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

Buying New Tires & Front End Alignment

This past February I knew it was time to start looking for tires for my car. 
The first thing I did was took a photo of my tires to get the right tire number. Mine was P235/50R18. 
I knew I also wanted to get the front end aligned. 
When I first started this search four months ago I searched online for tire sales and tire coupons. 
What I found was that if I applied for a Discount Tire credit card and paid for the tires using it, I would be eligible for a $60 Prepaid Visa card. 
And, if I bought four tires I would receive a $100 Prepaid Visa. 
Of course, I would pay the credit card in full the same month I charged the tires as I have no credit card debt and want to keep it that way. 
During the last few months I've searched several places around my hometown and made several phone calls and sent mails looking to get the best deal on tires and a front end alignment. 
My brother-in-law is an auto mechanic and I spoke to him about what I needed. He suggested someone who would do a good job for me and also be affordable. 
My BIL was also the one to suggest Discount Tire to me a while back. 
It pays to put out the word or speak with someone who is familiar with whatever it is you are needing in order to try and save some money. 
Most of the places I called were asking $79.95 or more for a front end alignment, but I ended up paying $45 plus tax for mine thanks to my BIL who is involved in this type of business every day. 
In case you're wondering, the place my BIL works does not do front end alignments or he would have done mine for me. 
I did not jump on the buy four tires get $100 back in February because I did not need four tires. I only needed three due to a flat tire I had last winter when  I ended up replacing the flat tire with a brand new one, bought at Discount Tire. 
Since school is out right now this is the perfect time to get my car into the shop. So, today I took my car for the front end alignment and the mechanic said I definitely needed new tires. 
So, after he was finished, I drove over to Discount Tire and bought three new tires and I charged them on my new Discount Tire credit card because they are going to offer me six months no interest on the purchase. 
Now I have the money to pay for the tires in my emergency fund, but for right now I am going to take advantage of this interest free deal at least for the summer time while my income is lower than usual. 
Total spent for three new tires was $606.15. 
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

Friday

Yay, we made it to Friday. I left for work this morning and tried to turn the air conditioner on in my car and nothing. Tried all of the controls, and I have no air, vent, heat, or defroster. I'm not sure what happened because it was working fine yesterday. The drive into work was OK since it was only around 73°, and it wasn't too bad this afternoon on the drive home since it was about 83°, and I had the windows open, so it was breezy. Fortunately we only have about 13 miles to drive home. 

I just bought the car in March, so I called and made an appointment for tomorrow morning. This should be covered under the warranty. I will keep you updated on what happens at the dealership tomorrow. 

My daughter wants to know what we have done to make any air conditioning not want to work for us lately. lol  I will say though that the air conditioner in the house was working just fine when I turned it back on this morning. 

I brought bologna and cheese sandwiches for lunch today along with some pasta salad and water to drink. 

For tonight's dinner, I had several tomatoes that I needed to use up before they spoiled, so I diced them for dinner tonight. I boiled some spaghetti noodles and added the tomatoes along with some olive oil and basil.  It was good and refreshing. I served it with the rolls I bought at Walmart this week also some brussel sprouts from the freezer, which I heated up as well. 

No money spent today. How was your day?

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

My Frugal Week

Hello to all my readers from the Frugal Workshop.

Broken Dryer

From my side of the street, dryers are definitely part of the planned obsolescence, which irritates me a great deal.  Manufacturers purposefully create products that do not last very long so they can make more money when you have to buy a replacement. This dryer, which replaced one that was two years old, was only three years old. 

The dryer stopped working last Saturday night, so we had laundry hanging in various places around the house to dry. While it is definitely not the worst thing that could happen, hanging laundry to dry is not as quick as using the dryer. But on a positive note, we will be saving money on the electric bill, which is always a plus in my book. 

September Ebay Sales

Image Credit

I sold a total of seven items on Ebay this month and after shipping and fees to both Ebay and Paypal, I netted a profit of $124.08, which helped to boost my income this month. Not to bad for my first month of selling. I probably won't sell that much in October because I don't have that many things to sell, but I am hopeful. 

Auto Repair

I received a call to work on Wednesday, but I already had an appointment to get my car checked out. I suspected it was leaking transmission fluid because of the sound it was making. I asked the serviceman who changed my oil last weekend to check, but he said it had to be checked underneath and I needed to take it to the dealership. 

Never buy a car that does not allow you to check the transmission fluid easily from the top of the motor. I just knew this was going to cost me over $100. 

Turns out there was a small leak in one of the lines and the fluid was five quarts low! The serviceman fixed it for me, filled it up and only charged me $50. He told me to keep an eye on it though because he only repaired the line and did not replace it, so I will have to keep a check on it from time to time.  

Work Week

Other than Wednesday, I worked every day this week and brought a packed lunch from home, so no money spent there. We have one more week and then students are off school for one week for Fall Break. For me, that means five less days I could have on my paycheck. 

Meat Markdown

On Wednesday, I found one pound packages of Italian pork meatballs with yellow stickers marked down to $2.58, so I bought two packages. I would have bought more, but I wasn't sure we would like them. Turns out they were good, so if I see them again, I'll definitely buy more than two. 

While perusing the sale ads and shopping lately, I have noticed that ground chicken and ground pork have been cheaper than ground beef. I've always thought of ground pork as a breakfast item, but with the rising cost of beef and liking these pork meatballs, I will definitely be looking at ground pork in the future to include in our dinner menus.

WFD ~ Dinners this Week

Monday: "Salisbury Steak", Mashed Potatoes, Broccoli
Tuesday: Baked Potatoes, Broccoli
Wednesday: Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, Peas
Thursday: Spaghetti and Meatballs, Garlic Bread
Friday: Nachos
Saturday: Deep Dish Pizza Pie

Free Entertainment

We went swimming on Friday night, and afterwards I made an easy dinner of Nachos and brownies for dessert. Free entertainment, which cost nothing. 

That is our week in a nutshell, how was your week?

Belinda
CFO ~ Chief Frugal Officer
© Belinda & Frugal Workshop, 2011-2014.
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without”
"Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle ~ It will help you save money"

Midweek Update

This post is from two weeks ago. I didn't get a chance that weekend to finish it, but I did want to post it. I've been working every school day and haven't made the time to sit down and finish this post, but here it is anyway. 

Here are some of the frugal activities we did this week:

1. Paid bills online this week saving the cost of postage. The website of my auto insurance didn't want to load for me, but I kept trying and eventually after the 3rd day of trying, the webpage loaded and I was able to pay it. If all else had failed I would have just dropped a check off there as I drive by there every day during the week. 

2. Worked four out of five days this week. I could have worked five, but I had to get my car fixed on Wednesday. The Mother of one of the teachers I regularly sub for passed away this week. The school asked me to fill in for her one of the days she would be out. I told them I would if they could not find anyone else because I had to get my car fixed. They were able to find someone else for that day. Next week is state testing, so I doubt I will sub every day, but so far do have three days scheduled. 

3. Rather than spend 50¢ on the newspaper, I perused the grocery store ads online this week. 

4. Food came from home this week...

Monday
Breakfast:
Lunch: Ham Sandwich, Salad
Dinner: 

Tuesday:
Breakfast: Bagels with Cream Cheese
Lunch: Pasta Salad
Dinner: Homemade Vegetable Soup

Wednesday
Brunch: Brown Rice with Vegetable Soup 
Dinner: 15 Bean Cajun Soup



Here are some of the NOT so frugal activities from this week:

1. Spent $856.05 on my car repairs this week. I've not had a car payment for many years, and I want to keep my car running as long as possible. I would rather have a repair bill like this every once in a while than to have to make monthly payments on a car. 

2. Had a tree fall onto our van this week. 

Of course we were upset about the van, but we are still counting our blessings. You can't see from this photo, but the house sits just past the dogwood tree where the top of the fallen tree landed. The tree could have fallen on the house, but it didn't. And the dogwood tree caught the worst of it. If it had not been for the dogwood tree the van would have received more damage. 

How has your week been so far?

Belinda
CFO ~ Chief Frugal Officer
© Belinda & Frugal Workshop, 2011-2014.
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without”