The Frugal Musician proves how LOWE you can go

 

Last Saturday was gorgeous here in Richmond VA and I was determined to NOT spend the day sitting in front of the computer working.

But I only had $15 bucks of  “disposable” income. Don’t get me wrong. I have money, just not cash. And since I have eschewed the use of credit as well as debit cards (except for groceries and gas), my stash of cash is all the income my brain recognizes.

It took a bit of discipline to train my brain to just forget about the Emergency Fund, the change jar, the little squirreling back I’ve done since the beginning of the year.  And sometimes I just get a shopping jones. This is when I usually hit up my favorite thrift mart, The Junior League store, where I can purchase items and know my purchasing power goes right back into the community.

But alas, there was no half off sale at the Junior League shop (the only time I allow myself to partake of goodies) and I just longed to putter around a shop. After all, I had not been out of the house all week.

So my fifteen bucks and I hopped in the 98 Besty Jeep and drove the 3 miles to Lowes.  I was resolved to window shop when what to my wandering eyes should appear but a LARGE GROUP OF PERENNIALS AT ONE DOLLAR OR LESS EACH. They were what I like to call “adoptees” – maybe a little droopy and shabby but with a little love, they’d blossom and grow.

My eyes welled with tears. I would finally be able to fill my planters and pots and have some much needed color on my deck and porch. I had salivated over my neighbors’ gorgeous pots of yellow and red mums  proudly displayed on front porches to welcome fall.  But $20 for a porch display was just not do-able in my book.

I grabbed one of the large Lowes rolling carts. NAY, not the basket or the regular cart but the BIG DEALS with wheels and loaded up. I ended up with hyssop, geraniums, wave petunias in coral, yellow, red and purple, assorted decorative grasses, verbena, tiny trailing Petunia, angelonia, bacopa, red rocks bearded tongue and a few more things I cannot remember. I spent the day pruning and cutting and dividing.

One pot alone was $17.00. I paid a buck. When everything was totalled,  I had purchased 15 BIG pots of plants (enough to divide for my planters) for eleven dollars and oh five cents.

One of the 15 plants was a HUGE  yellow Gerber daisy…..

For my front porch of course (wink wink).

Weekend Update: The Side Hustle

Sold two huge bunches of monkey grass today so side hustle weekend goes out with a whopping $35.00 in creative income!
I’m thinking of reinvesting part of this income into buying books at my local thrift mart and reselling on half.com. That little side hustle nets between $20-$60 per month.
And there’s a half price sale tomorrow which means I can get paperbacks for a quarter and hard bound books for fifty cents.
It would be fun to “reinvest” …frugal style of course!

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 creates spice cups

I love the Food Network and I think those dandy little cups the cooks use for spices or spice blends are so neat.

While I am no chef, it’s fun to at least make an attempt at culinary skill occasionally.  And the little spice cups make me feel like a pro. They help keep my spice containers clean and I am careful to measure out just the right amounts of salt, pepper and thyme so as no to waste anything.

The little plastic tubs are the holders of my Fitness Water mix from Kroger. The plastic tubs come six to a plastic cylinder. In addition to using the small cups for everything from spices to dressing and dips “on the side” I also use the plastic cylinder for storage. The cylinder’s label comes completely off and I’m left with a very nice white storage container with a blue snap on top.

Not only do I keep plastic out of the recycling bin, I can also pretend I’m Rachel Ray or Guy Fieri…..in a frugal sort of way of course…

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 catches up on 27 things

I wanted to catch you up on my bag items, since last week was so hectic.

I added the above office supplies. I once had a cool wipe off board but now I work in a sunroom (I AM SO LUCKY) and there is only one small wall, so I no longer use the board making the  eraser and wipe off spray useless. The staples don’t fit my stapler and I don’t have any idea where they came from

I’ve also added a few more camisole tops that just didn’t look right on me this season, a puzzle and a few children’s toys I had upstairs in my gift drawer. I have over 27 items in the bag now so Monday it will be time to donate these to the thrift store and start a new bag.

Try moving one thing a day out of your life. Reduce it, reuse it, or recycle it or donate it. Clearing physical clutter really helps clear mental clutter as well!

The Frugal Musician has had a busy week…

Yes those are my little brown feet. And let me tell you, they are as tired as the rest of me!

Last week, Sister called with a potential beach trip for June 1-8, so Moonstruck and The Frugal Musician and Alunatunes all went into HIGH gear to try and get ready. By Tuesday, it was all just a fleeting fancy, but I was not disappointed. My Sister is the ultimate real estate agent, Mom and wife and manages all of this while Husband is mostly on tour.  For her to really have fun and relax during our little beach excursion, she has to not be in the middle of a deal. She”s finding herself in the midst of several, which is a very good thing for a real estate agent in this economy.

Even though we didn’t get to go to the beach, the thought of being gone forced me into working 15 hour days. So I got A LOT done with my business (which is public relations and publicity for bands, if you didn’t know that already!) but neglected my Frugal Musician posts.

Which brings me to the picture above. This is the donation bag that has been in the bottom of my closet since May 01. Some things I could not fit into the bag and I still want Boyfriend to clean his closet before I take this to the thrift mart on Monday.

I received an email from my thrift mart last week. Donations are needed and the store is offering a $5 gift certificate for dropping things off!

Giving AND getting is perfect!

The Frugal Musician thinks Bertoli has a point

Has anyone noticed the new Bertolli ad campaign at MSN.com?  “Staying in is the new going out.”

I love it!

I’ve lost my appetite for going out. I can buy a bottle of wine for the price of a glass out at a restaurant. I can cook a delicious dinner for much less than the fare at most eateries, and I trust the cook and the cleanliness of the establishment. Entertainment is a movie on tv or our cable on demand service.  And that, my friends, is a Frugal Musician’s night out. Dinner and movie at home.

I like Bertolli’s thinking.

The Frugal Musician likes 90% off

On a recent outing, I stopped by CVS in my old neighborhood. The particular store always had great markdowns and I surely miss going there on my regular shopping rounds.

The store still had a great selection of Valentines merchandise for 90% off.  Normally, I don’t buy foreign made items, but this little lion just stole my heart.  When his paw is pressed, he sings “Try a Little Tenderness”.  For a buck, it was a great deal and it made me happy. Next year for Valentines, my niece will love it.

The little lion was  powered by three Duracell batteries, which I removed before I stored the toy away. The gift bag was also 90% off.  Over the course of this year, I’ll find other seasonal items for pennies on the dollar.

When next year rolls around, I’ll have a nice collection of seasonal things to make gift bags or baskets.  It’s wonderful to be able to create a nice gift and not spend a fortune.

The Frugal Musician likes a no hoop jumping freebie…

Many websites offer freebies, but the hoop jumping campaign one has to go through to attain the item leaves me exhausted.  Completing survey after survey to get a sample bag of chips is, to me, a waste of time and energy. 

Walmart.com offers a great exception to the usual irritating process of acquiring a sample item.  The website button is clearly marked Walmart Free Samples and the forms are simple and easy to fill out.  Very little information other than your name and address are required.

The above Quakes sample was a walmart.com freebie. It was expecially nice because it came with a coupon and of course, I’ll recycle the cardboard mailer.

On top of that, the cheddar Quakes were delicious – so I’ll definately be doubling that coupon at my local Kroger.