Nothing feels particularly frugal these days, but here are a few wins we've had lately.
Saving on things we buy
- This is more under a fun experiment bucket, but we tried the "Too Good to Go" food waste app, and picked up a mystery box at our local bakery. It was a full grocery shopping bag filled, for $5.99. Inside were a dozen+ doughnut holes, and three enormous loaves of bread. The loaves were probably double, or 2.5 as big as what you'd buy at the store.
- Picked up deli meat & cheese, to go with our bread & make sandwiches for lunch. We don't keep bread at the house regularly, so we don't keep sandwich fixings on hand. Used an iBotta rebate to earn $.10 back, and uploaded the receipts to Fetch. Used a gift card to pay for the out of pocket spending.
- M & I did some planning ahead to minimize travel costs for the to/from airport for our upcoming trip. It was quite a matrix of details, as we are leaving on different days & out of different airports, but we've got it worked out & will save quite a bit.
Earning money
- Sam worked over time 2x (after camp child care) to earn extra money, and Nick helped his tennis coach, earning money as well.
- I sold a few beauty products on eBay
Avoiding spending
- Arranged carpools, and drove our electric car for our portion of the carpool.
Eating what we have
- Turned the giant loaf of bread (noted above) into a variety of sandwiches
- Using up as many tomatoes as humanly possible, & we still have SO many! Too many tomatoes is a good problem to have, I suppose.
- We finished the enormous loaf of bread, and Sam took sandwiches for lunch at work all week.
- Used old carrots in a curry, and had that for multiple dinners.
- Kept on top of leftovers.
For others:
- Gave a giant loaf of wheat bread to a friend, and another huge loaf of rye bread away via Buy Nothing. Both from the Too Good to Go app
- Helped a lost hiker, while on a run. She was heading in circles, so I'm glad she found me.
- Picked up some cloth napkins on Buy Nothing, that nicely supplemented our napkins. I asked the giver, and she was excited to receive garden tomatoes. Yeah for the sharing economy!
- Traded another neighbor zucchini for lemons. We do have lemons, but never quite enough for our usage (M uses it as a salad dressing, and has salad 1-2x/day). This was a great trade, as we won't eat the zucchini before we head to Bend.
That's it for us. What about you? Any wins to share?
These are fantastic savings. I love the Too Good To Go concept, but it does seem it's bread heavy. I see UK sites that have had grocery bags filled with produce for like £2, but then compared to their yellow stickers it's just ho hum savings. One artisan loaf of bread is like $5, so your bag was a good find since you could share, and enjoy the donuts. Would you do again? Love the produce swapping. Your boys are such hard workers.
ReplyDeleteI would definitely do it again, but may try out a bagel place next. We buy bagels (for the kids), so this would be a good replacement for something we already purchase. The options near us are all coffee shops or bakeries. I'd love it if there were other places as well. The bread was huge. I'm guessing it sells for like $7-8. I'm not sure that the bakery even sells them. I think they use them to make sandwiches, vs selling loaves to regular customers.
DeleteThe kids loved the "grab bag/mystery box" element, so when we're going to be around for a bit, we will definitely try ou t a few other places.
I am so glad you found that hiker, how scary especially as hot as it is. I love trading my eggs for things!
ReplyDeleteWhew, I am so glad that you found that hiker...or she found you.
ReplyDeleteWe don't have that Too Good To Go here in my small Canadian city and I really wish we did.
God bless.
That is so neat about the TooGoodToGo App. I’ve been trying it here but so far no offers here. Thanks for mentioning carrots, I just added it to my grocery order.
ReplyDeleteYou did very well. It seems to be getting harder to be frugal considering the way prices are rising.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.