What did you do to save $ today?

[FarmerDenise]

Nearly nothing. Received free food from FIL, which I'll prepare for dinner, picked asparagus to go with free dinner stuff. Planted more seeds to put in the garden when the time is right.
Doing next to nothing can save a bit of money. No wasted energy, for one.

 

[freemotion]

Well, had to work today, but that brought me near Joann's and I had coupons so I finally picked up some bobbins and some fabric that I hope will be better for straining my cheese. I printed out a bunch of the coupons and had fun passing them out to other customers. Thread was on sale, so I got some for sewing up a zillion more napkins and wipes from old sheets for me and my mom.

I filled 26 6-cell packs (have no idea what they are really called) with potting soil and planted 10 of them. Never did this before, so I have to get going on building my grow light shelves. I've started seeds before, but moved them outside to a protected spot once they sprouted, just bringing them in for frosty nights. So this is a new thing.

 

[freemotion]

Last night I planted all those 26 cell packs!

 

[FarmerDenise]

I made a batch of dog food.

 

[fancie217]

I feed my family of 3 at mcdonalds for $3.50.... I bought two Mc doubles... and a small order of fries. We get home and I take 2 buns out and seperate the sandwiches... walla 4 hamburgers!!


I do this about 1 a week.

 

[Homesteadmom]

I finally finished my garden fence on Sun & it cost me 0$'s. I found t-posts we had laying around here & pounded those in(yes I did all 9 of them) & took the chicken wire off another pen area not in use & spliced it with the rest already there & streched it on around the posts & wired it to the posts, dh was nice enough to cut the extra 2 ft off & staple it to the side of the shed so there is no gap for rabbits to get thru there. Today I will back fill along the bottom to help keep them out too & start replanting(again!). Yesterday my mom & ds#1's dgf made supper for me for my b'day, so not much used there, although I did supply the salad fixings. There is enough leftovers we are having it all again for supper tonight! Frugal & easy all in one!

 

[cjparker]

I work at home and often print up to fifty pages a week with my HP printer. Ink isn't cheap! So I downloaded a font that will save on ink. I found this info in (I think) Oprah magazine, that I get for free. Here's the blurb from the font website.

Ecofont

The prints we make for our 'daily use' not only use paper, but also ink. According to SPRANQ creative communications (Utrecht, The Netherlands) your ink cartridges (or toner) could last longer.
SPRANQ has therefore developed a new font: the Ecofont.

"After Dutch holey cheese, there now is a Dutch font with holes as well."

Appealing ideas are often simple: how much of a letter can be removed while maintaining readability? After extensive testing with all kinds of shapes, the best results were achieved using small circles. After lots of late hours (and coffee) this resulted in a font that uses up to 20% less ink. Free to download, free to use.

Just in case the links don't work, the address is www.ecofont.eu

 

[unclejoe]

Don't know if this qualifies but I picked up a Mantis tiller from craigslist today for $150. It is 2 years old and wouldn't run right for the guy so he got a new one and sold this one "as is". I brought it home, looked it over and found that the primer bulb had a crack in it. Went to the local dealer, got a bulb, put it on, and presto! It runs great. I've wanted one for a couple years now but couldn't bring myself to part with the nearly $400 for a new one. It going to be a whole lot easier to weed the garden this year.

 

[freemotion]

That qualifies! Wish I could fix stuff, gotta learn. You can save SOOO much money if you know how to fix stuff!

I canned MORE catfood....AGAIN! Want to get caught up so I don't have to can any this summer, and I am behind. If I can do a one-month batch each week, I will catch up.

I made the dough for some lasagna noodles to use up some of that ricotta I made, it is resting until tomorrow with some whey to lactoferment the grains and make them more digestible and nutritious.

A friend has been saving veggie scraps in her freezer for me, I saw her yesterday and had lots of goodies for Mya, who deserves the most of the treats. Some of her scraps are nicer than some of my dinners!

I have a couple more projects not finished, so hope to report more stuff before bed.

 

[freemotion]

I finished my plant/grow-light shelf unit today, it is in the cellar with plants on it, yay! Mostly salvaged materials, I just had to buy the shoplights and bulbs and two studs for the legs. All the pots are recycled and I am busily making newspaper pots to transplant into as they get bigger.

I also found, thanks to someone's (sorry, can't remember who!) suggestion, some used sheet pans at a restaurant supply place for $2 each. I made my shelves to fit the pans, so I can use it as a sprouting unit next winter. It will hold 4 large or 8 small sheet pans, more than enough to feed all my critters some good food all winter, assuming I get the routine down and can prevent mold.

While at the warehouse, I found some plastic containers that will make a nice cheese press, and I spent about $7 total for four containers and two lids. They are called bain marie pots, and they come in stainless steel, too, for about $8 each. I will get a couple in stainless if the plastic works out. Didn't want to drill stainless as an experiment, but I prefer not to use plastic with acidic food when possible. At least not for the hours the cheese will be in the press.

I can't beleive this place is literally 4 minutes from my office and I never would've known it was there if not for ideas from this forum!

I also picked up some needed supplies at Joann's for half price, and some sheets of needlepoint plastic for $0.49 each to cure soap on. I will use the leftover scraps from the plant shelves to make a nice drying/curing rack for my soaps so I will be ready for fall.

eta: Oh, and two patterns for $0.99 each for nice jumpers, Simplicity patterns that retail for some ridiculous price like $16-17.....sheesh! I pay less than that for an entire dress on clearance! My favorite denim dress was $3!!!