Frugal Friday With Marsha 5/30/14

Just one more day in May.  It's so hard to believe that the days seems to be going by so quickly.

This week I will talk about coupons.
Those things that I can't seem to stay caught up on.
I get in a couple good days of cutting and getting them in to my binder each week, but I need to be working on them daily.

I like to use the excuse that we don't have enough money for me to be worrying about the good deals with coupons, but really that is all the more reason to pay attention.
It's just that there aren't coupons for milk, cheese, and meats etc.
Our financial situation is not good, and we do well to keep the essentials in the house.
(Of course if Dr.Pepper wasn't on our essential list we would be doing well too)

I did get in a bit of coupon shopping is week.
I had some higher store coupons that a friend had passed on to me from her bzzcampaign.  They were expiring on the 28th so I headed out and used them, along with a few other coupons.
If you would like to see my post, please check it out at:  Photo of the Day 5/28/14--A Little Coupon Shopping

Back 'in the day' of me getting 10-15 inserts free each week and our store doubling coupons I had gotten up quite a stockpile of groceries and household items.
My stockpiles are getting slim.  
Even though I don't get those 10- 15 inserts and the store no longer doubles, I'm sure that if I can keep my coupons sorted in to my binder and pay attention to the blog posts on deals that I can still build stockpiles.
(Our newspaper lost it's contract with Smart Source well over a year ago so we have to buy an out of town paper to get that insert each week)

How have you been doing on saving this past week?

An InLinkz Link-up

52 Weeks of Organizing--Week 34 --Coupon Binder Re-Do

I have lost track as to what week this would be for me.  I found orgjunkie into her challenge and haven't kept up with getting something done each week.

From the start I went around my house taking photos of all the places and things that I wanted to get organized.  One of those things was to get my coupon binder going again.

Recently I bought 60 coupon binder pages from momsaves.com.  Along with my order I received a bonus of 22 Sunday coupon inserts from past weeks.  I paid $34.85 for my order with shipping.  The first thing I did was to go through the free inserts and pull out all coupons I knew I would use right away.  I came up with a total of $31, which made me feel better about what I spent.  I didn't end up using all of those coupons before they expired, but  since then I have cut out the rest of the coupons and have used a few more.

Putting together a coupon binder is no easy task.  It takes a lot of time to just cut the coupons, then there is the process of putting them in to the binder.  I did my old binder by ABC type order.  This time I chose to use categories.  I printed the coupon category pages courtesy of Rebecca from Extreme Couponing.

I am not done putting in all of my coupons.  I still have some of the abc letters to get out of my file box and in to the binder.  One problem I have run in to is that some of my sections are full and I have no more pages.   I will continue to put in all that I can however.  I still wanted to share.

I took this before photo showing my abc file box, a stack of coupons to be cut out and my "old" binder.  Also the tab divider pages I rescued from our garage sale items to use for myself.  My old binder pages were much more frugal as I made them myself with old page protectors I had already around the house.   I also used gallon size ziploc bags.  I sewed (by hand) across different ways and cut openings.  Now that I'm thinking about it, probably not all that frugal as I know that I had to buy the ziploc bags.  I've not used my binder for so long that the coupons that were left inside of it expired in 2009.

Here is what I have now.  I can't wait for my first chance to go shopping and carry my notebook with me.  I would like to have a zippered binder, but in pricing them I didn't see anything that I could, or wanted to afford.  I'm hoping to find one cheap at a yard sale before the season is over.  I will be taking the binder in the car with me every time I leave the house because you never know when a bargain will come along that you didn't expect.

I am linking this post up at orgjunkie.com

 

Frugal Friday Link Up 8/26/11

Welcome to Friday and the start of the weekend.
I think it's been a pretty good week. I've been working on my coupon binder all week. It's been a goal of mine to complete since joining in on the 52 Weeks of Organizing challenge with orgjunkie. The binder isn't complete yet. I still have a lot of coupons to get in to it. In fact, so many that I don't think my 60 pages that I bought are going to hold all of them.
I paid $34.45 for the 60 coupon binder pages with shipping. The special deal was that as a bonus I received 22 Sunday supplement coupon inserts from past weeks. The first thing I did was go through those inserts and take out coupons I thought I would use right away. I came up with $31 worth so almost enough to cover my cost in savings. That made me feel better. I didn't end up getting them all used, but since cutting out the coupons from the rest of the inserts I have already used 4 more of the coupons.
I will be doing a post later with photos. I hope you will check it out. I will also link up the later post with next week's frugal linky.

I'm more or less naturally a frugal person. I actually enjoy making due with what we have. Extravagance doesn't make me happy. I like that feeling.

I stopped at a few yard sales this past weekend. I was specifically looking for things I could use in my crafting. I didn't buy anything except at one. I paid $1 for a VHS of the movie Grease. The grandkids love that movie.

I did pick up a t-shirt for myself on clearance at Wal Mart for $1. I also picked up a shirt that will part of a Christmas gift for just $1 too. I wish I would have thought more along the lines of Christmas past the one shirt though as I have several to buy for and some no clue what to get, or make them.

Each week I've been sharing tips out of the 99 Cent Solutions book that I bought. We are still on baking soda!
1. Soothe a canker sore. It's hard to believe how much pain a tiny sore on the inside of your mouth can cause. Soothe the pain away and help heal the sore faster by swishing every other couple of hours with a solution of 1 teaspoon of baking soda stirred until it dissolves into 1 cup of warm water.

2. Soak your way to comfort. In the evening, put your feet into a basin of cool water with baking soda stirred in. Soak for 15 to 20 minutes. This will soother your feet and help cut down on odor during the day, and it will also help dry up athlete's foot. (Boy am I going to make my husband do this!)

3. Soften hard water washes. Add 1/4 cup of baking soda to a hot white wash to boost the strength of your usual detergent and get your whites brighter. (I'm going to give this one a try too.)

4. Ready your AC for the season. Window air units need the filters washed before each season. Brush off any obvious dirt from the filter then lay it in a basin of water with several tablespoons of baking soda mixed in. Swish it in the water to clean then rinse and dry it in the sun before replacing it in the unit.

Frugal Friday Link Up 8/19/11

Good Friday to all.

I must get myself more in to the frugal mode. I'm still pondering and trying to work on the whole simple living concept.

I purchased binder pages for my coupons. Included in the package was a bonus of 22 past Sunday coupon inserts. I was able to pull coupons out of there that I will be using right away to almost cover the cost of the package. I'm heavily in the process of getting my coupon binder put together. It's going to take some time to get all my coupon organized in it, but it's moving along nicely.

Speaking of coupons, I did a few small coupon trips this past week. The post will be in the linky below. I can't wait to get paid some more paypal from other websites so that I can go do more shopping! I have a whole stack of coupons just waiting for Wal Mart.

I'm also linking up a post about one of my granddaughter's birthday gifts that I made. It's better to make home made gifts anyway. These gifts are what I came up with on the fly when it was birthday time and no money to go out and buy gifts. I have 2 more posts to get in on the 2 other girls' gifts. They are the same things, but different.

Here are the tips to share for today from the 99 Cent Solutions book. We are still on baking soda. Who knew that baking soda had so many useful uses?

1. Clean a glass front fireplace. If the glass in front of your fireplace or woodstove is blackened with soot and smoke, it's time for baking soda. Crumple a sheet of newspaper, wet it in water, and dip it in baking soda. Scrub the glass, the black stuff will come right off. Wipe with a damp cloth. You can use the same technique to get soot off the glazed bricks lining the fireplace.

2. Stop a mosquito bite in its tracks. Pour a tablespoon of baking soda in your palm, wet it with a few drops of water to make a paste, then smear it on the bite area. Let it dry and flake off. If you treat the mark this was as soon as you can, there will be no red welt from the bite, and the itching will subside almost instantly. The same treatment works for bee stings, assuming you have carefully removed any sign of the stinger.

3. Control cradle cap. The flaky scalp on infants knows as cradle cap is harmless and will usually go away on its own, but most moms can't stand to look at it on the baby's head without trying to rub it away. Make a paste in your palm of a couple tablespoons baking soda and a teaspoon of water. Rub gently on the affected area, being careful not to get near the eyes, and then wipe off with a damp washcloth, using no soap or baby shampoo. Repeat for 2 or 3 days until the flakiness lessens. (if the baking soda causes the baby's head to become red, the soda may be too abrasive, so try baby oil instead.)(I wish I had known about this. I would have tried it before the baby oil that is so hard to get washed back out of their hair.)

Until next week, I hope to see lots of inspiration linked up for the week. Remember, the linky remains open for the entire week so you don't have to link up just on Friday.