What small things did you do TODAY to save money?

[4alpacas]

Resisted the impulse to go to the store today. I'm home alone all day and I'm undergoing a minor procedure at the hospital (nothing serious) tomorrow. I knew if I went grocery shopping today I'd buy all kinds of expensive and unhealthy food because I'd feel sorry for myself.

I have a well stocked pantry and instead made myself egg salad and put it on a hamburger bun. My own egg salad is much better than store bought anyway.

Nice!  A well-stocked kitchen helps me avoid impulse grocery and take-out. 

Made tea at home with the last of my caffeinated tea stash. 

Packed breakfast, lunch, and snacks. 

Planning carpools with friends for activity tonight and hike on Sunday. 

[dandarc]

Just noticed something that should allow me to save 1% on my property taxes.

Taxes here are officially due March 31, but you get a 1% discount for each month early you pay it, up until November - up to 4% off total.  We're waiting to pay until January - playing the every-other-year game with our taxes and donations to eek out a couple hundred extra dollars in federal income tax savings per year.

Today, I noticed the dates for which I can get the "December" amount to pay seem to include the 1st business day of the new year - so if I make my payment online on January 1 or 2, I think I should be able to get that extra $13 off without screwing up our little tax game.

Of course with my luck, they'll pass the tax reform in time for next year with the larger standard deduction and I'll just be out the $13 I could have saved by paying in November.  You know, offset by  whatever we might save due to the supposedly lower taxes we'll be paying.

[Jaayse]

Yesterday I walked around my new neighborhood and visited the ipermercato near me.  I picked up a few things I could get cheaper there and took note of the prices around the store.  Then when my BF got off work he wanted to come over and get dinner.  Instead of going out we made some pasta with pesto genovese that I had picked up at the store and enjoyed a night in.

[mustachepungoeshere]

We're waiting to pay until January - playing the every-other-year game with our taxes and donations to eek out a couple hundred extra dollars in federal income tax savings per year.

Eke out. Gentle correction.

[mustachepungoeshere]

Picked up a few bags of chips on special as my contribution to office drinks (the boss provides booze, we bring snacks).

I tend to buy flavours my team likes but I don't so that I'm not tempted.

[Linea_Norway]

Brought home leftover apples from work and cooked them. They are cooling down in two portions ready to be frozen.

Last few shopping trips I have been buying little bread as the cheap bread was sold out. Today the cheap and whole wheat bread was available and I bought all four. Freezer drawers are well filled up. I needed tomato in tin, but the cheapest was sold out. So I bought only one of the second cheapest.

We ate veggie tonight, with eggs instead of meat.

Eat homemade lunch at work as usual. As well as bananas provided by my work.

DH reduced the temperature of the hot water (for showers). That was on 75 degrees C, which is much higher than necessary.
He also reduced the temperature of the water for floor heating. Tonight we will start an experiment with receiving warm water from neighbour's mountain warmth pump. We don't want to risk warming up their water, so we reduced the temperature in our kettle to the temperature of the water that comes in.

[Imma]

Resisted the impulse to go to the store today. I'm home alone all day and I'm undergoing a minor procedure at the hospital (nothing serious) tomorrow. I knew if I went grocery shopping today I'd buy all kinds of expensive and unhealthy food because I'd feel sorry for myself.

I have a well stocked pantry and instead made myself egg salad and put it on a hamburger bun. My own egg salad is much better than store bought anyway.

Nice!  A well-stocked kitchen helps me avoid impulse grocery and take-out. 

Made tea at home with the last of my caffeinated tea stash. 

Packed breakfast, lunch, and snacks. 

Planning carpools with friends for activity tonight and hike on Sunday.

I always make sure I have a few 'bad' things in the pantry / freezer too. A little piece of chocolate, oven fries, homemade frozen pizza, a single can of soda, a can of soup, etc. If I crave something unhealthy or if I'm in a hurry, it's still better to eat that one thing you have, rather than go on an impulsive grocery trip and spend €15 on stuff you don't need.

It's tempting to stockpile your pantry with just dried lentils and oatmeal and beans and flour, but sometimes you need a quick fix too. I always have ingredients to whip up a batch of cupcakes or cookies too, because we tend to get unexpected visitors.

[GoConfidently]

My secretary’s mother gave her hundreds of dollars worth of essential oils after getting out of an MLM company (I say worth meaning that’s what it cost her, not their actual value which is horribly inflated by these companies). Anyway, she brought them to work to give away and I took three nice smelling ones for making soap. Now I can make something other than lavender scented soap. Made three batches and I think they’re going to be nice.

I decided against buying a $180 bicycle that I really loved because it’s not in my budget and I can’t justify the cost right now. I can’t commute by bike so it would just be a weekend thing, and I can continue to run for free.

I was at a work event that was supposed to include dinner last night, but I got stuck doing a job that didn’t allow me to eat. When I was checking out, they sent me home with two big Caesar salads that no one else wanted and had been unopened. I ate one last night and one for dinner.

A/C stayed off all day because the weather finally realized it’s not supposed to be hot anymore.

I’ve been wanting new clothes for work, so I rearranged the closet and pulled out some fall pieces instead. I’m making myself wear the clothes I don’t usually reach for to decide if I want to keep them or donate. I’m seriously contemplating making my own work uniform wardrobe when it’s time to buy new pieces.

Had a date cancel on me tonight and I was tempted to call friends to go out. Stayed in and got the  chores done and took a run instead. It was a pretty good day.

[stashgrower]

Home day as live meeting got rescheduled to a telecommute.
Exercised in the living room and planning a neighbourhood walk.
Cleaned out fridge and ate leftovers.

[TartanTallulah]

I was at the end of my mobile 'phone contract and called the company to switch to SIM only. Mentioned my occupation and was told it entitled me to a discount. That makes a total of £27 a month off what I was paying before.

And I retrieved some out-of-date tiny waxed paper tubs from work. They would have been thrown out, and they'll be perfect for bringing on seedlings in the spring.

[Bracken_Joy]

-Sad way to save money, but... our dog passed last month, and we've both been working a ton ever since. Since no living thing is home (other than the house plants), we're using the heat very very little right now. When Dog was around, we would keep at least a bottom threshold so she didn't get too cold (old and skinny).

-We turned off our sprinklers at our first possible opportunity this year. That's been working out well, there's been just enough rain the lawn is fine.

-When pulling out our tomato plants, I saved all the green tomatoes. Made green tomato salsa for the first time ever and canned it. Before processing it had great flavor but was a little too crunchy, so hopefully coming out of the jars it'll be perfect. It's kinda a weird brown color from the red onions the recipe called for though! Oh well, just not a "gifting" recipe.

-Husband was able to move a meeting by a day this week, so I could have the fuel efficient car yesterday for *my* long drive day, and he could have it today for *his* long drive day. Since the car gets 40mpg but the truck only gets 20mpg, this is a very useful savings. Splitting the car up like this has worked out really well. We've only put like 2k miles on the truck this year, but are up to 21k on the car. (We both work with various clients all over, and he gets reimbursed for gas at the IRS rate while I get a flat (smaller) bonus toward it. Not just long commutes, don't worry! But it means we can just pocket the fuel efficiency difference).

[kaypinkHH]

Not sure if this is a small thing, but in getting ready to sell our house, we self-staged our house instead of hiring professionals. We put all our personal items and some furniture in storage (which we would have needed to do anyway), and rearranged our space to make it look bright and open. Spent ~$30 on some small decor items, that we will reuse at the new house. VS: Quoted price of $2000. I'm going to enjoy that $1770 in my pocket.

[Imma]

I canned 6 cans of applesauce and have a little bit leftover for dinner tomorrow. I will eat it with brussels sprouts that were on discount, potatoes that were on discount and home made stew from a cheap cut of meat that was on discount as well.

[lexde]

No-spend day for me. Drank tea this morning instead of buying anything at a convenience store; Packed a lunch while everyone else ordered out; Worked late and drank office coffee; still at work but I'll be going straight home and eating leftovers. $0 spent today!


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[Trifle]

I have an old pair of sneakers that I actually had thrown in the trash, but then I decided to haul them back out, clean them, and wear them a little longer.  It will put off a new sneaker purchase at least a while.

[Linea_Norway]

Walked to work and ate own lunch.

DH parked the car in town today, at a paid parking lot. He received a free leftover ticket from someone who was leaving. But he can claim the ticket to be paid by his company. Pure win.

Listened to podcast about starting a business without investing. I hope this is useful information during FIRE.

[haypug16]

Posting to follow.

Great thread. I'm reading from the beginning so I got like 200 pages to get through :)

[Bracken_Joy]

-Thought I had been overchaged for a medical procedure. (Paying out of pocket because it's a noncovered condition). I was expecting ~$300, and it was $372. So when I went back in today, I asked them to follow up on it. Lo and behold, they had overcharged me by $51. Cancelled out my cost of appointment today and charged me the price less the $51. Really glad I asked. I am so done with this nonsense I nearly didn't ask because I didn't want to deal with it. Glad I did. It was easier than I expected. And of course, $51.

That's all I have so far for today.

[RidetheRain]

Today I took all the small bills out of my wallet. I usually spend them on sodas from the vending machine at work. Not only am I improving my budget by not spending 50c on soda, but I'm drinking more water. Double win!

[PMG]

Im using cleverly tucked flat full sheets on a queen size bed in my already furnished temporary apartment.

Glued some reinforcing straps on where my luggage handle was starting to tear and fray the fabric. 

Instigated a home party with friends tomorrow and volunteered to bring food and booze I already have. 

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Came back from vacation last night, so have a hodge podge of stuff:
-bought lunch at Costco vs something from the airport, for our return flight
-Skipped having a glass of wine on the flight, even though I really, really wanted it
-Cancelled a fancy lunch on our last day, and went out for cheap fish tacos instead. Yum!
-Got a ride to work from my husband today, and taking free carpool home
-Ate free breakfast/lunch at work today, including a new tea
-I've been home for almost no time, and I have no idea what's waiting for me in the fridge/freezer (my parents have been at our house with the kids for the last week). No matter what, I have backup frozen options, and will make dinner for everyone from our freezer/pantry stash. No eating out!

[kayvent]

I switched cellphone plans. I'll save 11.50$/month on the base plan. The plan comes with free nationwide calling and more airtime. About bi-monthly I would pay ~8$ when I went over my time or called people in a different area code. So I'll save ~16.10$ per month. My daughter commented that that is small but, as a life lesson, I explained that multiplication can make small numbers big. Over two years that is ~386.40$.

[Imma]

I was very grumpy and sad this morning and I'm a bit of an emotional eater, so I couldn't help myself and loaded up my grocery basket with unhealthy stuff. Pasta salad, marshmellows, iced coffee, etc. Even when I make bad decisions I'm still inherently frugal, because nearly everything I bought was on discount :D

( the damage wasn't too bad, about €10, and this only happens once every two months or so).

[Linea_Norway]

I was very grumpy and sad this morning and I'm a bit of an emotional eater, so I couldn't help myself and loaded up my grocery basket with unhealthy stuff. Pasta salad, marshmellows, iced coffee, etc. Even when I make bad decisions I'm still inherently frugal, because nearly everything I bought was on discount :D

( the damage wasn't too bad, about €10, and this only happens once every two months or so).

I feel like this each time I am home alone, e.g. when DH eats dinner at his work. Yeaterday I had a day off and was very tempted to buy cheesecake (sold per two and very expensive) and drove to the shop to buy it. I saw some pastry breads on discount and brought several, to put per two in the freezer for the weekend. I also decided to have two for lunch. Then I figured those two plus two cheese cakes was way too much food I put the cheese cakes back. This way I had my comfort-eating lunch, but spent only a quarter of what the cheese cake would have cost. Good deal. Tomorrow it is weekend, so I took two maple pastry breads out of the freezer, that we will eat with two people.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

-Took advantage of free carpool to/from work
-Ate free breakfast, lunch & snacks at work
-We valiantly tried to fix our garage door on our own, but were unable to. Called around for the cheapest repair, and saved $75 off the next lowest price. Can now get our car out of the garage. :-)
-I received our first property tax bill for our house, and noticed our exemption wasn't correctly applied. It's only $80 off of a HUGE amount of money, but I emailed & asked for a a recalculation. It got approved right away!
-Made my husband an anniversary card vs buying one
-Bought $50 worth of Uber gift cards at Rite Aid, generating $10 in credit. I'll use the gift cards for trips to & from the airport.

[Thinkum]

Noticed a coupon in a market circular for a pound of ground lean turkey for $1.99! Limit 2. So we walked the 2 miles round trip to the store. The double whammy of money saving and exercise, booyah!

[frooglepoodle]

No spend day today!

Meal planned for the next week, focusing on eating what we already have to keep the grocery budget down. Made lists for the farmers market and grocery store tomorrow, and will walk to both.

[Bracken_Joy]

Have had a shiiiiiity week. (Got hit by a car yesterday). And after sitting in Urgent Care for a couple hours to get my neck checked out, I really just wanted to pick up a frozen pizza. I didn't want any of our leftovers in the fridge, and nothing else was thawed. Instant Pot to the rescue. We threw in some frozen chicken thighs, and cooked some rice. Some pesto from costco, and tada, it tasted different from what we've been eating and we didn't buy anything for it.

(Unfortunately, our recycling service costs will be going up, amount TBD. Boo)

[Thinkum]

Have had a shiiiiiity week. (Got hit by a car yesterday). And after sitting in Urgent Care for a couple hours to get my neck checked out, I really just wanted to pick up a frozen pizza.

Oh no! Hope you're okay and heal up. Car wrecks suck, but bonus points to you for not taking the easy way and buying take-out.

[horsepoor]

Have had a shiiiiiity week. (Got hit by a car yesterday). And after sitting in Urgent Care for a couple hours to get my neck checked out, I really just wanted to pick up a frozen pizza. I didn't want any of our leftovers in the fridge, and nothing else was thawed. Instant Pot to the rescue. We threw in some frozen chicken thighs, and cooked some rice. Some pesto from costco, and tada, it tasted different from what we've been eating and we didn't buy anything for it.

(Unfortunately, our recycling service costs will be going up, amount TBD. Boo)

That is pretty badass.

Hope you are OK and not too sore today.

This week I was in Denver for work, and wasn't perfectly frugal, but definitely pocketed most of my per diem. 
*Saved my employer $$ by taking the lightrail from the airport.  It seems most of my coworkers were totally unaware of this relatively new option. 
*Stayed in an extended stay type hotel and bought groceries for most of my lunches and dinners.  Avoided going out for any $$$ dinners.  Had a nice lunchtime walk with a co-worker so I saved money without seeming too antisocial.
*Hotel room provides a new kitchen sponge for each guest, so I took it with me when I left, as well as the soap bar, to save them from being tossed in the trash
*Brought ground coffee from home and made all my coffee in the hotel room

Yesterday:
Did some research and will be replacing a horse supplement that was $1.44/day, with one that is .39c/day, so long as horsey is willing to eat a powdered supplement instead of a pelletized one.

[Bracken_Joy]

Have had a shiiiiiity week. (Got hit by a car yesterday). And after sitting in Urgent Care for a couple hours to get my neck checked out, I really just wanted to pick up a frozen pizza.

Oh no! Hope you're okay and heal up. Car wrecks suck, but bonus points to you for not taking the easy way and buying take-out.

The credit 100% goes to my husband. To be fair, my "compromise" idea was to go buy a rotisserie chicken to make the same meal. He was the one that pushed "we have a way to cook the meat we already have" then did all the cooking.

[Gone_Hiking]

Have had a shiiiiiity week. (Got hit by a car yesterday). And after sitting in Urgent Care for a couple hours to get my neck checked out, I really just wanted to pick up a frozen pizza. I didn't want any of our leftovers in the fridge, and nothing else was thawed. Instant Pot to the rescue. We threw in some frozen chicken thighs, and cooked some rice. Some pesto from costco, and tada, it tasted different from what we've been eating and we didn't buy anything for it.

(Unfortunately, our recycling service costs will be going up, amount TBD. Boo)

Ouch!  The accident must have sucked.  Kudos to the stocked pantry, though.  Makes it easy to whip up a meal, no?

I did something small yesterday:  I scrutinized my grocery store receipt while leaving the checkout.  It seemed high for just a bunch of vegetables, milk, and bulk paprika.  Turns out, the cashier's finger must have slipped because I was charged for 15 bunches of swiss chard.  This kind of mistake is easy to correct while one is still in the store.

[Imma]

Went to the shop to buy soy milk. See it's buy one, get one for free, so I get two cartons of soy milk for €1,69 instead of one. Then I see that there's a rebate for the soy milk, but you can only enter once, so when I mail in the barcode I get €1,69 back and it's free. One of the cartons also had a -35% off sticker on it because it's near it's expiration date so the store takes €0,59 off the total on my receipt. I have now officially made €0,59 by purchasing 2 cartons of milk.

[mc6]

I returned 2 things I didn’t need.

I bought replacement bulbs for a bathroom light fixture because the originals from the previous owner’s time seemed like the wrong bulbs and they put out substantial heat.  Now the light is brighter and not hot.  Unmustachian to buy replacements when the originals were working, but mustachian if it saves $ or saves me from a fire.  Led, of course. 

I also used my shopvac to try to clean out the dryer’s lint trap area.  It is gross.  :(

[Zaga]

My husband is rapidly losing weight post weight loss surgery, today I spent some time altering some of his clothes so he looks like he bought new pants.  Hoping to hold off on new clothes until he reaches his goal weight!  Or at least keep purchases to a minimum.

[Bracken_Joy]

Have had a shiiiiiity week. (Got hit by a car yesterday).

I hope that your neck is okay! I have a totally unsubstantiated belief that wine is good for seized-up necks because it relaxes you and dilates blood vessels, leading to increased circulation. (Caution: I have a habit of doling out terrible advice - but please take into account that I have no medical knowledge at all beyond what experimentation has yet to kill me)

Just to pull this a tiny off topic, but I can't help myself, I'm a nurse =P Just be sure if you're on NSAIDs (like aspirin, ibuprofen, aleve- the anti inflammatories) you don't also do alcohol- this is really hard on your stomach. This one isn't an urban legend type thing, especially if it's for a sustained period of time you're taking them both. Maybe I can spin that as a cost saving tip- don't combine these two over the counter things, and avoid gastric ulcers/bleeding! You'll pay so much less in copays!

All that being said, I didn't take NSAIDs the first day and had a glass of wine instead. Yesterday I (instead) tried a muscle relaxer the doc prescribed. It was on par with the muscle relaxation the wine gave, but made me fairly light headed. Don't think I'll be taking any of those again. Illicit self medication might be winning out for me this time =P That and a heat pack. OTOH, the irony is the muscle relaxers work out cheaper per dose even compared to the Bota Box.

My cost saving yesterday- I knew DH and I were both craving a crappy food meal. For us, this generally means pizza. Before MMM, we would have gotten delivery. That's only happened like... 4 times in the last 2 years though. So when I went to Costco to pick up my meds, I also bought some of their frozen pizzas.

Today- Going to do meal prep for the week, and get our flu shots at Target- they're doing the deal again where they give you $5 for each covered flu shot you get. Not sure yet what we'll buy with the $10. TBD, since we don't really need much right now. Probably stock up on extra toiletries or something.

[Kwill]

Today I filled out a form to get professional development costs partially reimbursed by the university where I'm doing an online degree. There was one professional trip I took this summer that I took as personal leave at my own expense because I thought (wrongly) it would be cheap and mostly fun rather than work. If this is approved, I could get up to $250 back.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

-Made dinner for our guests (well, my husband did most, but I did appetizers & salad) vs going out
-Used a credit accrued from buying something that will be reimbursed as a work expense to buy ice cream from Thrifty's for our guests. (Their request for dessert was Thrifty's. :-)
-My husband did quite a bit of research, and was able to do multiple repairs on our car
-Finally got all of the paperwork together & mailed off our rebate for $125 towards our automatic sprinklers
-I used to really struggle to use up all of the goat cheese (Costco - two packs) before they expired. I froze one of the loaves way back, and discovered it today. Used it to make an appetizer to go with dinner. Yum!
-Made lunch early for the kids & packed a lunch for myself, knowing we'd be out of the house for a few hours. Bonus round: ate the leftover quesadilla that I really didn't want. My youngest had decided the type of tortilla used was "different" and didn't want it. Sigh. . . picky eaters.

[ice_beard]

Negotiated with landlord to take care of front lawn this winter for a reduction in rent of $100/month.
The yard is tiny and we actually have the mower and weed eater this year to do the work, so I don't mind that much. 

Made dinner from a bunch of scrounged up ingredients that were going to expire/not be good much longer.  Dish is tasty, so it's a good use of food.
I brought home a large ziploc bag of leftover bread/bagels from work the other night.  This stuff shows up every couple weeks and I've always got some plastic bags in my backpack so I can take advantage of the leftovers.  Only myself and one other co-worker seem to do this.  The rest eventually gets tossed which breaks my heart, so I take as much as I can without seeming like I'm taking way too much. 

[Dollar Slice]

I raised my 401(k) contribution back up to what it was earlier in the year. I got nervous at the end of August because I was unsure of what sort of expenses I was going to have with/after a medical procedure, so I reduced my contribution a bit to get a little extra cash in my checking account. Some part of my brain was trying to convince me to leave it that way. For some reason when my checking account grows and I can manually move it into my taxable account, it feels like I'm doing really well and saving money and being a badass. But my automatic 401(k) deposits don't feel like anything, and they don't show up as income in my Mint account, so they are much less satisfying. BUT! The math says that the 401(k) is a much better way to save, so I made myself do it anyway. :-)

[mustachepungoeshere]

The NSW container deposit scheme starts on December 1 (10c refund on most plastic, glass or aluminium drink containers between 150ml and 3L) so I'm going to hang on to our odd Coke or sparkling water bottle.

[Kwill]

... But my automatic 401(k) deposits don't feel like anything, and they don't show up as income in my Mint account, so they are much less satisfying.

You should be able to add your 401k to Mint. I had my 403b in there at one point. Your little Mint charts will look so much more cheerful and encouraging if you do.

Today I'm heading to London midday and taking advantage of the off-peak day return with railcard discount.

[VeggieTable]

I'm feeling pretty good today! For my husband's employer to kick in their contribution to our HSA (a possible $650/person), there are a bunch of little activities we have to complete - annual physical, biometric screening, etc. We had been putting them all of, unsure of when the deadline was and what we had to complete. We got letters in the mail a few weeks ago showing that we had basically done nothing - this was partly due to confusion on our end, but still. We've kicked it into high gear, and now we're both only $25 away from the max with over a month left! The last $25 just involves checking in once a week saying I went to a yoga class. I only have 2 weeks left of check-ins, so I'm almost there!  Feels pretty good to have gotten $1250 in a matter of weeks!

[jengod]

Going to be 100 degrees today; hung out a load of laundry to dry. Saves $0.25 or so, but it's about the habit and this was the first time in a couple of months!

[MaybeBabyMustache]

So sorry to hear about the car accident, Bracken_Joy! Hope you are feeling better.

-Ate breakfast, lunch & snacks at work for free today
-Made the kids lunches today, even though it was a hassle & I was tired. Bonus points, discovered cookies my mom had bought, lurking in the back of the cupboard. Added those to the lunches for a special treat.
-Instead of going to the party store, mostly made the kids Halloween costumes from stuff we already had. And, ordered the few remaining items on Amazon, for 1/2 the price of the party store.
-Added another day to a business trip. Will not save me any money, but am trying to look at the bright side of traveling over two weekend days. Will generate reward points, which I will transfer to my preferred airlines for a discounted flight? I'm really sad about it, so trying to be positive.

[Linea_Norway]

Spending the day and tomorrow in a hotel, paid by my boss. Driven by someone elses car. Eating lunch, snacks and dinner for free. Not touching the minibar.

[Stachetastic]

We're finally getting some fall weather (boo!) so we have stacked the first load of firewood on the porch and fired up the wood burner this morning. I'm working from home today, so the dogs and I are enjoying the warmth.

My brother's birthday is this week, so I got a list of Aldi items he really likes and picked up a few things on my regular grocery trip yesterday. (I prefer to give consumables for gifts) Added an Amazon gift card left over from Christmas, and threw it all in a gift bag from the leftover stash.

[chasingthegoodlife]

 Ate from the freezer to make room for the cakes I'll be making for our backyard wedding.

Used all the older veg from the fridge (plus some fresh from the veggie garden!) to make a Thai red curry for work lunches.

Reused mailing supplies to send a parcel for SO. SO was surprised that I keep these. Ha! How much he still has to learn about my waste hating ways.

[kaypinkHH]

Had free work lunch by attending a Financial Planning Seminar. Learned lots (insert sarcasm font).

[MaybeBabyMustache]

-Made leftovers for dinner
-Packed lunches for the kids
-Ate free breakfast, lunch & snacks at work
-Enrolled in annual benefits at work, optimizing a few things to take advantage of plan changes