Thrifty Thursday-Staying on Top of Dumb Spending

Some weeks when I look for Thrifty Thursday post bullet points I question whether I really do much at all. Then someone will comment and remind me it really is little things-in both directions, that help or hurt savings goals. This last week I mostly tried to manage or at least stay on top of dumb spending. I looked for trade offs in spending as well so if I splurged, I countered a bit with an no spend option for something else. It wasn't a spend free week, but Saturday and Sunday I didn't spend a penny, other than our church offering which is really just part of our regular expenses. Without further over thinking, here are my little attempts to combat dumb and tempting spending, with in some cases the trade off spend along side. 

• I babysat my great niece (and nephew was home but as a new teen he just spends his time doing what teens do). I took her and a neighbor girl down to a  family variety, drag show, down at the river pavilion. They liked it, but started getting bored by intermission, so we left and I treated them to sundaes and French fries, with take home for the nephew. It was  a splurge but since the show was free, though I put a donation in the bucket for the fundraiser, I still think it was a good spend. $10 for  special treats for three kids seems pretty reasonable. We also made vegan cupcakes, great niece is now a vegetarian, with ingredients I already had. My niece got a night out without paying for a babysitter, so a bonus thrift mention. 
• I accidentally deleted the $5.00 gift  card I earned through the Microsoft Rewards site. I was bummed at my stupidity, but then found on the site that you can have the rewards resent. $5.00 lost was then found. 
• I took advantage of a priceless opportunity on Saturday to see the U of M Raptor Center release four birds, a kestrel, two kinds of hawks, and an Eagle. I avoided the delicious smelling apple brats, and went home to cobble lunch together.
• It started getting cool and rainy late Saturday. We didn't have plans, but decided to have a movie night at home. I made a frozen pizza, some leftover BBQ meatballs and tator tots, sort of all bar food and had a night out -in. There were leftovers for DH for the football game, adding to the thrifty weekend. The rain on Sunday cancelled my plans to watch the marching band show though. 
• We thought about going out for brunch after church as the local Green Mill was celebrating their 15 year anniversary with a $10 brunch buffet, which was 33% off normal price of $15, plus free mimosas. We still have about $13 on a gift card, so one of our meals would have been free. Still, we opted out, and I made a nice brunch at home. I even took out the Belgian waffle maker to go with eggs and sausage. I estimated the total cost of my brunch for the two of us, without juice and coffee, was under $2.

We closed the month spending nothing the final three days of September. I packed odd, but filling lunches. DH even came home for lunch every day this week. Good thing too. We've been a little dry on the gift card wins for trivia for the last month. We had a good score last night, but so did every team and we finished fourth. I got a call from DD2, though couldn't talk long on Monday as I was heading into a meeting. She went to a Global Expo and has visions of May spent in Scotland. It would count towards a major graduation requirement and potentially helps her graduate a semester early. This particular trip most likely won't be offered again before she graduates. She'll need to invest the bulk, but we'll talk about it more. Yeah, it's a good thing I don't mind leftovers.