Frugal In Florida

It's been a few weeks, I know!  I haven't been shopping a whole lot which is probably why I felt the urgent need to hit up Costco last week .... And then I came down with something late Thursday ... not sure if it's a cold or what not. All I know is that I have been self medicating very heavily to kick it out of my system as fast as possible ... that could be why I have a foggy brain? Whatever ... Hubby comes home Sunday night, the Boy and his girl have gone to her parents house and I'm looking forward to sitting on the couch and watching yet another Christmas movie this evening!  I like being alone! Sometimes. Ok, ok, let's get on with what I bought this week, shall we? Luckys Market - December 20, 2017 Total Spent - $65.91 It's a new store in town and I had a $5 off $30 coupon. Should have made to trips. Oh well. Vanilla/Almond/Coconut Creamer $4.99 Mother's Special Body Oil $17.99 (for that pregnant lady) 2 pound beef tenderloin $29.98 ch...

Hi! I figured I’d get back on the Frugal Activities train and start sharing my week in review! I know a lot of you like these posts because I share the frugal things I've done in the past week and the not so frugal things as well … some are good and some are bad. It’s all about full disclosure! So start checking back on Thursday or Friday and hopefully I will have these up to share. I used to do these on Saturday BUT I’ve decided to keep the Grocery Shops in Review on that day as it’s a habit for me now to share! Don’t mess with a good thing, right? So! You may have picked up that I’m in NW Indiana for about 17 days and well, the first few days we blew some serious cash. I finally told Hubby that we needed to rein ourselves in and get focused. Seeing my morning bank account alert freaked me out a little. So much so that I felt the need to move some cash from my savings account over to the checking account. And then I freaked out again as the savings account was lower ...

You probably don't know this but I've not been inside a grocery store since Hubby came home ... crazy, right? He's been a few times but me? Nope! I made up for it though on Saturday. Hubby was running to Target so I went to Publix (in the same shopping plaza) since we were trying to save time ... sadly, he should have come along as I spent more than I wanted. July 15 - Publix Total Spent - $153.04 Blackberry / Cucumber LaCroix $4.39 Cherry / Lime LaCroix $4.39 2 cartons of Vita Coconut Water $3.34 each 3 containers (single serve) yogurt $1.00 each Small bottle horseradish $1.95 4 bags of Caesar Salad mix b1g1f $4.09 x 2 1 pound container mushrooms $2.99 Zucchini $3.03 2 pkgs of sausage crumbles $3.00 each Large container spring mix salad $5.99 3 bottles cold press coconut water $3.99 each 4 Digornos pizzas $5 each 2 bottles of Almond Milk/Cold Brew coffee $4.99 each (Califia) Jug of OJ $3.34 Half of a spaghetti squash $2.86 Bottle of ketchup $3.59 ...

That would seem to be the question of the day lately. A Lot of folks are like, oh, I don't know, that's pretty expensive to eat like that (I get that comment with Paleo as well) ... But it's NOT true! I'm going to share a FEW tips on how to make a Whole30 AFFORDABLE ... I think you'll be surprised! 1.  You do NOT need to buy all organic. Meaning you don't have to shop at Whole Foods!  You can shop at your local grocery store or even Aldi. I've found Aldi to be my FAVORITE store when doing a Whole30. Please, don't leave negative comments ;-) Organic is not a requirement. It is  preferred but NOT required. Aldi stop ... notice some things are organic, for regular grocery store prices! 2.  Same thing with meat! You do NOT need to buy grass-fed, petted and tucked in at night protein.  I would strongly suggest that you DO buy a lower fat content of meat that is NOT grass-fed or at least trim off the excess fat when visible as that is where the ...

I made it! I managed to stay out of the grocery stores for a WHOLE week. Woohoo! Yeah. It's not a big deal but the fact that I opted to do a No Spend Week without any prior thought is sort of a huge deal ... meaning I didn't go out and "prepare" for the week ahead! And we survived! Here's how I broke that spending fast! I didn't buy this many LaCroix cases this week as they were  NOT on sale buy one get one free! Publix - May 26th, 2017 Total Spent - $70.95 sliced pepper jack cheese $3.50 sliced sharp cheddar cheese $3.50 sliced white cheddar cheese $3.50 2 20 bags of ice $4.19 each 12 pk Corona Light $13.99 8 pk LaCroix Blueberry/Cucumber $4.39 12 pk LaCroix Passionfruit $4.00 2 containers strawberries $2.00 each bag of red grapes $4.58 1/4 watermelon $3.17 (this, after I shared the Deconstructing a Watermelon ... long story!) bananas $1.90 container fresh salsa $2.50 loaf of italian bread $2.99 loaf of potato bread $3.49 ...

Sooo.... The year to date, 5 1/2 months so far (!!??) has really flown by ... I've married my daughter (with the wonderful abilities of a notary public), hosted her wedding reception in our backyard (thanks to a beautiful home that still  has not sold), hosted my niece on her very first trip away from home, showed the house what seems to be a million times, ate well, entertained tons of friends and well ... drained the bank accounts. Ok. Not really drained, as in EMPTY ... but certainly spent more than I normally would.  I'm not sure when I just said f*ck it and stopped keeping track. Seriously. And you know me ... I can justify spending that $1.99 for that larger avocado at Trader Joe's 😏 because, you know, those 69 cent avocados from Aldi are like half the size. Never mind that the larger the avocado, the bigger the seed. Whatever. I guess I just had a moment this evening that made me realize I was "justifying" a tad too much .... hmmm ... buying s...

Hi. I'm Jan and I am the owner and blogger of Frugal In Florida. Do not let the following grocery trips fool you. I've had a slight coming to Jesus while eating hot dogs from the freezer poolside Thursday night. Seriously. No joke. Trader Joe's - May 17th, 2017 Total Spent -$82.66 ... all items fit in to 3 smaller Trader Joe's bags. Mission? Cauliflower rice, cauliflower pizza crust AND mashed cauliflower. 2 bags (12 oz) "Jumbo" Shrimp $9.99 each 3 pkgs frozen mac & cheese (the best!) $2.99 each 2 organic frozen pizza crusts $2.99 each (mind you, I went for the cauliflower crust, there were none) 1 lonely bag of riced cauliflower $1.99 (only bag there) 2 16 oz containers of "just chicken" .... cooked, quick protein $6.99 each 1 bottle pink lemonade $2.69 Bottle if cold brew concentrated coffee $7.99 Bowl of chopped slaw $2.99 Ghee $3.99 2 containers of roasted milk chocolate peanuts $3.99 each Large bag of tortilla chips $3...

We had family coming in for the weekend and we planned to go offshore fishing on Saturday so when I left the office on Friday, I stopped at Publix. What a shop that was! Not in a good way, necessarily. I've realized that YES prices have been creeping up ... I mean, geesh, I spent ELEVEN DOLLARS on white seedless grapes. I didn't realize that until I was home but wow.  I've told everyone that we are eating every last one of those grapes and the stems too! One stop this week and it was way over what my self imposed, unwritten budget is: $136.03 Yes, really. I had to put groceries away fairly quickly by the time I got home but this was the stuff going to the other kitchen fridge. Let's take a look and see what I bought and then we can do an evaluation, ok? Cracker Barrel cheese slices X 4 @ $2.50 each Chicken breakfast sausage that were B!G!F x 6 total @ $3.29 for two Hillshire Farms lunchmeat X 8 @ $3.67 each Toasted pita chips $3.69 ...

I don't know why, but I love to read what other bloggers are buying at the grocery store. Yeah. I guess you could say I'm obsessed with food ... but I 'think' I have a healthy relationship with it ;-) So, with that said, I thought, what the heck, I'll try to share my weekly grocery trips ... and if everything is going according to plan, you would even get a picture or two ... but of course, things don't always go as planned ... but this week, I DO have pics! A bonus for me to share weekly is to keep my grocery budget in check (hopefully!) *My goal for 2016 is $100 per person, per month. That's $300.00 a month, based on my household right now. I need to figure out how to add in the additional visitors, friends, family members that frequently come for dinner and happy hours ... but that is my intended upcoming budget! Oh ... and possible Whole30 to boot in January for two of us! 2 stops this week. TWO. And I realized that we are down to ONE rol...

I'm getting ready for the Big 2012 Challenge , and at this very moment, I'm perfectly comfortable with the approach. I've been planning for a few months and this past month has really pushed me to start the reduced spending a little sooner (of course, the generous bonuses sort of took the edge off and helped me with a few troubling bills) ... One of the things that I am so hoping that I can stay FOCUSED on is the use of two binders I set up. BOTH binders came from the office, free and were going to be thrown away (gasp) by my boss. I quickly claimed ownership before he could do the toss! One is strictly for tax purposes, tracking income and expenses. 100%. I anticipate that I will have 3 or 4 1099's at the end of the 2012 so I want to be sure I can get my tax writeoffs where I can. Rather than dreading the month of April (2013), I'm hoping this will help me be way ahead of the game and ready by mid February. The binder is divided into twelve sections, one for ...

Here it is, the 1st day of September! Wow, where DID the summer go? Sort of makes me sad, but then again, time goes on... So you already know that I do a spend/save post every week. This is just the discretionary spending stuff. The stuff that can and does change frequently. The stuff that can be eliminated for the most part in times of need. But then I also have a regular budget, so to speak. These are the bills that come in every month, that MUST be paid, you know, like the electric, phone, etc. So here’s how THAT looks: FPL       $400.00 AT&T     $45.00 Tmobile $220.00 (this will be back to about $165 in 2 months or less - $60 will be applied to cc or kitty) Water     $150.00 sprinkler $20.00 bug man $24.00 cap1       $150.00 Gas*       $125.00 Publix*    $400.00 Costco*  $300.00 Target*   $100.00 Kids* ...

I was looking at my home phone bill the other day and was thinking that it seems to be too much for a phone that we have mainly for the alarm monitoring service and those few sales calls that come in (ok, most of them are the fraternal order of the police!). Oh, and my friend, “chatty” who calls at a certain time of the night. I decided that now was the time. I cancelled the caller ID ($9.99 a month) and the long distance plan ($4.00 a month). After tax and all, I figured that should knock out about $20 off the bill. Regular household service is $13.99 plus the stupid taxes. Should be about $20. The bill has been $40. My $4.00 long distance plan with one call at 5 cents cost me $10 after all the taxes & surcharges. So there. I am standing up for my right to not be tied to the caller id! DH swears that I’m going to regret the caller id removal. We will see. Since I pretty much know when Chatty will call, I won’t need to see that it’s her. And now, if I’m busy making dinner, ...