This week we are recounting TWO WEEKS worth of frugal-ness since I didn't get a chance to do a January 3rd Edition as we were away and I didn't have time to blog.
I'm still trying to catch up since getting home. I've got more closing out of December posts, closing out 2019 posts and getting into what's ahead for 2020 posts.
Oy!
But for now, let's see what good and frugal stuff happened over the lasts two weeks--
* I got the Friday Freebie at Weis(PMITA)Markets on Dec. 27th............
A free jar of pickle chips. It was suppose to be dill pickles but the store was out of them(at 9 in the morning, when the deal started)so they subbed the bread and butter variety(but I had to go to Customer Service and ask first).
I missed last week's Freebie(salad dressing....didn't they just do salad dressing recently??)because we were in Alabama and Louisiana then and nowhere near a Weis(PMITA)Markets. 8-(
* Sort of Free Lodging on our trip to LA!
We stayed at 3 different hotels(1 in TN, 1 in LA, 1 in VA)on the trip. I booked them through Hotels dotcom and got very good rates(1 was a "secret price" Oooo!!).lolz I paid with Hotels dotcom gift cards I had bought in either 2018 or 2017 so the money for those was already spent long ago, meaning no money OOP for hotel rooms on this 2019 trip(except the housekeeping tips).
We also shortened our stay in LA by a day. After all, it was the day after the wedding and there was nothing we wanted to do or see there, eldest son flew home to VA that morning and the newlyweds didn't want to spend their first day married hanging out with us(wink, wink, nudge, nudge)so I changed the reservation and we left to come home after Brunch with them.
And Hubs and I stayed with friends for 3 other nights-2 along the way down and 1 back. Those were the best nights! ;-)
* We had to kennel the puppies since, with the hours Ex-College Boy works, there was no way to keep them home while we were gone. We booked the doggies into a family run/owned small facility closer to our house than the one we had to use last Summer when we went to Porcfest which was quite a distance from home. This boarding cost less and we got a break on the price having the dogs in the same enclosure and providing our own food and treats for them.
They both got lots of attention and love there(Dixie spent most of her time in the arms of the owners grown son)but were super glad to see us when we went to pick them up. ;-)
* While I didn't brave the after Christmas shopping hoards I did manage to pick up a few things on clearance.
Here's most of my Rite-Aid, 75% off haul.........
This isn't everything(not showing items I picked up for gifting to certain folks in case they are reading this)but most of it. It was all 75% off and paid with Bonus Cash(and a few $$s on a free gift card as well). I still have about $40 in BC to spend down. Oy!
Hubs and I hit 2 Walmarts in the past 2 weeks too.......
This was the one near home. I got 2 window cling sheets, a bag of bows and some ornie hooks(our silver ones were too small for most of the ornies we tried to hang....green hooks don't work well on a white Xmas tree!). We also found these Xmas themed(they were on Xmas cardboard)Farberware kitchen tools-a can opener, a peeler and a set of measuring spoons and cups. Kitchen tools for 50% off? Yes please!
We needed to go to Walmart for something before the wedding so I went to see what Xmas stuff was left. I got more bows, a book of gift tags, 4 square gift boxes and a bag of those cinnamon scented pine cones that I love. I'll put the pine cones in an airtight container until next Fall so they hold their scent until then.
* I earned $3.10 in cash rebates. $3 on SavingStar for buying Lindt Xmas choccies 75% off at R-A and .10¢ on Ibotta for buying "any" item at Weis.
* I hit Weis up on Dec. 27th for clearance items............
The Holiday Starbucks coffee bags were $2 each(I got 6). The applesauce cups were $1 each and the 4 pack boxes of cups were $3.99 per box. The pineapple cans were .50¢ each and I used 2 x $1/4 Dole ManuQs so those 8 can should have cost $2 total but the cashier only rang up 7 cans so they all cost me $1.50. ;-) And both Qs still went through without beeping.
Total spent at Weis=$25.48(almost half of that was the coffee).
* I brought home hotel goodies!
Mini-toiletries, tea bags, coffee pods, finger bowl towelettes, make-up remover wipe, coffee sugar/creamer packets, hot cocoa mix and a tiny rubber ducky....wtf?!?
* I sold something on eBay.
Of course that was on Jan. 1st and we were somewhere on the road in TN or AL and I couldn't ship it out until we got home. I was able to get in touch with the Buyer and she said she'd wait. It's shipped and received now so yay me! lolz
* I brought a stack of gift cards for food places on the trip to LA. I think we used them twice...once at Subway in TN and once at a Burger King in MS(I also used a free Chicken Fries winning game piece at the BK).
Don't I look thrilled? This is because I am tired and pissed off at Hubs. I had to go through the BK line twice-once to redeem my freebie and once to use my phone to redeem a Q to use for Hubs meal I paid for with a gift card and Hubs was yelling at me because I didn't want to just use money and not get the freebie and use a Q on his meal.
The poor thing had to wait an extra 3 minutes for his food(we were the only ones in line).
Men.
* I found money!
I went into JoAnn Fabrics with eldest son's GF on Dec. 27th and as we were leaving I spied all this by an abandoned electric cart.......
I was able to count that .60¢ in December's tally so it's part of my 2019 Found Money Total.
But this bit here was on Dec. 30th and I had already closed out the books on 2019.........
Two pennies in Rite-Aid when I went in to pick up an Rx I needed before we went to LA.
On the 31st while we were traveling to Louisiana............
Two pennies when we stopped for lunch at the Cook-Out in Harrisonburg VA.
Then later that day at a convenience store/gas station in Western VA.........
Another penny right in front of the register/counter.
After we got to the motel in Tennessee where we slept that night we got dinner at a Subway. After eating we wandered into the convenience store connected to it and I found this..........
Another penny under a rack of embroidered with names key chains. Of course I moved the rack to get to this coin while Hubs left the building so nobody thought he was with this crazy lady. lolz
The next day, on the way to Lorraine's house in Alabama we stopped for gas in Fort Payne AL.
This penny was right next to the car when I opened my door to get out to go potty in the convenience store bathroom.
Then I had a dry spell of one day before finding all this coinage at the nastiest McDonald's in Louisiana connected to yet another convenience store........
Three pennies were sitting under the counter at Mickey D's, one in front of each register. The fourth penny was found when I wandered into the convenience store to look around while waiting for Hubs to get his coffee at Mickey D's. Sitting there on the floor right in front of the locked liquor cabinet with tons of bottles of Hennessy was the last coin at that stop.
And then I even found money at the Wedding Venue..........
A penny on the floor next to the drink station.
I found no change on the drive home but when I went to do laundry once we got home I found this in the washer..........
.38¢ which must have come out of Hubs pockets. As per the house rules, "Whoever does the laundry and finds money, said money is deemed abandoned and it becomes the property of management".
And the last found change of the past two weeks was at Weis on Wednesday........
We were out of milk and a few things so I found this penny under the self-checkout machine I used to check-out at.
$1.11 total in change, .60¢ of which I counted in the 2019 books before closing the year out.
.51¢ of this goes into the 2020 Found Money coffers, starting the year off with a bang!
That's about all I can remember that was frugal over the last 2 weeks.
Paying for gas to drive halfway across the country and back, renting a car to do that in, paying for a night at the craft brewery for the wedding party/guests, taking the newlyweds out to a champagne brunch at the casino, gifting the newlyweds a big check, and letting Hubs go anywhere near a liquor store on a trip are decidedly NOT frugal things!
But it all balances out in the end and gets you to where you want to be financially, right?
Tell us all about your frugal wins lately!
Sluggy
I'm still trying to catch up since getting home. I've got more closing out of December posts, closing out 2019 posts and getting into what's ahead for 2020 posts.
Oy!
But for now, let's see what good and frugal stuff happened over the lasts two weeks--
* I got the Friday Freebie at Weis(PMITA)Markets on Dec. 27th............
I missed last week's Freebie(salad dressing....didn't they just do salad dressing recently??)because we were in Alabama and Louisiana then and nowhere near a Weis(PMITA)Markets. 8-(
We stayed at 3 different hotels(1 in TN, 1 in LA, 1 in VA)on the trip. I booked them through Hotels dotcom and got very good rates(1 was a "secret price" Oooo!!).lolz I paid with Hotels dotcom gift cards I had bought in either 2018 or 2017 so the money for those was already spent long ago, meaning no money OOP for hotel rooms on this 2019 trip(except the housekeeping tips).
We also shortened our stay in LA by a day. After all, it was the day after the wedding and there was nothing we wanted to do or see there, eldest son flew home to VA that morning and the newlyweds didn't want to spend their first day married hanging out with us(wink, wink, nudge, nudge)so I changed the reservation and we left to come home after Brunch with them.
And Hubs and I stayed with friends for 3 other nights-2 along the way down and 1 back. Those were the best nights! ;-)
* We had to kennel the puppies since, with the hours Ex-College Boy works, there was no way to keep them home while we were gone. We booked the doggies into a family run/owned small facility closer to our house than the one we had to use last Summer when we went to Porcfest which was quite a distance from home. This boarding cost less and we got a break on the price having the dogs in the same enclosure and providing our own food and treats for them.
They both got lots of attention and love there(Dixie spent most of her time in the arms of the owners grown son)but were super glad to see us when we went to pick them up. ;-)
* While I didn't brave the after Christmas shopping hoards I did manage to pick up a few things on clearance.
Here's most of my Rite-Aid, 75% off haul.........
Hubs and I hit 2 Walmarts in the past 2 weeks too.......
* I earned $3.10 in cash rebates. $3 on SavingStar for buying Lindt Xmas choccies 75% off at R-A and .10¢ on Ibotta for buying "any" item at Weis.
* I hit Weis up on Dec. 27th for clearance items............
The Holiday Starbucks coffee bags were $2 each(I got 6). The applesauce cups were $1 each and the 4 pack boxes of cups were $3.99 per box. The pineapple cans were .50¢ each and I used 2 x $1/4 Dole ManuQs so those 8 can should have cost $2 total but the cashier only rang up 7 cans so they all cost me $1.50. ;-) And both Qs still went through without beeping.
Total spent at Weis=$25.48(almost half of that was the coffee).
* I brought home hotel goodies!
Mini-toiletries, tea bags, coffee pods, finger bowl towelettes, make-up remover wipe, coffee sugar/creamer packets, hot cocoa mix and a tiny rubber ducky....wtf?!?
* I sold something on eBay.
Of course that was on Jan. 1st and we were somewhere on the road in TN or AL and I couldn't ship it out until we got home. I was able to get in touch with the Buyer and she said she'd wait. It's shipped and received now so yay me! lolz
* I brought a stack of gift cards for food places on the trip to LA. I think we used them twice...once at Subway in TN and once at a Burger King in MS(I also used a free Chicken Fries winning game piece at the BK).
Don't I look thrilled? This is because I am tired and pissed off at Hubs. I had to go through the BK line twice-once to redeem my freebie and once to use my phone to redeem a Q to use for Hubs meal I paid for with a gift card and Hubs was yelling at me because I didn't want to just use money and not get the freebie and use a Q on his meal.
The poor thing had to wait an extra 3 minutes for his food(we were the only ones in line).
Men.
* I found money!
I went into JoAnn Fabrics with eldest son's GF on Dec. 27th and as we were leaving I spied all this by an abandoned electric cart.......
I was able to count that .60¢ in December's tally so it's part of my 2019 Found Money Total.
But this bit here was on Dec. 30th and I had already closed out the books on 2019.........
Two pennies in Rite-Aid when I went in to pick up an Rx I needed before we went to LA.
On the 31st while we were traveling to Louisiana............
Two pennies when we stopped for lunch at the Cook-Out in Harrisonburg VA.
Then later that day at a convenience store/gas station in Western VA.........
Another penny right in front of the register/counter.
After we got to the motel in Tennessee where we slept that night we got dinner at a Subway. After eating we wandered into the convenience store connected to it and I found this..........
Another penny under a rack of embroidered with names key chains. Of course I moved the rack to get to this coin while Hubs left the building so nobody thought he was with this crazy lady. lolz
The next day, on the way to Lorraine's house in Alabama we stopped for gas in Fort Payne AL.
This penny was right next to the car when I opened my door to get out to go potty in the convenience store bathroom.
Then I had a dry spell of one day before finding all this coinage at the nastiest McDonald's in Louisiana connected to yet another convenience store........
Three pennies were sitting under the counter at Mickey D's, one in front of each register. The fourth penny was found when I wandered into the convenience store to look around while waiting for Hubs to get his coffee at Mickey D's. Sitting there on the floor right in front of the locked liquor cabinet with tons of bottles of Hennessy was the last coin at that stop.
And then I even found money at the Wedding Venue..........
A penny on the floor next to the drink station.
I found no change on the drive home but when I went to do laundry once we got home I found this in the washer..........
.38¢ which must have come out of Hubs pockets. As per the house rules, "Whoever does the laundry and finds money, said money is deemed abandoned and it becomes the property of management".
And the last found change of the past two weeks was at Weis on Wednesday........
We were out of milk and a few things so I found this penny under the self-checkout machine I used to check-out at.
$1.11 total in change, .60¢ of which I counted in the 2019 books before closing the year out.
.51¢ of this goes into the 2020 Found Money coffers, starting the year off with a bang!
That's about all I can remember that was frugal over the last 2 weeks.
Paying for gas to drive halfway across the country and back, renting a car to do that in, paying for a night at the craft brewery for the wedding party/guests, taking the newlyweds out to a champagne brunch at the casino, gifting the newlyweds a big check, and letting Hubs go anywhere near a liquor store on a trip are decidedly NOT frugal things!
But it all balances out in the end and gets you to where you want to be financially, right?
Tell us all about your frugal wins lately!
Sluggy
