Weekly Savings

I had good intentions of posting more last month with no results.  It is hard to believe that this year is quickly drawing to a close.  I have kept track of a few things I have done to save money over the past few weeks.


I stuck to my grocery budget which was not hard since the sales were not great. 


I stayed home on Black Friday.  I did some shopping but all of it was at stores not in my area.  Shipping was free on every order, and I used coupons as much as possible.  The purchases were planned in advance.  My only semi-impulse purchase was a copy of Cook's Illustrated cookbook.  I used a 30% off coupon and reward points so it cost me nothing out of pocket.  I purchased some Christmas gifts using gift cards I earned through Swagbucks.


Another money saver was staying healthy.  Unfortunately that only applied to me and not to W.  The flu and bronchitis are spreading like wildfire in my area.  Both sets of our parents have also been sick.  Our church attendance has been very low due to so many people being sick.  I started taking my homemade elderberry syrup at the beginning of October and have not had so much as a cold.  I am sold on it as are many of my relatives. 


I line dried clothes as much as possible.  We had nearly a week of rain so the laundry piled up a bit.  I waited until the weather was sunny to wash clothes.


W fixed up a system for us to collect the manure from our rabbits.  It is a great fertilizer and comes as a free benefit of having rabbits. 


I used several free gift cards to get some very cheap subscriptions to magazines that I enjoy.  I had money set aside to pay for magazines.  This allowed me to four magazines for much less than one subscription would cost. 


During the evenings I have been making dish scrubbing pads using mesh produce bags.  I had a bag full of them saved from buying citrus fruit.  These have a crocheted border and can be tossed in the washing machine.