Frugal Friday....the June 12th Edition

Here what frugal stuff happened around here this week around Chez Sluggy.........

*  Put gas in my car for the first time since late March(I think).  The price however was not so frugal.  We were at a low in PA here of $2.04 but now it's up in the $2.25-$2.29 range. bleh.  Surprisingly at home the best deal was at Sunoco w/my .05¢ per gal. discount on my Sunoco card so $2.02 per gallon.  Luckily my little car gets great mileage.


*  I went back to Rite-Aid before leaving town and bought this again..........

Paid $3.99 w/sales tax in Bonus Cash and earned $2 in new BC.  I submitted for $1.00 in Ibotta rebates again but they gave me $1.50(1 x .50¢ for the body wash, 2 x .50¢ for the deodorant)maing these cost .49¢ combined in BC.
I am up to $3.20 in Ibotta rebates for June.


*  I found money!

 These were all last Friday when I went searching for all those bags of coffee on 75% clearance at various Rite-Aids.  If they are photographed together it means I found them in the same store but I can't for the life of me remember which I found in what store. lol

I do remember this was found at the 4th store I hit(no 75% clearance left there)but this shiny fellow was over by the rack of sales flyers.

These two were found up by the register/candy rack at one of the other stores.

I didn't find any change at the Sharp Shopper last week but on the way down to my son's in VA yesterday I stopped at a SS outside of Harrisburg just to see what deals they had and to use the bathroom.

This dime was on the floor in the bathroom stall with me at Sharp Shopper.

Then is penny was laying on the sidewalk outside the store as I wheeled my cart out to my car.

Then I stopped for gas at a Sheetz outside of Warrenton VA and this penny was laying on the asphalt in front of my car.
Remember I am careful when picking up change now.  I pick things up with a wipe, a tissue, etc. and disinfect the coins once I get home or wherever I am going to.

Found Money This Week..... .17¢
Found Money This Year So Far....$45.88

* My son and I got food from Chili's yesterday for dinner.  I had bought a bunch of Chili's gift cards at R-A last Black Friday/Dec. to get BC.  Well wouldn't ya know it our Chili's at home closed down for good this past Jan. lol  And I am not hiking to the next closest one to use these gift cards.  I bring them when I go other places that have Chili's still and use them while traveling.  There's a Chili's near my brother's house so I'll be getting Chili's again this trip. ;-)  The only cash spent for dinner was the $10 tip I gave the guy. 8-)

* I hit P and R outlets last Friday while I was out pillaging Rite-Aids's 75% clearance sections and got this freebie there........

Boxes of Miso Broth they were giving away to customers you bought anything in the store(which I did). ;-)

* My greens are going gangbusters in my garden at home.  I picked the first of the lettuce and spinach and had a salad for dinner on Wednesday night.
I didn't take any pictures but I will when I get home if it all hasn't gone to seed.

* Speaking of Sharp Shopper I did pick up some items........
clam shells of 1 lb. strawberries weren't .99¢ like at the other store but $1.49 so I picked up one and had half this morning for breakfast and I'll have the other half tomorrow before I leave son's place.
I picked up 2 boxes of tea bags for 2/$1.  I also bought this........

2 x quarts of OJ to use on the trip.  They were 2/$1 as well.  I like a little OJ in my unsweetened iced tea in the mornings to get me going.

I also picked up 3 x 12-packs of these........

Sugar-free Powerades.  Now that Diet Pepsi has gone back to using Aspartame I drink this stuff instead with Sucralose.  These were 3/$1 so $4 per 12 pack.
If they all get used up while I am down here I'll hit a Sharp Shopper on the way home and load up for the Summer months. lolz

Now here is where the Food Police are going to go "tsk tsk" at me......

I love Kozy shack pudding(it's a PA thing)and like a few spoons of it as a snack at times.  My usual tapioca flavor was .99¢ a tub but the rice pudding was 2/$1!! so I picked one of those up.  I'll probably leave that at son's for him to eat what I don't have today or tonight.

I bought these 5 packs of Reese's cups with Reese's pieces in the filling as a gift for my son for letting me sleep on his sofa. lol
They were 2/$1.

That's about it for this week.....

Try to keep on keepin' on with your frugal ways and tell us all about your frugal wins for this past week!

Sluggy

I'm Skeptical

A couple of weeks ago I stumbled upon this blog......HERE.

This Mavis Butterfield person seems like a kindred spirit....even if she seems to be an Uber gardener.
She use to coupon heavily and went into that extreme couponing mode when it was hot a few years back just like me, and her food spending was under $100 a month for 2 years.   We both stopped doing the heavy couponing for free stuff thing as we saw that most of the things you got for free using coupons were NOT good for you.  Mavis' food spending shot up a little bit but still stayed under $185 a month overall in 2013 and 2014.

Now she has challenged herself in 2015 to only spend $100 a month on food for her family of 4.
Oh, and she is only grocery shopping at Costco for the year.
Yeah.

Ok, so before everyone gets all depressed and disheartened that they can't feed a family of 4 for a year on $1,200, let's talk about this.
I applaud her for doing this but really, she isn't only spending $100 a month for food.
She is going into this challenge with a whole kitchen/pantry full of things bought before the challenge started.
Condiments, spices, staples like sugar, flour, etc.
Plus she seems to have a lot of preserved food starting off too(she's mentioned a ton of frozen blueberries about 5 times in what I've read so far...lol).
Plus she is using gift cards gifted to her and getting free Zaycon credit for meats when people sign up through her referral link.
And she is doing bartering with neighbors to get a bit of variety into her rotation so no money changing hands.

She is not even 4 months into the year and almost up to $500 in spending but feels her monthly totals will be going down once she can start harvesting from her garden so yah, that should give her lower totals OOP.
But is she adding in all the costs associated with growing that food?  Seeds, tools, added water use for her home, the costs to preserve the foods she grows......they all add up, don't they?

As for Costco.......we don't have one here and I've only been in one once(this past January).  It seems to me similar to those other warehouse places like Sam's Club and BJ's.
Isn't the running joke you can't get out of a warehouse store without spending at Least $100 a trip? lolz

I don't know.
The large packages of stuff is fine for things you eat often but what about dishes you only need a small amount of something for?
She batch cooks and freezes dishes too which is fine if you have ample freezer space.

Back in 2010 I grew just shy of 94 lbs. of food that year.  It will be interesting to see if she meets her goal of growing TWO THOUSAND POUNDS of food this year. 

I'm going to continue to follow along with this scheme and see how it pans out.
Hey, I am game for anything that brings down my food bill without making us eat a less healthy and/or less varied diet.....aren't you?  ;-)


And now I am off into an online suckhole looking at articles/blogs on feeding your family on $100 a month......


Sluggy