What small things did you do TODAY to save money?

[Loretta]

I received a boatload of Safeway Monopoly pieces from a generous cashier early in the week and so today I bought $37.93 of groceries for $12.32 including deodorant, Qtips, paper towels, and a plethora of ice creams. 

I ate a homemade lunch and dinner at home.  It was a mishmash but it was fuel. 

[MaybeBabyMustache]

-Lots of garden items for dinner (radishes, spinach, basil, mint)
-Had the kids try on swim gear ahead of a planned trip. I know now exactly what is outgrown & needs to be replaced. Will sell or donate outgrown items

[Freedomin5]

Made another batch of yogurt instead of buying yogurt. Saved $3.
Made a batch of tuna puff pastry which work well as work lunches. Saved $15.
This afternoon, I’ll make homemade frozen pizza pockets - enough for a dinner or two.

[Imma]

I will get my vaccine next week! First shot, the next one is a month later. So that means I'll be back to work in the office in about 6 weeks, as we're supposed to go back in (parttime) as soon as we're fully protected. I went through my clothes and figured I needed some more summer officewear. I have a favourite short-sleeved dress that I bought a few years ago, and the quality and fit are great. I was able to find the same dress in a different colour online, new with tags. It only cost €15, shipping included. I paid €35-ish a few years ago.

I changed my job in the middle of the pandemic. In my previous job I had a 1,5 hour commute (public transit) now I can walk! My employer paid most of my commuting costs, but I'll still save a little bit of money every day by walking, and it will be far more enjoyable and healthy. It's a 20-minute walk so it's just a fun short stroll.

I also worked in my garden and cut some spinach to eat, and my seedlings are looking well! In a few weeks I will have so much fresh produce I'll hardly be able to keep up with eating it.

[Jenny Wren]

I will get my vaccine next week! First shot, the next one is a month later.

Yay, I'm happy for you, Imma!

Spouse and I had date day yesterday, which only cost the gas to get there. To save money we packed a meal and iced coffee, drove to a nearby seaside town, and leisurely walked the waterfront. We stayed out of stores and window shopped instead, watched the seals in the canal, and ended at the park to enjoy some water watching and our packed food. I think we had just as much fun as the other tourists eating in the expensive restaurants and walking around with bags and bags of shopping! Our way was also probably safer from a pandemic point of view, as one can't be too careful even though we have had both doses of the vaccine.

We didn't want the day to end, and we briefly considered stopping by an outdoor brewery for a drink. That would have cost $15 (at least) with tip. Instead, we picked up a six pack from the same brewery for $10. We enjoyed card games and a couple of beers on our balcony, and we have 4 beers left for another enjoyable night in the future.

[Roadrunner53]

My neighbor gave us a big bunch of rhubarb. So, I found a recipe and put it together. I had some frozen strawberries and a frozen pie crust. The recipe was simple. You cut up the rhubarb, the strawberries and threw them in a ziplock bag. You added sugar and flour, a pinch of salt and some butter. Zip up the bag and toss is back and forth to mix it all up, then freeze it. Two hours before baking,  you take the bag out of the freezer and let it thaw. Then assemble with pie crust. In a way, the pie will cost me nothing extra because I had all the ingredients. Looking forward to Strawberry Rhubarb pie!

[Jenny Wren]

Several days of scavenging provided me with a new hanging basket and with some free wood and nails to create two rail planters so I could put in my apartment garden for just the cost of the plants (I already had the soil).

[MaybeBabyMustache]

We've been eating a lot out of the garden. I've been cutting spinach for salads, using radishes in the same way, and sauteeing the radish greens as a side dish. We've also been using a lot of herbs: mint, basil (we planted multiple kinds, & really like the Greek basil), oregano, cilantro, etc. It's been fun to see what comes up each day.

[Raenia]

We've been eating a lot out of the garden. I've been cutting spinach for salads, using radishes in the same way, and sauteeing the radish greens as a side dish. We've also been using a lot of herbs: mint, basil (we planted multiple kinds, & really like the Greek basil), oregano, cilantro, etc. It's been fun to see what comes up each day.

How are the sauteed radish greens?  I had read that they tend to have a grainy texture, so I've always made radish pesto instead of sauteeing, but pesto is a lot of work.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

We've been eating a lot out of the garden. I've been cutting spinach for salads, using radishes in the same way, and sauteeing the radish greens as a side dish. We've also been using a lot of herbs: mint, basil (we planted multiple kinds, & really like the Greek basil), oregano, cilantro, etc. It's been fun to see what comes up each day.

How are the sauteed radish greens?  I had read that they tend to have a grainy texture, so I've always made radish pesto instead of sauteeing, but pesto is a lot of work.

@Raenia - I haven't tried them. My husband says they taste more peppery than spinach, but similar texture. I make them with olive oil, garlic salt, & a sprinkle of red pepper.

[Loretta]

I ate leftovers early on and did some Prolific surveys. Now I’m Watching my beloved Law & Order SVU on my antenna tv. 

[Catbert]

We've been eating a lot out of the garden. I've been cutting spinach for salads, using radishes in the same way, and sauteeing the radish greens as a side dish. We've also been using a lot of herbs: mint, basil (we planted multiple kinds, & really like the Greek basil), oregano, cilantro, etc. It's been fun to see what comes up each day.

How are the sauteed radish greens?  I had read that they tend to have a grainy texture, so I've always made radish pesto instead of sauteeing, but pesto is a lot of work.

IME this depends on how mature the radish greens are.  Large "mature" greens are more likely to be grainy and strongly flavored. 

[MaybeBabyMustache]

We made hot dog buns for dinner, vs buying at the store. The price at the store (the one in biking distance to our house) was super over priced at $4.99 for six buns. Ludicrous. We made a dozen for under $1.

[Rosy]

OPTIMIZING HEALTH INSURANCE
1. On impulse, talked to a medicare health insurance rep who had a table outside a shopping center.
Got some free pens:).
2. BONUS $1200 - I reviewed my health insurance coverage and discovered I'm eligible for an annual reimbursement of $600 for 2020 and 2021.
Filled out the forms online - approved in two days - how cool is that?
Payment already on the way:).
3. Also discovered my insurance offers some cool perks I wasn't even aware of.
Spent two days digging around my policy coverage online and setting up things - may get $50GC next
and I learned how easy it is to scan and upload a receipt/form.

GARDEN
1. Harvested about twenty tomatoes, garlic chives, celery, parsley, basil, green onion, two kinds of peppers, bay leaf for a big batch of tomato sauce.
2. Mojito mint is finally big enough to make Mojitos:) one of my favorite summer drinks.

3. Wolfie, the resident garden cat is practically living in the large pot of catnip - curled up on top - smiling like the cat that ate the canary.
I grew it from seed - it is a wild catnip variety and it is now popping up in some other containers too - saves $$ buying catnip.

4. Looks like I'll have plenty of basil (from seed) for pesto, plenty of Rosemary (three varieties) one with a super intense flavor called foxtail rosemary.
5. Persian Lime tree is producing like crazy and for the first time, we will have passionfruits.
6. The best strong orange-mint ever (for tea), chocolate-mint for cooking, Moroccan mint for fantastic afternoon tea, spearmint for ice tea.
Lemon verbena, lemon balm, sweet pineapple sage, chamomile, orange-lemon balm.....

7. Newest tea - from jasmine flowers and Moringa blossoms. Both are currently in full bloom and smell wonderful.
The Jasmine smells a lot like Opium perfume and the Moringa blossoms have a pleasant, sweet, slightly perfume-y scent.

8. Yay, we will have another bumper crop of Avocadoes this year from our old, 40ft tall Avocado tree.


Free food - spices - fruits - herbs - teas ... life is good in my garden.
So many butterflies, bees, bumblebees, dragonflies - frogs and snakes too:), a pair of hawks, a pair of ducks, white egret and blue heron all come to visit.
Lots of birds, squirrels...
There is something to be said for hanging out with a drink and doing nothing but just watching the endlessly entertaining wildlife.
Priceless!
No, I don't spend money on bird seed, but my neighbor does. I provide a habitat and plenty of elderberries and insects to snack on.

BANK
$30 bonus for a 6-mo CD. Literally took two minutes.
The offer popped up in my CU account.
Not a huge bonus but a sweet, no-brainer offer nevertheless. 
Swagbucks and credit card cash rewards - $150 cash earned, sent to new CD since it allows adding funds at any time.

BOOKS
Free books on Kindle and Bookbub and a $3 book credit on Amazon.

It all adds up.







 

[cool7hand]

Found two cases of grass fed ground beef on sale for $4 a pound!

[Poundwise]

Did NOT (for the seventh year in a row) have a new central AC unit installed. Did not install the AC window units, though it is really hot.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Avoided buying anything at the airport (x2 travel days). Brought a water bottle that I filled, and a snack. The mask wearing makes it easy to skip buying anything else, but it's good to break those habits just the same.

[Jenny Wren]

Accidental savings. We order TP from one of those bamboo eco friendly places (No. 2). Decent value, it's comparable in quality and cost to mid-range TP. I order 48 rolls every 6 months. Well, I noticed it had been two weeks since I got the shipping notice, and we were running low on loo rolls. Sent a quick and polite email inquiring about it. Almost instant response back - Fedex lost the shipment, they were over nighting a new box, if the original shows up we can keep them both at no additional charge. Both showed up on the same day! So now I need to find a place to stash a year's supply of TP...

[MyAlterEgoIsTaller]

Today I figured out that a sturdy old plywood camp trunk that I was going to get rid of due to no room for it nor use for it, is exactly the right size - when stood on end - to be the pantry cabinet that my tiny kitchen has always lacked.  All I need to do is make some feet for it, take off the lock hasp, add a magnetic catch inside the door, and build a few shelves in it.

Also I came upon a pile of free yard sale leftovers and got an ice cube tray to replace one that recently cracked, a clamp shaped like a gold fish, and an old backpack that turned out to have too many stuck zippers to probably be worth rehabilitating, but one of them was hiding $2.51 in change in one of its pockets.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

We're using a lot of garden items in our meals: mint, basil, radishes, carrots, spinach, kale, strawberries, & the first tomato. I'm excited for the blueberries to ripen, as we go through a lot of berries.

[Dollar Slice]

Now that live music is starting up again I'm getting back to my old habits... just won my second pair of free concert tickets this month. I've also been to 4-5 free concerts in Central Park and another one in Brooklyn. Would have been to more, but I've been both sick and injured... there have been a ton of great outdoor free concerts happening since so many indoor venues were closed. Who needs Netflix? :-)

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Along the garden theme from yesterday:
-Planted more carrots & radishes
-Picked radishes, basil, mint, & spinach for salads. I'll use the radish greens to sautee with dinner. (Only my husband is a fan, but he loves them, so they feature heavily in our menu)

[trashtalk]

Foraged some loquats and saved the pits in hopes of starting some baby trees to share with my community.

[Imma]

Harvested a ton of spinach from the garden and had that for lunch and dinner yesterday. There's an app called Too Good To Go where you can buy leftovers from restaurants, bakeries and grocery stores for a very low price. During the pandemic, there were very few surprise bags on offer but now the lockdown has eased, it's getting better. I'm picking up a bag from the local bakery after work. I know they're always extremely generous and their bread is delicious. It's a nice 15-minute stroll from home, the weather is lovely, it will be a very relaxing walk after work with delicious food as a reward.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Mostly food & garden related:
-Harvested spinach, basil, mint, radishes, kale, carrots, & zucchini. Used most in our salads
-Used zucchinis in muffins
-Used carrot tops & radish tops as well

-Took my son to lunch after a very (unexpectedly) long errand. Used a $10 Subway gift card for lunch. Better yet, I forgot I had the gift card on my app, so it was an unexpected surprise.
-Kept the food shopping to a minimum this week, by planning a menu mostly using up freezer items, and then filling in at the store with fresh fruit & dairy.
-Sold a few things on eBay, & used recycled packaging to mail

[Gerard]

tried making fritters with some of our mountains of free mint. They were okay, but not more than that.

[Sugaree]

Picked up three much-needed pairs of jeans for work for $9 at the thrift store. 

[Rosy]

Score - twenty bucks - perusing ads for three minutes.
$10 - free groceries if you spend $30 and $10 off a $50 GC were giving to a Graduate this weekend.
Mr. R. already made good use of BOGOS and about another $6 in coupons.

Garden - free food - one more dinner on Friday with nothing but garden goodies
and a free box of pasta (BOGO).
Yeah well and cheese, also BOGO:).

Found a deal for a free 12 pack of Stella Artois!
No purchase involved:).

[JLee]

I refinanced my car recently (1.99%!) and pulled equity out to pay off my solar loan (formerly at 3.99%), and my current credit union is happy with a $1k deductible vs the $500 that the other CU insisted on so I just knocked $80/yr off my insurance too!

[Loretta]

I returned a pair of shoes to Amazon that were going to be painful.  I also wore thin liner Peds type socks today with a spritz of Arid Xtra Dry on my soles, in an effort to keep my current slip ons dry and tidy. I had toe surgery recently and so my feet are on my mind a lot now.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

-Picked a bunch of stuff from the garden for dinner.
-We've avoided using AC so far, and the weather has been really pleasant & cool in the early mornings/evenings, so our house has stayed cool by using screens, etc. We went to bed on Sunday & it was 80 in our bedroom, but otherwise, it's been totally manageable. We also haven't used the heat in months, so we're feeling very happy about the power usage.

[Dutch Comfort]

Instead of going out for lunch and icecream, I let my DD choose various icecream popsicles from the supermarket. Now I have around 20-30 in my freezer for under 10 Euro! And she happily agreed to a self chosen bakery item and have a lunch in our garden instead of lunch in a restaurant. Proud of my girl! I said I will donate the difference of 20 Euro to our travel-account for our next trip to acknowledge her frugal choice!

[cool7hand]

We have a 15+ year old soft cooler with a hard insert. The insert cracked near the base, which means moisture began leaking out. We repaired it with some silicone and duct tape (to decrease flexion at the point of the crack).

[MaybeBabyMustache]

This one is really small! Yesterday, I was finally able to get second vaccine appointments for my teens, at the Rite Aid down the street. We had numerous cancellations, so this was a big win. I treated them to ice cream cones at the shop inside of Rite Aid (Thrifty's), & checked to see if there were any iBotta offers at Rite Aid. Sure enough, there was a $.10 any item receipt offer, so I uploaded my receipt to save $.10. I also got a "gold member" discount, & saved another $.80 or so. Two ice cream cones for under $4 is a win, either way.

[Dutch Comfort]

Applied for a discount at my insurance company due to having saved enough "exercise-points". Another EUR 20 in my bank account!

[J.R. Ewing]

Started making my own almond milk.  Organic almond are cheap by the pound at costco.  It also has the added benefit of cutting out a lot of nasty preservatives.  This saves roughly $3 a week. 

[Jenny Wren]

Went through my crafting stuff and found some scrap sterling silver wire and glass beads. Used them to make a simple bracelet for my wife's upcoming birthday. I will combine it with dinner out at her favorite New Mexican restaurant, of which I was given a gift card for as a thank you for some volunteer work I did on Earth Day.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

-Spent two long hours with (the worst) customer service, but lowered our internet bill by $50/month for the next two years. I don't understand why it's so hard to de-bundle tv service from internet. Anyway, it was a giant hassle, but well worth the savings
-I made muffins using our home grown zucchini. They are amazing
-We continue to charge our electric car for free (this is allowed), even though we've been working from home since last March.

[Imma]

-Spent two long hours with (the worst) customer service, but lowered our internet bill by $50/month for the next two years. I don't understand why it's so hard to de-bundle tv service from internet. Anyway, it was a giant hassle, but well worth the savings
-I made muffins using our home grown zucchini. They are amazing
-We continue to charge our electric car for free (this is allowed), even though we've been working from home since last March.

Do you have a recipe for those zucchini muffins? I've tried making them a few times but they've never tasted amazing.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

@Imma - Sure, here you go. https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/zucchini_muffins/

My husband avoids carbs due to a food allergy, so I made a modified (reduced carbs) version of this. I haven't tried the original recipe as is, but I assume it would also be great:
-I used 1/2 the amount of sugar it called for, and was the perfect amount for us
-I used 1/2 almond flour, 1/2 regular flour
-In place of the walnuts, I did a fine chop in my food processor of mixed nuts that I had hanging around the pantry. It added a really great texture to the muffin.

Enjoy!

[Imma]

Thanks! I will save this for later, I just moved my zucchini outside so in a couple of weeks I'll be drowning in them. The recipes I tried so far were all waaaay to sweet.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Thanks! I will save this for later, I just moved my zucchini outside so in a couple of weeks I'll be drowning in them. The recipes I tried so far were all waaaay to sweet.

I gave away six today. They are everywhere in our yard! :-)

[Loretta]

I drank free iced water at work in the morning.  Did not buy more clothes for a new gig. 

[Hadilly]

I would check out Smitten Kitchen. Her zucchini recipes are great. I love the zucchini quesadilla recipe, and frequently just make the zucchini part and skip the tortillas and cheese. I recently made her zucchini bread pancakes and those were delicious too.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

I downloaded the Paypal app, and took advantage of a $5 reward. Used it cover shipping for an eBay sale.

[DadJokes]

I rode the train to & from work yesterday for the first time in a while. Prior to the pandemic, it was both cheaper and similar on time due to traffic. Traffic isn't as bad as back then, so it's just cheaper now.

Unfortunately, it ran close to an hour late, which soured my mood enough that I probably won't do it again.

[Loretta]

Only purchased 3 grocery items with my prescriptions at Safeway this evening.  I am trying out their pharmacy after CVS annoyed me too many times. 

[Imma]

Did not order food when I came home unexpectedly late last night and there was no food in the fridge left (groceries will be delivered today) but instead found something in the freezer and waited patiently until it was hot.

[Rural]

Did not order food when I came home unexpectedly late last night and there was no food in the fridge left (groceries will be delivered today) but instead found something in the freezer and waited patiently until it was hot.

And you probably got food faster than delivery anyway.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Avoided buying lunch out, when my son was using his gift card at Starbucks. He paid for his own over priced drink, and no lunch out at least for me, despite the temptation