Frugal Friday

Oh, happy Friday!

Sam has his first "boy/girl" birthday party. They are going to a movie. There will be plenty of other boys attending, but oh, we shall see. 5th grade boys are not particularly known for their maturity. . .

In frugal news, there were definitely frugal moments last week. Most of them were around traveling & summer camps - all of which are big yearly line items for us. I was able to book all of the remaining summer camps for the year, as well as the majority of our flights through the end of 2017. This was a nagging item that had been lingering for a while, so I'm very happy to check it off the list.

• No meals out this week! Next week I will take my mom out to dinner, as she's helping me with the kids. That will be offset by not needing the nanny as often next week.
• Saved $1500 by using travel credits on our flights for summer trips. These credits were earned when our Hawaii trip continued to get changed/adjusted last year. 
• Saved $191 by applying travel credits earned by regularly monitoring prices, and applying for credits when the prices dropped below the fare we paid. 
• Saved $196 by carefully reviewing our tax returns & noting a couple of things that were missing. 
• Used frequent flier miles to have my mom come out on Sunday. Not only did that save cash, she will be a huge help - cleaning, meal prep, childcare, and organizing after the move
• Made a few tradeoffs for summer camp planning that will save over $500. For example, I was going to register the boys for a camp that goes for the entire week of July 4th, even though we would miss a day. Then noted I get a couple of days off at work, and opted to take the other two days off, which saves quite a bit. I can also work from home if needed, and arrange play date swaps for the kids. 
• Found great flights for $50 below my budget for a week in August when I'm flying my parents out for the last week of summer break. There are no camps available. None. I've had this problem for two summers in a row, so this year, I've planned ahead. Flying two people out, and giving them $100 of spending money for events (trampoline place, arcade, lunches out, etc) is still cheaper than summer camp for two kids, if you can believe it!
• A friend asked to borrow our vacation house for the weekend, and gave me a $100 gift card as a thank you. 

That's it on my side! I've also started carpooling to Sam's boy scout meeting to save gas money (and time), which is great. The house/move has been extremely expensive, so we are looking at other ways to save our cash. What about you? Any big frugal wins this week?