Frugal Friday With Marsha--Income Tax Refund

Our income tax refund has been a long time coming in, but finally got here Wednesday.
First my husband says "we  are going to be busy all day shopping", to which I replied, "just because we have money doesn't mean we need to go out and just blow it."

Well.......we didn't "blow" it all.  We did pay off the credit card, which we will use again because for another month we get an additional .25 off per gallon of gas when we use it.  I know gas is going up everywhere, so you all can relate to us wanting the additional off.  There is no interest on the card until after Dec. 31, 2013 so we will pay  back what we use for gas.

I want to put back $500 to have for vacation week in July.  As of right now there is still more then enough left to do that.....it's a matter of getting hubby to the bank to get the cash and then him not touching it!

We bought some household needs such as light bulbs and such.  I got a dress and my daughter got pants.  We bought small birthday gifts for the 3 grandchildren who have birthdays around the corner (May 29, June 1 and June 5)

We went grocery shopping at Aldi.  We spent $138 there.  If you have opportunity to shop Aldi, you know how much that $138 can get you.  I feel so much better with a stocked deep freeze and cabinet of canned goods.
Look at this banana pepper plant that we bought at Aldi for $7.99!  I wish now we have bought the tomato plant and bell pepper plants as well.  There are 3 plants. (you can see the blender that we bought too as ours had quit working.  We found this one at Target on sale for $16, down from $29.99!)

 Our big purchases were at Walmart.  A porch swing for $148.  A patio set for $198 plus $49 for the umbrella.  There we also bought tubeless tire inserts for Jasmine's bicycle.  We have too many stickers and thorns around here.  She can ride her bike again!  And, we bought 2 power cords.  You know, one for when we are on the swing with our laptops and the other for when we are on the deck using the patio set.

We tried to buy a tv at Walmart too because ours is acting up.  They didn't have it in stock and we found out yesterday that they can't order any more of that set in.  We are now considering buying the 50" one that they have on close out.  It was a demo model and has no remote, but it's fairly cheap and we can buy a universal remote.

What do you think?     I look forward to your comments.
I also look forward to seeing what others link up this week.