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SamanthaCarter
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54 minutes ago, heartlikealion said:

 Ds still has a backpack she got him another year and he said he's ok using it (like the zippers are awkward and the inside has some stitching that came undone but it's still usable). This is the backpack. https://goo.gl/images/Yj4AZ9 He said he's fine reusing the lunch bag he has, too.


That's a pretty sweet backpack!

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I'm pretty down about this whole house closing getting extended so I'm finding it very tempting to spend money. For example, I forgot to mention the $10 I spent on a scooter at Goodwill.  Now it is a great scooter and the kids don't have one so my normal reaction would be to purchase it as a Christmas or bday gift and hide it until then.  But yesterday I said F* it and just bought it and gave it to them.  They've spent tons of time on it so it wasn't a terrible purchase, just not one in line with my financial lifestyle. Saturday is my bday and I just want to spend money.  Not because I need anything or really want anything.  mostly because I want to distract myself from the stress I'm feeling.  I have been in this holding pattern not being able to get fully settled in my parents' house while I wait for this one to close.  vent over

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5 minutes ago, heartlikealion said:

I'm sorry. That stinks. Maybe you can find a compromise on how to spend your birthday that aligns with your spending but is splurge in a sense, doing something you don't normally do or seldom get to do. I'm glad they are enjoying the scooter!

 

Oh we have money set aside for bday celebrations so I'll get to celebrate how I want. All I really wanis to visit my best friend in Baltimore (about an hour away)  without the kids or dh and I'd like to eat crabs for my bday  dinner. Dh is arranging the hang out with my friend and we'll get crabs on the actual day.  I'm just thinking about stress spending and there is no better justification than it's my bday, ha.  I think I will try to take a hike or bike ride, organize my room, and just forget about the other house.

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5 hours ago, hjffkj said:

I'm pretty down about this whole house closing getting extended so I'm finding it very tempting to spend money. For example, I forgot to mention the $10 I spent on a scooter at Goodwill.  Now it is a great scooter and the kids don't have one so my normal reaction would be to purchase it as a Christmas or bday gift and hide it until then.  But yesterday I said F* it and just bought it and gave it to them.  They've spent tons of time on it so it wasn't a terrible purchase, just not one in line with my financial lifestyle. Saturday is my bday and I just want to spend money.  Not because I need anything or really want anything.  mostly because I want to distract myself from the stress I'm feeling.  I have been in this holding pattern not being able to get fully settled in my parents' house while I wait for this one to close.  vent over

I'm sorry ?

Good job Heartlikealion! If you're in budget that's great! good finds at the store!

Samantha- Awesome you guys got the bike back!

______________________________

WEnt to Aldi's- they had beef organic uncured hotdogs for $1 a package, marked down from $4, I got 15 packages and put 14 packs in the freezer. I also got Italian Chicken Sausage and Drumsticks on markdown too. I'm at $98 for the week with the GIANT bag of cheese dh bought but I got a couple of things I didn't pick up yet b/c I think I can get them cheaper at 10Box.

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I stopped at the grocery store with DS4 tonight after a sports practice.  I don’t get to run errands with just him very often.  We went in, got a cart, and he said, “Just tell me what’s on sale, and we need to check the markdowns too!”  A child after my own heart!

We did end up with seven bags of marked down GF granola.  Had some in my cereal for dinner.

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10 hours ago, BarbecueMom said:

I stopped at the grocery store with DS4 tonight after a sports practice.  I don’t get to run errands with just him very often.  We went in, got a cart, and he said, “Just tell me what’s on sale, and we need to check the markdowns too!”  A child after my own heart!

We did end up with seven bags of marked down GF granola.  Had some in my cereal for dinner.

Sweet finding the granola, your ds is so cute ?

I forgot yesterday for lunch we had spaghetti squash that I grew, it was a volunteer planted that popped up in my flower bed. I've never even grew spaghetti squash before so I'm not sure how that happened. See how easily it grew with no work from me I'll have to do it again. I made some more tomatoes and basil (also from the garden) to go with it. My garden is just a few raised beds and looks rather pathetic to be honest but we're getting a few things from it. I'm researching now about fall gardens, I'm hoping that I can do better for the fall than the spring (this spring fil was in hospice and passed away so I honestly didn't plant anything- I kept putting it off and the girls planted stuff on their own and a friend gave us a couple of tomato plants). 

I saw in my inbox another $5 off $15 or $15 off $75 from Big Lots, woot! It expires on 8/5, which means I can wait until next month when I've got more in the grocery budget again. I'll probably just buy the flour mix we use again. I got 5 bags when they had the 20% off sale and we use 3 or so a month, I'll get another 2 with the coupon for $10. I wonder how many of these coupons I missed not paying attention??

Dh and I had an anniversary Tuesday but didn't do anything b/c I didn't feel well and the kids had TKD anyway, tonight the kids are gone (to my Mom's) so we were thinking of using Bday money(from our parents) to see a movie. I was reading about buying gift cards at a discount online and found some for the local movie chain, $5 for $3.48, since the matinee is only $5 we could both go for $7. BUT I'm a little skeptical, I guess I'll try one and see how it works. That could be a sweet deal when combined with matinees and something to use for special occasions.

 

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31 minutes ago, soror said:

Sweet finding the granola, your ds is so cute ?

I forgot yesterday for lunch we had spaghetti squash that I grew, it was a volunteer planted that popped up in my flower bed. I've never even grew spaghetti squash before so I'm not sure how that happened. See how easily it grew with no work from me I'll have to do it again. I made some more tomatoes and basil (also from the garden) to go with it. My garden is just a few raised beds and looks rather pathetic to be honest but we're getting a few things from it. I'm researching now about fall gardens, I'm hoping that I can do better for the fall than the spring (this spring fil was in hospice and passed away so I honestly didn't plant anything- I kept putting it off and the girls planted stuff on their own and a friend gave us a couple of tomato plants). 

I saw in my inbox another $5 off $15 or $15 off $75 from Big Lots, woot! It expires on 8/5, which means I can wait until next month when I've got more in the grocery budget again. I'll probably just buy the flour mix we use again. I got 5 bags when they had the 20% off sale and we use 3 or so a month, I'll get another 2 with the coupon for $10. I wonder how many of these coupons I missed not paying attention??

Dh and I had an anniversary Tuesday but didn't do anything b/c I didn't feel well and the kids had TKD anyway, tonight the kids are gone (to my Mom's) so we were thinking of using Bday money(from our parents) to see a movie. I was reading about buying gift cards at a discount online and found some for the local movie chain, $5 for $3.48, since the matinee is only $5 we could both go for $7. BUT I'm a little skeptical, I guess I'll try one and see how it works. That could be a sweet deal when combined with matinees and something to use for special occasions.

 

 

Happy Anniversary!

What site are you buying the giftcards from?  Some are totally legit.  I have used cardpool

I have heard of Giftcard granny, but never purchased from there

I have heard of Raise , but never bought anything there either.  I had heard that last year they sold some Aldi's cards that had no value or were expired. 

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15 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

 

Happy Anniversary!

What site are you buying the giftcards from?  Some are totally legit.  I have used cardpool

I can't remember the name - I found Granny's Cards or something like that recommended on a finance blog and this was one listed under there. Looks like Cardpool has that one a smidge cheaper, do you have  a referral code I code put in so you get some money back?

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8 minutes ago, soror said:

I can't remember the name - I found Granny's Cards or something like that recommended on a finance blog and this was one listed under there. Looks like Cardpool has that one a smidge cheaper, do you have  a referral code I code put in so you get some money back?

 

That is so sweet.  If you PM me your email I can send you referral email. 

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Used bday and went to movie, I thought it was $5 before 5, evidently they've changed it. It is $4 before 2, $6 before 5. We went at 4:20 so we got $6 ea/tickets.

Went by 10Box and Kroger afterwards- picked up red peppers at 10 box- 3 for $1.95(with discount) which is way cheaper than Aldi's right now. Also, picked up freezer pops, which were not a great deal, oh and 50 cent of taffy for a treat ?

 

 

I just got white rice noodles at Kroger and a free Airheads (putting that back for later!). Unbeknownst to me ,they have free stuff on Fridays, I'll to make sure to check from now on. Looking at sale bills this morning I see I missed 49 cent leg quarts at Kroger and the cheese was on sale!!! 15.6 c an ounce!!!! Seriously ? Do I need more cheese? Next week will be a lean one.

I got an email from Ulta Thursday about a free fancy pants lipstick with any purchase, so I was going to get something uber cheap and put it aside for dd1 for Christmas but I forgot, maybe I can run in today and see if they still have it. I need to watch their free stuff b/c it would make great gifts for my girls. So many times you have to spend a ton but every now and again they've got really good deals.

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We decided to have a bday dinner last night, which was mussels, crabs, and beers.  We had people over for boardgames so picked up more beer than for just us. Total spent $100.  I say we did great for a bday dinner specifically because I didn't ask for anything else.

Dd's potty training has been going amazingly.  She has not had any accidents since the first day and tells me 75% of the time when she has to go. So, as is tradition, she gets to pick out her own underwear.  I decided to sit her down and browse amazon with her so she could pick something out and I could get it for cheaper than in store.  Her response, "But mom, I want to go out just us.  Simon, Ros, and Percival got to."  Apparently, it is a rite of passage in our household to go to the store to pick out your own undies after successfully switching out of diapers.  So, we went to Kohl's, she got Trolls themed undies and I picked up 2 pairs of shoes for 2 of my sons who desperately needed them.  Even that $50 spent is cheaper than diapers I would spend on her if I just waited for her to stop being scared of the normal toilet. Go me!

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All my house woes are washed away. If the house does not close on the 3rd like it is supposed to, we have a friend who needs a house to rent and is having trouble finding a place that will allow dogs.  So we offered the house to him if the deal falls through and he was more than excited at the prospect. His price range is exactly where we'd set our rental cost at and he would be a reliable tenant. I'd just have to make it right with our agent for the work she's done for us so far.  That should be easy enough because she knows she has 3 more houses in my family to sell soon, will still sell our house when we are ready, and will be helping us all find our new houses.  So she's got lots of commission coming from us in the next 2 years anyway.

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Needed a graphing calcuator for my son's pre-calc class this year.  The one the teacher recommended was $125.  I found others on Amazon for only $30-odd.  

I started a thread here asking what everyone else does about graphing calculators and some people mentioned online ones.  I contacted the teacher and she was fine with an online calc.  My dh works at a community college and he asked the math professors what online graphing calculators they recommend, and they told him about an ipad app that's FREE.  

So, saved the $125 I initially thought I'd have to spend.

-----

Otherwise, I don't know what's going on with us.  We used to have such amazing will power about spending, but for the past 6 months we've been wasteful.  Not as bad as people who have always been wasteful and don't really know better, but it's been bad for us.  I need to find a way to reset ourselves and get back to passing up on the wants and focusing only on the needs.

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Great day for free today!  One of our town's museums held a residents' day.  I heard it was going to be packed, but I figured if we got there early enough it would be fine.
Packed? ? It was so empty!  And beautiful, too.  Youngest ds loved all the child-friendly activities and chatted with various docents on his trips around the grounds.  We spent a good 3 hours there, came home, and cleaned out our garages in preparation for a week of rain starting tonight.  Dh didn't want to go with us and did the grocery shopping instead.......and stayed to the list!  That's more than I can say for myself - I went out last night to get a few things and noticed the Simply cake mixes were clearanced to $.89.  That's cheaper than I can make myself, and the ingredients are very similar (they have no dyes or artificial flavoring).  I picked up two for special dessert nights.  I'll still make my own frosting, but ds can make the cake without me hovering over him.  He forgets to tare the scale sometimes and it throws all the measurements off.

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I have my first batch of Instant Pot yogurt going.   So far so good!  It's ~1/3 of the price of buying yogurt, which was a pretty large chunk of my weekly Aldi total.  I couldn't find my cheesecloth for straining the yogurt, so I ran to the store and also found five packs of sausage links marked down to $2/lb.  The two regular spicy sausages I froze in the original packaging, but I'm going to divide the chorizo into five packages instead of three, because we can't use a whole pound of chorizo at one time.

In fact, I may throw one or two for tonight's episode of Leftovers Gourmet (Taco Rice with Black Beans).

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21 hours ago, hjffkj said:

All my house woes are washed away. If the house does not close on the 3rd like it is supposed to, we have a friend who needs a house to rent and is having trouble finding a place that will allow dogs.  So we offered the house to him if the deal falls through and he was more than excited at the prospect. His price range is exactly where we'd set our rental cost at and he would be a reliable tenant. I'd just have to make it right with our agent for the work she's done for us so far.  That should be easy enough because she knows she has 3 more houses in my family to sell soon, will still sell our house when we are ready, and will be helping us all find our new houses.  So she's got lots of commission coming from us in the next 2 years anyway.

Awesome!!!! 

19 hours ago, Garga said:

Needed a graphing calcuator for my son's pre-calc class this year.  The one the teacher recommended was $125.  I found others on Amazon for only $30-odd.  

I started a thread here asking what everyone else does about graphing calculators and some people mentioned online ones.  I contacted the teacher and she was fine with an online calc.  My dh works at a community college and he asked the math professors what online graphing calculators they recommend, and they told him about an ipad app that's FREE.  

So, saved the $125 I initially thought I'd have to spend.

-----

Otherwise, I don't know what's going on with us.  We used to have such amazing will power about spending, but for the past 6 months we've been wasteful.  Not as bad as people who have always been wasteful and don't really know better, but it's been bad for us.  I need to find a way to reset ourselves and get back to passing up on the wants and focusing only on the needs.

6

Oh, that is cool about the calculator, I'll have to keep that in mind. WE've still have an old one from college days around but I don't know if it will be the right kind by the time the kids need it.

I hear you, we are in the same boat! We've never been spendthrifts and went through uber frugality to pay off the house but we had gotten out of some of those habits. So, we're working our way back from frugal to uber frugal. The good thing is it is like exercise, you will have muscle memory. We're trying to keep it hardcore until we get an EF built back up at the least. 

19 hours ago, HomeAgain said:

Great day for free today!  One of our town's museums held a residents' day.  I heard it was going to be packed, but I figured if we got there early enough it would be fine.
Packed? ? It was so empty!  And beautiful, too.  Youngest ds loved all the child-friendly activities and chatted with various docents on his trips around the grounds.  We spent a good 3 hours there, came home, and cleaned out our garages in preparation for a week of rain starting tonight.  Dh didn't want to go with us and did the grocery shopping instead.......and stayed to the list!  That's more than I can say for myself - I went out last night to get a few things and noticed the Simply cake mixes were clearanced to $.89.  That's cheaper than I can make myself, and the ingredients are very similar (they have no dyes or artificial flavoring).  I picked up two for special dessert nights.  I'll still make my own frosting, but ds can make the cake without me hovering over him.  He forgets to tare the scale sometimes and it throws all the measurements off.

2

Sounds like a great time, I skip a lot of free community stuff too due to crowds it's so nice when you go and it isn't too bad. Great find on the cake mix! And your dh stuck to the list, I'm impressed!

17 hours ago, Lucy the Valiant said:

I have a special needs kiddo who has some expensive needs, and today I found a "hack" that will not hurt him and will save us a lot of $! I'm very excited! And THANKFUL!

sweet!

16 hours ago, BarbecueMom said:

I have my first batch of Instant Pot yogurt going.   So far so good!  It's ~1/3 of the price of buying yogurt, which was a pretty large chunk of my weekly Aldi total.  I couldn't find my cheesecloth for straining the yogurt, so I ran to the store and also found five packs of sausage links marked down to $2/lb.  The two regular spicy sausages I froze in the original packaging, but I'm going to divide the chorizo into five packages instead of three, because we can't use a whole pound of chorizo at one time.

In fact, I may throw one or two for tonight's episode of Leftovers Gourmet (Taco Rice with Black Beans).

1

MMM, sausage and yogurt, we're having taco rice and black bean quesadillas again this coming Tuesday. 

----------------------------------

We are delivering the loft bed today people!!!! I finally lowered the price and got a taker, I'm getting $220 from it, that let's me clear right at $200 when I subtract the wood pens and gas which was what I was hoping to get. My original price was $225+$40 in gas so I am out $65 BUT I'm keeping the mattress and box spring that came with it so I'm very pleased with that. Dd2 is very excited, I believe we're going to repaint her room with just paint we have and I have an old rug from the living room that will look great in there, plus old curtains and her room will look like a big girl room with no money out!

Today dh pulled out some old wheels we had to sell but then realized they are aluminum, so we might be better off to just take them to the scrap yard, I'm going to call tomorrow to find out what they are paying right now. WE are also working on disassembling old broken bikes to take for scrap too, they won't bring much at all but something is better than nothing and it gets them from under my deck.

Yesterday, I made a meatless chili and homemade cornbread for supper and served them w/ the mark-down $1 beef hotdogs. It wasn't my best supper but it was ok and less than $1 a serving. I also hung clothes on the line, which I have entirely slacked on forever but if I really want to cut the electricity that is an easy target. I tweaked my thermostat too, up to 81 during the day but 71 at night (I was at 80/70). Going lower at night means I can sleep and the air doesn't kick on until 3 or so. I tried doing the regular wash on the dishwasher instead of super and the dishes seem just as clean. 

We really wanted to watch the original Ant Man but did not check it out from Redbox- we've got it requested from the library instead.

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So, it looks like we'll have $600 to put towards savings for our taxings w/ selling things and reimbursements (long overdue). Plus, we have some for ds' bday coming up. Dh gets a bonus next month and rumor is that it is supposed to be a big one (ironic with how things have been). We will just need $800 more to cover Dec. taxes- his bonus might come close to covering that, which means anything else is going towards our sad little efund!

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11 minutes ago, heartlikealion said:

I finished the uniform shopping. Ds isn’t a button fan but I found some at Sam’s that didn’t have buttons that are too stiff to use easily. Then I purchased a couple on target’s website for the other style (clasp closure) using the uniform promo code. They were an online only product. None of the bottoms were what I consider cheap but they were reasonable. I’m prepared to buy more pants later in the year to avoid high waters lol 

I didn’t buy a lot of groceries but spent some of the grocery budget on school-related snacks to ration out (granola bars on sale, case of goldfish crackers). 

Ok you guys can laugh but I didn’t know if “red beans” from red beans and rice referred to red kidney beans or not. So, instead of buying a can of kidney beans I bought a bag that simply said “small red beans.” That’s ok. Maybe they will taste better? Lol I’m trying to do the meal shopping & planning myself and have decided that will be one meal this week plus ds requested sausage in it so I bought that. Guy in that meat dept. recommend his favorite sausage. 

I’m ok with saying some of the school supplies money from the inlaws went to uniforms. 

Re: Making yogurt — where, in a grocery store, would you buy the yogurt starter stuff? I have cheese cloth here from Hollar. 

 

Yes, small red beans is what you want for red beans and rice.  We have used kidney beans in a pinch, but I prefer the red beans.

For the yogurt, because we only had flavored in the house, I bought a little container of whole milk plain Greek yogurt and used about half of it as a starter (I mixed the rest in with the opened tub of vanilla yogurt, shhh don’t tell anyone).  Then I made a batch of vanilla simple syrup to mix in with the homemade yogurt (and maybe coffee!). I saved back a small container of plain for the next starter.

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I’d been eyeing these small wicker look nesting patio loveseats at WalMart since this spring, but they were $99 and I knew patio furniture would go on sale when they brought out school supplies. Well they marked them down to $45, so I got two yesterday. I don’t know that this counts as frugal, because it’s not a true need, but we have a big brick patio and a smallish side porch all with no furniture but a traditional wood picnic table. Now we have places to sit outside, pretty and easy to store. 

We heard back about tuition aid for choir. They awarded us aid in the amount that tuition went up this year. I don’t know whether to be grateful or insulted. It’s better than nothing. 

Groceries less than $90 this week! I think we’ll be under budget this month on groceries, but way over in household items. 

 

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4 hours ago, soror said:

We really wanted to watch the original Ant Man but did not check it out from Redbox- we've got it requested from the library instead.

It's one of my favorite Marvel movies.  I didn't think the second one was as good as the first, but that's fairly typical for the sequels (same with Thor and GotG and Iron Man).

For some reason I tend to forget about the library when looking for movies.  And video games!  I had a Redbox code last week for a free video game, and was going to use it to rent the Crash Bandicoot game for the kids.  Of course, we would have probably ended up keeping it the rest of the weekend and paying $3/day for it, but I walked past a section of video games in the library (which is not near the kids section and I rarely get back there) and lo and behold, Crash Bandicoot!  Never would have thought to look at the library.  1 day free from Redbox vs. 14 days free from the library.  Now I just have to remember to renew or take it back in time.

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I cancelled ds's subscription today.  He got a monthly box last year with a bilingual story, activity book, flashcards, and link to the audio book.  He really enjoyed it!  But the past three packages have sat here and we're expecting another in a few days, and it just didn't make sense to keep going right now.  I may do a different subscription for him this winter (owlcrate junior is on my mind), but I think I'll do a 3 month if we do that instead of a year.

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1 hour ago, BarbecueMom said:

It's one of my favorite Marvel movies.  I didn't think the second one was as good as the first, but that's fairly typical for the sequels (same with Thor and GotG and Iron Man).

For some reason I tend to forget about the library when looking for movies.  And video games!  I had a Redbox code last week for a free video game, and was going to use it to rent the Crash Bandicoot game for the kids.  Of course, we would have probably ended up keeping it the rest of the weekend and paying $3/day for it, but I walked past a section of video games in the library (which is not near the kids section and I rarely get back there) and lo and behold, Crash Bandicoot!  Never would have thought to look at the library.  1 day free from Redbox vs. 14 days free from the library.  Now I just have to remember to renew or take it back in time.

We watched it when it came out but that's been too long, watching the new one always makes me want to rewatch the old ones. And it is funny you mention Guardian's of the Galaxy, I just rewatched the 2nd one the other day (Netflix has it FYI), it's so good, I might like it more than the original. I'm rather meh about all the Thor's, he's not my favorite. I totally agree about Iron Man too, the original is just classic. You know I don't know if our library has games, I've not seen them but maybe they do. 

@SamanthaCarter I bet you will get a lot of enjoyment out of your new furniture, and catching it half-off is great! Just waiting a bit you got it half the price.

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So, I just bought a new cellphone. Ds is starting public school next month and we want him to make sure he has a phone in case of emergencies and such. I found a newer model phone for $80 with 1 yr Tracfone service- plenty of text/data/talk time for me. I desperately need a new phone myself so it made more sense to get the new one for me and let him have my old one. My old one has service until January 2020, so I made it clear he supposed to only use it if he has too, I imagine he'll run the data out straight away but I don't care if he has data, that's on him. So, I won't have to buy anything for a year for me and hopefully none for him for months. New phone for me and service for a whole year at $7 a month- I can't complain about that. I had hoped we could get by just buying him a $20 card for 3 months but the last phone he bought himself is all messed up. So, that will be more out of next months budget than I had anticipated but less in the long run, thankfully August will be much better since we don't have to pay our house and car insurance. Dh is supposed to be going back to 5 day weeks too, he even got 2.5 hrs overtime yesterday, fingers crossed it works out.

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6 hours ago, soror said:

So, it looks like we'll have $600 to put towards savings for our taxings w/ selling things and reimbursements (long overdue). Plus, we have some for ds' bday coming up. Dh gets a bonus next month and rumor is that it is supposed to be a big one (ironic with how things have been). We will just need $800 more to cover Dec. taxes- his bonus might come close to covering that, which means anything else is going towards our sad little efund!

 

Crossing fingers for a great bonus.  Good job on all the other savings!!

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38 minutes ago, soror said:

So, I just bought a new cellphone. Ds is starting public school next month and we want him to make sure he has a phone in case of emergencies and such. I found a newer model phone for $80 with 1 yr Tracfone service- plenty of text/data/talk time for me. I desperately need a new phone myself so it made more sense to get the new one for me and let him have my old one. My old one has service until January 2020, so I made it clear he supposed to only use it if he has too, I imagine he'll run the data out straight away but I don't care if he has data, that's on him. So, I won't have to buy anything for a year for me and hopefully none for him for months. New phone for me and service for a whole year at $7 a month- I can't complain about that. I had hoped we could get by just buying him a $20 card for 3 months but the last phone he bought himself is all messed up. So, that will be more out of next months budget than I had anticipated but less in the long run, thankfully August will be much better since we don't have to pay our house and car insurance. Dh is supposed to be going back to 5 day weeks too, he even got 2.5 hrs overtime yesterday, fingers crossed it works out.

 

Where did you get the phone and what kind? 

It sounds like things are looking up at dh's job!   Awesome. 

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7 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

 

Where did you get the phone and what kind? 

It sounds like things are looking up at dh's job!   Awesome. 

Of all places, home shopping network. I was searching finance sites and saw this link and thought I'd check it out. It's just a basic smart phone, but way nicer than my current one.

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Remember how half my grocery budget was gone in the first few days of the month?  I have one more Costco run tomorrow (mostly small stuff, lettuce, milk, cukes), a produce run next weekend, and DS9's birthday food, but I think I'll actually hit the target this month!  Non-grocery items though... ack.

I found one of the books I needed for DS9's assigned reading at Goodwill this morning for $0.50.  Also found graph paper and a couple more clipboards for $0.50/each, which is cheaper than BTS sales.  I swear we have ten clipboards in this house and they are always missing.  And two short sleeved shirts for me.  I Konmaried my closet a while ago, got rid of everything that didn't bring me joy, and found myself topless unless I did laundry every other day.  Oops.  $7 for shirts, one of them with the tags still on, and DH will be happy that I'm not raiding his closet multiple times a week for his conference freebie t-shirts just so I can go out in public.  I really need at least one more pair of jeans heading into fall, but I didn't find a single pair in my size (petite mega extra short... and still rolled up a bit).

 

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28 minutes ago, BarbecueMom said:

Remember how half my grocery budget was gone in the first few days of the month?  I have one more Costco run tomorrow (mostly small stuff, lettuce, milk, cukes), a produce run next weekend, and DS9's birthday food, but I think I'll actually hit the target this month!  Non-grocery items though... ack.

I found one of the books I needed for DS9's assigned reading at Goodwill this morning for $0.50.  Also found graph paper and a couple more clipboards for $0.50/each, which is cheaper than BTS sales.  I swear we have ten clipboards in this house and they are always missing.  And two short sleeved shirts for me.  I Konmaried my closet a while ago, got rid of everything that didn't bring me joy, and found myself topless unless I did laundry every other day.  Oops.  $7 for shirts, one of them with the tags still on, and DH will be happy that I'm not raiding his closet multiple times a week for his conference freebie t-shirts just so I can go out in public.  I really need at least one more pair of jeans heading into fall, but I didn't find a single pair in my size (petite mega extra short... and still rolled up a bit).

 

 

Awesome on the grocery budget.  I forgot that the month is almost over. 

Yeah for good deals!

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So, my fil passed away in April and my MIL has been on me about coming down to take some food out of her freezer since it is just her. Really, this was an issue before he passed away she always buys more than she ever cooks and now she doesn't really cook at all. I finally went down there last night and she gave me a bunch of stuff- several packs of pork steaks, 1 pack of TBones, pack of smoked pulled pork (from a good local place), a big ham, 3 gallons bags of GF pre-cooked taco seasoned hamburger meat, a cooked chicken, beef roast, and a half a dozen reg. corndogs (that dh will eat). That will be a huge help to my grocery budget! I'll be working my way through the stuff from her b/c it's older than what I've got in my freezer. I usually make some sort of chicken on Sunday night, looks like now it will be pork chops  ? And that's 3 wks worth of meat for taco Tuesdays. Between what she gave me and what I already had in my freezer I don't need to buy meat for a month plus! I'll just be on the look-out for good sales (although my freezer is getting pretty full I can't get much). I did see that Krogers has leg quarters on sale for 49 cents a lb so I'm def. getting some of those, I'm out of thighs in my freezer and just have a couple of packs of drumsticks. I'll cut some in half and package them out into packs of drumsticks and thighs as I like to use thighs for certain meals. 

I'm getting a few things from Azure for August delivery so that will be in the August grocery budget ?. I got 50# of Gf Rolled Oats, it works out to $1.36 a pound (after taxes). I'd tried to get some ages ago but they kept going out of stock, they have supposedly fixed supply issues so I'm hoping this order goes through. I've been out of rolled oats a couple of weeks and the kids have been harassing me about it. I also got a couple of bulk spices b/c it is so much cheaper than buying at the store- I had some extra in the freezer but have run out of the spices I use the most. 

Also, check your sales bills ladies I see strawberries are back down to $1 a pound which is the cheapest they get here and cherries at $1.29 at Aldi's, which is unheard of. I'm going to pick up extra strawberries and make some jam, the kids LOVE it and I don't like to buy the cheap stuff w/ HFCS. 

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2 hours ago, soror said:


?

?

Also, check your sales bills ladies I see strawberries are back down to $1 a pound which is the cheapest they get here and cherries at $1.29 at Aldi's, which is unheard of. I'm going to pick up extra strawberries and make some jam, the kids LOVE it and I don't like to buy the cheap stuff w/ HFCS. 

All of that is fantastic!  I definitely agree with this last part.  Dh wanted to get cherries about a month back and I refused to pay their asking price of $7.99/lb.  Last week they were on sale for $1.89/lb.  Sooooo much better!  I indulged in two pounds, ate half immediately and pitted/froze the other half for winter.
I love this time of year when all the summer fruits go on sale.  Last night dh made grilled pork chops with a nectarine chutney on top and peach milkshakes for after dinner.  We grabbed the bruised fruit for a song from the 'dented and damaged' section of the produce department and $1's worth fed all of us with a ton left over.

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21 minutes ago, HomeAgain said:

All of that is fantastic!  I definitely agree with this last part.  Dh wanted to get cherries about a month back and I refused to pay their asking price of $7.99/lb.  Last week they were on sale for $1.89/lb.  Sooooo much better!  I indulged in two pounds, ate half immediately and pitted/froze the other half for winter.
I love this time of year when all the summer fruits go on sale.  Last night dh made grilled pork chops with a nectarine chutney on top and peach milkshakes for after dinner.  We grabbed the bruised fruit for a song from the 'dented and damaged' section of the produce department and $1's worth fed all of us with a ton left over.

Oh, that sounds delicious I might have to do that Sunday. Nectarines and Peaches are at $1 a pound here too. Cherries get up ridiculously expensive, don't they!!! I was stoked when I found them $2.5 a few weeks back, I've not seen them this cheap. Do you have a cherry pitter? I thought about freezing some but thought they would be too big of a PITA.

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10 minutes ago, soror said:

Oh, that sounds delicious I might have to do that Sunday. Nectarines and Peaches are at $1 a pound here too. Cherries get up ridiculously expensive, don't they!!! I was stoked when I found them $2.5 a few weeks back, I've not seen them this cheap. Do you have a cherry pitter? I thought about freezing some but thought they would be too big of a PITA.

I don't, but because I bake I have metal piping tips.  They work marvelously for removing pits quickly.  A friend of mine had a cherry tree in her yard and turned me on to that little idea.  I never would have thought to use them otherwise.
I love cherry pie, but more than that I love a good chocolate cake or cheesecake with cherry pie filling.  It's not something I really want to eat in the summer, though, and canned cherries just aren't the same, are they?

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19 minutes ago, HomeAgain said:

I don't, but because I bake I have metal piping tips.  They work marvelously for removing pits quickly.  A friend of mine had a cherry tree in her yard and turned me on to that little idea.  I never would have thought to use them otherwise.
I love cherry pie, but more than that I love a good chocolate cake or cheesecake with cherry pie filling.  It's not something I really want to eat in the summer, though, and canned cherries just aren't the same, are they?

Hmmm, I have some of those, dd loves baking, I'll have to try that out, thanks!

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6 hours ago, soror said:

So, my fil passed away in April and my MIL has been on me about coming down to take some food out of her freezer since it is just her. Really, this was an issue before he passed away she always buys more than she ever cooks and now she doesn't really cook at all. I finally went down there last night and she gave me a bunch of stuff- several packs of pork steaks, 1 pack of TBones, pack of smoked pulled pork (from a good local place), a big ham, 3 gallons bags of GF pre-cooked taco seasoned hamburger meat, a cooked chicken, beef roast, and a half a dozen reg. corndogs (that dh will eat). That will be a huge help to my grocery budget! I'll be working my way through the stuff from her b/c it's older than what I've got in my freezer. I usually make some sort of chicken on Sunday night, looks like now it will be pork chops  ? And that's 3 wks worth of meat for taco Tuesdays. Between what she gave me and what I already had in my freezer I don't need to buy meat for a month plus! I'll just be on the look-out for good sales (although my freezer is getting pretty full I can't get much). I did see that Krogers has leg quarters on sale for 49 cents a lb so I'm def. getting some of those, I'm out of thighs in my freezer and just have a couple of packs of drumsticks. I'll cut some in half and package them out into packs of drumsticks and thighs as I like to use thighs for certain meals. 

I'm getting a few things from Azure for August delivery so that will be in the August grocery budget ?. I got 50# of Gf Rolled Oats, it works out to $1.36 a pound (after taxes). I'd tried to get some ages ago but they kept going out of stock, they have supposedly fixed supply issues so I'm hoping this order goes through. I've been out of rolled oats a couple of weeks and the kids have been harassing me about it. I also got a couple of bulk spices b/c it is so much cheaper than buying at the store- I had some extra in the freezer but have run out of the spices I use the most. 

Also, check your sales bills ladies I see strawberries are back down to $1 a pound which is the cheapest they get here and cherries at $1.29 at Aldi's, which is unheard of. I'm going to pick up extra strawberries and make some jam, the kids LOVE it and I don't like to buy the cheap stuff w/ HFCS. 

 

Sorry to hear about your FIL but I was liking the other parts of your post. ?

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I had a fail yesterday big time. We went out to eat unplanned. It was a long rough day getting my oldest packed (he lost important papers)and I never do that. Sigh We usually eat out only for really special occasions a few times a year but when you skip breakfast and lunch in a panic bad things happen. ?

My DH and I had a fruitful and relaxed (that's something new) conversation about finances. We made, I believe, some good decisions that will keep us out of debt. One is to vastly shrink our planned fence for our dog. We have a huge yard. To me it is sad the dog and kids can't play in the whole yard but fencing it is just cost prohibitive so we are fencing a much smaller area between our home and the neighbors and with cheapest material possible so no pretty wood. We will only need fencing for the north and south sides and will use our home for one side of the fence and the neighbors fence for the opposite side. Maybe if they do well with training we can let her into the big yard unfenced for supervised play sessions . She is very trainable.

 

We also decided on the order of work and what work can be done on the 17 and 18 year old vehicles ourselves versus taking to a shop. We really could use a 3rd car with 4 drivers but if we managed with 1 car between the two of us we can manage with 2 cars between 4 of us, right? The city has also decreased the number of buses to our little offshoot of town making trips to my husband's work and my oldest son's college almost impossible. My husband bikes to work through the winter but sometimes road conditions just doesn't allow for it as it's 15 miles away and we can't afford  a fat tire bike. It is especially bad when they plow the road onto the bike path. Snow is one thing big hard lumpy drifts are impossible. 

 

Also, instead of purchasing his own car it will be cheaper if oldest just pays the maintenance since he is it's main driver so that takes care of brakes and rotars. We would rediscuss if something big happens. He would be better off buying when he moves south for school as vehicles are cheaper in the states so it's a win-win for everyone. I think.  

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19 hours ago, frogger said:

I had a fail yesterday big time. We went out to eat unplanned. It was a long rough day getting my oldest packed (he lost important papers)and I never do that. Sigh We usually eat out only for really special occasions a few times a year but when you skip breakfast and lunch in a panic bad things happen. ?

My DH and I had a fruitful and relaxed (that's something new) conversation about finances. We made, I believe, some good decisions that will keep us out of debt. One is to vastly shrink our planned fence for our dog. We have a huge yard. To me it is sad the dog and kids can't play in the whole yard but fencing it is just cost prohibitive so we are fencing a much smaller area between our home and the neighbors and with cheapest material possible so no pretty wood. We will only need fencing for the north and south sides and will use our home for one side of the fence and the neighbors fence for the opposite side. Maybe if they do well with training we can let her into the big yard unfenced for supervised play sessions . She is very trainable.

 

We also decided on the order of work and what work can be done on the 17 and 18 year old vehicles ourselves versus taking to a shop. We really could use a 3rd car with 4 drivers but if we managed with 1 car between the two of us we can manage with 2 cars between 4 of us, right? The city has also decreased the number of buses to our little offshoot of town making trips to my husband's work and my oldest son's college almost impossible. My husband bikes to work through the winter but sometimes road conditions just doesn't allow for it as it's 15 miles away and we can't afford  a fat tire bike. It is especially bad when they plow the road onto the bike path. Snow is one thing big hard lumpy drifts are impossible. 

 

Also, instead of purchasing his own car it will be cheaper if oldest just pays the maintenance since he is it's main driver so that takes care of brakes and rotars. We would rediscuss if something big happens. He would be better off buying when he moves south for school as vehicles are cheaper in the states so it's a win-win for everyone. I think.  

11

Dinner out is just a blip, sounds like you guys made great progress with your plans.

20 hours ago, frogger said:

 

Sorry to hear about your FIL but I was liking the other parts of your post. ?

 

No worries, thank you!

19 hours ago, hjffkj said:

The loan company is ready to go to settlement so our new date is this Friday!!! *hj doing her happy dance*

Happy dance, ya for you!

_______________________

I forgot I had a teeth cleaning yesterday so I went ahead and went to Wal-Mart b/c I had priced out a few things cheaper there. I found an old $10 gift card so my $30 bill ended up at $20. I bought 25# sugar (for making jam and b/c it was cheapest that way), frozen corn and green beans, a few different types of GF noodles (they had GF lasagna- the kids usually get lasagna made into pasta bake so they are going to flip!- and gf spaghetti noodles for cheaper than I usually get so we're going to try them), dried chickpeas & red beans, marked down ground chicken- $2, gallon choc milk (I usually get almond milk but ds requested "real" milk- it's cheaper anyway- we'll see if the girls like it). I stopped by Krogers again and spent $10- 2 packs of the leg quarts and a 80c pack of ground turkey.

 I'm at $50 left for the month for grocery shopping and I've got my menu planned out. Right now my list for Aldi's is at $48 including $10 for extra strawberries for jam and $2.60 for cherries to freeze. It looks like we are going to squeeze it out at $600 month. I'd thought about cutting it down next month but with usually shopping on Wed. July will already have 5 trips instead of 4 so I'll keep it at $600 but the avg trip will be at $125 (minus $20 a month for bulk oats and spices from Azure)=$105.

I am ending the month with more meat in my freezer- not even counting the large amount I just got from MIL and I stocked up on a few different dry goods as well (and hopefully several jars of jam by the end of the week). 

Next weeks meal plan is going to be more indulgent than we have been. No meatless meals this week ? Dh is going to get beef 2 nights, courtesy of MIL's freezer donations- he'll be over the moon about that! I got a potluck Sat. night so I'm doing redbeans and rice (inspired by you guys)- fingers crossed it turns out. 

We've got to go to the city this weekend and I'm hoping to stop by some Ethnic stores to price out rice, rice noodles, and beans. 

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Yesterday was almost a no-spend day.

Dh uses water bottles he can squeeze when riding his bike.  He also uses them to take his water to work (they don't set off the metal detectors like our stainless steel ones).  Well, yesterday he went to take a drink and noticed mold spores in the caps of both of them.  ? Yuck!  And they're designed so that it's impossible to clean them out.  New caps cost $6 (can't buy just the small piece, has to be a new lid), new bottles of the same design are $10. Neither seems to be a good option.  So now he's on the hunt for new, clean-able, bottles.  Any recs?

On the upside, neither of us wanted to cook dinner last night and nearly ate out..........except all of those options sounded terrible, too. ?  I ended up making a nice light dinner.  DS came home from work and realized he's starting to be mineral deficient when he sat there eating green onions by the handful.  I'm taking him to the grocery store today for fruits and veggies that require little to no prep so he can feel more stable when he gets off work at 10pm.  He's asked for salad greens, melon, and peppers, along with what I grow in the garden.

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Today was a deep cleaning day so I wasn't out of the house to spend anything. I have black bean soup on the stove and corn bread in the oven. 

 

 I don't have any recommendations to for a water bottle but would love to find an easy to clean one.  So I'll be watching the thread for one.

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17 hours ago, heartlikealion said:

Dh is trying not to eat out more than once a week if he can avoid it (this week he has a lunch meeting or two so it's not very avoidable). He's asked me to start packing him lunches. We have gone through this before where he says he wants that, but then he doesn't always really want that so I feel like I'm wasting my time (ie. lunch sits in fridge at his work or gets left here). Well, we are trying again. I am more hopeful this time. Sent lunch to work today and he ate it. He needs his own bag, though. I used ds'. I'll see if I can find an age appropriate one for dh (larger than the one I use for ds). I guess I could start packing their lunches together nightly soon. Or have ds do his own while I do dh's. I explained to Target (corporate) that I had issues with some of my coupons at the store and they are going to send me a few bucks via e gift card this week for my inconvenience. I might get dh a lunch bag from there to use the GC, but I haven't made a decision on style yet.

If your DH is a bike rider, mine has a really great structured bag for his  bike that has a shoulder strap for carrying. It works great as a lunch box and my dh loves it. He carries it regardless of whether he’s biking or not. Best gift I’ve gotten him in quite a while. 

https://www.trekbicyclesuperstore.com/product/bontrager-rear-trunk-bag-154555-1.htm?variations=1277307&gclid=Cj0KCQjwv-DaBRCcARIsAI9sba9Rm2ghEkVNuGImA088BTjgsu1uBhDJCrQuNyl_SGBuK-KtpP9ZCakaArOiEALw_wcB

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@HomeAgain I don't have a rec. for a water bottle, we could actually use some like that for mt. biking. I bet he was retching seeing the mold spores, ick! 

@heartlikealion I hope the lunch works out. Dh just takes leftovers 99% of the time. I pack it up when we finish cooking supper before we dish out food so I make sure it doesn't all get gobbled up. So, it takes me less than a minute.  Ya for having the money to take care of the traffic ticket!

_______________

Took the kids to TKD yesterday and went by the library to pick up Ant Man? While I was there I scanned the shelves for this book they said I had overdue, lo and behold it was on their shelf!!! I'm so excited, we looked everywhere here so I thought that is what happened. We returned them in the big slot and they missed it (it's happened before). I was really dreading having to pay for the stupid thing.

Compulsively tracking our electricity I can see that other than central heat/air we hardly use any electricity(if I don't use the dryer). That makes me feel like we are doing what we can, yes I'm sure there are places we are wasting some electricity but it is just peanuts, the big use is heating and cooling and considering that we have an all-electric house that's pretty decent. I keep adjusting the thermostat up but I live where it gets up to 100%+ w/ 100% humidity and down to -0 windchill in the winter. I can only cut it so much. We got a reasonably efficient unit but when it goes out there will be better newer ones even more efficient.

Today we've got fillings for 2 kids, 3 sets of appts over 2 weeks to get everyone. 2 sets of appointments for cleanings and then fillings for 2 kids found at the cleanings ? I'm going grocery shopping too and getting my jam supplies. The list is down to the penny ? I'm also getting some cake supplies to for ds' upcoming bday. I'm making him ribs for his bday dinner (already in the freezer). I think he's just going to have a friend or two over next Friday. He don't really care about parties, just wants to hang out with friends and get gifts/money!

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17 hours ago, heartlikealion said:

How often does he ride? Would it make more sense to use generic bottled water for bike rides? Then for work find something else that may be a compromise... doesn't set off alarm, but can be easily cleaned? For work could he use one of those plastic cups with the lids that slide open/closed? They look like they might not be so hard to clean. I do sometimes get splashed by those if I'm closing them and liquid gathers on top, though. You might have to look around for something. There might even be a variety with a built-in straw that would work. With back to school shopping going on, you might find a sale on some type of drink container. I got ds a new thermos and it was on sale, but it is stainless steel.

-------------------------


He rides pretty often.  Usually it's 20-30 miles/3-4x a week.  And his work has him climbing things, so the water bottle could be slung on his belt, which was a bonus.  We had some plastic insulated cups like what you describe and they worked okay, but they weren't as portable as his water bottles. Those were a well thought out purchase: squeezable, with a bite valve and single finger twist lock. All things that made it just that much easier for a rider. I've sent out an email to the company asking if they could sell us just the valves, but ugh.

We definitely will check the back to school sales!  That's a good suggestion!  I'm going to head out to the shop where dh gets maintenance done on his bike, too, and see what they carry.  Probably won't get them there, but they may have other options that work well that we haven't considered.

 

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