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Wednesday, December 11, 2019

Deals, Steals, and Freebies from This Last Weekend


I am trying very hard to watch my spending this holiday season. It's difficult, though. I want to be generous with our giving to organizations that help others, to our church, and to friends who have supported us so well this past year. I also want to treat my family members during the holidays. Yet, there is only so much money to go around. 

With this in mind, I'm trying to treat my family without spending a huge fortune. I've been scouring the deals every week for a month, now. And these are the deals, steals, and freebies that I got over this past weekend.

Deals

  • Bath & Body Works 3-wick candle to use as a gift, for $6.58 (regularly $24.00)
  • 5 packages Nestle Toll House baking chips, including Mini chips, Dark Chocolate, and Semi-Sweet, for $1.49 each, to be used in baking throughout the holiday season and into winter (my other "best price" for baking chips is $1.78/package of store-brand chips on sale at WinCo, otherwise the regular price of Nestle morsels is $3.59/package at Fred Meyer)
  • 1 dented can of artichoke hearts, 49 cents, to use in Christmas dinner (regularly $2.49)
Steals
  • 12 ounces gourmet decaffeinated ground coffee for 99 cents, a price I never, ever find for ground coffee (regularly $6.99)
  • Four 1-quart cartons (I only show 1 in photo, other 3 are in the freezer) of organic almond milk for 50 cents each (regularly $2.79 each)
Freebies
  • One 3-ounce Theo dark chocolate bar -- FREE! (Regularly $2.99) This will become a gift.
  • One Kinder chocolate bar -- FREE! (Regularly $1.29) This will become a gift.
  • 1 full-sized bottle of Bath & Body Works shower gel -- FREE! (Regularly $13.50) This will become a gift.

I spent $17.51 for all of this. The regular retail value of the lot is about $80.37.

When the stress of potential post-holiday credit card bills starts to get me down, a shopping day like I had this past Saturday helps to level out my mood. Any deals, steals or freebies for you lately?

11 comments:

  1. Great finds. My eyes are drawn to the chocolate chips in the picture. So many possibilities for treats from them. Yum!

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  2. You found some amazing deals! I know you put hard work into finding them, so good job!

    I don't think I've found anything that amazing lately. But we did find a deal on a furniture purchase we'd been considering. Years ago, we had a wrought iron sleigh bed. It was beautiful, but the design was such that it took up way too much room in our small-ish bedroom and our pillows would fall down the crack between the mattress and headboard. So we sold it and have simply had our mattress on a frame for years, but had been discussing finding a padded headboard of some sort. A few weeks ago, while on fb, I saw a post from our favorite thrift shop (run by and benefits Teen Challenge, fo r those struggling with addictions) with a bed that was just what I'd wanted. The price seemed a bit high for the thrift store, but my husband said we should at least go look at it after he got off work. Off we went. Well, it came with a mattress, which we don't need, having replaced ours a couple years ago. So we talked to the manager, who knows us from frequent trips both to shop and donate, and asked if the price might come down a bit if we didn't take the mattress. He said sure and actually took the price of what they'd sell the mattress alone for off the bed, which was more than half! So we came home with that great bed. It lifts up with a strap to reveal tons of storage beneath, and has a padded leather headboard. Works perfectly for our needs!

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  3. We don't often find great deals on things either, at least on non-food items. Aldi had their toasted coconut ground coffee for $3.79 a bag which is seasonal and tastes delicious. I bought several of those and put them in the freezer. We regularly look for discounted meat but nothing especially during the Christmas season.

    But we did need a very thin queen sized headboard for our guestroom. It was my daughter's room with a twin sized bed but when she got married we decided a queen was what we needed. So we bought a frame and a mattress. The new mattress set became our new bed and the guest room has our old set which is in very good condition. We just didn't have a headboard. That really bothered me so we slowly looked around and my MIL found one at a thrift store which was perfect. She also found us a very small end table for that room that fit perfectly. It is a very small room but it doesn't even look or feel small with the bigger bed.

    We got two of our kids a little something for Christmas and I'm working on a little something for the married kids. This is hard because I don't want it to cost a lot but not something useless either.

    Hubby wanted a new recliner so we found a discounted but new one so he has a new chair. I needed some new bootie boots so I got those. We're pretty much all set for gifts.

    Alice

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  4. I try to buy everything on sale but for the life of me, I can't think of any especially good purchases lately. It's so funny that 2 people have commented about buying headboards. We recently replaced our mattress and the new one comes with a base (instead of box springs). Our old headboard doesn't fit this one and I'm not keen to make it work as it was given to me years ago, the gold metal finish is wearing off, and I'm not super DIY handy--plus, to spray paint it would require good weather and it seems like all we have had for the past year is rain. All to say--maybe I need to hit the thrift stores!

    Lili, I haven't heard of some of those brands of chocolate--I guess I'm not much of a connoisseur of fine chocolate--I usually get my "better" chocolate from Aldi. You have some very nice freebie gifts that I think anyone would be pleased to receive!

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  5. I just saw this and wanted to share it in case anyone wants to make an almost-free project for a gift: https://thistlewoodfarms.com/diy-book-page-trees-made-from-a-vintage-christmas-carol-songbook/#comment-306992

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  6. Kris,

    I found that the newer frames don't fit old headboards UNLESS you get the hardware for the conversion kit. That might be all it needs. We thought we needed the conversion kit but we didn't. The frame came with hardware to fit the headboard so we tucked that safely away until the time when we could find the perfect headboard.

    Alice

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  7. I feel the same way, Live and Learn -- so many yummy treats to be made with the chocolate chips!

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  8. Hi Cat,
    what a great find! I'm so happy for you to find the perfect new headboard for such a deal. Enjoy!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi Alice,
    Wow! That all worked out so perfectly, with the new bed and side table. You have a nice guest room all set up for when your daughter and husband now visit (or anyone else, I'm sure).
    I know what you mean about not wanting to give something useless. I think of that often, too. It sounds like you're doing great on this. I'm glad for your husband with the new recliner and booties for you. Enjoy those warm feet!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi Kris,
    Good luck to you in pursuit of your new headboard. This is funny that three of you are all in this same spot.
    One of the chocolate bars, Theo, is from a local chocolatier. So no wonder you haven't heard of it. The other, Kinder, is made by the company that makes Kinder eggs, the chocolate candy that comes with a toy. The original Kinder eggs were a hollow chocolate egg with a toy inside. I believe that those have been banned in the US as the toy inside might be a choking hazard. Kinder eggs, now, are a plastic egg with a toy in one half and the candy part in the other half. One of my daughters loves Kinder eggs, so when I got the free bar I knew she'd love this. Kinder, by the way, is made by the Ferrero company (makes Ferrero Roche). I was super thrilled to get coupons for both candy bars as they will make great, small gifts that I absolutely know will be loved by the recipients.

    I hope your week is going well, Kris!

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  11. Hi Kris,
    Thanks for that link. Those trees are really cute. So, you don't even need to have a book of sheet music for this. I was just about to post something that I've used for Christmas decor using sheet music. I made these a couple of years ago --
    Sheet Music Wrapped Pillar Candles
    I printed out free sheet music from the internet. Anyway, I mention this in the post that will go out in email overnight tonight.
    Those trees that you linked to are cute.

    ReplyDelete

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