Frugal Friday: Money Saving Weekly Recap

I nearly didn't write this post this week.  Why?  Mainly because this week was one of those weeks we've all had.  You know, one of those weeks where you wonder why you got out of bed.  On Monday (or in my case, Sunday).

There was so much stuff that happened this week, very little good came out of it either.

My daughter's stomach condition raised it's ugly head so we were feeding her Zophran to stop her from vomiting multiple times a day.  I hate it when this happens (and it's been a few years since it's been this bad) as it takes forever for her system to get back on track.

My husband came down with a cold on Sunday and was sick all week with bad sinus pain.  He finally went to the doctors on Wednesday and got on antibiotics for a nasty sinus infection.  Not only are we out money for a doctor's visit at this point, but we also lost a week of wages because he was sick (my husband doesn't get sick days).  With how very tight we are on money, this loss of a week is a pretty hefty financial blow for us WITHOUT the 225.00 between the doctor's visit and the medicine.  At least he's finally feeling better *fingers crossed*.

My son broke out in hives from environmental allergies or something on Sunday and was battling that and being grumpy with another loose tooth all week.  And yet, somehow, he was also super destructive during the entire week so all I did was repeatedly say, "No, don't do that!"  all week long.  A side effect of this is that my house still looks awful and I spent most of today (their first full day of school this week) trying to recover it even slightly.

I broke three glasses this week, which I'm still trying to figure THAT one out as I managed to hit the one in a million shot while doing the dishes, for the most part, to break them.  Frustrating as while we have glasses still, I managed to break one of my favorite iced tea glasses.  Normally this wouldn't get to me as I learned a long time ago that things are just that...things.  But, on top of everything else it just seemed like the Good Lord was picking on me.

My vacuum hose broke, again, and I can't find the duct tape anywhere.  At least duct tape is cheap.

My husband managed to break my dress form this week while doing...I don't know what with it, as he's not being very forthcoming with details other than he was "messing around with it" (which translates to he was probably dancing it with or something).  He's added it to his list of things he needs to fix, but it was upsetting to me as this is the season where I kind of NEED it up and working in case I need it.  Bright side, though, at least the form itself is still in one piece as he only broke the base where it attaches to the stand, so I can stand it up on my sewing table to figure out lengths for things and such.  Just another depressing aspect to the week, though *sigh*.

And I'm down with a cold, again.

Sorry, it was just a depressing week.  I did manage to pull my head out of the dark well of depression I was looking down, however, and found some good things to report this week.

1.  The SD card on my camera had a picture that didn't take correctly (like 90% of the picture was missing).  Luckily this was not a picture of one of my kids, but it was a good reminder to, once again, back up all the pictures of my kids on my hard drive.  I had an SD card die on me a couple of years ago and ended up losing 14 pictures of my kids I never wanted to lose and I still get teary over it, so I make sure to back up my pictures from my camera regularly now (preferably in about 3 different locations).

2.  My mom called and asked what we wanted for Christmas this year.  I told her that I was hoping between the gift cards her and my siblings send us for Christmas that I'd be able to get a new TV for Christmas as ours is dying (it's like eight years old, has been abused by my son hitting it, etc) and I can't NOT have a TV with my son in the house or it'll get ugly.  Our old TV has a black spot on the screen that keeps getting bigger and things are burning into the screen, so I was getting pretty worried about keeping it where my son could still abuse it.

My mom, God bless her, went onto Amazon, figured out what a 32" TV would cost (which is what I told her I was looking for...I don't really CARE about getting a huge TV so a TV the same size as the one we have right now is just fine) and sent me a giftcard that would cover the cost of a new TV.  I was able to get an LG TV that was marked down to below the giftcard amount that used to be about 400.00.  I was even able to get a wall mount for the TV with the remainder of the giftcard.  This is a double blessing for us as it'll give us a TV that isn't nearly dead and I can put the old flat screen TV in my son's room to replace the heavy old regular TV we got for him at a used store years ago and we have double strapped down because we are always worried about it falling on him (it's secured well, but still...paranoia springs eternal).  We were thinking about bringing my son's old TV to the dump as we have other old used TV's but then the TV in my husband's and my bedroom that we don't really use unless my kids or my husband are sick and want to watch TV started having serious feedback in the speakers and we smelled smoke from something burning out in the TV (when it rains, it pours around here *sigh*).  So, it will be time for a game of musical TV's here in the house soon.

3.  I was able to get more Christmas gifts made this week despite everything going on around here, which is nice because it's at least keeping me on schedule for gift making for the season.

4.  I went shopping on Wednesday to get groceries (I ended up having to pick up kids early, but least they made it through most of the day) and shopped sales and was really careful with money this week due to money getting so tight.  I managed to come in 70.00 below my normal grocery budget.

5.  I've been keeping the heat turned down at night and so far it is showing in lower gas bills by about 20.00 per month.  I'm hoping that keeps up as the winter progresses as utilities HURT this time of year.

6.  Because everyone was sick around here we really didn't go anywhere, which saved us spending money on non-essentials.

7.  I took a survey online and was able to order a coupon for a free 64 oz container of juice from Old Orchard.  When they sent the coupon it came with a coupon for a free frozen mixer on top of the coupon I had ordered.  This will be fun if I can find someone local who carries these as I can mix the mix with some crushed ice and ginger ale for a special "fun" drink for Christmas.

8.  I went to Fred Meyer to look for my Freebie Friday freebie of a 3 pack of K-Cups, thinking I'd use it for a teacher or therapist gift only to discover that my local Fred Meyer doesn't carry them.  I was disappointed to say the least, but I was able to find that they had another item I needed on sale there for cheaper than Carrs had it on sale for, so it wasn't a total loss.

And there you are folks.  Some ways I saved money this week.  How did you do?