Frugal Friday! Week of October 28-November 3, 2018

Hi Everyone!

How has your week been?  It is busy around here, just like always! But in spite of the busy, this week still managed to give me quite a few ways to save. I am sure there were more, but the things that I jotted down on my list added up to quite a bit.  I like seeing my list grow, because I feel it keeps me more aware of ways I can save for my family, and encourages me to keep looking for additional ways!

With Christmas coming just around the corner--or at least, that is what the merchants would like us to feel--I have definitely seen an increase in coupons and sales that fill my mail box or email box.  Since I have a shopping list made up of clothes I am looking for, I am going to try and take advantage of some of these sales and coupons to help fill in some large and some small gaps in my wardrobe.  I had several opportunities to do some of this this past week.

*I had $10 in Kohl's cash, plus an additional $5 from Kohl's, and on top of that a code for 20% off my entire purchase.  Not one to let the free $15 go to waste, I planned a trip down to the store and walked in with several items in mind to look for.  I mostly could use some tops or sweaters for winter, but if I didn't find any of those that would work for me (it is not easy, since I am taller than average and many tops end up being too short for me if not specifically a "Talls" in size) then I would go pick up a new pair of undies and use the $15 to get those free.  I am slowly replacing my underwear as I get free coupons. Much to my surprise, I found a sweater in the women's clothes that I had missed the previous shopping trip there, and the style of this sweater was styled long enough!  I wished they carried that sweater in more colors, but they did have it in several, and looking at it I knew right away I wanted a navy blue one, because navy blue is one of the key colors in my wardrobe.  I didn't used to have any "key color" at all, but when I lost weight and it was enough that I literally did not fit into 99% of my clothes any more, well, I was left with literally three tops that fit me in the summer--a white one, a navy blue one, and a green one.  At that point, I picked navy blue as a color that I was going to specifically look for, as I built up my wardrobe once more.  It has worked out very well for me, as slowly I picked up a navy blue top here, and a scarf with navy blue there, and soon I was able to mix and match quite a bit which stretched my wardrobe out even further.  So now, with the things I have purchased since the beginning of summer, I have several navy blue scarves and things that will coordinate with that color, so a navy blue sweater was a must!  I could have just purchased the navy sweater and gotten it basically free, as it started out at $30 but was on sale for $20--then I could apply the 20% off and the free $15 in coupons. . . but I looked over the other colors to see if there were any that I could use since I literally did not have ANY sweaters in my new size.  They also had a red, but it was too bright and orangey for my skin color.  Then they had black, but I look pasty in black!  The last color they had was a gray--I like gray, but usually prefer it to be a bit of a lighter shade than this sweater.  But since I was SO much needing some sweaters to keep warm this winter, I decided to purchase a gray one as well, which in the end made my total around $8.50 for each sweater.  All things considered, I count this as good!

*Then I had been sent by email a free $10 coupon from Eddie Bauer.  I looked on-line for some tops or sweaters, since this company does carry "Tall" sizes, but sadly they didn't have anything that really appealed to me.  If they had, I would have applied that coupon to a shirt or a sweater.  But not one to let a free $10 off of a $10 purchase go to waste, on the same trip that I went to Kohl's, I stopped into my Eddie Bauer store and picked up two pairs of their socks.  These socks are normally $9 each, but were on sale for $6.30 each.  So applying my $10 coupon, I ended up paying $1.30 for each pair of socks.  For me, this was worth it.  I have never tried Eddie Bauer socks before, and I figured this was a good time to try.  Not sure I would ever pay $9 for one pair of socks, but so far I like them and time will tell how they hold up.  I debated between the navy and the gray, or one pair of each--but since most days I wear blue jeans, I figured the navy would match what I wear more often.  If they send me another coupon sometime, I will try a pair of their gray socks then.

*The third clothing item I purchased this week was the best one of all--I got a free coat from LLBean!  That's right, a completely free coat!  And brand new, not even used from a thrift shop!  I do not have picture of it yet, as I am still waiting for it to arrive, but LLBean was having a 25% off sale for a couple of days.  They do this every now and then, and if you are wanting something it is a good time to make your purchase!  Well, I knew I had a little credit since we have a LLBean credit card.  I knew I had at least a $10 coupon, and thought I probably had a couple more, so I was looking at their sweaters.  I found several that I loved, but when I called to ask them the length of the sweaters (I know that I need a garmet to be as close to 27 inches in length as possible), every single one ended up being too short for me.  One I asked about was only 24 inches in length!  Good for a petite person, but not for someone 5 feet 9 inches!!!  I was kinda discouraged, and was going to just give up making any purchase at all, when I asked the customer service person if they could tell me how much I had in credit with them from my credit card.  They checked my account, and told me I had $86 in Bean Bucks!!!  I had no idea I had so much accumulated!  We really do not use our credit card for that many purchases, but I guess I haven't been cashing in those Bean Bucks for a long time!  Once I knew I had so much available, I thought I should look harder for something to spend it on, because with a 25% off of anything sale my free credit would stretch even further.  The sweaters were all out due to length, but I looked at their coats and found one that I liked.  It was normally $130, but was already marked down a little bit.  Then the 25% off sale took it down even further, to $81, and my Bean Bucks took care of that completely--and since I am a LLBean credit card holder, I even get free shipping. I was pretty happy!  I am getting a jacket that is navy blue--what else!  But it will coordinate nicely with 99% of my clothes, and it is just a color that I like.  If by chance, I do not like the coat when it arrives, I will send it back and my Bean Bucks will be restored to my account.

*I got a free book from LifeWay Christian Book store.  They had mailed me a coupon in the mail, and if I brought the coupon in this past week, as long as their supplies lasted they were giving away a free book.  Their giveaway was a short devotional book for moms.  I stopped in on my same trip to Kohl's and Eddie Bauer, and happily they had not run out of books yet so I got one.

*I received a $25 credit from Terminex because they were scheduled to come out to my house for my yearly inspection, and the person who was scheduled never showed up!  I was not super happy about this, because they didn't call or anything, and I had made sure to be home that morning for them to come.  But when I called the main office to ask about if they were still coming or not, and the office verified that yes, they had been scheduled to come out, and yes, they should have called me if they were not going to make it--I asked the office if I could have a credit on my account since I had basically been stood up.  The office person I was speaking to immediately said they could issue me a $25 credit on my account for my trouble, and I said "Thank you--I accept!"  I only asked, because several years ago this same thing happened to me, and at that time the office person brought up and offered me a credit for the missed appointment.  So I figured it couldn't hurt to ask for one, and I am glad I did.  So the next time my yearly bill is due, I will have a $25 credit on my account.

*I recycled a padded envelope to mail something to my son who lives out of state.

*I regrew green onions inside in a glass of water.  This helps me get more onions for my money!  If anyone wants to see pictures of what I do, just let me know and I can post some.  Hint--it's super easy!

*I bought a biography from a used book store for $2.  I love being able to get good books to read for either myself or my daughter, and not pay the regular price of $15 and up for each one!

*I received a free $10 Kindle credit in my e-mail!  Did you know that you do not need to have a Kindle device in order to read Kindle books?  I read them either on my laptop, or on my iPad, either one works great.  I thought about what I wanted to get with it, and found a Instant Pot Vegan cook book for I believe $12.  It was worth the $2 that I had to pay out of pocket to get the ebook version of this cook book.  I have already made one of the recipes, and it was yummy!  I look forward to trying out a few of the other recipes, as I am still fairly new at cooking with the Instant Pot.  My husband bought me my iPot last Valentine's Day.  Then, in May, I actually won a second iPot!!!  A friend of mine who has two Instant Pots advised me to keep them both, and I am so glad that I did.  I use both all the time, for cooking rice in one and beans in the other.  But I am trying to learn more things to make, so this cook book will come in useful.

Well, that was my week!  It was a better week for me than usual in the saving money area!  How was your week?  Are you seeing more coupons and sales because of the holidays?  I would love to hear what you are doing to save money for your family!

Have a wonderful week!

~Susan

Frugal Friday! Week of October 21-27, 2018

Hi Everyone!

How was your week last week???  Mine was extra extra busy!  Our daughter was invited to be a substitute violist with the local high school orchestra.  To start with, they do not have enough violists in their orchestra, only having three high school students and one retired gentleman who plays with them. Then, the situation was that their lead violist--one of the high school students--was going to be away on a mission trip helping out with the recent hurricane victims in Florida.  This in itself would be alright--but the problem was that the orchestra had a performance this past weekend at a church close by in Georgia.  So my daughter was asked if there was any way that she could fill in for the missing student, and play with the orchestra even though she is not a student at that school.  She was happy for the opportunity to both help out, as well as the opportunity to play with an orchestra, so she said "Yes!"  Then we arranged our homeschool schedule so that she could go and join them for two practices last week, so she would have had at least a LITTLE experience playing the songs that they were going to be performing--though one of the music pieces was still handed to her that morning at the church they were playing at.  Good time for improving your sight-reading skills! :)  The high school actually had four practices last week, but we have our own schedule and my daughter had previous commitments during two of the high school practice times.  But God blessed, and when the orchestra played at the church, I thought they sounded very very nice, and I could tell the church members were very happy to have this music addition to their church program that day.  My daughter greatly enjoyed doing it, and I was SO thankful that I had already purchased her a full length black dress at a local thrift shop for .75 cents, as this was exactly what she needed to wear to match what the high school orchestra players were going to be wearing.  Sure, her dress was a slightly different style, but overall a full length black dress is a full length black dress!  Besides that--she was a volunteer!  The high school teacher was so thankful for the extra viola player that he said he would take her wearing anything!  We teased her that she could wear a bright pink dress, and then would REALLY stand out amongst all the orchestra players wearing black!  Being a teenager herself, however, she did not see my husband's and my humor in this pink dress suggestion, and declared that she would much rather blend in with everyone else! ;)

This invitation for her to play has given me a heads up that it would probably not be a bad idea to add in a few other black clothes to her wardrobe, as black is a traditional color for musicians to wear when preforming.  It is not a color that my daughter chooses to wear for her every day clothes, but I think I will keep my eyes open for a few more clothing pieces, especially since she is a hard size to find.  I would like to get her a black cardigan that she could wear over her short sleeve black dress.  I saw one girl in the orchestra who was wearing a soft cardigan over her orchestra dress, and I thought this was a smart idea, especially for winter time coming up.  Then I would also like to find her a pair of nice black dress pants, as well as a silky type of black blouse.  Then with those things, I think she could "fit in" with most music attires of groups that she may be invited to play with.  If I keep my eyes open ahead of time, I have a better chance of finding items at a good price.  She has already been approached by a second music teacher at a different school in this area, and asked if she can help out with music on two different dates this Christmas season, so her name is getting "out there" in the pool of names of student players in this area, and it seems that EVERYONE is short on viola players!

Besides being prepared ahead of time with my daughter's black dress, other things I did this past week to save my family money included ordering some food in bulk through a food co-op for some items that I like to purchase in bulk.  Things that I like to order this way include my rolled oats--I order them in 50 lb. bags, and the price is around $30 some dollars.  I also order my quick oats this way.  You do not need to order 50 pounds--they sell lots of things in smaller packages, like one or five pound bags.  But the larger containers do tend to cost a bit less when you divide it out to price per pound of food.  And we use a LOT of oats, since I make all our own granola, and I also use it for regular oatmeal, for my oatmeal bread, etc.  And since I have a basement for bulk food storage, it works for me!  I simply store my bulk oats in several buckets with lids that I purchased from Walmart, and I have never had any problems with the food going bad.  I also order things like shelf stable silken tofu, steel cut oats, 7 grain cereal, bulgar wheat, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, nutritional yeast, etc.  And this time, I ordered a large box of dried dates for the first time.  My nuts and seeds I do store in my extra freezer, as they will go bad after a while if you are not using them up fast enough.  Since I have an extra freezer, I just store them in the freezer.  The co-op I am ordering with makes stopes all over the U.S.  If you have never tried ordering through Azure Standard, you might enjoy looking at their web site and seeing if they have any drops in your location.  If they do, and you want to try them out, I would love it if you would use my referral link!  It won't cost you anything extra at all, but if a new customer makes a $100 order and uses my referral link, Azure will give me a credit of $25!  Here is the link to the web site:

Azure Standard

And you will need to type in my Share code, which is: SusanMenzmer1.  If you order using my share code--thank you!  I appreciate it greatly!

Another way I saved money last week was by stocking up on small half size notebook paper when I found it for a good price.  I like doing my Bible Study notes in those small, half size binders.  They are just a good size for me, and the half size makes it close to the same size as my Bible, and it just fits together well for when I am carrying both to church, storing on my book shelf, etc.  Anyway, of course, with the half size binders, you need to use the half size binder paper.  I "can" simply cut my computer printer paper in half and three hole it to fit, and I do this sometimes, but mostly I am keeping hand written notes and I REALLY like having the faint lines on my paper all printed out for me, and so I like to buy the packages of filler paper to fit the binder.  Well, I guess the half size binders are not so popular as they used to be, because I have had an increasingly hard time in finding the paper packs to fit them.  I used to be able to get the paper at our college book store, but they no longer carry that size.  Then I used to be able to find them at Walmart, but my Walmart stopped carrying them as well.  So now I am pretty much forced to purchase them from an office supply store like Office Depot or Staples, and the Staples price is $4.00 for each pack and the Office Depot price is even more!  And I have not found a good price on Amazon either.  Anyway, so I pretty much give in and simply try to get some every now and then when I have a coupon for Staples, to help take a bit off of the price.  I use around one pack of paper each month, at the rate that I take notes on my Bible studies, so I have decided that my Bible studies are worth it to me.  BUT--I happened to be passing a shelf section in my Walmart last week and they had some extra things out for holiday season, and I could not believe it but they had the packs of half size binder paper!  I figured they would probably not be any cheaper than the paper was at Staples, and I am not out currently as the last time I had a Staples coupon I stocked up a little bit, but I thought just in case I would go and price check one of the Walmart paper packets.  Well, I was very surprised when it rang up at $1.88!!!!  The price scanner also indicated that it was a "holiday pack."  Well, I did not see anything holiday-ish about this paper pack, but that DID tell me that it probably isn't going to be carried all the time, but is just there for now.  So you know what they say--"Make hay while the sun shines!"  Yes--I went back to the shelf and bought every single package of the half size binder paper that they had!  Which was only 12 packages, so I viewed it as a good investment in my next year's worth of Bible study notes!  At that price, it saved me a little more than half the cost I would have had to pay if purchasing from an office supply store.  And the paper isn't going to spoil while it waits for me to get around to using it!

I shared last time about making my own home baked French Fries, and several readers commented that they would enjoy more details on how I make them, so this is for those interested! :)  It is super easy!

Step 1:  Wash and scrub your baking potatoes good.  Leaving the skin on keeps the fiber in, as most of the fiber in a potato is located in the skin.  Cut out if there are any bad spots or eyes growing, then cut your potato in half length-wise and then slice into large French fry lengths.  These are like the large wedge fries you find at theme parks, not the skinny fries from fast food places.

Step 2:  Lay your French Fries out in a single layer on a baking sheet.  You will need to either spray your baking sheet with some type of non-stick cooking spray, or use a non-stick mat under them.  I have a non-stick mat, so that is what I use.

Step 3:  Give a very light spray with non-stick cooking spray, and then immediately sprinkle with a little salt.  Don't go overboard on the salt--too much is not good for you, but even adding some salt on the surface of these will still be much less salt than what is on the commercially made fries!  You can also sprinkle with other spices as well.  Sometimes I sprinkle with a little cumin, or with some garam masala, which is an Indian spice blend.  Really, your imagination is the limit here!

Step 4:  Bake in a preheated oven at 400 degrees F, for around 20-30 minutes, until the French Fries are starting to brown on top.

Step 5:  Flip your French Fries, and continue to bake another 20 minutes or so.

Step 6:  Pile in a large pile on your plate, and devour with a little yummy catsup while they are still hot!

I hope you like this recipe for baked French Fries as much as we do!  They are so much healthier than the fries that take a bath in oil and grease, but besides that they are just plain yummy!

Do you have any home made recipes that you make instead of purchasing a food at a fast food restaurant?   Share something you did or made to help save money for your family this week--I would love to hear what you have to share!

~Susan

Frugal Friday! Week of October 14-20, 2018

Happy Friday Everyone!

How has your week been? Last weekend my hubby had a long weekend as it was Fall Break at the college that he works at. So we planned a short little vacation, up to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park—“my” park! I love going there, even though our family is not exactly hard core hikers or anything—well, our daughter would happily be a hard core hiker, but her parents are more the easy hike kind of people! 😉 Anyway, so last week I spent a lot of time prepping food to take with us. When we go, we like to “camp” in a tiny tiny cabin that is owned by a very sweet couple. Their place is more a small RV camping place, but they have just three tiny cabins, which works perfectly for us. The cabins have a small kitchen area, which works for both saving money on eating out, AND it helps me stay out of the ER as I have to be very careful of what I eat, having an intolerance to oils and fats that are added into so many foods these days!

ANYWAY, so we had a little budget vacation, and it was wonderful! Things that we did to save money included:

*Being repeat customers at our rental cabin, the owners give us a small discount. This saved us $25!

*Brought all our own food from home. I had prepped most of it ahead of time, so while at the cabin I really felt like I also had a break from regular duties.

*Came home from camping trip with leftover spaghetti. Added broccoli and leftover sauce, and it was enough for one more meal, which was both economical as well as helpful since I didn’t have any meals prepared and waiting at home!

*Brought leftover bananas home from trip, and put in freezer for smoothies since they were getting a bit on the spotted side of things.

*Made home made baked French fries one day for our lunch.  Yup--that is all we ate for the entire meal.  A huge plate of hot and crunchy, yummy French fries!  Since they are baked, I do not feel guilty at all when we do this!  Let me know if any of you are interested in how I make these, and I can share more on them another time if there is interest.

*Found a book at a Free Little Library that will be perfect for a family member. Tucked it away to add to other Christmas presents.

*Returned to our closest thrift store, to look once again for more winter clothes for our daughter. This was the same store where we found the hand made wool skirt last week. I could not believe my eyes when I found on the rack a second hand made, wool skirt, made from the same pattern as the skirt we bought last week! Obviously the same person made both skirts, but this second skirt was not out on the rack last week when we bought the first one! My daughter and I were both thrilled! I wish I could let the person who made and later donated these skirts know how much we appreciate them, and that their hard work in making them is very much being appreciated and is a blessing to our family! I have used up my gift certificates that my daughter and I both received for our birthdays since we volunteer there, but I didn’t complain at all that the skirt cost me $3.25. I cannot purchase the fabric for that price, let alone the pattern, thread, zipper, etc.!

Here is one happy teen daughter, modeling her "new" skirt that fits her PERFECTLY.

Here is a close up of the skirt, where you can see the very neatly done pleats on the side.  One thing we joke about is my daughter tells me that when she grows up, she wants to "be a size."  This is because she can sometimes fit in the largest children's sizes, and sometimes fit into the smallest women's sizes, but other times we cannot find ANYTHING in the stores at all to fit her!  So there is no blanket "size" that we can go to the store and pick and know that it will fit her.  So here comes along these two hand made skirts, that fit her perfectly--but of course, with them being hand made there is no size tag in the skirts at all.  So my daughter says she is STILL "not a size!" Perhaps not, but at least she now is blessed with two beautiful skirts to wear this fall and winter!

Well that was our Week! How has your week been, and what did you find to save this week?

Frugal Friday! Week of October 7 - 13, 2018

Good Morning!

I had several of you ask me for my home made granola bar recipe, so I finally took a moment to type it up for you.

As I mentioned last week, it is not frugal in the way of dollars, as the nuts and seeds that are in it are not inexpensive to purchase.  But if you are like me, and have to be very careful about what you eat, it can still be a frugal recipe over purchasing the high end granola bars!  And, of course, if having things at home ready to pack your own lunch encourages you to do so instead of purchasing your meal out, well, that can be money saving as well!  So following is the recipe I used, with the few tweeks I made:

Granola Bars

1 1/2 c. mashed ripe banana (about 3 large)
1 tsp. vanilla
2 c. rolled oats
1/2 c. dried cranberries
1/2 c. walnuts, chopped
1/2 c. sunflower seeds
1/2 c. pepita seeds (these are hulled pumpkin seeds--I found my package at Aldi's!)
1/2 c. chopped almonds
1/4 c. flax seed, ground
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly spray a large baking dish (9x13) with baking spray, and line with a piece of parchment paper with some hanging over the edges, so the bars are easier to remove.

2. In a large bowl, mash the banana until smooth.  Measure to make sure you have 1 1/2 c.  If you have extra mashed banana, freeze it and use it later in a smoothie.

3. Stir in the vanilla.

4. Place the oats into a food processor (or blender on lowest speed) and pulse until the oats are coarsely chopped but still have texture. Stir the chopped oats into the banana mixture.

5.  Stir the dried fruit, walnuts, sunflower and peptic seeds, almonds, flax seed, cinnamon, and salt into the banana-oat mixture until thoroughly combined.  The dough will be very heavy and a bit wet.

6.  Spoon the mixture into the prepared dish.  With lightly wet hands, smooth out until even and uniform.  Press down on the dough until compacted.

7.  Bake for 22-26 minutes, until firm and lightly golden along the edges.

8.  Place the dish on a cooling rack for 10 minutes, then carefully slide a knife to loosen the ends and gently lift out.  Place the slab on a cooling rack until completely cool.

9.  Once cool, slice into bars.  I used a pizza slicer and it easily cut through the dried fruit and nuts.  Wrap leftovers individually in wax paper and tape closed.  Store in a large freezer gallon bag in the freezer.

I hope this recipe helps some of you out who cannot eat the processed, commercially made granola bars! Or those who simply want to eat more healthy, and avoid all the added sugars and such that are of necessity put into the shelf stable products.

So on to this week--my daughter and I went shopping at a local thrift store, looking for clothes for her.  She is at that difficult to find size--just barely out of the children's sizes, yet not quite big enough to consistently fit in the ladies sizes!  We managed to find a pair of jeans for her that were a ladies size 2, for around $3.00 I believe. They MOSTLY fit--the waist is a tiny bit big, but she has a belt so can take care of it that way.  Then, on a second trip a day or so later, we found a lovely hand made wool skirt for $3.25. It is a plaid skirt, and I am amazed at how well the plaid is lined up at the sides, as well as the neatness of the pleats, etc.  I have a little clothing sewing experience on simple garments, and this skirt was very well made!  The picture does not do it justice--it is just adorable on my daughter, but since I did not get a picture of her in the skirt, this pic will have to do! 

It is not really crooked as this pic makes it look--it was hanging on the hanger all crazy!  But it will at least give you an idea of what it looks like.  It matches her white sweater, her gray sweater, her black sweater, and looks pretty good with a dark blue sweater, all of which she already had.  Now we just need the weather to turn cold enough that she is needing to wear wool and sweaters and such!  And both the jeans as well as this wool skirt were purchased with the last bit of my $10 gift certificate that the thrift store gave me for my birthday, since I am one of their volunteers!  I would volunteer for them anyway, but I sure have appreciated their giving me a birthday gift certificate!!!

What did you do this week to save money???

Leave your answer in the comments. :)

~Susan

Frugal Friday! Week of September 30-October 6, 2018

Happy October Everyone!

Is it feeling like Fall where you are?  It is not at all around here, but I am trying to remind myself that this winter it will indeed turn cold, and so I should be enjoying this 86 degree weather. . . and I am trying.  I just would like it to cool down enough to have the windows open regular.  I would like not using the air conditioner, and not using the heater--those are my kind of temps!  I even saw from NOAA weather that we really WERE about 10 degrees hotter than the average September temperatures, so no wonder I was thinking it should be cooling down.  We even broke a record for the last September high set in 1925!

But on to this week!  At first, I thought I didn't do anything to save money this week.  But I sat and thought for a little bit, and realized that I did, even though it wasn't saving money by finding all these great deals in the store.

*Since I loved the shirts I got from Duluth Trading Company so much, I went ahead and ordered two more.  They were on sale a little bit, but still not at all what I would call cheap or money saving.  HOWEVER--I was .01 cent away from hitting their amount to receive free shipping, and I decided to call and talk with a customer service representative.  I explained my situation, and they immediately offered to give me free shipping anyway.  Not being afraid to ask ended up saving me $11.99 in shipping charges!  I wouldn't have been upset if they had not been able to do this for me, but I figured it was fine to ask, and if they could they would and if they couldn't then it was just not something they were allowed to do. I am glad I asked!

*I accepted two bags of nutritional yeast flakes--yummy!  Perhaps you have never heard of nutritional yeast flakes--I hadn't until I got married, and my husband used it on his popcorn.  I thought he was a bit strange, but chalked it up to him being from California and me from Michigan! But once I tried it, I LOVED nutritional yeast!  I mainly use it on popcorn, but it can also be used to make a rather cheesy flavored kind of sauce to use in different things, and since I can no longer eat dairy of any kind, that makes it pretty useful for me!  Anyway, my dear friend that I go over and help each week as she is disabled, she has signed up for the auto refill sort of thing from Amazon, and is receiving her nutritional yeast faster than she can eat it so she offered me two bags, which I gladly accepted. It makes my friend feel good to be able to bless me with some gifts now and then, as a "thank you" for my helping her.  She knows I am MORE than happy to help her out, because I know she truly needs the help--but at the same time, it is always nice to receive a little thank you of appreciation as well.  So this will bless my family, and it makes my friend feel good to be able to gift me something for my helping her.

*I accepted a free scarf when it was offered to me.  My same friend orders most of her clothes from Amazon, because she is disabled and it is very difficult for her to get out and go clothes shopping.  Sometimes, something that she ordered ends up being a different color than it looked to her on her computer, so I help her package it back up and drop it off at the post office for her.  Well, she had ordered a scarf which ended up being a lighter color than she had expected.  She showed it to me and asked if I liked it, and I truthfully told her I thought it was beautiful, so she immediately gifted it to me.  I wore it the very next day!  It is lovely, and I will happily be reminded of my sweet friend every time I wear it.

*I attended a meeting at our church, where they showed a video on the Bible lands.  I loved seeing pictures of places where Jesus grew up!  This video was from a series the church is showing.  They purchased the set, and have permission to show it in a public setting.  By going to the church to watch it, "I" don't have to buy the set, so it is free entertainment as well as free education for me!

 *I made home made "granola bars."  I have tried home made granola bars several times before, but have never had much luck with them holding together well.  And now, my eating is even more difficult because I was pre-diabetic a few years ago, and knew I did not want to continue down the diabetic road, so changed the way I was eating and no longer use almost any refined sugar at all.  Just a tiny tiny bit, mostly in a tablespoon or so that goes into my bread making.  But overall, have cut WAY back on what I used to eat of it.  Well, I found a recipe that used mainly bananas to sweeten, and no refined sugar so I thought I would try it.

 After baking it as one block, the recipe said to cool completely and then to use a pizza cutter to cut it into blocks.  I was amazed at how well they held together when I did cut them apart!  Yea!

Then I wrapped them individually in wax paper and taped them closed. To keep them longer term, I placed all of these individual packages inside a gallon zip freezer bag, and placed them in the freezer. This way I can take out just the number that we need for a lunch.  I actually do not think this is an inexpensive recipe, so it is not saving money in the traditional way, as they are filled with nuts and seeds and dried fruit in addition to the banana, and those are not inexpensive ingredients by any means!  So I almost did not list this activity as a money saving one, but finally decided that since it fits along the lines of how I need to eat these days, it is still probably money saving if you compared it to purchasing a super healthy type of premade granola bar.  It is just not going to look like saving money if you are comparing it to the regular granola bars that have refined sugar, oil, and other ingredients like that in them.  So compared to their "type," I am still going to say they are money saving.  And if you think about how when I feed my body correctly, I have reversed my pre-diabeties and get to avoid doctor visits, and all the medications and such that go along with diabetes, well, it is all part of staying as healthy as I can.

*I packed lunches from home for a lunch time health talk at my husband's work.  Remember those granola bars I just talked about?  Well they came in handy this week when my husband's work had a health talk that they call a "Lunch N Learn."  They have these every now and then, and employees are encouraged to bring their lunches and listen to the speaker.  Since I am covered by my husband's health insurance, I get to come if I want to as well.  After all, keeping me healthy also helps save his employer money in health care costs.  I really enjoy all of the Lunch N Learns that I have been able to attend.  This one was on being physically active, and the speaker was one of the P.E. teachers at my husband's college.  She talked about the difference between exercise, training, and movement.  It was very interesting and I learned some new things.  Many of the people attending just buy a lunch at the cafe or at the food bar in the Wellness Center where the meetings take place.  But I brought lunches for myself, my daughter, and my husband, and we all met at the meeting room and ate lunch together.

*I turned in receipts for a reimbursement.  How easy it is to let things get forgotten whenever there is something we are going to get a reimbursement for!  And whenever we do that--surprise, surprise--we don't get the reimbursement!  I had a lot of receipts for homeschool expenses that my husband's employer would actually reimburse us for, so I made sure to actually get the turned in and the reimbursement came this week.  Yes, I did have to actually spend the money in order to get the reimbursement, but that is just fine with me.  We are blessed beyond measure to have this benefit, and it means my daughter has a better education because of it!  Turning in these receipts ended in our being reimbursed for $758.  I would say that was worth organizing my receipts and filling out the proper form!

Well, that's it for me for this week!  Leave a comment below and tell me one (or more) thing that you did to save money for your family this week--I would love to hear!  And if anyone wants my home made granola bar recipe--knowing that the ingredients are not the cheapest--let me know and I will try and get it on here.  But if you don't ask, I am going to assume there is not any interest. 

Have a great week!  

~Susan

Frugal Friday! Week of September 23-29, 2018

Hi Everyone!

Here we are—the last week of September! How has your week been?  Mine--busy like always!!!  Seems like the weeks never slow down, but I guess at least I am not bored!

My week started out with an unexpected shopping trip--I received an e-mail from Kohl's, which in itself is not all that unusual.  I am on their e-mail list, so I receive e-mail advertisements from them All. THE. TIME.  I mean, really really often!  But when I quickly opened this e-mail, it said that for one entire shopping trip, I had a 40% off coupon.  And when I read the fine print, it said that it could be used with other dollar off coupons, just not with another percent off coupon.  Hummm.  They had my attention now, which I am pretty sure was the entire idea.  Normally, there is not a lot that would entice me to make an unexpected trip to Kohl's on a Sunday, because I usually have a ton of things we are trying to get done on Sundays to get ready for the week, and I get sale advertisements all the time.  But I do NOT get 40% off sale advertisements all the time!  So off to Kohl's we went!  I happened to have a "take $10 off of a $50 purchase" coupon, which I get a lot and just toss, because I am rarely if EVER spending $50 in one shopping trip.  But I happened to still have this one coupon in my purse, so went off and first thing in the store I stopped at the customer service desk to inquire if that 40% off could be used on sale things.  I was totally thinking that that would be the "catch"--surely it could only be used on full price items, but low and behold I was told it could be used on sale things as well.  Now THIS was getting interesting!  So off to explore the store and see what we could find that would truly fill things that our family needed.  My daughter and I both ended up purchasing identical short boots--normally $49.99 by the time the dust settled with the two coupons we got them for $17.99 each, and my hubby found some $62.99 dress pants for work for $11.16.  Oh yes, AND not only was it enough to use the $10 off of $50 coupon, but it was just about exactly right at a $50 purchase so I received $10 in Kohl's Cash back! That made me happy indeed!  I haven't spent the Kohl's Cash yet, but will probably get something practical that I really need.

On our way home from our Kohl's trip, we stopped at a used book store.  I found a brand new book that I purchased for a gift, for only .75 cents!  Yea for inexpensive gifts!  We also found some chamber music for my daughter, which we bought for $3.00.  There were several other chamber music pieces that she was very interested in, but none of us were familiar with those pieces enough to know if they would be a good match for her or not.  AND they were $5.00 each, which is a deal of you know the piece and know that it is good, but we were REALLY wishing we had her music teacher with us to ask her about the music!!!  But alas, since we didn't happen to have kidnapped her music teacher and taken her along shopping with us, we had to decide what to do on our own.  We bought the one piece that we were sure of, and I took pictures of the four pieces that we were unsure of and we hesitantly placed them back on the shelf, hoping we were not making a mistake in leaving them there. . .

Which brings us to Monday.  And our daughter's violin lesson.  The lesson where I showed the pictures of the music that we DIDN'T buy to her violin teacher, and the teacher immediately started drooling and telling us what marvelous pieces those would be for our daughter to have in her music library.  The same Monday that we were getting poured on with buckets and buckets of rain, and we were getting notifications of flood warnings throughout the day.  That Monday.  The more comments the teacher made, the more I started thinking that perhaps we should head back to the used book store. Like, soon.  Right after violin lesson, even.  So as soon as her lesson was over, off my daughter and I went to the book store.  After carefully making our way there past many flooded areas (and thinking I was probably crazy to have started out in that weather), we made it to the store and with baited breath headed to the music section.  We immediately saw three of the four pieces on the shelf where we had left them the day before, and grabbed them.  We "thought" the fourth piece was gone, but then my daughter spotted it on the next shelf down!  Happy happy happy!  We double checked each piece to make sure they were all complete--and they were.  Since we were at the store anyway, we combed through the music section a bit more carefully, and my daughter found two more chamber music pieces to go with the four we went there to get.  I checked out another part of the store, and found a book by an author that I have enjoyed previously, so even though it was $5.00 which is more than I normally pay for a used book, since it was by a author I am familiar with I thought it was probably a pretty safe book to take a chance on.  And $5.00 is better than the $15.00 new price!  I had a bit of store credit for that book store, from previous books I sold there, so even though my daughter's chamber music pieces were all around $5.00 each, and I also bought a $5.00 book, having credit helped us get out of the store with the six chamber music pieces plus my book for just $20 out of pocket.  I was happy, my daughter was thrilled, and my hubby estimated that we had well over $100 worth of music if we had bought the pieces all new.  And my daughter "happened" to have a group music class that evening with her violin teacher, so she took the music pieces to the class to show her teacher, who was so very happy that Alison had been able to get them.

In the middle of the week, my order of clothes from Duluth Trading company came.  I mentioned a previous week about trying this company for the first time.  I was hoping as I opened the package.  Hoping I would like the clothes, hoping they would fit as each company kinda has their own sizing, and hoping they would be quality purchases.  To make a long story a bit shorter, I loved each shirt that I purchased, and they all fit perfect!!!  They also seem to be very high quality, so I am well pleased. Time will tell if they shrink when washed, but I am hoping they don't!  I will definitely be watching for more sales from this company!

I made an order for flea and tick medication for our dog, from the Foster & Smith company.  I had a $30 gift certificate that I had earned from a previous order, and it was going to expire soon so I really wanted to use it before it did.  I was able to get a three month supply of the flea and tick medication, priced at $37, for just $7.

Finally, today I saved money by using up food we already had!  I had some black beans cooked left in the fridge from a previous meal this week, as well as some leftover rice.  I have a recipe for a black bean loaf that actually uses quinoa in it, but I have substituted cooked rice in the loaf previously and it worked just fine, so I did the same again this time simply to use up what I had.  I baked it already, and we will enjoy it for lunch tomorrow.  While it was baking, both my hubby and my daughter commented several times about how good it smelled, so I think it has turned out well judging by the smells!

Well, that was my busy week!  What did you find to do to bless your family?  I would love to hear about it!

~Susan

Frugal Friday! Week of September 16-22, 2018

Good Morning Everyone!

Fall is officially coming our way this weekend—though I have to admit it is not feeling any different around my neck of the woods!  Still kinda rather feels just like summer, but the weather man is promising some changing temps by the end of one more week, and I sure hope he is right!

Did you find some ways to save money this week?  My week started out rather slow in this area, and I was beginning to think that I wouldn’t have anything to share with you—but by the end of the week I have had more things on my list than I thought I would have. So here are some of the ways I found to bless my family finances this week:

*I found some very nice gray dress pants at a local thrift store. They were even an official “Tall” size, which I normally need and NEVER find at a thrift store, so I was thrilled.  That being said, to my amazement I found they were actually TOO long for me, but a good two inches! There is a first time for everything, I guess!  But I decided to get them anyway, because thanks to a post I found online, I have learned this summer how to do a professional looking hem on pants, so while I have not had time to actually hem them yet, I know that I have the skills to do so.  The pants were around $4.00 I believe, but I actually ended up getting them free because my daughter and I both do volunteer work for this thrift store.  As volunteers, when our birthday rolls around the store gives us a “thank you” of a $10 gift certificate. The certificates are good for three months before they expire, and my daughter’s certificate will be expiring in just two weeks, so she actually bought me my dress slacks using part of her certificate. :). It’s not every day that you can go shopping with your teen daughter, and SHE buys YOU things!

*At the same shopping trip, my daughter found a brand new soft gray winter scarf that we both fell in love with.  The tags were even still on the scarf, so we knew it was brand new!  Since my daughter spotted the scarf first, I told her that she could get it for her—even though she generously offered to let me have it.  We agreed that I could borrow it sometimes.  That is another first—me going to borrow things from HER closet! I think I could get used to this!  The scarf was $1.00, and she bought it with part of her gift certificate.

*We tried out a new store.  Our area recently had a Burlington Coat Factory open up, and we had not had a chance to check it out yet.  My hubby was with us, and he found dress pants that he can wear to work for $10!  He also found a nice dress shirt for $10, and also a tie that went with the shirt perfectly for $10.  He thought the tie was too much, but I thought $30 for an entire outfit—especially when each of the three parts of his outfit can be mix and matched with other clothes, was a great deal so my daughter and I encouraged him to go ahead and get it.  He looked at the “retail” price on each of his items, and it would have been over $100 if he had bought them all at retail prices.

*I saved $44.19 by waiting. I had had a new to me online clothing company recommended to me as one that carries tall sized tops for women.  Since I struggle with tops being too short—or worse, shrinking too short after a couple of washes and then I have spent my money on something that I cannot wear—I wanted to check out the company.  It is Duluth Trading Company, and all of their tops seem to be 2-3 inches longer than typical tops in stores—something that I really need!  So I had checked out their web site, and found four tops that I really liked and would like to try.  Their prices are NOT what I would call inexpensive—but if it turns out to be a quality item that does not shrink and I can wear for years, then it could still be worth it in the long run.  I checked into how to find possible coupons, and learned that the best thing was to sign up for their emails.  I did this, and received in exchange a 20% off my entire order coupon code—yea!  So I went to use it on their web site, and learned that while they typically have free shipping on orders over $75, their system considers the free shipping as also a code, and will only let you use one code per order.  Boo!  So I could only use either the 20% off code, OR the free shipping code, but not both.  I was NOT a happy new customer!  I called their customer service, and the representative suggested that if I did not mind waiting, that as we approach the holidays there will be more and more sales going on, and that sometimes she sees codes that are for 20% off AND free shipping, and sometimes even has seen 30% off and free shipping.  While I am rather despite for clothes that fit me due to my weight loss, I decided I could wait just a bit and hope that they did not sell out of my size in the blouses I had my eye on.  Sure enough—after waiting about a week and a half, along came a code for 20% off AND free shipping—yea!  So I went ahead and ordered the four tops.  Yes, I could have waited longer and I am sure at least for Black Friday if not before they will have probably the 30% off and free shipping come out—but since I truly needed the clothes, I decided I did not want to chance their selling out of my size by waiting for the larger percentage off.  Altogether, the waiting that I did saved me $28.20 off of my order, plus $15.99 which is what the shipping would have cost me, for a total of $44.19 worth of savings.  It is a risk--if they do not fit me correctly I will have to pay for shipping to send them back.  But sometimes when you are forced to purchase online you have to try a company to learn whether you like their quality or not, and what size in THEIR sizing charts fits you best.  For me, with the trouble that I have in getting clothes to fit, it was worth the risk to explore this new to me company.  And if I do end up sending the clothes back, at least I will only be paying the shipping one direction and not both!

*I checked out a DVD from the public library. My sister had seen this DVD at Target, and posted a picture of it on FB.  I REALLY wanted to watch it, but got the idea to check my local public library, and surprise surprise, they had it!!! It was currently checked out, but I put a hold on it and was able to pick it up this week.  My hubby and I have watched it, and it is excellent!  My poor sister, several states away, checked with her public library and is number 33 on the wait list!  She--and I--both think her library needs to purchase a couple more copies! Online, this DVD is selling for $15, so I figure this was a savings for me of $15. :)  If any of you are looking for a great DVD to watch, I highly recommend this one!  What a kind, caring, Christian man Fred Rogers was!

How did your week go?  And what did you find to do to help bless your family finances?  I always love to hear your ideas!

~Susan

Frugal Friday! Week of September 9-15, 2018

Good Morning Everyone!

How has your week been?  I ended up being down with a slight cold this past week, so was not very good about writing my money-saving activities down!  But I did get some of them written, so thought I would share with you what I can remember. :)

I bought a blue maxi skirt on sale at a thrift store for only $3.25 out of pocket.  The skirt was around $5.00, but I had approximately $2.00 in store credit at that store, so that brought my total down a little more.  One nice thing is I had actually walked into that store with a list of several specific items I was looking for to add to my wardrobe, and a blue maxi skirt was one of my needed items.  I was surprised to find it--at a thrift store it is kinda catch while catch can--but I am finding that shopping with a written list of things I am looking for helps me keep from being too distracted by everything else.  And since I am working specifically on being able to develop a wardrobe that mixes and matches better, a list is definitely helpful! Two things have happened that have sent me in this direction, 1) our closets in this house are either non-existent (as in, there IS no coat closet!) or what closet is there is very very small, and 2) I have recently hit 55 pounds of weight loss (over two or three years), so I literally do not fit in my clothes and HAVE to buy new ones in order to have something to wear.  SO.  Since I am starting all over in my wardrobe anyway due to the weight loss, I figured this is a great time to develop a wardrobe plan and buy clothes that coordinate together.  Less clothes, more outfits is my hope! With my tiny bedroom closet, less clothes is definitely the way to go, because more clothes do not fit!

I kept good records--and this saved us $72!!!  This was a first for me, but when I received our latest internet bill, I was shocked to see that it was double in price.  Upon further looking at the bill, I saw that they were charging us for last month as well as this month.  My first thought was wondering if I had missed paying last month's bill somehow--as busy as I am, I would not put this beyond me! But I went to my files and pulled out the stub from last month's bill, upon which I had written the check number and the amount that I had paid on the bill--all looked as it should, and I HAD paid that bill!  I called the internet company at that point, and they asked if the check had cleared my bank.  I hadn't thought about checking on that, but fortunately I had JUST recently balanced my bank statement, so was able to easily locate it and yes indeed, there was my internet check for last month, processed by my bank right there on my bank statement.  They then asked me if I had forgotten to write my account number on my check--a look at the little copy of my check on my statement told me that I had written my account number on it, just as I am supposed to.  Hummm. . . .looked like it was all their mistake, and not mine! Sadly, we were required to bring in person our "proof" that we had paid that bill to their office, and their nearest office was all the way downtown.  Boo!  I was not happy about that, as I did not have the time in my schedule to run my proof down to their office, but my sweet hubby offered to do it for me so he took care of it.  SO.  Keeping good records "saved" us $72, as if I had not had the proof needed that we had already paid that bill we would have been forced to pay it again! Note to self:  Keep good records!  And KEEP keeping good records!

 I dried apples!  These were some of the apples we got a week or two ago from the apple orchard. My plan is to eat most of the apples fresh, and a few of them baked in apple crisp.  But some of the apples started to go bad, so I realized we needed to eat them up a little faster.  So I decided to dry some.  Dried apples concentrate the sweetness, so they make a nice little candy substitute, and feel like a little dessert to our family.  They also travel great in sack lunches!

 Before drying, I soak my apple slices for ten minutes in a mixture of 1 cup of lemon juice and one quart of water.  This solution helps them avoid so much browning.

I dry them in my little American Harvest dehydrator that I have had forever--seriously, I believe at least for 25 years!  It was a cheap little thing, nothing expensive at all.  I did notice that our Aldi's this week had dehydrators for $29.99, so if you are wanting one that might be a good place to get one! At least this week.  Aldi's rotates certain things, so this is not an item they keep in stock all the time.




Well, these are the things I did to save money this week!  On top of my "regular" things that I do all the time, that is, such as making all of our meals from scratch, eating at home, etc. What things did you find to do to bless your family? I love to hear from you, as get my best money saving ideas from others!

Hope your next week is a good one!

~Susan

Frugal Friday! Week of September 2-9, 2018

Happy Friday Everyone!

How has your week been??? Mine--busy like always!  I did something different this week and last week--I started writing down a little list of things that I did to help save money during the week, instead of just thinking about it at the end of the week.  And you know what happened?  I realized that I did more than I thought I did!  I don't say this to brag--only that sometimes I think we do not give ourselves "credit" for all the good stuff that we ARE doing, whether it is in saving money or other areas of life.  Why is it that it is always easier to beat ourselves up over what we are NOT getting done?  Anyway, something I am pondering.  I am sure that I can always improve--but I think too often I sell myself short on what I am getting done.  Perhaps you do this too?

Anyway, on with my week!  This is not everything that was money saving--I also was busy just plain living life, so did not walk around with a notepad in my hand all week!  That would be foolish of me!  But this is what I got written down on my list, and I know that there were many other frugal things that I did as well.

* I cashed in my Office Depot rewards that I earned last week, and used them to purchase a box of 10 reams of computer paper.  I found a coupon to use on the paper, which cut the price in half and was within a dollar of the amount that I had back in rewards.  It felt pretty good to walk out of the store with my box of paper paying almost nothing for it that day, but of course in a sense I had "prepayed" when I purchased the original batteries the week before.  I look at this as a "buy paper, get batteries free" kind of deal.  It is just I actually bought the batteries, and got the paper free.  With the coupon for the paper, it brought the paper down a little below what I would have paid at Walmart.  In times past, I have been able to coupon pretty heavily and get completely free computer paper from stores like Office Depot and Staples, but I am in a busier season of life right now, so if I can get it less than Walmart price I consider it good.

*I sold a few books at a used book store.  They offered me $4.00 in cash, or $9.00 in trade.  I took the trade, because there are ALWAYS some books we are looking for, whether for homeschool, music books, spiritual books, cook books, health books, etc.  Our family is all bookworms for sure!

*My hubby and I fixed our shower faucet ourselves!  Well, mostly HE fixed it, but I did help physically with figuring out how to get the old part that was frozen up out of the fixture.  I also took pictures of the torn apart faucet and helped him figure out at Lowes what parts we should buy.  But he did 99% of the work.  It is pretty handy to have someone like him around--I think he's a "keeper!" ;)

*I ordered a 50 pound bag of oats from a co-op. I have the space to store them in our basement, and have plastic buckets to store them in. And ordering from the co-op ends up being cheaper than Aldi's price, which is pretty good!

*My daughter and I watched a free math "Mind Benders" class through our college library system. It was fun to watch, and counts as part of our homeschool. I am always looking for enrichment things for her, and the price of free is just my price!

*I cashed in a $10 off of a $10 purchase coupon for JoAnns, and used it to purchase two skeins of yarn plus six containers of hand soap.  The yarn I hope to use for a new scarf pattern I found free online.  If it works out, I will end up with a pretty scarf to add to my winter wardrobe.  In addition, I will have the fun of crocheting when making the project, so it is sort of a craft plus clothes shopping all rolled into one! :). The hand soap was simply a practical thing that we needed, and I like the pretty scents that the soaps sold there have.

*I trimmed our dog's nails myself.  I hate trimming dog nails, probably the same amount that our dog hates having her nails trimmed!  I have done her nails for years, ever since we got her and she is nine years old and we got her at age two.  Before that, I was trimming my son's service dog's nails.  I have cut a lot of dog nails!  NOT my favorite activity, but at $20 to pay someone else to do them, I will continue to do them myself!  Don't know why I never really realized and "counted" this as something that I am doing to save my family money, because I am certainly NOT doing this just for fun! But it actually made me feel better when I realized that this is also a way to bless my family, by doing it myself.

*I took our daughter to Penney's and had her school pictures taken. O.K., so this one really IS spending money, not saving, but at the same time, if you ARE wanting to get pictures taken for back to school, and you are a homeschooler so do not have a school doing picture taking, you might as well find a frugal way to have them done! I would love to hire a professional photographer to do some lovely outside pictures, but my budget does not expand for activities such as that.  But I decided to see what we could do at Penney's, and I have to say I am VERY happy with the results, both price wise AND picture wise! We had signed up last month for their "Perks" membership club, which basically waves our sitting fees for two years.  So I am going to get my money's worth out of joining the Perks club for sure!  So we did not have any sitting fees, and I also had a coupon that made whatever pictures I did purchase just $4.00 a sheet.  So one 8x10 is counted as one sheet, two 5x7's are one sheet, etc.  We were able to get some REALLY nice shots, and it didn't cost all that much considering what pictures CAN cost. . .

The nice gal taking her picture was very open to any ideas that my daughter had about shots she wanted to try, and she also had some great ideas of her own.

These are just a couple shots I took on my cell phone, so the quality here is nothing like the "real" pictures turned out.  The lovely dress my daughter is wearing we found at a thrift shop locally for .75 cents.  It was a little big, but I adjusted the neck line up a little bit by taking it up at the shoulder seams.  I also took in a little tuck at the waist on each side seam.  I wanted to leave it large enough that she could still raise her arms and play the violin though. . . We also had a garment change, and had some shots with a lovely blue satin full length dress that I found up in Michigan at a thrift shop when we went to visit our son.  That dress was a little more, at $7.50, but it was lovely on her.  It was still a little big, and I realized I could have brought a clothes pin from home to take it up just a tiny bit in the back--and the clothes pin would never show in the pictures.  But I had not thought at home to bring one--but I asked the photographer if she might possibly have one.  She did not, but she did come up with a large binder clip!  Yea!  So we cinched up some of the extra dress in the back with the binder clip, and also used the binder clip on this black dress.  A little creative thinking made the dresses fit much better for the pictures!

Well, that was much of my busy week!  What did YOU find to do to bless your family this week?  I am looking forward to getting ideas from you! 

~Susan

Frugal Friday! Week of August 26-September 1, 2018

Hello Everyone!

How are things in your corner of the world?  Is it starting to feel like Fall time yet?  It sure isn't over here, but I am trying to be patient and remind myself that Fall IS coming, even though it is still feeling rather the same as summer.

Did anyone decide to check out the free class on Prayer that I linked to last week?  That little class was a blessing to me.  I am keeping my eye open for more free classes offered by the same ministry, and may end up doing another on-line class with them.  I believe their goal is to have one free class available each month. I may not be personally interested in every class that is offered, but if I do sign up for a class I will try and remember to share it with you here.

So what ways did you find to save money and bless your family last week?  Our homeschool has started up several weeks ago, which actually ends up saving money--at least after our supplies and curriculum is purchased for the year, because when school is going on I am usually too busy to do a lot of browsing in the stores.  So out of the stores typically means being busy at home and not spending money elsewhere!

I did make one big shopping run on Thursday.  My daughter and I had a list of eight stores we wanted/needed to get to.  We ran out of time--partly because we had so many stops, and partly because we ran into some dear friends while in store number six, so ended up talking with them for a while and then needed to hurry back home for supper and an evening appointment.  But I would still say that combining trips while out and about is a good way to save money on gas, as well as save time.

One of the stops we made was at Office Depot.  They were having a special where if you purchased some packages of batteries from them and were a rewards member, you ended up getting back 100% of your purchase price in rewards.  Now, typically I would never choose to go to Office Depot to purchase my batteries, as I can find them much less expensive at places like Aldi's.  But IF they are going to give me 100% of my purchase price back--and IF I am going to use those rewards on something that I really do use--and IF I can buy that item at a reasonable cost where it is not more expensive than just buying it straight out at Walmart--then I consider it a good deal.  So I went ahead and bought the batteries, purchasing one package of AA and one of AAA size.  It has been a while since I shopped with the Office Depot rewards, and this time I didn't even need to go home and submit my purchase--it submitted automatically for me, which I liked.  And sure enough, it did not take long at all, but just a couple days later I received an e-mail telling me that my rewards had been credited to my account.  I wrote myself a post-it note on my calendar, reminding myself to not forget to spend those rewards in the next little while.

Another one of our stops was JCPenney, where we went to pick up some pictures we had taken recently.  At the time we had our pictures taken, it was less expensive to sign up for their picture "club," I think they call it "Perks" or something like that.  It cost us $19 to sign up for their picture club for two years, and that membership will wave any sitting fees for two years of time.  If we had not signed up for the two year membership, we would have been charged a $10 fee for each person in the photo shoot, and so for our little family that would have cost us $40 just in sitting fees, and that doesn't include actually any purchase of pictures.  So even if we never went there for any additional pictures, it was still a money saver to sign up for the two year club membership.

On our way upstairs to the photo studio, my daughter and I walked past a summer clearance area.  She has been needing some new sun glasses, as the ones she has work but they do not fit her face well and slide down her nose every time she tilts her head.  We stopped to check out the 70% off sunglasses, and found some that only started at $7.00, and then were 70% off of that.  In addition, she has also been wanting a summer sun hat that is "pretty." She has a more practical sun hat that looks good with jeans, but wanted a prettier one for wearing with sun dresses, etc. Well, with a bit of looking around we found one that she liked that was on clearance for around $4.00.  While we waited in line to pay for these two items, I pulled the JCPenney's web site up on my phone using the store wifi and found a 20% off coupon that they were able to apply to that day's purchase.  We ended up getting the sunglasses plus hat, including tax for $5.50.  I thought that was a very decent price to make my teen happy, and besides that, she RARELY asks for clothes so when we do find something that was on our "to look for" list I am always happy. The weather is still warm enough for her to be using the sunglasses and sun hat right now, and besides that summer will be coming around again next year!

Another one of our stops was Kohls, where I exchanged an item I had purchased previously for the same exact article but in a different size.  I have learned that if I have used Kohls cash to purchase something, and then need to return it, if I return it I end up losing my Kohls cash because of course they are only going to give me the amount of money that I paid for the item.  But if I EXCHANGE it for the exact same item, just a different size, then my Kohls cash still applies to my purchase and I still get my article of clothing.  Even if the price has gone back up, I will not owe anything extra if I am exchanging.  So I did the exchange, and then we went to look for some new dress shoes for my daughter.  Now, some people may have feet that are easy to fit, but my daughter is NOT one of them! Her feet are LONG and very narrow--my hubby refers to them as "flippers," because our daughter swims very well so he teases that that is why.  AND in addition to that, she also has sensitivities to clothing--including shoes--so in all reality wants shoes (or pants, or tops, or dresses) that fit her body but that she cannot FEEL them on her body.  If she can FEEL the shoes, they are uncomfortable to her.  She is not trying to be difficult--her skin is just honestly hyper sensitive! SO.  I am always taking a VERY deep breath whenever we head out to go shoe shopping!  I also pray--a lot!  And know that there is only a very small chance that we will actually come home with shoes from our first shopping trip, and it might take two or three trips,  or even several months of looking before we find shoes that fit all the criteria they need to fit--and actually fit the feet as well! But having had good success one other time at Kohl's, since we were looking for shoes to replace the shoes we had found before at Kohl's, I decided to try there again.  SUCCESS!!!!  We found some!  Black, dressy FLAT shoes--she does not want any heel at all if possible--that she said were comfortable!  Well, she really needed one size shoe for her larger foot, and the next shoe size down for her smaller foot, but since I cannot afford to purchase two pairs of shoes just to end up with one pair, we buy the larger size and then try and pad up a bit the shoe for the smaller foot.  The shoes we found were originally around $80, on sale for $45.  I had a $10 off of a $25 purchase coupon, which did bring them down to $35.  It was still more than I would have LIKED to pay--especially for shoes that she likely will grow out of after this winter--but she needed them badly and given the trouble we have finding shoes to fit her feet I looked at her and didn't blink an eye about rushing to the cash register and purchasing them!!!  I was simply rejoicing that we had FOUND them!  Besides that--two of her "new" dresses that these shoes will go with we found at two different thrift shops.  One--a full length navy blue satin dress we found for $7.50, and it looks absolutely beautiful on her.  The second--a full length black formal dress, we found at a thrift store for .75 cents.  Yes, that is right--.75 cents.  So if we needed to pay more for shoes to fit her, averaging things together her outfits are not ending up costing that much.  And basic black shoes will go with everything.

The last thing on my list of saving money last week was making Apple Crisp! This is a yummy way to save money!  On Sunday afternoon, we drove up to a fairly nearby apple orchard, and purchased two 40 pound boxes of their "seconds." Now, the seconds that they have in apples are not spoiled in any way--they are just either very large, very small, or misshapen apples.  Sometimes they have a mark on the apple where a branch hit it in the wind, causing a small brown spot on the peel, but it is not a spoiled spot.  It just does not look "perfect." But they taste just as good, and are a good deal less expensive than the "firsts."  For years, I purchased six or more boxes and canned my own apple sauce, but even the prices of the seconds has gone up, and it has gotten where I can ALMOST purchase applesauce for the same price as purchasing apples to make my own applesauce, and the work of making my own applesauce and canning it is significant.  So while I am not ready to say I will never make applesauce again to can, for now I am not.  But I still enjoy purchasing some "seconds" of the apples and turning them into yummy apple crisp, as well as apple muffins, sometimes apple butter, apple pie filling, apple jelly, etc.  So I purchased two boxes for $18.50 each box, which works out to .46 cents per pound of apples.  I cannot buy apples at Aldi's for this price!  It is true that I am driving farther to get to the apple orchard, but it is such a lovely drive that we all look forward to the drive each fall, and look at it as part saving money and part little mini vacation!

So there you have it--those are the things I can remember that I did to save money this past week.  What did you find to do?  I would love it if you shared!

~Susan