Friday, May 4, 2018

Frugal Friday With Marsha -- May the 4th Be With You


Excuse my absence last Friday as I was gone to a quilt retreat.  A very frugal one I might add since it didn't cost anything to attend!  I had taken food for my meals for the weekend and didn't even end up eating hardly any of the food that I brought.  A lot of the other ladies brought meal foods to share.  The only requirement was to bring snack foods for the sharing table, but quilters tend to be very generous.

I really want to start this post out with a great deal from The Quarto Group for any of you that are Star Wars fans, or have friends and family that are. 
Quarto has been great to me as a blogger, and they offer books for everyone!
For May they are offering a whopping 40% off of all Star Wars related books and kits with the code MAYTHE4TH!!

Save in May on all our Star Wars titles,
with code MAYTHE4TH!
40% off code good May 1 through May 31, 2018.
© & ™ Lucasfilm Ltd. 
All rights reserved.

FREE SHIPPING ON ORDERS OF $50 OR MORE


One thing you will notice missing from my Frugal Friday posts now is my list of online and app earnings for the week.  I've decided I want to do a once a month post for those from now on, so watch for that post at a later date.


A little catching up to do from missing a week.

I took advantage of a good sale at Kohl's and was able to get new pillows and bath towels with their great sale of $2.99 each.   I applied for a credit card, even though I knew I would be denied, because just applying got me another 25% off.  This made each item just $2.24!
We've needed both towels and pillows for awhile now.



I've been having some luck selling on LetGo.  I've been mostly listing baby clothes for now.
I stopped at a church rummage sale last Saturday morning on the way to the quilt retreat and found an awesome deal for me!!   I got a bag with 3 skeins of yarn, lots of spools of thread, embroidery thread, buttons, a pin cushion, and lots of other misc items.   I listed all the craft items that I won't use on LetGo for the same $3 that I paid for the whole bag.  That's not sold yet, but there was also misc pieces of jewelry in the bag as well.  I did sell those for $3, getting the money back that I paid for the bag!


I am upset with myself for totally forgetting about the Friday Freebie last week!  It didn't come to my mind until Saturday when it was too late.   I don't know what I missed  😞
This week it's free Dorito's, that's not to be missed!



I've decided to get back to sending for freebies and filling my mailbox again.  This is a great post to get started with!!  Lots that they report are still available and just a click away.



Here is a list of other freebies that you might want to check out:

Free Sample of SPLENDA Naturals Stevia Sweetender

Free Subscription to O, The Oprah Magazine

Text for $10 Off at Lane Bryant = Free Item

Free SToK Cold Brew Coffee or Tea

Free Sample of Jamberry Nail Wraps

Free Box of Pukka Herbs Organic Matcha Tea

Free Subscription to ELLE Magazine

Free Bag of Navitas Organics Essential Superfood Boost

Free Subscription to Men's Health Magazine

Free Subscription to Car and Driver Magazine

Free Made for America, Made for Summer Party

Banfield Pet Hospital - Free Office Visit & Consultation

Free Barilla Pesto Chatterbox

Free Bag of Boca Java Coffee

Free Samples of BA STAR Makeup

Free Sample of Truvia Natural Sweetener

Free Men's Razor

Free Plus CBD Oil

New Month = New PINCHme Sample Box

BACK AGAIN! Free Atkins Sample Kit and $5 Off Coupon

Free Sample of Sasmar Personal Lubricant

Free Poise Impressa Sample Pack


That's a lot to check out, but I see several that I will be looking in to.

One last thing for this week.   I am so happy!  I finally have a pair of tennis shoes that are comfortable, fit correctly, and don't hurt my bad toe.  I used some of my earned amazon to order them.  I LOVE being able to earn amazon!!



Let's not forget that you can link up any frugal type posts here each week.  I would love to see lots of you doing so  😀







Wednesday, May 2, 2018

WIP Wednesday -- Retreat

I want to start by saying that I won't be posting next Wednesday.  I will be gone on a bus trip with my quilt guild to Lincoln, NE to the National Quilt Museum.  We are doing a mini shop hop on the trip as well, stopping at 3 shops along the way.  My plan is to take my hexagons to work on for the trip.

The retreat was great as always.  I only took the one project to work on, other than making the President's block for guild.
I had thrown in a bag of fabrics left over from another project as well. 
I did make the President's block first, then I took that bag of fabric and did some cutting.

You can see the block in the picture as well as cutting for fabric for making the double towel scarves, strips for a toothbrush rug, 10 inch squares for microwave cozies, and 5 inch squares for future projects.


I really did spend the rest of the retreat time working on my string block quilt.  This is how far I got.  I found that I still need to make 2 purple string blocks before adding anymore to the quilt.  Hopefully I can get that done in the next 2 weeks before I post again!


As far as the rest of the week,  aside from working some in organizing my craft room (very little done), I only worked on making the plastic canvas jingle bell blocks.   I decided that I wanted to make the sets I sell in my Etsy shop a set of 3 instead of 2. 



Looks like that's it for this week.  Happy Sewing and Crafting!

I do link up with the following blogs:

WIPs on Wednesdays

Jo's Country Junction:  http://www.joscountryjunction.com/





KatieMae Quilts for BOM weekly linky.  https://www.katiemaequilts.com/blog/





Wednesday, April 25, 2018

WIP Wednesday -- Upcoming Retreat Etc

I'm anticipating the upcoming quilt retreat this Friday and Saturday.  I was just in my sewing/craft room and added a little more fabric to my project bag.  The big bag is totally packed so all I have to do Friday morning is grab the bag, my sewing machine, and my bag of food and go!

I've gotten back to my cleaning and organizing in my sewing room as well.  I cleared one large shelf and have a start of putting the items I have for sale in my Etsy shop on the shelves for easy access when something is ordered.   It's going to be a long process to get my room into the order it should be.

This week I did work on a few things.

I worked more on the plarn bedroll.  I would like to say that when I crochet that big ball of plarn in that it will be done, but I know better.  It will take at least another ball that large, and maybe even another one after that!



According to my pictures, it looks like the only other thing I did this week was get a start on 2 flannel rag quilts.  I cut the rest of the flannel I had, and got a start on sewing rows.  I need more flannel to finish both the larger and smaller quilt.  Rag quilts will always be an ongoing project for me.  As I find flannel at yard sales etc, I will just cut and make.



I did have a finish this week.  I finally finished sewing down the binding on the braid baby quilt and got it put up for sale.



Hopefully next week I will have some nice progress on my rainbow string quilt to show you after working on it at the retreat this weekend.  Past making a President's block for guild, it's the only project I intend to work on this weekend.

I link up with the following blogs.  I hope you will give each of them a visit.

WIPs on Wednesdays

Jo's Country Junction:  http://www.joscountryjunction.com/





KatieMae Quilts for BOM weekly linky.  https://www.katiemaequilts.com/blog/






Friday, April 20, 2018

Frugal Friday With Marsha -- Senior Discounts and More


Senior discounts are one of the great perks that come with getting older.  You can start collecting from some stores as soon as you turn 50.  Dealnews has put together a comprehensive list of senior discounts from A to Z.  You will want to click the image below and check them all out!

DealNews



This week I spent right at $20 for my food for the week.  I bought a lot of the same stuff--a banana, an orange, a yogurt, 2 Lunchables, 2 Michalini frozen entrees, a string cheese, a snack cheese, and 3 2 ltrs of Dr Pepper.  I also splurged on a package of cookies.   I found that the Oscar Mayer ham and cheddar lunchables that also include 2 cookies were on sale for just $1 each.   My oldest daughter bought me 2 more to save to take to my quilt retreat since the use by dates on them go into June (my retreat is the end of this month).

I'm re-thinking this food stuff.  In my mind I thought I could live on lunchables and frozen meals, throwing in some cheese, yogurt and fresh fruit, but I found this week that I am already tired of this.  I will be figuring some different things for next week such as buying a dozen eggs since you can do so many different things with eggs, bagged salad, and such.    I wanted the ease of the others, but it doesn't hurt me to actually spend some time fixing myself a meal.


My online and app earnings were pretty good this week with a couple of surprises:

**$11.35 PayPal from magicaljourneydownlinebuilder.  I was lucky and won the $10 top prize in one of their promos.
**$6 PayPal from gsn games.  I had 77 cents in my account so just used it to play in a solitaire tournament and got lucky and won $6.
**$25 amazon from Swagbucks
**$2.04 PayPal from Promoslice
**$2 amazon from Shopkick
**$1 added to my Perk Plastik card from PerkTV  (use code 860efbf6 for bonus points for signing up)


Today's Friday Freebie is Kroger Kettle Chips.  This will help me with snacks for the week.

Free Kroger Brand Kettle Cooked Chips for Kroger & Affiliates


I had hoped to have enough points at Recyclebank to order more of the dishcloths, but I'm still short.  I need to remember to log in daily for my 5 pts on the daily challenge....and to check out all of the links below too!

5 Free Recyclebank Points

5 Free Recyclebank Points

10 Free Recyclebank Points


School will be out soon.  You might want to check these out!

Free 2018 National Parks Entrance Days

Free Bowling & More at AMF Kids Fest







Don't forget to link up as well as check out what others are linking up this week.







Wednesday, April 18, 2018

WIP Wednesday -- Playing Catch Up

When my laptop went down, so did my sewing and quilting for the most part.  I missed the past 2 Wednesday's doing a WIP post.  There was about 10 days in there that I did no sewing at all, which made me sad.

I have lots of things to show that have been worked on since my last post, so here goes:

I worked more on the pin cushions, just have to sew them shut and add the buttons to finish these.


I'm still working on the plarn bedroll.  This is such a long process, but eventually it will be to the 6 foot long measurement.


You can't see what's inside my cat bag (with one of our cats behind it), but it's my string quilt UFO, packed and ready to be worked on during the upcoming retreat at the end of this month.  I intend for this to be my sole project at the retreat, and hopefully I can stick to that to actually make good progress on it.


The Arkansas Crossroads is designated my Sit n' Sew project each month.  I have row 6 together and I'm inching my way towards getting all of the blocks done.  Maybe row 7 complete next month?



I bought a scrap bag of flannel at the Mennonite Relief Sale, so I got out some other flannel I had come across and cut more squares for rag quilts.  I so wanted to get my sewing machine out and get to work on these right away after cutting, but didn't get to.  Maybe this week I can?  The flannel strips in the picture will be added to my stash when I get to start a flannel toothbrush rug.


And, speaking of toothbrush rugs, I finally got out the one I had started some time back.  I've been adding strips to the project box as I've cut for other projects and thought it was about time to get it out, organize the strips and get back to work on it.


Last, but not least on my list to share this week is my Sodoku quilt project.  I messed up and am short one black and white fat quarter of having the 9.  I had thought I would use the plain black as the 9th since I had a plain yellow, but then thought better of it once I got home.  I don't think that would be a good choice to use the same as what the sashing and borders will be.  However, once I get that last fat quarter, I can start assembling the blocks.



I'm linking up with the following blogs.  I can't wait to go and see what others are doing, hope you will too.

WIPs on Wednesdays

Jo's Country Junction:  http://www.joscountryjunction.com/





KatieMae Quilts for BOM weekly linky.  https://www.katiemaequilts.com/blog/






Friday, April 13, 2018

Frugal Friday With Marsha -- Getting Back on Track


I got my new power cord late last Friday.  Thank goodness it was just what my laptop needed to work again!  Not only that, my daughter's boyfriend helped me find one on amazon for just $9.99.
A week later, I am still trying to get back on track with my online routines.

It's been a wild week for sure.  I first would like to report my online and app earnings, which are for 2 weeks since I didn't post last Friday.

$4 to my Perk Plastik card from PerkTV (use code 860efbf6 for bonus points for signing up)
$24.61 PayPal from Debbie Nicholson--this was back payment from a TE that she used to own, and was a total surprise to receive!
$25 PayPal from Swagbucks
$4.74 PayPal from TrendTraxPro
$3 PayPal from Pinecone Research for my amazon data input
$3 amazon from MyPoints

Not only trying to play catch up, but I also joined some new sites as well.  I'm including banners for 2 of the sites as both are outstanding sites!!  The mailer is way too awesome and owned by Clare and Brenton--2 that I am well acquainted with online.   Such a different mailer where you earn rewards for activities, then it's your choice what advertising you choose to exchange your reward points for.

 
The other is Penguin Surfing.  You surf for your upgrades on this one.  They offer so many games and ways to earn as well.  Lots of fun too!




In other news, my husband has a new job position which takes him out of town for the week.  This leaves me shopping for my own meals for the week.  It's been "fun" to see just what I can get for the little that I have to spend.  The first week I only spent just over $10 for my food for the week.  This included 3 2 ltrs of my Dr Pepper (addiction).  The foods I bought were an orange, a banana, a yogurt, Michelina Manicotti, Armor lunchable, and a Banquet breakfast pot pie.  These along with foods already on hand, and I feel I ate well.
This week hubby is on vacation and we shopped at Aldi.  I must shop there more often.  I am going to shop there for myself this next week and see what I, and for how much.


Ok....this week's Friday Freebie will help me out.  It's Tic Tac gum.   I am working towards quitting smoking and just said last night that I needed some gum.   Link also says Burpee seeds but so far I'm not seeing that coupon on my app or online for my area.  Good luck!

Free Tic Tac Gum & Burpee Seeds for Kroger & Affiliates


Don't forget Recyclebank.  I've not been getting there daily for the daily pledge points, but getting back on track there too.  Almost enough points earned to choose something else free from One Twine.

5 Free Recyclebank Points

5 Free Recyclebank Points

5 Free Recyclebank Points

5 Free Recyclebank Points

100 Free Recyclebank Points

5 Free Recyclebank Points


Since I am still trying to catch up and get back on track, I'm going to close for now and leave you with the link up.  I do hope some will link up this week and motivate us to live a more frugal life.







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