It never ceases to amaze me how you can get some super good deals if you just keep your eyes open and are ready to take avantage of them. My local grocer just really seems to be offering meat cuts and people are not buying them fast enough. It’s mostly the higher cost beef cuts, prime steaks and good roasts. When they are like 12-15 dollars a pound, people are just not buying it. So as a result, it goes on sale often. I have now filled our chest freezer with meat from two visits. This last haul was enough for 18 meals and only cost $52.00. And it is mostly rib eye steaks, roasts and hams. Makes me want another freezer! I can’t wait till we get our homestead dreams working, because I will have another freezer for sure. Hopefully for our own locally raised animals, but in the meanwhile, I’ll take advantage of these sales.

Last weekend, we stopped off at our favorite thrift store, Savers. We like to go once a month or so, maybe every 6 weeks when it’s not garage sale season. We’re careful, because just buying stuff because is a sure fire way to add tooo much clutter to your life. But if you’re careful, you can find some real gems. We love nice hardcover books of craft skills, things that can help on the homestead some day. They have a nice deal there, if you buy 4 books, you get a 5th free. We got a nice book on aromatherapy, a basket weaving book, one on building log cabins and sheds and another on country crafts and quilting. All really nice descriptive books.

The girls got a few little things, Maggie love music boxes and she buys the cheapest ones so that she can take out the musical elements and make new creations. It’s cool. Jessy likes to collect odds and ends that amuse her, like a few rare Beany Babies that a few years ago were hundreds of dollars and are now 50 cents at the thrift store. My how things change!

But the deal of the day has to be the goose down comforter that I got for $5 dollars. Yeah, 5 bucks. It’s very clean, looks new, is covered in a sort of soft champagne ivory damask fabric, I’m quite certain this was quite pricey in the day. Honestly, it hardly looks used at all. I was finding the nights just a little chilly and was hoping to find a comforter or blanket, but I’m a little picky, it would have to look nice and be very clean. It’s such a nice neutral, it works in my room. I think I will watch for a queen set of flat sheets on sale somewhere and eventually make a duvet cover for it, but right now, just laying on my existing quilt and blanket, it makes for one super cozy warm combo. Almost too hot!

We’ve done really well this year on our heat. Last two years have been hard on us, as a mobile home holds in the heat about as well as a cardboard box, but this last winter, we installed a new programable thermostat ($17) and I have really watched that it stays comfortable, but not too high in the Moby. Dialing it way down in the late night and early morning, when everyone is in bed. But it’s very nice to have it bring up the heat in the late morning so you don’t have that extreme shock factor when you wake up!

We’ve also been really using hoodies, sweaters and slippers, so everyone can regulate their own heat comfort a bit. And sealed up all the windows early, things like that. And the new comforter is helping too! It’s little things that really seem to add up. Our total heating bill is only about $600 so far. Way better than the first year of $1500 (yeah, that was a killer!) And last year was $900. I suspect we will still have another $100-$150 out of the winter, but it’s still so much better than $1500. I’m really going to work on windows this year, if we don’t end up moving to the farm. New windows would really help a lot.

Well, just wanted to share a few great deals that we found last week… our goal for 2011 is nothing new, all used, or created or done without. No new electronics, clothing, etc. No mindless shopping. So far, we’ve done fine. With Ebay and Craigslist, thrift stores and garage sales, I think you can do very nicely and still have lovely things and stuff you think you need. And you can be careful not to clutter up and just waste your hard earned cash! It’s not that hard, you just have to be patient and keep your eyes open for good deals!