Food Lion Score!

 

While reviewing the Food Lion sale advertisement for this week, I came across a good deal on pineapple and tomatoes. 

Food Lion has 20 ounce cans of Dole pineapple on sale at 10 for $10.00. 

They also have 28 ounce cans of tomatoes priced at 3 for $3.00. 

 

They are also running a promotion called “The Big Deal”. The promotion states when you buy 10 items of certain product you get $5.00 off of your grocery order. 

The Dole pineapple was included in this promotion. 

Ten cans of pineapple for $10 and they take $5.00 off at the register? I’m thinking to myself, “That’s 50¢ a can!”

I went to Food Lion and bought 10 cans and checked out. 

Sure enough they honored the promotion, and the coupon machine spit out two coupons. One for 75¢ off my next grocery order and one for $1.00 off 5 cans of Dole Pineapple. 

So, I decided to do it again, thinking to myself “they won’t honor it a second time”, but they did; only I forgot to use my coupons. Darn! The coupon machine spit out another 75¢ off my next grocery order coupon. 

So, I decided to try it again. This time I bought 10 cans and used all three coupons and came out of there only paying $2.50 for 10 cans! That is like paying 25¢ per can! 

I could have kept going back, but I didn’t. In the end I bought 30 cans of pineapple and paid $12.25 or 42¢ per can. What a great deal!

Oh, and the tomatoes? 

They had one coupon in the coupon kiosk you could get when you scan your Food Lion MVP card at the entrance to the store. It is good for $1.00 off 3 cans of tomatoes. Then there is a coupon blinkie machine next to the tomatoes with coupons for $1.00 off when you buy 2, so I bought 12 cans, and ended up paying $7.00 or 58¢ per can for a 28 ounce can. 

Another great deal!

It was so exciting to keep getting in on the pineapple deal. My daughter was with me and she was grinning from ear to ear when we came out of there with the last 10 cans of pineapple for $2.50 or $2.90 with tax. 

They also were running a sale on their store brand, My Essentials, pasta in the one pound boxes for 88¢, and the one pound canisters of salt priced at 3 for $1.00. I also picked up some Hungarian paprika while I was there.  

It's kind of rare these days to come out of the grocery store with such a good deal, but it happened to us today and I was excited. 

If you have a Food Lion near you, I would try and get in on this deal. 

How about you? Have you come across any good deals lately? 

Belinda
© Belinda Richardson and Frugal Workshop, 2011-2013.
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without”

Aldi

 Aldi has another great sale on produce this week, so I stopped in there this week to take advantage of the deals. 

I bought the following:

2 - five pound bags of baking potatoes - 99¢ each
2 - three pound bags of sweet potatoes - 79¢ each
2 - three pound bags of onions - 99¢ each
2 pineapples - 99¢ each

Total came to  $7.52 or $7.92 with tax.

There are 8 baking potatoes in each of the bags, which makes them 12¢ per potato. We will have several baked potato nights here, which will  make for some very inexpensive meals. 

This deal is good through Tuesday, April 2, 2013.
 
Belinda
© Belinda Richardson and Frugal Workshop, 2011-2013.
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without”

McKay Used Books

My daughter has been in need of a scientific calculator for her high school algebra class. As many of you know these calculators cost around $100 each.  

I put the word out that she needed one and someone told me to check at a pawn shop, which I did. They sell them for $49.95, which is a good deal compared to the price of a new one. 

I also decided to check out our favorite bookstore, McKay Used Books located in Chattanooga, TN. They also have stores located in Nashville and Knoxville.

 

 One of the reasons we like McKays is because we can trade our used books, movies, cds, video games, and receive credit to buy similar items. Here is a photo of one of the vouchers we've received:

How much credit we receive depends on how many items we've traded. The vouchers never expire and you can spend as much or as little as you want. After your transaction, the cashier will print out a new voucher with your new total and you can keep it in your wallet until you are ready to go back again. We've been trading with McKay for years and the amount always varies. 

Yesterday I made an effort to trade a lot of items because I wanted to be sure I could trade for a graphing calculator. I went through all of my books and traded some I no longer use and even traded a board for our Wi game system that we were no longer using. You can see we definitely had enough for a calculator.
 

We checked as soon as we turned in our trade items and the cost of the calculators was $59.95. 

So, we were able to get her the calculator she needed and not spend any money since we traded items we were no longer using for this. It's a great way to get the things you need and not have to spend any money. The $49.95 deal at the pawn shop was good, but not as good as trading for the calculator. 

This has been a busy week here. I have several things I've been wanting to share with you, but haven't sat down and taken the time to post. Hopefully I will do that today, so expect several more posts from me either today or in the next few days. 

Belinda
© Belinda Richardson and Frugal Workshop, 2011-2013.
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without”

Saving Money on Beverages, Part 2

Back in the early 1990s, I was an original subscriber to The Tightwad Gazette newsletter run by Amy Dacyczyn. I still have all of my original newsletters, which I keep stored in three, three ring binders. 

One day last week I had a substitute job that required me to have a lot of free time and so I took one of my binders to work with me to reread some of Amy D’s original material. 

Sometimes, when you read something for the first time, the information may not strike a chord with you simply because it may not be essential to your life at the moment. Then, when you read the information for a second time, you realize the information has become useful. I know that has happened to me with The Tightwad Gazette on several occasions. 

Last week while I was rereading my newsletters, I came across the article Amy wrote about comparing beverages by the gallon. 

Here is a picture of that section of the newsletter:

Since I had the time, I decided to “do the math” on some thoughts about drinks I had been mulling over lately. 

Since my daughter started attending high school this year, most of the students bring coffee drinks to school or they can buy them in the Coffee Café the Business Department set up to teach the business students how to run a business. My daughter tried the coffee, but decided it was not for her, but she wanted a drink to fit in with her peers. 

One day, on our way to school, we stopped at the local convenience store because she wanted to buy herself a drink.  She ended up buying a 20 ounce bottle of pop for $1.83. 

I was shocked at the price of $1.83 for a bottle of pop. When did these get to be so expensive? I can remember when I was growing up when a 12 ounce can of pop was 25¢. The price of this "convenience" item is getting very close to $2.00, which is just unbelievable to me. Of course, many restaurants charge more than $2.00 for drinks, which I always thought was a lot of money for a drink. 

Let’s do the math on this bottle of pop. 

One gallon is equal to 128 ounces.  

When I divide the cost of $1.83 by 20 ounces it comes out to 9¢ per ounce or $11.52 a gallon. 

Ouch!

We went to Sam’s Club a couple of weeks ago and compared prices. They were offering eighteen 24 ounce bottles of pop for $15.50. This works out to 4¢ per ounce or $5.12 a gallon. 

I compared the price of 6 bottles of pop offered for $3.50 at our local grocery store. This worked out to 3¢ per ounce or $3.84 per gallon. 

Are you shocked? 

If you are a regular reader, you know that I’ve written before about saving money on beverages. 

I can make a gallon of sweet iced tea or Kool-Aid for less than 50¢ in my frugal kitchen or we can even drink water for free. This is much easier on my budget than paying the expensive prices for beverages at a convenient store. 

As for my daughter, I am still working on her. Sometimes she will refill her bottle with drinks from home and I like that she does try to save money at  times. I know she is more thoughtful and careful when it comes to spending her own money, so I take that into consideration as well.

Once again, this goes to prove that you can save so much money by cooking from scratch and making your own beverages at home in your own kitchen.  

Belinda
© Belinda Richardson and Frugal Workshop, 2011-2013.
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without”

Thursday Night Dinner

Thursday night dinner will be a recipe from the Betty Crocker website for Impossibly Easy Taco Pie.  I've made a few changes to the recipe for my family's tastes such as omitting the green chilies and salsa. 

I will be serving this with Greens Beans with Onions in EVOO, Roasted Potatoes, and Pickled Beets. I've also made a gallon of sweet iced tea for drinks. 

Impossible Taco Pie

Ingredients:

1 pound lean ground beef

1 medium onion, chopped  

Taco seasoning mix

1 cup milk

2 eggs

½ cup Original Bisquick mix

¾ cup shredded Cheddar cheese  

Sour cream, if desired

Directions:

Heat oven to 400°F.

Grease 9-inch pie plate.

Cook ground beef and onion until beef is brown; drain.

Stir in seasoning mix (dry).

Spoon into pie plate.

Stir milk, eggs and Bisquick mix until blended.

Pour into pie plate.

Bake about 25 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.

Sprinkle with cheese.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes longer.

Cool 5 minutes.

Serve with sour cream.

It's been busy around here the last two weeks. There is a great deal of sickness in our school system here and so I've been subbing every single day. Spring break starts at three o'clock on Friday though and I'll be back to posting again. :) 

 
Belinda
© Belinda Richardson and Frugal Workshop, 2011-2013.
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without”

Monday Night Dinner

Dinner tonight is Smoked Sausage, Homemade Potato Salad, and Fresh Broccoli with Homemade Ranch Dressing to dip. 

This meal cost just under $4.00 to make at home. Always remember that feeding your family at home is a great way to lower your monthly food costs.

What’s for dinner at your house tonight?

Belinda
© Belinda Richardson and Frugal Workshop, 2011-2013.
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without”