Five Frugal Things | We're quitting Ting
1. We are switching to Mint Mobile
We have been happy Ting customers for a long time, but we crunched the numbers and for us right now, it makes more sense to follow Lisey's lead and use Mint Mobile instead.
This will be especially true as Sonia and Zoe spend more time away from home wifi with jobs and classes and end up needing more data; Mint Mobile will give us basically unlimited data for the same price we were paying with Ting!
And at this point, I am very happy at the prospect of not having to think about data usage.
I'll put together a more thorough post on this once we get switched, but you can check out what they offer here in the meantime.
(You get a $15 credit if you sign up through those links.)
2. We caught a fraudulent charge
Someone used our main credit card to purchase a 4-phone plan from T- Mobile. Sigh.
So, I called and they closed the card. A new one takes a week to arrive, so it's good we have a backup credit card!
The $212 charge will be removed, happily. But now I'm going to have to update this one in alllllll the places it's saved (like for auto-billing).
Still, that's better than paying $212 for something I didn't even buy.
And this is a good reminder to always, always check your credit card and debit card statements.
3. I bought Zoe's government book on eBay
This is a tutorial class, and I just got the email from her teacher with the textbook info.
I hopped onto eBay and about five minutes later, I found one for $20 with free shipping.
The book sells new on eBay for $46, even on Amazon, so I was pretty happy with this purchase
There was a cheaper one in an auction listing, but I decided my time was worth more than waiting around for several days to see how the auction ended up.
I'm happy with a $20 price point and five minutes of my time.
4. I bought some notebooks and graph paper at a steep discount
Zoe and Sonia don't need many of the traditional back-to-school items, partially because they are homeschooled and partially because they are a junior and a senior this year.
But I did stop at Office Depot to get a big pack of graph paper and a pile of notebooks for math purposes. Notebooks are always so cheap in August!
5. I bought some black-eyed Susan seeds
I keep seeing these blooming everywhere right now, and I want some for my borders.
A packet of seeds is way cheaper than buying the equivalent amount of potted plants. So, if I can get these to grow, I will be money ahead.
I ordered the perennial kind, so I'm thinking I could grow these and plant them outside this fall. But I am open to opinions from all you experienced gardeners!
If it would be better to wait until spring, feel free to tell me.
So I learned this the hard way, (by reading about it after I planted them) they are supposed to be planted in the fall. If you wait until spring they will grow but probably won’t flower much and be smaller plants, but they will come back the second year and be much bigger and have great flowers. I actually haven’t ever tried planting in the fall because when mine came back the second year there was so many of them that we divided and transplanted them. The kids break off the ones that go to seed and have scattered some seeds around the yard and a few of those have come up in smaller bunches. They might explode next year.
My yard is like yours, shady with lots of trees. We have one sort of sunny spot in the yard and they did best there, but they have also done well in the only two hours of Sun light shady back yard. I hope yours take off like ours did!!!! There are such cheery flowers.
If yours don't work this time around, I'd be happy to send you some seeds for free.
This week I kept a list:
- Mended: couch cushion, t-shirt, and a reusable shopping bag that was free to begin with and with leftover bits of thread.
- As part of cleaning/decluttering, I found a shoe box of sewing gear. I spent 30 min sorting everything (while watching This Old House). Now I have a lot more needles, thread, and buttons; the rest I'll send to a friend who costumes.
- Cleaned a couch suffering from the effects of a year of telework, starting with the lowest cost option. First I machine washed an armrest cover but it shrank (in cold water and no drying – what’s with that?). Next was dry cleaning, which worked wonderfully and was about half the price of using a service. To clean a stain on the frame, dishsoap and water worked better than upholstery cleaner – go figure. Good thing the cushions fully cover the frame because the the clean cushions make the frame look dirtier than ever.
- Helped my father order a Cricut cutting machine as a holiday gift, saving him about 25% of list price by looking online for the least costly source (company website was about 15% less than store pricing), getting a 1 month subscription (10% off total purchase), and finding an online coupon for free shipping ($10).
- Bought inexpensive soda with a CVS coupon for 3 12packs for $10, and using $6.06 in Extra Bucks.
- Got B1G1 quarter chicken from Nando’s. Last month they gave away free chicken plus these coupons, if you donated food. I donated spices and sauces that I wouldn’t use before they went bland.
@WilliamB, I've been watching a lot of This Old House on YouTube (particularly Ask This Old House.) It's really comfort TV for me because everyone is so pleasant and smart and you learn some things.
@Battra92, I agree. I particularly like the trade school eps. I have so much to learn! I came from a family where you picked up the telephone and not a tool.
@WilliamB, My husband's comment on "This Old House" is "Norm has all the cool tools". That's especially when my husband is facing a project that could be more easily done with some specialty tool we won't spend the money on to use once.
@WilliamB, I have had a lot of success cleaning upholstered furniture with a carpet cleaner. We have a small one (a Spot Bot) but in the last I have also rented a carpet cleaner @ Home Depot and it really does a good job.
I cooked at home all week. And let me tell you, if I had had ANY OPTIONS for not doing so, this is the week I would have taken advantage. But! So many years of constant cooking does pay off in the form of being able to get dinner on the table in under twenty minutes no matter how tired I am.
I made something called "bus stop breakfast cookies" for my son's snacks at school this week. They're mostly oats, not too much sugar, so not a bad snack. Unfortunately, they also have peanut butter in them, and the teacher sent a note home on the first day of school that this year no peanut butter please, so I had to give them to my eldest son for snacks at school instead. Since he's the one playing football, it's not a bad idea for him to have some extra calories, so it worked out.
We've started back to school, and I've started back to work there. One of the best things about my husband being the bus driver is that I can just ride the school bus with my kids to get to work. No gas out of pocket for me, and 40 miles I'm not putting on my car every week.
Also in the driving category . . . we live in an almost-ghost town that's right off the paved road, equidistant between the two villages in our county. The football team my son plays on is a combined team with the two schools in the villages , which means he has to go from his school to the other school, twenty miles away. His school drives him to the practices at the other school, and then brings the kids back to their school after practice, where parents pick them up. But! Since we're right between the two schools on the road the bus is on anyway, my son gets dropped off at the post office as the bus goes past and can walk home from there (it's only about 1/4 mile). So I don't have to get in the car to pick him up. That's a BIG deal out here, where people routinely drive up to an hour to ferry their kids around.
Oh, what a win that last one is both in time and money.
Kristen, you are wonderful to remind people to check credit card statements. If your bank and credit card company offers a notification service, it may be a good idea to enroll in these also. It saved my sister a great deal of heartache. She is buying a house and transferred money into her bank to cover the down payment. Someone unknown to her facilitated a withdrawal of $120,000 from her account moving it to her business account and then distributing it to 13 people. Luckily, a notification popped up on her phone while she was eating breakfast. She was able to stop and reverse all the transfers. It was a bit of a mess, but nearly as difficult as it could have been.
Oh my word! $120k! That's terrible.
@Bee, Not only check the credit card bill but also keep your receipts to use to check the bill. It's sad but true that mistakes happen and your best bet to get them fixed is to have the evidence.
@WilliamB, I agree! Mistakes on receipts happen way more than people realize!! I'm always astounded at how many people don't keep receipts of transactions (maybe not here in this frugal community but out in the general public). I even get receipts for every single cash transaction we make and try to look at the receipts before we leave the parking lots of merchants. You'd be surprised at how many times I have to go back in to get an adjustment because something was rung up twice or I wasn't given the sale price, etc. I try to watch the cashier's monitor to catch mistakes but that's not always possible. (Especially at Aldi where they are so fast!!) Anyway, I wanted to second that advice!
@Bee, Oh my gosh!
@Sarah, So true! I've tried to pay more attention this year and have been shocked at how many times things don't ring up correctly. Makes me wonder how many I missed in the days of my kids needing my full attention and not being able to give the receipt any attention. I caught one on Saturday for a product that was marked down and rang up full price. The cashier corrected it quickly and it was no big deal.
@WilliamB, also people need to get the receipts. I have many cashiers asking, do you want a receipt?. I always do so I can check them.
Whoa! That is absolutely frightening and thank goodness your sister was alerted. Thank you (and everyone here) for the reminders!
Black eyed Susan’s very hardy. I have never started them from seed.
Because we have experienced the fraudulent credit card use more than once, we now use the backup credit card for those recurring, automatic charges and not our regular spending. When (not if) our frequently used card is a victim of fraud, we do not have to change all of those accounts (and we did make a list of them so we wouldn’t forget any).
I am enjoying the Meet the Reader series very much. And best wishes to Lisey as she lives independently and starts her career studies.
@Debbie Flowers, That's a really smart way to make less work for you if there is a fraud.
Building on last week's Thankful Thursday post:
1. We stayed an additional night at the fancy hotel, again using up the last of my Marriott points. They did not charge the $27/day parking fee for the entire stay, even though it was on the confirmation email, yippee! Now to figure out how to get more Marriott points...
2. We stopped at Costco for gas on the way home. We went inside for a pit stop and decided to grab a $9.95 pizza. We ate a couple of slices on the road and saved the rest in our cooler for another meal once we were home. This ended up being much cheaper than shopping for road trip snacks. Bonus: They gave us too many plates, which will go into the RV, as we rarely use them because I don't buy paper plates, even for the RV.
3. The thrift store where I volunteer lets us check out potential purchases, primarily so we don't have to stop working to use the fitting rooms. I checked out a dozen tops and dresses for my cousin to try (it was her birthday). Four dresses and two tops looked great on her, so she kept them and I brought the rest home to return. Total outlay was $21.50. One of the tops was new with tags and matched a pair of her shorts perfectly. Win!
4. While processing/paying for the purchases for my cousin, I decided it was time to clear my thrift store tab. I wrote a check for $130, which seems high, but the list included a Breville electric kettle, two large All-Clad pans, several gifts, (including #3), a dozen jigsaw puzzles, a number of brand name shirts for DH and DSS, and more. I rounded the total up to the next $10, just because I'm so grateful for all the great things I find there and how much I enjoy working with all the other volunteers, especially for those who keep an eye out for things on my wish list!
5. On the trip, I was inspired to really work through my food stores. I skipped grocery shopping last week, which was easier because we were traveling. This week, I made a list of ten perishables I needed for DH's work day breakfast and lunches and that's all I bought. I'm starting to see more and more glass in the refrigerator!
Bonus: Once home, I was inspired to review my CC purchases for the year. I'm happy to report there was nothing irregular there, and that most of my spending happens at discount grocery stores. Not a single department store purchase and the only Amazon purchases were for my shoes, which I have an alert for and buy used. I keep a supply on hand in case they are discontinued. I average about $45 per pair for shoes (including tax and shipping) that sell for $120 + tax at retail.
Forgot to mention that we recently switched to Visible and have been very happy with it. Unlimited everything and better coverage for a bit less than we were paying before.
I'm needing to find as many frugal options this week as possible. My mother is ill and I used most of my paycheck to drive there to stay with her for the weekend. I will always use up my money to make sure I can stay with her, but it really hurts the wallet. I just have to get creative.
-Today was tie dye day at my kids daycare. I remembered that my husband has two packs of new undershirts in his closet. Each kid got one and I'll do some creative cutting on my daughter's to make it fit her.
-Football/cheer season is upon us and I've been packing all the snacks and drinks for practices. Somehow I'm known as the mom who has treats in her bag!
-I have been BLESSED by a coworker who gave me all of the donations from her MIL's home. Many new with tag items that I can sell on Ebay. It's amazing how some people live. My mother makes a sport about buying and then returning items (she tries items on at home now due to her illness) but this woman made a sport of NOT returning items. So much with tags on it.
I'm at a loss for anything spectacular, but I've been packing my lunch and making my own coffee for work.
@Jenelle, I hope your mom gets better soon and good luck.
@Jenelle, praying for your mom. You can find super cute cutting and tying ideas for t-shirts
On Pinterest.
Just here to also chime in in favor of credit card notifications coming up on your phone. Helpful for catching fraud, sure, but also when you’ve asked the husband to stop at the store for milk on the way home and you don’t know his timeline but then, Ding! Sweet, he just checked out at the store so he’ll probably be home in 5. Or also, when he decides to stock up on undershirts and orders them online himself and you’re maybe a little shocked at the price - it’s helpful to have that heads up pop up on your phone so you can do some self talk to modulate your response and remember that he works a professional job and needs them and that it’ll fit in the budget and be okay. 🙂 All kinds of perks to the cc notification!
@mkmitch,
I love your take on the additional benefits of credit card notifications.
@mkmitch, Love the "modulating your response" part. We could all use heads up on that, all the time.
@mkmitch, My husband went to the food truck corral at work last year when he has customers in town (normally he always takes his lunch). By the time he got back to his desk, he had an email from me asking if he REALLY spent almost $20 on lunch at the Rollin' Lobster food truck. He was shocked that I had already seen and questioned the charge. 🙂
Let's see, what have we been up to:
-I signed up to volunteer at my son's soccer club cleat exchange, which helps keep cleats in circulation (yay!) & saves me $100 off of the club fees for 3 hours of my time.
-I made zucchini muffins using one of my many zucchinis. Bonus, the recipe called for ground walnuts. I subbed a 1/2 can of peanuts & trail mix (that someone had eaten all of the chocolate out of ;0)) instead. It worked great, and removed two items from my pantry.
-Sold a few things on eBay
-Gave away a desk, and a pair of cleats on Buy Nothing. Cleaned out my son's drawers & found a bunch to donate, some to toss. It's much easier to see everything he has.
-Continue to make breakfast/lunch/snacks for the kids when I have stuff I want to use up from the fridge. They are teenagers, so fully capable of making their own. But, I've been making them a lot of smoothies, using up my supply of freezer bananas.
1. We took our own “Back to Homeschool” pictures. This consisted of my teen daughter and myself finding a place in the woods to prop my cell phone up and then try and come up with creative poses. My favorite pose ended up being me carrying her piggyback. Since she is 17, it has been a few years since I have carried her piggyback and I was a little surprised at how heavy she was! My daughter’s suggestion of a pose was for us to leap into the air. Let’s just say this 56 year old mom trying to leap into the air is a sight you should have seen. On the other hand, you can be thankful that you DIDN’T see it! It made for a lot of laughs, however, which was pretty frugal!
2. I was mailed a $5.00 free coupon to Staples, so used it to purchase 20 notebooks for .25 cents each. My daughter will use a few in homeschool, I keep one ongoing to write down shopping lists, etc., and the rest will go into the basement on our shelf with our other school/office supplies. That way, when we need something we can “shop” from our own stash instead of paying full prices at a time when things are not at “Back to School” sale prices.
3. I cut some Lemon Balm and dried it for making herbal tea. This is my first year growing Lemon Balm. I planted it in a pot as I read it can take over your garden, but it has not thrived as much as I had hoped. This is the first time I have cut some of it to dry, so I did not get as much off of it as I would like. I need to read more about growing it and see if I can get it to do better.
4. I received a coupon for a free full size item from Bath and Body Works, so made sure to use it and got myself a nice splurge of a shower gel.
5. I harvested some of the very last garden tomatoes. I am also thinking of how I might add more tomatoes into the garden next year, as I would love to have extras to dry or freeze.
Pictures of our silly school pictures plus more at my blog here:
https://chickadeecove.blogspot.com/2021/08/frugal-friday-week-of-august.html?m=1
Looking forward to reading everyone’s comments!
~Susan M. In Chattanooga, Tennessee
@Susan M., Kudos on being a fun mom and doing the pictures! 🙂
@Susan M., How fun for you and your daughter to take the photos together! You can remember this time of being happy and lovely and hopeful for your new school year.
@Susan M., What a great and creative idea to celebrate the start of school! I am also impressed that a 57 year old could hold a 17 year old on her back without collapsing! On the first day of school my father used to have each of us hold a sign, with the date and grade we were entering. It is entertaining to see the changes in all of us over the years. I loved going to school but somehow my pics always looked like those old time arrest photos, with the soon-to-be inmate holding a placard with his last name and the date. Even in the first grade I had bitchy resting face.
@Ruth T,
Thanks!!! I don’t FEEL like a “fun” mom—but I AM very aware that my homeschool days are over with next school year. So if my daughter wants school pictures with her mom, I am NOT going to say “No”!
@Heidi Louise,
I was touched that she wanted me in the pictures as well! We started hiking together only last year, and have found that we both love it! So pictures in the woods was a perfect backdrop!
@Lindsey,
I am laughing because my school pictures always looked the same as yours! On holding my daughter, true story—I was going to lay my hiking poles down to the side when my daughter said “You better keep them—you might need them for balance!” Turns out she was VERY right!!! I figured out later I weigh about 25 pounds more than she does, so maybe there is a reason she felt kinda heavy to me, even though she is very slender!
Try not to be too be bummed about having to replace your card--it's a great opportunity!
When I had to switch banks due to a move, I was SO annoyed! But it ended up being a fantastic way to double check every auto-pay thing that was set up, and confirm if I really needed/wanted it. Plus, there was a magazine that I'd paid for up front that tried to auto-renew, and instead, I got a payment declined email. Initially I was embarrassed, but when I thought about it, I decided I didn't need that magazine anymore, so I saved $12! haha Every little bit helps, right?
I just wanted to let you know that we signed up with TING several years ago on your recommendation. It has gone well for us except for a glitch some time back that involved some heated words on my husband's part. 😀 We don't use any data, so we'll just stay with them.
I would like to know, however, where you ordered your perennial black-eyed Susans. They are on my list of wants.
I recently helped my mom pack up for a move (permanent???) to Texas with my sister. She downsized on her way out of town, and most of it ended up at my house. That included the pantry and freezers... So, other than perishables I have been cooking from that for 2 weeks now. One of these days, i will start to see my pantry again, and maybe some shelf space in my freezer...lol
Kristen, I do have one thing to say about the black eyed susans, be careful where you plant them, height wise. I have an entire patch of them in my front beds, they were the only part of a wildflower mix that took... I mistakenly planted the mix along the front of my flower bed, and now everything else is swamped in b.e.susans... Looks a little Jungle like, and they are between 2 and 3 feet tall, and are taking over from the front. I will have to try transplanting them at the end of summer to a hillside that i would love for them to bury, and see how well they do there. Almost as much sun as the front beds.
I looked at Mint Mobile and it uses T-Mobile. I think for us the lack of coverage in many parts of the country make it a no go.
1. I was scheduled to go to lunch with a friend yesterday after my volunteer gig. The gig ended early and we didn't have anywhere we wanted to get food so we sat outside and caught up. Afterwards I went home and ate leftovers.
2. My husband has figured out how to borrow digital versions of magazines from the library. That not only saves money but is good for the environment. We have also watched a few shows using hoopla, the latest digital offering from the library. I continue to read and listen to digital books borrowed from the library.
3. We spent time in a rental house at the beach last month. They wanted us to buy damage insurance (which only added a little over 1% of the rental cost to the price). Instead I sent in a four figure deposit and received a refund check yesterday.
4. The "stay home" we practiced during the pandemic has changed my desire to shop at a variety of places to get the best price. I no longer worry about buying deodorant and the like at the grocery store. I know the workers there are earning a decent wage and a pension and I find that a worthwhile use of our funds. I also buy less so I think that is a mitigating factor. It's also environmentally friendly.
5. I have two refrigerators and both have rather full freezers. I am working on using up some of the items in them.
6. Bonus: before going away I turned off the water to the washing machine. I forgot to turn it back on when I put in a load of laundry. The machine issued an error code and locked up. Following the instructions in the manual did not fix the issue and the suggestion was to call a repair person. I remembered that you don't need whiskers to deal with such an issue. Thanks to the internet I was able to get the problem resolved. Big relief.
I've got a tiny starter plant from my neighbour last year and it became a beautiful blooming plant. I've been enjoying it all Summer.
We've switched to Mint as well. The prices are great but we get a lot more spam calls than we used to.
My frugal things:
1) Cooking from home still, 12 days after our range/oven was rendered unusable (CO emissions). We ate out the night we realized it was emitting CO, and a new unit is coming to us, in 10 days. I almost don't mind not having a range right now beause cooking is so much simpler: grill all the meat. Make chilis/soups in the instant pot.
2) Spending much less money on gas since we haven't cooked with gas for 12 days.
3) Have been using Rakuten faithfully, and have a decently sizeable check coming our way.
4) Cleaned out the schoolroom and have a good idea of the supplies we have for the school year. Being organized saves so much money.
5) Frugal Fail: I'm throwing out produce from the grocery store because it's going bad before we eat it, even though I only buy a week's worth at a time and go through the delicate stuff first.
remembered another Sorta Frugal item: bought our new range from the back room. It was discounted 25% due to it being an open box (someone got the wrong size for their house). We could have purchased a cheaper range, but we didn't want to downgrade from what was in the house when we bought it, so we did what we could to be frugal and still keep the quality.
All of my frugal things involve my kitchen and pantry this week. Oh well - savings are savings.
1. We added several items to our pantry this weekend including 90 eggs, 5 lbs of breakfast sausage, 20 lbs of sugar, and 5 pkgs of hot dogs. These were loss leaders so we spent $39 on this order which also included several containers of coffee creamer.
2. Batch cooking is my new weekend ritual and it is saving from the takeout monster during the week. I made tomato soup using home canned tomatoes, beef stew, rice, confetti corn, steamed cabbage, walnut muffins, & pork chops in the crockpot. All of these items were prepared from our freezer & pantry.
3. Lunches were packed for my son to take to school & coffee is made at home in the morning.
4. I Have all of my seeds for the fall garden organized. Now if the rain would just give me a break I will get them planted and have more to add to our freezer and table in the coming months.
5. Our boxer suffers from itchy ears and frequent ear infections. We purchased some Zymox drops after hearing rave reviews rather than taking her into the vet again. The itching has stopped completely and we are hoping this resolves the issue. The drops were certainly less expensive than a vet visit.
Happy Tuesday!!
I'm going to look into Mint. I don't use a lot of data and I don't want to for the most part. However, my Ting bill is often $25 for just one line and minimal cellphone usage.
@Rebekah in SoCal, We use Consumer Cellular and we have plenty of data and unlimited talk and text for less than $20 a month. It primarily uses the AT&T network. For AARP members (one person in your household over 50), there is an additional 5% off, which pays for the AARP membership in 2 months.
I have a question about your mobile service. My daughter uses Republic, and has had a problem a few times when trying to sign up for some legitimate things online -- they don't recognize her mobile number as a valid number and won't let her sign up, since that's the only number she has. Has anyone else had this problem?
Our county grows black-eyed susans in the medians on the highway. They clearly enjoy the sun here. In early summer, the highway in our county glow with solid masses of gold down the middles for a long distance. I am not sure when planting is best in your area, though. I'd suggest checking with an extension agent or a local nursery.
1. I did some sewing repairs and hemming that needed done.
2. I had a hold at the library and they just notified me that my book is ready. I'm a bookaholic, so using the library definitely keeps me from spending so much on books.
3. There is a lot of cleaning going on at my house, between me and the caregiver. I refilled our spray bottles with an inexpensive mixture of water and a tiny dab of Sal Suds, which works well.
4. I harvested some grapes from our vines and juiced them. The juice will go to jelly or be frozen for later.
5. I made salads using our perennial, longevity spinach as the "lettuce." It's too hot to grow lettuce here for much of the year, but this longevity spinach fills in for lettuce. It has a sturdy leaf, so I always slice it in a chiffonade. It's a lot cheaper than lettuce, is said to be very nutritious, and so far, it's been growing in it's big pot outdoors for, um, 8 years?
@JD,
Bookaholic-ha, cute!-here, too. Also thankful for the library because I couldn’t afford my book habit!
@JD, My sons both have republic wireless. They have not encountered the same problems as your child. The number should be valid since you have to legally be able to "port" it (ie transfer) to another cell carrier if you want to at any time.
1. Bought produce from the international market - it was so much less expensive than Ralphs (southern california's Kroger). Washed and prepped a whole bunch of it so I'd actually use it. Used Kristen's trick of putting it in upside down pyrex containers within the crisper drawer so that I am reminded of what's in the refrigerator. Has been working great this week and I'm so happy that we're eating so much fresh fruit and veggies.
2. A friend offered to give us her daughter's school uniforms. She's moving on to middle school and won't be able to use them. My daughters are a year and three years behind so they'll definitely be put use!
3. Have gotten back into the habit of using the grocery apps to download coupons before shopping. I know I've saved at least $10 by taking a few moments before going into the store.
4. Our painting company refunded us the cost of a cleaning service because they left our home messy. I just wanted to be settled back into our house so my husband and I were quick to clean up. Maybe I'll save those dollars for when I'm overwhelmed by housework.
5. Said no twice to the temptation of getting an expensive boba drink this week. I'm trying to cut back on sugar and expenses. It's hard when I just want it but I'm glad I said no!
1. We needed to drive to a bigger city to get school supplies, so we chose to do it Friday night after dinner instead of Saturday because the kids' sleep schedules were already off from vacation and I figured that we couldn't do it Saturday without it running into a mealtime and needing to eat out, which I didn't want to pay for. The plan worked well.
2. We accidently bought 4 dozen Ticonderoga UNsharpened pencils instead of the sharpened ones but instead of making a trip to take them back and pay for the more expensive ones I am having my 2nd grader sharpen them herself and we're calling it good.
3. Meijer sent me a coupon for $10 off $50 since they finished their store reno and I wasn't sure that I was going to do a big Meijer trip this month, but we checked there for dress shoes and water bottles (both needed for school and thankfully they had them!) and were able to combine that with some grocery things to get us to $50.48. Yay!
4. In the midst of a long afternoon drive I needed coffee and opted for a gas station latte instead of Starbucks. It's been so long since I've had a drink like that from the machine that, while I thought it was odd to be coming out so slowly, I didn't realize something was wrong. I ended up with a cup full of syrup flavoring and no coffee!! So we stopped at McDonald's to get me an actual coffee and I've been using the stuff from the gas station as creamer in my coffee at home in the mornings.
5. We got back from camping Thursday night and we swung by the library to return the mobile hot spot before they closed since it was due. It's a $5/day late fee so the extra stop was worth it.
So glad you caught the fraudulent charge! The nerve of some people!!!!
This past week we vacationed in NYC with another family (first real vacation since the pandemic hit). Not that frugal, I know, but we were cost-conscious with what we did and had a wonderful time:
1. We traveled by train rather than plane. The rail prices were still lower than pre-pandemic times, and we got to see some beautiful countryside.
2. Since not everyone had been to the city before, we put a lot of miles on our sneakers while doing the touristy sight-seeing thing. Particularly moving was the 911 Memorial at Ground Zero. The most costly thing on those treks was the cold water purchases for $1-$3 per bottle. It was 97 degrees and extremely humid the entire time we were there, so it was a necessity to stay hydrated. Since we were walking several miles each day, it would not have been pleasant to carry several pounds of water around with us. And, there would be no way of keeping it cold. The splurge on ice-cold water was worth it to us.
3. We spent time at Citrovia, a free outdoor art exhibit. We went in the evening and it was beautifully lit.
4. We ate one large meal per day at places we'd scoped out in advance and made reservations at. Breakfast was grab-n-go at the hotel. We brought a backpack of snacks to eat in between. Although, there may have been a milk shake in Times Square, a tiayaki (Japanese dessert of ice cream in a fish-shaped, cakelike-waffle) in Chinatown, and a butterbeer at the new Harry Potter store, too.
5. Redeemed credit card points for gift cards to take and spend at places we knew we would be visiting along the way.
My husband is a happy Mint customer. Plus, we can use his number, on WiFi, overseas. Super nice for daily calls with our aging parents. Buh-bye to glitchy Skype.
Black-eyed Susans are also common in pink around here. And I saw some red ones at the garden center, which were very striking with the black centers.
1. I redeemed points on one of the apps I utilize and got a $25 Walmart gift card. I used it to buy a lot of groceries and paid only .11 out of pocket.
2. I took advantage of sale prices and digital coupons at Kroger to buy 3 boxes of General Mills cereals and 2 bottles of body wash for only 4.45. The body wash will last many months.
3. My daughter gave me a page-a-day calendar for Christmas last year. I have been putting each day's page in the recycling bin but realized the blank backs are perfect for lists, notes, reminders, etc. Only took me until mid-August to figure that out!
4. I put my annual homeowner's insurance, termite inspection and some of my trip expenses on my credit card. I paid it in full and will have a $24.42 statement credit next month.
5. I checked out 4 books from the library today. My receipt shows I saved $105.97 today, $1,829.13 so far this year and $15,257.96 since I began using this library 16 years ago! I go there a lot.
Mint Mobile had me a little excited at first but then I checked their coverage map and it appears they are on the T-Mobile network which has giant gaping holes in rural areas in my part of the country. Oh well. Ting is still working out well for me.
But let's see what I've done this week:
Went to a church sale and bought a bunch of things for under $2 total. I got something that helped me organize one of my cabinets, an impact sprinkler etc. Also got a few "fun" things at some other garage sales like a cute set of bookends (with the Barnes and Noble animals) that are now in use in my daughter's room.
Listed a few more items on eBay and also listed some for my brother. He and I were talking about how sometimes it's not just the money but how it feels good to get rid of the stuff and it's nice to get the stuff out to someone else who will enjoy it.
On the flip side, I got an offer to get something I was watching on eBay for 20% off. As a negotiating tactic I offered 50% off. He took it! So yeah, not frugal in that I spent money but I didn't pay what he was asking.
Other than that, not a lot going on here frugal or otherwise.
@Battra92, We have Ting, and it lack of coverage doesn't affect us much when we're at home, but when we take our cross-country medical trips, we do not count on having cell service.
I'm interested in hearing more about Mint Mobile and would be interested in a post on this (and other potential options to Ting). I like Ting but reception is limited at rural places in Michigan.
Received a bag of hand me down clothes for my daughter from our next door neighbor, perfect timing too since she’s just outgrowing her current size.
My kids aren’t school aged yet but I bought some markers and other craft things they use since back to school sales are so good right now.
Roasted a chicken last night and picked off all the meat and chopped it so it’ll be ready and easy to use for other recipes this week and I saved the bones to make stock.
Picked up a free nap mat that someone was giving away in my buy nothing group. My daughter will need one in a few months when she starts preschool.
Sort of an odd one but I forgot to bring my sons swim bag with us to his swim lesson so I had no towel or change of clothes for him. The swim school has a shop attached and I was going to buy a towel but decided to check the car and found one of my husbands sweatshirts in the trunk, so I wrapped him in that after his lesson and didn’t buy a towel that we didn’t actually need!
We have been using Mint Mobile for 3 or 4 years now and have no complaints! Their service is spotty in very remote areas, but that doesn't bother us.
1. I picked up a Banana Republic down winter coat off Buy Nothing. The neighbor giving it away said she washed it, resulting in the fake fur around the hood getting matted, so she bought a new one. I washed the coat and used a cat brush on the fur and it looks great! I also picked up a Nalgene water bottle, for school for my son, off Buy Nothing.
2. I enrolled in a study through MIT (they are studying the impact of meditation). They will pay me $50 and gave me a 3 month license for Head Space.
3. I used over-ripe bananas to make banana pancakes for my kids' breakfast. It made 2 weeks worth of pancakes. I made pesto using basil and garlic from my garden.
4. My credit card company rejected a recent payment. I called and found out the wrong bank account number was used. They refunded me the $25 dollar return fee and gave me 10,000 in points ($100) for the inconvenience.
5. My husband sold some items from a car on ebay. He made about $200.
My Frugal Finds
- Sold used girl boots on Facebook Marketplace for $5.
- Recycle used and out of date electronics at Best Buy.
- Used Ibotta & Fetch apps for freebies with extra points and cash back for purchases. Got some free food like cereal, yogurt and snacks.
- Slowly using up leftovers in the fridge for meals.
- Had leftover doughnuts from a get together we brought so kids got to eat them the next day.
- Was given free cucumbers, tomatoes & cherries from neighbors. Been eating them as veggie sides or in salads.
- Been battling weevils so put food items in freezer to kill off bugs and put bay leaves and clovers in or around food they usually eat to ward them off.
- Used books and learning resources we already have to prep and review with kids before school starts.
- Enjoyed free food, games and t-shirts at our libraries summer reading program celebration.
- Returned water bottles back to store and bought them online instead for half the price.
- Save gas by doing multiple errands like shopping, doing returns, and taking kids to the playground on the same street area.
I had to take my car to the shop, so I combined it with a trip to the BJ's near the shop.
I used up produce in oatmeal before it went bad.
Used a coupon to stock up on dog food.
An off-price store in my area has weekly deals where if you buy certain items, you get a gift card for an equal amount. This week the deals included quinoa, so I can stocked up.
I began organizing pantry to make sure everyone knows what's there and we can begin eating it down.
1. Hubby & I had a free 2 day vacation stay at Deerfield Beach in West Palm Beach, FL. all courtesy of our son and his wife for babysitting their baby!
2. All our food during the stay was also free.
3. I received a refund on an item for $25.
4. We received a $317 refund from our total loss protection policy for our jeep we paid off this year after they stated we were not eligible but we actually were eligible.
5. I earned enough reward points to order 4 essential oils absolutely free.
National Parks Vacation edition:
1. Used airline miles to redeem plane tickets for our family of 4; when the number of points per ticket went down, cancelled old tickets and "rebought" at lower point price.
2. Used credit card points to book hotels at beginning and end of trip; one was a fun glamping experience that would normally cost over $400/night!
3. My son used 4th grade national park pass for our family to enter 2 national parks for free during our trip (saved $70).
4. Traveled with friends who drove, and they brought their Instapot and an electric kettle as well as lots of food from Costco so that we didn't have to buy the expensive meals inside Yellowstone (or wait in the really long lines, either!). Saved so much time and money that way.
5. Packed lots of snacks from home, brought refillable water bottles, brought a soft-sided cooler, and ate picnic lunches during the day.
6. One lodge at Yellowstone did not have our room ready at (late) check-in, so I requested a different room (at a lower price point) which was ready, got $100 off our bill and received a meal voucher for our family, which we redeemed for a hot breakfast the next day.
Frugal Fail: I forgot to move 2 jars of huckleberry jam from my backpack to the suitcase prior to checking in at the airport. Security confiscated my jam and threw it away because it was considered a liquid and was "over the allowed amount". I was so sad!!!
I turned on both my bank and credit card notification for any transaction over $1 on checking and $5 on my credit cards. I put 99% of my bills on my credit cards because it is easier to replace a stolen/compromised card than a checking account. I had someone order $1000 pens (2 of them- so $2000) once and the bank immediately shut my card down, lol they must know I am too cheap to spend that on a pen.
At work we had someone start a series of Quick Pays out of our account at 4:58 Friday night in New York City, right before the close of the bank. Over the weekend one of the recipients called my boss asking why her "loan" was placed in her account and then removed. It sure was a lesson learned, thank goodness this person called who had no idea she had been scammed along with us. We were able to get all the $ back.
1) I packed enough food to eat for 4 meals on a 2 day road trip. This was after spending 6 bucks on 2 drinks at a travel plaza on the first leg. I knew prices had gone up, but really??
2) I used points to stay overnight at a hotel for free. Back in the day (not so long ago), my husband and I would think nothing of driving 22 hours without an overnight and just trade off with the driving. We are getting too old for this. It was nice to take a break and eat a free hot breakfast before day 2 of driving.
3) I bought a bunch of groceries at Aldi on the way home and used a cooler and ice. We don't have Aldi in Maine, and it felt good to stock up. $1.98 for milk was a great deal compared to Maine.
4) I brought home some Sage for my in-laws plant to dry. I also brought a bag of ripe tomatoes, and my FIL gave us his exercise bike! Yeah for minivans to haul things.
5) My kids gave me a instapot for my birthday and it was at my house when I arrived. I AM SO EXCITED! Now I can finally take it out of my 'save for late' Amazon cart. Ha!
There was an article in The NY Times today that TMobile experienced a major data breach. The article claims that names and social security numbers of current and prospective customers were compromised not credit card data. But it really might be too soon to tell. We are TMobile users so I am concerned.
@Jennifer Y.,
My husband has T-Mobile and although he hasn’t gotten any confirmation or acknowledgement about the breach from T-Mobile, we went ahead a put a freeze on his credit just in case. Might want to consider doing that with the 3 different credit bureaus or at least putting a fraud alert. Last month someone took out a person loan for $15,000 in my name. They somehow had my SSN, birth date and address. Thankfully I check my credit once a month and caught it but it was still a hassle to clear up.
Gotta love cheap notebooks/school supplies this time of year 🙂
1. Back on track and back at work -- eating in nights and taking food/drink for school each day. Shopping the grocery bargains.
2. Found a "middle" way to get my iced coffee fix. Using a mix of the free Nescafe instant coffee my daughter gave us when she moved plus cream plus a shot of premade Vanilla Super Coffee, which is sweetened with monk fruit, and for which I have coupons. It is delish! And no fake sugar, and much cheaper than even the McD's iced coffee. I will eventually figure out a replacement for the Vanilla super coffee but so far, stevia et al aren't cutting it. The surprise was -- instant coffee works great for this. Take that, Starbucks!
3. Applied to America's Tires for reimbursement for the tire that exploded on our trip east this summer. Someone, ahem, scraped too close to the bumpy curbstone whilst parking. Cost us $110 to but past priskill had insisted on paying the $15.oo insurance policy on the tire, so we will be reimbursed for most or all of the cost. Husband distrusts warranties but the America's Tire ones have paid off time and again.
4. Still shopping the closet and getting ready to purge. Still not buying clothes and started school with only a new pair of sandals.
5. The Silly Department: Not getting the annual pedicure cuz -- who needs it? True, I wear sandals here practically all year and work at a school with very fashionable ladies whose nails are exquisite. I decided I am old, I mean, vintage, and no one even cares. So just grooming without the polish, which I don't even care for. Yup, silly!
Hi Frugal Girl. I'm overrun with black eyed Susans so if your seeds don't do well, I would be glad to mail you some plants in the fall. I am going to have to dig up some anyway as they are crowding out other plants. They would survive the mail just fine. Those things can't be killed. Send me an email if you want some plants & I will get them to you. Ava