Frugal Activities



Hey hey, it's time to share the Frugal Activities post and I know a lot of you liked them because of my full disclosure too!

So, what the heck, since I seem to have fallen off the Menu Plan Post, let's revive the Frugal Activities shall we?

I generally try to start my week on Monday with it ending on Sunday but pretty much keep Sunday out of the picture as I try to keep that as a stay home, entertain family and relax day!

Here are some of our Frugal Activities that we did this past week!

1.  Stuck with my cash in pocket and budget for the most part ... $100 for groceries and $50 for miscellaneous stuff (hair/clothes/additional food, etc.) ... I carried over the $20 from last week.

2.  Paid off the credit card that had my new laptop on it. 3 months, not so bad and it was interest free since I opted for that plan when I made the purchase. Can I just tell you what a life saver Digit has been? It's a great passive savings tool that I use to make additional debt paydown payments with. If you have checked it out yet, you really need to! (Yes, this is my referral link and I will receive a whole $5 if you sign up using that link! Thank you if you do!)  ... just an FYI ... Digit scooped out $236 in the month of July and I did NOT miss it ... sort of like finding that change under your sofa cushions and between the car seats!

3.  We had the photographer come out on Tuesday for the new listing on the house. This was frugal BECAUSE I cleaned, cleaned, cleaned which led to decluttering even more. Seriously, I can't believe we still have stuff to get rid of! Clutter is NOT frugal, sorry folks!  NOTE: he came back on Wednesday to do the aerial shots with two different drones since it was way nicer outside. Spent about an hour doing that and Hubby is now excited ;-)

4.  Convinced Hubby to buy a new UNLOCKED cell phone. I'm paying for phone service as it is and his phone keeps locking up on him, missing calls and text messages and is just crapped out.  At least with an unlocked phone, he can go with whatever carrier he chooses down the road. Currently, we use T-Mobile (have for, oh, 15 plus years) but the service in Indiana where we plan to be spending a substantial amount of time in 2017, stinks.  *He still hasn't made up his mind WHICH phone to buy

5.  Stopped at Walgreens for dish soap as there wasn't anything else I needed and well, I know if I go in the big grocery store, I'm coming out with way more stuff. So I picked up a bottle that was on sale for 99 cents ... and paid 5 pennies for it since we had a $1 reward. I'm so glad I did that!

6.  Made a quick stop at Publix for the LaCroix sale (buy 2 get 1 free) and they had my fav: Peach/Pear! 3 12 pks later, a 15 pk of beer and a few other misc. items to get to my magic number of $40 to use my $5 off ... well, I ended up spending $59 ... really should have been closer to $55 (beer can't count on the total) but at least I didn't buy a bunch of crap! THIS was my only grocery shop all week! Sweet!

7.  Applied for my TSA PreCheck. Was also going to do my passport BUT the location I went to (county office!) didn't do photos OR take debit/credit cards.I was like, huh? Money order, cashier check or check only?  Doh.

8. Made 4 of the 5 work day breakfasts and 5 of the 5 work day lunches at home. The breakfast out was with my dad on Friday before going to the VA. $25 with tip but well worth it for him to get out and such.

9.  Stayed within the budget this week, even with a few extras (breakfast out) this week. I have money to carry over AGAIN! Sweet!

10. Even though we've kind of gone off the Weekly Meal Plan, we do still discuss options for dinners and what we have on hand. Hubby is getting pretty strict on that note, a little too much, if you ask my opinion ;-) He made a kick @ss Naked Pulled Pork with that hunk of pork I picked up a few weeks ago from Aldi ... half was frozen, the other half will be for lunches and dinners to come this week.

And of course, in keeping with tradition and to make myself accountable, here's the NOT so Frugal Activities from this past week!

1.  That proverbial food waste situation. Has anyone else see the new Ad Council for Save the Food? 48% of fruits and vegetables?? That's sad, but honestly, probably accurate!  Lettuce. Cucumber. Mexican Beef that was shoved in the back of fridge and totally forgot about. That made me the saddest :-(

2.  Ordered pizza and spent $40 (Hubby paid) Thursday night while chilling in the pool. Really should have just made a salad for more than one reason alone.

3.  The water bill! The sprinkler bill is $180 and the house bill is $180. WTF. That's almost as much as the electric bill this month. NO we do not have any leaks but it was really dry for a while there so we've been running the sprinklers 3 to 4 days a week (its usually around $50 a month) and then Hubby has a trouble spot that he hooks up a stand alone sprinkler OFF THE HOUSE METER and runs over night. Ugh. I think he forgets about it!  Regardless, I still set up the payment for them.

4.  Got sucked in to buying 5 (FIVE!) pairs of aviator sunglasses from Jane.com ... they were $3.95 each but of course after adding on the shipping, they came to $35 total.  It's ok, I love Cheap Sunglasses and as always BONUS POINT if you can name that song before clicking through!  This still kept me under budget for the week!

I'm skipping out on a Sunday update for this week as I don't anticipate doing ANYTHING besides chilling on the couch and floating in the pool!

What have you done this week to stay accountable and Frugal?

Looking forward to sharing with some of these GREAT Parties ... go check them out!

*This post may contain affiliate links ... click here to read my disclosure :-)

Comments

  1. EliteMonday, August 15, 2016

    I am almost fearful of what I'll discover lurking in the back of our fridge but have to face it today. The water bill in the summer is always a surprise for us, too.

    ReplyDelete

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