Frugal Friday ~ August 3, 2018

My daughter went to do a load of laundry on Wednesday, but the washer wouldn't work. Thinking it might be a breaker, I went downstairs to investigate, but that wasn't the case. 
This washer was purchased on 8-29-17, so it was still under the one year warranty. A phone call was made to Roper and a service call was made for Thursday. 
Turns out the control panel inside was dead. He order a new part for it and it should be here on Monday. I'm expecting $0 in costs associated with this as it is still under warranty. 
When I buy something new I take the receipt and the owner's manual and place them in a clear plastic sleeve and add it to my binder that holds these. So I had my receipt on hand when I needed it for the service call. It's so important to keep track of these important papers, so you don't have to spend unnecessary money. 

My daughter went thrift store shopping yesterday while I took Mom to vote. DD and I went later in the day to vote together. 

After she was done thrifting, she went into Ingle's and found some terrific items on markdown. 
Welch's Cocktail Juice $1.00

Minute Maid 

Pineapple Coconut Water 

$1.00

Brown Eggs 50¢ x 2

Oui yogurt 50¢ x 4

Milo's Sweet Tea 75¢ x 2

Silk Cashew Milk $1.30

Laura Lynn Orange Juice $1.50

I'm tickled that she went in there. I was overlooking that as a source of markdowns because we have other grocery stores we check. 

She is now going to be checking this as a source of markdowns when she goes thrifting on Thursday in that area. 

I made $262.44 on Ebay during the month of July. That was more than enough to pay my car insurance, with some leftover. 
In fact, I made enough money from multiple sources to pay all of my bills, so I did not have to dip into any of my savings. 
August 13th will be my first day back to work, but I won't see my first paycheck until September 20th. So we will still need to continue our summertime budget for a while. 

Our neighbor came over on Saturday afternoon and using his own tractor along with one of my Dad's farm implements, fixed our driveway for us. 
We are so thrilled! 
I'm making him a batch of brownies along with a nicely written note as a way of saying thank you to him. 

We stopped at our local peach orchard and picked up peaches for the first time this summer. 
The big baskets were $15 each, but you can save $1 on your next purchase if you bring the basket back. 
These are good peaches with so much juice it runs down your arm. 

No yard sales today as the weather is not cooperating. 
How was your week? Frugal or not? 
I would love to hear all about it in the comment section. :)
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

Window Air Conditioner Problem Fixed

We have finally found the solution to our air conditioning problem. 
All of our window a/c units have a filter behind the front grill, which I take out regularly and vacuum and then wash. This helps to keep the airflow going strongly through the units. 
The filter on both of ours come in and out at the top of the unit, but the cover doesn't come off the one that is failing, which was built by Sears. 
My Mom mentioned to me that one time they took the cover off their unit and it worked better, but as I said the cover does not come off this unit. 
It was so hot in the house yesterday that we were ready to go to Lowe's and buy a new unit. But then it hit me that I could try and do the same thing with the cover on this unit. 
So, I gathered some tools yesterday and went to work on the unit. No matter what I did the cover did not want to come off, so I took some pressure and bolt cutters and went to work on removing the plastic pieces that cover the coil system underneath.  
Then I took a soft toothbrush and my vacuum cleaner hose and carefully brushed the dust into the vacuum cleaner. I know they make a tool for this called a fin comb, but I didn't have one of those and the toothbrush worked fine. 
While it's a good thing to clean the filter regularly, they don't filter all of the dust and dirt from getting into the unit. That's why there are tools like fin combs to clean these areas. Cleaning that area of our unit definitely made a difference here. 
It was 86 degrees in the house when I started this project and I am happy to say that this morning it's very cool in the house at 69 degrees. I even have all of the fans turned off because it is nice and cool in here. 
If you're interested, Becky over at Becky's Homestead has a video on how to take a window a/c unit apart and clean it properly. I didn't do this as it would be too hard for us to do here. 

It's very frugal to maintain what you have. Keep it clean and in good working order and it will last longer and you won't have to go out and spend good money to replace things as often. 
We are both so tickled that this has solved our problem with cooling the house. 
This unit is over twenty years old and I know it won't last forever, but I do believe it will at least last the rest of this season, if not more, and that is like money in the bank. 
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

Third Frugal Week of September

Here is a photo of our new staircase leading into the upper section of our home. My brother-in-law built the stairs for us and the amount spent on the wood was $700. The old stairs were 31 years old and it was past time to replace them. So happy to have this item checked off our to do list. 
Even though I was scheduled to sub four days this week, I ended up subbing all five days. I'm very happy about that. I was going over my budget this week with a fine tooth comb since this is my first big paycheck of the school year. Last month I only had one day on my check. 
I went to town today to get some oil for my daughter's car and picked up a few groceries. I found a dime on the ground when I walked into the store and picked it up.  :)
I found 28 ounce cans of diced tomatoes in the crash and burn section for 50¢. There were five of them, so I picked them all up. Such a great deal!
Food City had some great sales this week on canned tomatoes (50¢/14.5 ounces), corn and green beans (50¢), canned beans (50¢), cheese - buy one get one free,  sour cream - buy one get one free. 
I am really enjoying my new smartphone and learning new ways to use it to save me money on a regular basis. 
If you have a smartphone and install the McDonald's App you can get a free large sandwich when you buy one, so if you have someone with you, you can eat inexpensively. It's a good deal if you are out and about and get hungry and did not bring something with you to eat. 
Checkpoints is another new to me app that allows you to check in at various places you do business and turn them into gift cards. I have enough right now for a $2.00 gift card to CVS, which will pay for one of my prescription co-pays. 
What kinds of ways do you find to save with your smartphone?

Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

Home Maintenance

This is a picture of our bathtub and specifically the shower door frame, which was recently taken off, cleaned, and then re-caulked.

My sister and her family came to our home during the week of Thanksgiving to help us with our Mother. My brother in law is a very hard worker and handy with tools, so he did a lot of work while they were here repairing little things around the house.

One of the things he took care of were the shower doors. They had been in place for 26 years and the caulk around them was worn out, falling out, and also dirty looking. The frame for the shower had begun to move whenever we closed it instead of staying in place like it should have done. 

My BIL actually removed the shower doors and took them outside for a good scrubbing. He then removed the frame for the shower door and scrubbed it as well. Afterwards, he re-caulked the frame and put it back in place.  

The picture hardly does it justice, but I will tell you that it looks terrific and is so much better than the old caulk, which had served its purpose well, but was way past due for this needed work.

Taking care of small repairs around the home may help you from a bigger repair job later. If we had let the shower door go any longer it could have fallen off the bathtub while one of us was getting ready for school or work and wouldn't that have been a nightmare? 

By taking care of small problems now, you will save money in the long run. You will also avoid the time and inconvenience of being forced to do major home repairs. That is a win- win situation to me. :)

Belinda
© Belinda Richardson and Frugal Workshop, 2012.
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without”