I’m borrowing this blog post idea from a blog I have read for years. The Non Consumer Advocate  has always been a favorite of mine. Katy lives locally here in Portland and I just love her writing style, her aesthetic, and everything about her! In fact, once I saw her walking out of our local grocery store and almost crashed my car. I considered looping the block, finding a place to park, and politely accosting her, but I didn’t have the guts. I still regret not stopping to say hello! So any who, here are five frugal accomplishments from this week:

1) The only groceries I purchased on Monday were a $9 organic whole roasted chicken and a $2.59 box of Annie’s organic cereal. Now, the box of cereal isn’t cheap, but it will last me the week so I’m ok with it. The chicken made 5 meals of chicken noodle soup, and 3 meals of broccoli chicken Alfredo. The bones went into the freezer for making stock next weekend. I try to use the whole thing if I’m going to buy meat. And I was feeling dreadful Monday so the thought of making anything made me queasy. Luckily, chicken soup is so easy I could whip it up in my sleep.
2) I went on my mother’s Amazon prime account and bought Holden a new dog crate for $54. Again, this may not seem frugal, however in the long run it is. First of all, at a local store the kennel would cost over a hundred dollars. I didn’t have to pay for shipping. And my dog will now be safe and secure when we leave the apartment. See, my roommate has a young golden named Reddington and I have a 9 year old Doberman named Holden. We also have an 18 year old cat named George. Their safety is of upmost importance to us. That is why we crate the dogs if no one is home. Holden busted through his kennel door last week, and though I scoured the internet all week I could not find a replacement door. So a whole new kennel it is! (Though admittedly, a new kennel every 9 years isn’t bad at all. Those of you with big rowdy dogs will understand that one!)
3) I subscribed to Hulu so that we could watch the new show the Handmaid’s Tale (based on the amazing book by Margaret Atwood). We don’t have cable (that’s the frugal part) but we do subscribe to Hulu and Netflix (and my mom let’s me use her Amazon Prime account which has tons of free movies and shows too) so we are pretty well covered as far as entertainment. Hulu has a lot of newer things, and up to date shows. We are homebodies and would much prefer to stay in at night watching a movie or something together as opposed to going out on the town (also frugal!) so we are considering this a win!
4) I was surprisingly not hungry for dinner at all last night. I had spent all day at the vet with George getting blood work done and picking up his medication (definitely NOT frugal, but he is my love so I will absolutely fork over the money for his well being). By the time we got home around 4pm, I just wasn’t hungry. Nothing sounded appealing. So though it was Friday night and most people our age were out partying or doing something with friends, we stayed in, (I didn’t even eat dinner) and we watched Twin Peaks on Netflix. If you haven’t seen it I HIGHLY recommend it! Like, go watch it right now.
5) Finally, I took a big box of things to Goodwill. This may not be directly frugal, but it has an impact. Goodwill gives people jobs who could not otherwise obtain them, resells things so they don’t end up in landfills, and offers a way to donate your unwanted items. It cleared up a spot in our living room and hopefully will provide useful items for someone else in our community. Today we are going to post my roommate’s desk on Craigslist in hopes of getting the giant thing out of our living room. That’ll bring in cash for her and space for us!

What frugal things did you accomplish this week?