What did you do today to save money?

[4Tink]

1) Turned down the thermostat and hot water heater.
2) Turned off lights and televisions when not in use.
3) Washed clothes in cold water with half the amount of soap and half a dryer sheet.
4) Didn't go shopping.
5) Washed shower curtain liner instead of buying a new one.
6) Didn't go out to eat.
7) Prepared meals with stuff I got on sale yesterday.
8) Lowered phone bill by $7 a month by cancelling all features except caller i.d.
9) Lowered Comcast bill by asking them what they could do for me. They are taking $20 a month off internet for the next 2 months just for asking.
10) Made coffee on top of yesterday's grounds. Saved a filter.
11) Stayed home all day. Didn't use gas.
12) Took a bath without bubbles. Using up all hotel soaps instead of buying bath products.
13) Didn't order any cute stuff from Forever 21.

 

[minnie1928]

I'd love to have the recipes for these. Also, what do you store the toilet bowl cleaner in?

thanks!

The toilet bowl cleaner...no storage. I took an old box of Arm & Hammer baking soda that my DH keeps in his closet (to get rid of the stale smell in his closet). I flushed the toilet after I turned the water off to the toilet (so bowl would not refill) and sprinkled a good amount of baking soda. Then I boiled about 2 cups of vinegar and poured it on the baking soda. I let it sit for about 10 minutes then used the brush to scrub it all down.

About the same thing for the drain cleaner, except no toilet brush !

The window cleaner was an old Windex bottle (quart size). I put a 1/4 cup of vinegar in and filled the rest with water. It seemed to work pretty good!

I did a search on homemade cleaners and found alot of recipes. Hope these help!

 

[sk!mom]

So disappointed in a friend yesterday. She had her daughters b-day at Chuck E Cheese yesterday at noon. Saturday at noon for family and friends. Now we've known these people for about 11 years, we are close friends, this is not just a class mate. Husband's family was there too BIL and SIL who had traveled about 5 hours to spend birthday with them. Can you believe they did not feed the adults. NO extra pizzas, no sodas NOTHING! Now please don't flame me but if I take my kids to a chuck e cheese b-day for a class mate I do not expect anything and will order for myself, but we were invited as a family to attend this party. I have been ranting haven't I. Sorry Bottom line is I had to feed DH and I since we had to go out afterwards. $10.50 at Wendys. This is our first eat out since we made our New Years resolution to eat out less but could not be helped.

I'll just have to save more money to make up for it.

Kep the motivational ideas coming.

Maybe your friend is on the "what did you do today to save money?" thread or maybe she to is trying to save money this time of year. It seems that almost everyone goes on a spending diet after the holidays. How old was the birthday child? I never expect to eat at a child's birthday party and only accept an offer of food after the children have been served and there is obviously extra. Were you specifically invited or was the invitation addressed to your children?

 

[tinkarooni]

Maybe your friend is on the "what did you do today to save money?" thread or maybe she to is trying to save money this time of year. It seems that almost everyone goes on a spending diet after the holidays. How old was the birthday child? I never expect to eat at a child's birthday party and only accept an offer of food after the children have been served and there is obviously extra. Were you specifically invited or was the invitation addressed to your children?

Thanks for replying. The BD child was 5. We have been friends since long before children. The invitation was to our family. We are the type of friends that even if we have a party with just family we invite each other. It wasn't your typical a classmate invited a child to Chuck E. Cheese. We never expect to eat at an event like that, and if we bring an extra sibling to a chuck e. cheese party we sit in a different section and get our own food, this was different, this child child calls us Aunt and Uncle. There was pizza left too after the kids were fed, an entire pie that his family started sneaking, on napkins because there were no plates for grownups. But it was not offered to us and I was not going to eat it if it wasn't offered. I didn't know if maybe there were children that still hand't eaten, by the end it was clear it was left. I'm over it now, not worth exerting a lot of energy on, just suprising what people do. There's being frugal and than there's being cheap. Bring on more frugal ideas!

 

[calie_j]

I got a new tile floor in our bathroom for $100 H has a friend who does tile so he gave us tile that was left over from some of his jobs for free and installed it. He asked for $100 to help with the cost of supplies to install, and it will cost us some of H's time to help him with home projects or computer fixing as needed in the future. He says if we bought the tile it was close to $1,000 (very high quality); not that we'd ever spend that much ourselves if we had to purchase the tile . Not sure what it would have cost to do the floor ourselves but we saved a bunch by having such a good friend

calie

 

[jesszac610]

Rushed my DH through Kohl's this afternoon. He's more into shopping than me on most trips! Clipped some coupons from the Sunday paper and left them in the van so I'll remeber to actually USE them when I G-shop. Also, ate some leftovers for supper tonight!

 

[aero99]

Well we had another successful week of only eating 1 dinner and 1 lunch out. At lunch, my husband wanted an appetizer but after reminding him of the free corn muffins (that he loves) and how he is always really full after eating his meal , he agreed we didn't need the appetizer. I'm getting recipes from friends and so far doing well. (oh and we used a gift card we got for xmas for dinner this week so we only spent $7 on the tip).

 

[3dog2kidmom]

Just found this thread and I love it!! Here's my list for today:

1) turned down the thermostat and made everyone wear houseshoes and sweatshirts instead
2) canceled HBO last week to save ~$20/mo. Went to McDonald's to rent a $1 redbox instead. Returned it today without going in to buy dinner "because we were there already" (sent DS in to do the return).
3) Cooked leftovers for dinner instead of leaving them in the fridge to rot!

 

[ticktock]

Thanks for replying. The BD child was 5. We have been friends since long before children. The invitation was to our family. We are the type of friends that even if we have a party with just family we invite each other. It wasn't your typical a classmate invited a child to Chuck E. Cheese. We never expect to eat at an event like that, and if we bring an extra sibling to a chuck e. cheese party we sit in a different section and get our own food, this was different, this child child calls us Aunt and Uncle. There was pizza left too after the kids were fed, an entire pie that his family started sneaking, on napkins because there were no plates for grownups. But it was not offered to us and I was not going to eat it if it wasn't offered. I didn't know if maybe there were children that still hand't eaten, by the end it was clear it was left. I'm over it now, not worth exerting a lot of energy on, just suprising what people do. There's being frugal and than there's being cheap. Bring on more frugal ideas!

I agree with this. Frugal is when you choose to do without. Cheap is when you make someone else do without for YOUR benefit. It sounds like your friend may have just been thoughtless though, which is a whole other ball of wax. It's good your not letting it bother you. It was tacky, but not something to get upset over.

 

[Sunshineanddaisys]

Sold another book on half.com, in the past 2 months I've sold 55 dollars worth of old books, which promptely went into my emergency fund

 

[Kimmumum]

Went to McDonald's to rent a $1 redbox instead. Returned it today without going in to buy dinner "because we were there already" (sent DS in to do the return).

Hey mom, what is a redbox? I've never heard of this?

 

[nicurn]

made teacher valentine presents out of random scrap stuff laying around my house. maggie

http://twopeasinabucket.kaboose.com/pg.asp?gallery=1&cmd=display&layout_id=1067783

 

[nzdisneymom]

made teacher valentine presents out of random scrap stuff laying around my house.

thanks for the reminder about Valentine's Day coming up. I pulled out the Valentine's box from the closet and thought that all of the card packs I had stored up were too "babyish" but my 5th grader said there were two of the packs that he could use this year (Looney Toons and Crayola) and I bet my 3rd grader (who is already asleep) could use the other Looney Toons! So hopefully I won't have to buy Valentine's Cards for school this year -- and the extra boxes (Arthur, Tigger, Pooh) I can take to the consignment store with the pants tomorrow. So that's about $5 saved by not having to buy Valentine cards this year!

 

[CourtasanSatine]

Does trying to find a good deal for a new TV count? Next month I finally get to upgrade to a semi larger set

 

[xoMinnieox]

Today, we used our family membership to the museum - free entertainment. Then we went to McD's for lunch, used 2 coupons and a book of gift certificates - paid $0.24 for lunch for 3 of us!

A nice family day for just the cost of gas plus 24 cents. Not too bad.

wow... I wish I could have lunch for that cheep!

 

[xoMinnieox]

I'm going to talk to my mom about the "eater-outer" thing and make a goal of 1 month of no eating out!

 

[ducklite]

DAY EIGHT of the Intervention Program for Compulsive Eater-Outers. I've got breakfast, lunch and dinner with me at work. Dinner might be a Healthy Choice meal (on sale at Publix plus a coupon came to $1.68 each!), because I *might* be shooting a show tonight. If not, I'll leave it in the freezer for tomorrows lunch and go home and make grillled chicken.

If I have to shoot a show, it's about $8 for a couple bottles of water. If I go home, it's $0 in "eating out."

I've lost four pounds in one week too!

Anne

 

[ducklite]

Oh, here's a biggie! DH and I decided to cancel the three day weekend we were going to take for my birthday. By the time we added in the room, spa treatments, meals, and transportation, it would have been almost $3000. We decided to stay here, and go out to a nice dinner in this area instead. Even if we get a car service and enjoy a bottle of champagne with dinner, it will be under $350 for the night--a HUGE savings! I'm going to apply the money saved towards my car loan.

Anne

 

[Minnie824]

I just realized that a store near me buys slightly used childrens clothes. So, I went thru some of the summer clothes that my DDs do not wear or don't fit and sold them and made $12. Not much, but otherwise the clothes would just be sitting here taking up space anyway.

 

[DianaPrincessofWales]

I gave two family members haircuts yesterday. Saving at least $30. I gave my DH a basic men's cut and then trimmed my daughters thick hair. I can do simple cuts, nothing fancy, for those we need to go to a stylist. I noticed hair stylists don't always do a perfect job either, my husbands hair was crooked (from a barber)!

Last week I was checking my CC bill and noticed an overdue charge of $30 something. I knew I had mailed it way before Christmas and it was due on Jan. 6th! I thought 15 days was a suffient amount of time for a letter to arrive from MN to MO! She agreed and credited my account! Saved another $30! Not bad!