The Frugal Five: #69

 The Frugal Five: #69

With inflation on the rise and salaries not increasing, our ability to make ends meet keeps going down.    Therefore, we must be more careful with our money.   The Frugal Five is a series where we celebrate the daily or weekly activities that help us live a frugal life.    

1- Using my Freezer, Refrigerator, and Pantry 

This week the loss leaders are not items that we normally would purchase, so we saved the money would have spent on those items for another week.   Instead, we turned to our freezer, refrigerator, and pantry to plan our menu this week.  

2- Discount on Hair Care

My salon sent me a letter telling me that my hairdresser left, and offering me a 20% discount to reschedule with them.   When I phoned to reschedule, I happily discovered that my hairdresser was still there and I could still get the 20% next week when the appointment is.   

In addition, I cut my husband’s hair which saves us about $35.00 twice a month.    It normally takes about 15 minutes and is well worth my time.     

3- Made Dried Beans 

 

Canned beans are really convenient and we do have some cans in our pantry, but most of our bean purchases are in dried form.     A 1-pound  bag of beans yields approximately 10 cups of beans which is the same amount as 5 cans (15 oz) of beans.     This results in us paying $0.30 instead of $0.79.   I know it is not a lot of money, but it adds up over time. 

4- Still Canning

Although we have donated our garden harvest to the food bank this week, we still have a lot of tomatoes to use up.    I am cooking and canning gravy and salsa for the upcoming year.     I will be tracking how much gravy and salsa this produced and how much we use over the next year.     This will help me to plan my garden in the future.        

     

5- Used our Apps and Loyalty Programs for Discounted Gas

My husband uses the Shell Gas Loyalty Program to reduce his cost per gallon of gas each week.     At many of the Shell stations, their prices are higher than the other stations in their immediate location, but he has found a station that historically matches the lowest price per gas and he receives an additional $0.03 off per gallon.    In addition, every so often, he receives a $0.20 off per gallon.  

By using the Kroger app I earn a discount per gallon based on the amount we spend at Kroger.    Although we do not shop based on this perk, it is a nice addition to our savings when we shop at Kroger.    This week Kroger had the lowest price in my route and I needed to use a $0.20 per gallon discount before it expired, so I filled up my almost empty tank.   This saved me about $2.00.    

What Free-bees have you been able to pick up this year?    My September free-bee haul knocked it out of the park!    Hopefully, October will pick up soon, because it is looking a lot like my August haul.      

Here is my list: 

Do you want to see what we did last week?   

Just click on the picture for the link. 

Please leave a comment below with your ways of saving money this week.