Frugal Friday

Welcome to Friday! We've had a good week here. We went to town last Friday to pick up groceries from Food City, and Miss B made a trip to pick up the free remains from a yard sale. The seller left her the items on her porch, so it was a contactless pickup. Other than those two errands, we've stayed home this week as usual. 
The weather here has been rainy for the most part keeping the back porch and steps soaking wet at the beginning of the week. After the rain, cool weather set in, although it would warm up in the afternoons. 
Food City sent me a text last Friday to alert me about a sale on ground beef, which was $1.99 a pound. We perused their sale ad and did a small curbside pickup that afternoon. 

They only let me buy five pounds of the ground beef and I also bought 2 cans of salmon for $1.99 each, 2 packages of cheese @ buy one get one free, and two ten pound bags of potatoes for $3.99 each. 
We only eat salmon patties about once per month. I already had two cans in our pantry and with the addition of two more cans I now have enough to last until January 2021, which by that time it will go on sale again, and I will be able to stock up again. This practice of grocery store items going on sale every 9 to 12 weeks, is part of the pantry principle system. 

While we were in town Papa John's texted me with an offer, and we decided to use our  $10 Papa Rewards. We bought two of the Papadias, which cost $6 each, so I ended up only having to pay $2.20 for these two pictured above. 
Food Shortages?
This week I read a comment on Princess Prepper's YouTube channel from poster hooliganbroome that gave me pause. 

I'm a truck driver that hauls food. Ya'll haven't seen the food shortage yet. The warehouses I go to are getting empty.  I make the same run up north weekly, and pick up from 5 different places to run back down and deliver to several different warehouses. Been driving for 14 years, always food. I've never seen the warehouses as empty as they are. Stock comes in and goes straight to retail. There is not the usual backup stock I'm used to seeing. Has been getting slimmer for about 2 months now. Seems like its getting unloaded in 1 door and getting broken down and sent straight to retail out another door. I've been around all these same warehouses for years and never seen it like this before. I delivered a truck load of an item to my local Publix warehouse and went to my retail Publix 2 days later and they were out of said item that I just delivered 2 days before.

My takeaway from reading that is, anyone who is stocking up now while they can is vey smart.  Could be that people are panic buying, which may be causing this, but I don't know for sure. I think it's wise to stock up while you can. 

In My Frugal Kitchen
The last time we bought a big grocery order was on August 17th, which was six weeks ago. As a result, we are running low on several things. I've babied the eggs, not making them for breakfast in the last week, and am down to one egg. We have one piece of bread left and it's a heel at that. LOL We will definitely have to do a grocery order in the next week to replenish items. 
One day I finished off the jar of strawberry preserves, although we do have a jar of blackberry preserves. Miss B likes strawberry, so I was able to use up two packets of strawberry jelly that we had from Hardee's. I was also able to use up the grape jelly packets I had from there a few days later. It's so great to be able to use up these items. And serves as a reminder that it pays to keep those items because you may need then later.
This week I saved maraschino cherry juice and pickle juice in my refrigerator. I will use these items at a later date to make fruit dip and chicken sandwiches. 
Meals This Week
Cheeseburgers, Seasoned Fries, Carrots with Ranch  Hamburger Steaks, Soup Beans, Carrots & Potatoes  Chicken Fajitas, Mexican Rice, Broccoli, Grilled Onions  Pork Roast, Potatoes & Carrots, Green Beans & Onions Ham, Soup Beans, Broccoli, Carrots, Corn Bread
Saving Money on Entertainment
On movie night this week we watched She’s All That, which is a 1999 teen romantic comedy adaptation of the 1964 film, My Fair Lady. After being dumped by his girlfriend, Zack Siler boasts he could make any girl in school popular. Miss B said it was definitely a 90s movie. The trailer was rather good, which is what made us want to watch this one. 
Other Frugal Things
Rather than use the checkbook register that comes with new checks, I regularly use a notebook as my check register because it will last much longer than the register. To save even more money, I use both sides of the paper. 
I've let my family members know that we are not going to be participating in any Christmas gift exchanges this year. That way they will be prepared and know what to expect ahead of time. 
My laptop has been acting up lately and I thought there was a short in the cord, so I bought a new cord on Amazon. Then this week the laptop completely died and we couldn't get it back up and running. So, I've been using my tablet to comment and post here. 
Well, guess what? 
There was a Dell Laptop included in the free yard sale stuff Miss B picked up this week. We had no hopes for it as it was free after all. But, Bailey was able to reset it for me and so far it is working well. 
We had even taken money out of the emergency fund to buy a new laptop, but ended up putting that money back into the emergency fund. And I've already opened a return at Amazon to return the laptop charger that I no longer need. 
Other free items from the yard sale that we will use include a brand new Avon body wash still sealed, small garbage can, jewelry, and she was able to get multiple clothing items to sell in her online shops, all for free. 
We trimmed the back of each other's hair this week. This is the hardest part to cut if you cut your own hair, so we do this for each other. No need to visit a salon and we save money by doing it ourselves. 
How was your week?

Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~ My Linktree

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