Frugal Friday

 Another week has flown by! Unrelated to Frugal Friday, but folks have asked for recipe updates on some of the new ones I've tried & I can say that this chicken broccoli casserole recipe was a big hit & incredibly easy. 

Saving on things we buy

• I am paying for my Dad's flight to Japan in about a year's time. He & my mom are both doing one big international trip. My nephew is taking my dad to Japan, and my sister & I are taking our mom on the cruise. I offered to pay for a non-economy seat for my dad, who is 76 & his back would not be able to take flying economy for that long. I was able to leverage some American miles + buy additional American miles to book a premium economy seat on Japan Airlines, which is quite a step up from regular economy. I saved $2583 by doing it this way, including the taxes, fees & purchasing the miles, so it was well worth the effort. 

Earning money

• I was able to push my end date at my employer out by using PTO (I'll still end my work on the same date) vs getting paid out the PTO as a lump sum. This has a few advantages: I'll get another 401k contribution + match, I will likely receive a wellness reimbursement of $480 & I will get an HSA contribution. I also have to pay back the second wave of my sign on bonus, and even using just a few extra weeks of PTO reduces how much of that I owe. All told, if the dates line up as they did last year, it's about $2000+ of extra value by shifting my time in this way. 

Avoiding spending

Eating what we have

• We did lots of meal prep over the past week or so, many of which focused on using things up from the freezer & pantry.
• I made a chicken quinoa skillet dish that used up: quinoa (pantry), chicken broth & rotisserie chicken (freezer), as well as some salsa lingering in the fridge. That made two dinners & three individual lunches, plus I put another dinner's worth in the freezer.
• I also made chili, which made an absolutely enormous amount. We ate that for two dinners, and I froze several more dinners worth, plus we had a few lunches this week. 
• We pulled mystery steak out of the freezer & had that on Sunday & reinvent as Philly Cheesesteaks another night. 
• I ran out of granola to have on my yogurt, so I crumbled up 1/2 a granola bar (received at work) & saved the other 1/2 for another breakfast. 
• I used overly ripe bananas (freezer) + a few sitting out to make another batch of muffins for M. 

For others

• I finished the last of my cards & purchased the last gift cards for the Guardian Scholar program I'm supporting, and got everything mailed off. This way, students will receive the supportive cards + gift cards in time for finals week. 

What about you? Any wins to share?