Friday, February 14, 2020

Frugal Friday

It's been a crazy week, with school soccer tryouts, birthdays, work events, & high school orientation. I did buy Sam a sandwich between tryouts & orientation, but we've otherwise stuck to our eating plan, utilizing planned leftovers & other freezer items to smooth the way.

Here are the other frugal wins for the week.


Saving money on things we buy
  • Remembered to apply a $12 rebate to my Amazon account right before it expired

Earning money

  • Found a penny on the ground. Big money!
  • Earned $18.24 at Rakuten, and applied the money to our mortgage pay down. 
  • Listed three travel gift cards for sale. We purchased them to use on our anniversary trip, but it's likely we will attach our anniversary trip to a work trip on my end, cutting the flight costs in half. 


Avoiding spending:

  • I wasn't sure which bucket to put this in, but we finally received a refund from the DMV for our car tabs. They sent us two bills, three months apart. I wasn't paying attention, and paid a second time. Eventually, I realized that I'd already paid, and requested a refund. Dealing with the DMV can sometimes be an adventure, but they were actually pretty prompt in the refund. We now have $457 that would have disappeared into the ether without my calls. 
  • We also carpooled with a friend to a high school orientation night for Sam. Cannot believe we're talking about high school orientation!
How did you do? Any frugal wins to share?

7 comments:

  1. $457-what a win, and to get your own money back is critical to stopping leaks.

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    1. I should have noticed it ahead, but at least it's back!

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  2. Yikes that is a lot of money to pay twice.

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  3. Amazon has rebates? :D

    Good job catching that double billing, I wonder what they would have done with it if you hadn't noticed. I'd like to think they would have credited your account for next year.

    I've been so busy this week I couldn't spend on personal stuff, so I guess that's a frugal win, but we have been spending through the NOSE on the rental's refresh.

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    1. I received a rebate from some sort of alcohol purchase, and it came in the form of a MasterCard "gift card" for $12, vs a check. I always forget to use those, because they sometimes don't work at the store unless you are using exactly $12. Instead I read on another blog that you can add any amount to your Amazon account via the "gift card", which worked perfectly. I can stop carrying it, and will definitely use it on Amazon.

      I just can't imagine they would have credited it to us, but maybe I'm too cynical. When I called, it took 30 minutes or so, but they definitely saw our account had a credit. We had to jump through so hoops, which suggests they normally don't just process it back to you.

      Good luck getting everything resolved with our rental refresh!

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  4. The high school years are so quickly over. Enjoy them and all the chaos they bring!

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