Frugal Things November & December

 November:

• Ate almost exclusively from food on hand in cellar, freezers, and pantry.  
• Did a plumbing repair ourselves rather than hire it done.
• DH got a deer on opening day. Butchered it ourselves, as usual. Yield approximately 60 pounds of meat.
• Made snack sticks and summer sausage from 20 pounds of ground venison ourselves (rather than taking meat to local processor and paying them to make the sausage and meat sticks).
• Moved Poetess home--no more paying for board!
• Borrowed a horse trailer to move Poetess (FREE!! vs paying someone to haul her).
• Didn't host Thanksgiving (big savings in meal cost!) Went to DD1's house where I provided potatoes (homegrown), homemade apple pie (homegrown apples), and home made pecan pie.
• Bought 5 quarts ice cream on sale (hoping to get through 2 birthdays, Christmas and many desserts until favorite brands went on sale again). 
• Bought hitch rings to hang cross ties from off Amazon (at 2.99 each) rather than buy from farm store (5.97 each)
• Bought DD1's Christmas present at 60% off.
• Bought MIL's Christmas present (OttLite floor lamp) on Black Friday sale for 50% off.
• Bought 3 more pasture gates on Black Friday sale prices ($30 off each)
• Bought about 6 weeks worth of cat food (4 boxes wet food containers) for the Yarn Thief on Black Friday sale for 40% off per box.
• Went to the local 1-screen no frills theater ($5 per ticket) to see a movie both DH and I thought would be worth seeing on the big screen (first movie theater visit since 2018) rather than the further away $12/ticket foo-foo cinemas.

December:

• Cut DH's hair.
• Bought DD2's Christmas present 40% off (KitchenAid mixer)
• Bought DS2 & Surprise's Christmas present at a big discount (Gorilla dump cart)
• Put some higher priced barn items on my Christmas wish list rather than buying them ASAP.  Received two of them as presents from family.
• Bought enough bales of pine bedding for stalls at one time to qualify for bulk discount. (About a month's worth).
• Did another plumbing repair ourselves (replaced pump on wood boiler).
• Bought DH some new high quality unders on sale 40% off.
• Took truck to local, small, privately owned auto repair shop to have rotors and brakes replaced rather than dealership service department ($400 difference in price).
• Received 1 dump truck load of pine mulch and 4 dump truck loads of firewood from a tree service working in our area.  DH had seen this particular tree service back in late August after the tornado and told them he would be willing to have unwanted hardwood dropped off at our property if they had more than they wanted to haul away (they are based 30 minutes away).  After three months of no-contact he suddenly got a phone call (asking him if he still wanted wood and if he was also willing to take mulch) and 5 minutes later a dump truck was pulling up our driveway!

a small mountain of mulch

• Took trailer to local gravel pit to get gravel needed to finish two more stall floors in barn rather than having them deliver it (big savings in delivery fee!)
• Did yet another plumbing repair ourselves (valve between well pump and pressure tank). Really hoping we can get through 2024 with no more unexpected plumbing repairs!
• Bought Christmas ham on sale 50% off normal price per pound.
• Made apple pie (homegrown apples) and pumpkin pie (using puree made and then frozen from pieces cut from Halloween jack-o-lantern) for Christmas desserts. 
• Made Christmas cookies from scratch.
• Bought Christmas candy 30% off.
• Served homegrown potatoes and homegrown green beans for family Christmas dinner, made gravy from the ham drippings.
• Used wrapping paper bought on clearance years ago to wrap Christmas presents.
• Rendered more than 3 gallons of lard (25 pints) from pork fat given to me from MIL (saved in freezer from pigs she had butchered in the fall.) This ought to last DH and I at least 3 years (I use lard rather than shortening).

You know, I had gotten to the point that I felt we weren't being as frugal and we could be/used to be when the kids were little.  Then I decided to start writing down any little money saving thing that we'd done during a month.  Turns out, we're still really frugal, and in some ways even more frugal, that we were 15-20 years ago.  I think I will try to continue this frugal notating in 2024.