How did I save money today?

[LadyLocust]

@MoBookworm1957 Credit cards can be useful if used correctly. We get 1% off whatever we charge. I charge what I can and pay it off every month which saves us 1%. Sometimes if I know there is something more than normal coming up, I pay extra ahead of when we actually charge it because I don't want to not be able to pay it. If you have a similar card and a predictable bill, you might use it for that. Just an idea.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

@LadyLocust we don't unfortunately get any benefits with using our credit card apart from points which you can redeem for free groceries and you need a heap of points to just get $10 off and the store is hugely expensive anyway and we don't usually shop there as we can get items cheaper elsewhere. But if you can get some benefit using your card then go for it if you know you have the discipline to pay it off each month.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

Today is day 1 of not spending any money today.

We made money by trading 8 metres of rapid mesh to line the inside of our trailer cage saving us $37.52 over buying it in exchange for us taking our post hole auger over and digging some post holes for our friend. She now has a hernia from digging manually on her farm as our soil here is like cement and her husband spends a lot of time away from home. Seems like we are in a lovely area where most people will trade a job that needs to be done for goods or other favours .

 

[hiwall]

@MoBookworm1957 Credit cards can be useful if used correctly. We get 1% off whatever we charge. I charge what I can and pay it off every month which saves us 1%. Sometimes if I know there is something more than normal coming up, I pay extra ahead of when we actually charge it because I don't want to not be able to pay it. If you have a similar card and a predictable bill, you might use it for that. Just an idea.

That is why we use our credit card for absolutely everything possible. We get 1-1/2% back.

 

[The Lazy L]

@MoBookworm1957 ... I drew the line and when younger son did this perpetually...natural maternal instinct to look after our children but there is a line in which they cross that spells enough is enough support from parents.

I was in high school and working evenings, six days a week as a stock-boy. Blew through a pay check and car was running on fumes. Dad had a business so I asked if I could get gas out of the business gas tank. Dad said yes, just make sure I wrote down how much I took. Cool, I thought, a unlimited supply of gas! Well I went through that tank in a few days and told dad I was getting more gas out of his tank. Dad said, No. You haven't paid me back for the last tank of gas yet. From then on I knew my credit was good for one tank only.

I had three accidents in one year. Other then Dad's dirty looks he didn't say a thing because he wasn't paying for my insurance. My monthly car insurance bill was higher then my monthly car payment. You know what I learned? To STOP having accidents.

18 years old, graduated and engaged to be married. We had $2,500 saved for a house down payment for a $10,000 house. Asked Dad if he would co-sign, "No."

On my wedding day, dad told mom to keep her nose out of our business.

I learned that dad would help up to a point and then it was my responsibility, not his.

On the flip side of the family, wife had a brother and a nephew that NEVER had to suffer the consequences of their bad decisions. Fortunately a great-nephew has the opportunity to learned from a bad decision while he serves his time in a State prison.

Making life too easy for our children is NOT helping them, it's hindering them! IMHO.

 

[LadyLocust]

@Sewingcreations15 bet your place is really starting to take shape and look nice!

Today I stocked up on quite a few things so hopefully won’t have to spend money on food items for a while.
Also 3 months ago, our power bill was over $300. Two months ago, I got it down by over half at $140. Just got the bill for last month and it’s down by over half again. It’s $65 which is much more doable. I’m still trying to decrease it more. The heat/AC is the worst culprit and we’ve been able to leave it off lately so that helps.

 

[hiwall]

Making life too easy for our children is NOT helping them, it's hindering them! IMHO.

It is the same for everyone. If you give somebody something, it has no value because it was free. So they commonly treat it like it has no value. No matter what is given, a house, a car, or a freedom.

 

[MoBookworm1957]

Got paid today:
Paid bills today.
Money got put back into savings today. Whew it was getting low.
Won't have much left till next payday, but it's all mine.
Put money aside to budget for larger meat bundle for October(my birthday present to myself).
it's only $ 50 monthly but it will help buy meat bundle that will last me approx. 9 months maybe a year.
So eventually that will be a savings on meat.
Usually only spend about $25 for produce every two weeks, sometimes less than that.
Completely paid off one small billand Strawberry's vet bill this month.
So next month that money will go into meat bundle savings account.
My car has been filled back up, so that will be a savings too.
Son has started taking his lady's mini van to pick up Grand daughter, saves wear, tear, gas on my car.

 

[Caribou]

@Sewingcreations15 bet your place is really starting to take shape and look nice!

Today I stocked up on quite a few things so hopefully won’t have to spend money on food items for a while.
Also 3 months ago, our power bill was over $300. Two months ago, I got it down by over half at $140. Just got the bill for last month and it’s down by over half again. It’s $65 which is much more doable. I’m still trying to decrease it more. The heat/AC is the worst culprit and we’ve been able to leave it off lately so that helps.

What's the humidity like in the summer there? If it is relatively low a swamp cooler is far cheaper to run than an A/C unit.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

Way to go @LadyLocust on the electricity bill that is a huge difference on a month to month electricity bill . I know that turning the cooling up a degree on your settings saves 10 % of your power bill and I think it may be more with the heating component too. Try adjusting your settings to see what is comfortable when you use the air conditioner for both heat and cooling as you may be able to get away with not so cold or hot settings which would save a huge amount in electricity.

Thank you too we currently have a backyard that looks like we are digging graves as we have in-ground pits where the soil will go and white surround above ground garden beds with pits dug underneath too. Hope the locals don't think we are doing anything nefarious .

 

[Sewingcreations15]

Today we saved money on picking up free well composted chicken manure from a friends farm a few blocks away as well as hay with cow manure in it. All of this will be tilled into the soil to add back to the vegetable garden beds. The savings would have been about $47 over buying it in the hardware store by the bag.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

Day 3 of not spending any money today .

 

[MoBookworm1957]

I was looking at electricity usage when paying the bill this morning.
Last year at this time I had used 21.5 kwh, last month I used 14.5 kwh so far this month have used just 9.2 kwh.
So I think that is good. Maybe.
Beings I'm on even pay my bill consitly verages out to be $70 monthly, but hope to drop that by half by December of this year.
Heat doesn't come on till January if can help it.
And normally air doesn't come on till July.
Air goes off in Oct.

 

[LadyLocust]

@MoBookworm1957 That is good!

 

[Meerkat]

bought meat on sale at really good price.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

Day 5 of not spending any money today.

DH will most likely make anywhere from $60 - $100 from a paid gardening job he will do today also as we will take out money for oils and fuel he uses from the earnings as well.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

Cancel day 5 of not spending money because we picked up an order of sodium chloride for our medical kit.

DH also picked up a 5lt 2 stoke oil out of his gardening job money today which we don't count as it is part of what he needs to do his gardening jobs.

How we do save money though is that DH's gardening jobs do pay for all of our gardening needs in relation to machinery fuel and car fuel used to go to and from the job, oils, whipper snipper cord, tyre repair and replacements and garden machinery maintenance so gardening and maintaining our property costs nothing .

 

[Sewingcreations15]

Over the last few days we have saved money by -

- picking around 1 kg of mulberries off a friends tree free of charge.
- Went grocery shopping and purchased 2 x 3 pks of croissants on special saving $3 on usual prices.
- Found and looked through another op shop and found for me 1 x long near new woollen coat, a like new cream cable knit cardigan, a good condition long dressing gown and a skirt and for DH 2 x like new woollen coats with dry cleaners tags still attached and a pair of work jeans all for $18. This saved us $502.97 over buying them new in the shops. We like to shop secondhand where possible but look for good quality items at reasonable prices.

Can't believe it that we have now found 2 fantastically cheap op shops we can shop at by exploring. Most of the op shops here charge new and above prices for clothing and other items. We believe in supporting charities but not when their secondhand items and dearer than new prices .

 

[MoBookworm1957]

Staying home except when moving furniture for dad.

 

[LadyLocust]

@Sewingcreations15 That's fantastic. Isn't it fun to find usable items reasonably priced, though that's almost a steal. Good job!
This month we are on track to use about the same amount of power as we did up the mountain last year this month (mountain house doesn't have all the power sucking appliances like this place.). I'm curious because I still track the power up there and it has been about 10kWh per day. The only thing on when we aren't there is the well pump. There is a baseboard heater out in the shop that I was suspicious of so I shut the breaker. The power has dropped, but won't go to zero on the hourly reading. It will be at .1 each hour. I'm curious is this just for being connected? When I'm up there again, I think I'll flip the main and see what that does.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

Thank you @LadyLocust and it does feel good to find reasonably priced and good condition secondhand items. It was a small celebration for us paying off over $5000 off our principal on our home loan since January along with getting cream buns and rolls . DH particularly needed some nice going out woollen jackets as the temperatures here are plummeting and I needed a nice long woollen coat too.

Yes things will use power if the mains switch in your power board is on and plugged in but by turning off the mains switch it cuts the power by shutting the circuit is my understanding. It is called "monkey power" or that is what the term is called. Apparently some but not all appliances use power even if they are turned off at the wall switches in the home from what I have read. We try and unplug most appliances when not in use but some that are difficult to get to behind furniture and the like we leave plugged in but turned off at the wall switch.

 

[WVDragonlady]

Got a really good deal on russet potatoes. my local grocery had 8lb bags for $3.98 each and I had a coupon for a dollar off one bag.
So for $6.96 I got 16lbs of potatoes. ( thats .44 a pound. the cheapest I have seen in a very long time)
So I guess I'll be slicing and blanching potatoes so I can dehydrate them for a couple of days

 

[timmie]

no more bbq sauce for 77 cents . maybe they will run it again later. i did get 20 pounds of rice for 5 dollars.

 

[LadyLocust]

@WVDragonlady Are spuds scarce over there? I just got a 5 lb. bag this morning so checked my receipt. I paid $1.77 for 5 lbs (.35c/lb.). I usually get the two largest looking bags and set them on the scale and get the heavier of the two.
Do you grow any? If you peel them, bury your peels. Usually some will grow. We grow a few, but not enough. Hubby is trying to hill them up more this year to see if we can get more

 

[Amish Heart]

I bought 20 cannisters of (dry mix) country time lemonade for 99 cents each. I had 50 cent off coupons for 16 of them, but Krogers wouldn't let me use that many. I did get to use half of them, though, so I got all of them for about $16.00. Colgate toothpaste was $1, and I had coupons, so 4 of them for 50 cents each. Stay free feminine products were $1, and I had 4 coupons for $1 off...so free is always good. Also got enough discounted produce for $4 that filled my Excalibur (hot peppers, tomatoes, yellow squash). Still have grocery money to roll into next week.

 

[WVDragonlady]

@WVDragonlady Are spuds scarce over there? I just got a 5 lb. bag this morning so checked my receipt. I paid $1.77 for 5 lbs (.35c/lb.). I usually get the two largest looking bags and set them on the scale and get the heavier of the two.
Do you grow any? If you peel them, bury your peels. Usually some will grow. We grow a few, but not enough. Hubby is trying to hill them up more this year to see if we can get more

Last year's crop drowned it rained so much here so potatoes ( and tomatoes) were shipped in and at one point they were $1 a pound(!) They did go down slightly at the holidays but yesterday's price was the lowest I've seen in a long time. Most produce is shipped in here in WV. Shoot we pay $1 per orange here. Fruit we have because we have orchards here for apples, pears, peaches, nectarines and cherries but citrus is shipped in.

I plan on trying my hand at growing potatoes next year in straw to see if it works. This year it was celery and onions which seem to be doing well so far.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

Today we saved $250 by cleaning out our ceiling cavity ourselves rather than getting a professional in to do it for us, oh minus one small fibre cement ceiling panel that DH accidentally put his foot through .

Day 1 of not spending any money today.

 

[Peanut]

Years ago I bought a handful of metal adapters. They allow me to connect a garden hose to just about any size bathroom or kitchen sink.

They all needed new gaskets so I cut a piece of rubber off a ripped innertube I keep in the tool room. I spent a couple hours cutting out new gaskets for the adapters… no point in buying new ones.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

Day 2 of not spending any money today.

We did go for our weekly date afternoon to the local RSL club and had a couple of soft drinks each which we don't count in our spending though.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

Day 3 of not spending any money today.

Out of our usual budget for groceries and fuel I purchased an e-gift card from our roadside assist club giving us 5% off or $11.32 on usual prices but I will count this once it is spent.