Frugal Friday- March 2

Making small changes that have big results. 

On Friday’s I share 5 frugal ideas to help you maintain The Sweet Life on a budget.  These things will have money saving ideas and/or a way to enhance your lifestyle for very little money.

Well, last week was an unusual because we decided last minute to attend a regional swimming meet for my son and we are glad we did. Unfortunately, the timing didn't allow us to do our usual level of planning in order to complete a travel event on the least amount of money, but as we went we changed and shifted our behavior to maximize our savings.

1. We decided to travel with a fellow competitor for 3 of the events, which saved us on gas, approximately $29.00 in parking fees and a lot of stress. Although our friend did not expect and was hesitant to accept anything for driving to and from the meet, we did convince him to accept a gift card for $20.00 to a local fast food restaurant.                                                                                                             
2. Double Dipping at it's finest. We purchased our gift card at our local Kroger's. This provided me with double gas reward points and 3% cash back from our credit card.                                            
3. Although we fell down 2 times and paid the "stupid tax" for doing so at the cost of about $40.00 total, we did manage to pack most of our meals, snacks and drinks.  At the base rate of $3.00 per hot dogs, $3.00 per dink, $2.00 per piece of fruit, $3.00 per Bagels, $2.00 per cup of coffee and $3.00 per soft pretzel, I estimate that we saved $118.00 because we packed our meals (6 breakfasts, 7 lunches, and 4 dinners).  In addition, we ate healthier and more variety of food and we were very satisfied throughout the day.                                                                                    
4. While at the event, we continuously looked for cheaper parking, opportunities to exercise for free and re-fill our water bottles. Although we paid more for our first parking experience, my husband went for a long walk around campus and discovered $5.00 event parking which allowed us to park in the lot for the whole day. This cut our bill by more than half.                                                                                                                                                                                              
5. We combined our errands to use less time, gas and remain organized within our week.  This helped to eliminate unnecessary trips, and be purposeful in our purchases.

Your turn!  How do you keep your expenses low and make small changes to yield large returns. Leave a comment below.