What Frugal Action Did You Take Today!?

[mrsklamc]

I went to explore a bakery 'outlet' since someone reported that the one near them had good deals. Turns out the stuff they sell at the one near me is actually cheaper at Meijer...so I guess it wasn't all that frugal of me. But now I know. (and no, I didn't buy anything.)

 

[kydisneyfans]

I waited until 2:00 to get my daily Sweet Tea at Sonic so it would be happy hour.

 

[Liberty Belle]

Oh, we're also cancelling the family Y membership. I hope we'll be able to pick it back up once I'm working again. It saves us $78 a month, though, so that's pretty significant.

 

[englishteacha]

Me again! Not hugely frugal, but I bought a Neti pot today. I have had horrible problems with my sinuses for my entire adult life (and most of my childhood, too). Doctor suggested irrigating my sinuses and I was using a store-bought spray. Decided to get a Neti pot instead of a new bottle of spray, which, in theory, will last me the rest of my life. So a $14 investment in my future. I also needed new eye makeup remover, so I did some googling and found that olive oil is supposed to work well to take off waterproof makeup. Since I have a whole bottle, I'm going to try it instead of spending money on eye makeup remover. I have a tiny empty travel bottle I can put it in so I don't "contaminate" my olive oil for cooking!

 

[Liberty Belle]

Me again! Not hugely frugal, but I bought a Neti pot today. I have had horrible problems with my sinuses for my entire adult life (and most of my childhood, too). Doctor suggested irrigating my sinuses and I was using a store-bought spray. Decided to get a Neti pot instead of a new bottle of spray, which, in theory, will last me the rest of my life. So a $14 investment in my future. I also needed new eye makeup remover, so I did some googling and found that olive oil is supposed to work well to take off waterproof makeup. Since I have a whole bottle, I'm going to try it instead of spending money on eye makeup remover. I have a tiny empty travel bottle I can put it in so I don't "contaminate" my olive oil for cooking!

Baby oil works, too (and is cheaper).

 

[Kycha]

Well, I spent money to save money today. But it was well worth it. Kroger has Osteo Bi Flex on sale B1G1 free this week. I bought some $7 off coupons from a coupon clipping service(cost $1 for 4 q's). The brand of Osteo I buy is $16.98 for 2, subtract the $14 in coupons and I'll pay $2.98 for 2 bottles. Or $1.49 per bottle. Really great price, even after you add in coupon and shipping costs. So I'm gonna stock up.

I also loaded some free ebooks onto my Nook.

 

[SunnieRN]

Went shopping today, which I haven't done 'ancillary' shopping this month to save money. This is how it turned out:

Dog toy and treats, on clearance 6.29, vs $12.79, if I hadn't bought clearance items.

Lotion, I have Very dry skin and allergies to a lot of products. Jergens had a double large bottle lotion pack for $6.98 vs $4.69 for 1 of the same sized bottles.

Shampoo, a three pack, with two shampoos and one conditioner, of a brand I like, was $3.50 vs $2.49 each.

I also got a decent price on paper plates and didn't buy any other 'wants'. That was HUGE for me! Usually I am an, 'oh, it's only $$$ more.'. I kept my spending to under $20!

I had promised my daughter, I would bring her and my grandsons out for a nice lunch, as she was working on valentines day. We split an appetizer and an entree, got the grandson with us a Childs meal, did get special coffee drinks, skipped dessert and it was only $36.00 with tax. We have been here before, in my non frugal past and spent a LOT more money, so it seemed great to me and was FUN!

Not the best, but could have been SO much worse!

 

[caledonia]

I took a walk rather than use my car this afternoon. I also have started to use the stop start technology in my car while at traffic signals.With petrol at £6.00 per gallon here in the U.K you think twice about how you drive and where.

Ian

 

[Kycha]

Since moving here about 18 months ago, there are many food items that I love but just can't find. I found a recipe online for Aunt Annie's pretzels and made those the other day. They were surprisingly easy and were delicious and economical. I made some cake doughnuts last month. They were alright. I'll have to tweak that recipe. I plan on making whoopie pies and fasnachts in the coming weeks.

I also found a recipe to make my own carpet cleaner for my steam cleaner. That will save me a ton of money. I think it costs $8-12 to buy a gallon jug in the store.

 

[SunnieRN]

Since moving here about 18 months ago, there are many food items that I love but just can't find. I found a recipe online for Aunt Annie's pretzels and made those the other day. They were surprisingly easy and were delicious and economical. I made some cake doughnuts last month. They were alright. I'll have to tweak that recipe. I plan on making whoopie pies and fasnachts in the coming weeks.

I also found a recipe to make my own carpet cleaner for my steam cleaner. That will save me a ton of money. I think it costs $8-12 to buy a gallon jug in the store.

Would you be willing to share your pretzel recipies? I love auntie Annie's pretzels!

 

[windycitymom]

I dropped my AT&T landline (avg. $65 a month) and switched to Verizon Home Connect Service for only $20 a month which includes free local and national phone calls with caller ID, call waiting, etc. We did this for two phones (one business line) so we are saving approx. $80 a month. I was going to drop the landline completely but we have had our number for 20 years so this is a low-cost alternative. This is not a DSL or computer based phone line, but plugs into our phone jack and we can still keep our existing phone numbers.

Read more here: http://www.phonearena.com/news/Verizon-Wireless-expands-its-Home-Phone-Connect-service_id16849

 

[hsmamato2]

we are in the midst (almost a year now) of renovating our kitchen ourselves (saving approx 45k in the process) so there's that
Bought a 2 lb. pack of beef diced for stew at Aldi, used 1/2 to make a WONDERFUL beef stew for tonights dinner(sautee beef w/onions for a long time, deglaze pan w/ red wine,and proceed,yum)
put the other 1/2 in the freezer for stir fry later this week
Bought a gallon of organic milk at the store, it was coming up on it's use by date,so it had a dollar off coupon on it
bought Aldi brand 'skinny cow' type ice cream treats instead of the 'brand' saved 3.00 without even trying

 

[smidgen21]

Since moving here about 18 months ago, there are many food items that I love but just can't find. I found a recipe online for Aunt Annie's pretzels and made those the other day. They were surprisingly easy and were delicious and economical. I made some cake doughnuts last month. They were alright. I'll have to tweak that recipe. I plan on making whoopie pies and fasnachts in the coming weeks.

I also found a recipe to make my own carpet cleaner for my steam cleaner. That will save me a ton of money. I think it costs $8-12 to buy a gallon jug in the store.

I'd love your recipe for carpet shampoo. I ran out recently and I've been improvising with very diluted laundry soap.

 

[HLDisney]

Instead of buying our usual $5 of breakfast from a bakery and $6.50 in take-out lunch while at church today, we ate breakfast at home and purposely chose a cheaper lunch ($3 total) so we saved $8.50. I was also able to not spend a single penny from last Monday through yesterday (the first time I was able to last so long without spending!)

Helen

 

[java]

Did my grocery shopping for my family of 6 for the week- using sales and coupons and spent a grand total of $74! or was it $76? Something in the 70's which it never is.

I am really working on getting that food budget down. Not by choice but by necessity.
Oh and I made some "donut style" muffins for the kids breakfast tomorrow. They already ate half of them.

 

[jgreco]

Before I checked out at the grocery store, I did a once over glance in my cart and found a few things I didn't really need so I put them back.
Probably saved $10, I try to do this on every shopping trip.

I also took advantage of Ebay's Free listings this week and listed about 20 items for sales.

 

[Kycha]

Would you be willing to share your pretzel recipies? I love auntie Annie's pretzels!

I'll be back to post the recipe for you.

I'd love your recipe for carpet shampoo. I ran out recently and I've been improvising with very diluted laundry soap.

I haven't tried this out yet. I just found it yesterday. But it gets great reviews on food.com.

ingredients
Makes 1 Gallon
-1/4 cup lemon-scented ammonia
-1/4 cup white vinegar
-3 teaspoons ivoryJoy dishwashing soap or 3 teaspoons any clear Joy dishwashing soap (non-moisturizer) -hot water

1. Stir together the first 3 ingredients into a large (gallon-plus sized) container.
2. Add water; enough to equal one gallon.
3. Follow steam-cleaner manufacturer's directions for operating instructions.

​

 

[southern_redhead]

I joined the coupon train

Actually I joined *last week* but I used my first round of coupons today. I saved $26.10 between my coupons and price matching the Target ad (for four items - cokes, yogurt, shampoo, and Tide stain release.)

I had several B1G1 coupons for men's deodorant - got DS 2 Gillette's and 2 Old Spice's (the OS had a free body spray attached so for $4.47 he got 2 deodorants and 2 body sprays) I also used a B2G1 coupon for Secret for myself.

Also, the cokes I bought were 3 for $9 of the 8 pk mini bottles. That comes out to 38 cents a coke and I get a 3 pt code from each cap (72 pts) We don't do coke at home but DS always begs for one after school. I keep them in my fridge at school and he can have one of them. Win/Win he gets his coke just like the other kids and I save 60 cents a week over the vending machine and get to add points to my coke rewards account

I raided the fridge and cooked "about to go out of date" eggs for supper and pulled some bread from the fridge to fix toast to go with them.

I shopped in town rolleyes: Our only choice is Walmart and ours is pitiful) to save gas since I didn't want to do anything else in the other towns (that have nicer WM's......waaah!!!)

We spent an overnight away with the kids. DH was working in a large city 3 hours from us so the kids and I went up to spend the night (was supposed to be me for 2 nights but my mom got sick and so the kids had to go.) We cashed in some of DH's points with Marriott and got 2 rooms for last night. Kids swam (free rooms/free entertainment), we ordered pizzas/wings/drinks ($30 for 5 people, not uber cheap but $6 pp dinner and DH had leftovers to take back to his work hotel today.) So besides the gas there and the pizza dinner we spent very little on a much needed break from reality/time together.

I online shopped rooms at the beach and found that, using our AAA discount, I can take the kids 4 days/3 nights to the beach for $300......thinking this may be our Spring Break trip. I neeeeed some beach time but we've never been able to do it "on the cheap." We always get a fridge and do breakfast and lunch in the room so all I'd have to worry about is 3 suppers. It's sounding better all the time

 

[Kycha]

Would you be willing to share your pretzel recipies? I love auntie Annie's pretzels!

Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups water, warm
- 1 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast (1 pkg.)
- 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
- 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
- 4 cups flour
- 2 cups water
- 2 tablespoons baking soda


Directions:
1 Dissolve powdered sugar in warm water in med bowl. Sprinkle yeast on water/sugar mixture, stir slightly. Put aside for 10 minutes, allow yeast to bloom.
2 Add salt and flour to yeast mixture and knead dough until smooth and elastic(3-5 minutes).
3 Cover bowl loosely with a cotton towel and let dough rise at least 1/2 hour.
4 Prepare baking soda bath. Bring 2 cups of water and baking soda just to a simmer. Be certain to stir often.
5 After dough has risen, pinch off bits of dough and roll into a long rope (about 1/2 inch or less thick) and shape.
6 Using a slotted spoon, dip pretzel into baking soda bath for 20-30 seconds. Allow excess water to drip off then place on greased baking sheet.
7 Bake in oven at 450 degrees for 5 minutes, rotate pan, bake for about 5 minutes more or until golden,

Toppings
-Melt 2-4 tbsps butter
-brush butter on pretzels
-sprinkle with coarse salt
or
-Melt a stick of butter in bowl
-in another bowl, make a sugar/cinnamon mixture(1/2 c sugar, 2 tsps cinamon)
-dip pretzel in butter, coating both sides generously
-then dip into cinnamon mixture

 

[SunnieRN]

Kycha, thank you so much!! These sound like the perfect snack for my family! My son in law, grandson and I LOVE these! That leaves more 'other snacks' for my daughter and younger grandson to enjoy!!

I was trying to organize the pantry and found cupcake papers, so will make chocolate banana muffins tomorrow. Banana muffins with chocolate chips.