Tag Archives: Our Frugal Stories

Saving Money at Home Depot on a new Wooden Gate


My mother needs a new gate for the fence around her house. She no longer owns a dog so there is currently just a gap. We are going to visit for Easter and we are bringing our puppy. We could have brought his movable ‘play pen’ aka huge movable fence but then I realized, why would we try to find a work around when it might just be easier to fix the gate?????

I found the gate and supplies we need at Home Depot for the lowest price. I figure that we are probably going to spend about $50-75 which isn’t bad for a home repair/Easter gift. I might also throw in some paint that I know she needs. But I still wanted to pay less! I knew that someone close to me had recently received a $100 Home Depot gift card as a gift and didn’t currently need it. I offered to trade them for $75 in Amazon gift cards that I will be getting for free from Swagbucks and rewards points on my credit card. They agreed! I also joined the Home Depot e-mail list for another $5 off of $50 coupon. This would save me $30 or 30%. I’m excited to by saving money on something we needed to buy anyways. Not mention that the gift cards I traded were free to begin with.

A Frugal Date Night

Picture this- A couple celebrating their anniversary by getting dressed up in fancy clothes, walking through a downtown area, wandering through an art gallery and then heading to an expensive dinner at a nice restaurant. After enjoying a fantastic meal, they go to watch a movie.

Sounds expensive, right?

Well here are the numbers. We have been extremely busy the last few months and since this month was our anniversary we decided it was time for a nice date night. One of our favorite restaurants is a really nice place but it’s fairly expensive. Meals are around $25-30 per person but the food is excellent. One of the ways we save money is that I work at another restaurant that is also owned by the same company. Luckily I have a discount card that is for 50% off for up to 4 people at all the restaurants owned by the company that I work for. Also we received a gift card at Christmas for this same group of restaurants. When used together we received a huge discount. We had a $100 dinner including entrees, desert, and drinks for about $35 including a big tip (We always tip on the pre-gift card, pre-discount amount). We actually planned to go to the movies but then realized that there was nothing playing that we both wanted to see. We did however find a movie we both wanted to see at Redbox. So instead of spending $24 just for movie tickets (yes that’s what it costs where we live for two movie tickets) not including snacks or drinks, we enjoyed a movie at home.

Was it any less romantic?

No.

Did it require a little more planning?

Yes.

I am a firm believer that you can enjoy the finer things in life without spending a lot of money. For those of you who are already frugal I can see you nodding your heads. For those of you who would like to be more frugal think about this- If you can enjoy the same things for less, why wouldn’t you?

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