~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ May 2022 Frugalistas ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[prairiewindmomma]

I think that's the thing that strikes me about the current situation. We have a lot of people who earn what "should" be solidly middle class salaries that are now struggling WHILE EMPLOYED FULL TIME. 

 

[JustEm]

1 hour ago, prairiewindmomma said:

I think that's the thing that strikes me about the current situation. We have a lot of people who earn what "should" be solidly middle class salaries that are now struggling WHILE EMPLOYED FULL TIME. 

 

Something has to give. Prior to dh's new job I was really worried with how we were going to handle things if prices kept soaring or didn't go down. It got to a point where we had no money left after paying bills and essentials. I wouldn't say we were living paycheck to paycheck because we hadn't adjusted 401k contributions at all so still had 15% of his income available if absolutely necessary. But I certainly didn't want to adjust it.

Even with his new income we still have to be overly mindful of our spending. 

[JustEm]

We've been discussing needing a 2nd vehicle. Driving dh to work and picking him up has been doable but if I didn't have to do it I'd be able to focus on eBay more and hence bring in more money.

But used vehicle prices are downright insane right now and inventory is almost non-existent.  So, we quickly decided to just hold off until we had more cash reserves built up in case of an emergency unless something falls into our laps. Well today my brother offered to sell us his car, an old Toyota Corolla with 68k miles on it. So, gotta move money around to make it happen. We'll end up saving on gas because it'll be less trips overall. 

 

[prairiewindmomma]

A Corolla with 68k is awesome!!

We've pretty much given up on getting another vehicle right now.  We've looked at every scenario, I think, from a brand new EV to a used gas-powered car and nothing makes sense financially for us across the board. Between registration fees, insurance, and car price dh is better off taking an Uber on the rare occasion I can't drive him. 

[mommyoffive]

43 minutes ago, hjffkj said:

Something has to give. Prior to dh's new job I was really worried with how we were going to handle things if prices kept soaring or didn't go down. It got to a point where we had no money left after paying bills and essentials. I wouldn't say we were living paycheck to paycheck because we hadn't adjusted 401k contributions at all so still had 15% of his income available if absolutely necessary. But I certainly didn't want to adjust it.

Even with his new income we still have to be overly mindful of our spending. 

And while everyone's costs are going up so much most people's wages are not going up as the rate of everything else.  It sucks.  Even when you get a raise and you feel like things should be easier then the costs just keep jumping and jumping every week.

Edited May 24, 2022 by mommyoffive

[mommyoffive]

35 minutes ago, hjffkj said:

We've been discussing needing a 2nd vehicle. Driving dh to work and picking him up has been doable but if I didn't have to do it I'd be able to focus on eBay more and hence bring in more money.

But used vehicle prices are downright insane right now and inventory is almost non-existent.  So, we quickly decided to just hold off until we had more cash reserves built up in case of an emergency unless something falls into our laps. Well today my brother offered to sell us his car, an old Toyota Corolla with 68k miles on it. So, gotta move money around to make it happen. We'll end up saving on gas because it'll be less trips overall. 

 

Score.  I was going to ask you how ebay was going and if you were still doing it.  That car has a ton of life left still.

[mommyoffive]

Inflation will be higher for longer and you’re not going to like what comes next (msn.com)

Taking these factors together produces one likely outcome: higher prices for everything and a subsequent period of crippling economic stagflation

 

 

Global food crisis looms as fertilizer supplies dwindle (msn.com)

 

A Hot, Deadly Summer Is Coming With Frequent Blackouts (msn.com)

Edited May 24, 2022 by mommyoffive

[JustEm]

55 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

A Corolla with 68k is awesome!!

We've pretty much given up on getting another vehicle right now.  We've looked at every scenario, I think, from a brand new EV to a used gas-powered car and nothing makes sense financially for us across the board. Between registration fees, insurance, and car price dh is better off taking an Uber on the rare occasion I can't drive him. 

That is basically where we were until my brother asked if we were looking for a car. All the used vehicles even close to this ones age have way over 100k miles so a real crap shoot. And everything else is inflated price wise.  I imagine insurance will be pretty cheap be we pay $80/month on the minivan right now.

[JustEm]

41 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

Score.  I was going to ask you how ebay was going and if you were still doing it.  That car has a ton of life left still.

I am still doing it but not really listing. I have a huge pile of things to list but finding time right now is hard since adding two extra car trips to dh's work per most day and the outdoor projects I've been focused on. But I sell a few items a month. Once I start listing again things will pick up. I have a lot of things that will sell very quickly once they're listed like videogames,consoles, rare VHS tapes. The vintage clothing will sit a little longer but no more than a month or 2 tops.

[JustEm]

Ds9 had been waitlisted for an outdoor summer camp with archery, canoeing, campfire cooking, and other things and we got word today that a spot opened up. That is $225 for a week long camp. The money will come from our home schooling fund which we've been adding to monthly all throughout the pandemic but haven't touch it in ages. He's needed an outside activity just like ds13 but isn't the type of kid to hold an interest in thing long enough to sign up for weekly things. So one week is perfect.

[prairiewindmomma]

The blackouts thing is actually what is driving us to do solar this summer. FWIW, solar isn't enough to keep HVAC going. Anyone is free to message me if they want details...we're still knee deep in them and trying to sort out exactly what it is we want to do. 

[Shoeless]

I have been listing like crazy on eBay. We've made almost $7k in the last 90 days, which is the best I have ever done. I still have bins of stuff to list ; hoping to get everything done by the end of June. Maybe July. DH has been giving me stuff to list, so that keeps shifting my timeline. 

I am currently fascinated by people who sell trash on eBay: empty milk jugs, empty glass yogurt jars, empty pill vials. I told DH I am going to sell our garbage, so save the empty pill vials, lol. 

But, I did sell a bunch of empty Altoids tins! That made me laugh. 

[mommyoffive]

39 minutes ago, MissLemon said:

I have been listing like crazy on eBay. We've made almost $7k in the last 90 days, which is the best I have ever done. I still have bins of stuff to list ; hoping to get everything done by the end of June. Maybe July. DH has been giving me stuff to list, so that keeps shifting my timeline. 

I am currently fascinated by people who sell trash on eBay: empty milk jugs, empty glass yogurt jars, empty pill vials. I told DH I am going to sell our garbage, so save the empty pill vials, lol. 

But, I did sell a bunch of empty Altoids tins! That made me laugh. 

Good for you!!  Is it all your stuff or do you go out and source too? 

Too funny about the trash selling.  

[Shoeless]

52 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

Good for you!!  Is it all your stuff or do you go out and source too? 

Too funny about the trash selling.  

I source, but some of it is our stuff that we no longer use. I get some things at local thrift stores, but most of my sourcing is from estate sale auctions. I bought a table full of random stuff for $5 and will probably make about $1200 off the table, over time. 

[mommyoffive]

Picked up some stuff at Aldi that is cheaper than Walmart.

Got gas.

Let me vent a second, this always happens to me.  I buy something online and a few days later it goes on sale of they have a better discount code.   I bought a bunch of dance things for of the kids for their intensive.  A few days later they went on sale.  Great.  Contacted the company and they wouldn't honor the discount code on the order.  Really irritated.  It would have saved me $34.   ARRGGH.

[mommyoffive]

On 5/24/2022 at 3:48 PM, prairiewindmomma said:

The blackouts thing is actually what is driving us to do solar this summer. FWIW, solar isn't enough to keep HVAC going. Anyone is free to message me if they want details...we're still knee deep in them and trying to sort out exactly what it is we want to do. 

Definitely keep us updated on going solar.

[prairiewindmomma]

Ugh. That’s so frustrating re: sales.

We are still having crazy weather that is wrecking havoc on our garden. I am grateful the mountains got additional snowpack—but I think I may have to do a third planting of some things. I haven’t had this kind of issue the last few years—my plants are all a couple of months behind from where they were this time last year. I had a low point this week when I went shopping at the “good” grocery store and they were out of red peppers, cherry tomatoes, and other things on my list. If I can’t buy it and I can’t grow it….ugh.

I am basically going to have to start hitting multiple grocery stores a week in order to get things which I am not happy about given how many people are coming down with COVID right now. 

 

[mommyoffive]

7 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

Ugh. That’s so frustrating re: sales.

We are still having crazy weather that is wrecking havoc on our garden. I am grateful the mountains got additional snowpack—but I think I may have to do a third planting of some things. I haven’t had this kind of issue the last few years—my plants are all a couple of months behind from where they were this time last year. I had a low point this week when I went shopping at the “good” grocery store and they were out of red peppers, cherry tomatoes, and other things on my list. If I can’t buy it and I can’t grow it….ugh.

I am basically going to have to start hitting multiple grocery stores a week in order to get things which I am not happy about given how many people are coming down with COVID right now. 

 

Did you guys get snow where you are or was it just cold weather?  Hopefully it will be a long growing season. 

Can you do curbside pick up anywhere?

And yeah the sales thing is so annoying.  Happens every time.  And with the amount of $ I spend there it makes it extra annoying that they won't offer a refund.   I am a good customer.

Edited May 26, 2022 by mommyoffive

[cjzimmer1]

38 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

Ugh. That’s so frustrating re: sales.

We are still having crazy weather that is wrecking havoc on our garden. I am grateful the mountains got additional snowpack—but I think I may have to do a third planting of some things. I haven’t had this kind of issue the last few years—my plants are all a couple of months behind from where they were this time last year. I had a low point this week when I went shopping at the “good” grocery store and they were out of red peppers, cherry tomatoes, and other things on my list. If I can’t buy it and I can’t grow it….ugh.

I am basically going to have to start hitting multiple grocery stores a week in order to get things which I am not happy about given how many people are coming down with COVID right now. 

 

Last year I picked about 2 pounds of tomatoes from my garden on June 10.  I haven't even gotten those plants removed from the garden yet let alone gotten new ones planted or anywhere near producing.  It's been a brutal year on plants (which is saying something because last year we had 3 killer frosts in May which was a record but overall the weather is so much worse this year)

[prairiewindmomma]

We've had snow, unseasonable frosts, and so many hail storms. Just last week we had overnight temps close to freezing. 

Normally tomato plants are knee high by now--we're zone 9a. 

I can get grocery pickup at Walmart, but they are horrible about produce. Target won't do fresh produce for pickup. The "good" store doesn't have pickup, nor does Grocery Outlet or Trader Joe's. There's a Kroger chain store that does pickup but the produce is always nearly rotting. There's another grocery store chain quite a distance away that does pickup and I'm calculating whether it's worth the drive with gas at $5.50 now. Is it worth $11? I dunno. Costco has limited produce here and Instacart is somewhat unreliable with the driver shortage. I just don't have good options.

 

[mommyoffive]

On 5/26/2022 at 12:25 PM, cjzimmer1 said:

Last year I picked about 2 pounds of tomatoes from my garden on June 10.  I haven't even gotten those plants removed from the garden yet let alone gotten new ones planted or anywhere near producing.  It's been a brutal year on plants (which is saying something because last year we had 3 killer frosts in May which was a record but overall the weather is so much worse this year)

Wow, June 10th?  When do you plant?  Or do you buy big established plants?

[mommyoffive]

On 5/26/2022 at 12:30 PM, prairiewindmomma said:

We've had snow, unseasonable frosts, and so many hail storms. Just last week we had overnight temps close to freezing. 

Normally tomato plants are knee high by now--we're zone 9a. 

I can get grocery pickup at Walmart, but they are horrible about produce. Target won't do fresh produce for pickup. The "good" store doesn't have pickup, nor does Grocery Outlet or Trader Joe's. There's a Kroger chain store that does pickup but the produce is always nearly rotting. There's another grocery store chain quite a distance away that does pickup and I'm calculating whether it's worth the drive with gas at $5.50 now. Is it worth $11? I dunno. Costco has limited produce here and Instacart is somewhat unreliable with the driver shortage. I just don't have good options.

 

The only thing I have in my town is Walmart.  Ours hasn't been bad with the produce, but I have noticed that some of the produce is just bad.  For 3 weeks we ordered a watermelon.  It looked fine on the outside but was rotten on the inside.  Same with some avocados.  Everything else has been fine though.  That would be really upsetting to get the rotting stuff.  I get why they think they can do it, but that is wrong.

[mommyoffive]

Put in a bunch of dance orders for intensives today for the kids.  I think 3 different dance stores.  Even the one that I just contacted yesterday about the sale thing.  I want to not buy from them but they have the fastest shipping, best selection, and sales.  

WE had ordered odd 4 pairs of pointe shoes for our local dance store about 2 months ago for the summer and they are not here.  Don't know when they will be.  So found some online and put in an order and hopefully they will be here before she leaves.  She only has her current pair right now because she had just switched to a new brand and we needed to see how that worked out.  Well they are not dead yet, but we were told to have 1 pair for each week of intensives.  She is doing 7 weeks so far this summer.  Fingers crossed these come.   Once we see the shipping then we will get the store to refund us. 

Hoping to get a bunch of doc apts and things done before we are so busy.

Last week of dance next week.   Yay!

Just got an email for the place my kids did nature school and sign up for fall is soon.  Plus they adding more days.  Great, but more $$ and more driving.  However my kids loved it.  Need to mull that over. 

 

[Brittany1116]

2 of 2 kids sick. Gas and appointments and meds, oh my. 

[mommyoffive]

1 minute ago, Brittany1116 said:

2 of 2 kids sick. Gas and appointments and meds, oh my. 

Oh no.  I hope they get better soon and you are sparred. 

[mommyoffive]

Free Summer Reading Programs 2022 | Money Saving Mom®

[cjzimmer1]

4 hours ago, mommyoffive said:

Wow, June 10th?  When do you plant?  Or do you buy big established plants?

My relatives own a greenhouse and our speciality is large early tomato plants.  I plant the rejects and still come out months ahead of big box store products.  This was planting day 2020 and it's a pretty typical representation of the size plants I plant. 

 

ETA Tomato plants are started in February.

Edited May 28, 2022 by cjzimmer1

[historically accurate]

On 5/26/2022 at 10:13 AM, mommyoffive said:

Picked up some stuff at Aldi that is cheaper than Walmart.

Got gas.

Let me vent a second, this always happens to me.  I buy something online and a few days later it goes on sale of they have a better discount code.   I bought a bunch of dance things for of the kids for their intensive.  A few days later they went on sale.  Great.  Contacted the company and they wouldn't honor the discount code on the order.  Really irritated.  It would have saved me $34.   ARRGGH.

Yay for Aldi!

Boo on gas prices!

And finally, I hate, hate, hate that when you miss the deal and the company is a putz and won't help you out.

[Dianthus]

5 minutes ago, historically accurate said:

Yay for Aldi!

Boo on gas prices!

And finally, I hate, hate, hate that when you miss the deal and the company is a putz and won't help you out.

If it's enough of a discount, I'll reorder everything, then return the first order .

[mommyoffive]

2 hours ago, historically accurate said:

Yay for Aldi!

Boo on gas prices!

And finally, I hate, hate, hate that when you miss the deal and the company is a putz and won't help you out.

How is everyone feeling at your house?  

[historically accurate]

Just now, mommyoffive said:

How is everyone feeling at your house?  

Eh, mixed bag. Thanks for asking. 

2 youngest are still covid free - although one went into the hospital last night for an unrelated reason. 

Oldest DD has cleared covid. She is doing well.

I have technically cleared covid, but I am downright exhausted. Back to work, and barely able to function - it's like I'm moving through molasses. Spending 7 hours at the ER with DD last night did not help matters. 

DH is still testing positive, although he says he feels better this morning. Still coughing up a storm though, but his oxygen level is above 95 consistently.

[mommyoffive]

5 minutes ago, historically accurate said:

Eh, mixed bag. Thanks for asking. 

2 youngest are still covid free - although one went into the hospital last night for an unrelated reason. 

Oldest DD has cleared covid. She is doing well.

I have technically cleared covid, but I am downright exhausted. Back to work, and barely able to function - it's like I'm moving through molasses. Spending 7 hours at the ER with DD last night did not help matters. 

DH is still testing positive, although he says he feels better this morning. Still coughing up a storm though, but his oxygen level is above 95 consistently.

Ugh.  I am sorry.   I am glad your oldest is doing well and 2 youngest didn't ever get it.   I am glad your dh is feeling better and I hope his cough goes away.   That stinks that you are so exhausted.  And 7  hours in the ER, oh man.  I hope your dd is ok.  Lots of rest this weekend.  I hope you get through the exhaustion soon.  

[JustEm]

Super spendy weekend for us. Bought the car from my brother, spent $80 at Ikea for a desk for dd, and about $150 at home Depot on pool chemicals and a few other things for house projects. June will be a much cheaper month. Gotta build the savings back up.

[prairiewindmomma]

It was an expensive weekend for us too, but we spent where we wanted to. This year has been about making the backyard nice. We bought a grill earlier this year. This weekend, the fire pit we’ve had our eye on dropped to its lowest price in a few years so we bought it. It’s a solo stove so we can also take it camping or to the beach. Finally, I bought some resin planters and 4x4x8s and some quikrete and hardware and built planter stands to extend out our string cafe lights along our backyard. I am letting the quikrete cure and then I will add some dirt and flowers into the planters. Our backyard is TINY but it should be a great place to hang out this summer. The house takes a bit of time to cool off in the evening even with the ac going so it’s great that we’ll have a nice place to hang out in in back. 

[mommyoffive]

Normal weekend for us.  I really wanted to go away for the weekend, but our summer is packed so we stayed put.  It was the first weekend in at least a month that we were not running the whole summer. 

Grocery pick up. 

A few things from the hardware store for a new hose and head and wasp spray.

Last of the dance intensive ordering.

That is about it.

[JustEm]

The pool is officially open, so we'll having the adding cost of chemicals and electric. But having the pool saves us so much on our of house entertainment in the summer because we all just enjoy swimming multiple times a day. We invite family, friends, and neighbors over but don't provide anything other than water. It's great

[Condessa]

I upped our grocery budget recently, but I'm struggling to keep within it anyways.  I figure one area we could do better is breakfast, having less store bought cereal.  So I'm trying to make breakfast several times a week to save on that, cooked whole grains like oatmeal, brown rice, and crema de farina.  And yesterday I made a huge batch of my home granola recipe, which is much cheaper and also healthier than the store bought granola since I use applesauce and some honey instead of oil to make it clump together.  It took almost half the day to cook because of needing to bake thin layers of it on cookie sheets at a time, but dh had to work and it was an unseasonably cold day here, so it seemed like a good time to have the oven going. 

I've also been focusing on rice-and-beans meals with no or little meat.  Dh grew up thinking that every dinner must have meat, so it can be hard to find dinner meals without it that won't leave him thinking that he needs to go find something else to eat a couple hours later, but I've had some success.  Madras lentils and naan are the biggest new hit, here.  I also made him an awesome ice cream cake for his birthday last week, for about 2/3 the price we paid last year for a much smaller cake.  

[mommyoffive]

16 minutes ago, Condessa said:

I upped our grocery budget recently, but I'm struggling to keep within it anyways.  I figure one area we could do better is breakfast, having less store bought cereal.  So I'm trying to make breakfast several times a week to save on that, cooked whole grains like oatmeal, brown rice, and crema de farina.  And yesterday I made a huge batch of my home granola recipe, which is much cheaper and also healthier than the store bought granola since I use applesauce and some honey instead of oil to make it clump together.  It took almost half the day to cook because of needing to bake thin layers of it on cookie sheets at a time, but dh had to work and it was an unseasonably cold day here, so it seemed like a good time to have the oven going. 

I've also been focusing on rice-and-beans meals with no or little meat.  Dh grew up thinking that every dinner must have meat, so it can be hard to find dinner meals without it that won't leave him thinking that he needs to go find something else to eat a couple hours later, but I've had some success.  Madras lentils and naan are the biggest new hit, here.  I also made him an awesome ice cream cake for his birthday last week, for about 2/3 the price we paid last year for a much smaller cake.  

Same here.  Last week we only had meat 1 time.  Success.  

Where are you getting Madras lentils?  My kids love them and I normally get them at Costco (online) and they have been gone for a long time. 

How do you make ice cream cake? 

Good for you for making homemade things for breakfast.  The time I did homemade granola I didn't figure it was cheaper than getting stuff on sale.  Plus with the time and energy to make it.   We are still working through a lot of deep discount cereal and oatmeal that I got back in Oct or November. 

[Condessa]

33 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

Same here.  Last week we only had meat 1 time.  Success.  

Where are you getting Madras lentils?  My kids love them and I normally get them at Costco (online) and they have been gone for a long time. 

How do you make ice cream cake? 

Good for you for making homemade things for breakfast.  The time I did homemade granola I didn't figure it was cheaper than getting stuff on sale.  Plus with the time and energy to make it.   We are still working through a lot of deep discount cereal and oatmeal that I got back in Oct or November. 

Copycat recipe for homemade madras lentils: https://foodess.com/madras-lentils/  (She calls for canned beans and lentils, but I buy them dry in bulk and presoak and cook my beans in large batches, then freeze so they're ready for use like canned.  The lentils I put in dry and add about 3 times the water she calls for, then let simmer for about 35 minutes instead of the 10 she calls for.)

Ice cream cake was surprisingly easy.  Line a pan the size of the cake you want with plastic wrap, let ice cream sit out enough to soften, then place in pan and put a plastic baggy on your hand before pressing the softened ice cream down into the pan to form a cake layer.  I had to really smash it down to get the center to flatten.  Stick it back into the freezer to reharden, and then you can pull out the layer by the plastic wrap and then repeat for as many layers as you want.  I also used the same pan, lined with parchment paper, to cook a thin layer of fudgy brownies to go between the ice cream layers.  Once it was cool I pulled it out and stuck it into the freezer to harden before stacking the layers on a cookie sheet.  This creates the basic cake, but the edges look rough.  Then I drizzled lots of chocolate and caramel sauce back and forth across the cake and crushed some oreos to press against the sides and sprinkle on top to cover the rough edges.  I also added some honey roasted peanuts, put whipped cream around the top edge, and used more with a cake decorating tip to write 'Happy Birthday' across the top.  Just put the cake back into the freezer between each step to keep cold.

 

[mommyoffive]

New York gas tax suspension set to begin (msn.com)