Frugal Friday

It was a bit of a limbo week, with prepping for travel, working, driving, & now getting the house all ready for sale & entertaining guests. We had a few frugal wins along the way.

Saving on things we buy

• I bought another Uber gift card via Raise, for a discount. I first clicked through to Rakuten to Raise, earning slightly more. Uber is more expensive than pre-COVID, but still cheaper than airport parking, for our upcoming travel. 
• I needed road trip snacks at Target, and the first one I went to was closing (permanently) that day. They had none of the snacks, but they had half off of my favorite, expensive protein bars. I stocked up. They also gave me a $5/15 purchase at the closest Target store, and some free samples. It turns out that iBotta is also having an offer on those protein bars, so it worked out well, saving me another $1.
• I went to the next Target store, bought the snacks, used my coupon, and applied my Target Circle rewards, and paid for the entire purchase with a Target gift card, bought on discount at the holidays.
• I had some other iBotta wins. I noticed I was half way to a $5 offer, so checked out Rite Aid. I picked up a few things I needed, earned $11 via iBotta, $2 in Rite Aid rewards. 
• We had lunch at Costco on our way to the beach. We only made a couple of stops for gas, and Costco has super cheap lunches, as well. Win/win. 
• Uploaded receipts to Fetch & iBotta when we were at the beach, saving $1.75 on things we need (s'mores fixings & the like). 

Earning money

• I've paused my eBay listings again, as I'll be working on the beach house. But, I sold an item before we left - a makeup sample. One less thing in the house!
• I found a penny on the ground at Target
• Cashed out $29.84 in iBotta earnings

Avoiding spending

• We borrowed an extra cooler from a friend, to transport things back with us when we leave next week. 
• I used a reward for a breakfast sandwich for Sam, on the drive to Oregon. I covered the rest of the Starbucks purchase with a gift card. 
• Also on the drive, I packed a protein bar (my breakfast), bananas (to go with the boys breakfast), & snacks (always needed), to keep the costs in check for the road trip. 

Eating what we have

• We had caprese salad, with tomatoes & basil from the garden. It was amazing. I always forget how delicious fresh tomatoes are. They are nothing like what you buy at the store.
• I made the boys lunch, & used pitas that had been hidden in the freezer for the last year. They are used & gone! Woohoo! Freezer victory
• We had tacos (x2), with prepped meat from the freezer
• I continued to use lots of garden items in our salads (the last of the spinach, peppers, radishes, kale, tomatoes, mint, basil, etc)
• The boys wanted lunch out after a busy Saturday, but I hustled home to help them make lunch from things we had on hand
• Finished the last of the tomato soup in the fridge
• I packed all of our perishables in the cooler before we left. Our first meal at the beach (dinner), after a 13 hour drive, was the chicken curry & rice I'd made over the weekend & brought with us. I was happy to have a quick meal, & then finished the rest off for lunch on Wednesday. 
• I also picked all of our veggies in the garden before we left, and brought everything with us. 
• At the vacation house, we've been in use it up mode. From the freezer, we've used: the meatballs, a small container of white chicken chili, three chicken sausages, a few bagels, and five burgers. We will have very little to bring back from the freezer, which is great news!

For others

• Volunteered my time for a "citizenship" work project
• Gave away zucchini & tomatoes
• Uploaded receipts for Box Top for Education

That's it from our side. Did you have any wins this week? Please share!