Thrifty Thursday and Not

     

     Everyone's talking money these days- blog, vlogs, radio, television, and over the fence. Yes, money needs to be stretched a bit more now, and probably ongoing. Prices rarely come down once they've gone up. Incomes, at least my family's, is flat. I look for savings, but also allow planned spending too. We weren't spendthrifts but we did tip into our entertainment budget beyond streaming services by going out to see the new Batman movie. My son had highly recommended we see it in a theater. I worried DH would fall asleep as it was a long movie, but  he made it through. 

     

     I also supported a local small home cottage business and bought home made egg rolls. At $20 for 12, certainly not inexpensive compared to frozen store bought, but they were a bit larger, and the quality was so good. Cabbage, peppers,  and carrots looked like cabbage, peppers, and carrots inside! I feel I'm good at leveraging value and price, which are not the same. While a dozen frozen would be $9 from Aldi, these have triple the wow factor. I'll support her next go around as she said she may do this every month, but not back to back weekends like she's doing this month. Quite frankly, I think she could raise her prices by at least 20% and I doubt she'd see a decline in sales. Not thrifty aside, here's a few places I had wins or shared wins. Hopefully they tweak an idea of your own to save you some money or avoid waste.

• My daughter offered to bring a desert for Easter and was going to get an apple pie at Sam's. When I was in Walmart, there was both apple and a blueberry pie, still with Saturday date, both vegan. I called her quick. While both smaller than Sam's, both together will serve more people, plus with variety and together cost less than single pie. I bought and stopped by her house to put in her freezer and she'll just pull out Easter morning. Yes, you all can tell me that baking from scratch is cheaper, and you'll not get an argument. But this works for her.
• I used all my celery up, but daughter had bought a bunch, more than she could use so we shared hers. Finding buddies to share bigger sizes saves both of you money and avoids waste.
• On this same vein, I filled a repurposed jar with Basmati rice from my large bag for her.
• Eggs were priced very low, not just in today's inflated grocery cost, so I bought another 18 for $2.29 even though we still had close to a full carton. I meal planned with these in mind and hard boiled some for lunches.
• Meal planned to use up opened jars and boxes and fresh food. DH actually gave me feedback that he's really liked the meals lately. Maybe he's just trying to get on my good side, but at least he acknowledged my efforts.
• The nice weather Saturday meant I could wash and line dry some blankets. It's still chilly in the evenings and we like our blanket stash. So does pup so they start to smell like him! 
• We seem to have apple issues. One of us will buy, we eat several, then a few remain, and end up at bottom of the crisper or pushed back in the refrigerator. I've had an accumulation of past eating prime apples but no interest in baking right now. I peeled, sliced, and froze them all for a future pie or crisp and a few portions for muffins for when the urge to bake does hit. 
• Free entertainment was Death on the Nile in HBO Max. No it was not true to Agatha Christie's book. Yes, Kenneth Branaugh likes to give himself vehicles to overact. I still enjoyed it, contrary to all the bitching I read about it. That's my review.
• I hit a $10 MS Rewards marker this week. I put towards Target gift cards.
• Uploaded receipts to  Fetch. You're welcome to use my code if you're not already doing this. https://fetchrewards.onelink.me/vvv3/referraltext?code=DXREDD

     How did you fare this week? Any tips or tricks you'd like to share this week? Any wins?