I don't know who might need this today, but please enjoy a picture of a sunning cat.
When it comes to money saving things we’ve done around here this week, pretty much everything done was on my husband’s end. But, I’ll add a few things for myself to make me feel better.
1. The Equinox, after sitting for so long, had some hiccups that needed to be fixed. The mornings here are still cold and the heater was just blowing cold air even though the car had enough coolant. He was just about ready to replace the thermostat when the guy at the auto parts store backed up his idea to try and flush the heater core first to get rid of clogs and bubbles to see if that was the problem. My husband flushed the heater core over the weekend and the heater is now working like it should. Not buying a thermostat definitely saved us money.
2. The car was also stuttering on and off when driving. Both he and I figured it was some water in the fuel tank, potentially, from condensation as it sat. Ran some HEET through the fuel tank and it seems to have cleared up, so at least we were on the right track there.
3. The old fridge we moved back into the kitchen has had a few problems (because, of course). First the evaporator fan died and killed the fridge’s ability to move air, so it got hot. Cue my mother-in-law, once again coming to the rescue with coolers and ice until my husband could come home early and we could go and track down the part we needed (thanks again, Stacey!). We replaced the fan, which fixed the air movement issues, and then it started being way too cold and freezing food (it is sitting at 24 degrees right now without me opening the door to keep it warmer). It seems to be that same flap that probably froze shut when the fridge died over a year ago is now sticking open and leaving an open highway to the freezer. We ordered a replacement part and it should be in today. I feel really blessed every day the Lord fixed me up with a man who knows how to fix things. Especially at times like these.
As an aside, just a quick thank you to those who have ordered through my Amazon link. The associate fees help, especially at times like these, to buy repair parts or other things we need. Thank you again. I appreciate it.
4. My life has been revolving around working on getting Alvah straightened out. We started him on an OCD med that will work fine with his other two medications and helps with reducing violent behaviors by doing things with dopamine production in the body. For the first time in years I am optimistic about this. So far he’s tolerated taking the med great (it is a VERY bitter pill) and while the medication is a slow build type we are noticing a difference in his behaviors on it and when he's really bad, that medicine will calm him down pretty darned fast (like this morning when he was really bad and unstable...it has been a rough few days with him). If we can get him stable it would be such a tremendous weight off both my husband’s and my shoulders.
5. We got Alvah’s lab results back and the take aways were that he’s low on iron (not scary low, thank goodness) and he’s REALLY low on Vitamin D (he’s at 7 when the minimum they like to see is 50…not good). Since he won’t take pills or chew gummies getting vitamins in him is a challenge. I found a flavorless liquid drop on Amazon that gives you 6000 units of Vitamin D in each drop, so have been putting that in his drink. Our pediatrician also gave us some “flavorless” iron powder to try (it isn’t flavorless, but the flavor is VERY slight, like almost not there). Alvah, of course can taste it and is not a fan, but I’m going to work at it until I can get it down him. It is such a small amount of powder that I know I can do it.
6. I made dentist appointments for my daughter and I on the same day within an hour of each other. By accident. Which is an accidental frugal win since this will save me a trip. I’ll take happy accidents to save money at this point.
8. I looked up a few tutorials on YouTube to figure out how to do a few things and they really helped to clarify things when we needed it.
9. My husband was able to pull up repair manuals online to figure out how to troubleshoot our fridge.
10. I turned a few bananas that were nearly gone into banana bread.
11. I made meals at home and was able to make bread, which was a blessing. It has been rough the last bit with how Alvah was to get anything accomplished.
13. My husband took the vacuum apart and cleaned it (boy did it need it).
14. I looked up a tutorial on how to oil my sewing machine and got that bit of maintenance done (my manual is around here somewhere but I misplaced it…looking up on YouTube was easier).
15. I used up canned goods that were getting close to the use by date to just keep food rotating correctly through the pantry.
16. When the fridge started freezing things, I made sure to use up fresh produce as quickly as possible so we could get them used before they froze. For the most part it worked. We lost the head of cabbage I bought as it froze and thawed and was too gross to use, but was able to save some salad and a cantaloupe I got and I just threw some fresh asparagus I had bought for Father's Day straight into the freezer when it froze so it wouldn't get super soggy when thawed.
17. I scoped out a project to tackle while my daughter is on vacation from work for a few weeks coming up since we won't have to worry about driving her to work and things. I am hoping to clean and organize my bedroom closet as you can barely move through it (I'll try to remember to take a before picture, but please don't judge me too harshly...we have no linen closets to really speak of in this house and with Alvah we go through a TON of bedding, so I quickly run out of places to stack blankets and comforters.
I know Frugal Friday is early this week, but I figured it was best. It's been a rough week with the kid, and while I'm hopeful it will get better, I know too well that you can't depend on hope.
Enjoy!
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