the Renaissance Housewife
  • Home
  • Topics
    • Saving >
      • Kitchen >
        • Food >
          • Recipes
      • Bath & Laundry
      • Medicine Cabinet
      • Office
      • Electricity
      • Gardening
      • Foraging
      • Animals
      • Weekly F. A.'s
      • Printables & Downloads
    • Earning
    • Investing
  • Books
  • About
    • RH Recommends
    • Newsletter & Updates
    • Travel
    • Beta Readers
    • Legal Stuff

Frugal Accomplishments This Week

11/28/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Rosemary topiary attempt.
1. Made a rosemary topiary. I dug up my rosemary plant from the garden and trimmed all of the lower (dead) leaves off. Then I put an orchid stake in the middle of the pot, and used orchid clips (almost identical to mini butterfly hair clips) to attach both stems to the stake. This makes the plant look like a "tree" or topiary. I'm wishing the best for my little rosemary topiary!

2. Mended a shirt for me and patched a pair of pair of pants for Hubs. Both items were free, but needed some repairs before use. The shirt had gaps between each button in the front. I just sewed all of the gaps up. The jeans had several worn spots (whether by use or by the manufacturer, I'm not sure) that needed reinforcing with an iron-on patch. I was happy to finally get the jeans out of my sewing pile. Jeans for Hubs cost at least $20.00 per pair because I have a hard time finding them used. That's a $20.00 savings for less than an hour of my time!

Picture
All of the gaps have been closed in front. Buttons are now purely ornamental!
Picture
All sewed up, from behind.
Picture
Frayed parts reinforced with an iron-on patch behind.
3. Used a coupon and Ibotta rebate to save $14.39 on fabric at Joanns. I am kind of proud at how well I've adapted to couponing. We needed at least six yards of high-dollar suede home decor fabric to reupholster our RV seats. My problem: the fabric was permanently "on sale", which meant I could not use one of those amazing 40% off coupons on it. Miraculously, I was wading through my emails and found an opt-in offer from Joanns with a 20% off entire purchase coupon that included sale items. Then I waited for a week when Ibotta was running a "spend $15 get $5 back" rebate. In the end, my $12.00 per yard fabric ended up being $9.33 per yard.

4. Downloaded the Mobisave and Krazy Coupon Lady apps on my phone.


My Couponing Adventures

On Wednesday morning, I spent three hours comparing and matching up coupons, sales, and rebates to see how much money I could save. I did it as kind of an experiment, to see if it was worth my time on a weekly basis. 

I used five phone apps in my three-hour foray. Ibotta (the best.. you get $10.00 just for joining!), Mobisave, Checkout 51, Krazy Coupon Lady, and Kroger. First I went through and marked all of the items I thought I might be willing to buy, if the price were low enough.

Then, I wrote all the deals from each app (except KCL) on a piece of paper. Beside each item I wrote the size, quantity, and any other details or exceptions to the offer. This took a lot of time. Then I went through and highlighted the offers that matched, and wrote them on a new list. For example, there were two $1.50 rebates for a certain type of deodorant. My listing looked like this:

Dove Advanced Care Deodorant- $3.00 off
White Rain shampoo or conditioner (buy 2)- $0.75 off
Pantene Shampoo/conditioner- $2.00 off

The last step was to ask myself, "Is it worth buying this product?" If the end price was cheaper than I would have normally paid (and I usually buy bent 'n' dent or the really cheap brand), it went on my shopping list.

The deodorant in question cost between $5.00 and $6.00. That means even a $3.00 savings would have left the price higher than I paid the other week for deodorant that I actually like ($2.50). So that got crossed off the list. It was the same story for Pantene products- even with the coupon, they would be more expensive than what I normally buy.

Finally, I hit paydirt with the White Rain products. These were things I could buy at the Dollar Tree (everything's a dollar). I purchased a bottle each of shampoo and conditioner. With a $0.75 rebate, each bottle ended up being $0.63 each; a savings of $0.25-$0.30 per bottle. 

Couponing Payoff:

In the end, I bought 14 items primarily because they were on sale or had enough coupons to justify the purchase. I tried to buy only non-perishable (or freezable) goods this way. Here's what I ended up with:

1 banana for -$0.06 (that's a moneymaker, folks!)
1 loaf of bread for $0.54
Potatoes for $0.22 per pound.
1 15 oz. can of pumpkin for $0.60
2 8 oz. tubs of Cool Whip for $0.73 each
Sugar and flour ($0.50 off a 4 and 5 lb. bag for the cheapest brands)
8 lbs. butter for $2.00 per pound
3 lbs. bacon for $2.26 per pound
2 turkeys @ $0.68 per pound

I bought the bacon, butter and turkeys for the freezer. The banana and whipped topping will probably go in the freezer as well, and other items are for the pantry.

Dollar Tree Run

In addition to grocery shopping, I also made a run to the Dollar Tree, comparing prices and buying what I thought was a good deal, with or without rebates.

Shampoo and conditioner for $0.63 per bottle.
Pasta for $0.69 per pound.
Toothpaste for $0.25 per ounce.
Picture
The hair products and pasta were an obvious good deal. I haven't made my mind up on the toothpaste, though. The sizes I bought at the dollar store were smaller than the one I had at home. Had the DG toothpaste been full size, it would have cost $1.50. There are certain brands of toothpaste that you can buy at Walmart (Aim, for example) that cost $0.89 per tube. Both Hubs and I are a little dubious of the quality, though. Until I've done more research, I'd rather spend a bit more on discount, name brand toothpaste.

Total Savings and Hourly Wage

Here is what I saved (listed by app) during three hours of couponing. This does not count the time I spent shopping.

Ibotta: $6.25 ($5.00 of this was the Joanns rebate)

Kroger: $1.15

Mobisave: $1.05

Total money saved this week by three hours of couponing was $8.50. My hourly wage, then, was $2.83 per hour. If not for the Joanns rebate (because normally I don't buy $15.00 worth of stuff at Joann's), it would have been much, much lower.

After I got done couponing, I figured out a better, faster way to take advantage of deals without spending so much time. 

1. Don't start couponing or rebate searching until the day of shopping. This eliminates rebates that dissappear or coupons that expire.

2. Start with the Krazy Coupon Lady. Search for suitable, practical freebies and moneymakers at Kroger, Walmart, and Dollar Tree. Print any applicable coupons or jump through hoops.

3. Activate rebates/coupons on Kroger, Ibotta, Mobisave, and Checkout 51 apps, in that order. Only choose rebates that you will actually buy- not things that you "might" buy.

4. Make a list of items for each store. 

The above process should take no more than 30 minutes. Some weeks I will not be buying a lot of items, so the savings may only be $0.25- $0.50. I have to remind myself that not buying something at all is better than "saving" by using coupons or rebates to buy something I don't really need. 


Black Friday Deals

Ebates (like Ibotta, you get a $10.00 bonus for redeeming your first rebate!) had a list of 500 stores last week that they were offering double rebate money on. I used the site to buy a wedding gift at Bed, Bath and Beyond, and also a pair of running shoes for myself on Amazon. The running shoes were a Black Friday special at $36.00. I picked out the brand, size and width of my last beloved pair, purchased in 2013 for about $80.00. 

Tennis shoes are something I wear almost every day. To me, it is 100% worth the money to buy a nice, comfortable pair. Last year Hubs was in the market for new shoes, and he was trying to decide if he should spend $20.00 on the cheap pair (like he's always done in the past), or $40.00-$50.00 on the comfortable pair. I practically begged him to buy the comfortable pair instead. He has thanked me many times since then for convincing him to spend the extra money.

I think all penny pinchers have "sacred cows" that they are willing to spend money on, if it means higher quality. I think for most ladies this sacred cow is health food, but I can see more of a difference from the shoes I wear than whether I eat fresh produce or grass-fed meats every day. $40.00 will buy health food for a week or two, but it will save you from sore feet for years.

I think that's all, folks! We had a wonderful time with family and friends over the weekend.

What were some of your frugal accomplishments for last week?
0 Comments

Frugal Accomplishments This Week

8/8/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
This week I have a number of frugal accomplishments to share, as well as some interesting tidbits I discovered.

1. Picked broccoli, green beans, and two carrots from the garden. For some reason I did not have any carrots germinate this year... or so I thought. While I was weeding I pulled up two medium-sized ones.

2. Sold three dozen eggs. 

3. Saved free mealworms. When I was cleaning out the back room, I discovered that mealworms had decided to make a meal of a hide that I started working on last fall. Of course I was absolutely disgusted, but wasn't about to throw out the hide I'd spent so much time on. 

As I moved the hide out onto the porch, I remembered some Youtube videos I watched about mealworm farming. In order to give chickens extra protein, some people actually grow mealworms. Gross, I know, but here I had FREE mealworms at my disposal, and chickens that could eat them. So I swept the mealworms off of the hide and put them into this little home I made for them.

Picture
The farm is just a few handfuls of oatmeal for food, some carrot peelings for moisture/water, and some paper for the worms to hide under. I put it in a dark place in the back room, with holes screwed into the lid for ventilation.

4. Collected rose beetles for my chickens.

5. Froze baked beans. We had been given a 1-gallon bag of baked beans after a family event, so I served some for lunch one day, and froze the rest in 1-quart containers.

6. Line dried one load of laundry.

7. Used a BOGO (buy one get one free/% off) coupon. Later during the week we were in town, early for a church event. Nobody was there, and it was SUPER hot, so we decided to buy a smoothie at the local coffee shop. It just so happened that I had a buy-1-get-1-free coupon for medium or large drinks in my purse. It was cheaper for us to buy medium drinks with a coupon than get two small ones, so we used the coupon.

8. Cleaned out the freezer. Ever since reading the Extreme Cooling guest post last week, I've been trying to use less freezer and fridge space. We aren't planning on downsizing the fridge yet, but I've realized how much food gets wasted because it gets lost in there.

9. Got some new poultry for the hobby farm! We have had a lot of chicken deaths on the farm lately, so I got five new Barred Rock hens from my brother. He has an incubator, so in exchange for fertilized eggs, he gives me some of the chicks. I got three of the five chicks for free this time, and bought two additional chicks from him. They are not really chicks anymore... more like teenage chickens.

I asked him for Barred Rocks because they are good layers, but also have some meat on them if we decide to butcher them in a few years.
Picture
10. Used Ibotta and Checkout 51 rebates to get a free banana and three free carrots.

11. Bought reduced "ripe" bananas for $0.42/lb. I normally don't buy fruit at all (we produce enough here on the property), but bananas and pineapple are exceptions that I buy when they go on sale. Bananas are very sweet, so I can use them to replace sugar in baking or smoothies/ice cream.

After I brought the bananas home, I thought of something. If I was paying by the pound for bananas, how much of my money was paying for the peel??

I weighed a banana with and without the peel, and discovered that 38% of the weight of the banana was peel. This meant that the actual banana fruit cost $0.68/lb. If you are someone who buys fruit based on a price list (comparing different fruits by price per pound), this is a good thing to know. Fruits like strawberries or apples are going to have a lot less waste than bananas, pomegranates or even oranges.

Update on Photo Email Lists- Free Photos Aren't Free

Last week one of my goals was to sign up for a few different email lists (Walmart photo, Shutterfly, Snapfish, etc.). I did sign up for Shutterfly emails, and to my surprise they offered me 50 free prints, a free magnet and free set of address labels! Excited, I uploaded some photos I wanted to print and designed a magnet. I thought I could use the photos to make a photo book to have at my farmers market stand. However, when I saw the shipping charges ($3.99 for the magnet and $3.99 for the photos), I realized that my free photos weren't free. No way was I paying $10.00+ to ship a bunch of stuff I didn't need. 

When I bought the photo book last week, it was something that I actually wanted and was willing to pay for. Hubs really liked it! What I love about photo books is that you design them once, print them and then you are done. No more work. With my "free" photos, I would've had to print the pictures, and THEN find or buy a photo album, rearrange and label all of the photos. That's too much work for something I didn't even want until it was offered to me. 

I think all frugal people should watch out for "deals" like this. I see a lot of ladies (guys too, but they buy different stuff) buying things like home decor, crafting supplies, or other non-essentials just because they are on sale. Because the items aren't needed, they sit in a closet and depreciate until someone sells them at a garage sale. Sometimes I take free stuff if I think I can find a use for it (hoarders will be hoarders!), but I try not to PAY for something I won't use and wasn't looking for in the first place. If I spent $10.00 every week on "free" offers, I'd spend $520.00 per year that could have been spent on something useful and needed.

Goals for Next Week
1. Sign up for another email list.
2. Look for tanning solution in local stores.
3. Continue cleaning out the fridge/freezer.
0 Comments

Frugal Accomplishments This Week

3/21/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
1. Made a centerpiece for our table with lilac and curly willow branches. Maybe next week I'll have some flowers to put in it!

2. Got $2 worth of rebates on Ibotta and Checkout 31. Now that I have a phone, it is a lot easier to use these couponing apps to save money and/or get free stuff. I only unlock "any brand" rebates. If you buy a name-brand product with coupons, often times it is still more expensive than just buying the off-brand. Using coupons with off-brand products will give you a true bargain. Better yet, the "any brand" rebates tend to be for staple foods, not things like candy or ice cream. This week's examples:

- One gallon of milk for $1.04
- One free jalapeno pepper (I'll use this for flavoring meals this week and also grow the seeds)
- One free banana
- One loaf of bread for $0.73
- One pound of pasta for $0.53
Picture
Grand total: $2.30 (missing a banana...)
3. Sold a book on Amazon.

4. Sold five dozen eggs. Production is picking up finally!

5. Started broccoli seeds.
Picture
6. Made murkey with gifted parsnips and a loaf of banana bread out of the freezer. It was excellent!
Picture
7. Started making a new apron.

Goals for Next Week:
1. Transplant chili pepper seeds.
2. Transplant broccoli and/or delphinium seeds.
3. Transplant pumpkin-on-a-stick seeds.
4. Start jalapeno pepper seeds.
5. Work on apron.
6. Darn socks.

Til next time,
​-Bethany
0 Comments

Couponing With Bethany: Episode 2

6/10/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Free all-purpose cleaner, plus half off our weekly container of yogurt.
Couponing With Bethany: Episode 2

We made some small gains in the couponing department this time. I say "we" because it took both Hubs and I to figure out how to use Ibotta.

The Loot
This week we got a free bottle of all-purpose cleaner, and also 20 cents off our weekly 40 cent yogurt that I use for yogurt starter. 

Problem #1: Missing the Deadline
I would have gotten the yogurt for free, but instead of shopping after the farmer's market on Saturday (traffic was HORRIBLE due to festival/parade stuff, plus the truck was making a funny noise), we went shopping on Sunday. Unfortunately by Sunday, Checkout 51 did not have the yogurt rebate still up, and so we only got one rebate from Ibotta.

Problem #2: Bethany Doesn't Have a Smartphone
Me trying to figure out Ibotta = disaster. Hubs had to talk me through it and show me how to work the app on his phone. Some of the Ibotta deals are only available on the phone app. Once we did it, it was pretty easy though. Basically you have to find what you want on the Ibotta (website) app, then scan both the item barcode and the QR code on your receipt. I still thought it was a lot of work for 20 cents. That being said, it will be much easier the next time I use Ibotta.

I like Ibotta and Checkout 51 because they have rebates on "any brand" items that commonly include milk, eggs and produce. These are good healthy things that many people buy anyway. I think the best way to use rebate sites is to do your shopping and THEN see what they have rebates for. Otherwise you'll find yourself saying, "Oh, Ibotta has a rebate for artichokes and Smirnoff this week. We should eat artichokes and Smirnoff!" instead of eating the free asparagus and drinking the free water that you have at home.

Hopster Free Cleaner
I didn't grow up using "all-purpose cleaner" aka colored scented water, but Hubs appreciates it when the house "smells clean" so I decided to get a bottle. This required that I go to Hopster.com and jump through some hoops... make an account on their site, sign up for an email thing and also like the Simple Green page on facebook. Then I was able to print out a $2 coupon to use on a $1.97 bottle, making it almost free (don't forget about taxes, Krazy Coupon Lady!). I believe this deal is still going on, so head over to Hopster if you'd like some nearly free all-purpose cleaner. 

Happy couponing! 
-Bethany
0 Comments

Couponing With Bethany: Episode 1

6/3/2015

2 Comments

 
Picture
Welcome to this first episode of couponing with Bethany. Bethany has never been a coupon cutter/printer, but she's decided to try it at the suggestion of several friends. 

A Disclaimer: There are some drawbacks with couponing in order to save money. 1) You're pushed to buy things you don't need. 2) Most of the time the deals are something like 10% or 20% off (not worth it), and 3) it takes time every week, unlike other "once and you're done" frugal accomplishments. It's not worth it if you are spending an hour surfing, printing, and cutting to save $1 on stuff you shouldn't be buying in the first place.

However, if done right, couponing can be a great way to get non-perishable items (that you would use anyway) for free or extremely cheap. So far I have not been attempting to save any money on things like shampoo, toothpaste, toilet paper, etc., but I've decided to give couponing a try for the next couple months.

An Easy Intro to Couponing
Recently I've been following the Krazy Coupon Lady, who does all the deal-pairing, so all I have to do is print off the coupons, upload receipts and/or "earn" rebates on sites like Ibotta or Checkout 51. This week I didn't need any of the Coupon Lady deals, but we did have some Kroger coupons to use on free stuff, and pop cans to return.

The following items were "purchased" at Kroger's last Sunday. We used a free coupon for the toilet paper and candy bars (these came in the mail), and a $0.40 cents off coupon on the cottage cheese. I was hoping to find a $1 manager's special cottage cheese for an even better deal, but we didn't. Hubs likes cottage cheese, so I bought him one.

The five pineapples were $2 each. These I cored, cut and canned to use throughout the year on meals like Pineapple Salsa Chicken, which Hubs loves. Especially if it comes served with cheese, fresh cilantro, and a tortilla. Each pineapple yielded about a quart of fruit. That means that each pint cost me $1. It's not a great deal (except these were technically free!), but I do like the taste of home-canned pineapple better than store-canned. The fruit tastes fresher and is not so sweet. I was able to can the bits in their own juice. In addition to using the "rings", I also cut any extra fruit off of the outsides and bottom. You can re-grow the pineapple tops, and supposedly you can use the core like charcoal, to grill with. I've never tried the grilling, but have grown the tops into decent houseplants with leaves several feet long. This time I saved some core chunks to try grilling with.
Picture
Canning free pineapple.
Funding for this shopping trip was provided for by the coupons and also a $13.70 bottle deposit. Thus, everything was free and we even got some money back. 

Join us next time for Couponing With Bethany!
2 Comments
    Picture

    Bethany

    Housewife, happy wife, and mama to one. :)

    Picture

    Picture
    The Housewife's Guide to Frugal Food
    How to Eat for $10.00
    ​per Week

    Picture
    The Housewife's Guide to Menu Planning
    A Weekly Menu to Save
    Time & Money
    Picture
    The Housewife's Guide to
    Frugal Fruits and Vegetables

    No Garden? No Problem!

    Watch Meals From the Bunker:

    Picture

    Check out my Youtube Channel!

    RSS Feed


    Picture
    Baby Girl's Birth Story
    Picture
    8 Cheap Ways to Eat Healthy
    Picture

    Categories

    All
    Animals
    Book Reviews
    Books
    Christmas
    Cleaning
    Clothing
    Cooking
    Couponing
    Education
    Ego
    Electricity
    Farmers Market
    Finance
    Foraging
    Frugal
    Frugal Accomplishments
    Frugality
    Garage Sales
    Gardening
    Gifts
    Grocery Budget
    Grocery Shopping
    Herbs
    History
    Hobby Farm
    Home Based Business
    Home-based Business
    Home Decorating
    Housekeeping
    Industry
    Languages
    Laundry
    Marriage
    Meal Planning
    Medicine
    Minimalist
    Network Marketing
    Organization
    Plants
    Product Reviews
    Quotes
    Recipes
    ROI
    Rv
    Sewing
    Simplicity
    Spanish
    Spending Report
    Travel

    Archives

    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    August 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014

    Full Disclosure & Disclaimer

    Picture
    Picture
    I get cash back for many online purchases including wedding gifts and Ebay stuff!

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos used under Creative Commons from dasWebweib, amanessinger, thewritingreader, diakosmein