Thursday, October 1, 2020

Frugal Friday


Welcome to Friday! We've had a good week here. We went to town last Friday to pick up groceries from Food City, and Miss B made a trip to pick up the free remains from a yard sale. The seller left her the items on her porch, so it was a contactless pickup. Other than those two errands, we've stayed home this week as usual. 

The weather here has been rainy for the most part keeping the back porch and steps soaking wet at the beginning of the week. After the rain, cool weather set in, although it would warm up in the afternoons. 

Food City sent me a text last Friday to alert me about a sale on ground beef, which was $1.99 a pound. We perused their sale ad and did a small curbside pickup that afternoon. 


They only let me buy five pounds of the ground beef and I also bought 2 cans of salmon for $1.99 each, 2 packages of cheese @ buy one get one free, and two ten pound bags of potatoes for $3.99 each. 

We only eat salmon patties about once per month. I already had two cans in our pantry and with the addition of two more cans I now have enough to last until January 2021, which by that time it will go on sale again, and I will be able to stock up again. This practice of grocery store items going on sale every 9 to 12 weeks, is part of the pantry principle system. 


While we were in town Papa John's texted me with an offer, and we decided to use our  $10 Papa Rewards. We bought two of the Papadias, which cost $6 each, so I ended up only having to pay $2.20 for these two pictured above. 

Food Shortages?

This week I read a comment on Princess Prepper's YouTube channel from poster hooliganbroome that gave me pause. 

I'm a truck driver that hauls food. Ya'll haven't seen the food shortage yet. The warehouses I go to are getting empty.  I make the same run up north weekly, and pick up from 5 different places to run back down and deliver to several different warehouses. Been driving for 14 years, always food. I've never seen the warehouses as empty as they are. Stock comes in and goes straight to retail. There is not the usual backup stock I'm used to seeing. Has been getting slimmer for about 2 months now. Seems like its getting unloaded in 1 door and getting broken down and sent straight to retail out another door. I've been around all these same warehouses for years and never seen it like this before. I delivered a truck load of an item to my local Publix warehouse and went to my retail Publix 2 days later and they were out of said item that I just delivered 2 days before.

My takeaway from reading that is, anyone who is stocking up now while they can is vey smart.  Could be that people are panic buying, which may be causing this, but I don't know for sure. I think it's wise to stock up while you can. 

In My Frugal Kitchen

The last time we bought a big grocery order was on August 17th, which was six weeks ago. As a result, we are running low on several things. I've babied the eggs, not making them for breakfast in the last week, and am down to one egg. We have one piece of bread left and it's a heel at that. LOL We will definitely have to do a grocery order in the next week to replenish items. 

One day I finished off the jar of strawberry preserves, although we do have a jar of blackberry preserves. Miss B likes strawberry, so I was able to use up two packets of strawberry jelly that we had from Hardee's. I was also able to use up the grape jelly packets I had from there a few days later. It's so great to be able to use up these items. And serves as a reminder that it pays to keep those items because you may need then later.

This week I saved maraschino cherry juice and pickle juice in my refrigerator. I will use these items at a later date to make fruit dip and chicken sandwiches

Meals This Week

Cheeseburgers, Seasoned Fries, Carrots with Ranch  
Hamburger Steaks, Soup Beans, Carrots & Potatoes  
Chicken Fajitas, Mexican Rice, Broccoli, Grilled Onions  
Pork Roast, Potatoes & Carrots, Green Beans & Onions 
Ham, Soup Beans, Broccoli, Carrots, Corn Bread

Saving Money on Entertainment

On movie night this week we watched She’s All That, which is a 1999 teen romantic comedy adaptation of the 1964 film, My Fair Lady. After being dumped by his girlfriend, Zack Siler boasts he could make any girl in school popular. Miss B said it was definitely a 90s movie. The trailer was rather good, which is what made us want to watch this one. 

Other Frugal Things

Rather than use the checkbook register that comes with new checks, I regularly use a notebook as my check register because it will last much longer than the register. To save even more money, I use both sides of the paper. 

I've let my family members know that we are not going to be participating in any Christmas gift exchanges this year. That way they will be prepared and know what to expect ahead of time. 

My laptop has been acting up lately and I thought there was a short in the cord, so I bought a new cord on Amazon. Then this week the laptop completely died and we couldn't get it back up and running. So, I've been using my tablet to comment and post here. 

Well, guess what? 

There was a Dell Laptop included in the free yard sale stuff Miss B picked up this week. We had no hopes for it as it was free after all. But, Bailey was able to reset it for me and so far it is working well. 

We had even taken money out of the emergency fund to buy a new laptop, but ended up putting that money back into the emergency fund. And I've already opened a return at Amazon to return the laptop charger that I no longer need. 

Other free items from the yard sale that we will use include a brand new Avon body wash still sealed, small garbage can, jewelry, and she was able to get multiple clothing items to sell in her online shops, all for free. 

We trimmed the back of each other's hair this week. This is the hardest part to cut if you cut your own hair, so we do this for each other. No need to visit a salon and we save money by doing it ourselves. 

How was your week?


Belinda
~ Living within our Means ~
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18 comments:

  1. So happy to hear that you were able to reboot a free laptop.That is a huge expense. Just love reading your blog, you have so many great ideas.

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    1. That is so sweet of you to say, Kim. Thank you. :)

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  2. Our bank will give us free checkbook registers and when we ask they usually give us 2-3 when we only needed one. But, it is always good to have spares. A free lap top is such a blessing!

    This week in Sam's Club my husband noticed that they have 6-8 pallets under most items to make it look like there is more stock than they really have. We had not been able to get bread flour the previous trip but this week they were restocked. I don't know what to think. We got everything on our Aldi list this week for the first time in many weeks. But, next time there may be large gaps again.

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    1. Thank you, Lana. Interesting about the pallets in Sam's Club. That must be one of their tricks to try and instill confidence in their consumers. Glad you wee able to get in on the bread flour. That is a good item to have in your pantry.

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  3. Been stocking up for awhile now. We have had a few shortages and are just getting the grocery shelves back to some resemblance of normal.

    The truck driver's words have just put a bee in my bonnet that I need to get cracking on the few items left.

    God bless.


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    Replies
    1. His comments did the same thing for me, Jackie. It's good to hear that the grocery store shelves are getting back to some resemblance of normal. I hope this is just panic buying and not real shortages.

      God bless you too. :)

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  4. Love your new autumn leaf background and colors!!

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  5. What a deal on the laptop! so glad it's working
    We bought a kindle fire at a garage sale for $2.00 and called up Amazon to switch it to our name. It's working great too! Isn't it fun to get good deals?

    Regarding the food shortage, it's good to be stocked up some so you won't have to depend on what's in stock. I don't call it hoarding I think they are just running out of food to supply our nation. Which is very scary!

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    1. Thank you, Vickie. Oh my gosh, how neat on the Amazon Kindle and such a great price! I love it when deals like that happen.

      Definitely scary on the food supply. I agree itis good to be stocked up.

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  6. Hi Belinda! You had a great frugal week! I went grocery shopping mid-September and hope to not have to go back until mid-October. I joined Costco and honestly I've already saved enough money to cover the membership price and more. I'm holding onto my Dell laptop for dear life...it's really acting up but my hubby knows how to fix things, so we're very lucky! I wonder if people are panic buying? We seem to be just fine here with food in the stores.

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    1. Oh, that is so good to hear with the food in your stores, Rain. I've not been in the stores here to know, so I like hearing what is going on where you live. I wondered about the panic buying too.

      That's great that your dh knows how to fix things and can keep your Dell laptop going for you. My BIL works on cars for a living, so I'm very grateful he can help keep ours running smooth.

      I hope you have a great week. :)

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  7. Thanks Belinda, have a great week yourself! I forgot to mention, my hubs and I cut our own hair (well, I cut both of our hair lol)...haven't been to a hairdresser in years. We did invest in a good clipper and a great pair of scissors. You're lucky, I wish I had someone close by who knew cars! I just had my starter motor replace, blah...$350.

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    Replies
    1. I feel your pain on the auto repairs. It can cost so much money.

      The amount of money we both save by cutting our own hair is wonderful. I just love it. :)

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  8. Wow you found some great deals!
    So glad you have a working laptop.
    Great deals at food city too. Ours didn't have salmon on sale,and hamburger was 3.99/pound.
    Thanks for sharing about possible shortages. I had read somewhere else that there may be shortages this winter. Lots of people have gardens now, but things may be rough in a few months. Scary thought.

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    1. Thank you, Kathy. It’s definitely scary thinking about food shortages. I hope and pray that this is just panic buying and not true shortages.

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  9. So happy for you that you were able to get a laptop! What a find.

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