Showing posts with label Frugal Finds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Frugal Finds. Show all posts
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Keep Warm with Down!
I was cruising Amazon tonight and saw this down comforter for $69.99- marked down from $250!!!! That's CRAZY low for a down comforter! I consider down comforters one of my winter warmth secrets! Every now and then I'll see one at a yard sale, but if you are looking at buying one new, you may consider this one. I have no idea how long the deal will stay up, so be sure the price has not gone up if you are planning on getting it.
What a steal!
Have you found any great winter bedding deals lately? Share the wealth in the comments!
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Watch those Markdown Specials!
I love manager markdowns and coupons! Keeping my eyes opened got me some primo deals at our local Dillons today. Everything you see here cost me $35.61.
Here's a few of my favorite deals:
After blogging about the cost of powdered milk going up, I snagged 6 half gallons for ten cents each. WOW. Five of them are hanging out in my freezer.
The two sour creams were five cents each.
The cheese was a Wal-Greens deal- .99 cents per 8 oz bag. I bought 12 of them using three separate orders.
The Puffs tissues were another Wal-Greens deal. I could not find the coupon that Crystal mentioned, but we are out of tissues so at seventy nice cents each, I bought nine boxes.
Two Tennessee Pride sausage rolls at Dillions- they were 4 dollars each originally. Currently, they are one sale buy one get one free, which brings them down to two dollars each. I had two one dollar off coupons, so I got them for a dollar each. Score!
The Salad kit was .99 cents, which will go well with tonight's lasagna and leftover rolls.
The half and half was five cents, which will go into tomorrow's potato soup and make our coffee even more delicious.
Here's a few of my favorite deals:
After blogging about the cost of powdered milk going up, I snagged 6 half gallons for ten cents each. WOW. Five of them are hanging out in my freezer.
The two sour creams were five cents each.
The cheese was a Wal-Greens deal- .99 cents per 8 oz bag. I bought 12 of them using three separate orders.
The Puffs tissues were another Wal-Greens deal. I could not find the coupon that Crystal mentioned, but we are out of tissues so at seventy nice cents each, I bought nine boxes.
Two Tennessee Pride sausage rolls at Dillions- they were 4 dollars each originally. Currently, they are one sale buy one get one free, which brings them down to two dollars each. I had two one dollar off coupons, so I got them for a dollar each. Score!
The Salad kit was .99 cents, which will go well with tonight's lasagna and leftover rolls.
The half and half was five cents, which will go into tomorrow's potato soup and make our coffee even more delicious.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Dry Milk: Is it Still Cheaper?
Crystal at MoneySavingMom asked if dry milk was still any cheaper.
Funny you should ask, Crystal! I encountered this very question at Aldi's this week.
My household uses dry milk exclusively. I stared doing this in college, since I never drink milk and don't put it on cereal. Since I only cook with it, it was a waste for me to buy milk for one or two things I was cooking, because the rest would go bad. One day it occurred to me to buy a box of dry milk, and that worked great.
When I got married, I bought my husband skim milk in the jugs, but it was much pricier than my dry milk. I wanted to switch to dry, but a lot of people cringe and talk about how nasty it tasted. Since I do not drink milk, I did not feel like I could switch it and claim it tasted the same.
At the same time, I hate oranges and orange juice. I hate even the smell of oranges. But there are some recipes that have orange juice in then that I've LOVED, but once I know that the orange is there, that's all I taste. So I decided to mix up a batch of dry milk and put it in the carton to see if he could tell a difference before I told him that there was. The brain can be a funny thing.
I did this for three weeks, then asked him if the milk was okay. When I admitted that it was dry milk and that we would save quite a bit if we used it, and he said it really had not noticed the switch, we started using dry milk exclusively.
A few weeks ago, we were out of dry milk. Aldi's has been the cheapest source of it, and they were out. The reason given was that they were changing the packaging. And change they did! When I finally found a box of it this week, they had drastically reduced the amount of milk in the box, but kept the price. I pulled out my trusty calculator and made a few calculations right there in the aisle.
At my Aldi's, comparing to Aldi's gallons of milk, the powder was still about .50 cents cheaper. So yes, it is still cheaper than regular milk in my area. But the price is creeping up, and the once large gap in price is closing. This happens a lot, you know...keep an eye out, esp as food prices continue to climb. I calculate by ounces, not by can or box. Note that a lot of things that once had 8 oz in it will go down to 6, or 16 oz down to 12 oz, etc.It's time to pull out those price books again and keep an eye on such things- I imagine that this is happening with a lot of food items.
Unless powder become more expensive than regular, I will still buy it, because even with two adult males and me in the house, we still use less than half a gallon a week. But I think the days of feeling frugal because of it may be coming to an end. What once absolutely unarguably frugal items are you noticing to be not so frugal anymore? What prices have you noticed going up lately in food products?
Funny you should ask, Crystal! I encountered this very question at Aldi's this week.
My household uses dry milk exclusively. I stared doing this in college, since I never drink milk and don't put it on cereal. Since I only cook with it, it was a waste for me to buy milk for one or two things I was cooking, because the rest would go bad. One day it occurred to me to buy a box of dry milk, and that worked great.
When I got married, I bought my husband skim milk in the jugs, but it was much pricier than my dry milk. I wanted to switch to dry, but a lot of people cringe and talk about how nasty it tasted. Since I do not drink milk, I did not feel like I could switch it and claim it tasted the same.
At the same time, I hate oranges and orange juice. I hate even the smell of oranges. But there are some recipes that have orange juice in then that I've LOVED, but once I know that the orange is there, that's all I taste. So I decided to mix up a batch of dry milk and put it in the carton to see if he could tell a difference before I told him that there was. The brain can be a funny thing.
I did this for three weeks, then asked him if the milk was okay. When I admitted that it was dry milk and that we would save quite a bit if we used it, and he said it really had not noticed the switch, we started using dry milk exclusively.
A few weeks ago, we were out of dry milk. Aldi's has been the cheapest source of it, and they were out. The reason given was that they were changing the packaging. And change they did! When I finally found a box of it this week, they had drastically reduced the amount of milk in the box, but kept the price. I pulled out my trusty calculator and made a few calculations right there in the aisle.
At my Aldi's, comparing to Aldi's gallons of milk, the powder was still about .50 cents cheaper. So yes, it is still cheaper than regular milk in my area. But the price is creeping up, and the once large gap in price is closing. This happens a lot, you know...keep an eye out, esp as food prices continue to climb. I calculate by ounces, not by can or box. Note that a lot of things that once had 8 oz in it will go down to 6, or 16 oz down to 12 oz, etc.It's time to pull out those price books again and keep an eye on such things- I imagine that this is happening with a lot of food items.
Unless powder become more expensive than regular, I will still buy it, because even with two adult males and me in the house, we still use less than half a gallon a week. But I think the days of feeling frugal because of it may be coming to an end. What once absolutely unarguably frugal items are you noticing to be not so frugal anymore? What prices have you noticed going up lately in food products?
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Kitchen Improvement
I am on a roll with the home stuff! There's a few things I want done before I (temporarily) join the rat race. Today I painted the kitchen. I only painted one wall and I really like the effect. The paint was free- the last owners left it in the basement. I have no idea what they used it for before, as there is nothing yellow in the house that I've noticed. I really like the splash of color- not too bright, but enough to say "Hello! Welcome to my kitchen!"
Photographic Evidence
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Bathroom Makeover: Upstairs Bathroom Version
I finally got around to redoing our upstairs bathroom. It cost a little more than our downstairs bathroom redo, but I went a little more wild with new hardware upstairs. Overall, it cost $55, which is not too bad. I picked colors that went with our current shower curtain and decorations, so that saved us some money right there. Clearance sales, oops paint racks, and using what you have already can go a long way!
Most of my budget was spent on new hardware. Here's one of our new towel racks. I just did not like the wooden ones that they had, and although I was just going to repaint them, I saw these Simply Shabby Chic ones on clearance at Target and could not resist.
I was not able to scrape off the wooden frogs, so I replaced the faceplate with the one I took down from the roommate's bathroom when I redid it.
I hated that wooden toilet seat, so I replaced it with this one. I also bought a new toilet paper holder to match the towel racks.
My sink area...not much new going on here. I do want to replace the boring mirror someday with something more fun, but so far the ones I've liked have been INSANELY expensive, so I'm waiting for a better deal.
Another view of the shower curtain, new paint, and new towel bar.
This picture used to be in our bedroom, but I thought it looked really good in the bathroom, so we moved it. I'm thinking of painting the frame to match the newly painted cabinet.
Here's the cabinet. I painted it a pale yellow with a small pot of paint that I got on the oops rack for .50 cents. Fifty. Cents. That's good even for oops rack prices! The little drawer thing is something that I picked up at Goodwill not long after we married. It's been many things, but now it is painted and holds my husband's electric razor and assorted odd and ends.
Here's some before shots. The people who owned our house before us loved their frogs. The entire bathroom was painted a lovely blue, and it would have been just fine, had it not been for the frog theme. The frog wallpaper was cute, but not me.
More frogs! And the top of the wooden medicine cabinet. And a wood toilet seat.
More frogs! And the top of the wooden medicine cabinet. And a wood toilet seat.
Most of my time was spent scraping down the wallpaper. It took FOREVER. It just did not want to come down, so some of my budget had to be spent on that special wallpaper remover stuff. I don't think it worked much better than water and scraping to be perfectly honest.
We painted the walls a lovely purple shade that I got off the oops paint rack at Lowe's for five dollars.
Most of my budget was spent on new hardware. Here's one of our new towel racks. I just did not like the wooden ones that they had, and although I was just going to repaint them, I saw these Simply Shabby Chic ones on clearance at Target and could not resist.
I was not able to scrape off the wooden frogs, so I replaced the faceplate with the one I took down from the roommate's bathroom when I redid it.
I hated that wooden toilet seat, so I replaced it with this one. I also bought a new toilet paper holder to match the towel racks.
My sink area...not much new going on here. I do want to replace the boring mirror someday with something more fun, but so far the ones I've liked have been INSANELY expensive, so I'm waiting for a better deal.
Another view of the shower curtain, new paint, and new towel bar.
This picture used to be in our bedroom, but I thought it looked really good in the bathroom, so we moved it. I'm thinking of painting the frame to match the newly painted cabinet.
Here's the cabinet. I painted it a pale yellow with a small pot of paint that I got on the oops rack for .50 cents. Fifty. Cents. That's good even for oops rack prices! The little drawer thing is something that I picked up at Goodwill not long after we married. It's been many things, but now it is painted and holds my husband's electric razor and assorted odd and ends.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Clay Pot Cooking
I've had a clay pot cooker on my thrift store and yard sale list ever since I saw Meredith talk about hers. Today I found one for $2 dollars at a yard sale. I'm so excited to try it out! I only have chicken legs right now, but they will do.
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Groceries Under Twenty Bucks
Nineteen dollars and ninety-three cents, to be exact. Gotta love those manager's specials! (And Wal-Greens Easy Saver Rebates!)
Freecycle Does it Again!
Happy New Year everybody! We're finally back after being stranded in Colorado due to the storms. Luckily, we were at my parents house, and not in an airport.
This year, we carpooled with our housemate, whose parents live in Colorado as well, about two hours from where we were going. His brother met him at a halfway point in Colorado, and Kirk picked him up on Wednesday for the trip back. Our plan was to stay on Thursday for my sister's birthday and leave early on Friday. That did not work out, and it's lucky that we did not leave as planned, because we had A Problem.
Now, you remember I graduated from graduate school on December 15th. I had taken the train out to Colorado. My husband had joined me later. He also brought our house mate, our dog, our four guinea pigs, and our rabbit. The car was quite packed, even without me and my stuff. Then Christmas happened, and while none of us received anything terribly big or tons of things, it added to the amount we had to stuff into our car. Our little, little '89 Honda Accord. Did I mention that it is not a huge car? It really was impossible to fit all our stuff, animals, and ourselves in the car.
Our first thought was to mail things. It was going to be expensive, but we were really unsure what else we could do about it. It was when I was wishing to my mother that they still had their old cargo tub for the top of the car that a thought struck- why not try Freecycle for a top of the car cargo tub?
It was a long shot, but you won't receive unless you ask. I really did not expect that anybody would have something that big to give away. I barely even checked my e-mail during this time. I did not really expect anybody to reply.
But somebody did! They wanted to get rid of theirs, as was taking up too much room. All it needed were straps to attach it to the car, which were inexpensively found at Wal-Mart. I honestly still am in shock that we were granted this wonderful item. Our prayers were answered so directly. We are going to hold on to this item for awhile, as space is always an issue when we travel for long periods of time, but when we get rid of it, we've already committed to giving it away for free.
I think Freecycle is one of the frugal person's best tools, both for giving and receiving. It's a great way to clear clutter from your home. You never know- that item that has been gathering dust in your basement may be a prayed for blessing to somebody else.
This year, we carpooled with our housemate, whose parents live in Colorado as well, about two hours from where we were going. His brother met him at a halfway point in Colorado, and Kirk picked him up on Wednesday for the trip back. Our plan was to stay on Thursday for my sister's birthday and leave early on Friday. That did not work out, and it's lucky that we did not leave as planned, because we had A Problem.
Now, you remember I graduated from graduate school on December 15th. I had taken the train out to Colorado. My husband had joined me later. He also brought our house mate, our dog, our four guinea pigs, and our rabbit. The car was quite packed, even without me and my stuff. Then Christmas happened, and while none of us received anything terribly big or tons of things, it added to the amount we had to stuff into our car. Our little, little '89 Honda Accord. Did I mention that it is not a huge car? It really was impossible to fit all our stuff, animals, and ourselves in the car.
Our first thought was to mail things. It was going to be expensive, but we were really unsure what else we could do about it. It was when I was wishing to my mother that they still had their old cargo tub for the top of the car that a thought struck- why not try Freecycle for a top of the car cargo tub?
It was a long shot, but you won't receive unless you ask. I really did not expect that anybody would have something that big to give away. I barely even checked my e-mail during this time. I did not really expect anybody to reply.
But somebody did! They wanted to get rid of theirs, as was taking up too much room. All it needed were straps to attach it to the car, which were inexpensively found at Wal-Mart. I honestly still am in shock that we were granted this wonderful item. Our prayers were answered so directly. We are going to hold on to this item for awhile, as space is always an issue when we travel for long periods of time, but when we get rid of it, we've already committed to giving it away for free.
I think Freecycle is one of the frugal person's best tools, both for giving and receiving. It's a great way to clear clutter from your home. You never know- that item that has been gathering dust in your basement may be a prayed for blessing to somebody else.
Saturday, November 11, 2006
The Five Dollar Lawn Mower
It took awhile, but we finally found a lawnmower for next to nothing. This is our first house and the first place we needed to take care of a lawn, so we need almost everything lawn related. The former owners left one of those fertilizer spreader things (and several bags of fertilizer), but we had no lawn mower. We had this idea that it would not be difficult to find one used.
We were wrong.
I saw several at yard sales, but most of those would not start, were in really bad shape, or were overpriced. Some mowers were all three. A particularly memorable one was a cheapo looking plastic mower. It did not run. The plastic was cracked in several places, some pieces were missing, AND the handle was duct taped on. They were asking eighty dollars for it, and the price was firm.
I kept my eye on Freecycle, but all of the mowers that were offered did not run. We checked pawn shops, thrift stores, and the newspaper. My husband finally located one on Craigslist for 25 dollars.
He went to pick it up today, and when he tried it out, it would not start. It sort of almost started, but the pull cord thing kept getting stuck. The lady offered it to him for free. Kirk insisted that she take some money for it, and they agreed on five dollars. He hauled it home and got to work on it.
Using the wonders of the internet, he looked up common problems and worked through them one by one. He cleaned the filter, did something to the fuel, and generally tinkered around with it. About an hour later, it started, and it works great!
We were wrong.
I saw several at yard sales, but most of those would not start, were in really bad shape, or were overpriced. Some mowers were all three. A particularly memorable one was a cheapo looking plastic mower. It did not run. The plastic was cracked in several places, some pieces were missing, AND the handle was duct taped on. They were asking eighty dollars for it, and the price was firm.
I kept my eye on Freecycle, but all of the mowers that were offered did not run. We checked pawn shops, thrift stores, and the newspaper. My husband finally located one on Craigslist for 25 dollars.
He went to pick it up today, and when he tried it out, it would not start. It sort of almost started, but the pull cord thing kept getting stuck. The lady offered it to him for free. Kirk insisted that she take some money for it, and they agreed on five dollars. He hauled it home and got to work on it.
Using the wonders of the internet, he looked up common problems and worked through them one by one. He cleaned the filter, did something to the fuel, and generally tinkered around with it. About an hour later, it started, and it works great!
It's not pretty or fancy, but it does the job!
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