Friday, May 7, 2021

Frugal Friday

My biggest financial win of the week was making a substantial mortgage payment with my stock vest. By having a plan for the money, & transferring it over to the mortgage right away, it ensures the money matches our financial priorities & goes where we intend it. 

Saving on things we buy

  • Made an HSA purchase through Rakuten, earning a bit back on my purchase. I'll then get reimbursed (from myself, via my HSA).
  • Most of my flight from last weekend was covered by a gift from a neighbor (she had a flight credit that was expiring before she was traveling again.) I made a donation to the local food bank as a thank you (she wouldn't accept money.)

Earning money

  • Found $.25 on the ground on a run. Making money & working out - double win!
  • Earned & redeemed a $5 Amazon gift card on Fetch. 
  • Sold another 32 items (largely DVDs from our vacation house, but a few books as well) via Decluttr. It's so nice to get stuff out of the house!
  • I've continued to list a bunch on eBay/FB, but have had few sales. It seems like a slow time right now
    • An outgrown kids shirt
    • An outgrown pair of kids pants
    • A (no longer available) game I brought back from our vacation house & quickly sold

Avoiding spending

  • A neighbor had extra groceries and shared a few items before she headed out of town. 
  • While my kids don't always love the school lunch options, neither of them are big on lunch & make do with the snacks and/or free lunch available each day, saving me from needing to provide lunch or money for hot lunch. It sounds like everyone in the school will receive a free lunch next year as well. 

Eating what we have

  • Cut spinach & used radish greens from the garden to sautee for M, along with his dinner each night
  • Used coleslaw that my neighbor dropped off 
  • It was pretty much a freezer dinner week, as I was out of town for the weekend. We had: tacos, chicken curry/rice, & kebabs. No cooking required, and it helped to clean out the freezer. Win/win!

For others

  • I've made a lot of donations in the last few weeks via a charity shop, and Buy Nothing. It's so nice to pass along things we don't need
  • Gave away a bunch of games & puzzles to a family friend, who had kids the perfect age to enjoy them
  • We don't eat much bread, so gave away a huge bakery loaf of bread (gifted to us) to a neighbor
  • Continued to check in with my volunteer role
That's it for us. What about you? Any frugal/for other wins to share? 

4 comments:

  1. Maximizing where we spend out money is the best strategy regardless of income bracket. I too like to know we are intentional and deliberate. With my freezer overflowing, I need to eat down the freezer a bit.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Having a plan for our money & future priorities is probably the most helpful thing we do, for sure.

      I'm with you on the freezer! We have a lot of work ahead to eat down what's in there.

      Delete
  2. You are doing excellent! I've been such a slacker, I really need to get back to online selling again too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I try & post something every day. It's a good motivator to keep my decluttering process an ongoing thing. Sometimes I just donate, but often I do find things to sell.

      Delete