My Frugal Year

Costco is a great deal. I enjoy shopping there. The store is always nice and clean and the stuff is quality. The deals are really good too, compared with the grocery store on a lot of items. I got my handy little Costco coupon booklet in the mail last week, so that helped even more! Now not every price there is better than in the grocery store so you have to do your comparisons.

Some things are hands down a better deal. Garbage bags, for instance. I used to get the Hefty 33gal at the grocery store. Right now for 33 bags of the 33gal. size, it’s running anywhere from $11.99 – $12.99 at the grocery store. I just got the Kirkland brand 33gal size – 90 bags for $11.99. That’s a great deal. Almost three times as many bags for the same price. And seriously – how long will it take me to go through 90 bags that size? A long time, I’d guess.

I was still driving the little Mazda today. Man, that thing is cheap to run. I put $10 of gas in it and it’s almost full. Won’t have to fill it up again for a while.

So…today’s totals:

Spent:
$10 on gas
$141.14 at Costco
Saved today:
Costco coupons $18
Transferred to savings $18
Year to date savings $89.29
and that doesn’t even count what I save shopping for certain things at Costco over the grocery store. This is going well!

Another no spending day. Just work and taking my daughter to the orthodontist. I did find some cool savings stuff online that I want to share though.

$120 in coupon savings from Proctor & Gamble

Save $1.50 on Coffee-Mate

$10 in coupons from EatBetterAmerica

Save Money – Print Grocery Coupons Anytime

Save on cable:

Get 50 Free Digital Camera Prints and only 9 cents per print at Snapfish by HP!

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Happy savings to you!

Being stuck at home will certainly put a damper on spending! My husband had to take the good car today. The “other” car…bless it’s little engine…doesn’t do snow. Seriously. I love my Subaru Forester. That thing gets through anything. The other car is a 1988 Mazda 323 that’s been hit by a garbage truck. It’s not pretty. But my goodness, it’s frugal. Hardly costs anything to run and insure. It’s just these pesky days when he needs the Subaru and it’s snowing, I’m stuck. Luckily I was able to do some work remotely and I have a very understanding boss.

So there’s a frugal topic for you – cars. They can be money-sucking beasts or they can be useful tools that can be used in a frugal manner. I suppose we could replace the old Mazda…but why? It runs. It gets us from point A to point B. It has great gas mileage and doesn’t need premium fuel. Our self-esteem isn’t wrapped up in how cool our vehicles look. Nope, we’re in no hurry to replace it. It’s a rare occurrence that it creates a transportation problem like it did today. 99% of the time, I could drop my husband off at work or the Light Rail station and go on my merry way. So it didn’t turn out to be a big deal. And I couldn’t do anything about the urge to shop.

I guess that’s a good day all around!

Snowy Day in Colorado

And here’s a happy freebie for ya! Get a coupon booklet with $27 in savings for cleaning products!