Friends, you get a bonus Five Frugal Things to kick off the week because — as you will see below — last week was a wild and crazy ride. LeeLee had knee surgery last Tuesday, which threw the whole week into (understandable) disarray, and only this morning do I feel like I’m finally coming up for air a little bit! Meanwhile, this poor little ol’ FFT was just hanging around waiting to be published. So … here we go. Without further ado!
1. It’s been PBJs all the way for weekday lunches, baby.
As it happens, I have a surplus of peanut butter in the cupboard, purchased for some volunteer tasks I’ve been up to. In fact, when I did a pantry audit last week I discovered I had not one, not two, but THREE different half-full jars of peanut butter, lined up one after another! This will not do! Thus – PBJs have been on the menu early and often in our weekday repertoire (including for lunch on the day of LeeLee’s surgery!). Nobody’s complaining.
2. I used up some gift card odds and ends for an Amazon purchase.
I know, we all have our feelings about the behemoth that is Amazon, but one thing they do right is letting me gift myself store credit with bits and bobs of old Visa gift cards. Thus, amounts like $6.86 and $22.92 have gone to good use in my Amazon account, helping me defray the costs of LeeLee’s ice packs for his surgery and a new variety pack of my favorite protein-packed Immi ramen.
3. We took a trip to New York City two weekends ago (not frugal), but used hotel points (frugal).
In the days before LeeLee had to check into the hospital we decided to have a “surgery-moon” in New York, taking in not one but TWO Broadway plays as a treat. Now, Broadway plays are not frugal and neither is New York, but we did find ways to cut corners where we could. The most lucrative was using hotel points to pay for half of our stay. Marriott has a program where guests can use points + cash to pay for their hotel room, and that’s just what we did. With as much as LeeLee stays places for work (and thereby collects a goodly amount of points), we did have enough to use for the whole trip if we wished to – but we’re saving for some big adventures over the next year or two and felt it was wiser to just cover the more expensive of our two nights with points. A second perk: Our favorite hotel has a free breakfast, which you can bet we availed ourselves of each morning!
4. We had our parking validated at the hospital after LeeLee’s aforementioned surgery.
Yes, yes, I recognize this is a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of the surgery – or even the copay! – but I’ll totally take it. The hospital parking garage was going to run us about $25, but the wonderful nurse cut through that nonsense with a validated pass. I’ll take a savings of $25 any day of the week!
5. Have I told you about my cheese bag?
That is one of my favorite sentences of the month, I’ll have you know! But it’s true: I have a cheese bag. For months, I’d been blazing through plastic Ziploc bags to hold my packages of opened sliced Chao cheese. Then, a month or so ago, I came to my senses and asked, “What am I doing?” Thus, I labeled a bag “Cheese Bag” and it has become my dedicated, well, cheese bag ever since, saving money and the Earth in the process.
Before I close, I want to say a very special thanks to my dear friends, some of whom read this blog, who helped LeeLee and me so much last week. Whether it was offering to sit with me in the hospital to checking in on us when we got home to offering to work from home while LeeLee was a fall risk to sending over incredibly generous Uber Eats gift cards, you all helped us in ways we didn’t even know we needed. Thank you so much.
Now: What frugal wins have you had this week? Tell us in the comments!
:)