The Rumley Family

Posts Tagged ‘frugality’

While we were visiting our friends, the Webbers, Laura took a video of me explaining my coupon binder system for organizing all my coupons. She posted it on her blog today, if you want to check it out here!

Let me know what you think!

I have to admit that I was very skeptical while on my to Walgreens last night. I am so used to the sale items being out of stock, and I expected to walk out of the store empty-handed.

Not so!

They were very well stocked, and I was thrilled to get some GREAT deals!

I had 9 of the $2.50/1 Electrasol coupons from this week’s inserts, which I L-O-V-E. That could be my favorite coupon ever. Walgreens has a deal going on this week – Electrasol is on sale for $3.49, and when you buy one, you receive a $1 Register Reward (a manufacturer’s coupon good for $ off your next purchase). So, the very kind cashier did separate transactions for each of my boxes of Electrasol. I paid $1.20 for each box (after coupons and tax), and received a $1 Register Reward. Not bad!

To make that good deal even better, you’ll notice that each box had 25 tabs instead of the usual 20. That means I got 45 “extra” tabs – more than two regular boxes worth! So, I got 11 boxes worth of tabs for $1.80 after sales, coupons, and Register Rewards!

The Bayer blood glucose meters were an even better deal. I did two transactions – a Breeze and a Contour in one transaction, which were free plus tax after “free product” coupons. This earned me $13 in Register Rewards. I would have done the same transaction again, but they only had one Contour meter in the store, so I just bought another Breeze meter (free plus tax after coupon) to earn another $5 Register Reward. HUGE moneymaker!

Then the Glade candles…The 2oz candles are on sale 2/$5, and you earn a $3 Register Reward when you buy two. I also had a $3/2 coupon. So, I paid $2 plus tax out of pocket and earned a $3 Register Reward. (Another moneymaker!)

So, the totals…

Spent $15.80
Earned $30 in Register Rewards
$14.20 moneymaker!

And some people say coupons aren’t worth their time. P’shaw.

{Written 1/7/10}

Total spent – $74.95
Total saved – $123.14
15 FREE Items
Brought home $5 OYNSO

I am a meal planner. If I don’t have a meal menu for the month, dinnertime is crazy. I get to about 5:30pm and think, “What are we going to eat for dinner!?” So, to avoid spending too much money on last-minute food purchases and/or eating cereal for dinner every night, I make a month-long plan. And I love it.

Because I have the month’s meals planned out, I try to make one really large shopping trip at the beginning of each month. And then I visit the store each week just for the stockpilable items. Today’s trip was my beginning-of-the-month trip.

As you can see, we like juice. They were $.69 each after coupons.

And I’ve never bought five packages of bacon at one time before in my life. But they were $1.24 each after sale and coupons. We also like bacon.

And I splurged on eggnog. Because, well, ’tis the season.

Sometimes a little splurging is in order.

Now, I need input from you all. Do you have a certain day each week that you always go shopping? (For example, Mondays or Fridays.) I need to be more organized and disciplined in my shopping, and I think it would help to have a certain designated shopping day each week. What do you think?

As I mentioned before, we take an annual trip to DK Orchards in Conklin, MI. And we love it! It’s a family-run establishment, and they act like it. They’re friendly, and they don’t charge admission (ahem-Klackle), and they have the best prices around here ($4.75/half-bushel this year).

So, this year we picked two bushels, and we will head back to pick maybe one more bushel in the next couple of weeks. So far, we have eaten lots, made only ONE pie filling to freeze, and made LOTS o’ applesauce! I’m going to be prepared when Baby J starts eating fruits!

I’ve made 4 large crockpots and 3 medium crockpots full, and it was SO EASY that I thought I’d share the process with you!

First, “I” rinsed and dried the apples. Actually, our three munchkins wanted to help, so (from right to left) Grace rinsed, Caleb dried, and Ava placed (read: dropped) the apples in a bowl.

Next, I used my handy-dandy peeler-corer-slicer. I could not do apple prep without this thing (at least not without complaining a lot – right, Luke?)! After they were peeled, cored, and sliced, I used a knife to cut through the middle to make half-slices.

Then I threw the prepped apples into the crockpot. When it was full, I added some water (1/2c – 1c).

Then I cooked them on low for a long time. Eight-ish hours? I tested them with a potato masher to make sure they were soft enough.

*I didn’t get a picture of this part, but I discovered this year that if I strain the apples before mashing them, guess what I get? Fresh, hot cider!!! My hubby loves cider, so this was a very happy discovery! Basically I just put my mesh strainer into a bowl and poured the cooked apples in. After the cider was strained out, I proceeded to the next step…

Edit: Just found out Luke doesn’t actually like the “cider” from this process. It might be the variety of apples, or maybe something else, but he thinks it tastes funny. Oh, well, I guess.

If you want chunky sauce, I would recommend just using the masher to squish it up. Since I wanted mine pureed for baby food and to use in recipes, I dumped the apples in my blender and pureed for about 10 seconds.

And we have APPLESAUCE! Yay!

You may have noticed that I did not add any sugar or cinnamon. You can definitely add it, but the sauce is actually quite sweet as it is. We will most likely add cinnamon sometimes when we serve it.

To store the applesauce, I used freezer jam jars and applied labels (made on my computer). I will also freeze some in ice cube trays and then put the applesauce cubes into a gallon-size baggie to store. Then I can pull a couple of cubes out to thaw for Jaden’s meals. (Since we have an ice-maker in our fridge/freezer, I actually only own one ice-cube tray that makes heart-shaped cubes! I hope to pick up some regular trays soon! I’m thinking WalMart or dollar store?)

So, there you have it! A fun, frugal Rumley tradition!

A post about applesauce.

And a post about credit cards.

And a post about the sweetest little girl who turns TWO tomorrow (Thursday, October 8).

Stay tuned!