My own little frugal fest!

Last week I posted about the great deal I got on those cute lil boots - and they were a smokin' deal!  But actually, I've been finding really wonderful deals all over the place.

With prices on just about everything going, up, up, up, I've really been looking through coupons and scouring to find the best deals, and I've had some great success.  I want to keep myself motivated, so I thought I'd sharing some of my finds would keep bargain hunting forefront in my mind.  (Yeah, like I'm not always looking for a bargain!)

Eggs
Last weekend while grocery shopping I found a great deal on eggs.  They had several dozen cartons marked down to just .50 cents each!  The sell-by date was coming up soon, but eggs are still good for 3-4 weeks after their sell-by date, so I decided to stock up a bit; I bought 4 dozen eggs.  In my area, eggs normally run about $1.99 per dozen, so this deal resulted in just over a 74% savings.

Clothing
The same day I purchased my boots, I also purchased some clothing: four pairs of pants and a winter sweater.  The total for all five items came to just $52.32, including tax.  All of the items were between $8.00 and $10.00.  When I was removing the tags, I calculated out what the price would have been if I'd paid full-price (which, of course I'd never do!).  Full price on everything would have been $205.00, so again, I saved right around 74%.

Beauty Products
Okay, I'll admit it - I love ULTA!  I'm a member of their rewards program so each time I buy something, points are credited to my account.  When you have enough points, you can redeem them for a certain amount off your bill.  I'd bought some things in the fall, and a gift over the holidays, so I had some points on my account, but not all that many.  Last week they sent me an email stating that they'd added more points to my account as a 'bonus', but I had to use the points by Saturday.  The points on my account totaled a $9.00 reward for me - yay!  I also found a coupon for $3.50 off any purchase of $10.00 or more and I was able to combine both the $9.00 reward and the $3.50 off coupon.  One of my favorite products is BioSilk.  It's a wonderful moisturizer for both hair and skin, but it's a bit on the pricey side - $14.00 for a medium-sized bottle (It lasts a long time, though. I've had the current bottle for just over a year.)  I am down to the last bit in the bottle I have, so I thought I'd go and pick some up.  While I was there, I also found the mineral make-up I like in the clearance bin.  The company is changing the packaging, so the current lot is clearanced out.  The make-up normally sells for $12.99, but I paid just $6.49 for it.  Without the sale price on the make-up, coupons or points, my purchase would have been $29.42.  Instead, I paid just $8.71 total.  That's a savings of $20.71, or savings of over 70%.

Produce
We have a nearby grocery that has phenomenal weekly deals on produce.  I don't go often, but I'm going to put it on my weekly To-Do list for Wednesdays.  Why Wednesdays?  They have a double-ad special that day.  That means that you get the sale prices for whatever was in the ad last Wednesday, and the sale prices for whatever is in their ad for this Wednesday.  Because Kevin was running some errands close to this grocery yesterday, he stopped and picked up a couple of things I wanted from this store:  bunch spinach - .48 cents per bunch; haas avocados - .48 cents each; red bell peppers - .88 cents each; Texas ruby red grapefruit - .48 cents each; ataulfo mangos - .48 cents each.  Great deals!  Kevin bought 3 bunches of spinach, 6 avocados, 2 red peppers, 4 grapefruit and 4 mangos.  The total bill came to just $11.00.  I can hardly wait to see what's in the ad for this week!

Life is too short to read bad books!

Because I'm able to take public transportation on my weekly journey to jury duty, I have the luxury of being able to read during my commute.  Bliss!

On a recent girl's day, Deb and I visited a local thrift store where I found several books I was interested in, each for the bargain price of just .50.  One of the authors I'd never heard of, but I'd heard good things about the book, so I thought I'd give it a try.  The second book was by an author that I'd read in the past.  Her first book was a bit off kilter, but it was interesting - and compelling - and I did enjoy reading it  so I bought this one as well.

W.R.O.N.G.

I'd bought the book on Saturday, but saved it for my Tuesday commute.  The moment I got on the train, I could hardly wait to pull it out and start reading.  The first few pages were fine.  It seemed conventional enough; nothing extraordinary, but an okay read.  And then...well, let's just say it took a gruesome turn for the worse.  By that time, though, the morning half of my commute was over and I had to put the book away.  I pulled it out again on the way home and thought I'd give it another go.  Yeah, well.... Before I even made it back into town, I stopped reading the book.

Why?

Honestly, it was so disturbing that I don't want to go into detail.  When I got home, I decided to look up some reviews and see if it was just me, or if it was truly just ... bad.  I wasn't surprised to find many, many reviews where readers had the same reaction I'd had.  In fact, among all of the reviews I read, I found only one that had anything good to say about the book.

So ... what to do with it?

I thought about it for a while.  I knew there was no way I would ever finish reading it.  It also isn't a book I would want to keep on the shelf, that's for certain.  It's definitely not a book I would recommend, so I'd never pass it along to anyone else.  And, quite frankly, the material was so disturbing that I would find it difficult to donate it for fear that someone else might actually pick it up and read it.  I was conflicted. I have to say, I don't think I've ever felt this way about a book.

In the end, I felt that the best solution was to dump it in the garbage recycle bin to be picked up by the trash collector the next day.  I'm no book burner, but when you come up against a book this distressing, I think it best to just put it out of the reach of others.

Trust me on this.  You're welcome.

YeeHaw, Y'all

Years ago I had a really nice pair of black cowboy boots.  They were given to me as a gift, and there was a time in my life when I wore them - A LOT.   Time went on and things changed and I changed right along with them, and sooner or later, I stopped wearing the boots.  I kept them; they had a their own little spot in my closet, but I never wore them.

When Kevin and I moved to the Prospect house, I donated them in our move.  They were still in excellent condition and I figured that somewhere along the way, someone else would buy them and love them the way I once had.

Six or eight months ago, I began looking at boots online.  I found several pairs I liked, but there were two things holding me back:  1) every pair of boots fits and feels different, so it's difficult to purchase them online when you aren't sure, and 2) good ones are prohibitively expensive!

Last week jury duty ended early and I thought I'd do a little shoe shopping.  While I didn't find any shoes, I did find a cute pair of cowboy boots for a great price.  YAHOO!!  They are not 'top of the line' by any stretch of the imagination, but they are just fine for what I had in mind.

For the fall/winter season, they had been priced at $80.00; I bought them on clearance last week for just $30.00!  That's a definite bargain in my book!

Kinda cute, huh?