Catching up, lots of good savings going on. I don't have the quotes, but a few things caught my eye:
re: wood stove + electric heat
We also installed a wood stove this past year, and the savings on our electric heat have been tremendous! Even including the high price of wood that I bought in a bit of a panic, the fancy stove is paying for itself in one year. I'm going to buy green wood soon for 2017-18, and dry wood for 2016-17, and from then on, only green wood.
/blog, I guess :-)
re: wiper blades
Replaced DW's wiper blades today for $5 each from Costco. Big PITA, but the dealer probably would have charged us $100, and they are about 10 miles away. I will look for the OEM blades online to have as spares, because I think they will be much easier to install.
re: ham
I've been buying large cuts of meat on sale and searching for ____ leftover recipes. It has worked out really well, both cost-wise and family-wise. Tonight was a frittata with leftover ham, tomorrow is mac and cheese with leftover ham. The ham was $8 for 10 lbs., and we still have the bone for split pea soup, and about 2 lbs. of meat left for lunches or snacks.
I've taken over the grocery shopping, except for Costco :-( . The week, I got the $8 ham and a $10, 10 lb. pork shoulder. Thomas’ English muffins were buy 1 get 2 free, and then I saw the price of one pack is $4.39! I looked at the store brand, which was 2/$3, and decided to give Thomas’ the finger. We don’t normally eat English muffins, but I would buy them as a treat if they were on sale for a decent value. Holy crap, triple the price! I quickly googled how to make them, and there's nothing special about it, it's just pure brand premium. I had pizza dough on the list, and there was only one left, so I decided to make my own dough next time instead. Look easy enough, and should be 1/3 of the cost.
Last week was a $15 whole boneless pork loin. I put 5 lbs. in the freezer, and made meals all week with 5 lbs. The carnitas I made were incredible -- I used some concentrated chicken stock made from a $3 manager’s special whole chicken cut up, and the family was raving. Since I work at home, I ate the leftovers for lunch, and then took the remaining leftovers with me to class for dinner -- bwahahaha!
This weekend, we changed from Vonage 37-39/month to Ooma ($4-5/month, I think) plus no more phone ringing in my office!
This weekend I replaced a light switch for our bathroom lights, which were not working at all.
This weekend, I worked on landscaping with family - picked up all the branches, sticks, and twigs; filled in and seeded a 3x16’ area; reseeded bare-looking patches in the "lawn"; placed beach stones along about 40’ of border where water drips, raked leftover leaves, straightened woodpile. The prices for this type of work around here are jaw-dropping, so I'm paying my kids to do some of the work. I need it done for an event in less than 2 months, and I'm flat out myself.