Frugal Week of March 12, 2018

I worked two days this week and brought lunch & drinks both days. 
My daughter is doing so well with her reselling that she has asked me to join her. So, on Saturday I started helping her because business has been doing so well. 
On Ebay I listed several more items for sale over the weekend. One of them sold on Thursday for $19.99. 
We were able to get in on an Angel Soft toilet paper deal at Dollar General this week. We used a $5 off $25 deal, plus a $5 off $15 Angel Soft deal, and $1.00 off coupons for each package.  We bought 5 packages of 12 rolls each and paid 91¢ for each 12 pack, which was a 92% savings.
I downloaded several free health videos and sewing tutorials to my computer to watch at a later time. 
On Thursday I had the day off, so we took the opportunity to drop off my daughter's car at her uncle's auto shop to get the oil changed. He also rotated her tires for her and only charged her $20 for supplies. 
While we were waiting on her car we went to the thrift store and picked out several items to resell. 
On Friday night I made a large taco salad for dinner on Friday and Saturday. I like making enough of one dish to have for the next day too. 
How was your frugal week?
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

Free Items @ Provident Thrift Store

My daughter had an errand to run yesterday and one of the ways we save money here is to combine errands, which we did yesterday. 
One of the places we went to was one of our favorite thrift stores. I'm so glad we went because they were giving away produce inside and outside the store. 
There was a limit per family of two items inside the store, but you could take all you wanted of what was outside the store. 
Inside the store they had boxes and boxes of these Power Greens, so we took two boxes of those.  

Most of what was on the outside of the store was already picked over, but I did manage to get a few things like these cucumbers, tomatoes, and a few strawberries. 

Needless to say, I was very grateful for the free produce.  
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

100 Words on the Small Stuff

Many of the small daily things we do each day save a very small amount of money that we might not think are worth the effort.  If we look at the big picture though, look at those savings over an entire year, then they add up to a considerable sum and become eye opening. 

To live our best frugal life, we need to make the effort to do the little things every day even if we don’t think it will make a difference. The little things WILL make a difference, and soon they will become like second nature to us.  

Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

Frugal Week of March 5, 2018

This week I was able to work three days and brought my lunch and drinks from home all three days. 
My daughter trimmed the bushes that line our driveway near our new steps. It's amazing how much better it looks and how much light is there now. I would have had to pay someone to do this for me, but she did it for free. 
We had multiple loads of laundry to work on this week since we were pet sitting last weekend, most everything was covered in dog hair. I'm happy to report that all the laundry is finished, folded, and put back where it belongs. 
We went to a couple of thrift stores while we were in Chattanooga and I found a really thick, new to me, thermal blanket. I've been wanting one of these for a while, my price out the door was $6.99.
We filled up our rewards card at this local thrift store, so the next time we shop there we will be getting $25 worth of items for free. Even some of our local Goodwill stores have a rewards program. It always pays to ask if they have one where you shop. 
I earned another $5 Amazon gift card from Microsoft Rewards this week. If I spend just a few minutes each day on this I can earn this reward once about every three weeks. 

We have flowers blooming here right now from the recent warm weather. These are the grape hyacinths that I planted in 1986 right after we moved here. They come up every year during this time. 

We also have daffodils ready to bloom and our Bradford Pear trees are in full bloom as well. Our daffodils bloom later than anyone else's daffodils since these are in the shade. 

We had both of our male kittens neutered last week. We took them to Dixie Day Spay, which is a low cost spay/neuter clinic and a PetSmart charity. 

They charge $40 for spay or neutering, which is a great savings compared to the vet's office. 
On Thursday we were invited to a birthday dinner at a local restaurant. Dinner was free to us paid for by the birthday host. 
I ordered an item from Amazon in January that never came. I emailed the seller several times with no resolution. I finally let Amazon know and they refunded my order this week for the $23 purchase. 
We went to PetSmart last week, which is right next to our Aldi, and found a shopping cart that had not been returned. We returned it and earned a quarter (25¢) in the process. 
I listened to Pandora radio for free while I was at school one day this week. 
We attended a class last week while we were in Chattanooga and received a 20% off coupon for a future purchase. 
How was your week?
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

Frugal Fun this Week

We've had a fun and frugal week this past week. 
We had so much rain the past week. School was called off at 1 o'clock on Thursday due to roads beginning to flood. So, I actually got off work early and headed to Chattanooga for a paid pet sitting job. 
We always enjoy pet sitting there. We get to stay in her house and love and enjoy her dogs.
She has awesome unlimited Internet and is close to many of the places we enjoy. It's like having a mini vacation and getting paid for it. 
We stopped in at Sears to get another free item using their Shop Your Way rewards program. I picked up another filter for our kitchen faucet. 
Auntie Anne's was giving away free pretzels on Saturday, so we stopped in to get one.  

We stopped in at Barnes & Noble and found they had planners marked down to $2, so we both picked one out. I also picked up a Zentangle book for my favorite art teacher for $2.
I sold two items on Ebay this week and made $10 on both items. 
I did not do any grocery shopping this past week since I knew we would be out of town. In fact, the lady we pet sit for bought fresh produce and said she forgot she would be out of town and to enjoy it ourselves, which was very nice of her. 
That was a wrap up of our week, how was yours?
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~