12-6-15 Recent Frugal Review – Posted Late

2015-11-20 22.37.09

By Ney

Frugal Successes

– I have been watching Married at First Sight, Married at First Sight the First Year and arranged for free the A&E and FYI Website and Ap so that I can stream it FREE live

– I was able to buy a pair of black dress pants for under $4 at Goodwill. The best part is that someone else had already nicely hemmed them for me (I’m short!). I had looked through all of the dress pants in the store and not found a pair so I was going to pay for my other items at the register when I saw another rack of dress pants in the front of the store and score! They don’t look like anyone ever wore them and it was enough to get me through the rest of the semester.

– The university I work for decided that they would reimburse me for my cross country trip to present my research, especially because I won a very prestigious award. Initially I had been told I would have to pay for the trip myself and it was really, really crappy to have to spend that kind of money on a work trip but it was a career move and I felt I had to do it! And I can’t believe that as soon as I got back I found out that I was being reimbursed almost $1,000!!!! (Above is a picture from my trip!)

– I bought a $7 luggage scale off of Amazon (see above) for FREE using giftcards I earned through Swagbucks. We travel frequently and I couldn’t take the stress of not knowing how much our bags weighed before we got on the plane, if we stayed in places that didn’t have a scale. It was a great buy and works great! Completely worth the peace of mind!

– I have already bought an assortment of Christmas gifts for my family which will save me a lot of money buying gifts. I’m planning on going through them today and seeing where I still need to make purchases.

– I sold a couple of higher priced items on eBay this week! It’s great to make some extra income right before Christmas!

– I was able to change my phone plan to the $30 a month unlimited Metro PCS phone directly through the My Metro Ap without even having to talk to anyone. When they originally started this plan I was blocked because I had a phone not bought through Metro but I guess they changed the policy. My service is fantastic in the area we live in. I can’t believe I used to pay $80 a month through Sprint for horrible call service.

– We have really wanted to get take out tonight this week because it’s finals week, always a crazy week for us but instead ate dinner at home from the big grocery shopping trip we did at the beginning of this month

– If we are careful we won’t have to go grocery shopping again for the rest of the year (haha it’s a December joke!)

– I have spent a long time looking for dress pants at thrift shops without much luck. Recently I’ve had a lot of luck but they all need to be hemmed. I’m determined to learn how to hem!

Frugality With Mixed Results

– My dad bought a great deal on NBA team basketball tickets and really wanted to take me to a game. I love going to NBA basketball games! Since he bought the tickets I bought the food and drinks while we were there. This wasn’t cheap but I didn’t have to buy a ticket. We also parked in a $5 lot around the corner instead of the $20 garage next to the stadium.

– I might have found a healthcare plan for about $285 a month next year which is HORRIBLY expensive but because I have occasional health problems it will probably save me money in the long run.

– I have a brand new sewing machine that I have never used but I recently have become very excited about learning!!!!!!!!!! We moved away from the wonderful lady who lived around the corner from us and previously did all of our alterations (I actually told her she should charge more!) and so it would be nice to be able to do it myself!

Frugal Flops

– I made myself a sandwich out of leftover thanksgiving turkey and bread we were given thinking that I would save time and money from going out to buy lunch. And I got REALLY sick! So sick in fact that I had to cancel a class (I’m a college instructor) for the first time ever! So not only did I not save money but I don’t get paid for that one class! Ugggg! However, I did manage to make it to the class before that one (even though it was a really short class) so I do get paid for that class.

– Because I was so sick I was unable to buy what I needed for my first two classes final reviews at ALDI and Dollar Tree and instead bought the stuff at Publix. I love Publix but I’m sure I paid twice as much. I will use the extras for my other classes and go to ALDI and Dollar Tree for the rest of the stuff I need to purchase. Note- I did go to Aldi and Dollar Tree for the rest of the items and it was 2x more at Publix for almost everything!

– I forgot to grab the parking permit that B and I share as I raced out of the house. It meant I had to either pay $5 for a day pass or risk a $30+ ticket. I chose to buy the day pass. Even with the price of 1 $5 day pass we still saved about $100 this semester by sharing a permit and we have really done a great job of sharing and making it work.

– I forgot to send copies of one of my final exams to the copy center enough in advance so I just made them at home. I didn’t have to buy anything so all it cost me was 75 pages of paper and 150 pages of ink which I do buy as cheaply as possible.

Chemical Free Living

– We have been using Shugar Soap in the kitchen, chemical free and made from vegetables in the USA. We have been using it to wash our hands and instead of buying dish soap we have been using it as that as well. It has worked out okay as dish soap but the consistency just isn’t great and it’s really not made to be dish soap. We will go back to buying chemical free dish soap eventually I’m sure but it the meanwhile we are still chemical free and saving money. ALSO, Dollar Tree has started carrying Shugar Soap and it’s a LOT more than $1 on their website.

– It’s really hard to keep mildew out of our bathrooms without chemicals, especially because one of our bathrooms in our rental townhome doesn’t have a fan. Any suggestions would be a huge help!

– I have been using my electric kettle to boil water and this is great for chemical free cleaning.

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