Frugal Friday Wrap Up 11/12-18 2016

 

   This was a pretty good week frugality wise.  I had fun shopping at the thrift stores with my girls, had a fairly frugal and much needed overnight trip away with my hubby. I also found some really good deals at the Grocery Outlet stores in Spokane and Coeur d'Alene.  


~Saturday my girls and I spent the day shopping together in a town north of us.  We all love to shop at thrift stores and found some amazing deals.  One of the stores had a $10 off of any $30 purchase.  They just happened to have a beautiful changing table for $29.99 that Jaysn and Rachel could use with the new baby coming.  I bought that as a gift for them along with some books for the grandboys.  They took the $10 off and I used a prepaid VISA gift card to pay for it so no cost out of pocket for me.  We also found toys, baby clothes, clothes for ourselves, some tools and more books at the thrift stores including one by Olivia Newton John that we hit that day.
~The girls and I also took advantage of Harbor Freight's free item coupons and got a headlamp, a tarp and a electric current reader meter for free.
~I shopped at Grocery Outlet twice over the weekend and found some great deals there.  They had huge bags of smoked almonds for $2.99 each, avocados for .50 each, cereal for .99 a box, Prosecco for $7.99 a bottle, 3 pound bags of sweet potatoes for $2.99 and 5 pound bags of apples for $2.99 a bag.
~I made a elk roast with carrots, celery, carrots and sweet potatoes in the crockpot.  It was so good!

~Sunday we decided at the last minute to just stay overnight in the Spokane area since we were going up to the Olivia Newton John concert that I won the tickets for.  I booked a hotel at a discounted price at Booking.com that had breakfast included.  Upon arrival at the hotel they upgraded our room to a suite and provided a free shuttle service both to and back from the concert venue.  The breakfast offerings were oatmeal, cereal, waffles, muffins, eggs, donuts, bagels, biscuits, sausage gravy, bacon, fruit, assorted juices, coffee, tea and yogurts.
~The concert itself was amazing!  Since it was a small venue, we could see her and her band well.  If you ever get a chance to see her in concert, do!

~I got in on free magazines and a calendar deal this week.
~I was able to get 2 free weekend papers from the recycling bin at our post office.  They had coupon inserts in them too.
~Our mechanic was able to make the adjustment needed on my car and only charged us $22 to do so.  It is wonderful having someone you trust and who does not charge exorbitant fees.
~Tuesday I picked up a few things we needed at the Dollar Tree and at Winco since I was already in town for my work at MOPS.
~We borrowed some movies and books from our library.  Jeff watched one of the movies that I did not really care to see on Tuesday morning while I was gone. ;)

~Wednesday Jeff had a doctor's appointment so we ran errands and picked up another huge bag of dog food for Caesar while we were near there.  We used one of the Walmart gift cards I had earned so the dog food was free.  We also had dinner out since Jeff had not eaten since he got up in the afternoon. We went to one of our favorite Italian places that has huge portions and low costs.  I ended up bringing half of my dinner home for another meal.
~Jeff and I watched some TV shows online along with some YouTube videos.
~I made 6 loaves of banana bread with some overripe bananas.  I froze 3 of them.
~The weather got really cold so I threw an extra blanket on our bed.  I like to keep the house cooler at night so I can sleep well but needed the extra warmth and did not want to run the pellet stove as much so we could save money there.
~Jeff had some overtime pay on his paycheck this week.  It will go straight to buying another ton of pellets to heat our home for a few months.
~I uploaded some coupons onto my Safeway card and was able to take advantage of some great sale prices on butter, cheese and coffee creamer.  I think I finally have enough butter stockpiled to take care of all my Christmas baking needs and beyond!

~I hard boiled a dozen eggs for Jeff to take with him to work throughout the week as a high protein snack.  I bought the eggs when they were .69 a dozen
~By adding some water to the shampoo bottle when there was just a little bit left in it, I got 6 more shampoos out of it.
~Jeff and I have been wearing house slippers and cuddling under blankets more and more this week as our outdoor temperatures took a drastic drop.
~I gave Jeff a much needed haircut.
~I spent a lot of time working on my points programs.
~The seal around the drain on one of our kitchen sinks started to leak.  Jeff took all the old silicone caulk off it and put new caulk on.
~Our neighbor, Uncle Bob, brought us over some smoked trout.  He and Aunt Norma mean so much to us and have become family.

~I used up 3 squash that needed to be used ASAP to make one of my favorite comfort foods, Squash Casserole.
~Thursday was our volunteer work day.  We brought home a huge box full of groceries including those humongous baking potatoes, a pork loin, breads that normally sell for about $6 a loaf here, crackers, oatmeal, cereal, cranberry sauce, dried cranberries, whole wheat pasta, brown rice, raisins, and all kinds of other goodies.
~I hot tubbed Thursday night to help warm me up.  When I get chilled to the bone, I ache even worse than normal.  I got really cold when we did our volunteer work and boy was I feeling it.
~Thursday night we had leftovers or sandwiches for dinner.  It was one of those nights when we had to get something fast after our volunteer work and before Jeff had to head out to his bowling league.

~Jeff pulled out my customer loyalty card from the bowling alley and checked on the balance on it.  There was $20 there so he used some of it to get a snack after bowling league and before he headed to work.
~We received several magazines in the mail this week.
~Friday night I made a salad with a bunch of things that needed to be used up in our fridge and freezer.  I had some cabbage, broccoli, celery, ham, pepperoncini and craisins.  I made s simple vinaigrette and mixed it all together.  It was really good!

   I'm hoping that this weekend will be a no spend one.  We spent quite a bit last weekend, even though some of it was covered by the $100 gift card and the tickets were free since I won them.  We did eat out quite a bit and that has got to slow down!  I think that is our biggest "leak" in the frugal ship here.