Fourth Frugal Friday of February 2024

Welcome to Frugal Friday! 
My Frugal Week
This morning I went to Food City and Save a Lot to get in on two grocery deals. Food City has ground chuck for $1.99 a pound, limit of ten pounds, when you buy $25 worth of store brand groceries, today and tomorrow only. Save a Lot has chicken leg quarters on sale for 59 cents a pound, and I bought two bags. 
While cleaning in Dad's kitchen, we found an old crockpot with a glass lid. My own smaller crock pot had a plastic lid that was cracked, so I exchanged them. We will sell his old one at the consignment sale, but now mine has a glass lid. Woo Hoo! It's the little things that bring me joy. 
We rode Dad's four wheeler around the yard (we have 20 acres here) and picked up trash that had blown into the yard. We brought a nice Rubbermaid Brute garbage can over here from his yard, but emptied it out into a garbage bag beforehand. We took it to Fletcher spout and rinsed it out very well.  
I attended the class at The Samaritan Center again this week and earned another $10 in thrift store credit. I bought some more flannel blankets for 25 cents. This week they made a Caribbean Casserole for us to try and it was really good. I'll include it in the recipe of the week in Monday's post.  
On Tuesday we went to the $5 Bargain Tuesday at UEC, and both received a free popcorn for being a rewards member. We watched The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. This is the book club reading for this month, which meets tonight, so she's excited to have read the book AND watched the movie. 
Savings of the Week

On Wednesday I went to Chattanooga to run errands and went to the UGO on Highway 58. Thanks very much to Toni, I found Lord Chesterfield's butter beans for 79 cents per can! Toni said, "in this day and age we have to watch out for each other" and I definitely agree with her. I sure do appreciate her letting me know this.
Other items I bought include Kraft shredded cheese in the eight ounce packages for $1.00, Tyson spicy plant based nuggets in the one pound package for $1.99, and I bought one to try. If we like them, that is a great price for one pound of "meat". 
Blueberries and pineberries were $1.50 for the larger container, tortillas for 50 cents a pack, EVOO for $3.99, and several other items as well. 
Coupons
Bailey and I both use the Cetaphil soap to wash our hands here as it is a very moisturizing soap that doesn't leave our hands dried out. It's more expensive than other soaps at around $11 for three bars, but you can go to the website and print a coupon for $4.00 off if you're interested. 
Speaking of coupons, I found a stash in a filing cabinet in Dad's office from the 1980s with no expiration date. The values are low, but they will still work. We also received coupons from Kroger and Frito Lay & Pepsi this week from their Tasty Rewards program, and now they will let you order coupons every two weeks. 
Joy of the Week & Freebies
While I was running errands this week I came across a lady who wanted to chat while we were both waiting on an event  to start. She was very sweet and even asked to pray with me. 
She goes to food giveaways and what she can't use she keeps in her car and gives it to people she meets, people like me. She had me go look in her box, and I picked out a box of broth, crackers and some granola bars. 
Wasn't that sweet of her? The whole encounter reminded me of the scripture found in the book of Hebrews 13:2, "Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some have entertained angels unawares."
Photo of the Week

In the photo above you'll see two brand new cans of Spectracide wasp spray. We buy these at Lowe's in a dual pack and keep a supply on hand. Bailey opened a new pack last week and both cans were empty, so I called Spectracide and they sent me two new bottles to replace them. That was great customer service in my book. 

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.

BelindaHomemaker at HeartMortgage & Debt Free~ Living within our Means ~My Linktree
~ She looketh well to the ways of her household ~Proverbs 31:27

Frugal Friday 2-7-2020

This week was going to be a good one financially as I was scheduled to work every day. Then on Tuesday the announcement came that school would be closed for the rest of the week due to illness, unfortunately. 
It then started raining on Tuesday and we received a months worth of rain in two days. Other school systems around us were closing because of all the flash flooding. I'm positive that school would have been called off anyway due to all the road closures. 

On Thursday we ran a few errands. My daughter wanted to coupon this week, so we did. 
We went to Publix where we bought multiple packages of Kotex for 50¢  per package. 

We picked up two bottles of Herbal Essence for 57¢ each. 

We also picked up multiple packages of Equal sweetener for free. We won't use those, so we donated them to The Little Free Pantry.  
You can see them here in the lower left hand of the photo.   
We also stopped at Walmart and found a box of Crackers for 58¢, one container of I Can't Believe it's Not Butter for free, and three packages of Cup Noodles Stir Fry Cups for 78¢ each. Ibotta is offering a rebate on those, so they were free.

 

We watched the movie Harriett for our movie night this week. Based on the true story of Harriett Tubman, we both really enjoyed the film. 

Gas is down to $1.88 per gallon here this week!
We went to the bread outlet this week and scored thirty hamburger buns for $1.99. 
I got a new book this week: 

Image Credit

The Berkeley Co-op food book: Eat better and spend less. I've not finished reading it yet, but I like what I see. 

We received multiple freebies this week. 

Yeast & some coupons:

One Bar of Soap:

Stickers from Stickermule:

Cottonelle Wipes from Freeosk:

How was your 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.

Frugal Friday ~ December 6, 2019

“There is no dignity

quite so impressive,

and no independence

quite so important,

as living within your means.”

 ~ Calvin Coolidge

This week I worked four days and had Tuesday off. I used the day off to clean out a closet and work on Christmas presents such as hand warmers, key chains and felt food. 

Last Friday we spent the day with family before they went back to Florida. They treated us out to lunch at a local restaurant where I ordered my favorite, which is their patty melt. 
This week we snagged a free year of Disney as a reward from Verizon wireless. So far I've been catching up on some of my favorite Christmas movies. 

My daughter found a cat food deal from chewy.com this week. She was able to order four giant bags of cat food for only $18.00 total. Pictured above is our cat Scrappy with the boxes. 

Verizon sent us a $20 Amazon gift card this week for our one year anniversary with them.

I earned a $15 gift card to Amazon from Swagbucks this week. I used it as part of a payment towards a Christmas present. I also clipped a coupon on the Amazon website and received $23 off the product I ordered.

The Joy of Cooking cookbook that I won recently came in the mail this week.

Bojangles sent me a coupon via email for a free cinnamon biscuit for December from their Barnyard Calendar. If you live near a Bojangles and want to sign up for their Barnyard Calendar, click here. 

Each month they will send you that month's calendar to print along with a coupon that is good for the entire month. Best of all, it's free to join.

One day this week I cut up this shirt to reuse the fabric on something else. It's a beautiful fall print fabric. I also saved the ten pearl buttons that came with the shirt. 

I also repaired the hem on a dress for my daughter, replaced a broken snap on one of her cloth pads, and repaired another cloth pad that is simply worn out. She loves it though and is unwilling to part with it, so Mom to the rescue. 

Her and I finished posting two lists of clothing items for sale to both eBay and Mercari. As a result her sales have gone up and she was able to cancel a $50 monthly fee for maintaining the lists. We put our noses to the grindstone to get them done, and  the payoff was worth it in the end. 

We cooked every meal from home this week as usual. All lunches and drinks consumed this week were also brought from home. 

We've had to have the heat on at home several times this week. We keep the heater on 60, so I know when it clicks on that it's pretty cold in the house. Any lower than that and it's too cold for me. 


My Dad has moved back to Tennessee for the winter. The land he is living on right now does not have a driveway and he needs to build one. He asked me if I knew someone who could help him and I mentioned the person who does our garbage for us as he did a lot of yard work for us this year. 
He and my Dad worked out a great bartering deal. Timmy is going to help Dad build the driveway at $15 per hour, but instead of cash Dad is going to have Timmy work towards a truck and 5th wheel camper my Dad was going to sell. 
It's a win-win situation as Dad gets the driveway he needs and Timmy gets a truck and camper that he wants. 
This week I needed to order a clothing item online, and ended up getting free shipping and 50% off my order, which was a $32 savings. 
How was your week?Any frugal wins you'd like to tell us about in the comment section? We would love to hear about them. 

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.

Good Deal Alert on Suave Deodorant at Publix

There is a good deal going on right now at Publix on Suave deodorant. 
Publix has the Suave deodorant on sale for buy one get one free. 
The price of the deodorant is $1.99, which makes them approximately $1.00 each. 
Publix also has a coupon in their purple sale flyer for $1.00 off when you buy two of the deodorants.
Y0u can get the purple sale flyer as soon as you walk into the store alongside their sale flyers. 
You can use each coupon up to four times, which means you can buy eight of the deodorants. 
They will end up costing you approximately 50¢ each, which is a great deal. 
The sale is going on through Tuesday if you're interested. 
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

Frugal Frugal ~ 4-5-2019

This week I was able to work three days and packed lunches and drinks all three days. I've had five no spend days this week, which helps me to meet some of my goals. 

Cloth napkins are always included with my packed lunch from home. In fact this month marks one year that I've been paper towel free in our home. I've not bought any paper towels since April 2018. 
At that time we switched to cloth only and it has saved me a lot of money. By my calculations I've saved close to $200 in the last year by not buying paper towels. 

Last week eBay had a $3.00 off coupon available, so I checked my Amazon wishlist to see if a book I'd been wanting was available on eBay. 
I found this Thrifty cookbook for $3.99 with free shipping, so I ended up paying 99¢ for a book I'd been wanting, and I used a $1.00 eBay card I earned from the Checkpoints app. 
Tuesday evening Bailey and I had a movie night. We made pizza at home and watched the Ruth Bader Ginsburg film, "On The Basis of Sex". 
We thought it was a good film, which tells the story of how Ruth Bader Ginsburg brought a case before the U.S. Court of Appeals to overturn a century of gender discrimination. 
Here is a trailer of the film if you're interested:

Trailer Credit
This week I was able to pick up some free toilet paper. It was several rolls that were taken off early to put on a new roll. The custodial staff sets them aside rather than throw them away, so I picked up a few to take home with me. 
My daughter had her oil changed this week and only paid $20 for the supplies. Her uncle uses synthetic oil at his shop, which is what her car requires. 
This week I made a call to Verizon, my cell phone carrier to see if I could get a block on International calls. I've been getting robocalls from France and the Congo and want them to stop. 
Last month I accidently hit the redial button on one of them and was charged $6.00 for my mistake. It was my fault, so I paid the fee, but when I was speaking the the Verizon representative he decided to reverse the charge, so now I have a $6.00 credit on my account. 
It pays to ask sometimes if a company will waive a fee for you. You never know if you will save yourself some money if you don't ask. Even though I didn't ask in this case, I have asked in the past and had a fee or two reversed before. 
If you're interested in stories from the Great Depression you can look on YouTube for several good films about this topic. 
One film I watched this week is from the U.S. National Archives, which I really enjoyed. It gives you information about a time when the economy was really bad and can give you ideas on ways to cope if that were to happen again today. 
The comment section is good to read as well because people are thinking this kind of collapse could happen again. 
I've been reading about food prices increasing due to all the rain and flooding we've had this year. 

YouTube Credit
On Thursday we picked up some groceries from Walmart. Ingredients we picked up include salt, bread, and American cheese. We also picked up a bottle of chili powder on mark down.
We received a check from a class action lawsuit this week for Premiere Protein Shakes, which we bought in 2016. The check was for $17 and some change and was included in a payment I made this week. 
That's all the news from here this week. How was your week? Any frugal wins for you? We'd love to read about it in the comment section. 
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

FW Update

Sorry about being missing in action lately, but work has kept me busy, and I'm working everyday this week and next week. I wasn't scheduled to work every day this week, but I am now due to illness. 
I'm doing my very best to cook dinner every night even though I'm tired. We had our regular movie night last night, but I fell asleep before the movie was even over. We were watching the musical, Chicago. 
This Weeks Freebies 
We had a coupon for make a purchase at Krispy Kreme and get a free pumpkin spice doughnut. We love the pumpkin spices ones, so we bought one and got one free. 
Bailey had a free reward to pick up from Panera Bread, so she picked out a chocolate croissant. 
This Week's Coupon Deals
Bailey went to Publix on Wednesday to pick up the following coupons deals...
Ken's Dressings 75¢

Ragu Spaghetti Sauce 25¢

Dove Deodorant 75¢

The following items came from the Food City Crash and Burn section. 
Two cans of mixed vegetables for 47¢ each. 

One can of pears for 60¢ and one can of chili beans for 34¢.

Ten boxes of cranberry jello, which I will use for cranberry salad this winter. I usually use cherry, but found cranberry jello about ten years ago. 

However, cranberry was hard to find in the last few years. So I was tickled to find it these on markdown for 15¢ per box.

Today I'm working, but also have a two hour planning period in the middle of the day, so I've brought my computer to work with me and will be crossposting during that time. 
This American History class is watching a film on Alvin York, which is such a good movie. 
I hope you all are having a great week and I will try to get a couple of more posts up this week. 
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

Third Frugal Week of August 2017

As I mentioned last week, I was scheduled to sub five days this week. I brought my lunch to school every day and didn't succumb to any take out. On Friday one of the teachers gave me some chicken salad & bread from a local deli, which fed me and my daughter for breakfast Saturday morning. 
I came home Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and my daughter had dinner already warmed up, which was so great after working all day. On Thursday we went to Chattanooga to pet sit for a friend, making $40 in the process. 
Friday was payday already and since I worked 1.5 days prior to the tenth of the month, I received a paycheck as well. That doesn't happen every year, but it's great when it does. My renter's insurance will come out of the 25th of the month, so now I won't have to pull money from my savings to cover the amount. 
On Friday night we decided to have a pizza delivered since we were in the city, which is something we don't have where we live since it is rural. Having a pizza delivered is a real treat to us. 
And guess what? 
Pizza Hut sent us a text on Saturday that they were sorry our pizza took too long to be delivered and offered us a free one topping pizza as compensation. I didn't even think it took that long to be delivered, but what a sweet offer. 
Monday we will be going to a free event for the eclipse and schools are closed here, so this will be a four day work week and I am already scheduled to work two of those days. 
You may have read in the comments from my last blog post that the principal gave me two free pairs of eclipse glasses for Monday, one for me and one for my daughter. 
We picked up red grapes at Aldi this week since they were on sale for 79¢ a pound. 
Several free magazines arrived in the mail this week. Women's Health, Weight Watchers, Money, Time, Good Housekeeping, Family Circle, Parents and This Old House. I mostly use Recycle Bank credits to earn free magazines. Some of them even have free coupons in them, which is another plus. 

On Sunday we went to the mall as we both had a coupon for $10 off $10 at Yankee Candle and wanted to use it since it expired that day. We both bought a car air freshener and a candle melt and paid 52¢ each. We also picked up our free pizza at Pizza Hut and had that for dinner. 
I picked up one of my prescriptions at CVS on Sunday and we were given two free bottles of water. 

We watched a couple of episodes of Parenthood on the Internet for free while we were in Chattanooga. It is one of my favorite tv shows and I love so much of the music they chose for it. 
That's it for our frugal week here. How was your week?
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

Weekend Shopping

It was a busy week here as I worked four days this week and have four planned for this coming week. Now that I am back to work it's time to stock up my pantry again after being in use it up mode all summer long. 
I received a free copy of the newspaper this week and scoured the sale ads and made a list of items I wanted to get. 

My first stop was at Fresh and Low because they have the best price on bread and black olives. Bread and hamburger buns are $1.00 here, and black olives are 88¢, which is much cheaper than every store in town. I also picked up a jar of pickles. Total spent was $10.30.
My next stop was Food City for store brand canned salmon for $1.99, but they were sold out, so I picked up a rain check. The manager then offered to sell me the Starkist salmon for the same price, so I bought four cans and he told me to keep the rain check for next time. Sweet. I also picked up apples, strawberry preserves, and some seasonings and spent $16.02. 

My next stop was Piggy Wiggly where they had Oscar Meyer bologna on sale for 99¢ for the one pound package. My daughter is tired of PB & J sandwiches, so this will be a welcome sight. I picked up ten packages spending $9.90 and placed nine of them in my freezer.

I also stocked on on Luck's chili beans for 50¢ a can. Chili Beans are one of the very few canned beans I will purchase if the price is right. They have a thick chili sauce that we enjoy. Most all of the beans we have here are soaked and cooked from dried beans as they are the most economical. 

My next stop was Publix where I bought pasta, granola bars, Campbell's Beefy Mushroom soup (for cooking), Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and Cheese-It crackers. I had $8.40 in coupons for the granola bars, soup, cereal and crackers and spent $31.94 there. I was really able to stock up here. 

My next stop was at Food Lion because they had their store brand products on sale and if you bought four items they would take 25¢ off each one. 

I bought eight cans of corn and should have paid 43¢ each, but it didn't work and they couldn't explain it to me. They told me it was "probably" added to my MVP card and if it didn't come off next time to save my receipt and they will fix it, so they owe me $2.00. 

 When I was at Food Lion I was looking at the produce and saw a sign on the 5 pound packages of Ruby Red grapefruit which read 99¢ a package. When I checked out, they rang up to $5.99, so I explained it to the cashier and after checking the price she honored the 99¢ price. So, I got 10 grapefruits for less than $2.00 making them 20¢ each. 
What a steal! 
I was going to buy some oranges on my list today but no need to after finding this deal. 

We also managed to get to Kroger this weekend. I just love Kroger. They had their half gallon sizes of milk on sale for $1.00 this week. They were out of skim milk, so we bought 1% instead, and also chocolate and buttermilk. 
They have such great deals on markdown. Here is a bag of romaine marked down to 99¢ and the photo underneath is a pork loin roast, already cooked, marked at $3.99.

This was the weekend for the cereal deals. I combined a couple of sales with some coupons and bought all of these cereals for a little over $1.00 each. 
Cereal can be so expensive, but when combined with a sale and a coupon it is more affordable and fits into my budget easier. I would not pay the regular retail price for most cereals, but when I can get it for close to $1.00 a box then I will buy it. 

My neighbor blessed me with two more butternut squashes this week. 

Kroger had their store brand of chips on sale for $1.00 a bag this week. Chips are a rare treat here, but $1.00 is an acceptable price to me, so I bought several bags for lunches this week. 

I found a package of eight half-pound burgers this weekend for $9.79 which worked out to $2.44 a pound. Of course I will stretch this to use not only for burgers, but maybe a meatloaf and tacos as well. 

I know this post is long. so I will wrap this up. We are definitely stocked up for a good long time now.  I wanted to share my deals with you and hope that you are inspired to save as much as you can on your grocery budget as well. 
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~