Cheap Oatmeal at Shaw’s this week.
Quaker Old Fashioned Oats and Instant Oats are on sale for $1.99 and you can print out a $1 off coupon here to make them .99 a package. You should be able to print off 2 coupons per computer so go grab up some cheap oatmeal since it’s still so cold out.
I’m going to try and find a few more Shaw’s deals today since I’m stuck at home and am losing my voice due to a sore throat. So I’ll be taking it easy and typing is easy enough.
I’ve been missing in action. Sorry!!!!
Do you know how exhausting house shopping is? I just want to curl up in a ball and sleep for a month. We’ve been in and out of more houses then I can count since last Friday. We’ve also put in 2 offers the first offer went in just as the owner accepted a different offer and the second is in now we are just waiting to hear.
Finding 1 house you really like is hard but finding 2 is torture. The house we just put an offer on will most likely get snapped up by an investor with more money to spend freely, but we’ll never know if we don’t try, right? I’m also not setting my hopes to high because I don’t want to be crushed if we don’t get it and have to start all over again. Rome wasn’t built in a day and this search won’t be that quick either. If this falls through we have about 5 other houses to look at and 3 that we have seen that we like.
We are taking tomorrow off so I might actually be able to clean up around the house, go shopping, and maybe even post some deals here. I know a site isn’t much good if it doesn’t have the deals you are looking for so I appreciate you guys standing by me. I promise this won’t be the last time I have to take a hiatus but I’m going to try and get better at just stopping by to say HI!!!
Please feel free to tell me about all the good deals I’m missing. I haven’t even pulled the coupons or ads from the papers I bought on Sunday. UGH!!! Time for bed tomorrow is class picture day and I still need to find something nice (ish) for Shawn to wear.
I had a decent trip to CVS today. I spent more out of pocket than I am used to but we needed the soda. After spending money on soda for the last yard sale I vowed to stock up really well next time. With a move hopefully coming soon I was leary but we’ll need the soda for helpers and we’ll probably have a yardsale right before we move to get rid of the stuff we aren’t taking. So here’s what I got:
After all coupons and $9 in ECB’s I spent $7.24 and got back $13 in ECB’s. According to several people online the limit is 4 on the Pepsi Promo so we’ll probably do it a few more times. Using the $5 off $20 coupon that makes them $5 for 80 cans of soda or 16 cans of AMP/Starbucks
I’m also on the hunt to use up the rest of my Ivory coupons before the sale starts again and I can’t find them. I’ve found out that Ivory is great for homemade laundry detergent and for cleaning leather couches (thanks Nicole).
If you have any questions about the coupons please let me know and feel free to share your shopping stories with us.
I see this coupon once every few months and I love it. It’s good until 2/3 so go print it out and get your free clothes. You can get $15 worth of clothes for just tax.
For the sale starting 1/21
Uncle Ben’s Country Inn Rice $1.49 BOGO -$1/2mq =.25 each
Bertolli Pasta Sauce $3.75 BOGO -$1 Peelies found in stores recently on cheese =.88 a jar
Quaker Instant Oatmeal $3.89 BOGO -$1mq =.95 per box
Aunt Jemima Pancake Mix $2.69 BOGO -$1/2 1/3 RP =.85 a box
Bird’s Eye Steamfresh Frozen Veggies 50% off -$1/2 1/10 SS =Depends on variety
Air-Wick Freshmatic $4.50 -$4mq =.50 each
I will let you know if I come across any more deals but that’s what I see for now.
These are the deals that I’ve spotted for Shaw’s this coming week, so start clipping your coupons and get ready.
Breakstone’s Cottage Doubles (this is good only until the 24th I think) $1 each and have the buy 5 get a $5 catalina deal
Old El Paso Heat & Serve Sides $1 -$1mq from 1/3 SS for free sides
Old El Paso Chilis $1 use the .55 printable and when doubled should be free
Colgate Toothpaste 4oz or 1ct Toothbrush $1 -$1mq (maybe .75 depending on area) from 1/3, 1/10 and 1/17 SS =free to nearly free
Fruit2o 18oz Bottles $1.29 –.75 from 1/17 SS for free after doubles
If you head out before the 22nd you can get free Quaker Quakes Rice Snacks that are on sale for $1. Use the .75mq from 1/10 RP and it should double to make them free
If you’ve never played this game you don’t know this but it is soooo addicting. You can play it for free just click the picture below.
Yesterday Shawn and I walked to Walmart to get a few things we needed plus my newspapers. In total I spent $22!!!
This is what happens when you need things and don’t have coupons for the stuff or overage to help pay for it. We needed milk, orange juice, bread, and newspapers. It seems we also needed a doughnut for the little boy and a drink for me. But I did find StoveTop double packs of stuffing for .50 each so I bought a few of those and a few 6pks of Hugs Jugs at .50 a piece.
Today will be another kind of spendy day but we have extra ebay money to pay for it. We are headed out to dinner tonight with some friends. We do get a discount at Gator’s so that will help take the sting off and I’ll probably feed Shawn before we go that way he can get away with just a drink and picking off my plate. Lets just hope I have an appetite by then, it seems since I have to fight every cold everyone in this house gets I can’t relax or they will catch up to me.
So how have you been saving or in my case again the lack of savings??? UGH this will get better I keep telling myself that.
There are a few good deals I spotted in the ad for Walgreen’s. Remember get there quick if there is something you really want. There’s no rainchecks for RR deals that I know of.
Let me know if you find any more great deals. I’ll be happy to share them, if I stumble upon any more deals I’ll let you know.
These are a few deals that I’ve saw in the ad for this week. Remember if there is something you really want go early or plan on getting a raincheck.
Make sure you have them scan your green bag tags and the double extra bucks coupon in the ad today. The double coupon will give you 4% instead of 2% at the end of the quarter for some of your spending.
This weekend will have 2 inserts in the Sunday paper. There will be a Proctor and Gamble insert and a Smartsource insert.
You can view the coupons that may be in your paper here. Please remember not every area gets every coupon and some areas have different coupon values. Make sure you get your papers tomorrow, you might want to get 2 (I always buy in even numbers).
I know you’ve all seen the photos and heard the reports. It leaves you feeling helpless and for me it’s extra helpless. We are not in a place right now where we can afford to donate anything really. If you follow along regularly you know that every penny that I find is going towards closing costs and all the expenses of buying a home.
I have thought long and hard about what I could do to help. I have lots of readers and lots of friends. Then I remembered the fund raising worksheet that Thirty-One gifts had just sent me. I can’t afford to give out of my budget now but I have set up an event on my Thirty-One site titled Help for Haiti. I am going to donate 20% of all purchases to the New Mission Haiti Reconstruction Fund they are a local church group. They had sent a group of people including a local reporter to Haiti to hand out shoeboxes filled with necessities and they were there for the earthquake. They are all on their way back home to Central Florida tonight and are all safe.
So please head over to my Thirty-One site and place your order. If you know me in the real world I will have fund raising sheets featuring the Thermal totes that are on sale this month, if you are interested in helping please let me know. The more people who order the more we can donate to New Missions.
We enjoyed a little free fun today out of the house. We picked up Shawn from school and headed out to Walt Disney World Speedway. My little race nut loves going out there, you can sit for free and watch the Richard Petty Driving Experience cars go around and you can sit on the edge of “Pit Road” and see all the cars close up. Shawn is a huge Kyle Busch fan and they have a couple cars there done up in his stickers so he got to watch Kyle’s Snickers car drive around. One of the women who works there also works at Lowes and she runs the kid’s clinics. We’ve become friendly with her since we’ve been going every other weekend for a year now and she took Shawn out to see the M&M car and took his picture with the car and printed out a copy for Mommy.
On the way home we stopped at Target looking for a map of the United States. UGH!! Let’s just say after stopping at several stores I ordered one online. I didn’t have any coupons with me to shop at Target but we did pick up a couple of toys at 75% off to start refilling my gift closet. We found a huge Indy car for $7 and a Lego set for $5 both 75% off which is a great way to replenish stock for the Easter, Birthdays and even next Christmas (it’s never to early to start shopping)
I got my new Spring/Summer catalogs for Thirty-One gifts when we got home so I’ve been drooling my way through that this evening. If you are interested in ordering from the current catalog you have until the end of this month and then we switch to the new catalog which has some beautiful stuff in it.
Dinner was leftovers tonight to make sure we aren’t wasting any food. Tomorrow I’ll be checking to make sure I got all the deals for this week that I wanted to and start getting ready for next week. As always please feel free to share what you have been up to this week to save.
Breakstone’s Cottage Doubles are on sale for $1 a piece and are part of the catalina deal Buy 5 participating items and get a $5 catalina.
So if you do the math you buy 5 of these pay $5 for them and get $5 off your next purchase. From everything I’ve read you can use that $5 catalina to get 5 more cottage doubles and will still receive another $5 cat.
So get going and try this out. I’ve tasted these and they are pretty good and since they have fruit in it I’ve been able to get Shawn to eat them too. Once you think you’ve got enough of these in your fridge use that $5 to help pay for meat or something else you need.
I’m heading out tomorrow to try this out. I’ll let you know how it goes. If you get to the store before I do let me know how it goes.
at Walgreen’s today just for being a facebook fan. Don’t forget to head over there for the details on how to claim your free Collage.
That’s almost a joke today!!! The only shopping that got done was Dave running out early this morning to buy Children’s Pepto because apparently my personal drug store doesn’t carry that. LOL That was actually the only time we even left the house today.
DS woke up at 3am with a sour stomach, Dave got me up at about 5 and asked me to sit with him for awhile so he could go back to sleep. By the time Dave was up I’d gotten Shawn back to bed but I wanted him to have some pepto and couldn’t find any. I didn’t bother looking for a coupon or a sale I just sent Dave to Walmart. There’s something about a little boy uncontrollably sick (at both ends) that makes you not care how much the medicine costs. I didn’t even ask now that I’m awake I’m sure I’d fret about it.
We did manage to finish the laundry today and there’s still a pile on the couch since it seems the folding fairy took the day off. Guess that’ll be my entertainment tonight since Dave has custody of the remote. We had the heat on today more than I liked but with Shawn being sick and Mommy having sympathy stomach pains I was in no mood to be cold. Thankfully this is supposed to be the end of this I see 70’s in my near future.
Dinner was a pot roast cooked in the crockpot. I love my crockpot I do almost nothing and it always produces great tasting food that feeds us all at least twice. This morning I put a roast (pulled from the freezer stash last night), a bunch of potatoes, some garlic and seasoning in it and turned it on low. 8 hours later the meat was falling apart and it was delicious. No thinking, no cooking, no work = my type of meals.
So how did you save money today? I’m sure you did better than we did.
from Walgreen’s for Facebook Fans. Go here and become a fan then stop back in tomorrow (Wednesday) to see what the photo freebie will be.
While you are there you can become a fan of Living On a Budget and get all your updates from me right on your Facebook home page.
Don’t forget to go back to the Walgreen’s page on 1/13 and click on Fan Offers!!
I have to thank MrsB for bringing this to my attention. THANKS!!!!
Go here to print out a Burger King Free Hamburger Kids Meal coupon. It will most likely tell you that you have reached your print limit so enter your email in the send to a friend. I filled in mine last night and this morning the link was in my email.
Be sure to keep pressing the back button until it tells you you’ve printed it out your max number of times. I was able to print 10!!!! This is great since I said no spending money on fastfood this month, Shawn can still get a kid’s meal and I don’t have to spend any money other than possibly tax.
This morning was the coldest morning since I moved to FL. YUCK!!! I detest cold weather. I did almost no shopping today. I was going to go to Publix but I couldn’t find my $5 off coupon so I waited hoping I’ll find it tonight.
The only shopping that was done today was at Lowes. We picked up 10 big boxes for packing. Since we are planning on moving some time in the near future I figured instead of trying to stash stuff away for the next yard sale I’d just start packing it up now. We probably won’t have a yard sale till we move since they are such a pain here unless of course we move somewhere that doesn’t allow them. In the past I’ve just gotten whatever boxes I could find but to tell you the truth I hate moving when every box is a different size so we are going to be buying a few boxes a week to make it easier to actually move.
Dinner was from the stockpile again. We had baked potatoes and free ham steaks from Target. It was quick and easy and yummy too. So what have you been doing to save money?
If you haven’t been following along with the Money Saving Challenge you can head over to Frugal Makes Cents by Precious and read about the challenge. She’s such an inspiration and has great ideas, I want to be just like her when I grow up!!!!
I finally setup a page for Living On A Budget on Facebook. All the posts you see on blogger will also be posted on Facebook now. If you’d like to become a fan over there just click here.
Hopefully that works, I’m still trying to iron out the wrinkles over there but it should be running well.
Here’s a few deals I see that are worth mentioning:
There is a deal where you get $1 ECB if you buy 2 green tags/bags. This is a good deal if you don’t already have a tag (you get $1 every fourth time you scan the bag tag) but don’t buy 2 tags unless you are getting one for a friend. You can only use 1 tag per day so get 1 tag and 1 bag or 2 bags.
There is also a $5 off $20 coupon here to help with your order. I’ll try and post a few scenarios later today or tomorrow. Depending on if a warm up and get anything accomplished today.
Ah the price of convenience. I got woken up this morning by my hubby who was a little to excited about the sleet falling from the sky. He’s from up north and has spent lots of time with snow and it’s friends ice and sleet so there was no reason for him to be excited at 6am. Nor any reason for me to be awake but that’s another story. But since the sleet eventually turned back into rain and didn’t stop we didn’t get to go to Lowes today for Shawn’s building event. If it was just cold we would have bundled up and headed out but wet and cold wasn’t going to happen. I called and spoke with the woman that normally runs the event and she put Shawn’s kit aside for me to come get once Dave got home with the car. So that ruled out the temptation of walking past the gas station and Starbucks twice and there was no spending at Lowes or Walmart earlier.
We stayed home and had a very lazy day. I swear this cold weather brings out the lazy in us, we have had no urge to do anything. Shawn is usually bouncing off the walls making me crazy and do you know what he did today??? He put himself to bed and took a 3 hour nap!!!!! Usually if he’s tired enough to fall asleep we will “fall asleep in his soup” and I find him with a Hot Wheel's car stuck to his head. I noticed the silence upstairs to find him tucked into bed with his teddy bear and blanket sound asleep, I was shocked to say the least but it shows you what this weather does to us.
After dinner which was Steak, Potatoes and Broccoli (at Shawn’s request) from my stockpile I went across the street to Lowes and picked up Shawn’s kit. He’ll get to build it with daddy this week and use his new tools that he got for Christmas. Since it was border line frigid out I decided to just go get everything I needed at Walmart instead of making multiple trips to Walgreens and CVS. I spent $11 at Walmart today, I was shocked by the price of bread $2.59 for the type of bread we like the way Dave and Shawn go through sandwiches we like a nice square piece of bread in a good long loaf, I always get bread at the grocery store or at CVS/Wags and was shocked at the price. I also picked up Milk and a few things to help complete some meals for the next week. My pantry isn’t stocked for the types of food you crave when it’s cold since it’s not cold very often but I was pleasantly surprised to see that we only needed a few things to make Stew and Potpies. I also picked up a can of Cars Chef Boyardee since Shawn proclaimed today at lunch that he wanted a warm and toasty lunch and ate the rest of his other can. I want to be prepared just in case he decides the same tomorrow.
The cold has changed some of my food plans so far this month but we are still doing really well at eating out of the pantry and freezer. I can actually move things around in my chest freezer however the freezer above the fridge is still a danger when you open the door LOL.
This is for some of my northern shoppers. Hi Sandy, Laura, Linda and any others!!
This is a list of some good deals I see for Shaws. To help you figure out the listing formula it’ll be as follows:
V8 Fusion Juice: $2.50 -.75 SS 1/3 =$1 if your store doubles
Gum Toothbrushes: $1 -.75 RP 11/15 or $1 RP 11/15 =Free possible moneymaker with doubles
Gum Flossers $1 –.55 RP 11/15 =Free after doubles
Ronzoni Smart Taste Pasta $1.50 -.75 SS 12/6 =Free after doubles
Maruchan Yakisoba Noodle Bowls .89 -.50 SS 1/3 =Free after doubles
Just a note I’ve read that most stores will only double 6 coupons or 6 like coupons, so please learn your stores quirks. There are a few great scenarios I’ve read about for a Catalina deal. Catalinas are coupon off your next purchase. I’m just copying someone else’s work below.
8 Progresso Soup (PSP (presale price) $2.50) = $20 PSP
$7.92 sale price
- 2.00 in qs (.50/2 mqs)
= $5.92 OOP, get $5 cat back = net cost $.92
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1 Green Giant Steamers (PSP $2.39), .50/1 mq
8 Hamburger Helpers (PSP $2.39), .75/3 mq & $1/2 mq
= $21.51 PSP
$9.42 sale price
-5.00 in qs
=$4.42 OOP, get $5 cat back = $.58 MM
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7 Cheerios (PSP 2.99), .55/1 IPs (if your store will double them--mine does even though it says DND)
=$20.93 PSP
=15.54 sale price
-7.70 in qs
=$7.84 oop, get $5 cat back = $2.84
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5 Fiber One Frozen Muffins (PSP $4.19), .75/1 qs
=$21.45 PSP
$17.45 sale price
-7.50 qs
=$9.95 oop, get $5 cat back = $4.95
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4 YoPlus Yogurts (PSP $2.99), $1/1 qs
4 Green Giant Steamers (PSP $2.39), .50/1 qs
=$21.52 PSP
$13.96 sale price
-8.00 qs
=$5.96 oop, get $5 cat back = .96
I know have a few readers that are fairly new to shopping the way I do. I understand that the deals I get seem impossible to replicate. That being said I’m going to list a few pointers that will get you started on the right foot. Please feel free to email me or leave a comment if something doesn’t seem to fit for you or it seems like too much. The most important part of getting good deals are coupons. You need to get your coupons. There are 4 sources of coupons that you need to start using right now.
When you get coupon inserts don’t go through and clip the brands you use and throw the rest away!!!! Get a file folder and a stapler, write the date on the front of the insert, staple it together and stick it in a folder. You have no idea how many different brands and products we’ve tried because they were free. This goes with the second biggest piece of advice I can give you: DO NOT BE A BRAND SNOB! If you always buy Brand A you might be spending alot more than if you gave Brand B a chance. I’m not saying you have to start only buying store brands in fact in my overly stuffed pantry there are very few things that are store brands. You know why store brands have no coupons and never go on sale. Brand names start out more expensive but pair a good sale with a coupon and you may be looking at alot less than the store brand.
When you hear about a good sale or I post the grocery deals I see for your store don’t delay. Good sales don’t last forever, people may beat you there and buy out all the stock so it’s best to go as early as possible. Be aware of the days your stores run their sales for instance Publix in my area sales run Thursday-Wednesday most weeks but if you go to Georgia (I think) they run Wednesday-Tuesday. Also get familiar with your stores policies, alot of stores double coupons but not in every state. Again in Georgia Publix doubles but they don’t here. You can have a more successful and much less stressful trip to the store if you know what the rules are at your store.
Since this is already super long please let me know if you have any additional questions. Don’t be shy to leave Anonymous comments or you can always email me.
flew alittle easily. Well not too badly. We did a bunch of errands today. We started the day by dropping Shawn off at school and then headed up to BJ’s for gas. We saved about 8 cents a gallon there and went in to wander around the store, I picked up a 10lb bag of gold potatoes for $5. This is the type of potatoes we prefer so I buy them when I find a good price usually a good price is $3 for 5lbsso this was great.
Next stop was Kohl’s to use a few of the coupons I got in my emails. We picked up a new long sleeve shirt for Shawn since it’s supposed to stay cold and he doesn’t have many warm clothes. That shirt cost $3.99 after coupons. I bought a pair of gloves and a summer PJ set for Shawn and paid $1.97 after coupon. I need the gloves but they are hard to find around here and these were on clearance.
We drove past one of the houses we’d looked at online. We found some things we really like about it and some things we don’t love just from driving past it twice. I wrote down the pluses and the concerns so that I remember when we get real serious.
We had a little time to kill before we got Shawn so we stopped at Walmart. I found 2 pairs of gloves for Shawn for $1 they also had rolled back the price of Campbell’s Chunky Soup to $1 a can so we picked up 2 cans for lunches. Total spent was $3.07
Then a quick stop at Walgreen’s because Dave decided he was thirsty and we’d been out longer than anticipated. I got more Chips Ahoy cookies, 2 more Reach Floss and we each got a drink and a snack. I spent $2.xx and used a $5RR I got free last week. I got back a $2RR from the cookies to use next week.
So how did you do today saving money?? Feel free to share your successes or missteps.
I’ve agonized over what to do when it comes to this blog and my selling Thirty-One Gifts. I don’t want to make this blog a big advertisement, but this blog is about me, how I save money, make money and about how I live. Thirty-One Gifts is a way I hope to make money and if I can save you alittle money on a gift for a friend or a splurge for yourselves with a great product then I’m going to share it.
This month we have a great special offering the tote pictured below for $10 instead of the normal $14. It is a Thermal Zipper Tote to give you a size estimate it easily holds a couple packages of meat from the grocery (normal sized packages)
If you feel this is too much advertising for my own business. I recommend you come back tomorrow for another money saving post and just ignore anything that says Thirty-One Gifts. Thanks for reading and coming back.
Today was a good day for my savings at least. We went to Walgreen’s after picking Shawn up from school and I got the reach dental floss that’s on sale, 2 small boxes of Chips Ahoy, 2 sodas, a toy helicopter (boys) and 2 glade candles. I paid $13 in RR and about $3 in cash and got back $5 in RR. The helicopter is getting returned though since I was right and it doesn’t work worth a darn.
We also stopped into Winn-Dixie since Walgreen’s was out of the electrasol I wanted. Winn-Dixie had the big things of gel or powder BOGO for $4.99 so they were free with the $2.50 coupons. I picked up 4 of them, 2 apples, and some raisins for the oatmeal I want to make for breakfast. I spent $3 there as well, I have lots of the Electrasol tabs from a previous sale so the things I got of gel will go in my yardsale pile and help hopefully pay for new paint or a lawnmower for the house we want to buy soon.
All the plants got dragged out for some sunlight earlier and dragged back in for warmth tonight. Thankfully it looks like my hibiscus made a full recovery we only seem to have lost some buds, however I still don’t know if the banana plant will pull through.
Lunch was leftovers from last night and dinner was some free brats from a sale last month and some more free broccoli. Thankfully everyone in this house really likes broccoli since I stocked up and will keep buying it as long as it’s free.
Don’t forget this Saturday is the last day to get 9 cent prints from Walgreens. So all you click happy people start uploading those pictures and get ordering. I’m going to load at least one more batch tomorrow and use the $2 off coupon I got as well.
I guess.
Yesterday we went to Shawn’s friends house. I brought coffee for myself and his mom so I spent $1.60 since I got one for free. I wasn’t really in the mood to shop even though I’d been planning out a few trips. Last night for dinner we had broccoli, rice, and stuffed chicken breasts from my stockpile. So it was a free dinner.
Today after we picked Shawn up from school we went to Denny’s for lunch completely breaking my no eating out rule. LOL At least it wasn’t for dinner and I did have a coupon, so we spent about $15 for the 3 of us to eat lunch before our bank meeting. The meeting with the mortgage lady went well we found out what we should qualify for and at what percent. I refused the prequalification letter since they wanted to charge us $125 for it. We will wait until we need it but I’m still looking into a few more of our options. There are a few programs and the FHA lender that I want to speak with before we fork over any cash. Personally I thought the estimated closing fees through the bank were high and I’m just not ready to settle yet. We are only rushed by my hatred of this apartment and I want to make sure we are getting into exactly what we want before we take the plunge.
We went to Publix and spent about $5 on some groceries and drinks since we'd been out running all day and I had a terribly sore throat. Dinner was leftover turkey (cooked before Thanksgiving) broccoli and a couple cans of cream soup baked until it was nice and warm.
The only other money saving measure we took today (other than making sure the heat wasn’t on too long) was to bring in about half of my plants. I’m not sure they are surviving as I type but I know for sure they wouldn’t have survived another night outside. So the 2 hibiscus, 2 of the pineapples, the bougainvillea and the banana plant are sitting in my livingroom tonight. As long as it stays cold they’ll probably stay right where they are and we’ll just say alittle prayer that the rest of my plants survive. I can’t bring them all in so we took the ones in the most need and were able to double up on the coverings for the rest.
So what did you do to save some money?
I got this game for free in a Houseparty kit and it looks like so much fun and a great way to start the New Year with everyone's weight loss resolutions. Amazon has it on sale right now for $49.99 with free shipping if you just signed up for the free Prime deal I shared with you guys.
Tomorrow starting at 5pm and going until they run out of Lego’s you can take your kids to your local Lego Store and they can build this cute little snowman. They recommend ages 6-14 but we take Shawn and it’s a don’t ask don’t tell that he’s only 5. LOL He has a blast at these and what could be better then free Legos?
We are eating steaks for dinner tonight that have been marinating in my freezer for awhile. We’ll have some free broccoli from Target and some rice I got free last summer.
We haven’t gone out again today but I did give in and turn the heat on this morning for about an hour to take the chill out of the house. I’m not happy about it but I wasn’t willing to freeze all morning and wasn’t in the mood to bake anything.
Since we are planning on taking Dave to work tomorrow so Shawn can visit with one of his classmates I won’t be going out to run errands tonight. I’ll wait and go on the way home from taking Dave in tomorrow. I’m going to spend the afternoon making my shopping lists and pulling all the coupons I’ll need for each stop tomorrow. I’m also going to put together a coupon starter kit for the mother of Shawn’s friend. While the boys are playing I’m going to help her start to understand couponing, they need the help and she doesn’t spend time online or have a printer so it’ll be a challenge but she can still save money.
I also called and made an appointment to talk to the mortgage advisor at our bank. Dave and I want to get an idea of what we can afford in a house after looking at rentals we’ve decided we might be better off buying instead of trying to save and waiting. All of the rentals are more then we are paying now so we wouldn’t be able to save as much and we need to get out of this apartment, the sooner the better. The maintenance people have admitted that they have no time to take care of the problems in my apartment (broken dishwasher, leaking tub, busted doorguard thingy) or my neighbors because they are too busy fixing up apartments for new people moving in. So we’ve lived here for 7 years and they can’t be bothered to take care of us, that along with a neighbor who chain smokes next to her vents which leaks into my apartment and we’ve had enough. Hopefully we’ll qualify for a decent interest rate and can start paying for something that is ours and don’t worry I have plans to pay off a mortgage as fast as possible.
So what did you do today to save? As much as I hate the cold weather it does keep me from shopping since I have no desire to go out after Dave gets home since the sun has gone down.
I ran out this morning and bought my papers before Dave went to work, normally Shawn and I walk to the gas station or Walmart but it’s too cold to walk today. So I spent $6 on my 4 newspapers. That was all the spending I did today and I have no intention of going out tonight since it’s cold and I’d like to hibernate until it warms up. LOL
Shawn and I managed to get through the day without turning on the heat today. The heat and I don’t get along, it smells funny when it’s turned on which is mainly because it never gets used and it’s expensive to use. I don’t know if we’ll make it through the evening without doing something but it’s my goal to keep the heat off as long as possible. I’m too cheap and it’s only 70 degrees downstairs right now so I have 2-5 more degrees before I take the plunge and turn that switch.
We are having leftovers for dinner again. Dave said he’s not sick of the ham yet so instead of freezing it for later we’ll eat it again tonight. It gives me a night off from actually cooking, I’ll just put it in a frying pan and hope the stove helps warm up the house a little. Told you I was cheap.
Now I’ve got to go out and cover all the plants again, it seems I’ll be doing this several times this week but I don’t want to kill off any of them. So what have you been doing to save? Tomorrow or Tuesday I think I’ll be tackling the pantry to make sure I’m using anything before it goes bad.
Today I woke up with a horrible headache and no desire to do any running around. I wouldn’t let Shawn down though so we still took Dave to work but we came home instead of driving out in the direction of stores aplenty. It was also freezing (well not quite but I was cold) and I was in no mood to eat a cold lunch today so I decided against any extra deal trips.
We went up to Home Depot and Shawn made a very cute calendar, I’ll take a picture after he paints it and we put the stickers on. The only complaint I had was it was very cold out and there was a wind chill advisory and they still help the clinic outside. Shawn was so cold he hit my finger twice, luckily it only had about 8 nails so it was quick for him to finish.
Instead of hitting Target, Kohls, BJ’s and all the other stores in the direction we went we just stopped at BJ’s to get gas and CVS to get in on the overage from the Nature’s Bounty vitamins. We got 1 gallon of milk, 6 bottles of vitamins, and an air mattress for the camping pile. I paid $5.13 cash and got $9 in ECB’s. I’m slowly trying to get back in the CVS game and today reminded me why I love CVS so much.
Lunch was warm leftovers from last night and dinner was Split Pea Soup using the hambone from last night and split peas I bought awhile ago to try at some point. The soup was alright, I don’t think any of us are big fans but I’ll eat the leftovers for lunch and probably scrap that recipe.
So how did you save money today? Did you eat anything out of your pantry? Don’t forget tomorrow to get your newspapers there’s supposed to be 5 inserts so this is a week not to be missed.
I ventured out to CVS today and got a raincheck for the Ivory soap that was free after coupons and picked up a couple bottles of Vitamins and the toothpaste in the ad. Since I haven’t been to CVS in a few months I didn’t have any extrabucks to pay with but after coupons I only spent $2.05 so it wasn’t too bad. I have $4 in ECB’s for my next trip. I have more coupons to use tomorrow and I”m going to check another store to see if I can get the soap.
For dinner we had a wonderful spiral cut honey ham that I got at Target last week with coupons. I saved the bone and will be making soup with it tomorrow since it’s getting cold again it’ll be great to have a nice warm soup to come home to.
Tomorrow we’ll be going out to Home Depot for the FREE building event so I’m currently checking into any sales or coupons to use while we are out. We’ll be by Whole Foods, Ikea, 2 malls plus tons of other shopping so I’m going hunting for deals tonight. I will also be packing something for Shawn and I to have for lunch in one of my Thirty-One thermal totes.
I hope you’ve had a great frugal start to your year. Please feel free to share what you’ve been up to.
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