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.
Spent $68 today.
Bought my own birthday present for next month.
Been pondering it for quite awhile.
And decided beings I don't spend money on myself often.
Usually just essentials, not much more than that.
And it's not often a person turns 63 years young.
So Wednesday, I will be a proud owner of an air fryer, and cookbook too.
Still saved money though.
I had budgeted my birthday money to be $75.
Then difference will be put into savings account such as it is.
Now I can have fried chicken without the mess.
 
I would wait but WTH... Happy Birthday MO!
Who would have thought that you could have fried foods without the mess - and the waste.
 
Well, it was that time again where I call in and try and get my bills lowered. Many companies will negotiate, add promotions etc that can be a nice monthly savings with no loss of creature comforts. I have been doing this for a few years now and so far so good.

I called DirecTV today because I came off the negotiation from last year. My normal monthly bill is 149.98, last year I had it down to 89.98 per month.. After twisting their arm, complaining about the infomercial channels and lack of things to watch (not really but......) I was able to negotiate my bill down to 67.98 per month for 12 months, in 12 months I will do this again. I gave up nothing, they removed the 27 a month fee for having DVR and HD, then I got them to apply a monthly promotion of 55.00 bringing my bill down to 67.98.....a savings of 984.00 annually.

Next I called Sprint, got my bill from 121.00 a month down to less than 100 a month. Total annual savings of roughly 1250.00 per year, for BOTH bills. I gave up nothing. No contract agreements, no auto bill pay, but I may set up Sprint for that because by doing so I will save another 15 bucks a month.

Just thought I would toss that out there, you may not realize what you can actually get unless you become the squeaky wheel.
 
I do that with my cable company every 6 months. I ask for "customer retention department". It works every time.

At the salvage grocery, I got 4- #10 cans of black beans to add when making dog food (one can per 20 quarts) and got DH #10 can of vanilla pudding. He is happy! Oh, all the cans were $1.99 each!
 
Returned pair of shoes to Wal*Mart.($8.96)
They didn't fit properly.
Put that money towards new pair of tennis shoes.(Avis $17.96).
Savings of $9 on new shoes.
So with $9.00 bought white button mushrooms for $1.88,portabella mushrooms for $ 2.38 and popcorn balls for Halloween for $4.96. Everything totaled to $9.22, so had to pay 22 cents for purchases minus Associate's discount of course.
 
Curmudgeon said:
Well, it was that time again where I call in and try and get my bills lowered. Many companies will negotiate, add promotions etc that can be a nice monthly savings with no loss of creature comforts. I have been doing this for a few years now and so far so good.

I called DirecTV today because I came off the negotiation from last year. My normal monthly bill is 149.98, last year I had it down to 89.98 per month.. After twisting their arm, complaining about the infomercial channels and lack of things to watch (not really but......) I was able to negotiate my bill down to 67.98 per month for 12 months, in 12 months I will do this again. I gave up nothing, they removed the 27 a month fee for having DVR and HD, then I got them to apply a monthly promotion of 55.00 bringing my bill down to 67.98.....a savings of 984.00 annually.

Next I called Sprint, got my bill from 121.00 a month down to less than 100 a month. Total annual savings of roughly 1250.00 per year, for BOTH bills. I gave up nothing. No contract agreements, no auto bill pay, but I may set up Sprint for that because by doing so I will save another 15 bucks a month.

Just thought I would toss that out there, you may not realize what you can actually get unless you become the squeaky wheel.
Click to expand...
I do this too. Just got our data quadrupled for about $10/mo since we’d been going over. Also Curm if you do auto pay using a credit card that you get X% back on, you save that much more, but don’t ask me how I’d know 😉
@Amish Heart are you able to post pictures? Would love to see the blanket/comforter.
 
Day 1 of not spending any money today :) .

Yesterday we saved money by buying a solid trailer loading ramp for getting our ride on lawnmower off and onto our trailer saving $220 over buying it elsewhere.
I also purchased 3 dozen markdown eggs for $1.60 per dozen saving $4.20 on usual prices.
We now have our 6 living expenses emergency fund up to 54.81% of the way there :) .
Also went to battle with our electricity company over them not applying our pensioner discount for the last 18 months to our power bill and got a $535 credit on my account. They tried to palm me off by saying we will just apply it from today and when I asked to speak to a manager they suddenly found that I had rung up when I opened the account and had a recording of the phone call where I had asked for the pensioner discount to be applied. Then they rang me to say they made a mistake followed by a quick email saying they had rectified the problem with a credit from the opening of my account.

It certainly pays to be robust with all bill companies over the phone.
 
Last edited:
So we figured out our coffee pot has a "strong" setting. We tried it and now use about 1/5 less coffee saving us a pot for every 5 pots brewed.
I haven't been keeping track of no spend days since this year went down the drain. I've been trying to get things when I see them available and stock up on some things even if we aren't in immediate need. I just got grocery money again today and attempt to get back on track since I'm not planning on going to any stores for a while. Hopefully hoopla is nearing an end.
 
Bills are paid.
Money in savings.
Still have money in checking account too.
Deposited money into emergency account too.
Picked up a bit of cash hidden here in the home place too.
About half way to purchase price of all in one washer/dryer machine in fixed savings account.
1 more payment for student loan.
Grocery money taken out and in the enevelope.
If not needed it will go into fixed saving account for washer/dryer unit.
Also in fixed savings account is money for property taxes, getting car licensed, Strawberry's vet bills.
Picked up matching pj's for the grand daughters for Christmas.
Thanksgiving dinner will be free.
Eating out of my pantry, chest freezer.
 
Birthday air fryer is going back to Wal*Mart.
Too heavy when filled with 2 chicken strips, 5 potato wedges.
So refund($68) will go back on card.
Ordered smaller version for $48.
Smaller version is 1.9 quarts compared to 3.5 quarts.
Savings of $20 which I will use to purchase produce.
Larger version hurt my left wrist, felt it snap with splint on.
Another 8 weeks of splint according to PC(primary care doctor).
What a bite.
$20-$25 dollars of produce, fruit and vegetable will set me up for at least 2-3 weeks.
Until I receive my CSA boxes this month.
 
Well I'm officially 12 weeks ahead on rent.

It feels awesome!

The game plan for this pension is
- a new stair tread for the back stairs.
- A roof basket for the car.
- a block splitter.
- Get a "free" used tyre from the tyre fitters so I can split kindling for my tent stove and my rocket stove.
- High protein broiler feed for the ducks. They haven't finished growing yet and they the boost.
- Mixed grain for the chickens.
- a couple of punnets of salad seedlings for my hydroponic systems.
- 2 security cameras to cover the front and back yards to keep the vermin out. I'm done playing with these fools.
- More fruit and veggies so I can continue my juice cleanse.

I'm looking at how much tread I've got left on my tyres and I'm thinking it might be time to get new ones fitted before the wet season starts. Nothing worse than hydroplaning on near bald tyres in the wet.
It might also be a good idea to get the wee beastie a full service.
The kayak I planned on getting has been bumped way...WAAAYYYYYY down the list along with large 60 litre dry bags to put my camping gear in.
Already I'm thinking that if I'm getting the roof basket then it makes sense to get a waterproof roof bag to go with it....and so the kayak gets bumped down even further.
 
Yesterday I finally made it to the grocery store. Turkeys were $19.99 but $12 off if you spend $30 or more. Well, that's easy enough. Picked up a few other groceries just to have on hand and a turkey. So far this month, I have 3/4 of my grocery money still in my envelope, and it's almost middle of the month :) I know that can change, but so far so good.
 
Ordered and picked up normal grocery order from Wal*Mart.
Spent $35.48.
Topped off things I was low on or out of, things like produce.
Picked up my CSA boxes today.
In my CSA boxes received 25 pounds of chicken of some sort.
Break down is the following:
5 pounds of ground chicken made into chicken patties.
5 pounds of chicken fajatia meat
5 pounds of chicken breast
3 whole chickens
1 pork loin about 3 to 4 pounds.
5 pounds of ground chicken.
5 large family size cans of tuna
5 large family size cans of chicken
4 pounds of pasta
Will pick up CSA fruits and produce boxes after Thanksgiving.
 
This winter we are doing an experiment to see how frugally we can live. We turned our home into a "dry home" for the winter, meaning no running water. We pull water from the well about every other or third day. We heat the water on the woodstove for bathing, cleaning, doing clothes, etc. Heat is almost exclusively from the wood stove unless we are away for a few days and our toyo stove kicks in. Subsistence wise, we did pretty good from the garden and in storing up meat, so easily more than 50% of our food this winter will be from what we produced. Our electric bill should be about $40 a month and we are hoping to keep our heating oil bill for the winter at about $100 total. For comparison, from the heating oil we used last winter, it cost us $190 to refill the heating oil tank and our average winter electric bill was about $90 a month.

Its not that we can't afford the bills, we can. I just think when the world turns to crap and hyperinflation and scarcity sets in, it will be nice to know what its like to waste nothing and to how to get by living simply.
 
Alaskajohn said:
This winter we are doing an experiment to see how frugally we can live. We turned our home into a "dry home" for the winter, meaning no running water. We pull water from the well about every other or third day. We heat the water on the woodstove for bathing, cleaning, doing clothes, etc. Heat is almost exclusively from the wood stove unless we are away for a few days and our toyo stove kicks in. Subsistence wise, we did pretty good from the garden and in storing up meat, so easily more than 50% of our food this winter will be from what we produced. Our electric bill should be about $40 a month and we are hoping to keep our heating oil bill for the winter at about $100 total. For comparison, from the heating oil we used last winter, it cost us $190 to refill the heating oil tank and our average winter electric bill was about $90 a month.

Its not that we can't afford the bills, we can. I just think when the world turns to crap and hyperinflation and scarcity sets in, it will be nice to know what its like to waste nothing and to how to get by living simply.
Click to expand...
I sometimes entertain myself by seeing what bills I can eliminate or what things I can live without (so I don't have to buy them). Many times it becomes a habit. I haven't bought plastic wrap or waxed paper or paper towels for about a decade- ran out and didn't get more, found alternatives. You might surprise yourselves by how much you save this winter. Have fun!
 
I cut hubs hair again. I'm getting better at it, but it still helps that he almost always wears a hat. I kinda took a big chunk out of this hair on one side and it looks.....not so good. I'm trying to hurry up and improve the time it takes. He doesn't care at all. LOL! I'm sure I'm breaking some law by cutting his hair without a license. I'm such a rebel! He offered to cut mine. I politely declined.:oops:

I'm going to take a ride with hubs b/c he is going by a store that has turkey on sale for .30 per pound. I'm going to get one for the freezer since I was able to make some room for it. We'll probably use it for Easter dinner. He's going to drop me off and he's going to do his chores and then pick me back up on his way back thru. I'm happy to not have to waste my gas to go and get the turkey since he has to go by there anyways. I'll be scouring for clearance deals and picking up fresh produce so I can hole up at home for a while if I need to. I'll also be looking for Christmas gifts if something is on sale. I've already went thru the flyer, so there's some other deals I will be looking for as well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top