Friday, July 20, 2018

Frugal Friday ~ July 20, 2018

- We went grocery shopping on Saturday and found a ham in the discounted meat section. I was thrilled. We also found 5 pound bags of potatoes in the discount bin for 99¢, and I bought two of those. 

- Tuesday night is board game night here. I popped a big bowl of popcorn (with a lid, so any leftover can be eaten the next day) and made a big jug of ice water. We played Disney Monopoly for over two hours and had such fun. 

- Update on medical bill, which I  had to stay on top of to make sure they gave me my 50% discount. I received a letter this week stating that the balance was now zero. This was a savings of over $900. 

- We did not get caught up in the Build A Bear hype especially since we find them at yard sales for $1.00 each. This week we found two Christmas reindeer and picked those up to resell. 

n- We've been out to a few yard sales already today and came back home by 10:30 a.m. since there were so few of them. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. 

- We did pick up two Taylor Swift CDs for $1.00 each. 35 songs for 6¢ each, can't beat that. 

- Ran errands on Thursday, but was out later than expected. We ended up getting hungry, so I went into Food City and picked up some bananas, cheese, crackers, and chips. This tied us over until dinner time and we spent no money eating out.

- I post pictures on the Frugal Workshop Instagram account from time to time if you're interested. 

That's all I have to report for this week. How was your week?

Belinda
~ Living within our Means ~

26 comments:

  1. Awesome week and thats great about your medical bill. Those can make things very stressful sometimes. Good job on not eating out too. I have such a hard time with that. lol Hope you have a great weekend.

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    1. Thank you, Sarah. I hope you have a great weekend too.

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  2. Great week, especially on the medical bill! I had a moment with one of those as well. I'll still have to pay something, I'm sure, but it won't be as much, and anything I can save on medical bills is always good.

    No yard sales for us this week, as it's been raining, so daughter and I ran out to a few grocery stores and grabbed what little we needed for the week. So. Much. Fruit! :)

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    1. Thank you, Stephanie. We had a bad storm here last night and yard sales were very few today as a result. Glad you were able to pick up so much fruit. LOL :) It's a great healthy snack to have on hand.

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  3. Kuddos for you on the medical bill-50% off?? Awesome!

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    1. Thank you, Carol. I could NOT pass up that deal. :)

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  4. You had a great frugal week. Great savings on the medical bill.
    I shopped around for a less expensive car insurance and it seems so far what I have is the best.

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    1. THank you, Nil. I have found that to be true every year about my auto ins. Maybe next year I always say.

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  5. Belinda, love your posts! It sure does help us save money. So important as everything is so expensive these days. Keep up the good work!

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    1. THank you so much, Beverly. THat means a lot to me. And I agree with you, everything costs so much these days.

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  6. WOOHOO on the medical bill. That is a fantastic savings!
    Good deals for you this week.

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  7. Frugal week here. Not much of anything just reading and creating pretty things frugally. :) I am in the Ozarks where the terrible storm hit. I was in the path of the storm that killed all those beautiful souls on the Duck boat. We were blessed with only power out for a few hours and some debris. Others in our area have a lot of damage. I did eat out on storm day. I had plenty of food at home. Was concerned about damage and how long our power would be out with temperatures over 100 I decided to keep the refrigerator and freezer close. What we could make I did not want to heat up our home and make my animals sick in the heat.

    I changed grocery stores. So proud of myself. I live in grocery store drought. WalMart is my only choice. With the salmonella and Ecoli recalls hitting our store hard I decided it was not worth it any more. I have a great store, further away that is local and really pays attention to their stock. I saved a ton of money too. Funny story I bought some fresh apricots. Apparently, they are not hot sellers. The cashier charged me for persimmons. He really believed they were. It was so funny. I said those were not in season yet. :)

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    1. Oh no, I was so sorry to hear about the 17 people who died on the duck boat. That was so tragic.

      I agree with you on keeping the freezer and fridge closed when the power is out. We did that a few weeks ago when ours went out for 6 hours. Everything was still frozen when the power came back.

      How funny that the cashiet thought you had persimmons. LOL It's funny how the young cashiers, even girls, don't know what some produce is, lol. Glad you saved a ton of money at the grocery store you changed.

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  8. Last night, I lay awake contemplating the many ways your ham and potato deals could be transformed. Deal! $900 saved for medical bill is Christmas in July. Believe your Christmas Build a Bears will add nicely to your income. Good week, Belinda.

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    1. Thank you, Anna. It was a good week and I hope we both have a good week this coming week as well. :)

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  9. Just wanted to tell you that I enjoy your frugal recaps each week. They encourage me to "keep on keeping on" and to always be looing for more ways to save.

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    1. Thank you, Mama Hen. That is so nice to hear. I hope you have a great week. :)

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  10. I used to make scalloped potatoes (several layers of thinly sliced spuds and chopped onion dotted with butter/margarine, hot milk to cover and bake until tender). When your ham is down to absolute scraps, maybe you could use the bits and pieces to make scalloped potatoes with ham?

    Another great use for ham is to saute onions and grated sweet potatoes until tender, then add chopped ham and a teaspoon of dried thyme (plus pepper and salt to taste). The potatoes become incredibly sweet and make a great foil for the savory thyme and the salty ham. We call it "ham and yam," and serve it with a side salad or some green beans. Any left over (doubtful!) is very good the next day with a poached or fried egg on top.

    A big part of our frugal week (month, really) has been trying to eat things out of the freezer to make room for the raspberries that are beginning to ripen (DF aims for at least 26 quarts) plus the rhubarb that is ready to cut and freeze. We've cleared out hamburger, chicken thighs, a couple of packages of Thomas English Muffins from the bakery outlet (50 cents for nine muffins), a couple of loaves of bread and some of the last few quarts of the 2017 raspberries and rhubarb.

    A couple he knows will be visiting us in August and he's saving two of the frozen things to cook for them: moose roast and red salmon. #Alaskagrub

    The other frugal things:
    --Picked up my "Free Friday Download" from Fred Meyer, a Kroger store; it was a 6-ounce bag of Airhead Bites candies, which will go into one of my nephews' Christmas stockings (sell-by date is July 2019 -- it'll keep!)
    --Picked up my free "Just Because" card at Hallmark
    --Found some Pepsi Stuff and My Coke Rewards points in the mixed paper bin when I dropped off our recycling (I've already ordered three holiday gifts using these programs)
    --Packed a snack (peanuts from a big Costco can) and brought a water bottle with me to the library because I knew I'd be hungry in the middle of the afternoon -- and I was, since researching and writing always makes me peckish and I was there until almost 6 p.m.
    --Got some additional rhubarb for free from the Buy Nothing Day Facebook page, and got some free help from my nephews to cut it up; well, not exactly free, as we fed them dinner, but it was fried fish and homemade French fries plus some chocolate pudding that I cooked up earlier that day (from a box that we found in the "manager's special" bin, with half-price milk)
    --Used some more of that half-price milk (close to its sell-by date) to make a batch of yogurt, which I eat with rhubarb or raspberry compote made from fruit from our own yard; I drain the yogurt overnight to make it more of a Greek-style product, and we use the whey for cooking and baking (recently we found it substituted well for buttermilk when making cookies and biscuits)
    --Eating spinach and red romaine from our garden, plus tomatoes and cucumbers from our greenhouse; we also picked some green beans and put them into a jar that holds pickled jalapenos and sliced carrots

    There might be more, but I need to stop and get some work done. Which brings me to yet another frugal hack: I'm writing a review of a show here in town for the local newspaper (where I used to work). I got in for free and will be paid $80 for the piece. I review shows throughout the year, which REALLY stretches my entertainment dollars (especially since I get two tickets and can take someone with me).

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    1. Sounds like a great & frugal week, Donna. I like your #alaskagrub hashtag. The scalloped potatoes are so good and definitely something I was thinking of making with this ham. The ham and yam sounds good too. Keep up the good work!

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  11. DONNA FREEDMON and I may have attended the same high school in New Jersey. She posted that she had a meal in my hometown diner. The Earth grows smaller and because of your blog, Belinda, I know this. Thank you and hope I can confirm her high school.

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    1. How neat, Anna. I hope you can confirm that too. You can always check out her blog at http://donnafreedman.com/. I like that the world grows smaller here. Thank you.

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    2. Was it Bridgeton High School, by any chance? And yes, please do check out my site and use the "contact" button there to get in touch.

      As Steven Wright would say: "It's a small world -- but I wouldn't want to paint it."

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  12. I left a comment on Donna Freedman blog but did not use contact button. We attended same high school. Graduated in 1959, first class to graduate from the then new high school. My senior year I was head majorette and state president of then Future Homemakers of America. Hi, Donna and thanks, Belinda.


    Elmer Diner is nasty at all times.

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  13. I love reading your blog! You give me money saving ideas that I've never thought of :)

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