Friday, October 6, 2017

Frugal Friday

We're in the home stretch ahead of our vacation. SO excited! Here are the frugal wins for the week:


  • No eating out. Made creative use of leftovers. I can highly recommend this new recipe (one pan chicken fajita rice. YUM!) 
  • Took free carpool (work thing for October) to & from work every day. Also, walked to work on Wednesday! (7 miles) Combining commute time + my workout is a win! I don't have time to make it a regular thing, but it was great.
  • Ordered the boys yearbooks before the deadline passed
  • Received an offer for three free nights + $400 at my favorite Las Vegas hotel. I've been trying to find a way to do an affordable girls trip to Las Vegas in July, and this popped up. We will swap the dates (Las Vegas in April, the beach in July) & this will save a significant amount of money. 
  • Started my list of packing items for our Hawaii trip. We will plan to: pack granola bars & muffins, so we can have breakfasts in our room/on the lanai. We'll pick up fruit at Costco as well, to supplement. 
  • Working on creative options for Thanksgiving break, so we can avoid sending the boys to camp. Savings of ~$600
  • Transferred earnings from recent business trip straight to my personal mileage account, soI can use the miles to offset our travel budget.
  • Came in $2.57 over our grocery budget. Honestly, this is a huge win, as I did a big stockup of clearanced items for $20 earlier in the month, and that will save us in the long term.  Also, sticking to our grocery budget has been a huge challenge, so this is good progress. My goal for October is to *actually* be at my budget. ;-) 

That's it for me! What about you? Any big frugal wins for the week?

6 comments:

  1. I love to read your blog and see how you manipulate points and flights to score fantastic vacation deals!
    Looks like you had a really good week and got some perks in the process!

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    1. Thanks! I keep meaning to write a post on my tips. I'll add it to my list. :-)

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  2. Where did the Vegas offer come from? I occasionally get the Westin timeshare and non-timeshare offers but they always cost something in addition to the flights we'd have to buy. I've been holding out for something better :)

    I don't think it's a frugality thing but I've been keeping track of the refunds that we're due, after the move, and depositing them is a huge stress relief. Of course, there are still a few big checks to go out too :/

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    1. My offer was from the Wynn. I've stayed there before (and, gambled), so this was through their Red Card promotion. Love that place.

      I hear you on the refunds. We had a similar situation a few months ago when we sold our rental house. So much money incoming & outgoing!

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  3. Well done. Every dollar saved is a dollar to put towards other uses. with your work schedule, I am happy for you getting to take and plan some lovely get aways. I have travel envy of your job, but then remember your job takes you away form the boys. great job withthe holiday trade.

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    1. I promise that it sounds a lot more fun than it is. It's usually a 20 hour travel day, then to a hotel, jet lag, the office, and repeat for the way home. I never do anything fun/touristy, as I'm in a hurry to get back home. Since I started this job (4 years), I've spent 20 weeks away from the kids/M. That's A LOT! I really don't like it. A bunch of upcoming travel towards the end of this year, and I'm hoping that's it.

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