This post contains affiliate links.
Happy New Year, friends! I hope that you’ve enjoyed some delightful times with friends and family over the holidays, and I hope 2019 holds good things for you.
What better way to start out 2019 than with Five Frugal Things?
1. I called ATK to get my promised discount.
My web membership was due to expire, and I called with the intention of cancelling. But they offered me a good discount if I renewed, so I said yes.
However, when it came time to actually be billed, I got charged the regular rate.
WAAAAAIT.
I called, and somehow someone had made a note to change my price but never actually went through the process to get it changed.
So, I got a refund for the difference and now we are all good.
2. I got a replacement bottle of probiotics.
In the bottle I got, some of the capsules had broken and spilled their contents. I called the company to let them know; they said it’s a known issue and to go to the Vitamin Shoppe to get a new bottle.
I stopped by the Vitamin Shoppe when I was nearby, but no one there seemed to know what to do with my funky probiotics.
(This despite the fact that two managers were on duty at the time.)
Hmm.
So I tried calling the company again, and they said they’d just go ahead send me a fresh bottle. Yay!
3. I used a 60% off coupon to buy our eyeballs/lips/etc.
At this point we can’t really make Christmas cookies without ’em.
all that’s left from this year’s pack
I stopped in at Michael’s and found the set we like to use but I noticed that A.C. Moore’s site had a 60% off coupon.
So I used that instead of the Michael’s 40% off coupon, and that brought the price from $10 to $4. SWEET.
4. I got my donations to Goodwill in before the end of the year.
Because I’d like to deduct this off of 2018’s taxes, not 2019’s. I’m patient, but not THAT patient.
5. I used a coupon on my book club book.
We are reading Just Mercy this month, and even though I put it on hold right after our last meeting, my hold request has still not been fulfilled at the library.
Apparently this is a popular book!
Book club meets in less than two weeks, so I figured I’d better buy a copy. Amazon had a copy for a good price plus a coupon, which of course I clicked to apply.
And naturally, I will sell my copy when I’m done with it unless it turns out to be so good I want to reread it (this happens very infrequently for me.)
P.S. I know I could have bought the ebook version, but I have a hard time loving ebooks, so paying a little more is worth it to me.
Lisa
Saturday 12th of January 2019
I’ve never tried to deduct donation items on my taxes but we do itemize (at least we have in the past- not sure what this new tax year holds!) Would you possibly be able to make a post about this? Thanks and love your blog/social media. Refreshing to say the least. Thank you.
Marianne
Friday 4th of January 2019
Good idea on the tea bags.
We had a lot of items my son was able to take as they just bought a new (to them) home. Both our gains because the stuff would be going to Goodwill anyway.
We went to stay with them to get stuff off their to do list. Only cost us our time and we got a lot done! Hubby wired their garage for them and changed out some fixtures.
Gas was 1.63 in Ohio so Yay!
Shopped some clearance sales but bought nothing.
My neighbor, bless her heart gave me 8 bags of dry and 24 cans of wet cat food for our local feral cat. This should keep him till spring.
Deidre
Friday 4th of January 2019
I love FFT, Kristin well done on following up on faulty items My FFT are a mix from the last few weeks; 1. Didn't buy any Christmas wrapping paper however sorely I was tempted.... 2. Been learning to live the seasons & really reduced heating & cooling costs - my new place has evaporative cooling & someone taught me you can run it just on fresh air with no cooling so when a cool change comes you can open the doors, put it on fresh air & in 5 - 10 min it flushes all the hot air out & fills the home with fresh air; brilliant. My home is solid so I haven't used aircon/cold evap cooling yet this summer. 3. Is it just me or is toothpaste in Aus ridiculously expensive? I need to use sensitive stuff which can be $8 - $10 per tube! I got a stash of 1/2 price for $5 per tube each. 4. I have noticed many times in 2018 I stopped myself from impulse buys or 'little extras' not perfect but a huge improvement for me 5. I save my used teabags & every third cup use 2 used ones together.
Julia
Thursday 3rd of January 2019
So I have a few more than five 1. I got two bags of salad for a total of 19 cents, $2.69 a bag, then BOGO, each had a $1 off coupon in them, plus I had fifty cents off one salad on my store card. Yea me! 2. Got new insurance and remembered to use it for prescriptions so saved two co pays of $10 each. Used 100% coverage for catcher not up on routine med stuff. Used 100% coverage for dental X-rays and cleaning. Getting eye exam next week. 3. Using my homemade laundry detergent 4. Made homemade pizza out of the pantry to go with 8.5 cent bag of salad 5, Got $44 spiral cut ham free w coupon. Used it for Christmas dinner, froze the rest 6. Used ham bone to make very yummy bean soup with dried beans in hand.
Linda@perilincreations.com
Thursday 3rd of January 2019
1. I did not go overboard with Christmas. Everything was paid for with cash. 2. I made several of the Christmas gifts I gave.: personalized cutting boards, body scrubs, and bedspreads. I got several gift cards with my reward points from Soeedway. 3. My grandson and I went to see Aquaman with gift cards we both won. 4. We have been eating at home. 5. We were able to purchase a much needed washer and dryer at a huge discount during the after Christmas s sales.