Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Things I Did Last Week That Were Frugal

Well let's see....

Usually I stick pretty close to a meal plan but last week(Thanksgiving Week)I didn't even DO a plan ahead so I can't even put that down. lol

1.  Our den sofa was a wreck.  Cracked, springs gone and fabric ripped all to heck. Plus the Chihuahua use to like to LICK it so you know it smelled really bad. ;-)
We have needed to replace it for ages.  The Sunday before Thanksgiving I got a special coupon from K-Mart online offering me some really good deals plus an additional discount on some items.  And one of those items was furniture.
Now I wouldn't normally even look at K-Mart to purchase furniture but I started playing around with the online shopping cart and coupons to see what price I could get something down to.
And here is what we set up in the den on Monday evening to replace our sad sofa........


Matching His & Her rocker recliners! lol
We had been discussing just getting a pair of recliners once we pitched the sofa.  After all, we hardly ever have enough people sitting in our house together to warrant buying another big bulky sofa.  This den is quite small so these fit much better and are more comfortable.

These are $279.99 recliners.
And I paid(after discounts, coupons & K-Mart "Shop your Way" points)$302.43 for Both.
So I got them for almost half price.

We went to K-Mart on Sunday to check them out in person(because I would never buy something like this online without testing it out),came home and bought them online with an in-store pick-up.

Before I get bashed for spending crazy amounts of cash(well, for me $300 IS crazy amounts of cash!lol), let me say this--I realize that just keeping what you already have and making do is preferable to spending money on new stuff, but at some point, you do have to breakdown and buy things....as long as you have the money saved up for the purchase.
We try to not-spend until things get to that point.  We also do a good amount of research and comparison shopping before pulling the trigger on a purchase.  Buying on impulse is deadly to your financial health, even if you do have gobs of spare money laying around.  Keep being impulsive and pretty soon those gobs of money are gone. 8-))

2.  Held off buying many toiletries/HBA this year until the Black Friday sales hit at Rite-Aid.  Looking at my spending log I did NO Rite-Aid shopping between March and September of this year.  We have been using up the stockpile of toiletries/many paper goods/HBA/etc. I had gotten at R-A in the last year or two.  There was a tiny bit of Rite-Aid shopping in Jan., Feb. and Oct. but I took full advantage of the sales this past week during Black Friday week to save the most on products I buy there.  In November I spent $14.74 at Rite-Aid and brought home items which would have cost me $397.51 if bought at regular retail.  I don't buy at regular retail but even with the everyday sale prices, I still saved a large sum over sales prices throughout the year versus deep discounts for Black Friday.  Plus shopping at Rite-Aid is NOTHING like braving the hoards at the mall and big dept. stores Black Friday weekend. 8-)

Now once I use up my +Up Rewards on things we need in the coming weeks, my Rite-Aid shopping will fade away into my usual infrequent trips.

3.  I converted spare cash sitting in an account earning basically nothing in interest into gift cards at places we need to spend--home improvement/hardware stores.  This is money that will need to be shelled out anyway over the course of next year for repair and maintenance of our home. (Last year's stack of gift cards went toward purchasing the bamboo flooring we had the handyman service put down in our living/dining room.)  By "spending" the cash now instead of next year, I got a benefit greater than the 5 pennies of interest earned from leaving the cash in a bank--I got +Up Rewards at Rite-Aid that are "money" toward toiletries/HBAs purchased in that store.

4.  I needed to refill 3 prescriptions so instead of having them filled where they were, I transferred them to the K-Mart pharmacy(since I was going there on Monday anyway to get the new chairs)and
received $75 in gift cards for my efforts.   These are meds that don't have any refills so I won't need to go back to K-Mart for further refills if I want to have the new prescriptions filled elsewhere.

5.  We downsized the number of dishes and amounts prepared for Thanksgiving.   Smaller turkey, less sides, that sort of thing.  It kept us from feeling like we HAD TO overeat to get through all that food and most of us only had 1 plate of food this time.  Less food made and bought, less money spent.

And you will be shocked, shocked I tell ya!, to know that the only Cyber Monday shopping I did yesterday was 4 items on Amazon--3 Christmas gifts and 1 book that #2 Son needed.  He told me he needed a certain music theory book so I went ahead and bought 3 gifts in that order to get the free shipping....3 gifts that would have been bought at some point in the coming week anyway.

And another 3 check marks go up on my gift completion list.
Yay!

I really need to sit down this week and make out that list on paper(it's been in my head so far and getting too large to keep there!lolol)and see where I am in regards to finishing all my gift shopping.

So what did you do that was frugal last week?


Sluggy





 

14 comments:

  1. Wow, Sluggy, I say you had a pretty frugal week. Great deal on the recliners. You are right, at some point you have to replace things and recliners are something that are virtually impossible to get used at a decent price in good shape. I am 40% done shopping. Usually further along but this year just don't have any oompf to get it done. Maybe this weekend. The decorations are up though. Cheers!

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, I would Never buy a used recliner or any fabric covered piece of furniture or "mattress" thing, unless it was all I could afford. I would take a used thing from someone I knew....ok, maybe not depending on how well I knew their cleanliness habits. lol

      I guess the "not having any oomph" disease is striking everywhere this year.
      But don't despair....you beat me with the decorating being up. I am still waiting for help to get the boxes of stuff down from where they are stored. lol
      Cheers back atya!

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  2. You know the problem with writing a blog about saving money is you have to defend yourself to some degree when you do spend money. And then you feel guilty if you don't tell that you spent money. We seem to have gotten ourselves into a catch 22.
    People think that if you write about saving money you don't have any money. But I think that some fail to realize that there are different steps to this money saving life style. Eventually you get to the point where you actually have money.

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    1. Ok...were you inside my HEAD while I was writing this post out? Because this was what was running through it the whole time I was writing it up. Much justifying having spent that much money and all! lol

      It's rough some days and I debate with myself about even posting some things I do. I don't want to alienate readers who aren't in my position financially and then I don't want to appear to be showing off and going, "neener neener, I bought crap and you can't w/out going into debt!"
      I walk a razor thin line some days....

      While I have great admiration for folks who dug themselves a hole and are attempting to climb out of it, and I like to count them among my friends, I just can't relate on many levels, having never gone into massive debt in my life like that. Maybe I am lucky(yes, luck had something to do with it but not all)but I also work darn hard at maintaining a lifestyle much lower than we could afford in order to have enough to pay for what's important to us and still be able to save like a fiend so Hubs can retire within the next 5 years.

      Delete
    2. It is really a hard thing deciding what to post and what not to. We really need to replace a few pieces of furniture. I want to "have nice things" cuz the kids will be gone. We have scraped and gone without but I'm sure that I will be begging for forgiveness from everyone once I have bought it. Never mind the fact that I won't be replacing anything for another 20 years. On furniture, I don't normally buy second hand. And I have started scoping out furniture knowing that I won't purchase it for probably 9-12 months. Grrrrrr, how did we get ourselves into this?

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  3. Love the chairs! I would love to get rid of the couch in the basement (28 years old) and get two chairs like that. I think once I get rid of the credit union loans I will put my savings towards something like them :)

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  4. I think it was really smart to get two recliners instead of a sofa. We have a sofa and I sit and one end, hubby sits on the other. I keep rotating the cushions because the middle one never gets sat on. With the two chairs, you have more flexibility to rearrange if you want. Great use of those coupons to get that low price!

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  5. Great chairs!!!

    Let's see... I've eaten 3 Thanksgiving dinners in as many days using leftovers. The kids are getting sick of my "creativity" with the turkey and ham... Froze a lot of it.

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  6. I got a Butterball turkey for $69/lb by price-matching at WM. They were out of the house brand, so I was allowed to get the name brand. I try to buy about three turkeys during the holiday season IF I can get them cheaply enough. I cannot get chicken that cheaply.

    Using three coupons when I had less than $2 to spend, I managed a 90% savings on one grocery trip. It is on my blog this week.

    You are not at all bragging when you write. I think the tone in which you write relays your intentions. I would buy used furniture if it were an antique. Right now, my chair in which I sit has sunk six inches due to springs or something. I need a new chair, but until this one falls down, it stays...lol. What I really need is a lift chair so I can have surgery. Since I am tall and wide, the $1450 one is the only one that will fit. You just know I am rushing right out to get it.

    Nice chairs you have, just right for two people.

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  7. My life is one frugal bonanza but I was particularly proud of my beloved for replacing the outlet on an outside power receptacle. Maybe bathing the dog in the river rather than taking her for a grooming counts?

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  8. I'm about ready to have a bloody nervous breakdown with all the money I'm spending on renos. I'm wishing I had just put this place up for sale, as is, for a bargain price. Less hassle, less stress. Hindsight is 20/20 as they say.

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  9. Let's see - lots of bargain shopping at Rite Aid. . . Skipped flying home for Thanksgiving (save $2K there), Bought a discounted gift card at Rite Aid to get my son the only jeans that fit him. Used eBates to get money back on Christmas purchases. Used a gift card to buy a few gifts. Bought lunch at Subway instead of eating overpriced fair food at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. . . I think that's about it!

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  10. I love the chairs! They
    Look super comfy!!

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  11. You got a great deal on those chairs and you don't have to justify to me.

    ReplyDelete

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