Saved by the rebate!

As you know, I was down to $2.71 for the rest of the month. I was out of milk and I still have a couple of those really hot free wyb 3 items. Received a $20 rebate today from Miller Lite! I bought milk today, so, I now have a whopping $19.46 to work with the rest of the month. It looks like I'm going to make it, after all.

I also received a free $25 Walgreens GC today from MyPoints. Maybe, just maybe, I'll take a look at the flyer this week or next and see if there's any freebies or moneymakers. Or, maybe I'll just hold on to it until I actually, really and truly need something. I noticed at my closest Wags store that they usually carry bread. I'm sure it costs more there than at my usual grocery store, but, the GC is a fall-back in case I drag this challenge out a few more months.

I cheated today. My newspaper yesterday had a Q for a free chicken sandwich at McD's with the purchase of a medium drink. I had the chicken sandwich today, but, I was shocked at the price of a medium soft drink, $1.59 plus .15 tax. Gee! A dollar and 74 cents for a coke! I thought the chicken sandwich was especially good, but, that may be because it was free. I ate a very late lunch, so, I'm thinking I won't be hungry for anything for supper. Besides, there's baseball starting at 4:35pm and 8:00pm. No time in between to cook.

There's still 2 weeks left in this month, so, I don't know yet what kind of shape I'll be in by the 31st. I would really like to continue the challenge through September. I want it to be a real challenge, so, I might stick with the $50 oop and having all rebates and free GC in play. It would be easy to say, "Oh, I'll budget $100 next month." That wouldn't be much of a challenge, though, would it? It seems my biggest expense has been for cat food. I have 5 of my own plus all the freeloaders that show up at mealtime. An 18 lb. bag just doesn't quite make it through the entire month. I also haven't seen any Friskies dry food Qs lately. The last ones I saw that expired recently were $1.50/2 bags. I don't think that's much of a Q. Two large bags, with tax, would be nearly $25 and only have $1.50 off? I'm going to have to think of something else. If I had any backbone at all, I'd make all those cats go out and catch their own dinner! But, no, I have to be a softy and let them live in the lap of luxury. They do bring in something every now and then. Recently I've been finding headless birds in the yard. Once I found only the feet. Those goobers ate the whole thing! Hey! They ARE learning something from me; don't waste it, eat it.

My original intent of this blog was to show you how to live on a tight budget and get the most out of your stockpile. I don't think I've been doing a very good job of that. I found myself with several of the single-serve frozen entrees and they are just so easy and I don't have to think about meal planning. I really am going to try harder to use stockpile items, not the frozen stuff. Well, I guess I need to use them up, too. Nothing lasts forever in the freezer. You will eventually get freezer burn on everything if you keep it too long. So, maybe a better mix of using frozen items and using dry stockpile items. I'll work on it.