Thrifty Thursday- Eye for Deals Edition

It feels harder than the week before to come up with thrifty opportunities to keep more of my hard earned money from being frittered away. Everything from fruit and bread, but surprisingly not gas, is more expensive than I remember it a year ago. Though on the gas front. my car gets worse gas mileage when the temperatures drop, so despite being under $250 a gallon, I feel like I am spending as much as when it was much higher. I had some good opportunities to save now, some required spending now to save later-a caution with that one. Without further wait,  my best thrifty moves are as follows.

• Spent $270 on $300 worth of Target gift cards. A couple are going to be used as gifts for items I now Target carries, but I am unwise as to the specific type of said thing preferred. Here is the caution-I must use the remaining ones as cash for just stuff I would have spent cash on. If not, I would be wiping away my thrifty win. 
• I found the stand mixer my MIL wants, $70 off the typical price. I texted my SIL's, as we are going in on a couple more expensive items. One SIL had a single use coupon pus Target red card and was able to get it for another $49 off. She bought a second one and I will return the one I bought. Extended family thrift in action. 
• At the college visit, we were served a lovely lunch in the luncheon portion of the day, but they also gave us dining services passes. This saved us buying dinner out before the concert and let DH experience how meals would be if she decides to go there. She and I had lunch there last spring.
• DH figured out the issue with our furnace, and for a $4.00 can of pressurized air, we saved a service call. Fingers crossed that resolves it for the winter. 
• Our office does a charitable giving event for an anti hunger program and service that is near and dear to my heart, Second Harvest. There is a raffle for items such as gift baskets, tickets, quilts, and teams often put things together to make bigger prizes. Our division did a game night bin. I budgeted to buy 1-2 games, but came across a sale that allowed me to get three to add to the bin. While I didn't save from my budget, I'm hoping it brings in a few more bids. (I'd love to win that bin!) I'll buy tickets, but I have a meeting so I'll have a coworker deposit my tickets, which act as your bid, into a variety of buckets. The good feeling that this this event generates in the office is priceless, so I count as a win. 

December 6th and I hope to finish the last of my shopping this weekend. If I can get to all the wrapping as well, Ill have two glorious weeks to just enjoy the sparkle and feelings of the season before the true business begins.  Have you had any good deals this past week? How about any spending that might not have been thrifty, but you feel very positive about it. Please join the conversation.