Thursday

Shopped GFS saved $10 with their in store coupons plus employee discount of 10%.  I bought another big box of chicken $39.99 and then minus my employee discounts.  It will make 7 meals for dh and I.

Canning apples this morning.. saw a interesting recipe in the Ball book for canning the apples with the red hot cinnamon candies so may do that the next batch.

Got my detergent on sale at GFS, the last bottle I bought was 5-22-2014 so it lasted quite awhile. EcoSense is the brand.

Anna

Tuesday

Frugals today?

Walked my rott, free exercise and peace of mind being out in the beautiful early morning weather.

Lunch today?  Leftover pizza from last night.

Picked 15 lbs. of apples off my tree this morning.  They are now peeled and sitting in lemon juice water solution to be canned tomorrow morning when I have more time to devote to it as I work this evening and need to get in a mini nap before going in.

How do I know how many pounds I picked?

I have a household weight scale.  I weigh myself then me holding my basket or in today's case small trash can, deduct my weight and it gives me the balance of weight which is what the apples weigh.

Anna

A few days worth

It's been a few days since I've posted, have been incredibly busy with work.. have been called in several times this past week to cover shifts.

Frugals have been paying bills on time.

Continuing with stocking and preparing food for winter and emergencies.

Organizing my canning supplies.

Twice in the past 7 days have taken Krogers online survey gleaning 100 points on my fuel perks card to save on the purchase of gasoline.

Anna

Frugal Drink Choices~Koolaid

Another thrifty choice versus buying premade bottled products.  I just clicked on one powdered product unsweetened on the Koolaid site but of course we know there are many many choices out there.  Yes, it takes about 5 minutes to make but so much cheaper than buying flavored soda pop's or those premade single serve packets like Juicy Juice.  Also you control the sugar content, these can also be made with Splenda for diabetics or to watch your sugar content even better.


Koolaid:  Cost Per Packet approximately 15 cents
Sugar:  Bag Aldi's 4 lbs. approximately $1.69
Water Pitcher with lid Thrift Store Approximately $2.00

Water Pitcher is reusable.





http://www.kraftrecipes.com/Products/ProductInfoDisplay.aspx?SiteId=1&Product=4300095587

Plus:

http://www.rubbermaid.com/Category/Pages/ProductDetail.aspx?Prod_ID=RP091194

Anna

Frugal Drink Choices~Sun Tea

Instead of buying this:

Premade Tea's

http://www.drinkarizona.com/productcart/pc/viewCategories.asp?idCategory=2

Buy This Instead:

Ice Tea Pitcher

http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=20351376&KPID=15552035&pla=pla_15552035

Plus:

http://www.drugstore.com/products/prod.asp?pid=173010&catid=184325&aid=338666&aparam=173010&kpid=173010

And a bag of sugar:

I suggest looking in the thrift stores for you tea pitcher or a dollar store where they are cheaper.

Huge savings versus buying premade.  I see a lot of people buy the green tea by Arizona or other commercial brands, Lipton sells green tea bags, same thing except you control the sugar content and the cost.

Oh and as to how to make it:

Just put 4 or 5 tea bags in the sun tea pitcher, add water to fill and set it out in the sun.  In the winter, boil water, add the tea bags in the sun pitcher and it's ready to go after it's cooled put in the fridge.  Yes, it takes a few minutes of your time to do this but the savings is huge plus much more gentle on our environment when you consider the containers you buy the tea in, recycling cost and manufacturing cost where it all started out.

Anna

Tuesday

Got a 20 minute walk in with my big dog this morning, free exercise while the temps. were cool.  Today is going to be a scorcher from what I hear... I am grateful to work in a job with central air that's for sure.

Frugal today:

Free Exercise

Working which will bring in money for our new car fund.. slowly but getting there.

Packed my lunch for work and snacks.

Dinner:  Veggie Burgers, Chips and Coleslaw for dh, salad for me.

Anna

Frugal Health

Took Cocoa for a early morning walk.. brought smiles to the folks in my neighborhood driving into work.  Not only is it good exercise for both of us, being out when it's cool and quiet it brings serenity to my day feeling at peace with nature.

Anna

Sunday

Saved 50 cents off a gallon on fill up of our truck using my Kroger fuel perks.  Friday filled out a online survey for Krogers getting another 50 points free for filling it out.  Took gas prices down to $2.97 a gallon with the perks today.

Stayed home most of the day except going out for gas and stopping at Aldi's for chicken meat for the dogs.

Anna

Friday and Saturday

Working days.. almost no money spent.  Saturday bought a bag of shrimp filled ravioli for dinner and lettuce for salads, that was it.

Anna

Thursday Good Day

Just wanted to share a couple things that happened to me today.

I was at the VOA today in line... found the cutest broach ever! It's a cat in a front load washing machine with a box of soap on the top, LOL! Anyways... I wa standing in line and these two guys came in from the Columbus Foundation, not sure what that is yet. But they were doing 31 acts of random kindness and paid for the ladies purchases in front of me. Had us all crying, it was such a wonderful thing to see. They took pictures with the lady.

A older gentleman came to my door today... I live next door to a gas station that is run by people from India. They sent him and his elderly mother over here to get directions on how to get to 315 North. I gave him directions then remembered I had to go to Krogers on Olentangy, was able to flag them down and had them follow me and blew my horn and put my signal on to show them where to turn off to 315 North. A act of kindness that cost me nothing but it sure made me feel good to be able to help someone in need.

Anna

Thursday

Yesterday afternoon the contractors for AEP came and cut down my maple tree.. Yay!  Such a huge difference and they did it for free.  They were so courteous and respectful of my property, moved my clothesline so it wouldn't get damaged, stacked the wood they couldn't grind up in a neat tidy stack and even raked my yard of all the fallen leafs.

I just called and gave them a good rating for the wonderful job they did here. It's funny when I started out I could just hear her pausing to hear the complaint she thought I was going to launch.  So few people take the time to call in when someone does a good job, only when they don't LOL!

Here is the company I used through AEP.  They are in Millersport, Ohio.

reg061@asplundh.com

Anna

Thursday~Mini Stock Up

I will be doing some mini stocking up again today.

Will buy another case of water at $1.99 each at Aldi's.

Will buy another large can of coffee.

Will buy Scott TP at Family Dollar, it's on sale 12 large dbl. rolls $5 with their coupon.

I keep 2 to 3 gallon containers in the kitchen, use it daily for the dogs water, refill, use it for my coffee pot, making dh's tomato juice and refill. That way we always have fresh water to at least get started with before going into reserves.

Anna

Wednesday~Grumpy Cat

While this isn't exactly a frugal thing it is something near and dear to my heart and that is the well being and care of cats and dogs in shelters.

Last year the organization that I volunteer for.. Cat Welfare Association was the beneficiary of the following program sponsored by Grumpy Cat and Friskies Cat Food.

Please help the shelters to continue to feed the cats by watching the video.  Each time it's watched a can of cat food will be donated to one of five shelters that have signed up.  So exciting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GT1oCrqfmC8&feature=share

Anna

Tuesday

Todays frugals:

Cooked all the chicken breast I bought for the girls this morning:

Have a meatloaf in the oven from the chicken burger I got on sale yesterday.  Average price was $1.57 a lb. Oh had some leftover blueberries that I threw in the meatloaf, will be curious to see how it taste LOL!

Have 2 Cinnamon Quick Breads in the oven, bought these on sale over the winter less than $2 each.

Dinner will be meatloaf and homemade mashed potatoes with cole slaw.

Dessert will either be the quick breads or sugar free ice cream with my homemade pineapple and strawberry topping.

Monday

Frugals today?

My rain barrel is overflowing, took rain water in a 5 gallon bucket and mopped my floors.  I used 2 5 gallon buckets to mop with total.

Krogers had a lot of reduced/clearance items.

I bought 6 lbs. of chicken burger marked half price.  Today I will be making taco's for dinner, tomorrow will be meatloaf.  I will freeze the rest to use later.

I also got organic chicken breast marked down, will use these instead of whole chickens for the dogs meals this week.  Same price as the whole chickens but chicken breast is a lot easier to cook than cooking the whole chicken and deboning it.

Got organic banana's marked down to 44 cents a lb. verus 59 cents a lb. for regular store banana's.  I eat 1 to 2 banana's a day especially on the days I work.

Got a bag of lettuce for the tacos on clearance 99 cents versus 1.99 regular priced.  Geez!  that stuff has really went up in price.  I buy a large bag of spring lettuce mix at my store for $3 but I wanted crunchy lettuce for the tacos so this will work.

Resisted the urge to go to the thrift store.  I need something from there but couldn't remember what it was so till I remember will stay out and away from the temptation of buying aimlessly.


I think that's about it so far today.

Anna

Sunday

Tip Of The Day:

From my brother in law:

When you are barbecuing grab out several different meats, hamburgers, chicken breast, hot dogs, etc. cook all your meat at the same time, freeze your cooked meats in the freezer.  Or leave a few out in the fridge, easy to prepare a quick and easy meal if the meat is already cooked.  During this coming week, when the kids are hungry (they have a 11 yo girl and 14 yo boy) it's easy for them to pick out a burger and microwave it.

Anna

Saturday Late Evening

Frugal the past few days has been working and trying not to spend money.  Bills paid on time.  This evening made $1 sitting on the porch, a neighbor who buys my incense sticks walked by, ask if I had any of the sticks he likes so much.  I knew where they were at, came in, got them and made a $1.00.  Yay!

Frugal today (Saturday) was dh made us frozen doctored up pizza's for dinner when I got off work, it was sitting here waiting for me when I walked in the door.  Tomorrow a trip to the Pharmacy for meds should be the only money spent will also have to put gas in my car, probably the truck too.

I have 30 cents off at Krogers in fuel perks per gallon so will utilize those savings.

Anna

Tuesday

Todays frugal is finding a new accountant.  My old one we've had several years is dying and we had to start looking for a new one.  Interviewed one today, very nice, in my neighborhood instead of across town and $75 cheaper than the one we had.  Gave me a hour consultation, went over all our paperwork for free.  Yay!

Very important to keep up to date on taxes so that we don't end up owing at the end of the year or getting audited.

Anna

Thoughts For The Day

~If you can start the day without caffeine..
~If you can get going without pep pills...
~If you can always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains...
~If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles...
~If you can eat the same food everyday and be grateful for it...
~If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time...
~If you can take criticism and blame without resentment...
~If you can ignore a friend's limited education and never correct them...
~If you can resist treating a rich friend better than a poor friend...
~If you can face the world without lies and deceit...
~If you can conquer tension without medical help...
~If you can relax without liquor...
~If you can sleep without the aid of drugs...
~If you can say honestly that deep in your heart you have no prejudices against creed, color, religion or politics..

~Then, my friend, you are almost as good as your dog.

Author Unknown

Blueberry Jam

So far today I have made 15 half pints of blueberry jam plus one extra from 2 batches of leftovers that is in the fridge.  I have another batch to do this morning but am taking a break to go out and mow the grass as I'll be back to work for the next 3 days.  Bummed I'll be working all day on the 4th of July but being the new kid on the block didn't feel I should be asking for time off when we really didn't have anything super important going on.  Dh will bake in the roaster 2 racks of ribs with BBQ Yum!

Anna