Frugal Accomplishments for the Week

Husband is still rocking the grocery deals.  We've spent very little at Safeway, but by combining sales and coupons with Ibotta deals, we've gotten more of the Monopoly game cards (and more yogurt, and canned goods, etc.).  We've gotten more coupons from that, along with instant wins for a couple of donuts or bagels (our choice), a french bread loaf, and a pound of bananas.  He's also gotten a couple of $5 credits for Fandango and a free online cooking class.  He also had a couple of gas discounts as a side effect, and used those to save 20 cents a gallon on gasoline.

Husband and I are watching an HBO series we borrowed from the library.  We've also checked out books and other materials, and I downloaded my five free songs for the week from Freegal.  I'm building up my Dan Fogelberg collection, five songs at a time!

We've gotten some seedlings planted for our garden.  There are a lot of flowers, a few herbs, some tomatoes and Malabar spinach.  Everything else we plant will go directly into the ground when it's time to plant.

I met a friend for lunch.  We had been going out to local restaurants (Wendy's, Culvers, etc. with a coupon), but this time (and hopefully, moving forward), we had a BYO picnic at a local park.  I took a peanut butter sandwich, carrots and celery, a can of soda (which I ended up not drinking, and saving for the next day), water, and chocolate chip cookies to share with my friend.  On another day, Husband and I had a lunch date at home.  It's only 2 1/2 miles for me to go home, and we shared a nice lunch and watched an episode of the HBO series I mentioned above.

Husband let me borrow his backup ear buds for listening to music on my phone.  I have had a terrible time findind ear buds that don't just fall out of my ears, but these have two sizes of silicone covers.  The smaller ones work quite well.  I will likely, eventually, order a pair of these ear buds from Amazon, where we have a fair amount of gift card credit on our account.

I've been working on a jigsaw puzzle in the evenings.  We purchased it at Goodwill, and after I've completed it, we'll likely send it to my in-laws in a care package.

We did some pet sitting for our neighbor.  When we need someone to feed our critters, they will return the favor.

I cleaned the light fixture in the kitchen.  It is an open-at-the-top bowl, so it gets pretty dusty.  When I replaced the cover, it was a little brighter in the kitchen.  I've read tip sheets before that suggest making sure all your light bulbs are clean/dusted, because they will give brighter, better light for your money.

Vegetable and dinner scraps went into our 'chicken bucket' and were given to the chickens as a supplemental treat.

I've attended a committee meeting, a training session and helped with interviews at a different location from my primary workplace this month.  I will turn in my mileage form for mileage reimbursement.  The reimbursement for mileage is higher than the cost of fuel for these trips (it also covers wear and tear on the vehicle) and will help supplement our fuel costs for the coming month.  If your company reimburses for work related mileage, I would definitely document mileage and turn it in - it can make a big difference!

We hung our laundry to dry, as we usually do, and used our wood stove to help heat our home.

How did you save this week?  What did you do to use what you have on hand?