Frugal Friday/Spendy Saturday

We are now back from skiing, and trying to get the house unpacked after two different trips. Laundry is everywhere, ski clothes & gear litter the house. There wasn't a ton of snow in Lake Tahoe, but good times were had by all. We had a great New Year's Eve at the cabin we rented, and had a lot of laughs as a family. Skiing is not for the faint of heart (driving, gear, packing/unpacking, $$$$$$) but we love the active family vacation. Although it wasn't cheap (at all, at all), here are a few frugal wins from the last week or so:

Saving on things we buy

• We used a $10 Costco offer to earn a gift card. This came in the mail, with a reminder to set up our membership to auto renewal. Typically, I'm opposed to auto renewal, but given we will definitely renew our membership next year, it makes my life easier to have it set up to renew on my credit card. And, we earned a $10 Costco card to boot.
• I took advantage of a BOGO50 sale at Target to buy a few new bras. My others have given up the ghost, so this was well timed.

Earning money

• I found $.35 on the ground during skiing. 
• I've paused all of my eBay sales, so haven't made any side hustle recently. However, I did relist all of my sales today, and added four new items. 
• M played a few hands of craps while we were waiting to meet friends for dinner. He made enough to cover: the kids time at the arcade, dinner, and a few hundred extra. 

Avoiding spending

• We returned a couple of Christmas gifts that didn't work out.
• We packed snacks & drinks for the car ride both ways (our house is 4-5 hours from Lake Tahoe).
• We forgot our backpack the first day of skiing, but remembered to bring it the 2nd & 3rd day. While the kids prefer a hot lunch, they are so hungry that they also eat the sandwiches, trail mix & treats we pack. I opted for a packed PB&J one day, and split with M two of the days. Food at the ski resorts is crazy pricey. Think, $80 for a casual lunch.
• We made our own dinners 3 of 4 nights, and met up with friends for a quick bite another night. We packed our own food in a cooler, and brought back the leftovers. 

I can't describe the mountain of laundry that's all over the house. Even though the unit we stayed in came with a washer & dryer (and, I used it!) we came back one day earlier than planned, to give us more time at home before work & school starts again on Monday. I'm thrilled with the bonus time, but because we were packing up, I didn't have a chance to run a load of laundry. Each skier has a base layer (top & bottom), socks, fleece, ski pants, glove liners, etc. Most of it can't be dried, so it's line drying all over the house. It looks very glamorous around here.

My to do list for this weekend:

1. Take Nick to soccer - x2
2. Costco
3. Wash the car we took skiing (M will handle this)
4. Order Nick's birthday gift while it's on sale
5. Return 2 Amazon items
6. Buy a new bra
7. Buy bows for next Christmas. We haven't bought any in a decade or so, and now we are out/the old ones have fallen apart.
8. Laundry
9. Repack ski bags
10. Relist all eBay items
11. List new eBay items
12. Go to the gym
13. Decide if I'm keeping new winter boots
14. Investigate summer camps
15. Figure out February break plans
16. Close out the books on 2019 spending
17. Build 2020 fitness tracker
18. Review/post December goals
19. Post January goals
20. Update 2020 goals

There's more, but that's all I can think of for now. Too tired! ;-)  Hope you all had a fabulous New Years, and are ready to tackle 2020!