Five Frugal Things | cat cookies: crunchy again!

How I envy you getting to walk to work! I have to drive halfway across town for my school jobs. My store job would almost be walkable except that there isn't any way I could avoid crossing several mega-busy streets -- all with three or more lanes -- and likely getting run over. This past week I had to have a CT scan and a student radiology tech was there along with a more experienced employee. They have to put some kind of dye/contrast material in your vein before you get the scan. They asked me if it'd be OK for the student to learn on me, and I said yes. My arm vein rolled, she got flustered, had to stick and stick and re-stick me again (ouch! ouch! ouch!) but I thought of you, Kristen, and only said encouraging things. Eventually the experienced tech had to take over, and even she had trouble. I ended up with a small bruise (which has already vanished) but we got finished with the scan. Still awaiting the results; pray I'm cancer-free. (The oncologist thinks I am, but he ordered the scan to be 100% sure.) --This Saturday was yard work and I cut up and sacked most of the last of the huge pile of branches. Probably one more week to go and I will have that huge pile hauled away at no extra charge. Said branches are now at the curb awaiting the city yard waste/garbage collection. Had we taken them to the landfill ourselves, the fee would've been about $100. --Since it was a full moon, I also dug up some "volunteer" plants and transplanted them in the flower bed. These are some kind of pretty shrub and they grow really large. They will be fantastic foundation plantings if they live, all the more so since they were free. --Hired 2 teen boys to cut my grass this time. --My friend has to sometimes visit the food bank. Like me, she lives alone. She ended up with way more jugs of milk than she can possibly drink or freeze and more produce than she can eat before it spoils. We worked out a trade: She gave me 2 gal. of milk, a big bag of grapes and a squash, and enough leftovers for a one-woman feast -- a slice of cake, two corn fritters, and some spaghetti (probably enough for 2 meals); I went to our store and bought a dozen of the huge 99 cent packages of popsicles and gave those to her. She sells the popsicles to the children around her neighborhood for something like 50 cents each and this helps her pay her utilities. -- It was Pajama Day at the middle school where I sub, and I was able to find some out of season PJs and a robe that was suitable for wearing in public. Had fun and it didn't cost me any money for the outfit. --

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My 5…. 1. Took vacation days all this week so I wouldn’t lose them…losing them definitely would not have been frugal. 2. Used two of the days to finish painting our deck. This has been an all summer project that needed to be completed ASAP since nice weather days are numbered at this point. Doing it myself saved big $$. 3. DH and I leave for a long weekend vacation tomorrow evening with friends of ours. Booked tickets when Southwest was doing a free companion ticket for later this winter so that will be frugal for a warm getaway mid-winter. 4. Booked a rental car with points so I only had to pay for one day instead of four. Will split the one day cost with our friends. 5. The usual….eating at home and avoiding food waste.

Nothing too exciting on my end, but I’ve kept up good habits: walking commutes, mostly packed lunches, making tea in the break room at work or skipping afternoon caffeine altogether instead of buying coffee, borrowing books from friends and the library instead of buying, sharing snacks or home-cooked meals with friends instead of going out for meals or drinks.

1. Took my husband's watch to have the battery replaced (he has the watch that needs a special tool to take the back off and put back on, otherwise I'd do it myself). We thought the battery died a lot sooner than usual and it turns out we were right; it was last replaced December 2023, so the store didn't charge us for a new battery as it was still under a one year warranty. 2. Used some CVS bucks and a coupon + sale to buy 2 sticks of deodorant for my husband/son, paid $3.23 and got back $4 CVS bucks. 3. Did some baking and made a batch of granola which helped use up some random pantry items that have been sitting there for a while. 4. Ordered dinner after my son's soccer game last weekend to be picked up on the way home. Downloaded the app for ease of ordering and they had a 50% off coupon to apply to our order! The dinner lasted us 2.5 meals. 5. My son needed a physical copy of a book they're reading in class so I bought a used copy from Better World Books with another book to qualify for free shipping and 15% off and paid with a gift card my mom gave me. Unfortunately the other book was for my older son's collection and wasn't in the greatest shape so it may end up being donated but at least I didn't spend money out of pocket.

Frugal fail: lost track of some library book due dates and ended up having to pay a small fine. But at least it goes to my local library which I make very heavy use of, so I don't mind.

Worst frugal week ever.

Bought two new loveseats. Our couch was old and so uncomfortable. And our laptop broke and had to be replaced.

We used savings and are back in low spend mode.