Five Frugal Things | you will understand my excitement

A lot of my winter clothing is too big (I lose a lot of weight during covid!) and what does fit has holes in it! So I made a spur of moment trip to fave consignment store and low and behold it was 50% off day!! Yikes !I got 10 ,yes 10 new-to-me tops to go with all my jeans,slacks,etc..and all half price. I paid $4-8 for most. Good brands,too! Tahari,Peck and Peck,some European boutique brands, Chicos, and J Crew. Love this store!

FOOD: Eggs went to $6. a dozen in reg. grocery but my Trade Joe still has them at 2.99 a dozen.. got 2 dozen.

Eating more vegetarian meals!

Awesome chicken deal! Wish I could find chicken at that price. Or affordable eggs. Eggs were $8 for an 18 pack last weekend. And that is at the "cheap" grocery store. Ugh.

Anyway -

1. I implemented a "cooling off" period before spending an Amazon gift card I got for Christmas. I want to be very intentional about what I bring into the house in 2023. Both because I intend to do a major declutter and also because I want to save for some major purchases. So taking the time to really consider all the the things- including storing and caring for what I buy, environmental impact, how much I will use and enjoy the item, if the money would be better spent elsewhere, etc. etc. Since I am a born spender, I usually spend my gift cards right away, without much thought. 2. Placed a hold on a library book. 3. Saved money by not going after Christmas shopping since I am well stocked on the things I typically buy on Christmas clearance - wrapping supplies, decorations, treats. 4. Accepted leftover ham from Christmas dinner and making sandwiches all week. 5. Made due with the tools I have instead of buying new ones for a cartonage project I was working on.

I'm a huge Snoopy fan & that is the cutest ever!! Though I agree $2,000 for mini fridge is not worth it--sorry Snoopy.

My five frugal things---

1. My gas station rewards are finally coming through & stacking up. Total savings $0.50/gallon (got 20 gallon limit) @ $2.54/gallon because other station $2.49/gallon was shut down when arrived so had to go down road to other station. Every other gas station $3+/gallon. 2. Decided to use up apples & oats I had lots of & made apple crisp for neighbors instead of making bread mix jars. 3. Free store did not have any baking dishes so decided to get aluminum disposable. Sam's club had 20 pack bread loaf pan w/lid (around) $5 & I found 2 pack medium rectangle baking pans $1.25 each, so picked up 2. Families of 4+ got medium & 1-2 people got bread sized. Unfortunately since snow storm coming I decided not to bake & instead drop off with baking directions. Some ended up becoming frozen (mailman) but absolutely no complaints. Some even where grateful for future use dessert. 4. Stopped by Sam's club to get thick sliced apple wood bacon on sale #11/3 pounds. Cut package in half & froze in ziploc bags. Cook 1 1/2 at time for few meals, keeping already cooked in fridge until needed. 5. While at Sam's club noticed that Birt Bees Lip Balm Advent calendar was marked down from $18 to $11 (& I had purchased on sale $15) so returned & rebought & got another. 6. Found local store that has farm eggs $3 & $4/dozen & picked up 3 dozen ($10) since forgot to look for any on sale at grocery (which don't care for but if only option what do you do). Higher than normal cost I pay from farmer but their chickens stopped laying since cold. And better price than grocery store (cheapest is Save-a-lot $6/dozen white eggs).

Frugal (kind of) fail-- After storm teen outside (& everything has inches of ice under snow) playing around slid across ice (with current boots that have flat smooth sole) & fell. Teen decided needed new snow boots. Of course I had already anticipated & checked availability. Teen picked same ones I anticipated but did not get because I overlooked that had same exact smooth sole. Decided on nice insulated heavy duty sole boot (similar style). Only $20 more but still having sticker shock as teen currently wears size 10 men's boots. $222 for good leather insulated waterproof winter boots. Did get additional free replacement laces from store.

Nice deal on the chicken! 1. I picked up a brand new Tangled DVD and brand new Erector Set off Buy Nothing. These will be presents for my kids for Valentine's Day. I also picked up a pair of shoes off Buy Nothing for my daughter, although they won't fit her for a year or 2. 2. I signed my son up for summer camp. There will be days he will not be attending, because we will be camping. So, I didn't sign him up for "before care" on those days. It saved us about $15 for the summer. 3. We purchased a few hams that were on sale for the holiday that went into our deep freezer. We used homemade salsa, homemade cranberry sauce, homemade pulled pork, and homemade tomato sauce, that we had frozen earlier in the year, to feed our guests for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinner (along with other items). 4. My kids are home from school with my husband this week. I signed them up for some free classes at the library during the week, which will prevent us from spending extra money on entertainment. They are also using gift cards they received to go paint pottery this week. 5. I signed my daughter up for kindergarten for September. This is exciting, but will also save us a ton of money in daycare expenses ($14,000!!!!).

1) Avoided buying drinks or snacks at the airport yesterday, which is always a win when you have two teens to keep fed/hydrated. The timing worked out well, and my mom sent snacks & Christmas cookies, we refilled our water bottles, etc. 2) Pre booked airport parking way back in November, and saved about $40 over the cost of an Uber. 3) There was a big ice storm in Portland, so my husband & I weren't able to really take advantage of his Christmas gift (two nights at a hotel, before we met up for the big family Christmas). They have cute wineries & restaurants around this stretch, but everything was closed due to the storm. It inadvertently saved money. We ate at the hotel (much cheaper), & had a waiter who kept making us laugh. He normally doesn't work in a customer facing role, but because of the ice storm, was one of the few employees who could get to work. They also put them all up in the hotel overnight. He kept us super entertained. 4) We also skipped lunch on the way home from the airport, because one of the teens had big plans with friends & was anxious to bail on the parents. ;-) 5) I won big in our family "saran wrap" game & somehow ended up with a lot of gift cards. We don't typically buy the kids Starbucks (so expensive), but with the gift cards, I'll help them get the app, and they can then load the gift cards on for a free treat. We also have gift cards for a few lunches & other surprises, which I'll space out.

And, happy birthday to Kristin at Going Country! Hope your trip is amazing!