Frugal Friday

 Saving on things we buy

• Bought a few travel gift cards that we will use, and earned $45 in grocery store gift cards. 
• I had expiring Target Circle rewards (I rarely go there), so I stopped in to use them up. I also noticed I had a birthday coupon & some sort of other 10% off a purchase offer, so stacked everything together. Picked up two bags of goldfish crackers for Nick, who likes easy snacks between school & practice. I paid $2. I remember when you could regularly buy goldfish for $1/bag on sale, so I guess I managed to get the price down to what I paid 15 or so years ago? ;-) It wasn't exactly a great bargain, but it was a little something. 

Earning money

• Cashed in $55 in user studies

Avoiding spending

• Received a refund from a shuttle for Sam. It's a long story, but the cancellation code I had wouldn't work, and they only had one seat left on the shuttle he needed. I'd tried to get a hold of them for weeks, so I booked out of pocket. They got back to me a week later, and even though it's not their policy to offer a refund (you just get a credit), they made an exception. Saved $60. 

Eating what we have:

• Used up overly ripe bananas to make banana muffins for M.
• Ate leftovers from the freezer (tacos & lemon chicken)
• Picked lemons from our tree for salad dressing & other things
• Used up the last of the sliced cheese purchased on sale (replaced with cheaper bricks of cheese for future sandwich making) to make a few grilled cheese sandwiches for Nick
• Used up remaining taco meat, tortillas & shredded cheese to make taco quesadillas for Nick
• We've cleaned out the fruit drawer this week, with the exception of a few oranges
• Finished off the garlic beef noodles, rounded out with some edamame, as we didn't quite have enough for a full meal. 
• Used the last of a bagged salad, edamame & chicken for a lunch

For others

• Sent a gift to a friend who lost her father
• Rounded up shopping carts blocking parking spots (WHY DO PEOPLE DO THIS? It's my pet peeve.) & returned them all to the corrals. 
• Gifted a workout friend a Guest of Honor pass for a stay at the Hyatt in April. I get these with my status, and they are intended to be used if we are booking two rooms, and/or for gifting to others. She's going to Japan with her family, and is thrilled to have this. It will save them several hundred dollars, as well. 

Decidedly unfrugal: when we put our solar panels on, we increased the estimate from the solar company, to ensure we'd produce enough to offset the majority of our power bill. The cost of power has continued to rise, while production drops slightly over the lifetime of the panels. What does this mean? Once a year you get a "true up" power bill, and ours was over $1000 this year, which is both unexpected & not great. I need to start cleaning the panels at least once a month to increase production. I can't do much to change the cost of energy, but I can make sure our panels are producing as much as possible. Cleaning them is, as you can imagine, a PITA, but a task I can take on. 

What about you? Any wins to share?