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Re: Are you changing your spending habits
Posted by NervousNell
Posted by windyweather21
Posted by NervousNell
Posted by windyweather21
Heat is one thing I will not budge on. I am always cold and it has to be 70 all the time. We get automatic oil delivery and we are on balanced budget so we pay 12 months a year.
We have never been so happy to have invested in our pellet stove all those years ago.
We buy just 2 tanks of oil a year and currently my house is at 77 degress. 
Does it keep the entire house warm or are some rooms still chilly?
Our house is small and open floor plan so it really warms up the entire living area.
If the bedroom doors are closed they get chilly but we have wall mounted electric heaters in them that use very little electricity to keep those areas warm.
We only use oil for hot water
Ok not too bad then. I think your house is similar to mine and when we run the 2 wall ac’s we cool the entire house.
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Posted 3/12/22 5:24 PM  |
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Re: Are you changing your spending habits
Posted by CookiePuss
Posted by windyweather21
Posted by CookiePuss
Not really. I am pretty frugal to begin with.
I have always used non named brands but even those have gone up. Luckily my one kid buys a lot of food for themselves as that saves me.
Groceries have definitely gone up. But I’ve been using the butcher because you get much better prices on chicken. And we lucked out because we’re in the oil contract so our ceiling per gallon is relatively inexpensive and we’re locked in until next year
I didn’t get chicken this week but the one I have in my freezer cost $4.61 and it is .77/lb
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| Posted 3/12/22 5:25 PM |
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StaceyWill
It's a girl!!!
Member since 6/10 21539 total posts
Name:
Stacey
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Are you changing your spending habits
We're trying. Groceries are our biggest expense so I'm really only buying stuff we need, like not getting the unnecessary junk food.
I'm also keeping better inventory of what we have in the house so we don't buy doubles of anything. I can't tell you how many times we'll buy olive oil or something and we already have a brand new one in the house.
DH went down to regular gas in his truck and he still spent over $80 to fill up half a tank.
It's ridiculous.
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| Posted 3/12/22 5:37 PM |
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CookiePuss
Cake from Outer Space!
Member since 5/05 14021 total posts
Name:
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Re: Are you changing your spending habits
Posted by windyweather21
Posted by CookiePuss
Posted by windyweather21
Posted by CookiePuss
Not really. I am pretty frugal to begin with.
I have always used non named brands but even those have gone up. Luckily my one kid buys a lot of food for themselves as that saves me.
Groceries have definitely gone up. But I’ve been using the butcher because you get much better prices on chicken. And we lucked out because we’re in the oil contract so our ceiling per gallon is relatively inexpensive and we’re locked in until next year
I didn’t get chicken this week but the one I have in my freezer cost $4.61 and it is .77/lb
Cow Palace has great deals on chicken and other meats as well.
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| Posted 3/12/22 5:42 PM |
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Re: Are you changing your spending habits
Posted by StaceyWill
We're trying. Groceries are our biggest expense so I'm really only buying stuff we need, like not getting the unnecessary junk food.
I'm also keeping better inventory of what we have in the house so we don't buy doubles of anything. I can't tell you how many times we'll buy olive oil or something and we already have a brand new one in the house.
DH went down to regular gas in his truck and he still spent over $80 to fill up half a tank.
It's ridiculous.
Yeah I spent double this week for gas and my car gets really great gas. I could probably fill my tank up from E to F for about $45.
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| Posted 3/12/22 5:46 PM |
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Re: Are you changing your spending habits
Posted by CookiePuss
Posted by windyweather21
Posted by CookiePuss
Posted by windyweather21
Posted by CookiePuss
Not really. I am pretty frugal to begin with.
I have always used non named brands but even those have gone up. Luckily my one kid buys a lot of food for themselves as that saves me.
Groceries have definitely gone up. But I’ve been using the butcher because you get much better prices on chicken. And we lucked out because we’re in the oil contract so our ceiling per gallon is relatively inexpensive and we’re locked in until next year
I didn’t get chicken this week but the one I have in my freezer cost $4.61 and it is .77/lb
Cow Palace has great deals on chicken and other meats as well.
Oh ok thanks, I might have to check them out.
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| Posted 3/12/22 5:46 PM |
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LuckyStar
LIF Adult
Member since 7/14 7274 total posts
Name:
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Are you changing your spending habits
I don’t have much fat to trim, tbh. I don’t tend to buy stuff we don’t need though I admit I don’t really keep track of grocery spending. I don’t shop all in one place and on nights I get home from work late we get takeout. It’s not like we’re ordering multi course meals, we get from the diner or pizza, etc and honestly I feel like it’s sometimes cheaper than if I bought everything I needed to cook dinner.
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| Posted 3/12/22 6:34 PM |
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klingklang77
kraftwerk!
Member since 7/06 11487 total posts
Name:
Völlig losgelöst
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Re: Are you changing your spending habits
Posted by windyweather21
Posted by klingklang77
Posted by PhyllisNJoe
I stopped remote starting my truck because these gas prices are insane.
Everything else? I haven’t made many changes. I do understand that for us it’s a little easier because we don’t have kids. It’s just DH and I.
I don’t have remote start, but some man yelled at me the other day for starting up my car and getting my phone ready to get maps to sync with it. To be fair, my car is 18 years old and he was complaining about the exhaust (I just had a new exhaust put in), but it was literally 3 mins. He signaled to me to turn off my car. I took time to get out of my car (car on) and ask him what the problem was. I just rolled my eyes and said I am going now.
That wasn’t the first time I had someone complain about my car being started for a few mins. The last time was a brand new car and she yelled at me to shut it off because of the environment. You literally cannot sit here 3 mins warming up without someone yelling at you.
Wow that is nuts. My remote start goes for 10 minutes and then turns off. My other one stayed on until I turned it off.
The urge to say “we saved your ass in ww2” was very much there. 
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| Posted 3/12/22 6:37 PM |
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Naturalmama
Love my boys!!
Member since 1/12 3548 total posts
Name:
Christine
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Are you changing your spending habits
We only do take out on Friday nights, it's something the kids look forward to, so for now we are keeping it. I don't buy much junk food and only buy exactly what we need. For example, I will only buy enough fruit for the week for the kids for lunchboxes or snacking, and that means I rotate what I buy. This week we have apples and blueberries. That's it. Next week I will do strawberries and bananas. We used to buy so much produce and a lot of it went bad and wound up in the trash at the end of the week. I batch cook on the weekends and we will usually get two dinners per meal. So a pot of sauce will mean we have pasta two nights in one week, ground beef will be split between tacos and chili. Stuff like that. We buy our laundry detergent, paper products, etc. at BJ's. I have also switched to an all purpose cleaner that covers everything- countertops, toilets, sinks, showers, mopping floors, mirrors...so I am buying less products. We are trying our best.
Message edited 3/12/2022 8:09:29 PM.
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| Posted 3/12/22 8:08 PM |
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Mrs213
????????
Member since 2/09 18986 total posts
Name:
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Are you changing your spending habits
I forgot about the heat. We have been keeping the heat down because home heating oil hit over 5 bucks. We never got a contract, so we are stuck with market price and it cost me 800 bucks to top it off last week. Our old house had a wood burning insert and man do I miss that thing. It’s so chilly in my house right now…
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| Posted 3/13/22 10:15 AM |
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ali120206
2 Boys
Member since 7/06 17792 total posts
Name:
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Are you changing your spending habits
We tend to stock up on certain items when they are on sale (mainly meats).
I buy produce in small quantities from our local farm market (better quality than shop rite and reasonable prices).
We had been doing really good with meal planning but the past few weeks have been hectic. We plan on getting back to that soon.
Now that DS broke his collarbone my driving has been cut down tremendously which will help with gas (he has some sort of practice every day but Mondays and most are in different towns).
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| Posted 3/13/22 12:22 PM |
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Hofstra26
Love to Bake!
Member since 7/06 27915 total posts
Name:
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Re: Are you changing your spending habits
Posted by ali120206
We tend to stock up on certain items when they are on sale (mainly meats).
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Same here! BEST thing I ever bought was a vacuum sealer. I buy as much meat, cheese, etc as I can in bulk and when on sale and then I portion it all out, seal and freeze. It's great. I've even vacuumed sealed produce! I'll buy my fruit and veggies in season either from the farms around here or Wegman's (they have amazing produce) then I clean, prep and seal.
I also love to make things like soup, sauce, chili, etc in large quantities so I can freeze for later. You can get inexpensive plastic containers (like they use in the deli) in various sizes on Amazon, they are great for freezing and storing leftovers.
I also try and use up the leftovers from one dinner in another dinner. I might make seasoned chicken one night and slice up the leftover chicken to throw into pasta the next.
I can't believe how pricey groceries have gotten overall, it's nuts. It started creeping up throughout the pandemic and now there are some items that are literally DOUBLE the price of what I was paying two years ago!
Message edited 3/13/2022 12:34:38 PM.
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| Posted 3/13/22 12:33 PM |
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PitterPatter11
Baby Boy is Here!
Member since 5/11 7619 total posts
Name:
Momma <3
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Are you changing your spending habits
We are not big spenders. I swear I only spend money on gas and food. We get take out maybe 4 times per year and only go out to dinner for special occasions. Our spending remains the same. While prices have increased at the grocery store, I haven’t noticed a huge increase as I tend to shop sales. In terms of gas, we’ll be taking my car most places for the foreseeable future as it gets 40-45 mpg.
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| Posted 3/13/22 12:42 PM |
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ali120206
2 Boys
Member since 7/06 17792 total posts
Name:
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Re: Are you changing your spending habits
Posted by Hofstra26
Posted by ali120206
We tend to stock up on certain items when they are on sale (mainly meats).
.
Same here! BEST thing I ever bought was a vacuum sealer. I buy as much meat, cheese, etc as I can in bulk and when on sale and then I portion it all out, seal and freeze. It's great. I've even vacuumed sealed produce! I'll buy my fruit and veggies in season either from the farms around here or Wegman's (they have amazing produce) then I clean, prep and seal.
I also love to make things like soup, sauce, chili, etc in large quantities so I can freeze for later. You can get inexpensive plastic containers (like they use in the deli) in various sizes on Amazon, they are great for freezing and storing leftovers.
I also try and use up the leftovers from one dinner in another dinner. I might make seasoned chicken one night and slice up the leftover chicken to throw into pasta the next.
I can't believe how pricey groceries have gotten overall, it's nuts. It started creeping up throughout the pandemic and now there are some items that are literally DOUBLE the price of what I was paying two years ago!
We vacuum seal as well. We typically just do meat and batch items (like chili). I’ve never thought to try it for veggies and cheeses.
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| Posted 3/13/22 2:54 PM |
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Hofstra26
Love to Bake!
Member since 7/06 27915 total posts
Name:
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Re: Are you changing your spending habits
Posted by ali120206
Posted by Hofstra26
Posted by ali120206
We tend to stock up on certain items when they are on sale (mainly meats).
.
Same here! BEST thing I ever bought was a vacuum sealer. I buy as much meat, cheese, etc as I can in bulk and when on sale and then I portion it all out, seal and freeze. It's great. I've even vacuumed sealed produce! I'll buy my fruit and veggies in season either from the farms around here or Wegman's (they have amazing produce) then I clean, prep and seal.
I also love to make things like soup, sauce, chili, etc in large quantities so I can freeze for later. You can get inexpensive plastic containers (like they use in the deli) in various sizes on Amazon, they are great for freezing and storing leftovers.
I also try and use up the leftovers from one dinner in another dinner. I might make seasoned chicken one night and slice up the leftover chicken to throw into pasta the next.
I can't believe how pricey groceries have gotten overall, it's nuts. It started creeping up throughout the pandemic and now there are some items that are literally DOUBLE the price of what I was paying two years ago!
We vacuum seal as well. We typically just do meat and batch items (like chili). I’ve never thought to try it for veggies and cheeses.
It's really great for produce too. I freeze cleaned ears of corn (sometimes I will strip the ears and freeze just the kernels), berries, spinach, broccoli, green beans, etc. In the fall we go apple picking a few times and I use a bunch of the apples to make pie filling. When you feel like a homemade pie, just defrost the filling and either pop the filling into a pie crust and bake or make a quick crumble.
I hate letting produce go to waste because it can be so expensive so the vacuum sealer comes in really handy! 
ETA - They have resealable vacuum bags which are perfect for the cheeses. You can use as needed but keep the cheese nice and fresh!
Message edited 3/13/2022 3:56:55 PM.
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| Posted 3/13/22 3:55 PM |
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MrsWoods
LIF Adult
Member since 4/12 1461 total posts
Name:
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Are you changing your spending habits
We have always shopped at multiple supermarkets before this. So nothings changed with how we save or spend.
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| Posted 3/13/22 5:18 PM |
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Re: Are you changing your spending habits
Posted by Mrs213
I forgot about the heat. We have been keeping the heat down because home heating oil hit over 5 bucks. We never got a contract, so we are stuck with market price and it cost me 800 bucks to top it off last week. Our old house had a wood burning insert and man do I miss that thing. It’s so chilly in my house right now…
Ugghh yeah that sucks and I hate being cold so that is something I won’t budge with. Our contract is about $1,700 for the year which includes service.
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| Posted 3/13/22 6:50 PM |
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MrsA1012
love my little girl !
Member since 9/10 5777 total posts
Name:
Me
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Are you changing your spending habits
No , but I’m trying to drive less.
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| Posted 3/14/22 10:44 AM |
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Re: Are you changing your spending habits
Posted by PitterPatter11
We are not big spenders. I swear I only spend money on gas and food. We get take out maybe 4 times per year and only go out to dinner for special occasions. Our spending remains the same. While prices have increased at the grocery store, I haven’t noticed a huge increase as I tend to shop sales. In terms of gas, we’ll be taking my car most places for the foreseeable future as it gets 40-45 mpg.
Wow, not bad. Mine gets 33/42.
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| Posted 3/14/22 10:49 AM |
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Diane
Hope is Contagious....catch it
Member since 5/05 30683 total posts
Name:
D
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Re: Are you changing your spending habits
Many companies are NOT raising their prices just making the package smaller, or putting less in the package.
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| Posted 3/14/22 11:11 AM |
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Re: Are you changing your spending habits
Posted by Diane
Many companies are NOT raising their prices just making the package smaller, or putting less in the package.
Which has been happening for years but it seems that people don't ever look at net wt when purchasing items. Many have compared net wt and amount of items in the bag/box/etc. to see what the best price would be. I do it all the time and always have.
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| Posted 3/14/22 11:17 AM |
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soontobemommyof2
My boys...my everything <3
Member since 4/15 3635 total posts
Name:
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Re: Are you changing your spending habits
Posted by Diane
Many companies are NOT raising their prices just making the package smaller, or putting less in the package.
Or using fillers in their products. 
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| Posted 3/14/22 11:28 AM |
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Re: Are you changing your spending habits
Posted by soontobemommyof2
Posted by Diane
Many companies are NOT raising their prices just making the package smaller, or putting less in the package.
Or using fillers in their products.
The big story today on News12 is that Doritos is taking away FIVE chips in each bag. 
No one ever noticed before but now all of a sudden people are paying attention?
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| Posted 3/14/22 11:35 AM |
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Hofstra26
Love to Bake!
Member since 7/06 27915 total posts
Name:
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Re: Are you changing your spending habits
Posted by Diane
Many companies are NOT raising their prices just making the package smaller, or putting less in the package.
Six of one, half a dozen of another. Smaller packaging at the same price is no different than keeping the packaging the same and increasing the cost.
I really hate when they play these games and think that people won't notice.
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| Posted 3/14/22 11:49 AM |
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lpg21
LIF Infant
Member since 9/21 342 total posts
Name:
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Re: Are you changing your spending habits
So far no. We usually get takeout on Friday & Saturday nights. I will say that I rarely spend any money on myself. I can't honestly remember the last time I bought myself new clothes or shoes, makeup. etc.
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| Posted 3/14/22 11:56 AM |
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