Frugal Friday.....the February 23rd Edition

There are a few Frugal wins this past week so here goes....

*  Evelyn/Evelyn the Egret has moved on and we didn't see him/her this past week.  I blame the lack of rain filling up the fishing holes in the yard.  Goodbye for now my bird friend.

* As for saving money last week at the grocery stores, I already posted the details on my Walmart trips from last weekend........

*  Hubs and I had a Valentine's Lunch at a local Chinese restaurant last Friday.  Doing Lunch is more frugal than doing Dinner out.

*  I received a quarterly Rakuten rebate check this past week..........

A whole $22 and change.  Most of that was earned from hotel stays on our 3K+ mile trip in December. Better than nothing I suppose.....

*  No grocery shopping this week(so far).  My wallet likes that. 8-)

*  No eating out except for Valentine's day at lunch this week.  Shopping from my pantry and freezer this week.

*  We took all this to a local food bank on Thursday.....

Not necessarily frugal but it made me feel good after a day of dealing with my shitty kids. 8-)  Bonus-my gift buying list for Holidays shrunk by two(plus 2 spouses and a grandchild)this week!  

*  I bought a few clothing items and a purse online.  My wardrobe is still pretty bare so I used some gift cards for Kohl's I still had and bought a vest, a thinner jacket, 3 shirts and a pair of pants at their 70% clearance sale and ended up spending under $9 OOP.  Though the pants are a petite I still need to hem them up 5 inches! lol  The jacket may be going back as the color is not what my monitor showed and it's a tad long and shortening it involves a zipper so...no!

At any rate, I earned $20 in Kohl's cash which I now need to spend. 8-)   Vera Bradley had an outlet sale online too so I splurged on myself and bought a dog themed purse and wallet because I am all about the dogs. lol  I ordered smaller sized dresses, the sort I like to wear in the Summer, and 2 pair of pants in a smaller size as the company that sells them had a President's Day sale as well.  My last stop was on online t-shirt vendor for some of their offerings with free shipping. I went through Rakuten to earn rebates when possible at all these online venues.

*  I spent a good deal of time finishing trying on every clothing item I own.  I sent 6 dresses, some pants(don't recall how many pair)and 5 shirts to Goodwill(also had to pitch a bathing suit and bras), and I have many items I like which I'd like to save by altering them but only about 4 or 5 only require hemming to make them wearable(2 are dresses I bought last Summer that just need hemming).  Most items require more extensive alterations-raising shoulder seams and/or taking in seams(side and other)and with my ET I may never be able to save those.  It's a shame really. 8-( This was a big time consuming project but it didn't require spending any money so that's why I have included it as a frugal activity.

*  I found Money!

The Chinese restaurant referenced above is inside of a run down extended stay motel.  As we pass through the lobby I always check the coin return slots in the two vending machines there and one had a quarter in it!

Then I found a dime in Walmart when I returned a shirt at the Customer Service Desk.  There is a "change your coins into bills" machine there and I spied a dime that got lost by someone on the floor next to the machine.

Then on Sunday I hit up a different Walmart for 2 items and I just found pennies all over the store--next to the freezer section, in a self check-out machine coin return, on the floor in toiletries and in the foyer while leaving the store.

Total Found in last Week.... .39¢
Grand Total Found this Year.......$1.55

That's all I got.  

Any frugal wins in your neck of the woods?  Let's hear all about them!

Sluggy