Frugal Friday

This week has been quite a bit outside the norm, as the kids are with my parents, & M & I are home alone. I've also been working crazy hours to wrap up all of my work to get ready for two weeks of vacation. The longest I've taken off since starting this job! As a result, it certainly hasn't been the most frugal week, as we had three dinners out/date nights. Don't regret it at all, and it's unusual for us. However, all of that restaurant food (and wine!) is not good for my healthy eating, so I'll need to trim back the calories to get back on track.

Here are the frugal wins for the week:

• Picked M up at the airport after our flights on Sunday
• I used my Uber gift card both ways (to & from the airport) for my trip this weekend
• Sold a pair of sunglasses on eBay & got more than expected - $56! 
• Took advantage of having no kiddos around & celebrated our date night (bumped from May) with dinner out. Combination Father's Day dinner as well. 
• Saved $32 on our Hawaii flights by price matching (this generates credit for a future flight, not actual cash back).
• Received 4 lemons from a coworker who has a tree that is not liking the hot weather, & all of the lemons are dropping
• Kept grocery shopping to the bare minimum. . . coffee beans, salmon for M to grill this weekend, & cheese pizza for the kids that was on sale. (The pizza went into the freezer). Our grocery bill for the month is looking great. Our dining out bill, on the other hand. . . It was both M's 50th birthday & Father's Day, as well as two bonus date nights. Lots has been spent in this category for the month.
• M will also be able to take me to the airport tomorrow, saving about $20 on an Uber. 

I also have a few frugal goals for my upcoming vacation:

• Keep grocery shopping reasonable & in check. (I have family members who get a little crazy, so it's tempting to go all in).
• Stick to the meal plan
• No meals out! We're in a very mellow part of the Oregon coast, and there are few restaurants anyway. The only potential exception would be before our flight home next Thursday.
• Evaluate our pantry & freezer options, and use those up first. This is particularly important, as we're not at the vacation house very often.
• Minimize food waste where possible. I can't get this down to zero, as we fly home & some things don't travel well. 
• Bring any leftover (easy to pack) fruit along tomorrow on my flight, so we can use them for breakfast on our first day.  

That's it! Super excited to have some time off from work. What about you? Any big frugal wins to report?