Five Frugal Things | I’m a professional cobbler too

1. I bought a 19 lb turkey this year, and we ended up with fewer people than expected, so I was able to send leftover turkey home with 3 siblings. Made broth and have turkey and broth for 2 meals from that.

2. Made a turkey pot pie with leftovers (only my second one ever!). Had unexpected, last minute company for dinner, so only had 1 leftover piece for my dinner at work the next night. I won't wait another year to make another since we both loved it.

3. The black Friday/Cyber Monday shopping I did were for things already on my "wish" list or things I use regularly that happened to be on sale. I put requested grandkid gifts on my Amazon list to see if they went on special before pulling the trigger.

4. I kept getting warnings that my Windows 365 was expired and it would affect my email. I had been putting off renewing because it annoys me that we are forced to purchase annually to be able to have reasonable storage etc. I miss the days when we could just purchase it with our machine and forget it! I looked at groupon and almost pulled the trigger on an Office product for a reasonable price, but that would have left me with the storage issue. With some googling, I found a Windows 365 option for less than half price and it includes a VPN. Now, the timing will be perfect for next year's sales too.

5. While doing my grocery shopping this week, my Kroger had Butterball brand turkey's for $0.50/lb and there happened to be a nice small one right on top. I'll cook that later this winter. Typically I look for turkey breasts after Thanksgiving as an alternative to purchasing a whole turkey, but those were actually almost $2.00/lb that day.

I've been out of commission due to several weeks of travel and work in between, so I have a longer list than usual. I keep track to help me remember that the little things do add up.

1. I use my half birthday for some birthday rewards. I was able to use a $5 birthday reward for a fancy coffee on my way to work when I picked up an extra shift. However I will not be able to pick up my free Panera pastry- I didn’t realize it was in my account until the day before it expired, and it didn’t make sense to drive 30 min round trip just for that (our Panera is on the other side of town). I also picked up a free coffee from a local place (I made sure to tip), a free cookie from Noodles, and a few treats from a local pizza franchise.

2. We traveled for an interview for DH, so we are treating it like a semi-paid small vacation. So far I have found 5 pennies in the vintage shag carpet of our AirBnb, which I am keeping as they are a choking hazard for my kids. And it makes me wonder if the carpet was vacuumed prior to our stay. (I did not keep the thumb tack my 3 year old found.)

3. One old-fashioned hardware store on our trip had samples of Zum brand soap, so I picked up three samples. They had large containers that were really full of samples so I felt comfortable taking one of each kind.

4. I found a penny in the parking lot at the grocery store.

5. We ended up ordering pizza to cover two dinners after we got home from our trip because sometimes that’s life. But Toppers had a good deal and I also had a free “birthday” pizza and another freebie dessert pizza in my app, so I was able to redeem both of those. We’d already done macaroni and cheese one night, so not cooking for the other two nights was priceless.

6. I finished a facial product that I won’t be replacing. I’ve never had a very complicated routine, but it still feels nice to simplify.

7. I ordered a variety of mouse traps (yuck) after we came home from our trip to find mouse poop (extra yuck) on our kitchen table, counters, and tub. I ended up with a couple more than I ordered from a pickup order, and need to see if the store wants them back. Hopefully we can keep them. [Updated to include that we came home from our second trip to find two dead mice in traps. This is discouraging but hopefully we can figure out a longer term solution rather than just trapping them once they are already inside.]

8. We were at my in-laws for Thanksgiving. I’ve been using some of the millions of lotion/shampoo/conditioner samples that my MIL has been stockpiling since 1997. That’s the oldest BB date that I’ve found so far.

9. My MIL also stockpiles the free cards that nonprofits send her, almost none of which she donates to. She generously allowed me to pick a bunch out of her stash, some of which I will use and some of which I will pass along to others.

Other than twice ordering from Costco, I have yet to order groceries online. I keep receiving promo offers to do so but haven't bit the bullet yet. Maybe one of these days I'll try it.

1) We are going to NYC for a long weekend, so I have been planning how to do this trip well but on the cheap. We have a home exchange, so that will save us boatloads on a hotel in Manhattan. We are also driving up from Virginia. I would have preferred to take the train, and this would have been a super cheap ticket if I had bought it back in June, but now prices are comparable to flying. And there are five of us going. I have also been sorting through recommendations of what to do while in NYC for Christmas. We will have one nice meal out, but otherwise there will be a lot of strolling well-decorated streets, exploring museums, and eating in. No Rockettes for us unfortunately. Next time maybe.

2) We have almost finished eating up all the food that was sent home with us on Saturday from the enormous feast our family cooked. When we got home we froze what we could and have been systematically eating through the rest to keep from wasting anything. Otherwise, I kept it pretty minimal for food this week with a focus on eating these leftovers and then working through food in the freezer.

3) I drive a lot because my own commute is 1.25 hours when I go, and our daughter's school is a half hour drive away. But I have been getting gas at Costco because it is in the direction of my work and our daughter's school and much cheaper than fueling up closer to the house.

4) We've been dealing with a roof leak in the commercial space we own. A roofer told us we needed a new roof, but instead we put on a couple of coats of tar. That helped, but our tenant had another leak last week. Then I remembered that our mason said there were issues with the brick parapet wall surrounding the roof. We had similar issues in our similarly-aged house, and repointing the brick is what finally fixed the leak. I'm glad I didn't spring for a $20,000 roof if the issue is the bricks around the roof! If this repointing doesn't fix it, we will move on to the next idea, but I have a feeling this will get us pretty well sealed up.

5) One of our sons has a birthday on Friday. As usual we are celebrating with a homemade cake and the dinner of his choosing (pizza and tacos--at the same time). He asked for a thing that is $220, but that is just out of our price range. Instead, we hunted around and found him another gift that we are certain he would love. And it was $30 instead of $220.

1. I harvested the last of our lettuce before the rains hit this week. That made 2 dinners (salad with chicken) and 2 lunches for me. 2. A parent gave me a freshly picked apple, it was huge. I julienned it and put it in my salads. That sweet vs savory taste was so good! 3. I listed Christmas decor I didn't want any more on Buy Nothing. It feels so good to make someone else happy and get rid of things at the same time. 4. I went through some things that were my mom's (she passed away last Spring) and only kept what I really love. I listed the rest on Buy Nothing. For example, I'd given mom photos in magnetized holders for her memory care room. I kept looking at them for months thinking, what will I do with these? The other day, I took out the photos and listed the magnet frames on BN. So simple. 5. Listed some broken angel ornaments of Mom's as "misfits" on Buy Nothing. They were popular! I kept the ones that aren't broken and they make me smile.