Here’s to week two of my Friday’s Frugal Five. I’m hoping that a weekly check in will keep me focused each day on what I can do just a little bit better financially. 

1. We went to a housewarming party last weekend and we gifted them a $50 Home Depot gift card that we’d ordered with credit card reward points. Since we’ve been homeowners for a while now, I’m very aware of how often those Home Depot trips seem to happen, so a hardware store gift card is my go to for housewarming gifts. Even better when it didn’t actually cost us anything out of pocket. 

2. Continuing on the gift card theme, I had been holding on to a $75 REI gift card from my last birthday but hadn’t found a use for it yet. Instead, I ended up using it to buy a few Christmas presents. My father in law is notoriously difficult to buy for, but we picked up a Lifestraw for him, which is a really neat water filter. He does a ton of hiking and backpacking so this will be a fun backup for him to have. He’s the kind of person who likes to have backups to his backups, so I expect he will really like it. 

3. Work has started to have a monthly potluck lunch and yesterday was the second one. There were a ton of leftovers again, so I now have three more meals covered in the future. I’m amazed how how not everyone took food home, especially when everything was so good. 

4. My son’s favorite breakfast sausages were on manager’s special at the grocery store, so I cleared them out of all six packages and stored them in the freezer for future meals. 

5. I didn’t buy lunch any day this week and have Brussels sprouts with bacon for lunch today. I’ve gotten to the point where it feels weird not to have a lunch packed for work (usually leftovers). I’ve come a long way since I had to limit myself to $150 a month for lunches. 

Now it’s been at least 3 weeks since I’ve bought even ONE lunch. There have been a couple meals that have consisted of oatmeal and an Orchard Bar when I’ve forgotten my lunch at home, but those days are few and far between now. 

What were your frugal wins this week? 

As always, credit goes to Katy at The Non-Consumer Advocate for being the inspiration for my weekly frugal Fridays.