Frugal wins!

Been doing the $100 a week saving challenge. Reporting 2 wins.

1. ~10-20 CAD saving a week by figuring out the Optimum points program at our local grocery stone (Loblaw's/Zehrs). I have yet to switch to the Canadian discount chains which would save us more.
2. Figured out how to sell stuff on Facebook Market Place and started selling things out of my basement. First sale last week. I made $250 on some Mark Rober STEM boxes that had been sitting in the basement.

Next up my husband and I are going to try out an expense audit and see if we can find some leaks we can plug.

Cashed in loyalty points for a coupon for cheaper grocery delivery as there were good deals this week to stock up on. Went to Lidl too for fresh produce. Cooked a proper meal for 1.75 euros/person. Had to faithfully promise my SO to not buy any more dried legumes for the coming half year at least.

Shaved off 108 euros/month from childcare budget by careful planning and renegotiating our contract.

Renegotiated internet: saves 20 euros/month.

Did not eat lunch out, but brought snacks and ate more at home: 25 euros saved.

Picked up a gift second hand while nearby: 20 euros saved.

I love this. It mostly comes down to food for us too. My spouse and I have cut back on dining out (together and solo) but we still enjoy going out occasionally. Most of our favorite restaurants have dining points and I've accumulated quite a bit. For a super frugal february I decided to actually USE the points. We dined out 3 times this month and only put money down for the tip (20%+ bc I'm frugal, not a miser). And I've enjoyed a weekly coffee treat just using points as well. Not sure if it all counts as frugal, but I have to remind myself the point of having points is to use them :).

Follow me on this one lol. I promise it is a win. So we travel a good bit to go to parks and hike with our dog. Hotel dog fees have gotten stupid high. We bought a super cheap ($500) pop up camper that my husband is fixing up for us. It will enable us to travel more frugally!

Would love to see your meal plans to get your costs that low! Congratulations!!

That seems like a pretty low food budget for 4 people, so congrats. But there's no Lidl or Aldi in my state or surrounding states (but I'm from Germany originally, actually just a couple of towns over from where Aldi started). My frugal win is the soup I made for dinner tonight; it was entirely repurposed leftovers. I saved a Mexican flavored broth from when I made salsa chicken, rice from Chinese takeout, diced acorn squash we had with steaks, some dried out chicken from a failed slow cooker recipe, and a beet greens and yellow squash sauté. Tossed it all together, added more water and seasoning, and voilà-- an entirely new dinner and a cleaned out fridge!