Friday, December 16, 2016

Frugal Friday

The last four weeks of the year tend to be my absolute craziest of the year for work, and this year is no exception. It's been a WILD time. As a result of that, and a weekend of soccer last, I was really unprepared going into the week. We had several "backup meals", as I call them. Which is me taking our backup chicken strips from the freezer & combining them with some sort of a pasta dish. It wasn't exactly a well planned week, which adds to my stress with work. I'm usually better about this, so I'm giving myself a pass.

So, frugal wins for the week:

  • I earned a $5 Amazon gift card by using Bing rewards
  • I finally tracked down a missing water bottle (a nice insulated one, not one of the many plastic freebies we have at home). I hated to harass the person whom I thought might have it, but when I priced them & realized that replacing it was at least $10, I decided to suck it up. 
  • I passed on free concert tickets for a friend. It would have been fun, but I know I would have treated to a ride (Uber), food, etc. I also didn't have time, which was the reason for my decline.
  • I made treats for Nick's class party today, vs buying.
  • Used a coupon while dining out. (The second half of that sentence is where the non-frugal part comes in). ;-) 
  • Ate all meals at home, minus one outlier.
  • Avoided all of the sale offerings via my email, fliers, etc.
  • Made homemade hot chocolate for the kids vs going out. (We were out of the easy to make packs).
  • Signed up for an offer at work to test a free photo book.
  • Also, signed up through an offer from work to go to a free yoga class tomorrow morning.
  • I'm trying to really control my toiletry spending in 2017. I have a running inventory of things I should be looking for on sale. I found 3 razor blade replacements for $1.50 at my grocery store on clearance, because they were an outdated scent. ;-) They fit my Venus razor, so this was a huge deal.
  • I price checked the flights for my parents trip to visit & found out they were $5/each per ticket cheaper. I'll receive a $10 flight credit. 
  • I also found a deal for a $50 Panera gift card for $40 on Amazon, so I bought that. The boys love Panera when we're at soccer tournaments, etc, so this makes a nice splurge treat. 

And, in frugal fails for the week:
  • We went out to dinner, as I was running late, had no plan & wasn't mentally capable of making anything after my day. ;-) 
What about you? What kind of frugal wins or fails did you have over the past week or so?
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4 comments:

  1. SAMDecember 16, 2016 at 2:14 PM

    My big win is in paying the final Show Choir payment, I learned I had $28 in credit form last year, plus an assortment of little fundraisers in her account, and only had to pay $41.60 and had planned $125.

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  2. CheapchickDecember 17, 2016 at 9:42 AM

    I had mostly a frugal fail week but fortunately most of the purchasing for December is over. I hardly spend any money from the 24th onwards. Went to Costco and spent $158..might have had a fruitcake and lindt chocolates in my basket :) I did buy gift tags at the store for .25 cents which will be enough for next year. Very small frugal win.

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  3. CheapchickDecember 17, 2016 at 9:44 AM

    Actually I forgot a major frugal win. We were on the hook for the rental vehicle windshield as they couldn't repair it in Alberta and thought we had a $200 deductible but found out we had other coverage through the credit card with zero deductible. We instead have donated the $200 to charity (food bank and salvation army, two charities that do a ton of work in our town).

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