I received a surprise $50 gift card from my company for a project I've been working on today.  It was a virtual Visa, I decided the best way to use it was to purchase an Amazon gift card for $50 (so I didn't have to worry about lining up amounts, etc.).  After a few minor technical difficulties, I was able to reload my Amazon gift card balance.

I then ordered the 12 pack of half pint jars that I was looking at, plus a 5-pack of foot peel masks, and a set of mason jar lids that have straw holes so I can take my smoothies on the go with me if that's ever desired.  None of these things were necessities, so they needed to be funded from "found" money.  The total came to $44.76, and I have $5.24 remaining on my gift card balance.  I still have ~$45 pending as mentioned in my last post, and another $50 or so for an item I haven't yet dropped off at the UPS Store yet.  I'll decide what to order with that balance at some point in the future.

Over the weekend, I received a refund to my gift card balance of $15.15 for something else...I ordered a flat sheet which came to $15.16.  So the penny came out of pocket....I decided I could live with that lol.  

So far so good on not spending any "real" money on wants.  

Once my transfer from the new checking account comes through (hopefully tomorrow?), I can pay the remaining bills from this pay period, and hopefully make a transfer to savings.  I also need to get some more grocery/household items.  I go grocery shopping a lot, but they're usually small trips.  I find that if I do a big shopping trip, it's less likely to be things I will use imminently, and moreso stocking up on random things because they're on sale.  Trying to only buy what I need.

Speaking of groceries, I've been trying to focus on cleaning out the freezer.  All through the pandemic, every time they said there was going to be a meat shortage, I would panic and buy meat - then never use it lol.  I also bought frozen veggies.  I've been going through and finding uses for the things in the freezer, so I haven't had to buy much in that regard - this week's dinner was completely out of the freezer, as was last week's.  Plus I made a large batch of meatballs & sauce, that covered dinner with a friend Friday, dinner with my mom and sister Sunday, and 2 containers of just sauce for the freezer.  All of that was made with things I had already.  I have plans for lots of other things in there as well.  I did realize that I have no bacon left - which is ojnly funny to me because for the last few years, I have eaten bacon every day as part of my breakfast meal prep.  Through most of the pandemic, I had 3-4 pounds in the freezer at a minimum at all times, I would buy a few pounds every time it was on sale, or buy it in bulk from the warehouse store if I was there.  I changed up my breakfasts in November sometime, and haven't made bacon more than once or twice since then....nor have I bought it because it wasn't top of mind.  Over the weekend, I had a use for it, so went o pull some out of the freezer, and realized....that was the kast pound lol.  So I guess next time I go to the warehouse store I'll get some, unless I see it on sale before then, but it just struck me as funny.  Bacon was almost as precious to me as toilet paper was during the early months!