3/16 Expressions

My birthday is next week! I signed up for a few birthday clubs. So far, I received coupons for a free Gourmet Burger at Red Robin, a free cookie wedge from the Great American Cookie Company, Free Like It Creat Your Own Creation at Cold Stone Creamery, and a free Ice Cream Cone from Maggie Moo's. These are nice gifts ;)

3/15 Expressions

This afternoon, my husband and daughter stopped at the mall and library. At the mall, my daughter was hoping to pick-up a free T-shirt with a coupon she found in a magazine - but alas - they were gone. Gotta be quick these days. But, I got two Trade Secret $10 off anything coupons while I was at an outlet mall back in December. They are only good this month. My daughter got her favorite hair product for $3 with the coupon and my huband picked up a pair of Tweezerman tweezers for me for just under $3 with the coupon. This is not a paid advertisement - but I love Tweezerman tweezers. I lost my first pair, and have been making due . . . can't beat today's price :) I stopped at Publix - the 1 cent item was tortilla chips - eh. But, I got three pizza's (at home fast food) whipped cream and pudding all for under $10. The cashier was quite impressed. The pizza normally sells for around $6 a piece. So, I am baking a pan of brownies - and will be making a triffle momentarily. And I was thinking how frugal some hobbies can be. I enjoy sewing when I have time, but in the mean time, I probably saved a few bucks hemming 2 pairs of jeans and stitching an applique for daughter.

3/14 Expressions

Happy "pi" day! In the last month or so, I have signed up for about 5 free magazine subscriptions and they started arriving this week. Woman's Day, Forbes, Martha Stewart Living, and Metropolitan Home to name a few. Now that we don't have all of those extra channels to flip thru, I pick-up a free magazine to read. A bonus is, some of them have coupons in them too. Next week is Spring Break for us. We will be combining a business trip with pleasure for a frugal vacation. I saw an idea to recycle t-shirts. Taking about 3 T-shirts and making one long pj when it gets warmer. Have you seen the prices of new pjs? A great way to recycle too :)

3/11 Expressions

Frugal stuff from the last couple of days: This year, instead of buying annuals to plant in two large pots and two flower beds, I planted seeds in the pots. The two flower beds, I am going to limit my spending to $20 prepaid Visa card I got as a grocery refund months ago. As I mentioned earlier, my daughter won a saving bond in a poster contest. She can receive her award at the Capitol. Since it is a professional organization my husband belongs to that sponsors the contest, his employer agreed to pay for his transportation/hotel. Since my husband has agreed to be bumped on a couple of flights, we have flight vouchers to pay for my daughter and me to fly. We will have an out of pocket expense of less than $100. Cheap get away for us. Plus, they have some free events scheduled and last year we got some nice freebies :) A co-worker informed me today that she was following my lead and was cancelling her satellite tv service. But she went further, she also reduced her cell phone costs. She is going to look at all of her subscriptions. Of course, we use pre-paid cell phones, so, not much for us to cut at the moment. Still hanging on tight to the land line for some reason though.

3/8 Expressions

A side benefit of not having satellite TV service right now is that we don't have access to 24 hour news stations. We get the news, but it only comes on about three times a day. Today, I purchased over $75 in groceries and saved over $50 in coupons and specials. Kroger is having another buy 10 of a certain items, and get $5 off. I had matching coupons. Coupons must be a sign of this time because we get a small work related newspaper. For the first time last week, it had a coupon insert. To my surprise, many kept the coupon insert - but my paper had two inserts and one of my co-workers didn't want his - so I had three. Which gave me 3 .40 off Gorton's seafood. My Kroger doubles - and the stuff was on sale for $2.99, plus another .50 off for being part of the buy 10 deal, and another .80 for the doubled coupon. Cheap salmon fillets. Also, if you go to the Gorton's website, you can print off a form for a "premium" calendar filled with an additional $15 worth of coupon with the receipt and 3 UPCs.

3/4 Expressions

I mentioned earlier that we protested the valuation of one of our properties this year - currently just land, owned jointly by lots of people. Many of us protested, and originally, no change to the valuation was made. Today, it appears the valuation was cut in half. My daughter won an art poster contest and will be awarded a $200 Savings Bond. Of course that should come in handy to pay for college expenses. In the news, the State's prepaid tuition fund experience a hefty loss. We received a letter from the State stating that they were attempting to make agreements with individual education institutions. Ugggg.

3/2 Expressions

Frugal deeds for the day: I received a nice rebate check in the mail - although I received a rejected rebate also (for contacts - I need to include a receipt for the eye exam itself in addition to the receipt for the contacts - funny - I didn't get a receipt because my insurance covered it - but the eye dr.'s receptionist said she will provide me with an eye exam receipt since I really did have one). I had enough points in my Mypoints account to order another $25 gift card. This time I ordered a Target gift card. This is for a "birthday" gift and will go in my gift closet. My daughter gets invited to birthday party's - some times at the last minute. And I can say I am thankful I have health insurance. Also Spring break is coming up - and my husband has a business trip scheduled for a place that is "drivable" and has some interesting attractions. So, we will be taking a short Spring Break trip that should be very frugal also. And the seeds I planted in door are finally taking root - I may be able to make a small salad soon. Funny, only 1 spinach seed made it. So, now where the spinach were, I have planted some sprouted carrot tops as I have read somewhere that they can be used a substitute for parsley. And only 2 of my lavendar seeds seem to be "making it" - but hopefully they will make enough fragrance to make up for the "lost" seeds.