The Fugal Five: #39

 The Frugal Five: #39

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-  Used Register Reward

I had a register reward which was going to expire soon, and Walgreen’s had a great sale on multi-purpose disinfecting wipes (75 count).   Each container cost $1.99, so I picked up 3 and used my $4.00 register reward and my Walgreens cash to cover the remaining $2.00.   

2- Cut my Husbands Hair

Haircuts are a minimum of $30 per cut and when you need to get a haircut at least 2 times per month, the price adds up.    Our decision to pick up a new guide for our hair clippers, is really paying divides now.    I cut my husband's hair again this week.    Time investment- less than 20 minutes, monetary cost- minimum b/c we already made our money back from the cost of the guide and electricity use is low.   

3- Daily Habits to Save Electricity 

Each day, I take a few minutes to turn off lights, unplug electrical items that we are not using, and opening up curtains and letting the light in.     Each one of these things do not save a lot of money, but together they save us a nice amount of cash each year.      In addition, these things help to preserve our Earth.     

4- Garden Preparation 

    

The end of January is when I start planning for my summer garden and planting seeds to grow my seedlings.    My seeds have been saved from last year's garden produce to organic produce that I picked up from the market.  This year, I am planning on growing tomatoes, peppers, green beans, peas, lettuce, onions, garlic, cucumbers, and zucchini.   This is a lot more than I normally plant and I am not sure if I will be able to get all of these plants to grow at our new home.   We’ll see what happens in summer and fall.   The plants I am starting include: tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, and zucchini. 

5-  Beverages from Home 

Each day I make coffee and take a travel mug with me to work.   In addition, I make homemade tea to pack for my lunch.    Since Starbucks’ coffee prices have gone up, my daily savings for my daily coffee has increased to about $5.75 per day.    In addition, sodas at work run about $2.00 per drink, so by bringing my own tea, I am saving about $1.50 per 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.