Money Saving Challenge - weeks 2 & 3 in review

Since I missed updating last week's activities, today's post will consists of the things I did in the past 2 weeks to save some money as part of the Money Saving Challenge hosted by Precious at Frugal Makes Sense:

• I matched sales and coupons at Tops and Wegmans to lower my grocery bill.
• I consolidated my errands on outings to help conserve gas.
• I used homemade toilet bowl cleaner to clean my toilet instead of running out to the store to buy more. (If anyone is interested in how to do it, you can check out my blog post here)
• I asked for rain checks for out-of-stock sale items so I can purchase them at the lower price in the future.
• I packed leftovers in my husband's work lunches on several days.
• I cashed in Swag Bucks for a $5 Amazon gift card that I will use to defray the cost of Christmas presents in 2012.
• I stayed home 2 days in order to save on gas.
• I repaired a plastic laundry basket with a few pieces of duct tape instead of throwing it out and buying a new one.
• I hung a load of laundry to dry in my laundry room instead of running the dryer.
• I baked on a cold day then opened the oven door while the oven was cooling after I was done baking, in order to help heat the kitchen.
• I deposited a portion of the money I saved from grocery shopping into our savings account.
• I downloaded some free ebooks onto my Nook.

I keep a running list throughout the week in order to keep track of my money saving actions.  I have to admit, my list looked pretty skimpy on paper and I was a bit disappointed, but now that I've typed it out I am much happier with what I accomplished the past 2 weeks.

I f you have a great frugal tip or are doing things to save money this year, I'd love to read about it in the comments!