Sunday Dinner & Other Things

Sunday Dinner is Potato Soup since we have so many potatoes on hand. 

Do you like my backdrop? My daughter was taking pictures for her Etsy shop, so she made a picture of the soup for me.  :)

Here is a link to the recipe I use in case you want it: Potato Soup

I received my first coupon for a free product from Sunbelt Bakery. It was easy for me to earn more than enough points (only 500 points needed) to receive this coupon. 

You can earn one too. 

If you're interested just click here: Bakery Fresh Friends 

We went to McKay's Used Books on Saturday and I traded for three new to me cookbooks. I really like the Marcia Adams' cookbook. She used to have a tv show on that I watched when I was younger. You can still see some of those old tv shows on YouTube. 

 We've really enjoyed our week off from school. 

Back to the grindstone tomorrow. 

I hope you all have a great week! :)


Belinda
Live simply by not spending money you don't have.
© Belinda & Frugal Workshop, 2011 - 2015.

Pumpkin Shortage

Libby's is reporting that you should not wait until Thanksgiving to buy canned pumpkin this year because there may not be any due to low pumpkin yields this summer. So, if you are wanting any pumpkin this winter be sure to buy it now. I bought three cans of pumpkin to have on hand. 

Canned Pumpkin Shortage this Fall

The Great Pumpkin Shortage

We went to town yesterday to do some grocery shopping. Here are a few things we picked up...

The new Food City seems to have lower prices than Bi-Lo had, so even though they do not double coupons, I think we will see some good sales there. For example, they had cream cheese on sale again for 99¢, so I bought five more to have on hand even though I still have some from the last sale. 

They had my very favorite Luck's beans on sale for 50¢ a can with a limit of twelve, which is a great stock up price. And even though I already have chili beans on hand, I bought twelve more for my pantry.  

They had Starkist Pink Salmon on sale for $1.49 a can, another great stock up price. I bought six cans for my pantry. 

I also bought some more supplies for my pantry that we used up over the summer. Baking cocoa, salt, pepper, vinegar, dried onions, baking soda, baking powder, chicken bouillon cubes, and shortening. 

We also stopped at Publix. They sell the Eggland's Best eggs for $3.29 per dozen. I used the two coupons Eggland's sent me for 50¢ off, which doubled at Publix, so I paid $2.29 for each of these. It's nice to have eggs in the house again. 

Publix also has Pam cooking spray on sale for B1G1F this week. The last time they offered this on sale was about six months ago, so I bought six cans, which were $1.45 each after the sale. 

Combining a sale with a coupon, we paid 60¢ each for these Peter Pan peanut butters. I also bought Pillsbury biscuits for 50¢ each combining a sale with a coupon, and Duke's mayonnaise B1G1F for $1.94.We've been using a lot of mayonnaise lately since everyone loves the homemade ranch dressing I've been making. 

Since I bought baking supplies yesterday, my daughter made some unicorn cookies last night. They were delicious.  :)

Today is the last day of our fall break. We were able to accomplish several things on our to do list, which makes me so happy.  The cooler weather makes it so much easier to get things done. I hope you have had a great week and enjoy your weekend. 

Belinda
Live simply by not spending money you don't have.
© Belinda & Frugal Workshop, 2011 - 2015.

Tuesday $avings

Monday night dinner was Chicken Salad with my homemade ranch dressing and Baked Potatoes. 

Using up what we have on hand to save money, I made steel cut oatmeal for breakfast this morning. Since I didn't have to go to work today it was an easy choice since I had plenty of time to allow for the longer cooking time that steel cut oats require. I was also able to use up the cooked apples left from Saturday night dinner in the oats as to avoid any food waste. Of course, I topped the oats with a little brown sugar, cinnamon, and raisins. 

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I've spent a lot of my time off this week  getting things done from my to do list. 

I've cleaned out an area in the dining room that seemed to have become a dumping ground lately. I also cleaned out a section of the pantry that had become unorganized and removed several things I no longer used or needed. We took the small load over to our local charity center yesterday as we dropped garbage off and had one of my tires on the old car filled as it must have developed a slow leak. Combining errands helps to save money on gas.   

I cleaned up the area under our outdoor stairs. Our stairs coming into the house at the top rise up about thirty feet from the ground and are located above an area that we do not utilize or mow, so we planted a ground covering vine there that blooms in the springtime. Oftentimes things fall down the stairs as we are coming up the stairs, a napkin here, a bowl for the cats there, and seems like no one wants to go through the shrubs and rescue them in the summer heat. With the cooler weather it was no problem to get under there and pick up those few items and it looks so much better as a result. 

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We sold six items on our local Facebook yard sale group yesterday and made $62.50 in the process.  I told my daughter that she could keep this for her birthday money.  She needs some new pants for winter and we will go shopping as part of her birthday this weekend. We have a couple more items listed on the FB group that may sell by then too. 

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My friend gave me a huge box of potatoes on Sunday. There are several varieties in the box and we will definitely be putting them to good use. Some of them are green as they've been exposed to the air while growing, but I will simply cut those portions away and they will be fine. I told everyone they need to be prepared to eat potatoes with every meal. lol

Dinner tonight will be soup beans, broccoli slaw, cornbread, potatoes & carrots, and corn on the cob, a meatless meal, made at home, in order to save money.  :)

Belinda
Live simply by not spending money you don't have.
© Belinda & Frugal Workshop, 2011 - 2015.

Frugal Saturday

We made it to Saturday! Yay! :)

My week went well although Thursday was tough. I was at three different schools and subbed in three different classrooms that day. I was worn out by the end of the day. Students are on fall break next week, so no school here next week. We plan on staying home at least the first part of the week and not spending any money, but my daughter's 18th birthday is next Saturday, so we will definitely be doing something special then. 
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Frugal Things I Did This Week include...

- I added 4,150 points to my Purina Rewards Program by entering the UPC codes off the bag of cat food that my cats finished this week. The program did make changes in the last year, but I still utilize it. For 60,000 points they will mail you a free bag of cat food. I have approximately 33,000 points right now. 

- I earned a free movie ticket on Recycle Bank. I used to use my points there for All You magazine, but they did away with that reward. So this time I put my points towards the free movie ticket. 

- I've been emailing companies to see if I can get coupons for their products. So far I have received coupons from Egglands Best, Bush Beans, and Tyson Foods. All you have to do is Google "email companies for coupons" and you will find several bloggers who have lists of companies you can email. 
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From the sale ads this week...

Food City
Sugar 1.59 (coupon)

Vegetable Oil - 1 gallon - 4.49

Publix
Mueller’s Pasta B1G1F (coupon)

Classico B1G1F (coupon)

Club Crackers B1G1F (coupon)

Cabot Cheese 2 for $5.00 (coupon)

I bought four boxes of the pasta, only three are pictured because I made pasta salad for dinner on Friday night. I also bought four bags of sugar, but only three are pictured because I opened one to make cookies last night. 

Final prices paid for the Mueller's Pasta 40¢ each, Sugar $1.21 each, Classico $1.00 each, Club Crackers $1.20 each, and Cabot cheese $1.50 each. 

I went shopping on Wednesday since I was off and then was able to take cheese and crackers for lunch on Thursday and Friday, which was a nice break from a sandwich. 

Sad news for couponers in our area. Publix has stopped taking Target coupons. They told me it was because they weren't supposed to take them in the first place, but I know they take them in other areas of the country. I believe the real reason is that Bi-Lo sold out to Food City, which does not take competitor coupons. So with no competition in that field, there is no need for Publix to accept them now. 

This is unfortunate for me as that is how I was able to get so many good deals in the past. The Classico pasta sauce deal was definitely not as good for me this week for this reason. I ended up paying $1.00 per jar, so if I get the chance I will make a trip to Target and get it for 69¢.
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Breakfast is good old fashioned oatmeal this morning along with some grape juice to ward off any illness. There is a stomach bug going around at several of the schools this week and I would like to avoid it like the plague. 

Dinner tonight will be the Country Style Pork Ribs I bought back in September. I put them in the crock pot early this morning along with some of that free barbeque sauce we "bought" this summer. I soaked some soup beans (Great Northern) overnight and will cook and serve those with the ribs. 

I thought about making barbeque beans with them, but that might be too much barbeque in one meal. My daughter isn't a big fan of barbeque, so I will just make them regular style today. 

I also have about four apples that need to be used up, so I will cook those in another crock pot for dinner as well. I already had the butter, brown sugar, and cinammon out for the oatmeal this morning, so that worked out well. I also peeled one pound of carrots and made those in the pressure cooker. 

I love days when I get to stay home and make really good meals for my family. Oftentimes I feel like our meals are quick and easy on days that I work, so I cherish days like today. 

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In Conclusion,

My friend Sluggy has a giveaway going on over at her blog, Don't Read This; It's Boring. Be sure to visit her blog and join in on the fun.  :)

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! :)

Belinda
Live simply by not spending money you don't have.
© Belinda & Frugal Workshop, 2011 - 2015.

Frugal Things I Did This Week

Frugal Things I Did This Week...

~ Repaired a kitchen cabinet with hot glue.

~ Made more homemade ranch dressing using our favorite recipe. 

~ I signed up for the Sunbelt Bakery Friends program and earned enough points (only 500 needed, easy to earn) to get a free Sunbelt Bakery product coupon. Click here to join: Sunbelt

~ Repaired a tear in a rug with duct tape making it useful again. 

~ Printed January through May 2016 Calendar online for free. Turns out I really like the free online calendars and I already have days scheduled for 2016, so I needed to print those months. 

~ Cancelled Netflix, which will save me $8.77 per month. We were not watching enough movies to justify the cost and then when we did mail them back the waiting time for a new movie had increased from two days to almost a week, which was not worth it to me, so I cancelled for these reasons.  

~ Cut the use of the air conditioners with the cooler weather and have already seen a reduction in the electric bill.

~ Received an email from Little Debbie snack cakes. Normally I would have just deleted it, but this email had coupons inside to print. Sometimes I am too quick to delete emails, and in doing so lose out on a coupon or two, which is something I need to work on. 

~ I was only scheduled to work one day this week, but turns out I ended up working all five days. Sometimes the call did not come until late in the morning. One day I went into the classroom with only four minutes until class started, but I was grateful to be able to work all week. 

~ Made a batch of stain remover using one part Dawn dishwashing detergent to two parts hydrogen peroxide along with some baking soda. This has gotten old stains out for me, so I keep it under the sink with a toothbrush for stubborn stains. 

~ Viewed store ads online rather than buy a paper for 50¢. 

~ Bought two 12 count packages of Angel Soft toilet paper for $3.99
combining  a sale with a coupon, which made them 33¢ per roll. These were double rolls. 

~ Made lunches from home for work/school. 

~ Bought a pizza for $1.00. Our local pizzeria, Cheezie's, had a Facebook deal from Monday the 28th thru Wednesday the 30th. Buy any pizza at regular price and get one of equal value for just a dollar. I bought two pizzas, which cost me $10.07 and we ate one for dinner, which left enough for breakfast and lunch the next day. 

~ My daughter has allergies and she is allergic to most body washes, so today I went to buy her some Ivory body wash. Walmart sells the 12 ounce bottle for 97¢, but I was aable to clip four coupons from Coupon.com for 50¢ off per bottle. Normally that coupon is for 25¢ off. Each bottle ended up costing me 47¢, a sweet deal.  

What did you do this week to be frugal?

Belinda
Live simply by not spending money you don't have.
© Belinda & Frugal Workshop, 2011 - 2015.