I’m taking a page from the playbook of Kristen at The Frugal Girl and jotting down some of my frugal wins over the past week or so! Unlike Kristen, I doubt I’ll write this up weekly, but a little evaluation now and again never hurt anybody, right? So here we go.

1. We’ve enjoyed many leftovers.

Earlier this year, I came to a realization: If I make heartier, leftover-friendly meals once or twice over the weekend, I can stretch those meals out over our weeknight dinners to take the pressure off me in the evenings after work. I don’t know why it took *checks calendar* 20 years to figure this out – before now, we’d always used our leftovers for lunches instead, and made a lot more two-serving meals on the weekends – but better late than never, I say. So far this week we’ve enjoyed leftover pizza (with a fresh salad) on Monday from lunch out on Saturday, as well as jambalaya last night, leftovers from Sunday. Given that we order Chinese takeout once a week from our favorite spot, that leaves me only one weeknight meal a week to be responsible for, which comes at a great relief in these busy times!

2. I scanned some receipts into Fetch.

Sometimes, I wonder whether Fetch is worth it; it takes an age to garner enough points to convert to gift cards! But seeing how each receipt scan takes about five seconds, I feel the work is worth the eventual reward.

3. I mailed our eclipse glasses out for donation.

This isn’t so much frugal for me as it will be for the next user, but I loved this idea so I’m sharing it here. Several groups are organizing eclipse glasses donations for children in Latin America to enjoy the August solar eclipse, and I chose Eclipse Glasses USA as my donation program of choice. (Astronomers Without Borders also offers a donation program.) It makes me happy that these glasses will get another use right away!

4. As usual, I’m knee-deep in library books.

It’s a good thing our nearest branch is right in my neighborhood, because I’m forever blazing a trail to and from the library to pick up or return books! I’ve waxed poetic about the beauty of local libraries in these pages before, but it always bears repeating (and during National Library Week, at that!). I’m very lucky in that our local library system has an abundance of materials, from the latest hits to old favorites and plenty of as-yet-unknown treats among the stacks. Between their hard-copy books and their electronic materials (I make considerable use of the audiobooks!), I’m never without something to read. In fact, this week I’m reading Caster Semenya’s “The Race to Be Myself,” and am listening to “The Lager Queen of Minnesota,” both from our local library.

5. I put some items into Rotation and received some back in return.

Now, I don’t think I’ve said much about Rotation in these pages, and as I write this it occurs to me I should probably write a longer post about the joys of Rotation. But essentially, it comes down to this: My friends and I have a pipeline of items forever shuttling between our homes, from borrowed items or co-owned items (my friend Denise and I went in halvsies on a steam cleaner early in the pandemic, for instance) to giveaways. This week, I’ve received a brand-new bag of coffee that Denise couldn’t use, and in the meantime I’ve sent two books and a jigsaw puzzle her way. In short: Rotation is the best. I’ll write more about it soon!

What have you been doing to keep things on the frugal side lately? Tell us in the comments!

:)