Who Knew?

We have had our fridge for almost 12 years. It came new with the house. I loved my new Whirlpool side-by-side, ice and water dispensing wonder of the kitchen gods. Notice that was past tense?

Through its 12 years of service the fridge has taken a beating… literally, unfortunately. In my absence, a child of mine, who was old enough to know better, spent an evening taking shots at my beloved refrigerator with a hockey stick and puck. He didn’t even bother trying to cover his tracks by wiping off the black puck marks in all 27 dents. It was a low point of my summer… I cried. Remember, I loved my fridge.

Then the ice maker stopped producing ice. We had a handyman come and “fix” it. Seems he wasn’t as handy as we hoped. To replace the whole ice maker it would suck $158 from my clothes shopping fund (because we didn’t have a ice-maker-replacement-fund at the time)… so I bought plastic ice cube trays at Walmart. BAM. Bring on six more flowy tank tops in bright colors with fringe on the bottom and bling on the front. Priorities, people.

Next the water dispenser stopped pouring water into my cup. I realize this is a first world problem. (No hate mail, please.) This was a while ago and if my memory serves me correctly, it was around the same time the stinky slime puddle was discovered growing three colors of mold under the fridge. Maybe during the clean-up (that made me gag profusely) the hose to the water dispenser got kinked or cut or removed at that time. Who knew?

Finally, the magnetism on the fridge door weakened so badly that if you shut the freezer, the fridge door opened just a smidge. Somehow this often happened after a son of mine made his midnight raid on the fridge and I would find the door still open in the morning. A smidge is a big enough gap on a side-by-side Whirlpool refrigerator to cause havoc inside the once-cold-box. The motor kicked into high gear, due to the warm kitchen air penetrating the cold barrier. This caused all of my vegetables in the two bottom crisper drawers to freeze solid… and the milk jugs in the door were warmer than cold. Ewwww.

After ten years of owning our home with 8 1/2 major appliances (Is a microwave major?) my thrift-minded and possibly doomsday-anticipating husband purchased a warranty for all major appliances. However, as our fridge was deteriorating before my hazel eyes, I did not remember the warranty purchase. I simply put the vegetables on the top shelf and continued filling ice cube trays.

Two weeks back, my handsome husband handed me a two-year-old warranty agreement and suggested I call to get the fridge fixed. WHAT? Maybe he was trying to get the most out of his $75 call-out fee and waited for three things to be wrong with the fridge. Again, who knew?

Last week the friendly repair man came, looked the fridge over, I paid him $75 and he left. Yesterday, he showed up again and fixed ALL the problems with my fridge, with the exception of the hockey puck dents. BUT, the water tasted horrible coming out of the dispenser… and I knew the new ice cubes were being made with the same horrible water.

Today I looked up the water filter number and ordered a new one on Amazon prime. It will be at my house in two days. BAM!

All this to ask, DID YOU KNOW YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE CHANGING YOUR FRIDGE WATER FILTER EVERY SIX MONTHS? Who knew? We have saved money on 23 replacements filters that we never bought…. that is $456.55! Saving cash like a boss.

 

 

 

Yet Another Tribute to Mr. Thrifty

It’s Tuesday night.  $2 night at the cheap theater Silver Saver Cinema here in Phoenix.  Our youngest son doesn’t really have a tough task talking his father into accompanying him to the movies on Tuesday nights.  It’s becoming more regular that date night.  (I just realized that….. and that’s no good!)  Tonight was nothing out of the ordinary… Jack Black playing in Gulliver’s Travels.  They did invite me, but I simply could not bear to see a brilliant Jonathan Swift story blown to bits by Jack Black. That’s a big NO, THANK YOU!

So as Pop and his son are getting ready to leave, some thrift-mocking occurred, primarily showered on my dear husband by myself and my 17-year-old protégé  daughter.  I inquired if he was saving us money by taking the “IT’S SHOW TIME” large, refillable KFC-style popcorn buckets that he saves and stores in our closet. Seriously, I think some have been there for years.  Imagine the dust and bugs in them….. gross me out.  He laughed and said, “Not any more.”  WHAT?  Yes, he brought one the last time he and our youngest son did the $2 Tuesday deal.  He placed it up on the counter for his refill and the manager exclaimed, “So, you haven’t been here in over a year!”  Oh my word!  I’m so glad I wasn’t there.  I didn’t bother asking if they refilled it or not.  I thought those were refillable only on the same visit.  More-than-a-year later is stretching the same visit clause.  But even after the manager’s comment…… they are still in our closet.  Here, look:

Rick, if you read this blog, can you please answer a few questions for my readers?

1.  Did the manager refill the more-than-a-year-old bucket with popcorn?

2.  If he did not, why are they still in the closet?

3.  Were all the funny parts in Gulliver’s Travels in the preview?

Thanks, Hon. XOXOXO

Coupon Sense Testimony Time

Ok, just had to share.  You know how it is when you save hundreds of dollars for your husband.  I dropped Austin off at hockey practice and lo and behold, there is a Fry’s and Safeway conveniently located by the arena.  Sweet Jesus!  I am currently grounded from spending money… but that’s for another blog on a depressing day… not today.  So, I went to both stores for just the freebies and got:

5 boxes of Kellogg’s corn flakes

2 avocados

6 Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (4 in a pkg)  No, I don’t plan to eat all those tonight or even this week.  That is a three month supply!  Hidden of course.

(They were out of the free zip lock baggies and the free salad dressing!  BAH!)

And spent….. $.19.   Yes, that’s cents, not dollars.  NINETEEN cents.  That doesn’t even count as spending money.

Then I went to Barnes & Noble to casually browse adoption books, which is what us adoptive parents do in our WAITING time.  I found three and then a comfy chair.  Half way through the second book I figured out that I was pretty tired when I did a church nod!  (That’s when your head falls to the side in an uncontrolled, but quickly rectified fashion.)  So I put the books back and wandered TJ Maxx.  Remembering fervently that I’m grounded from spending money.

One of the adoption books, or should I say anti-adoption books, was just more than I could take.  It was so generalized on the negative side I felt like ripping out pages and wadding them up.  But then I’d have to explain the the B&N people that I can’t pay for it because I’m grounded from spending money.  So I just put it back on the shelf and truly questioned the benefits of books full of negative smack.  Who reads those?  Oh, negative people.  Right.

Anyway, Rick is away tonight on a trip, so I will have a full night of blissful rest without having to tell him to turn over and stop snoring.  Yes, I’d rather have him here.  Yes, my tired body is happy he’s gone for just one night.  I can’t imagine being a real pilot’s wife when they are gone so much.  Thankfulness has again filled my heart, even though I’m grounded from spending money.  Sweet Dreams!

Affordable {FREE} Groceries

Another unbelievable week of coupons is upon us.  For those who don’t participate in Coupon $ense, please bear with me as I shamelessly brag about my grocery store savings.  It’s just too good not to share the diligence by which I’m saving my husband’s hard earned money.  It’s testimony time!

Today the store that sucked me in was Fry’s.  They have a Buy 10 Get $5 Off deal going on, with a maximum of 3 per transaction.  So here’s what I got:

8 bottles Powerade, 3 boxes Scalloped Potatoes, 3 Quaker Oats, 4 Mashed potato pouches, 6 cans evap milk, 3 xL liquid hand soap, 1 Hefty sandwich bags, 3 Colgate toothpaste, 3 Shick 10-count (cute pink) razors and 2 boxes Macky-Cheese.   THIRTY-SIX items should have cost $73.50 …………. drum roll please ……………. and I paid …………….. $5.31.  That’s a 93% savings.

You just gotta love a system that can save you this much money.  If you’re curious, you can check it out at www.CouponSense.com.  It is not available in all areas, but if it is in your town……. needless to say, I highly recommend it.  I get 3 Sunday papers each week + the C$ fee so I pay $30 per month for the whole schpeel.  I saved that twice over just with one trip to the store. 

I have cut my grocery bill in more-than-half from $570 to $250 per month for a family of five (plus a dog).  My pantry has never been this full.  I started C$ in January and I have tracked my savings all along on the site.  In coupons ALONE I have saved more than $1,065 and received more than $89 in rebates.  The other deal is knowing when the stores have their super sales.  Totally worth it!

I know you’re thinking I spend hours per week cutting coupons and filing them alpha-chronologically, but NO.  The site tells me where the best deals are.  I pick one or two stores every other week.  I clip the ones I need (3 at a time) and it maybe takes me 20 minutes every other week.  Well worth it, in my humble opinion.  And no, I don’t get paid to advertise for Coupon $ense, but I should.

I’m done preaching now.  (I didn’t think about the election for a whole 15 minutes just now!)

Peculiar Hobby: Hypermiling

Raise your hand if you saw these pictures on the COVER and inside of USA Today yesterday???  Do you have friends with strange hobbies?  Do you have a weird hobby?  Mine is scrapbooking, so some would think that’s weird.  Here’s one that I classify as unusual:  Hypermiling.  It’s the “hobby” of seeing if you can get the highest gas mileage possible by resorting to extreme techniques.  (I’ll stick to scrapbooking.)

Anyway, there are two pilots who work for ADOT, one is my husband, the other is the hypermiler, Louis, who was featured on the COVER of USA Today and the cover of the business section along with a full page article on page 3 with THREE pictures.  OK, me and my little scrapbooks haven’t been sequestered by USA Today YET.  The article did mention how to save money on gas due to the high gas prices, but featured Louis and his hyperbuddies’ techniques for Guinness Book worthy numbers.  Here’s the article:  http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2008-06-23-hypermilers-saving-gas_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

We’ve known Louis for more than seven years and have been to his home where he has a “barn/garage” full of mini cars.  My appreciation grew for his wife (who is quoted in the national newspaper, for goodness sake) when I realized he collected them.  These are not Hotwheels, baby.  Mini drive-able cars. 

Louis has shared his insider information with my husband as the years have passed. When gas prices hit $4.00+ a gallon, Rick began to utilize some of the hyper tricks.  He waved goodbye to the fast lane and is driving at geriatric speeds.  He puts the van in neutral and coasts to red lights, idling whilst awaiting the green beacon.  As long as he doesn’t resort to banning the air conditioning to save gas IN PHOENIX I’m O.K. with the escapades.  The other practice my husband will never adapt is going 2 hours early for work to miss rush hour traffic….. he’s already leaving before six am.  Ain’t gonna happen in my lifetime, guaranteed.

Congrats to Louis, who is now a recognized specialist in hypermiling, even though we’ve known he is for years.  I better go find my scalloped scissors and glue dots so I can cut up the USA Today paper and scrapbook it for him.

The New Me…. according to my family

Yes, I’ve become the coupon lady.  Relax, I’m not buying cases of cat food for the cat we don’t have just because I have a coupon…..   But I am buying six bottles of Aunt Jemima’s Buttery Syrup in one trip….  well, wouldn’t you if you could buy it at 77% off?  Never in my life have I run out the front door in my PJs… until now.  The explanation… the Sunday morning newspaper coupon books draw me like a fly to fly paper.  Yes, I’ve joined the coupon saving women of Arizona. 

Let me set you straight right up front.  We don’t clip every single blinkin’ coupon, nor do we keep them filed alphabetically in see-through baseball card holding binder pages.  That’s for obsessive compulsive coupon clippers, of which, I am not a card carrying member, and never will be. (unless I’m put in a home later in life….)

I simply found out about a system, called Coupon Sense, that organizes the coupons and the grocery store adds in a tidy, accessible website.  I type in my grocery list.  It spits out a paper telling me what store has the best deals that I’m currently in the market for.  I only cut the coupon if I’m going to use it….. when the item is already on sale.  You can’t knock a system that costs less than two venti frappuccinos and saves you HUNDREDS of DOLLARS. 

Seriously.  I feel compelled to testify.  On my grocery bill the first month, I saved 49%.  YES, SAVED.   Now, keep in mind this was for a family of five, plus a dog, two chickens and too many guppies.  Total cost would’ve been $454.  Store savings: $154 (going when what I needed was on sale!)  Coupon savings: $69 (See, this ain’t the $.25 coupon deal you’re thinking I’m sucked into.) Total spent: $231.  A savings of 49%, thank you very much.  And I didn’t even pick up the FREE mustard…. because we don’t like mustard. My freezer is stocked.  My pantry is bulging.  I’m elated, to say the absolute least.

“Then you must be spending hours getting ready to shop at seventeen different stores,” you think in your sarcastic inner-voice.  Ixnay on the Oicevay.  Ok, it might have taken me two hours because it was my first time doing it…. and so I saved $223 for those two hours.  Can’t beat that with a short stick on a Saturday night.

I’m climbing off my soapbox now.  Breathe easy.  It’s not available in many states yet.  Although, I would recommend some entrepreneur-minded individual to start it in each state.  www.couponsense.com.  If it suits you, great.  (put my name, Linda Crosby, under referral)  If not, great.  Shop strong.  Peace out.

www.LindaCrosby.com