Frugal Five: #36

The Frugal Five: #36

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.    

With the New Year upon us, it is time to set goals for how we will be spending our money.    This can look like shopping carefully, DIY projects, wasting less or just doing without.     Let’s see how we can save our pennies this year.   

1-  Free-Bees and Samples 

This week I was able to pick up 8X10 Photo, 4 Core Bars. 3 Nivea Body Wash (20 oz), 2 Icy Hot Lotions (3 oz) and Violife Cream Cheese (7.5 oz) from various stores.    In addition, I request samples from time to time and my Advil Dual Action Sample arrived this week.    That is 11 full size free items and 1 sample.   This is pretty good for the week.   

2- Car Pooling and Using the School Bus 

My son has practice everyday and meets on the weekend.   With gas prices and time restraints the way they are, it would be challenging for us to get him to and from practice and school.   Therefore, we carpool with a teammate who lives down the road.  My husband picks the kids up on his way home from work.    In addition, since my son is on the high school team, he is permitted to ride the bus to/from swim meets and practices.    We are fortunate that his practice is at the same location as his club team, so when there is an issue with our carpool, he can take the bus to practice.   

3- Haircut Savings

Since haircuts are $30 per cut plus tip, each time my husband asks me to cut his hair, I am happy to.    This is a huge savings!   He gets his hair cut every other week, so on average we save $60 per month on just his hair cuts.   

4- Using IBOTTA and My Points

   

Last week I cashed out my IBOTTA and MyPoints accounts, so this week I started to use this apps again to earn money for the holidays.   Slow and steady wins the race.    I only buy items that are free or items that I would have purchased anyway.    For example, my son eats protein bars during swim meets and these can get expensive.   However, this week I was able to pick up 4 Core Bars for free because I could use a coupon and IBOTTA.   In addition, I spend 5-15 minutes a day answering questions and/or filling out surveys for My Points to earn points which can be turned into gift cards.                 

If you don’t have IBOTTA, I highly recommend you download the app.   If you use my referral code, we both earn $10 with your first rebate.   Here is my referral code: yasucyr .  

My Points allows me to spend about 5-15 minutes per day completing polls, surveys, computer searches or uploading receipts and earn about $150-$200 per year.   If you are interested in joining up for this opportunity, here is my referral information:   https://www.mypoints.com?rb=25406148

5- Packed Lunches Everyday 

   

Buying lunch everyday gets expensive not only in money but time.   We packed everyone’s lunch this week.   It only took a few minutes each morning to do this and we were rewarded with delicious lunches each day. 

 

Do you want to see what we did last week?   

Just click on the picture for the link. 

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