What are your frugal and sustainable tips and tricks?

[Sally PB]

This and better insulation makes them much quieter than in the past.

Mine is one of those "in the past" ones. Even though it says, "Quiet wash plus" on the door.

The filter on mine is in the hood over the stove near the light fixture. I just have a basic electric stove with the hood mounted over it. It has a washable silver filter visible by just looking up into the hood.

The exhaust fan in the hood over our oven died about 15 years ago. The light still works.

My mechanic told me the worst thing some of his customers do is not drive their cars which is needed to circulate that oil and other fluids, keeping those gaskets from drying out.

I just ran my car for about 15 minutes today, as it hasn't gone anywhere since the day before Thanksgiving.

The treasure is basically a neighbor doing the township business out of their house in the evenings. Or we can stop by where she works to drop it off.

Yeah, same here. One good thing: They send out the tax bills about 2 months before they're due. We pay property tax twice a year, with about 65%-70% of the yearly amount due in February, and the rest due in September.

 

[gtaus]

The Return of FREE After Rebate Items at Menards!

It's been a long time since I have seen those doorbuster deals at Menards, but the FREE after rebate items have shown up again at Menards....

Menards has had their 11% Rebate program for ages, but that was all for past ~2 years. It's good to see that the new advertisement has started adding some of those FREE items after rebate again. Essentially, if you play the rebate game, you get the item for the cost of your state sales tax after you get your rebate check back.

Frugal Tip: If you use a Rebate check to pay for your new purchases, you don't pay sales tax again! For some magic reason, in my state anyways, if you use the rebate check to pay for your items, you don't get charged for sales tax again! That's a bonus deal that I don't think many people know about.

Here is a sample from my receipt today, no sales tax when paid with a rebate check!...

I loaded up on those 6-Piece Square Power Drive Bit sets, the 10-Pack Utility Blades, and a couple of those 4-in-1 Precision Screwdrivers. All consumable items for me that I use out in the garage. There were a few other deals I picked up today at Menards, just walking through the aisles.

If you have chickens, you might consider this item...

I have one of those that I keep with my chicken scratch and grains. If, for some reason, I need to mix leftover grains into chicken scratch, I dump the stuff into a 5-gallon bucket and use that mixer to blend the grains together. Yeah, I know you could probably just mix up the grains in a bucket with a stick, but this mixer works so much better and faster. You end up with one evenly mixed bucket of grains.

The barley seed I bought this year for my winter fodder was full of mold spores. Instead of wasting all that grain growing mold in my fodder bins, I'll just have to mix the dry barley seeds into the chicken scratch and feed it to the chickens as treats. I also bought 100# of cracked corn that I use in the evening, tossing in a cupful as a treat before bedtime. I usually have leftover cracked corn in the spring, so I'll just mix that in with my chicken scratch as well. Nothing gets wasted. I'm disappointed that the barley grain this year was not worth growing into fodder, but it will be fine as dry feed mixed in with my chicken scratch.

At that price after rebate, I bought a couple extra mixers to put in with my paint supplies. Turns out those paint mixers are also used for paint and mud buckets and not just chicken scratch!

Frugal Tip:
At one time, I checked into making my own chicken feed and/or chicken scratch. What I discovered was that I could not save money by making my own feed mixes. Unless you can buy grains in bulk - like a pallet full of grain in one of those ISB totes, you don't get much, if any, savings on making your own mixes...

I only have 10 chickens. There is no way I could buy grains in bulk to save any money on mixing my own feed recipes myself. I saw one guy on YouTube mixing his own feed, but he had access to a good supply of "free" grain that he bartered for from a local farmer. Of course, my problem with buying in bulk, is that I would never use that much grain for my 10 chickens before it went bad from age.

The most expensive cost for raising a backyard flock is my feed cost. If I end up with extra grains, I'll mix them into my chicken scratch buckets. Nothing goes to waste. But I have yet to hear of anyone saving money by mixing their own grain feed for a small backyard flock. If anyone has some tips to save money on feed and/or scratch, please let me know. Thanks.

It looks like I am finding much better deals this year after Black Friday. Honestly, I did not buy anything on Black Friday this year. I did not see any great deals for things that I want or need. But I'm seeing a lot of deals at Menards after Black Friday if you don't mind playing the rebate game. I hope we continue to see those specials through the Holiday Season and maybe even into the New Year. That would be nice.