Frugal Friday

 It was a really busy week on all sides, but here's what we accomplished!

Saving on things we buy

• Bought two drinks at Starbucks, using a gift card. While I was walking into Starbucks, I looked on the app to see if there was a promotion, and quickly signed up for that, earning 25 stars.
• Used grocery store rewards to buy Gatorade for soccer player on a super hot day. We don't do it often, so it's a special treat.
• While I was dropping off the cleat exchange items for recycling, noticed that M's favorite running socks were on sale (good running socks are $$), & picked up a couple of pair

Earning money

• Our mortgage company was challenging to work with, while we were attempting to pay off the balance, so we ended up overpaying. They reimbursed us $6k for the over payment, which I added to our savings
• Listed a few items on eBay, as things are slow. Sold a few things:
• A remote
• A pair of football gloves that were at the bottom of the cleat recycling bin, but looked to be in great shape

Avoiding spending

• I planned to make homemade granola bars, but Costco was out of natural peanut butter. I looked around our pantry, & found an unopened container of peanuts that needed to be used anyway, and made homemade peanut butter. Cleaning out the pantry & avoiding spending money. Win/win. 
• I finally set up water containers in the shower to catch the warm up shower water. I feel so much better, making even tiny strides in reducing our water usage. The fires here continue to remind me to use as little water as possible. 
• Picked up a few free lemons that a neighbor had out with a "free" sign. We use lemons to dress our salad every night

Eating what we have

• Following on to the granola bar win, I also used up the dregs of a bag of stale granola & cereal (both in the back of the pantry, that someone left unsealed) in this granola bar recipe. I find that the pretzels can be replaced with many things. 
• Roasted Serrano peppers
• Picked a couple of small watermelons & one cantaloupe from the raised bed. They are small, but taste great!
• I made eggs for lunch a couple of days, as there were no suitable leftovers. A couple of our recipes made less than expected/people ate more than anticipated. :)

For others

• Gave away more zucchini to neighbors
• Another neighbor dropped off strawberries & two (unopened) packages of pasta, as a thanks for all of our zucchini sharing
• Volunteered at the cleat exchange, and helped match up soccer players with cleats & other soccer gear
• Took the cleats with no life left, and dropped them off at the local sports store for recycling. 
• Volunteering through a project at work