Frugal Friday ~ April 19, 2019

There were four days of school this week and I was able to work three of those days. We're off today for Good Friday. 
Next week I'm scheduled to work four days so far and I'm grateful as they are doing state testing and I don't normally work those days. 
Recently I bought a bottle of vegetable oil from Food City, but the bottle was leaking oil all over my pantry floor. For now I've put what didn't leak out into a glass jar to use. 
So I called the manufacturer to let them know what happened and they sent me three $2.00 off any of their products coupons. I'll be replacing the oil the next time I go to the store. 
We were able to get in on several free items this week. 
One of the items we received was a sample of Olay Luxe Lather Body wash. This item is foamy like shaving cream, which I thought I would like, but realized I prefer non foaming soap.  
We got in on a free drink from Speedway, which was an offer where you had to text Speedway and they sent you a link to the coupon. 
We both received a 22 ounce drink for free. We used it while we were out at yard sales on Saturday, and it was nice to have an ice cold refreshing drink. 

On Monday Kona Ice had a freebie, which we were going to pick up but didn't due to the time.

We did pick up our free Hardee's biscuit on Monday though. They were delicious. 

I also received several orange juices this week from students who were going to throw them away. I think I got a total of five this week. 

We also received a free sample of Wild Zora freeze dried soup. I like the fact that this is freeze dried because it weighs so little, which makes it easy to carry in my sub bag. 

We stopped at the bread outlet one day and picked up two loaves of bread and one package of hot dog buns and one of hamburger buns. Total spent was $4.80. 

We also stopped at Food City and picked up two blocks of cheese, which were on sale for buy one get one free, which made them $2.00 each. 

We stopped in at Kroger on Thursday and picked up eggs for 69¢, milk for $1.39, bread for 38¢, cheese, and two marked down pizzas. 

We also went to JoAnn Fabrics where I was looking for something and had a 60% off coupon. But I realized I could get what I needed online in a bigger supply, so we left without buying anything. 

I received a survey in the mail from Consumer Opinion Institute and received $5 in cash for this. This is the $5 I used to buy the Breville Wok last weekend at the church rummage sale. 

Payday came early this week due to the Easter holiday, so I'll be paying bills and working on my budget today. 

I'm also doing laundry and processing. And I have chicken thawing for dinner. I'll be making a chicken stir fry in my new wok, and serving it with buttered rice. 

Right now it looks like yard sales will be rained out this week, unfortunately. 

How was your week? Any frugal finds?

Belinda

~ Living within our Means ~

Missing Frugal Queen?

It's been a busy two weeks here and I ended up working nine of the last ten school days. Payday came early this month and I've already paid the monthly bills, which always gives me peace of mind. 
Last week I sold three things on Ebay that netted $36.83 after fees for the items that cost me $1.24 at a thrift store and rummage sale. 
We've been in use it up mode here using several items out of the pantry that are good to get off the shelf.   It's so important to use up what you have stored in your pantry because it saves you money because then you don't have to buy more food. That will free up money for other things like an unexpected expense. 
With that in mind, I would like to share a link with you. 
Better Times Almanac
I've shared this link before, but it's been a while. There is a lot of good, useful, and frugal information there. Bob advises people to keep two months worth of food in their pantries. 
He says...

If hard times come your way -- if you get fired, get sick, there's a blizzard, your utility bills are too high, whatever the crisis, with food in the pantry, hard times are less hard. 

One way we do this is our home is to get the Wednesday grocery store sale ads and find out what is on sale that week. Food City has begun to have Friday only sales or three day only sales, so we went yesterday and picked up four packages of sausage, bacon, and cream cheese. 

These were good prices for our area and I've already put the bacon and sausage in the freezer. Bacon is a rare treat in our home, due to the expense, so I was tickled to find it at this price. BLT's will be on the menu sometime soon. 
It's cold here this weekend, so I'll be making soup today. I have plenty of ingredients on hand from shopping the sales and stocking up on them. 
Many people are talking about the Frugal Queen blog disappearing. You can always use the Internet Wayback machine to access her older blog pages. 
Frugal Queen on The Internet Wayback Machine
You can even access her recipes using this link. 
Hope all of my readers are doing well and have a great weekend!
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

The Weekend Edition

Good morning! Food City has a great sale on tomatoes through Tuesday. The 28 ounce cans are only 79¢ with a limit of twelve cans. There is a big variety available. I made sure to pick up my twelve cans this week.

 They also have cream cheese for 99¢ and one dozen eggs for 49¢. You will have to buy four items to get the sale price, but you can mix and match. I bought four dozen eggs and four cream cheeses. 

On Saturday, I made Cauliflower Taco meat for dinner. This is the second time I have made this recipe from Brand New Vegan.
 Here is a link:  Cauliflower Taco Meat
As with most recipes, I did change some things. I  didn't have any mushrooms either time, so I simply left those out. Last time I used all the spices involved, but this time I just added taco seasoning mix and smoked paprika. 
I also used Worcestershire sauce instead of soy sauce because that is what I had on hand. Also, I wanted a Mexican type dish and I think soy sauce would make it more Asian. 
I think this would be a very versatile recipe too. I could see adding chopped up potatoes, which I do with ground beef for tacos, would be a great addition. I also think black olives would be a good addition. 

Cauliflower Taco Meat
Ingredients:
One small head cauliflower 4 ounces fresh mushrooms 1 cup walnuts 2 tbsp soy sauce 2 tbsp chili powder 2 tsp cumin 1 tsp smoked paprika 1/2 tsp garlic powder 1/2 tsp onion powder 1/4 tsp ground pepper 1/4 tsp salt
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove the core from the cauliflower and cut up into small pieces and wash. Pulse in the food processor until you have a rice like consistency. Place in a mixing bowl.  Pulse the mushrooms in a food process until  you have a rice like consistency. Do the same with the walnuts.  Stir in the soy sauce and spices and mix well.  Bake for 45 minutes stirring about half way through. 
My daughter loves this dish already. She has even eaten it cold right out of the fridge. I love that fact that it is plant based and healthy. When I was hand washing the dishes after dinner I loved that fact that there was no grease on any of the dishes like there is after we've had tacos made with ground beef.  

I have a busy week ahead of me as I am working everyday.
 I hope you all have a good week!

Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

Freebies

We received the following two items free this week from Food City because we signed up to receive text messages from them.   

They send a text about once or twice a week or so to come in and get a free item. Be sure to check with your local grocery stores to see if they offer any benefits like this. 

I was driving home the other day when I noticed one of our neighbors had a box of vegetables on his front lawn that was labeled "free vegetables". 
So, I turned around to check it out and there was plenty of yellow squash inside, so I took these for my family and left plenty for the next person. It is very generous when people offer their surplus free in this way.  
Have you received any free items lately?
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

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.

Food City

I just wanted to make a quick blog post about Food City, which has bought out Bi-Lo in our area and is currently in the process of switching over this month. Sale ads come out on Wednesday, and Bi-Lo has stopped putting out ads, so I went online and checked out the Food Lion sale ad in Harrison, Tennessee, which is between here and Chattanooga.  

This week they are having a sale on certain items where if you buy 10 they will take $5.00 off your grocery bill. By using this promotion I was able to buy pinto beans for 69¢ a pound, cream cheese for 99¢, butter for $2.49, and canned vegetables for 39¢. In all I spent $54.34 and had $20.00 taken off my order for this promotion. 

They also had the 48 ounce bottles of vegetable oil for $1.99. 

Here is my order on the conveyor belt... 

I bought four pounds of butter...

2 bottles of vegetable oil...

14 blocks of cream cheese since it has been a long time since we found it for 99¢... 

10 pounds of Pinto Beans for $6.90, which is a great price!  

And I bought some Honeycrisp Apples for $1.69 a pound, a good price for HoneyCrisp.  :)

I also bought 12 cans of vegetables, which you can see on the conveyor belt, but I had not brought them in the house yet. 

The sale ad says their prices will be lower than Bi-Lo prices, but they do not offer double coupons, which Bi-Lo had always done. So time will tell as to whether or not we save money there, but I am pleased with today's purchases and will definitely be checking their sale ad each week. 

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