First Frugal Friday of August 2023
Welcome to Friday!
My Frugal Week
This week I received $11.59 from Amazon from when one of my readers clicks on an Amazon link on my page, so thank you for that.
One thing we save around here is cat food bags. The advantage of having so many cats is we buy cat food in thirty or more pound bags, so the bags are big enough to reuse. One of the art teachers at school likes to use them for aprons when children paint. I like to use them as garbage bag liners as they are big enough for the job.
Target has their folders on sale for 50¢ each for back to school sales. These take up less space than notebooks, so I’ve decided to pick up a few for my recipe collection. Rather than going into the store, I just did a curbside pickup, which is a great way to avoid impulse shopping.
We received a Neilson survey in the mail this week along with $1.00 for filling it out. And to my surprise, the survey said once I returned it, they would send me $5.00 for filling it out.
I uploaded all my receipts to Fetch after I ran errands on Tuesday.
Three months of tax free groceries started August 1st in Tennessee.
Saving on Electricity
I’ve been working on getting all our plug in items on power strips, so the strips can be turned off to help save money on the electric bill. I’ve also been unplugging my chargers. There are a lot more items to plug in these days than there were when I was growing up or when my Dad built the house we live in.
We reuse our towels after a shower. I have a rack in my bedroom where I hang my towel up to dry in between uses. Less laundry means using less electricity.
We have also been turning the air conditioner off completely at night as it is cool enough to sleep with just a fan on during the night.
Freebies
On Tuesday I went to the dentist for my twice annual teeth cleaning. I combined that with other errands I needed to do to save money on gas.
The dental assistant gave me a bag with a free toothbrush, dental floss, toothpaste, and two Gum toothpick tools.
Photo of the Week
This is the first project from Bailey's new business venture, embroidery. This is Red from the Taylor Swift tour. Bailey had so much fun doing this and I hope her new venture takes off well for her.
Savings of the Week
We went to Kroger on Wednesday and we’re able to pick up several markdowns. Come back on Monday if you’d like to see photos.
Avoiding Spending
I ordered cat food for the month of August and we bought groceries, so I couldn’t avoid spending any money this week.
What I've been Reading This Week
Easy No Cook Summer Meals ~ Oldways
Grocery Savings ~ “Real Food” Alternatives by Spring Creek Cottage
Thank you for dropping by my frugal blog, you are always welcome here.
We would love to hear all about your week in the comment section.
BelindaMortgage & Debt Free~ Living within our Means ~My Linktree
~ She looketh well to the ways of her household ~Proverbs 31:27
(Little Penpen) it sounds like another successful week. I just love the jacket that Bailey embroidered. And what a great idea for the cat food bags!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Penny. I hope you have a great day. 😊
DeleteThose empty pet food bags do come in handy. I mainly use them for bulky trash and cardboard that goes to the dump. The oily chainsaw is sitting on one in the shop. They are handy to put things on when you paint. I am saving some pretty bird seed bags to make tote bags.
ReplyDeleteI hope Bailey does well in her new embroidery venture. The jacket looks fantastic.
I love a good school supply sale. I really like finding older file folders at thrift stores. They are so much sturdier than the newer ones.
Belinda I enjoy reading your blog. Take care. Sky
Using pet food bags to place an oily chainsaw is a great idea, Sky. I've seen those bird seed bags turned into tote bags on Pinterest .They are so cute!
DeleteThank you for the well wishes for Bailey's embroidery adventure. We appreciate that very much.
Isn't that something about the older file folders being sturdier? I've often found that to be the case with many older things. They really did make things better even just a few years ago.
I'm so glad you enjoy my blog. It's great to have you here and I'm so glad you decided to comment.
I hope you have a great weekend.
Cute jacket. Sounds like a good one for you. Our groceries are always tax free here in IN - well, at least food items. No junk or other items included in that - just food.
ReplyDeleteHave a good one
How great to always have tax free groceries there, Cheryl. Ours used to be 9.75% until a few years ago when they switched it to 4%. I'll take whatever discount they want to give us. As you know, every little bit helps.
DeleteI love Bailey's jacket. That is so cute. She did a beautiful job. I know it's not frugal at all. It is a once in a lifetime event. Is she going to one of the Era concert's?
ReplyDeleteThank you, Safyne. She had so much fun doing the jacket. Yes, she went to the Era concert in Atlanta in April with her best friend. They had so much fun!
DeleteHi Belinda! I have been using Fetch too for quite a while. You may already know this but my friend just showed me how to do this. Do you know that you can "spin the wheel" once every 24 hours if you have uploaded a receipt. The spin can win you bonus points! I am so mad that I haven't been doing this. For each of the last two days I have won 250 bonus points when I spun the wheel. I guess better late than never but I could have had so many more points if I had been doing this when I had receipts. Have a great weekend!
ReplyDeleteBobbi
That’s great, Bobbi. I saw that bonus pop up one time for me this week, so I’ll be sure to keep my eyes open for it now. That’s great how many bonus points you won!
DeleteI love the free items I get at the dentist. I put them in my travel bag immediately. The toothbrushes go in a bag to be used by anyone here that needs a new one.
ReplyDeleteGreat frugal savings this week Belinda.
God bless.
Oh, that is a good idea to put them in your travel bag, Jackie. I need to do that too. Thank you for the idea. I hope you have a terrific weekend.
DeleteI need to start saving my chicken feed sacks again for trash bags. Thanks for the reminder. I'm also borrowing your idea to use a folder instead of a binder for some of the things I've been needing to corral- way less space and much cheaper.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for the mention Belinda! I enjoy reading about your savings too and I will be back Monday to see your Kroger deals!
Awww...thank you so much, Kelsey. You are so sweet. I really enjoy reading your blog too. We can glean ideas from each other and make it work. I hope you have a great weekend.
DeleteOh I love the embroidery jacket! Great job Bailey! I hope the new business does well, and I need to check out her shop.
ReplyDeleteWe reuse the cat food bags in the garage. They are a lot more sturdy than trash bags. Glad you found some deals at Kroger. I mostly stocked up on cheese since it was the deal here, and I had another coupon which made it $2/pound.
Glad it is a little cooler now, and I'm glad you are able to turn the a/c off at night.
Hope you have a great weekend.
Wasn't that a great sale on the cheese at Kroger?! I love that! Thank you about Bailey's jacket. She is so tickled with it. I hope you have a great weekend too and that it is cooler where you live too.
DeleteI love the jacket! You know it will go wild! Like Cheryl our groceries are tax free in Michigan-our regular sale tax is 6%. The tax free part is cool for back to school clothes I bet.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Vickie. That is so great that you also have free tax on groceries in Michigan. The tax free here also extends to computers for back to school, so it can be a real money save at this time of year.
DeleteWe are spoiled because we don't pay tax on food. When we visit family in Alabama we are shocked by the 10 percent on everything.
ReplyDeleteHubby went to the dump this afternoon and as he was unloading the lady next to him asked if he wanted three boxes of canning jars! Yes please! What a nice surprise!
Wow! What a nice surprise on the canning jars, how neat! Your hubby was in the right place at the right time. What a blessing you have to not pay tax on food, that is great. 💕
DeleteI love the jacket embroidery. Our state tax will soon be gone. They are taking off 1 cent a year until it is 4 cents off. If there is not enough taxes otherwise collected for schools, then the tax will go back on. That is ridiculous. If we had the lottery for schools, we would not need to tax food.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Bailey is working on a Luna Lovegood project now, which is another cute pattern. I hope the tax goes off for you and stays off. Yes, a lottery to benefit education would definitely help.
Delete