Weekly Wrap Up

I'm going to try to participate in Jennifer's Weekly Wrap Up. Here are some of the ways our family has been frugal this week:




We stayed home alot more. The weather has been yucky. Morgan's games and practices have been cancelled so we're saving on gas, admission, and food $.

When I did fill the car up with gas, I went to Kroger. I earned 20 cents off a gallon for buying groceries there (which I do anyway). Your gas points are your before coupons dollar amount.

My CVS trip from last week. I got about $125.00 worth of stuff (which we actually use) for $3.70 and got $28.00 ecb back.



I hung all our laundry on racks in the house. Estimated savings $15 - $30/mo.



I made chicken broth by adding water and leaving chicken in the crockpot. I freeze the broth and use it later for chicken soup or chicken rice. I will also be putting a beef roast in the crockpot and making/freezing beef broth before I cook the roast for tomorrow's dinner. Menu planning is definately money saving!



I make my own floor cleaner. I fill up an old dish soap bottle, add about 1/4 c. vinegar and fill the rest with water. Then I use my Libman (it's like a swiffer, but with washable pads). I mop every room in our house daily because of allergies, but rarely get on my hands and knees to do it anymore.



Our girls had to have a guinea pig several years ago. Their interest in this pet is about gone. We have tried to find a good home for him, but no one seems to want the expense and burden of taking care of him. If you use the cedar bedding and buy the food in the store, it costs a minimum of $10/month. We use newspaper or catalog pages in the bottom of the cage and he is eating almost exclusively veggie scraps (with some grain).



I used newspaper to clean my windows, instead of paper towels. We are down to our last two rolls of paper towels (after about a years supply - thanks to CVS). I am determined to make these last.



I found a cheap acne help for my teenage daughter. She has been having bouts of facial acne. We have tried about everything (again, thanks to CVS & Rite Aid), but nothing really seemed to help. We even tried Pro-Active. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to help, and I know it didn't help my budget - at $40/month for home delivery. Anyway, she uses baking soda. Just apply it all over face, let it set awhile, and wash off. Now, I will tell you after you wash it off, it will burn your face for awhile. She tried this the other night and we could see visible differences after the first time.



I ordered my digital prints. Now how can this be $ saving? I ordered through snapfish. Used a free shipping code and got 50 prints for $1.80. Then I bought these through memolink (earn points for buying - get gift cards)and put on my card (which I also earn points on, then pay off).

We ate breakfast for dinner one evening this week. Fried potatoes and eggs with biscuits. This was $ saving because we get our eggs from our chickens (which we have to feed, anyway - they also eat alot of kitchen scraps). And potatoes were on sale last week at Krogers. I cooked them in organic bacon grease leftover from our traditional Saturday - bacon day.

Lastly, my Meijers trip. Now one of my resolutions this year was to avoid shopping as much, but my family made an exception and allowed this trip. Here's what I got:

• 16 cans of grands biscuits
• 8 boxes pizza rolls
• 8 boxes green giant frozen veggies
• 3 cans chef boy-r-dee ravioli
• 7 boxes betty crocker specialty potatoes
• 1 box hamburger helper
• 1 bag of chex mix
• 4 bars of Johnson's buddies soap

Grand total. Drum roll please! Meijers paid me 20 cents to take these items - and I got another $3/3 Johnson's products.

All in all it was a pretty frugal week! How did you do?