Frugal Friday

It didn't feel like the most productive week, with some leftover jet lag, & M being out of town. But, we managed a few frugal wins:

• No eating out. This is a pretty big win, as I normally would take the kids out to eat at least once when I'm on my own & we have crazy schedules. This week, I really worked hard to prep as much as possible, and it paid off.
• Eating random leftovers for dinner. This also worked well. I didn't make any main meals this week (traveling Saturday, too tired on Sunday), so we made do with what we had on hand, vs using fresh ingredients. This helps to eat down our freezer stash, and makes sure nothing goes to waste.
• Drove the electric car for all commuting & errands (including multiple carpools) & charged for free at work. 
• Realized I was not managing my investments as well as I should be, and made a small tweak. Basically, one of my investments (a California muni, tax advantaged) charges a flat fee for every purchase. I didn't notice the first few times, and was just turning over my monthly stock equity sales into this, generating a fee each time. Now, instead I'll bundle & make the purchases less frequently. The double benefit is I've moved the waiting investments over to a high yield savings account in the interim. 
• Worked on keeping the power low around the house, and we all bundled up with blankets & I drank hot tea to keep warm.  
• Cashed in points & miles from my last trip for gift cards for Christmas. Given the length of the trip, it was a lot of points. The best option is always a direct use of the points/miles on the hotel or airline providing them. However, I have a few that don't line up with my personal travel options & are hard to convert, so I went the gift card route. I ended up with $380 in gift cards!

That's it for us. We're off to a soccer tournament tomorrow, so I'll pack food (there is a planned brunch out for the kids, but the adults will have packed food, and the kids will also have packed lunches & snacks for after). We wanted to take the electric car, but it's pushing it a bit with the mileage, and the area we're going to doesn't have as many charges as we'd like to be comfortable. We'll check it out & determine if it's possible for next time, as we have plenty of games there. 

What about you? Any frugal wins for the week?