The Wait is Over...

We have a new dryer!

We tried to buy the dryer I mentioned from Home Depot, but they wouldn't deliver, so we ended up buying a dryer from Lowe's yesterday for $299 and they delivered it this morning. It is a little bit bigger than our other dryer was and it looks great. We are just thrilled to be back in business with the laundry and have plans to get caught up on it this weekend. 

Today is my daughter's day to volunteer at the library, so we left the house early, took the garbage with us and dropped it off along the way and I made stops at Bi-Lo, Publix, Dollar Tree, and United Grocery Outlet. 

At Bi-Lo, they had Stayfree pads on sale, priced at 2 for $6.00, a real bargain since I normally pay $4.97 for them at Walmart.  Lucky me, I also had three $1.00 off coupons, so I paid $2.00 each for them. What a bargain! I now have 10 of these in my stash, which is about a ten month supply for me. 

We picked up seven bottles of Pom juice for free at Bi-Lo too. They had them on sale priced at $1.00 each and we had seven 50¢ off coupons, which doubled, so all of these were free.  

I also picked up this 12 pack of Fanta strawberry drinks for free using the coupon above I received for free from My Coke Rewards. 

At Publix, they had Mueller's pasta on sale for buy one get one free, which was not a good deal without coupons, but I had two 75¢ off coupons, so I picked up two packages of spaghetti for 25¢ each! Another good bargain today.  

I also stopped in at the Dollar Tree to buy a loaf of Nature's Own bread and a loaf of Wonder bread and since I had a 55¢ off coupon for both, these were only 45¢ each.

At United Grocery Outlet, they had a Saturday only special. Green Beans for 39¢ a can and Mandarin Oranges for 40¢ a can. I picked up 20 cans of Green Beans and 20 cans of Mandarin Oranges, all for $15.80 plus tax. Forty cans of food for $15.80 was a great bargain and is a good example of how the Pantry Principle works. :)

Free this Week 

Three samples of Juicy Fruit.

A very nice five pack sample of Nestle Quick. 

I certainly didn't spend a lot today, unless you count the dryer, but I came home with a lot of food for the money I spent. $17.19 for 20 cans of mandarin oranges, 20 cans of green beans, 2 loaves of bread, 7 bottles of Pom juice, one 12 pack of pop, and 2 boxes of spaghetti. The best part is we had fun in the process. 

How was your Saturday?

Belinda
CFO ~ Chief Frugal Officer
Professor Penny Pincher
© Belinda & Frugal Workshop, 2011 and beyond.
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without”
"Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle ~ It will help you save money"

A New Month

Wednesday started a new month as we turned our calendars to October 1st. A brand new month and a chance to start over again and see if we can do better this month than we did last month. 

This is an older clip from YouTube, but one of my favorites. It is an interview with Amy Dacyczyn, author of the Tightwad Gazette. I like this video because Amy talks about how small things add up. 

She says it is never too late to start learning tightwad ways. To start, simply write down the items you spend money on, no matter how small. The little things, she says, is where you are losing your money. Writing it down and adding it up at the end of the month can be a very eye opening experience. 





I kept track of my spending in September, which is something I don't always do diligently, but I did last month and found I had spent $334.22 on food for three adults. I'd like to see if I can do better in October, so I'm keeping a diligent track of my spending again this month to see if I can find areas to improve. 

On Thursday I stopped at three grocery stores for sale items. 

The first stop was IGA where I bought five dozen eggs, which were on sale for 89¢ a dozen. I also bought one, two pound bag of onions for $1.00, four large cans of Chili Mix on markdown for $1.00, and a dozen cans of mixed vegetables, which were on mark down for 59¢ each. Total Spent was $16.53. 

My second stop was at Aldi where I went for carrots and onions. Carrots were 49¢ for two pound bags, and sweet onions were 99¢ for a two pound bag. I bought four bags of the carrots, and two bags of the onions and spent a total of $3.94. 

This is such a great price for carrots! I can cook these in my electric pressure cooker in minutes and have a very affordable side dish for dinner. And other people obviously thought the same thing as they were almost gone when I got there and it was only the second day of the sale. 

My third stop was the Bargain Barn/United Grocery Outlet. They were advertising cheese loaf for $1.99. We went to see exactly what this was. Turns out it was the sixteen ounce box of 2% Velveeta. I have had this on my grocery list to make my sister's potato soup, but it has been too expensive to buy, so I just did without, making other dinner choices, until now. 

Today though, I bought two boxes and paid $3.98 for both, which is much cheaper than they $6.99 they want for it in the regular grocery store. I also wanted to check out the cream cheese they were advertising for $1.00. Turns out it was the Philadelphia cream cheese in the assorted flavors. I picked up two honey flavored ones for the cinnamon raisin bread I picked up last week. 

This week, I also made a monthly menu for October. It is very basic and does not have very much meat listed in there. As I find any meat bargains this month, I can add them to the menu. 

What I've Been Reading this Week

I stumbled across a new blog this week called Living Stingy. The author, Robert Bell, is a patent attorney living in Jekyll Island, Georgia. Some people may find his views on smart phones, cable tv, and fancy cars harsh, but he makes an excellent point about how these are choices that can keep us chained to a lifestyle of having to work just to pay for such things.  I really enjoyed reading his viewpoint on the topic and hope you do as well. 

This week I have scrutinized prices and shopped carefully. I'm keeping careful track of my spending and we are living better lives with less money as a result. I wish the same for you.  :) 

Belinda
CFO ~ Chief Frugal Officer
© Belinda & Frugal Workshop, 2011-2014.
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without”
"Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle ~ It will help you save money"

An update from the Frugal Workshop

Here is a photo of Wednesday night's dinner. I had half a pound of ground beef that I browned in a skillet with some onions and afterwards added a can of beefy mushroom soup. I also made some green beans with onions and evoo. I also used up one of the bags of Ore Ida County Inn Creations Peppers & Onions Hash Browns that I bought in September from UGO.  I added a can of cream of potato soup from the pantry and sour cream and some bread crumbs and made a hash brown casserole. The entire dinner cost just under $6.00 to prepare and there is enough left for lunch today. 

For Thursday night's dinner, I am going to use the other 1/2 pound of ground beef and season it with taco seasonings. I have some Mexican Rice I took out of the freezer this morning along with some cheddar cheese. I have tortillas on hand and will make something for dinner along this theme. 

Yesterday was the first day I had been in IGA in at least two months. We've just been so busy with Mom in the Rehab Center that I have not had time to stop in there. I ran in for some milk, bread, and butter. While I was there I noticed they had cans of Libby's vegetables for 50¢ each, so I picked up eight cans. Four green beans, two corn, and two peas. If I can find the time between now and Tuesday I may go back for more. 

 Pictured above is a Verizon bag that I had carried some items in, but the bottom of the bag gave way and I was unable to use it anymore. I brought it back home to remove the nice handles though, so I could reuse them on another bag. There are many tutorials online on how to make your own gift bags, so I kept these to use for that purpose. This bag could also be used as a pattern to make another gift bag.

This is going to be the start of a very busy week for all of us here. Mom has been away from home for 52 days as of today and will be coming home on Saturday from the Rehab Center. Her Insurance would only pay for twenty days of rehabilitation and after that it would cost her $150 per day to stay there. They wanted her to stay for four months, but she cannot afford that and so we are bringing her home. My Dad will be here and my sister and her family are coming in from Illinois to help us out and will arrive on Friday morning. 

My daughter and I have spent numerous hours cleaning out her bedroom to make room for the hospital bed, wheelchair, lift, walker, and bedside commode that is being delivered tomorrow. That is where the majority of my time has been spent lately. My daughter and I hauled away three van loads full of stuff. I do believe my Mother saved everything she ever had. It was like a walk down memory lane. My sister's family will be here until at least next Friday while we get Mom settled into some kind of routine. Afterwards the majority of her care will fall on my daughter and me. 

So, I may or may not find the time to blog within the next week. Time will tell. I really wanted to post some of my Thanksgiving Day recipes and I may still find the time to do that. Hopefully we will settle back into some kind of routine here and life will settle down some. That would definitely be a blessing. 

Hope you all have a good Thursday. :)

 Belinda

© Belinda Richardson and Frugal Workshop, 2012.

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

United Grocery Outlet

This is a picture of our local grocery outlet, United Grocery Outlet. 

Do you remember Amy Dacyczyn writing about Caswell's Liquidation center in Lewiston, Maine in the Tightwad Gazette? Or this article from CNN that had this to say about Caswell's:

Jim's favorite stop, though, is Caswell's Liquidation Center, a repository for food items no longer ready for grocery prime time. In this dimly lit warehouse-style emporium reside dented cans, cornflakes whose packages are printed in Arabic and food that has passed its "sell by" date. That's right. "People are confused about those dates," insists Amy. "Often the date means only when the food is at the peak of quality. It doesn't go bad on that date."

We have our own close out store here in the south, which is known as United Grocery Outlet. UGO has locations in Tennessee, North Carolina, Kentucky, Alabama, and Georgia. This is the store where I once bought cheese in the eight ounce block for fifty cents. I bought enough to last for year and stored it in our freezer. We shopped there this past week and I wanted to show you some of the remarkable bargains we found and purchased there. 
.

This is actually a picture from Walmart. This is two pound package of Land O Lakes white cheese. As you can see from the picture, the price at Walmart is $7.97, but we were able to pick up this same package of cheese from UGO for $3.99, which is almost half price. 

This is a bag of Archway iced lemonade cookies. They are priced online anywhere from $3.00 at Shop Rite to $8.50 at Amazon. They are delicious lemon flavored cookies and only cost 59 cents at UGO, which is a really good bargain in my book.

Here is a bag of Allens (another name brand in the south) baby Brussels Sprouts in a butter sauce. These are twelve ounces and only cost $1.00 per bag.  

Here is a bag of Ore Ida County Inn Creations Peppers & Onions Hash Browns in the twenty ounce size, which cost $1.39 per bag, which is a great deal since this product costs $2.96 at Walmart. 

 Here is a bag of Allens Veg All Okra and Squash Blend, which was another good bargain at only $1.00 per bag. 

Here is a family size frozen dinner of Chicken Fried Rice. There were two large bags of frozen stir fried rice inside the box. I made one bag for dinner one night for three of us and it was more than enough. Total cost of this was $4.49 for the box, so dinner that night was only $2.25 for the main course. This was so good that I almost went back the next day to buy more.
 

Another great deal was the Allens Broccoli with Cheese Sauce, and again was only $1.00 per bag. I served this along side the Chicken Fried Rice and liked it as well.

Another bargain I picked up this week was this two pound bag of hash brown potatoes for $1.39. I figured I would use these to make a Hash Brown Casserole for dinner one night.  

Now this is just a sampling of the items we bought there this week. As with everything else, some things are priced higher than others, so you still have to be sure and know prices in your area. Oftentimes I can find Pepperidge Farm breads here for 99 cents, and they did have some on the day we visited, but not any that I wanted. This store is just another way that we save money here at the Frugal Workshop.

Do you have a close out store in the area you live or any other kind of discount grocery store?

Belinda
© Belinda Richardson and Frugal Workshop, 2012 -2020.
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without”

United Grocery Outlet Deal on Jimmy Dean Sausage

I found the best deal this week on Jimmy Dean sausage at United Grocery Outlet. They had the two pound rolls of regular pork sausage for $1.99. I bought seven rolls, put six in my freezer, and gave one to my Dad. These retail for $6.49 at Your Grocer.com, so this was a very good deal. Even the cashier was surprised at how inexpensive they were.

 Other items I bought there include a loaf of wheat bread and hot dog buns for $1.29 each, and two packs of flour tortillas for $1.00 each. 

You can view their current ad here: United Grocery Outlet

Belinda
© Belinda Richardson and Frugal Workshop, 2011.
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without”  

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