I will get over it.

Beck,
Thats great you use your card to work for you. Discipline is the key as I am sure you pay the balance off monthly! Have a great day all.
Leighann

[futureteacher]

Frugal find of the week: Jewel grocery store has Diet Coke on sale. I can get 5 12packs for $10, so $2 per 12 pack. This is the lowest sale price we see in this area, and I am VERY happy with that. BUT there is a $5 (!!!) rebate on this, so that's $1 for a 12 pack! This seems almost too good to be true! As I am a Diet Coke fanatic, I am so very happy!

[AnnaInOhio]

Chris

Our Meijers is doing something similiar. 4 24 packs for $4.00 after mail in rebate. I think my friend said they are 4 for $13.00 then send in the rebate. I haven't looked at our ads yet for this week.

Frugal Find Yesterday: A new "used" yogurt maker by Salton. It was only $2.79 at the thrift store.

I have one already that has ind. cups but this one makes 1 quart at a time in the same container, much easier to clean. We are burning through a quart every other day right now making smoothies to take to work as breakfast and snacks that I need to start trying to make these more frugally.

Sueanne
Do you still have the recipe you gave me a long time ago? I've misplaced mine and the recipe I got with this machine says to use whole milk and the old one I used you could use all powdered milk.

Frugal Today? Brought in smoothies and lunch at work. Oh and yesterday I made granola bars but will be asking some advice on this recipe in another section here.

That's about it so far today.

Anna

[asp123us]

Hello,


Maybe our grocery store is doing that pop special, too. I will find out on Wed. which is my regular shopping day. If I go more than that, we spend too much, waste too much.

Eating at home is the frugal thing today. Dh ate at Boy Scout camp for breakfast and has a few cans of pudding at the office for later today, if he gets hungry. Dd took her lunch as usual for day camp. I will pack mine for work after supper is made.

I am getting my Walgreens rebate stuff together to submit. This is the first time I am trying it. I hope it pays off! I guess you can really get stuff free or reduced that you either use or donate to charity. Sounds like a good thing to me, if you are into that. We have a collection each month at church for donations. I will start collecting things for that with rebates, reduced prices. Sure beats paying regular price or taking from your small stores at home when you donate.

I am trying to save for a freezer to have in the basement; so I can stock up and save that way.

Have a great day everyone!

Andrea

[3girlsmom]

Hi everyone. Hope everybody had a good weekend. Boy was it hot this weekend! It cooled down a little today. It was in the 90's over the weekend. Today it is rainy and in the low 80's.

Had a frugal day on Friday. We have 4 supermarkets within two minutes of each other so there is a big sale war going on between them. Friday day there were a bunch of coupons from each for free stuff or stuff for a penny. I made a list for each store and just bought the sale stuff and got my free things. I spent about $85.00 but I got about $120 to $130 in food. My hubby was really shocked when I walked out of the last grocery store, the trunk was filled with groceries and I had $15 in change. For the half hour of studying the flyers and writing my list was well worth my the savings. I plan on doing it again this weekend.

Since it is so yucky today i plan on doing the laundry and trying to get the garage in order. I really want to have a garage sale sometime this month. So I am being ruthless about getting things together for the sale. Well, gotta run. DD1 is having a friend sleep over tonight so trying to get straightened up.
Have a great day all

[justEricka]

Originally Posted by bluebird

Ericka, how many gallons does your pool hold? I am guessing you are using chlorine supplies from Walmart or a discount store? We have had our pool for a few years so many I can help you.

joesbaby, it is really hard to tell how much you should use. There are several factors to consider.
1) what type of chemicals are you using? its a pack that walmart had for the soft set quick set up type pools.
2) how much the pool is used daily when the girls get a chance
3) how much sun the pool gets id say about 75%
4) how dirty the pool gets when the kids play in it. decent dirty

It is really a good idea to get a pool testing kit, that way you are not using too much or too little. The test kit can be a simple one for your type of pool. Just has to have a chlorine and pH test. I am guessing for the size of your pool, 1/2 ounce (or less) of chlorine each day it is used. Once a week, maybe 1 oz. But, I can not stress to you how important it is to keep the filter clean!! Clean it daily. Not necessarily replace it, but, clean it!! And be sure to scoop the grass and bugs out daily. And even take your mop and mop the bottom of the pool. Hope that helps.
i try to use the testing kit,,but it dont really have clear instructions and i dont think im doing it right.


its the small one..i think it holds aprox 500 gal, its 8foot by 27 inches deep.

not much happening here, my dh built me a new closet in the trailer so that was good. it helped out alot. and we got moms pumps changed out.

its hot and yucky today.i sure hope it rains soon.

have a good day everyone
ericka

[LJsmom]

Friends had their Open house for their new real estate office today, complete with roast pig! They sent me home with enough food for dinner. Dd2 was kind of grossed out by the pig w/apple in its mouth. Someone had a sense of humor, they put a fork in one hoof and a knife in another

Went to our dollar store to stock up with "are we there yet?" goodies for our car trip. They have tons of glow necklaces, bracelets, glasses etc. in multi-packs. Ought to be fun with those.

Our new Aldi in town I think is almost finished. The parking lot is done, sign looks done, temp fencing has come down. Now when I see the trucks in the lot I'll be really excited!

Our neighbor somehow got a hold of free bowling certificates and gave us 3. They don't expire until Oct. Saving those for rainy day fun. Who am I kidding, it hasn't rained here in weeks...

[crochet2]

3girlsmom, that's the kind of saving I love.

Yes, Walgreen's is a great place to get free after rebate (FAR) stuff to donate. I not only participate in their program whenever I get to a Walgreens (there are none in my area yet), but I do Rite Aid. And if I am not donating the free stuff, I am putting it aside for our city-wide yard sales. I use what I call "roll over" money. I originally put a limit of $50 total for these rebates that I would use. I have it in an envelope. I use strictly cash for these. When I get the rebate back, it goes into the envelope.

I also have a set limit of $200 that I will put out for FARs online. A couple of years ago, Amazon.com was selling computer software (games, programs, etc.), shipped free, and with a full rebate. There was a limit of 3 of each title. People were buying the stuff so fast, that by the time I got the post that they were having one of these sales (ususally the 3rd Thursday of each month) that I sometimes missed something. I was getting whatever was there (except some of the tax software, because I didn't know how up to date it might be), 3 each, and donating them to my friend who runs a silent auction each year for the animal welfare association in her area. I not only got the stuff to donate free, but she gave a letter attesting to the total value of the stuff I donated. The woman who does my taxes was very happy with that letter.

The rebates often come before the time the credit card bill had to be paid. If not, it comes out of my savings account, and goes back when the rebate check arrives. And, I too have a credit card that pays you when your purchase total is over a certain amount. Mine is for certificates to my grocery store. Which I often specifically use to get more rebates, or free stuff with coupons.

So if you plan to donate, don't forget to take any advantage you can of getting a letter attesting to the value of what you donate. If you itemize, and if you already tithe, or donate to charity, this can add some to that amount.

A couple of years ago, there were rebates galore out there for extension cords. The ones in my house were inherited from my mother. They were really old (late 60's, early 70's). I wasn't using them, but wasn't throwing them away either, until there were rebates which made the new ones free. So I stocked up, and then recycled the old ones by cutting off the plugs, so no one would mistake them for anyhing that could be used again. These have been used for tying stuff up from time to time.

There have been rebates on items that are on sale too, like coffee pots. You might not need a new one this second, but if you pay no more than $5, after a rebate and sale, pick it up if they come out to about that price. I don't drink coffee but one was on sale for $5, after the rebate, so I picked up and added it to my "gift closet". My sister, who also doesn't drink "coffee" was bemoaming the fact that her coffee pot, which she uses to make hot tea all day long, broke. Rather than her going out a buying a new one, not on sale, I gave her the one I had for the cost I paid - $5. She was very happy about that. I didn' make anything on that, I didn't donate it anywhere, but, I helped someone else save. And that $5 went back into the "roll over" money.

Anna, I don't eat enough yogurt to make my own, but I am glad that you can now make it in bulk. Try going to the brand name's website for recipes, they usually have lots of them. And the ingredient amounts would be just perfect for their machines.

See, there really are kitchen items I don't own. But somehow, I forgot to mention that quite a few years ago I purchased a food mill, thinking that I would do mashed potatoes in it. They came out a little sticky, but it works good if you are doing applesauce. I realized I don't eat too much applesauce, so it has been in the bottom of cabinet for the pots and pans. That thing was pretty expensive at the time.

I do however, use my ricer. I use it for mashed potatoes (I peel and chunk the potatoes, boil them til tender, mash with hand masher first, then spoon into the ricer and press. I also use it to mash sweet pototatoes for pies. I think that it would work well for spaetzle, but I don't make that, so I don't know. I also use it for boiled eggs for potato salad, which is what reminded me to put it here. It is a star in my kitchen.

Well ladies, I have been rambling on here long enough.

Take care all!! Norma

[danstigerangel]

Frugal today will be doing cold water wash. If the rain clears, they will be dried outside.

Have a great day!

Lauri