Friday, January 29, 2016

Friday Frugal Wrap Up 1/29/2016



    Here we are with another Friday Frugal Wrap Up.  Before I list all the smaller things that I did to save money this week, I would like to share that the most cost saving measure I took was to stay out of the stores for most of the week.  I did make a stop for bananas on Sunday when we were in town and then did a bigger shopping trip today, but I watched my budget very carefully and did not go to a thrift store.  Those places are my weakness! ;)  So here we go with my other frugal doings this week:





~received 2 free magazines
~had homemade popcorn for snacks
~made homemade sausage patties and had them on buns for dinner 
~used the leftover sausage patties to make a potato, veggie and sausage chowder that gave us 6 huge bowls full of yummy and warming soup




~my childhood friend Lena sent us a gift of a beautiful Hawaiian Calendar and Macadamia nut candies
~my cousin Jeremy gifted me a gorgeous signed and limited print of Arctic Wolves that is numbered and signed
~made 2 loaves of sourdough bread





~bought some hard candies at the Dollar Tree to refill my candy jar...every Grammie must have a candy jar right?
~made some homemade banana-mango sorbet, it was an experiment that turned out great!
~won 60 points in the Mypoints Sneaky Snowflake game
~used $25 in gift cards at Walmart to purchase things that we needed including a 60 minute Tracfone refill card, our phones automatically triple the minutes





~bought 6 organizing bins for $1 each at the Dollar Tree to help organize my pantry
~I had small amounts left on a prepaid Visa and Discover card so I added $6.93 in funds to my Amazon.com gift card account
~our neighbor gave us 2 dozen cinnamon rolls that they bought as part of a fundraiser for one of the local schools





~the bottom stair on our front cement stairs started to break so my handy hubby busted it out the rest of the way and replaced it with salvaged bricks and some sand laying down a new step
~got a box full of groceries as part of our volunteer work
~used coupons at the grocery store to help bring down the cost
~reinvented leftovers and made them into new meals
~drinking lots of hot tea to stay warm and hydrated





~borrowed dvds and books from the library
~looking through the Pioneer Woman's cookbooks to get more menu ideas
~bought 5 children's dvds from the Dollar Tree, Bob the Builder is a favorite of our grandsons





~Jeff saved the old toilet paper roll holder when he replaced it with one that I liked better
~found shrimp and 2 pork roasts marked down at the grocery store and froze them for future meals
~used tacks to hang up some lightweight pictures
~putting the leftover coffee in the thermos to keep it hot
~I almost bought cookies at the store but then realized that I have lots of mixes here along with some frozen cookie dough out in the freezer





~placed requests for some newly released dvds from the library
~our car was scratched by another driver on the bumper and will need to be buffed and the paint touched up, Jeff is going to do the work himself, the driver said she would pay to have it fixed but Jeff told her he could do it himself and save her from having to pay for an expensive repair bill...I thought her name sounded familiar when she was giving me her info (Jeff was somewhere else in the store when she initially approached me), she is my in-laws neighbor and one one of my hubby's former teachers and such a sweet lady.  She is paying him for the materials and also blessed us by insisting on giving us quite a bit more for our time and trouble.

   Other than the above, I have just been doing the normal things that I do on a daily basis. I continue to do my points programs so I can cash them in for gift cards.  I also am dressing in layers to keep warm and snuggling under blankets so I can keep the heat at 70 during the day and around 62 at night.  Every little bit counts!

18 comments:

  1. That soup looks delicious. I noticed that you are from eastern Washington and I know it's COLD over there right now. We have friends that slipped and slid over here to western Oregon yesterday and they got significant snow and very cold temps there. So, if you got what they got, I'll bet that soup hit the spot.

    I enjoyed reading your money saving tips and some of your back posts.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Becky and thanks for visiting my little blog. :) Our temps have actually been warmer than normal (in the 40's during the day) for the past week or so but we are heading back into our normal 30's for the daytime and 20's for the nights temps again. I am hoping for more snow since we have the grandkids coming to spend the night tonight while their parents go skiing tomorrow and then we have the youngest one coming again for some special time next weekend again. :) I want to take them sledding and then come home to hot cocoa and cookies followed by hot tubbing. :)

      Delete
  2. You did Great! We also use triple minute Tracfones- they are so much cheaper and better than having contract cell plans.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rhonda, ou are right about the cell phones costing less money. We pay the $19.?? for a 60 minute phone card every 3 months. I somehow won a 1 year phone card thing around Christmas and they automatically put it on my phone for me so we just have my hubby's phone to buy the cards for now. :)

      Delete
  3. Pioneer Woman is a big favourite of mine but I think she uses way too mch butter, lol!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LOL about the butter! I do cut bake on the butter in recipes unless it is in baked goods. ;)

      Delete
  4. Hi Debbie, I found your blog through Wendy at My Abundant Life. I loved reading your Frugal Friday post. Many blessings x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Welcome Mel and thank you for visiting! I love making new friends. I can't wait to visit your blog and get to know you.

      Be blessed!

      Delete
  5. What a thrifty week indeed. I love Little House Living. I also really love Pioneer Woman. You had such a resourceful week. I loved reading about it and it also gave me some ideas. Have a super Sunday friend.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Chrissy, I read the Little House Living blog also and really enjoy it. Have you read the Pioneer Woman cookbooks? This is my first time reading them even though I have watched her show and even followed her blog long before then. She just seems like such a positive and fun person! I hope you are having a great weekend!

      Delete
  6. I enjoy Pioneer Woman as well. She has some great posts on freezer cooking on her blog.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Good Morning Debbie,

    Terrific post and frugal doings. Mr.B's cell phone is provided by his employer so we don't have to pay for it. My cell phone is a very old flip type pre-paid phone. Since I only use it when away from home, (we don't get cell service at our house) it cost me only $5 per month.
    I too enjoy Ree Drummond's Pioneer Woman Cooks. Her recipes are comforting and many are very traditional to Oklahoma type cuisine, which is satisfying to Mr.B who is originally from Oklahoma. However, since I am from the south, I NEVER cut back on the butter, or the bacon grease, or the cream, or the ...

    Blessings to you and yours,
    Mrs.B

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LOL Mrs B, my husband agrees with you on never cutting back on butter, bacon grease or cream. ;) I have to be sneaky in doing so.

      Delete
  8. Hi Debbie! I really enjoyed hearing about your frugal week, and all the things you did to stretch those pennies - so awesome! I too love the Pioneer Woman, and her recipes are always down-home good! I also enjoy checking out books at the library as that is a great saver on money too. So happy to have met you, and I am wondering if we are not too far from each other... where we live in Idaho borders eastern Washington! Have a great day :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We may indeed live near each other since I also live right near the border. :) I'm about an hour south of Spokane in the small farming community of Garfield. Where are you?

      Delete
  9. Love reading your blog. It is the smaller things we often don't think about that make our life style frugal. I think keeping a list is somewhat similar to a gratitude journal. Makes us realize what are lives are really about.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. HI Barbara, I used to keep a prayers put out and prayers answered journal years ago and I love looking back and seeing just how blessed we were over and over again. :)

      Delete

Thank you for taking time to comment on my blog posts. I really appreciate it and being able to get to know you through your comments. I hope you have a wonderful day!