How did I save money today?

[katlupe]

Thank you, Angie!

 

[The Lazy L]

I've got a foot bridge over a ditch. Ditch has water in it nine months out of the year. Well my 20 year old bridge has a bad lean to it, time to replace it. This time instead of using 4x4" for the main supports I'm going with concrete retaining wall blocks. $1.24 each on sale for $1.09 and with the mail in rebate 79 cents each. Bought 450. I'll line the ditch to the culverts, dress that part of the backyard woods up real nice.

Disadvantage to low unemployment. When I bought the blocks Supplier said their new driver would be starting in two weeks. At five weeks I called. Supplier hasn't been able to schedule a truck with a fork lift. They will have to send 2 employees and unload by hand. Would Tuesday before noon suit me? YES! Monday morning Supplier calls, can they move delivery up to Monday afternoon? YES! They were a no show. Tuesday morning Supplier calls, they are loading the truck, that will take 1/2 hour and another 1/2 hours to arrive at address. When I ordered they noted to call me 10 minutes before they arrive. My address is misleading because I'm actually locate 1 mile from a town but my official address is of another town 10 miles away. When I explain this to the Caller he got confused and ask me to confirm the delivery address. Oh well...what they charged for delivery is less then the 5 round trips I'd have to make, hand loading on both ends. I'm getting to old for that.

 

[jimLE]

Went shopping today.and bought a 32oz bag of light brown sugar. And 2-16oz boxes of baking soda. I have no idea how or where, i'll use them.but i got um.also got 2-15oz jars of lemon juice.on account I've started drinking honey and lemon jucie mix.

 

[timmie]

we went back to the store that i bought tea last month. they had it on again b0g0 , so i bought 80 mors boxes. we love our sweet tea , and coffee.. local store has maxwell house coffee on sale ,large can for 4.88. i'll get some of that tomorrow.

 

[jimLE]

I drink coffee for everybody else's. Safety and protection.

 

[Amish Heart]

Bumped into the neighbor down the road that has gobs of apple trees with tons of them fallen. She has her teens rake them up into a huge pile and there they rot. She said it was ok for the twins to collect them whenever. We feed them to the chickens, ducks, turkeys, and rabbits. Free food for them! Brought home a trunkload and didn't even make a dent. I know some are fit for people, too.

 

[Swing]

I bought a $10 pair of soft pants tonight and when I paid they were only $3. Very soft and comfortable. And 1/3 what I expected to pay.

 

[Swing]

Bumped into the neighbor down the road that has gobs of apple trees with tons of them fallen. She has her teens rake them up into a huge pile and there they rot. She said it was ok for the twins to collect them whenever. We feed them to the chickens, ducks, turkeys, and rabbits. Free food for them! Brought home a trunkload and didn't even make a dent. I know some are fit for people, too.

Cut the bad parts out and use the rest for applesauce?

 

[tiffanysgallery]

When i brought home new heffers and cows, i'd train them to come in from the pasture using fallen apples from my farm.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

Being in drought I damp dusted the sewing and storage/medical/dressing room and poured the water on the onions we have growing for supplementary water saving on town water usage as we are on water restrictions. I will continue to do this until we have the whole house deep cleaned due to recent dust storms and we are still having them today it is so dry.

 

[Amish Heart]

Applesauce...or just freezing chunks. I was just reading something online about dissolving some salt in warm water, then adding cold water. Put the apple chunks in the bowl to soak a bit, then remove and put in freezer bags. I usually use lemon juice, but thought I might try some of the good pieces this way.

 

[snappy1]

Applesauce...or just freezing chunks. I was just reading something online about dissolving some salt in warm water, then adding cold water. Put the apple chunks in the bowl to soak a bit, then remove and put in freezer bags. I usually use lemon juice, but thought I might try some of the good pieces this way.

I

I am interested in whether this works. Please keep us posted!

 

[Tank-Girl]

This morning bright and early I added to the stockpile -
Tins of corned beef.
Sardines in tomato sauce.
Crackers.
Flour.
Rice.
Cheese.
Butter.
Vegetable oil.
Apricot nectar.

Getting to the supermarket as soon as my pension hits the bank
means less crowd and no one huffing and puffing behind me at the register because
I'm slow putting my groceries on the conveyor belt.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

@Tank-Girl I would just say something like" isn't it a beautiful day" to the huffers and puffers. It's amazing how grouches get surprised and are speechless when they get confronted with niceness .

Don't worry we just get they must be buying for an army look when we take cartons of groceries off the shelf and because we now go shopping 3 monthly they all stare at us going through the checkout too. Some ask oh you must live out of town, or gee you must do a lot of baking to how many children do you have at home . We will keep them all guessing it's more fun that way.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

Today we saved by -

- Boiling water on top of the slow combustion fireplace instead of using the electric kettle.
- Combining postage, banking and getting medication for DH to save on fuel costs.
- Gave our cat less food for the last week or so as it is winter and she is curled up sleeping most of the time and not eating as much saving on pet food costs.
- The last few weeks as we have been harvesting so many cherry tomatoes I have been subbing those to have with my iron tablets instead of taking my vitamin C tablets which makes them last longer before I have to purchase them again.
- To say thank you to us for giving a friend a back brace that was now too big for DH as he has lost a lot of weight, he gave us 2 mts of stainless steel mesh he had too much of to make 2 - 3 herb drying racks with saving us $32.50 over purchasing it. We love to barter amongst each other on a regular basis .

 

[Sewingcreations15]

Today we saved money by -

- Coupling our 2 discount supermarket e-vouchers, weekly specials, and a $10 off purchase to save $119 off the usual cost of doing our usual 3 monthly shop in 1 supermarket.
- Heating water on our slow combustion fireplace the last week for our morning hot chocolates and using the fireplace to reheat dinner tonight and to steam vegetables during the week for freezing.

 

[Caribou]

Bumped into the neighbor down the road that has gobs of apple trees with tons of them fallen. She has her teens rake them up into a huge pile and there they rot. She said it was ok for the twins to collect them whenever. We feed them to the chickens, ducks, turkeys, and rabbits. Free food for them! Brought home a trunkload and didn't even make a dent. I know some are fit for people, too.

Make apple cider and use the left over pulp to make apple cider vinegar. I love my home made ACV.

 

[Amish Heart]

Great idea. Just got home from the farm and a huge box of apples is waiting.

 

[timmie]

we put up 6 jars of pepper sauce out of our peppers.

 

[timmie]

i do some of our peppers in mason jars, but most are glass jars such as juice, whiskey, etc. these are free because a friend saves them for me . so those and the ones hubby gets while at work keeps us in jars. the ones in mason jars are put in long term storage.

 

[jimLE]

I had a bunch of carrots given to me,by 2 diff ppl. So i'll be peeling them and canning them.i'll share whats left(if any) with the 2 ppl that gave them to me.plus one of them gave me whole chicken.i'll buy the need veggies for chicken soup.more canned soup there.plus some blueberries given to me as well.need to look up,how to can them.maybe blueberry jam.(IF I CAN)..

 

[Amish Heart]

Well, coming home from vacation from the farm I brought with me two free bales of straw in the pick up truck. My cousin was outraged what we pay for a bale here
($7). So he threw two in our truck. Came home to a whole lot of gifted apples and lettuce starts. Also buckets of tomatoes from son's garden. Now it's just finding time. Did finish the tomatoes and lettuce yesterday. I have 10 lbs of carrots in the fridge to deal with.

 

[katlupe]

I started my indoor garden, the AeroGarden. Planted salad greens in it. The reviews on Amazon and the YouTube videos I have been watching on it show that it can produce enough salad greens for a small family for about 4 months. No window needed so it is near my front door. Salad greens and fresh herbs is something I spend a lot of money on at my local stores. I have had a hard time finding even the organic, that is really good and last long. So I figure if i can do this, it will save me money in the long run with no waste and fresher than what I get at the store. The one thing I really miss from my house (besides my cat and horses), is my garden. I loved it and the fresh food I harvested. So I am challenging myself to replace the stuff I miss.

 

[PopPopT]

I just do a lot of little things hoping they'll count for something. Still growing the garden and just planted a bunch of stuff for the fall over the past few weeks. Still a little more to put in but not much. The garden hasn't given us huge bounties all at one time but it's been pretty common to put away an extra few quarts of whatever is producing over the course of a couple of days. And those little bits have added up into a nice little stockpile that we'll eat well off of over the winter, not to mention that we've been eating some of it fresh as well. Plus, there is going to be an expansion of the garden for next year with a little more knowledge of the local climate, which is just a little unique. Did lots of learning this year.

Just this past year, we went from being debt free to being well saddled with debt. I hated to do it but we felt like it was the option that worked for us. The homestead was the biggest purchase and it is a 30 year mortgage. I'm paying an extra principal payment with every payment and if I can keep doing exactly what I'm doing, it will be paid off in about 14 years. If I can pay more, it will shorten it even more. We really did need reliable transportation, too, and ended up buying a brand new car. It's a base model but has way more bells & whistles than most of the cars we've ever had and wasn't any more money than a whole lot of used cars with nearly 100k miles on them. It started out as a 6 year loan that I'm paying extra on as well and if I keep on going, I have just about 3 years to go until it'll be paid for. (And if that's the case, we'll have a 3.5 year old vehicle with less than 50k miles on it and it'll be paid for.)

If the world goes to pot sooner than we can get stuff paid for, we'll be hurting. But we would have been anyway. The car is not so bad as we're not really upside down anymore and do have other vehicles, old and tired, but paid for. The homestead, well, if we lose it, we'll be exactly where we were before, homeless.

There are things that could happen. There is potentially an inheritance that could wipe out most of that debt pretty easily. But I am not counting on that. There is potential that one of the little plans in my pea brain could pan out and actually make a little money on the side that would knock debt down even farther. Or there could be other things we haven't even thought of yet. Life has a way of going it's own direction while we're off making other plans anyway.

I hate being in debt. But I felt like it was what we needed to do. Now to get out from under it and still have a little life left in us. Had we waited to pay cash for a homestead, we'd have been too old to enjoy it. I've been hearing about "The Coming Economic Earthquake" for 50 years. Sure, we've had a few dips and scares and scrapes along the way but we're still here. If it all somehow goes on another 50 years, it won't matter to me anymore 'cause I'll be pushin' up daises somewhere takin' my dirt nap.

 

[Tank-Girl]

Today I finally paid off another large debt.

I feel the huge weight off my shoulders.
I even had enough left over in my pension to stock up on more
chicken.

The drought is horrendous.
The grain mix I buy for the chickens went up over $10 per 20kg bag in the last 2 weeks.
It's time to cull the flock of the spent hens and make soup.

 

[Meerkat]

I still saved on meat this week so that is one thing plus we saved on buy one get one free sweet peas.

 

[jimLE]

I saved money yesterday.by going over to help a neighbor take some groceries in,after she got home. Turned out.that she had gone to a food bank,for some food.and they gave her some foods,that she don't eat.so she gave it to mshthose foods are now in my food storage.

 

[Caribou]

The wife just ordered six pairs of shoes, for $30 off/pair plus 20% off the total. These are the shoes she has been wearing for the last 15 years.

 

[angie_nrs]

I cleaned out the freezers in the barn and was able to fit everything into 2 freezers instead of 3, so I was able to umplug one. DH will probably fill it up this fall if he does well hunting again this year. I realized we have LOTS of fish and burger to finish up and also found some roasts I didn't know were there. Also realized I need to stock up on butter and cheese during the next sale.

I also bought a packet of watch batteries online that only cost about $4. I have about 5 watches that have dead batteries....so instead of throwing them out or taking them in for batteries (at $5 each), I will just do it myself. Those cheapie watches can last a long time if you can install your own batteries without breaking the watch. It never seems to fail....when I want a particular watch to go with an outfit, I put it on and it doesn't work. Now, I'll be ready. And I always store them with the stem out so they don't run down the battery while sitting in the drawer.

 

[JAC]

I bought a used hot tub last winter and repaired it. As usual the seller lied and said it worked fine but they just didn't hook it up after a move. I always expect that so I'm not disappointed. It had one of two pumps bad. I went in to the control panel and changed the wires around to make sure the controls worked for each pump to insure it was just the pump then ordered and changed out the bad pump. It is a high end hot tub and sold new for about $4000.00 I paid $300 for it and the pump cost another $300. Then of course once it was running I had to build a deck around it. LOL. Now I work until I'm sore and spend an hour or so in the hot tub at the end of the day.