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Five Frugal Things | a regular tree

1. I got some free ornaments from my Buy Nothing group

I don’t have a lot of my original Christmas ornaments, and that was fine last year because of Lisey’s Brobee Christmas tree.

Yo Gabba Gabba Brobee Christmas tree.

If you are new here, you might not know that Lisey has a history of wanting off-the-wall Christmas trees, such as this Cookie Monster tree.

How to make a Cookie Monster Christmas tree

But this year, Zoe and I are doing something slightly more traditional. 😉 So, when I saw someone offering a bag of silver Christmas balls, I said, “Yes please!”

bag of silver Christmas balls.

They were missing hooks, so I popped into Dollar Tree and got a package, and now I’m good to go.

Christmas hooks.

2. I got my internet bill reduced

I noticed that the price had gone up, so I got on a chat with the Verizon rep. Somehow, an $18.99 Disney bundle had been added to my service (maybe it was a free trial year when I signed up? I don’t know!).

I got that removed promptly. 🙂

3. I got $1.99/pound butter

I popped in at Aldi for a few things and noticed that butter was $1.99/pound, which is a very decent price for these current times. They had a limit of six, so that’s what I bought, and I popped them all into my chest freezer.

Aldi butter.

I love having a chest freezer for things like this! I never have to worry that my stocked-up butter is gonna get freezer burnt.

4. I cancelled my Dinnerly boxes

Since my semester is over and I don’t currently have any heel-wearing appearances on my calendar (!!), life has calmed down a bit.

inside of a Dinnerly delivery box.

Sooo, I figured I can get rid of the Dinnerly crutch for now, although I will not rule out the possiblity of re-subscribing when things get crazy at the end of second semester.

buffalo chicken baked potato.

(Dinnerly is a meal kit that’s like Hello Fresh, but cheaper ($5/serving). It’s more expensive than grocery shopping, yes, but less expensive than takeout! So it’s good during a temporary busy time of life.)

5. I did not buy a new phone

My phone was having some serious reception issues, rather out of the blue. So I got on two separate chat sessions with Mint Mobile, and the second guy helped me reset some things.

Kristen in a snoopy sweatshirt.

This seems to be the only photo I have of my current phone. 😉

I had started to wonder if my phone was broken, so I actually had an Amazon window open with refurbished iPhones pulled up. 😉

But, the Mint Mobile guy’s fix seemed to do the trick, so perhaps my phone is all right.

My phone is a 2019 model, so I’m not gonna lie: I AM a little tempted to upgrade to one with a nicer camera. Since this one is back in business, though, I’m gonna hold off.

Your turn! What frugal things have you been up to lately?

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Selena

Friday 22nd of December 2023

A 2019 iPhone is not that old - only reason I got a new iPhone is I was out of space to apply iOS updates (even if I had *no* photos or anything else on the phone). It's okay plug along with the 2019.

Kristen

Saturday 23rd of December 2023

Yep, that's what I'll do now that my phone can get reception again!

Maria

Friday 22nd of December 2023

1. Spending Christmas Eve at my son's home. 2. Spending Christmas Day at my daughter's home. 3. We drew names for adult gifts this year. 4. Baking three favorite cookie recipe this year instead of six.

Linda Phillips

Thursday 21st of December 2023

$2 butter WOW. it was $2.50 here a while back but limit 2.

DebbieR

Tuesday 19th of December 2023

1. Used another birthday reward for an almost free crepe ($10 off $10.99) before it expired. 2. Gave away some items languishing in my house brought from my parents' house on Buy Nothing. I had tried to sell on FB marketplace but no takers, so I'm just happy they found new homes. 3. Took a road trip to Austin to drop off some random donations to a craft supply recycling store (stuff that is not donatable to Goodwill or too hard to give on Buy Nothing), sold some lightly used sporting equipment our family no longer is using for $50 at the secondhand sporting equipment store (they don't have one in Houston anymore) and had lunch with good friends. My friend treated for a belated birthday gift and my other friend gifted us with nice, large candles. Drove the hybrid car so less gas was used and bought a Starbucks drink with a my reusable cup and a gift card from a friend. (That was like 5 in 1) 4. My MIL's cat was sick last week and she had to take her to our vet, since she just moved here. We got a credit for referring her and she got a credit on her next visit for being a referred customer. Unfortunately, she then had to use the credit sooner than she thought because the cat was diagnosed with stomach cancer and she ended up having to put her down today. :( 5. Got selected for a potato chip study and earned $14 after buying the required items for the taste test (which were all on sale or had a coupon to use!). My family benefited from the large assortment of flavors I was required to test.

Central Calif. Artist Jana

Wednesday 20th of December 2023

@DebbieR, "potato chip study"? That sounds fun! One year my husband found bags and bags of recently expired chips in the dumpster where he was plowing snow, and I had the most marvelous month-long Cheeto gorge. (Sometimes I lie to myself about free stuff and pretend that free means the calories don't count.)

Marcy

Tuesday 19th of December 2023

I also have a 2019 phone that is experiencing reception issues. I never thought it could be fixed with a call to the service provider. thanks for the idea!

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