Frugal Friday with Marsha --linky included

It's Friday again, and the first day of February too!  It's my oldest daughters 27th birthday today.  Frugally, we are baking her cake from a mix  :)

I've had more coupon shopping trips.  I didn't take pictures of all of them, but here are a 3 of them:

 Spent $53.56.  Used $79.48 coupons.  72% total savings.

Walmart spent $7.65.  Used $8.50 in coupons.  Price matched the milk to $1.99 sale at Aldi.

Spent $12.74.  Coupons used: $47.96.  86% total savings and I rec'd a $3 catalina for my next shopping trip.

My total coupon savings for January 2013 was $579.70!!   Yes, I think I can beat my 2012 total coupon savings of $2, 071.03.


This week's share from the 99 Cent Solutions book are ways to use toothbrushes:

1.  Put a toothbrush to grate use.  Have trouble getting cheese, or carrot pieces off of your grater?  Just use a toothbrush to clean the grater.

2.  Tame your brows.  If your eyebrows are going every which way, just spray a toothbrush with a light coating of hair spray and brush them down.

3.  Get dirt out of the grout.  Use an old toothbrush to get in the crevices of your grout.  Also around the faucet.

4.  Brush before you eat....no, not your teeth, but your fruits and vegetables.  Especially brush those mushrooms, asparagus and peppers with a toothbrush before throwing them in the pot.  You will get off a lot more of the dirt and such that you normally would miss.

Your turn!



 

Date Night Giveaway!

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Squidoo Hopping--February

Since tomorrow is February 1 (already!), let's make this week's theme February.    Share 1 or 2 of your lenses that have anything to do with February.

I only happen to have one lens, which is my history lens.  My oldest daughter will celebrate her 27th birthday tomorrow.  Even though she has 5 children it's still hard to believe that many years have gone by!

I didn't make my goals last week with squidoo, but I did work hard on them.  Here's hoping that this next week brings me lots of motivation to get to work!

 

Frugal Friday With Marsha 1/25/13

I can't believe we are already to Friday again.
It's been a week of scrimping money-wise because of going out of town, eating out, etc last week during vacation. It was worth it though!

I made one last trip with what money we had for a coupon shopping trip. I spent $16.16. I only saved 63%, but I am happy with what I got for the $16.16:

Here is the photo from my shopping last Friday--Spent $6.99 and a savings of 85%:

Saturday's shopping I spent $21.87 (ouch!) and had a 66% savings:

You can look at the photos though and know that no one was starving here. Steve had brought 4 loaves of bread from work. He also went to the store and bought us fresh fruits for the week and Dr. Pepper. He used my catalina's and the remainder of his gift card to buy the Dr. Pepper. I hate to say what he spent on the fruit, but will say it was wonderful to have fresh fruit on the table all week!



Hubby and I worked together on Saturday on cleaning the house. Mostly I was sending him to the trash or out to the garage or to the basement to put things away. He did get the living room floor cleared and vacuumed for me. It's nice to look behind me and not see this one particular pile of junk that I had been seeing for a few months.
We still have lots of things to look through. We discussed the boxes and drawers that haven't been even looked in since we moved in here almost 2 years ago.

This weekend my main goal is the clutter around my desk.


This week I am sharing ways to use bar soap from the 99 Cent Solutions book:

1. Wash away your door troubles. If you have a wooden door that swells, rub down the edges with a bar of soap. It should then open and close with ease.

2. Fix that zipper. If you have a zipper that's not going up and down easily, rub a bar of soap on the teeth.

3. A run in your pantyhose and no nail polish on hand? You can rub a web bar of soap or a bit of liquid soap on the run. Once it dries the run will stop.

4. Thread tangling in your needle? Run your thread over a bar of soap before sewing and it will make tangles and knots easier to unravel.

Squidoo Hopping--Anything Goes

Coming off of vacation week, I am going to make this an anything goes week on the lenses that you share in the linky.

I am going to share the 2 that are on the bottom of my list.  I have spent very little time in squidoo the past couple of weeks.  I plan on more than making up for that today with small updates to several of my lenses, catching up on comments, and catching up on clicking lenses from these blog posts.  I do also hope to get a new lens built today as well.  Can I do it?

In the comments, if you've learned something new in squidoo over the past 2 weeks, share it.

Thanks!

 

WIP Wednesday--Guild Challenge

Hubby was on vacation last week.  We traveled out of town for a few days.
I took along my box of applique bunnies---fully intending to work on them.  I never even opened the box!
In fact, I don't think I worked on any crafts at all.

The previous Friday was sit n' sew at the quilt shop.  I took several UFO's to work on.  I did work on some folded hotpads.  I have 3 of those ready to hand sew the back of the binding.  I worked on plastic bag holders, but only completed one.

I got motivated Sunday afternoon to get started on my challenge for quilt guild.  The challenge is to use Ohio Star, half square triangles, or flying geese---3 different sizes---in a wall hanging or a table runner.   I had these "busy" squares with flowers already cut so I decided to make us a table runner for spring.  The challenges aren't turned in until the end of March afterall.

When I say busy, I'm not kidding!!

I've decided to also make a matching wall hanging.  However, it will be a bit different--at least my plan right now---I am making 4 of the full squares as the middle above, then also doing rows of full squares with the other blocks.  It may end up being what I turn in for the challenge instead of the table runner if the size fits the requirements.

It may be crazy, but I like it.  They will sure brighten up our living room in the spring!
It's such a rare occasion that I actually make something for use.  Most of the time my concern is making things that might sell in my etsy shop.

I don't think I will list my UFO's, but I do need to stay busy on my sewing and get projects done.  I have other projects that I want to move on to.

I am linking up with:


 

Homeschool Journal--It Was Vacation Week

 Hubby had a week of his vacation last week, so school work wasn't a priority  :)   In fact, the only book work that she did was a page in her Vocabulary Enrichment workbook and the chapter test in her Earth Science textbook.
We also did attend Bible study at church.

We spent a few days out of town with my middle daughter and her family.  That was such a blessing to be able to make the trip and spend time with them.
We did go bowling while we were there---which yes, is written in our time log for PE.

Here is a couple of pictures of Jasmine bowling:

We've started this week out strong, getting in all of the subjects yesterday.  We are heading out the door now for weekly Bible study at church.


I am linking up with:
 

Jantastic Swag Code Extravaganza Coming January 22!

This coming Tuesday Swagbucks is celebrating the month of January with a bunch of Swag Codes - if you can get them all, you'll have an extra 65 Swag Bucks at the end of the day. They'll be happening all throughout the day, so check their blog, Facebook and Twitter for potential clues. Also, if you have the new Toolbar installed you'll be able to check for Swag Codes all day long!

If you haven't joined Swagbucks yet, click this link to join the fun and start earn reward points that you can exchange for free stuff like gift cards! Use the code JANTASTIC during sign up - that way you'll start with 100 Swag Bucks instead of the usual 30. Enter the code exactly as it appears with no spaces.

Frugal Friday With Marsha--Vacation Week (linky party)

This has been hubby's vacation week.  We've been about as frugal about vacation as we could other than not going anywhere at all.

We headed out of town to visit my daughter and her family for a couple of nights.  We took the mattress off of our hide-a-bed and slept on their living room floor.  Jasmine slept on their couch.
We ate out once while there, and then we went bowling.  Otherwise we hung out at their house watching movies.
Oh yes, I did take along my coupon binder and I took my daughter on a coupon shopping trip.  She was less than impressed, even though she keeps telling me that I need to teach her how to coupon so they can save money too.  Her biggest thing was the amount of time it took as she watched me cut coupon inserts and put the coupons into my binder, and then the fact that we were in the store for over an hour as I walked up and down each aisle making decisions on things to buy other then the items I had on my list.    I did save 73% on my shopping trip that day.

Next vacation week is in July.  We are actually trying to save all change until then.  We are in hopes of making a trip and actually paying for a room.  Hubby wants to go to Dodge City and the casino.  Yes, I would like to do that too, however, what I really want to do is rent the cabin at Spring Lake for a couple or 3 nights.    If we could save enough, we could possibly make a full week of the vacation and do both.  


This week I am sharing 5 uses for shower caps from the 99 Cent Solutions Book:

1.  Cover your camera.   You don't want your camera to be ruined if you are out and about and the weather is bad.  Simply wrap a shower cap around the camera, leaving the open end where the lens is.  If you are having trouble seeing through the showercap on the back of the camera, you can cut a hole in the other side of the showercap, just enough to see the viewfinder.

2.  Cover your shoes.  If you are packing shoes in your suitcase and have a worry that the bottoms will get other items in  your suitcase dirty, just wrap those shoes in shower caps.

3.  Ride your bicycle a lot?  I'm sure if you do then you've parked it to go inside somewhere only to come out and find it's started to rain while you were away.  Simply cover your bike seat with a shower cap when you aren't riding it and you won't end up with a wet bottom.

4.  Keep out dust.  Cover your kitchen appliances with shower caps to keep out dust.

5.  Create a makeshift saucer.  You can use a shower cap under your plants that don't have a saucer under them to protect from drips to protect your floor or furniture.  Or, you can use the shower cap to replace the saucer.

See you next week  :)

 

Frugal Friday With Marsha (linky included)

How has your week been?   I'm still doing pretty well with my goals.  I've been able to at least put a few things in their proper places every day.  It's a nice feeling as I look around and the house is looking a little better each day.

My mom thinks that if you are poor you think you need to surround yourself with stuff to make yourself feeler richer.  I honestly don't believe that at all.  (She's justifying herself because she's a hoarder  LOL)  I know that I will feel much richer (and saner) when everything has a place and everything is in that place....and excess is gone. My saying is less is more.

I was able to make a couple of good coupon shopping trips this past week.  I averaged savings of  72%.   Here is a photo of one of the trips where I spent $20.24---had a coupon savings of $51.99 and a savings of 79%:

Lastly today I am sharing ways to use shaving cream from the 99 Cent Solutions book:
1.   Shave away the stain.  This works for fresh stains on your carpet.  Blot up as much as you can then shoot the stain with  a blob of non-gel shaving cream.  Wipe the shaving cream and the stain away with a damp sponge or cloth.

2.  Color be gone.  Spray shaving cream on crayon markings on your wall.  Scrub it off with a toothbrush or scrub brush.

3.  Stop soap scum.  Spray shaving cream onto your glass shower doors, then wipe it off with a dry cloth.  As a bonus, the thin film created will prevent the doors from fogging over too.

4.  Cut through the fog.  Occasionally clean your glasses with white foamy shave cream.  The thin film will repel water and fog.  This will work on your cars windshield too.

5.  Still with your glasses--if you accidentally spray your glasses with hairspray, just rub the lenses and frames with shave cream and wipe is all off with a clean cloth.