Sunday, February 21, 2016

Frugal Happenings 2/21

Happy Sunday all!
What a beautiful day we have.  Yesterday got to 72* and not a cloud in the sky!  Today not as warm (50's) - but sunny at the moment.  Geesh - maybe traces of snow by midweek!
The nice thing about these warm days - is that it is just one more day closer to spring and one less freezing cold day.
Heck on Monday past - we were shoveling snow and by weeks end it was 72.  Crazy stuff.

I spent a lot of time this week doing errands for and helping out the in-laws.  I did find a couple bargains when out shopping for my mother-in-law.  I had no intentions of shopping for myself again this week - but bargains to help stock up my pantry are just no brainers.

  • I colored my hair with supplies I had on hand - and only used 1/2 the box
  • Shoveled snow - FREE exercise
  • I did find cans of sliced black olives (dated 9/2019) on clearance for .59 can.  I got 24
  • I found 1 lb. bags of roasted/sea salt peanuts on clearance for 1.49 ea.  I got 5 (all they had)
  • I also stopped at Dollar Tree and bought 8 shelf stable whole milk ($1 ea.) for our pantry, dated 6/2017
  • We did eat Subway one evening FREE with a gift card
  • All other meals from scratch and from home
  • I got to save .20/gal. on purchasing gas
  • Heat off a couple days and got to air out the house with doors open.  No heat most day hours - using the sun to warm the house.
  • I made hard boiled eggs and a 4 day batch of steel cut oats to add to breakfast menu for G
The Mexican (taco) chicken I made last weekend ended up providing 3 different meals.  Over rice, on top of nachos supreme, and then another day in burritos supreme.  Had Subway another day, tuna patties and mac -n- cheese another, and I made a pot of pork pozole.  I had never made that before, and we loved it.  We have had 2 different meals from it, and there is some left.  I guess for the most part this was our ethnic Mexican week! I could eat Mexican everyday.

So as you can see - nothing much exciting happening here!  That is fine with me, as excitement and drama usually means something bad!!!!  I love my quiet boring life.

How has your past week been?  Did you get any bargains?  Save in any new ways?  Let us know.  I like to consider this a "learning" blog for ALL of us - so new ideas are loved.

May the Lord be with you and protect you in this coming week.
Thanks for stopping by.


14 comments:

  1. Sounds like you had a wonderfully frugal week. I'm waiting for Spring so I can start te garden. We love Mexican food too -
    Have a great week.
    Laurie

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    1. Laurie I was looking at your blog and your darling cottage. Where do you reside if you don't mind me asking? It is so charming.

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    2. Thanks for posting Laurie, I like your blog too!

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    3. Thank you! I live in Ocean Springs,MS. Our home was destroyed during Huricane Katrina and built this cottage on the same spot.

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    4. So sorry that you lost your original home. Your cottage looks adorable.

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  2. Hi Laurie! Welcome aboard. Oh, I can not wait to get outside and dig in the dirt and plant things!!!
    Mexican is my favorite and Chinese is G's favorite.

    Hope you come back by!

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  3. Cheryl, that black olives price was tremendous, I think the lowest I was able to get here was $0.79 and those were the wee tiny little cans. Unfortunately that rain check is gone now. With using two rebate apps I was able to get closer to the $20 minimum to collect on Ibotta and Checkout 51 with Marie Callendar’s chicken pot pies…$1.87 each on sale and then 25 cents additional with rebate.

    Here is the best part of the week: $42.21 + 11.22 = 53.43, yes that is what it cost me to host six women for the weekend, for food and drinks. The rest came from my pantry, all bought on reduced pricing, and a few more items from each woman…less than $10 each or from their pantry, too! But even adding in their contribution…a bit over $100 for 2 breakfasts, two lunches, and two dinners, and snacks in between. We supplied the meats from our freezer (abundant supply and under $2.75 a pound average). In return, I now have a refrigerator full of leftovers so I won’t be needing any groceries from now until the end of the month, that’s just a week from now. And what I spent this month on groceries is less than budgeted. That will roll over into next month’s food expenditures -- and we will need it for visiting relatives is then and eating out can cost more than eating in. We drank water for our meals, and everyone helped with the dishes, so it was frugal and fun.

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    1. Sounds like that would be a fun weekend. Woohoo on having leftovers to last the rest of month.
      winner - winner!!!

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  4. I too love my quiet and frugal life. Three books this week borrowed from the library, and one I think you might know about, Cheryl…Money Secrets of the Amish by Lorilee Craker and published by Thomas Nelson, 2011. My girlfriend also lent me her new book, Indoor Kitchen Gardening – I think it is about the new microgreens eating. More secrets to be revealed!

    I took my savings plan and upon the advice of Mary Hunt in Debt-Proof Living, structured it to reflect her Freedom Account guidelines. Now I know what portion of my budget is Regular Payments (8 of them), QSA (quarterly, semi-annual, and annual) Payments (32 of them) and PRN (as needed) payments (25 of them). Hunt didn’t use these designations, she splits out each one -- so for me it would have been (8+32+25 = 65) many categories; but for now, this works for me, simpler than making an account for each payment which would have been. QSA would be my water and insurance and AAA bills for example. And PRN might be car repairs. I also realized that if all possible payments hit in the same month, my paycheck would need an additional $1372! So yes, a savings plan is a wise thing to undertake. I wonder if Job had a Freedom Account when all his troubles hit?

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    1. I LOVE that book on the Amish. I have read it at least 3X.

      You sure are organized with your money saving and bill paying ventures.

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    2. Yes, it helps me keep my eyes wide open and my purse strings shut tight!

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  5. I cannot remember when I didn’t have a side hustle, seems I have always moonlighted one way or another, either working as a cake decorator, serving pizza at lunchtime, food studies, or now with plasma donation. I have managed to get by and now with frugal habits, or developing more frugal habits, I hope to finally not just live paycheck to paycheck, but with abundance and not wild abandon, which truthfully was not as much fun as one would expect.

    Mary Hunt also encourages tithing. I need to step out in faith on this, and am not sure yet where it will come from in the expense side of things, but figure it will be more like an investment action…so we shall see where that leads me in having financial peace. TGMan is on board with it, and the first step is modest, but it is a step.

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    1. Being frugal and sticking to it - is another job!!!!! I truly believe that is my job now that I am retired. I work at saving as much as possible.

      You are so right about living with 'wild abandon'. It seems the thought of doing something was always more exciting than the actual realization. Then one is disappointed and you don't have the money any more.

      I believe tithing can be things other than church. I think when you give open heartedly, whether to church, charity, individual, etc. you are doing right.

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    2. So true, we shall see which charities we end up giving to. One probably will be the annual Catholic Appeal, but there may be another also.

      In the past I have collected for the Leukemia Society and the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society. And ended up filling out the recommended donation with my own funds!

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