frugal friday 9.21.24

Time for a belated Frugal Friday post. Our fall schedule kicked into high gear with the addition of physical therapy appointments for my daughter to help her TMJ and me dealing with a sinus infection on top of a recurring ear infection. Fun times!

1. Coupons! at Kroger, CVS, and cashback and Fetch rewards – When I plan my grocery shopping trips, I review the cashback offers on ibotta and Kroger. My best trip was last Friday when I earned $9.95 at ibotta and $1 at Kroger. I’m a work in progress. It takes time to review the different programs. I’m struggling a bit when it comes to CVS deals, mostly because I find the site harder to navigate.
2. My daughter saved money on gas – Because my daughter is having a hard time finding a job as a high school student (lots of teachable moments around earning and spending money this summer), we give her gas money to drive herself and her younger brother to school. I discovered this week that I had extra gas rewards at Kroger from August which I had my daughter use to buy gas. $20 bought her almost at full tank at $1.98/gallon.
3. Leftovers – With my second son back in college, we had to downshift making dinner, not to mention dealing with a health issue for my husband. We’re more focused on using up leftovers at dinner and cooking less. I also throw leftovers in the freezer if I think we may not use them immediately.
4. Fall Garden – I rebooted our vegetable garden for the fall. Despite regular watering, the return of the drought hit the garden hard. 3 of my zucchini plants died, along with quite a few tomato plants. The beans are still recovering from being eaten by the deer when I forgot to put the electric fence back on. So, I grew a lot of fall crops in my basement greenhouse and started putting them in the ground this week. If all goes well, we’ll have broccoli, snap peas, beans, arugula, kale, and cauliflower, along with the lettuce I bought in August.
5. Saved 2 mums from dying! – In August, when I bought the lettuce, I also purchased 6 mums and put them on our front porch. Unfortunately, between the drought and my ear infection and sinus infection, 2 of the mums started dying. I kept watering the mums and brought back the 2 that looked like death. One of them is blooming; the other may not bloom. I may put both in the ground to protect them from drying out again.