Running shoes, concert tickets and more – it’s been a fun week of frugality around here!

1. Remember those Hoka shoes from last week? I returned them.
After they arrived with their free expedited shipping, I put them on and wore them around the house for a bit and … didn’t like them. It’s a slightly different model than I’m used to wearing, and while I thought it would provide more cushioning and comfort, the way the sole is set up made me feel like I was getting ready to turn an ankle (inwardly, which was even stranger!) every time I took a step. So I am making use of Hoka’s wonderful return policy and they are currently winging their way back to the manufacturer even as we speak. I’ll try again with an old favorite soon.

2. I sold some concert tickets – at a profit!
Now, this is NOT a permanent foray into ticket brokering, but instead a way for me to make some money back on a show I can no longer attend – namely, a concert featuring my beloved New Kids on the Block this summer. I got all caught up in their “Magic Summer Tour” promotions – having attended the FIRST Magic Summer Tour some 34 years ago (impossible!) – and purchased tickets before realizing that LeeLee and I have other plans that weekend that we can’t get out of, nor do we want to. At first I was going to sell the tickets back to Ticketmaster, but they offered me only about 60% of the face value. I’m not looking to get rich, here, but I am looking to recoup my costs at the very least, and Ticketmaster’s behavior made me so mad that I marched over to StubHub and listed them there for just slightly over face value (which was still much lower than comparable tickets were going for). Lo and behold – they sold! I’ve now transferred them to the buyer and made a tidy little profit on the deal besides. I don’t think I have a future as a reseller, but it’s nice to know I can do it if I need to.

3. I’ve “shopped the pantry” for many meals this week.
In an effort to keep our grocery bills low (or at least lowER), I’ve decided to take this week as one to “shop the pantry,” since we’ve got a bit of a surplus of various mealtime staples in stock at the moment. For instance, I used up a half-bag of Gardein beefless tips on Monday night in a nice hearty dinner salad for myself while LeeLee was at a meeting, and then the next night used a leftover half-container of spiral pasta and a can of chickpeas to serve as the base for a pot of chickpea noodle soup. I have had to run to the store for some fresh veggies to accompany some meals, but all in all it’s been a frugal grocery week! And I’ve still got tons left in the cupboard and freezer for use as the week proceeds on.

4. Our water bill was much lower this month than a year ago in May!
As with this month’s electric bill, LeeLee and I have also been working to conserve water by not running the clothes washer or dishwasher as much, waiting until we had a full load of laundry (or dishes) to turn it on, rather than just running it any old time we had something we wanted to wash. Our conscientiousness is paying off! Now the game’s afoot to get it even lower. :)

5. I fixed the doorknob to my office (I hope!).
Sometime last week, the doorknob to my basement office began to get a little sticky when I tried to open or close it. The little tongue latch didn’t fully retract anymore, and while I never got stuck on either side of the door, I started to get a little bit afraid that I might. So I did a little Google sleuthing and found several potential causes, focusing on the ones that would be easiest to fix (meaning I could try it myself before calling in a professional). The very first suggestion was that perhaps the knob had become slightly misaligned over time – and as much as I use that door, that is entirely possible. So I unscrewed the screws that hold the knob plate to the door, just very slightly, and dropped the whole mechanism down a few millimeters, then re-tightened the knob plate (but not too tight!). A couple of minor adjustments later and the doorknob latch is freely retracting again. That said, I’m still bringing my phone with me downstairs when I close that basement door for a bit … just in case I need to call for help!

What frugal wins have you had this week? Tell us in the comments!

:)

From a lowered electric bill to a passel of pizza, it’s been a pretty frugal week so far! Here are some of my top frugality wins.

1. Our electric bill is lower than a year ago!
This was definitely the biggest frugal win of the week/month: Our electric bill came in the mail this week and I was delighted to find that our electricity usage for last month was a good hundred-plus kilowatt hours lower than in April 2023. LeeLee and I have been working very hard this month to keep lights off when not in use and, most importantly, our HVAC thermostat at a higher temperature, and our hard work has paid off! We’re thrilled by this and hope it can continue for May.

2. I got a free expedited shipping code on running shoes I needed to buy anyway.
Now, these shoes – Hokas – are decidedly NOT cheap, but they’re what my ol’ bones need at this point in my life, so anything I can do to get them for slightly cheaper is a win in my book. I was hoping to get them before the weekend but certainly wasn’t willing to pay $20 for expedited shipping, so I was thrilled to find a free-expedited-shipping promo code on the site!

3. We got a BOGO coffee deal (of GOOD coffee!) at the grocery store.
I make a habit of trolling the 50%-off bins at both the Safeway and the Harris Teeter whenever I visit them, and while usually I come away empty-handed, sometimes they yield great rewards. This time, I left with $28 of good coffee for $14; a win for our coffee-guzzling household!

4. We’ve been using our “weekend leftover” plan with great success.
Remember how I wrote about our new “Leftover Revolution” the other week? Well, it’s still going strong! This week we enjoyed spaghetti pie (left over from Friday night) and chik’n divan (originally made on Saturday), plus plenty of leftover sandwich fixings for lunches. What a joy! But the best leftovers are yet to come, with …

5. Free pizza from work!
I went into the office today – a rarity for me nowadays, but today several of my remote-working friends were in town – and the office operations team hosted a pizza lunch. An hour or so after the dust had settled and everyone had had their fill, I sauntered back through the kitchen and brought home a few more pieces for LeeLee and me to enjoy tomorrow for lunch. I carried them home by bike in a little to-go container, which I tucked into my backpack for safekeeping. ;)

What have been some of your frugal wins (or sins!) this week? Sound off in the comments!

:)

I’ve got to say, even though I didn’t think I’d make this a regular feature, I’m really enjoying keeping a bit of a tally on some of the frugal hacks I’ve been taking! It’s fun to look back at the week and see that I haven’t behaved like a Rockefeller all week. These little ditties don’t have to be big to be important when it comes to my bottom line!

With that preamble, here are five ways I’ve been frugal-minded over the past week or so.

1. We were able to keep our HVAC system turned completely off for the past month.
There are many things I love about springtime in Northern Virginia, but one of the top features is how temperate the weather can be when it wants to. For the past month – maybe a bit more, actually – we’ve been able to regulate the house temperature purely by opening and closing some of our windows! Between that and LeeLee’s trusty desk fan in his office (our home doesn’t have ceiling fans), we’ve been able to keep the house at a very comfortable temperature for a month-plus. Sadly, our streak was broken just this afternoon, when I broke down and turned the air conditioning on after the mercury outside hit 92 degrees. But don’t fret; the thermostat is still set at a moderate 75 degrees, and once things cool down to that level, I don’t expect a lot of fluctuation over the coming days and weeks.

2. We won free tickets to “The Tonight Show”!
LeeLee and I have a little weekend trip to New York planned next month, and when the lottery for “The Tonight Show” opened up I threw my hat into the ring at once. Lo and behold, after years of attempts, we won! And guess what? The tickets are free of charge. Talk about your win-wins! While New York is not known as a frugal vacation spot, we try to shave costs when we can on these trips; I’m expecting some 99-cent pizza dinners in our future, as well as free breakfast at the hotel. I think I’ll write a post about our frugal New York trips sometime soon; you can actually see a lot of the city without breaking the bank!

3. I picked up a buy-one-get-one deal on CoQ10.
I take CoQ10 on the advice of my nutritionist to help regulate my blood pressure, and the bottles of supplements are not cheap. So imagine my pleasant surprise when our local Harris Teeter had a BOGO the other day! I was running very low anyway, so after comparing the BOGO price with what Amazon had it listed for, I deemed it a very good deal indeed and snapped up two bottles. That’ll lower the blood pressure! ;)

4. I passed my unsuitable coffee over to LeeLee.
The other day, I got so excited to find one of my favorite Cuban-style ground coffee canisters at the grocery store and I snapped it up right away. Unfortunately, when I got home I remembered it was a very finely ground espresso, which my beloved French press doesn’t deal with well. No matter! LeeLee prefers the ease of a Keurig (with compostable paper filters, not the plastic cups), so I just passed the full canister over to him and he’ll be set for a good long time.

5. Speaking of LeeLee: He sent a very frugal parcel through the mail from us to … us!
We were in Nashville over the weekend for a half-marathon I was running with a friend – we’d made a couples trip out of the adventure! – and after we arrived we realized LeeLee was very low on contact-lens solution. We stopped by the local Publix (my favorite grocery store) to pick up some snacks and meals for the room, so while we were there we picked up some more solution. Unfortunately, it didn’t come in a travel size, so LeeLee begrudgingly bought the full size … which only came in a two-pack. The hiccup? We carried our luggage on the plane rather than checking, and so did our friends. What to do? I’m not proud of this, but I was all set to just eat the $17 we’d spent and leave the bottles behind. But LeeLee went to the front desk, asked if they could ship it back home for us, and the answer was yes! So he packaged it up and dropped it off, and the parcel will be joining us back here in no time. Even better? This service was gratis! Now that’s Southern hospitality.

What have been some of your frugal wins in the past week? Sound off in the comments!

:)