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Home > Archive: January, 2005

Archive for January, 2005

Frugal choice today: Continue work on decluttering!

January 25th, 2005 at 06:34 pm

I still have far too much stuff. My goal today is to round up at least 20 more things to donate.

Frugal choice today: Get snacks for trip

January 25th, 2005 at 06:33 pm

DH and I are going on a trip so today I went and got $13 worth of snack food so we would avoid the overpriced/unhealthy food at the airports. This will surely save us time and extra calories.

Millionaire next door

January 25th, 2005 at 06:31 pm

A good friend of mine who makes lots of money but spends lots of money finally read this book. I'd given it to her about a year ago. She loved it and is starting to rethink the concept of "Big Hat No Cattle." This should aid in her early retirement plans.

Tackling insurance costs.

January 21st, 2005 at 05:37 pm

I've been trying to find ways to reduce our insurance costs, but it seems there are so many variables that it's hard to get a good comparison of apples to apples.

Driveway plowed for 1/2 price.

January 21st, 2005 at 05:37 pm

I had been quoted 45-50 for having the drive plowed when the snow is too deep for the snowblower and put up a sign at the grocery store and found a guy to do it for $25. Good!

Snowblower fixed for $30

January 21st, 2005 at 05:36 pm

Not wanting to pay the high costs of typical repair shops, I posted a sign at the local grocery store for someone to fix our snowblower. A guy came out, fixed it in now time, and only charged us $30. I was so happy not to have to haul it all over and to get it done cheaply.

Insurance costs!!!

January 21st, 2005 at 01:53 am

We just renewed our insurance and the costs are so high! We will pay almost $400 for DH's one year car insurance, $300 for mine, $250 for my life insurance, $500 for house, and $250 umbrella. That's $1700! Yikes. Next year we'll have to shop around.

Organization = saving money

January 21st, 2005 at 01:49 am

I've found as I'm decluttering more, I feel more in control and less likely to lose something, buy a replacement, then find the old one. So that's encouraging.

Dental costs!!

January 21st, 2005 at 01:48 am

I had to pay 330.00 today to have cleaning and a filling. That's always discouraging. I then went to the grocery store where the total was 89.00. Then accupuncture for 65.00. Then gas for 17. It was an expensive day. I did get a refund I hadn't expected for $57, so that was nice.

Tuesday: Frugal choice #3 1-18-05

January 18th, 2005 at 06:28 pm

Have been listing items on a free local classifieds and sold a $5 painting earlier and $8 worth of exercise tapes. This has been a nice boost.

Tuesday: Frugal choice #2 1-18-05

January 18th, 2005 at 06:27 pm

Have been putting hot water for tea in a thermas rather than using the stove to warm water as I've read it is very inefficient to use electric for heating.

Tuesday: Frugal choice #1 1-18-05

January 18th, 2005 at 06:26 pm

We needed a new electric can opener and rather than heading to Walmart, I checked two thrift stores and found one for $3, saving at least $10. Also found a pepper grinder we've been wanting for 75 cents, saving at least $4.

Saving electric - awareness!

January 17th, 2005 at 10:13 pm

One thing that has been interesting in my ongoing goal to reduce our electric bill - which was almost $150 last month - is learning to read my own meter. What I've been doing is going out at the same time each day and recording the numbers. I did a google search to learn how to read the meter. In addition, when I go out, I now am conscious of how fast or slow it is spinning and this makes me more likely to go and shut off some lights or rethink hanging a load of laundry verses putting it in the dryer.

Thanks!

January 17th, 2005 at 10:11 pm

Thanks for the info back to the $5 offer. It is an awesome offer. DH and I have been continuing to save money. We had the electric company come and they did a free audit. It was interesting to see how much money went to lighting verses ceiling fans, oven, etc.

We made several changes based on what we learned. I had been overwintering geraniums in the basement and learned I was paying $16 a month to keep the grow lights on 24/7. So I reduced the time to 6 hours per day and will thus pay only $4. Hopefully they will survive. If they don't, I'm not out a whole lot as I got them (all 95 of them) for $12 from a greenhouse where they were being thrown out.

Could someone point me toward the $5 reward for journal entries?

January 17th, 2005 at 07:42 pm

I can't find the original offer of $5 for a certain number of journal entries. Could someone please point me to that great offer? THanks.