Frugal Friday

 This week has whizzed by! Here are a few things on the financial side to share. 

Saving on things we buy

• I earned a credit card cash back rewards for a few things I picked up at CVS last week. $1.75, so watch out!
• Continued to upload all of my receipts to Fetch 
• Nick is quite crafty & convinced his girlfriend that it would be a fun project to make their own boutonniere and corsage for prom. They turned out really well, and were definitely cheaper than purchasing, if what Sam spent last year is any indication. 
• Collected $.50 of grocery game store credits.
• Bought a Home Depot gift card at the grocery store, and earned a $15 grocery store reward. 

Earning money

• Taught another class this week. I'll have a sub for the following two weeks (Nick has senior awards, and then graduation that conflicts) & then one last week. I'll have taught a total of 8 of the 10 classes. We invoice for any class that we taught. 
• I saw a mention on a financial blog with a credit card offer. Disclaimer: credit card offers are only useful if you can pay them off in full each month, and aren't tempted to spend more than you normally would. Rakuten was offering a $150 cash back for signing up, and Chase offered a $200 sign up offer, if you spent $500 in the first three months. It's a cash back credit card, and not as good as some of the other cards we use for travel points accumulation, but the $350 in combined cash back is a great deal. And, the card is free. So, I'll run $500 of spend through the card in a few months, and then will move my spending back to my higher rewards generating cards. 
• I received a $12 settlement from Clif bar, and completed $6 of surveys that I cashed out. 
• Made $25 selling a hoodie on eBay

Avoiding spending

• M is a pretty handy guy, and does things like change the oil in our car, does quite a few DIY projects, etc, but he's very reluctant to solve plumbing problems. He was able to fix a leak we had outside, thanks to the help of YouTube videos.
• M also repaired our pool cleaner, which is on probably repair #5 since we bought our house. 
• He also washed all of the windows in our house, and it looks sparkling! 

Eating what we have

• M & I had leftovers for dinner (shawarma one night, hot dogs another). The hot dogs were left over from Nick's impromptu pool party, which was repeated with a smaller friend group over the weekend. He's really soaking it in, and has more free time, now that all AP tests are completed, he has almost no assignments (AP classes pretty much wrap when the exams are done), & sports are over. He's usually so busy, that he is very much enjoying all of the free time. 
• We have picked a lot of beautiful strawberries from the garden.
• And, we finally grew a huge cilantro plant that we managed not to kill! Progress. 
• I planted a bunch of the 2lb package of green onions that M bought, and I now have lots of green onion tops that I can cut off & use in recipes. 
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For others

• M & I helped a neighbor with a tech issue
• Not me, but M taught Nick how to change a tire, and apparently, he's the only one in his friend group that knows how! He met up with a friend to help him change his tire, which I know was appreciated. 

And, a frugal fail. I ordered a few dresses & skirts to try & find something for Nick's graduation and/or potentially our 20th anniversary trip to Hawaii. I was successful & found a dress I really like, and when I went to return the other items, one of the skirts was final sale! I don't know that I've ever made that error before, but I was very annoyed with myself. I listed it immediately on eBay, and managed to sell it in a few days (I'm guessing the value goes down as the store starts to clearance it out, so prioritized speed of sale), but with fees, it wasn't the full cost of what I spent, but at least I got some of my money back? I then had a second eBay sale on Wednesday, and together, they covered the cost of the skirt. But, still annoyed with myself for not paying attention, and will definitely make it a priority next time!

What about you? Any wins to share?