Frugal Friday: Money Saving Weekly Recap

Right, so here it is.  The promised recap of money saving things I've done the last little bit.  

Unfortunately, it is kind of a balance this time.  We ordered bathroom cabinets, which definitely cost money, I had a doctor's appointment so more money and we found out that we are going to have to pay for bottom braces for the daughter in a few months which was yet more money yet.  And the daughter went in for dyslexia testing yesterday (we are waiting on the results) and that will be more money going out the door...how much depends on insurance.  BUT, it was balanced out by a few things, so let's get to those :).

1.  Yes, I had a doctor's appointment and had to get on antibiotics to get rid of a staph infection.  BUT, I did not *knock on wood* end up in the hospital before I caught on something was amiss, which I've known other people who weren't so lucky.

2.  Yup, the bathroom cabinets cost money, but we are getting really good quality cabinets from an outfit with a really good reputation and we are even getting a linen cabinet built into the master bath vanity, so I'll finally have a place to put towels :).

3.  We went in for our orthodontist check up and got the daughter's spacer removed off of her bottom teeth.  She gets to go back in the beginning of the new year to get bottom braces figured out, which is going to hurt when it comes to that bill.  BUT, we've known for a while that she was going to need bottom braces, she's still young so her teeth will move a lot easier (making the whole process easier on her), she managed to get her baby molars out by herself so that we didn't have to pay to get them removed (which saved us a bunch of money) and she gets to be dental mechanism free for Christmas and was for Halloween as well.  So, hey as bright sides go, those are pretty good!

4.  We finally got someone to test the daughter for learning disabilities!  I'm just thrilled to get it done at this point, to Heck with the costs involved.

And now onto the money saving things that have happened the last bit!

1.  Well, a neat side benefit I've found on homeschooling the kids is that I get to be part of parent groups for the home school which gives me all kinds of neat little things I learn about.  For instance I found out that our local school district has sales where they get rid of overstock things they don't need for really cheap at their warehouse.  We decided to zoom over there on the last day of the sale a few weeks ago and found that they had books for .10 each and there were pallets and pallets of things to go through.  We found a bunch of books on all kinds of different subjects for super cheap (the box of books seen up top).  They also had a pallet stuffed with file cabinets and they were 5.00 a piece, no matter how big.  I have been needing a good filing cabinet to keep records for the son and financial records in, so we bought one and my husband went through and found a REALLY heavy duty filing cabinet for us.  I moved it across the den to the its new home by my desk so I can safely attest to the fact that the sucker is HEAVY *laugh*.

2.  Through a homeschooling event, I was able to sign the daughter and my mother-in-law to go and see a performance of "The Nutcracker Suite" in December.  It's only the highlights of the ballet, so it is not really super long (which is good since it'll fit into my mother-in-laws schedule that way) and there is a brown bag lunch event after that students can attend to meet the cast.  It was super cheap for tickets, so I signed them both up.  

I have to say how thrilled I am to be able to let my daughter go to events like these now.  With the discount pricing I can actually afford for her to go, where normal ticket price events there is NO way I could afford to do these things.

3.  My in-laws were nice enough to let us throw away the old love seat pieces in their dumpster before it got picked up so we didn't have to pay for another dump run to get rid of them.  I was also able to, by taking it apart myself, reclaim some of the wood pieces so that my husband can use them at  a later date for some other project.

The space to the center there is where the love seat was previously jammed.  Yay for reclaimed space!

Now that I know what I'm doing I've found that the couch is going a LOT quicker than the love seat did.  I know how the pieces fit together now and am able to get them apart a lot easier.  Exhibit A:

I was able to get all of that done yesterday :).  

I am going to save a bunch of the stuffing that was in the back and arms to make pillows out of, which is definitely cheaper than buying fiber fill for things like that.

4.  I was actually really sick for Halloween, unfortunately, and spent a good part of the afternoon in bed.  There was kind of an odd silver lining.  A couple of days before Halloween the husband was supposed to have a pot luck at work and we signed up to bring brownies, so I had managed to bake brownies.  Right before my face started swelling and I got sick.  My husband had to call in sick the night of the pot luck because he was really worried about my face swelling up (as was I, honestly), so we had a tray of brownies to use for Halloween treats.  I had promised the kids cookies, but I just wasn't up to making them, so my husband took the daughter with him to the store and they bought some peanut free sugar cookies from the bakery at Carrs/Safeway (not the cheapest option, but the kids enjoyed them) and some Chips Ahoy cookies for the son (they are a favorite of his and I don't buy them very often anymore).  I then popped a huge bowl of popcorn and after going to a local Halloween event we came home and watched movies and ate popcorn and treats.

I had gotten a really good personalized price on pumpkins, so we got our usual Jack O' Lantern pumpkin and then I got a few small ones for the kids to design and carve.  The son wasn't interested (thus why the one pumpkin isn't carved out), but the daughter had a blast making hers (the one with the eyelashes *laugh*).

5.  I repaired another hole in the yellow comforter I try and keep on my bed.  I really like the comforter and tried to figure out a way to keep the comforter alive longer.  While on Amazon I found some duvet covers that were like 10.00 per set ( these ones ...no associate link or anything, just sharing).  They are up to 25.00 per set, but I have to say that once I got them in the mail they are really good quality sets and hey for the 10.00 I paid for two off white sets and a one aloe green set, I am really happy with them.  Hopefully they will allow my poor comforter to live for a while longer since I won't have to wash the comforter as much this way.

6.  I took help where it was offered.  The missionaries always ask if they can help with anything when they come to visit and I always say, "No, I'm good.  Thanks."  I was so sick with the staph infection, though and I knew my husband desperately wanted to get some things done before snow started flying.  Things that included some heavy lifting.  Things I wasn't up to doing in my current state (and honestly, I doubt I'd be up to them yet...I still get winded easily after that whole mess).  So, I called the missionaries and asked for help.

They came over with a few other church members one day last week and helped to do a few quick things that the husband just plain needed help to get accomplished.  We repaid them for their kindness with lunch on the grill and Gatorade.  They were thrilled we asked for help, even though I still feel bad having to ask for it, as they need to do so much good will work as part of their mission.  And now, at least, we are a lot more prepared for snow fall.

7.  I was able to take advantage of a deal at Carrs where if you spent 100.00 in one shopping trip you'd get 10 gas rewards.  I spent little over 100.00 for the two weeks of groceries we'd need (I'm pretty set for Thanksgiving except for a few tiny things that I still have to get, so that helped to keep my costs down) and used one of the fuel rewards to load a coupon to my card for a free 18 pack of eggs (which I'll get the next time I go shopping).  I then used the fuel rewards to fill up my truck (which desperately needed gas with all the running to therapy and things I do), which saved me a bunch of money :).

8.  We had fun watching programs that were included with Amazon Prime on the TV at Halloween.  The kids really liked, "If You Give a Mouse a Pumpkin" and have even watched it a few times since Halloween.  I went on YouTube and looked up, "The Berenstain Bears Meet Big Paw" and the kids have been having fun watching that too, especially the son.  The daughter and I also fell in love with a BBC production of "Sense and Sensibility" that is available for free with Amazon Prime and we've watched it a few times.  The series starred the actor that played Mathew in "Downton Abbey" as Edward, which it is always fun seeing members of the cast in other places :).

9.  I was contemplating getting our cat, Prince, micro chipped as he's always losing his collar and escaping outside.  I was worried about how much it would cost when I suddenly, and quite fortunately, got a letter in the mail from the outfit this his micro chip is registered through offering me all kinds of services for twenty some dollars a year.  I didn't realize that the pound micro chips the animals, so I now have the microchip number and everything in the event I need it.  I was happy as this saved me a trip to the vet only to find out that the cat was already micro chipped *laugh*.

And there you go folks.  Some of the things that have happened around here of late.  How about you?  Had anything neat going on in your lives?

And, yeah,  I think I'm going to call it good there.