1. Markdowns
One of the biggest perks to doing instore shopping is being able to check the markdown sections at the grocery store. (I have been tempted by the idea of doing a grocery pick up instead of my normal shopping trips lately, but then I think about all of the clearance items I would miss…) This past week I found, some pretty sweet deals at Kroger in their marked down sections: My husband’s favorite brand of yogurt was marked down to $1.89, perfectly good meatballs were marked down in the freezer section to $1.79 (I have no clue why they were marked down because the due date was not until next year??), and my best find was 16 oz cheese blocks for just $2.50 (we eat a lot of cheese!)
2. Kohl’s cash
I lucked out last week at Kohl’s. They apparently were running a promotion of spend $25 and get $5 in Kohl’s cash back. (Usually they only give Kohl’s cash for spending $50+ so I was completely surprised when the cashier gave me $5 in Kohl’s cash at checkout.) Whenever I get a small gift card from Kohl’s in the mail for my birthday or for random promotions they are running, I always use it on towels or pillows because who can’t use a free pillow or towel every now and again?? Also, Kohl’s for some reason lets you use the gift card before taxes, so it is always completely free if you keep the amount to $4.99 or less when using a $5 gift card. This week, the odds were in my favor because pillows were on sale for $4.99 (yay), so I ran to Kohl’s and picked up a free pillow with my Kohl’s cash. Free things make me happy!
3. Costume making
My kids are doing a Charlie Brown Christmas play this year. And since Ben got cast as Snoopy, we had to come up with a costume on our own. After searching online, all the costumes we liked were between $60-$100!! This of course led me to Pinterest where I found some much cheaper options. The one that looked the easiest to make was simply a hooded costume with a Snoopy face added on. Of course there was no pattern, so I had to get a little creative on how to shape the Snoopy face. After a little trial and error (and many fittings), we managed to make a pretty cool Snoopy costume for just $25…which of course is much better than $60-$100:)
4. Home remedies
My son has caught two colds in three weeks (fun times) But luckily we managed to stay out of the doctor’s office by falling back on some tried and true remedies that have worked wonderful for us over the years. (**I am not a doctor, but this works well for my kids whenever they have awful colds. Doctor visits with high deductibles are not cheap, so its good to have an alternative option.) During the day, I pretty much only give them Advil for headaches and sore throats, but at night, until the cough and drainage goes away at least, they take Benadryl and Sudafed. For some reason, that combination gets rid of the pesky nighttime coughing and helps them to avoid other secondary infections. I also rub Thieves oil on their throats and feet before bedtime when they are sick to boost their immune systems. **Since we have started these routines we have not had any bronchitis or sinus infections in our house…so maybe it works??
5. Leftovers
I have been making a concentrated effort to eat any and all leftovers in my fridge before they reach the point of no return. I am happy to say, we finished off the rest of a turkey breast by turning it into buffalo chicken dip (not chicken, but close enough), encouraged my daughter and son to eat a few wrinkly clementines before they were totally ruined, and finished off some slightly out-dated yogurts that were still relatively tasty. So I am happy to say that there has not been any food wasted in my house for almost two weeks. YAY!!
The Thrifty Educator 