What We did this week that was frugal

I signed up again for Frugalwoods Uber  frugal month challenge for January

Hubby borrowed a book from EMA to study for the test to move up the ladder with his HAM radio license. The test is free for him.

I dug through some gifts/candy that I had bought before and divided it up as Christmas gifts

I opened the curtains for sunshine to help warm the house and closed them before it was dark to keep the warmth in. When the wind is over 25 mph I close the bedroom door to keep the heat in the front room. Wind sucks the heat out right through the walls it seems.

I finished either putting plastic on the windows or taping them shut to stop drafts.

I turn off lights in rooms we are not in, except Christmas lights. We only keep them lit during certain hours.

Hubby has moved his laptop to the dining room during the day so he is not turning on the lamp, he sits in the darkest part of the front room as it's on the north end of the house.

I turn the printer off after using it.

I turn my laptop off at the power strip after using it.

I turn my coffee pot off at the power strip after using it., I reheat in microwave then end up drinking it cold anyways from sitting when I side track doing something so I am getting to the point of not reheating it all the time.

I washed the laundry with full loads on short wash with homemade laundry soap and dried some on the drying rack and others in the dryer using the sensor instead of the timer. By using the sensor I have noticed I am not over drying and not having static cling issues

We ate leftovers/planovers most of the week. I "refilled" the paper towels (pup is getting better about making it outside but still has accidents on the way to the door during the night) toilet paper, dish soap, Hubby's vitamins, dog biscuits and dog dental bones from the pantry supply which my kids call Mom's grocery store.

My doctor gave me some free samples of a medication he wanted me to use but was worried about it triggering my Crohns. Didn't want me to spend the money and then not be able to take it. As long as I eat before and after taking it I do okay. So he gave me a prescription to finish out.

I turned the lotion bottle upside down into a container. I had added water to a couple times but thought there was more, sure was as I am going into week 2 of still using it.

I put an old wool blanket rolled up at the bottom of the staircase to the upstairs to keep the cold air from coming down as we don't heat the upstairs at all.

I canned beef broth.

I canned turkey with broth.

I canned turkey broth.

I canned ham broth.

I cut the pork shoulder roast into 3 meals, froze 2 and made bbq pulled pork with the third which has left enough leftovers that I am putting what is left in the freezer for another meal.

Hubby bought the 2 picture frames for Christmas gifts at Walmart using a gift card we was given last year and 100 lbs of dog food during Menard's 11% rebate sale...using rebates we had gotten back, I finished the last of the Christmas shopping except for a kitten that I was just told is my new  four legged great grandbaby , his name is Milo.

Hubby ordered the Christmas Prime rib as he was told by a friend  that goes to the same butcher shop it was down to $6.95/lb, We might have both sons at Christmas unless they work or the weather is bad.

We have combined errands with appointments. This has been a juggling act with medical appointments since I am fighting now 5 different infections (doc is to the point of calling me after hours or seeing me after hours), with different stops for meds and we are looking at houses to buy since Hubby retired and we don't need to live around here any more for his work. We also keep a list of houses we want to look at when going to see family so it's not a "special" trip to look at the property.

I used my Amazon gift card that I earned through our health ins to pay for Raw apple cider vinegar with mother as my doctor would like me to start a combination drink of it with honey and lemon juice in water. That pretty much finishes off that gift card.

Since I am having trouble sleeping due to meds I am doing Swagbucks. Keeps me from moving around and bothering Hubby while he is trying to sleep because the dogs will start playing if I move around much at all.

We had 3 different houses in the same area, the realtor really pushed to get us in all 3 the same afternoon.

We are very interested in one that we had drove by several times. We have a contractor doing a walk through on Tuesday as we want to apply for a FHA 203K rehab loan as it has no heat, no electric and no plumbing at it is an AMISH house with 5 acres.It does have a 2 seater outhouse connected to the septic tank/leach bed (reminds me of my childhood). We will see how this goes. Depending on what the cost of bringing it up to "Englisher" standard and the owners accepting it if no one else bids on it before we get this paperwork all done as we had a regular loan available but it won't cover the house at all due to no utilities. We have to meeting for the loan on the 15th in the morning  to see if its' doable we are basing what we can afford to pay on what Hubby would bring in with social security at 62. My Daddy had to start living on just SS in 2008 when he lost over 50% of his investments in the stock market . I already made it clear I didn't want to make things tight for us to meet the payments and our loan officer said he was thankful I gave him the amount I am willing to pay so he can say , hey this is going to be over that or  SCORE LOL Trying to not get my hopes up as it's a great house and wouldn't be hard to switch over to wheelchair accessible which we KNOW is in my future.

I dug out the fake tabletop Christmas tree we had bought in 2008 for the 800 sq ft rental we moved into. Hubby feels better now and so far the pup, Charlotte, isn't trying to get ahold of it and since it's table top Wilbur doesn't think of it as his bathroom LOL. Our dog Rascal is used to fake and real Christmas trees and doesn't bother them.

We are a little bit over budget with Christmas but way under budget with the cookies and candy.

I downloaded a free Kindle book

Got a free calendar from a company  through Shutterfly . I uploaded some pictures and paid the shipping, saved over $25.

Hubby is doing a TRX exercise class twice a week at the plant's wellness center. We pay $26 a YEAR to be members so the classes is free.

I got a deep tissue massage at the wellness center, two hours for $62 including tax, lowest I have found in this area is $50 for one hour.My doctor ordered this but our insurance doesn't pay for it.

Arm that had surgery in Sept is not working right, can't lift the arm above shoulder or move it in certain ways when I was already doing that, made appointment to see Doc on Thursday while still on the better ins.

Shopping list has been sitting on the front of microwave for four days. We waited until we were already going to town for an appointment.

Head guy at SCARES (ham radio group for Homeland security) asked Hubby to go to town and take unit (old ambulance) in for an oil change. We worked it out to be done when we are already in town...no wasted gas.

We used our Krogers points for fuel saving $35, filled up the truck and some gas cans for the generator, sounds like we might be needing it with the weather coming in.

Made Swagbucks goal 7 times , wasn't easy .

I mended a hat and a dog toy.

Hubby replace the board  to my root cellar shelving unit that got destroyed by a leaking water jug using scrap wood we had .

Limiting who I am sending Christmas cards to. IF I didn't get one from them last year I won't send one this year. Most are now doing FB or other social media. Just not the same for me.

Hubby was asked to do an interview with the company's "magazine" Instead of driving the hour for the interview the person called him and did it over the phone to save him time and money.Since they had taken a new picture for his retirement badge she was going to use that as the picture for the article. It's about him doing CPR on a friend/co worker at work. It was a really really bad heart attack and no one expected him to live (doing great and even back to work). ER told the man's family he made it because Hubby worked hard on him until the rest of the squad got there. Plant is updating equipment also.