Friday, September 29, 2023

Fifth & Final Frugal Friday of September 2023

 


Welcome to Frugal Friday! 


My Frugal Week

This is the final Friday of September and the new month of October begins on Sunday. I’ve had my October budget set for a couple of weeks now, but did do some tweaking with it this week. 

It’s still warm enough that we need to run the air conditioning at times, but during the night we use the eco feature, so it doesn’t run all night long when we don’t need it. The electric bill has already come down a great deal since the highest month in July and every little bit helps us to save money. 

My Monday garbage man did not show up this week, so I texted him, but have not gotten a response yet. I pay him $35 per month and he usually no shows about once per month. I have a back up garbage man that I use on Saturdays, so that is not an issue. 

We don’t produce a lot of garbage, but we live in the humid south and I need our garbage taken off regularly to avoid any bug issues and/or wild animals getting into it. (We have garbage can lids with bear claw holes in them.) This is something that is important to me and I will pay up for this service. 

Now I’m looking for another back up garbage man now as I no longer trust my Monday guy to show up when he is scheduled. Since I need knee replacement surgery, it’s important for me to have reliable garbage service because I can no longer do this by myself. 

I had errands to run in town on Tuesday & Wednesday this week, so I took advantage of being in town and went to the grocery store for a few items we were out of recently. 

I had a wisdom tooth extracted on Wednesday and thought I might want to use my free GrubHub membership to order dinner. But after a nap, I felt well enough to make dinner here instead, saving that eating out money for another time. 

Joy of the Week

My cousin Jonathan asked me recently for a photo of our uncle when he was in the military service. Jon wants to join the American Legion and needed a family member who has served our country. This led me down a rabbit hole of ancestry that was a real joy to me this week. My Dad and I even found photos that even he had never seen. Good times! 

Photo of the Week


My great grandfather, Milledge David Davis, born July 13, 1896, died October 18, 1984. Photo is from 1917 when was was a corporal in the United States Army during World War 1. 

Question of the Week

Do you use the Shopkick app? 

Shopkick let’s you earn points called kicks for things like watching videos, or scrolling through short advertisements and walking in and scanning items in the stores. Then you can trade your kicks in for gift cards to retail stores or even PayPal cash. 

If you’re interested and sign up using my code WIN526035 here and earn 10 kicks (easy to do) in 14 days we will both get 500 kicks. How neat is that?



Avoiding Spending

I bought a few groceries on Tuesday, so I couldn’t avoid any spending this week. I bought cheese, cottage cheese, onions, and sour cream. I spent the last $14 of my September grocery budget on these items. 

Saving Money YouTube Videos

USDA Tips to Reduce Food Waste at Home



Thank you for dropping by my frugal blog, you are always welcome here. 

We would love to hear all about your week in the comment section.


Belinda
Mortgage & Debt Free
~ Living within our Means ~
My Linktree

~ She looketh well to the ways of her household ~
Proverbs 31:27


22 comments:

  1. Hi Belinda I hope you are doing well after the wisdom tooth extraction.

    I also hope you find a good backup garbage man. We are rural and don't subscribe to trash pick-up. We also don't produce a lot of trash. We have barrels with secure lids. We use sturdy trash bags that we toss in the pickup bed to take to the dump. I don't know how much longer dh will be able to do this but it is something I'll be able to do myself. My fear is getting stuck at the dump, it's usually muddy and deeply rutted. We don't have bears but do have raccoons and in my opinion they are just small destructive bears. The raccoons try to knock over the barrels by digging under them. I am amazed at their engineering ingenuity. I fixed that by putting a sheet of metal under them and strapping the barrels together.

    Living a few miles out of town, I try to make the most of my trips to town also. Yesterday I met my sister in town for eggs. We went to the thrift shop and I found two nice Blessed Girl t-shirts that made me happy. I saw several things that were nice but I was proud of myself for not buying anything else. My sister and I have a love of small kitchen appliances. We were both tempted by a dehydrator/jerky maker but neither bought it. We are getting stronger lol.

    Belinda I hope you have a great week. Take care! Sky

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    1. Thank you, Sky. I’ve not had to take any Tylenol for my tooth extractions, so that is good. I’m just eating a soft food/liquid diet for a few days.

      OMG, yes raccoons are as bad as bears! We had one to jump up and down on one of those cat food containers trying to get the lid off, but it was one that snapped on, so he couldn’t get it off. They are little rascals for sure.

      It’s great that your dh is able to take off the trash and save you that money. I did that for years and have the shoulder issues to prove it. 😂

      That’s great that you got two new to you shirts from the thrift store. I love getting something new to me like that.

      I hope you’ve had a great week and have an even better weekend!

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  2. Lots of critters around here - but can't imagine bears!!!!! YIKES
    This month sure did fly by. Have a good weekend.

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    1. My sister says she would never live here for that reason, bears. I’ve had to chase them off our back porch before, but they are big scary cats usually.

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  3. We have city garbage/trash service. I would call it free but we pay for it through our property taxes. I am thrilled with it most of the time. Like you I live where it is hot and the garbage can't be in the can too long or all kinds of critters will get it. We don't have bears so the raccoons are our biggest culprits but given the chance they will make a huge mess

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    1. I would enjoy having garbage service and we did when we lived in Illinois. And there are some places here in TN that have that as well. We are just not in an area for that service.

      Raccoons can make the biggest messes! They are little rascals. One time they took our cat food bowl and had it up in a tree about 50 feet in the air! It stayed there for years. 😂

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  4. Yikes! I'm sorry you had to have a wisdom tooth out! We occasionally see a bear just walking the streets in our neighborhood. It's crazy because he seems to jus be out for a walk but where does he live?

    A very expensive week for us. We have to have the entire front door replaced as in the frame and sidelights and everything. We will also be having railings put at our front door for easier access with less steps for me. If we come in under $12K I will be surprised. There is no avoiding this as the frame has rotted.

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    1. That is so odd that a bear will just walk through your neighborhood. He must be hungry and looking for food.

      Ugh, I feel your pain on the rotting doorframe. It’s good that you found it now then rather than later when it could do even more damage.

      I hope you all have a good weekend, Lana. 😊

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  5. Glad you did well with the tooth extraction. Some expenses are unavoidable really.
    Except for when we rented early on in our marriage in NJ, Hubs and I have never lived anywhere with municipal trash collection. 36 years in PA, 14 of those years in the Pocono Mts. living right next to a forest preserve, we dealt with bears as well and had many a close call with them. Unknowing city folks from NYC would either retire and move in or have a vacation home in our community and think they could outsmart the bears by leaving trash in their garage, in their car or constructing a wooden box for trash with a lock on it. They soon found out it was best to not store it near their house....a bear is going to raid your trash no matter so keep it as far from your home as possible.
    No bears here but vipers and gators(or at least I've heard tell of but have actually not seen any yet). I'd gladly trade those for a big old bear. 8-) We had mixed results with trash haulers in PA but so far the little company we use here is swell. We could instead take our refuse to the dump but well, we don't have a pickup truck or old car we wouldn't mind smelling up. lol
    Great photo find of your GGrand!

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    1. Oh yes, I would take a bear over a gator any day of the week! Those gators can move fast and are not scared of you like bears tend to be. Yea, we learned quickly not to store trash outside here too.

      Thank you about the photo of my GGP, I thought that was pretty neat!

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  6. Hope your gum is healing ok from the wisdom tooth extraction.
    Sorry about the troubles with the trash guy. We hadn't had trouble with bears getting into our trash until recently. Guess it was a bear since the critter knocked the can over and took the bag up the hill to open it. Raccoons and dogs would just rip into it. Ah the joys of living with nature. ;)
    Glad the electric bill is coming down a little. I'm enjoying the cooler temps and hope to finish up some outside projects before cold weather hits. Sounds like we may have a snowy winter if you believe the farmers almanac prediction.
    What a great picture of your great grandfather, and how special to be able to spend time with your Dad looking at photos.
    Hope you have a fun weekend.

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    1. My gum is healing so well, and I’ve not even had to take a Tylenol for pain, so I’m grateful.

      That does sound like a bear dragging the trash up the hill.

      I wouldn’t mind a snowy winter at all, it usually melts here by noon anyway. Not like growing up I. Illinois where it stayed on the ground for months and months.

      I hope you have a great weekend, Kathy. 😊

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  7. Hmm that anon comment may have been from me. Had to do an update due to a security patch and forgot to sign back into google. :)

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  8. What a treasure you have in that old photo. Thank you for sharing. I'm trying to learn more about my own family, but it's slow going with such limited information. Glad your gum is healing well. I've been meaning to tell you that the Sams frozen fruit is good. I only use it for smoothies, but have enjoyed both their mixed fruit & blueberries. It also costs less than buying at Walmart or other grocery stores. I love having the mixed fruit during winter. Wishing you & Bailey a wonderful weekend!

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    1. Thank you. My Dad had just given me the photo album with that picture in it a couple of weeks ago, and I was so tickled to find that photo. I did a temporary membership on ancestry.com and found several other pieces of information like My grandfather’s draft card when he was 19. It was so neat to find. I wish you the best of luck looking for information on your family.

      I need to get some fruit from Sam’s Club as I don’t think the Walmart strawberries are as good as the frozen strawberries at Target. I like to add the frozen fruit in smoothies.

      I hope you have a wonderful weekend too and find a lot of savings. 😊

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  9. Bears are being seen more around my in laws place in Kentucky. I think they need bear proof garbage bins. It's kind of scary for sure. I love the photo and I'm so glad you found it for him. What a treasure!

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    1. Thank you, Vickie. I was tickled to find that photo. Bear proof garbage cans would be great for your in laws. I’m sure they make something like that.

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  10. Hope you find a backup garbage collector person.... and that knee surgery goes well. I have to enter this month's budget tomorrow and then will see if I can tweak Octobers. I do have some hefty dental bills coming up though.

    God bless.

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    1. Thank you, Jackie. I feel your pain on the hefty dental bills. Hugs to you my friend.

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  11. Reading about your garbage collection issues makes me very grateful for our council run refuse collection service here in the UK. They may occasionally miss a day but that's so rare as to be difficult to remember.
    I hope the wisdom extraction site is healing nicely now. Not a nice procedure but necessary to avoid further issues later on.
    xx

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    1. Thank you, Joy. You are fortunate to have garbage service where you live. Like you, I'd be grateful for that too. And my wisdom tooth extraction site is healing nicely, thank you.

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