Frugal Friday With Marsha -- Short Trip

I took a short trip this week to Dodge City, KS where my hubby is working for the week.
Ok, frugal in some ways, not in others...
Frugal because hubby's company pays for his motel room, plus food reimbursement.
Not frugal in that we, um, lost $135 at the casino.   It was such a blast to be able to make the trip though and my spirits are lifted once again.....that alone is priceless. 😀
Of course I took my laptop and a tablet with me to keep "earning" at least a bit while having a good time.
We ate one night at IHOP, which he did have to pay for my meal.  The next day we had the wonderful free breakfast at the motel, then ordered pizza delivered for lunch.
We hopped in the hot tub twice.  We watched some movies together.  In general we just had a great time.
I even managed to make it through all 12 questions in The Cash Show, (invitation code is M3CFWG which will give each of us a free life!) adding up to reaching payout there!!
I'm going back next week as he will still be working there again.  I'm really looking forward to it.

I've already picked up my Friday Freebie this week as I did a little shopping this morning.   I got a little coming back into ibotta, and I scanned enough to redeem for a $2 amazon from shopkick as well.   Great way to start the morning.

Free VitaminWater Active for Kroger & Affiliates


I'm still working to fill my mailbox with freebies.  Here are a few things that I sent off for today:

Free Pack of Zonnic Stop-Smoking Aid

Free Yellow Dog Nantucket Stickers

Free Sun-Maid Healthy Living Booklet

Free Harry Potter Time Turner Necklace  (if you check this one out, please come back to my post and use this link for me to get credit)


I've not listed sweepstakes for awhile, so here is a list for you to choose from to enter.  Good luck!

Win a GUESS L.A. Style Experience for You and 3 Friends

Boston Market Memorial Day Meal Coupon

Culturelle $3 Off Coupon + Win a Global Awareness Trip

Win 1 of 750 KFC Colonel Sanders Floaties

Win a a Set of 50 Books and $1000 Melissa & Doug Gift Card

Win 1 of 10 Free Bless Box Beauty Subscriptions worth $1800

Win $10,000 in the Ryan Seacrest’s Pay Your Vacation Sweepstakes


In other news for me, I'm still working, albeit very slowly, at eliminating clutter.  It's hard to go stay in a nice clean motel room, with only a few necessities with you, then come home and look around at all the stuff.    I started yesterday in places you can't see though.  I cleared out the old stuff from the bathroom vanity and medicine cabinet.  Most everything in the drawers and cabinets has been there since we moved in and never used.  Out it went!  Today I am working on clearing off my decorative glass shelves.  Just how did they become the catch all for everything???

How are you doing in your frugal and simple living?    Comment below, or better yet, share links to your posts!







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Frugal Friday With Marsha -- Friday Freebies

Are you getting your Friday Freebie each week from Kroger?  Our Kroger stores are Dillon's.

Here is a picture of some of the foods we have gotten free recently:

Other recent Friday Freebies not pictured are Annie's Macaroni and Cheese, Simple Truth Organic Tortilla Chips, Sara Lee Bread, and so much more.

Today's Friday Freebie is a Hershey's Cookie Layer Crunch Caramel candy bar!!  Doesn't that sound scrumptious and something to help that sweet tooth?

My point of this post is to take advantage of these freebies.  They will help you save money on your grocery bill, and assure that you aren't hungry.

p.s.  Watch for the coupons that they send you in the mail too.  This bundle we got last week includes a free coupon for a box of Cheerios as well as a free coupon for a box of Keebler Club Crackers.  More great ways to ensure we don't go hungry!


Here are some books you might find interesting:

Frugal Friday With Marsha 6/27/14

Last Friday I was at my quilt retreat having a blast sewing away and socializing with other quilters. Also eating good food.
Speaking of that food, one meal we had catered in there was lots of food left over. They said for us all to bring containers from home the next day.
It was a good thing. I ended up being able to serve myself, hubby and daughter smothered steak, scalloped potatoes, green beans and dinner rolls for supper after coming home Saturday evening.
Can't beat free food on the frugal side.

One gal sent me home with the rest of the box of Nilla Wafers she had brought to share and another gal sent me home with the rest of the bag of Twizzlers that she had brought. Free snacks too.

I can't really say that otherwise this last week has been too awfully frugal on my part.
I've been away from home a lot for various reasons.
I think I only did one load of laundry this week, which hung on the line to dry. That was in between rain.

The rain has been great this past week, saving on our water bill not having to water the garden.
Speaking of the garden, we did finally get 1 red tomato and we ate a few strawberries. I need to go harvest more of the lettuce.
I will be taking a couple of the onions to my daughter. I need to check if any cucumbers are growing yet.
The plants that I bought that had a label saying there were bell peppers, aren't. Instead they are some other type of pepper, I am guessing jalapeno.
I picked quite a few snap peas. I think they are done now though. If I can remember where I put the seeds I will plant more.

I've been doing a lot of redeeming this month both on the computer and with the apps on my phone. I think I will try to include reports of that monthly, starting next Friday.

I hope I have a lot more frugal living to report next Friday. Until then, I do hope you will share posts this week and motivate me!

Thanks!

An InLinkz Link-up

Frugal Friday Link Up--4 Uses for Adhesive Bandages

Here we are to Friday again already. It's been the usual busy week for me.
I started this new routine for housecleaning that I found online, but have failed. I've only done 2 days out of 5. My priorities aren't in order as far as what comes first is the basic problem. I'm a lot more concerned with my computer and my crafts over what the house looks like----that is until I take my blinders off and really look around.

I plan on going to yard sales tomorrow. I'm just not really sure if I should. Do I really need to bring more stuff home? Then again, I might find just the storage I am looking for, or craft materials cheap. (sigh) I will have to try to give a yard sale report once we get back home.

I started reading The Tightwad Gazette book. Oh gosh, it's been on my shelf for ages, but with so many books coming in for review I hadn't ever gotten around to reading it. It's 20 years old but still vital information for anyone wanting to live a simple, frugal life.

I also started watching a tv series through Hulu called Simple Living with Amanda Urbanska. Wonderful show! I'm even taking notes to build something on it later.
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This week from the 99 Cent Solutions book I am sharing 4 ways to use adhesive bandages.

1. Test for allergies. You can test that new perfume, lotion, or other product to see if you are allergic to it by applying just a bit inside your wrist or elbow and then covering it with a bandage. Let it sit for 24 hours, remove the bandage and check your skin.

2. Stick it to your skin. Use an adhesive bandage whenever you need to stick something to your skin. For example, you can get rid of a wart by soaking a cotton ball in vinegar and applying it to the wart for 2 hours each day. Tape won't hold that cotton ball in place, but a bandage will.

3. Test your painting power. Before painting a large area, test your walls with an adhesive bandage. Paint a small, clean, inconspicuous spot with the paint you plan to use and let it dry for 2 days. Put a bandage over the area, then strip it off. If the paint comes off then you need to clean the walls more or use a better primer....if not, then get to work!

4. Protect your fingertips. Thimbles save wear and tear of your fingers while sewing, but are too rigid for some sewers to work with. Ditch the thimble and put an adhesive bandage on your fingertip instead. You'll get the protection without the resistance. (I've done this before, but because my fingertips were getting sore. I need to remember to start out with the bandage!)
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I hope to see many of you linking up this week. Hopefully I will get it in gear and start sharing my coupon shopping trips and such again. I will share a few of my grocery buys this past week:

1. The store has a buy 5 items get an additional $5 off your order. Juicy Juice is part of the deal. It's on sale for $2.79, so $1.79 each after the buy 5 deal. I had 2 coupons for $1 off 2 bottles, and if you bought 4 bottles you received a $2.50 catalina coupon to use on your next shopping trip. I needed one more item for the 5 items, so I chose a Beneful meaty meal for .88 after discount.
I spent $6.04 for 4 juices and 1 dog food plus received the $2.50 to use later.

2. I used that $2.50 catalina to get 2 half gallons of milk, which are on sale for $1.25 each half gallon. I paid .20 sales tax is all.

3. Farmland Deli Style hot dogs were on sale for just $1 a package (normally $2.29). I went to farmlandfoods.com and signed up for their email newsletter to receive a printable coupon for .55. I printed 2 from my computer. I then had my husband sign up for the newsletter and we printed 2 more coupons. I bought 4 packages of a good hot dog for just a total of .18 sales tax!

4. Other free foods this week included 6 bags of Pillsbury Bagettes chips that I will soon have a review and giveaway up on my blog----2 bags of Jerky Direct jerky (my autoship is covered by my downline)---and 4 boxes of Dr. Lucy's cookies that I won in a blog giveaway. If I can keep this up, at least we won't go hungry!