Frugal Friday ~ August 9, 2019

My daughter accidentally ordered some Great Value quart sized bags on her Walmart pickup order this week. She meant to order the gallon size. 
She returned them to Walmart for a refund and the customer service rep showed her how to do a return on her phone and let her keep the three bags she bought by mistake. I'm tickled because I can use these to take sandwiches to work. 

Pictured above is a package of Ball Park hot dogs that we bought on markdown for $2.99. We bought three of them. My daughter bit down on a bone in one of hers and so she does not want to eat anymore of them. 
I called Ball Park and sent them photos of the three packages. They mailed me a check for $10.00 to cover the cost of the hot dogs. I thought that was really good customer service. 

We have three of these containers from Cool Gear. The lids are very difficult to remove. In fact one of them had a fork stuck inside that I could not get out. So, I emailed Cool Gear and sent them photos with the fork stuck inside.
The customer service representative said she could see my fork stuck inside. I just love being able to send pictures instantly to these companies and getting assistance when a product fails. 
She said she was going to send me something in the mail and although it hasn't come yet, I will keep you updated. 
 
Here is my lunch bag I bought this summer ready for my first day back to school on Thursday. I took my sub bag to the car the night before, laid out my clothes the night before and was raring to go on Thursday. 
Woke up early and got there on time, went into the classroom and sat down. The teacher walks in and asks me why I'm there. Ugh.
He had mixed up the date and didn't need me until later in the month. It takes a lot of effort to do all of that and get there and then to not be able to sub or be paid was a big let down. 
He is a good person and I know he wouldn't do that to me on purpose, so I'm letting it go and moving on. I'll be subbing next week, so that's good. 

My daughter picked up a Fannie Flag audio book while she was thrifting this week. She knows I like Fannie Flag's Fried Green Tomatoes and figured I would like another book by her. I'll put this in my car to listen to while I'm driving.

Krispy Kreme was giving away one of their new Reese's doughnuts yesterday.  Your choice of peanut butter or chocolate. I chose the later and split mine with dd and we both though it was delicious. 
I received a neat little surprise yesterday, but I'm going to wait until next week to share it. So be sure to tune in next Friday to see what it is. :)
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~ My Linktree

Consumerism & Second Hand Market

One of my goals every year is to avoid consumerism as much as possible. Consumerism, to me, is shopping for entertainment, going out and buying things that we don't need, or buying things we cannot afford on our budget.

Consumption should be based on satisfying basic human needs such as shelter, food, clothing, and healthcare. Of course, consumerism encompasses different things to different people. Your version of consumerism may be different than mine and that is alright.

Many people believe they work to make ends meet, but upon closer examination of their households reveal they spend part of their income on unnecessary items or even name brand items when they cannot afford them.

My goal is limiting consumerism as much as possible. For example, shoes with name brand labels are not needed in order to take a hike. Board game pieces made from marble don't make the game any more enjoyable than a game played with plastic pieces. 

Around here the Yeti tumblers have been the go to item in recent years, and the price of those is quite high. We don't have Yeti tumblers here, but we each have a tumbler equivalent to the Yeti. And we bought them in the second-hand market for $1.00 each.

In our household we use things up and use things until they no longer useful. Such as a favorite bowl that develops a crack in the side. I will use it until it is no longer useful.

I used to have a non-smart phone that I had for years. There was no reason for me to replace it because it worked great. Some students at school would actually talk to me about how obsolete it was, but in reality, the phone was in perfect working condition and would stay charged for days.

When my daughter finally talked me into using her old smartphone you would have thought I won the lottery by the student’s reactions at school. Even today I will get a comment about getting a "new" phone even though it's not a new phone.

We shopped the second-hand market when my daughter bought it and she used it for a couple of years before she passed it on to me.

We shop the second-hand market for things we need and in doing so are not purchasing items made with new materials for the things we need. This practice not only helps us to save money, but is also good for the environment because we are not using new virgin materials to have something made for us. 

The second hand market is wonderful for trying to live this type of lifestyle. We love to shop at flea markets, garage sales, and thrift shops for the things we need first. And we even like to dicker with the sellers. 

These days I strive to be less of a consumer. If, as the experts say, we have to spend money to keep the economy flowing they can count our household out of that equation. It may not be for everyone and that is OK, but I am content with my life. 

Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

The Tightwad Gazette Frugal Workshop Giveaway

I've been doing some Spring Cleaning recently and realized that I have two copies of The Tightwad Gazette's first newsletter. 
This is the free copy that Amy would send to anyone who wanted one, so this is not that big of a deal. 
There are probably thousands of these out there, but if you would like to have this copy, I would be glad to send it to you.
So, if you're interested in this please leave me a comment and in about a week or so, I will put all the names in a hat and pick one out.  Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~