Here is my frugal tip for the day

Do you have dirty grill grate or oven racks?

Put them in a big plastic garbage bag
Pour in some animonia and tie bag shut
Walk away and come back in a few hours
All the grease and gunk will rinse off!

I did my grill grate and it is just beautiful now. Next are the oven racks!

I have also read you can do this with your oven. Place some in a disposable pan and let sit. Then just wipe clean. I have not done this yet.

Here is my newest investment!

I have not purchased anything yet. The goal is to save change until I can buy one.

What is this? A drying rack. You can hold 3 loads of wash on this at a time. I found it at:

http://awesome-clothes-drying-racks.com/65fteacldrra1.html

I figure it would take me 2.6 months to pay for it by hanging wash. That is not bad. They do have a smaller size too. Which may make better sense for us. Have not made the choice yet.

I know with energy prices going up! I need to keep finding more ways to save.

Rambles of the day!

Walgreens discounted all the Easter candy to 10 cents! So I bought a ton of solid rabbits for 8 cents (love that discount)! Now these will go in the deep freezer and used in baking. No need for me to buy chocolate chips for a long time. I even got a bag of M&Ms for 8 cents.

This coming week I am going to be cleaning the carpets. I have everything I need so no money spent. I have the cleaner and my mom's machine.

Oh and the book I am reading-- "Not Buying It" by Judith Levine. They gave up buying for a whole year. All they bought was things they needed to live-- food, gas, etc.

Day 1 of the starvation diet

Okay in all reality I started yesterday:

I took the cable to basic only
Cancelled the paper - I only want the Sunday coupons
No netflixs

Today I:
Washed towels and they are hanging outside-- Saves $1.00
Picking up a bottle of anomina and vinegar- Aldis
Meatloaf (Thanks Frugalplushomemaker) out of the freezer for dinner

Going to my cleaning job!

I am going on a starvation Diet!

A money one that is! Now that gas prices have reached 2.99 a gallon here and only going to go up. I feel the need to cut back even more. I don't a car so I don't buy gas but that does not mean it does not effect me. I am paying higher prices at the grocery store and other places.

Today I called and downgraded my cable to basic cable. Which is just antenna service, because we live in a cement building rabbit ears do not work here. I already cancelled the netflix for at least the summer. I can find cheap or free entertainment now in the winter we stay inside.

Now that spring seems to be truly here I have been taking advantage of any nice day and hanging the wash out. Yep even the towels. I am truly ammazed at how much less soap you need than what the bottle says. I do use Downy in a Downy ball. I like the smell and it does get the clothes a little softer. I use a little downy and water. Now I noticed my bottle was about 3/4 full so I added water to fill up the bottle. I still add water in the downy ball. This should make it last even longer. I think I might have enough soap to last the year.

I am watching our food too. Trying to really watch sales and waste here. Today for instant I am making bbq ribs on the grill and I also have potato soup going in the crock pot. The soup will be meals for me for the next few days.

A few of the things I want to do:

Make a huge crockpot full of baked beans. Then freeze in meal portions. My son could eat a large can of these. So this is a huge saver.

Make up more of those "homemade" tv dinners. They sure did work in a pinch last week.

Keep freeezing anything that might go to waste.

Make cheaper meals! Use more beans and rice.

I was lucky enough to get a lot of great things on clearance at Walgreens:
lighter fluid - for the grill
shaving cream
rubber gloves
sponges
shampoo
face wash
All under 1.00 each. Wish my discount it was 85 cents.

So now that we are stocked. I will not need to buy any of these things for a long time. Somy money diet is on and no extra speinding.

Shopping means spending

I had no choice I had to get my son a pair of dress pants. Now the issue was when and where. I am pressed for time. We had a funeral onGood Friday. As I work every day this week till 5 pm. So not a lot of time to shop and be frugal. I should have done this awhile ago but it has to fit in my budget.

Tonight we ran to the Mall - I know of all places. I had to pick up his glasses too. Now the glass place was close. So we have to go back. I also had a purse I bought and returned. I owed my son 20.00 so I did pay him back.

Back to the pants. I hit a major department store. I look at the racks - 40.00 and up. GRRR.... I am not spending that much for pants he uses a few times and then the do not fit. Well then I see the clearance rack and it is my favorite one...yellow dot that says 9.99! I got him a pair of 71.00 pants on clearance for 9.99! I bought them a bit bigger in the waist so they will be longer and last for more than one wearing. He had a white dress shirt that he barely fits in anymore and a nice tie. Once I am back to work full time I need to hit the clearance racks and get him some more shirts and pants.

Clothes are freakin expensive and I was so glad I have clothes for me. So I ended up spending 10.00 on new clothes for the funeral. Hopefully we will not have any more to go to this year. Last year we had 3.

Busy Week! and keeping track better

Okay I am on Day 4 of 10 straight at Walgreens. Funny only started a week ago and here I am already picking up an extra shift when someone called in sick. Hey more money in my pocket.

I did not get the job I was interviewing for. So this week I need to do double time on my job searching. Also the woman I interviewed with is passing my resume to another director in the company. I can't wait though so I have to open all the doors.

I am keeping a jouranl of daily notes of things I do to save money. Just so I can cover all my bases and make sure I am not missing anything important.

Yesterday was grocery shopping for the month I hope. I will have to get milk and fruit. I can get milk 1.10 cheaper than the grocery store. That is without a discount too. My bill yesterday was about 94.00 after I had 44.00 in coupons. I will be using up everything I can! I need to get better with that. Also going to be doing a lot of cheaper meals.

I won't be able to save quarters from drying but I am keeping track. Since I want to give that savings to my son for school clothes.

Also going to be cancelling cable and netflix until money is better here. Hopefully not for all of baseball season. Since that is the only way we can get games on TV here. Which I think SUCKS! We can not even watch the local team without cable. The movies can wait till Winter. We do not go to the theater since that is WAY to costly. I can't go for cheaper than 11.00 for 2 of us.

I hope to be able to say more of my frugal ways this week but I am working all week and job hunting.

Great savings idea my bank started!

Welcome to the Check Card Grocery Rewards Program Each time you shop at any participating grocery stores and pay with your Visa® Check Card as a signature transaction, we’ll reward you with 1% cash back, up to $200 per year! You can either take the money or let your rewards accumulate — we’ll pay you an additional 10% bonus reward on the cash rewards you’ve earned that year.

That adds up to incredible rewards without you putting in one penny! Introductory 10% cash back on first $250 in groceries!To get you started with the Grocery Rewards Check Card program, we’ll give you 10% cash back on the first $250 purchased with your Check Card. That’s an automatic reward of $25 just for giving the program a try.

All you have to do is use your Check Card as a signature transaction at one of our grocery partners and we’ll take care of the rest. You’ll receive quarterly statements detailing your rewards balance. No Annual Fee on Check CardUnlike other banks that charge annual fees for their rewards cards, our grocery Rewards Check Card has no annual fee or any other strings attached. Just the simplicity of earning cash with every grocery bag you fill.

Track and redeem your rewardsA quarterly statement will be mailed to you, detailing all of your rewards and activities. You may redeem cash rewards earned in amounts of $10 or more. Rewards are redeemed by transferring the funds into the checking account associated with the Check Card. To redeem your rewards, login above and enter the amount you would like to redeem from the activity screen.

April Walgreens rebate - How I did this month?

Yesterday I went and used my discount(15%) for the April rebate and some sale stuff:

I only buy stuff we will personally use.


Ready:
Lysol wipes - paid 98 cents for 2 containers - had 2.00 off coupon on 2
Rimmel make - up - free after rebate and had coupon 1.00 off (had free bronzer attached)
Colgate toothpaste - sale 2/$3.00 (paid 54 cents for both - had 2.00 off coupon)
Color breaks - FAR and had 2.00 coupon
Lipstick - FAR
coke - 20 oz bottles - Use for trade show work 1.10 for one and 1.02 for the other
Listerene breath spray - 1.54 after coupon
Back oitment - 3.82rolaids - FAR
Nice and Easy - FAR had 1.00 off coupon
more back cream - FAR
GUM toothbrush - FAR and 1.00 off coupon (and it was a special pack got an extra brush free)
2 liter of Mountain Dew (bought 2 at 64 cents each)

Total after coupons: 45.10
After I get the rebate back.
Now that I thought of it. They will pay me 3.00 and some change since I will get the gift card with 10% added.
Broke down savings:
15% discount - 9.47
coupons - 11.00
Walgreens advertise savings: 8.98
NOT BAD!

I made it through the worse!

Okay I made it through the worst of the work schedule. The show is over and now I have two more days before a day off. I am tired but can not express how nice it is to know that I have money coming in.

Today I need to go to my cleaning job and Walgreens. I am not giving up the cleaning job till I have a full time job. Esp. since I can pick my day and it is tax free cash. The work is not hard either.

My plan is if I get the full time job I interview for tomorrow is to take all of my Walgreens checks and put them on the medical bills and to my mom. Till they are paid off. I figure I should clear at least 300.00 a month. Depending on what I make at the new job. I should be able to get enough out to clean those up by the end of the year. The plan is to live off what I was with unemployent and cleaning and get bills and savings up with the rest.

I am right at that point where I can taste the change coming and it just can't get here fast enough. So I am feeling the excitment knowing I can make big strides as soon as a few things change in my favor.

This is my last month getting the full benefits from Food Stamps. I will be using all of it to do some great stocking up on meats and baking items. I am going to have us eat as cheap as possible so I can get that freezer as full as can be. It may take a month or two for me to be totally on my feet and on the new budget. So I don't want to have to worry about groceries.