Five Frugal Things | avocado life

1. I put my ripe avocados in the fridge

You know how avocados are perfectly ripe for about 33 minutes before they go bad?

Well, I had a bunch from my Hungry Harvest box, and I managed to notice that mine were all at the perfect ripeness stage simultaneously.

So, I stashed them in the fridge, which means I can eat one a day, and the rest can just sit there and wait for me.

Obviously, the fridge doesn’t hold them forever (they will rot eventually!) but the chill buys me enough days to get through a reasonable stash. 

2. I paid my Honda loan off right away

I financed the minimum amount required to get the finance bonus, and as soon as I got the email to set up my account, I logged in and paid that sucker off.

I know it can build credit to make monthly payments on a loan like this, but my credit score is already excellent (perks of being a frugal girl), so it was more beneficial for me to just pay it off. 

3. I finished applying for a scholarship at work

I thought the BSN help through my hospital would be just straight tuition reimbursement. While it is partly like that, you also have to apply for some scholarships and grants.

I already finished the one grant application that was due in December, and this week I finished the scholarship one that’s due January 9th.

It was a looooooong application with two essays required, plus you have to get signed papers from three people at work and also from anyone who can verify your volunteering hours outside of work. 

I really wanted to quit halfway through the process!

But then I reminded myself that probably everyone else wants to quit at that point too. So if I hang in there, I will be part of a smaller crowd that actually ends up in the scholarship pool.

Honestly, sometimes I am astounded at the amount of paperwork I have done in the last few years; scholarships, grants, nursing school application stuff, health status forms, clinical forms, NCLEX forms, to name just a few. 

4. I submitted my year-end tax info to my CPA

If I am not timely with getting these numbers to the CPA office, my tax return doesn’t get done in time, and then I have to file an extension, and the whole process gets more expensive.

Sooo, I got it submitted in a very prompt manner, which means I should be good to go without any extension being necessary. 

Also: I am going to swallow my pride and admit that I did use my new Excel skills to tidy up the income/expense spreadsheet I was using (a big accomplishment for someone with a severe allergy to spreadsheets).

So, I may not use the skills from The Worst BSN Class Ever in my work at the hospital, but I did at least use them a little in my personal life. 

5. I froze bread cubes

You’ve seen this before because it’s a mainstay! I had about four neglected slices of whole wheat sandwich bread that had gotten rather dry.

So, I sliced ’em up into cubes and added them to my bread cube bag in the freezer.

When it’s full enough, I’ll make an overnight French toast casserole. That recipe is very forgiving and still works if you use random combos of bread; my batches often have cubes from whole wheat sandwich bread and various buns or even bagels all mixed together, and it’s always fine.

(As long as you don’t use garlic bread or everything bagels, all is well. Ha.)

not a candidate for French toast casserole

Your turn! What frugal things have you been up to lately?