Sunday, April 14, 2019

My Frugal Ways this Past Week 4/14/19!


The links in this post may contain affiliate links.   When you order from something from one of my links I receive a small commission with no extra cost to you.  You can read my  full disclosure policy  and privacy policy here.   Thanks so much for helping support Vickie's Kitchen and Garden! 


Our mind is saying Spring but the seasons keep jumping around right now.  We are doing all we can outside on the good days, when that snow isn't flying around.  You know though we have been lucky that it seems to melt in one day, so that helps a lot.  

Here are the ways I saved this past week:

I just noticed the grass is getting greener!  

Found two lawn chairs in the neighbors trash.  These are perfect for watching the grand kids in the back yard.  Our previous two chairs broke so it was amazing these were just waiting for me to grab them up.  Savings of about $30.00!  




I planted lettuce and green onions in my grow bag.  The lettuce came from the winter sown jugs.   I bought this bag at a garage sale and thought I would try it out.  The garden is way too wet to even think about planting there yet.  


Staples sent me another $10 off $10 coupon.   I bought Starbucks coffee K-cups for about $2.00.

I was able to buy butter for $1.99 a pound at Aldi's this past week.  I now have 12 pounds in the freezer. 

I used the rest of the grilled hamburgers that no one ate last week and made a hamburger stew. I then added a can of beans to make the stew stretch one more day.  





We celebrated a birthday this past week.  Granddaughter had a great time helping me mix the cake.  She is just all about cracking those eggs.

We sold an item this past week.   We will have more outdoor toys that the grandchildren have outgrown to sell soon. We don't tell them because they would want them forever even if they are too big for them.  They never seem to think about them after they are gone.  ha ha!


Goals for this Week:

Help husband to clean the wood pile (this didn't get done last week -that snow happened on the day we could do it instead).

Finish Spring cleaning the guest bedroom. 

What are the ways you were able to save money last week?


Be sure to sign up for my daily email list and never miss a post!  You can also follow me on Twitter, PinterestFacebook,and Bloglovin where I share my frugal list, gardening, recipes, Free Kindle books, and more


18 comments:

Cheryl Kimbley said...

WOW on the chairs. I have looked at those on sale and the cheapest have been n$15 each. Great find.
Been doing all the regular stuff here to save. Weather so unpredictable. We had an 80* day this week and saying flurries tonight!
Have a good week.

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

Yep the chairs were on sale at Rite Aid this past week for $15.00 a piece! So happy!
We are expecting snow too today...it's sleeting right now. Crazy Spring! Have a good week too!

Lana said...

Our weather is just as fickle! I love that you found the chairs just when you needed them.

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

Sometimes I get gifts from heaven I think Lana.
The weather is wild all over. I was watching about the tornados and hope everyone that way is safe.

Have a great day!

Lana said...

I am absolutely sure about gifts from heaven. It happens too often to be a coincidence!

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

Love that you get them too!

KayM said...

Yes, definitely gifts from heaven! I love the little things God does to bring joy to our hearts and lives. I got a few bargains at the grocery story on Friday--marked down uncured bacon and uncured beef franks--1 package each. Two marked down turkey legs, which I'll put in the crockpot--very cheap meals for me. Also, our Family Dollar is closing. This week was 30% off. Normally, I don't shop there, but I do buy sewing notions there for shoeboxes for Samaritan's Purse Operation Christmas Child. I was able to get several spools of thread and several packages of needles at 30% off. The thread is a package of 4 large spools--normally $1. Then, I went through the whole store at a leisurely pace and priced the items I was interested in against Walmart's prices, using the Walmart app. I picked up several items that I normally might buy, but no impulse-type buying of stuff I might never use. I was very pleased with my shopping last week.

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

I'm sorry your Family Dollar is closing but you were able to find some great deals. I love how you used the app to make sure you were getting a great price too. Sometimes it seems that the prices are high when they have a going out of business sale. We just went to the Payless Shoe store that is closing here and got some shoes for everyone I think. It's very sad all these business closures.
Have a great week Kay

Unknown said...

Hi Vickie and those two chairs were a great find and they look perfectly good. I am suprised what people throw out or maybe it is us that we don't throw anything out until it is well and truly had it :) . The butter was a great find and here it has gone up in price so much over a short period of time and we now pay $5 per 500g block and it never seems to come on special here at all.

Our Vicky challenge added up to $967.14 in savings last week :).

Blessings -
- Our neighbour gaves us 2 cooked mud crabs and 3 rockmelons from her gardens.

In the gardens and house -
- We cleaned the fireplace flue using a drill operated flue cleaner we purchased on eBay saving $167.14 over getting a tradesperson in to do it for us even including the cost of the flue cleaner purchase :o .
- Crawled into the ceiling cavity to measure up for the insulation batts we are saving for. Serious spraying in there before we clean it and put the batts in as there is Redback spiders and eggs sacks in the corners and I am not taking any chances.
- Pulled down 3 more grapeyard vineyard enclosure 14' ironbark posts and only 3 more to go, happy dances.

Groceries & kitchen baking -
- Found lots of up to and half price specials and purchased tinned cream of chicken and mushroom soups, ice cream, tinned tuna and reduced produce from IGA saving $111.16 on usual prices.
- Did a bulk purchase of staples and tinned fruits from Woolworths and took advantage of $10 off supermarket rewards (you get these on your card when you have spent a certain amount), our $15 off for using our roadside assist grocery gift cards and other specials saving $28.15 on usual prices.
- Did a bulk order for things we were short of from Nuts About Life website being cocoa powder, coconut, cinnamon, cashews, walnuts, mild curry powder and nutmeg and saved $134.10 over buying them in either Aldi or Woolworths too including delivery for the equivalent amounts.

Finances and listings -
- Listed 10 more free listings on eBay saving $16.50 on usual listing fees.

Purchases -
- At a school fete we purchased a electrician tested secondhand breadmaker for $5, an insulated army surplus coat for DH for $10 and a new suede leather hat for me saving $262.80 over buying new or the coat secondhand.

We had a wonderfully productive and money saving week this week too :).

Our goals this week are to finish removing the last 3 grapeyard vineyard upright posts and saw the 4th in half as it has a tap attached at the bottom and saw up the rest of the old timber and rotted upright posts that will be no good for building anything into firewood.

Sewingcreations15 (Lorna).

KayM said...

It is amazing the way stores come and go. We still have a Dollar Tree and a Dollar General, so I don't think the Family Dollar will be missed. Our Lifeway Book Store is going out. I will miss having the local store. When I was teaching Sunday School, I tried to give them business, but now I only have been buying a small amount there. I think more and more people are buying online, which is what I mostly do now.

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

We had our Bible Bookstore close awhile ago here. Another smaller one has taken its place now. I hope they do well. Yes your right online has taken some business away.

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

Hi Lorna, you did so well..great deals at the school fete! I love having a bread maker..used is the best way to go.
you know we had just put our old chairs out to curb too. Even though they were broken someone picked them up.Surprised us.
So with the drill operated flue cleaner does it have an extension of flex then? This sounds like something we are interested in.

Unknown said...

Hi Vickie and your chairs were probably useful for someone who was handy and could rebuild them with maybe a few slats of new wood and some screws.

Yes you are right the flue cleaner has flex pieces with screw on connectors between each piece with a wire brush on the end of it. You just connect the other end into your drill and away it goes and beats the sides of the fireplace flue to get rid of all the gunk and buildup. You have to move it around a bit with the drill but it works like a charm and cleaned our flue brilliantly for such a low cost. Here it is $180 - $200 to get your fireplace flue cleaned so we decided to do it ourselves and just unscrewed the flue cap off at the top and cleaned it and replaced it.

Here is a link to the one we purchased on eBay so you can see what it looks like -

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Nylon-Chimney-Brush-Rods-Kit-Electrical-Rotary-Drill-Drive-Sweeping-Cleaning/123623426915?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 .

Anything we can do ourselves, which cost a fortune to get a tradesperson in to do, we are working on doing and learning how to do ourselves to save us money.

Sewingcreations15 (Lorna)

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

Thank you so much Lorna! We will look into getting one too. Sounds easy and like you say anything you can do yourself to save money is the way to go. Such a good tip.

Unknown said...

Most welcome Vickie and just put one piece on at a time and do the top and then put another piece on till you reach the bottom. Then disconnect the flex from the drill and pull it up and disconnect each piece as it comes up. Really easy and such low cost.

Sewingcreations15 (Lorna).

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

Compared to someone doing it for you it sure is!

Becky said...

I'm so excited, Vicky! Your blog let me comment this time! I haven't tried for quite a while, but this time it did:)

I love your grow bags! My garden is super wet as well and I've been trying to get some cold frames going. It looks like you had a good birthday party:)

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

I'm so glad you finally got to leave a comment Becky. I always wanted cold frames..let me know how it goes. It has rained a lot here so we are soaked. Have a great night.