From new clothes to fun food to gift cards lost and found, it’s been a frugal week around here if I do say so!
1. Our wayward Best Buy gift card: Found!
Remember the Best Buy gift card I put in a very safe place the other week and promptly lost track of? I found it! And you’ll never guess where. Even I could not have guessed where. Last weekend I did some much-needed tidying and culling of our pantry cabinets, and there it was, behind the hot chocolate – my Best Buy gift card! I have no idea why I put it in the pantry (my guess it was a hurried cleanup effort before friends came over). But clearly it was very safe!
2. I bought some new snow pants on eBay.
This year has been a snowier-than-usual winter for us here in the Mid-Atlantic region so far, and my snow pants were getting a little long in the tooth. Well, actually, they were both long in the tooth AND short in the waistline. Ahem. In fairness, I’ve had them for 20 years now, and they’ve served me well all the while. Over the past couple of seasons, however, they have felt a little, um, snug around the midsection, and this year I am sorry to report they longer fit in a fashion where I can wear them out of the house. As they are snow pants, their main requirement is to be out of said house, so I needed a new pair. One quick search of eBay and voila! Jackpot — a new pair! And I do mean new – it still has the tags on. I picked this pair up for $39; a commensurate storebought version costs more than $100. I’ll take it! Here’s to another 20 years! (And if I do lose a bit of weight, my first pair will still be here waiting.)
3. I received an Amazon gift card from a friend.
A good friend of mine gave me an Amazon gift card as a thank-you, which I immediately deposited into my account (no misplaced gift cards there!) and will use in short order I’m sure. I often vascillate between saving these funds for something exciting and special, or using them for day-to-day items like vitamins; which do you do?
4. I’m fighting an erroneous hotel bill charge … and almost winning.
Remember how a couple of weeks ago, LeeLee had to head out of town earlier than planned so we used some soon-to-expire free hotel nights to help pay? Well, what I didn’t mention was that he had a second reservation scheduled for later that week, which he was going to pay for out of pocket as usual. But due to a confluence of weather-related events he needed to come home early and thus canceled the second reservation. So imagine my surprise when a $179 “late cancellation” fee hit our bank account the next day! I called the hotel, was assured it was in error, was told they’d fix it and … nothing got fixed. A week later, I called Marriott corporate to resolve the situation, and customer service must have written to the hotel in question, because in no time I received a nastygram (and I do not use that term lightly) from the hotel advising the issue was NOT their problem but that they’d refunded my money. Sure enough, the $179 credit is now listed as Pending in my account. I’m doing all I can not to name the specific hotel, but once this is all said and done I may change my tune. (The rude email made me Big Mad.) We’ll see!
5. The Leftover Revolution continues!
And what would a frugal roundup be without another mention of our wonderful Leftover Revolution? From spaghetti pie (pictured above) to tater tot casserole to a host of other leftover-friendly items, we’ve been eating like royalty over the past week! Stretching our grocery dollars while eating great food that reheats beautifully? No complaints here!
What have you been up to on the frugal front this week? Let’s hear it in the comments!
:)
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