What did you do to save $ today?

Through a referral, I have someone to come in and help me clean the house in exchange for massage therapy. It is motivating me to clear out all the piles of stuff that overwhelm me. We are doing a section at a time....today, I had her do regular cleaning in the living room and bathroom, and we worked together to organize the entry porch and all the winter gloves, hats, scarves, etc. This will save lots of money because I was ready to just go out and buy some rather than tackle that mess! She put all the ones with mates together and all the ones without mates in a bag. She cleaned the whole area, and I put away misc. stuff that shouldn't have been stored there.

I (ok, she) found four boxes of sugar-free pectin, which was on my list to buy to make some more jam soon. Also four bars of goat's milk soap that I have a buyer for already. Plus lots of stuff that I didn't know where it had gone!

It may take us a couple of years to get through the house at this pace, but it is a start!
 
Had a friend out for tea and treats. It will save me $ for therapy ;), plus she and I swapped beets and eggs for her excellent gourmet biscotti!
 
I worked on prep for Christian Cafe today at church. So I got free lunch and free dinner. TR joined me for free dinner.

Tonight's Christian Cafe dinner consisted of:

Meatball sub sandwiches
veggie soup
chicken noodle soup
tossed green salad
cottage cheese
fresh fruit
fruit salads
homemade croutons for soups and salads
dinner rolls and assorted breads from Panera Bread
homemade cakes, pies, desserts
sugar free jellos
sugar free puddings
coffee
hot and cold tea
lemonade
water
 
I had a dental appointment today, and I decided to visit my favorite "junk" store. I only visit this store when I am headed in that direction for other reasons because it is about 45 miles form my house. This store carries furnature, clothes, bedding and housewares, tools, electronics and food. I have found that it is getting more expensive there, now that it is owned by new owners but I still can find some deals.

Today I scored 4 cans of Starkist solid white Albacore tuna. Each can was a 4.2 pound resteraunt sized can and cost $3 a piece. I was thrilled. I also got a large (32 oz) can of College inn chicken broth for 50 cent, a can of Yuban coffee for $1, a medium size box of Sazon seasoning packets for $1.29 and a couple of other canned goods that I cant remember. All the cans were dented, but the seals wer fine. I am going to see if I can find something on line about possible re-canning the tuna into smaller amounts. I looked in the Ball Blue Book and there are directions on canning cooked tuna and I may use those directions.
 
freemotion said:
Through a referral, I have someone to come in and help me clean the house in exchange for massage therapy. It is motivating me to clear out all the piles of stuff that overwhelm me. We are doing a section at a time....today, I had her do regular cleaning in the living room and bathroom, and we worked together to organize the entry porch and all the winter gloves, hats, scarves, etc. This will save lots of money because I was ready to just go out and buy some rather than tackle that mess! She put all the ones with mates together and all the ones without mates in a bag. She cleaned the whole area, and I put away misc. stuff that shouldn't have been stored there.

I (ok, she) found four boxes of sugar-free pectin, which was on my list to buy to make some more jam soon. Also four bars of goat's milk soap that I have a buyer for already. Plus lots of stuff that I didn't know where it had gone!

It may take us a couple of years to get through the house at this pace, but it is a start!
Click to expand...
Wow that is a great deal. Not only are you trading for the work, but you are finding stuff you already had and now don't need to buy. Being well organized always feels good to me. I love it when I know what I have and where. And getting rid of stuff you don't use (like single gloves) feels good too. That way you are not wasting space storing it.
 
I come from packrats on both sides....I'm doomed! So I do need help to organize periodically. Sometimes I just need someone to keep me on task, and do it in little bites so I don't get overwhelmed.

Today a friend brought me two quart-size canning jars from that spaghetti sauce that still uses canning jars....arrgh, can't think of the brand name, but it comes from Costco. Her upstairs neighbors throw the jars in the recycling bin and she snags them for me....what a great friend, huh? :D

eta: Classico!
 
Dumpster diving friends are great friends indead!! :bow

I made chicken soup using our the wings and neck from the birds we butchered. I did add some store bought stuff, but used mostly garden vegetable. SO doctored up a store bought pizza that FIL had dropped off, he had the garden vegies piled so high that they were falling off. But that was one yummy pizza.
We have enough chicken soup left over for today.

We have been drying the sweet corn and popcorn outside. We have it laying in assorted boxes on a wooden wagon and covered with bird netting, so the chickens don't get to it as easily. Every day I spend a little time removing the kernels from the cob. I already have 1/2 gallon of white hulless kernels and about the same of yellow kernels seperated. I plan on putting them through a screen. I want to save the larger ones for our popcorn and next years seed and the smaller stuff will go to the chickens. All the sweet corn will go to the chickens also.

We have been letting the chickens out in the field every day to forage on their own. They of course love it and it is fun to watch them. I go around and drop sunflower seeds that are still on the stalks on the ground for them, we also still have some broomcorn in the field, which I strip for them. But I only have to fill one feeder a day now opposed to putting out at least 3 feeders. Butchering the two meat birds helped a lot with that also. Those birds ate a lot.
 
Well, if it is true that you can save money by spending money . . . the pricier flour that I use in my sourdough was on sale by quite a bit, so I bought four bags (they are only 5 lb bags . . . that is the only size you can buy). We have actually found a source of relatively local flour in bulk (50 lb bags), but we will have to wait until we make our next trip to Seattle.
 
On a hunch (or, the prodding of the Lord, which I prefer), I stopped by Winco on my way home from Lowes this morning. Sometimes they mark down their meat late morning on a Sunday. Today, they were doing just that.

Ground chicken expiring tomorrow: 78 cents a 1.25 pound package, I got all they had.

Johnsonville bulk Italian sausage, mild: 49 cents a 1.25 pound package, I got all they had.

Five pound chucbs of 15% fat ground beef: $1.98 each. That's 40 cents a pound. I got 30 pounds, and am breaking it up in FoodSealer bags.
 
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