Frugal Friday

It's been a long week, and I've been dealing with TMJ as a result of some lupus inflammation. That means lots of soup for dinner, and smoothies for other meals, as I try to get the inflammation to go down.

It hasn't exactly been a banner frugal week, but here's what we've been up to:

1. Cashed in hotel points (for a hotel chain that's very niche & hard to use except for work - otherwise, a free hotel stay is almost always the most valuable option) for a $50 Amazon gift card for the holidays
2. Finally earned a Nordstrom $20 credit (I have their credit card. Never shop there & never use it, but have kept it around for credit score purposes). We have a few bills set on autopay, and they finally generated enough for a store credit. I've put this aside for Christmas as well.
3. Packed the kids lunches all week, and made all meals at home.
4. Continued to use oranges from our tree to make homemade smoothies. Particularly helpful this week with my limited food choices.
5. Signed up for my benefits through my employer, and bumped up my HSA contributions.

And, that's it for me! What frugal things have you been up to this week?