Early Frugal Friday

Hi everyone

It's been a crazy busy week running errands. I decided to just stay home today so I can try to get some things done. It's gotten cold here fast. Last week we had 70s temps and now it's below freezing first thing in the morning. Crazy. I just want to bake cookies, take a hot bubble bath, drink hot chocolate, read a good book, relax in front of the fireplace & get lot of snuggles. A girl can dream...lol. We all know that reality is a totally different story. 

I've decided to post a few frugal things, since it seems like I'm just a spendthrift 😊 Contrary to popular belief, I do know how to be frugal & implement it on a regular basis.

• As mentioned before, I was able to replace DS's backpack, hat & gloves last weekend. I did manage to salvage his old backpack, so he can still use it again in future. 

• The zipper on my inner jacket (I wear a systems jacket, which is a 3 in 1 coat) didn't just break, that zipper pull poof, magically disappeared in the wash. This has been happening a lot the past few years. The zippers always break. I don't know where manufacturers source their crappy zippers from. Or maybe they use junk, so we have to keep replacing items. $$$ Who knows. So, I've been saving all our coats since the pandemic started. This way, when a zipper breaks, I can just mix & match the inner & outer ones that do still have working zippers & build a new coat. Easy peasy. Except, my latest coat is a different brand (got it for $12 in early 2020 - pre pandemic), so the zippers don't match those of the other coats. The good news is that I can still wear the outer coat. Plan B is to figure out how to replace the zippers, because the coats are all still in a great condition. I still have a ski jacket that I bought in Cape Town about 22 years ago. That jacket is still in excellent condition, so if push comes to shove, I still have a warm jacket to wear. I do have wool coats too, but they don't' work for all occasions.

• Just before DS left for school on Monday, his coat zipper got stuck too. Lots of cussing from me, but I finally got that thing fixed...lol. Yay me!

• Used my $10 Eddie Bauer reward to purchase a free t-shirt and earned $0.10 through Rakuten. MM! Ka-ching.

• Chico's sent me another $5 reward. I'll wait until BF to see if there's anything good. 

• I found 5 lb onion bags at the produce market for $2.49 each. So I bought one yellow & one red. Came home, peeled washed & diced the onions & into the freezer they went. Onions range from 99c -$1.29/lb here, so this was a big savings.

• When I applied for a new CC, one of my banks offered a $200 bonus WYS $500 within 3 months (Actually both my banks had that offer, but I opted for a backup CC from the company we've used for years & that turned out to be a huge cluster). Ha! Easy for me to spend $500, especially if I put Sams purchases on the card. So I received my $200 bonus as rewards points. Then I saw that they have select GCs at 10% off. Say no more! I ordered $200 Home Depot gcs for $180 worth of points. That's a $20 savings on my free money. But I'm not stopping there. HD keeps sending 10% off Qs in the mail, so I'm saving those for when I move. Then I'll use my free discounted gcs to pay for whatever appliance I need. 

• So, we've used the same CC company for years. We had separate cards for business purposes (it's easier that way, since we were both self employed). So when I decided to get a new card through them again, they had all the personal info pre-filled with the Ex's info (since he was the primary cardholder, even though I mainly used the card) and I couldn't change some of the info to my own. So I logged out of our account and decided to just sign up as a new user. Big mistake. They approved me within seconds with $500 credit. WTH am I supposed to do with $500?! So I explained it to the ex and asked him to get this adjusted, since the old account was still in his name. They could easily see the info. Except, you can't get a regular person on the phone. So they said they'll review my account and make a decision within 10 days. Last I checked, there was no change. I actually need to check again, cause it's been a long time. So, if they don't raise my credit, I'm going to get a card through my other bank. Besides, they're offering me a $200 bonus. However, I'm going to wait a while, since my credit score is affected by opening new cards. I keep a spare card, because I've had my card declined twice while Christmas shopping. I was at Meijer getting the new ipads years ago, but I split my transactions so I could use their coupons twice to get a bigger discount. My card got declined with the 2nd transaction, cause the CC company flagged the purchase as fraudulent. I was so embarrassed. I never use a debit card (except to get cash from ATM), but was forced to use it on such a big purchase.  I use a CC, because it's easier to dispute a charge. Besides, if your debit card gets compromised, it's easy for someone to drain your bank account. 

In other news. I was reading an article about iron recently, when someone commented that they eat a beef & broccoli stir fry for breakfast after their workout. That sounded perfect to me, cause I prefer to work out in the morning. The recipe called for sesame oil, but there was none to be found at Walmart (despite showing stock at that store). So when I was at Target, I decided to just get stir fry sauce, cause we're making stir fry. Duh!...lol. I did search for the sesame oil at first and then I spotted the Target Good & Gather (store brand) stir fry sauce. Korean BBQ. That sounds yummy, even though I've never had Korean BBQ. Let me tell ya, I love this stuff!!! I'm a food snob  (I have high standards about everything. I'm not easily impressed and I don't just sing someone or something's praises just because), so when I rave about something, you'd best believe that it's awesome!!! This is the BEST stir fry sauce that I've ever had!!! I'm going back to Target to stock up. I also bought the Sesame Teriyaki one, but we haven't tried it yet. I've always been a Kikkoman girl, but Target & I are now BFFs...lol. 

I will say that I've felt a lot better since eating the beef stir fry. No more afternoon slump and I actually wake up bright eyed & bushy tailed - even when I wake up too early. It's amazing what a dose of iron can do for you. 

Some of my Operation Christmas Project items have started arriving & I found new ideas to add to it. Now lets just hope it all turns out the way I visualized it. Fingers crossed. 

I just noticed that the white stuff have started (lightly) falling. I know that most people hate it, but I love the snow. There's nothing prettier than snow covered pine trees. I have to see if I can find pine cones in the backyard, so I can work on another Christmas project. 

Back to the grindstone for me. Stay safe & warm everyone!