Pinching Pennies

Here is this week's installment of a few ways we pinched pennies. It helps me stay motivated as we power through our 10th year of debt repayment on a single income.

Photo Credit: Adapted with permission katerha Flickr via Compfight cc

This post contains affiliate links. Read my full disclosure to learn more.

Dollar Tree Note Cards

I needed to stock up on thank you notes since I knew I'd have many to write after Harry was born. My husband stopped by Dollar Tree to get 4 packages of 8 card for $1 each. They are much less expensive than cards I have found anywhere else and they were cute too.

Frugal Bandages

I'm not one to use a lot of band-aids. In fact, most of my adult life, I think I got by with the same regular size box of bandages. But now that I have 3 mobile children, I have to buy a big box of bandages every few years.

Recently, our selection of different sizes was running low, so I purchased 300 bandages on Amazon for $10. I used a $5 Amazon gift card we earned on Microsoft Rewards so we only paid $5. These should last for several years at least!

Rechargeable Batteries

After yet another birthday party bringing items that require batteries plus setting up a new baby monitor that requires batteries, I was so happy to have our Rechargeable AAA batteries and charger. We go through a lot of AAA batteries and I love not having to throw away the batteries after they are spent.

Library Notifications

Welcoming a baby means I'm not running the household at 100%. And I think this is entirely how it should be!

I have been taking it really easy this time and really enjoying my new baby and giving my body time to heal and recover. Generous friends have brought meals and even mowed our front lawn for us, giving my husband more time and emotional bandwidth to help out with all the other chores.

One of my many home management tasks is being in charge of library books. Because I have email notifications set up for all of our accounts, I receive warnings when our books are approaching their due dates. I make sure to renew our books when I receive these emails so I rarely have any fines--usually only a few cents per year.

Freezer Meals

Besides all of the helpful meals we've received from friends, I've also been able to pull meals from the freezer as needed for our dinners and breakfasts.

Besides saving us time in meal preparation, it saves us money in an expensive month where we pay for our birth. It also cuts down on the need to go to the store for any supplies, giving me more time with two parents at home.

So far we've had a large meatloaf and BBQ chicken cooked in the slow cooker, an egg bake that I only needed to thaw and then pour into a dish and cook, as well as granola, pumpkin baked oatmeal and pumpkin bread.

We go through a lot more food each time I'm recovering from birth. Having so much food prepped ahead of time means we can eat well and avoid less healthy, more expensive convenience foods.

What frugal successes have you had this week?