Five Frugal Things | another $250 bonus

1. I signed up for a $250 banking bonus

You know how I signed up for a Wells Fargo $300 offer when I got my new job?

Well, I’ve more than met the $1000 minimum direct deposit offer for that one, so I moved on and opened one at M&T Bank, which offers a $250 bonus once I deposit at least $500 via direct deposit. 

Once I start school, I’m not going to be working very many hours at the hospital, so I figured I should squeeze this offer in during my last month of working multiple shifts per week.

It took about 10 minutes to open the account and to change my direct deposit information in my employee portal, so I feel like $250 is a pretty good return for my time.

My patient care tech checks will have earned me $550 in bonus money, which is not too shabby!

2. I borrowed a book from a neighbor

My friend Carrie recommended a book to me, and unfortunately, my library only had the audio and Kindle versions.

I considered looking on eBay, but the annoying thing about buying a book on eBay is that then I gotta do something with it after I finish reading it (sell it, donate it). I almost never reread books, so borrowing is preferable.

So I put out a request on my Buy Nothing group and my neighbor Kate (who obviously is in the same group as me!) messaged to tell me she had a copy. Yay!

Also, she included a bag of fresh basil.

I highly recommend having Kate as a neighbor. 😉

3. I painted some frames for Sonia

She had a couple of frames that she wanted to be purple, and I knew I had some purple spray paint from my original Buy Nothing Group spray paint haul, back in 2022.

I used it on a little pot for her back then, actually!

The frames had some thick white paint on them that got rather sticky when I tried to sand them. But then I discovered that I could soak the paint with a wet washcloth and peel it off (which was rather satisfying!)

I used some spray primer on the frames, and then the purple spray paint, and I used a deconstructed Hungry Harvest box under the project.

So, for $0 out of pocket, Sonia’s got some frames that are exactly what she wants.

4. I got a pack of pens for $0.41

I got an email from Michael’s letting me know I had a $5 voucher to redeem, and when I logged in, I realized I actually had two!

So, I stopped in and browsed their pen selection, since those are obviously helpful for taking notes in school!

I decided on a $13 pack of pens, used a 20% off coupon and my two $5 vouchers, and my total was $0.41. Sweet.

5. I continued my perfect streak

The streak? Never buying food/drink at the hospital. So far, it’s unbroken, including the weeks I spent there at clinical last semester.

Can I keep this up like my no Chick-fil-A at college streak??? Time will tell. 😉

In all seriousness, I recognize that it would not be the end of the world to buy food at work occasionally. The cafeteria at my hospital is quite reasonably priced.

But as a rule, even when cafeteria food is cheap, it’s still cheaper to bring food from home. A regular cafeteria habit would slowly eat away at my little PCT paychecks.

Plus, when I bring food, I eat things like cottage cheese, vegetables, fruit, bean salad, and chicken. Most cafeteria options would be hard-pressed to match up nutritionally.

And my lunch is always packed in reusable containers, so it produces less trash than a cafeteria meal.

(Not gonna lie, this feels like a drop in the bucket compared to the volume of stuff I have to throw away every day at the hospital, but a win is a win, even if it’s small.)

One other great thing about a packed lunch; it allows you to spend your entire 30-minute break eating and resting, vs. spending part of it trekking to the cafeteria.

Your turn! What frugal things have you been up to lately?