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