A Frugal August Retrospect, Thanks to Twitter

Besides keeping up with other PF bloggers on twitter, I also like to keep track of the occasional frugal thing I have done over the past month, call it twitter-ugality if you will. This post is just a look back on my August twitter feed and the things I have done, learned and any links that may be of interest. Enjoy!

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You know about my grand dumpster find, the cedar chest - I tried calling the town's commerce department and they had never heard of the company. Getting any history on this chest is on hold for now as the last known info on it, online, is 1920's advertising. Any other ideas on finding some background to it and getting a new latch?

The company I work for had cut back on feeding us for special occasions, so when they do decide to feed us, it is a special event. This last time they over ordered on pizza and quite a few people went home with enough pizza for the next couple of meals. Always nice to not have to take a lunch.

I finally finished up getting my teeth crowned, yet I don't feel much like royalty. However I have found a much cheaper answer to Percocet that is already in my medicine cabinet - call it the poor man's codeine - two acetaminophen and an aspirin and I'm set for the day.

Recently had the wonderful enjoyment of paying off my car and picking up the title at the bank. Paying off a debt that you know won't be showing up again is such a great feeling and nothing beats looking at your car and knowing that you own it, in good times and bad. Now I look forward to seeing the impact on my credit score.

On that note, I also bought a new freezer. I had tried chest freezers but they aren't good for my partner who has a very bad back. Now it is time to fill it. So far she has made spaghetti sauce with meat and with chicken. We will be filling it up with frozen milk as well for the future rise of grocery costs.

Not too exciting for most people, but I'm happy. I recently had a dumpster find of puppy training pads for my Maltese, Hope. She is 8 years old, has no teeth and has a bladder problem; these will come in handy in the winter when she is too cold to go out.

You know the refrigerator is too cold when the eggs freeze up! (Problem fixed now)

I am an habitual checker of vending machine coin slots and I have noticed that in the last 6-9 months the amount of change I have found has dropped noticeable. On one had is it good to see that people are keeping their change in this economy and on the other hand it greatly reduces the jingle in my pocket.

I know there are many people who use search site to gather points and gain free gifts and gift cards. Two of note are swagbucks and mypoints. I have used Mypoints for a couple of years and have been very happy with them. I then heard of Swagbucks and decided to try them out, not so happy with them. It took me twice as long to get a $5 GC from Swagbucks as it does to gain enough points from Mypoints for a $10 or $25 GC.  I canceled my membership with Swagbucks and will stay with Mypoints for now on.

My much beloved library bookmobile has been cut do to budget cuts. If I had the money I would pay to bring it back and save the gas to drive to the nearest one.


FRUGAL TIPS LEARNED
☺ Before washing/drying clothes, unbutton all your clothing so rips and tears don't occur along with lost buttons
☺ Did you know you can flash freeze pancakes? Make to many pancakes, freeze 'em and then pull them out for the next morning.

LINKS OF NOTE
•  Archived post: Can't get to the state fair for funnel cake-make it at home!
• Social Security turned 74 years old this year (a handy little government program) See the Consumer Checklist of MUST -DOs
• If the dish ran away with the spoon, I’m thinking the pot-pie had an accomplice as well. (Not frugal related, just funny)