The Frugal Five: #23

 The Frugal Five: #23

With inflation on the rise and our salaries not being able to keep up, it seems like we have taken a pay cut and must be more careful with our money.   The Frugal Five is a series where we celebrate our daily or weekly activities that help us live a frugal life.    

1- Birthday Free-Bees   

Each year during my birthday month, several apps provide me with Free-Bees to celebrate my birthday.       Starbuck’s provided me with a drink of my choice and size for free.  In addition, when I purchase coffee at Starbuck, I earn stars which can be redeemed for free beverages.    In addition, Krispy Kreme gave me a dozen of free donuts for my birthday.    It was great to celebrate my birthday with two of my favorite stores.    

2- Packed Lunches Daily  

Last week started school for both my son and me, so I needed to carefully plan our weeks.    I selected easy meals for dinner and prepacked everyones’ lunches the night before, so there were no excuses for eating out.    Two weeks down and a lot more to go…. 

3- Shopped the Refrigerator/Panty

Two weeks ago we picked up a lot of fruits and vegetables that we didn’t finish eating.  So, for the past two weeks, we shopped the refrigerator first and then made more careful selections of perishable foods.    In addition, we attempted to center the vegetable portion of our dinners around what needed to be used up.   Finally, if we didn’t have a solid plan for these items, we used our freezer to prevent waste.    Unfortunately, we did have some waste.      

4- Kicked the Vending Machine to the Curb

My husband was hitting the vending machines at work for about $10 a week, so we decided to pick up a few items that were on sale to eliminate that expense.    Bottles of Diet Coke were on sale 4 (6 packs) for $12.00.  Considering that he was paying about $2.00 per soda, we picked up 2 cases and he took a case to work.   In addition, he took a bag of almonds and a box of crackers to snack on.    Since he doesn’t drink a soda every day and the other snacks are fairly cheap, this investment will last at least until November.   That expense is gone.    

5-Homemade Snacks

I have a teenager that eats a lot on a regular basis.    He loves sweets and requests typically a large number of sweet snacks.     For the last two weeks, I made jello and cupcakes and picked up a few on-sale snacks to have on hand.   In addition, I portioned out these items so it would be easier to eat a few.   By portioning them out and placing the extra sale items downstairs, we stretched how long the purchased snacks would last.   

Please leave a comment below with your ways of saving money this week.