Five Frugal Things | A straw, a clock, a frame, a hospital bill, and more

1. I used Strawesome’s guarantee

We love our glass straws from Strawsome, and we’ve had very few breakage problems. Our straws weather the dishwasher and daily use with impressive durability.

Unfortunately, Sonia dropped her new turtle straw the very first time she used it, and it broke right by the turtle.

She was heartbroken, but I remembered that Strawesome does actually offer to replace any broken straws, since they don’t want breakage concerns to keep people from buying their product.

So, I filled out the form, submitted a photo of the broken straw, and got a code emailed to me for the value of a replacement straw.

You do have to pay shipping, so it’s not a completely free process, but it is way better than paying for a new straw AND shipping.

Our new turtle straw should be arriving any day, and I’m quite certain that Sonia is going to be super-duper careful with it now.

2. I replaced a clock for $4.88.

The clock in my kids’ bathroom had a paper backing, and after years of hanging in a humid bathroom, the paper had curled up and was preventing the clock hands from moving.

There was no way to fix this (I tried!) so I had to get rid of the clock.

Sad face.

I stopped at Target to find a new one, and I specifically looked for one without a paper backing so that I don’t have to throw another clock out.

Luckily, a plastic-backed clock was on clearance for $4.88.

Perfect.

3. I bought a frame for 50% off.

Mr. FG was wanting to hang a quote up on the wall, so I typed it up in PicMonkey, printed it, and bought a frame from Michael’s with a 50% off coupon.

(I pulled the coupon up on my phone so as to avoid printing a copy.   Handy-dandy!   And Michael’s does offer free WiFi, so you don’t even have to use data to pull up the coupon.)

I feel like the words on the print are too close to the edge now that it’s framed, so I’ll redo it with a small font and more white space.

4. I paid a hospital bill. And I tried to get a discount.

I got the resubmitted bill for the sleep study back, and our insurance paid a whole 2% (largely because we haven’t met our 2016 deductible yet.)

When I called to pay the bill, I asked if there was a discount for paying in full, and sadly, there was not.

But I paid the whole thing, using a travel rewards credit card, so at least we earned a bit of cash back on the transaction.

And paying it off is certainly better than not paying it off.

5. Miscellany

I cooked dinner, even though I didn’t feel like it, I made a batch of whole wheat rolls for lunch, I bought nothing at Target besides the items I came for (yay, me!), and I returned a sink strainer that didn’t fit my sink.

__________________

How about you? Share your own five frugal things in the comments!