Frugal Friday: Money Saving Weekly Recap

You know, the thing I hate most about public school isn't the homework or the having two kids in two schools thing.  Nope, what I hate most is that public school is one big germ factory.  And my son sticks things in his mouth all the time and sneezes in my face.  Thus, I'm sick again.  The life of mom.  So, so glamorous ;).

Despite having a sore throat and runny nose this week I did manage to get some money saving things accomplished.

1.  I cleaned my computer screen.

Yup, totally stupid I know, but I haven't actually cleaned my laptop screen in a long time and didn't really think much of it.  Then my son spit around my computer this afternoon and got something on my screen so I cleaned it.  And yeah, it's like I got a new screen!  I had no idea how much just plain dust was built up on it.  I'm really happy I did that *laugh*.

2.  I fixed my bathroom sink drain.

I should say "we" as I started fixing said drain, got into a mess and my husband helped to get it fixed the rest of the way (with imput from me I'm happy to say).

Since we moved here we've had nothing but problems with one drain or another and one of the major ones was our bathroom sink drain.  I clean it out weekly, but it just would get slower and slower and have standing water in it and then my husband would snake it and it'd be alright for a while and then the problems would start up again.

I was cleaning the bathroom, hoping to do it quickly and was trying to clean the sink and getting frustrated as it's hard to clean a sink where nothing will drain in it, so I decided to take the plumber's helper to the drain and see what would come out of it.  Um.  "Yuck" describes it in spades.  And unfortunately  the multitudes of crud that I kicked loose with the plumbers helper blocked up the drain so it wouldn't drain at all (go me!).  My husband came in and helped plunge it for a while and then we both mutually decided to try Liquid Plumber on the drain to see if we could kick whatever was stuck in the drain loose.

And it worked great!  The drain has been working perfectly ever since (which is a record for that drain!).  So, we're hoping that we managed to kick the things coating the drain loose so it'll be good for a while.

3.  I fixed my kitchen sink drain.

It was a week of my plumbing hating me, I swear.  I went to do my dishes and my sink drain was completely stopped up as well (another drain we've had problems with).  I tried the plumber's helper on it, but it didn't work because it's a double sink so the water would just back up the other drain instead of trying to force whatever was clogging it down.  So, I started boiling water on the stovetop and between a nearly full bottle of Liquid Plumber and lots of boiling water to chase it the drain is finally working well.  I managed to break two glasses (plumber's helper hitting drain plug for sing and sending it flying incident...it was a weird bending of physics that made it work, I swear) and give myself three splinters that day, but it worked!

4.  The final tomatoes from my garden ripened, so I took all of the tomatoes I had and made them into a batch of tomato sauce. 

I am so, so happy with my tomato plants and how they did this year!  I was able to get a big batch of green tomato relish canned, two batches of tomato sauce, give tomatoes away to friends and family and ate my fair share of fresh tomatoes.  All from two plants.  It was a good tomato year!

5.  I made a tea cozy with what was left over from the quilt I used to make my daughter a fancy pillow for Christmas.  You can see it up top. 

I also used scraps to make some quilted coasters out of the pieces of fabric I could find with embroidery on them so they wouldn't go to waste (also seen).  I still have some scrap material and keep trying to figure out something small to make with it, but I'm going to think on it for a while.

And by the way I loved the excuse to pull down my one good set of English china to stage the photo with the tea cozy :).  It was fun.

6.   My husband managed to fix the 12.00 recliner we bought and we put it up in our living room. 

My son LOVES it and rocks in it constantly and with the metal brackets my husband put on the recliner I'm sure the chair is going to have a lot more life to it.

7.  We went in for my daughter's orthodontist appointment early in the week and got a diagnosis of partial braces being needed because her cross bite was so bad. 

I requested a copy of her X-rays and her photos and went to four different offices for opinions and got the same answer back as the orthodontist we are going through and got quotes for what they would charge.  Our orthodontist was the cheapest.  I had to put the money I'd paid off on our Care Credit for my husband's teeth back onto his card, but at least I know we're getting the best price on my daughter's braces.

8.  We paid off a debt this week. 

 Our last credit card outside of Care Credit and a Sears card with a small limit on it.  I pray that I roll that money from the usual monthly payment right onto the Care Credit as we are going to need all the help we can get paying that bill down again.

9.  I shopped sales and used coupons and managed to come under my weekly grocery budget by 50.00. 

I'm hoping to save that money and roll it onto the debt we have.  I figure if I can do that every week it'll be a significant savings from month to month.

And there you go.  Some of the ways I saved money this week.  How did you do.