The Frugal Musician cuts up

“Tis the season of the Christmas catalog.

These are not catalogs I subscribe to, but rather the ones that are deposited frequently in everyone’s mailbox. Along with the catalogs arrive numerous sale papers featuring Christmas decor, gifts and all manner things “very shiny, very sparkly, looks like a holiday”- to quote Raymond in Rainman on seeings a hooker wearing a diamond necklace.

When the catalogs arrive, I go shopping.

Shopping involves scissors, a glue stick and my Happy Book. My Happy Book is a red - blank 8.5 x 11 book which contains my vision maps and dream boards. I shop with a pair of scissors, a glue stick and a large dose of imagination. 

This morning I shopped Pier 1 for my holiday decor for my (imaginary) lake house. I chose a lovely table and chair set, napkins, napkin rings, plates, glassware, tree decorations, and clipped any color or color combination I found pleasing.  Rugs, runners and rum jiggers became mine with a snip of scissors and a swipe of glue stick.  I also clipped every sweet word I found: all seasons, JOY!, perfect, bless, awesome, colorful, wonderful, essential and glued the words into my Happy Book on the page I’ve devoted to words I love.

I shopped, pleased the woman tugging at my sleeve for something not from the thrift mart, and started the day off by remembering to recognize the soul needs a bit of frivolity from time to time.

I shopped in my PJs while sipping coffee and listening to ocean music. I didn’t spend a dime, stress over mall traffic or get sore feet.

I know I should call and stop the catalogs. After I am finished cutting them to shreds I do recycle. To me, they are serving a valuable service.  They quell the yearly urge to splurge and soothe a spirit yearning for beauty but living on a budget.

Do you subscribe to catalogs?

The Frugal Musician’s new walking shoes

My local Junior League Clothes Rack was having a half off sale today. I love these sales. They only happened occassionally in the past, but it seems since the economy tanked, the JL has a half off sale once a month.

I snapped up these snazzy NEW Dr Scholls walking shoes for a cool $2.50. They came with the Air Pillo Gel insoles and feature a gel ball imbeded in the bottom heel of each shoe for extra comfort.

I walk Mr Kronk every night and lately my heels had been giving me some discomfort, so I was extra excited to find these babies!

Have you ever walked into a thrift mart and found exactly what you were looking for at a deep discount? Isn’t it FUN?!

The Frugal Musician’s Thrifty Dilemma

The men in my life are slender people and Express caters to slender types. I can always find shirts and pants to fit the fellas in my life (sons and Boyfriend) with little effort. It’s nice to take advantage of sales plus 40% off – like these nice polo shirts.

But at full price Express is a nightmare. A great example is ties. A tie at Express is (are you sitting down?) $60.00. I buy ties for my younger son who has to wear them to work, for a buck at the Junior League.  The last one I bought at JL was a silk affair from Joseph A Banks for a dollar.  I do like Express because it is one of those stores my sons can walk into and if they find something they like, can call Mom and she can put it on her Express card. This is the only card I use for this purpose. If my kids need new clothing for a job interview or a special event, it’s nice to be able to purchase an item for them with my card.  I should note both of them live in different states and asking mom to put something on her card is a rarity.

For my birthday, Express kindly sent me a $15 gift card. I was going to use it today as it expires, but the mall is a 40 minute drive and I just noticed I cannot use the card on red-lined items (mark downs) making it pretty useless, unless I want a pair of earrings. Somehow, the drive and time just isn’t worth redeeming the $15 gift card.

In this instance, free was really not going to be free at all. Have you run into similar situations? I’d love to hear about it!

The Frugal Musician is a big fan of Walgreen

I was already a fan of Walgreen but today I became an even bigger fan.

I was shopping the store ad with coupons in hand when I discovered one of the advertised items, Chicken of the Sea Chunk Light Tuna for .59 cents, was missing from the shelves. I thought maybe it was featured somewhere else in the store and after a few minutes of looking around, a nice man approached , dressed in a suit and asked if he could help me.

I explained my tuna quandry to him and he happily substituted Chicken of the Sea Albacore Tuna for the missing item. Turned out he was a district manager for Walgreen and as he was helping me, the store manager, to whom he had been talking, followed us down the grocery aisle. 

As Mr District manager placed the WONDERFULLY PRICED tuna in my cart, I took time to tell him what a lovely store this particular Walgreens was and how the staff was always helpful, friendly and efficient.  One can have a lovely store and great prices and a staff that is from the regions of hades and I would not shop there if they offered everything in the store for a dime. Customer service and basic human kindness go a long way in determining where I shop.

The store manager was obviously grateful. I’d also seen this man interact with his employees in a friendly, positive manner.

So yeah! for Walgreens yet again!!

The Frugal Musician does it again

 

My local market had another great soda and beverage sale this week. This time, I purchased a twelve pack of diet Lipton Green Tea ($5.99) and could purchase five 12 packs of diet Pepsi in cans for a buck each.

I spent $12.00 total and when I received my receipt I saved $19.99 AND got a $2.00 coupon to use on my next food order.

I now have plenty of beverages for summer traveling. Convenience stores are SO expensive. It’s much more economical to toss a few sodas in a small cooler before heading out.  And as the temp has been consistently in the mid 90′s staying hydrated while not breaking the budget is…well….COOL!

The Frugal Musician’s .49 cent brand new hoodie from Victoria’s Secret

I recently received a Victoria’s Secret Semi Annual Clothing sale catalog. Generally, I don’t buy via catalogs because I’m never certain of sizes. FM is a tiny thing, 100 pounds, five feet tall, and I must try things on to make sure they’ll fit.

The catalog featured a $10 discount offer on any item and many items were priced at $9.99. A particular fleece jacket ($9.99)  with cool dolmen sleeves caught my eye and, as today was the last day to qualify for the $10 discount, I went online to order the jacket (which had been $58.00).

When I went to the VS website, they were having a free shipping offer. I easily entered my code for the $10 discount and then entered the free shipping code.

Total for my very cool hoodie with dolmen sleeves in heather grey including shipping.

.49 cents!!

I was tickled PINK!

The Frugal Musician and CVS

Special K had an excellent buy at my local CVS last week. I wish I would have had time to write about it LAST week but The Frugal Musician is in the throes of summer tour season with a dozen bands.  I love my work. It  just doesn’t give me much time to write at the moment, which I am grateful for. I love to write but it is important to pay the bills and put bread on the table too. Or maybe cereal…..

CVS had a BOGOF (buy one get one free- I know I probably don’t have to explain that to most of you!) on Kelloggs Special K cereal. Each box was a shocking $4.49 BUT since it was a BOGOF offer, that brought the cost to only $2.25 per box. I had a dollar off manufacturers coupon on two boxes, knocking down the price to a nice $1.75 each.

When I arrived home and was putting my purchases away, I discovered $6.00 in coupons for other Special K items like milkshakes, cereal bars and fitness water.

So the way I see it I actually made money on the purchase of this cereal! I LOVE when that happens!

The Frugal Musician and the Legend of the Lexmark Printer

I bought a Lexmark printer in January 2008. It seemed like a great deal at the time, but I didn’t check about replacement print cartridges before I purchased.

They are $29.00 (SHOCKER)!

I can get them a bit cheaper by buying the knock off brand at Staples which also credits me $3.00 each time I recycle a print cartridge.

For months I have waited for Walgreen to add my particular cartridge to their refill list. Walgreen refills are $10.

Last month, Walgreen added my print cartridge! No more $29.00 cartridges! Hallelujah!

I happily took my cartridge to Walgreen, had it refilled and brought it home.

Unfortunately, my software did not recognize the cartridge. The screen kept blaring the big news that THERE IS NO CARTRIDGE in the printer.

I called Lexmark. “We do not recommend refilled cartridges for our printers.”

“Well I realize that.” I was trying to be patient, “But there has to be a way to override this error message.”

“We do not recommend refilled cartridges for our printers. “

This went on for five minutes before I realized the tech at the other end of the line wasn’t going to go to any measures to help me.

Lesson: Do not buy a Lexmark Printer. If this were a great printer it would be different. But it’s just average, jams frequently (probably because I use recycled paper. I bet they don’t recommend that either) and doesn’t deliver great quality or quantity.

And Lexmark doesn’t recommened refilled print cartridges. Did I mention that?

The Frugal Musician gets a whale of a deal…

Last week, my local market (not a chain) had a spectacular sale. With the purchase of 4 12 packs of Coke products for $12, you received, for free two tubs of Deli Select sandwich meat and an 8 pack of Coke product in bottles.

I don’t know if you can see the tale of the tape, but I spent $12 and got $12 worth of merchandise for free. My total savings was $19.00 which is more than I paid for the items.

It’s travel season and I really like to pack a cooler with a sandwich or two and a can or two of Diet Coke when I am out for the day. Throw in a bag of chips and the necessity to stop during a busy summer day for food is negligible. I live in a historic American city, and when I’m out and I see a particularly nice place to take a break, it’s fun to have an instant picnic.

I took advantage of this offer twice and now have a nice stock of sodas for the summer. I know. Sodas are bad for you. But I also drink a ton of water and fitness water (I make my own from a Kroger mix). Having chips, a sandwich and a nice soda keeps me from spending money at fast food joints where french fries, ice cream and crunchy apple pies are SOOOOO tempting!

The Frugal Musician feels free….

Kroger is my favorite place to shop for groceries. Not only do they always have a pile of marked down merchandise at the front of the store, the routinely send me a packet of coupons specifically for the items I buy most.

I suppose this targeted marketing may be a little scary from a privacy perspective. I mean, “THEY” know what I buy! But considering the harmlessness of salad mix and Angel Soft Bath Tissue, I hardly feel spied upon.

This week I received a packet of cents off coupons along with two coupons for free items. That same day I received a coupon from Victoria’s Secret for a free pair of undies!

What a blessed mailbox day!