Frugal tips for fall

[flowerbug]

Sometimes mutants are the best!. But one year we got mutant pumpkins with skin so hard we needed a sawzall to carve them 😲

wedge and sledge.

 

[Hinotori]

In my area the county is trimming trees and branches that are died or in the way of power lines.. I talk to them and they are more then happy to let me take what I want.. I get free mulch to add to my garden and compost also free beanches and sometimes already cut trees for you y wood stove. Might be little work but it is free..this year I got lucky they did alot of work half mile from my home.

After the first windstorm is the best time here to get the wood chips as the county is always super busy with downed branches. Saves them time to drop at houses.

 

[Trying2keepitReal]

We just have the wood stove going, right now we don't have the thermostat turned on. It will go on when it gets below freezing at night and will be set at 60 in case that the wood stove goes out or something happens.

But when we did run it, it was set to 64 during the day when we were both working out of the home and the kids were at school and then we would turn it up to 68 at night while we were awake and back town to 64-ish overnight

 

[flowerbug]

I layer up to go outside to do chores. When I come in, it feels hot and layers come off. I keep the thermostat set usually at 68.

that's where we are at during the day, at night we turn it down to 63F.

in the past when Mom was away being a nanny during the week i would turn the whole house thermostat down to 55F and just keep my room warmer with a small electric heater. that worked well enough for me because i'm in here almost all the time. for some years we'd set it at 64F during the day and lower it to 62F at night. now as time has gone on and she wants to feel warmer we've crept up to 68F during the day.

when it is windy and stormy it doesn't make sense to have the heat set very high because it all blows away so i'll bump it down a few degrees until the wind stops blowing so hard.

 

[tortoise]

Bah! I want to hibernate until April.

That would save a lot of money!

 

[tortoise]

Yo' mama was right about turning the thermostat down during heating season.

General guideline: 1 degree on the thermostat = 3% of your heating cost.

Turn the thermostat from 72 to 68 and save 10% on your next bill.

What is the Cost of Raising the Thermostat by 1 Degree? - Novak Heating

The cost of raising thermostat 1 degree helps you find a comfortable setting while saving on energy costs. Call Novak explains how.

www.novakheating.com

 

[Lilbitsnpieces]

Bah! I want to hibernate until April. 😀😀

@tortoise, yes deals are aplenty. I am seeing mentions that canning supplies are dropping slightly in price locally. *eye twitch* is back.

😭

 

[flowerbug]

I have to be fery fery careful when going to feed store..maybe put on some blinders🤪..or I end up with extra containers, clothing and other "necessities"..
Frugully speaking.(.is that even a word?) After leaves fall and others bag them..I drive around and snatch them up...maple leaves esp. make great poultry bedding..saves on purchasing.
Oakleaves go around blueberries for they are acidic and any left over get dumped on the garden beds...especially the asparagus and rootbeds...
I either take them back their bags..in which case they fill them again and may even deliver to me...or I use the large paper bags...for any number of things

i used to get bags of leaves from a friend in a nearby town, but it became too much of a problem with all the trash that was being raked up and put in those bags. especially if he shredded them. so i said no thanks to any more. it took work to put them in the gardens but it was worth it for the help they made to the clay.

one particularly bad load of leaf bags had things like, parts of the headlight of a motorcycle, a butterknife, batteries, childrens toys, shredded beer cans, a wall clock, and a ton of candy wrappers.

now 10 years later in some gardens i'm still finding and removing bits of trash from them.

the other mistake i made was that i took some compost from a company that was hauling other things for me and didn't look too closely at it when i was mixing it with the topsoil and sand. turns out there was all sorts of things in there i'm still pulling out of the gardens where i used that mix. parts of diapers, metal, broken glass, plastics, etc. just a mess.

had a tree trimmer dump a load of wood chips and other ground up branches. he'd also thrown some large plastic jugs in there and didn't answer my question honestly when i asked him if it was clean of other stuff or not.

will not ever bring in anything again without inspecting it first.