After a cooler week in the beginning of the month, the heat has turned itself ON. We're grateful for the electrical connection to the house; without it, we could only run the air conditioner an hour or two in the trailer every day. The Brick fixed our little fan, which has kept us sane during the nights. Thankfully, we might get a little rain in the afternoons, and temperatures do cool down some toward the evening. We often have breezes, as well.
All the same, I will not be sorry to see July show its backside. This has been a strange month, filled with work on the house, showing the house and selling the house. Much of that was done in sticky heat. I've watered the flowerbeds most every day, trying to keep them nice for showings, but even they are starting to look a tad threadbare.
August, do your stuff! It's your last chance at summer heat before blessed Fall sets in.
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| 'It won't come too soon for me, Mom!' (Charley is NOT a fan of the heat. Who can blame him, with that thick coat on...) |
P.S. I'm posting this a few days early -- remaining items will go into the August report. Then again, you figured that, didn't you...
FRUGAL HITS
*Stopped beating myself up over things lost (like the food in the freezer) -- because they're gone now. I don't have to see them or be concerned with them anymore. Part of that includes a promise to be extra vigilant about storing food in the pantry, fridge and freezer. (All much smaller areas -- which is turning out to be good.)
*Planned a house-leaving par-tay. Secret weapons: rotisserie chickens from Sam's Club; lemonade, root beer, beer and a big jar of salsa purchased on sale; ice cream ditto (see below); and a five-pound bag of shredded Cheddar cheese plus a huge stack of corn tortillas for cheese guys., melted on the grill. Oh yes, and a pork loin from clearing out the freezer. Lots of music; many of our friends sing or play instruments. Total damage: $75-90. Much of that was for the chickens and beer. (Postdate: we had a ton of leftovers -- particularly chicken. I bought five -- could have easily gotten away with three. And that was with nearly 40 people attending. Guess the pork loin covered more than I'd thought. Some of the salads were meat-based, too.)
*Free items! A pack of tape, a free can of whipping cream...they do add up.
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| Our wonderful contractor, Troy at Pay It Forward Services, enjoys wearing red, white & blue shirts adorned with eagles and flags. The girlies call him Captain America. |
*Paid off the credit cards in full, using our HELOC. That interest rate was much lower than what we were paying for the credit cards' interest. Thanks to the house sale, we'll be able to go back to paying off all the cards in full again. (Nasty secret: if you DON'T pay your credit cards in full each month, they'll charge interest on your current batch of purchases, as well. At least that's what we've seen.)
*Got a refund from the IRS -- prompted by them! I was breathing fast, opening the envelope, thinking 'oh oh, audit.' The word 'credit' was a welcome relief.
*Kept the plants watered almost every day. That protected my May investment for flowers enough to keep the house looking nice. Now, if the heat would let up a little, so the house's new buyers actually get to enjoy them. Hang in there, babies...
*Found a nickel in the house during the final tidy-up: my 'message' money. The Brick found a penny in a trailer cupboard! (Hey, every bit counts.)
*Found a GREAT Amazon purchase for Christmas gifts. I can't say much here yet, since the girlies are known to read my blogposts. But it was truly a buy.
The Mama, on the other hand, does not read my blog. So I can tell you what I found for her birthday: a $14 set of dainty floral cotton bedsheets.
*A grill accessory for our microwave -- which also grills and has a convection feature! The Brick found this at the company website -- and the price beat anything Amazon was trying to charge for it.
*Half-priced Sonic cherry limeades...thank you, Happy Hour. (We got some for the kids in June, as well.) A free burger at Red Robin (buy 10, get one free) was nice, particularly when we brought home the extra ranch dressing pots. (Half the burger was next day's lunch.) Chicken tenders from Walmart ($5.98/lb) fought back the need to go out to eat when time was short. You get a LOT of tenders, by the way, in a pound, as opposed to fast food places.
*More 2-dollar videos from the library's used bookroom, including one of my favorites: the ridiculous Mystery Science Theater Manos: Hands of Fate. More highbrow videos were found, including the original Manchurian Candidate, Caine Mutiny and The Man Who Would Be King. All three are amazing movies, if you've never seen them. I also found several seasons from Battlestar Galactica, Everybody Loves Raymond -- and a few others. All for $2 a season!
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| Said to be the stupidest movie ever made -- the director (who also starred in it) was proud! |
*Utility bills were way down. (In spite of the trailer being plugged into the house outlet.) This figure will fall even more, once we transfer largely to solar power. (The trailer has 8 solar panels on its roof.)
*Free channels on the fifth-wheel's TV. The Brick found these. (He's clever that way.)
The fifth-wheel came with a TV, DVD player, stereo and electric fireplace. (The latter isn't working yet, but I have every confidence that the Brick can fix it. ) What are we going to do with the electronics we already own? That's a good question...he's talking about adapting the space, so we can use our old TV to watch football games. Go Blue!
*Improvised over and over as we cleared things out, using soap, shampoo, cleaning solution, detergent, etc. for different uses. Washed clothes late at night or early in the morning, and only used the clothesline when we were sure a showing wasn't scheduled.
*Gave some furniture and a painting to a dear friend's daughter, who could use them. More of the furniture, quilts and other items went to Daughters #1 and #2, plus Son #1.
*Donated more stuff -- hopefully the last of it.
*Didn't buy a 50-cent bouquet of roses. You have no idea how difficult this was for me. A Hollander, walking away? Sure, they were wilted and on their way out...but still!
*Used the library. A lot. Meeting and study rooms let me meet with clients; their 'fireplace' magazine area was a quiet spot to work and use their free Wi-fi. They even threw in a colorful bookbag, because I was enrolled in their reading program. Thank you, wonderful Philip S. Miller Library.
*Returned the Shogun DVD set (only 3 DVDs, out of 5, were in the case) and another defective DVD to the library used book room -- and got two replacements for free. (Checked out Shogun from the library, so we could finish watching it. Really a great series - you should look for it.)
*Food buys -- except for hotdogs ($1.99 on the Oscar Mayer brand for the Fourth), there weren't that many bargains this month. British-style teabags at half-price. (Yay, Safeway.) Cherries for 97 cents a pound. (Wow, Sprouts!) Pound bags of broccoli 'pearls', plus cartons of ice cream: 99 cents each. Frozen turkey sausage: $1.49/lb. Two-liter bottles of A&W, Canada Dry: buy 3, get 3 free. (Thank you, King Soopers.)
*No matter -- we continued to eat clearouts from the freezer and fridge. French toast with blueberries for the Fourth of July, made with baguettes from the thrift shop and frozen berries, did NOT taste like 'leftovers.' After a sumptuous rib feast at friends' house, we were given plenty of leftovers to take home -- which lasted us much of the next week.
\*Had a free steak dinner plus a lunch, at one of Denver's most exclusive steakhouses. (Courtesy of local investment companies -- thanks, guys. We learned some things, too.)\
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| Gratuitous steak-on-the-hoof shot |
*We did eat out -- but it wasn't often, now that we have a usable stove and microwave. We did take advantage of specials: Red Lobster's all-you-can-eat shrimp, Red Robin's $5 bonus bucks (from buying gift cards a few months ago), free (or half-price) burgers.
*Our local thrift shop is renovating...and needed to move items fast. Of course, we volunteered to help! During their 75% off day, I bought a couple of t-shirts and a sweater for me, and shorts for the Brick. Plus some beautiful bracelets, and an enameled pieplate. (I needed one, and collect them, anyways.) They were also offering free bread, so I got two loaves of French bread (see below) and a package of bagels.
Whoo hoo -- the day after the Fourth, everything went down to 90% off! I bought more jewelry, much of which will be dismantled for embellishments; a few videos; a silk Hawaiian shirt plus shorts for the Brick; and a bagful of quality kids' clothes for our niece and nephew's family. More free bread, too.
It 's a burden -- but someone has to do it.
(Mavis from One Hundred Dollars A Month made me laugh when she mentioned her husband's philosophy on thrift store merchandise -- it's there because somebody died on it. Or in it. Or eating from it. When I read this to the Brick, he said, "I agree." But that didn't stop him from wearing the shorts!)
*Returned items we didn't need and/or use for cleaning out, cleaning up and staging the house.
FRUGAL MISSES
*Got the trailer registered. (Big bucks - oh goody) Fortunately, we live (or lived) just outside Castle Rock; the sales tax paid is a good bit less than if we lived within city limits. (I guess that part is a hit.) This also involved an incredible amount of rigmarole, including asking the previous owner to certify that was really her name, and getting a policeman out to verify the VIN number. (I am not making this up.)
*Renewed the truck license. It needed an emissions test, too. Double goody. It cost less than 2018; at least that was something.
*Threw away some of the flowering plants. The heat was just too much for them.
*Had to toss some freezer items. Others had freezer burn. Either we or the dogs ate those, anyways. I tried to keep waste to a minimum, and largely succeeded.
*My credit card number was stolen - someone tried to use it at a Nebraska gas station. (The Brick thinks it was 'reserved' somehow when we traveled through there a few months ago; truckstops will sometimes do that, to ensure that they get paid from the larger rigs.) Fortunately, the card was declined when the credit card company realized something was wrong. New card sent - crisis averted.
*Credit card interest paid. Some, at least. More than we wanted to.
*Kidney stones are worth their weight in gold. At least that's what it seems like, after the emergency room and further doctor bills. We'll start paying these off, a little at a time. Thankfully, the bill for my crowns at the dentist is almost caught up.
*Dealt with a bunch of doggie 'incidents.' The Brick wasn't the only one with an iffy stomach.
*We finished paying off a lot of bills from the house renovation. Finally.
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| 'It's about time!' |
Even the smaller decisions this month saved us a little cash. As Brandy over at Prudent Homemaker points out, "Simple weeks with consistent ways of saving add up!" Keeping a 'spending diary,' especially as you're learning to save, isn't a bad idea, either.
I've noticed that I'm much more aware of spending decisions, after writing Frugal Hits & Misses reports for so long. It's been three years, Gentle Readers! You can access these by starting with last months' report -- or comparing this month to last year's. Enjoy.
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