Some Frugal Things Lately

In October, I did some fairly good on money-saving things, even though with our 'finish the horse barn' project it feels like we've been hemorrhaging money since Summer began.

The biggie was paying off our 2017 truck.  Whew!  I so hate having loans, and DH was adamant that because the interest rate on this was pretty much lower than any other loans we carried (mortgage, credit card, etc), we were just going to make the regular payments and not pay extra on this one (so we might be able to pay a little more on something else each month).  So, to me, it felt like we had this loan forever.  And now, finally, we've made the last payment.  Which means starting in November we have all that much more cash to roll into paying off the higher interest rate things.  

I had a very successful trip to Goodwill in early October.  Things I found there: 

• Fabric!  Normally I don't have much success with finding sewing fabric, but this time I came home with a 4 yd piece of quilting cotton for  $4.99,  a 2 yd piece of quilting cotton for $1.99, and 2 yds of flannel for $4.99.
• Duplo bucket in excellent condition for $5.29; missing a few of the pieces listed on the bucket, but had many extra pieces not shown.  After consulting with DD1 she said she didn't care it wasn't totally brand new, so I bought it to be a Christmas present for Buck.  This is the size and type of bucket that was $9.99 brand new 20 years ago.  Brand new now, they are definitely out of my price range of one item for a grandkid.
• 2 dress shirts for DH that look like they've never been worn (maybe bought just before covid for a guy that hasn't had to go into the office in person since?) $5.29/each
• 4 books like new (will give as gifts to grandkids) priced at 2/$2.29

Other successful grandkid related deals I scored in October were 40% off kinetic sand (birthday present for Faline) and 50% off kids waterproof mittens (presents for Faline and Rascal).

I gave DH a haircut, which is the only way he's had his hair done in something like 25 years.  I have no idea what a man's haircut costs these days.  Wish I could talk him into trimming mine, because I really hate paying to have it trimmed an inch or two twice a year.

A big money saving thing was that we were able to price match t-post caps online for $7 per 10-pack savings over buying in-store locally (needed 20 packs).  That made our horse fencing project cost $140 less, which is about equivalent to the price of an 8-foot metal gate for a pasture

My pumpkins in the garden were a complete crop failure this year.  I was rather bummed out about not having pumpkins for the grandkids to pick for their jack-o-lanterns at Halloween.  Turned out they didn't mind going somewhere else for a pumpkin.  I thought I was okay with being personallhy pumpkin-less, but about 10 days before Halloween I decided I was going to spend $5 and get a pumpkin from one of the small farm stands nearby.

For $5, it was actually a nice sized pumpkin.  A little flat on one side, and slightly tilted on the round side, but a good deal.  To make it an even better deal, I came up with the idea of carving two faces into it, saving the cut pieces and cooking them down.

So, I was able to enjoy having a jack-o-lantern, and ended up with exactly enough cooked pumpkin from the eyes, noses, and mouths, to put in the freezer to make a pumpkin pie with for Thanksgiving!

two faces

Having the pumpkin carved the way I did it actually worked really well for putting it at the top of the stairs to my front porch.  Going up the stairs you saw one face, and when you stood on the porch, you saw the other.  I just might carve all my pumpkins that way in future years.