Lessons Learned from the Corona Virus

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Like the Great Depression, many people who have lived through this Coronavirus will remember it for the rest of their lives. 

Many lessons have been taught and learned during these uncertain times. 

Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Someone who has a highly paid job and has money to spend still might not be able to buy necessities. 

Money cannot always buy the things you need. 

This is why we must prepare and why money in the bank is not always the number one way to save. 

Don't put all of your eggs in one basket. Have a stockpile of supplies, including food, in your home for tough times when you can't get to the bank or the store, or if the store is out of food. 

Remember how fast the toilet paper flew off the shelves? I'm sure plenty of people will be stocked up on toilet paper after this. 

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Realize that this may be the new normal and we might not ever return to the way things used to be. 

Will we ever be able to go out into public without fear of contracting coronavirus? 

Will ordering groceries and having them delivered to our home become the way of grocery shopping for the future?

Will wearing masks be something we do for years to come? 

What about you? What lessons have you learned from Coronavirus?

Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~ My Linktree

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Frugal Friday ~ July 19, 2019

Welcome to another Frugal Friday edition. I hope you've had a good and frugal week. 

Last Friday my daughter and I attended a Kevin O'Leary (of Shark Tank fame) event in Chattanooga. We thought it was going to be a motivational seminar, but it turns out they were just trying to sell us something.  We did come away with a free dinner though. 
Inside was a very nice chicken sandwich, chips, pasta salad, and a moon pie. We both received one of these along with a can of soda pop. The event was free, and these were free too, and we did enjoy getting out of the house and socializing with several people at the event. 

This week we both got in on a deal for a free $5.00 Dominos gift card from Bitmo. The Carma Project website wants you to check and see if your family car is in danger and to check for any recalls. You will need your VIN number or license plate number to do this. Once you check they send you the gift card instantly. 
We sold a crockpot that we rarely used on the Facebook Marketplace for $20 and we sold another appliance for $40.00. We are thinking we might need to forget selling clothes and sell appliances. LOL 
My car needed a new headlight, so my BIL bought and put one in for me and only charged me $10. 

This week I stayed home six days. Staying home not spending money and saving the gas in my car is a win-win situation for me. Plus as I've gotten older I have become more of a homebody. 

On Tuesday I ran some errands in town and stopped in Walmart for a few items. They had Cheez-its, in the family size box, on sale for $4.00, so I bought two boxes. Then I submitted a photo of my receipt to Kellogg's Family Rewards and earned 300 points. 

I know it might seem like a hassle to do that, but it does save me money. 
First off, I printed a coupon from the website to save $1.00 off the crackers at Walmart, which made them $3.00. 
Secondly, I printed a coupon for $1.00 off Keebler club crackers, which are on sale at Food Lion this week. 

$1.88 times two minus $1.00 divided by two makes the crackers $1.38, which is a great price for Keebler club crackers. 
So even though it takes a few steps to do Kellogg's Family Rewards it does save us money. 

I made sure to fill out my last receipt from McDonald's, so that we can get another free drink from there. 

My daughter stopped in at Ingle's on Thursday to check out the marked down items. 
She picked up two roasts and several packages of the larger size pepperoni, which will be used as sandwich meat on yard sale day. 
She also picked up several containers of marked down yogurt in the small size for 36¢ and four of the 32 ounce containers for 96¢. Needless to say our fridge and freezer are both stocked up right now. 
She also stopped in at Kroger to use some coupons they sent us in the mail. 
We were able to get two free items, which were one can of cream of potato soup and one dozen eggs. 
We also had a neighbor give us two dozen eggs this week because she had so many. We are definitely stocked up on eggs right now. 
That's all there is to report from here this week. How was your week? We'd love to read about it in the comment section. :)

Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~ My Linktree

Thursday

We've been gone from home the last week because we've been pet sitting for some extra income. We spent four days with a couple of furry friends, but we are back home now and getting things unpacked and back into order. 
Yard sales were rained out last weekend, unfortunately. We did go to one rummage sale that was still advertised, but it was cancelled due to the rain also. We did find one yard sale open where I found a new to me lunch box by Fit & Fresh ($1.00) and two really thick potholders for 25¢ each. 
While we were out and about we did use one of the receipts I had to pick up a free Route 44 drink from Sonic. Sometimes they give you receipts with a survey on them to get a free drink at a later date. I picked out a strawberry lemonade and it was so good and refreshing. 
This week I earned another $5 gift card for Amazon from Microsoft Rewards. 
While we were out of town we were very close to a store called Dirt Cheap that a friend told me about recently. We decided to check it out, but when we got there we realized that only a very small section of the store was marked 90% off. 
Like every other store, they have some good deals and then some not so good deals. 

The one deal I found was on canned peas, which are marked 80¢, but were 50% off, but rang up for 32¢. I only bought three this time, but might buy more if we do go back. It's a distance from our house, but if we find ourselves at any yard sales that way we might stop in again. 
If you love Hidden Valley Ranch you may want to join their rewards program. I just got a coupon in the mail for a free Hidden Valley Ranch product. Just go to HiddenValley.com to sign up if you're interested. 

In My Frugal Kitchen:
This week I made a recipe that I've been making for the last twenty-five years and is called Chicken Santa Fe. 
Place three chicken breasts in the  bottom of a slow cooker. I also added a chopped up onion for flavor. Add a little water for it to cook. Add salt, pepper, cumin, and chili powder to taste. 
After a few hours cut up the chicken and add one can of corn, one can of tomatoes, one can of black beans, and one eight ounce block of cream cheese. When the cream cheese melts be sure to stir it well. Enjoy!
On Thursday my daughter and I were able to get in on some really cheap Subway sandwiches. We received $25 in credits from Postmates to use as $5 off each of our five next Postmates orders. We used ours on Subway and were able to pick up Subway Veggie Delights for 4¢ each. If you're interested in this deal you can click here to get the credit.
That's all the news I have from here for now. I hope you all are doing well. 
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

Third Frugal Week October 2017

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The weather here has finally turned cooler, so we've turned off the air conditioner for the time being and opened up the house and it feels terrific. Resting on the couch with a blanket feels good, I love this time of year.  :)
We went to several yard sales on Saturday the 14th. We found some cute material and my daughter wanted me to make her more pads out of it. I have a feeling anything cute she comes across she will want pads out of it.  (I'm ok with that) 
On Sunday I cashed out some of MyPoints and redeemed them for a $50 PayPal credit. I can either transfer the $50 to my checking account to pay bills with or keep it in my PayPal account for Christmas money. 
MyPoints is easier to me than Swagbucks. I just started using MyPoints again earlier in the summer and only spend a few minutes each day there. I like the fact that I already earned enough for $50 from them. 
Other Frugal Things We Did This Week...
I did not buy any souvenirs in the gift shop at the zoo this week. We went in and looked at what they had to offer because looking does not cost anything, but we didn't buy anything because we didn't need anything they had. 
If you recall one of my New Year's goals the past two years has been to avoid consumerism. This cartoon I saw recently reminded me of my goal. 

Filtered tap water with ice is our preferred drink every day. I have plenty of other drinks to make on hand like hot or cold tea, lemonade, Kool-Aid, Sprite, juice, but water is the most frugal option and I like how it makes me feel. 
I perused the grocery store ads on Thursday to see if there were any good bargains to pick up this week. There were only a couple of good deals, nothing to write home about. 
I stayed home on Thursday and Friday and spent no money, which was nice after the birthday outings this week. I made a chicken pot pie for dinner on Thursday and baked meatless spaghetti with steamed broccoli on the side for dinner on Friday, which were both frugal meals. 
Gas prices have finally come back down to where they were before Hurricane Harvey hit Texas. Gas is now back at $1.89 per gallon here in SE Tennessee. 
We ventured out to multiple yard sales on the 21st and only found things my daughter can resell. She has a good little business running and pays for her own gas and car insurance, and anything else she needs. I looked but didn't find anything I needed. 
The electric bill came on Saturday and it's down to $175, which is down from $223 last month. Turning off the air conditioning has been a real money saver. 
We did stop at Earth Fair while we were in Chattanooga and bought some honey, which we needed. I also stopped at the Bread Outlet and picked up two loaves of Nature's Own Honey Wheat bread for 79¢ each.  
How was your week?
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~