Frugal Fun this Week

We've had a fun and frugal week this past week. 
We had so much rain the past week. School was called off at 1 o'clock on Thursday due to roads beginning to flood. So, I actually got off work early and headed to Chattanooga for a paid pet sitting job. 
We always enjoy pet sitting there. We get to stay in her house and love and enjoy her dogs.
She has awesome unlimited Internet and is close to many of the places we enjoy. It's like having a mini vacation and getting paid for it. 
We stopped in at Sears to get another free item using their Shop Your Way rewards program. I picked up another filter for our kitchen faucet. 
Auntie Anne's was giving away free pretzels on Saturday, so we stopped in to get one.  

We stopped in at Barnes & Noble and found they had planners marked down to $2, so we both picked one out. I also picked up a Zentangle book for my favorite art teacher for $2.
I sold two items on Ebay this week and made $10 on both items. 
I did not do any grocery shopping this past week since I knew we would be out of town. In fact, the lady we pet sit for bought fresh produce and said she forgot she would be out of town and to enjoy it ourselves, which was very nice of her. 
That was a wrap up of our week, how was yours?
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

Second Frugal Week January 2018

This week started out with several phone calls asking me to sub this week and I'm so grateful. School was cancelled on Monday due to the weather, but I was still able to work at three days this week. 
Our Internet is on a data plan and therefore we have to be careful to not use it all before the end of the month. Google Chrome has added an extension for a text only browser to avoid using up all the data for the month. It's called Text Mode if you are interested. 

If you are a Shop Your Way rewards member from Sears or Kmart, be sure to check your account to see if you have any money to spend. I did that last weekend and had enough in my account to buy this free pan. It's a air fryer for the oven. I came home and made some baked potato fries in it and it worked really well. Best of all they gave it to me for free. 

 We have not eaten out anytime since before Christmas. In fact I couldn't even tell you when the last time we ate out even happened.  I've made dinner every night. Here is our menu from the last week. 
1-5-2018 - Chicken Pot Pie 1-6-2018 - Pedernales Potatoes, Corn 1-7-2018 - Smoked Sausage, Green Beans & Onions, Potatoes 1-8-2018 - Cream Cheese Chicken Chili, Mexican Rice 1-9-2018 - BBQ Chicken Sandwiches 1-10-2018 - Spaghetti, Garlic Bread, Broccoli 1-11-2018 - Leftovers - Spaghetti, Garlic Bread, Broccoli
The Cream Cheese Chicken Chili was a new recipe for me, but turned out to be a keeper. Next time I will add a can of tomatoes instead of the tomatoes with chilies to keep the heat down some. 
Cream Cheese Chicken Chili Ingredients: 1 - 12 ounce can chicken, drained 1 can corn, drained 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained 1 can diced tomatoes with chilies 1 tbsp cumin 1 tbsp chili powder 4 ounces cream cheese
Directions: Rinse and drain black beans and to pan.  Drain corn and chicken and add to pan.  Add canned tomatoes, but do not drain.  Add spices, stir well and heat through.  Add cream cheese an stir until melted.  Serve over rice. 
I've not been grocery shopping lately either, so that is what we'll be doing this weekend, weather permitting. There is possibly bad weather in the works for Tennessee today and that will determine if we are wanting to get out of the house this weekend. 
I hope you have a great weekend!

Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

Kmart Rewards Program

Unfortunately our local Kmart is one of those on the chopping block and will be closing this spring. Everything is 30% off right now, so I decided to go and see if there was anything that we needed. 
Kmart sells the Joe Boxer socks in the longer lengths for people with larger shoe sizes. My daughter is very tall and needs the longer length in order to fit properly and I've always bought them at Kmart. 
The night before I shopped I went online to the Shop Your Way Rewards website to look at the coupons and found one for $10 off a $30 clothing purchase. I went ahead and added it to my Shop Your Way rewards card just in case. 
When I first went in the store I thought to myself, "Good Grief!" They must have raised their prices before they marked everything 30% off", because the prices I was looking at were high!
Eventually I was able to find the socks I was looking for and purchased three packages of them. I also found her two shirts in her size and a Rubbermaid one gallon pitcher. 
When I got up to the cash register, my total came to $32.27 and I had forgotten about the $10 coupon I put on my card, so I was pleasantly surprised when it took $10 off my purchase. 

Then I asked the cashier to apply my Shop Your Way rewards balance to the total, which took off another $5.65. My total ended up being $16.62. I came home with 15 pairs of socks, two shirts, and a pitcher. Not a bad deal at all! :)
Belinda ~ Living within my means in Southern Tennessee ~

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