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?

You'll need those long johns and hat next year, so they're still a good bargain!

When cleaning and painting the interior of Mom's old pie safe, I emailed Fantastik and got a coupon for a free bottle, which cleaned it right up. I used a gallon of very old latex paint and it worked just fine. No money out to get the project finished. 

I decided to start washing underwear and other small things by hand to save on wear and tear and to make a longer time between running the washing machine. So far, so good.

That's about it for the last few days.

Oh, I made a three-wick candle from candle drippings, a tuna can and some old birthday candles. I like it.  

 

I spent money on a lovely waffle iron to make sure that I can eat waffles 24/7 if I feel like it.

The Blue Talon charges $12.95 for a waffle & bacon at Sunday Brunch. that doesn't include the tax, tip, and beverage.

If I make my own waffles I will be eating healthy and cheaply plus I'll be eliminating the chance to get food poisoning, a stomach virus, or the flu. This past month I've had all 3 ailments.

Harris Teeter's store brand of Vermont Maple syrup is affordable and much better than the national brand.

The cookies I'll be making for Valentines are from my pantry stash.

I wanted to do some little Valentine's Day gift baggies for the niece and two nephews but didn't want to spend much (or anything) if I could avoid it. I had V-day baggies that I got on sale last year for 25 cents a pack that I used. For filler items, I was able to find lots of great things in my gift box stash (this is a plastic container I keep in my closet and as I find things on clearance, I put them there for gifts and such). I only need a little something for the older (9) nephew's bag but that will be something easy from the Dollar GEneral or something. All in all, it looked like I spent a lot of money on each bag but even if you count what it costs me when I got the stuff on clearance, it was still only a few dollars for all three baggies.

I figured out a new spot in our small mobile home to hang dry clothes. I use a clothes rack to dry them but it's only big enough to hold one big batch of hubby's heavy work clothes. But I found another spot that I can hang the short clothes like those for DD and DS. This helps a bunch because I can wash a little more in one day.

Have a blessed day,

Julie

I went to Walgreens today. They ahve Colgate toothpaste 2/$3. I had 2 coupons for 75 cents each, so that took it to 2/1.50. Then I received a register reward for $1 so all that==== each tube cost a quarter!!!!!!!!!

Well today I got to use a gift certificate for a shampoo cut and style that was given to me about 5 months ago so all I was out was a $5.00 tip

Well, Dear ALl, For a change of pace, how about an unintentional frugal ERROR!  I bought Tide,I think it was 48 loads liquid, on sale @ Walgreens on Sunday, $3 off, + a  $3 rebate.  BUT I did not use my $1 off coupon!  Boy! Was I unhappy when next I looked in my coupon box, & saw that I had not one, not 2, but THREE $1-off coupons for Tide.  BUMMER!

I have a $75 purchase of books (together with a $25 gift card) @ Amazon budgeted for this month.  I am still reading books from the Library to see which ones I find meaningful enough to purchase.  I only buy how-to books & Judaica.  I'm thinking about a Southern Indian vegetarian book that I took out of the Library just the other day, DAKSHIN:  AN EARTHLY DELIGHT COOKBOOK.  I know that I'm purchasing the set of TALMUD ON TRAINING WHEELS except for the book that I already own + the intro book that I took from the Library & found that I understood/knew all that it covered.  (The Talmud is the second set of commentaries -- Oral Law whisphered in Moses' ear -- on Torah/the 1st 5 Books of Moses.  It was written in about the 3rd-5th century Common Era/AD.)  There are 2 other cookbooks that I'm thinking of buying.  One is by Lorna Sass, & it explains vegetarian cookery using a pressure cooker/canner.  The other is teh vegan Jewish cooking book.  As you can see, I'm going to have to make some hard choices to stay within $100.  I HATE used books because almost invariably they have been written in.  NOW, I write extensively in my books, but I don't wanat COMPETING notes, generally they aer placed right where I would be writing a note, too!  SO, it will be a frugal triumph if I can prioritize these books & make a good decision about which ones I really need.  WELL, spending $100 doesn't sound so frugal, I know!

The only place where I'm really frugal is with food.

Yours in Him, Deb

 

 

 I'm reading it as you are spending $100 for a set of Talmud. A bargain.

 

oh, get Sass from the library first, if you haven't. I bought it, and well, I don't use the recipes except a time table.

Dear Truepeacenik, No, I have only spent $45 on the books ABOUT Talmud, not the Talmud itself, which runs thousands & thousands of dollars. 

There are 4 books published by TorahAura on the Talmud -- the introductory one is simplistic (I took it out of the Library) & I already owned one covering what the Talmud says about merchants & classrooms.  I am now getting the ones on shame & on the evil urge.

I also bought THE ESSENTIAL TALMUD by Adin Steinsaltz, THE authority of our age.  And I bought a modern, annotated edition of the Ethics of the Fathers, Pirke Avot, which is a section of the Talmud, which Jews have the tradition of studying every Shabbos/Shabbat afternoon.

Yours in Him, Deb

Just something I've been noticing lately... I'm not living paycheck to paycheck anymore! Six months ago I wasn't really saving much, and by the time I was about to get a new paycheck my money was almost gone, and I'd sometimes have to use a credit card or pull money from savings to cover those last few days.

Now I'm finding that when my next paycheck comes, I have extra money to go into savings! I don't know exactly what I'm doing to save that extra money- it's probably a combination of things. But it sure does feel good!