Things stayed fairly quiet on the home front, so I saved up two weeks of frugal accomplishments to share with you. Payday came and went, so I did do a bit of shopping early last week that I’ll break down today.
For more frugal inspiration, check out Brandy’s post at The Prudent Homemaker. If you’re new to reading these posts, be sure to read through the comments there as well. Lovely community of folks joining in each week and lots of ideas no matter where you are in your frugal efforts!Happy Monday, all!
- Saved 25% on four Mother’s Day cards using Target Cartwheel.
- Used our usual system of opening & closing windows/blinds/curtains throughout the day to cool the house without A/C.
- Used ceiling fans as needed and kept the thermostat set to 80*F (I did have to manually turn it up to 81*F one evening before sundown; getting to that warm time of year again!).
- Son used a rechargeable battery-powered fan to cool off while working on a project in the garage.
- Daughter took the first of five GED tests (she passed with a 97 of 100 – woot!); I paid the fee with a card that gets points, then immediately paid it off from her savings.
- Used wool dryer balls when running electric dryer; used drying racks for most loads.
- Read books borrowed on Kindle Unlimited and Overdrive.
- Borrowed print books from the library.
- Used $1 off/gallon to fill the truck with diesel; consolidated this errand to a day I’d be in the area of the Kroger-affiliate station. Wrote down gasoline prices so I could compare them for husband’s fill-up, as we only had one fuel discount this month.
- Husband filled up at the lower priced location after I let him know who had the better price.
- Son and I bought a few groceries at Walmart after checking Ibotta and Checkout51 deals and comparing sales between the stores I normally shop at and the cash rebates available. The crackers on our list were on sale. Received $4.00 in Ibotta rebates, plus a $0.50 brand bonus for the bread and bagels purchased; also received $6.00 cash back in Checkout51 rebates, plus a $0.50 redemption bonus. Total rebates of $11.00 (which puts me almost to my first $20 on Checkout51 – sooo close to a withdrawal minimum).
- Made a $300 principal payment on the car note.
- Put in Swagbucks and InboxDollars codes whenever I saw them; did Swagbucks daily surveys most mornings.
- Daughter got two dog sitting jobs.
- Splurged on lunch Saturday at our favorite Mexican restaurant; not cheap at around $40, but their portions actually equal three meals for the kids and me (well, two for me and a second for my husband from mine LOL). Technically that breaks down to a couple of dollars per meal?
- Received notice that we have a $3.70 utility credit for April usage. Hopefully since lots of folks are now running air conditioners, we’ll have a good sized rebate check next month. 😉 ($25 is the minimum cutoff to receive a check.)
- Tried out a new-to-me recipe of curried lentils, served over brown rice. It made two dinners; the second time I reheated it in a small Crock-Pot to avoid heating up the house and not use gas with the stove.
- Requested funds from Ibotta (made it over $100 ~ WOOHOO!) and received a payment from a client for an article; moved $125 from PayPal and made another principal payment on the car note. YESSSSS!!!!
- Daughter went to the base store with a friend to show her the clearance bins I’ve found. She treated herself to some makeup; she was able to get four lipsticks, an eyeliner, and a lipstick sealer for between 50-75% off. Her total was $16.76 after savings of $24.98 (and no tax). (And she is quite proud to make the blog post! Teehee)
- Read through a stack of magazines my mom sent and then passed them on to a friend to enjoy as well.
- Still did not buy the SodaStream I was considering, and I also didn’t buy any seltzer. I actually drank water!
Good for you on the water. That is one of my hardest things–I just don’t like it as well as other drinks, unless it’s really hot or I’m exercising, then I only want water. Strange, huh? Anyway, I am trying to drink more of it myself.
I am cleaning out the pantry/food storage area in the garage. It is in total disarray! I’ve been at it for a long time, and it’s still a cluttered mess, but I’m gaining on it. If I want my food storage to stay good, I have to organize and rotate it. So far, I’ve only thrown away 5 tiny chocolate melts that got overlooked and are very old, and a handful of other odds and ends that I found lurking. I’ve got beans and soup mix on to soak, and will make refried beans to freeze. We’ve been reduced to cans lately. We prefer the homemade ones, but I’ve been too busy with homeschool, the garden, and work to get it done.
I’ll ask Rob about the price of wood when he gets home, and let you know. I have no idea at all what a good deal is–bless his heart, he knows all that stuff, so I don’t even try to keep it in my brain:)
It’s the mouth feel with water for me, Becky. I want bubbles. You can picture me that like that fish in Finding Nemo – “Bubbles! Bubbles! MY bubbles!” hahaha I’m terrible about it as I know soda isn’t good for me (though of course seltzer is just carbonated water, so that is just about the money, not the HFCS and other junk), but it tastes so much better than everything else.
Thanks for checking on the prices of the wood for me – and way to go on all the pantry organizing. I need to go through and re-do mine soon too. Not so much the food as I can keep up on that, but the bins that I have our power outage things in got all muddled during the move last year. I don’t know why, but the packers consolidated things and then packed empty bins…. still not sure how that seemed helpful. 😉
You daughter did very well on her tests and clearance shopping. Great that you are able to pay extra on your car.
Thank you, Marybeth! She will be so excited to hear that a comment was left for her. 😀 I get very excited about the car – I had hoped to have a bit more to put on it at the end of this month but I don’t know if that will happen. Makes it all the more exciting when it can be done.