1. Groceries: We spent a lot on groceries this week. I spent $9.11 on food items early in the week as part of a Walmart pickup (I LOVE Walmart’s grocery pickup program, by the way). These were technically free because I got $10.00 off my first order! You can get $10.00 off too with the link above. The only drawback to grocery pickup is that, to my knowledge, you can't use coupons, plus you can't purchase things by the pound (for example, turkey- all of the turkeys are the same price, regardless of weight). This is because you pay for your order ahead of time. But if you don't use coupons and aren't including meat or bulk produce in your order, seriously. There is no reason not to try Walmart grocery pickup. You park in a special spot by the side of the building, and a friendly lady fills your car with groceries. With a baby, this is perfect for me. Or for anyone who hates going into Walmart but loves their low prices. I checked the clock, and it took five minutes from when I parked to when I pulled out of the parking lot.
Later in the week we went back to Walmart to pick up some things for Thanksgiving ($34.63). I also bought two turkeys ($12.95) to can or freeze and eat later in the year. Total spent on groceries this week was $56.69.
I could have saved some money on Thanksgiving by making things from scratch instead of buying them. We had two meals to contribute to. For my parent’s Thanksgiving, we brought grape “salad” (really just grapes and cool whip) and pies. I made the grape salad ($7.00 or so for ingredients) and we bought the pies at Walmart. For Hubs’ family Thanksgiving, we brought mixed veggies ($5.00 or so) and more grape salad. I also made a flopped pumpkin roll that we ended up eating after all of the celebrations were over.
2. Free food: We got a LOT of free food this week! First off, my Walmart pickup order came with a welcome bag that had some canned stuff and snack items in it (see picture above). In addition to the free food, our welcome bag also had coupons for two free iced coffee drinks. Hubs was really excited about that. Usually he is not so excited about my coupon adventures, but this time he offered to go and hunt down the freebies with the help of a Walmart associate. LOL!
Second, my sister was home for the weekend and she brought us a whole haul of free food! Sis works at a camp and sometimes brings home extra camp food for the rest of us. Some of these treasures included cheese, avocados, dried cranberries and a big bag of pecan halves. It was probably over $40.00 worth of food.
3. Cloth diapers: time for the weekly diaper update! I promise one of these days I am just going to do a massive cloth diaper post with all of the frugal things I tried and a rundown of every dollar I spent.
A) We cloth diapered three days last week. We were not at home Thursday through Sunday, so I used disposables on those days. I am still using disposables at night too because they are a little more absorbent and we have some size 2's that Baby is about to grow out of. The three days that we did cloth diaper went very well. I realized that I needed a bigger wet bag for the dirty diapers.
B) Used a $10.00 Swagbucks gift card to buy a set of large wet bags at 50% off. I spent $10.00 out of pocket for two large wet bags. These are essentially laundry bags for dirty diapers.
C) Bought some hemp diaper inserts at 20% off thanks to Black Friday sales. These will be for overnight diapering when Baby grows out of her size 2 disposables. I wanted the Thirsties brand because they have a lot of good reviews on Amazon. Walmart’s price was $14.00 for a pair of inserts. Amazon was selling a pair for $9.00. Nicki’s Diapers had the best price at $7.00 for two. I knew that shipping would bump the price up a bit, but Nicki’s was offering free shipping on orders of $10.00 or more. So I just order two sets instead of one, bringing my total spent to $14.00. Half the price of Walmart! It will be good to have so many inserts; that way I won’t have to do laundry as often.
4. Line dried 3 loads of laundry.
5. Canned 7 quarts of potatoes (a 10lb. bag). My actual savings from this activity was only $2.00 or $3.00. However, I was able to cut up the potatoes all at once (I did cubes) which will save me time in the future. Next time I want to use potatoes for soup, they will be all cut up, cooked and ready to go. I consider this convenience the main benefit and the savings were a bonus. I’m not sure if I will do this again or not.
6. Bought a gift using an old gift card I had and Ebates. My total cost out of pocket was $5.00.
7. Made a memory shadow box for Baby Girl. I had saved some things from the hospital to use (wrist bands, hat, bassinet card) as well as some pictures we had printed at Walmart. I think the shadow box was $0.50 at a garage sale. Total cost was $1.50 ($1.00 for the pictures). Overall I thought it turned out really well.
8. Lastly, we spent the weekend out of town and got a free hotel room upgrade! The sheets on our hotel bed had not been changed, so Hubs called the front desk and they upgraded us to a Jacuzzi room for free. Yay! And yes, I am one of those people who collects the hotel soap and shampoo and brings it all home. No shame.
Did you do anything frugal last week? Black Friday finds or otherwise?