Gas...$2.95/gallon

This week in Houston, gasoline prices are hovering between $2.95 - $3.10/gallon, depending on location and demand. $2.95/gallon is here the local neighborhood where there is high demand; $3.10/gallon was noted on long stretches of open road in northwest Houston.

I did okay last weekend during the Memorial Day specials, spending only $85.00 at my local grocery store compared to $100.00 the previous week.

This week the items in the dairy and cold sections of the store had gone up significantly. Shredded cheese was back to 2/$5.00, rather than 3/$4.98, lunch meat was up to $4.00/package rather than 2/$6.00 or 2/$7.00 and milk was back up into the $3.89/gallon or higher range.

Items at the 99 cent store that had previously been $2/.99 have now gone back up to 99 cents. It made for double the bill when I hit the checkout - GULP, so watch those prices. I need to take my own advice next time, and "think before I buy"!

Good luck, a little planning, $2.00 or less spent

I've shopped for next to nothing for a couple of my "in-between" major shopping trips lately.

If you haven't heard me say it before, I enjoy shopping where you could literally set up a picnic on the floor and not worry about eating there. A couple of my local stores fit that profile, CVS drugstore and Randall's grocery store.

Both stores offer loyalty programs. CVS offers those wonderful CVS free bucks, in addition to giving $3.00 - $4.00 off every $15.00 - 20.00 spent. These coupons print at the bottom of your receipt, which probably tells you why my wallet is always overflowing even though there's no money in it. I take advantage of these free bucks.

Last night at CVS, I paid $1.36 for the following items: 1 gallon of milk, 1 Lever body wash, 2 bags of Goldfish crackers, and 2 pints of ice cream. Here's how I did it. I had a $1.00 coupon for the Lever body wash, I had the $10.00 freebie bucks from recent prescription purchases ($10.00 off for every 5 prescriptions purchased - I save on the prescriptions, too - that's another article in itself!), and a $3.00 coupon off for $15.00 spent. Hurrah, just enough groceries to make it to payday!

I came across a similar deal at Randall's approx. 2 weeks ago. I always ask for the extra coupons that are sitting on the register. Guess what? Two of those coupons ended up to be freebie bucks adding up to $13.00. In addition, I found an in-store grocery coupon for one of the items in my cart. I ended up paying only $2.00 that night for $15.00 worth of groceries.

Both of these shopping trips needed a bit of pre-planning, yet I think the 15 minutes I spent prior to each of the two shopping trips paid off. I'm not the world's best couponer; however, I do enjoy "free"!

Good luck, and think before you buy...Terre

Thanks to The Stretcher Community!

I've got to say a huge "Thanks!" to the Dollar Stretcher community, especially Pat Veretto, for their help in giving my site a second look. It's a great incentive to keep writing.

Here's the link to the discussion/bulletin boards at stretcher.com:
http://community.stretcher.com/

I promise I'll get out there and create a profile soon!

Regarding the stretcher.com website, be sure to give their website a view, also. They have several areas in their website, everything from the bulletin boards with how-to's and advice on frugal living to articles on credit cards and how to stay out/payoff debt, to the pros/cons of renting vs. owning your home. It certainly pays to be an informed consumer.

Good luck, and think before you buy...Terre

Sticker shock, everywhere !

I just came home from the grocery store after using all my best shopping skills to shop frugally at my local store without driving 10 miles to the superstore. Total Price: $100, for one adult, one teenager, and one dog. Kitty didn't get anything this weekend. And, I still need to go back Sunday night for one more week's worth of school lunch supplies. It's all frustrating at best.

Currently, gas here in West Houston is $2.94/gallon, so that made me think twice before running my Honda all over town to go bargain shopping. So, I'll probably do more bargain shopping on Sunday after church, while I'm out in the area of town where two of the good discount stores sit side by side (Dollar Tree and 99 Cent Store). Believe it or not, sometimes the sacks of potatoes I buy for .99 are better quality than the ones at my neighborhood market. Also, the dollar stores are a great place to stock up on canned goods for hurricane season.

I'd be interested in hearing what's going on in the rest of the USA, as far as gas prices and grocereis go. Take care, Terre

Frugal Home Computing

I apologize for being all over the place with this blog.

I wanted to pass along a few computing tips for folks who don't always have the funds to keep up with Microsoft's latest and greatest.

Google is gradually adding free online software to its arsenal of products. For more information, read up on the news at the following link on ZDNET:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Berlind/?p=437&tag=nl.e622

I find that ZDNET generally has reliable freeware/shareware that helps the basic home PC user, so be sure to check out their downloads section, too.

In another thought, MS Windows Vista has been offering frequent security updates, firewalls, etc. on their Microsoft downloads website. Make sure you are signed up with Microsoft updates, especially if you still have sponsored versions of their software such as Windows XP or Windows Vista.

And if you're running software and you're not sure how up-to-date your security and firewalls are, check out AVG Anti-Virus Free Editon located at: www.grisoft.com

Happy, and safe computing! Terre

Shop those cellphone prices

I admit it. My son and I had to trash our cellphones two years ago because the pricetag of $90.00/month was killing our household budget, especially as summer electricity bills kept rising.

Recently, we lost our home phone service for a whole week due to a bad thunderstorm that knocked out our landlines, and courtesy of the "new and improved extremely large mega-conglomerate phone company" passing the buck on the customer service front. I was not happy to say the least.

So being a good mom and not wanting to leave my child stranded at home without a phone line, I started shopping the internet for a temporary cellphone. The range of prices vary greatly, everything from those old family package plans to finally, a new and improved system of buying your cellphone and the number of minutes you want to go with it.

Here's what I did. I went to Walmart one morning and looked at the different phones. The sales clerk was very helpful, especially when I started asking questions about coverage areas and which satellite systems the phones ran from. Guess what? The cellphones are runnning off of the same towers your high-price major cellphone companies are using!

I'm not endorsing any one product here. However, I ended up choosing a remanufactured Nokia cellphone running off of the Net 10 system. The wonderful part? The cellphone purchase and two months of service are only costing me $40.00 total. When my 300 minutes expires after 60 days, I have the option of buying the number of minutes I need in quantities of 150, 300, 450, 600, etc. minutes - all at 10 cents a minute. If you're a low-end user, like myself, this plan is perfect. My potential $15.00 a month bill certainly beats the $90.00 + I used to pay.

Good luck in your cellphone search!

Carpet Cleaner for Extremely Old Carpets

Dawn dish soap has a million uses, although one of my favorites is using it to shampoo my cruddy old apartment carpet that is a lost cause to the world. I've tried several different carpet formulas over the years - generic oxyclean, the commercial carpet cleaning products containing ammonia, even just plain hot water. And still the best solution I've found is about 3 - 4 tablespoons of Dawn dish soap (pick your favorite scent - Apple smells heavenly) added to hot tap water, and then go to town shampooing your carpet.

I admit it gets really sudsy, yet I'm not complaining, especially when I'm pulling pure sludge out of my carpet. It is gross to say the least. Be sure to pour the dirty water tank remains down your toilet, and flush often.

The day after your carpet dries, make sure you run the vacuum thoroughly and pick up the pilled carpet dust bunnies. I assure you your carpet will be clean and remarkably soft for at least the next two months, and you won't have black feet as you get into bed at night. (No judgements here, I'm the lone woman coping with a 15 year old boy, frequent teen hangouts and a dog and a cat!)

Another benefit, I live in Houston and we don't have flea problems in my household.