27 posts tagged “frugal”

After 6+ hours in the car, we have arrived in Nags Head, NC!  I was a little worried yesterday when Duncan had a i-don't-want-to-go meltdown; I chalked it up to anxiety, new things, missing Grandma, and prayed for patience.  This morning he was better, and once we hit the bridge over the Alligator River, all was well.  At least until his meds wore off and dinner time hit.  Regardless, my two little angels are finally asleep.

Pictures are uploaded here, and I'l be uploading nightly, just not sure how much editing will get done.

Weird vacation highlights so far... in random order.

• we've seen 15 different state license tags.  the kids are getting in to helping me look
• I stamped 128 bills for Where's George in preparation for this vacation
• I forgot both of our $1 kites, the loaf of bread, and almost all of our toiletries.
• I unexpectedly have cell phone coverage here.  I love to chat with my friends so call me!
• Food Lion in Nags Head has similar prices to our store, and it had a beer rebate form I hadn't seen
• My gas out here was paid for by two rebate gas gift cards earned from Harris Teeter in the spring

Sorry.  We've had a busy and stressed October.  Charles has had a major bout of depression, and while we've turned the corner on that, he's about to head to his mom's for a week of destressing, so I'm coming up on a single parent week.  A little stressful for me, since he's the kid wrangler normally in our arrangement.  But we'll survive.  The only outstanding issue is me to find someone to watch the kids Wednesday so I don't have to miss my Disciple 1 class. 

I had extra bread that was getting stale this morning (I overshopped on a deal) so I channeled Martha this morning and made homemade french toast.  I could use a little more practice but it was tasty.  I've put dinner in the crockpot (homemade vegetable soup that I froze), emptied the dishwasher, reloaded it with breakfast dishes, and now I'm getting in some well deserved computer time.  Still on the list this morning is to pick up the newspaper(s) for coupons, shower, hit church, and a little grocery shopping.

Great deal alert -- $20 in free gas money.  Go here, and read all about it!  I'm trying hard to ramp up my refunding again.  With all the Wachovia/Wells Fargo stuff, medical bills, and growing boys (especially the smaller one who has holes in the knees of all his jeans!), money is at a premium right now.

Connor's soccer team won their game yesterday 7-1.  Woot!  His season finishes up this week, but due to rain outs, we have THREE more games... Thursday at 5pm, Saturday at 11:30 am, and Sunday at 4:00 pm.  All by myself.  Youch!

A shout out or two... Drama Mama, remember in your christmas letter a few years ago, when you talked about how you were simplifying your life?  I think I get it now... this disciple class has really been a gift so far.  Perhaps we'll have time to talk at the Thanksgiving gathering about it... to all of you who have added me as your friend on Facebook, thank you for making me feel loved... and please keep my extended family in your prayers on Monday.  A beloved family member is having surgery on Monday, and we are very hopeful it will be positively life changing.

Sorry to leave you hanging almost a month.  Maybe November will be better?

We figured out what the denial from Social Security was – only a denial for SSI, which is temporary support while they process your claim.  I can see that benefit being denied.  We’ve had yet MORE paperwork to fill out on the disability process.

Our Disciple bible study talked about wonder last night.  There are now five of us taking the class.  We read parts of Genesis, Job, and a lot of Psalms this week.  A good portion of our discussion was around free-will vs. pre-determination, observation of the Sabbath, and our relationship to God.  I’m starting to feel more comfortable with the conversations, and to feel like I have something to contribute.  We had quite the chuckle as a group over Job telling God to “… gird your loins like a man…”  I am moved by some of my personal reflections, about being both a speck of dust but also God’s amazing creation in his likeness.  I was not totally prepared for this week’s lesson and briefly pondered not going last night.  I decided that nothing had changed from my original thought that I needed to make time for this class, and that I would go, prepared or not.  I can say that I got more out of this week than last, so that supports my instinct to go no matter what.  Next week’s lesson has the keyword “sin”.

I’m back on my “part time job” of being a frugal deal hunter.  I’ve been rolling register rewards like everyone else at Walgreens, stocking up on cold medicine and oral hygiene stuff.  I had two pretty great moments in the past two weeks.  For the first one, I got a loaf of bread, Food Lion’s On-the-go-Bistro Mac & Cheese, FL Crisp Crunch cereal, and a 2 liter of Mountain Dew… for a total of $0.03 out-of-pocket.  I used several free item coupons to make that happen.  The 2 liter was a filler to keep them from owing me.  Tuesday’s success involved a gift card I won by attending our United Way presentation at work.  It was a $10 Papa John’s card.  I combined that with a B1G1F coupon out of my 2009 Entertainment Book, and got two large one topping pizzas for $2.81, including tax!   I’m also restocking air fresheners, Gatorade, and deodorants.  I need to catch a toilet paper deal, so if anyone knows of one…  The Entertainment book has been very helpful so far; I already used the “get a $25 gift card…” one for CVS, and mentioned trading some of my sporting goods stores c/o to someone who wasn’t going to use her CVS one.  I brought my book to fellowship last night.  She didn’t bring me the one in her book (she says that will be next week), but brought me a $25 g.c. mailer from CVS.  Free $$!  I read blogs like Crystal’s, and others, when they talk about knowing the Lord will provide.  I can honestly say as I’ve started the Disciple class, and tried to center myself on doing the right thing now, and worry about tomorrow tomorrow, I am seeing HIM provide for my needs.  Wachovia has started an enhanced prescription drug benefit program for diabetics, which will take many of our Rx co-pays down, some to $0, for diabetes related medication.

Speaking of HIM, I received a ray of sunshine in my mailbox last week in the form of a letter from Upendo.  She is doing well.  I know now she has an older brother, and she attends church every Sunday afternoon.  I had started to worry a little bit about the letters slowing down, but this one was dated 7/30, so I think simply it’s taking longer for letters to come and go.  This letter responded to one I wrote in May.  She still has letters from 6/20, 7/7, 7/10, 8/4, 8/29, and 9/17 to receive.    I am still waiting for my first response from Birri.   My very first letter to her was on 7/14.   I’ve written three more times to her.  I found a deal for free photo printing that I will take advantage of to print some photos to send to both girls.   Some of the postings on Compassion’s blog talk about a pecking order for the children in the centers – kids who gets letters AND photos are viewed as more lucky/blessed.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25757291/ ... it makes me so very sad.

I took a positive step towards improving our finances the past few days.  I did a little scrutiny on our budget, and looked for things we could change or do without.  As of 7/31, we'll be on digital phone, and will save $80/mth for the next two years.  I cancelled a subscription to a game I rarely play, which will save $12.99/mth.  I'm going to cancel a second game which is $9.99/mth that the kids no longer play.  I regularly check Gas Buddy and try to time my fuel purchases when I'm near a cheaper station.  I did that this morning when I went to Aldi's for fruit and snacks and paid $3.89/gallon for regular.  So there's over $100/mth to put towards the medical bills that rolled in from my kidney stone last month.  I also am putting more time into couponing and rebating again, and I just traded with a lady for $65 in rebate forms, and am joining a coupon train at Hot Coupon World to swap coupons to see if I can get more of what I can use.

So what are YOU doing to battle the high gas and food prices at your house?

With the food prices soaring, I know we are all feeling the pinch.  I myself have started hitting Aldi’s to get fruit and snacks.  It’s not in my normal travel pattern but I’m going once a week because of things such as bananas being $0.25/lb cheaper.  Bread is over $1.00 per loaf cheaper.  I spend time on sites like The Grocery Game and Hot Coupon World to find the best deals to keep my bill down.

I read a post on the Compassion blog yesterday that reminded me how lucky we still have it.  It talked about the Global Food Crisis and how much the rising prices and lack of supply are affecting third world countries.   What struck me was a post about a visit to Tanzania, near Arusha, which is where Upendo (the girl I sponsor in Tanzania) lives.  It discusses a mother who was sick and in the hospital, and her children had to choose between bringing her food at the hospital, or buying food for themselves.  What if this was Upendo’s mother?  Even though I know Compassion is doing a lot for her, is it enough?  It’s sobering to be jolted out of your fantasy that you are “doing the right thing” and discover it might not be enough….  When I started sponsoring Upendo in February, it meshed nicely with my personal philosophy of giving a hand up, not hand-outs.   I have reaped the benefits of my $32/month sponsorship in the spiritual growth from the letter writing she and I have done.  On days such as yesterday, God pushes me to grow a little more, as he nudges issues like this into my awareness.

On another note, I have a new goal… to raise $4,000 by November 8^th.  Why you ask?  So I could go visit Upendo in Tanzania.  Compassion regularly offers trips to the countries they serve, and Tanzania is up in February 2009.  ONLY $4,000.  I’m really hoping for a lucky lottery ticket so I could go.  Truthfully, I expect it will be the next trip, or the trip after that for me.  But if anyone has a spare 4K laying around…. I did apply to be considered for the next Compassion Bloggers trip to the Dominican Republic.  It occurs this November.   I don’t expect to be invited to go, but I’m passionate about getting others to reach out and sponsor these kids.  Plus, it makes me work harder to grow my writing skills and my readership.  It’s win-win, whether I get to go or not.  I’ve discovered as I share my journey with my friends that several sponsor children through Compassion and other organizations.  The T. family sponsors a little boy in China.  My friend T.G. sponsors a little girl in Thailand through Compassion.  If you don’t do it to be charitable, do it for yourself.

Upendo wrote again!  It is taking just over a month for her letters to reach me.  If the reverse is true for my letters, she should have four to five letters from me now.  I am writing about every two weeks.  Last time I sent her stickers, so that one may take longer to reach her.  I really REALLY need to find a good family picture and send it to her.  I have been quite amazed at how much her letters have touched me.  It is soul warming to have a six year old child tell you your letters are full of love.  I think we get so busy on the “treadmill of life” that we forget our own positive qualities.  We get so down on ourselves because of inconsequential missteps on that treadmill, and forget that a kind heart is worth so much more.

I have been so very busy thus far in May.  We had a family wedding (Charles’ cousin Sara) to attend the first weekend.   As I expected, she made a beautiful bride.  It was neat that she married in the same church her mother and grandmother married in, and that it was the same church she was baptized in.  Sara has been dating Dave for a while, and we like him, so I hope this is a great match for her.  I stayed at Charles’ sister’s house Saturday, and got a bit of gadget envy while I was there.  She whipped out her GPS to get us directions to the church; now I think I may have to have one! 

Connor has one final soccer game for this season on Saturday.  The team they are playing includes one of his cub scout den mates.  We missed the game this past Saturday due to the spring camping trip for cub scouts.  He had a great time.  They made s’mores Friday night, then hiked up to the “knob” Saturday morning, and then played in the little creek behind our campsite all afternoon.  Creek time included racing boats the boys made out of water bottles.  Our scout master made five different cobblers for dessert Saturday night – YUM.  Duncan went camping with the Boy Scouts to the Virginia International Raceway.  Another heartwarming moment for me – the dad who took him told us they enjoyed him immensely as he was a lot of fun to be with.  Isn’t that just the best compliment on your parenting that your child is fun to be around? 

I’ve really slacked off on my couponing lately – there just haven’t been any deals that were “almost free” on stuff I actually needed.  With gas prices going up I need to get back to rebating to get my cash flow up.

Yup yup... 12 years ago we tied the knot.  We had lunch out with the kids, and will have dinner out in peace tonite.  I got him a book he wanted, he got me a new bead for my pandora bracelet.  Anyone else celebrating something today?

Footnote:  Our evening out should have cost $73... $40 for dinner, $25 for babysitting, $8 for his book.  I had a $10 gift card for the book, a $10 discount card for the babysitting, and $33 in gift cards for dinner.  So our big spurge evening cost me $22.  Being frugal does work!

WooHOO!  I had a great ride home today shopping.  Here's what I got:

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The right picture doesn't do it justice, but I was late getting home and we needed to photograph and get dinner served.  Everything you see in both pictures cost me $16.81!!  It was over $150 worth of stuff, for a savings of 89%!  There are 12 boxes of pop tarts, two Wyler's Drinks to go, four boxes of Frosted MiniWheats, six bags of M&Ms, two bags of Jelly Beans, five boxes of (expensive) vitamins, a glade wisp candle, five easter baskets, four easter toys, eight russell stover creme eggs, four Russell Stover solid chocolate easter bunnies... I think that covers it.  Plus I still have a $6 catalina for Harris Teeter good on my next order, I'll get $2 in an easy saver rebate from Walgreens, and I have coupons left!  Pop Tarts are on sale for $1.50 each this week, and with doubled coupons at Harris Teeter I'm getting them for $0.65 and $0.50 per box.  I'm up to 28 boxes and I'm not done.  It might seem like a lot of Pop Tarts, but then you've never seen how fast Duncan can eat them.  Last time I bought 18 boxes and thought I'd have Pop Tarts until at least May.  Wrong.  So I have one more day of buying Pop Tarts and then we'll pray these last a little longer.

We won't have news on the medical drama until this coming Friday (ugh).   Waiting is so hard, especially when you expect the news to be bad.

Connor finally had his first soccer game of the spring season (he was rained out last weekend).  They won 5 - 2 -- go Dragons!  We replaced his soccer cleats this week too as he had outgrown his old ones.  I had to miss his game as Duncan had a camping outing with the boy scouts.  We went to a private pond and fished.  Duncan was very successful -- he caught four small catfish, his first fish EVER.   Our camping was interferred with however, when they predicted hail and damaging winds to go with the drenching rain, lightening and thunder we got late afternoon.

Today has been lazy.  I ran to CVS for newspapers and more easter goodies, then to Harris Teeter and Food Lion for groceries.  There is an amazing deal on Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats running at H-T this week.  They are B1G1F, then with a doubled .70 coupon I'm paying $0.40 a box.  I'm running out of places to store them!

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