- Even though we’ve added WenYu back into the household, and have had to water the lawn a few days this month, we’ve all been careful about our water use, and there was no increase in this month’s bill.
- Our propane tank gets a fill-up every three months. Previous refills have been over $300, but we’ve also been watching our gas usage, and this month’s refill was only $175. We use gas for our (on demand) hot water, stove/oven, and dryer.
- Rather than throw it out, we combined the seasonings that were left in the bottom of the otherwise empty yellow rice container with regular rice – no waste, and we almost couldn’t tell the difference.
- We had to buy a 12-pack of paper towels at Costco this week but it should last for a while – the last package we bought lasted for over 18 months. We mostly use rags and old towels instead of paper.
- We put $31.67 in our change/$1 bill jar: $18.48 after purchasing Brett’s Father’s Day treats; $1.40 was the change from Monday’s lunch; we had $7.00 left over from the farmers’ market; and $4.79 in change from our monthly big shop. Three $5 bills were set aside this week.
What frugal wins did you have this week?
The Occasional Nomads 
My expenses seem to keep increasing ever since we became our grandsons legal guardian. I am not sure how to be frugal in this situation. He is 17 years old and seems to think I am an ATM machine…..argh.
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Oh, I feel your pain! It’s the same with YaYu – every month, every week sometimes, she comes home with a request for $$ for something (usually school/activity related). I don’t remember the other girls needing so much, but YaYu is way more involved with school activities than the other girls ever were. But, it does create havoc with our budget because some of the expenses are mandatory, and she’s not the best about letting us know enough in advance to plan for them.
Anyway, we do our best to let her know we are NOT an ATM. We do say no frequently, and encourage her to earn or save her own money, or fundraise, to cover her own expenses for things she wants to do. Overall she is quite frugal, but we and her sisters have been “training” her for many years. It’s just a tough age overall when it comes to money and expenses.
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Found another 26 cents but not much help when my electric bill jumped to $265.27. My mother lived with me for three weeks after she got out of the hospital but I cannot figure out how that caused a 60 dollar increase in my bill. I even raised the thermostat while she was here because she is always cold.
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We were very surprised that our water bill did not change – it usually goes up when the girls come home. I also think energy bills go up depending on demand; that is, if in your area demand is high the energy company raises the rates for everyone. So, even if you’re using less your bill can go up just because of area demand. Maybe that’s what caused the increase?
WenYu found 88 cents in one of my backpacks that she borrowed the other day! The last time I used that pack was at the Grand Canyon.
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My biggest frugal thrill this week was the drop in airline prices on the flights I’ve been monitoring for our trip to Italy this fall. They dropped $500 one day, so I purchased them quickly. The next morning, out of curiosity, I looked again and they had dropped another $600! Since Delta has a 24 hour cancellation policy, I cancelled those flights and rebooked the same (even getting the same seats, since I had just released them). So overall, we saved $1100 on our flights from my original search and they’re now a reasonable price IMO.
We fly Delta because my DH has permanent status with them (although only Silver, which isn’t much now…ha!) because he flew over 2 million miles on their airlines over the course of his career, almost all domestic. He’s earned it. 🙂
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Oh, I envy you! That is an incredible price drop! That’s why it’s so important to monitor flight prices daily, sometimes multiple times per day, when you’re getting ready to book travel. e got the lowest prices for our flights to Japan earlier in the year – they never went below the price we paid, which was $150 less than the maximum we had allowed ourselves for the extra comfort economy.
We flew Delta, BTW – the flight over was great and we enjoyed the “enhanced” service. Coming back there was nothing special other than the extra legroom. WenYu flew Delta home this summer (and will going back) and said it was OK, so I would fly with them again.
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