Carrie Willard

putting the HER back in motherhood

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August 30, 2023 by Carrie

Five Frugal Things

FFT is a roundup of frugal activities I share – both to inspire you (I love reading these posts from other frugal bloggers!) and to keep myself accountable. This post contains affiliate links.

This is my second FFT post in a row. I guess I’m on a roll! 😉

I got a $150 bonus from my State Farm Premier Cash Rewards card

I got an offer from my insurance company to open their branded credit card. It offers 3% cash back on my insurance premiums as well as on other purchases. I’d also get $150 as a signing bonus if I spent $500 in 3 months.

So I used the card to pay my insurance premiums and electric bill for two months, and the bonus was credited to my account. $150 in free money? Yes, please.

After the bonus is credited to my account, I stop using it.

If you’re curious whether this practice negatively impacts my credit score, no, it has not. My credit score is nearly 800 and rises monthly (it would be higher, but I closed my oldest card during the divorce which did ding me a bit). I mentioned another recent “churn” here.

I got a free taco

why does my thumbnail look dirty? gross!

Taco Bell is offering a free taco on Tuesdays for a bit, no purchase necessary. I swung by and took advantage, and my oldest daughter got one too. I very rarely eat fast food, so this was a fun treat.

I made iced coffee at home.

I’m a lousy photographer but at least my thumbnail isn’t dirty. Also iced coffee is so purdy in glass!

I was craving an iced coffee badly and did not want to pay $3 at Dunkin’. I used my Aeropress (I have this one. I love it.) to make a shot of coffee concentrate and added a little cold water, lots of ice, and milk. It was delicious. My previous attempts to make iced coffee have been disappointing, so I’m excited about this development!

I had to stop drinking coffee for a long time because I was having scary heart symptoms caused by anxiety. I’m very happy that my body can handle caffeine again!

I ate weird, undesirable leftover combinations

I had some leftover salmon croquettes (salmon patties if you’re from the south, but I call them croquettes because it sounds all fancy and French-like).

My kids will eat these, but not as leftovers. Reheated fish isn’t anyone’s favorite, not atall.

But wasting perfectly good food is just too much privilege for a girl raised by a dad raised by a Great Depression survivor (ha!). So I put my thinking cap on and wondered how to reuse it (and hopefully disguise it) a bit.

I knew people ate a thing called tuna melts, which sounds disgusting, but also vaguely similar to tuna casserole, which is delicious and also a combination of fish, cheese, and carbs. And my grandma often ate leftover salmon inside her homemade biscuits, and that too was finger lickin’ good.

So I put a salmon croquette into what would otherwise have been a grilled cheese and cooked that up. It wasn’t my favorite, but it was edible when dipped into jalapeno ranch dressing.

Food waste just bugs the ever-lovin’ crap outta me, so I’m always trying to fight it. (When I get angry, my southern accent slips out. Sorry y’all.)

Speaking of French things, I made a Stew de Provence last week and had to step away to pick up one of my many children, biological and otherwise, and accidentally burnt the meat just a tiny bit. I ate it for lunch for several days. I call this taking one for the team.

I listed some junk on Facebook Marketplace, took a huge box of books to the secondhand book store for credit, put a container of clothing to sell at my favorite consignment shop into my van, and scheduled a charity to pick up the rest.

Two friends and I had a yard sale last Saturday and it was a flop, and even if it hadn’t been, it triggered and spun me out into a spiral of emotional overwhelm, pain and fatigue.

I had to sit down and list out all the reasons why this was so into my A.I. journal so I could feel a bit better.

Current mood: my sixth child, several years ago. I feel you baby girl.

I’ll spare you the details. But I’m being gentle with myself this week.

What kinds of frugal activities have you been up to?

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Filed Under: Frugality

About Carrie

Carrie writes about raising a large family frugally and simply, surviving a cult and healing from cPTSD. More about her here.

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Welcome! I'm Carrie, and I write about raising my large family frugally as a single mom, mental health, and surviving a cult. I hope you find value here! Read more about me

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