Frugal Friday

This is my first Frugal Friday post for the year. I hope to keep track of things we've done frugally as a family to share with you, to hopefully give you ideas of how you can save. I've decided to just do this every other week, rather than weekly.

Here are things that we saved on/was frugal with/etc for the past 2 weeks:

*Saved tissue paper and gift bags that we rec'd from Christmas gifts (I haven't had to buy gift bags for a couple of years now doing this.)

*Purchased Chobani Greek Yogurt in the mark down cooler at our local grocer for 59¢

*Bought a sofa and chair at a Menards. Was $100 off, then 11% rebate for in-store purchase, which we will use towards tile for the bathroom. We've been married almost 25 years and this is our very first NEW piece of furniture of any kind. I am so excited and love them! Together, they were 1/2 to 3/4 less expensive than you could buy one chair at any furniture store!

*Crackers for 1.88 box. We love crackers and snack on them. They are normally over $4/box.

*Mended 2 pair of jeans for Aaron. He mended one of them. Ü (for those of you who don't know Aaron, he is 19)

*Was able to dry some laundry on the clothesline 2 days (other days it was too cold/and or snowing)

*Planned ahead and made lunches to take with us when we shopped out of town 3 times. This was a big savings and better for us. Lunch for 5 one time, 3 for another, and 2 the other.

*Cut Aaron's hair. I've been cutting all the guys hair since I was married and the boys came along.

*Bought 2 gallon of milk while out of town for $2.99. If you live near here, Kearney's Menards' milk is $2.99/gal for all milk...1%, 2%, whole and I think maybe even their chocolate milk. I always try to get a couple of gallon when we go to Kearney. Beats the almost $4/gallon price here!

*used a coupon on marked down coconut M & M's. It was $2 off of 3 and the bags were marked 99¢ each! These were the big bags of M & M's, so that made them only 32¢/bag.

*used coupon on small bags of peanut M & M's buy 2 get one free and then there was a store coupon by them, so they came to 19¢ each. These are DH's favorite, so nice treat for him. I had 2 coupons, so was able to take double advantage of this

*marked down gallon skim milk for 59¢. I divide it and freeze it and use it for cooking

*marked down flour tortillas for 39¢/pkg of 12 ...made homemade chicken enchiladas

*3 lb bag boneless/skinless chicken breasts for $3.99. Bought 3 bags, cooked up one bag and shredded it and then divided it up and froze it for recipes...chicken enchiladas, chicken lasagna and the rest will be for homemade chicken and noodles. Saved the broth made by boiling the chicken.

*jalepenos marked down to 99¢, will make jalepeno poppers

*my SIL told me about a free class online called The Document Project. I joined and used swagbucks points I had to Amazon for the planner and a few rolls of washi tape. It is fun to get free goodies!

If you are unfamiliar with swagbucks, it is a site where you click on links, watch videos (I don't watch them, just click and go do something and then come back) for points that can be redeemed for gift cards to amazon, staples, walmart, target, etc. Also can be used for free money to paypal. Let me know if you are interested and I can send you an invite to join.

Are there things you do to save money? I would like to hear them.