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Friday, September 16, 2022

Third Frugal Friday of September 2022



Welcome to Friday! 

Quote of the Week
Slow and steady wins the race!
My Frugal Week

What started last Thursday was a whirlwind of activity that didn’t end until late Friday evening. The driveway crew came around 8 o’clock on Thursday morning and began excavating the driveway. 

They put two tiles under the driveway to keep rainwater from running down the hill and washing the driveway out. They sloped the rest of the driveway so rainwater would fall off to the side rather than down the middle of the driveway. Total cost of the driveway turned out to be $3,000. 

The driveway could still use a couple of more loads of gravel at $750 each and $300 to spread it, but we will save that money up for another day. 

On Monday the mailman came to our back porch and picked up packages! We were thrilled since they have refused to come up here due to the state of the driveway. This will save us both gas money and time. 

We hired movers to move two pieces of furniture we bought at the consignment sale. 

The first piece is this beautifully painted bookshelf. 


The second piece is this new to us desk at only $40.


While the men were here working on the driveway, I cleaned off the back porch from the cats. I threw away several of their blankets because raccoons like to come up there and mess with their stuff. The garbage man came on Saturday and hauled multiple bags off for this reason. 

September always brings the spiders out here and spider webs too. So, while I was cleaning the back porch I used my broom and knocked so many of them down including two spiders that were in a couple of them.

On Tuesday we had errands to run, so we decided to stop in the last day of the consignment sale. This was after the sellers who wanted to pick up their stuff on Monday did that. Everything left Tuesday was $1.00, cash only. 

We didn’t think there would be much left, but we were pleasantly surprised. This is a photo of our shopping cart while we were waiting to check out on dollar dash day. 

Bailey added multiple items to her inventory that now need to be steamed, processed, and listed for sale online. 

Who knew there would be so much stuff left? 



One of the things I bought was a comforter set, which included curtains and a cedar chest cover. Here is a picture of the tag from the sale:


She had $100 originally on the set, which was 50% and then 75% off on certain days of the sale, but we went on dollar dash day, so I got all of this for $1.00. Comforter, pillow shams, curtains for two windows, and a cedar chest cover. This was one of 
my sweetest deals this summer.

Here is a photo of what the comforter set looks like:


Another item we picked up was a brand new Pur water filter for the kitchen faucet. We buy these regularly and they easily cost $20. The seller had $16 on this one, but we only paid $1.00

We also stopped in the bread outlet where they had a fantastic deal on Dave’s Killer bread for $1.50 per loaf, so we got two of those along with hamburger buns and Hawaiian bread. 


And we stopped in at Walmart to replenish our mayonnaise, tea bags, sugar, onions, and cheese. While we were there I found a quarter in the parking lot. 😊 

Bailey went to Starbucks to get her a drink and I wanted an ice water. They will put strawberries in it for you for around 70 cents. It made for a nice little treat. 

The weather was so beautiful and we walked outside to a temperature of 53 degrees, which felt wonderful.

Savings of the Week

Hallelujah! I am thrilled that our electric bill is $125.62 lower this month over last month’s bill in our all electric house. The lower temperatures have certainly helped in this area of our finances. 

Joy of the Week

My Christmas cactus is confused for some reason and has multiple buds on it, which makes it the photo of the week. 

Photo of the Week


Question of the Week

What I do not understand is someone who prices an item for a consignment sale and states no discount on it and then when it doesn’t sell, they leave it to be donated rather than pick it up.

To me it would be better to offer a discount and sell it for half price than nothing at all. Of course, we benefited greatly from people who did this. They would mark an item for $40 no discount and it would not sell at that price, so we got it for $1.00 on dollar dash day.

It just seems to me that selling it for $20 (half price) would be better than not getting anything for it. 

What do you think?

Earning Money

There was a nice surprise deposit into my account of $50 this week. I love it when that happens. 

Helping Others

We gave away a small desk to a gentlemen from Facebook Marketplace as a porch pick up this week. He was happy to get it. 

Saving Money In My Frugal Kitchen

I bought enough groceries last week to make do for this week when normally I buy for the whole month. So many of the items we normally buy have increased in price, unfortunately. One of the things I’ve done to combat this is getting creative in the kitchen and leaning even more towards cooking from scratch. 

Successful Leftover Wizardry Performed Here 

One of the things we’ve always done is to use what we have on hand to make meals. We have a lot of beans and rice on hand to incorporate into meals, which has helped us save money on groceries.

I’ve been using up my herbal teas and using those in place of regular tea for mealtimes. I’ve been enjoying hibiscus tea, which is a healthy tea, several days this week. 

Meals This Week

Friday: Burritos, Baked Beans, Mexican Rice. 

Saturday: Ham, Rice Pilaf, Green Beans with Onions. 

Sunday: Homemade version of Mexican style burritos/enchiladas dinner. I used sour cream, tomatoes, taco seasoning mix, rice, and beans. I scooped some onto tortillas, rolled them up and put them in a baking dish. Then I made a sauce out of sour cream and taco sauce to cover it. 

Monday: Tuna Salad, Green Beans with Potatoes & Onions, Rice & Vegetables.

 Tuesday: Repeat of Monday night or Pizza for movie night

Wednesday: Salmon Patties, Green Beans with Onions, Potato Salad. 

Thursday: Chicken with Rice & Broccoli, Potato Salad, October Beans. I used rice from two separate dinners and no one was the wiser. 😉 

Saving on Entertainment

We are still watching and enjoying Veronica Mars for the time being

What I've been Reading This Week

This week I’ve been reading a love story titled, God Shaped Hole by Tiffanie DeBartolo. It’s the kind of love story that is supposed to change you, breaks and remakes you.

Here is a stack of books from the consignment sale that I’ll be reading soon…


Taste of Home magazine, Treasures of the Pharos, Get Together with Gooseberry Patch,  The Wellness Mama cookbook, and finally, Eat More of What You Love. I love getting stacks of new books to read. 

Freebies

We were given multiple food freebies this week including salmon, chicken, and green beans. 


That is our week in a nutshell. Thank you for dropping by my blog, you are always welcome here. 

We would love to hear all about your week in the comment section.

Belinda
Debt Free & 
~ Living within our Means ~
My Linktree





14 comments:

  1. The dollar dash sounds amazing. I need to look for something like that here. After we pay the visa bill, which had all the labor day and vacation week spending, we'll be back to normal bills. I really want to earn a bit with reselling, but don't have much time. Your comforter set was a steak. Wow, $59 just appearing in your account is terrific.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, Sam. The dollar dash was so much fun. They were lined up to get inside right before she opened the doors, so we were not the only ones ready to shop. It was a lot of fun.

      Reselling does take time, but it also provides a really good income too depending on how much time you invest in it. It might be something you want to do once you retire for a little side income.

      Delete
  2. My goodness, what great deals you got. I love that bookshelf! It is gorgeous. The comforter is very pretty. You did fantastic.
    So happy your driveway is done. Sometimes it is necessary to spend a little to maintain our homes - good investment.
    Have a great weekend

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, Cheryl. It was a lot of fun! We both really liked the bookshelf too. You are so right about maintaining our homes. People need to spend money at times to do that. I hope your weekend is a good one for you too. 😊

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  3. Oh I love the bookcase and desk! And what a great deal on that beautiful comforter and everything for only a $1! Wow! And that buggy full of goodies. Awesome!
    I don't know why a seller wouldn't want to make some money on their items, even if they marked the item for half off.
    So glad you were able to get your driveway fixed, and I'm glad the mailman delivers to your door now.
    Hope you have a great weekend.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Kathy. We both loved the bookshelf and the desk. We are thrilled about the driveway and so happy that our mailman will deliver to the house now.

      I hope you have a terrific weekend. 😊

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  4. You had a fantastic week! What a great deal on the comforter, and all of the other $1 deals. Your burrito/enchilada dinner sounded delicious. I may make something similar this weekend.

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  5. I love your bookshelf & desk. I love everything you found this week.
    Christmas cactuses get confused all the time, lol. I really love yours. I love that sweet pot.

    What I have noticed is that people value their "junk" more that it's worth. This is really big in the crafting world where the used markup is higher than buying new.
    I think lowering your expectations on what something is worth will be a lot more valuable in the end.

    It was a good frugal week here too. Got a nice rebate check from our insurance. That was a nice treat. It went straight into the bank. Did a lot of decluttering for the upcoming move. It feels wonderful to have my home practically back before pre-pandemic stage. I had to store a lot of items for loved ones during the pandemic since they could not store the items in their home. My home felt like a store. I told everyone get it out or it goes. Sadly, most of it went to the donation centers. I will never ever store anything for anybody again. I am still irked about this, lol. It did cause me a lot of anxiety to store things. You know I hate clutter with a passion.

    I took advantage of that offer from Peacock to get their premium service for $2.00 a month. DH & I got to see the new Jurassic World movie that way. That was a nice treat. I took advantage of Disney's D23 offer for $2.00 this month to catch up on movies and watch the new Thor movie.

    Did a huge restock of my pantries since I was able to get rid of all the items nobody would claim. Because, why is it a hardship for me to store it? That is their excuse? Can you tell I am irked about this? LOL. DH & I were able to stock up our freezer and pantries with things we love and like. I know we are moving cross country soon. It will be the first of the year. I am glad to have a lot of nice food on hand for the upcoming Winter months.

    We got everybody's stock out of our home DH & I had more room for our precious books. We did go on a lovely book buying spree. Had so much fun looking for used titles. We bought a lot of reference books for great deals. I did get a series of novels for a great price. PennyDell Puzzles had an amazing coupon deal I took advantage of to buy a lot of puzzle books. I go through puzzle books fast. I usually buy them at Dollar Tree. Penny Dell turned out to be cheaper than Dollar Tree with my coupon deal. I haven't had a huge book haul since 2019.

    It was a good and busy week.

    I didn't know if you knew this. The e-mail part of blogspot isn't working so your subbies are not getting notified of new blog posts. I came over to check to see if you were ok. I realized I am not getting any e-mails from the Blogspot blogs I subscribe too.

    I know it was a lot of gulping and anxiety to pay all that money to get the driveway done. You know in three months it's going to pay you with all the savings from wear & tear on your cars, better delivery service, etc.... Try calling outside your city area to some of the other gravel companies. They might give you a lower rate even with a fuel charge. Little construction tip. ;) I have all sorts of these construction tips having a husband in construction, lol. Try areas 100 miles out of your radius.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are the second person to tell me that Blogger isn’t sending emails anymore. I have it on my to do list to figure out what is up with that.

      I’m so glad you were able to get other peoples stuff out of your house. That would have irked me too. Now you can fill it with th8ngs you love or wait until your move. Have you made any decisions about that yet?

      Sounds like you had a good frugal week too.

      I will try and call other gravel companies too and see what they are charging. Everything is higher right now because of the price of gas. At least that is what they are telling me. 😊

      Delete
  6. That is great and I love that comforter set. So bright and pretty.

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  7. You always find the best deals and your so smart to hire movers!

    ReplyDelete

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