Thrifty Thursday- No Sacrifice Saving

      There's all kinds of ways to save money and multiple and varied reasons to do so. For too many it's not a choice. I recognize many of my Thrifty Thursday posts come off tone deaf. We have above average incomes, though still have a child in college that we pay for beyond her scholarships. I'm not trying to presume cutting out meat from one meal a week and meeting up for Happy Hour instead of dinner out is a solution to low wages or dramatically low fixed incomes. I know conserving pennies is not a sport or game to many; it's a necessary way of life. Using Kohl's cash on $65 shoes might sound glib to someone relying on finding decent second hand shoes, and I apologize if any stress is caused. My posts are to help me stay on track in recognizing when I've done some small economy without sacrifice. If it's useful or interesting to others, I invite them along. 

     Money saved helps me direct funds where they deliver better value. Often, it helps me increase my giving to or on behalf of others. That's not necessarily the most altruistic way to do charitable giving. While I have some recurring donations, our church and local food shelf as examples, we don't tithe specifically a set portion of our income. We do a quarterly giving plan, but it varies, though there's a minimum. With DH's earning variables, adding donations when we have more means works for us.  Finding ways to have the maximum quality for the least spent, but not by being cheap, or negative impact on others is a challenge I like. I hope I'm doing so in ways that  push back on run amuck consumerism and waste. 

     My saving and giving philosophy aside, here's my short list of sacrifice free ways I practiced thriftiness.

• Bought the Easter ham for $1.19 a pound. This will be for 16 people. This was the best price I saw.
• This was perhaps thrifty or not, but helped my friends Autism Acceptance fundraiser. I bid on two baskets, one with dog items, and the other for a local coffee house. I ended up with both baskets. The coffee one had both a pound of Peace coffee, delicious, travel mug, choclate beans, a candle, and a box of gourmets truffles that will go in DD2s Easter basket. Pup was not a fan of the new friend in the dog basket. Funny thing about the pet basket, another friend donated it from one she won at another auction. She really only wanted the dog car seat cover that was originally in her basket, and her dog hated the stuffed dog too! A short clip of pup is at the end of the post.

• Shopped our stash for new deodorant; saved both a trip into another store and risk of things flying into my cart.
• Strayed from last week's meal plan, but incorporated  leftover meal items using a roll forward ingredient method as I posted yesterday.
• Ordered hold from the library on Book Club book, Good Eggs for my book club read. I'll pick it up after work.
• Free entertainment this week was an oldie that I think I might have seen but didn't remember called The Lake House with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. It was an out of time sort of pen pal romance. 
• We got another cold front. I made a crock pot full of chicken noodle soup and used the last of some carrots from a bag, plus, onion, and celery. I froze 1/2 the soup. I'm totally out of chicken now,  bought back in February, so will be on my next Sam's Club run next weekend. We'll just not have chicken meals until then.
• In the splurge/ not splurge category, I spent $8 on a silicone microwave corn popper. While I've been making stove top, I'm trying to find ways to add snacks that both help me feel full but are low calorie. I put salt in with the kernels before popping and while it's not rich and buttery, it has the salty crunchiness I crave for just 30 calories a cup. I can eat half the batch for under 100. 

  

  Popcorn for movie nights again!

  
  
• DH is depositing the max we can contribute for 2021 to our Roth account today before the deadline tomorrow. It makes sense rather than keeping in savings, if we can leave untouched while the market corrects. We all know there's nothing accruing in standard savings accounts.
• I've been diligent about turning off lights and appliances not being used. I still need to get better at the vampire power drains an unplugging things. I am horrible at leaving my phone chargers plugged in. 

     I'm below average in the household budget even with buying the ham and massive numbers of canned green beans for the casserole, a must for our holiday table. Our daughter will be home later tonight or midday tomorrow. We'd like to take her out for a fish dinner, her favorite, so happy to economize elsewhere. She can even have a beer with her dad now. These were our ways we skimmed money to either stay on or reduce our budget to make room for things that were more important. How did you do this week?