Money Saving Challenge: January 9, 2012

1.       Made a big batch of chili in my crock pot. More details coming in another post.

2.       Made breakfast at home each day. I made a scrambled egg sandwich and home fries. I’ll be posting more details in another upcoming post, but this breakfast cost me about $.64 each day!

3.       Brought lunch to work the four days I worked this week.

4.       Carpooled three out of the four days I worked this week. Bonus, it wasn’t my week to drive!

5.       Other than a glass of milk with breakfast, I drank only water this week.

6.       I’ve been doing my dishes by hand for the past few weeks. My dishwasher has been doing a horrible job lately and I either have to send certain items through for a second time or wash them by hand anyway, so I figure by just doing it right the first time I’ll save a little bit of water.

7.       Submitted my water meter reading to avoid getting an estimated bill.

8.       Ran all of my errands on one day to help save on fuel costs.

9.       All of my errands this week were freebies/money makers. At Target I had to return a stick of deodorant I had previously purchased because when I started twisting the bottom to use it for the first time, the stick wouldn’t come up. I had to swing by the mall to return some clothing items I bought online with a gift card before Christmas. The money went back onto a gift card, so I’ll have that next time I need/want some clothing. Lastly, I made a stop by CVS to get some of the Nivea chapstick that was on sale. I had $6 in coupons and 4 extrabucks to roll, so my total was zero, and I earned 5 extrabucks back.

10.   On Friday and Saturday I attended some training and information sessions with a coworker about a career field I’m seriously thinking of switching to.  Part of the information sessions on Saturday included a financial discussion about the benefits of a career in this field as well as some general financial information. I got a good refresher and also learned some new information.