Isn't this Outstanding?

Recent frugal triumphs

haverwench — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 16:56:25 GMT

I'm starting this thread to give us all a place to crow over our recent frugal achievements, large and small. Here are a few of mine:

1. With an hour and some heavy thread, I reattached the pockets that were on the verge of falling off my husband's ancient winter coat, so that it may now last him a few winters more. (Side note: Anyone else have a spouse who never thinks to tell you about small rips or holes, which would be easy to fix, but just waits for you to notice them yourself, by which time they've turned into much bigger rips or holes that are much harder to fix? Sigh...)

2. I used NetQuote to find a new auto insurance policy with the same coverage--in fact, slightly better--for about $150 less per year.

3. I found some great bargains on eBay: three pairs of wool long johns and a new winter hat for $20 total. (Of course, thanks to Murphy's Law, as soon as I'd bought all this winter wear the weather warmed up so that I don't really need it...so I guess my $20 was an even better bargain, because it bought an extra month of spring. :-D)

That's all I can think of at the moment...how about you all?

Power bill is down!!

goldenblaise — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:22:21 GMT

Another $50 off this bill! We've only be able to turn off the a/c a few nights a week this month. It's still so hot down here (FL) even the night breezes are just too warm. I hoping to knock off another $50 next month.

cyn

Wonderful Mennonite Store

seaturtle — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 01:33:57 GMT

A store opened recently in my area. It is run by thte Mennonites, and it is just delightful. Much less expensive than any of the grocery store. Very quiet, subdued, soothing ;atmosphere, no lines, automatic checkouts bright lights, crowds.

Everuything is on wooden shelves, simply and nicely packaged. Produce - locak. Their home-frozen vegetables and fruits. Homemade bread, all baked goods, homemade jellies and jams, chutnies. An array of spices and herbs in large containers for almost nothing. Just the basics - not one single pre-packaged, commercial product, no advertising. And everything put up by hand.

I am doing all the shopping I can there in the future.

My good deal on coffee

slk2042 — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 00:48:09 GMT

DH drinks a pot a day!

Our local CVS had the large plastic containers of Maxwell House Master Blend (DH's favorite) on sale for $6.77. At CouponSuzy.com there was a coupon for $1 off of two. I printed out two coupons, so there was $2 off right there.

I also had $19 in Extra Care Bucks, plus a coupon for $5 off of a $25 purchase.

I bought 4 cans...My grand total after tax (yes, our state taxes groceries) was only $7.40. I ended up saving $48! I put the canisters into the freezer to stay fresh.

I knew you all would understand my happiness.

Cedar Chest Find

Toni B. — Thu, 21 May 2009 16:05:36 GMT

My neighbor called and said there was a garage sale and they had a cedar chest for $5. Hopped in the car and took a look at it. I'm the proud owner of a LANE cedar chest. The outside is dated 1960's fake wood laminate but the inside is in perfect condition. If there is one thing I've learned from those HGTV decorating shows is that you can always spruce up and improve the look of anything.

My work BFF's great deal

jillibean — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:21:49 GMT

This past weekend there was a coupon for All laundry detergent in the coupon insert. I give my coupon inserts to my work BFF when I come in on Monday, and his wife was able to get another coupon online. Monday after work he went to the HyVee grocery store next door to work to use the coupons. HyVee has the 32-load size on sale this week for $3.99. He had 3 coupons, so he got 3 bottles. When he went to pay for it, it rang up at $4.89/bottle. He told the cashier it was on sale for $3.99 that week. It took them several minutes to verify that, but once verified, the manager came over and told him the store's policy is that when something rings up incorrectly, the item is free except for sales tax. So he got 3 32-load bottles of All laundry detergent for a total of 88 cents (the sales tax).

Jill

Apology to National Magazine Exchange

seaturtle — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 01:46:41 GMT

A while back,I complained about this company.

The person who works for them is right: it's other companies with similar names, posing as NME, which have bothered me and tried to scam me.

I have had nothing but excellent service from NME.

Just wanted to pass that on. Teaches me to investigate thoroughly before saying anything.

Seaturtle

Chase Bank is human!

Deborahmichelle — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 19:58:09 GMT

Dear All, I used to bank at Washington Mutual, but when it went belly-up lasat year, Chase took over. I was afraid of such a huge bank. WaMu had been eassy to deal with, but I feared ""JPMorgan-Chase"'s size.

WELL! I had nothing to worry about! One month, they failed to enclose with my stateement 2 endorsed checks that I had wwritten for medications aide to my Certified Nursing Asst, Josie, that I needed to send copies of to Food Stamps. I was devastated, especially when I called to inquire & wass told that I'd have to pay $10 for a copy of each check (each check was for $25). WELL! I asked for a supervisor, AND GOT THE FEES WAIVED. I was simmmply delighted. NO HASSLE! Yours in Him, Deb

scrap gold

goldenblaise — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 05:25:16 GMT

I am forever picking up beads and jewelry clasps that are laying around. On the floors at schools, parking lots etc. Yesterday hubby and I were talking about how big my collection of junk was. Tons of one earing or halfs of bracelets. So I decided to go down to a store that buys scrap gold. It turns out that alot of what I had was really gold. After testing and weighing it I left with $230! From junk that no one else had ever bothered to pick up!

cyn

Fridge and Dishwasher steal!!!!

AmyC — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 04:15:38 GMT

Dh and I have been using the dishwasher and fridge that came with our house since we bought it 4.5 years ago. They worked okay, were quite small and were a few years old when we bought the house. However, we have a good friend that lived a few blocks from us and he willing forclosed on his house ( a whole different story, he decided to just not pay, even though the funds were available). This friend had purchased a new fridge and dishwasher about five months ago. He has been living in an apartment for the last four months. He offered to trade us appliances because his new apartment supplied them and he had no use for them. So we traded this afternoon. Happily, even though he had bought the appliances months ago, they were barely used. Apparently he lives on nothing but frozen TV dinners when he isn't eating with us on Saturday nights. The dishwasher had only been ran once! The fridge still had some of the factory stickers on it! I feel like I got the score of a lifetime!

While I feel bad that he chose to willing foreclose, I slightly understand his choice, even though I would never make the same decision. I figure that since he eats at our house every Saturday night and has for years, and will continue to do so, that the trade even benefits him!

Why I Love Wellness

mikasha — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:53:28 GMT

I just had to tell everyone this...

We have been feeding our three cats Wellness brand canned food for the past year and a half. We found this food when Jasmine was diagnosed with chronic renal failure and the vet told us to switch her to mostly canned food. We did some research and chose Wellness brand because they use human grade food to make their products. All three cats loved the food we bought which was a miracle in itself. They are seniors and very picky. But for Jasmine it was a life saver: she actually gained some of her weight back and started to be active again. Her allergies cleared up and I noticed an improvement in the fur on all three cats.

Sadly last month Jasmine took a turn for the worse and we chose euthanasia so that she would not suffer. I wrote to Wellness to thank them for producing such a wonderful pet food. I told them that I believed the food helped to prolong Jasmine's life so we had eighteen more months with our sweet girl. They sent a lovely condolence email back and told me they would send coupons for purchasing food for our other kitties. I assumed they would just send the coupons so I had a surprise when we got the mail from them. They sent a lovely handwritten condolence card that was signed by everyone in their office. Inside were 2 coupons for $10 off their products. The card was so nice that my husband put it on his desk and we've been telling everyone about it.

I've had a lot of poor customer service in the past few years. I didn't expect anything when I wrote to them - I just wanted to thank them for their product. I think their actions went above and beyond so we will definitely continue to buy their products and I will recommend them to everyone I know.

3M corp responding to complaint

cherylm — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 04:18:25 GMT

i am amazed! a company that responded almost immediately to a complaint about a product i have used for years! i emailed 3M about dobie dish-scrubbing pads, saying they seemed to be deteriorating rapidly. they asked for info about package code numbers, etc, and said they would replace the product i was unhappy with. they asked me to send back, at their expense, the ones i had on hand, including packaging. in about 1 week, i got 2 new packages of pads, and a postage due return label for my returned product. wow! they know how to make a happy customer!

Hooray for Freecycle!

Joyous — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 02:51:48 GMT

It seems like my husband wears the same three or four shirts over and over again. Today we got a sack of clothes from Freecycle, and nearly everything in it fit him and he liked! There was a wool sweater, several casual button-up shirts, two dress shirts, several jeans, dress pants, cargo pants, corduroys - and everything in good condition. I am THRILLED!

My April Electric Bill!

juju_mommy — Tue, 06 May 2008 13:13:30 GMT

I just had to share...

We got our April electric bill in the mail yesterday. And guess what? We cut down our electricity usage by 1/3 to 1/2 from what it was last April!!!!!! Our bill is usually really high because we live in an older mobile home (which lacks good insulation and such). But this month it was soooo much better. I'm so proud of myself! How did I do it?

The main/larger changes I made were:

1) Replacing our light bulbs with those CFL bulbs

2) Drying Clothes by hanging them up rather than running the dryer constantly (I think this was the biggest savings for us)

3) Turning the AC up.

Though we've never really kept our house super cool (or warm in the winter), we have turned it up a few degrees. Now, my husband compained a lot at first but now it doesn't seem to bother him as much. Plus, we live in Southern Louisiana. In the summer the AC can't even keep up with the darn heat. My husband use to do AC work and we were told by several AC people that your AC can really only cool off by about 20 degrees. So, if it's 98 outside, there is no possible way to cool it off to 70 unless you have a SUPER insulated house.

I just thought I'd share with you all. I know that our bill wont stay like this because the hot Louisiana summer is about to kick in. But still.... It's something! Our bill during the summer is usually $200 or more!!!!! So, if I can hang clothes and make a few changes to get it down some, it's totally worth the effort for me.

God bless

Julie

Habitat For Humanity Resale Stores

donna england — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:03:13 GMT

My DH and I recently visited a Habatat Resale store and found some great deals on paint. They were having a half price sale,and also if you buy 4 gallons of paint, the 5th one is free. These were good quality paints, and we also purchased a couple of gallons of white satin paint from Lowes when we got our painting supplies.

With my Dhs good eye for color and some experimenting, we went on a marathon of painting and did all 3 bedrooms in 1 week.Whew! It sure looks good though.

We did the master in two shades of light blue, one room in a light rose and the other in a light grey blue.

I think we probably spent about 50 dollars in all.

Please say a prayer for my little blind and deaf kitty

LindaC — Sat, 30 May 2009 00:09:00 GMT

Baby was the second (and a homeless) kitty I adopted in the early 90s. Sorry, it's been about 18+ years and my memory just isn't that good anymore. I adopted her because she had sustained a head injury and someone put her in a big box outside my apartment (in Tennessee). She survived in that box who knows how long, but I found her when I returned from home (here, where my mom and sister lived, and I now live too) on the day after New Year's day. Baby went deaf, I guess, from the accident and about 6 years later, she went blind. She's been through a lot and is still a spunky senior kitty! We almost lost her when she had tooth surgery about 6 years ago. It took her a good year to recover, but she was also still grieving for her other cat family members, too (we lost 4 senior kitties, ages 15 to 18+), so it was a lot for a little kitty to go through in just about 1-1/2 years time.

Baby sustained an injury to her right eye a few months ago and it gradually filled up with blood. Then, about a month or so later, something happened to the eyeball--looked like it was scratched somehow. Whether our newest young kitty accidentally did it or Babe injured it herself we don't know. But she now has an infection and the skin inside is inflammed. We tried antibiotic ointment for 10 days now and I called her vet to see what's to be done.

We're to bring her in Monday morning for evaluation. If the dr. thinks it best, she'll have surgery that morning.

We haven't been able to see her eyeball for a couple of days because of the swelling of the skin around her lid. Well, since yesterday, we made a harder effort to flush out the infection well and hold her eye open wide and get that medicine deep inside.

We gave her a bath after dinner. She hates baths, but did pretty well. Well, we were laying down a fresh quilt and pillow for her and mama was holding her and she had her eye open and we could see her eyeball! She's napping now, but I can't wait to clean her eye to get a better look.

I'm hoping for the best, but prepared for surgery. Strangely, I feel at peace because Babe's had a long life and a good life. If the dr. feels that they should go ahead with the surgery, he'll remove her eyeball and any tissue surrounding it that may pose a problem then sew her eyelid shut.

I'd appreciate your prayers for Babe and thank you for taking the time to read my (rather rambling) request, too. :)

Progress of my Monthly Tracking

juju_mommy — Wed, 27 May 2009 15:40:04 GMT

Since the beginning of the year, I have been tracking my monthly grocery spending (this includes baby diapers, formula, etc.). I estimated that I spent about $400-500 a month and wanted to start tracking my spending to see if 1) my estimation was correct and 2) how I could cut back. So far, this has been very successful. I keep an excel spreadsheet with a tab for each month. My columns are simple: date, transaction, amount. At the end of the month, I put my total for that month. Almost half way through the year now (boy, that's scary! time sure does fly by!), I can see that I need to find additional ways to cut back on grocery spending. I am averaging $600 per month and even with the added expense of little ones, I think I can get that number down. My goal of this spreadsheet wasn't to have a self-imposed guilt trip (LOL) but to give us a better idea of what we spend each month on groceries and such and by going this little exercise, it helps me to pay more attention to each dollar spent on food.

I have also been tracking our debt pay-off. We started in April with a plan to pay at least $1,000 a month towards (unsecured) debt payoff. This means credit cards, student loan, etc. So far, though its only been a couple months, we're doing great!!! If we stay on this track, we'll be free of the (unsecured) debt in less than our goal of one year! I can actually see that we are making a dent, even after just a couple of months, and it's VERY encouraging. After paying off this debt (in one year or less) we plan to put aside the same amount each month in a savings for a downpayment.

Even with a full time job, 2 small kids, etc. I've still managed to keep up these spreadsheets. They are very simple but have kept me on task and give me a better idea of where we stand and what we need to do to get to the place we want to be in a year.

Have a blessed day,

Julie

Please list your prayer requests for Deb to pray about in THIS thread, thank you

Deborahmichelle — Thu, 14 May 2009 22:14:32 GMT

Dear All, I am behind in your lives PLUS I am sure that I have been praying still for some ill people who haave recovered & so forth. If you want my prayers, please list them in this thread. Then, please try to remember to write another post in case my prayers are no longer needed. THANKS!!! Yours in Him, Deb

I won a gas card!

slk2042 — Wed, 20 May 2009 00:35:58 GMT

My dd's soccer team had a "mandatory" fund raiser where we were supposed to sell raffle tickets for a pre-paid gas card. Normally I despise fund raisers, because I'm just not a salesperson by nature. We were responsible to sell 50 tickets at $1 each. So in order to save the headache, I just bought all 50 tickets for myself.

I won the top prize, a $250 gas card! To BP, one of the nicest stations in our area. I honestly wasn't expecting anything, so I am shocked to say the least.

Kraft Foods

Virginia Needlewoman — Thu, 14 May 2009 12:15:46 GMT

I recently bought some Kraft Ranch Dressing. I use it on my frozen potatoes.

Unfortunately, my bottle stayed out all night. I called the 800 number to ask about the safety issue. If you recall, I get food poisoning easier than most people.

Imagine my delight and surprise when Customer Service said "We're going to send you a replacement coupon for this salad dressing." !!!!

To me that goes beyond the usual customer service !

Prayers Needed. Member's Husband Died

Virginia Needlewoman — Mon, 04 May 2009 02:09:22 GMT

Some of you may know JMNYVA who doesn't post very often on the forums. Her husband died between late Saturday night and very early Sunday morning.

She's been busy making arrangements for the funeral. She will be having the service in New York state.

I've talked to her several times today. Right now she's doing okay, but she's going to need some prayers.

For those of you who don't know this, she's been there for me because her husband went through heart attacks and strokes prior to Mom's problems in 2007. I'm trying to be there for her via the phone. She calls me June Cleaver. My doctor calls me Martha Stewart. So what advice did I give her ? March to a beauty parlor and get a really good haircut/hairstyle so that she will look good for her trip.

She took care of her husband 24/7. She needs to take care of herself and she hasn't been near a beauty parlor in ages. That is why I told her to get her hair done.

Prayers for repeat eye surgery

re-tired — Wed, 06 May 2009 22:59:37 GMT

At my follow-up eye appointment today the doctor discovered that the original operation resulted in scarring which pulled the retina away from the back of my eye completely. I have to have the surgery again. It has not been scheduled yet but will be sometime within the next 2 weeks.

re-tired

Prayers needed

seaturtle — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 03:24:13 GMT

I mentioned before that I have a dear friend who has cancer which has metastisized into the bones and organs.

They had some hope, but I received today news from his wife that he has a few days, perhaps a couple of weeks left.

Please pray with me that he be spared pain and suffering and that his wife, who is 77, can carry on with her life. This couple was so very close, with a wonderful relationship, and they lived for each other. I can only be of support to her, but she is so exhausted from the long months of anxiety and caring for him that she has retreated into herself. She does not need cooked or chores done - she is very well-off. I have offered anything she would want me to do.

Thank you.

Flowers Bakery Thrift Store

slk2042 — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 22:46:18 GMT

Today I went to the bakery thrift store, something I don't do as often as I should. When I was there, I stocked up with the following:

3 packages Cinnamon Raisin Bagels (DD likes these for breakfast), 2 packages English Muffins, 2 loaves Whole Grain Bread, 2 loaves 100% Whole Wheat Bread, 1 package Hot Dog Buns, 1 package Hamburger Buns,1 loaf Cranberry Swirl Bread, 1 box Vanilla Wafers, 1 package of Fig Newtons, and 1 package of Chocolate Marshmallow Cookies.

I received a 10% military discount, so my grand total for all of this was only $20.52. Lucky I have room in my freezer to store it all!

Lands' End Experience

lucialucia — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 18:42:47 GMT

I had purchase a burgundy jacket for my DH at least 6 years ago from Lands' End. The zipper seperated and could no longer close. I had an experience many years ago where Lands' End repaired a zipper on another jacket. I contacted the customer service dept. and was told to mail the jacket back and they would replace or repair the zipper. Anyway, a few minutes ago I got a call from one of their customer service reps. At first, I thought they were going to say that this jacket was purchased too long ago and that hey, zippers don't last forever. They informed me that they no longer made the jacket in that color and that instead of repairing the zipper, they would replace the whole jacket and send a brand new one and, oh yeah, what color do you want? (I would have been satisfied if they repaired the jacket with another color zipper.) I know this company is pretty good and their products are not cheap (but not too bad either depending on what you buy. BTW, I got this particular jacket out of one of their clearance catalogues.) but I felt this went above & beyond the call of duty and I would definitely purchase from them again in the future.