Five Frugal Things | $20 survey, gas savings, $0.88 flowers, and more

1. I went by Sonic yesterday and got a free classic strawberry shake for my birthday by using the app. I don't drink milkshakes but my youngest daughter loves them so it was a nice treat. 2. I made my brother a birthday cake to resemble a giant Reese cup. We are celebrating birthdays and Father's Day this afternoon for free at the park since the weather is good here and the kids can play at the splash pad. This was the only day that worked out for everyones schedule and since it's through the week, it will be less crowded. Hope the Reese doesn't melt! 3. I tried the new grocery pickup at Walmart since the first three are free. It has its pros/cons. Sometimes we have a hard time planning when we will be available to pick up the groceries and it would have been quicker to just go in myself. My husband had to wait a long time to pick up groceries yesterday because many others picked the 5:00 pm time slot and there was only one girl loading groceries. My husband helped her load because she was visibly exhausted. Also, sometimes they pick produce that I wouldn't have picked myself. There was a customer that had several kids and the girl just kept loading tons of bags into her car all the way to the top. Having had several small kids in tow before, I can see how this would be great for her or someone that is disabled. Overall, this feature will be great for some times and not for others. I'm probably just going to stick to getting my own groceries. 4. I repainted my front door. The paint cost was $13 for a quart..has paint went up?! Still less money than getting a nice new front door. It does look a lot better. I also recently removed all my screens doors, scrubbed the well, spray painted them, then reattached them. This made a dramatic difference. They look brand new and was only $1 per can per door. 5. My kids signed up for the summer reading program at the library. They gave them free reusable bags, a coupon for a free breakfast at the huddle house, and a list of events for the summer. Good free fun.

1. Ate leftovers for lunch. 2. Checked the Aldi app today before I went to the store... This turned out to be frugal because I've been saving my spending money this month to buy a beach bag and they have an awesome one out this week for $15, but a much more basic one next week for $7! I don't need all of the features that the $15 one offers, so I'm going for the cheaper one next week. 3. This week we're watching a Daniel Tiger movie I ordered from the interlibrary loan system. I like it enough that I thought about buying it (oh how we need to learn strategies for how to handle "big feelings") but realized that it wouldn't take long before it wasn't special anymore, so I'll just order it periodically to keep it "exciting". 4. I froze some ham and green peppers to use in recipes on our camping trip next week. 5. I'm using meat from my freezer all week. I really need to do this all month if at all possible since our grocery budget is struggling these days! But I'm very pleased with what we've done this week and have menu planned for the days ahead.

Ugh! Yes! Aldi never has good bananas for some reason.

Some frugal stuff for me: 1. Bought a nice shirt at an outlet. It's hard to say it's truly frugal but it's a good shirt and I needed it.

2. Used two Target gift cards to get some polos for work that we're on sale.

3. Bought a warehouse deal on Amazon and it came missing parts! I contacted Amazon and they shipped me a new one.

4. Got an oil filter for my tractor much cheaper online than local store.

5. Glad that I'm only paying a co-pays and not out of pocket for all the medical bills I've had to pay lately.

Being thrifty isn't something that comes naturally to me, but I love reading all the comments and seeing what I can work on.

1. I called and cancelled my internet service and SlingTV today. That saves me $135/month. Now that the weather is nice, I'm outside constantly and haven't watched TV in almost 3 weeks.

2. I have taken lunch to work every day for a week. This is something I struggle with. I'm not really good at planning and end up getting fast food a lot.

3. I took a TV survey and they sent me $7. Not much, but I bought a latte with it this morning. (I stopped buying coffees out 2 weeks ago!)

4. I redeemed $10 Wiki Dollars for a gift card.

It's a start. Each week I'm hoping to be able to add to my list.

1. We will be starting to remodel our new home next week. We needed a Bagster to take away the construction debris, as our garbage service charges a huge fee for this. Found a Bagster on Facebook Marketplace for 1/2 the price. 2. My sister was having a garage sale this weekend. She only buys brand name clothing (and lots of them). She was getting rid of a ton of clothing. She let me take whatever I wanted, so I practically have a new work wardrobe now. I have maybe spent $50 in the past 2 years for clothing and shoes for myself. 3. Spent only $45 on groceries this week 4. We were really hoping that we would no longer have to pay childcare costs for my son, being he starts kindergarten in September. Unfortunately, the bus doesn't come early enough to pick him up in the morning. Fortunately, my husband is out of work before my son will get dropped off in the afternoon. Therefore, I only needed to sign him up for "before care". I signed him up through the YMCA, at his new school, for $44 per week. And they let us put this on our credit card, which gives us 2% back. It's not free, but not too bad. We are paying $117 weekly now for "before" and "after care" while he attends pre-k. 5. Sold 2 items on Facebook Marketplace and Ebay. Made $25. I was hoping for more, but oh well.