Month #4! This month, I focused on looking critically at our possessions, dealing with the things we no longer need (creating the 1,000 Item Declutter Challenge!) and trying to take good care of everything else. I’m so happy to be tackling this during our children’s fall birthdays and before the Christmas season.
+ I gave my son a haircut.
+ I borrowed and read a book from the library.
+ I reused an empty jam jar as a water pot when the kids painted with watercolors.
+ I bought the huge bag of dog food, even though the price makes me cringe. When I did the calculations, I actually save over a dollar per pound, making it the better deal.
+ With the kids in more activities this fall, we tried to save gas and do errands when we already have to be in town: meeting people to pass off things from Trash Nothing or Facebook Marketplace, popping in the grocery store for an ingredient, etc.
+ We moved our oldest into the basement bedroom and I was able to rearrange our furniture around to give him everything he needed, including a nightstand, dresser and even an old loveseat. The only thing I purchased was a new lamp. He’s got quite the man cave now!
+ I unclogged our troublesome master bathroom shower drain with a homemade solution I found on Pinterest. Definitely my favorite frugal accomplishment this month! Here’s the “recipe”:
+ I made more homemade chicken broth and finally got to use my new Souper Cubes (affiliate link).
+ Ebay had a 3-day promotion that waived the listing fees for 200 items. I listed 23 items, saving me over $8.
+ When our oven started taking forever to preheat and then not cooking evenly, we paid the $125 fee to have our home warranty send someone to look at it. There was a whole host of issues including a broken bottom coil and glitchy front panel, which would cost $1,200+ for parts and labor. I hate paying that home warranty bill each month when things are good, but sing its praises when appliances start breaking!
+ I learned a laundry trick to get grease stains out of clothes by using plain white chalk.
+ I turned off the A/C on October 4th and now we play my favorite game of the year: how long can we go before having to turn on the heat?
Your turn! What did you do to save a little money this month?
THANK YOU for sharing the DIY drain clearing- I am going to try it in our master shower as well!!
It's a bit of a process, but worth it! Hope it works as well for you as it did for me.
turning the heat on is my favorite game of the year too! hahaha, we made it until October 18th when it got down to 60 degrees in the house and I finally caved. Our heat is set at 65, but that extra 5 degrees make a big difference. hahahha
also – that drain clear solution is about to get used big time at our house! thank you!!
Yesss, 60 degrees is chilly! Hoping we get a few more weeks of mild weather here in VA.