I replaced the old Delta faucet set in the hall bathroom. It was dripping and I'd run out of adjustment on it to stem the flow. I knew from my initial attempt that the two polymer nuts holding it to the sink were corroded in place and needed to be chiseled off and for a week I seriously considered calling a plumber to crawl up under it and beat on it. Heck, I even broke my basin wrench on one old nut. Must be the minerals in the well water.
This was my wife's house that's now our house. It's 25 years old and needs a few things. Good thing I've been practicing for 38 years on a house that was built in 1916. I'm too old for this nonsense, but saving a couple hundred bucks is worth it. I needed the exercise anyway.
NOT ME but was told by my friend that a guy here in our country club who is worth over 100m scrapes salt off pretzels, puts it in a jar to take when his pressure is low!! TRUE STORY
Bought air filter and cabin filter from Amazon. Learned how to replaced this in my car through youtube. It took less than one minute. Dealer wanter $119. This is the only diy task I feel confident doing it myself
sil2017 wrote: ↑Thu Feb 28, 2019 7:16 am
Bought air filter and cabin filter from Amazon.
Amazon (and other online auto parts stores) have a GARAGE feature which let's you store your car configuration (e.g. 1964 Pontiac GTO, 1974 Karman Ghia, and a 1986 Yugo - all with engine & style info) for easy matching parts. I really like "This part does not fit your car - would you like to see parts that do?"
I found McCafe decaf on closeout for $1.99/24 oz. can. That is $.12/oz. cheaper than Kirkland's. I read reviews (which were all pretty good) and researched shelf life. I bought enough to keep me in coffee for a while. BTW, it's the smoothest decaf I've ever had.
I spent 3 hours with the HVAC designer/salesman because we need a new heat pump, air handler and new duct work. They could patch the 25-year-old cheap ducts under the house, but I want insulated round metal duct work installed. The compressor clangs when it shuts down, the system has lost 2 pounds of refrigerant in three months and it's just generally noisy and on the way out. (We were married in November and this is my wife's house.)
The frugal thing I did? I didn't buy it today. I told him I'd call him and order it all tomorrow.
Seriously, I bought 3 $5.99 frozen pizza supremes for $3.99 each. That will keep us from going out for pizza three times with the accompanying beer and wine tabs.
Spent zero dollars today. Shoveled the driveway this morning. Snowblower hasn’t worked all year and we’ve had the 4th snowiest month on record. I’ve gotten lots of exercise, but honestly hasn’t been too bad.
It was my birthday. My birthday present was getting taken to the Tesla dealership for a test drive. It was actually a much better present than it sounds like it would be. It’s not something I would have thought of doing myself. The car was cool.
Started my bread machine and then noticed that I had forgotten to attach the paddle. The last time I did this, I dumped everything out and started over from scratch. This time I just stopped the machine, reached in, and attached the paddle by feel.
I bought $300 of consumables from the hardware store going out of business for $75. I live in and old house and have a lot of refinishing projects This should keep me in sandpaper for a couple years. Now BH question, should I book it as a prepaid and amortize it?
This is more of a continuing quest than a single frugal thing that I did today but I did set out to learn how to use my local public library's Web site to read many newspapers, magazines (e.g., Consumer Reports) and newsletters (e.g., Harvard Medical Letter) free. I've long used my public library to read not only Morningstar Premium but also their monthly newsletters on funds, stocks and etfs. +1 for Greensboro Public Library!
And a-ha, Today, I did enjoy an afternoon of a free community singalong. A chance to sing with a few hundred local residents in a local theatre. A fun event with no admission charge. It was live-streamed on Facebook and will soon be posted on youtube.
My 15 year old car needed several minor, easy to do repairs. I bought $50 worth of parts on Amazon, and spent 15 minutes swapping out parts. Everything was easy enough that I didn’t even need to watch any YouTube videos. Probably saved $200 off of what the shop would have charged.
michaeljc70 wrote: ↑Fri Feb 01, 2019 7:43 pm
Since it has been like -20 here, spouse is out of town, and I haven't needed to really leave the house I cut back on showers this week.
Hahaha. My hubby will be awarded divorce if he does that
I decided to buy my pickleball rackets online from Amazon, much cheaper, about $40 each. Just yesterday, it’s thinking of paying $110 per racket for both my husband and I. Save about $70 each. Since were beginners, not sure we like this sport yet.
DrGoogle2017 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 04, 2019 12:31 am
I decided to buy my pickleball rackets online from Amazon, much cheaper, about $40 each. Just yesterday, it’s thinking of paying $110 per racket for both my husband and I. Save about $70 each. Since were beginners, not sure we like this sport yet.
I have no interest in Pickleball - but I see lots of avid folks that seem very "dedicated".
lexie2000 wrote: ↑Thu Feb 28, 2019 2:11 pm
I found McCafe decaf on closeout for $1.99/24 oz. can. That is $.12/oz. cheaper than Kirkland's. I read reviews (which were all pretty good) and researched shelf life. I bought enough to keep me in coffee for a while. BTW, it's the smoothest decaf I've ever had.
McCafe is really good coffee, and for just $1 any size it can't be beat. I didn't know they sold their coffee as well, I wonder if you just walk in and ask for ground coffee at one of their locations.
DrGoogle2017 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 04, 2019 12:31 am
I decided to buy my pickleball rackets online from Amazon, much cheaper, about $40 each. Just yesterday, it’s thinking of paying $110 per racket for both my husband and I. Save about $70 each. Since were beginners, not sure we like this sport yet.
I have no interest in Pickleball - but I see lots of avid folks that seem very "dedicated".
It’s a lot of fun. But I’m now going to pay $85 each from the coach because I checked on Amazon that is the price. Plus coach said I’m a good player, don’t waste money on the cheap racket.
michaeljc70 wrote: ↑Fri Feb 01, 2019 7:43 pm
Since it has been like -20 here, spouse is out of town, and I haven't needed to really leave the house I cut back on showers this week.
Hahaha. My hubby will be awarded divorce if he does that
Depending on your lifestyle, you do not need to shower everyday. Excess showering is bad for your skin. Lots of articles from dermatologists about it. But people won't think about it rationally because they feel "dirty" if they don't shower once a day.
Of course it you go to the gym or after a run, etc., you'll want to shower. But many people shower way too often and for too long.
We recently replaced a 20 year old mattress with new new mattress-in-a-box. That left us with the old king-size mattress to dispose of. We do not live in an area with a mattress-recycling facility, so DW and I took the mattress apart, and extracted all the metal springs - we couldn't see all that steel going to a landfill.
'The frugal part is we took the steel to a metal recycler; it was I think 70 pounds, and we got over three dollars.
Taking the mattress apart was certainly 8 hours of labor from each of us, but we are retired, so the marginal cost of our time is zero. Plus we spent the three dollars on a lottery ticket (which we normally never buy); the payout for the next drawing is 494 million, so its got great potential!
michaeljc70 wrote: ↑Fri Feb 01, 2019 7:43 pm
Since it has been like -20 here, spouse is out of town, and I haven't needed to really leave the house I cut back on showers this week.
Hahaha. My hubby will be awarded divorce if he does that
Depending on your lifestyle, you do not need to shower everyday. Excess showering is bad for your skin. Lots of articles from dermatologists about it. But people won't think about it rationally because they feel "dirty" if they don't shower once a day.
Of course it you go to the gym or after a run, etc., you'll want to shower. But many people shower way too often and for too long.
Lately, I have been showering at a community gym. Using taxpayer funded water, soap, heat for water and towel.
bearcub wrote: ↑Fri Mar 15, 2019 10:47 am
Walked through an H-Mart and tasted all their samples. No need to spend cash on lunch.
I used to find free pizza when I was in graduate school. There always was some presentation or the other in our largish EECS department.
Yes - LOVE Costco for the samples.
At work, stay attune to food left over from events.
At my last job there was a freefood email list.
Folks (like me) at various places I have worked where there were such meeting leftovers were much like vultures circling and looking for a dying animal.
Drank my tea at home, rather than buying it on the way to work. Brought my lunch instead of buying on the road.
My wife and I recently stopped buying our morning coffee at DD (we both drank coffee until very recently when I detoxed and switched to tea). We are saving $91.60 per month, and $1,099 per year. It now goes in the bank.
I made a nice pot of chorizo chili today which my wife and I had for dinner. I'll bring it to work for lunch all week instead of buying lunch every day. Savings of $30 for the week.
My new credit card arrived and I found out I could put my insurance bill on it. I was worried I might not be able to meet the minimum for 3 months. Didn’t want to buy antything I don’t have to. This will earn me one way first class ticket to Japan.
Last edited by DrGoogle2017 on Tue Mar 26, 2019 10:07 am, edited 2 times in total.
Had my hair cut at one of those "no appointment necessary" shops. I had rather good luck in the past, but not today. Wanted to cry all the way home after seeing the result.
I attended a professional development class in which a separate break room full of free snacks - little bags of chips/pretzels, bananas, apples, chocolate bars, granola bars, etc. - was provided. I was the first one to leave the class at the end since I was the only one not required to take the exam. On the way out, since I knew nobody else would be coming for 20+ minutes, I stopped in the break room and completely stuffed my attache case full of the snacks.
Also from over the weekend, the band on my $100, 8 year old Citizen watch broke. I decided that after wearing watches since I was a teenager, that I have no need to wear a watch anymore, and won't be fixing or replacing the watch with the broken band.
I ate a very good and large gyro on pita bread that goes for $5 on a Monday. It lists for $12 on the menu. A goombahdie chief bought gyros for our whole crew. A goombah always leaves a good tip for hard working people.