1. I got my shopping done at Carrs last week as they had the best sales and while there I picked up the freebies I'd gotten from the week before with the Monopoly game (seen up top). The highlights of shopping last week were getting aluminum foil for 3.00 for 75 ft (I'm desperately low on it and I use it all the time). I picked up a container of the super long heavy duty foil and got my free 25 feet container on top of one I had already won a few weeks prior. I've been nursing aluminum foil along like you would not believe because the price on the stuff made me flinch. I normally buy the HUGE roll of aluminum foil from the bulk store, but what they wanted for it was way more than I wanted to pay, so I got the on sale foil from Carrs and then priced out things and found Amazon had the 200 ft rolls the cheapest (and Reynolds wrap to boot), so I ordered a few of those on Subscribe and Save for next month, which will hopefully last me a couple of years.
I went a bit over budget last week by 8.00 after replenishing stores from the kids being home over break and things, but considering I was sick and still not feeling great on and off when I went shopping and everything else that happened, I thought overall I did alright.
2. I met up with a friend of mine who offered me a waterproof mattress protector she wasn't going to use. Not only did I get a mattress protector out of the deal, but I also got something way more precious, which was a chance to talk to a friend I don't get to see too often (thanks for the protector, Davina :).
3. I went to Fred Meyer today (okay, so TECHNICALLY this is on another week, but I'm counting it anyway) and went looking for coconut oil to make soap this weekend. I found REALLY expensive stuff in the organic foods section (they were out of anything affordable) and I decided to swing by the cooking oil section to see if they had anything there. And voila! I found affordable coconut oil. Woohoo! While there I also got my free thing of Tostitos salsa and my free cup-o'-noodles (which I ate for lunch...they are as "meh" as I remember them being from when I was in college).
4. My mother-in-law went to a local thrift store that is changing ownership soon and found that they had a bunch of things on heavy liquidation sales in preparation of the transition. While checking out buying some bikes my mother-in-law and the owner (who is really nice) talked a bit and the owner gave my mother-in-law some bags of freebies, some of which were clothes that would fit my daughter or are a couple sizes too big, so my mother-in-law dropped them off over the weekend as kind of a "surprise" type of gift. Some went into storage for later and the rest went into the daughter's dresser today. She even got a free box full of Hello Kitty activities, which she is thoroughly enjoying (thanks for sharing that stuff, Stacey!).
5. I have been loving on my bigger crock pot I found at the used store a while ago (it's a six quart one), but the plastic that the thing is made with for the handle and things is...I don't know...sub-par or something as it gets really soft feeling when the crock pot is on. I went to pick it up the other day and was worried that the lid handle was going to come off in my hand and I noticed a LOT of cracks in all of the plastic on the crock pot. I went online on Amazon in search of a newer crock pot (this one was from the early 90's and while later ones were recalled, I couldn't find anything as old as mine to see if it was recalled or not) to be safe and found one that was on sale (after much searching) for 24.00. Way cheaper than the stores for that size, so I was happy (I'd be even happier if they'd ship it *grumble*). Bright side, too, is that now I have a crock pot to make soap in this weekend as the low setting on my thrift store crock pot is nice and gentle, so should cook the soap without scorching it no problemo!
6. I got an e-mail from Rifftrax about their Kickstarter campaign (Rifftrax is on of our big "splurge" items when we want to get new entertainment) and found that if you donated one dollar you would get 10.00 worth of shorts for free as the opening "bonus" thingie that you'd unlock. I had found a dollar in the parking lot earlier in the day and took it to be a sign, so I donated the dollar to get 10.00 worth of stuff. It was a completely self serving move on my part, but I'll be sorry about it later ;).
7. I discovered, while searching for soap making supplies around here that somewhere throughout the last couple of years my castor oil has somehow disappeared into the abyss of "who knows where". Instead of going and spending probably 9.00 on a new container of castor oil at our local herb shop, I looked around on the internet and found a soap recipe that didn't contain castor oil. Problem solved!
8. We desperately needed a new garage door opener remote as the old one would stick and randomly make the garage door possessed or we'd be sitting in the driveway for a good five minutes trying to get the door to open or close. It finally got bad enough we had finally had enough. We went to Sears to see about getting a new one and found the one we needed for 50.00. We flinched but knew we needed it so I grabbed it. I actually had checked out when my husband came up and took me back to where some clearance items were hidden in the back of the tool section and we found one that had been opened for 14.99! I returned the new one for the opened one. It works great and it feels good having saved 35.00 off the new price!
So, there you go folks. Some of my frugal adventures for the week. How did you do?
Ohh I wish we had a garage door opener! The previous house owners said they couldn't take them out of their cars...then they rented next door for 2 years. Very awkward as we were often having debt collectors and etc come to OUR house for them. Always worried they might steal stuff. They've been gone a year and a half, hope never come back.
ReplyDeleteMy 9 year old has flu, and he's taking it much harder than his brother. Toyda is day 5 of a fever between 100 and 102. The doctors office took 4 hours to call me back today when I left a message saying he was 102.5 and an hour from his next dose. I called the school nurse for reassurece and she gave me some tips. Poor kid is himself,,or I would worry, but no desire to eat, or even drink really. He's never been so sick. I will,take him back in to the Dr on Wednesday if he's still got the fever. I am trying not to worry, but I'm a little scared, he's never had a fever so long. Or been so sick.
So it's not been frugal here...my husband's been rather spend as if late. Sigh.
I feel for you. When the son gets the flu it's a 21 day affair with near constant fever, puking and not wanting to eat or drink much. We've ended up at the ER a couple of times with him with a fever up into the 104 range after fever reducers. I discovered dunking them in a Luke warm tub, near tepid, helps to lower their temp, probably because of the wet hair. They shiver and stuff, but it helps. Also staggering Tylenol and Ibuprofen every two hours when absolutely needed helps too. We get flu shots and pray that he doesn't get the flu now a days. I hope your little guy feels better soon!
DeleteThank you! Boy I hope ours does doesn't last 21 days!! Hes hovering around 99.5 today so wondering if its an improvement or not. I'll have him do the bath and wet hair later today!! Thanks for the suggestion!
DeleteI got the cup of noodles too but DH loves those kinds of things. I picked up frozen dinners on sale for Momma (I know not great but she doesn't like to cook any longer and that's what she wants); sodas, pretzels, lunch meat, mini muffins, and raisins for DH's lunches all on sale and with coupons; shredded cheeses and bag of salad blend both on sale and with coupons.
ReplyDeleteWe got material on clearance to use as quilt backings for 2 quilts and used a 40% coupon to get a gadget that is helping me to keep material feeding straight in the machine. It was a splurge but since I have sucky depth perception because I only have vision in one eye, it has been nice.
I have washed foil and freezer bags to re-use.
Most meals have been from pantry/freezer. The two take-out meals yielded enough leftovers for my lunches most days.
Unfortunately I have used a lot of gas this week going out to check on Momma. She had a diabetic incident that has left her very disoriented so I have had to run back and forth. Only 4 miles each way but it has used quite a bit of gas.
I am going to try to stay out of the grocery store this week. When I need milk, DH can stop on his way home from work to pick it up.
I often wash aluminium foil and reuse. I don't do this if it has touched raw meat.
ReplyDeleteI have found that you can lower a fever by using the wipes that are made for women having hot flashes. I found this out by accident while traveling and I did not have access to a bathtub to put my child in. The wipes helped keep my child's fever at bay until I could get him to the doctor. The wipes are more expensive than I like, but I always like to keep them with me when I travel now.
Heh, my biggest problem with foil is I ALWAYS use it for raw meat to put it in the oven. Anything else I'll wash it to. The big thing of foil usually lasts me about five years, so I'm hoping once I stock up I'll be set for quite a while.
DeleteThanks for the info on the wipes. I'll have to look into getting some of those for emergencies.