Showing posts with label not spending money. Show all posts
Showing posts with label not spending money. Show all posts

Thursday, April 27, 2017

Looking Back on April & Other Stuff

I love the end of the month/beginning of a new month time.
Ok, let me rephrase that....the money nerd in me loves this time.  ;-)

* It's 3 days to the end of April and looking back...... I am over my $200 food budget limit I imposed for April.  And that's even with using free or paid for last year gift cards. Oh well.  Still, spending $260 OOP for food for a month for 3 adults(and stocking up on some "deals")is awesome in my book.

* I have still got about a half a tank of gas in my car and have only filled it once in April.  Go me.
May will change all that in a big way.....I'll be putting miles on the Sonic and paying for lots of gas.



* I didn't take any cash withdrawals this month and still have $36 in my wallet from March's cash.
I decided when April started not to take any cash out of the bank automatically on the 1st and just see how far March's leftovers took me....to the tune of $36 evidently. lol
I think I had $72? in my wallet at the end of March.
So $36 is leftover from that $72 after paying cash for about $20 in prescriptions I picked up, a few of gallons of milk at the store($13 approx.) and I did do the drive-thru for a burger or two in April so that came out of the leftover March money too.  I took myself to the movies in April but that was using a gift card that was paid for 2 years ago.
Sounds about right.  I really didn't spend on much besides groceries this month.

So I am going into May(really? May already!?!)with $36 in my pocket and half a tank of gas.
Woohoo! ;-)

* I've only got 1 item left on my To-Do List for April-a Sallie's donation to finish gathering and taking in.  I guess I'll get the rest of it gathered today and loadedd into Hubs' car when he gets home and see if Hubs can drop it off on the way home from work on Friday.  Then we don't have to make a trip there over the weekend.

*  I bought a total of 14 bags of coffee this past sales week at Weis(PMITA)Markets while they had this brand on BOGO sale.


6 bags of the Alert type(highly caffeinated)cost $7.47 after sale and $1.50/1Qs or $1.25 for each bag.
8 bags of assorted regular types/flavors cost $10.96 after sale and $2.50/2Qs + 1 x $1/1 Weis Q or $1.37 per bag.

$76.86 worth of reg. retail coffee for $18.43 or $1.32 on average per bag.
I also have a rain check for 8 more bags of the flavor they were out of that College Boy prefers + 4 x $2.50/2Qs to use with that rain check, netting me 22 bags of coffee at a cost of $30.39 or $1.38 per bag average.
Not too shabby. ;-)
Some of it is whole bean coffee so it will stay fresher longer and we can always throw some into the freezer to keep if it gets "old" sitting on the pantry shelf.

* Ok, I am serious about id-ing this mystery flowering tree!
Reader Tina left a comment Monday(thank you for that!)about it being a Saskatoon Serviceberry tree.  I looked and the photos I found are not quite right plus it does not grow berries. sigh.
So here is a better up close shot with my lovely whitest white woman hand in the picture......


The flowers are small(about 1.5 inches diameter)and have thin petals.  Most of the flowers are now past their prime bloom and you can see the leaves are beginning to sprout.  It's an oval leaf much like a beech tree I think?

And it's definitely not a bush or a short/dwarf tree.....



The two trunks behind the swing are the tree in question so it's as tall as our 2 story house + another story +.


This is a photo standing under it looking up.

And here are the petals that it sheds all over the yard........


I looked around while I was driving to Weis this week and noticed about 4 more of this same tree along the roads on my route.  None were in anybody's yard so I couldn't just go up to a door and ask them if they know what was growing in their yards.....because you know, if I got desperate enough, I'd do just that.  lolz

So I am off to work on my End of Month Grocery tallies, a blog post or two(1 geneaology, 1 road trip)and get that Sallie donation sorted out.

What's going on in your world today?

Sluggy

Friday, May 4, 2012

My Boring Food Shopping Trip & Other Snoozing Things

4 bottles of apple juice
4 boxes of taco shells
5 boxes of mac and cheese
3 bags of salad *not pictured*
1 bunch of celery *not pictured*
2 containers of mushrooms  *not pictured*

The apple juice, taco shells and mac & cheese were at their lowest price book price(.99¢, $1.25, .60¢ respectively) and were stock-ups.
The salad was at the lowest price of $1.99, the celery at low of $1.29 and the mushrooms at low of $1.99.
Mushrooms were necessary for a meal this week.
$23.20 spent.
$41.31 regular retail cost.

Weis has some Catalina deals this week but I seriously doubt I'll take part in those.  One is for junk food, the other is for pet food.  We just opened our last 2 large bags of dog food into the can which means our stockpile of that is gone.  I am risking having to buy the next batch for reg. retail by not stocking up.  Yes, this is how I live dangerously.....by NOT buying dog kibble.lol

I'll be getting more juice, more taco shells, more salad and some canned green chilies this week instead.

And I won't be going to Rite-Aid again this week.  I haven't been to Rite-Aid or any drugstore for that matter since mid March!   I don't have +Ups expiring and there is nothing I need, so why buy more toiletries?
I have put myself on a ban from buying the usual toiletries until what I have is gone.  Ok, so it's more a ban so the KIDS use up what we have.  If I go buy....or more accurately "get" more since I don't pay money for it....if I go get more the kids will use the new stuff instead of using the old stuff.
They just don't get this whole "rotate the stock" deal.  So we are on Toiletries Lockdown teens.....deal with it!

I don't need to shop, even much grocery shopping.
So I don't.
And I grocery shop close by in town.  No trips down the mountain to Wegman's or Price Chopper or CVS or Target or Walmart.  Just Weis or the independent market in my town.
I hardly ever leave town.
Heck I hardly ever leave my house lately!

It keeps me from spending money unnecessarily....which is a good thing.
And I save gas.  I bought gas almost 4 weeks ago and still have a full tank.  I think I've put 20 miles on the car in the last 3 weeks.

But it gives me nothing to write about.

I could show you a list of what food I bought in April......
or I could show you the bag of weeds I pulled up trying to clean the front flower bed.

Nevermind.
Sometimes being frugal and living simpler isn't exciting or interesting.

I apologize for being THIS boring! 8-(

So can you top me in the boring department?


Sluggy