This is a series in the style of The Frugal Girl’s Five Frugal Things, where I post weekly about what I’ve done lately to save money and make things stretch in order to further our financial goals, which currently include us paying off a decent hunk of debt. I encourage you to play along and post your own weekly frugal wins in the comments section below!
It’s been a hot minute since I’ve gotten one of these supposedly “weekly” posts out (the last WFW post was actually all the way back in May!). Now that the madness of wedding season is finally over, we’ve fallen into a bit more of a routine with the flower farm, which has freed up some (much needed) time for me. I’ve been using it to spend more time with the kids, clean up the house and continue on in my simplification/minimalism journey with that, read more books, and yes, blog more, too 🙂 It’s such a relief to finally have time for life-giving hobbies and pastimes again!! I’m SO grateful that we’ve been able to make things work with turning the flower farm into a full-time thing, but it has been CRAZY.
I’m hoping that from now until the end of the year, I’ll be able to keep carving out some time to post, because I sure have missed it!
The last few weeks have been super spend-y, and often when that’s the case, I feel like I haven’t done a single frugal thing at all. However, I have plenty of frugal habits built up over many years, which means that even when I’m spending a lot, I’m always looking for ways to save where we can.
I’m also trying to be much more intentional this year about spending money where it will make the most positive impact on our lives right now. We don’t have a lot of extra income since we’re just getting the flower farm going as a full-time thing, but we have had a little bit, and I’ve been training myself over the last few years to be okay with spending money on things we don’t actually “need.” Money was so tight for so long that we definitely had to cut down our budget to the bare bones for a long time, and while it meant we were able to (mostly) live within our means, it also had the unexpected side effect of making me feel guilty whenever I DID spend money on something that wasn’t “essential” (especially when it wasn’t even part of a gift or anything).
So I’ve been trying to counteract that mindset and spend guilt-free on things that make our lives better or bring us happiness in some way. Pursuing minimalism has taught me that most stuff doesn’t add to our happiness level at all, but that doesn’t apply to all material things. So, since I’ve drastically pared down our belongings over the last couple years, I’ve been taking note of things we use every day (sheets, towels, dishes, etc.) that weren’t in great shape and then replacing them as we can. It’s amazing how wonderful these little “upgrades” have felt! Almost all of these types of things were wedding gifts we got over 13 years ago, and they were definitely starting to show their age.
And of course, I decided long ago to let myself spend a decent amount every year on books, so we’ve continued to do that 🙂
Anyway, let’s get on to the frugal wins!
Note: There may be affiliate links to books or products mentioned in this post.
We used a Walmart hack to save $80 on a new router
A couple weeks ago, we noticed that our wifi was starting to go out more and more, and we were constantly having to reset our old router to get it to start up again. Finally one night last week, it just cut out completely and wouldn’t turn back on. Considering that the router is several years old, we weren’t terribly surprised, but it’s never good timing when you’re running a business to have your internet go out on you.
Even though it was getting late, Matt ran over to Walmart (our only big store in the county) to see what he could find. Oddly enough, they had a router there that was marked $199 in store but only $119 online (with the option of store pickup the next day). When Matt asked the employee if they would price match the online price, he was told that new Walmart policy said that they no longer did that in ANY Walmart. So even though it meant going a half day without internet, I used the data on my phone to purchase the router online, and Matt went back the next day to pick it up.
Super weird that we had to go through that circus of a process, but I’m glad we didn’t spend $80 that we didn’t need to!
I used Old Navy rewards points to replace my favorite pair of jogger sweats
I basically live in joggers since I’m not a huge fan of jeans and need something that can handle all the farm work, and when one of my absolute favorite pairs finally got holes this last week, I wasted no time in ordering a replacement (especially since I had rewards points and could get them for a steal).
I’ve mentioned my favorite Old Navy clothing hack in this post, which basically explains how I get most of our clothes from them for free. They changed their guidelines for free shipping, so I did spend a little more than the $2-3 I typically would once the rewards were cashed out, but that’s all good — I was able to get two pairs of the joggers and two of my very favorite shirts in a smaller size (since I’ve been losing weight) for around $20. Not bad! (It helped that they were doing a half off sale on the joggers when I looked!)
It’s worth noting that in addition to the obviously frugal move of getting new clothing for a major deal, there also was the frugal move of wearing out the old pair to begin with. I’d had the old pair of joggers for probably 2-3 years and had worn them multiple times per week, so I’d definitely gotten my money’s worth (especially considering I probably spent less than $5 on them to begin with since I’m sure I used the same Old Navy hack on the last pair too!).
I found an inexpensive skincare line I love
I mentioned this in this post I did the other week on 5 things I’ve learned lately, but it’s worth mentioning here again. I used to exclusively use Mary Kay skin products on my face, but when my MK consultant started flaking out and not sending stuff when I ordered it, I had to start looking elsewhere (esp. since I couldn’t find another rep to go through locally). Anyway, I’d tried a couple drugstore finds that were fine, but I wasn’t really wowed by anything.
Last month, I heard about The Ordinary skincare line for the first time, and I was intrigued enough by the cult following and rave reviews to order several things (which was easy enough, as everything is priced very affordably). Anyway, I’ve been using their hyaluronic acid serum every night after cleansing, and I’ve actually noticed a startling difference after just ONE MONTH, especially when it comes to the rather deep frown line I was developing between my eyebrows. It’s still a bit noticeable, but it’s significantly less pronounced since I started using the new products. Even Matt has noticed a major difference!
Definitely worth passing it along as a frugal find since their stuff is WAY less expensive than most other skincare products.
I took a friend up on her tradeout offer to attend her fitness class for free
Years ago, I religiously attended a hip hop class every week (often multiple times a week). After we moved, I stopped going to exercise classes because I didn’t know of any that I’d be interested in here, and I’ve basically been counting all the farm work as my exercise 🙂 However, a friend of mine teaches a community Zumba class through the college, and she offered to let me audit it for free as long as I taught a routine or two sometime during the semester.
Not a bad trade, although I’ll have to admit I’m a bit nervous to teach!
We attempted multiple DIY fixes for a truck issue we’re having
Back in July, we bought a new (to us) truck from my mom and stepdad to use on the farm. Last week, it weirdly won’t let you turn the key when you try to turn it on, and the steering wheel is totally locked up. We’ve tried about every hack and trick we could find online without luck, so our next step is to call a local locksmith at the urging of our car mechanic.
Sure, our frugal attempts didn’t end up saving us any money this time, but consistently choosing over and over again to try and fix as much as we can ourselves definitely pays off in the long run.
I used Rakuten to get $46 cash back (60%!!) when I renewed our online protection software
I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again — if you’re not using some kind of cash back app whenever you’re doing online shopping, you’re leaving money on the table. Period.
I’ve used Rakuten for years and years and have gotten hundreds of dollars in cash back. This last week, I needed to renew our two-year subscription for our online anti-virus and identity protection software, and Rakuten was running a deal for 60% cash back (!!), which I’ve never seen before. It meant we only had to pay around $25 for our two-year subscription instead of over $70. I’ll take it!
P. S. If you go through my Rakuten affiliate link, you’ll get extra cash back the first time you use it! I prefer to use it through the browser extension I added, which alerts me every time I’m on a site that offers cash back.
Other Frugal Wins:
- I immediately returned a dress that didn’t fit right that I’d ordered off Amazon
- We accepted 40 lbs. of free chicken pieces from a neighbor who’d gotten a wrong order and didn’t have room in his freezer
- We converted several of Hyrum’s pants with holes into shorts rather than just throwing them away
- We were all out of dried basil, so I harvested some specialty basil we grow for the flower farm and used the fresh leaves in a recipe instead 🙂
- I took advantage of a free account/trial to try out a new marketing strategy for the farm
