10 Ways We Saved Money Today

It was a pretty typical day today and like most days, we did quite a few things to save a little extra money with each thing we did...

1. Hubby had a check up with his cardiologist (all is well!).  So for people in the military who have been in 10-15 years and they are thinking they can't hack another few years until they can retire, suck it up and do it!!  We have literally saved over a half million dollars over the past few years with several ER visits, a few invasive cardiac procedures, a boatload of medications, and many many follow-up appointments.  Thanks to the military and free health coverage for life, we haven't had to pay a single dollar for all of this healthcare!
2. Hubby is participating in an annual military bowling tournament this week.  Part of this event is the opportunity to buy a bowling ball for $100.  Every couple of years hubby will buy a new bowling ball through this tournament so instead of ordering a new ball online at the full price of $174.99, he got a brand new ball for $100!
3. When deciding where to get this new ball drilled, we asked the price of drilling at the tournament and they said it would cost $50.  We decided to go downstairs to the bowling center's regular pro shop and found that the price to drill the ball there was only $40 so we saved $10 just by checking both drilling places.
4. Next hubby wanted to try out his new bowling ball, so grabbing the coupon book that one of the major casino groups sent out full of discounts and freebies at the beginning of summer, I pulled out a coupon for two free games of bowling at a local bowling center.  Total cost for bowling, $0!
5. Of course, since we planned to be out and about all day, before we left the house I put our drinks in our insulated drink containers and made a couple of sandwiches and off we went.  Cost of eating out for breakfast and lunch, $0!
6. During our travels today, we needed to get gas.  Besides choosing a cheaper gas station (Arco) we also paid cash which saved 10 cents off per gallon over the cost of using a credit card to pay.
7. Hubby wanted to play poker for a couple of hours this afternoon so he went to one of his favorite poker rooms which not only comps him $1 per hour of play, they also have a free self-serve coffee bar so he could get free coffee and not have to tip a server.
8. In the evening we debated eating dinner at home or eating out.  We decided to eat at the casino buffet and, grabbing the same coupon book that we used earlier, we used a buy one buffet, get one buffet free coupon for dinner.  The dinner cost $16.99 for both of us but we used hubby's comps to cover the cost of the buffet so the cost of dinner was a total of $4 for the tip we left the waiter.
9. While hubby was playing poker, I fired up my tablet and watched YouTube videos.  There are a bajillion videos on multiple streams of income, how to make money online, and other similar topics.  Cost of this education is free, and hopefully I will use some of these things I learned today to make some side income in the future.
10. We make it a habit when we leave the house each morning to turn up the AC to 85 degrees.  This is better than turning the AC completely off, yet it also saves money over leaving the AC at the usual 77 degrees that we set it on when we are home.  This probably only saves pennies per day but savings is savings.