Frugal Things We Did This Week

I hope all my readers have had a great week. 

I worked two days this past week. I could have worked three, but I had something to take care of one day and if it pans out, I will tell you all about it next week. :)

Now onto what we did this week...

We ate ALL of our leftovers from last week. The Potato Soup, Spaghetti, Apple Crisp, and cooked apples, all gone. 

I sold a pair of shoes for $10 on my Facebook yard sale group, which meant I removed them from Ebay and saved myself from paying Ebay and Paypal fees. 

Yard Sales

I picked up a Bananagrams game for $1.00, which was complete with all tiles and instructions. I bought these because I need the Scrabble-like tiles for a project, but the game looks like fun, so I might keep it and look for more tiles. Either way, this was much cheaper than Scrabble tiles are going for on Ebay right now. 

I picked up four cds for $1.00 each. We will add any songs we want to our i-Tunes account and then trade them at McKays making them free for us to own. 

I found a bean pot here in Tennessee! I've not seen one of these here at a yard sale before and was excited to see it. I only paid $2.00 for it too, which was a sweet price.  ♥♥♥

Lastly, I found a brand new Wilton Mini Cake Pan in the heart shape for $3.00. 

My daughter had her own stash of goodies she picked up too including a really cute lime green jacket. No photo of that today. 

Afterwards I took her to the mall to spend her birthday money. My "little girl" turned 17 years old on Friday. Afterwards I took her out to eat at her favorite restaurant and bought her dinner, which she loved. And by the way, I did not buy anything at the mall. LOL

Ebay

This month I've not sold very much on Ebay. I don't know if it's because people are afraid to spend their money due to the economy or if they are saving money for Christmas. Either reason is understandable.   

I feel like I spent more money than usual last week on gas and meals out and dd's birthday. I need to go to the store for my Mom today and pick up some things for her and I need to get the Sunday paper for the coupons today, but after that I am going back into gazelle mode. 

Did you have a good frugal week? 

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

What We Ate This Week

Sunday

Dinner: Bean Burritos

The big pan of pinto beans that I made on Sunday were stretched to cover various meals for three days. They were made into Sunday & Monday night dinner and also lunch on Tuesday and Wednesday. Like most food I make, we usually eat on it until it's gone. 

Monday

Lunch: Rice & Cheese
Dinner: Pinto Bean & Cheese Quesadillas 
Snack: Apples & Cheddar Cheese

Tuesday

Lunch: Pinto Bean & Cheese Quesadillas
Dinner: "Salisbury Steak", Mashed Potatoes, Mixed Vegetables

Wednesday

Lunch: Leftovers from Tuesday night dinner
Dinner: Spaghetti & Garlic bread

Thursday:

My daughter and I worked side by side in the kitchen and made potato soup. I cut up the carrots, onions, and potatoes while she gathered up all the ingredients and actually cooked the soup. 

Afterwards, I took all the vegetable scraps and placed them into my electric pressure cooker along with a bay leaf, garlic, peppercorn and water and turned it into this beautiful vegetable stock. No food waste here today. :)

I went to the apple orchard on Thursday to pick up some apples and I made cooked apples that day as well. 

Friday & Saturday:

We still have plenty of potato soup to have for dinner on Friday & Saturday, so no need to cook unless we want to these days. 

What have you been eating this week?

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

Great Yard Sale Day ~ Reminiscent of Amy Dacyczyn

We had a great yard sale day! 

Someone posted their yard sale for today on the Facebook yard sale group last night advertising clothes in my daughter's size, so we set out early to go there. I'm so glad we did too because she was selling them for 25¢ and 50¢ each.  

Three sleeveless shirts and eight short sleeve shirts were 25¢ each, most of them are perfect for school. There are also two pair of Bermuda shorts, which were 50¢ each, perfect for school too. 

Another cute shirt for 25¢.

We bought this for 50¢ for each piece, so $1.00. She probably won't wear the top, but the skirt is very in style right now. 

I still can't believe she sold them so cheaply. I would have gladly paid $1.00 each for all of them. 

I did not buy my daughter any back to school clothes this year and now I am so glad I waited because she has gotten enough clothes these past two to three weeks to do for this school year, and we saved a lot of money in the process. 

I also stopped in at Publix today to check out their crash and burn. I'm so glad I did too. Look what I picked up today:

2 packages Jiffy Apple & Cinnamon muffin mix for 35¢ each, 2 packages Jiffy pizza crust mix for 45¢ each, 2 packages of Glory Cornbread mix for 37¢ each, 2 packages of Bacos for 50¢ each, and a one pound package of yeast for $2.00. 

I also picked up these Betty Crocker mixes that were on sale for buy one get one free and I had coupons, so I paid $1.35 each for these. 

I spent $10 at yard sales today and another $10 at Publix and came home with a lot of items. Like I said, it was a great day. 

How was your day? Did you find any bargains?

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

My Frugal Week

The Facebook yard sale groups have been particularly beneficial to us recently. On Monday I met a lady in town to buy a shrug for my daughter after finding it advertised on a local group. I also met a lady on Wednesday evening to pick up several other items. One of them was a red shirt that will go with the shrug. 

Total for the two items was $5.00, I paid $4.00 for the shrug, and $1.00 for the shirt. My daughter is going to wear this instead of the flowery one I pictured last week for a dressy event coming up at school. All she needs now are some dress slacks and shoes. 

I also sold two things I advertised on the same Facebook group. I had both items listed on Ebay, but they didn't sell, so selling them on the yard sale group worked out great because I earned $15.00 from the combined sales and didn't have to pay any Ebay or PayPal fees. 

I met both people at the same location, one that I was going to anyway, Walgreens, so I didn't have to go out of my way or waste any gas. Mom came along with me, so she could pick up a prescription, get her flu shot and I went inside to pick up three cans of salmon, which Walgreens has on sale for $1.99 this week with a limit of three.  

On another note, I have a purple laundry basket that has seen better times. Every time I picked it up it would sort of collapse because all four corners were split. I took some purple duct tape and fixed all the cracks and splits, which has made it more durable. Now when I pick it up, it is much more stable. 

I have a yellow hamper that I did the same thing with years ago and it has lasted so much longer because I took care of it by stopping it from cracking any more with the duct tape. It may not be beautiful, but it has been very functional like this for over five years now. 

Ebay sent me a $25 off coupon for being a new seller last month. Of course, I spent it on necessities and bought three packages of Stayfree to add to my pantry. 

Other frugal things we did this week include:

Cleaning the kitchen sink with baking soda. 

Hanging up our towels after a shower to dry and reuse them. The towels are just wet, not dirty, and just need drying.

Perused the sale ads online Wednesday to see what food items are on sale this week. There wasn't anything on sale that I would stock up on this week, so I will wait and see what next week brings. The feeling of knowing that I don't have to go to the grocery store is very freeing. We have enough food in the house to last us until I decide to shop again. 

It's been cool enough here that we've not had to use the air conditioning, but not so cool that we have to have the heat on either. Also, we have been hanging our laundry to dry on our homemade drying racks since the dryer broke two weeks ago. As a result, we should see a significant reduction in this month's electric bill. 

All meals have been eaten at home this week, which saves us a lot of money. I'll be making a post about that later in the week. 

I made a birthday card for my Dad this week. I used the Craftjournal.com website to learn how to fold a $10 bill into an origami heart and made him a card with this inside.  I also baked him a chocolate birthday cake to celebrate. 

We have plans to go out tomorrow and yard sale, so stay tuned for any bargains we happen to come across. 

How has you week been so far? Any frugal activities you would like to talk about? I would love to hear about it in the comment section. 


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

Saving Money on Cat Food

Last spring I ran across a very good sale on Purina Cat Chow cat food, which is what we feed our cats exclusively since it is not made in China. I buy the sixteen pound bag of cat food because I find that is the best value and lasts a long time. During the sale I bought five bags of cat food and have almost finished up using the last bag. 

Previously I've written about saving money on cat food in this blog post. Specifically, I spoke about the Purina My Perks rewards program. This is a very good program because you can earn points towards coupons for free cat food. 

The UPC code from a sixteen pound bag of cat food is worth 3,000 points. In order to get a coupon good for a free bag of cat food you need 30,000 points, so for every ten bags of cat food you can get a coupon for up to $15.99 off, which is a free bag of cat food.  

The program is easy to use and you can earn additional points by logging in everyday, visiting the Purina Cat Chow website, connecting your Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts, and other activities. I make a point of logging in every day. 

As a result, I have earned enough points for a free bag of cat food, which came in the mail this week. 

This is a high value coupon and only requires a couple of minutes of my time each day to earn. Even now, I already have enough points in my account to request a coupon towards another free bag and am well on my way to earning enough for a third bag. 

On Saturday while we were out shopping yard sales, we stopped in at Walmart and picked up a twenty-two pound bag of cat food, which cost $17.48 plus tax. I did this because I wanted to use up the full value of the coupon ($15.99). If I had bought my usual size, I would have only benefited from the $12.78 the 16 pound bag cost if that makes any sense. 

On a side note, I also love the bags from this cat food. One way we save money here is by finding alternative sources for things we already use. The cat food bag is perfect to use as a garbage bag, and if you're really thrifty, you can even reuse these more than once since they are so durable. 

I know I've written about it before, but I love rewards programs. We joined a new one last week for the Speedway chain of gas stations and are now on our way to earning money off a future gas purchase. And just today I turned in 250 of my Coke rewards points for a free 12 pack of Coke. I'll be getting a 12 pack of Sprite for sick tummies when the need arises. 

Have you benefited from a rewards program lately? If so, I would love to hear about it in the comment section. 

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"