Replacement Dough Blades And Other January 2023 Expenses

Chickens: cuter than a bread machine

My $5 yard sale bread machine acquired upgraded to a $40.91 yard sale bread machine with the alternative of its dough blades. Who doesn’t love beginning the brand new yr with new dough blades?! These small, blade-like objects snap into the bottom of the bread machine’s basket to carry out the essential kneading step within the bread making course of. I’m thrilled to outsource kneading to those blades they usually tirelessly execute their activity with out a lot as a squeak of grievance (can’t say the identical in regards to the youngsters of the home to whom I additionally try and outsource… combined outcomes; will report again in 10 years).

I picked up our Zojirushi bread machine at a yard sale about 3.5 years in the past and we’ve made what I estimate to be ~200 loaves of complete wheat sandwich bread since its arrival. After mixing and kneading lo these many loaves, the unique dough blades wore down and misplaced their non-stick coating, inflicting giant clumps of bread to stick to the blades and never the loaf. A new Zojirushi bread machine–of comparable make and mannequin to ours–runs $319.99 (affiliate hyperlink). YIKES. What a delight for Mr. FW to find that one should purchase just the blades for a mere $35.91 (affiliate hyperlink)! The brand new blades are put in and to this point, rotating with ease.

Why Bake Your Personal Bread?

Baking one’s personal bread is a unbelievable and easy factor of placing your life on frugal autopilot. When you begin, you in all probability gained’t cease and also you’ll lower your expenses on bread endlessly and ever. Additionally, it’s extra yum.

It takes ~3 minutes to dump the elements into the basket and activate the bread machine. It’s so easy that my four-year-old can *virtually* do it. Plus, the elements are less expensive than a retailer purchased loaf. Bonus: heat, aromatic bread aromas permeate your house.

My VERY keen kitchen assistants a number of years in the past

Advantages of baking one’s personal bread:

1. Cheaper
2. More healthy
3. Tastes higher
4. Home smells nice

Downsides of baking one’s personal bread:

1. You not have a motive to go down the bread aisle on the grocery retailer
2. If you happen to don’t have time to do it by hand, you have to to obtain a bread machine (I’m staff #breadmachine4lyfe)

Methods to supply a bread machine:

1. Thrift retailer
2. Yard sale
3. Purchase Nothing Group
4. Basement of somebody
5. Basement of somebody you kind of know
6. Buy new

Our present bread machine is our third second-hand bread machine and we paid not more than $5 for every one. Bread machines appear to be a kind of issues that folk obtain as a present after which by no means use… seems like a conspiracy…. Therefore, I see them at yard gross sales, thrift shops and gathering mud on counters on a regular basis. If you happen to too wish to enterprise into self-made carb cubes, ask round and see what bread machines supply themselves as much as you.

Our Sandwich Bread Recipe

Household ski! Mr. FW, Kidwoods and Littlewoods

Since I do know you’re going to ask, our recipe is predicated off of this King Arthur Baking recipe. I’ve modified it through the years as I’ve found totally different bread machines work otherwise. In our present bread machine, right here’s what we do:

611 grams white complete wheat flour
355 grams water
37 grams olive oil
90 grams maple syrup
2 tsp yeast
2 tsp salt

I discover that using our food scale to weigh by grams is each sooner and extra exact (affiliate hyperlink). The white complete wheat flour is essential for us–once I use complete wheat flour, it comes out like a dense brick (even when I exploit important wheat gluten). Fortunately, we’re capable of purchase white complete wheat flour in bulk from our co-op.

Different Bread Concerns

To get skinny sandwich-sized slices–and never mediaeval hunks–I lower a cooled, recent loaf in half after which lower slices ranging from the middle. Use a correct bread knife and maintain it sharp!

For storage pre-kids, I froze half of each loaf since my husband and I don’t eat bread on the price of a hyena pack. It freezes completely positive!

For storage post-kids, I put every half into its personal gallon-sized ziplock bag. This retains it recent for a couple of week (in all probability?). Not sure as no loaf has ever laster that lengthy in our pantry. See above word re. present hyena pack’s bread consumption skills.

I’ve tried storing bread loaves in tea towels, a field, and foil, however nothing works in addition to plastic zipper baggage. I simply re-use the identical baggage time and again.

Joyful baking!!

Can I Speak To You?

Our gingerbread home within the woods

Sure! You possibly can rent me to put in writing a full monetary plan for you OR you may choose my mind for an hour over the telephone. Have an excellent fast query? Speak to me for half-hour.

1. Rent me for a private financial consultation here.
2. Schedule an hourlong call with me here.
3. Ebook 30 minutes with me here.

To study extra about one-on-one consultations with me, check this out.

I Love the Free Cash Monitoring Instruments from Private Capital!

I exploit a free on-line service known as Personal Capital to prepare our cash. It tracks our spending, internet price, investments, retirement, every part.

Understanding the place your cash’s at is among the best methods to get a deal with in your funds. You can not make knowledgeable selections about your cash in the event you don’t understand how you’re spending it or how a lot you could have. If you happen to’d wish to know extra about how Private Capital works, check out my full write-up.

With no holistic image of your funds, there’s no solution to set financial savings, debt compensation or funding objectives. It’s a should, of us. Private Capital (which is free) is an effective way for me to systematize our monetary overviews because it hyperlinks all of our accounts collectively and gives a complete image of our internet price.

If you happen to don’t have a strong thought of the place your cash’s at–or the way you’re spending it–take into account trying Personal Capital (word: the Private Capital hyperlinks are affiliate hyperlinks). 

Credit Playing cards: How We Purchase All the pieces

We purchase every part we will with bank cards as a result of:

1. It’s simpler to trace bills. No guesswork over the place a random $20 invoice went; all of it exhibits up in our month-to-month expense report from Personal Capital. I additionally spend much less cash as a result of I KNOW I’m going to see each expense listed on the finish of the month.

2. We get rewards. Bank card rewards are a easy solution to get one thing for nothing. By means of the playing cards we use, we get cash back in addition to hotel and airline points for purchasing stuff we have been going to purchase anyway.
3. We construct our credit score. Since we don’t have any debt, having a number of bank cards open for a few years helps our credit score scores. It’s a unclean delusion that carrying a stability in your bank card helps your credit score rating–IT DOES NOT. Paying your playing cards off IN FULL each month and retaining them open for a few years does assist your rating.

For extra on my bank card technique, try:

Money Again Playing cards to Contemplate

If you happen to’re now cash-back curious, there are a selection of playing cards in the marketplace providing fairly good money again percentages. Listed here are a number of I feel are a superb deal:

This child is at residence on the slopes!

1) Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express:

• 6% money again at U.S. supermarkets on as much as $6,000 per yr in purchases (then 1%).
• 6% money again on choose U.S. streaming subscriptions.
• 3% money again at U.S. gasoline stations and on transit (together with taxis/rideshare, parking, tolls, trains, buses and extra).
• 1% money again on different purchases.
• Earn a $250 assertion credit score after you spend $3,000 in purchases in your new Card inside the first 6 months
• $0 intro annual payment for the primary yr, then $95. Charges and charges particulars here.
• Phrases apply

2) Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express:

• 3% money again at U.S. supermarkets (on as much as $6,000 per yr in purchases, then 1%).
• 3% Money Again at U.S. gasoline stations, on as much as $6,000 per yr, then 1%.
• 1% money again on different purchases.
• Earn as much as $250 – Right here’s How: Earn as much as $150 again while you store with PayPal. Earn 20% again as an announcement credit score on purchases while you use your new Card to take a look at with PayPal at retailers within the first 6 months of Card Membership, as much as $150 again. Plus, earn $100 again as an announcement credit score after you spend $2,000 in purchases in your new Card within the first 6 months of Card Membership.
• No annual payment. Charges and charges particulars here.
• Phrases apply.

3) Capital One Quicksilver Cash Rewards Credit Card:

• 1.5% money again on each buy, on daily basis.
• $200 money bonus after you spend $500 on purchases inside 3 months from account opening.
• No annual payment.

4) Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Credit Card:

• Limitless 3% money again on eating, leisure, widespread streaming companies and at grocery shops (excluding superstores like Walmart and Goal).
• 1% again on all different purchases.
• 8% money again on tickets at Vivid Seats by way of January 2023.
• $200 money bonus after you spend $500 on purchases inside the first 3 months from account opening.
• No annual payment.

Winter barnyard view

5) Chase Freedom Unlimited®:

• Earn an additional 1.5% on every part you purchase (on as much as $20,000 spent within the first yr), which is price as much as $300 money again:
  • 6.5% on journey bought by way of Chase Final Rewards
  • 4.5% on eating and drugstores
  • 3% on all different purchases.
• After your first yr (or $20,000 spent), you earn:
  • 5% money again on Chase journey bought by way of Chase Final Rewards
  • 3% money again on drugstore purchases and eating at eating places, together with takeout and eligible supply service
  • Limitless 1.5% money again on all different purchases.
• No annual payment.

6) Chase Freedom Flex℠:

• 5% money again on as much as $1,500 in mixed purchases in bonus classes every quarter you activate.
• New 5% classes every quarter.
• 5% money again on journey bought by way of Chase Final Rewards
• 3% money again on drugstore purchases and eating at eating places, together with takeout and eligible supply service
• Limitless 1% money again on all different purchases.
• $200 bonus after you spend $500 on purchases in your first 3 months from account opening.
• No annual payment.

If you happen to’re enthusiastic about travel rewards, individuals love the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card®. You possibly can earn 60,000 bonus factors after you spend $4,000 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening, which is $750 while you redeem by way of Chase Final Rewards.

Big caveat to bank card utilization: you MUST pay your bank card payments in full each single month, with no exceptions. If you happen to’re involved about your potential to do that, or assume utilizing bank cards would possibly immediate you to spend extra, keep on with a debit card or money. However in case you have no drawback paying that invoice in full each month? I like to recommend you bank card away, my good friend! (word: the bank card hyperlinks are affiliate links).

Money Again Earned This Month: $60.45

This little skier is up the chairlift now!

The silver lining to our spending is our cash back credit card. We earn 2% money again on each buy made with our Constancy Rewards Visa and, this month, we spent $3,022.43 on that card, which netted us $60.45.

Not some huge cash, nevertheless it’s cash we earned for purchasing stuff we have been going to purchase anyway! For this reason I really like money again bank card rewards–they’re the only solution to earn one thing for nothing.

To see how this provides up over the course of a yr, try How I Made $712.59 With My Cash Back Credit Card.

The place’s Your Cash?

One other simple solution to optimize your cash is with a high-interest financial savings account. With these accounts, curiosity works in your favor versus the rates of interest on debt, which work towards you.

Having cash in a no or low curiosity financial savings account is a waste of assets–your cash is sitting there doing nothing. Don’t let your cash be lazy! Make it give you the results you want! And now, take pleasure in some explanatory math:

Let’s say you could have $5,000 in a financial savings account that earns 0% curiosity. In a yr’s time, your $5,000 will nonetheless be… $5,000.

Let’s say you as an alternative put that $5,000 into an American Express Personal Savings account, which–as of this writing–earns 3.4% in curiosity (affiliate hyperlink). In a single yr, your $5,000 can have elevated to $5,170. Meaning you earned $170 simply by having your cash in a high-interest account.

And also you didn’t need to do something! I’m an enormous fan of incomes cash whereas doing nothing. Is anyone not a fan of that? Apparently so, as a result of anybody who makes use of a low or no curiosity financial savings account is NOT being profitable whereas doing nothing. Don’t be that individual. Be the one who earns cash whereas sleeping.

Sure, We Solely Paid $28.41 for Cell Telephone Service (for 2 telephones)

Our cellphone service line merchandise is just not a typ0 (though that actually is). We actually and actually solely paid $28.41 for each of our telephones (that’s $14.21 per individual for these of you into division). How is such trickery doable?!? We use an MVNO!

What’s an MVNO?

Glad you requested as a result of I used to be going to inform you anyway: It’s a cellphone service re-seller.

MVNOs are the TJ Maxx of the cellphone service world–the identical service, A LOT cheaper. If you happen to’re not utilizing an MVNO, switching to at least one is a straightforward, slam-dunk, do-it-right-away approach to save cash each single month of each single yr endlessly and ever amen.

Listed here are a number of MVNOs to think about:

For extra, I’ve a full chart of suppliers and their costs right here: How to Save Money on Your Cell Phone Bill with an MVNO: I Pay $12 a Month*

*the quantity we pay fluctuates each month as a result of it’s calibrated on what we use. Think about that! We solely pay for what we use! Will wonders ever stop. These MVNO hyperlinks are affiliate hyperlinks.

Expense Report FAQs

• Need to understand how we handle the remainder of our cash? Take a look at How We Manage Our Money: Behind The Scenes of The Frugalwoods Family Accounts
• 

  Winter wooden

  Don’t you could have a rental property? Sure! We personal a rental property (often known as our first residence) in Cambridge, MA, which I talk about here and extra just lately, here too

• Why do I share our bills? To offer you a way of how we spend our cash in a values-based method. Your spending will differ from ours and there’s no “one proper approach” to spend and no “good” funds.
• Are we essentially the most frugal frugal individuals on earth? Completely not! My hope is that by being clear about our spending, you would possibly achieve insights into your personal spending and be impressed to take proactive management of your cash.
• Questioning the place to start out with managing your cash? Take my free, 31-day Uber Frugal Month Challenge.
• If you happen to’re enthusiastic about different issues I really like, try Frugalwoods Recommends.
• Why don’t you purchase every part regionally? We do our greatest to help our local people and purchase as a lot of our meals as doable immediately from our farmer neighbors. Our city doesn’t have any shops, so we depend on on-line ordering and large field shops for requirements. The closest shops are 45 minutes away and we go a number of instances a month to fill up on what we will’t get from our neighbors or on-line.

However Mrs. Frugalwoods, Don’t You Pay For X, Y, Or Even Z???

Questioning about frequent bills you don’t see listed under?

If you happen to’re questioning about anything, be at liberty to ask within the feedback part!

Alright you frugal cash voyeurs, feast your eyes on each greenback we spent in January:

How was the primary month of 2023 for you?