What's For Dinner: This Week's Menu

This week is rough so far.  We started Alvah on a new OCD med to help with his more challenging behaviors and he was NOT doing well.  We stuck with the new med because by everything I've read it should work well and is well tolerated by pretty much everyone, so I was thinking there HAD to be something else going on.  Turns out, after some experimentation and a pow wow with his doctor on Monday that I was right.  It wasn't the new med that was the problem.  It was the Clonodine.  A med he's been on for years and was his "safe" med out of the two he had to take regularly.  The behaviors and obviously feeling not good on the med REALLY got spot lighted with the new med on board as it started to slow his brain down a bit and now I feel bad because I think I've been giving Alvah a med that was making him kind of miserable and potentially worse for a long time now.  I know in the past Clonodine worked for him to help with his PICA and calm him down, so I'm not really sure when it started to effect him like it is now, but things I was thinking was due to the Risperidone or puberty behaviors was probably due to the Clonodine, at least the last few years.  So, this week we started the slow process of weaning him off the Clonodine so his system doesn't go into a bad state.  After a few REALLY rough days, today he's doing a bit better.  We have about two weeks of weaning to get him down off the med, so hopefully he continues to improve in the coming days.

I'm exhausted.  I went about four days straight with maybe a few hours of sporadic sleep under my belt. My poor husband is in the same boat.   We turned a corner last night and Alvah was able to relax enough to actually sleep for more than 1/2 an hour.  Last night was the most sleep I've gotten in a while, but it was still only about 3 1/2 hours worth, so yeah...dinners need to be simple this week.  My back is not in a great state from not being able to really lie down for any good length of time for the last few weeks, too, so I need something that can be made without me spending a good amount of time on my feet.

Armina is on vacation from work this week, so is spending the week with her grandma having a good time relaxing, so I'm cooking for two instead of three.

Just as a side note:  Never did get to make the Mediterranean chicken from last week, but I actually stumbled on a recipe I wanted to make more, so it all worked out anyway :).

So, yeah, let's get to the menu for the week.

Menu for Week 7/1 to 7/8

Wednesday:  Mediterranean chicken legs, orzo pasta (maybe rice cooked in chicken broth if I don’t want to make pasta), green beans. 

With the chicken, I'm just using her base marinade for the chicken legs and made it up yesterday, but I added a bunch of cilantro because it HAD to be used up from the fridge and I figured it would go with the ingredients.  It totally did and the initial marinade was delicious, so I'm hoping the chicken will be awesome.

Thursday:  poached salmon with hollandaise, rice pilaf, tropical fruit

I'm just going to poach the salmon in a bit of chicken broth and some wine and then serve a ready to make hollandaise on top.  I think it will be tasty.   I was inspired by Max Miller and his video on John Adams and the Fourth of July, but I'm just going with premade hollandaise sauce to make my life easier.

Friday:  Quiche (such a simple recipe.  Every time I make it, it comes out better than the last).

Saturday:  burgers & fries

Sunday:  beef teriyaki (from freezer), rice, sautéed cabbage.

Monday:  Grilled pork chops, baked potatoes, corn

Tuesday:  Pizza or left overs night

And there you go, folks.  Our menu for this week.  You having anything yummy planned this week? 

Thrifty Thursday: Yard Sale Finds

For something new this week, instead of reporting on things I found at the used stores, I got some yard sale finds to report.

First up is actually something we really needed and ran into really quickly compared to when we needed it.  My husband's desk chair broke really bad and he was sitting on basically a stool to work.  We managed to find the above desk chair for 10.00, which definitely beat the 100.00 a new desk chair would have cost us.  So far it is working just fine and giving my husband the back support he needs while working.

Next up is a repeat from last post, which is an 8 1/2 inch cast iron skillet that my husband found at a yard sale for 5.00.  My husband removed the rust that was on it and it now sports a few new coats of cure on it to hopefully get it on its way to being a good skillet for many years to come.

Last up is something that I've been needing to replace.  I have a rectangular wire mesh strainer I got with a cutting board from Costco many, many years ago and it is just getting too old, bent up and worn out that it needs to be slowly retired.  On top of that, Alvah is going through about 1 lb of pasta a day of late, so I need all the strainers I can get.  I found the above wire mesh strainer for 1.00 at a yard sale.  Definitely worth the 1.00.  It is really well built and I've been using it regularly ever since.  I use my Tupperware strainers a lot, but they are a bit awkward to fit in the dishwasher.  This thing fits in like a bowl, which makes it really nice to get in with a load of dishes.

And there you go folks.  Some of the things we've been finding at yard sales this summer.  The last like three years we haven't found much of anything, so it is a nice change of pace to find things we could use or need this summer.

Hope your bargain hunting is going well.

Enjoy!

Frugal Friday: Money Saving Weekly Recap

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.

7.  We got some freebies via coupons of late.  The latest one was some free enchiladas.  Never had this brand before.  Hopefully they are good.

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.

12.  My husband found an 8 1/2 inch cast iron skillet, a pretty hefty one, at a yard sale.  It was rusty but he bought it anyway, figuring we could clean it up and recure it (I've done it before with my cast iron griddle I got for free once...it is not my favorite job, but doable).  He took a grinder to it to get the pitted parts out and got rid of the rust.  I have then put it through the curing process twice now to make sure it has a good cure on it before we use it.  Please excuse the ragamuffin curing job on the pan.  I always try so hard to make the oil as thin as possible when curing a pan and I ALWAYS seem to put it on too thick and it leaves drip type patterns.  Bright side it does feel right and not super sticky, so at least I didn't make it super thick by accident.

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!

What's For Dinner: This Week's Menu

When it comes to dinner this week, I'm only going to go through the menu till Wednesday and then redo the menu later in the week, mainly because I have fresh produce we just got with our grocery pick up this time and I want to make sure I use it up as it needs to be used up and then re-evaluate how things are surviving later in the week.

I do need to use my poor sourdough starter for something this week to revive it after it's crazy existence this week, but I'm not sure what I want to make yet, so we might have a random bread item with dinner this week at some point.

Some verdicts on things I tried the last bit.  The slow cooker gumbo was good.  I did add a bit of gumbo file to it, because I had it, but otherwise made it as written and it turned out well.  I let everyone add their own degrees of heat with the cajun seasoning at the table (daughter doesn't like spicy), and it worked out well doing that.

I was actually able to stick with the menu plan last week, more's the miracle with how crazy things got.  So, hopefully this week will work out well, too.

So, let's get to the menu for the next few days!

Menu till Thursday 6/18/26

Sunday:  BBQ ribs, mashed potatoes (freezer), coleslaw (leftovers) cheese biscuits (freezer).

Monday: Mediterranean Chicken (I'm just going to make the chicken and forgo the sheet pan elements),  mashed potatoes (leftover mashed potatoes) with gravy and green beans.

Tuesday:  Baked fish (salmon or halibut...will take vote among family), rice and salad

Wednesday:  pork chops, applesauce, rolls

 And there you go folks.  Our menu for the next bit.  

Enjoy!

Frugal Friday: Money Saving Weekly Recap

It has been one heck of a week.  We started out on Sunday.  Since February the lower compartment of the fridge had not acted right.  In February (one month after the one year warranty ran out) it suddenly went too warm and I lost some food.  We thought the coils had froze due to me inadvertently blocking a vent, so my husband defrosted the coils and it seemed to fix it, but we turned it down to the “freezer” setting to keep it at 34 to 38 degrees.  

I am blessed that I really did not trust the fridge compartment after that so tried to keep the items to a minimum in it because Sunday rolled around and I opened the fridge to check it (did that every day after February) to find the fridge at 20 degrees and everything frozen solid.

So I spent the day, when I really wanted to rest and try to get over this cold, processing frozen potatoes and onions.  I turned the onions into frozen diced onions for the freezer.  Got the russets peeled and cut up (sorry knives) while frozen and managed to turn them into mashed potatoes for the freezer.  

The Yukon gold potatoes I diced up, threw them on some baking sheets, coated them in oil and seasoning salt and baked them till crispy to turn into diced hash brown potatoes.  I had some mixed mini potatoes I had bought to make roasted potatoes in the oven.  

Instead I threw some in with the pork roast I had put aside for dinner in the crock pot and the rest I put in with the russet potatoes to boil until tender.  I removed them before mashing the potatoes and put them aside to cool and freeze in big chunks.  These I’m going to try hitting with some oil and putting in the air fryer to crisp up with dinner one night.  Hopefully it works.

Monday rolls around with us thinking we just needed a temp sensor for the bottom compartment of the fridge and we’d hopefully be ok.  Nope.  The fridge went completely belly up and everything just quit.  Thank goodness my mother in law had some spare coolers and bought us some ice to go in them.  Because of her I did not lose all of the food in that fridge.  Luckily the freezer was small in that thing so I was able to get most of everything refrozen before we lost it.

We managed to get the 2400.00 paperweight out onto the deck and we wheeled the old fridge back in to see if my husband could repair it (after I deep cleaned 18 months of gunk out and off of it).  He took off a panel he had researched on the fridge, messed with a flap and put it all back together and it is working fine.  We are keeping an eye on it, though.

Our goal, for now, is to fix the new fridge and sell it for what we can get for it.  I’m kind of done with new fridges at this point.  I cried a lot of tears on Monday with that fridge as 2400.00 is a lot of money to just burn on a lemon like that, especially for us.

The cherry on top of the crap sundae was my husband’s car potentially blew something major, major, on the way home from work on Monday, too and we are trying to figure out if it is worth fixing or not.

It was not a good week.

The frugal stuff I accomplished in a nutshell…

1.  Processed frozen onions and got put back into freezer to stop loss.

2.  Processed 5 lbs russet potatoes into mashed potatoes to avoid loss.

3.  Processed 5 lbs Yukon good potatoes into diced hash browns to avoid loss.

4.  Processed bag of mini potatoes into future roast potatoes and potatoes to cook with a roast to avoid loss.

5.  By checking fridge and freezer was able to keep loss to a minimum.  Total things lost was some salad dressing, my bag of chard that was left from last year’s garden (that was depressing to lose) and some frozen bananas that had defrosted and slimed all over the freezer shelf.  Could have been much worse.

6.  Was able to fix and utilize old fridge without having to throw more money away trying another alternative.

7.  Was able to save the rest of the food by transferring it to another freezer or to some coolers with ice (thanks again, Stacey!).

8.  Husband went online with Whirlpool and at least got some repair manuals for the new fridge out of them.

9.  Am using up perishable food from the fridge that died as quickly as possible because I know what happened will definitely shorten its lifespan.

10. Renewed daughter’s library books over the phone to save us a trip to town in the middle of everything.

11.  A friend of ours had given us a countertop ice maker he didn't need anymore.  My husband insisted on keeping it, even though I didn't see the point at the time to keep it, and it floated around our den for a few years.  When I redid the den, I put it on top of the bar, thinking we might use it downstairs someday if we ever got to a point where we could entertain people again around here.  Well, it sure came in handy when the fridge died as it makes ice a LOT faster than an ice cube tray and when you have an autistic kid that will only drink his preferred beverage with ice...it means a lot to have that handy.  

Glad my husband made me not get rid of it or store it in our storage shed, as trying to find it would have been a nightmare.

12.  Since my husband got his car, the old Equinox has been sitting in our backyard for years.  I refused to let my husband sell it, which now he sees the logic in it now that his car is having major problems.  My daughter and I both loved that car, it was 100% paid for, and I wanted to keep it as it was still a darned good car and could be a good car for our daughter someday (my husband's new car got WAYYYYYY better fuel mileage than the Equinox, which was the entire reason we purchased it).  My husband got a new battery for it this week and fired her up and she's running just fine.  Desperately needs an oil change and a massive detail cleaning on the inside from sitting, but overall...running great.  Glad to see her back in action again, honestly.

And there you go folks.  Our week in a nutshell.   Onto other things.

Enjoy.

What's for Dinner: This Week's Menu

First off, I wanted to post an update about our guardianship hearing for Alvah.  It was yesterday morning and it went great.  We are now, officially (well waiting on the rubber stamp from the higher court, but that is not a big deal from what the judge was telling us), Alvah's guardians.  So, yay!  We are now, again, the guardians of our (nearly) adult son in the state's eyes.  I am SO relieved it is done.  The lawyer representing the state and the rest of the court staff were very nice and tried to put Armina and I at ease (Armina is going to be a co-guardian too, in case of emergencies and all that), which was good because Armina was looking like they were going to throw her in prison for stumbling over her words.

When it came to last week I had one "punt" day where I actually had my husband pick up dinner for me and him because my daughter brought home a bad cold from work and, of course, I caught it because Alvah caught it and he doesn't cover his mouth when he coughs or sneezes.  But, overall, other than groceries and gas giving me a facial tick (oh my GOSH the cost of things right now...yeesh!!!), I did alright on the menu plan front.  I did not make gumbo last week because I made grilled sausages on Thursday (per the optional plan) and then decided we really wanted to try the Creamy Gnocchi and Sausage Soup since the daughter was sick and wanted to try it.  I have to say it was really good, but I did have to add a few things to it.  I added the entire pound of bulk sausage I had browned up because the recipe was a bit bland with just the 1/2 pound and then I also added a bit of chicken bouillon powder to it as well to deepen the flavor of the chicken broth I used.  Overall, though, I thought it was a good recipe.

I did not get a chance, again, to try the salmon piccata, but I did copy the recipe down so I have it for when I'm feeling better and can make it.

Sticking to some type of plan the next two weeks is important.  Between Alvah's recovery from his dental surgery and all of the costs we incurred from that, things running out or breaking and suddenly needing to be replaced (ugh) and eating out yesterday...the amount of money that I borrowed from savings the last two weeks is AWFUL and needs to be replaced before we have no savings left, so we have very little left in my husband's paycheck the next two weeks (it is mortgage week, which is always a tight one anyway, but having to take a bunch of money out of the paycheck to repay savings makes it even rougher).  I'm determined to save what we have left for gas (especially since I plan on getting Armina out driving more), so making everything at home is VERY important the next couple of weeks if I can do it.

So, onto this week's menu!

Our weather went from the 50's to the high 70's yesterday, which was one heck of a jump, and we ended up just trying to stay cool last night.  It is supposed to remain in the 70's and sunny the rest of the week pretty much (not complaining as we haven't seen this much sun in a LONG time), so my plan is to try and get dinner done earlier in the day and just be able to reheat it to save having to use the stove much.  In the case of the Eggs Benedict for tonight, other than poaching the eggs, the rest of the meal is simple, so it shouldn't heat up the house much.

Menu for the Week 6/4/26 - 6/11/26

Thursday:  Eggs Benedict, salad, fruit  

Friday: Slow Cooker Gumbo (I'm going to use this recipe) but add some gumbo file to the dish and make my own roux and cajun seasoning for it and omitting the okra since I don't have any..using what I have). 

Saturday:  Pizza (I'm going to use up the crusts I made and stuck in the freezer earlier), breadsticks (for Alvah) 

Sunday:  Slow Cooker Pork Roast with potatoes and carrots 

Monday:  Balsamic Chicken (I am going to use this recipe), but use chicken instead of pork...this is a great recipe by the way...made it years ago and have kept it in my recipe file ever since :).   Focaccia, canned peaches, on the side. 

Tuesday:  Teriyaki pork (use leftover pork roast, make teriyaki sauce and just reheat the pork in the sauce...I think it will work) rice, miso soup. 

Wednesday:  Burgers, chips or potato salad (depending on how the son is doing)

And there you go, folks.  My tentative menu plan for the week.  The way I'm feeling, I'm going to try and keep it simple and just try and rest and recover from this cold so it doesn't get worse (sure as HECK don't want to afford medical bills right now).

Enjoy! 

Frugal Friday: Money Saving Weekly Recap

Monday was actually a really productive day for my husband.  He had the day off with it being Memorial Day and Alvah had a good day that day mood-wise, so he spent most of his day out in the garage working on getting it cleaned up (and thus getting projects worked on that had been mounting up on him to get that stuff out of the garage).  So, I have a few of his projects to add to this Frugal Friday :).

Oh and some people e-mailed me and asked me to share pictures of our fixed roof (didn't share last time...oops), so here you go (the new shingles will fade out pretty quickly with how much direct sun our roof gets, so don't let that throw you).

So, let's get to what we did this week!

1.  I received a few freebies the last shopping trip (not the one we picked up today) and have been drinking the coffee creamer that we received.  Slowly.  I'm not really sure what it is with coffee creamers.  They always taste watered down when I add them to my coffee and I'm not a big fan.  It's like they want you to add a ton of creamer to get the effect you are after.  I've gotten to the point over the years where a few teaspoons of sugar in my coffee with some milk or cream tastes WAY better to me than a flavored creamer does.  But, the creamer is free, so I'm trying to go through it, even if it it's not my favorite.

The energy drink we decided to grab on a whim.  I get free energy drink offers quite a bit, but tend to ignore them, but since we were picking up groceries anyway, I decided to get this one.  

Spoiler:  It was DISGUSTING!  My daughter and I both tried a sip of it and just could not do it.  It ended up down the drain.  I can't even say that the drink tasted "healthy" and that is what was throwing the flavor off.  The artificial sugar gave it an awful aftertaste and the drink contained neither strawberry, nor watermelon flavor, that I could detect.  I keep running it over in my mind on what it actually tasted like, but I just can't come up with anything.  Considering the amount of time I've been on this spinning globe...that's saying something.  It did taste 100% bad, though, so there is that (sorry if you like it...I did not, obviously).

2.  I was able to bake bread this week, which was nice and while I was at it, I baked a few pans of rolls so the son would have something that was easy to chew, but as nourishing as I could get it.  We are down to one bag of 6 rolls from the freezer that are defrosting on the counter right now, so I'd say we did alright with that.

3.  I have been wanting a Belgian waffle maker forever and my daughter requested I order myself one for a late Mother's Day gift (I spent Mother's Day in a complete anxious mess since the son was going in for surgery the next day) and she'd pay me back.  I'm really happy as I've been wanting one forever, but honestly was too cheap to invest in another waffle maker *laugh*.  I found one on Amazon with ceramic plates instead of non-stick ones (I know, there is controversy about this out there, but this was my personal choice in the matter) and ordered it.  I got this one (affiliate link!).  I hope it works well as I'm overly excited about it *laugh*.  I used a giftcard I'd been saving to help take 10.00 off of the waffle maker to make it cheaper (couldn't help myself).

4.  In my husband's adventures, while cleaning the garage he found an outside light he's been meaning ot hang for years on the side of the house and he finally decided it was the day to do it.  It came out looking really nice and will be so nice this winter as that side of the house gets REALLY dark during the winter and is kind of worrisome not being able to see things like moose that might be lurking around.

5.  We had one kitchen chair, one of our old ones we inherited from my husband's grandfather, that was coming apart at the legs a bit and we had another chair we'd bought used that the back broke off and was loose pretty much everywhere, so he took some straps, lots of wood glue and a bunch of patience and fixed the chairs up.  The one we bought used, I'm kind of wondering how long it will live as it was pretty thrashed when we bought it, but I was glad to get the kitchen chair fixed up since it has sentimental value attached to it.

6.  I mended a few pairs of jeans for my husband.  I was hoping to get a bunch of mending done Monday night, but the son has taken to hating me working on the sewing machine, so it's definitely slowing me down.  I have an OVERFLOWING pile of mending to do, so I'm hoping he'll let me get some more done tonight...we'll see how it goes.

7.  My daughter was having issues with her phone becoming possessed and just playing weird, random podcasts or music she wasn't even listening to.  I looked up solutions online on how to fix the problems and fixed it last night.  The joys of technology are about 2/3 problems to the 1/3 advantages *laugh*.

8.  I found that our local Franz outlet had hotdog buns on sale for Memorial Day when I stopped in to see if I could pick up some chips to go with our burgers we were having that night (we ended up having popcorn with the burgers instead as they didn't have any, but it worked out) and they were 1.50 cheaper than buying them from the grocery store.  So, I picked up enough to get us through the next shopping trip without me having to pick them up at the store (hot dog and hamburger buns are some of my son's preferred foods, so we buy him a few per week for more calories).  I put them in the freezer and voila!  About 6.00 saved off of our grocery trip this week.

9.  We've been taking advantage of the nice weather to get out and about, mainly practicing driving (we are SO far behind on getting my daughter her driver's license as Alvah has made it really, REALLY, hard the last few years to get driving in for her, but I'm determined to do it this summer).  Sure, gas isn't cheap, but I still feel good about getting her out driving myself instead of having to shell out money for driving lessons (which, honestly, the more time went on, I've been seriously thinking was the only way I was going to get the poor kid her license).  

10.  My husband fixed the loveseat.  Again.  Alvah loves the loveseat and is really hard on it and this time one of the legs snapped off.  My husband redid how the legs were mounted and was able to reattach the legs so they will be harder to break (hopefully).  He used scrap wood to make it all happen.  I have found a completely memory foam loveseat on Amazon that will replace this loveseat when it dies, but the longer we can keep the old one going, the further down the road I have to pay for a new one, so always a good thing.

And there you go folks.  Some of the ways we saved money this week.  Did you do anything to save money this week?  Feel free to share in the comments :).

Enjoy!