Saturday, November 11, 2017

Five Frugal Things-And A Couple Unfrugal Things

Today is Veterans Day. While I as a widow, deliberately concentrate on those more positive days such as Father's Day and my husband's birthday, today is a difficult day to ignore. Because my husband passed away on Veterans day 11 years ago. So while this is not my official day of remembrance for him as such, it's generally a quiet and at home day. Today is the day we thank and remember living veterans (As opposed to Memorial Day which is designed to remember the fallen)So if you are reading this, I encourage you to actively do something this weekend to thank and or help a veteran you know or have heard of rather than simply looking at it as a holiday, or three day weekend. Thoughts into actual action, and all that good stuff.



If there was ever proof that I am not a shopper, or at least not an in-store shopper as such, yesterday was such a day. Friday tends to be the day that I do errands, that is if I have errands to do. Yesterday was an errand day. I needed a new blade for my rotary cutter and perhaps a few more strips of fabric for my teeny tiny two and a half inch square quilt. I also wanted to get a very few groceries-mainly for baking. Also, I wanted to look for sweaters. It seems that a group of good sweaters all died at the same time last season and I need to replace some.


Only, being as unaware as I am about "those" shopping days, it was not until I entered Joanne crafts that I realized that this was probably not the day to be out and about. It may not have been the day after Thanksgiving, but  a quick look at what was probably a twenty minute line for a single blade and a bottle of decorating sugar for Christmas cookies had me turning around and heading back out to my car. I did however, manage to get a couple needed things along the line, some of which contributed to my frugality for the week.


  1. Crowds or no crowds, I wandered into Kohl's, where I made a tiny score. I found this sweater and matching earrings, for a total of $31 on sale. I seem to be moving more to pastels this year, as evidenced by the fact that my previous sweater purchase was pink. I had twelve dollars left on a birthday gift card from September, and a ten dollars off twenty five dollar coupon in my purse. Making the earrings and sweater eleven dollars in total.  I'll take it-but next time I may take it via delivery-to my door!  
  2. This was a good week for those rebate apps that I have mentioned before briefly. I received a dollar back on Ponds dry skin cream (I'm experimenting with a variety of not $35 face creams to see if I can find reasonable alternatives). My Ibotta app had rebates for coke mini cans (my version of morning coffee), Jimmy Dean fully cooked sausage (I have with eggs and fruit in the the morning) and a rebate to try a new product-Johnsonville's Red Wine and Cheese Italian Sausage (am I the only one who thinks that sounds divine?). I also had rebates for a gallon of milk, and some other produce and dairy items.
  3. While $3 is truly a small price to pay for healthy living, I'm finding as the weather changes a bit and I don't need to get up to avoid the heat of the day that I am simply not getting motivated in time to get to my 11 am exercise classes. My alternative these days is to use that hour in between when I feed the dogs and do something about dinner and such (around four or so) to do a forty five minute silver sneakers kind of workout to Utube. I will probably want to get into the pool at least one day a week, but that should spread those punches out quite a bit.
  4. I made way too many ham and cheese Hawaiian sliders on Thursday for the church group and no one else at church wanted to take them home, so I did. Frugal because we now have dinner for tonight, and time saving because I am baking for the church fundraiser tomorrow (pumpkin chocolate chip bars, Italian herb muffins, and two taco bean casseroles). I won't feel like cooking again after that, and this saves us from going out. Often when (or if ) we have leftovers someone else takes them or they go to the homeless, but this time I left the dessert and took the sandwiches.
  5. I made $25 this past week on Amazon Turk, and fifteen dollars from instaGC which I transferred to Amazon. I also made all of my Swagbuck goals except for last nite, because the site was down and I had waited until the evening. To compensate for that one though, I got 168 points for ordering a cardigan on sale from Christoper and Banks. I've also started running Perk TV for a couple dollar a day.
And on the less than frugal front:

  1. I broke down and for the first time in many months purchased a $14 book on Amazon via Kindle (the new Lee Child Jack Reacher book). Usually I use the library or take books from Amazon free via Kindle unlimited (yes, it works for me, should I talk about it?)  Occasionally you just gotta do it, and the library wait for this one was months. For fellow Reacher readers I'll only say that this book makes it clear as punch that the man DOES NOT LIKE Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher. The descriptive opening chapter makes that one obvious!
  2. I got my hair cut yesterday-and realized that because of my short and slightly longer on the top hair style, said top was still colored, and the rest was white. I can live with the whole white thing, but this growing out part may be harder than I thought. So I'm thinking today I'll buy a box of color and post holiday I will get a true buzz cut and live with the growing out misery for awhile!
And so it goes this holiday weekend. This is a stay at home bake, sew and football weekend. Next week, the fairs, Christmas markets and such begin in earnest-and am I ready! How has your week been, frugality and otherwise?f

7 comments:

  1. You have been very busy and maybe I will start reading the Jack Reacher books, I had no idea Tom Cruise was not an acceptable choice for the author. To honor living veterans for two years now I have sent money to samaritanspurse.org for their wounded warriors program where they treat warriors and spouses to healing time in Alaska. Sounds beneficial.

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  2. Terra, the charachter is described as an almost even foot ex MP with the attendant muscles and scars. Seriously, Imagine Liam Neeson mid to late thirties and that's the closest I can get off the top of my head.

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  3. In Canada Remembrance Day (November 11) is to remember the fallen. We don't really have a special day to remember those that serve.

    Frugality wise (even with buying the book) you did very well.

    God bless.

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    1. Jackie, in the US they get mixed up, But originally Memorial day was to honor those where were dead, and then after the WWi armistace, the other day was added.

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  4. IMHO buying a book is never an extravagance!

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    1. For years when I had no English library, I kept Amazon in business, but these days I try to be a bit more cautious!

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  5. Hi Barbara! It sounds like Veterans Day will stand out for you for the rest of your life because of your husband. My husband is a veteran and I'm proud of hi all all others who signed up to support and protect our country. And as always, I admire you for all the frugal things you do! ~Kathy

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Thanks for stopping by! I love to hear from others, and I also love to hear all points of view.. Just leave the profanity and insults at home, OK? Thanks!!