1. Today I took my sweet pup to his follow up oncologist appointment. Though this may not seem frugal in and of itself, but by keeping up on his medication and his blood work I can plan for his medication without any unpleasant surprises. He gets his blood count checked regularly to be sure we are giving him the proper dosage of his medication, ultimately keeping our costs lower.
2. Yesterday I bought a $5 rotisserie chicken from Costco. First I stripped all the meet off the bones, then I put the bones into the crock pot with some veggies I had hanging around in the freezer. (I keep a bag for any odds and ends like tops of carrots bits of celery and onion, etc.) The stock went into a huge pot and I made chicken soup with the meat. I added some potatoes I already had on hand, as well as some extra veggies. The whole thing cost only the cost of the chicken and made probably 10 to 12 servings of soup. I will freeze most of it for evenings when I’m not feeling like cooking or am under the weather (because no one wants to cook when they’re sick!)
3. I borrowed a Harry Potter book from a friend/neighbor. I have been re-reading the books and loving every minute of it. My mom has the whole set, so I just swing by every weekend to grab the next one. This week however I was too quick and found myself finished with book 3 (Prisoner of Azkaban) without a copy of book 4 (Goblet of Fire). Desperate, I thought of all the possible ways I could get my hand on the book in the next 12 hours. Then I realized that a friend who lives less than a hundred yards away ALSO has all the books. A quick text and he said of course I could borrow his copy. No money spent, and got to have a quick visit with a friend. Win Win!
4. Speaking of Costco, I bought only exactly what I needed yesterday while I was there: one rotisserie chicken and one 40 pound bag of dog food (this will last my two dogs about a month). Costco has really reasonably priced dog food and it’s gentle on my boys’ sensitive stomachs.
5. Tomorrow will be my first day in the office in a week (bonus points: working from home means no temptation to eat out or grab coffee because I’m bored) and I have my lunch/snacks packed, iced coffee ready to go in the thermos tomorrow morning. I will be at work from 12-8pm so I have enough food to cover two meals and a few snacks in between. I will have no reason to purchase any food or drinks.

Frugality isn’t necessarily huge things. It’s little things, day after day, that help us achieve other goals in life. What frugal things have you been up to lately?