ShopaholicSavers

Divide Up Your Meat Before You Freeze It

Posted by Ney@ShopahoicSavers.com on May 13, 2013 No comment

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.

5-11-13 Recent Thrift Shop Finds

Posted by Ney@ShopahoicSavers.com on May 11, 2013 No comment

We made a quick trip to our favorite thrift shop this Thursday afternoon (the only afternoon they are open) I was really happy with all of my finds.

I bought-

– A Lucky Brand Shirt .50¢

– A Victoria’s Secret Shirt .50¢

– Desk Organizer $1

– New Package of 2 Potato Peelers .50¢

– In the Package Fast Flats (Shoes that fold up so you can put them in your purse, I love these!) .50¢

– Dress Shoes $3

– 10 gallon fish tank with working lighted lid, two rock food/water dishes and a small wooden house for our hermit crabs $4 (one of those small items alone would be AT LEAST $4 each)

–

We Finally Planted Our Garden!

Posted by Ney@ShopahoicSavers.com on May 10, 2013 No comment

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!

Check Your Mailbox for Another Free Panty Coupon from Victoria’s Secret

Posted by Ney@ShopahoicSavers.com on May 10, 2013 5 comments

Look out for this flyer with another coupon for another pair of Free Underwear from Victoria’s Secret.

Click HERE to see Why I Don’t Pay For Underwear and How I Get Free Underwear at Victoria’s Secret and also to see links to how to join their mailing list.

How We Turned A Bird Cage Into A Small Pet Cage

Posted by Ney@ShopahoicSavers.com on May 10, 2013 No comment

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 No comment

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 comment

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.

Save Money on Toilet Paper at Walgreens in May

Posted by Ney@ShopahoicSavers.com on May 8, 2013 No comment

The only household paper product we buy is toilet paper. That’s right, no paper towels, napkins, paper plates, etc. But we draw the line at Toilet Paper. There are some things we aren’t willing to do to save money and going without toilet paper is one of them. One of the best deals we have found is Real Soft / Sunny Smile Brand Toilet paper at Walgreens that costs $5 for a 12 pack (Aldi has a comparable deal). This month in the Walgreens May coupon booklet you can save an extra dollar with their dollar off coupon. I have included printable link below if you can’t find the booklet that is usually in the front of the store.

Buy one 12 pack of Real Soft / Sunny Smile Walgreen’s Brand Toilet Paper
-$1 off Sunny Smile bathroom tissue 12 roll from the Walgreens May coupon book or printable
Cost After Coupons- $4 for a 12 pack or .33¢ per roll

You can also buy an 8 roll of Paper Towels for $4 but I don’t buy them so I don’t know how good of a deal that is-
-$1 off Sunny Smile paper towels 8 rolls from the Walgreens May coupon book or printable

5-5-13 Shopaholic Savers Weekend Update- Our New Look!

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

Life and Site Update-

This has been a crazy week. In this week alone I’ve…
– worked at my part time job
– worked on my eBay Business
– started really working on my university summer fellowship to conduct a tipping research study
– dealt with home repairs on the house we are renting
– and… finished the renovation of this website!

Our Site Renovation Is Over!!!!!!!!!!
What do you think of our new look?

Kim, who did the work on the site, did an AMAZING job! I’m very happy with it. She was very professional and easy to work with. If you are interested in contacting her for work on your site you can e-mail her at kim@stitchandpixel.com or visit her new site HERE. She also made us the button you see above! Feel free to link to us! The code is in a box on the right of the page.

Frugal Things This Week-

– Doing well with our grocery budget for the end of April
– Finally getting to use part of my Free $100 Publix Gift Card
– Re-listing a lot of old listings from my eBay Business and a few books have already sold
– We didn’t have any wine glasses and I have recently discovered that there are some wines that I like and my sister gave us a really nice set of wine glasses and also some other glasses
– My sister also gave me some nice clothes including a pair of PJ pants that I needed because my old pair were so worn out they ripped
– Starting to get ready for our yard sale and finally picked a date
– My mother gave me some face wash that she didn’t want when I ran out of mine
– We have made a lot of frugal meals at home
– We have been trying to keep our AC set at 77 degrees or above now that the weather is warmer so that *hopefully* our electric bill doesn’t go up too much
– We parked and walked onto the beach instead of paying to drive on the beach
– We did a really great job this week with using up all of our leftover and not having to throw food away
– We borrowed a lawn mower from my mother instead of buying one so B could mow our lawn

Some of My Recent Posts-

5-2-13 Publix Shopping Trip

April 2013 Grocery and Household Item Budget

How to Buy and Dress in Business Clothes for Less

4-20-13 Yard Sale / Thrift Shop / Rummage Sale Finds

4-22-13 Recent Free In The Mail

Saw It On Pinterest and Tried It- Label Your Power Strip for Free

$1 Helium Balloons From Dollar Tree

Some Great Posts I’ve Been Reading Recently On Other Sites-

– The Ultimate List for Earning Money Online: 50+ Resources That Will Turn Your Spare Time into Cold Hard Cash @Single Mom’s Income

– How We Bought A $50K Duplex @Planting Our Pennies

– Should I Pay Off My House Early? – Pros and Cons @MakingSenseofCents

– I Hired a Maid! @EyesOnTheDollar

5-2-13 Publix Shopping Trip

Posted by Ney@ShopahoicSavers.com on May 4, 2013 No comment

Before this shopping trip B and I sat down and planned out what meals we wanted to make for the month. Sometimes we do this on a weekly basis but this is the first time we have attempted a whole month. We aren’t picky eaters and do tend to eat a lot of the same meals each month but we do try to eat healthy. I ended up spending $99 which was most of my Free $100 Publix gift card but we saved $73 and hopefully we won’t need to buy many more groceries this month. This is a new strategy for us because we usually make several smaller grocery shopping trips rather than one big one and probably still buying a few smaller things here and there. We already have stocked up on A LOT of canned veggies and things like sauces from previous shopping trips this year when they hit rock bottom prices which means Rather than bore you with all of the things I bought (it was A LOT) here are some of the best deals from this shopping trip-

B1G1 Free Chi Chi’s Seasoned Ground Beef, 15 oz, at $5.99 ($2.99)

B1G1 Free Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast, at $4.59 lb ($2.29 lb)

B1G1 Free Publix Shredded Cheese, 6-8 oz, $2.50

DiGiorno Pizza, 31.2-33.6 oz, $5
-$1.50 off DiGiorno pizzeria! pizza Printable
-$1.50 off DiGiorno pizzeria! pizza, Publix eCoupon
-$1/2 DiGiorno’s rising crust frozen pizzas, Target coupon Printable
-$1.50 off DiGiorno Pizzeria! pizza, SS 4/21
-$2 off Digiorno Pizzeria Pizza Facebook Printable
-$5/$20 Nestle product purchase, Target coupon Printable
Cost After Coupons-$3

Stouffer’s Family Size Entree, 25-49 oz, $3.99
-$1.50 off Stouffer’s family, large family or party size entree, 25-96 oz, SS 3/10
-$1.50 off Stouffer’s entree, family size Facebook Printable
-$5/$20 Nestle product purchase, Target coupon Printable
Cost After Coupons-$2.49

– Plus the two above deals allowed me to use -$5/$20 Nestle product purchase, Target coupon Printable

2 Publix Salads 2 for $4 and 2 Small Wishbone Dressings $1.79 each
$2 WYB buy a Publix Salad and Wishbone Dressing Publix Coupon On Stand In Front of Store
Cost After Coupons- 2 Free + Wishbone Dressings because I was already buying the salads

Betty Crocker Blueberry Muffin Mix
– $1 off When You Buy Publix Eggs and Betty Crocker Muffin Mix Publix Coupon On Stand In Front of Store
Cost After Coupons- Made the Muffin Mix .29 cents because I was already buying the eggs

Snap Tea $2.50
– Free Mail In Rebate TearPad in Front of Display
Cost After Rebate- Free

Hass Avacados $1 each

B1G1 Free Breakstone’s Sour Cream, 16 oz, at $2.09 ($1.04)

B1G1 Free Mama Francesa Imported Parmesan Cheese, 8 oz, at $3.49 ($1.74)

Technically this shopping trip was entirely FREE thanks to my Free $100 Publix gift card so we-
Spent- $0.00
Saved- $173.21
This will really help our Grocery Budget for this month!