Frugal Things We Have Done This Past Week

These are the things we have done frugally the past week:

– I mailed a package at UPS with a few items to my granddaughter. I used my AAA membership to get a 5% off discount of $.56. Those pennies add up!

– Remember that switch that the A/C company didn’t have on the truck when they came to fix the A/C? Well, we got a quote in the mail Thursday informing us that it will cost $239. to replace it. That is after the guy coming out without a switch on his truck and charging us $139. What a rip off! Hubby looked up the cost to us for a switch and it is $5.39. He bought the switch we needed and will fix it himself. 

– Since I needed to fill up our car with gasoline at Top’s after all of our trips recently, I stopped into Top’s to pick up some items that I did not realize were on a great sale when I shopped a week ago Monday. I got three boxes of Angel Hair pasta for $.69 each and Folger’s coffee for $ 1.99. The Folgers coffee was limit 1. Hubby stopped at Top’s when he went by on his way to the barber and got another can of coffee.

– Since our A/C was off I cooked 2 turkey tenderloins along with two baked potatoes in our toaster oven in the kitchen. I love one pan meals. The turkey will give us 4-6 meals and the potatoes will accompany 2 of them for Hubby.

– Being an organized person and doing things in advance, I checked our stash of candy and gum for Halloween. I have determined that we have enough and I do not have to buy anymore. Everything was purchased either for free or at a deep discount.

– Someone thought it would be fun to put their empty Coke can in our mailbox. I laughed and added it to our bag of deposit cans and bottles.

– I took a full bag of bottles and cans to Fast Cash and received $ 1.05 in deposits back.

– In the same plaza as Fast Cash is Panera Bread. I stopped and purchased 6 bagels for Hubby. I used  one of my gift cards that I purchased at a discount two years ago to pay for them. I kept two bagels out for Hubby to eat the next couple of days. I froze the other 4 bagels in two’s using “used” Ziplocs. Yes, I wash them out and use them over and over again if they have not had meat in them.

– Rather than purchase flavored cream cheese, Hubby made some cinnamon flavored with a block of plain cream cheese that I had, some cinnamon, a little milk, and some Equal.


– I also had a free pastry on my Panera Bread account that was expiring tomorrow. I surprised Hubby with a vanilla roll bun for brunch. He loved it.

-One of our outside faucets broke. Hubby went to the hardware store and purchased the part for $ 2.50 and repaired it. 

– I washed just one load of sheets and towels and a full load of clothing last week. I hung everything except the towels to dry.


– I surveyed our produce drawers and noticed that I had red, yellow, and orange peppers left that needed to be used up very quickly. I used them to make a chicken stir fry for dinner that night. 

– Hubby needed to buy Shims for a project in our backyard. I used $ 9.53 in rewards at Amazon to get the bill down to $5.04.

– I got rebates in the amount of $ 6.00 this past week.

– I had enough points on one of my rewards credit cards to get a cash back credit of $100.

– We had some more stones come loose on the house. Hubby is doing the work to cement them back in place. This DIY saves us a couple of hundred dollars. 

– I made another bottle of lens cleaner using rubbing alcohol and water.  

– At one time, I had about 4 pair of reading glasses. All but three have broken over the years. Rather than buy expensive ones online, I went to Dollar Tree and found ones that were as good as I had. I purchased 3 of them for just $1.00 a piece.  

– I spent some time organizing shampoos, body washes, and deodorants that were down in the basement. I put them in locker boxes and brought them upstairs. They now have taken up residence on the shelves in my master closet. They are closer to the bathroom where we use them. I know that I have 12 bottles of shampoo, 14 body wash, and 15 deodorant for us. So it will be a long time before I will be purchasing any of these things unless they are free after coupons.

You will notice that most of my frugal things are little ones that happen all of the time and they add up to big bucks over a year or years.  That is because the big ones only come along once in a while. For example: When we switched auto and homeowners to a different company a year ago. Or if YOU have a mortgage and pay PMI and your house value has gone up enough to own 20% of your home, so you call and have it removed. 


So please share with us what you did to be frugal this past week.