Frugal Fri....... Saturday

I should really get in some sort of a blogging pattern. Frugal Fridays, Thrifty Thursday, but my mind seems to go to savings when I wake up on Saturday mornings. Busy day ahead as I'm going to pick blueberries in an hour or so with a stop for nibbles and wine tastings on our way home. Not a full sister day, but going with two  of the six and a friend. I don't know if picking blueberries will be cost effective, but I plan to make homemade stuffs with them to use as gifts and for general happiness, so that will be where my frugalness comes to play. I had a couple misses this week in the frugal department. Let's get that out of the way. 

Pup needed dog food. I ran over to Target midday as I didn't have time to stop on my way home and he was completely out after a smallish portion in the morning. Target had a buy two get a $5 gift card. Well, a 8 pound bag was $12.99, 16.5 was $21.99. I should have bought two of the 16 pounds, about 6 weeks worth, to spend $44 for 33 pounds, plus the $5 savings. Even if I had bought two pounds, I still would have gotten the $5 card. But, I was parked in our lot, far from where I would have to lug the dog food, so I just bought the one small bag. So instead of paying essentially $1.19 per pound, I paid $1.62. Even if I had done two small bags, the price would have been $1.32. I chose convenience over savings. 

Another miss was Monday and having a meal after a couple college visits at an Indian restaurant. I forget how filling the food is, but we opted for the buffet in the name of trying new dishes. Really, we ate smallish portions of naan, spinach paneer/saag, chicken masala, and vegetable curry with basmati rice, pretty much what we already knew we like. For the price of the buffet, we could have ordered two curries, the spinach dish and naan and brought the leftovers home as neither of us did justice to the buffet. I am not a buffet person normally as I eat more than I would if I just ordered off the menu.

I'm still though keeping my mind to little savings here and there-minding the pennies as they say.

• DD2 needed a couple pair of shoes. At Kohls, the brand names don't count with the discounts, but still earned Kohls cash. She bought new Chuck Taylor's more as fashion but needed new running shoes. They did not have her size in the style and brand she wanted (in the price range I would pay for), but she tried a comparable shoe on to ensure the size. Later, we used the Kohls cash she earned on the Chuck's, $15, and applied to her running shoes ordered online, which were on sale already, scoring them for $44. $84 for both Converse Chuck Taylor high tops and Under Armor running shoes is a steal. 
• Creative lunches and suppers are my mantra and this week I pulled off a few successful "use it up" dishes. My homemade Margarita pizza I wrote about here  was using up old ingredients, but still tasted fresh. A leftover baked potato, cheese, and remnants of deli turkey made an interesting wrap dinner for one. Already cooked hamburger found in the freezer, a free box of elbow macaroni, a can of cream of mushroom soup and the last of the sour cream made a cheap beef stroganoff like dish. 
• Through Fab, Fit, Fun subscription, I was able to order 12 of the sheet facial masks at $2 a piece. These are wonderful for my face and a really inexpensive luxury. We also picked up a few at Kohls and my 30% off worked there, getting five (all they had left in the ones for my and DD2's skin type) for $1.40. The best price I can find these are $2.49 at Target so a good deal of savings. 
• I've been using Icy Hot on my knees. It does wonders, but the cream can be quite expensive. I found a coupon for $1 off and was able to layer with a sale, getting the tube under $5.00. 
• To top off the groceries from last weekend, I just ran into the Kwik Trip for bread, milk, cheese, and bananas. They had a fresh delivery of tomatoes so was able to score a couple big ones for under $2, adding more freshness to the week. I still need to do a good roadside stand haul

We still spent loads of money on the stuff of life, DH ate out for lunch too often, and the VISA came this week with train tickets and the Paris pass purchases. I'll tally up in a few days how we are doing on our trip budget and savings overall, but so far, after the airline ticket fiasco, we're on budget. Sad to think by the time the next VISA comes, all remaining expenses for vacation we choose to put on the card will be there, and the trip will be over. That's when its useful to remember that through minding my pennies, I'm saving for the next adventure.