Free

If you dig deep enough and know a scam when you see one
You really can get free items in the mail.
I have signed up with name brand foods and have gotten samples and coupons.
I read other frugal blogs (Penny Hoarder recently)
And one thing lead to another...Free magazine
Better Homes and Gardens.

When on Sale....

Stock up!
And I had a coupon.
It won't go bad, and we will always need it.

Everyday Frugal

What is more frugal than FREE?
Happy National Coffee Day
I got my Duncan Donuts coffee free, no coupon or app needed.
Also, stopped by the library for Two for Tuesday
2 DVDs for the price of one. $1.59 including tax
I got 2 box sets, so it breaks down to about 17 cent per DVD.
Then chicken on sale 1.88 lb.  That is about the best you can find these days.
Also spotted chicken thighs on sale .90 a pound.  Yep snapped them up as well.
Scanning the crockpot cookbooks for a recipe for dinner tonight.
Life is good.

If you've got it, use it

Did someone give you bath products?
Use them. Pamper yourself.
Just a waste of money if they are not used.
Perhaps delay you from having to buy soap for a few months.
Not your favorite scent?  Dilute it a bit and put it in a hand soap dispenser in the guest bath.

Cereal Killing

Made a killing with cereal today
Cheerios 2.99 ea  but 6.00 off it you buy 4
so I bought 8
2.99 x 8 = 23.92
- 12.00  = 11.92
-1.00 coupon
-1.00 coupon
-2.00 catalina
total 7.92 for 8 boxes of cereal
.99 per box
Problem?  Pantry is full, so now I have cereal stashed in almost every cabinet.

Save some dough on Bread

.75 each at outlet

Not quite as good...

I have done much better on the prices of meat.  
But it is getting harder and harder.
Tonight we will have steak pub burgers with sweet potato fries.
Burgers 1.23 per serving. 
Add in the fries and buns
1.56 per serving, 4 servings
Still, better than going out or paying full price.

Food glorious food

My goodness the price is going up and up
And so is my son's appetite
Cereal, easy breakfast but not the most frugal, so when it goes on sale I buy.
Able to get Brand name for 1.12 a box!
Sale+coupon+Catalina at Giant last week

School supplies

As I mentioned in my previous post, we had all the supplies we needed.
That is mostly due to what my son brought home again this year.
Highlighters never opened, 2 packs of 3 sticky notes.
Tons of used pencils, and there is nothing wrong with the colored pencils we bought him a couple years ago. Also, packs of pencils never opened.  Full glue sticks and more.

Back to school shopping

Back to school shopping and of course I started at the Goodwill.
School supplies there! I hadn't thought of that.  We had everything we needed already except 1 binder.
The one he needs runs 7.99 at Staples and higher in other places.  
1.97 at Goodwill.
Of course I got clothes as well.
3 bottoms, 4 tops, all brand name $16.00.  That is what some would pay for just on shirt.

Frugal? Is it worth it?

Frugal tile cleaner.  I have all the ingredients at home, so...
I chose the baking soda and bleach method.
Did it work?  Yep sure did.  Looks great.
Would I do it again?  NOPE. Even with the window open, the fumes got to me.  Burned my throat.
Next time I will try the vinegar, lemon juice and baking soda.
Now, yes it is frugal, but it is work.  I scrubbed those bathroom tiles for two hours. And it took a couple moppings to get all the residue off.  I have the smaller hall bath to do next.  We well see how it comes out.
Picture is blurry, but you can see the difference 

Left it clean, right is dirty

More cleaner

We had oranges, so I saved the peels.
Put them in an old jar. Added vinegar. (waited 2 wks)
Presto, homemade cleaner!

Vinegar and Orange Cleaner

Summer Fun - Popsicles

Left over fruit from a picnic
Few days old, getting mushy
Popsicles! 
Puree fruit, I added agave to make them a bit sweeter and a touch of Orange Juice.

 

Eggs

Oh so many egg puns, I will spare you (I am not eggcited..)
Price of Eggs
Wow
2.49 a dozen.  2 years ago they were .89 at Aldis
They say the Avaian flu.  
I bake a lot, lots of eggs.
I do know of a Depression cake recipe that doesn't use eggs.  Makes a wonderfully moist Chocolate cake.
I know it as Wacky cake

• 1 1/2 Cups flour (all-purpose)
• 3 Tbsp. cocoa (unsweetened)
• 1 Cup sugar
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp.  salt

• 1 tsp. white vinegar
• 1 tsp.  pure vanilla extract
• 5 Tbsp. vegetable oil 
• 1 Cup water 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix first 5 dry ingredients in a greased 8" square baking pan.  Make 3 depressions in dry ingredients - two small, one larger.
Pour vinegar in one depression, vanilla in the other and the vegetable oil in third larger depression.  Pour water over all.  Mix well until smooth.

Bake on middle rack of oven for 35 minutes.  Check with toothpick to make sure it comes out clean. Cool.  Top with your favorite frosting.  Enjoy!

Hobbies.

I have a few hobbies.
I even have one that can make me money sometimes.
I knit.  Nothing fancy.  Dishcloths and scarves.
I give them as gifts and sometimes even sell them at a craft show.
And always use a coupon to buy my yarn. I have even been given yarn.

Dishcloth 1/2 done

Breakfast

My son is getting older.  He can make is own breakfast (Not that he wants to)
As you may know, I make a bunch of waffles or pancakes and freeze them.
I also make Egg, Cheese, English Muffin sandwiches.
Freeze, then just heat up in microwave for fast easy breakfast.

Individually wrapped egg, cheese, sausage breakfast sandwiches.

Library

You know I love my public library.
I can even read the latest magazines there.
You can't check them out so I snuggled into a Huge chair that felt like my own private cubby and read and relaxed for an hour.
Then checked out 2 books and 2 videos.
It was 2 for Tues.  2 videos for the price of one.
One video was a PBS series that had 3 DVDs in it. $1.59 for all.
The picture is my view while I was reading.

2 for the price of one

Chicken.  Yes more chicken
1.66 a lb.  Not bad although I have done better. But it is already marinated.
I made these two HUGE breasts for dinner.  Lots of meat left over, so I made Chicken fried rice the next night
So, six meals for 4.10 of meat
.68 cents of meat per meal.

New Shoes

New.  1.99
Yep, bought new sandals for my son at Target for 1.99
19.99, on sale 12.99
The mother inlaw just bought 2 things there and got 5.00 gift card that she gave to me (I was walking in as she was walking out)
Plus, I used an app called Shopkick that earned me 6.00 in gift cards.

COUPON for WINE

YES COUPON for WINE
a good wine Francis Ford Coppola
Normally between 15.99-19.99
On sale 9.99
2.00 off coupon
7.99 for a good bottle
And the cashier gave the coupon back!  Yep I can and will use it again!

Free apples

After a wonderful weekend away with my Colorguard
There was extra food, so apples went home with me.
Free apple = frugal dessert
Apple crisp
I had all other ingredients in my house, brown sugar, flour cinnamon, butter, even the Cool Whip (on sale for .99 cents, I had .50 coupon, doubled, made it free and I froze it until I needed it)

FREE APPLES!!!!

Ready to bake

MMMMM

Apple crisp.

Paris

I went to Paris.  Not the most frugal thing to do, but time with family is priceless.
Here is how I saved money.
I used a travel agent, yep, didn't cost me a dime to do that.  She had access to deals I may not have been able to find on my own.
Flew XL France, which is like SouthWest for France.  It was just fine, not fancy.  About $400.00 round trip.
Stayed in a mostly residential area for Paris, but still a nice smaller hotel, had view of Eiffel tower.
I bought the Paris Pass, used metro to get around Paris and fast passed us into some attractions.  Metro the way to go.  I actually got a better deal on the Paris Pass than my agent.  It is worth it to do your own research as well.
I did not go crazy with souvenirs, my pictures are perfect for me, and a t-shirt.
Bought some groceries for our kitchenette, so we didn't have to eat out all the time.
Well, that is basically it.  I loved Paris.  Experience of a lifetime with my Mom, sister and Aunt.

Day in the life of.....

Yep, you have seen all these tips before.  But a quick note to let you all know, I really do live this life.  Something frugal every day.  This is all today Wed. May 20 2015.
Coupons for next monthly grocery shopping.  Approx 75.00 dollars off
My basket of towels, no paper towels for almost 3 years now.  And we use cloth napkins.
My breadmaker. Bought used for 10.00 I think.
Frugal treat for breakfast, Cinnamon roll .26 per serving.
My poor laptop, with a missing S key and a string to hold the plug in.
An extra curtain rod above my shower used to dry clothes.
My detergent stockpile, all purchased on sale with coupons, nothing over a dollar, probably less than that.  Also another drying line.

Nope

I suppose I would do just about anything frugal if I HAD to, but I am lucky I don't.
I won't dumpster dive for food, although I have been impressed with some things people find.
There are a lot of "I won'ts" that I see on that show Extreme Cheapskate.  Extreme is in the title.
I won't just take packets of sugar, salt, ketchup, etc from a restaurant.
What won't you do?

Meet Meat

I can not imagine ever paying full price meat again.
My items were already marked down a dollar or so, but I asked the Butcher if there were any further marks down...Yep!
Skinless chicken breast and Pork  .84 to.91 cents a pound.  Yes please. And I will take those Italian sausages for 1.75 (I bought three packages of them)
Used or frozen right away of course.
Nature's Promise chicken cutlets, 1.21 lb

 LOOK at all this meat.  I can get 10+ meals with left overs for less then 13 dollars.
(Please note, I do not always post the day I buy.  I have not purchased or served expired meat.)

Sixth Sense

OK, I don't have a 6th sense in saving money.  I work at it and research.
Here is my latest purchase, I paid 6 cents.

Grocery Outlet

I have briefly touched on these places before.
Today I shopped at Swans Pantry grocery outlet in Exton, PA.
I can do well there but you have to read the labels, some stuff may be expired.
Here is what I got today
15 dollars for 15 items.

Fresh Thyme, Basil and Lavender plants, brand name everything, Cheerios, Nature Valley nut bars, Wonder bread, Ocean Spray 100% juice, Annie's....

What is that?

It is window cleaner.
No really.
More like a window polish actually
Rubbing alcohol, water, vinegar and cornstarch, yep cornstarch.
Really cleans and polishes windows to a sparkle.
Needs more elbow grease, but worth it.

Cast Iron Care

This is what works for ME
This is merely what I do

When I got my pans they needed to be cleaned of rust.
I did used soap (only this one time), then oil, then a metal brush.
Dried completely with towel, not air dry. (I never let it air dry)
Next I "seasoned" my pan.
I rubbed it with Crisco and baked it for an hour 400 degrees,
turned off oven, let pan cool in oven.

When I use it, I use some kind of oil, currently coconut oil.
I clean with warm water, then wipe it down with a light coat of oil.

I re-season it every few years, like when the coating it more sticky than non stick.

Work horse of the kitchen

Cast Iron
During the past 20 yrs, I have probably been through 6 skillets, maybe more.
All but one brand names.
They have all disappointed me in one way or another, the non stick came off, the pan warped.  In the end their fate was the same.  I got rid of them.
But the cast iron was always there and always works for me.
Plus I love I can take it from stove top to oven if needed.
This is where true Frugality comes in.  Cast Iron may cost more in the beginning, but it will outlast all the other pans/skillets.  If you are lucky, you may inherit one.
There is some upkeep, but that should be true with anything you what to make last for years, decades.

Frugal Dessert

Used instant milk to make the pudding .75
Jello .44
Cool Whip .99
Had all the ingredients for the crust, flour, water, oil, salt
Approx 2.18 to make pie
8 servings at .27 a piece

Birthday cake

It certainly doesn't look professional, but it tastes great.
I had a red velvet cake mix, it was either free or .50 cents.
Made the frosting.  Powdered sugar, butter, milk, vanilla
Add, food coloring and cocoa powder, you have camouflage.

More importantly, it was what my son wanted.

Crumb coating...ready to frost

It is coming along....

Halo Birthday cake for an 11 year old.

Frugal Feb Birthday

This is the 3rd year my son has chosen a home birthday.
Halo themed
Made cake, cookies, ordered pizza, rented a movie, and they played video games.
Won't get into the break down, but we save a couple hundred dollars not having it at a place like SkyZone or Rock Climbing or Grand Slam.

Blowing up balloons

Making a banner

Camo cookies

Completed banner