Frugal Friday: Money Saving Weekly Recap

On the money saving front this has been a pretty productive week, which was good because money is really REALLY tight right now due to the super short month last month and the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and all.  I'm kind of looking forward to hibernating through December for the most part, staying at home and working on Christmas gifts and baking.  It'll help save money and keep my holiday spirits up.

We awoke yesterday to winter being officially here in the form of snowfall, which the kids got a HUGE kick out of.  And for once, today, we're getting a decent amount of snowfall and for a change we don't have to go anywhere this weekend, my husband is having to worry about snow blowing the driveway to get to work and we're saying, "Let it snow" and worrying about cleaning it up before Monday.  It's a nice feeling.

I'm hoping to take the kids out to play in the snow tomorrow, although the weather forecast was calling for the temperature to start to massively tank here this weekend, so I'm hoping we get the chance.  I'm praying that the lows in the negative fifteen category by Sunday are exaggerated, as my electric and gas bill will not love that.  At all.  For now though, the snow sure is pretty falling outside (seen from my deck door above there).

When it came to money saving things this week, though, it's been pretty productive in a lot of ways, so let's get to that!

1.  I spent a good portion of the week just plain cleaning around the house, trying to prepare to get the Christmas decorations up this weekend and working on getting the couch done.  And for a change, I am happy with all I'm getting done!  So, hey, it's cheap and it makes you feel better about your house when that happens :).

2.  Grocery shopping went well this week, although today I spent more than I wanted to.  I was hoping to spend about 20.00 and get out of the stores, but my husband went with me (my arm, in the dropping air pressures, is hurting pretty good and so he went with to help lift things and to drive).  And as any woman knows there are two universal givens.  One is to never start a land war in Asia and only slightly less known is "Never go shopping with a man when meat is on sale" (Princess Bride reference there for those curious).  I ended up walking out of the store with a big container of pork chops that were on sale as my husband LOVES pork and it was on sale relatively cheap.  I know it'll last through three meals, so it was worth the 15.00 we spent, but I still wasn't planning on spending it.

In other shopping though, I went to Fred Meyer and picked up some of the freebies from their 25 Days of Merry going on earlier in the week and then went back to pick up freebies and the "son food" today for next week.

Freebies and general good deals on groceries are seen above.  I went to Carrs and Fred Meyer.  At Fred Meyer I got the free Starburst storybook that was part of the Merry day deals and the free Dove Ice Cream bars (which my husband, daughter and I ate carefully one night this week for dessert, making sure the son was elsewhere so he wasn't exposed to anything potentially dangerous).

Also, remember how I really wanted to get some puff pastry, but figured we couldn't afford it?  I was thrilled with this one.  One of the deals on the Merry Day deals was a coupon you could load for 2.25/1 box of puff pastry and they were on sale for 4.49 per box at Fred Meyer this week.  So, I got cheap puff pastry =D.

Carrs had sugar on sale for 1.49 a bag with an E-Coupon, limit of 2, so I got my two bags.  I also had a coupon for 2.00/1 Kraft dehydrated marshmallows things that my mom had sent me from some mailer or peelie or something, so I used that to get some cheap marshmallows for hot chocolate for the kiddos.

The Gatorade drink was a freebie with an E-Coupon at Carrs and the tuna salad we just needed and I had a personalized price on it to get it for 1.89 per container this week, which was the cheapest I could find it.

At the store today, I also got the free BBQ sauce from Freebie Friday today and the free Kraft Snack Trio as well (seen above).  Okay the snack trios.  Who in the world would pay 2.00 or upwards for one of those things?  You get a tiny bit of cheese, a tiny bit of chocolate or other sweet and a tiny bit of dried fruit.  Seemed more than a little steep to me.  But, I'll eat it because it's free, of course ;).

Overall I spent 73.00 on groceries this week (ouch), but 9.00 of that was garlic stuffed olives for the son (I nearly have a heart attack when I have to buy those) and of course getting the pork chops for the husband.

3.  I managed to finish my couch with materials I had around the house, so redoing the couch cost me nothing but time, labor and about a pint of blood sacrificed to the furniture reupholstering Gods (pictures of that to come).

4.  I mended a couple of my shirts this week, in between other sewing projects.

5.  My son has been having problems with the eczema on his hands bothering him, so I switched out his gloves for another pair to see if that would help, making sure they were more cold weather friendly.  I always keep a good store of gloves and things for the kids around, always making sure to pick them up cheap when there are sales during the summer months at lawn sales or at the used stores.  This came in handy this week as I was able to just grab another pair of gloves out of the box instead of having to run and buy them full price from the stores.

6.  My husband and I spent a lot of time this week watching old shows and movies on the internet, which was fun and free.

7.  I made meals at home this week, which saved us money.  The son was even nice about eating the store bought french fries versus his beloved McDonalds french fries.  He even tried an orange today at school!!!  That is  HUGE deal as he doesn't eat much resembling food.  And one day he even ate half of his tuna salad at school too, so my husband and I are feeling pretty good about things this week!

8.  I took a survey with Fred Meyer one day to get more fuel rewards, which definitely came in handy when I went and had to get gas earlier this week.  

And there you are folks.  Some of our frugal adventures this week.  How did you do?