Friday, October 30, 2020

Frugal Friday

Another busy work week, as we enter our busiest season of the year. I'm barely keeping things afloat, and taking off last Friday set me back quite a bit. But, the week is drawing to a close! Woohoo! 

Here are a few frugal things we got up to. 

Saving on things we buy

  • We drove through a farming area on our way to lunch last Friday, and stopped to buy avocados (5/$1) at a road side stand. We bought 10 avocados for $2 & 3 pomegranates (the large kind) for $5. I couldn't believe the price on the avocados. What a deal!
  • Bought ground beef at $.99/lb, and picked up three pounds for the freezer. 

Earning money

  • eBay picked up a bit, but has generally been slow lately. I continue to list an item daily, as it's also part of my ongoing decluttering and living with less stuff plans. This week I sold:
    • A sweater I don't wear
    • A game the boys don't play (and bonus, mailed it in the envelope I received for free from my local Buy Nothing group)
    • A makeup sample
    • A pair of pajama pants
    • A NWT shirt that I bought Nick. It's a good lesson for me to continually go through their closets. Particularly during COVID, they just aren't wearing too many different things. All of us need fewer items of clothing right now. 
  • Redeemed $5 in Fetch Rewards for an Amazon gift card. (Fetch is the app where you upload your grocery receipts.) 
  • Filled out a claim for a $5 check for a class action lawsuit

Avoiding spending

  • We opted to not go out to dinner on Saturday (socially distanced, outside), as we had such a great lunch out on Friday afternoon. We ended up buying steak & dessert, and having that for four, which was still 1/3 or so of the price of a dinner out. I also used up the last of four very close to needing to be tossed potatoes, and made roasted potatoes & a chimichurri sauce (parsley from the garden) to go with the steak. It was very fun & relaxing. 
  • We returned our electric car (the end of the lease). We loved the car, & it was my favorite car I've ever driven. The dealership made us many fabulous offers on other electric cars, but we are just not driving enough to require another vehicle. We also preferred to lease, because we had questions about the battery life. That ended up not being a factor at all, and we would buy a used electric car, should we ever both end up driving a lot. We saved money on the registration, & insurance, as well as the cost of leasing or buying the car. (We never had a charger put in at our house, as we were able to charge for free at work through creative car dropping off, even during COVID WFH). I'm very sad to see the car go, and will absolutely buy another electric car again. 

For others:
  • Made a cash donation to a food bank
  • Gathered up food for a donation to my son's school food pantry
  • Walked our neighbor's dog several times, and shared steak scraps for her to dole out as treats
  • Shared more costumes with neighbors

What about you? How have you been doing this week? Any frugal wins or actions for others to share? 


4 comments:

  1. Sounds like another frugal week for you all. I can see you turning in the electric car since you don't need another car right now due to Covid. I dropped my insurance coverage to liability only because I am not driving enough to justify the cost of the insurance. My daughter does what little we do drive anyway, so it was a no brainer for me.

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  2. Wow, those prices on avocados and ground beef are fantastic. I have to pay minimum $2 an avocado and $3.99 per lb on ground beef CDN dollars. Smart to let your 2nd car go, when the world changes and you need another car at least you know what you want and in the mean time you can save money towards your financial goals. Constantly purging is such a good idea as no matter what there is always a stready stream of things coming in the house. Even better to make a few bucks off of it

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  3. I guess a big savings was the vegan pizza made last night-I probably had about $6 in ingredients and a large Vegan pizza that resembled what we had a year ago at a veg festival in their restaurant runs about $24. I cashed in $15 worth of points on two different reward programs-every bit will help defray end of year gift giving, and free up money for doing for others. That feels good.

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  4. I got tired of things I had posted for sale laying around and so I unposted and took to a consignment thrift shop I have used before and I had $20.33 credit! I took it in cash and left several really nice items. Also cashed in $75.00 worth of Ibotta points for Amazon gift cards I will use for Christmas.

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