Frugal Friday

It's been a super busy few weeks, as we get the boys sorted with their summer jobs, get back into the swing of things with work & school, and Nick has been asked to join the varsity team for a few matches (as well as club soccer). Everyone is doing well, but we're busy!

Saving on things we buy

• Used a $10 Rite Aid reward to pick up a few cards I needed (graduation, & M's birthday). 
• Nick wanted to buy a pair of Adidas sneakers, with some of his money. I shopped through Rakuten, found a promo code, and also signed up for their "club" for free shipping. Altogether, I saved him about $20. 

Earning money

• Helped Nick sign up for additional reffing games. It's a lot of calendaring tetris, so it takes both of us sitting down, reviewing the available games & all of his commitments. 
• Sam was offered a summer camp job as a head coach, which means he'll work all seven weeks camp is offered, and makes slightly more per hour ($.90). I found the hourly rate difference to be pretty funny, given how much work is involved. But, he's thrilled, and that's all that matters. Working a summer job was so, so good for him last year.
• Nick is also going to be an assistant coach at the same summer camp. Both boys attended this camp when they were younger, and loved it. It's an all sports camp, which is right up their alley. He'll be working five weeks, so he'll spend a week at my parents in June, and also attend a tennis camp one week. Otherwise, he'll be working alongside Sam. 

Avoiding spending

• I've been very into Starbucks iced tea lately, which is not frugal. I've found these tea sachets, designed to go into cold water, and a container of 8 is less than half of the price of one Starbucks iced tea. So far, I really like them, and found that I can use them in my bottle of water at least four times. I'm going to stock up this week, while they are on sale at my local grocery store. 

Eating what we have

• Made the boys a variety of sandwiches over the weekend, to use up the loaf of bread I'd purchased. I finished it off on Monday, by eating an egg sandwich, which was delicious. 
• I've kept a good eye on leftovers, and juggled our meal planning to ensure we're using everything up. We also bought delicious strawberries (they are finally not tasteless again) & went back for a second container, because the first one was so good. Yum!

For others

• Helped our neighbor a few times, with some repair issues she's been having. 

In non-frugal news, the price of flights is staggering right now. We have quite a few family things coming up (my nephew's graduation, a family wedding, etc) & even short haul flights (San Jose to Portland) are super pricey! We did opt to fly in & out of SFO (not preferred, by a long stretch) for one of the trips, which saved $200/pp. It will increase the cost of Uber there & back, but will still be a savings.

What about you? Any wins to share?