Friday, January 10, 2020

Frugal Friday

It was a pretty typical week for us. We ate leftovers, I drove the electric car to/from work & charged there for free. We packed lunches for the kids, and ate lunch (for free) at work. Here are a few frugal wins for the week:

Saving on things we buy

  • This won't help immediately, but I realized that a hotel I'm going to for a retreat is part of the Hyatt. I added my points number, so I can accrue points. This will help offset a future stay.
  • I found a Starbucks card that Nick won at a Christmas game. It must have been in a pocket & gone through the wash, so it looked beyond use. I was able to get the numbers & find the pin, so I've added it to my Starbucks account. (I'll give him the $5 in cash, which he prefers.) It almost went to the garbage, so I'm glad we were able to salvage it.


Earning money

  • Sold an item I got for free at work (a prize for a game) on eBay. Made about $11
  • Listed new items on eBay

Avoiding spending

  • Used Amazon padded envelope to mail eBay sale
  • Planned ahead for a night when I had to be out of the house for high school orientation. Made dinner in advance so the boys wouldn't be tempted to eat out.
  • Returned a pair of winter boots I don't need.
  • I was able to book flights for my parents to come over spring break. They'll watch the kids while we are working. I used miles & spend $7 out of pocket for taxes. Woohoo! I saved $368.60 by using miles. 
That's it for us. What about you? Any frugal wins to report?

8 comments:

  1. Like you, my wins will be the ongoing steady type of savings and hope to pad our savings more with not spending. Other than my pick up of a late breakfast lunch combo when bringing my daughter back, I packed lunch every day and used items that have been lingering or were close to prime. My husband no longer buys any food out of th house for lunch, so I am going to see if I can figure out what he used to pay, and see if what we save with him self packing, even though my grocery budget will go up.

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    1. The day to day wins really add up! That's awesome that your husband is bringing a lunch now vs buying. It will definitely help save. Eating out is so much more expensive than packing. Perhaps it will also help reduce food waste.

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  2. Your taxes are way low - every time I book a free flight we have to pay $100-200 pp in taxes, even domestic flights. Bloody Canada and the taxes (*but we do get a lot more for them including free healthcare :))

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  3. The gift card to Starbucks is great. 5 dollars is 5 dollars that didn't go into the trash!
    I think accruing points for the future is true savings, even if you don't realize them for a bit. It is like stocking up on bargain groceries. You don't feel the savings at the moment but later they are really nice.

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    1. You're right - I should look at the points that way. They really do add up in a meaningful way, but sometimes it takes so long to accrue anything that I forget by the time it comes around.

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  4. I just worked hard and tried not to spend any mney unless I had to.

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