Pennie’s From Heaven

 Good Morning Dear Ones!

I hope you are all doing well.  We are running quickly towards Thanksgiving break, and working in the area of education so many projects are needing to be finished up! Sometimes the busier we are the easier it is to feel like going out to eat is the solution to our time crunch—but truly if you factor in the time of driving there, waiting for your food, eating it and then driving home it is a lot quicker AND cheaper to eat at home!

So did you find ways to save your pennies this past week?  I jotted a few things down on my list. :) 

1. I sold some of my teaching books I am not using currently to a used book store, choosing the trade in credit instead of a cash pay out, as the credit is always a higher amount. They offered me $62 in credit, which I was pleased with because I know they do not pay very much as they also need to be able to mark it up for a profit for them. I appreciated the convenience of just dropping them off at the store, over listing and selling them myself.

2. While at the used book store, I found a book brand new still in the shrink wrap that I purchased to go as part of a Christmas present. I was happy!

3. Our family attended the local college’s second orchestra concert of the year.  The students did a marvelous job! Really top notch, and I feel blessed to have access to such high quality music events to attend free of charge!

4. I assisted one evening helping out in a local children’s orchestra. I helped teach a music theory class.

5. I made home made granola.  So much less expensive than purchasing it, and I can put in the ingredients I want and leave out all the sugar I don’t want!

6. I went shopping at a local bakery outlet, bringing home 22 packages of bread, bagels, and English muffins.  These are now tucked away safely in my freezer, waiting for my family that is coming to stay for a week at my house!  Each package is sold for $1.50, which is much less than the typical price in the grocery store!

7. I found a LLBean brand tote bag at a thrift store for just $4.00!  To say I was delighted would be an understatement! These things are super thick, and wear like iron! I already had the same bag in a medium size, and at the time I had purchased it I had debated between the small size and the medium, as there are times one works better than the other.  Not being able to afford to purchase both at the time, I had settled on getting the size medium and now it was the size small that I found.  So now I have both! It was not brand new, and has some very slight wear on the bottom of the bag, but there is still plenty of wear left in the bag!  I sponged off a slight spot of dirt on the outside of the bag, vacuumed out the lint that was on the inside, and it is good to go!

8.  I found a wallet for my daughter at the same thrift store, for only $1.00.  She likes the wallets with a wrist strap on them, which was what this one was. She can either tuck it in a larger bag or purse, or use it as a purse itself.

9. I invested in myself and bought some needed school supplies! A fellow teacher friend told me about this type of mechanical pencil, that has a larger size pencil lead in it that does not break as easily.  As I really need some pencils I can get a thin line with—which is harder with the typical wooden pencils—I gave it a try.  For less than $3.00, I am very pleased so far and there are ten pencils in the package so a good deal!

Well, that was my week!  What did you do to save your pennies and bless your family?  I would love to hear what you found to do!

Until next time,

Friend