A Tiny Frugal Tip# 5 - Play The Games

There are so many stores out there and ALL of them want your money!  There are all kinds of gimmicks that they use to achieve their goal to get you into their store and to spend your money there.  But you have to be smarter than they are!

One of my best frugal tips is to decide on a select few stores, learn their "deal games" and then play the games well.  Just focus on a few.  For me, I have chosen CVS, Dollar General, and Food Lion, as far as brick and mortar stores.  These three stores are convenient for me.  I also love Amazon Subscribe and Save.

I know their prices.  I know how to play their games.  I have their MVP card, Extra Care card, and and have signed up for their digital coupons.  When I go to CVS, if it isn't on sale, or I don't have a coupon, I don't buy it!  At Dollar General, I know what is a good price and I leave the other stuff there.  

A price book is a great tool to help you play the games well.  I like to bring the price of an item down so low, using a combination of sale prices and coupons, that there's no doubt that the price is the best I can find.

My "old lady" brain can't keep up with too many stores at one time.  Sure, there are some great deals at Rite Aid, Walgreens, and Walmart.  I'll visit these stores from time to time, but they just aren't my "deal stores".

There's only such much time to spend on getting the best deal.

So that's my tiny frugal tip for today.  Play the Games ...... and play them well!

A Tiny Frugal Tip #4 - Misfit Cleaners

Welcome to my Tiny Frugal Tip Series!
 
My last tip was about saving money on clothes by loving the clothes you already own. Today's tip is about saving money by USING the cleaning supplies you already have on hand.  Are you like me in that you have some cleaning supplies you thought were going to work, or you bought them because you had a coupon,  and then you never really liked them?


This the basket that holds my misfit cleaning supplies! 

I've tried to use them, really I have!  I almost threw them away just a few days ago.  Then I decided that there must be some way to make use of them and save money.


Here are the ideas I came up with:


1.  Organize the cleaning supplies by category.  Begin by wiping off the containers and combining any that are the same.  Use the ones with the smallest amount left in the containers first.  It helps with decluttering if you can throw away some empty ones.  This creates a sort of "snowball" effect in getting rid of the cleaners.  Kind of like when someone is trying to pay off debt!


2.  Make a list of what you have on hand and areas of the home in which you plan to use them.  If you have some kind of household binder, that would be a great place for the list.  


3.  Brainstorm ways you could use the cleaners.  There are multiple uses for many of them.  Could you use one of them for washing the outside of the car or cleaning the inside of the car?  Can you use one of them for cleaning outdoor items, like lounge chairs or flower pots?   Would any of them work for spot cleaning laundry?  If you use your imagination, you might just end up really loving a misfit cleaner!


One way I am using some of the cleaners comes from an idea I got from Flylady.  I put a little cleaner in the toilet brush container, along with a little water.  Then when I swish the brush around in the toilet, the cleaner is already on there.  This works great for the light daily swishing that often needs to be done.

Search on line to find ways to use certain products.  Also on the back label of the product, there is usually a list of uses that you haven't even considered.


4.  If you have a cleaner that doesn't work as well as you want it to, save it to use on an area that isn't as dirty.  Save your heavier duty cleaners for the extra tough cleaning jobs.


5.  Could you donate the items?  Do you have a family member or friend, who could really use some of the cleaners?  Different people like different things.  Even if you hate a cleaner, someone might be glad to save a little money by not having to buy some cleaners.  There might even be a need at a homeless shelter, or animal shelter.


6.  Promise yourself that you won't buy any more cleaners until the ones you have are used up!  You can probably accomplish this by getting creative and making some of your own cleaners. to supplement them.  Vinegar is a great base for making homemade cleaners.  You might be able to create a new cleaner using what you have by adding vinegar, baking soda, etc. to it.  Just don't cause any explosions!


7.  If you are like me, you have certain cleaners that you use all the time.  Make a list of those and only buy those in the future.  Even if a cleaner is on sale and you have a coupon, its a waste of money if it doesn't work for you.

This is the shelf in my laundry room.  The basket on the left contains my misfit cleaners.  The one on the right contains the cleaners I use regularly.  My plan is to empty the one on the left and simplify all my cleaners so that there are only a few basics up there, eventually.

Lets give our misfit cleaners some love and put them to use.  Stay out of the cleaning supply aisle until you have used them!

A Tiny Frugal Tip #3

Good Tuesday morning to you and welcome to my Tiny Frugal Tip Series!

This frugal tip is about small batch freezing and meal starter freezing.   This saves money because you cut down on waste and also it can help cut down on eating out and extra trips to the grocery store when you need a meal and its getting late.

One of the easiest things to freeze is rice.  I love to be able to pull a bag of rice out of the freezer both for meals at home or for my lunch to take to work.  You can use any kind of rice, but its especially handy for brown rice, since it takes longer to cook.  When you have a little time, you can cook up a large pot of brown rice and freeze a few bags.

This is a recent bag of rice I took out of the freezer for a side dish for supper.

It heats up well in the microwave.

Bell pepper is a good thing to freeze.  If you buy them from the grocery store or grow your own, you know they won't last too long in the fridge.  I go ahead and cut them up, spread them out on a cookie sheet to flash freeze and then put them in a freezer bag.  When you need some bell pepper for a recipe, its easy to just pour out what you need.  If I do this, it really cuts down on the waste of finding a mushy bell pepper in the fridge!

I use a lot of tomato paste, but even the small 6 ounce can is too much for most of my recipes.  So, when I open a can I use what I need for the recipe I am cooking, and freeze the rest.  These blobs of tomato paste are from a 12 ounce can.  I let them freeze for an hour or so on this plate and then after they got firm, I transferred them to a freezer bag.  The next time I make a pot of soup or chili I can just add one of the blobs to it directly from the freezer.

Frozen Tomato Paste Blobs!



We didn't have a very good tomato harvest this year, but I froze a few bags, one bag at a time.  It was no big deal to put a few in a pot to simmer while I was doing something else.  I think I ended up with 5 bags.  This kept the few tomatoes we had from going to waste, since they tend to ripen faster than we can eat them.

Another great meal starter I love to have on hand is browned hamburger.  After I get the meat home from the grocery store, I like to go ahead and brown some of it and freeze it.  Just last night I had no idea what we were going to eat for supper.  Then I remembered a bag of frozen browned hamburger in our freezer!  Chili!  It was so easy using the frozen meat and a frozen tomato paste blob along with some canned tomatoes and beans.  I love to put sour cream and some shredded cheese on top of mine.

Vegetable Soup is good to make from frozen browned hamburger.

 

I need to share my quick week night chili recipe, but no time! Gotta get ready for work!

I also want to tell you about another blog I have started called, "Homemaking Dreams Deals". I hope to share deals that I come across and also I feel it is a more appropriate place to blog about Swagbucks. I hope you'll check it out and become a regular reader. Thanks!

A Tiny Frugal Tip #2

Welcome to another Tiny Frugal Tip... but this post might be a little longer than the definition of tiny would imply!

Lets save money (and time!)  by falling in love with the clothes we already own!  After all, we thought they were pretty when we first bought them. There are lots of ways to do this.

One way is to choose one top, bottom, or dress and come up with at least three outfits using it.  Each of the three styles can be made using a scarf, jewelry, different pants, shoes or a skirt.  I love to use Pinterest for this!  Just put in a brief description of the article of clothing in the search box and lots of outfits will come up.  For instance, if I have a gray top, I will enter "gray top outfits".  There's no doubt that you will have some other clothing items that you can combine with the gray top to recreate some of the Pinterest outfits.
 

I like to create an outfit and then hang the entire outfit on a hanger. Its easy to choose an outfit when all you have to do is reach out grab the total package.  I have a hook over the outside of my closet door where I hang the outfit I plan to wear the next day.  I also like to go ahead and choose an outfit for the next day when I am changing after work.   Its part of my after work routine.  AND I won't let myself change my mind!  That defeats the whole purpose when I end up trying on several more combinations and then I end up rushing around, running late.  It also helps to choose your jewelry and shoes.

If there's no way you are going to fall in love with an article of clothing again, get rid of it.  I like to keep a box that I add my unloved clothes to until its full and then drop it off at a charity thrift shop near my office.

A real money saver is to go through your clothes and get them organized.  The best method of organization for me is to arrange the tops by color and category. For example, all the black tops go together, black sweaters or blazers go together.  Black pants go together.  Black skirts and dresses go together.  This makes choosing outfits much easier and you also have a better idea of what you actually have.  If you know you have several black tops and are shopping, you won't make the mistake of adding another one to the pile!

We need to know what looks good on our body and also what feels comfortable and we love.  I have a pear shaped body and some "older lady" midsection fluffiness.  I can't stand to wear anything that clings to my stomach or that's too tight on my hips.  I have some pants that I feel showcase my hips too much, but otherwise fit well and I like them.  So those pants require a longer top that covers me up a little.  I can't tell you how many times I've tried on several things when I was already running late, just trying to make a certain pair of pants work.  Now, once I figure out what works for a certain pair of pants, I hang the total outfit together on a hanger and avoid that situation in the future.

One thing that really helps me to love the clothes I already own is to lose weight!  Just a few pounds and my clothes fit so much better and I love my clothes.  Another thing is to wear the right under garments!  I have found some that allow my pants to fit smoothly, are comfortable and that also hold in that midsection a little.   When I lose a little weight and wear the right underwear, I feel so much better in my clothes.  I don't feel as motivated to keep going shopping in order to find things that fit and are comfortable.

Another idea that I have played around with in my mind is to come up with a uniform of sorts for work.  I would love to never have to figure out what to wear again by wearing a simple uniform.  For me, this could consist of a pair of black pants that fit me like a dream, along with a flowing, pretty, different top for each day.  The tops would be the same style, just a different color. With 5 pairs of pants and 5 tops, I would be good to go!

Summer time is the easiest time of year for getting dressed.  Everyone dresses more casual at my office.  I have several inexpensive pairs of shoes in several colors.  After getting dressed in my pre-selected outfit, I simply slip on the pair that match the best.

So that's my tiny tip for saving money on clothes.  Love what you have!  If you feel great in your outfits, look good, and cut out the stress of getting dressed, you will better be able to avoid the temptation of going shopping for more clothes!

A Tiny Frugal Tip #1

Welcome to a new series of posts that I plan to do, called "A Tiny Frugal Tip". They'll be short and sweet, but hopefully you can glean some information to save a few dollars!

Here's a tiny tip that's also frugal.  Put your body wash in an empty liquid soap dispenser and add a little water to it.    It lasts longer and its easier to use.  With coupons and/or sales you can buy body wash pretty inexpensively.

I was experiencing some dry skin on my legs and after I started shaving with the lathered up body wash,  my legs are smooth and soft.  I like it better than shaving cream or regular soap.

Its easy to pump the body wash onto your washcloth or directly onto your legs.

Its hard to get that last little bit of the body wash out of the original bottle, so I add a little water to it and shake it.  Then its easy to get every drop out.

I like the convenience of having pumps in the bath tub, so I am thinking of transferring my shampoo and conditioner to an empty pump bottle as well.  Adding a little water to shampoo and conditioner is a good idea I think, because you are going to lather it up with water on your head anyway.

Just a tiny tip to finish off the week!

Happy Friday!