Category Archives: Frugal Advice

A Cool Use for Clearance Valentine’s Day Card Kits for Teachers

Posted by Ney@ShopahoicSavers.com on June 11, 2013 1 comments

I have always seen Valentine’s Day kits on clearance for less than $1 each at Goodwill or Target and I always wondered who would buy those. So when I saw my mother browsing them at Goodwill recently I asked her about it. She told me that the kits only cost .59¢ each and most of them came with a lot of nice pencils (like the one in the picture below) and stickers and other little gifts that were great for teachers (she is a substitute teacher). Especially in the area we live in, the schools have had major budget cuts and teachers have had to be creative with how they buy things for their classes. So for less than $1 teachers could possibly get little gifts or incentives for their students.

My $20 Goodwill Bench Before and After

Posted by Ney@ShopahoicSavers.com on June 8, 2013 None comments

BEFORE

For a couple of months I’ve been thinking about how I would really like to have a bench in the small entrance way in our house. I was surprised to find the above bench for less than $20 at Goodwill despite the fact that it was a little scratched and a small dog had gotten a hold of it’s bottom right leg and chewed it up a little.

I knew that when I was done, will a little help from some of the stain sticks my mother and I have acquired through the years, that you would never be able to tell it had been damaged. What I didn’t know was that my new-to-me bench would actually look like new. I just wish I had taken a picture of the pile of shoes that used to sit where the bench is now so that you could see how much better it looks and you would never guess it’s already full to the brim of shoes.

*Stain Stick Tip*- Grab a small rag and wipe over the spots you have colored in. It helps to blend the stain into the grain of the wood so it looks a lot more natural and has less marker lines.

AFTER

If anyone knows where this bench originally came from please leave me a comment. I would be curious to hear.

Stocking Up On Toilet Paper at Walgreens

Posted by Ney@ShopahoicSavers.com on May 31, 2013 None comments

Why did I buy 6 12 packs of toilet paper at Walgreens today? To take advantage of an even better stock up deal than usual.

Here it is-
Bought 6 12packs of Real Soft Toilet Paper at Walgreens – Regularly $5 each
– Used $1 off Real Soft Toilet Paper from the May Coupon Booklet (this coupon takes of $1 each, $6 total)- Exp 6/1/13
– Used $5 off of $20 Walgreens purchase catalina coupon from a couple of days ago- Exp 5/31
Cost After Coupons- $19 for 6 12packs of Toilet Paper
Saved- $11

So for $19 we are set for toilet paper for at least the next month. Even when it’s not on sale we usually buy Walgreens $5 Real Soft toilet paper because they are thick rolls that last a while and they are cheaper at full price than when buying TP at regular price anywhere else around here.

When they are regular price they are .41 cents per roll which works out to be cheaper than the big box clubs I’ve compared it to. Walgreens often gives out $1 off coupons that makes it .33 cents per roll.

Today we only paid .26 cents per roll which is even better. One thing I hate spending money on is toilet paper because it literally goes down the drain. It’s the only paper product we buy in our house so I always try to get it as cheaply as possible.

Another Reason I Love Publix- Returns Made Easy

Posted by Ney@ShopahoicSavers.com on May 24, 2013 None comments

Publix Supermarkets are generally agreed to be the best supermarket chain in this part of Florida. I get the majority of my coupon deals from there as they are very coupon friendly. They also score high marks from me because they make it really easy to return items, not that I return many. A week ago I had milk go bad 10 days before the expiration date and they willingly exchanged it for me.

I HATE doing returns! Especially at Walgreens where they act like you are trying to rob them (but that’s a post for another day!). However, Publix in my experience generally makes the return process really easy. I recently bought some Oscar Mayer lunch meat and it was HORRIBLE. I tried to force myself to eat it and I couldn’t. I don’t know what was in that package but it didn’t seem like turkey to me. So at around $5 for a package and with our tight grocery budget I decided it had to be returned. So after a couple weeks of putting this off, I finally decided to bring it back to the store. I also had to exchange some shampoo and conditioner that were the wrong type and I decided to do this all at once.

I didn’t have my receipt for the items but they took them all back and refunded the money on a gift card for the full price of the items. I would have told them that I thought the meat was B1G1 free when I bought it if they had asked but they didn’t and they were processing my return as I was running to go get the shampoo and conditioner I was exchanging. The other shampoo and conditioner turned out to be on sale so they gave me the amount extra for the previous shampoo and conditioner as well as full price for each of the B1G1 free lunch meats on the above pictured gift card.

Stores have return policies for a reason, as evidenced by the nice message on the gift card they gave me. There are several other stores (aka Walgreens) that have such bad customer service that I try to avoid them as much as possible. If anything, Publix’s willingness to help with returns only makes me more likely to shop at there in the future.

Divide Up Your Meat Before You Freeze It

Posted by Ney@ShopahoicSavers.com on May 13, 2013 None comments

Something I don’t always remember to do when I get home from the grocery store is dividing up meat into meal sized portions before freezing it. I was glad that I remembered to do this with some Crockpot stew meat I got on sale because it makes life easier. Now the next time I decide to make a crockpot meal I can simply pull out one bag of already portioned meat and I’m ready to go. I don’t even defrost it before it goes into the Crockpot. It also prevents me from using a larger portion of meat than necessary just because it is all frozen together.

Edit- My Aunt told me I should add that you should freeze your meat flat if you can. It saves room in your freezer and it’s easier to defrost.

When I get home from the grocery store I also Double Our Milk.

We Finally Planted Our Garden!

Posted by Ney@ShopahoicSavers.com on May 10, 2013 None comments

I know it doesn’t look like much yet but we are very excited that we have finally planted our garden! We planted a variety of vegetables and flowers in organic soil so here’s hoping something grows! I would love to be able to eat some veggies we grew ourselves, especially since we will know that they won’t have been sprayed with chemicals. I bought all of the pots and planting boxes from Dollar Tree for $1 each, I bought a huge bag of organic potting soil from Big Lots for $8, and the seeds were 4 or 5 packs for $1 on sale. My aunt also gave us a bag of her Marigold seed so I’m really hopping those will grow. I will post an update on the garden soon!

After we finished gardening we rode our bikes around our neighborhood and enjoyed the coolish Florida weather. The we went to the movies to see Iron Man 3. We used a movie gift card I had won at work so our tickets were free. Overall, we had a really frugal, fun day!

How We Turned A Bird Cage Into A Small Pet Cage

Posted by Ney@ShopahoicSavers.com on May 10, 2013 None comments

A few months ago we decided to buy a friend for our pet rat Benny. We wanted to buy a dumbo rat since Benny is a regular albino feeder rat, however, the pet store had two Dumbo rats and I just couldn’t split them up. So we now have three pet rats- Benny, Olive, and Ash.

You can see Olive and Ash in the above picture, with Benny’s cute little pink feet in the corner. What we didn’t anticipate was that Benny and our new ratty babies didn’t get along when they first met. We found ourselves needing another cage from them as they were rapidly outgrowing the small pet playhouse they were living in. Coincidentally, my friend had an old bird cage that she was willing to sell me for $20.

We ended up converting the bottom metal wired floor into a second floor and cutting part of it to form a ladder to the first floor so they could climb up. We fill the pull out tray at the bottom of the cage with bedding and it is really easy to clean up. Another advantage of the bird cage was that it had a door on the side that we propped open so that the ratty babies could travel from their new cage to their old playhouse and back. Now they have a whole Rat Condo and for $25 cheaper than the smallest rodent cage at the pet store.Fortunately, all of our rat babies now get along and they take turns all living together in the different cages.

Replacing My Ghetto Fabulous Car Mirror

Posted by Ney@ShopahoicSavers.com on May 9, 2013 None comments

When my car mirror first broke several months ago I panicked and thought it would need to be replaced right away. My father found a new one for me on eBay for about $30 including shipping. Meanwhile, I taped the mirror back on and it worked just fine. I wasn’t sure just how bad or noticeable it looked that I had a mirror held onto my car by clear tape. As a frugal living blogger, I asked myself, was my vanity worth the $30 to replace the mirror? I should mention that my car was bought off of eBay about 7 years ago for $2,000 and it’s still running. I take good care of my car and plan to drive it until it dies but it didn’t seem worth $30 for a cosmetic fix to replace a mirror that was working just fine with a little bit of tape.

However, it was still winter when the mirror broke and I forgot to take into account how Florida sun destroys things! As soon as the weather warmed up the tape melted and no matter how many times I taped that mirror back on it just wouldn’t stay. I gave up and ended up driving around with the mirror hanging off of my car (like in the above photo) and that I knew looked more than a little ghetto fabulous. It took about a month until I could buy a new one off of eBay, wait for it to be shipped and then figure out how to replace it, all the while thinking I should have just done that in the first place.

This is the mirror when it arrived from eBay.

The screws and plug that held the mirror in place.

Me, with my long nails, holding the socket set and wrench I used to replace the mirror.

The new mirror finally in place.

You can see how much shinier the mirror on the left of the photo is than the mirror on the right.

So in the end, I probably should have replaced the mirror when it first broke, but I had good intentions trying to save money. I am proud because I replaced it myself, with help from B, when neither of us had ever done that before. It cost a friend of mine over $100 to replace the mirror on their car so I know we saved at least $70.

Keep Your Fast Food Coupons In Your Car

Posted by Ney@ShopahoicSavers.com on May 8, 2013 1 comments

Like most people we try not to eat fast food too often. However, there are those days when we are tired or in a hurry that we give in to temptation and go with the easiest option of pulling into a drive through. When I work night shifts by the time I get off most people are already in bed and the last thing I want to do is cook. There also happens to be a Steak n Shake next door to my work. If you know that there is a fast food place that you sometimes stop at, it can be a good idea to leave coupons for their food in your car. I never know when I’m going to end up getting fast food but it doesn’t hurt to throw some money saving coupons in my car’s center console just in case.

April 2013 Grocery and Household Item Budget

Posted by Ney@ShopahoicSavers.com on May 2, 2013 6 comments

Another month has flown by! Although we did go slightly over our budget this month I’m still content with what we spent because this has been a crazy month! See our weekend update for more info on that!

April Totals-

Spent- $211.25

Saved- $116.86 (not including savings from stores such as Aldi and Dollar Tree which are hard to calculate)

Remember- This budget is for two adults and we eat almost all of our meals at home. This also includes all household items such as toilet paper, soap, toothpaste, etc.

We spent a little more this month just because we have been sooo busy that we didn’t have as much time to bargain shop but we did get some great deals on some things that we will be eating in the coming month.

Some of Our Shopping Trips This Month-

4-16-13 Publix Shopping Trip- Spent $19.94 and Saved $51.90

4-8-13 CVS Shopping Trip

See How We Have Been Doing With Our $200 Budget So Far in 2013 With the Links Below-

January Grocery and Household Item Budget

February Grocery and Household Item Budget

March Grocery and Household Item Budget

How did you do with your grocery budget this month?

Check back at the end of May to see how we do next month!