Using Creativity in Frugal Living

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Some people choose to live frugal by choice while some people choose a frugal lifestyle out of necessity. 
My daughter and I have lived on a smaller income since 1998, so we live this lifestyle out of necessity. Over the years we've learned to get the things we needed using some creativity along the way.
Oftentimes in our consumerist society it's easy to buy what you need if you have enough money. Our problem was that we didn't always have the money to buy the things we needed. 
So we rolled up our sleeves and did what we had to do to get those things we needed. We got creative and you can do the same thing. If you get creative with your needs, instead of buying what you need, you will be able to save money and sometimes a lot of money.

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What if you don't have money to buy groceries? Creating a meal using the food you have at home is being creative. We do this on a regular basis. 

When my daughter switched over to cloth pads full time and found the brand she liked they were expensive, so we could only buy them once or twice a year.  
Finally we came up with a better solution. I took her favorite cloth pad and figured out how to make them for her at home. We upcycled clothes to make them and today those are some of her favorite pads.  

When my daughter needed a scientific calculator for school and we didn't have an extra $100 to buy one, we got creative. We traded for one at McKay Used Books. 
Amy Dacyczyn said it best when she said, "when there is a lack of resourcefulness, inventiveness, and innovation, thrift means doing without." That wasn't the case in our home. 
Now I've seen a lot of creativity in my lifetime and I'm sure you have too. I've seen the maintenance man at school fix a door with the end of a matchstick. Now that's being creative. 
We all have creativeness inside of us and it depends on us as to how we used it to the best of our advantage. 
As Theodore Roosevelt said, "Let us do what we can, with what we have, where we are." 
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

Grocery Haul September 14, 2018

On Friday we did the bulk of our grocery shopping for the month. Our first stop was at Ingle's where we spent $22.25. We bought some meat markdowns ($1.99 & $2.49) and the following items were from the Crash & Burn section.  Green Chilis 50¢ each. These had been on my grocery list. How lucky we were to find them at this discounted price. 

 Spaghetti & Bruschetta Sauce $1.00 each. The spaghetti sauce was also on my grocery list, so I was tickled to find it on markdown for $1.00 per jar. 

Buns 38¢ each on markdown, another item on the grocery list. 

Our Next stop was at Kroger where we spent $136.85. 
I always check the Crash & Burn section first since those items can be rare. We hit the jackpot this time. 
Crash & Burn Items

Bush Baked Beans 99¢ Campbell Soup 49¢ Kroger Pears 49¢ Kroger Pineapple 59¢ Hunt's Pasta Sauce 49¢ Kroger Soup 39¢ Kroger Beets 39¢ Campbell Soup 49¢ Kroger Fruit Cocktail 49¢ Kroger Corn 29¢ Le Sueur Green Beans 29¢ Muffin mixes 49¢

Flour tortillas for $1.00 each. 

Kroger Milk was priced at $1.59 a gallon.

But we found some on markdown for $1.19. 

Huge tub of Kroger Sour Cream $3.89. Multiple Yogurts markdown to 49 & 59¢. One large plain yogurt marked down to $1.29. A free bag of Fresh Express salad with coupon. 

Corn on the cob on markdown for $1.49. Oscar Mayer beef hot dogs on sale, but we were charged the non-sale price, so I will have to take care of that. 

Some more meat and yogurt markdowns. Some hard salami for sandwiches.  Two jars of Kroger preserves one cherry and one strawberry. 
This summer we found Smucker's cherry preserves on sale, so we bought and tried and liked them. 
The Kroger brand was on sale for $1.49 this week, so we bought it to try. It is much less expensive than the Smucker's brand. 

Two Asian salads on markdown for $1.49 and 1 baby spinach on markdown down $2.39. Also some cheddar and American cheese. 

Cream Cheese $1.00. Cheese breadsticks and pumpernickel bread on markdown for $1.29 each. 

Chorizo for $1.00 per package. Some regions 

were able to get coupons for this, but our area didn't, but this was a great price, so I stocked up. 

More meat markdowns. 

Mandarin Oranges 89¢ each Kroger tomatoes with jalapenos 49¢ each Kroger dark kidney beans 49¢ each

 

A box of salt for 29¢.

Campbell's Soups $1.00 each. I like to cook with the Beefy Mushroom and I always buy it when it's priced at $1.00 per can never paying the $1.65 and over that it normally cost. 

What was funny was that although this was on sale for $1.00, there were several of them in the crash & burn section for 49¢ each, which I also picked up. 

Two packages of sugar for $1.89 and spices were on sale for $1.00 a bottle except for the dill, which was $4.00. I was out of all of these spices.  

Other items we bought, but did not picture include: 2 loaves bread 85¢ each 2 boxes Kellogg's cereal 99¢ each 1 package sweet onions $2.99 Almond milk $2.79 I'm sure I've forgotten some things but this was the bulk of our shopping. We added a total of 55 cans of food to our pantry this weekend. Many of them came from the Crash & Burn section. 
I've already put everything away neat and tidy into the pantry and freezer, so we are good to go for  while again. :)
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

Yard Sale Saturday 9-15-2018

While we were out looking for yard sales we came across these 16 wild turkeys crossing our path. We stopped while they made it all the way safely across the road. 

I've been wanting a dash cam for a while now and we found one for $3.00. Can you believe that? It works great too. 

I also found this car mount for my phone for $1.00. Bailey was teasing me saying that if I found one more thing to put on my window I was not going to be able to see. LOL

This is a giant reusable water container. It holds 32 ounces and has a neat straw. It sells on Amazon for right at $20 and we paid 50¢ for it. 

This is an insulated 31 bag and a great size. Will be nice to take grocery shopping with us when we need it. These sell for $50 on the Thirty One website, but I paid $2.00 for this. 

This really spoke to me when I saw it. It's a hard plastic container and has the nicest sayings on it. I love things like this and it was only $1.00, so I picked it up. 

I love the stainless steel bowl I picked up a few weeks ago and have used it for so many things since then that when I saw these two bowls for $2.00 I just had to grab them. 

Okay, this older couple had these two vacuums and I asked the price on them and they said they didn't know if they worked or not, but said I could have them, but they needed charging. I have one plugged in right now, so we will see if it works or not, but they were free, so we are not out any money.  

I found these and unfolded one and they are pretty big, sort of like the size of two dinner napkins sewn together. There are 30 of them in all and I only paid $1.50 for all of them. I will be using these as cleaning cloths or if we need to clean up something that needs throwing away, they will come in handy. 

This is a Victoria Secret bracelet that we bought for $1.50, which I bought to resell. 

And finally I bought this Ace hardware socket set for $1.50, which I also bought to resell. 

That's all for Yard Sale Saturday this week. My daughter found a lot of great items to resell, but I don't list those things. We were both happy with our finds today and had a great day. 
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

Frugal Friday ~ September 14, 2018

This was a slow week work wise having only worked one day as the other day I had scheduled was cancelled. No worries as I have plans to go grocery shopping at Kroger today. 
Earlier in the month when I reported our pantry inventory I mentioned that our supplies were low. We made it through this time just fine even getting creative with some meals. 
Coupons were sorted and clipped this week in anticipation of grocery shopping. I've studied the sale ads and made a plan of what we're buying to save the most money. I've looked at my pantry inventory to see what I can use and combine with the sale items this week to make it stretch as far as possible. 

This week I received a $10 reward certificate from Roamans, so I used it and combined it with a buy one get one half off sale and bought two new shirts for myself paying right at $10 each for them.

Just a short blog post for today. I'll work on my grocery haul blog post later today and I still have the Yard Sale Saturday post I'm writing. I hope you have a great Friday.
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

My Frugal Week ~ September 9, 2018

This week I was able to sub three days and even sold some items on Ebay while I was working. 
Also this week I was able to cash in another $5 Amazon gift card from Microsoft Rewards. I also cashed in points from MyPoints for a $25 Paypal credit. 

We stocked up on Dawn dishwashing detergent combining a sale and coupons. 

Our local apple orchard usually has the Honeycrisp apples around the end of August, so we went this week and picked up one peck of those and also picked up the last basket of the summer peaches at the peach  stand, which are now gone until next year. 

Target had eggs on sale yesterday. We bought 18 count boxes for 49¢. They also had the 12 count boxes for 29¢.

Kelsey over at On My Way to Happiness recently wrote an article where she invited multiple personal finance experts, including myself, to write about giving advice to newly college graduated women. Here is a link to the article if you're interested. 

I've been busy with the the start of school, but be on the look out for a yard sale Saturday post hopefully coming this week. 
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~