Frugal and not so frugal Friday

On the frugal/thrifty front -

We are doing well on our routine household bills such as utilities and groceries now that we are mostly settled in. Turns out I only need to shop Target about once a month for items we can't get at Trader Joe's or Grocery Outlet. Also a once a month dog food order from Chewy since no store locally carries the right one.

Returned 4 items to Amazon that didn’t work for us. Still have some solutions to figure out.

Getting a second opinion on the termite damage and fungus problems identified in the seller’s termite inspection report as the report info was minimal and the proposed repair work cost high.

Ordered cases of 12 cans each of two types of reduced sodium soup and one kind of low sodium pinto beans from Amazon for half the regular store price. I can easily store them in the closed off garage/laundry room and they have distant best by dates.

And a lot of free food from a Buy Nothing member who is moving across the country: grains, flours, sugars, oatmeal (so much oatmeal), fruit spread, dried fruit, canned beans, maple syrup, prepared enchilada casserole sauce … and lots of hot sauces and seasonings that aren’t our thing. If our son doesn’t want them I’ll offer the remainder back to Buy Nothing.

Walked to the library and back to pick up real books. I prefer e-books but they aren’t always available. Glad to be able to combine exercise and free books.

On the not frugal front … maybe -

The earthquake retrofit will likely cost over $10,000, but could save our house and lives as we live near the Hayward fault. We may be able to get a small discount on our earthquake insurance after it is done and  that will add up over time. Waiting on the bid.

We got the electrician's estimate and it is quite reasonable. Fingers crossed that some of the higher cost possibilities aren't reality! No potential for electrical problems/ fires plus some minor upgrades  to improve quality of life are good and frugal in the long run.

Frugal for others -

My DIL returns to work next week and my son still has PT and Pilates appointments plus primary child care for a while. I offered to babysit the grandbaby whenever he needed me to so he could keep those appointments. The baby will go to daycare when 6 months old but that is a few months away. Then we have one week in August where we are doing Nana and Papa camp for the 6 year old. We will have her over some days during other weeks this summer hopefully.

My DIL is in charge of fundraising at a major local non-profit. We babysat the kids the night of their annual fundraising gala & we knew we would be too busy and tired to fix dinner although our son offered to prep the food before he went. We ordered takeout that turned out to be costly and very mediocre but we all ate! Both girls behaved very well as did the dog and the kids went to bed easily at 8pm so we got some rest lol. We are feeling our age.