Friday Freebies

Each Friday I will attempt to recount what I got for free during the week.  This week I had a pretty good week with several freebies.  Hopefully this post and others to come will show that coupons really don't just buy junk that we shouldn't be eating anyway, but many helpful household, as well as food items.  Also, many of the items, for example the Suave Antiperspirant, will be donated.  Coupons can often be a great way to help without having to spend a lot.

So this is what I was lucky enough to get for free this week:
10 cans of Bumble Bee Solid White Albacore Tuna, purchased with Extra Bucks from CVS
2 Aquafresh Kid's Toothpaste @ Walgreens with 2, $1 coupons and 2, $1 store coupons
3 Scotch Tape @ Walgreens (I actually made a $1 on these) with 3, $1 coupons
2 Suave antiperspirant @ Kroger with 2 $1 coupons
1 Nivea Body Wash @ Walmart with $3 coupon

What did you get for free this week?

I Just Saved Close to 90% at Walgreens & CVS

I had a great shopping trip today at both Walgreens and CVS and here is the evidence:

CVS
I started with $10 in Extra Bucks and sadly they are now gone, but I was able to get:

10 cans of Bumblee Bee Solid White AlbacoreTuna - $10 (raincheck from last week's sale made the price this low)
3 cans of Lindsay Olives - $2.64 (great price on olives, they have gotten ridiculously expensive lately)
1 Green Bag Tag (free with register rewards & now I can bring my own bags and get rewarded with an Extra Buck for every fourth visit)

Total at CVS.....$2.70

Then I went to Walgreens and got:

3 rolls of Scotch tape - buy one @$1.99 get two free and I had three $1 coupons
2 kids Aquafresh toothpastes -$1.99, deduct $1 in store coupon and I had 2 $1coupons
1 three pack of Extra gum $1.50

Total at Walgreens....$.61

So I got it all for $3.31.  It was a good week, I wish they all were that good!  How have the sales worked for you?

Wordless Wednesday

My Loves

Why I Love Goodwill

So I must confess, I have an addiction and it goes by the name of Goodwill.  In the past year I have started shopping at Goodwill regularly (at least once a month).  I can't help it, I love their prices for kids clothing.  How can you go wrong when all the kids clothing is $1.50 a piece.  I love that it is $1.50 regardless of its condition or label.  That means I can get a brand new shirt or jeans or whatever for $1.50.  It doesn't matter who made it.  Some of the labels I have gotten include Gap, Old Navy, Nike, Children's Place & Gymboree, all for $1.50.   Oh, did I mention their clothes are only $1.50????

Another good reason for loving Goodwill, or hand-me-downs in general, is that they are good for the environment.  It makes me happy to know that I am not supporting American consumerism (at least in the traditional sense).  I love the fact that I can find nice clothes that would otherwise end up in a landfill, get more use out of them and not buy another item that would also end up in the landfill.  That means I have prolonged the time it takes for one item to get to a landfill and totally eliminated the other. 

A third reason I choose to shop at Goodwill is because sometimes when I buy an item for $1.50, I make money on it.  Since my children's clothing is often so cheap I can provide them with many different outfits which means that the clothes don't get as much wear and tear.  Since I only buy clothes when they are new or in good condition they may actually last through the child or children who wear them and then I sell them at the consignment shop (I actually stopped by today to see how much money I had made so far this season and we have $73, some of which is from Goodwill clothing).

So here is what I got:
5 pairs of jeans  - 1 each by Faded Glory, Old Navy, Aborcrombie, Cherokee and Children's Place Jeans
6 shirts - 2 by Old Navy, 1 Gap, 2 Mossimo, & one brand new, but very well made off brand that I can't remember the name of.
1 pair of Gap dress/tie shoes (shoes are not $1.50, but are still cheap @$3.00)
Grand Total $20.67 and that is why I love Goodwill!  What do you think about shopping at Goodwill or thrift stores?

It's Laundry Time

Laundry, how I hate you!  Of all household tasks this is the one that makes me boil over with anger when I think about it.  Well not really.  I don't think a household task could do that to me, but if there were one this would be it.  Laundry is the job that never ends.  Even when you think you have it all done, a little something crops up out of no where and flaunts itself right in your face. 

Well I have digressed, the point of this post is to show how I do laundry and why I do it that way.  Not too long ago, I think it was when we got our first $300 heating bill, I decided we needed to do everything possible to lower our bill.  That is when line drying, without the line, entered the picture.  Beyond the cost savings that comes with line drying, I also do it for two other purposes.  The first is that my dryer is the absolute worst I have ever encountered.  It can take up to 175 minutes to dry a load.  Yes, you read that correctly - 175 minutes per load!  What you should also know is this is not an old dryer - probably 4 years old.  So line drying is almost just as quick.  The other reason is really the most important of all.  I love not using my dryer because I know I am doing something that uses less energy and as a result is better for the environment.  I have two small children and a husband who likes every light and TV on at the same time, so there are few things that I completely control that can appease my need to lessen our family's footprint on our planet - but line drying is one.  The first time I tried line drying our electric bill dropped by about $20.  Considering that we didn't change anything else in that period of time, I would say that is a significant difference.  Wow, I hadn't really thought of it this way, but that is $720 a year!!!!

There is also another benefit of line drying that didn't even weight into my decision but is an added bonus - it is actually better for your clothes and will allow them to last longer.  When you clean out your lint collector in your dryer what you are actually taking out is material your clothes have lost.  This is a result of the heat and the clothes rubbing together.  When you omit this part (the drying) then your clothes end up lasting much longer and saving you more money in the long run. 

So without anymore rambling here is how I do it:

I have two drying racks that I bought at Target for about $9.  They work great for the kids clothes & undergarments because there isn't a great deal of space from one rack to the next.  If you hang adults clothes, especially a tall man's then they don't work as well.  The bigger the clothes the more space it takes up and the more difficult it is to get the items dry.  I do this in our basement where for the most part the laundry is out of the way, but if you don't have a basement I'm sure you can find some place else to use these.  The drying racks really are not that big, so you don't need a lot of space.

The next place I dry clothes is in our spare bedroom.  Fortunately for us right now, our two children share a room, which leaves me an extra room to dry clothes in.  On top of that we are truly very lucky to have a lot of extra storage space and each of the upstairs bedrooms have two closets.  So here are the two closets...

And here are the two closets full of drying clothes (Ignore the mess:)....

The final place where I usually put laundry is in the kid's upstairs bathroom.  Usually no one goes up there so it isn't really an issue.  Even if it were used regularly I wouldn't say it would be a problem, it just isn't as aesthetically pleasing or orderly (I had to give up on that a long time ago) as you may want it to be. 

I try to get all the laundry done in a 36 hour period, so I traditionally get three loads done on the first day and let them dry over night and put up the next two early the next day so they are done and put up by that night.  Honestly, this process of line drying has made laundry a tiny bit more enjoyable.  "How?" you ask.  Well, since I have started to line dry I actually feel like I am doing my family some good in saving us money and I also feel like I am doing less damage to the planet than I once was.  So, for those two reasons I get at least a tiny bit of enjoyment out of this mindless, tedious, never ending task.   



Friday Night Groceries

So here is my first ever grocery post!  Right now our budget for our family of four is $125 a week.  This budget includes all food, toiletries, paper products, and cleaning supplies.  Right now however, I am really trying to stay closer to the $100 mark so that any extras can go straight to our vacation fund. 

We often buy as much organic as we can afford.  This always includes milk and yogurt, but we have not been able to include cheese and other dairy products such as cottage cheese and sour cream.  I know I should include those dairy products it is just so hard to shell out $4 for one container of sour cream.  For the most part our fruits and veggies are organic if they have been identified as one of the highly contaminated ones or if it isn't that much more expensive to purchase organic.  We also try to stick with organic (sometimes it is just natural though) chicken and other meats.  Well without further ado here is the loot!

 

15-Apr
Kroger		Coupons
4 Boxes Chex	$  11.16	4 - $1
Min. Rice	$  2.00	1 - $1
Gum	$ 2.49
Kroger Fries	$ 2.07
Kroger Shrimp	$ 7.19	$ .65
Kroger Tilapia	$ 9.99	1-$1
2 6 pack Coke	$ 6.00
2 Hormel Turkey	$ 6.00	2-$1
PS Feta	$ 2.09
4 Kroger Cottage Cheese	$ 5.00
2 Eggland's Best Eggs	$ 7.98	2 for $1
2 Yoplait	$ 3.98	2 -$1
Kroger Tom	$ 2.79
Org. Bananas	$ 1.87
		$2 off fish
Total Spent	$64.46
Total Saved	$37.62
Meijer
Meijer soda	$2.64
2 Skippy Natural PB	$4.58
Org. Yogurt	$3.56	$1.00
Red Pepper	$2.00
Clementines	$4.99	$0.55
2 Hormel Turkey	$5.00	2-$1
Org. Milk	$5.69	1 - $1
10 cans Corn	$4.90
2 Kashi Cereal	$5.98	2-$2
2 Canteloupes	$3.00	1 -$1
Unbleached Flour	$3.00
Org Rom. Hearts	$2.00
Org. Broccoli	$2.00
2 EB Org. Rom. Let.	$5.00	1- $2
2 Meijer Choc. Chips	$3.34
2 Bologna	$2.00
		3.5 off 45.00
Total Spent	$45.16
Total Saved	$31.75
CVS
7 Electrasol Dish Det.	$3.00	7 - .75
1 Antibact. Hand Lot.	$4.19	3.99 off
Total 15.95
Used	$7.50 in ExtraBuck
	$4.00 off $20
Total Spent	$5.45
Total Saved	$41.67
Total 4/15	$115.17
Total Saved	$111.04
Received $5 gift card to Kroger
Received $10 in ExtraBucks
Total Coupon Savings $43.94

I would still like to get some bacon and ham.  But since I buy them from a local store where the food is not organic, but is all natural & semi-local it would eat up my extra $10 and I really want it to go into the vacation fund.  We will see what happens, but right now I am inclined to just let it go so I can have a tasty margarita on the beach sometime soon!

Berries Here We Come

I did it!!! I went out tonight and worked on the front flower bed and planted two blueberry bushes and five strawberry plants.  I am super excited about this because it signals the beginning of our "suburban homesteading."  In the next few years I would like to slowly make our home more sustainable.  I am hoping to add several more blueberry bushes, strawberry plants, making the garden bigger, planting some fruit trees and even work on planting some other more difficult to grow fruits like cantaloupe.  I really have only a slight clue as to what I am doing and the front flower bed is full of clay and rocks, so who knows if it will work, but I certainly hope so.