Sunday, December 1, 2019

My Frugal Ways this Past Week 12/1/19!

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving in the US was a wonderful day.  

Here are the ways I've saved this past week:



Made cupcakes for grand daughter.  Even though her birthday is before Thanksgiving we always celebrate it here on that day. 


Earlier in the week I also made some cupcakes for her classroom.  Cupcakes were everywhere this week!  

I received a free pizza coupon in the mail from Hungry Howie's for my birthday in December so we had a free pizza on Wednesday.  It was just a basic pizza, so we doctored it up some with little more mozzarella, a can of mushrooms, onions, and ham then put it in the oven to melt.  By the time we got done, it had become a supreme!  

So far we've had turkey with all the leftovers and turkey noodle soup.  The soup had big egg noodles and tasted like turkey dumplings so today I think we will have turkey pot pie.  

We picked up a water sprinkler, snow fence, and watering can in front of a neighbor's house that is moving.  I always figure if something doesn't work we can throw it away again.  

Got some great deals on groceries at Kroger's 3 day sale.


We went Black Friday shopping at Menard's.   We were able to get many needs for our household as well as many Christmas gifts.  We saved around $140.00 this past year in rebates so that really helped out a lot.  Those rebates are like our own Christmas fund.  

My goals for this week:

Get back to sewing and crocheting.  This past week was all about Thanksgiving dinner.  

How did you save this past week?  


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9 comments:

Cheryl Kimbley said...

Sounds like a good week. Oh my, you braved Black Friday! I used to always do Menards as they have a lot of great deals. I just didn't feel the urge this year. Kroger was my only excursion on Friday.
Love how many goodies we can get from turkey.
Have a good week.

Vickie @Vickie's Kitchen and Garden said...

I'm so thankful for the leftovers Cheryl..it makes dinner easy after a busy week. Have a great day!

Lana said...

I can never remember those great savers wen it comes time to share them! I fed the holiday food to the kids while they were here so we did not have much leftover to deal with which is good. Most of what was left went in the freezer and I made a big bowl of turkey salad for sandwiches for this week. I made french toast casserole for breakfast Friday morning from stale homemade bread that we cube up and freeze as we have it. I also used that bread for our stuffing. I kind of consider those freebie and very cheap foods since we could just pitch those stale bits. We had free or cheap entertainment while the kids were here including a campfire, singing around the player piano, Charlie Brown on the TV Wednesday night and $1 craft kits from Dollar Tree for the grandchildren. The grandchildren were very entertained by getting to blow the leaves off the driveway. LOL, they did not know that it is really work that Poppa has to do every week.

I always cook ahead before the hoards arrive but this year I tried something new. I sliced up rolls of sausage and filled a baking sheet and baked them just until they were done but not browned at all. I stashed them in the freezer and pulled them back out and thawed them overnight in the fridge. It was so easy to just heat and brown them up for breakfast. I plan to do this again for us since it was so convenient. Next time I buy the two pound roll of Jimmy Dean at Sam's it will get precooked this way.

I think that is it!

Jenny said...

My savings are still remodeling savings.

I did do a much better job keeping up with meals this week so not eating out has helped. We worked the day before & the day of Thanksgiving.....very long days....on the remodel. Husband cooked steak & I sauteed green beans, onions & mushrooms served with single served mashed sweet potatoes....a super fast & very delicious Thanksgiving meal for two in the chaos.

My daughter-in-law saved two desserts for me from her family's dinner so that was nice to have for free & without the work.

Our contractor & plumber both worked the day after Thanksgiving. So we decided to eat out because they were there so super late. We went to Cotton Patch (a sit down restaurant). I asked for a to-go box with my food then immediately cut it in half so I wouldn't eat it all. That gave me a 'free' meal on Saturday in the middle of working.

Still working on my felt nativity. It's almost finished.

Finished staining & sealing trim this week....that saved us 100s of dollars in labor.

Almost finished painting the ceiling in the bathroom. I wish I could pay someone to do that! I hate it but it's almost done. We scraped the popcorn off & are painting a texture to hide the blemishes.

I've saved on food & milk especially because I have to watch my grandson at my son's house....I wondered why my milk was lasting so long! So I guess they are going through more.

This week I hope to finish my grandson's nativity. It's an easy project to carry with me & I have nothing else to do beyond caring for my grandson so I make a lot of progress on it when I'm not at home.

I also hope to make a simple felt nativity ornament for an ornament exchange in a couple of weeks. If I can't get it done I'll need to go buy an ornament.

Vickie @Vickie's Kitchen and Garden said...

Oh you had a crowd and it sounds like you had fun! Great idea to cook the sausage ahead too. Saves a lot of time. Have a great day Lana!

Vickie @Vickie's Kitchen and Garden said...

The ceiling is the hardest to paint for sure! The name of your restaurant that you go to, Cotton patch sounds so good! So smart of you to save half the dinner too. Have a great day Jenny!

Anonymous said...

Vickie you cupcakes are beautiful and I am sure your granddaughter loved them and glad you had a lovely thanksgiving :). Those rebates are wonderful and happy you were able to get many things you needed with them at sales time.

We also had some Black Friday sales here in Australia. It is a new phenomenon over here as usually we only have Boxing Day sales after Christmas. I was able to pick up some bargains in both medical needs and groceries at super low prices.

Our savings added up to $160.60 last week :).

Purchases -
- Purchased a gift card for groceries from RACQ saving 5% or $7.90.
- Put in another order for a small fuel gift card through RACQ saving another 5% or $1.80.
- Filled 6 jerry cans of fuel and took advantage of our 4c per litre discount with our rewards card saving $5.62 on usual prices.
- Saved $5.50 by getting two free samples as a taste tester for a supermarket.
- Did an online order with Pharmacy online for allergy medications and iron tablets for a year using a 10 % off site wide promotion and clearance specials saving $59.08 on cost we pay locally in pharmacies.
- Put in a pick up order with Woolworths on their Black Friday online sale promotion saving $29.50 on usual costs.

Online listings -
- Listed 28 items on a free listing promotion on eBay saving $46.20 on usual prices.

Earnings -
- Made $32 from the sale of a handmade baby blanket and some saved pumpkin seeds on eBay.

Finances -
- Paid an extra smaller payment off our home mortgage saving time and interest on our home loan.
- Banked extra money into our 3 month living expenses emergency account bringing us to 57.11% of the way there.

In the kitchen -
- Cooked all meals and bread from scratch.

Water preservation -
- Used every drop of grey water to water something as well as saved shower water to fill drink bottles and clean with.

Have a wonderful week ahead everyone :).


Sewingcreations15 (Lorna).

Vickie @Vickie's Kitchen and Garden said...

That is so neat that you are having black Friday sales now. We just usually end up at men but there are so many good sales. You did really well too then.
I ordered 3 discounted gift cards this past week for drug stores thanks to you! Can't wait to get them and pair them with some sales.

Vickie @Vickie's Kitchen and Garden said...

Menards.