Frugal Accomplishments

Homemade Mexican Wedding Cookies, made with pecans.

K-mart sent me 4000 free points.  Combined with the 750 points I had from a previous promotion, I was able to get a 24 pack of TP for about 80 cents.

We had selected an ornament from the angel tree at church - a little girl who wanted arts and crafts supplies.  We combined a sale, a 15% off coupon and a $10 gift card that Kohls sent me to get a kit to make lots of friendship bracelets.  We got drawing pencils, a sketch book and this really neat learn-to-sketch kit at JoAnn's on sale, too. 

We used sales combined with coupons to save 79% on some purchases at the grocery store.  We stocked up on cheese (a money-maker after coupons), tea and crackers.  We got a free pizza w/coupon and I bought some mushrooms that were marked down.  There were cutie tangerines in the sample basket, so we each got one of those too.

We bought instant refried beans and milk powder at the LDS cannery.  I am sad that they no longer offer oats in 25 pound bags, but I also understand that they are streamlining their process. 

Husband used a $10 gift card for Shell gasoline that he got for $5 and some reward points.

We borrowed books and media from the library.

I earned $6 for taking surveys via Pine Cone.  Also, I got a survey invitation from Catalina, and took a survey...they will be sending me a $5 Catalina toward shopping, likely at King Sooper, since that's where I got the invitation.

I did scratch cooking whenever it was feasible.  We had a busy week with several meetings and appointments, so we took snacks from home to keep our costs low.

I've been watching a restaurant show when I walk on the treadmill.  In all the restaurants visited, one thing that caught my eye was oil-filled squirt bottles for putting oil into sauté pans.  I love the idea.  I dug through my 'empty clean containers' box and found these three.  Two had labels that won't come off, and the third had a surface that didn't want to accept the label.  I fixed that with some decorative duct tape, left over from a used bicycle project, then added labels.  I finished them with clear packing tape, in hopes I can keep the labels from getting oily right away.  Zero out of pocket, since everything I used was already here.  They're a little 'loud', but they're inside the cabinet when I'm not using them, so I'm not going to worry about it.

After I few try-outs, I can tell you these are working well!

 

I gave myself a challenge to not buy any Christmas decorations this year, since we have plenty.  It's so easy for me to justify something that's really cute, especially if it's at Goodwill or second hand, but we just don't need more.  So far, so good! :)

I accepted 50 lb. of hard red wheat from a friend who has learned she can no longer eat wheat/gluten products. 

Our wood stove was smelling a bit smoky, so Husband re-sealed the seam where the stove pipe goes into the wall.  Much better! :)

On a day when we had to be in town for other reasons, ChickFilA was giving away sandwiches in exchange for new, unwrapped toys.  We had some items at home we had not yet donated, so we got the sandwiches, shared a side and drank water for a low-cost dinner. 

I kept up with my walking and water consumption.  My weight is not decreasing much, but my pants are too big again, so maybe I'm converting to more muscle?

I did some crocheting from my yarn stash and made myself a scarf this week.  I was so excited because I have a green coat....but when I put the scarf next to the coat, they are completely different greens.  Oh well....it was still fun to make.  The fringe is on purpose, and yes, I guess it's unusual.

Late in the week I had an appointment in town so I stopped at the store and got Challenge butter for .99 a pound after sale and coupon.  I also found 93% lean ground beef in the markdown section for 1.45 a pound.  I bought about 6 1/2 pounds.  Some of it was already made into patties, so those were wrapped 4 to a package and frozen for later.  I browned the rest of it with a little salt, pepper and garlic powder, then cooled the meat and froze it in portions that are the right size for making things like chili, hamburger curry, enchiladas, etc.  I was really happy to find a good price on leaner meat.  Oh, and I also got a free pouch of cat treats through a promotion the store was having.  At another supermarket I picked up Nestle tollhouse chocolate chips for .67 per 12 oz bag after sale and coupon, and some gala apples for .89 a pound.  The other items on sale late in the week were fresh pineapples for $1 each and broccoli for .67 a pound.  There were other items too, but those are the ones we purchased.  We didn't need anything else.

Husband got a great price on a cabinet for his workshop.  We also saved the $50 assembly fee by putting it together ourselves. 

On Facebook, there was a chance to win a cookbook from a Hawaiian barbecue place - I'd been wanting that cookbook, so I entered.  Guess what?

Yup!  I won! :)

Laundry, as usual, was washed with homemade laundry soap and dried on the wooden racks. 

We stopped on the way home from church at Albertsons.  They had good prices on some store brand items, plus there were coupons for the store brand in the coupon inserts.  We got 16 oz. sour cream for .50, 8 oz. whipping cream for .50 and chips for Husband's lunches for 1.00

How was your week?  Are you finding lots of frugal stuff close to Christmas?  Leave a comment and share! :)