Five Frugal Things | Oy, that exam!

I am currently replacing some fence boards for the fence that lines the 1/4 mile driveway, measured all the boards and the neighbor took over to find the best deal using his former contractor tricks. I cut up a neighbor's tree that fell during a wind storm for halvsies. It was equal to 2 1/2 cords. I sharpened my own chainsaw chains saving $15 ea. I bought 3 brand new full containers of rose spray concentrate. We have 65 roses, each container is $25 new and I paid $4 ea. At the same estate sale 3 whiskey barrels that were new for $2 ea, they retail here for $45 on sale. I bought them all. I picked up 2 baseball gloves for my pup, she loves them and they last and last as a chew toy. I picked up some vintage pyrex, sold it to a friend who has a antique mall booth and made $5 profit on each piece. I got an estimate for replacing my whole house a/c and furnace upgrade, now am waiting on my plumber's bil to give me a bid for the work, bartering part of it with our custom locker beef. I found a package of 7 yo elk steak, wasn't sure of the cut, so marinated it in fajita seasoning and instapot cooked it for taco salad meat. Was very tasty and tender.

Good luck in your class! You got this! The first test is sometimes harder because you don't know how the professor tests.

This is the prescription version of frugal things. Monday I spent a couple hours on the phone/computer trying to get the cost of two of my prescriptions into the affordable realm. I met my maximum out-of-pocket early last year and thus paid $0 copays for prescriptions for much of 2023. That was sweet, but I had forgotten how much a few of them cost. I called my insurance company and asked about coverage. Both are non-preferred drugs and tier 3, whatever that is. I gather it's more expensive than tier 1 and tier 2. So one drug is about $450 per month, and no. I can't do that. I'm only taking it because the generic I was originally taking was unavailable. The insurance person told me that if I could take capsules, they were more readily available in generic at this time. So then I called the doctor's office and asked them to send in a script for that and boom! I picked it up today for only $15! The other drug costs about $350 per month, even after a discount from the drug company. When I talked to the gatekeeper at the doctor's office to ask about samples, she asked if I had applied for the patient assistance program. No, I hadn't, because in my experience they do not provide that if you have insurance, even if the drug is still expensive with your insurance. But I found the form online and checked, and it seems that I'm still eligible. So I filled that out and dropped it off at the doctor's office the next day. I asked the gatekeeper if she had checked to see if they had some samples for me and she brought out four week's worth! Last week she very grudgingly gave me one week's worth, so I thanked her very much. I really have to work to keep my cool around her, so I was pretty proud of myself. So I had good experiences with her and also the woman at the insurance company, who went out of her way to help me. I always dread calling them, but honestly customer service people have gotten nicer and more helpful in the past few years. I also noticed that on my insurance card it says I have OTC benefits. I tried to find out more about that on their website, with no luck. I'll have to call again. That would be handy to be able to get some over-the-counter meds, band aids, stuff like that.

Today is my birthday, but my stomach was a little upset, so I didn't even try to go to Denny's. I may check to see if I can get a free breakfast in the next few days. And when I do, I'm going to finally check out Winco, which is just down the street. They sent me a coupon for free bacon with $25 purchase. I did a pick-up order at Fry's for senior discount day and got some good bargains with coupons and my 10% senior discount. And they gave me a coupon for a free carton of Ben & Jerry's! I avoided the cheap vegetable market for over a week and saved about $10 by not buying a loaf of sourdough bread and a package of chocolate covered espresso beans. Of course, I didn't have any lettuce either, but I survived.

1. We made all our meals at home and used up foods. 2. We enjoyed free entertainment all week. 3. I keep using the free version of Duolingo, even though it sometimes frustrates me. 4. I picked up my reward for reading challenge through the library. It's a gift card to the coffee shop inside the library. I can't wait to use it. 5. I borrowed some books for free through the Libby app.

I might get those leggings for my daughter! Thanks for the tip!

1. I used Kayak to get a cheap hotel. $58 for the 4 of us. Sure, the breakfast was small, they only had decaf coffee in the room and we saw a bug...but honestly for $58, I'd do it again. 2. I got a cart full of food for $110. My strategies were to buy lots of fresh veggies and to shop a lot of the sales. Packaged pre-made food isn't very bulky and doesn't carry a lot of nutritional punch. 3. Snapped pictures of reciepts for fetch rewards. 4. My kids were each given a gift, I kept the giftbags and tissue paper the gifts came in. 5. Vegetarian day today. toast for breakfast, bean and cheese burritos and salad for lunch and grilled cheese sandwiches and carrots for supper.

Keeping my fingers crossed that your test grade will be better than you think. Either way, we’ve all been there and rebounded as I’m completely sure you will too, if needed. But, yeah…I really hope you don’t need to….