Even though fall is upon us and the leaves are falling, we are still having summer like temperatures here. This week broke several records with two days reaching 100 degrees this week. Last night at 7 o'clock it was still 90 degrees here. We've been running our air conditioner as if it were summertime.
This week I was able to work everyday, which will be wonderful on payday. As usual I packed my lunch and brought water every day. On Sunday I made vegetable soup, which I brought with me each day. It's cheaper and easier than buying lunch out each day.
To save money, we've eaten all of meals from home this week and I've been making more plant based dishes both for financial and health reasons. With the heat this week we've been having a lot of salads for dinner, October beans, baked sweet potatoes, and plenty of raw vegetables like baby carrots, peppers, and cucumbers.
I took out my produce drawers this week and washed them well and returned them to the fridge. One apple in there had a bad spot and leaked juice all over and was a sticky mess. I'd been meaning to clean them out anyway, so this was perfect timing. Getting rid of the bad apple helped save the other apples from the same fate, which saves money.
My car alerted me that one of my tires was low on air pressure this week. Lucky me, I was subbing in the auto shop at school the day that happened. (what timing!) One of my friends pulled it into the shop and filled the tire for me.
Last weekend we earned extra money for pet sitting three dogs.
This week I've watched several YouTube videos that taught me something I needed to know. I'm blessed and grateful that we have such a great resource right at our fingertips.
This week I watched This is Us on Hulu. We only pay 99¢ each month for our subscription, which was a end of the year/holiday special last year. Hopefully they will offer the same deal this year.
My daughter and I are planning a trip in November, so she can attend the wedding of a friend. We've been saving money since she first heard about it and we are looking forward to the time away.
On Friday I took my car to the tire shop to get it checked out for our trip. They rotated my tires and filled them up, and aligned the front end. It was also time for an oil change, so I had that done and had a new air filter put in, so the car is ready for our trip in November.
Wednesday we stayed home and I mended a pile of clothing, which had at least a dozen items in the pile. Several items needed the hem put back into place where the stitching failed. Some things needed a fastener put back into place.
Fixing things like this can make the difference between keeping an item useful or not, being able to sell it or not, or having to donate it and leave the problem to someone else. I choose to repair this one, which will make the item useful for much longer.
Two cloth pads were repaired also with one needing sewing all around and another one just needing a new snap put into place.
Jean shorts...
One of the items needed the pockets redone. The bottom of the pockets went past the hem on a pair of shorts my daughter liked. I shortened the pocket and then trimmed them, so you can't see them past the hem. She likes them much better this way.
Youngsters nowadays love their jeans to look like this. Back in my day we prefered jeans that looked new and not distressed, but I'm older now and not a fashion expert. LOL
One freebie I received in the mail this week was a reusable shopping bag from Earthbound. We really like and use the reusable shopping bags and this one is a bright and colorful welcome addition to our collection.
Taco Bell fans take note. The Golden State Warriors won a road game in the NBA finals, so Taco Bell will be giving away a free Doritos Locos Taco on June 18, 2019 from 2 to 6 p.m. Here is a link to the freebie on the Freebie Shark website if you're interested.
The weather here this week has been rainy and cooler as a result. As of this writing I have both the air conditioner turned off and the fans as it is really cool at 63 degrees in the house right now. I love it as I would much rather feel cool than hot.
We continue to use up items in our pantry to make food here at home to save money. I didn't go to the grocery store at all this week. In fact I did not look at the grocery store sale ads this week, which is unheard of for me.
So far we've had plenty of variety in our diets. Breakfast was a delicious bowl of oatmeal with brown sugar, walnuts, blueberries, and cherries.
This week I took my car in for a front end alignment. It had been two years since my last alignment. I had a tire with a slow leak in March of this year and the mechanic who repaired it suggested my car needed the alignment, so since school is out I decided this was the best time to take care of that. Total cost was $79.95.
Keeping the front end of your car aligned will save undue wear and tear on your tires and therefore save you money. It wouldn't make sense to buy new tires and not keep the front end aligned. The tires would wear out sooner and need replacing sooner, which would cost you more money. Taking care of the things you own will save you money.
While I was out of the house I remembered that Panera Bread sent me a free pastry this week. I picked it up after the alignment and picked out a chocolate croissant. I don't know if you've ever had one of theirs, but they are delicious. I split mine with my daughter.
Cleaning and organizing has continued this week. Over the years we have been given multiple boxes of fabric dryer sheets. We don't always use them as we don't always use the dryer to dry clothes and fabric softener makes some things like towels and cloth pads non absorbent.
This week I cleaned this area of our home and threw out some of the old fabric dryer sheets as honestly they smelled off and I wouldn't want anything I was wearing to smell like that. I also threw out a couple of empty bottles that were left there to rinse out with water and use. The whole area looks much neater and better organized.
How has your week been? Anything frugal you would like to tell us about in the comment section? We would love to read all about it.
This week I was able to work three days and packed lunches and drinks all three days. I've had five no spend days this week, which helps me to meet some of my goals.
Cloth napkins are always included with my packed lunch from home. In fact this month marks one year that I've been paper towel free in our home. I've not bought any paper towels since April 2018.
At that time we switched to cloth only and it has saved me a lot of money. By my calculations I've saved close to $200 in the last year by not buying paper towels.
Last week eBay had a $3.00 off coupon available, so I checked my Amazon wishlist to see if a book I'd been wanting was available on eBay.
I found this Thrifty cookbook for $3.99 with free shipping, so I ended up paying 99¢ for a book I'd been wanting, and I used a $1.00 eBay card I earned from the Checkpoints app.
Tuesday evening Bailey and I had a movie night. We made pizza at home and watched the Ruth Bader Ginsburg film, "On The Basis of Sex".
We thought it was a good film, which tells the story of how Ruth Bader Ginsburg brought a case before the U.S. Court of Appeals to overturn a century of gender discrimination.
Here is a trailer of the film if you're interested:
This week I was able to pick up some free toilet paper. It was several rolls that were taken off early to put on a new roll. The custodial staff sets them aside rather than throw them away, so I picked up a few to take home with me.
My daughter had her oil changed this week and only paid $20 for the supplies. Her uncle uses synthetic oil at his shop, which is what her car requires.
This week I made a call to Verizon, my cell phone carrier to see if I could get a block on International calls. I've been getting robocalls from France and the Congo and want them to stop.
Last month I accidently hit the redial button on one of them and was charged $6.00 for my mistake. It was my fault, so I paid the fee, but when I was speaking the the Verizon representative he decided to reverse the charge, so now I have a $6.00 credit on my account.
It pays to ask sometimes if a company will waive a fee for you. You never know if you will save yourself some money if you don't ask. Even though I didn't ask in this case, I have asked in the past and had a fee or two reversed before.
If you're interested in stories from the Great Depression you can look on YouTube for several good films about this topic.
One film I watched this week is from the U.S. National Archives, which I really enjoyed. It gives you information about a time when the economy was really bad and can give you ideas on ways to cope if that were to happen again today.
The comment section is good to read as well because people are thinking this kind of collapse could happen again.
I've been reading about food prices increasing due to all the rain and flooding we've had this year.
On Thursday we picked up some groceries from Walmart. Ingredients we picked up include salt, bread, and American cheese. We also picked up a bottle of chili powder on mark down.
We received a check from a class action lawsuit this week for Premiere Protein Shakes, which we bought in 2016. The check was for $17 and some change and was included in a payment I made this week.
That's all the news from here this week. How was your week? Any frugal wins for you? We'd love to read about it in the comment section.
