Holding my end up.

I have to thank Kelly for holding down the fort while I was busy and away. I spent the first 2 weeks of October tagging along on my parents Hawaiian vacation and the rest of my away time prepping a new resume and trying to take care of the first insane rush of wedding planning. OK enough excuses onto my frugal journey into fall!
Aside from an occasional slip I'm still working on cleaning out the freezer enough to be able to see what's actually in it. The trouble is that once I make a little progress something will happen like my mother visiting and leaving behind a loaf of bread which then has to be frozen. I just made room for both ice trays to move back in! Even then one is holding frozen eggs in one half and a free sample of berry berry Metamucil in the other, which I decided would probably make a better flavoring than beverage.
*Puts on concerned consumer hat* Listen to me Metamucil people, the new flavor is really good and the fact that it turns that rich pink color when you put water in it is fun but what is with that texture? It was like drinking those water absorbing crystals in diapers and ultra thin maxi pads. *Takes off hat that looks suspiciously like loudmouth hat*
Sorry about that. OK, so aside from a place to put free samples when they misbehave why am I working so hard to open up space in the freezer? Because once Halloween is over you can get a pumpkin for a dime and a song and I want to grate up the biggest gourd I can lay my hands on and put it in my freezer for winter soups. Sure most would make pumpkin puree for pie and bread but I was never fond of either of those so instead I am going to make the pumpkin act like the squash relative it is and be a soup veggie.
My most recent shopping excursion was so good that I actually taped the receipt into my paper journal.
1 box pasta
1 jar sauce
1 2 liter of green tea
4 cans Atkins chocolate shakes
They should have cost about $10
Total: 0.00
I'm still grinning about that one!
Otherwise I haven't had as much luck as Kelly with the rebates and coupons lately partially form being away and partially because I'm well stocked enough that I skip most rebates I can't make money on. I'm not kidding sadly. When they drop the bomb or whatever the paranoia is Kelly and my intended are probably coming over because they have seen the stocked pantry and freezer, have seen the cupboard full of shampoo, have seen the bottles of water that are there in case I'm in an emergency plant watering situation. *sigh* It's true I grew up in the country where roads and power would go out for days at a time. When they colonize Mars they'll send people like me, people who are still coming to terms with the fact that not everyone needs 4 wheel drive. No human contact for months at a time. Learning to spin human/pet hair into yarn for clothes....
God it'll be great! :)

Cans!

I finally took my aluminum cans to the scrap yard yesterday. I had about 7 pounds of crushed cans in my jumbo-sized plastic Wal-Mart bag. That's $4.55 cold, hard cash straight into my back pocket, and from thence, into my money jar, and from thence, into my checking account, and from thence into my vacation fund... eventually. :)

Rite Aid is running some nice rebates right now. I got a tube of toothpaste, a big bottle of mouthwash, and a 16-count of Advil for what should come to 50 cents after rebate. This was made possible by coupons. There are a couple of other nice free-after-rebates later in the month-- lip balm and hand sanitizer, I believe.