Friday, January 18, 2019

Frugal Friday

I was traveling Sunday-Friday, so spent zero out of pocket. M did take the kids to dinner (we had a gift card), but accidentally grabbed one that was supposed to be tossed & had a $0 balance. It was also an expensive grocery week because M is having a terrible allergic reaction (it's been going on for months) & his doctor has recommended a very specialized diet that required a large investment in groceries just for him this week.

Here are a few frugal things that we did over the past week!


  • Used a gift card to buy flowers for a friend. Her father passed away. I also made pumpkin bread & found a card in my stash. It felt good to be able to quickly pull that together & not be out much money, but still let her know I was thinking of her. 
  • Used Rite Aid credit to pick up a few essentials (toilet bowl cleaner, etc) & also found really cute gift card holders for Christmas, at 75% off. Picked up enough for next Christmas
  • Turned tomatoes (froze before we headed out of town) into tomato sauce for the freezer
  • M solved two home issues that turned out to be related. (Our pool was leaking water through the pump filter, which caused a short in an electrical unit.) This was going to be several thousand dollars for the pool issue alone, so I'm grateful I have a handy husband. I'm incredibly grateful that we discovered the issue, because the short could have started a fire. 
  • I made cranberry muffins for the kids to have as snacks, and used cream in place of some of the milk. It made them incredible (of course!), but I also used cream that was about to expire & go to waste. 
  • M used a coupon & a $10 reward for the dinner out with the kids.
I'm insanely jet lagged & hope to stock up on sleep over the weekend. That's how that works, right? ;-) What about you? Any frugal wins this week?

8 comments:

  1. If you travel to Tokyo while we're there (2/15 - 5/15), I'd love to see if we can arrange a meet-up. I know you're busy, busy, busy, but if it's possible I hope we can find the time.

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    1. Would love to see you! Nothing currently booked, but it's totally possible I'll add another trip before my sabbatical. I'll let you know!

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  2. Sounds like a good week. That was a thoughtful thing to do for your friend whose father passed away.

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    1. Thank you. She surprised me with movies & snacks when I had to have surgery a few years back & it was a good reminder that it's just so nice to know that someone is thinking of you when you are going through a hard time.

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  3. Yep, that's exactly how jet lag works ;-).

    Visiting with our granddaughters, and staying precisely on budget with regard to the amount I allocated. It helps that much of our time together is spent literally just giving them one-on-one time. That goes so farfar, and costs nothing. I will say also that we've eaten enough mediocre meals this triptrip, including airport food, the free meal Delta now provides on domestic coast-to-coast travel, to remind me how well we eat at home. We eat like kings for relatively little money compared to the cost of dining out. Although I will say I'm a big fan of the new fine dining, fast casual niche. Great food without a great big bill simply because I'm willing to stand in line and order my food at a counter - works for me!

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    1. I like to pack my food, even if work is paying. I just generally enjoy it so much more than airport food! Sometimes I'll pack a sandwich & fruit, and fill in with a salad or something from the airport.

      I'll have to think of something, because I'm off again tomorrow!

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  4. I appreciate that with all you have going on in your life, you dhow regular gestures of kindness. We forgot our movie gift card last night do paid for tickets.

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    1. I laugh at the forgetting gift cards. To be fair, it was my fault. Before I travel, I always lay out the coupon + gift cards for a restaurant the kids really like. (It's a salad bar, so super casual). I don't know why I was carrying around a gift card with a zero balance, but what can you do?

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