Ten Money-Saving Things I Did This Week

Taking a bit of a break from the conference.  Here's ten great ways we saved money this week:

1. I volunteered at the genealogy conference which got me free entry into the conference (others paid up to $265 to attend).  While I don't get to go to every talk, I do get to sit in on some of the classes and they have been very educational and enlightening.
2. I checked out r/frugal on reddit and came across this useful (and money saving!) list.
3. The SIL wanted to see a Vegas show so the hubby used FillASeat and they are right now, as I type this, at a comedy show (for free!).
4. The SIL also wanted to go to LA for a couple of days so I started out with free resources to get her there (some of the cousins were heading over but their car was full), so, moving on, I went to the next cheapest option which was Megabus ($20 each way) and a $5 day pass for the bus.  She had a wonderful trip!
5. We have more people to feed with our guests here this week so we are cooking at home and cooking frugally (bought meat on sale as loss leaders and bought lots of pasta and vegetables from the 99 cent store).
6. We also need to entertain our guests which we are doing for free or frugally as well (hubby has a free pass for Red Rock Canyon, there is a free Elvis contest going on in Fremont this weekend which we will watch, and there are also dozens of free events going on around Vegas this weekend).
7. We are repurposing.  With the BIL staying for three months, we were all set with his room but then found that he will need some sort of shelving for his clothes.  In my old life, I would have ran to Walmart and bought a brand new shelving unit but we looked in the garage and found that we didn't need all of the plastic shelving that was basically holding junk so the hubby cleaned up the shelves and the BIL now has a nice place to put his clothes in his closet.
8. Being thankful is free.  With so much horrible news this week (the women who were held captive for over a decade, the people who went overboard on the cruise ship in Australia, etc) I am just thankful for my very good, very happy life.
9. We are coordinating rides.  The BIL has his own car which he uses to go to work but that leaves the hubby, the SIL, and me to share one car (we don't have public transportation in our area).  We are easily combining our trips and organizing our day so everyone gets to where they want to go, all with one car.
10. I resisted my bad habit.  The minute I hit the conference facility, I have the automatic feeling that I need to Starbucks each morning (a holdover from my previous life when picking up a Starbucks on the way to a meeting or conference was de rigour).  So instead of picking up Starbucks, I sign in and get busy working and try to ignore the nagging voice in my heading telling me I need to go buy an expensive beverage to start my day.  This has saved me $20 so far!