October Frugalistas

[HomeAgain]

Heartlikealion, what you describe is very similar to old military housing leases.  I wouldn't be surprised if on move-out you're asked to pay for the broken fan, so you may want to be prepared for that.  And I'd hazard a guess that your dh signed some sort of lease-like paper when y'all moved in, and will be signing for the next house. It's just good sense to keep track that way.

I feel like we're doing horribly on the frugal front, and then again when I really look it's not so bad.  I just spent $90 on Amazon, but that was for a year's worth of air filters (that are a freaky size that no one locally carries) and toner for the printer.  Our last purchase was over a year ago and this time I got the high yield cartridge.  But the price of both together kills me.  OTOH, we're at $188 BELOW what we normally would have spent on groceries at this point, thanks to much better meal planning.  We haven't gone out to eat, but ds's activities are doing the quiet chipping away: new books, new shoulder rest, art supplies..and he's going to need new math books next month.  I just haven't decided which direction I want to go: $80 for a full set of Gattegno so we can spend the rest of the year and hopefully next just playing with the math and having his conceptual relationships get stronger, or allowing him to continue on until he hits a wall, but needing to buy new workbooks this year and next, which will be the same cost.  I'm leaning toward Gattegno.  It's more up front, but gives us more flexibility through elementary.  It just means new math notebooks, and those are considerably cheaper than workbooks.

 

[frogger]

Our fence still has some gaps under it but I have thought if we worked on a better set up pet sitting could work. There is only so far frugality will help before you simply need more money.

 

I have bags of tomatoes on my island. They are expensive up here at the store so I'm thankful for them. My mom cleaned out her greenhouse for winter and couldn't eat them all. 

[mommyoffive]

Tons of driving.  ugh

Grocery (which is everything for us and the dog)  298 out of 800 budget and the house is stocked.  That is pretty good since we are almost halfway through.

 

[Baseball mom]

We finally got to turn off the ac.  Now I am trying to keep from turning on the heat LOL.  The temps went from HOT to very chilly.  I was hoping for several weeks between the 2 extremes of not having to use any ac or heat.   Instead of turning on heat yet I have pulled out the sweat shirts and pajama pants.   I did just turn on the infrared heater to knock the chill off.  It is rainy today and a damp cool.

Been doing pretty good using up leftovers and stretching meals.  

Stayed out of stores as much as possible. 

When I did go tot store, car got hit while I was in the store.  Nope other driver didn't have insurance.  Not bad damage but still need to get it fixed. 

Bought a new book for my kindle.  It is the next one in the series I have been reading (and bought all the previous ones).  Most all the time I borrow books or ebooks from my library but I had got the 1st book for free from Amazon.  Then after loving the book found out the library didn't have this series.  I found a deal for the next 2 books.  Used birthday or Christmas money to get others.  Then when I was caught I just bought as new ones came out.

Started to not buy the book this time to save money but decided that $6 would make me happy was worth it.

 

[HomeAgain]

20 minutes ago, Baseball mom said:

We finally got to turn off the ac.  Now I am trying to keep from turning on the heat LOL.  The temps went from HOT to very chilly.  I was hoping for several weeks between the 2 extremes of not having to use any ac or heat.   Instead of turning on heat yet I have pulled out the sweat shirts and pajama pants.   I did just turn on the infrared heater to knock the chill off.  It is rainy today and a damp cool.

Been doing pretty good using up leftovers and stretching meals.  

 

Oh, gosh, our temps plummeted over the past two days!  The couch is now covered in warm woolly things, everyone bringing their own comfort item so I don't have to turn on the heat yet. ? I finally convinced the oldest to close his window - or the weather did, since he ended up piling 3 blankets on his bed last night.  It was under 60 degrees down at their end of the hall this morning!  Even the basement was warmer than that!  But it did make for a nice evening meal tonight.  I did bbq shredded chicken in the crockpot, made up a simple slaw, baked beans, mac n' cheese, and stewed apples. Anyone can eat whenever they like and the food is kept warm. For those of us who have eaten it all went over well, except the mac n' cheese.  I intended to make a lovely white cheddar sauce out of half a block left over from a few weeks back. I grabbed what I thought was nutmeg and gave it a quick shake, only to discover it was the turmeric container...which has much bigger holes in the lid. So the dish tasted fine, it just looked radioactive. ? ? ?  And my one who is sensitive to artificial food dyes wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole.
 

Quote

 

Stayed out of stores as much as possible. 

When I did go tot store, car got hit while I was in the store.  Nope other driver didn't have insurance.  Not bad damage but still need to get it fixed. 

 

 

That's horrible!  ? 

[BarbecueMom]

For anyone looking for the Thermos-type containers for food, I found this insulated crock at Cabela's this afternoon while I killed time waiting to pick up one of my kids from an activity.  It's $60 there, but it looks like Amazon has it for $42.  I showed DH, and we both thought it would be great to bring along a thick chili in, and do the little bags of Fritos with chili poured inside for a meal-on-the-go.  It's not big enough to bring along a full hot meal for a large family, but would work well for the hot portion of an otherwise room-temperature meal.  Chili or queso for chips, burgers or ham/eggs for sandwiches, hot dogs, pulled pork, etc.  Ooh, meatballs to eat with other finger foods, like cheese cubes and crackers.  I didn't buy it, but I'm going to keep an eye on the price.  If it drops below $40 I might get one.

I only lasted two days between A/C and heat.  It's only kicked on twice, briefly, but I wanted to make sure it was actually working before it gets too cold.  I have it turned down low enough it should run until it gets down into the mid-30s tomorrow night (it was in the high 80s less than a week ago).  My hands are already starting to dry out.  There's only one lotion that really works for my hands in winter, and I bought six bottles of it on Amazon this summer when it was really cheap on a Prime Pantry deal.  Glad I remembered we had it and didn't go out and buy more.

Lots and lots of driving this month here, too.  October is kind of the high point of field trips and activities.  The weather is (usually) decent, major illnesses haven't quite hit yet, and we're not quite burned out on busyness yet.  Most of the activities are cheap or free, other than the gas and making sure we have enough food that we can easily take with us.

I did buy DS10 some new pants yesterday from Costco, because it was easier to return non-fitting ones than trying to get back to the resale shop within 7 days.  He's in that weird in-between size where everything fits terribly.  Size 8 is too short, size 10 is too long, slims are too tight but regular are too loose.  I'm about to pull a Molly Weasley: "Fine!  Go naked!"  I also found one set of Minecraft pajamas in DS5's size and set those back for Christmas.  I probably need to pull everything out of the drawer with already purchased Christmas gifts and see what I've squirreled away over the past year.

I started making a new grocery price list this weekend.  I'm going to go work on that now and procrastinate getting school work organized for tomorrow...

[mommyoffive]

4 hours ago, Baseball mom said:

We finally got to turn off the ac.  Now I am trying to keep from turning on the heat LOL.  The temps went from HOT to very chilly.  I was hoping for several weeks between the 2 extremes of not having to use any ac or heat.   Instead of turning on heat yet I have pulled out the sweat shirts and pajama pants.   I did just turn on the infrared heater to knock the chill off.  It is rainy today and a damp cool.

Been doing pretty good using up leftovers and stretching meals.  

Stayed out of stores as much as possible. 

When I did go tot store, car got hit while I was in the store.  Nope other driver didn't have insurance.  Not bad damage but still need to get it fixed. 

Bought a new book for my kindle.  It is the next one in the series I have been reading (and bought all the previous ones).  Most all the time I borrow books or ebooks from my library but I had got the 1st book for free from Amazon.  Then after loving the book found out the library didn't have this series.  I found a deal for the next 2 books.  Used birthday or Christmas money to get others.  Then when I was caught I just bought as new ones came out.

Started to not buy the book this time to save money but decided that $6 would make me happy was worth it.

 

 

I know right?  I was hoping for a good 6 weeks.  It didn't happen.

Ugh sorry about your car getting hit. That really stinks the other person doesn't have insurance. 

[Soror]

Been too busy and I'm behind.

We've had the heat on a bit here too.

I'm feeling buried. Hope to get caught up on budget stuff today. 

Ds is done w/ Cross Country and the schedule is looking lighter. I'm not feeling I'm balancing it all very well or doing as good as I need to on about anything- the house, cooking, budgeting, schooling.

Sigh. It's a new week and there is a lot less going on.

I'm currently scheduled for 18.5 hrs for this week and 13 hrs for next week (those numbers can still go up and down until 24 hrs before each booking). The money side says 18.5 sounds better, my sanity says 13 now seems like a nice break.

Edited October 15, 2018 by soror

[mommyoffive]

3 hours ago, soror said:

Been too busy and I'm behind.

We've had the heat on a bit here too.

I'm feeling buried. Hope to get caught up on budget stuff today. 

Ds is done w/ Cross Country and the schedule is looking lighter. I'm not feeling I'm balancing it all very well or doing as good as I need to on about anything- the house, cooking, budgeting, schooling.

Sigh. It's a new week and there is a lot less going on.

I'm currently scheduled for 18.5 hrs for this week and 13 hrs for next week (those numbers can still go up and down until 24 hrs before each booking). The money side says 18.5 sounds better, my sanity says 13 now seems like a nice break.

 

wow that is a lot of hours!  Yay.  How much do you get paid there?  I know it says $14-22 an hour.  Is it towards the lower for the starting teachers?  Are the higher level classes  more $? 

 

I sold 2 things yesterday.  Yay.  I love getting things out of the house and making money too.  Win Win. 

I think I should post some more things. 

[Soror]

56 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

 

wow that is a lot of hours!  Yay.  How much do you get paid there?  I know it says $14-22 an hour.  Is it towards the lower for the starting teachers?  Are the higher level classes  more $? 

 

I sold 2 things yesterday.  Yay.  I love getting things out of the house and making money too.  Win Win. 

I think I should post some more things. 

All levels pay the same. It says it starts at $14 but that is base pay but you get $2 an hour more just for completing classes, so the least amount you would possibly receive for teaching would be $16 an hour. You get other incentives for the number of classes. My pay has been at least $20 an hour. My base pay is $8 a class, that is decided when you do your interview. If I had known that I would have worked even harder but $8 seems to be the average base pay for those starting out. With incentives and short notices I've made as much as $32 an hour.

Good for you selling things! I need to do the same.

[mommyoffive]

13 minutes ago, soror said:

All levels pay the same. It says it starts at $14 but that is base pay but you get $2 an hour more just for completing classes, so the least amount you would possibly receive for teaching would be $16 an hour. You get other incentives for the number of classes. My pay has been at least $20 an hour. My base pay is $8 a class, that is decided when you do your interview. If I had known that I would have worked even harder but $8 seems to be the average base pay for those starting out. With incentives and short notices I've made as much as $32 an hour.

Good for you selling things! I need to do the same.

 

Holy Smokes $32 an hour!! Wow.     So if you are making $20 an hour than after self employed taxes it would be $14 an hour that you take home right?   That is pretty awesome. 

Yes, I need to keep selling stuff. We have so much stuff that could be sold.  

Edited October 15, 2018 by mommyoffive

[prairiewindmomma]

We had good luck at the thrift store finding long sleeved shirts for older daughter. We struck out with younger daughter and hit the Old Navy sale. Ironically we paid $6/shirt at both places—thrift stores here are not as inexpensive as when we lived in a LCOL place.

My vehicle needs some repairs I can’t do myself. ? 

[SamanthaCarter]

My parents rented a nice beach house last week and we stayed for free. So a little vacation for the cost of gas and groceries and a meal-out on the road. We drive a car a little too small for road trips (7 hour drive to the beach), but given our infrequent road trips we found that cost of ownership of our car plus the occaisional minivan rental for road trips had us coming out ahead compared to owning a minivan. But. I swapped cars with a friend last week and drove her minivan to the beach. So I saved the cost of car rental minus a detailing of friends car. Win! 

Edited October 16, 2018 by SamanthaCarter

[Soror]

19 hours ago, mommyoffive said:

 

Holy Smokes $32 an hour!! Wow.     So if you are making $20 an hour than after self employed taxes it would be $14 an hour that you take home right?   That is pretty awesome. 

Yes, I need to keep selling stuff. We have so much stuff that could be sold.  

Our tax bracket will be pretty low this year, not sure how low. It is all going into savings now and we'll see when tax time comes. I won't make enough to need to do quarterly tax filing this year so it will wait, I'll have to reconsider for next year.

9 hours ago, prairiewindmomma said:

We had good luck at the thrift store finding long sleeved shirts for older daughter. We struck out with younger daughter and hit the Old Navy sale. Ironically we paid $6/shirt at both places—thrift stores here are not as inexpensive as when we lived in a LCOL place.

My vehicle needs some repairs I can’t do myself. ? 

2

We need some winter shirts too/! Sorry about the car.

8 hours ago, SamanthaCarter said:

My parents rented a nice beach house last week and we stayed for free. So a little vacation for the cost of gas and groceries and a meal-out on the road. We drive a car a little too small for road trips (7 hour drive to the beach), but given our infrequent road trips we found that cost of ownership of our car plus the occaisional minivan rental for road trips had us coming out ahead compared to owning a minivan. But. I swapped cars with a friend last week and drove her minivan to the beach. So I saved the cost of car rental minus a detailing of friends car. Win! 

4

sweet a vacation.

___________________-

No budget stuff done. Maybe today.

[mommyoffive]

3 hours ago, soror said:

Our tax bracket will be pretty low this year, not sure how low. It is all going into savings now and we'll see when tax time comes. I won't make enough to need to do quarterly tax filing this year so it will wait, I'll have to reconsider for next year.

We need some winter shirts too/! Sorry about the car.

sweet a vacation.

___________________-

No budget stuff done. Maybe today.

 

How much do you have to make to file quarterly?  I didn't know it was based on an amount.   So your tax bracket influences how much you pay in self employment taxes?  I didn't know that.  I thought it was all taxed at 30%.

Dh went grocery shopping $466 out of $800   (ours is everything not just food)

I am getting so annoyed that Costco doesn't have the winter coats for kids yet.  Come on.  

I ordered some elderberries because I realized that I just had a few berries left.  Opps

I had called a year ago and negotiated our internet bill down.  I forgot when that rate was going to expire.  I checked a few months back and it was still going on, then I forgot about it.  The rate expired 3 months ago.  ARGH.  Called 2 times yesterday and got a lower rate.  Lower than the one I got last year.  Saving us over $20 a month.  Not huge, but you know.  

 

[Soror]

33 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

 

How much do you have to make to file quarterly?  I didn't know it was based on an amount.   So your tax bracket influences how much you pay in self employment taxes?  I didn't know that.  I thought it was all taxed at 30%.

Dh went grocery shopping $466 out of $800   (ours is everything not just food)

I am getting so annoyed that Costco doesn't have the winter coats for kids yet.  Come on.  

I ordered some elderberries because I realized that I just had a few berries left.  Opps

I had called a year ago and negotiated our internet bill down.  I forgot when that rate was going to expire.  I checked a few months back and it was still going on, then I forgot about it.  The rate expired 3 months ago.  ARGH.  Called 2 times yesterday and got a lower rate.  Lower than the one I got last year.  Saving us over $20 a month.  Not huge, but you know.  

 

It was my understanding that it depends on the bracket. I believe I've read if you owe a $1000 or more you have to pay quarterly.

good for you for calling that is such a pain in the butt.

[prairiewindmomma]

Saving $240 over the course of the year for what was probably less than an hour of time on the phone is a good trade off!

[mommyoffive]

12 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

Saving $240 over the course of the year for what was probably less than an hour of time on the phone is a good trade off!

 

Thanks.  I need to do this for home and auto insurance now.   

[BarbecueMom]

1 hour ago, mommyoffive said:

I had called a year ago and negotiated our internet bill down.  I forgot when that rate was going to expire.  I checked a few months back and it was still going on, then I forgot about it.  The rate expired 3 months ago.  ARGH.  Called 2 times yesterday and got a lower rate.  Lower than the one I got last year.  Saving us over $20 a month.  Not huge, but you know.  

Awesome!  What did you say to get them to agree to the adjustment and not just selling you a bundle?  Last time I called the rep nearly laughed at me and said unless I wanted a bundle with promotional rate (which would be $5 more a month), she couldn't/wouldn't do anything.  It looks like AT&T is offering $50/month. 

I might have DH try when he's off work later this week, since he knows more about the technical sides of things and can play up the "we don't always get the higher end of the guaranteed speeds" angle.  I just want to pay less, lol.

[mommyoffive]

19 minutes ago, BarbecueMom said:

Awesome!  What did you say to get them to agree to the adjustment and not just selling you a bundle?  Last time I called the rep nearly laughed at me and said unless I wanted a bundle with promotional rate (which would be $5 more a month), she couldn't/wouldn't do anything.  It looks like AT&T is offering $50/month. 

I might have DH try when he's off work later this week, since he knows more about the technical sides of things and can play up the "we don't always get the higher end of the guaranteed speeds" angle.  I just want to pay less, lol.

 

I called once and asked the guy for a lower rate that they offer new customers.  I have been with them 12 years.  

He said there were no offers for me and wanted to get me a new modem for higher speeds.  I guess ours isn't going fast enough.  But honestly we don't have trouble with it. 

I asked to talk to his boss, after sitting on hold for a long time, I hung up.  I had a kid to get to nap.

Called back and talked to another guy, again he said nothing but bundling it for more than what I was paying.  I didn't want that.  I asked to be transferred to the disconnecting department.  I was going to set up a disconnect date.  Again told the girl what I had said that I was looking for a lower rate.  She did offer me some bundles that were for tv or streaming for more than what I was paying. Then offered me the lower just internet rate after I said no to the bundle.  

[mommyoffive]

Some freebies from Shutterfly if you are new customer

https://hip2save.com/2018/10/15/shutterfly-wall-calendar-only-6-99-shipped-more-new-customers-only/

 

[SamanthaCarter]

Soror, assuming that you’ll owe minimal additional income tax from your income, you need to reach roughly $6500 this year before you need to make quarterly tax payments. Otherwise, you can pay up when you file your taxes. I’d watch it carefully, because if you don’t make estimated payments after you hit that $1000 taxes owed mark, you’ll incur a penalty. 

[Soror]

21 hours ago, SamanthaCarter said:

Soror, assuming that you’ll owe minimal additional income tax from your income, you need to reach roughly $6500 this year before you need to make quarterly tax payments. Otherwise, you can pay up when you file your taxes. I’d watch it carefully, because if you don’t make estimated payments after you hit that $1000 taxes owed mark, you’ll incur a penalty. 

Thank you for the info! I expect I'll make $4000 this year at most. October was $1100, November is on track to be about the same. December may be more since there are not any big Chinese holidays but not that much more.

____________________

I finally went through and did some budgeting. I need to get dh's receipts but got mine all sorted. 

I spent $72 at Goodwill (hanging head in shame) bought myself a dozen or so shirts, mostly for winter. I did find a stash of some nice name brand tanks in great shape in my size and picked some of those as well. Also, bought dd2 a pair of winter boots, long sleeve shirt for ds, pillow for dd2's room and a couple of shirts for dd2. I think that's all.

Yesterday I bought a few more books for hs'ing, went over my bookselling funds by $10-$15. More hand hanging in shame. My hs year got turned on its head and it was feeling all wonky since the focus is entirely different with just the 2 younger ones. 

I think I've got about $200 left for groceries (need to verify some Wal-Mart receipts from dh). 

Yet again I'm feeling a bit of breathing room and hoping I can get back on track of budgeting and meal planning, fingers crossed.

[BarbecueMom]

Well, I blew the "non-food/non-gas" spending out of the water.  I got so tired of looking at the stuff that didn't have storage yet that I went and bought shelving.  And I'm likely headed back tomorrow or Friday for more because "board game hoarding" is apparently a thing in our house.  I ran out of room and didn't even get to the puzzles, Pokemon (and Star Wars and World of Warcraft and Magic) cards, and RPG stuff.

I don't think I posted my menu this week.  It's not very frugal, as I haven't been home enough to do much prep work.  I did buy some thick pork chops on sale at Aldi last week and made Budget Bytes' Apple Spice Pork Chops tonight.  They were good, but next time I think they'd taste better marinated in apple cider/hard cider, which really kicks it out of the frugal column.  DS9, who is quite the picky eater and frankly only eats parts of every single meal I make, asked for Chicken Parmesan this week after he tried and enjoyed a sample of it at Costco.  It's a mid-October miracle.  I found some chicken breasts on sale, a bag of gluten free breadcrumbs marked down to $1.50, and plan to make homemade GF pasta instead of buying the $5.50 box of GF tagliatelle at the grocery store.  So much meat this week though, ugh.

DS10 has been walking around with a Denny's ad mailer, grousing about how we never go out to eat and the food there looks soooooo gooooood.  A local store has a deal where you buy an (overpriced) bag of breakfast sausages, you get a pound of (overpriced) bacon for free.  I was going to pass on it, but with that deal and a $2.00 rewards coupon I have, it'll end up being $3.50 for two and a half pounds of breakfast meat.  For the cost of one "Super Slam" plus tax plus tip, I can feed the entire family.  And we don't even have to put pants on to eat it!  Although we will because it's cold now and I'm not turning the heat up for people who refuse to wear pants.

[mommyoffive]

5 hours ago, soror said:

Thank you for the info! I expect I'll make $4000 this year at most. October was $1100, November is on track to be about the same. December may be more since there are not any big Chinese holidays but not that much more.

____________________

I finally went through and did some budgeting. I need to get dh's receipts but got mine all sorted. 

I spent $72 at Goodwill (hanging head in shame) bought myself a dozen or so shirts, mostly for winter. I did find a stash of some nice name brand tanks in great shape in my size and picked some of those as well. Also, bought dd2 a pair of winter boots, long sleeve shirt for ds, pillow for dd2's room and a couple of shirts for dd2. I think that's all.

Yesterday I bought a few more books for hs'ing, went over my bookselling funds by $10-$15. More hand hanging in shame. My hs year got turned on its head and it was feeling all wonky since the focus is entirely different with just the 2 younger ones. 

I think I've got about $200 left for groceries (need to verify some Wal-Mart receipts from dh). 

Yet again I'm feeling a bit of breathing room and hoping I can get back on track of budgeting and meal planning, fingers crossed.

 

Sounds like you are spending smart even if you are bit over.  

I need to do some stocking up for winter too.  Dd is growing out of everything, DS needs a new coat.  I am sure those two need new boots too.  

[mommyoffive]

3 minutes ago, BarbecueMom said:

Well, I blew the "non-food/non-gas" spending out of the water.  I got so tired of looking at the stuff that didn't have storage yet that I went and bought shelving.  And I'm likely headed back tomorrow or Friday for more because "board game hoarding" is apparently a thing in our house.  I ran out of room and didn't even get to the puzzles, Pokemon (and Star Wars and World of Warcraft and Magic) cards, and RPG stuff.

I don't think I posted my menu this week.  It's not very frugal, as I haven't been home enough to do much prep work.  I did buy some thick pork chops on sale at Aldi last week and made Budget Bytes' Apple Spice Pork Chops tonight.  They were good, but next time I think they'd taste better marinated in apple cider/hard cider, which really kicks it out of the frugal column.  DS9, who is quite the picky eater and frankly only eats parts of every single meal I make, asked for Chicken Parmesan this week after he tried and enjoyed a sample of it at Costco.  It's a mid-October miracle.  I found some chicken breasts on sale, a bag of gluten free breadcrumbs marked down to $1.50, and plan to make homemade GF pasta instead of buying the $5.50 box of GF tagliatelle at the grocery store.  So much meat this week though, ugh.

DS10 has been walking around with a Denny's ad mailer, grousing about how we never go out to eat and the food there looks soooooo gooooood.  A local store has a deal where you buy an (overpriced) bag of breakfast sausages, you get a pound of (overpriced) bacon for free.  I was going to pass on it, but with that deal and a $2.00 rewards coupon I have, it'll end up being $3.50 for two and a half pounds of breakfast meat.  For the cost of one "Super Slam" plus tax plus tip, I can feed the entire family.  And we don't even have to put pants on to eat it!  Although we will because it's cold now and I'm not turning the heat up for people who refuse to wear pants.

 

Ha ha.  I am laughing so much at this part.  Your ds walking around with a Denny's mailer. 

Kids. 

I am sure the storage stuff is annoying to buy, but it is worth it to get your house organized and so that you feel good living there.  Especially as winter comes up.   

[hjffkj]

October is going well.  We are on track is our savings goals for the month, all budget categories are still well within the safe zone.  I did have a really well paying pet sitting job get cancelled because my client had to cancel their trip last minute.  That is disappointing but they did compensate me a bit for having to cancel since it was an overnight job, which meant I couldn't book another overnight job. I did book two other smaller jobs for this week.  It'll only be $40 total but that is only for an hour of work so I'm happy.

[HomeAgain]

I just bought ds's winter coat, too.  Sears is going out of business, and after clearing up an error* at the DMV with the oldest, we stopped in.  I found a 3-in-1 coat, matching snowpants, and matching gloves for less than the cost of the coat at normal price. DS is at that inbetween stage where 8s are too small and 10/12s are too big, and since his snow pants still fit him I bought the new ones at the larger size so he'll have something to grow into.  I mentioned to some friends I should have bought a set for myself and the one offered to look around her house for an older pair she has in my size. Woohoo!

We almost had a very expensive lunch, though.  I was so happy with getting things accomplished that I took the kids out to eat. It's a pretty rare treat here.  So rare that dh pouted when we got home because we didn't bring him any.  But anyway.  I took them to lunch at the 5 Guys next to Sears and then we browsed a bit more and headed home.  Had just enough time to do a math test before we were back out the door.  I asked ds to put on his light jacket again and he looked confused. "I thought you brought it home."  Uh...no, child.  And here's this image in my head of asking him to take it off at Sears to try on a new one, and oh my gosh.  He loves this jacket.  It has fit just right for two years now, is the perfect color, never stains....and while I got an amazing deal on it, new it sells for about $50.  We went back to the mall, where ds steered us over to the 5 Guys and walked right up to the counter to ask if they had seen it.  Thankfully, he had taken it off there, AFTER carrying it around Sears!  So only an extra 20 minutes out of our day, and he ended the day with both of his jackets, not an exchange of one for the other.


*Did you know states use different codes for different things on your license?  In the state we moved from "A" meant my child wears corrective lenses.  In our new state, "A" means your license has been suspended and you need to pay $700 to pass a course with a certified instructor before having a regular permit, and then get a license.  BIG DIFFERENCE. It took us a few hours to clear that mess up.
 

[Soror]

10 hours ago, mommyoffive said:

 

Sounds like you are spending smart even if you are bit over.  

I need to do some stocking up for winter too.  Dd is growing out of everything, DS needs a new coat.  I am sure those two need new boots too.  

Not bad considering what we got. I needed winter clothes especially. I finally have my thryoid stabilized but had gotten rid of my smaller winter stuff (I gained weight every winter for the last 5). I think everyone is good on coats but ds, although he will hardly wear one.

10 hours ago, BarbecueMom said:

Well, I blew the "non-food/non-gas" spending out of the water.  I got so tired of looking at the stuff that didn't have storage yet that I went and bought shelving.  And I'm likely headed back tomorrow or Friday for more because "board game hoarding" is apparently a thing in our house.  I ran out of room and didn't even get to the puzzles, Pokemon (and Star Wars and World of Warcraft and Magic) cards, and RPG stuff.

I don't think I posted my menu this week.  It's not very frugal, as I haven't been home enough to do much prep work.  I did buy some thick pork chops on sale at Aldi last week and made Budget Bytes' Apple Spice Pork Chops tonight.  They were good, but next time I think they'd taste better marinated in apple cider/hard cider, which really kicks it out of the frugal column.  DS9, who is quite the picky eater and frankly only eats parts of every single meal I make, asked for Chicken Parmesan this week after he tried and enjoyed a sample of it at Costco.  It's a mid-October miracle.  I found some chicken breasts on sale, a bag of gluten free breadcrumbs marked down to $1.50, and plan to make homemade GF pasta instead of buying the $5.50 box of GF tagliatelle at the grocery store.  So much meat this week though, ugh.

DS10 has been walking around with a Denny's ad mailer, grousing about how we never go out to eat and the food there looks soooooo gooooood.  A local store has a deal where you buy an (overpriced) bag of breakfast sausages, you get a pound of (overpriced) bacon for free.  I was going to pass on it, but with that deal and a $2.00 rewards coupon I have, it'll end up being $3.50 for two and a half pounds of breakfast meat.  For the cost of one "Super Slam" plus tax plus tip, I can feed the entire family.  And we don't even have to put pants on to eat it!  Although we will because it's cold now and I'm not turning the heat up for people who refuse to wear pants.

5

That all sounds yummy and good deal for Denny's.

[Baseball mom]

13 hours ago, BarbecueMom said:

Well, I blew the "non-food/non-gas" spending out of the water.  I got so tired of looking at the stuff that didn't have storage yet that I went and bought shelving.  And I'm likely headed back tomorrow or Friday for more because "board game hoarding" is apparently a thing in our house.  I ran out of room and didn't even get to the puzzles, Pokemon (and Star Wars and World of Warcraft and Magic) cards, and RPG stuff.

I don't think I posted my menu this week.  It's not very frugal, as I haven't been home enough to do much prep work.  I did buy some thick pork chops on sale at Aldi last week and made Budget Bytes' Apple Spice Pork Chops tonight.  They were good, but next time I think they'd taste better marinated in apple cider/hard cider, which really kicks it out of the frugal column.  DS9, who is quite the picky eater and frankly only eats parts of every single meal I make, asked for Chicken Parmesan this week after he tried and enjoyed a sample of it at Costco.  It's a mid-October miracle.  I found some chicken breasts on sale, a bag of gluten free breadcrumbs marked down to $1.50, and plan to make homemade GF pasta instead of buying the $5.50 box of GF tagliatelle at the grocery store.  So much meat this week though, ugh.

DS10 has been walking around with a Denny's ad mailer, grousing about how we never go out to eat and the food there looks soooooo gooooood.  A local store has a deal where you buy an (overpriced) bag of breakfast sausages, you get a pound of (overpriced) bacon for free.  I was going to pass on it, but with that deal and a $2.00 rewards coupon I have, it'll end up being $3.50 for two and a half pounds of breakfast meat.  For the cost of one "Super Slam" plus tax plus tip, I can feed the entire family.  And we don't even have to put pants on to eat it!  Although we will because it's cold now and I'm not turning the heat up for people who refuse to wear pants.

You might have spent money but making things neater in your house will give you more sanity.  That is worth money in my book.  Love that you could get the meat so cheap and will probably be able to give ds even bigger portions of your "Dennys" meal.   Bigger portions are always a plus for my guys.

 

My biggest savings this week is I have stayed home ?  There were a few things we needed but I just changed the meal plan or substituted things.  

Today I will be going to the store as much as I hate to. 

[mommyoffive]

I went to the store last night, even though dh went on Monday.  Ugh.  We were not out of everything but we needed some stuff. Decided to do a bigger shop.  

Grocery for the month $733 out of $800 

I don't think we are going to make it.  We seem to be eating so much.  My kids always eat tons.  They are all super skinny, but they have my jeans.  I have always eaten a ton.  Plus when they have dance they are dancing for hours.  Seeing that total maybe I shouldn't have bought all the splurges that I got.  

[mommyoffive]

Ugh the weekend ended crappy. 

The dryer broke.  Dh doesn't know if he can fix it or not.  It is 12 years old so even fixing it may not be the smartest thing. And dang gas dryers are super expensive.  Poop.  We have had so many things this year I just want to scream. 

AC broke because a guy didn't do his job correctly before.  $400 for the part and dh fixed it

New Oven $500

Dishwasher broke $400

New microwave Because it broke $100

New Vent Fan because it broke  $150

Dh just had to get brakes on his car $400 and now he needs new tires

I just wanted to go like a year before something else broke.  

[Soror]

1 hour ago, mommyoffive said:

Ugh the weekend ended crappy. 

The dryer broke.  Dh doesn't know if he can fix it or not.  It is 12 years old so even fixing it may not be the smartest thing. And dang gas dryers are super expensive.  Poop.  We have had so many things this year I just want to scream. 

AC broke because a guy didn't do his job correctly before.  $400 for the part and dh fixed it

New Oven $500

Dishwasher broke $400

New microwave Because it broke $100

New Vent Fan because it broke  $150

Dh just had to get brakes on his car $400 and now he needs new tires

I just wanted to go like a year before something else broke.  

Oh, no that is a terrible weekend, seriously!!!!

We had our water go out and dh had to fix that, forgot to ask how much I think it was pretty cheap (under $50) and he reordered lightbulbs because we needed to replace several. 

Got groceries have to update that.

took girls swimming $6 total, ds went to dance $5. 

I've got 26 hrs scheduled for this week and next so far, looks like I'll hit right at $1100-$1200, which is great since the first week I hardly worked at all with the holiday.

[mommyoffive]

2 hours ago, soror said:

Oh, no that is a terrible weekend, seriously!!!!

We had our water go out and dh had to fix that, forgot to ask how much I think it was pretty cheap (under $50) and he reordered lightbulbs because we needed to replace several. 

Got groceries have to update that.

took girls swimming $6 total, ds went to dance $5. 

I've got 26 hrs scheduled for this week and next so far, looks like I'll hit right at $1100-$1200, which is great since the first week I hardly worked at all with the holiday.

 

Holy smokes 26 hours.  That is a ton!   Good job. 

[Soror]

2 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

 

Holy smokes 26 hours.  That is a ton!   Good job. 

LOL, I thought after the fact that I probably wasn't clear, that is for both weeks, I am at 15 hours for this week and 13 for next. We'll see where I end up when the dust settles.

[mommyoffive]

3 minutes ago, soror said:

LOL, I thought after the fact that I probably wasn't clear, that is for both weeks, I am at 15 hours for this week and 13 for next. We'll see where I end up when the dust settles.

Ok got it.

26 is a lot of hours to work in one week while doing everything else.  That is awesome money for working as many hours a week that you do. 

[hjffkj]

I don't think we spent anything not planned in the budget this week.  That was probably due to the fact that I've been sick with an awful cold. So, October is looking to be a good month in terms of sticking to the budget.  Sadly, I didn't make as much money pet sitting as I would have liked, but that was because of a cancelled job.

As the end of October quickly approaches, I've begun to think about Christmas.  I'm feeling a bit grinchy this year.  Not really sure why, but the idea of shopping for extended family just seems like a chore this year and a waste of money.  I sort of wish we could just stop all of the gift exchanging but the few people we still exchange with are kids and dh's parents so I just don't think we can cull it more.  Dh's family are huge gifts as love language people.

So, if anyone starts seeing good deals on toys and such please share them.  I shop for basically every age group up to 13.

[hjffkj]

Once I posted that last post I decided to just force myself to get excited about gifts.  So I enlisted my 8 year old to sit at the computer with me and help me find gifts for the 5 kids we have to shop for, I already got something for the 6th kid. In about 15 minutes we had picked some card games, a minnie mouse picnic set, and some lego sets for them.  The total amount was $44 for 5 kids and I had gift cards from swagbucks that paid for it so $0 out of my pocket!  Now I just have mil, fil, and dh's grandmother.

[SamanthaCarter]

7 minutes ago, hjffkj said:

Once I posted that last post I decided to just force myself to get excited about gifts.  So I enlisted my 8 year old to sit at the computer with me and help me find gifts for the 5 kids we have to shop for, I already got something for the 6th kid. In about 15 minutes we had picked some card games, a minnie mouse picnic set, and some lego sets for them.  The total amount was $44 for 5 kids and I had gift cards from swagbucks that paid for it so $0 out of my pocket!  Now I just have mil, fil, and dh's grandmother.

Wow!!!

[SamanthaCarter]

I give homemade food gifts to adults usually. If it’s not “enough” to satisfy dh for his very gifty foo, he is in charge of finding them something “better.” He’s budget conscious, so I feel okay about leaving it to his judgement. 

I buy for my 5 nieces and nephews, dh and the kiddos. (that’s 2b, 2g, 7g, 7g, 8b, 9g, 11b, and 12b) Ideas welcome! 

[hjffkj]

2 hours ago, SamanthaCarter said:

I give homemade food gifts to adults usually. If it’s not “enough” to satisfy dh for his very gifty foo, he is in charge of finding them something “better.” He’s budget conscious, so I feel okay about leaving it to his judgement. 

I buy for my 5 nieces and nephews, dh and the kiddos. (that’s 2b, 2g, 7g, 7g, 8b, 9g, 11b, and 12b) Ideas welcome! 

 

Dh and I always figure out gift ideas for his family together but he is not budget conscious so I don't leave it up to him entirely.  I'll likely let him pick the gifts and then I will just find them on clearance and use credit card rewards and free gift cards so I don't pay anything out of pocket.  His family is usually pretty easy because they also give lists to shop from. 

[hjffkj]

This is what I got the 2 year old girl, https://www.amazon.com/d/Pretend-Play-Toys/MINNIE-Happy-Helpers-Backpack-Picnic/B073VY71R2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1540340114&sr=8-1&keywords=minnie+mouse+picnic+backpack. It was $7 but it was an add-on so you have to purchase $25 in other stuff to be able to get it.

I got Uno Dare and Phase 10 for the 8 and 11 year olds, each was under $5. 

Those gifts are for the cousins we don't see often but still exchange with. My niece and nephew who we see often and are close with are getting small Lego sets, each under $20. I'll probably get them a game they can play as a family as well.

[Baseball mom]

4 hours ago, hjffkj said:

Once I posted that last post I decided to just force myself to get excited about gifts.  So I enlisted my 8 year old to sit at the computer with me and help me find gifts for the 5 kids we have to shop for, I already got something for the 6th kid. In about 15 minutes we had picked some card games, a minnie mouse picnic set, and some lego sets for them.  The total amount was $44 for 5 kids and I had gift cards from swagbucks that paid for it so $0 out of my pocket!  Now I just have mil, fil, and dh's grandmother.

That is AWESOME

[Baseball mom]

My problem is in the past we gave bigger gifts.  Now things have changed and we can't do that anymore and I feel guilty.  But I am making myself not feel guilty this year.  

I am going to do what I can and hopefully find gifts that makes others happy.  And hope they know that it comes from the heart.   

 

 

[mommyoffive]

16 hours ago, hjffkj said:

Once I posted that last post I decided to just force myself to get excited about gifts.  So I enlisted my 8 year old to sit at the computer with me and help me find gifts for the 5 kids we have to shop for, I already got something for the 6th kid. In about 15 minutes we had picked some card games, a minnie mouse picnic set, and some lego sets for them.  The total amount was $44 for 5 kids and I had gift cards from swagbucks that paid for it so $0 out of my pocket!  Now I just have mil, fil, and dh's grandmother.

 

Score!!!!

[mommyoffive]

12 hours ago, Baseball mom said:

My problem is in the past we gave bigger gifts.  Now things have changed and we can't do that anymore and I feel guilty.  But I am making myself not feel guilty this year.  

I am going to do what I can and hopefully find gifts that makes others happy.  And hope they know that it comes from the heart.   

 

 

 

You should not feel guilty.  I am sorry you feel like that.  I wish more people would feel ok making the holidays they way they wanted them.  I grew up watching my single mother being stressed about money, the time, effort that the gift giving brings.  She ended up hating the holidays.   I love just getting together and doing fun holiday things.   

We don't give gifts to anyone but our kids.  It was a waste doing it for our families, they all have enough money to buy themselves whatever they want.  Instead we get together and spend time together.  I want them to stop giving gifts to our kids though.  They go crazy overboard because they are the only grandchildren on either side, and then some of the older people don't even have grandchildren.  So it all goes to them. 

Honestly I am over giving gifts to my kids too. They have everything.  They don't even open everything each year.  And the stuff they do they like it for a few days and then it is just more stuff around the house.  I would love to get away for the holidays and just do an awesome trip.  But the kids are serious about Ballet and that means being in the Nutcracker so that won't happen.  But every year we gift them a trip for later.  I need to figure out where that is going to be.   Last year it was a Europe trip.    We don't buy much for our kids and dh does all the wrapping so no stress at all for that for me.  

[SKL]

Posted this in the no-spend thread the other day, but I meant to post it here:

I have been off these posts due to too much spending in recent months, but I'm popping back in because my credit card bill was astonishingly low last month, and it looks like it will be low again this month.  Not really sure how it happened, other than I've been trying to get caught up on work and I guess haven't been tempted.  Even with my kid's 12th birthday (and my birthday), it has been a relatively low-spend month.

I am sure we have some big spending coming up, with Christmas and donations and travel.  But it's nice to have a short break from it.

I decided to skip a November through January session of gymnastics (one of 3 weekly classes), as kid will be doing more school activities during this time.  Not a huge saving, but at least I won't be wasting that money.

[mommyoffive]

2 minutes ago, SKL said:

Posted this in the no-spend thread the other day, but I meant to post it here:

I have been off these posts due to too much spending in recent months, but I'm popping back in because my credit card bill was astonishingly low last month, and it looks like it will be low again this month.  Not really sure how it happened, other than I've been trying to get caught up on work and I guess haven't been tempted.  Even with my kid's 12th birthday (and my birthday), it has been a relatively low-spend month.

I am sure we have some big spending coming up, with Christmas and donations and travel.  But it's nice to have a short break from it.

I decided to skip a November through January session of gymnastics (one of 3 weekly classes), as kid will be doing more school activities during this time.  Not a huge saving, but at least I won't be wasting that money.

 

That is me.  I would love a low credit card bill.  One of these months.  At least I am getting lots of points.  Ha.  The bill is paid in full so that is good. 

[hjffkj]

4 hours ago, heartlikealion said:

I’m so frustrated. This month has been tight and dh said use the credit card if necessary. Well I was grabbing clothing for laundry and saw his receipt from eating out with his buddy. My jaw dropped and honestly I thought maybe he footed the whole bill since they went out on Sat to celebrate dh’s birthday (dinner & movie and friend paid most of not all) and the theater caught on fire and they were offered a rain check. So the second outing I thought maybe dh offered to pay. But no, $67 was *just* for dh’s order/tip. They got appetizers, meal & alcohol. I’m like wow, you can’t read prices? We ate there for my birthday and I know the prices were visible on the menu. Good golly. I know dh told his friend he can’t eat out like that again but he’s also told me similar things and it happens again. I told him before if they hang out it should be dinner *or* a movie because they are foodies and go overboard with the eating out. Sigh.

To not be a flake I went out of my way to tutor last night since I thought I could not Wed. Aside from the person running the program I was really the only tutor there. Suddenly dh is offering to take dd with him (he has to leave town again) and drop her off at his mom’s during part of this conference thing. I said ok if they are all on board. So I *could* tutor tonight technically now but I don’t think I will bend over backwards for less than half his dinner bill as it would require me to keep ds out late (he’d come with me). 

Having to juggle my work because of dh’s schedule just makes me feel justified in not working full time. Not worth the headache. 

So basically I’m discouraged and annoyed but I’ll take that out on the yard. When dd leaves town I’ll try to finish mowing the yard. And maybe I can google how to use the trimmer. We have string for it but no idea how to change that out and operate the thing. 

 

Spending sensibly when out eating with friends is hard.  Dh and I have found a restaurant that has half price appetizers and trivia night on Monday.  It has been a great way to get together with friends and not blow the budget. We just get a variety of appetizers and drinks.  

[mommyoffive]

4 hours ago, heartlikealion said:

I’m so frustrated. This month has been tight and dh said use the credit card if necessary. Well I was grabbing clothing for laundry and saw his receipt from eating out with his buddy. My jaw dropped and honestly I thought maybe he footed the whole bill since they went out on Sat to celebrate dh’s birthday (dinner & movie and friend paid most of not all) and the theater caught on fire and they were offered a rain check. So the second outing I thought maybe dh offered to pay. But no, $67 was *just* for dh’s order/tip. They got appetizers, meal & alcohol. I’m like wow, you can’t read prices? We ate there for my birthday and I know the prices were visible on the menu. Good golly. I know dh told his friend he can’t eat out like that again but he’s also told me similar things and it happens again. I told him before if they hang out it should be dinner *or* a movie because they are foodies and go overboard with the eating out. Sigh.

To not be a flake I went out of my way to tutor last night since I thought I could not Wed. Aside from the person running the program I was really the only tutor there. Suddenly dh is offering to take dd with him (he has to leave town again) and drop her off at his mom’s during part of this conference thing. I said ok if they are all on board. So I *could* tutor tonight technically now but I don’t think I will bend over backwards for less than half his dinner bill as it would require me to keep ds out late (he’d come with me). 

Having to juggle my work because of dh’s schedule just makes me feel justified in not working full time. Not worth the headache. 

So basically I’m discouraged and annoyed but I’ll take that out on the yard. When dd leaves town I’ll try to finish mowing the yard. And maybe I can google how to use the trimmer. We have string for it but no idea how to change that out and operate the thing. 

 

When we go out to eat I always calculate how much of my weekly grocery budget that is.  I know some places are on par for what we spend on a meal, but at a real sit down place it is almost half or more of our weekly grocery budget. Then I feel even worse. 

That is what has been my reason for not working all these years.  But I feel like now I could do some.   I would love an out of the house job.