Frugal Friday Wrap Up 4/8/16

   

   Happy Friday everyone!  I hope you have all had a nice and productive week. :) It's a good thing that I am finding more ways to be frugal.  Early Monday morning found us in the emergency room with my hubby to make sure that he did not have another blood clot in his leg.  Thankfully he did not and we now have the ER and lab workup bills to pay there.  It was worth every penny though because if it had been a clot, he would have been in serious trouble.  Now onto the savings!

~The mail brought a free magazine and a vitamin sample.
~The weather has been so warm so we have been drying our sheets out on the line.  There is nothing better than crawling into bed at night with freshly line dried sheets.
~We took our grandkids to one of their favorite parks to play on Sunday.  Free entertainment for them and for us.
~I had requested a movie from the library for the grandboys to watch.  It had been one of their daddy's favorites when he was a kid.  They loved it!

~The blackberry plants that we started from canes just cut off the mother plants and stuck in the ground in the Fall are leafing out.  Two more free plants.
~Jeff and I watched some shows online.
~We found peanut butter and chocolate candy marked down to .50 a package and bought 1 for our candy drawer.
~This week was my MIL and FIL's anniversary.  My husband found a beautiful card for them at the Dollar Tree for .50.
~Our dear DIL Heather and her mom Tammy brought us a dozen doughnuts...yum!

~Our grandsons love all things Superheros and Ninja Turtles. We found some shirts with their favorite Superheros marked down at Ross so they each got one.
~My trip to the dentist turned out much better than I thought it would.  I did not have cavities but instead had pain due to me grinding my teeth.  He flattened out the area where my teeth were rubbing and oh does it feel better already.  I made an appointment to get my teeth cleaned next month so I will have to budget for that expense then and not have it come out of this month's budget.

~A stop at the thrift store next to my dentist's office produced some great finds.  I found CDs for .50 each, a really pretty Summer purse for .50, some games for the grandkids for .15 each, some gardening supplies, a really pretty long gray sweater for $1.50, some cookbooks for .25 each and a Babar books for .10 .
~My hubby saves all kinds of hardware and stuff from doors and windows, along with anything else he takes apart that we have replaced over the years. This came in really handy when he found a screen door handle and installed it on the door from the breezeway onto our screened in porch.  No more having to deadbolt the door to keep it closed and in the process locking ourselves out or in. ;)

~I made my first batch of sun tea this Spring now that the weather is warmer.
~This week my hubby put in a request for more croutons so I gathered up all the leftover bread, rolls, and buns and made a triple batch for him.  That should hold him for awhile.
~More loaves of sourdough bread were made.
~We borrowed more books and movies from the library.
~Planned my shopping trip around what was on sale and what I could combine the sales and coupons with.

~Trying to use up food in the fridge before it goes bad.  I had half a red pepper that needed to be used up so I baked it alongside some salmon (free to us) and served it with a wild rice mix that I got dirt cheap after coupons.  Yum!
~Our cat Rufus eats an expensive kind of cat food since he has allergies.  I was able to find a printable coupon online for $3 off a bag of his food.  Every dollar counts around here. ;)

~One of our grocery stores was having a amazing sale on some of their Asian entrees in the frozen food section.  They were one sale for $2.79 each (they usually are over $8 each).  I had printed off 3 coupons for $1.50 off each box.  I bought 6 boxes total.  Each of those boxes is enough for 2  meals each for my husband and I.  I will just cook up some rice or noodles to go with the entrees and we are set. Much cheaper than going out for Chinese or Japanese food which are my huge weaknesses.
~I printed off coupons that I needed going through a link at Swagbucks so I will get 10 points per coupon that I redeemed.  My coupons savings on Thursday alone were $15.75.

~A stop at Goodwill on Thursday yielded 2 black and silver 8x10 picture frames.  They were officially "document frames" so they were .49 each instead of "picture frames" which were $1.99 each.  Same exact thing but one word made a huge difference in their pricing.
~That same stop at Goodwill blessed me with 2 large brand new bottles of Bath and Body Works lotions for $3.99 each and a brand new Calgon bath set for $4.99.  I use lotions every day for my dry skin and I love to smell pretty too. ;)  Win Win!

~I started some seeds in pots and with the "pellet" pods (that I got at the thrift store earlier in the week) and in some seed starter trays that I already had on hand.  Our hot tub area makes a great greenhouse of sorts.
~Printed off a $25 Walmart gift card that I cashed in for at Swagbucks.

~Worked on my points programs and surveys.  I have set a goal for myself to get $50 in gift cards and/or cash each month this way.
~Made a triple batch of banana bread with overripe bananas.
~I again put the banana peels around the roses to help fertilize them.

~I needed some shallow watertight trays to start my seedlings in so I dug out some aluminum roaster pans that I had out in the shed.
~A new composting area was started in the side garden.  I added some coffee grounds to it and will use this to top dress our blueberry plants that love acidic soil.
~Rufus created a new toy for himself when he snagged a paper bag that I had just unloaded the groceries from.

   I do hope you all have a great weekend.  We are going to see our beautiful oldest niece and her family who are in the area on vacation.  We have not seen them since last Summer and I have missed them!  We will be spending some money to go out to eat and/or do something with them but family time is precious and we only see them once a year. :)  Be blessed!