Thrifted Sneakers, A Free Trampoline + Other Recent Frugal Wins

It’s been weeks since I gave a “frugal wins” update, and I feel like enough have accumulated to gather them up for a little post!

• We got a great deal on thrifted sneakers. While we were waiting to go see The Odyssey, we ended up visiting a new-to-us thrift store. It was small, but filled with some great deals. Belle spotted a pair of Nike shoes in like-new condition. (This girl has plenty of shoes, but like all teenagers these days, she seems set on growing her collection of footwear.) They were $24.97, which is a bit steep as thrifted sneakers go, but a lot better than the price of a new pair. When we got to the cash, I realized they were part of a sale (things were marked with price tags in a variety of colours, and it just so happened that blue stickers were 75% off the day we visited!). Guess what had a blue sticker? Belle’s sneakers. So they ended up being less than $7. YES PLEASE!
• We split two foot-long subs at Subway. (This also happened on the same day we went to Halifax to watch The Odyssey.) We did upgrade each sub to a meal deal, but we grabbed four straws and split each drink between two people. We wanted 6-inch subs, and it’s cheaper to order a footlong than to order two separate 6-inch subs. Plus, they let you divide the footlong into two halves and put different toppings on each side.

• In the last two weeks, we have found TWO long charging cables on the ground in parking lots. In both cases, they had clearly been dropped by someone (and there was no way of locating the owner). One was a cable for charging iPhones; the other will charge my Kobo.

• A free trampoline! The kids have been asking for a trampoline for (literal) years, and I always put off their requests. Partly, it was because of the inherent danger of trampolines. The other part was the cost. But when someone offered us their trampoline for free, it was an easy yes. The kids have already spent so many happy hours bouncing, and the price was right.

• Aside from a few pens and pencils for Belle, I didn’t buy anything new for the kids’ return to school. They’re each reusing their old bookbags and lunchboxes, and almost all of the clothes they’re wearing were thrifted. I know some people get a lot of joy out of having crisp new things for the start of the school year, but our school actively encourages families to reuse existing paraphernalia to cut down on waste. And our middle-schooler has all his school supplies included (aside from a zippered binder) as part of his school fees ($50 total; it’s not optional and I pay it gladly because I LOVE not having to shop for school supplies and this way all the kids have the same items—no competition over brands!—and teachers can make sure they all have the supplies they need.)

• A warranty replacement. Belle bought a refurbished iPhone before we left for Europe, and something went wrong with the camera this summer. It was still under warranty, so we took it to the Apple Store for repair. Unfortunately, it wasn’t just the camera, so they ended up replacing ALL the guts (I have no idea what the technical term would actually be) in her phone. Thankfully, John had backed up her phone—if not, all her photos and contacts would have been permanently lost. And the repair didn’t cost us a cent. Apparently, it would have cost $750 if it hadn’t still been under warranty, which was more than the original cost of the iPhone! So in a way, aside from the cost of gas to get to the mall, Belle essentially got a new iPhone for free.

• John’s computer repair abilities. While I do most of my “creative” work on my Mac laptop (blog + Patreon), I do most of my business work on a desktop. It has been acting up lately, and John spent a lot of time troubleshooting things until he identified the issue. Then he built me a brand-new computer from parts he already owned and it is now working LIKE A CHARM. He was able to use my old hard drive, so it preserved all the things I had arranged and I don’t have to set anything up from scratch. While we’re not very savvy with home repairs, John is an absolute WIZARD with all things technology. It’s easy for me to take this for granted, but not only is it an incredibly useful skill set, it saves us a boatload of money.

• $5 is $5! I blogged about this before, but our online investing platform frequently has contests with prizes. Like $1 million; needless to say, we haven’t won that yet. But if you take the time to go on and click a little “Reveal Now” button, you sometimes get awarded smaller cash prizes. Yes, it’s only $5, but between the two of us, we’ve made $17 in cash this summer for a few seconds of tapping.

• An auto expense deferred and/or avoided? A few weeks ago, I took our SUV in for a routine oil change. I had my laptop and was quite content to work in peace in the mechanic shop, but as more and more time went by, I was feeling perplexed. An oil change is a relatively quick process. What was going on? Next thing I know, the mechanic comes out to tell me the plug that seals up the oil pan was stripped, and they couldn’t fit the plug back in. That meant they couldn’t put in fresh oil… which meant I didn’t have a functional vehicle to drive. (Also note that this was less than 48 hours before we were supposed to drive to New Brunswick.) In the end, they were able to put in a slightly larger plug and, for now at least, it’s working. There are a few options for how to repair it long-term; some are extremely expensive (replacing the oil pan in our particular vehicle requires REMOVING THE ENTIRE ENGINE… which is Cha-ching), but there are some other creative hacks that will hopefully fit the bill. While this frugal win might simply be punting a major expense down the line, it still feels like a win. And it’s bought us some breathing room to figure out solutions to the issue.

Your turn.

• What are your frugal victories lately?
• Have you ever found a significant amount of money—or something genuinely useful—on the ground?
• Do you have someone in your household who can fix things that would otherwise cost a fortune to repair?
• Have you ever had a warranty save you a shocking amount of money?