I spent a lot of money this week. That statement doesn’t sound very frugal, but I think it’s more about how you spend the money than always avoiding spending it.

My wife’s phone had been acting up for a few months — overheating, restarting on its own, and other minor issues that were pointing to a bigger problem down the road. So my wife did the frugal thing and started to set money aside from work to replace it. She loves the Samsung phone that comes with the S-pen, which she uses daily, but that line has a crazy price tag.

Samsung offers a military/first responder discount program, and a trade-in program. They offered $350 off the new S26 Ultra if she traded in, but only $150 off if she bought a new S25. It actually made the older phone cost more if you bought on Samsung’s website.

My wife researched the devices and concluded the S26 had no extra value above an S25. We ended up finding S25s on Amazon for $300 less than the Samsung price — even after the discounts. An extra bonus, we earned 5% cash back using the Chase Amazon Prime card, which added another $37 to our savings!

Next, I pulled the trigger on a toy that I’ve been shopping around for the last two months. I tried ebay, and other sellers, but the best option was actually the manufacturer, Lenovo. Their veteran discount was ten cents more than the taxes, and buying direct let me get all the accessories I wanted at 50% off. The official TV connector, case, controllers, etc. were all way more expensive if I purchased them anywhere else.

All in all, I think total savings between both these purchases, is around $600 saved. Not bad for a few weeks of deal hunting.

~~Miniwing~~
Frugalist