I did somehow manage to get in multiple runs this week though, and that’s something I am going to start making more time for going forward. As much as I enjoy my 6 miles to work on Wednesday mornings, running just one day a week isn’t enough. Running for me is as much for the mental and emotional side of things as it is a good workout, and I’m committing here to continue to run at least three times a week in the future. Even a twenty minute run makes my day one hundred times better, but somehow I’d let that part of life slide. I have to keep it in my head that taking care of myself is a very important part of life, because it’s too easy to let everything else take over.
1. I got another $5 Amazon gift card from using Bing as my search engine. It might be a little silly that I bother with this, as it maybe earns me $50 a year, but since I’m using a search engine anyway, I may as well get a tiny kick back from it. I’m not a local user to any one platform, so Bing works as well as any for my needs. Just like using Ebates and Ibotta, I’m all for any extra cash that comes from something I’d do/buy regardless. I earn about one $5 gift card from Bing every 30-45 days. I then transfer the gift card to my Amazon account, where it sits until I’m ready to make a purchase there, and then it feels like I’ve gotten a $5 discount when I do.
2. I broke my brown bag lunch streak this week, which has lasted since at least October when I first started documenting my Friday Frugal Five. My husband was around my office at lunchtime and we were both able to take a break at the same time, so we went out to a quick meal together. It might not have been a long break, or anything special, but we were able to treat it like a mini date since it was in the middle of the work day and our son was at preschool. It was a deliberate break of my streak, and completely worthwhile. While I’m working on mindful spending this year, I’m not against bending or breaking rules if the situation arises.
A couple weeks ago, I mentioned that I had almost broken my no buying lunch ban when a coworker brought Wendy’s back to the office, so we ended up walking there. Not a healthy lunch, but quick and cheap, and something I had been craving for a while. Hopefully now that we had that lunch out I can go back to eating leftovers or oatmeal for lunch like usual.
3. We lucked out camping last weekend at the weather was actually pretty nice, considering it was supposed to rain the entire time. Instead, the weather was dry all Saturday until about 4pm and then dry again on Sunday. We were all hanging around the campfire Saturday afternoon and I was admiring our friend’s fancy new camping cups he’d gotten as a Christmas present. I then looked at the three we had brought (for my husband, myself, and our roommate – the kiddo had his own cup), and all three were ones that we had somehow gotten for free in the past.
One was a cup I had gotten from a coworker when he attended a golf tournament and passed out a bunch of the free stuff he’d gotten there. One was a Walgreens cup that an employee had given our son randomly for just being cute one day. And the third ended up in our possession last year when we found it floating down the Wenatchee River during a trip to Leavenworth. Our son used it as a digging tool while we were down at the beach, and then we took it home with us. Maybe not new and fancy, but totally free, and again we kept something out of the landfill. We had a good laugh at the situation because no one was surprised that we were the ones with random free stuff that we’d pulled out of the river.
4. Not quite the same as the expired yogurt I ate a couple weeks ago, but I think I may start getting a reputation of being the garbage can for expired or questionable food. I was at my parents’ house last night for dinner, and we went to open a bottle of wine, only to find that it had been opened some time before. No one knew how old it was, and their friend decided to open a new bottle anyway, so I ended up taking it home with me instead. My husband and I both had a glass of it last night, and it tasted completely fine. I can’t imagine that wine “goes bad” very often though anyway, other than just turning to vinegar at some point.
5. My mom now reads my blog (and if yours doesn’t, you should probably let her know), so she knew all about my Luna bar score last week, and when she saw them on sale for $0.88/bar, she picked up a pile of them for me. Not quite the same discount, but they also aren’t expired, and now I have Luna bars to last me for months.
Even at 30 years old, she will occasionally spoil me with some random little gift, and I so appreciate it. While spending $9 on ten Luna bars won’t break the bank, the purchase means a lot to me because it means she’s thinking about me and cares enough to pick up something that will make my day a little bit better. Thanks mom. You’re the best.
How was your week? Any frugal wins you want to share? I love to hear them! It’s the little incremental things that add up to big ones over time.