Frugal Notes Friday

Well, this past week, I had some good, and some bad, in my frugal ways.

The good:
Saturday - I did Pick n Save Super Doubles. My OOP was$49.77.  I had a 52% savings. I had one full cart and one half cart full. My best deal was Mott's Apple Sauce 6 Packs. On sale for $1.74 - a .55 cents off coupon that doubled. It came to .64 cents a package

Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, my family went camping at Wisconsin Dells.  We paid for the gas to get there and the camping fee of $100 for the 4 nights.  We used the Season Opener books to get free admission to Tommy Bartlett Water Show and Pirate's Cover Family Fun Center. We also enjoyed Timber Ridge 18 round mini-golf for free. We packed picnic lunches to keep costs down. We also paid $3.00 admission each and enjoyed Tommy Barrlett's Robot World.  We also used all the books we had to get 12 free rides at Knuckle-Heads. So, we had a great family weekend with blowing our budget.We enjoyed S'mores at the campfire, swimming at the campground pool and some awesome family time.  At Tommy Barrlett's Robot World, they closed the gift shop (out of business) and what was left was t-shirts for $5.00 each. My son picked out a Glow in the Dark Wolf Shirt and my daughter picked out 3 different sparkly horse shirts. She picked out 3 sizes, so as she grows she will have a small tan, medium foam green and a large purple. They were thrilled. That cost was $21.12 in cash but they both got souvenirs. :)

The unfrugal part was that I allowed each child to pick ONE ride that wasn't covered on the 12 free ride coupons at Knuckleheads. My daughter decided on the ropes course ( $8.00) and my son decided on the race car ( $5.00). So I spent $13.00 that I didn't plan. Also, we stopped at Taco Bell one of the days, which was $10.08 unplanned. Other than that, I stayed within my budget. :)

Also, this past week, a thrift store was going out of business. The day we stopped all music, movies, clothes and toys were free.  Everything else was a quarter. I spent .75 cents but I got several needed things. I got my children some clothes.  I found several books for my daughter and myself. I found gift wrap for .25 cents. I also found 3 bag straps for free! While you are probably thinking that is not exciting, let me explain. A friend of mine gave me 3 sports bags with no carry handles. We needed bags like these for camping and traveling, but we wanted carry straps. We searched Walmart, Target, Gander Mountain, and several other stores...we didn't find anything we liked. Now, here in the middle of a thrift store we hadn't planned on visiting was 3 GREEN STRAPS!! They were the exact same color as the bags!!  We left with a box full of goodies!
Two days later, on the way home from camping, we stopped again...just to check it out...and everything was free!! So, I picked up a bunch of kitchen/cooking items for the camper and some wicker and plastic baskets. :)

Other than that, I am staying home, riding my bike for errands and hanging clothes laundry.
Happy Frugal Friday. I heard rumor that Pick N Save will be doing Super Doubles tomorrow, but I can't confirm that. Hope you have a happy weekend!  Also, make sure that you clean out those coupon binders this weekend!!!