Well, when it came to saving money this week things went well!
1. I went to Fred Meyer earlier in the week to get my Freebie Friday of free bread. I was praying that the bread would be safe for my son to eat (you'd be surprised how much whole grain anything is contaminated with peanuts) and found to my surprise that the regular whole wheat bread was safe! So, I gleefully got the bread. I also found storage bags on clearance for .79 a box in the quart size. I had a coupon loaded on my card for .50/2 and when it came off at the register it came off numerous times, so I guess it was unlimited use (or at least 3 times anyway), which was great getting the bags that cheap!
I also found some bath sets on clearance for 2.49 a piece. I bought a Hello Kitty one for my daughter as part of her birthday present and grabbed the other one for her to "earn" with chores later on. The minion bath set I couldn't pass up as it came with two big bottles of soap (one body wash and one bubble bath). I have found my daughter loves to go through soap and is even scratching her bar soap down (grrr) so I figured once I add the bubble bath and body wash to her body wash pump bottle it'll refill a 10.00 bottle of body wash without issues. I also got her some sparkly hair bands (on clearance for 1.00) hoping that she'll finally start letting me braid her hair at night (she's got my baby fine hair that frizzes like nobody's business, lucky little thing). We'll see how well that works.
I then went to Carrs and was able to score a one pound bag of cinnamon for less than 3.00. I almost picked up a second one as they have a 2018 expiration on them, but I also realized that I only use so much cinnamon in a given year, so I stopped with the one.
2. My friend Stephanie then gave me some freebies she's not using that she got playing an instant win game for Fred Meyer and her Freebie Friday coupons as well. So I was able to get another loaf of bread, a box of microwave popcorn and some yogurt for free (thanks, Stephanie!!!). I am going to divide up the one loaf of bread into 2 slice portions with wax paper in between and then freeze. This way I'll be able to pull out two pieces of bread for my son for toast or if someone wants a sandwich, but I won't have to worry about it molding on me, which does happen with whole wheat bread around here sometimes.
3. Carrs had pasta on sale this week for .69 per box. I bought 20 pounds as this is as cheap as I've seen it...well for as long as I can remember and we eat pasta a LOT, so it was totally worth stocking up. I even raided the coin jar and took a quick trip to get eight boxes while my son was in therapy.
4. Carrs also, it turned out (and I totally missed in the ad) had value packs of pork chops on sale for buy 1 get 3 free this week (seasoned ones). When I looked at the loin chops and measured how wide they were cut and then compared them to a big pork loin nearby I figured out that basically it was "buy 1 pork loin get 3 free". So for 22.00 I was able to get a ton of pork, which if I don't like the seasoning I'll wash it off before I put the chops into the freezer. Easy peazy!
5. I did well at the thrift store this week.
6. I mended a few holes in some comforters this week.
7. Despite picking up extras when it came to groceries this week (including some on sale deli meat to make lunches for my husband next week), by shopping carefully, I still came in under my grocery budget (after fuel for the car even) by 10.00!
8. By being careful (and freezing my tail off during the day some days) I was able to get my electric bill down by 80.00 this month. Still not as good as I'd hoped it'd be, but better than it was for sure.
9. I signed up for a free subscription to Better Homes and Gardens through freebizmags. Every once in a while they have a subscription anyone can get for free, so I was able to get it.
And there you are folks. Some of the ways I saved money this week. How did you do?
Great job!! Those "Hello Kitty" sets are just darling! You are such an inspiration with your savings. I live in New Jersey, which is tied for "highest cost of living in the contiguous states", but I often think...could be worse, could live in Alaska! Yikes...as I said, you are amazing.
ReplyDeleteOne more idea for your son's food...would he eat "home-made" chips, if you cut tortillas into strips/triangles and put seasoning(even cinnamon-sugar) on it? I know texture, taste, and "has to be the same" is always an issue with kids like your son, but he might like it, and it might be a savings for you. Have a blessed day!!
I've tried it before and he wouldn't go for it at all...probably because I can't make "cool ranch" flavor *laugh*. I might try it again, though, and throw a few into his lunches at school. It's worth a shot.
DeleteWhat a week for you, Erika! I'm so pleased to hear your children actually liked the changes in their lunch. I'm sure you'll get more creative as it goes on and find other items to try. I'm especially pleased to hear that your son is accepting healthier food in his lunch. I know how difficult that can be to deal with.
ReplyDeleteAs for the discounted gift sets, what a great find! Since the after Christmas sales, I have been stocking up on universal gift items as well. They don't spoil, so I put items like that into my "gift stash" and use them throughout the year for gifting. In fact, many get given as Christmas gifts the next year! I've already bought gifts for my 4 nephews for next year, including 2 pocket knives for $6 each (reg price $20), all because they were promoted as Christmas gifts in a gift box. What a score!!!
Wow! Awesome find on the pocket knives! I know how batty trying to figure out their gifts this last year was for you, so it must feel REALLY good to already have them done for this year.
DeleteYou just gave me some perspective, because I've been dreading our gas bill this month (in Arizona! ha! but in the mountains) because it's been so much colder than usual. However, the highest it's ever been has been $189 - plus about $95 for electricity. I think this gas bill will be higher than that, but how much is it to heat a house there? We ended up with 10 inches of snow here this week, so thankfully a little less than predicted. The sun is back out - I need that! The highlight of my savings this week was probably the veggie trays at Sam's were $4 yesterday! They are usually $10. I have gotten them before for special occasions, but I have never seen them marked down like that. We had a fun dinner last night with French bread pizza, our veggie tray and I also got one of the heavily marked down gifts sets at Sam's with candy/cookie/crackers, etc. I honestly ended up thinking it wasn't worth even the 20% of normal price I paid for it, but at least it was fun.
ReplyDeleteWe have a Frankenstein heating system in our house that's a combination of electric heat and gas. Our gas bill this last month was about 185.00 (haven't gotten my new one yet) and my electric was 406.00 last month. This month it fell, but it's still high. I get annoyed with our electric company as you breath and they raise their rates. This time last year I was only paying about 285.00 per month on electric and it just skyrocketed this year. This, however, is a common complaint I hear from everyone, so at least it's not just me. Small comfort, but it's comfort.
DeleteWow, I would be annoyed also. I hadn't really thought too much about how our climate here is helpful in saving money until I started reading The Prudent Homemaker. In the summer, we usually only run the A/C a few hours a day, and that only for a couple weeks of the year. Of course, that's in part because I work hard to open and shut windows and blinds to use those means of keeping the house cool, but that's easy to do for me, since I work at home. The downside to where we live is its a retirement community with very few jobs and housing is expensive because of our proximity to California. A lot of people come here from there to retire. We were able to buy our house at the market low, or wouldn't be in the house we are. Our water is expensive also, but even that doesn't get near your bills for just gas and electric.
DeleteWe are lucky up here in a few ways. We have no state income tax (yet), a very low sales tax (3% in the town I shop in) and if I wanted to make the 30 minute drive to Eagle River or the hour drive into Anchorage they have no sales tax at all. We don't have local taxes, no emissions testing to worry about on our vehicles, etc. We are also on a well here, so we don't have to pay for sewer or water on a month to month basis.
DeleteWhen we went down to Maine for my dad's funeral about four years ago I was appalled when we would go to the store to find that Maine actually paid MORE for groceries than we did here because of all of the taxes that were tacked onto the end of the transactions. It was a bit of an eye opener.
With our gas and electric, it sucks during the winter months, but during the summer my electric bill falls to about 100.00 and most of that is running of TV's (and fans as the upstairs in my house turns into an Easy Bake Oven for some reason) for my kids as we have so much daylight we really don't need the electric on much at all. And during the summer my gas bill falls to about 30.00 a month. So, it's a plus and a minus system up here. During the winter, though, it stinks.
Wow, what a great week!
ReplyDeleteWe always keep our whole wheat bread in the refrigerator and it lasts several weeks without molding, do if you keep yours out, you might try that. We generally have a humid climate here, at all times except winter, so we need to keep most things in the fridge. Your climate and/or refrigerator may be different, of course!
I actually have a bread box and it keeps bread fresh pretty well (I've had bread keep fine for over two weeks without problems), but right now my fridge is taken up by a huge container of hot dog buns we bought for my son (he loves that as his main source of bread), so we don't really have room in the fridge for the second loaf of whole wheat bread and we don't eat enough bread to make it through all of the bread before the second one would mold. So, it's going in the freezer :).
DeleteGood job coming in under budget on groceries even stocking up as you did!
ReplyDelete