1. Chase Reward points
I earned $27 in reward points from Chase this month. This was higher than usual, mostly due to using my credit card to pay for my daughter’s tuition and books for this fall. We had some money saved in a Roth IRA to pay for this expense, but by paying it first with our credit card we got to rack up a pretty decent cash back bonus (don’t worry we promptly paid the credit card balance off as soon as it appeared in our account, so no interest accumulated)
2. Kroger finds
I lucked out and found some really great deals in the dairy clearance section at Kroger this week. They had Challenge Butter for just $1.89 (I bought 8) and Triple Zero Yogurt for $1.49 (I bought 4).
3. Baby plants
I snipped off a couple of shoots from my Pothos plant and have them rooting in water. After about another week, they should be ready for potting. I have made four brand new plants this way and they are still doing great. **If you have a black thumb, try a Pothos plant. The only way you can kill it is by watering it too often. They love neglect!
4. Used textbooks
Back in my day, we didn’t have the option of buying used college books on the internet and had to buy through the (overpriced) campus bookstore. Luckily today, there is really no need to pay full price for books. This week we bought all of my daughter’s college books for basically 40% less than the campus bookstore prices simply by shopping at Amazon and Ebay. **We will hopefully be selling them after this semester and should recoup most of that cost as well.
5. Library programs
We have been taking advantage of many of the wonderful events our library has put on this summer. This past week, we attended a really fun animal program and got to see six different animals that we hadn’t before. The presenter was excellent (as usual) so we learned a ton of really cool facts as well. **Pictured above are a kinkajou, a Welsh rabbit, and a boa constrictor.
The Thrifty Educator 