Second Frugal Week of February

What a week we had here! School was called off for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday due to the winter mix of weather here. We were/are on Winter Break Friday, Monday and Tuesday, so no school here for over a week. I missed out on several days of working as a result. 

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were no spending any money days.

Thursday was bill paying day and all bills were paid online to save on postage. 

Friday was spent in town doing our big monthly stock up at the grocery stores. I spent a total of $202.77, used 82 coupons, which saved me $116.40 and does not even include the $50.00 savings at Food Lion for the sale on Powerades.  

Here is a breakdown of items we bought:

Family Dollar

Suave Shampoo - Same deal as last week. I had a $1.00 of coupon, so I only had to pay the 10¢ sales tax. 

Cooke's

Cheese, frozen dinners, cat treats, and 40 pounds of potatoes ($7.98 or 20¢ a pound). I found 14 bags of cat treats in the Crash & Burn cart for 90¢ each, and I had coupons for them, so I paid 40¢ each for them. 

Save a Lot

Eggs are/were on sale this week for 99¢ a dozen, so we stocked up and bought 8 cartons. We also used a $1.00 off coupon to score a free bag of salad. 

Aldi

5 bags of onions

Food Lion

I went on Friday to score the deal on Powerades. And then on Saturday I found some coupons to use, so after my daughter's volunteer hours were done, we went back to get more. In the end I bought 75 Powerades for my pantry for 20¢ each. This definitely beats her wanting to stop at the gas station on the way to school in the morning for a drink for $1.89. There are only 68 school days left this year, so she is all set. 

I also scored 16 FREE cans of Campbell's chicken noodle soup. As I mentioned in this post the kiosk was printing out coupons for $1.00 off 2 Campbell's soup and they had them on sale for 50¢ each. Customers are only allowed to print one coupon sheet per day, but people tend to abandon these coupon sheets in their cart, so we picked up several that way. We also bought cereal, soup, diced tomatoes, and honey mustard here. 

Bi-Lo

Bi-Lo had their awesome cereal deal again this week. You buy 6 boxes of cereal and get a free gallon of orange juice. We had numerous coupons for the cereal and at least one of them was buy one get one free. We bought two of these deals and combined with the cereal deal at Food Lion, we ended up with 22 boxes of cereal. My family has gone through a lot of cereal this winter for some reason, so I was very glad to be able to purchase all of these.  

I also bought sugar, bagels, shampoo, and yogurt here. 

Publix

Some of my greatest deals came from Publix on this shopping trip. I used to shop at Walmart so much, but in the last two years I've realized that I can find better prices at the grocery stores and when I combine them with sales and the double coupons that Publix offers, I buy very little from Walmart now. 

Items here included cream cheese, oranges, fish, tea bags, Knorr rice packages, Kotex, Stayfree, ham, olives, beans, sour cream, salt, rice, butter, yogurt, tartar sauce, Alleve, peas and carrots, and chocolate milk (had coupons!).

I bought 18 bags of the Knorr rice for 14¢ each after sale and coupons.

Four boxes of Lipton tea bags were $1.12 each after sale and coupons. 

Four boxes of 40 count Alleve were 49¢ each after sale and coupons. 

Walmart sells my brand of Stayfree for $4.97, which I buy regularly. Publix sells the same package for $4.09, but with coupons I was able to get two bags for $4.09, which blows Walmart's price out of the water! 

It was a terrific shopping day and these are the things we got that were completely free: 

In the end I bought $369.17 worth of groceries for $202.77 and now the bulk of my grocery shopping is done for the month. All I will need to buy is milk and bread and some fresh produce. 

Other things we did this week to save money include:

Tuesday I entered My Coke Rewards points into my computer. A chore I dislike a great deal, but I do it for the free diet coke 12 packs for my Mother who is on a limited budget.

On Saturday we both had our hair cut and used a coupon for that as well. 

We rented a movie, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, with a free rental code from Redbox. CouponDad.net regularly has free rental codes on his blog. 

Breakfasts this week consisted of oatmeal, leftovers, scrambled eggs and toast, toast with butter and jelly, cream cheese with bagels, and peanut butter & jelly sandwiches.

Dinners were:

Monday: Baked Potatoes stuffed with Vegetable Chili
Tuesday: Hot Dogs & Tator Tots
Wednesday: Salisbury Steak, Beefy Mushroom Barley, Corn
Thursday: Macaroni & Cheese, Broccoli
Friday: Homemade Pizza
Saturday: Grilled Chicken, Mexican Rice, Steamed Carrots
Sunday: Pinto Beans, Collard Greens, Cornbread

That's our our week went, how was your week?

How did you save money in your home this week?

Belinda
CFO ~ Chief Frugal Officer
© Belinda & Frugal Workshop, 2011-2014.
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without”

My Frugal Week

Image Credit

These are some of the things we've done this week to save money:

We shopped at Staples on Saturday the 28th and were able to pick up this free, reusable shopping bag. 

I gathered up all the nuts from all the stockings that Santa left and put them all in a big bowl. 

I did the same thing with the candy canes and fruit. 

Some of the oranges were actually from a school fundraiser. Pictured below is a box of oranges that I purchased through a school fund raiser. This is a 20 pound box of oranges and I paid $19.00 for the box, and there were 30 oranges in the box, so 63¢ per orange. Not the best buy, but supporting a good cause. 

Received a piece of mail with a nickle attached to it. :)

We had several no spending days this week. We have been out of school/work due to Christmas break and therefore had no reason to get out of the house, so we stayed home. Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday we stayed home and spent no money. 

We ate every meal at home this week, and therefore spent no money on dining out.

I did a lot of reading, both on and offline this week. One of my favorite online articles of the week was over at Three Thrifty Guys, where Travis from Enemy of Debt shared his story of "How I Paid Off Over 100K in Debt". Very, very inspiring article. 

When we did venture out of the house this week we ended up at McKay's Used Books where we still had a credit left over from our last visit. So, I was able to pick up several new to me books that I want to read for free and we still have a credit left over for the next time we visit.

I was able to pick up Howard Lyman's "Mad Cowboy" book, which has been on my wish list at Amazon for a while now. 

I also picked up several other books. 

I picked up Ellie Kay's "A Tip A Day". 

I also picked up my favorite couponing book, "The Coupon Mom's Guide to Cutting Your Grocery Bills in Half". I had loaned this book out two years ago and haven't gotten it back yet, so I was glad to pick this one up again for free. 

I also went to Bi-Lo to run an errand, and while we were there we were able to enter a drawing for a $25o gift certificate for groceries. We were also given this free insulated reusable bag. 

My daughter had been wanting to see Wreck It Ralph on DVD, but I wasn't going to pay the $19.96 asking price, so we rented it on Redbox for $1.32. 

I purchased gas for $2.80 a gallon today using my Bi-Lo Bonus card and their fuel perks program. I saved 25¢ a gallon and purchased 11.36 gallons, so a total savings of $2.84. 

I was able to pick up three loaves of bread for garlic bread on the bakery reduction rack for $1.18 each.

I found a cheaper source of saltine crackers this week. Before the recession we paid 88¢ for a box of saltine crackers, but that price has risen to $1.78. 

While shopping at Fresh & Low this week, I was able to purchase Always Save saltines for $1.01 a box, which is a savings of 77¢. Continually looking for a better price on items we regularly purchase is a regular part of the frugal lifestyle. 

And last, but not least today we picked up several copies of the Sunday newspaper as there are five inserts in each one today. A good coupon day for sure. 

What are some of the frugal things you've done to save money this week?
Belinda

CFO ~ Chief Frugal Officer

© Belinda & Frugal Workshop, 2011-2014.

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without”