Welcome Friday Follow Folks!

I'm so glad you've come by today, and I hope you find some great blogs to follow!

This week, I started my Frugal Follies Book List with four books I read about personal finance and frugality.  I continued my series on selling used books online, and I talked about whether Albertsons is going out of business in Florida.  I also gave an update about February's progess toward my family's financial goals.

Come see what I and other frugal bloggers bought this week at Wednesday Weekly Shopping. If you're looking for bargains, check my Under a Buck series, with listings for Publix, Winn-Dixie, CVS, Walgreens, Rite-Aid, and Target.

I'm also on Twitter and Facebook, so you can see me there, too!

Thanks for stopping by - please leave a comment so I know you've been here, and I'll return the favor!

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Bagel coupons!

I was over at Coupons.com today and saw something I never expected - a coupon for bagels! Go here to print out a coupon for 75¢ off Nature's Own Thin-Sliced Bagels.

Other coupons that interested me:
75¢ off any Freschetta pizza
75¢ off Breyers YoCrunch 100 calorie pack
75¢ off House-Autry Mills breader or mix

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Frugal Follies Book List: January and February

I read a lot of books on frugality and personal finance. I just love them, even if I only pick up a tip or two with each book. Each month here at Frugal Follies, I'll be posting the books that I've read over the past month. If you have any suggestions for me, please leave them in the comments!

Stop Acting Rich: ...And Start Living Like A Real Millionaire by Thomas J. Stanley

A continuation of his books The Millionaire Next Door and The Millionaire Mind, Stanley, a researcher into the habits of very wealthy people, says that to be rich, we need to not emulate the habits of those who appear rich and instead act like the rich really do.  The people we see buying expensive clothes, driving super-luxury cars, and wearing fancy watches are usually just good at spending lots of money and appearing to be rich - they are not accumulating wealth because of their consumerism habits.  Instead, people who become truly wealthy have frugal habits and are more concerned with building wealth through businesses and investments.

Cherries in Winter: My Family's Recipe for Hope in Hard Times by Suzan Colon

After author Colon loses her job, her mother suggests that she dig out Colon's grandmothers box of recipes.  In the memorabilia she finds not only her grandmother's thrifty recipes, but also essays about her grandmother's life and how she and her family managed through difficult economic times.  The book is not so much a cookbook - though there are recipes - as a memoir about how good, basic food can get us through tough situations to a future with promise again. 

In CHEAP We Trust: The Story of a Misunderstood American Virtue by Lauren Weber

This book traces the history of thrift in the United States from our earliest settlers until the present day.  So many books on frugality wax poetic about how our ancestors were so good at saving money, and that it is only in the present day that we have become conspicuous consumers and spendthrifts.  This book shows that we are merely looking at the past through a cloudy lens, that while there is a strong history of frugality in this country, frugal folks have always had to fight the tide of a consuming culture.  I particularly found her analysis of the stereotypes about Jewish people and money to be very informative.

Family Feasts for $75 a Week by Mary Ostyn

Written by a blogger mom of 10 (check out her blog, Owlhaven), Family Feasts for $75 a Week has lots of great cooking ideas to keep grocery bills low.  She feeds her large family on about $900 per month, which would equate to $75 a week for a family of four.  Just the amount of cooking that size family would require takes my breath away!  Her recipes are sized for a typical family, though, and include Korean and Ethiopian traditional dishes.  I will definitely be trying many of these recipes!

Check out Life as MOM for more reading suggestions.

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Under a Buck at Publix 3/11/10 - 3/17/10

Want to get a great deal at Publix, but don't have the time to clip coupons? Here's a list of some of the items under $1.00 this week at Publix, according to the weekly (South Florida) ad. Please check your local ad to be sure that these deals are available in your area.

• 29¢ - Green cabbage, per pound
• 45¢ - Earth's Best organic baby food (buy one at 99¢, get one free)
• 90¢ - Gerber graduates or Gerber 2nd Foods
• 99¢ - Bartlett pears, per pound
• $1.00 - Barilla pasta, 9-16 oz box (buy one at $1.99, get one free)
• $1.00 - Fuze beverages, 18.5 oz bottle

Check out Wednesday Weekly Shopping to see what bargains I snagged this week, and link up your bargains as well!

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Wednesday Weekly Shopping: Pictures and more pictures

I invite you to link to your best grocery deals below!

For what's probably the first time, I think I took pictures of everything I bought!  Well, except for a 5 lb. bag of flour I bought in a hurry when I was about to bake challah and realized I was out.  But other than that, here's what I got this week:

$43.73 at Walgreens

72¢ at Walgreens

$18.12 at Publix, plus another $2.29 for flour

$14.86 at Walmart and Penn-Dutch

Altogether I spent $79.71 for groceries worth $178.43, or 55% saved.  Not too bad.

See all of my shopping details here.

Check out the following to see how others shopped this week!

• Super Savings Saturday @ Money Saving Mom
  
• Shopping Superstars @ The Thrifty Mama
  
• Weekly Totals @ I Heart Publix
  
• Super Savers @ Fiddledeedee Mom
  
• The Cha-Ching Challenge@ Cha Ching on a Shoestring
  
• Coupon Super Savers @ Coupon Savings Game
  
• Friday Finals @ Southern Savers
  
• Saving Our Cents Saturday @ Saving Our Cents
• Week-Ending Finale @ The Frugal Freeloader
• Super Savings Saturday @ Mandy's Frugal Journey
• The Savings Bungalow @ Saving a Bundle
• Bargain Bragging Tuesday @ Couponing to Disney
  

How did your shopping go this week? What bargains did you get? Please leave a link to your blog post about your weekly shopping. Please link directly to your post, not to the blog itself. I'd appreciate it if you put a link to Wednesday Weekly Shopping in your post as well. If you don't have a blog, please leave a comment!

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Shopping details 3/10/10

Here's what I got this week for $79.71:

Product	Quantity	Shelf Price	Total	- Coupon	- Savings	TOTAL	Details
Walgreens
Goodnites	5	$11.79	$58.95	$7.50	$14.00	$37.45	2/28 SS
Sudafed	2	$6.49	$12.98	$4.00	$3.00	$5.98	12/6 RP
Huggies wipes	1	$7.99	$7.99	$0.75	$2.00	$5.24	IP
Ajax	1	$1.99	$1.99	$1.10		$0.89	Walgreens ad
Walgreens sandwich bags	1	$1.59	$1.59	$0.60		$0.99	Walgreens ad
$5 RR	2			$10.00		-$10.00
Purex	4	$5.99	$23.96	$11.98	$11.98	$0.00	2/21 RP
tax			$3.90			$3.90
Publix
Publix 5 lb flour	1	$2.29	$2.29			$2.29
Kellogg's Rice Krispies	4	$3.99	$15.96	$4.20	$7.98	$3.78	$1/2 blinkie, booklet
Quaker oatmeal	2	$3.89	$7.78	$2.00	$3.89	$1.89	2/14 RP
Publix bread	2	$1.69	$3.38	$4.00		-$0.62	$2 wyb Kraft IP
Kraft shredded cheese	2	$2.99	$5.97	$2.00	$2.64	$1.33	$2/2 blinkie
Kraft sliced cheese	2	$2.79	$5.58		$1.58	$4.00
milk	1	$3.19	$3.19			$3.19
strawberries	1	$2.99	$2.99		$1.32	$1.67
$1 off produce				$1.00		-$1.00	Publix calendar
bananas	3	$0.69	$2.07			$2.07
Dannon yogurt	6	$0.50	$3.00	$0.60	$0.60	$1.80	2/21 SS
Penn-Dutch
Kirby cucumbers	0.77	$1.49	$1.15			$1.15
parsley	1	$1.29	$1.29			$1.29
apples	1	$2.99	$2.99			$2.99
tangerines	0.74	$0.99	$0.73			$0.73
green peppers	0.69	$1.79	$1.24			$1.24
Walmart
1 dozen eggs	1	$1.18	$1.18			$1.18
juice boxes	1	$2.38	$2.38			$2.38
whole wheat flour	1	$2.98	$2.98			$2.98
tortillas	1	$0.92	$0.92			$0.92
Total Out-of-Pocket			$178.43	$49.73	$48.99	$79.71

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Is Albertsons going out of business in Florida?

I get a lot of folks finding Frugal Follies from Google who are asking this question, so I thought I'd let you know what I know about Albertsons in Florida.

Are they going completely out of business?  No, not completely.  However, quite a few stores have closed over the past two years.

In June 2008, Publix purchased 49 stores from Albertsons.  This included fifteen locations in North Florida, thirty in Central Florida, and four in South Florida.  Read about it here.

Another four stores were closed in October 2009 - stores in Lake Worth, Bonita Springs, Estero, and Riverview.  Click here for more information.

In January 2010, three stores in the Orlando area were closed and converted to Sedano's supermarkets.  Here's an article about it from the Miami Herald.

Another eight were closed in February 2010 - five locations in South Florida and three elsewhere.  The South Florida stores were in Pembroke Pines, Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Lake Worth, and Loxahatchee.  It's unclear to me whether the Lake Worth closing here and the Lake Worth closing listed in October 2009 are the same store.  Here is an article from the Sun-Sentinel about the closing.

I was sorry to see my local store close and for the people who lost their jobs.  But, I was able to get some really incredible deals at the closing sale.  Check out my finds here, here, and here.

Reports say there are around 20 Albertsons stores in Florida - I couldn't find a definitive list.  Using their store finder (which didn't work for me in Firefox), there appear to be no more stores left in the Miami area.  There's one in Oakland Park near Ft. Lauderdale, none in the West Palm Beach area, one in St. Lucie, 8 within 50 miles of Orlando area, and 6 within 50 miles of Tampa.  So there still are Albertsons stores in Florida - use the store finder to see if there are stores in your area.

Hope this helps!

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