Our 2019 No Spend Challenge

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alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: Our 2019 No Spend Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

I have been using up a little of this and a little of that. I made potato salad with the last of the small red potatoes (3) and added the last mayo in the neck and shoulders of two jars. I had saved them upside down to drain them to make potato salad. Also used 3 eggs .06 cent each. Added dill pickle juice that I had saved to make potato salad and some mustard (free). Also a little chopped yellow onion and celery seed. Made enough for 3 servings.

I boiled a dozen eggs .75 cents since they had gone past there" best by date." Eggs are good at least 5 weeks after their " best by date." I made some tuna fish salad with three hard boiled eggs and tuna from Amazon.. Added onion and mayo. The mayo was from Dollar Tree. I have made three tuna fish sandwiches.. two of them were tuna melts. Still have enough for one to two sandwiches. Teddi had some of the eggs in place of his regular dog food. He sometimes goes off of his dog food and I will eventually try a hard boiled egg. If he does not eat the egg then I will get concerned but he just gobbles them down and literally licks the plate. Also added an egg to my salad a couple of times.. So not bad for .75 cents.

I have been eating a small apple most afternoons with a big spoonful of peanut butter. I have one small apple left. I am down to the last of my fresh yellow onions. One and a half. I was disappointed to see that three others had gone bad.. I do not like to refrigerate onions put have the last in the fridge. I have finished all of my heat and eat Indian food packets. sniff, sniff. I still have some sauces to make in to something for Thai and Indian foods. Used a carton of aseptic milk. Also finished a carton and a half of cottage cheese. They were BOGO. Have added canned fruit to it also. So used up a can of pineapple and peaches. I am low on lettuce. Have about 1/3 of a head left. I am trying to not buy anything until I can order free groceries on Walmart towards the end of the month. I will miss my lettuce salad but I will come up with something. I have ground chuck thawing out to make tacos tomorrow. I was rooting through my cabinets and saw I had some crunchy corn taco shells in a container to be used up. I think that about wraps it up for now.. I am sure I have left something out.. Janet Alliesmama
Janet Alliesmama
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: Our 2019 No Spend Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

I now have $20.00 in gift cards for Walmart. Some were earned on My Points and some on BING. I am hoping to add another $5.00 to $10.00 to that by the week of Feb 25. I have a coupon for another $10.00 off if I use Walmart's curbside pick up. So right now that amounts to $30.00 of free food and hopefully I can increase it to $35.00 or $40.00. It is hard trying to decide what I would like to buy. I have been going over Walmart's prices comparing to Ruler. Ruler of course is dirt cheap on some things but with Walmart being free there is no comparison. I have $4.00 in cash rewards at my local grocery store and yesterday earned $3.00 in cash doing a survey on PineCone. So enough to buy a free rotisserie chicken some time down the road. Combined with what I have in the house I am hoping to coast through the rest of Feb and March without spending money on food. The only exception might be to buy salad things ie lettuce and radishes.
Janet Alliesmama
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: Our 2019 No Spend Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

Forgot to mention I threw money away on the 13th.. I took my aide out for her birthday. She loves Wendy's and I had a BOGO for a single cheeseburger. I thought I was being thrifty. I had no idea how much that free burger would cost me. A single cheeseburger was 4.29 plus tax. I ordered a small fry and a small frosty not looking at the prices.. DUMB! The total for me came to $7.77. The only thing I liked was the frosty. I offered to pay for a drink and a side for her but she said she would pay for them. Her drink was a senior drink so it was free and her fries were $1.69. I do not see what people see in a Wendy's hamburger. I could have bought a whole package of meat for home for what I paid for that one meal. Then we went to the Farm and Home store to get bird food. I recently fell and I knew there was no way I could pick up a 20 lb bag of beed seed. I barely was able to do so before I fell. So I went to the bulk bin and made up smaller bags of what was similar to the 20 lb bag. It came a little over 17 lbs and it came to 15.80! A 20 lb bag of bird food cost a little over $8.00. Bulk seed cost almost twice the price of a 20 lb bag. Never again from now on the store will have to put the bag in my cart and my car. You would think loose bulk would be cheaper since you have to bag it yourself. Anyway lessons learned..
Janet Alliesmama
floridacatlover
Posts: 8058
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 7:21 am

Re: Our 2019 No Spend Challenge

Post by floridacatlover »

alliesmama4 wrote: Sat Feb 16, 2019 12:09 pm Forgot to mention I threw money away on the 13th.. I took my aide out for her birthday. She loves Wendy's and I had a BOGO for a single cheeseburger. I thought I was being thrifty. I had no idea how much that free burger would cost me. A single cheeseburger was 4.29 plus tax. I ordered a small fry and a small frosty not looking at the prices.. DUMB! The total for me came to $7.77. The only thing I liked was the frosty. I offered to pay for a drink and a side for her but she said she would pay for them. Her drink was a senior drink so it was free and her fries were $1.69. I do not see what people see in a Wendy's hamburger. I could have bought a whole package of meat for home for what I paid for that one meal. Then we went to the Farm and Home store to get bird food. I recently fell and I knew there was no way I could pick up a 20 lb bag of beed seed. I barely was able to do so before I fell. So I went to the bulk bin and made up smaller bags of what was similar to the 20 lb bag. It came a little over 17 lbs and it came to 15.80! A 20 lb bag of bird food cost a little over $8.00. Bulk seed cost almost twice the price of a 20 lb bag. Never again from now on the store will have to put the bag in my cart and my car. You would think loose bulk would be cheaper since you have to bag it yourself. Anyway lessons learned..
Janet, my mom and I used to go to Wendy’s fairly often but we had our bargain down pat for awhile. It used to be that if you did the survey on the back of the cash register receipt, you would get $2 off a large sandwich. (That changed about two years ago and now you get a free large sandwich when you buy one.) So we used to buy one chicken sandwich and cut it in half - and that was enough to fill us up. Then sometimes we would get the “value fries” for $1 (so less than the “small fries”) plus free drinks and free Jr. Frosty with the key tag. So all in all less than $4 for both of us. We did not go as often with the B1G1 because the large sandwich was too much to eat plus more costly. Now if I want a burger (not often) I get the Jr. Cheeseburger which is only $1.29. The B1G1 coupons are always on the large sandwiches. I know that you probably won’t be going back there but if you do, look at the Value menu.

Great deal on the Walmart gift cards you have earned and $20 off.
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: Our 2019 No Spend Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

floridacatlover wrote: Sat Feb 16, 2019 4:52 pm Janet, my mom and I used to go to Wendy’s fairly often but we had our bargain down pat for awhile. It used to be that if you did the survey on the back of the cash register receipt, you would get $2 off a large sandwich. (That changed about two years ago and now you get a free large sandwich when you buy one.) So we used to buy one chicken sandwich and cut it in half - and that was enough to fill us up. Then sometimes we would get the “value fries” for $1 (so less than the “small fries”) plus free drinks and free Jr. Frosty with the key tag. So all in all less than $4 for both of us. We did not go as often with the B1G1 because the large sandwich was too much to eat plus more costly. Now if I want a burger (not often) I get the Jr. Cheeseburger which is only $1.29. The B1G1 coupons are always on the large sandwiches. I know that you probably won’t be going back there but if you do, look at the Value menu.

Great deal on the Walmart gift cards you have earned and $20 off.
Florida cat you and your Mom did great with your ordering. Glad you told me how you are able to save now. I will pass it along to my aide. I have only had Wendy's a few times and I really did not care for it. My husband use to take me there sometimes. He liked their burgers and chili. I know the receipt I received had a survey to be completed to get a free single burger or chicken sandwich with the purchase of a premium sandwich.
Janet Alliesmama
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: Our 2019 No Spend Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

I have been phasing out carbs trying to get my kitchen more ketogenic friendly. I cannot go totally ketogenic but more low carb/paleo due to being diabetic my blood sugar goes too low..I just made a skillet of keto sausage gravy. It is the bomb.. Really easy and fairly inexpensive.I use cream cheese from Ruler and it is only .79 cents. The sausage was from Save-a-lot $2.88 and then throw in some chicken broth and a little bit of chopped onion and it will last me for at least a week. I freeze half so that it does not go bad on me It is so yummy I can eat it just heated or if I want to make the effort almond flour biscuits. I will make the biscuits tomorrow since they kind of deflate easily. Still good to eat but not as delicate. I have a lot of gluten free flour to use up in various ways. I just need to get busy and do it.

I have some ground chuck thawed and will be making taco meat. I cheated and bought a packet of taco seasoning $1.00 at Dollar Tree. I will use some to make tacos and some to make enchiladas. The enchiladas will also be combined with pinto beans to stretch the meat filling. I would like to put two small containers in the freezer to be able to make a quick taco salad some day. Also will cook two small hamburger patties to put in the freezer for a day when I do not feel like cooking. I know they will not be as good tasting as fresh but some days it is just to much effort to cook. I do not like thick burgers. Grew up on a farm and ate way too much meat. My brother feels the same way.

I had canned pineapple a while back and saved the juice to use as a marinade for a Chinese dish of some sort. Also have apricot juice. Was not sure what to do with it so looked it up on the internet. It can be used as part of the liquid when you cook hot cereals ie oatmeal cream of wheat etc. You can add 2 TBS of cornstarch to 1/2 cup of cold juice and cook until it thickens and use for a topping on ice cream, pudding, or pound cake. I think that would be great with peach juice too. Also can add 1c +1/4 c of powdered sugar to 2 TBS of juice, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp clear vanilla and use for an icing on cinnamon buns, cookies etc. I really love looking for ways to use up what I have on hand. Glad there are recipes on line when I do not have a clue.
Janet Alliesmama
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