Frugal Friday.....the May 7th Edition on May 10th

 I am still trying to get up to speed and back to blogging after my fun week away so here is the FF post for last Friday, enjoy!

While Vacations aren't necessarily frugal we had a couple of wins the past week......

* We stopped at Aldi on the way to the beach house and Kim's Sissie used $50 in Aldi gift cards(some unknown person had gifted her lol)to stock up on some food provisions for the stay at said beach house.  I think I made up the difference since we went WILD and the bill was a tad more than the gift cards.

*  During out round robin of shopping we made it to the Vera Bradley outlet on Sunday and neither Kim or Sissie would let me pay for my purchases there, gifting me with belated Xmas presents.  Then Sissie paid for a top I wanted to buy at Talbot's.  They were both very good to me and I sure did appreciate it!
And yes, your girl is no longer a Talbot's virgin.  I even have my very own Talbot's reward card now....lolz......

*  We had free use of an awesome beach house because Sissie "knows a guy".  Of course, I had a mishap with a plunger and ended up having to replace it but it's a story we will treasure. lol  Free beach house vacation versus the cost of a plunger?  I'll take that deal any day!

* Once we got back to Sissie's house we hit Mickey D's twice a day for Diet Cokes for "you know who".  On Tuesday it was free McFlurry Day if you have their app so I paid for "you know who's" Diet Coke on my mobile app but I got a free McFlurry for my efforts......

I sure needed it after being drug through a third outlet mall as well as all the little gift shops down the shore with only 1 day off from shopping. lolz

* On the way down for the vacation I stopped in lower PA and filled my car with cheaper gas.  Cheaper gas, especially lately is better than a poke in the eye with a stick, right? ;-)

* I found money!

Upon arriving at Sissie's house there was a small container of chocolate on my bed with this on top of it....

Technically it was Thursday night but too late to go onto last week's Frugal Friday.  When Kim found out what Sissie had done(giving me a head start on the Great Change Hunt)she threw down the gauntlet and the game was on!

But then when we stopped at Aldi before getting to the beach house I noticed that one of the carts chains(right in the middle of the line of carts)was hanging down and not inserted into the cart in front of it.  This meant there was a quarter to be had so while Kim marched ahead of the three of us looking for change on the floor I went over to the line of carts, plugged the thingamibob to eject the abandoned quarter and took it.

When Sissie told Kim I was now up by .50¢ she got madder than a wet hen! ;-)

On Tuesday when leaving that particular outlet mall I went into the Bath and Body Works store while Sissie had a rest on the veranda and Kim when into the Ann Taylor store.

Found a dime in there by the register area.

Then while getting out of Sissie's car when Kim drove us to Home Goods I spied this on the floor......

A nice forlorn shiny penny.  He came home with me too. 8-)))

Total Money Found This Week..... .61¢

Total Money Found This Year.....$3.39

That's all I gots for the week.

I hope everyone had a frugal week last week.

Sluggy

Frugal Friday.....the March 22nd Edition

Another Vacation Themed Frugal Friday post today....rah!

Here's what's been going on on the frugality front this past week............


*  While visiting Fort Sumter was NOT very frugal($23 each for the boat ride over but the tour of the Fort was free)I resisted buying souvenir crap for the most part.

I had Hubs take this photo of me with the tiny Confederate flag they were selling(only 1 of 2 CSA things they were hawking there)but didn't buy one.  I did cave and buy a Xmas ornie however........

*  The local place we wanted to go for lunch was just a clusterf**k of people so we got back on the road and saw a billboard and went to a cafeteria style restaurant instead.

Really good "real" food, really good prices and attentive waitstaff.  Even better we got an Early Bird Senior discount on the meal.  Score!

*  We visited a distillery($6 tastings are pretty frugal)and then a really big tree on Saturday..........

The iconic tree and park were free and we only bought a Xmas ornie in the gift shop there.

* Again, the place we selected for a late lunch on that day had a line(it was a Saturday)so we found another place nearby on the phone and it turned out to be excellent!(Well except for the loudmouth hipsters at the table next to us but that's a story for another time.)

I noticed on their chalkboard by the register that if you liked them on Facebook you got a 10% discount on your bill.

Hey!, a $3.48 discount is a win in my book! lolz

*  Speaking of Hubs.....when we got to Charleston SC it was much warmer than they had forecast but Hubs had only brought 1 short sleeved shirt with him(and had already worn it).
On Friday after we got into Charleston hubs and I went up to a local Goodwill store and he bought 3 short sleeved shirts for $14+ tax.

Here's one of the shirts that got a workout in Charleston.  Much cheaper than going to Walmart even and buying them new.

*  Stopped on the way outta SC to see Hubs siblings and did NOT pay for their drinks!

*  Stopped in Rockingham NC later for "linner".  Again the place we chose didn't work out so we went next door to Captain D's.  They had a Sunday special of TWO Family Style Dinners for $7.99 total, so that's what we got.
I found another penny in their parking lot(no photo).

*  Got to the motel in NC to discover they had an indoor pool so we went swimming.
Found this in the pool.........

.85¢ IN the pool. lolz
So I'm up .86¢ in found money for this week.

*  The next day we went to do a free thing...........

*  While walking around to look at monuments that day I found a dime!

*  On Tuesday we hit another free historical site............

*  We were finished staying in motels as of Wednesday.  Besides the discounts I got through Hotels dotcom app, using a discounted Hotels docom gift card to pay for the Myrtle Beach stay, and $4.05 earned back on Ibotta for that stay as well, I am awaiting a cash rebate on the one stay I made through Booking dotcom to credit to my c/c and am awaiting $39.94 more cash back on Ibotta.

* On Wednesday evening my brother and his wife took us out to a fancy pants dinner..........

Wednesday at this place the Prime Rib dinner is half off so we all got that, of course!  They had one cut of steak priced at $55 on the menu.  Well, you KNOW I didn't get that. lolz  Have you ever spent that kind of money on a piece of meat?  I bet it was tender and almost melted in your mouth but still, that $55(plus tip)could buy a whole mess of groceries..........

*  Afterwards we went to Dairy Queen down the road for a First Day of Spring Free small cone............

* My brother found a penny in the DQ parking lot and gave it to me so it counts as mine!lol

*  Then we hit a second DQ for another free cone.........

I changed it up by getting chocolate this time. ;-)

*  Hubs and I went to lunch of Thursday at Chili's.

We used a gift card bought last year so nothing spent this year OOP for that lunch and some more gift card script got used up.

*  We hit a few Rite-Aids and I got some more free fig newton cookies(Checkout51), some free Cover Girl mascaras and free Russel Stover chocolate eggs.  After Ibotta rebate the 3 pack of Kleenex I bought was free as well.  If I can find a R-A with enough clearance CG mascaras on the way home I'll pick up those and 2 tubes of Colgate toothpaste for free as well.

I also found a whole shelf of 50% off wine and am bringing this bad boy home........

5 liters of wine for $8.49 plus tax.

*  I found another penny on my brother's walkway when we got home.........

That makes .96¢ found this week.  Thank you Change Fairy!  8-)))

Ok, that's about it for us this week.   I hope everyone had a good week.

So what frugal wins did y'all have this past week?


Sluggy

Frugal Friday.....the August 31st Edition

Happy Labor Day Weekend to everyone!

So let's get to the frugal things that happened this past week at Chez Sluggy.........

*  I went to Weis Markets last Friday and got the freebie plus used a rain check..........

The seltzer was the freebie with a Weis digital coupon.
The ice cream was $2.99 per box with my rain check, plus I had 2 x .75¢ IPQs which each doubled to $1.50.  And I had a digital .75¢/1 Q in my Weis account which also doubled to $1.50 and came off on this order so I got both Ice creams and the seltzer for $1.48 total.

I also earned $2.25 back on SavingStar for buying the ice cream so I got paid .77¢ to bring all 3 home.  ;-)

*  I found some money in the Rite-Aid parking lot.......

A quarter!  This goes into the change pot and will get applied to the grocery budget at the end of the year.

*  Still harvesting garden veggies too......

Not many but I have another photo I haven't taken yet of what's been picked since last Friday.

*  Hubs and I went out for our Anniversary Lunch on Tuesday to Longhorn Steakhouse.  I had an old gift card with $38+ on it and I brought along a $3 off 2 lunches Q.  With tip after Q and gift card our steak lunches cost $13.11 OOP.

*  Hubs and I went to a pick your own farm on Monday and picked all this.......

23 lbs. of tomatoes and 19 lbs. of peppers.
With the corn, cabbage and eggplant we didn't pick but  bought as well it cost $29.60.  Had I bought all that at the grocery stores it would have cost $78 or so OOP.
Just going to the source of fresh produce and doing a bit of the work yourself can save you loads on your food bill.

*  Lots of grocery shopping this week.........

Some of the freebies from Target(using a free gift card to pay).

 Freebies from Rite-Aid(using sales, coupons and Bonus Cash).

Cheap shopping trip to Weis(PMITA)Markets. 

*  I earned cash rebates totaling $19.50 this week on Ibotta and SavingStar.  I love when I get paid to buy stuff!  Those rebates brought down my weekly food spending to $91.13 from $110.63(though I add the rebates back into the food budget at the end of the year, not when earned).

*  Don't know if this is very frugal but I have taken lots of produce(both from our garden and from the farm we visited)and turned them into canned veggies for use this Winter........

Here are 6 quarts of tomatoes(there is another one in the fridge)canned and processed on Wednesday.

And here are 14 pints of my secret recipe Pepper Relish I also processed that day.

Like I said, after you add in all the costs(produce, gas to get to the farm, electricity to can them, other items needed)this might not be frugal but.........
I know what goes into this stuff I can(no preservatives other than lemon juice in the maters)and with the relish, if I didn't make it, we wouldn't have it because you can't buy this stuff in a store, as nobody sells something exactly like it. ;-)

So what frugal wins did y'all have this week?

Sluggy