Frugal Friday(s) Wrap Up 12/21/18

    Hello All!  Oh my goodness, I have been struggling with Fibromyalgia pain and exhaustion.  So much so that I have spent days on end in bed.  When I do have some energy, we try to do things that need to be done like the shopping and than lands me back in bed or in my recliner yet again.  This Winter is proving to be a hard one on me.  I'm having to limit myself on what I do and I am absolutely chafing at the bit knowing that I am not able to make all the goodies that I usually make or even send out Christmas cards this year.  I am choosing to spend my precious and limited energy on my family and for me, that is what is best.

   Onto the savings:

~Jeff and I bought Steven the snow bibs he is wearing in the picture at the top of this post at the Goodwill that were priced at $7.99.  I had a 20% off coupon so I used that to bring the cost down further.  I found them on a rack that they just brought out thank goodness because all the snow bibs and jackets are selling out fast.  It snowed a few days later and Steven came up to sled and play in the snow at our house.  He was delighted!
~We've been watching lots of Christmas movies on Netflix and Youtube as well as some we have here on DVD.
~I decided to make life easier on myself and bought 2 huge boxes of frozen Jalapeno Poppers at Costco while they were on sale, along with some Brie cheese to used as Christmas appetizers.
~I pulled some frozen veggie cheese chowder out to the freezer and added some cream and ham to it.  We had that for dinner one night and Jeff proclaimed it delicious.

~I've been borrowing books and movies from the library and even donated a bunch of magazines that we had already read here at home.
~Walmart had an amazing deal on their Wild Mike's pizzas at $1 each so I bought 2 of them and cooked them up when Bradley and Isaiah spent the night last weekend.
~Bradley and Isaiah hot tubbed with Jeff.
~We also found marked down donuts at Walmart which caused much rejoicing between the little boys.
~Our cats needed a new scratching pad and I was able to find a Elf Ski Chalet double scratching pad originally from Target but donated to Goodwill for $7.99.  I again had a 20% off coupon for donating some items and used that to bring the cost down even further.  Doofy cat in particular loves it!

~Jeff has been wanting some new bowling shoes for years now.  His are 38 years old (yes, they were rebuilt once) and he really likes to have his own shoes so I bit the bullet and found some online for half the normal price.  Since they are "fancy" with different heal and sliding thingies on the soles, they were still a  tad over $200 on sale.  Hopefully these will last him for the rest of his life and he was totally excited to pick them out.  Merry Christmas Jeff! ;) 
~I found packaged of Italian sausages (5 to a package) for $1.50 after marked down coupons.  I bought 2 for us and 1 for Rachel and Jaysn.  I used one of the packs to make a nice penne pasta with sausage and cheese casserole.  This made 4 meals for Jeff and I.
~I also found fancy salad kits that retail for $4.99 marked down to .99 each at the Grocery Warehouse and picked up 2 of them.
~With the colder weather, I was craving a childhood favorite of chili and rice so I made some for dinner one night.

 ~Since I am not able to send out Christmas cards this year, I am saving on postage.
~I sent a package with gifts for my parents, middle brother and Josh and Lauren to my parent's place since Josh and Lauren will be there to celebrate Christmas this year.  Again, saving by combining the gifts into one box and saving on postage.
~Themed baskets are going to be the big gifts this year from us to our kids here, grandkids, cousin, Rachel's family and Heather's family.  I shop all year long and find great deals, along with getting lots of free things like art supplies, when I use coupons that are sent to me combined with amazing sales.  I have had to fill in around the edges a bit but we all agreed that this year no one was going to go overboard and we were going to keep it homemade or on the frugal side.
~My best thrift store score recently was a necklace priced at $2.99 at Goodwill.  It was really pretty and it looked to be of great quality.  Luckily I had my jeweler's loupe on me and found a tiny 14K marking on it.  Yes, 14K white gold!!!  A friend of our's works there and I showed it to him.  He said I scored big time and that things like that rarely slip through up in Spokane where they price most things.  I looked it up and similar necklaces are retailing at $700.  Oh My Goodness!!!

~My skin has been really sensitive lately and feels like it is burning, itching or has bugs crawling under it (all Fibromyalgia related) so I have needed to wear only the softest clothing.  I have found a few shirts and some Lularoe leggings at Goodwill that have been a Godsend.  I think I am set now to get through for awhile.
~I've been buying 2 bottles of my favorite winter flavored coffee creamer and freezing one of them each time I need more.  This way I have some to use in the cold months when they no longer carry it in the stores around here.
~My tracfone was about out of minutes so I bought a 60 minute card that triples on my phone and combined that with a code for 20 additional minutes along with not having to add minutes (unless needed) for another 6 months instead of 90 days.
~Other great thrift store finds have been brand new Land's End jammies for me, shirts and jeans for Jeff, 2 mugs at .99 eacc that match my Winterberry Christmas china (which was also thrifted years ago) and some really nice books.
~I talked with my sister in Tahiti via Facebook's phone thing.  I had not heard her voice in about 32 years.  Music to my ears!!!
~I cashed in at Swagbucks and Mypoints for $35 worth of Texas Roadhouse gift cards.  This is what Jeff wanted to do this round and we will used them in the future for a fun lunch out.
~I took the cashback option on our credit union's points program and had that direct deposited into our savings account there.

   There have been many more things that we have done but as usual, I forgot to write them down so here is what I do remember off the top of my head.  Have a blessed and wonderful Christmas!