How did I save money today?

Homesteading & Country Living Forum

Help Support Homesteading & Country Living Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Day 4 o not spending any money today.

We saved money by juicing lemons gifted to us making 2 ice cube trays full which are in the freezer for later use plus another third of a cup for making our cheesecake tonight. DH destemmed the mulberries we also foraged for free from a friends property with permission to make 2 x 250 g bags and 1 x 161 g bag. We will use the lemon juice in icings, cheesecakes and for jam making and use the mulberries for jam making and desserts too.
 
Busted today but did get quite a few good specials in the grocery dept today.

We saved money by -

- Buying 11 tubes of toothpaste for the 2 of us on half price special, 1 bottle of aftershave on 15% off and some bananas 37% off in total saving $50.82 from Woolworths including another 5% off for using our roadside assist gift card.
- From IGA we purchased 6 x packets of potato french fries on half price special, and 4 packets of 6 bread rolls for 60% off saving $17.12 in total on usual prices.
- Listed 10 handmade items on a free listing promotion on eBay saving $16.50 on usual prices.
 
Last edited:
We recently had our Shopko go out of business. Two days before they closed, I went and got a mattress pad for 60% off. We now have a Kmart going out of business. I had to go look for a tape measure for work - found 100' steel tape for $11. I also got (for me personally) 4 shirts and 1 night shirt for $3 each. Many of my shirts I've had for at least a decade or longer and are getting rather worn looking. I'm not usually hard on clothes - it sounds like I'm a hobo or something. Anyways, I told hubby as I felt odd buying clothes for myself. He looked at me like I grew a third eye and said good. I've worked hard at having a small wardrobe so I think it was my inner warning signal not to get carried away.
 
Some years back a Kmart and another chain store went out of business around the same time. I was able to get a lot of pegboard hooks dirt cheap. All sorts of display stuff will be on sale as well as their products.
 
Day 1 of not spending any money today.

Today we saved money by-

- putting in all of the full sized wool/glass ceiling insulation in the ceiling saving us in labour and part costs a total of $1559.95 if we hired a professional to do the whole job for us. Still got to cut the batts to fill in the small gaps between the ceiling rafters tomorrow but the biggest part of the job is now done and the house is anywhere from 6 - 10 oc warmer with our slow combustion fireplace on compared to before we put in the ceiling insulation batts.
 
Thats why when we put the new metal roof on we left the old roof on. Its extra insulation. And the new windows we just put in the bedroom will go a long way in keeping the room either warmer or cooler since they're better quality.
 
Sewingcreations15 said:
Thank you @LadyLocust I have favourited it and will try and make some when time permits. So many jobs and so little time it seems.

Who said when you retire you have nothing to do :dunno: because I can tell you it isn't true if you are homesteaders/preppers.
Click to expand...
I say - now you're not just tired, you're retired ;)
 
Day 2 of not spending any money today. We have also had a financial win and paid off $5581.21 off our principal on our home mortgage since January this year :).

@LadyLocust you are right we are retired and then we do lots of things to make us tired again (retired) :LOL:. We never run out of things to do around here.
 
Last edited:
Great going @Sewingcreations15 !!


My local grocery store had 1 lb boxes of pastas on sale for only .77 each. So I bought 10 different kind. I have to vacuum seal them in half gallon mason jars next. I'll also have to buy some more of the jars at walmart this weekend. They're great for storage.
I also picked up 4lbs of old fashioned oats ( rolled oats for oatmeal/granola). I'm thinking that with the lack of farming because of the rains and flooding the price will be going up so I wanted to get ahead of the game.

Bought 5 cans of chicken breast for $1 each. Perfect sized cans for one person. I like to make chicken salad with them. Its the right amount for one.
 
Finished filling in all the gaps in the roof insulation yesterday so that is now all done thank goodness. Now just need to find where my glasses fell off up there as they were on a cord that let go :cry: . Never fear I have a spare pair I am wearing now.

Great going @LadyLocust and keep up the great work on reducing that power usage.
 
Just be sure to plug the real meter back in before the guy comes to read it... ;)
 
There is a device that you can make and install on your breaker panel that will take the power out of sink and the meter will read a very low throughput. It consists of coils and capacitors that tell the meter that very little power is being used. All your appliances have the same power available but the meter is partially blinded. I don't know if it would work on the smart meters... I guess I'll have to some research.
 
Day 4 of spending no money today.

We saved today by making at home from our food storage -
- A double batch of homemade coconut and choc chip biscuits, 2 family sized apple pies (one for Soup Sunday at church and one for us), and a batch of magic mix white sauce/pudding premix saving $59.19 over purchasing them premade in our local supermarkets.
- We also saved money by batch cooking all of the above at the same time saving on electricity costs.
 
Up the mountain, there was still power usage so I was going to throw the main. I was up there today and discovered that the toilet in the shop bathroom was running. The chain to the flapper was caught under it causing it to continually run which would make the well pump kick on. So I'm testing again now that that is resolved to see if the power goes to zero other than if the pump kicks on. It's become a bit of a challenge ;)
 
Day 6 of spending no money yesterday but we busted today to do our monthly grocery shopping. Found no great specials on anything we needed so we will keep hold of the rest of our pantry stocking budget until we do. We allow $40 a month for building up items in our food storage that we need to increase to a 12 month supply.

I did stock up on a 3 more laundry liquids, 3 dishwashing liquids and 5 boxes of tissues at a usual low price.
 
Been working on getting money back into savings, emergency accounts.
So called in few more loans, now have enough saved to pay the deposit on new apartment and 1/2 months rent.
Will start moving next week, instead of the following week.
Been redo, remake, use up mode for quite some time.
After next week will save $20 a month on quarters that what it cost monthly here to do laundry.
Will be using my son's(mine) washer and dryer, so extra money will go into saving account for purchase of new machines eventually.
Bought that set new 25 years ago, but Maytag's take a beating and keep on ticking.
Will be saving about $ 70 for several months while I wait on local internet provider to hook up to new place.
Hopefully electric will be cheaper too.
Double hung windows, insulation, programable thermostat should help on electric bill.
Will have to do some shopping this month for laundry soap, prepaid phone card, Strawberry's food and such.
Fuel bill for car will be higher while moving, but $20 fills my car up.
will fill son's truck up once as payment for helping me move.
 
Saving approx. $ 45 tonight on getting Strawberry's shots done at the dog park tonight.
Normal shots at vet's office $65, then on to city hall for tags which cost $5.
But once a year all three vets in town gather together and cut costs on shots.
So tonight her shots will cost $20 and city tags will still cost $5.
And my girl will be safe for another year.
 
Peanut said:
Years ago I bought a handful of metal adapters. They allow me to connect a garden hose to just about any size bathroom or kitchen sink.

They all needed new gaskets so I cut a piece of rubber off a ripped innertube I keep in the tool room. I spent a couple hours cutting out new gaskets for the adapters… no point in buying new ones.
Click to expand...


A failed attempt... Got to thinking, that inner tube I've been cutting gaskets out of is probably 10 or 12 years old. I guess the rubber has degraded.

The first time I used the adapters they worked but not since. The rubber flattened out but didn't spring back.

Tonight I had to buy $6 worth of assorted home gaskets from the big box store. The new one works.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top