GREEN & THRIFTY THURSDAY-Being Frugal AND Environmental TIP #2

Today is....
GREEN AND THRIFTY THURSDAY!

And that means it's time for another small tip on things you can do to save money AND help the environment. After all, being frugal is great but saving money & time is not so good, at the expense of our Planet!

This week's Tip is about newspaper.

We Couponer-istas love us some Sunday newspaper!

Heck, many of us love us 10 or 20 copies of the Sunday newspaper.

If you coupon, you KNOW what I mean.lolol

After we lovingly extract all those wonderful Coupon Inserts, & we read the actual comics/news/articles in the 1st copy of the paper, we are left with a big old pile of newspaper.
Hmmmm..
NOT very green to just dispose of it, even if we take it to the recycling bin.
Let's put the power of the newspaper to work for us.
But where & how, you say?

WHERE....In the garden!
Spring is here and many frugal folks turn to thoughts of gardening. What better way, if you have the outside space, to save money on food than to grow your own!

Sure you can buy plants in a few weeks and just transplant them into the ground, so why not start your own plants from seed Now?
Because it costs less for seeds than for seedlings ready to transplant, that's why.

Before you go off to the local Home Gardening Store and buy little plastic seedling pots(plastic=not green) to start your seeds in, use what you have at home to Make Seedling Pots for FREE!
That is where the leftover Newspaper comes in.

HOW.....Here's how I make them.

1. Get a muffin pan. If you don't have one, try using a styrofoam-y egg carton from the grocery store.
Get a large bowl. Put some water in it.

2. Get some newspaper & cut it into strips or small squares. I use squares about 5"x5".

3. Take your pieces of newspaper and wet them in the bowl of water.

4. Take wet newspape and line your muffin pan/egg carton with the paper, pressing it against the indentation. I use 3 thicknesses of newspaper per hole.
Do this for each muffin/egg hole.

5. After each indentation is filled, take the edges of the paper that extends over the top of the muffin hole and fold it down so that the newspaper edge is even with the muffin hole. If the newspaper edges have dried out and won't stick, wet your fingers to make the newspaper moist again and press these folded parts into the newspaper cup you have made. Doing this makes the pots look nicer but also make the edges sturdier when you start filling them with soil and wetting that soil.

6. Put muffin pan/egg carton in a sunny spot. If you don't have a sunny spot, put it in a warm spot in your house until thoroughly dry.

You now have 12 seedling pots!

Rinse & repeat until you have as many pots as you need.

These are so great because when your seedlings are ready for transplanting outside into your garden, you can plant them plant and pot. The newspaper pot will eventually decompose in the ground. No digging your seedlings out of their pots like those plastic ones they come in at the store. Less trauma to the plant when transplanting and less plastic in a landfill.
A win/win!

You can also use that pile of newspaper in your flower beds too. Instead of buying landscaping fabric for $8 a roll, use newspaper! Just lay it down to cover where you don't want weeds to grow, overlapping each sheet of paper. (I generally use 2 thickness of newspaper.) When done, soak the paper with a hose set of a gentle mist or spray. Cover the area with mulch. With any luck, you'll have no weeds to pull wherever you do this for the entire growing season!
If you still have leftover newspaper, try shredding it and using it in your compost pile. Newspaper qualifies as a 'brown' material for this purpose. To keep your compost in balance, make sure you have 'green' material to add to it too.

Any other ideas? Please leave them in the comments section below.

Sluggy

I won a Giveaway! And I Love my Tucker Bag!

I entered a Giveaway over on Lindsay's Blog, FRUGAL & FABULOUS, last month.
And I won!
Yay me....

The prize was a TUCKER BAG. The bag arrived in a teeny tiny envelope. Here's what was in the envelope.

The bag was all folded up, contained in a neat little pouch. I undid the snap & opened it up and wow!....the bag was large.

The pouch is attached to the bag and besides being a pouch to hold it when folded up, you can use the pouch inside the bag as a pocket to hold your car keys and such. There is also an outside pocket.

I took the bag for a test drive right away to the grocery store and it sure holds more than you would think. the fabric is lightweight ripstop nylon and the bag holds up to 35 lbs. of weight.

This should last me for many many years of grocery shopping. Think of all those 5 cent "use your own bag" credits I'll be getting. This TUCKER BAG might end up saving me money as well as the planet!

Plus the fabric design is pretty. I love dragonflies and green is my second favorite color.
But if green isn't your thing, they have a wide array of fabric designs and colors.

Check them out at TUCKER BAGS.

Thanks again Lindsay for the Giveaway!

Sluggy

Walgreen's...Savings over 86%

So daughter needed me to take her to do some errands on Sat.-get a gift card for her friend's Sweet 16th birthday party & find a dress for the school play at the Salvation Army. I usually sew her costumes for the plays she's performing in, but this year I wanted to try to find something cheap at Sallie's first. I usually end up spending close to $100 if I have to make her costume. And we are already out $31 for tap shoes of all things! Daughter doesn't dance, by her own admission, and CAN NOT Tap! But she is in the chorus of this play and she has to at least pretend to tap in the dance numbers(try finding tap shoes in the right size USED at Sallie's-ha!), so I had to buy shoes that she will NEVER use again.

Back to the shopping....

So while we were out running her errands, we concluded my PRICE CHOPPER TRIPLER CAMPAIGN(see previous post) & we stopped into a new to me Walgreen's(WAGS). This WAGS was so different from my usual WAGS. It is NOT downtown, so there were hardly any shoppers in the store, the shelves were well stocked(except for a few of the month long Easy Saver Rebate items)and the clerks were actually smiling & seemed happy to see you.

Wow!

I pulled my battle plan, er....my notes out of my purse and began the hunt. Along the way, I found some clearance deals & had to send daughter out to the car to get more coupons from my box. Daughter was not pleased with me, until I found some insanely cheap Hair Coloring & allowed her to put it on my tab.
Oh, how quickly some free gum, shampoo & cheap hair dye can change the mood of a surly 16 yr. old female.

I went into the store with 3 RRs.

I came out with $197.94 of products & $21 RRs.
I spent $28.68 OOP including tax.
I used $169.26 in MQs, Instant Qs, Wags Qs, RRs & clearance prices.

Savings of $169.26($176.25 after MIR) or more than 86% (89% after MIR)!

Transaction #1

3 Slim Packs Wrigley's Gum $1.19, used 3 Free Item Qs=FREE
Colgate Max Toothpaste=$3.29 + got $3.50 in RRs
Excedrin Menstrual Gelcals $5.99, used $4/1WQ & $2IPQ=.01 overage
Vaseline Lotion $3.59, 25% off & used $1.25/1Q=$1.61+ got $2 in RRs
8 Dove Soaps $12.72, used WQ(-$4.80)=$7.92 + got $10 in RRs
Reach Toothbrush on sale $1.59, used $1/1Q=$.59

Total Value with tax=$33.48
Total Qs & Sales=$22.12
I spent $11.36 OOP including tax & Received $15.50 in new RRs

Transaction #2

6 Natural Instincts Hair Color (on sale for $2.39ea.)$14.39, used 6 $2/1 Q=$2.39
4 Clairol Hair Color(on sale for $2.99ea.)$11.96, used 4 $2/1 Q=$3.96
1 Clairol Hair Color(on sale for $1.29ea.)$1.29, used 1 $2/1 Q=.71 overage
Viactiv Chews(on clearance) $3.49, used WQ $3/1 & $2/1 Q=$1.51 overage
Excedrin Menstrual Gelcals $5.99, used $4/1WQ & $2 IPQ=.01 overage
2 Sambucol Tabs $25.98, used $10/1WQ(x2) & $4/1 IPQ=$1.98
2 Vitamin Shampoo BOGO=$6.99 & a MIR for $6.99

Total Value with tax=$138.41
Total Qs & Sales=$133.29
Total spent OOP=$5.12
Used $10 RR from the Dove Deal in the previous transaction so $5.50 RRs left
I'll send for the MIR on the Vitamin Shampoo so delayed OOP is -$1.49

The clerk let through some overage with coupons but she wouldn't let me use my 2nd $4IP Sambucol Q and kept telling me not to buy anything in this transaction that would print a RR. She IS a WAGS expert(she said!)and she said if you pay with a RR, no RRs will print on items in the transaction you pay for with a RR. I thought if I just didn't buy more Dove & pay with the Dove generated RRs I could buy other stuff, like the Colgate or Vaseline. I had a tube of Colgate in this transaction but she took it off and made me buy it separately, as well as 6 more Vaseline Lotions!lol
She was so sweet to me(and did let some overages through), so I just went along with her and bought the toothpaste & lotions separately. ;-)

Transations #3-9

Colgate Max Toothpaste=$3.29 + got $3.50RRs
3 Vaseline Lotion $3.59, 25% off & used $1.25/1Q$1.61 x3=$4.83+ got $6 in RRs
3 Vaseline Lotion $3.59, 25% off & used $1.50/1Q$1.44 x3=$4.32 + got $6 in RRs

Total Value=$26.05
Total Qs & Sales=$13.85
Total spent OOP=$12.20 + got $15.50 in RRs

All totaled, I spent $28.68OOP + I'll get $6.99 back on a MIR for the shampoo, so $21.69OOP & $21RRs to spend next time.

If you are one of those who add the RRs onto the total spent, this trip was a -$.69...Money Maker!

That's just how we Divas Roll the Savings in PA.

This was a fairly frugal trip and totally COMPACT(for all my fellow compactors). All consumables(teeth,skin,hair,medicine) and a mix of compostable & plastic packaging. I'll have to check if the lotion/shampoo/hair color bottles can be recycled.

Be sure to check out how other Thrifty Divas are saving this week at the "Cents"ible Sawyer DRUGSTORE DIVAS Page.

Please leave me a comment if you get the chance. I appreciate all ya'll who read my ...IT'S BORING Blog. ;-))

Sluggy