Here are some of our Frugal Wins this past week.......
* Who would have thought that having your spouse break his leg in a major way would lead to frugality?!
While this accident did lead to a tad more Eating-Out/Take-Out Spending it also has meant less money spent in other ways.
We have a Christmas eve tradition in our family of enjoying a meal out at our local Chinese restaurant. This generally involves inviting the brother in-law and nephew, as well as friends of College Boy along for the evening. We spring for a full spread-appetizers, sushi rolls and dessert if wanted as well as everyone's drinks(not alcohol)and entrees. Cost hovers in the $100 area for the night.
This year, since Hubs is unable to go out to the restaurant we ordered take-out from the place instead. No extras were ordered just entrees and additional family and CB's friends were not invited to partake, just us 5. With tip the meal ended up costing $60. Since I spent over $50 on the order I also got a $5 off your next order coupon from there.
* I got 5 Kohl's rebates sent in on Friday from my Black Friday online shopping. At $12 a pop that comes to $60 in money coming back to me. These were small appliances that are $7 after rebate-I gifted 3 different ones to Daughter and the BF for when they eventually get their own place again and I bought 2 toaster ovens for spares. Our toaster oven is on it's last legs plus College Boy will be doing an internship his last semester and living goodness knows where for it(not at school)so I picked another toaster oven up in case he needs something to cook in wherever he is located for that 14 weeks. It just made sense to take part in this appliance deal at that price.
* This arrived in the mail last week.....
A coupon for a free 12 pack of Coke products. I consider this a freebie as it was "bought" using coke points I acquire from drink bottles the BF throws away(He buys those bottles.) Unfortunately this year the Coke folks limited each registered user to 1 redemption of this free 12 pack reward. boo! In past years there was either a 5 reward limit or no limit at all.
* I got a cash back summary for my online Christmas shopping from the site I go through when I shop via websites.
A grand total of $7.13 in cash back.
Whoopee, right?
Granted I didn't buy much online this Holiday season but every little bit helps.
* Gasoline taxes are set to rise 8 cents per gallon here in PA on January 1st. We already have the highest gas taxes in the nation so yeah, I am not thrilled about this. I had 70 cents in gas discounts at Weis(PMITA)Markets that expired Dec. 31st so College Boy and I took both of our cars up to fill the tanks using that lower price. The discount was good for $1.779 per gallon for 20 gallons and between the cars we were able to squeeze in 18.5 gallons, saving $12.95 on gas. I told the Daughter that she and the BF should fill their car/truck tanks before Saturday, but when I went out on Thursday I saw that all the stations in town had already jacked up the regular gas price by 8 cents a gallon.
bleh.
* I got all my medications filled before January 1st when our high deductible kicks in for 2017. If it's a choice between paying ZERO OOP or the full Usual & Customary price on drugs after Dec. 31st, I'm all about the free rxs.
* We've only used non-essential electricity this week during the cheaper off-peak hours. This includes running dishwasher, washer and dryer and taking showers and some lighting. This weekend will see bed linens/towels washed/dried as weekends are also off-peak times.
That's about it from Chez Sluggy for frugal wins lately.
What good things have you been accomplishing?
Sluggy
* Who would have thought that having your spouse break his leg in a major way would lead to frugality?!
While this accident did lead to a tad more Eating-Out/Take-Out Spending it also has meant less money spent in other ways.
We have a Christmas eve tradition in our family of enjoying a meal out at our local Chinese restaurant. This generally involves inviting the brother in-law and nephew, as well as friends of College Boy along for the evening. We spring for a full spread-appetizers, sushi rolls and dessert if wanted as well as everyone's drinks(not alcohol)and entrees. Cost hovers in the $100 area for the night.
This year, since Hubs is unable to go out to the restaurant we ordered take-out from the place instead. No extras were ordered just entrees and additional family and CB's friends were not invited to partake, just us 5. With tip the meal ended up costing $60. Since I spent over $50 on the order I also got a $5 off your next order coupon from there.
* I got 5 Kohl's rebates sent in on Friday from my Black Friday online shopping. At $12 a pop that comes to $60 in money coming back to me. These were small appliances that are $7 after rebate-I gifted 3 different ones to Daughter and the BF for when they eventually get their own place again and I bought 2 toaster ovens for spares. Our toaster oven is on it's last legs plus College Boy will be doing an internship his last semester and living goodness knows where for it(not at school)so I picked another toaster oven up in case he needs something to cook in wherever he is located for that 14 weeks. It just made sense to take part in this appliance deal at that price.
* This arrived in the mail last week.....
A coupon for a free 12 pack of Coke products. I consider this a freebie as it was "bought" using coke points I acquire from drink bottles the BF throws away(He buys those bottles.) Unfortunately this year the Coke folks limited each registered user to 1 redemption of this free 12 pack reward. boo! In past years there was either a 5 reward limit or no limit at all.
* I got a cash back summary for my online Christmas shopping from the site I go through when I shop via websites.
A grand total of $7.13 in cash back.
Whoopee, right?
Granted I didn't buy much online this Holiday season but every little bit helps.
* Gasoline taxes are set to rise 8 cents per gallon here in PA on January 1st. We already have the highest gas taxes in the nation so yeah, I am not thrilled about this. I had 70 cents in gas discounts at Weis(PMITA)Markets that expired Dec. 31st so College Boy and I took both of our cars up to fill the tanks using that lower price. The discount was good for $1.779 per gallon for 20 gallons and between the cars we were able to squeeze in 18.5 gallons, saving $12.95 on gas. I told the Daughter that she and the BF should fill their car/truck tanks before Saturday, but when I went out on Thursday I saw that all the stations in town had already jacked up the regular gas price by 8 cents a gallon.
bleh.
* I got all my medications filled before January 1st when our high deductible kicks in for 2017. If it's a choice between paying ZERO OOP or the full Usual & Customary price on drugs after Dec. 31st, I'm all about the free rxs.
* We've only used non-essential electricity this week during the cheaper off-peak hours. This includes running dishwasher, washer and dryer and taking showers and some lighting. This weekend will see bed linens/towels washed/dried as weekends are also off-peak times.
That's about it from Chez Sluggy for frugal wins lately.
What good things have you been accomplishing?
Sluggy
Sounds like some bargains. Since it is bowl season we are going no where ( except to the lake) so my expenses are almost nil.
ReplyDeleteWe are in a drought so I am only washing at the lake place. Instead of packing I am lugging laundry baskets in. At home they are severely limiting usage and we are already at one of the lower tiers they set Doing everything possible to keep our usage low. Our neighbors got hit with a 400 buck bill but ours was only about 5 bucks higher than normal so I will continue to take my laundry to the lake where our water bill is always 21 dollars
Nice to have a low restricted water charge. Our water bil literally doubled when daughter and BF moved in. meh.
DeleteI am dreading our electric bill for Dec. usage since I've had to keep the downstairs heat on high for Hubs.
I'm of the mind set that it is the little things that add up to savings or are the holes in pockets.Your savings not counting prescriptions was over $68. Multiplied by 52 and you've got $3500 less out of pocket. I'm doing mathercize in my head for 2017 to find the savings.
ReplyDeleteLittle things do add up but are no match for the big gaping holes like debt and lack of income. But you do whatever you can within your economic realm.
DeleteI hope Hubs is still mending well.
ReplyDeleteYeah on the Christmas Eve Chinese savings. Since you saved over $ 69.+ for the week I would say you had a terrific week. All those little amounts do add up.
I would have loved to get more free Coke too but I will be happy to use it when Hubby's 2 bottle are gone. I truly hate paying for soda so this free 12 pack will make me happy and Hubby happy too.
I hear you on the gasoline increase which I am assuming is tax. New York taxes us to death on gasoline. But we have also had a $.39 per gallon increase in price the past couple of months. I expect it will continue going up too. So since I won't be doing much grocery shopping getting gas points , I will again be watching for the best discounted gas price. Gas buddy will be handy.
I did the same thing you did on the medications. We don't get them free since we have co-pays that run from $ 10.00 to $ 50.00 per prescription, However we hadn't been notified yet of as to whether the co-pays would increase in 2017. We got notification yesterday and they didn't. However we got the highest increase in our medical supplementary policy since we retired over 16 years ago. UGH!
You are so lucky to be able to have a choice of doing things on off peak hours. I miss that. I took full advantage of those when we lived in AZ. But in NY, we don't have a choice. It costs the same no matter when we do things.
I wish you,your Hubs, and your children a Happy and Healthy New Year!
Happy New Year to you and yours too. Let's make it a great year!!
DeleteCT gas tax: 47.4 cents per gallon. Thankfully, I drive a Prius, DD has a Civic
ReplyDeleteThis latest tax puts our gas taxes to .77.8 cents per gallon. It's pretty bad when your state is higher than NY and CA.
DeleteI'd love a mere 47.4 cents one. lol
Great. Happy New Year
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year to you to Regine.
DeleteWe've been told our gasoline prices will go up here on Jan. 2 but they've already gone up. Perhaps a 2nd increase is in the offing? Phbbbbbt!
ReplyDeleteSluggy, I wish you and your family a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2017!!
ReplyDelete