Frugal Friday

It's been a good week overall, although pricey as I booked some 2027 travel (covered in a separate post). We also had what I hope to be our last plumbing bill for now. Fingers crossed on that one!

Saving on things we buy

• Used a variety of CVS rewards, coupons, etc to buy four of the largest containers of vitamins I needed for $23.75, saving $25. 
• We spend Christmas with my parents, my sister + her kids, and my BFF & her kids. We think this is likely to be the last year with everyone together, as my BFF's daughters are engaged & in med school, etc. She asked if we could do Christmas pajamas this year, and when Old Navy had a sale over the weekend, we jumped on it, as we needed a bunch of sizing options & then tend to run out of sizes. To reduce the cost, I first started by ordering a $100 gift card for $79.99 at Costco.com, which was delivered shortly after ordering. The pajamas were also half off, and I started my order at Rakuten, saving a bit extra. Then I noticed that there was another code on Old Navy's web site, and I had $2 of rewards to use as well. I bought six sets of pajama pants & the coordinating tops (my family + my parents) for $125.80 total, and will get a small amount back through Rakuten & our Costco rewards. 
• Sam is planning to join for family weekend in Boulder, so I bought a 4th football game ticket. I bought the original three with a discount code no longer available through the school, so I went on StubHub for the 4th, and used my $150 Chase credit (through my card). The ticket was just over $200 (insane for a college football game, but it's also family weekend), so the $150 savings was quite exciting. 
• I don't usually order grocery delivery, but I had two offers to use up (one with my credit card, the second through the app), so I ordered the following items for $11 (includes tip): sourdough bread, turkey meat, two bagged salads, a protein bowl. I saved $26, although wouldn't normally spend that at the store, as Costco is cheaper for some of these items. It was a pretty great deal. 

Earning money

• I am now working part-time, so my paychecks will be reduced by 40%. We've saved & planned for this period of time, so I will enjoy the part-time income & flexibility through EOY, when I'm leaving my job.
• I shifted some money around to earn more interest. I need a rather large cash cushion for the year ahead, and moving the money around to a higher yield account is worth it. 
• Dropped off some coins we had sitting around - I hate clutter of all kinds, so I wait until we have enough to make it worth going to the store, and turned that into $18. 

Avoiding spending

Eating what we have

• For dinner last Friday, I dug out chopped peppers, rotisserie chicken & chicken broth from the freezer for a recipe. I've been wanting to use up the peppers, so it was a good addition. I also used a jalapeno from the garden vs buying chiles, and Greek yogurt vs the sour cream it called for, to avoid needing to go to the store to buy anything. In the end, the recipe was still missing something, so I dug around in the fridge & added some wing sauce that was leftover & that increased the spice level perfectly. M & Sam asked what I'd added, and we were all surprised that it had changed the flavor in such a good way. A clean out the fridge surprise, if you will. ;-) This made 2 dinners, plus 2 lunches. 
• We picked 17 large pomegranates off of our tree. M made pomegranate martinis one night, and will begin the task of removing the arils for snacking. He planted this tree when we moved in, so it's always exciting to get to pick the fruit. We left about half on the tree, as we won't be able to go through all of them right now.
• Used the last of a package of frozen berries in yogurt.
• Made another "use it up" dinner during the week, using up four cans of beans from the pantry, as well as the last three chicken sausages. I doubled the recipe, so used some sausages from a new package as well, but it was good to use the three from the open package before they went bad. Bonus that this recipe called for chicken broth. We've had so much chicken broth in the freezer, and I've been working on getting that down to create more space. This created two dinners for us, a lunch, & I froze another dinner's worth. 
• Picked herbs from the garden (thyme, oregano, rosemary & basil) + lemons from the tree for M's chicken marinade. He's grilling lots of extra chicken for us to freeze & bring to Nick for meal preps. 
• Used strawberries from the garden (we are having a heat wave, so I just picked more) for a yogurt/granola bowl for Sam before a work shift.

For others

• Returned some shopping carts that were blocking a parking spot at the grocery store.

What about you? Any wins to share?