FRUGAL FRUGAL FRUGAL

I think I am going to get a tattoo (not frugal LOL) that says that.

What has been frugal ?

We have ate from home, been some really weird meals but we aren't going hungry because neither of us has an appetite or energy. So it's what every odds and ends are in the freezer...frugal in 2 ways, we are not eating out....and it's using up what is in the freezer instead of it getting freezer burnt and tossed.

I now have all the appts I am to do for the rest of this month. Next month will fill up when I get the CT scan results back. I have rearranged errands and what other appts I could to lower the cost of gas for said trips as none are closer than 1 hour and 15 min away.

We had pancakes due to coworker of Hubby's giving us maple syrup he just made. Extra pancakes in freezer.

I talked again to the Hospital financial services lady who did some digging to find out for sure what the policy was about if we had a balance and was current on payments could we get a discount on the next hospital bill since I am looking at surgery... the answer was no if we rolled it over to the payment plan even if we paid 50% of the bill. We would have to pay the bill off completely with the one we have now would be okay to pay have and still get the discount on that half. SO since I make less in interest with my savings acct I will pay this bill off and get the 5% discount. We will then make "payments" *as she told me what they would be* into my savings acct. By time I get through the next testing my deductible will be paid in full (Hubby's won't, in 25 yrs it has been 1 time). Not touching the cost of surgery.

We will finish paying the taxes owed this week so there will be no late fine etc on that. We actually got back enough in federal to pay the other and I did file a complaint that Fidelity didn't take the state taxes out at the rate we requested (our tax person told us what to have taken out) and we ended with a hefty bill plus a penalty for owing over a certain amt. I was not a happy camper.

Hubby has 2 wks left on his seasonal state job. He was thinking of doing summer seasonal, I have left the choice up to him but did sayI think it will cause more stress(which spirals me downward) and could have him sick again like he was last Sept after working 2 jobs when we bought this house. Especially since we have to have the gardens as large as we can this year to bring more income in.

 He decided to not do summer seasonal and then today (which is Saturday) after we had our 3 month blood work done we have 4-5 people looking for him needing him to haul Saturday afternoon and again this week. He was laughing about it because he chose to NOT do the summer's seasonal because of me might needing help in the gardens in the spring and it looks like he might be shuffling the hauling times around me instead. He had 3 different Amish men tell him that if he needed to do something at home or help me all he had to do was say something.Two of them already said something about couldn't leave until a certain time because they had to help their wives when they were arranging hauling times.

I baked rolls and a loaf of bread from the dough I had in the frig. Frozen one loaf of dough and 4 rolls of dough for while I am in recovery(Yes I am saying I will have the surgery even though right now it's waiting on the Ct scan to say yes I will, best to plan for being down instead of hauling butt because I didn't plan it)

I hung laundry on the drying rack.

We have found the grow light cart puts enough light out we can read on the couch so we aren't turning on a light there any more.

We changed our filters to furnace and whole house water. Hubby said he will check the water in 3 months when he does the furnace but it looks like it could go longer , at least another month. IF we can go to 4 months on that alone it would save $12 a  year.

We checked our smoke alarms, they don't take batteries but we still tested them. That batteries in them are suppose to be good for 10 yrs. Since Hubby has now been through 2 house fires, he still like to check them.

We had a prime rib steak( bought on sale at Christmas time) (I only 3 ounces of it) that we split along with sauteed bell peppers,onions and mushrooms. I should have cooked about twice as much of the veggies as I thought I could use the left overs for other meals. I have enough left that Hubby can put it in a couple tortilla wraps(which I will be making today) to go with the turkey I am roasting for today's supper.(Update stopped and took Amish family to their dad who was in hospital and not being released. Spent entire day GONE from home ...MONDAY)
He is only working today, Tuesday and Thursday and Friday of this week.

Next week he is working half day on Monday( 3 month check up at doc for both of us), Tuesday and Friday... Looks like Wednesday is going to be a hauling day for him and Thursday is my scan.

I will be glad to see him not working with the state. Working 1st shift causes issues with appts.... plus hauling... They did tell him to this coming fall to come in and talk to them , they might be able to just put him on night shift (after 30 plus years of night shift, we do night shift better than 1st) and only for snow plowing. He did mention yesterday he feels like he gained weight, he does have an issue with keeping it off because of the amount of sitting he does. His old job in the factory had him walking OVER 10 miles a day. He doesn't want to have the issues that his parents and his maternal grandparents have/had with their health due to weight.

Even though he got home late and I got home a couple hours after him we ate at home. Today and tomorrow is going to be late meals also that I need to deal with to keep the costs down.

We have decided to bid on a livestock trailer, wasn't going to buy one this year but the one at auction is only been used 3 times, it's an older trailer and it does need new tires from sitting so much. Amish neighbor, E has done the cleaning all 3 times because it was his draft horses being hauled. He knows the trailer well. He also knew what the guy tried to sell it for in the past. So hopefully we will get the bid as if we do get it, we will have jobs lined up immediately with E. We also know what we would have to make each month to cover this year's bills.  Not counting hospital bills.

How was your frugal week?

Blessed Be