Got dishes going in the dishwasher.
I always run a full load and if
there are remaining dishes that
won't fit in dishwasher then we
do them by hand.
If I use zip bags in the kids
lunch box then I have them save
them for me. I wash them up
to reuse them again and again.
I wash them and hang upside down
to dry off on soap bottles on the
back of the sink.
The other day I made up 2 lasagnas.
One of which we only ate half of.
The remaining I packed up in
individual containers for the
freezer for Tony's or my lunches.
The remaining lasagna will be eaten
for supper tonight.
I got a head start on making
the kids lunches for tomorrow.
They are having Chef Boyardee
in their Thermos', a small bowl
of cheddar Chex Mix, a yogurt,
little debbie snack cake and
a juice pouch.
Now I am getting ready to make brunch.
It will consist of fried taters,
bacon and sausage links.
______________________________________
I've been asking questions in
the neighborhood to get an idea
of what is going on around us.
Like, in my own way without
coming out and just saying it,
I find out about how much
people are making with their jobs,
how much their house payment or rent
is and car payments and utilities
because we all pretty much live
in the same style of house on
this street.
Do you know people who rent houses
on this street pay $800, that's
$200 more than what it is to buy
our home!
People are making double and sometimes
triple our income depending if they
live by themselves or are married.
And we have sometimes been referred to
as the "rich" people on the street
who is "making all the money" and I quote
those exact words out of the mouths of
neighbors!
And the funny thing is we are probably
the poorest people on the street!
And that ain't no joke!
So I have decided to post on my
blog even the littlest things
I do to save money no matter
how stupid or little it may be.
I say this over and over again,
no matter how little savings it
may be it all adds up in the end!
People cannot understand how
we are able to do it with
our one income. But ya know
everyone out there is capable of
cutting back dramatically like
we do but still fitting in like
everyone else. It makes me feel
good to hear comments from
the neighbors.
We have 6 cars parked in the driveway.
And once again neighbors cannot
understand how we can afford them
all. For starters they are used,
bought them cheap by shopping around,
paid cash and have no car payments
and don't have full coverage insurance
on them! Oh yeah and you buy ones
that you can work on yourself.
So anyway starting today I will post
everything I do on a daily basis
to cut back. I know I post a lot
of pictures but who wants to read
someone's blog with just words?
So here is everything I am
doing just today to cut back.
My dish soap got down to about
an inch left in the bottom.
When it runs low I then fill
the rest of the bottle up with
water to make it last a little longer.
I'll even do this to shampoo or
conditioner when the bottle is empty.
I add a little water, swish it around
to get the remaining shampoo off
the sides of the bottle and get about
2 more uses out of it! That's 2 more
uses that others would have thrown away.
When I wash up any remaining dishes
that didn't fit in the dishwasher
I don't fill up a sink with water.
Instead I run a small steady stream
from the faucet, put a little soap
on my sponge and wash and rinse
under that same stream. I would
have used more water even filling
my sink up half way.
When I run the dishwasher I DO NOT
use the dry cycle. I DO NOT use
it on pots & pans wash. I use the
regular or light cycle. And even
though I do not use the dry cycle
the dishwasher still ticks away
using electric even though it
doesn't dry the dishes so when the
dishes are done I turn the knob
to the off position.
We have turned the air conditioner
back on. It is set at 77 degrees.
Curtains and blinds stay closed to
keep out sunlight which could
raise the temperature in here.
We also run our ceiling fan
24-7 on low to circulate the air.
I have a box fan sitting next to
a vent on the floor to help distribute
the cool air more evenly around the house.
On extremely hot days I have gone
as far as plugging in a fan at the
bottom of the basement stairs
and blowing the cool basement
air up to the main part of the house!
I had to take a load of food to
the basement pantry and put away
so I did it while I started laundry.
In this box was 10 pouches of
alfredo noodle mixes that I got
just this past week from Meijer
for .33 cents each. I know
Pasta Roni goes for $1.00 on up
so I bought all they had for
that price.
I took down to the basement 2 bags
of 70 count notebooks.
I purchased these for .10 to .15
cents each and now have a good stock
on them for probably the next couple
of years. Normal price is $1.00
if not more.
While I am in the basement I figured
I'd give a tour of what's down there.
Here is my laundry stock pile, slowly
dwindling down but has lasted me for
almost a year. Most was under a $2.00
or free. I still have about 3 more bottles
up stairs that is not included here.
Before we go to the pantry I'm stopping
by to throw a load of wash in.
The directions of the soap and fabric
softener say to use certain amounts
for full loads. I use the small loads
amount in my regular loads then
dilute down the fabric softener
so it doesn't clog up my machine.
Then I put the clothes on a 6 minute
wash cycle instead of the 14 minute one
and then put on cold wash and cold rinse.
It still gets my clothes just as clean
and they still smell good!
And here is my pantry before I come
back upstairs to do other things.
Most things were free or very cheap!
And lastly here are my freezers.
They are kept full. By keeping
a full freezer it uses less amount
of energy than running it constantly
for one that is empty or half empty.
If you do not have anything to
fill up that empty space in your
freezers, fill up empty milk
jugs with water and put them
in there.
1:45PM
For now I will continue to clean up
my kitchen and wait for the first
load of laundry to get done.
No one said saving money was easy.
It's not. It takes a lot of work
and patience to keep up with it
on a daily basis.
Later on we might make a run over
to Olentangy and Fox & Hounds to
see how move outs are going over
there.
As tired as we were yesterday after
Cosi we still managed to make a trip
over to UV. Mom asked why didn't we
wait til today to go over. What
people don't understand is you have
to act now or others will get
to it before you do. That's free
money to me sitting there waiting
for me to swoop up. No matter how
tired I am. It's a job to me. Most
still go to work no matter how tired
they are. While I don't actually have
a job and go to work every day I
still pull my fair share of doing
things around here!!
__________________________
This week I don't think I will
do much grocery shopping due
to going to Cosi. I will just
get basic things we need,
for example toilet paper.
I researched 6 stores,
Walgreens, Kmart, Walmart,
Dollar General, Meijer and
Kroger looking for the best deal.
I took the amount it cost
and divided it by the number
of rolls to see how much
each roll cost.
Took me a few minutes with
a calculator to figure it out.
So here is the line up with
the best and worst deals.
DOLLAR GENERAL
***BEST DEAL for name brand***
20 double rolls Charmin
$9.00 or .43 cents a roll
24 ct (two 12 count pkgs)
Dollar General brand double roll
$10 or .41 cents a roll
WALGREENS
18 count Charmin
(3 packages of 6 with 3 coupons)
$7.47 or .45 cents each
WALMART
18 count Charmin double rolls
$9.75 with coupon or .54 cents a roll
________________________________
I have not had internet since
about 3:00PM today. I had assumed
it was WOW again screwing up it's
services. I just now went to try
and reboot the modems and saw that
someone had turned off the switch
on the power switch, GRRRRRR!!
We just got back around 8:30PM
from Olentangy where we found
some stuff. Move out times
vary at different apartment complexes
and never seem to be the same weeks.
Drove by UV and found nothing.
9:00PM
Got the kids in the shower and
unloaded the truck. Took down
the remaining clothes on the line
so everyone had clean clothes for
tomorrow morning.
Ran across this one dumpster
that had a crap load of stuff.
There was guys still hauling
stuff out. I was even asked if
I was interested in a desk and
went in their apartment to check
it out. Didn't want it.
But luckily we got there as they
were throwing the stuff away.
I got a whole bag of meat and
freezer stuff, never opened.
Tony found 3 desk top computers
and a Gateway laptop computer in it's
original box. No, at the moment Tony
doesn't want to give away the
laptop. It doesn't power up when
plugged in so he is taking it to
work to see if it is fixable.
It has a HUGE screen compared to the
ones we have. Now as for the desk tops
I don't know if they work or not.
I don't have a desk top hooked up
to see if they do. There are no
cords with them.
Oh yeah, Tony found another laptop
the other day at his work. They tried
to repair it at work but had no luck
and tossed it back out.
Here's the goods we found tonight.
I had a set of black metal tall breakfast
bar chairs with backs loaded in the
truck. I had to take them back
out because we would of had no room
to put other things like 4 computers.
That sucked but oh well. One day I
would love to have a breakfast bar made
and these chairs would have been perfect.
Tony said he'd go back tomorrow and
get them for me but I said don't worry
about it.
I do have a bag for Kendra that has
girl clothes in it. They are too
small for me. Cutesy enough for
a teeny bopper.
Well it's 9:45PM. I'm wore out!
I need to go lay out everyone's
clothes for tomorrow morning
and get everything ready to go.
I'm not going anywhere tomorrow
so will probably bake up some
peanut butter banana bread.
__________________________
10:40PM
I researched the electric guitar
Jonathan found and found a used
one on Ebay for $199!
