Frugal Lessons: Don't buy what you don't need

On Saturday I went to Stop and Shop. Now, that in itself was a mistake, because shopping on the weekends is pretty much hell, but what can you do.  Anyway, the best deals I saw in the flyer were for lean cuisine (half price), Prince Pasta (I have so much pasta already), Thomas' English Muffins (I'm all set on breakfast food for months), etc.  Basically, instead of shopping we grabbed the few things we needed: Ground Beef, Pork Chops, Paper Napkins, Eggs, and Coconut Milk.  Now, the meat was on sale, so it was as good a deal as you can get at Stop and Shop, but we could have gotten a better deal on Napkins and Coconut Milk.  On the other hand, we didn't notice we were out of napkins until we were out, so we really needed them, and we use coconut milk so infrequently that buying it when we don't explicitly need it isn't the best idea.  I think the only thing we got that wasn't on our list was Cambell's tomato soup, but it was on sale and we had thought about buying it anyway.

I could have gotten more free pasta-roni, but I haven't eaten all the rest of the pasta-roni I got for free.  I could have gotten some relatively cheap pasta but I still have a ton from when it went on sale at Shaws.  I could have grabbed some English Muffins, which I love, but If I don't drastically reduce the number of cereal boxes in the top of our coat closet my roommate might kill me.  Sometimes the best thing to do is not to buy it, even if its a great deal.


What really good deals have you resisted lately?
~Katharine


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Another Frugal Failure

Having spent the last 2 weeks at my parents house, I cam back to my apartment on Saturday afternoon.  Having no wish to immediately go shopping, I missed my chance to go to Haymarket (the farmer's market in Boston) this week.  Instead I just got back from a run to Stop and Shop, where I had to go to buy produce this week.

Item                          S&S      Haymarket
Romaine Lettuce       $1.79     $1.00
1lb Strawberries        $2.88     $1.00
1 Sweet Onion          $1.08     $0.20 (maybe)
Bananas                    $1.50     $1.00
-----------------------------------------
Total                         $7.25     $3.20

Now, a difference of $4.05 may not be large amount, but the cost of my produce is more than double at Stop and Shop! Next week maybe I'll get off my lazy bum and go to Haymarket...

See you later!
Katharine

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Frugal Lessons: Grocery Shopping

I went to the store last night, because I had about 2000 coupons which were going to expire...  And I learned a hard lesson: restraint.  It was difficult for me to stick to the on sale and have a coupon plan I've been using lately, especially since I hadn't shopped in a few weeks.  In fact, I pretty much destroyed it completely... FAIL

I bought a couple things that were on sale, and a couple that I had a coupon for, and most of it was things I needed, but I could have done better.  I didn't need to buy a pound of bacon to have for breakfast, or a steak to have for dinner, but I was craving it!  I didn't need orange juice, but I hadn't had any in weeks, and I had a coupon! I didn't need peanut butter, but we were out of it, and I had a coupon!  I certainly didn't need perogies, but they are a nice treat, and I had a coupon!  I didn't need green beans, but it is really iffy buying them from the farmer's market, and if they didn't have any I would have to go back to the store! I did need toilet paper.  Really, that's all I actually needed at the store.

On the other hand, I had a nice steak dinner last night, with perogies and green beans.  And this morning I had bacon, eggs, and toast, with a nice tall glass of orange juice.  Those 2 meals just kind of cost me $44 though.  Ouch.

How do I kind of justify it?  Well, I cut the steak into small pieces, vacuum sealed them, and have about 4 steak dinners left.  I did the same with the bacon, divided it into sections of about 4 slices and vacuum sealed them to have some other weekend.  The green beans should last me a week or two, and the perogies should last a month or so, they are a sometimes-treat.

Honestly though, its not really justifiable.  I should be going to the store every week!  What if steak had been on sale last week? Then I would have already had some and wouldn't have gone shopping with a craving in mind...  Some of those coupons may have been put to better use in previous weeks, if only I had gone shopping!

How do you deal with being too busy or too lazy to go shopping? Do you have a shopping day? Do you avoid scheduling things on that day? What if something crops up? How do you make yourself go?  Living by myself as I currently do, I could live on whats in my apartment for weeks...

~Katharine


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Being Frugal and Green is Hard - Resisting Freebies

Hello, Readers! **crickets chirping...silence**

Ok then, with the optimistic thought that someone, someday, might read this and be amused, or even get something out of it, here is my second update:

Rule #1 of being frugal and green: This is hard! Finding free things = definitely a challenge, and staying green while doing it = almost impossible. Take yesterday for example. I got a windfall in the mail of four awesome freebies: Playtex ultra glide tampons -- and just in time (Katharine: This is still available here from Walmart and here straight from playtex - I got the links from this Freebies4Mom post), Ban deodorant -- nice scent (Katharine: this is still available here from Walmart, I got mine Wednesday too!), a sample of French Vanilla Splenda(Katharine: Available here - link from the "Cent"sible Sawyer), and two Charmin toilet paper dispensers - I don't know why I ordered these, but I should probably reference the comment in my first entry that I tend to go overboard when I go into "free-mode" -- it was free, therefore I want it(Katharine: these are still available here - link from the Bargainist). The latter two I have no idea where I got, but I'd guess from startsampling.com.

Now, while getting all of this free stuff was great (well, exciting at least), I'm now in super-guilt green mode. You should have seen all the extra packaging that there was on everything! There were cardboard boxes inside of cardboard boxes. Other things were wrapped in plastic bags and the result was that all of this created what looked like an open landfill around the chair I had been sitting in. I was really disgusted by this.

So what have I learned from this minor debacle? Well, lets just say I'm going to try and prevent myself from ordering everything I see that has the word "free" or "sample" under it. I think limiting myself to things that I will actually use, or know someone who will, may hopefully prevent green catastrophes like this in the future. I'd love to hear Katharine's opinion on this, because I know that she, like me, really enjoys ordering free samples...

Alison

P.S. Everyone run to Target's trial-size section w/ your coupons! Free Satincare shave gel w/ $1off coupon and free Tylenol w/ $1off coupon!! Check Smart Source circular from 6/6 for the first, and go to the Tylenol website (Katharine: here) to print the other one.