Frugal Friday

 I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving (if you are in the US) & got to spend time with family. As always, I'm so thankful for my friends & family & feel truly lucky. Thanksgiving is a small holiday for us (just the four of us), but no less special due to size. 

Saving on things we buy

• I've been saving my grocery store points for November, knowing our Thanksgiving feast would push us a bit over our standard spending. I used $27 of grocery store rewards to offset a purchase
• I also picked up the Friday Freebie (cookie dough) at the store, and uploaded my receipts to Fetch & iBotta. No major savings, but a bit here & there. I haven't been buying anything on iBotta lately, but I did take advantage of a couple of small "any item" receipt offers. 
• Earned a free package of Klondike bars via Fetch
• Took advantage of $20 of Fetch gift card rewards
• On the same Fetch transaction, earned a $10 Target gift card on a double dip. I was unaware that Target had their own promotion on the gift cards, so I was doubly excited. ;-) 
• I made a few gift card purchases at Rite Aid, and three of them failed. The manager was super nice, and called their customer service & patiently dealt with an extremely long hold time, in order to get my rewards credited to my account. 
• Took advantage of a few Rite Aid Black Friday deals to pick up snacks & frozen pizza & the like. I used the Rite Aid rewards from the gift card transactions (above), to pay $5 for $55 worth of items. (Food & toiletries for donations)

Earning money

• I haven't been listing things on eBay, but have driven Nick to reffing games, so he can earn money. That's my current "side hustle", so to speak. ;-) 
• I also sold one older item, earning $40 or so (have to ship it out)
• Redeemed Fetch rewards (above) for a $25 Amazon gift card. I'm close to having another $10, which is great for the holidays. 

Avoiding spending

• I've been trying to get creative with meal planning, to ensure we're using what we have & minimizing our grocery spending. That seems like a really good idea, with the current costs!

Eating what we have

• I've been working my way through the single serving freezer items for lunch, & had a chicken fiesta rice dish with a bit of guacamole for lunch one day. Delicious, easy, & one more item out of the freezer. 
• Nick finished off the last of a bag of pizza rolls, which had been in the freezer for quite some time
• Defrosted a Costco lasagna, and had that for dinner one night.
• I continue to bring in our tomatoes to ripen, and I'm still picking a few strawberries per week. We use them in smoothies. We are also still getting a few green peppers, and lots of jalapenos. 
• The boys finished off the leftover takeout pizza, but that was no hardship for them ;-) 
• I had a beef stew for lunch one day (from the freezer) along with a leftover piece of garlic bread. 

For others

• Uploaded my receipts to Box Top, as I was picking up cereal & stuffing, both of which were eligible for Box Tops. There was also a Thanksgiving promo that increased the donation by another $1. 
• Donated ski clothes via Buy Nothing, as well as some jeans that M & Sam didn't need. Also gave away a few shirts. 
• Had a couple of calls for my non-profit, & with my mentee
• Made a donation to the boys school athletic department, to help with new uniforms. Submitted all of my recent donations for company matches. 
• Entered my time volunteering, and my company will match my time with a cash donation
• Helped a friend sponsor a family for the holidays
• Picked up a bunch of inexpensive toiletries & cleaning products for donation to the local shelter

What about you? Any wins to share?