Second Frugal Friday of July 2022

Welcome to Friday! 
Quote of the Week

We should always be honest because honesty is the best policy. If we’re honest we will have a clear conscience in all matters, and we will truly be free. ~ Titus Yoder

My Frugal Week
Since we didn’t yard sale last Friday, I decided to rearrange the furniture in my bedroom. I now have two tables set up in there to form an L shape in the corner to use as a desk. Someday I want to replace them with a real desk, but until I find a great deal, the tables will do just fine. 
We’ve continued to declutter this week, organize things we’re keeping,  sell some things, and price some things for an upcoming Sweet WeePeets consignment sale in September. We also sold a set of shelves for $20 on Facebook Marketplace.
I filed all of the paperwork from the last month into the appropriate files. I also tossed a lot of paperwork that I no longer needed. After cleaning up my Mom’s paperwork, some from the early 1960s, I want to make sure I’m not leaving stuff for someone else to have to go through and toss someday. 
The top of my cedar chest, which is upholstered, my footstool and armchair were all shampooed by me this week using our Little Green Clean machine by Bissell. They look and smell so good and make the whole room cleaner. 
Bills were paid this past week including my auto insurance. I keep a sinking fund for that expense and put the appropriate amount of money in there each month even though it’s not due every month. That way when the bill does come due, I already have the money to pay for it. 
It’s a good way to stay ahead of the game and ensure the money is there when I need it. Keeping or getting your finances straight will go a long way in giving you peace of mind. 
Bailey went to Kroger on Thursday to look for markdowns. She found 4 packages of lemon pepper chicken on markdown. They are now stored in the freezer for future meals. 
Joy of the Week

Mr. Bo Gatsby

My joy this week has been in having a new kitten. The cats we already have are older and not nearly as playful as having a kitten around. We named our newest addition Bo Gatsby, but now I’m wishing we would have named him Mr. Bojangles or Bocephus. I’ve been calling him Mr. Bo Man, so that name might stick. He provides a lot of free entertainment. 
Question of the Week
Do you know how much money you need in order to live each month?
The book I’m currently reading by author Annie Jean Brewer states she knew she needed at least $500 every month in order to make it. She wanted to be able to stay at home with her daughter at the time and looked for ways to keep their expenses under that amount. 
I’ve crunched my own numbers and know what it takes for me to make it each month. If you’re interested in knowing yours, crunch your numbers and find out for yourself. 
Avoiding Spending
I couldn’t avoid spending money this week as I had an RX to pick up for Vitamin D. 
Saving Money In My Frugal Kitchen
We ran out of yellow onions this week, so I went to add a three pound bag to my grocery order this week. Walmart was out of stock, so I kept looking, comparing prices online and ended up going with a locally owned grocery store for the best price. 
Walmart $3.48 and out of stockAldi $2.65Fresh and Low $1.79
Comparison shopping will save you money. I’m going to the doctors office on Wednesday and I’ll drive right by Fresh and Low, so it will be no problem to get a curbside pickup. I’ll also be picking up an rx, going to the post office, dr’s office, and the grocery store. Combining errands when I’m going out will also help us save money by using less gas.
The egg rolls we normally buy have increased in price to almost $1.00 per egg roll, so that prices that brand out of my budget. What to do? Get out my tried and true recipe for homemade egg rolls. I can get 20 egg roll wrappers for $2.48, so making our own makes sense. 
We’ve done the usual things we do in the kitchen this week to save money including eating all leftovers and using up items we bought. One day I was rummaging through some cookbooks I bought when I came across a recipe card for sweet potatoes. 
The recipe called for pumpkin pie spice, so I decided to make it for dinner. I used some sweet potatoes that needed using and thought Bailey would like it and she did, so I’m counting that as a win since she isn’t a fan of sweet potatoes. The recipe will be In next weeks recipe of the week.
I’ve been making ice tea every day since it has been so hot this week. Several days this week I made two gallons just to keep up with thirsty people. 
Meals This Week
Friday:  Swiss Steak, Buttered Rice with Peas, Salad.
Saturday: Tostadas, Salad, Corn.
Sunday: Beefy Baked Beans, Fried Rice, and Salad. I took the leftover rice and mixed vegetables from Saturday night’s dinner and added toasted sesame oil, butter and seasonings to make a new side dish for tonight. It used up some leftovers, which was the goal in order to save money.
Monday: Fluffy Baked Omelet, Sweet Potato Casserole, Mixed Vegetables with Rice. 
Tuesday: Movie Night ~ Pizza.
Wednesday: Out all day running errands, but made it to the grocery store and bought stuff for sandwiches as it was too hot for anything else. Sandwiches, macaroni salad, watermelon. 
Thursday: Meatloaf, macaroni salad, watermelon. 
Recipe of the Week
One of the packages of meat I bought at the Food City priced at the 5 for $14.99 sale a few weeks ago was round steak, which I bought to make Swiss Steak.  I found this recipe in the instruction booklet for the crockpot received as a wedding present in 1989. It’s been a tried and true recipe all these years and doesn’t disappoint. 
Swiss Steak
Ingredients:
1 & 1/2 to 2 pounds round steak2 teaspoons flour1 teaspoon salt1/4 teaspoon pepper2 tablespoons vegetable oil1 (16 ounce) can tomatoes 1 (16 ounce) can tomato sauce1 large onion, sliced1 stalk celery, thinly sliced
Directions:
Cut steak into serving size pieces.Coat with flour, salt, and pepper. Heat vegetable oil in skillet and brown the meat. In your slow cooker add the meat, tomatoes, tomato sauce, onion, and celery. Cover slow cooker and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours. 
There was enough left over for both of us to have for lunch the next day.
Saving on Entertainment
Bailey and I are continuing to watch North & South this week and have started season two. Bailey went to McKay Used Books in Chattanooga on Thursday. She found North and South season two for 95 cents and season three for $2.95, so we will continue the mini series rather inexpensively. 
What I've been Reading This Week
The Shoestring Girl: How I Live on Practically Nothing & You Can Too, written by Annie Jean Brewer. She has a blog called Annienygma, if you’re interested in reading more of her writings. 
This book reminds me of both Dolly Freed in her book titled Possum Living and Amy Dacyczyn of The Tightwad Gazette fame. The lengths these three writers go to save money is very similar.
The Feel Good Contacts website demonstrates how to tighten glasses that are fitting loosely. Warming the arms up with a hairdryer and bending them back into place is one of the suggestions. 
Freebies

Thank you for dropping by my frugal blog, you are always welcome here. 
We would love to hear all about your week in the comment section.

BelindaDebt Free &~ Living within our Means ~My Linktree

Frugal Friday

Welcome to Friday!
My Frugal Kitchen
We had a grocery store pick up delivered this week, so we are stocked back up on food for the next month or so. 
We bought twenty pounds of ground beef and divided it up into twenty different bags and stored it in the freezer. 
This week I made two dishes that we ate on all week and then today I will be making a Broccoli and Carrot soup for dinner. 
Frugal Entertainment
This week we decided to watch Hocus Pocus for movie night. 
Other Frugal Activities
This was the week for making phone calls. I ended up calling on my auto, homeowners, and life insurance polices to adjust those and was able to get lower rates on all three. The savings on all three policies will amount to $1,077.12 over the course of the next year. I decided this was better for me as I'm not subbing right now and can revisit the issue when I do go back to subbing. 
This week I decided to trim my hair, which looks and feels so much better. 
On Sunday we will have Echo and Rambo here to pet sit for ten days, which will give us some extra income. 
This week I had a Roamans reward certificate for $10 that was about to expire, so I used it to purchase new undergarments, which saved me about half the price on those. 
This week I sold one item on eBay and listed another item for sale, which already has bids on it, so it will sell this weekend. 

Stolen Mail
Since we live in a rural area, our mailbox sits on a country road about 1/4 of a mile from the house. We can't see it from the house and last Saturday, our mail was stolen out of the mailbox along with three packages. Our Saturday mailman has a bad habit of leaving packages hanging out of the mailbox, which is why I think they were stolen. 
One of the packages stolen was for Bailey's allergy prescription medications. We had to make multiple phone calls this week to get those replaced. Since she needed those meds now, we ended up going to town to pick up her new RX. 
Another package that was stolen was from Wazoodle where I had ordered Zorb and PUL to make Bailey some new cloth pads. That was $35 worth of material, so I put in a claim to the post office for that. The other package was a book for Mom from Amazon, which cost $1.29 plus shipping, so Mom went ahead and replaced that herself. 
Planned Obsolescence/New Washer & Dryer
Planned obsolescence is an industry policy of designing a product with an artificially limited useful life, so that it becomes obsolete after a certain period of time. The rationale behind this strategy is to generate long term sales volume by reducing the time between repeat purchases. It is the deliberate shortening of a lifespan of a product to force consumers to purchase replacements.
We bought our Roper dryer in 2014, so six years of service. And our Roper washer we bought in August 2017, so three years of service. We had the dryer worked on this summer when it stopped working, but then three months later, it stopped working again. Rather than spend the money on another dryer repair, we decided to buy a new mid-priced dryer. 
The new dryer came with it's own set of problems. We ordered the wrong plug and they refused to install it with our existing dryer vent since it was not metal. So we have a repairman (the same on who installed our a/c this summer) coming on Monday to install it for us. 
Our Roper washer has had its own set of problems. The transmission went out on it before it was a year old, so the repair on that was covered by the warranty. This past summer it has gotten to where it will not finish a load of laundry without stopping before it's finished. 
We tried to restart loads where they stopped, which didn't work, so we tried starting them over and sometimes it would work, but not always. And the machine was not getting clothes clean like it should. 
So, we decided to buy both appliances new and in the mid-price range, hoping they would last longer than the Roper models. 

We originally order a new LG set, but Lowe's cancelled that set on us as they're having a hard time keeping washers and dryers in stock, which is true across the board for all stores. So, we ended up buying this GE washer and dryer. Let's hope this pair works for a long time. 

Since the washer still works, we've been washing things and hanging them to dry in the house. This will definitely save on the electric bill. Both appliances were bought with cash that was saved up for things like this. 
Whew! That is our week in a nutshell. How was your week?
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~ My Linktree

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Comparison Shopping with a Price Book?

Have you ever looked at the cost of an item on the grocery or drugstore shelf and wondered if you could find the item at a different store even cheaper?

If so you have just applied the concept of a price book. Amy Dacyczyn believed in the value of a price book. You can read a letter from her regarding saving money on your food bill where she also mentions price books here.

Amy who wrote The Tightwad Gazette, wondered if "the various sizes and brands was part of a huge conspiracy to confuse consumers?"  She says the keeping of a price book "revolutionized our shopping strategy more than anything else we did". 

If you don't know what a price book is, it's a frugal tool that people have used for years to purchase items at the lowest possible price. It is also how some frugal people build up their stock pile. When I find a good deal, I buy enough to get me through until the next sale, which is usually twelve weeks, although I usually buy them in quantities of ten. 

This week Food City has canned salmon on sale for $1.99 per can. I already have two cans of salmon in my pantry and we have this item for dinner about once a month, so I bought two more cans, which is enough to last the rest of the year. During that time I'm sure it will go on sale again and I can stock up again.  

A price book is related to the concept of watching the sales, but takes that tactic a step further. Some people use their price book to track actual retail prices of specific items on a week to week basis. Some people do not go that far into the details, but either way will work and I would use the one that you know you will do and works for you. 

Image Credit: The Tightwad Gazette

In a price book each page will contain prices for one item like the photo above. The pages of items will be in alphabetical order for quick reference. Amy includes her code for the name of each store, the brand, the size of the item, and the unit price. Doing this really gave Amy a feeling of control over her food budget. 

Some people today may consider a price book to be archaic. With a computer or smartphone these days people can go online and find the lowest price while staying at home. Or, if you are standing in a store it's easy enough to check the price of the same item in another store if you have your smart phone with you. 

Recently I needed to purchase Ibuprofen. I simply went online and compared the price of each bottle at Walmart and Amazon. I checked these two merchants because I can get free shipping with them. 

500 Ibuprofen at Amazon $9.99 

1,000 Ibuprofen at Walmart $13.98

As you can tell here, Walmart had the best deal on the Ibuprofen the day I checked. That might not always be the case though. It pays to check before making a purchase. 
Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, my price book consisted of all the items I bought and the price I paid on a Word document. It was easy enough to change the prices as needed or check a price and I could easily print it out as it was only one page. 
If you'd like to read how Trent over at The Simple Dollar dos his price book, you can read about that here. 
Whatever system you use this is one frugal tool that will help you save money on your food bill. 
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~ My Linktree

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay and it helps me to earn a living here at Frugal Workshop.

Frugal Friday ~ 2-14-2020

Good morning to all my frugal readers. I hope you've had a great week. 
On Monday I received a call to sub, which I was grateful for since I missed three days last week. 
The rain here has not let up though and on Monday students were let out at noon due to more flash flooding.  School was cancelled for Tuesday also, so I missed another day of work. 
On Monday we went to town to buy a pair of jumper cables. My daughter's car had a dead battery and since someone stole my Dad's battery charger, we didn't have one. So, we went and bought a new set.  

We also bought five packages of Royal ready to eat rice priced at $1.88. We used an Ibotta rebate for $1.50 off and paid only 38¢ each. Ibotta let us use the rebate five times. 
This week I earned a $10 Amazon gift card from Microsoft Rewards. 

On Wednesday I subbed in a classroom with no microwave, so I brought my Crock-Pot Lunch Crock to heat my lunch during the day. 

Family movie night this week consisted of homemade pizza and popcorn. We also watched the film The Blind Side, which is a family favorite. 

Since I had extra time this week I decided to work in my sewing room.
My daughter picked up a pair of jeans in her size recently, but someone hemmed them and she needed them to be longer. 
So, while I was off work this week I took my seam ripper to them and undid the hem. Now they are long enough for her to wear. 
She has been going through some of her inventory and getting rid of anything that hasn't sold. 
She gave me two dresses that I cut up for the material to make other things. On Thursday I used some of the material from one dress, which I upcycled into a cloth pad. 
I used my 2019 Susan Branch calendar and turned the pages into envelopes. 

I took the presser foot and plate off my sewing machine and cleaned out all the lint and dust and oiled the machine. Taking care of my equipment helps it last longer, which saves me money. 

After all of that was done, I ended up making three cloth pads. 
The one on top has Minions and Curious George.  The middle one used to be part of the dress. 

I also cleaned up and organized a little in there this week. 

How was your week?
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~ My Linktree

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay and it helps me to earn a living here at Frugal Workshop.

My Frugal Week ~

This week I was able to work four days and brought lunch and drinks all four days. I made egg salad over the weekend and took those for sandwiches this week. 
Payday came this week and again my check was shorted. ::sigh:: I've already texted the school secretary and she will look into it when we go back to school on Tuesday. 
In My Frugal Kitchen:
We went to the bread outlet in Chattanooga this week and found 12 pack of hamburger buns for 50¢, which was a great deal. 
We also went to Food City to pick up their 5 meat items for $14.99 deal. 
On Tuesday Bailey found two hams on markdown at 50% off at Aldi. She also picked up some red grapes and onions. 
Tuesday is our family movie night and we normally eat dinner while we watch a movie. This week we watched the film, Searching, which tells the story through the computer screen. It kept my attention the whole time. 
On Thursday we went to do some grocery shopping and stopped in at Chick-Fil-A to get in on their free 8 piece chicken nugget. It's a freebie on their app available to anyone who has a Chick-Fil-A in their area.
Somehow I got a slow leak in a tire this week. I took it to the place where I bought my tires and they found a small screw in it. They fixed it for me and didn't charge me anything for the repair. 
I hope you all have had a good frugal week. 
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~ My Linktree

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay and it helps me to earn a living here at Frugal Workshop.

Blustery Fall Days & Soup

Image Credit

Blustery, cold fall days make a hot bowl of soup very appealing.  It’s great comfort food and easy to fill with healthy ingredients. Serving a bowl or cup of soup along with your choice of bread or sandwich several times per month really helps to stretch your grocery budget. 

When money’s tight, adding one or two of these recipes to your meal plan each month will help save money on your grocery bill. When you take the time to make soup yourself you will definitely be saving money.

Broccoli Cheese Soup

Homemade Chili

Creamy Corn Chowder

Taco Soup

Potato Soup

15 Bean Soup

Soup is also a wonderful resource for using up leftovers. Chop up leftover chicken, hamburger, ham or roast. Start by sauteing an onion and any other vegetables you have on hand and you have the beginnings for a great pot of soup.

Vegetable Beef Soup

Use It Up Potato Soup

What are some of your favorite soups to make?


Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~ My Linktree Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay and it helps me to earn a living from Frugal Workshop.

My Frugal Week

Good Sunday afternoon. I hope you've had a great week. 
We were able to get in on multiple freebies this week. I think that was the most freebies we ever received in one week. 

Last Saturday we attended an energy workshop. Afterwards we were given a free energy saving kit. 

One free orange juice from school. 

Three pairs of socks and this cloth napkin from a free box. 
We ordered a free drink from Sonic.

Taco Bell was giving away free tacos on Wednesday, so we made sure to stop by and get our taco. And ran a couple of errands on our to do list as well.  We also had a voucher for $3.90 off of Snickers bars at Walmart and used that and ended up with eight Snickers bars in all. We also used the free Snickers coupon that coupons.com gave out this week. 

Bailey ran into Walmart for something and used the Freeosk to get us both a sample of Bounce Wrinkle Guard.



e had to run to Publix for an RX and I used my Starkist tuna voucher and picked up three cans of albacore tuna for free. 
We also picked up an RX at CVS and got two free bottles of water.
We've been combining errands as usual when we go out, and cooking all of our meals at home.
I've been using up some lurking items in my pantry. One lone packet of hot chocolate, six packets of oatmeal, and one small box of raisins were used up this week. 
Tuesday night movie night had us watching The House with a Clock in its Walls, and we split a frozen Jack's pizza, which sell for $2.50 at Walmart. 
Several days this week it was cool enough to open the car windows and not have to run the air conditioner. This helps me to save money on gas. 
The day before Halloween it rained and rained here and a cold front moved in, so it's definitely cold here right now. 
The temperature in the house is down to 53 this morning, but I'm bundled up in a blanket, no heat on yet, but if this keeps up I may have to turn it on. 

Thursday evening we had some errands to run and ended up at the Samaritan Center thrift store. I found a like new Tupperware salt shaker for 35¢, a steno pad for 35¢, a new box of Christmas cards for 35¢. 

I've been busy sewing this weekend, repairing a towel that had a rip in it and sewing gifts for Christmas. 
Before & After
How was your week? Anything exciting to tell us about?
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~ My Linktree
Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay and it helps me to earn a living from Frugal Workshop.