A few frugal wins this week.
Saving on things we buy
- Noticed that iBotta had a $.10 reward for any grocery receipt, so got that uploaded. Also uploaded the receipt to Fetch.
Earning money
- Sold a few things on eBay: luggage tags + an old art print. Made about $25 between the two.
- The Frugal Girl reminded me that I had a bunch of books (Sam's lit books from school) to list on eBay & got those posted. Sold 2 in 24 hours, so that was a nice win. Junk out, money in. Made about $20 between the two.
- Gave away a Hyatt free night award to a friend who could use it before it expired, and he thanked me with a $100 gift card.
- On a related note, had another expiring Hyatt "Guest of Honor" award, and traded that with another friend for ~$100 of Marriott points. While I don't have a use for the points at the moment, they don't expire, unlike the Hyatt award I had. We will definitely use them at some point.
- Finally had enough Swagbucks to cash out for a $25 Amazon gift card.
Avoiding spending
- I had a crazy day, and planned my lunch in advance, defrosting soup & stashing my lunch in the fridge. When I went to open the container to heat it, it refused to budge. It was a glass container with the four closure "snap locks" & the vacuum seal was so strong it couldn't be opened. Anyway, I wrestled with that stupid container for the five minutes I had to heat & eat my lunch. I thought about ordering delivery & eating it between my next round of calls, but instead made a very haphazard lunch out of a protein bar I discovered in the back of the pantry (Sam must have missed it -because they are his favorites ;-)) & an overripe banana. M later was able to open the container with a lot of elbow grease & a knife, and Sam had the soup for dinner after work.
Eating what we have
- We bought a rotisserie chicken at Costco, and used that for two dinners, plus froze half of the rest of the chicken. I then made a large double batch of chicken broth. I've already used one container in the beef & tomato dish we served over rice on Sunday.
- Speaking of that dish, we made a double batch, as we had Sam & his GF at dinner. I also only had one can of diced tomatoes, so subbed in tomato paste + water & some fresh tomatoes, to make up for the gap.
- Made plenty of leftovers for the week, including this easy Southwest Chicken Skillet
For others
- A friend is leading a project to collect new shoes for kids & teens that are unhoused, so I picked up some on Amazon from her wish list, which felt nice.
What about you? Any wins to share?
I've made that mistake a few times on those snap kids and had to just wait until it cooled hours later. Nothing frugal here this week, but after a fundraiser event last night, I'm feeling grateful for what my family has in life when so many others are an empty gas tank away from keeping their job or getting to a food shelf. I guess humility was a free lesson.
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