Frugal Friday

In non-frugal news, I had to bail on a scheduled workout at my gym due to a last minute true work emergency, which cost me $15. Work does reimburse me slightly for my gym membership, so I'm considering it a wash. 

Here's what we've been up to this week: 

Saving on things we buy

• Tracked down missing stay credit, for our ski trip over New Years. The points are quite valuable, so I didn't want to miss out. It took two emails & a live chat session, but got it resolved.
• We have been trying to eat more from the freezer, and are also adjusting our meal planning to have less waste (the teens are rarely both home for all dinners in a week). As a result, we were able to limit our grocery shopping to about 1/3 of our normal expense this week. 
• Used a gift card & a small reward at Panera to take Nick to lunch. I'm trying to do more one on one time with the boys, which is hard to come by these days!
• Combined a Rite Aid sale, rewards & an iBotta offer to earn $6 off a few things we needed. 
• I also went through & inventoried our gift cards again, as we've been trying to use them up. It's a good reminder of what we have & ensuring we using all of our resources. 

Earning money

• Listed a few unneeded items on eBay

Avoiding spending

• Picked up the Friday Freebie at the store, which was dairy free milk. I'm not super picky about what I put in my coffee, so it was nice to have a free option. Bonus, iBotta had an offer for the milk, so I earned $1.35 from iBotta, making this a money maker. 
• Found a handful of tomatoes & strawberries, still growing in our garden. Pretty crazy, given we've had cold temps, lots of rain & minimal sun. 

Eating what we have

• I've made Nick a few smoothies, using up ingredients from the fridge, pantry & freezer. Smoothies are great for hiding leftover items (chopped up apples that were about to go bad, for example)
• I froze leftover fajitas, before they were wasted. 
• Brought home leftovers from date night, and had them for brunch on Sunday.
• Sam has a friend who works at a bakery, and often brings home treats. We've been enjoying them!
• We used leftover naan bread, toasted with butter, as a side for spaghetti & meatballs. Non-traditional, but the teens weren't super picky.
• I forgot to pick up ground beef for one of the recipes this week, so I improvised by adding additional meatballs & sauce to the leftovers (replacing one dinner) & because I'd planned for leftovers of the missing recipe, I also subbed in gyozos & wings another night.
• Used up an acorn squash that I bought ages okay, and kept forgetting about.
• Made M a "football watching" appetizer tray, using things from around the fridge.

For others

• Gave away bags of things on Buy Nothing, and to a neighbor who runs an outreach for a local shelter. 

That's it from my side. What about you? Any wins to share?