Since it’s Friday, I figured I would write down my Five Frugal Things a la Katy at The Non-Consumer Advocate. It feels good to list what went right this week when we’ve spent money left and right lately on necessary but unexpected things. 

1. My son’s preschool requested that we bring in a pair of rain boots to leave in the classroom since it’s starting to rain again. Especially since he will only be wearing them once or twice a week, I really didn’t want to buy them new. Kids outgrow shoes so fast, and so many just get thrown away, so I try and get all of his shoes gently used at this point. 

I lucked out on my first try and found a pair at Goodwill for $2.39 and he loves them. Now the trick will be to get him to leave them at preschool on Monday. 

2. I also inadvertently learned that Goodwill has 20% off for military on Wednesdays, so I save an additional $5 off the already thrift store prices. Besides the boots, I picked up 5 books, 1 coloring pad, 4 pairs of pants (in the next 1-2 sizes up), and a 3 pack of window cling toys for a total of $19.18. The toys and books will be split between his Christmas stocking and his carry on bag for our trip to Hawaii next month. 

3. I returned a stack of library books the day before they were due and thus avoided a late fee. Lately my son has been devouring books and wants new ones all the time, so I’ve been taking weekly trips to the library to rotate them out. Plus we get pretty bored reading the same books over and over again. 

4. So this is something *I* didn’t do, but my husband did, so I’ll claim it on here anyway. We switched out our lightbulbs in the kitchen and dining room to LED lights AGES ago, but the dimmer switches weren’t set up for them and they tended to blink annoyingly off and on. Turns out, you need special dimmer switches that are LED compatible. 

Well, my husband replaced them yesterday and the light is now totally steady. Hooray! Amazing how you get used to and mostly ignore totally annoying things. We only spent the $35.94 on the two switches we needed instead of paying an electrician a ridiculous amount of money to do 10 minutes worth of work. 

5. I didn’t buy lunch out all week. Even better, only one lunch this week was specifically prepped for lunch (peanut butter, banana, and honey sandwich). The rest were leftovers from previous dinners. Reduced our food waste and I didn’t have to spend any extra time or money prepping specific meals. 

I’m FINALLY back to where it’s weird to go out and buy lunch during the work week. It kills me to think about how much money I’ve wasted over the past few years on $8-$15 weekday lunches. So be it though. You live, you learn, you pull back lifestyle creep. It feels good to be fully back on the wagon.