Reading Brandi The Prudent Homemaker Saving Money

Once a month if not more often I reread through Brandi's site of The Prudent Homemaker.

Today I reread Saving Money. Brandi gives 41 suggestions of saving money. We do all but 7.

This afternoon I decide to really look at why we don't do that 7 and what do we do instead.

We have cell phones, we don't share a plan. Both plans are below $50 each. Hubby is a weather spotter and connected with Homeland security(unpaid both jobs), he needed a better phone than what he had for apps he needed and found a really good phone(made the grandkids green with envy because they paid 3 times as much for the same phone) at a provider and still was below $50 plan unlimited. I stayed with what I had and where I was...I keep a cell phone on me since I had a heart attack driving home to the boonies from the city....AND there was no houses around. I dry swallowed 3 aspirin that I do carry to get myself home to the phone.

We have a home phone because we can't have internet without it here AND the local fire dept/squad does home phones with their 911. Cell phones go through another trace. Already takes over 10 mins to get to us , don't need to add more.

1 car...we have a SUV, a truck and a motorcycle all paid off and over 10 yrs old(truck will be 20 yrs old next yr) We both can drive the bike. Hubby uses it for work weather permitting, the truck gets driven the most , good old work truck. we limit trips to town to no more than twice a week if that. The SUV is for when I can't walk right and can't climb in the truck or when we go to my Dad's because he no longer has a car and he can't get in the truck any more. We do acknowledge with age we will be giving up all 3 and getting a car that I can drop into.

We no longer resole shoes...ONLY because the nearest repair is 1 hr away from us 1 way. Cost is gas is more than the cost of replacing our shoes. When we move at retirement this will go back to being done as there is one within  10 miles of our son.

I don't go to the library. It's out of the way and an extra trip. I do borrow books from my one daughter as she is a reader like I am and enjoys the same type of books as me and I don't have to worry about an over due fine. That still saves money.

I stopped baking my own bread when it became the two of us...bread will mold faster when it's home made. I am looking at starting this back up since I have found a couple recipes that makes smaller loaves. We just aren't big bread eaters.

We don't unplug most appliances. I do unplug my laptop and the tv in the bedroom after Hubby gets out of bed (he goes to sleep watching the weather) ....but Hubby just refuses to work with me on this. I will have to say that our landlord's wife requires he unplug his alarm clock daily but she refuses to open the windows and turn off the AC...I really think this choice is weird LOL

We don't collect water from the shower....one is we turn it on and get in, our hot water tank is right below the shower., wait time is not there, two we don't live in town or I would probably insist on this even without a wait time since we are on a well here and would be paying for water in town. We do turn off the water while brushing teeth and have used rain barrels over the years for the gardens.I have a watering can that sits out also for rain.

Soup once a day, I'm lucky if I can get Hubby to eat soup once a month at this point. He does hard manual labor around furnaces that  have him in heat over 100° daily.We have talked about him eating soup instead of cold cereal before he lays down but he isn't willing at this point.I will say he used to farm, pigs and cattle and was raised with meat and potatoes 3 meals a day....he has adjusted a lot since we married to not having that. His favorite meal is what we call 123 pasta with very little meat at all in it.

What are your thoughts on saving?

The good, the bad and it always pours while staying frugal

When Hubby came home from work the other day and said "production is running every weekend until Jan."

We both knew GOD was letting us know we were going to need the extra income.

First, we got the refrigerator fixed, it is running fine and the rental one is going back tomorrow. We don't have a FB garage sale in this area nor is most of Craig's list for this area. We are the boonies LOL. I spent $33 including eggs for 69¢ a doz to replace the necessities that we lost in the frig and replaced nothing in the freezer.

THEN my back injections have been denied because the problems in a birth defect. Doctor's office is doing the appeals and told me it could take up to 4 months...mean time they advised me to get yoga (already do that at home for free), massage therapy and chiropractic care , neither that ins will pay for any more for me due to birth defect. Made a couple phone calls and found a Chiro that will accept cash payment equal to what he would get from our ins.Hubby's employer has a wellness (gym) center and they have massage therapy there that is about half the price of else where. I was trying to figure out where to rob Peter to pay this Paul when I went to refill my meds and found they are now generic and my doctor always marks that generic can be used so the price was 1/10th of the normal out go and actually the difference will pretty much pay for the chiro and massage.

Still appealing to get the other 2 bills paid, was told it might take 3-4 appeals including an outside appeal which is available through Hubby's employer for free.

I harvested thyme, oregano,basil, cilantro, garlic chives, chives, rosemary, lemon balm, choc. mint, spearmint, peppermint, apple mint,lavender, rose petals,flat parsley, curly parsley, strawberries, rhubarb, cucumbers, garlic scapes,lettuce and green onions.

We are eating from the pantry. Taking stuff we don't want (yard sales were we are at in the country doesn't do well enough to do anything) to our youngest.

AND why did I post the two pictures? We know we plan to move closer to the kids, grandkids, greatgrandson when Hubby retires. We plan to retire in 3-5 yrs...we decided after listening to other to start checking out house plans and houses because everyone said they looked of a couple of years.  We feel this is the model we want built. We will do some changes due to me being in a wheelchair before I die (wasn't suppose to ever walk to begin with). This really seemed to fit. We have talked to this builder about 20 yrs ago when we thought about building and they talked us into waiting, 5 kids in their teens, they didn't think we needed the size of house we were planning.

SO to stay frugal and stay on track, I took several pictures and a video of the model to look at and remember why we are going the extra mile to be frugal and save save save.