Frugal Things

Free Groceries

I came home from church a few weeks ago to two bags of groceries on my doorstep. Bewildered we looked for a sticker or a receipt to figure out who it belonged too, but there was nothing in or on the bags. So I messaged Instacart (and posted on our community Facebook page) to see if someone was missing something in our area. Instacart said that there was no way to tell whose it was without the correct address, so we could just keep the groceries and they would refund the purchase when someone reported it missing. While I felt terrible that someone was missing their groceries, I was thankful for the free food and that we actually could use most of the items and the rest went to my parents.

Cheap Museums

We visited family in Kenosha, Wisconsin over Thanksgiving and enjoyed a couple of museums while we were there. They have really cheap (and free) museums! The Civil War museum was under $30 for all 4 of us and then the Dinosaur museum was free (but you could make a donation) Both museums were really cool to see. The Civil War museum was very interactive too.

Freebies

My kids have joined Book It every year since they were little and could read. Ben especially loved his pizza this month because he was having a rough day and it provided a little bit of free happiness. I see this program as a win/win, they love getting a free pizza every month and I love that this encourages a love of reading. Thanks Pizza Hut!

We also did a survey and received a Chickfila sandwich as a thank you. MMMMMM.

Then, one night for dinner I used two free bbq sandwich coupons (that LifeSouth gives out for donating blood) to make my kids stuffed potatoes at home.

Free Amazon ebooks

I love that Amazon has a lot of classic books available for free download on their site. I think all of the Shakespeare plays are on there (which we use for one of our home school co-ops) and this week I downloaded a free mythology book to use for a unit on history for Ben. **Home school definitely is not cheap, but it can be relatively affordable if you keep an eye out for deals, shop used, and utilize the library.