Frugal Spring Break

Spring Break was this past week, so I did not work, but did several fun things, and checked several things off my to do list which includes...
Sewing - I repaired several garments that were in need of sewing over Spring Break. I could have spent money and bought new items, but want to see how long I can make the ones I have last without spending any money. 
Oil Change - My daughter's car requires synthetic oil and therefore costs more money than a regular oil change. Even Walmart charges $48 for an oil change with synthetic oil.
Her uncle is a full time mechanic, so I suggested she check with him to see where she could get a good deal. He told her to bring it by the shop and he would change it for her. 
He only charged her $20 for the supplies he used, so she got a good deal and it was less expensive than having someone else do it for her. She also gifted him with some hand soap and shampoo that we had couponed for that day. 

Eating Out - We did not eat out over Spring Break, but we did go to the English Rose tea room in Chattanooga and had a pot of hot tea on Wednesday afternoon, which only cost $3.50 per person. 

A pair of turtle doves landed on the fence right outside the window while we were there. 

Thursday turned out to be a beautiful spring day, so we had a picnic in the park. I brought sandwiches and drinks from home and we had a good time together feeding birds as well as ourselves until it was time for her to return to school. 

Dinners this week have included Meatloaf, Cabbage Rolls, Homemade Chili, and Tacos and Chili Tacos. I've been finding some great prices on both marked down and on sale ground beef, so we have been having it on our menus more than we usually have. 

Yard Sales - On Friday we wanted to yard sale, but think the rain on Thursday night made most of them choose to not set out their items for sale. 
We did happen on one church yard sale and found something on our yard sale list, which was an office chair for $5.00 for my daughter. 

I was going to buy her a new one this year, but decided to shop around and wouldn't you know it? We found one right at the start of yard sale season. They even had several to choose from, so she was able to sit in all of them and find the one she liked best. 
On Saturday we were on our way to the library but decided to yard sale again first. I'm glad we did because we crossed off another thing on my yard sale list...a sewing machine!
If you recall, my sewing machine stopped working back in August of 2015, so I've waited patiently for 19 months to replace it. We found one at a barn sale on Friday, but the price with the cabinet was $150, so we declined. 
The one we found on Saturday had a tag on it marked $40 and works good, but this was close to the end of the day and my daughter heard they were going to start letting things go cheaper. So I offered up $20 and they counter offered with $25, so I bought it. 
Here is a photo of the tag and machine:

I'm so tickled. I have several projects that I want to do now that I am back in business with a sewing machine.  :)

Other things we found today include a towel for $1.00, a jacket for $2.00 (talked her down from $4.00), two umbrellas for $1.00, and two new blankets for my daughter. She would have blankets a mile high on her bed if she could. LOL

How was your weekend?
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

Hint of Orange Iced Tea

There is a small food business based in Knoxville, Tennessee called Petro's Chili and Chips. 
What is a Petro you may ask?

A Petro was first introduced at the Knoxville Worlds Fair in 1982. Sort of like a Frito Pie, it is created by layering corn chips, chili, cheese, tomatoes, green onions, sour cream, and black olives in a cup. They are delicious, but what I love the most about Petro's is their Hint of Orange Iced Tea. 

Petro's used to be located in Chattanooga way back in 1988 and I would occasionally enjoy one. Sadly, they are only based in Knoxville these days, so rather than make the long drive there, I figured out years ago how to make my own orange tea at home. 

To make my own hint of orange iced tea at home I use a combination of regular sized tea bags (7 bags) and Orange & Spice tea bags (3 bags). Several companies make Orange & Spice tea bags. This one just happens to be from Bigelow tea company. I have often used the Lipton orange tea bags as well. 
What I do to make the tea is to boil some water, about two to three cups worth, remove from the heat source, add the tea bags to steep and then cover with a lid. Once that is done I add as much sugar as I desire to a gallon pitcher, add the steeped tea, stir until the sugar dissolves, and then fill the pitcher the rest of the way with cold water. Then I pour some of the tea over a glass of ice and enjoy. I store the rest in the refrigerator to keep it fresh as long as possible. 
The tea is so good and refreshing. I hope you try it and let me know what you think of it.  :)
Belinda

Saturday ~ 9-6-2014

Today is Saturday, which is the day my daughter volunteers at the library. I'll drop her off, run an errand for my Mom and then pick her up afterwards and head on home. We'll take the garbage with us and drop it off as we go today. I saw an advertisement for a home garbage service for $5.00 per week recently. My daughter and I can do this for ourselves and save $20 a month in the process, or $240 a year. The savings really do add up over time. 

Another way we save money here is by lining the produce drawer with paper towels. The paper towels will easily absorb excess moisture, which can cause fruits and vegetables to deteriorate faster. Using a paper towel will help keep your expensive produce like berries and tomatoes stay fresh for longer.

I listed four more items for sale on Ebay last night. I like the idea of earning money for these things rather than just donating them and I love the fact that I am getting rid of items that I no longer use. Decluttering is always a win-win in my book. 

I made a new batch of fabric softener today using up the last of two different bottles of hair conditioner. You can find the recipe here.  You can see I've written the recipe on the side of the fabric softener bottle I reuse for this purpose, which makes it easy to mix up a new batch. 

And we always recycle the plastic bottles. Today, I have a garbage bag full of plastic bottles that need to be donated to the recycling center. We have no recycling stations here, but there is one in the town where my daughter volunteers, so we make sure to return these on a day when we can combine trips and errands.

I have a load of wash clothes and towels going in the washer already this morning. I need to fold the laundry we washed last night and get that put away for next week. I'm working everyday but Wednesday next week. 

We had company stop by one day this week on their way home from Florida to Kansas. We had some special food in the kitchen as a result. Yesterday, my aunt cooked us a big breakfast. Sausage, scrambled eggs, and gravy. They've already gone home now, but I still have sausage left in the freezer, so we will be including that with some of our meals this week. 

After our trip to town, we came home and I started making dinner. I made Rice & Cheese, Brussel Sprouts, and Fried Potatoes. I also made some iced tea to go with dinner. 

Here is a freebie I received in the mail today from The Republic of Tea. They send me a catalog once a month with a free sample inside. Today's sample is Toasted Coconut  Black, doesn't that sound good? I can't wait to try it. 

I had to pick up my daughter's prescription at the pharmacy today and picked up a free bottle of water in the process. I paid $1.50 for the prescription, which is the only money I spent today. This has been a low spending month for me so far, which is always a good thing. 

How was your day today? 

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

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”

Bi-Lo & IGA Run 8-12-12

I made a run to Bi-Lo on Friday to pick up a few sale items. Many of the sale items had a limit of 4 each, which was fine with me. Here is what I picked up:

4 (50 oz.) cans Hanover green beans - $1.48 each

4 (16 oz.) boxes spaghetti - 77¢ each

4 (1 lb.) boxes butter - $1.88 each

1 (5 lb.) bag flour - 99¢

1 (24 family size) box tea bags - $2.35

2 (1 lb.) packages Hillshire Farm Brats with Cheese - 2 for $5.00

The Tetley tea bags were on sale for Buy One Get One Free (B1G1F), so I decided to only buy one of them since Bi-Lo charges half price for one item on a B1G1F sale. Some grocery stores will sell you one for the sale price and then give you the second item free. I like the way Bi-Lo does it because it actually saves me more money. 

My box of tea rang up at $1.18, but I also had a coupon for 50¢ off one box and since Bi-Lo doubles coupons, they took another 50¢ off of that price. Now I'm not a coupon queen by any stretch of the imagination, but I do like it when I get a good deal like this. I only paid 18¢ for that box of tea, which is less than one penny per tea bag! You can't beat a good deal like that. :)

I also made a run to IGA on Friday morning to buy the Butterball Turkey Bacon they had on sale for $1.00 per package. We tried this turkey bacon for the first time this past summer and decided it was something we liked, and so I will definitely be buying this whenever I can find it on sale. I bought 5 packages and plan on using some of this for breakfasts and some for a baked potato bar.

Belinda

© Belinda Richardson and Frugal Workshop, 2012.

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

Heat & Beverages

The local news said we can expect more heat and humidity and is telling everyone to drink plenty of fluids, and especially water. 

My daughter has been having a friend sleepover with her this week and they went through a gallon of iced tea yesterday in about four hours, so I made two gallons this morning and hopefully that will last a little bit longer. 

I’m prepared to make more if necessary. Making tea at home is one of the many money savings things we do here. 

Drinks and beverages are one of the easiest areas to save money on your grocery bill. In my house I usually have water, milk, and tea to drink. I also have keep Kool Aid on hand just in case anyone wants that. 

Maggie from the original Hillbilly Housewife site always said that any drink other than water, milk, and fruit juice was a luxury. She says when we buy “luxury” drinks we are paying someone else to add water and flavorings for us. 

You can read her article on the topic here:

http://web.archive.org/web/20060213041815/http://hillbillyhousewife.com/beveragebargains.htm

After I made the tea, I realized I had some bananas that needed to be used up this morning, and since I had some cream cheese on hand that I price matched at Wal-Mart from the Walgreens sale, 

I decided to make my favorite banana bread recipe from Southern Living magazine. The banana bread is in the oven right now and the house is beginning to have a wonderful aroma.  When the girls wake up I’m sure they will be in here to investigate. :)

Here is the recipe:

Southern Living's Cream Cheese Banana-Nut Bread

Makes 2 Loaves

Ingredients:

3/4 cup butter, softened
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas, (about 4 medium)
1 cup chopped pecans, toasted

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 

Directions:

Beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy.

Gradually add sugar, beating until light and fluffy.

Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating until blended after each addition.
Combine flour and next 3 ingredients.

Gradually add to butter mixture, beating at low speed just until blended.

Stir in bananas, pecans, and vanilla.

Spoon batter into 2 greased and floured 8- x 4-inch loaf pans.
Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until a long wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

You may want to cover with aluminum foil last 15 minutes to prevent browning, if necessary.

Cool bread in pans on wire racks 10 minutes.

Remove from pans, and cool 30 minutes on wire racks before slicing.

Use It Up

One of the ways I save money in my kitchen is by keeping an inventory of items in my pantry. I try to be mindful of the items located there and use them up before they become outdated. Tossing items that are no longer useful because I’ve let them go bad is a waste of my money, and something I strive to avoid. 

Last summer I came across a great sale at a local store for various crash and burn items. Everything was 5 for $1.00 and I happened to find 3 boxes of Lipton tea bags in the 16 count box. 

I’ve had these in my pantry since then and haven’t used them because they are not decaffeinated. My daughter and I do not sleep well when we drink caffeine, so I avoid it at all costs during the school year when sleep is essential. 

Since school is out now and sleeping in is an option I am now in a position to use these tea bags. And so, this week I've made 3 gallons of tea using these tea bags.