Five Frugal Things (in five minutes)
I have five minutes before I have to leave for an appointment, so I'm just going to type as many as I can as fast as I can!
1. I chose store credit for a ThredUp return.
Because you get free return shipping that way!
(Get $10 off your first ThredUp order by using my referral link.)
2. I froze the last of my bruised peaches.
We ate peaches upon peaches (this is what summer is for!), but bruised peaches only last for so long, even in the fridge.
So I saved the last dozen or so by slicing and freezing them.
3. I got free shipping on a school book.
I realized this week that I had accidentally not even ordered one subject's curriculum for Zoe. Whoops.
I only needed a small order, but I googled and found a free shipping code that didn't require spending $100. SWEET.
4. I bought a book on eBay.
A friend recommended a non-fiction book to me and the library didn't have it. I was going to order it on Amazon, but I found a copy even cheaper on eBay, with free shipping.
It'll be slower to get here than it would be on Amazon, but it's ok. I'm willing to earn my savings by being patient. 😉
5. I ordered Sonia's vocabulary book on eBay.
I thought I ordered one for her long ago, but when I looked through my shelves this week, I could not find one.
Cheapest one on Amazon was $22, but I got it shipped from eBay for $11.50.
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My five minutes are up. 😉
Your turn! Share your Five Frugal Things in the comments.
Can I recommend you a recipe? Alton browns blueberry buckle except with diced peaches. I had to bake it an extra 15 minutes because the peaches were juicier than the blueberries but boy was it good. Fabulous with the blueberries too, and I’m going to try it with pears this weekend.
What a coincidence! I also have just five minutes before I need to leave for a training. 🙂
This week.
1. I'm at a work training, which means my mileage and meals will be reimbursed.
2. I decided not to attend FinCon this year. It's a little sad, but it puts a lot of money back into our pockets to pay off student loans in time.
3. I ate free hotel room breakfast today.
4. I packed homemade snacks, like coffee cake. My boss is a health nut and doesn't cater anything with sugar, salt, or flavor. 😉
5. I'm wearing secondhand clothes (from Thredup, actually!). I'm wearing Rothy's shoes that I bought with a gift card.
I'd like to go to FinCon! Maybe next year we both can go. 🙂
Librarian here! You should see if your library has interlibrary loan services. If they don't have a title, often, they'll request it from another library for free or with a minimal charge.
Or reciprocity. In my area, all the local public libraries will give a card to anyone who lives in a nearby county.
Another possibility is that some libraries take requests for purchases. My library has the request form online and usually orders what is requested. I don't know if you've checked to see if your library does this.
Great minds think alike! I was going to say all of the above!
And/or when you're done, you can donate the book to the library!
Running errands with my husband this week resulted in What We Didn't Buy Five Frugal Things edition.
1. I was going to buy a fall scented handsoap to fit in a thrifted container. Checking I had one from last year that will fit. So no trip to Bath and Bodyworks!
2. We have an odd small piece of concrete by the back door. I was going to stop by Sherwin Williams to get a quart of porch paint. Then I remembered we had picked up 6 gallons of unopened gray paints at a garage sale. One of those will work fine for that small covered space. So no trip to Sherwin Williams!
3. While my husband ran to Sears to pick up string for his weed whacker, he dropped me off at a discount place to check for two needed items. Neither of which they had so I walked out empty handed.
4. We dropped some donations off at Goodwill and went in since it was senior discount day. Nothing to buy there either so we came away without opening our wallets.
5. We did, however, hit Dollar Tree. They have Hallmark cards at 2/$1 so I took care of fall birthdays and Halloween cards for the family. I know Halloween cards aren't a necessity but my young great nieces and nephews love getting mail and it's fun to send them to our sisters and daughters who live far away. I also picked up a steel brush to scrape the concrete and a bottle of clear nail polish to protect chipped places on old enamel ware tables we have that we leave outside. Oh, and picked up a great loaf of multi grain bread we needed. And burlap fall leaves because, well, it's fall!
1) Yesterday was our kids first day of school and my husband had the day off. Usually we would go out to lunch or breakfast. Instead we went to nearby bike path and went for a ride. We ate lunch and breakfast at home.
2) Used the library and checked out an Empire Pass (NYS park pass) to go to the beach.
3) Donated a bunch of random things to the rescue mission
4) Spent time comparison shopping for new sneakers and found a pair considerably less on Amazon.
5) Over purchased sweaters for school uniforms, returned the excess.
Kelly, you checked out an Empire Pass from the library? How is that done. We live in Syracuse.
Hi Joyce,
We live outside of Syracuse in Baldwinsville and our local library has them and Onondaga Parks passes (which work for the zoo).
1. Before I went on vacation, I opened a new credit card account that will give me $200 if I spend $1000 in 3 months. I used that card exclusively on vacation to pay for all the bills. My family members will pay me back for their costs, and I will get $200 plus 1-2% cashback. Card will be closed as soon as the bill arrives.
2. This card's response included my FICO score. The real FICO score, not the variant that one can get for free.
3. I closed my PNC bank account because PNC started charging for certain check cashing. Instead, I moved my accounts to NewBank[1], which offered slightly better rates on current accounts and ~much~ better rates on CDs.
4. I opened a new credit card account (as it happens, also at NewBank) because the benefits suit me better. After a couple of cycles, I will close my older credit card (as it happens, also at NewBank).
5. I expect that my credit score will take a hit from all these changes. It doesn't matter. As a result of frugal choices and good planning[2] (and good luck!), I have no plans that require a really good credit rating - no major purchases to finance, no job changes, etc.
[1] Not the bank's real name.
[2] For example, I recently bought some new windows for my house. I paid cash - and got an extra 2% off - because I've been saving for House Expenses such as this.
WilliamB, I love that you put footnotes!
1. Went camping for a long weekend over the Labor Day holiday. The only money spent was for gas for us to get there. We camped on family owned property so there was no fee for us to camp. All of the families who camp share food, so we didn't have to eat out either.
2. Purchased a paid of shoes on Amazon and will promptly return them as I am not 100% satisfied how they fit. I hate having big feet, it's so hard to find an online size that works.
3. While camping, I had my mom cut and dye my hair. It seems so redneck to have your hair done while camping, but it's the only time I have to get it done that way. There is no free time at home with my little ones for me to do it myself, but at camp there are plenty of other "eyes" watching my kids.
4. Trying to stay as positive as I can about our financial situation. there aren't many bright spots in our budget, but I'm trying to focus on the positives and remind myself that this is just a rough spot that we have to get through.
5. Eating whatever I can find for my lunches at work instead of buying...I've had some weird combos lately, but as long as it is filling, I'll eat it.
I am an 11.5 and my 13year old daughter has been getting 12's for better fit.. We feel ya!
I LOVE the visual of sitting around the fire getting dyed and cut!
Hodge podge lunches for work are the best!
May the next months prove to be less financially stressful for you!
J, some of my lunches are weird combos, too, but as long as I don't have to eat in the cafeteria at work and I get to use up food that would otherwise be wasted, its all good! I also sneak leftover veggies into things and pass it off to my peeps and they have no idea. Sneaky frugal eating!!
I feel for your big feet! Mine are a 12. Remember when Jackie Kennedy was publicly shamed for have size 10 feet? I was nearly 6 feet tall with this boats-for-feet when I was 11. Back then there just were no nice shoes for larger feet, so I wore boys shoes a lot. Once we were in NYC and I was ecstatic to see a window display with really fancy, huge sized dress shoes. Turned out to be a place catering to female impersonators but I didn't care, if I had been old enough for red sequined high heels I would have bought out the entire stock!
1.) This is a silly one but I bought a surplus button down work shirt for $2 that was for a plumbing company but had my first name on it. Two minutes with a seem ripper and the plumbing company was gone for good. I haven't decided if I'll take the name off or not.
2.) Went to a county fair and didn't buy any food as it was too expensive. We ended up going back to my grandmother's house and all ate there.
3.) Working a little OT this week. I haven't worked much lately so my paycheck was down. :-/
4.) Eating simple meals with leftovers saves time, money and it's kind of hot so I don't need to run the stove.
5.) Not so frugal: My wife had to switch doctors in the same practice and this doctor is apparently out of network. Never assume that a doctor at the same practice is in network. At least we have an HSA so we're not left high and dry.
Battra92, the practice should have told you that the new doctor wasn't in-network. If they didn't, then for you visits until you learned the sad truth, they owe you the difference of your in-network and out-of-network costs.
Re: the health insurance stuff, since some here might know-I got a notice that my insurance company was "investigating or researching" a charge from last year. Then learned that they found a CT scan had not been submitted for pre-approval by my hospital/provider, so it seems like they took their money back from the hospital! Now the hospital is telling me that I should pay them. My thought is that THEY should have gotten it pre-approved if that was necessary (or mentioned it to me, or something!) Anyone know?
Jenny, I work for a health insurance company. The law states it is your responsibility to know what your policy benefits are, however you are correct, the CT provider should have obtained authorization for the CT scan or told you that it wasn't approved or not needed. You need to file an appeal with your insurance company and advise them that your ordering doctor and the hospital did not advise you of needing a prior-authorization. Also, if you can ask the doctor who ordered the CT scan to contact your insurance company to try and obtain a retroactive authorization for the CT Scan with medical records showing documented proof as to why it was needed.
Good luck, insurance is not easy to deal with.
Depends on your insurance company. Mine puts the burden on me and when I do call I make sure to keep a record of the name of the person I talked to and the exact time, in case there is a dispute later.
Yeah, like that will ever happen. The woman speaking to my wife on the phone was pretty demanding and threatening sending it to collections and such nonsense. In the end my wife is getting a new doctor (again) which sucks for her but that practice won't see us again.
Thanks for the support on my question. I'm going to try to figure it out tomorrow, but my insurance co sure hasn't been helpful in the past. And today I just got another unrelated bill for $1500 when my husband was transferred by ambulance from one hospital's ICU to the ICU at the hospital where his specialist was on staff "because it wasn't an emergency"! OMG. So stressful.
Ugh, that's so frustrating! We had a similar bill once for an ambulance ride that was less than a mile. Oof.
There's a great website, http://www.Half.com, which is Ebay's co-op online bookstore. Tons of sellers...awesome prices...it's my "go to" bookstore!
Actually, half.com is closed now.
Closed in 2017, I think. I used to sell books on Half.com.
I've used Abe Books for a few years. Very easy to use and I've gotten a lot of books for under $4, including shipping.
I use Abe Books as well and have been very happy with them. I ordered a book from overseas and didn’t understand something. I called Abe and the contacted the bookseller on my behalf. Everything was very smooth and excellent customer service.
1) Our daughter is finishing up grad school about 6 hours from home. I rented the moving truck online through Costco and saved about $40 and got Ebates on the rental cost.
2) I needed one night of lodging for the trip to move her home and made reservations at a historic inn rather than a hotel chain and saved about $40. Also reserved the room directly with the hotel since they waive the overnight parking fee for direct bookings. Who wants to pay $9/night to park?
3) Cleaned out the frig and used up the vegetables that were about to expire to make dinner.
4) DH and I both brought leftovers for lunch every day this week.
5) Scored a year of Pandora Plus (no commercials) from the T-Mobile Tuesdays app. I would never had paid for the upgrade but I am enjoying it. 🙂
1) I had to go down to city hall yesterday and could not find parking anywhere. It is great that our city is growing, but less parking and more traffic are no fun. Had I realized I was going to have so much trouble I would have ridden my bike despite the 96 degree heat. Luckily I found a spot in two hour parking about a half mile a way and got back to the truck just before the time was up.
2) Both of our boys attended our city's all day, free preschool the year before they went to kindergarten, and we were very happy with the quality. I noticed a sign when I took our second to orientation last week that said THREE and four year olds. I checked and we can actually send our daughter in her third AND fourth years, saving us an entire year of daycare! (This must be a change from previous years.) That is $12K! And it means that she will start preschool when our fourth (due in 2019) starts daycare, meaning that we are done FOREVER with double day care. Having two in daycare at once is more than our mortgage, so this news is like heaven opening up and the angels singing.
3) Had a burrito filled with leftovers for lunch. Not quite the savings of a free year of preschool, but the small savings add up to big savings too. Plus it was pretty dern good.
4) Last week I checked rates on car insurance, which I try to do every year. We had switched from Progressive to Metromile for a savings of about $30/month. But metromile has been inching up their per mile rate. I checked Progressive, and they are now cheaper, coming in at about $30/month total! And no me fretting over driving an extra mile because it means I will pay more. Luckily I made the switch before I drove around downtown for miles and miles looking for a parking place.
5) I checked in with our accountant about quarterly taxes and braced myself for the big bill he was going to tell me to pay. Happily he told me that the checks we wrote in June were for his estimate of our annual tax bill (I guess I was only supposed to pay half). Now we can crank our contributions from our checks down to nothing and bank the rest of the year!
I can totally relate to the Pre-School savings! We experienced a similar situation last September. I enrolled my son in our local township full day Pre-K program that had a tuition of $500 per month. (And at the time $500 per month was significantly less than the $1,000 per month we had spent on private day care). Anyway, the first week in September, I received a letter from the local Board of Education returning my $500 check required for enrollment with an explanation that the whole school year would be tuition free! The Board of Ed had received a grant for the Pre-K program. The grant saved us $5000! Best letter I have ever received!
Wondering how your city's taxes are! How can they do this??
Congratulations Amanda on no. 2 that's awesome
Kristin, when I really, really want to read a book that I think will be meaningful to me, usually nonfiction, I try the library first. They frequently don't have it and I end up ordering from Amazon. But you opened my eyes to trying Ebay. I never would have that of that.
Thanks for the tip.
Yes, I always check the library first! So great to borrow instead of buy. But when the library doesn't have it, then yes, eBay is worth a quick search.
1. Took advantage of a Buy1Get50%Off sale for shoes. I purchased new school sneakers for my son and got a nice pair of work shoes for myself. (it was time for a new pair for myself, I am not shoe-crazy 😉
2. Gave myself a home manicure. As long as I use semi-glossy nail polish, the home manicure looks good!
3. Took advantage of the life-time guarantee for our home blinds. Three separate blinds in our home no longer reach the bottom of the window frame, leaving a small gap at the bottom. Blinds to Go repaired them with no out-of-pocket cost.
4. My cousin gifted me a lovely set of 4 ramekins (something I would like to use for home cooking, but couldn't quite justify buying). We helped her move over the weekend and she purged/donated lots of home items she would no longer need.
5. And to borrow from another's comment.....I discovered this past weekend that my local Dollar Tree now sells Hallmark cards for $1.00! I picked up one for a birthday gift.
First time posting my five things but am excited to do so:
1. Made up sandwiches and popped them in the freezer to use for lunches.
2 Made up two batches of soup (chicken noodle and chili) and froze in single serving sizes for fast and easy dinners.
3. Normally I take a set amount of cash out for groceries, eating out and personal use but since I'm trying hard to have a number of NSD in September I choose to just transfer that amount to my FREEDOM savings account.
4. Stopped myself from buying a special treat for my puppy, Oliver. He has plenty of toys and he'll get a new one when one he already has is "destroyed"!
5. Didn't take said dog (Oliver) to doggy daycare this week - instead we took extra walks to make up the lost exercise 🙂
As a homeschooling mom of 4, I like to spend the summer deep cleaning and purging. My kids are getting older and we're having more fun hanging with others and doing outdoor activities. I got a lot of the deep cleaning done. I organized a lot. But our summer was filled with people and events and memories more.
Great idea on eBay + waiting a little longer!
1. I received a thred up shirt in the mail today (yippee!) and used a free shipping code/selling credit to bring costs down.
2. When choosing a mom group to join this fall I considered the cost of travel time in our day & the cost of gas. I chose the group closest for nearest community.
3. So many school extras (puzzles, educational DVDs, books) for our school day come from the library.
4. When signing my daughter up for an extracurricular we looked at the best option in terms of cost of time/cost of fees & supplies. We also kept to 1 evening activity 2x/month which feels very doable & not overwhelming to our nights.
5. Bough clearance organic blueberries & spinach & taco shells this week. Organic always seem to last longer and love the savings!
1. I came in under budget for groceries, yay! I love when that happens.
2. I'm knitting a Christmas present out of yarn leftover from knitting other Christmas presents years ago.
3. I used up a really-needed-to-be-used bag of potatoes to make an enormous batch of homemade pierogies. We're eating some tonight; the rest will be frozen for when I need dinner but can't even with cooking.
4. I really wanted to go out for lunch this week...but I stayed home and ate leftovers. Healthier, less money, no gas to get there. 🙂
5. My interlibrary loan book has come in! Now, to find the time to finish the book I'm reading now so I can read that...
I’m curious what vocabulary book you use? I’m on the hunt! Thanks! Happy first week back! I hope it was painless for all
We use Wordly Wise!
Love the Frugal Five in Five!
Let's see if I can come up with five for today:
1. We attended a free homeschool fieldtrip to city hall. Best part? Free watermelon!!!
2. We went to the medical clinic for free. (I love being Canadian)
3. My kids each got a free banana at our local grocery store. (This store has a kid's club program that gives a free piece of fruit to any children shopping with their parents)
4. We picked up a scooter my daughter won from the same kid's club program mentioned above.
5. I'm typing on my new to me $75 laptop!!
Here's my five in five:
1. Won a work quiz comp prize of chocolates and a candle
2. A friends friend is giving me a recliner chair less than 12mths old - he offered it when he heard I just got a place & he's delivering it this weekend! So grateful
3. Forgot to go food shopping so didn't have quite enough for snacks today - scored a free ham & cheese croisannt & 2 pieces of cake from different cakes - one in the morning & one in the afternoon
4. Going to a friends for coffee tonight - she suggested out for dinner but I've eaten out three times this week already so I suggested a night in & I've just had dinner at home
5. Notified insurance of address change & they told me I will get two refund cheques due to changed circumstances
1. Im going to a concert tonight! I took that comment about 'people listening to live music will live longer' to heart, I guess. My husband bought front row seats that cost way too much..gulp..At least we are going out to eat beforehand with a friend who is paying for the meal. We have done a lot of work for him so this is a repayment. We don't go to a lot of concerts so this should be fun.
2. I found 3 loaves of delicious cinnamon bread that I had been wanting to try marked down to $1 so I grabbed all three loaves.
3. I made spaghetti last night. I had two leftover hamburger patties from when we grilled a few days ago that I chopped up and threw in. I also put half of the ground beef mixture in the freezer for a quick meal another day.
4. That's all I got for now...
I don't know if I can get to five things but I will try.
1. The biggest win of the week was going to the supermarket with my mother and only buying the one thing we went to buy.
2. I bought strawberries at ridiculously low prices for here and made over a dozen jars of jam.
3. My granddaughter was one today. All her birthday gifts were bought on sale.
4. I found cat litter at much cheaper price than I currently pay. So I have a new place to buy the stuff and will save $4 (AUS) on each bag.
5. I have managed to curtail my soda habit a lot. Not only have I spent less, I am helping the planet as our dinner is so much emptier.
1. We had a cookout on Monday, which left plenty of leftovers for Tuesday supper.
2. On Wednesday the kids ate supper at the Awana's kickoff and we had sandwiches at home.
3. I used my Speedway points to get a free Coke for my lunch this week.
4. I also used a gifted Subway card to purchase lunch another day.
5. Shopped my closet to find coordinating outfits for our family pictures this weekend.
1. We’re eating out of the pantry and garden this week, so my grocery bill has been under $20.
2. We’ve been parking once and then walking to all our errands. I’m so thankful to live in a walkable town.
3. I am about 1/2 way done with Christmas shopping. I picked up a few more things on sale over the holiday weekend. So thankful to be getting closer (my goal is always done by November so I can actually enjoy the holidays).
4. After weeks of trying to figure out a tricky furniture painting project it finally occurred to me that I can just spray paint it!
5. So far successfully not buying any new clothes. Fall is always my most tempting time, so staying strong. I don’t need a new cozy sweater or new boots. Now just to keep repeating that to myself for the next three months. :).
I used to buy more stuff on eBay, but lately most things I look up are more expensive than on Amazon, especially books. My husband found a site called thriftbooks that we've been using it to get books because we don't mind used books and the prices are pretty good! I just earned a free ($5 and under) book from their site which is no problem because most books I've looked up have been under $5 and shipping is usually free for orders $10 or more.
Ha, I just made like the same comment. I hadn't read yours. 🙂
I've had good luck ordering used versions of books through the Amazon marketplace. Not certain though if that's quite the same with vocab books. Slightly used could be terrible if there are mistakes added. I may have to look at ebay more for books!
1. Ate at home all week
2. Brought lunchs from home to work
3. Shopped at Aldi
4. Got books from library
5. Bought a 2nd hand bike instead of a new one, perfect condition and half the price
6.Listed an unwanted gift to sell as I never use it..
For anyone wanting a good place to get used books, I've really loved ThriftBooks. They have good prices, and what I really love is that if you have a $10+ order, shipping is free. If your order is less, it's just 99 cents to ship--so much better than Amazon's used books with $3.99 shipping. I found Thrift Books about a year ago and have used it several times. My best buy so far is a Brene Brown hardback in perfect condition for $5, and when it arrived, it happened to be a signed copy even, which I thought was funny. We still use the library mostly, but when we do want to buy a book, Thrift Books is where we look. Happy book buying everyone! 🙂
This week was the start of a new job helping my BIL with his air bnbs.. the pay is the same as my previous job, however, I will only work part time. Here are my frugal five:
1- donated plasma twice... I was able to read for a bit and earned $100.
2- Two birthday parties this week.. so I used a gift card remaining balance at JCP and they were handing out scratch off discount vouchers and I got an additional 50% off!! The gift card balance covered that gift.
3- Used a remaining Walmart credit to reduce the price on the other gift.
4- a friend invited me to lunch as we have been trying to grab some time.. my chick filet app had a leftover balance that I was unaware of so it made my meal free!
5- Ate dinner at home all week.. we are a bit tired of leftovers, but grateful to save money not eating out.
We went to a large auto show and afterwards grilled burgers out instead of going out to eat.
Found a gift card while looking at some old cards...so glad I found it. Someone gave it to my hubby and he left it in the card. That was $25.
I was not happy some Martha Stewart sheets I bought 3 months ago that ripped in the middle. I took it back to Macy's and they gave me my month back. Yay! Trying to find xl twins cotton (for a split king) has been a pain.
There were free snack cakes at work left over from some camps so took a couple home for treats for us.
Used up most of my tomatoes making soup for my dad. We could both eat soup everyday even if it is 90 degrees.
Ugh Money back not month.