Frugal Doings for the Past Few Weeks

   My husband and I are continuing on our quest to be debt free.  While we do this, it is still important to us that we be able to have fun, be able to purchase things that we need, but also things that we want and some would consider "frivolous". ;)  Here are a few things that we have done recently to save money while still having a good time doing it.

~bought a brand new 6ft tall pre-lit artificial Christmas tree at a thrift store to replace the one we have had for years that has seen better days $14.99
~bought a bunch of unbreakable Christmas ornaments for $1.89 a bag and $4.00 for a large box...they look like mercury glass but are safe in the hands of toddlers and dogs with huge tails ;)
~borrowed dvds from the library, we are watching Iron Man 3 right now
~hit the Black Friday sales and found some great deals on Blu-Rays and dvds along with some other things that are gifts for our kids and grandkids
~also hit the Black Friday sale at my favorite thrift store and found a purse there that I bought for 1/2 off $4.97 that was sold new for over $200 and was in great shape...it was exactly what I had been looking for
~found 2 Whiting and Davis bags at another thrift store on Black Friday...one is in perfect shape and the other just needs a minor repair
~hit the clearance area at one of the thrift stores that I go to and found lots of outfits for my grandsons and capri pants for my DIL among other things for .47 each
~have been reading magazines that I managed to get free subscriptions to County Living, Everyday Food, Parents, All
~using coupons combined with sales to get the best deals possible at the grocery and drug stores
~used my Register Rewards Points at Walgreens to help offset the cost of a gift for someone special
~made all our bread from scratch
~made various soups and froze some for later
~made cranberry orange bread and froze some for a party later this month
~watching TV shows online that I do not get on our current plan
~my handy hubby is making all kinds of home repairs and renovations here
~handy hubby also doing all the work on our cars that need to be done
~working as much as I can at my job so we can pay off our debts and take some trips and vacations this coming year
~traded in some books at the used book store and got credit to use on future purchases there
~our son Chris gave us lots of venison which really helps keep our meat costs down
~keeping the heat down when we are sleeping or not home and dressing warmly in layers when we are so we do not have to turn the heat up too high
~using our Trac phones to make all our long distance calls (we dropped our long distance on our land line)
~took advantage of some free photo deals at Walgreens
~price matching at Walmart and taking advantage of their policy of giving you the full value of a coupon and giving you the overage if the product cost less than the value of the coupon
~used gift cards to go out to dinner 
~traded in some old dvds that we no longer watch for credit at Hastings
~doing surveys and points programs and trading in the credits for gift cards at Amazon.com, Walmart and other places