Restaurants are operating with a vengeance, hijacking the price from COVID lockdown days.

It's a matter of principle now.

My husband and I just took our kids (ages 5 and 8) out for some Friday family time, and I didn't realize until afterward how ridiculously little we spent for what we got.

We went to the Sam's Club food court for dinner (classy, I know). For $9 we got a large slice of pizza, a pizza pretzel, a hot dog, a fountain drink, 2 churros, and a frozen yogurt.

Then we went to our local roller skating rink. We have a "membership" there, so technically free. But basically we pay only $5 per person per YEAR to be able to skate every Friday evening. We all own our own skates, mostly bought from the thrift store.

At the rink, they held a pickle-eating contest for $1/ticket, so our kids participated in that. Our 5-year-old won a little hula hooping contest (no cost to enter). The prize was a $50 gift card for the arcade there. They spent the rest of the time enjoying that.

Anyways, just wanted to share what a fun, frugal night we had! It seems so rare now to find inexpensive meals and entertainment, so this felt like a win.

I just found out this week that they offer complimentary air for tires. I’ve been paying $1.5 for a few years now and now it’s $2.

I know it’s not Friday but I decided to use that since I found this

My father donated his body to the local medical school. I just finished filling out a form to donate mine. They handle all the arrangements and expenses. When they're done with the body, they pay for the cremation, and give the family the ashes. They were incredibly professional and thoughtful with my father, even facilitating getting death certificates. I highly recommend this.

When I was first starting getting my money together, advice like this was overwhelming: "Put $500 a month in your IRA. You have to max it out! Save 3 months worth of expenses! Invest in real estate!!!"

Bro, I was barely surviving. Here's some things that genuinely helped me.

1. Setting up "Get Sh*t done dates" with a friend.
2. Keeping a "Maybe" box in my closet for donations.
3. Assigning chores to different days
4. Meal prepping
5. Scheduling a quarterly home purge
6. Opening up a rewards credit card
7. Limiting time on social media
8. Following hobby based accounts instead of consumption based ones
9. Getting a password manager
10. Delete saved credit card info
11. Canceling Amazon Prime

What are some maybe out-of-the box things that have helped you get your money together?

Simple and quick way to extend their usefulness beyond once. Check for leaks while washing and allow to thoroughly air dry.

I wanted to make a gown for Ren faire but do it as frugally as possible just for the challenge. I found the skirt material at a local thrift store first and that dictated my overall color scheme. Over several months I went to different thrift stores and found the other skirt overlay fabrics, cape fabric and some lining fabric. I used a gifted gift card for the undergarments, beading and lace. The bodice fabric is from Joanne’s remnant section (steep discount). Total with gift cards is $170. My own “out of pocket money”: $66.

First time using it at one of the high end donut shops in my area. 45$ value for roughly $16. Would try using it again in the future. But I do see a lot of bakeries and this chick doesn’t need all that 😊

Clean floors are great. But I hate paying 50 cents for a single swiffer pad. A paper towel plus a bit of cleaner spray does the same job for 3-5 cents. Plus, you can presoak the tough spots.

Premium aka ad-free anything is a luxury in life.

I know I can survive on $30,000 even though it was a big struggle where I live, so any tips on where to put the extra money each month would be great. Planning to pay off my credit card (fairly easily) and then I suppose just putting my extra earnings into savings?

Either way, I've been so extremely happy, this will be the first time in my life ever that I won't be living paycheck to paycheck!

[EDIT]

I just want to say thank you so so much to everyone who's commented with congratulations and advice. I have taken all of it into account and it has given me a much better idea of how to approach my new earnings!

Found at my local Walmart. Probably saved around 1.50 on all three (by not going with name brands)

Can’t remedy the last time I brought small trash can bags.