Good reminder to look back...
- Had to bring the pest control expert back to my mom's place. Been trapping a number of mice and it's not abating, so they must be getting in where I don't think they can. So I bit the bullet and brought back the man who helped us last time. He plugged a number of entrances around the house (some from the house and ground settling; others from the mice working actively), reset the traps inside, and left without charging me, because he warrants his work for a year (!). "Betcha Orkin doesn't do that!" Indeed they don't...
- Brought our dog into the vet a couple of weeks ago because she was acting even more oddly than usual and the vet diagnosed dementia. He's going through similar behavior with one of his dogs. He offered to run a battery of tests to rule out something physiological but I trust his judgement and he confirmed something we suspected anyway. He sent me and the dog on our way at no charge for that visit. We also escaped a bunch of charges (and some difficult decisions) when we got to the emergency vet a week later. Maybe that's not exactly "frugal" as none of this was our choice, but it could have turned into several hundred dollars of bills and it did not. We're paying it forward by trying to give away the dog items which still are usable. (Reminds me to post in the Rants thread after this...)
- Lots of supermarket sales for us to stock up on, so I've been refilling the was-empty freezer.
- DW's car battery started leaking, about 9 months into installation in the car. Since we bought one of Fleet Farm's better batteries, replacement was free. I had to pull it myself and drive to the FF (about a two hour deal) but it beat paying them to replace it.
- Earned some more small gift cards as thank-yous for surveys, donating blood, social event door prizes, etc. Those go into my "stash" -- the money I use to buy stuff I can use but would never take out of the budget (like albums from iTunes, a better cooking thermometer, etc.).