What happened you ask?
Well, Friday was just REALLY busy with errand running and things, but Friday night I woke up with my tonsils bugging me in the middle of the night. I drank a bunch of water, gargled with some mouthwash and went back to bed. Saturday I woke up not feeling too great, but I tried hard to get stuff done in between gargling with salt water, apple cider vinegar shots and even gargling with rum (I'm not a big fan of hard alcohol, but in this case it was necessary) to try and keep my tonsils down. See, I recognized the early signs of what turned out to be strep from last time, but this time I figured I had some advanced warning, so I was determined to fight. Woke up in the middle of the night Saturday not being able to swallow past my tonsils really and realizing that I had, indeed lost. One 300.00 trip to Urgent Care first thing on Sunday and a REALLY positive strep test and some penicillin to combat it, and I was officially shot. I spent most of yesterday in bed feeling awful.
Today I'm a LITTLE better, although my throat hurts worse than it did yesterday, oddly enough. But, yeah, I'm not thrilled to have strep for the second time in six months *scowl*.
Got Prince done with his follow up check up with the vet. Great news is that his eye looks great (thank you, Lord) and I managed to get one of his two boosters done today as the pound didn't give him a leukemia vaccine (kind of blew my mind they didn't test for that at the pound with how quickly something like that would spread, but okay), so we got him tested and got that on board as well. I have to take him in ONE more time next month just to get the leukemia booster and that's done. Got Belkar's follow up tomorrow at the vet and her booster shot visit, so once those are done I can HOPEFULLY stop bleeding money here sometime soon. Glad I didn't pay off Clark's dental bills or I'd have no money to do any of this, but I was HOPING to save some of it, darn it!
Right so a quick recap of things I got done last week. I managed to barely keep on top of the housework with my son and daughter home for the week, got my daughter's room cleaned out and reorganized to a point, got the den mucked out a bunch and the cardboard that we'd been accumulating sorted into different boxes to recycle and...yeah...that's about it. I didn't get much done on my list (well nothing really), but I did get some embroidery ideas drawn out on paper to transfer to material, so at least I got that far. I also sat down and started researching seeds and ordered a bunch, including some from Denali Seed Company as they have seeds that are rated for Alaska or even developed to grow here. They even have CORN that will grow up here. I was thrilled and ordered some of that too :).
My husband and I sat down and tallied up expenses and expenses we need to do yet this year and finally decided this was NOT the year to consider getting chickens as we figure if there is an area we want to put our money into this year it isn't going to be getting feed and things for chickens and building up a proper insulated area/coop to keep chickens for winter, not to mention our labor. No, if we're going to put money into something we want it to be put into expanding the garden. My friend works constantly, but also has tons of organic seeds, so she said if she could grow things here (basically if I take care of the plants for her) she'd give me not only a portion of the booty and some of the seeds (since all of hers are open pollinating varieties), but she'd also provide the seed as well, so I'm curious to see what she is going to have that I might not. I might talk to her about maybe me putting a little money into a chicken concern with her for a portion of the eggs and meat (she HAS a coop), but that will have to wait for later this week :).
My husband got another interview, this time with the airport for the job he REALLY wanted, so if you could send a prayer for him that would be great. He had the interview earlier today. Man, I hope he gets this one as I've never seen him this excited over a job before.
So, yeah, let's get into the "Frugal Friday" portion of the post shall we?
1. I got my son a mattress (seen up top). We went around everywhere we could local and found NOTHING that was the least affordable/in our price range, so I ordered one from Wal-Mart.com. I ordered it the same day I ordered the bed frame from Amazon (saved me 40.00 shipping finding one on Amazon that would ship up here) and the mattress beat the frame by a good four days. Go Wal-Mart.com on that one! All totaled between the mattress (154.00 shipped) and the bed frame (60.00 shipped) I spent about 200.00 for a new bed for the son. Not bad I'd say.
Now I need to invest another 35.00 or so and get a second in-good-condition mattress protector for his new mattress so he doesn't wreck the memory foam spilling things on it.
2. As I said, I ordered seeds. I ordered most of the seeds from Denali seed company which I found really reasonable in price. Most seeds cost me about 1.79 or so per packet. I also ordered a few seeds from Territorial Seed Company. The main thing I wanted from them was a type of pea that only takes 30 days to grow before you can harvest it. That's my type of growing season for up here :). Territorial definitely cost me more in shipping too, but overall I spent about 30.00 on different kinds of seeds from both companies and will have a wide variety of plants to choose from to grow in the garden. Yay!!!
3. We went to a location each day last week to get the kids out of the house as part of Spring Break. It was super nasty windy most of the week, so we went to different stores for the most part. We tried to stick to stores where we had gift cards to keep spending down and it worked. Some stores we didn't even spend any money in.
4. Grocery shopping was done primarily at Carrs this week, although I did stop off at Fred Meyer (one of our "field trips" with the kids one night) and get a few things and my Freebie Friday V-8 Energy drink.
At Carrs I combined sales, E-Coupons and printed coupons from the Monopoly game to get items for as cheap as possible and spent a total of 70.00 and that was also getting a corned beef and satellite items that I normally wouldn't buy, so I felt pretty good about that. I got my free aluminum foil (JUST in time as I ran out the day I picked it up!) and my free salt while I was there as well.
The gal who was checking out in front of me also had an autistic child and we struck up a conversation and had a good time chatting while she was getting checked out. She had a huge cart of groceries and asked if I'd like her Monopoly tickets since she wasn't playing the game and I said sure. Between her tickets and mine I got out of the store with like 70 tickets *laugh*. I got a few freebies coupons out of the tickets, but for the life of me the freebies are escaping me right now...still not feeling great.
5. The highlight of meals this last week was definitely the day that I made chicken a la orange in the crock pot and a home made cheesecake from scratch. Everything I used (orange marmalade, cherry preserves, home made Russian dressing, onions and parsley I dehydrated, etc) with the exception of bare bones basic ingredients I had put up or made myself, including the graham cracker crust for the cheesecake (and of course the filling and topping *laugh*). The family was actually REALLY happy with the meal too, so that was definitely an awesome feeling.
6. Since I was feeling pretty ucky today I put dinner in the crock pot during a "good feeling" moment and voila! Dinner will be ready when my husband gets home from Anchorage and we won't have to eat out. Always a good feeling.
7. I cancelled Netflix this week. My husband and I sat down and figured it all out and we came to realize that we just plain don't use it enough to justify the cost. We plan to see what we can watch for free through Amazon Prime and then from there look at other free resources on the Internet to watch things. That will save us about 12.00 per month. Not a "wow" type of savings, but a savings none the less.
There was more to report, but my brain is fried and my throat feels awful right now, so I'm going to call it good for now. Goals for this week are to feel better and see if I can get my son's new bed put together, get things rearranged otherwise to work for the time being in his room (his race car bed frame barely made it UP the stairs when we moved in...I should know as I moved it by myself...so it's going OUT the front door if it's going out and with the amount of snow outside still...it might be sitting in the son's bedroom for a bit, so I need to figure all of that out). I would also LIKE to get started on some of my embroidery and other crafty type of projects if my health will let me. Here's hoping.
So, there is my week in a nutshell. How did you all do?
Erika,
ReplyDeleteSo sorry you are sick again. Praying for a speedy recovery and also for your hubby to be offered the best possible job.
Aww if I could pass it through the screen, I'd give you my emergency box of cloraceptic drops!!
ReplyDeleteMy fingers are crossed for your husband!!!
I am finally not sick, but since false spring arrived, my youngest is stuffy and drippy and itchy and the zyrtec isnt helping so hes been hardly sleeping so Ive still not gotten caught up on sleep. I'm exhausted and totally unmotivated which, seeing as my husbands family comes in 3 weeks and you cannot see the floor of the pkayroom or boys room or hall connecting them, at all, thats just not good on my behalf. We won't even mention how the living room and kitchen are looking.
We had a few small expenses that were unexpected but hopefully won't go over budget this month. We did do a little more than usual also, because my sons teachers husband was diagnosed with leukemia last thursday, so we gave gift card for their kids to get dinner, donated to the schools fundraiser, to the gofundme another teacher started, and will probably continue to do those sorts of things for the next month or two. Shes a wonderful woman, with two kids, so concerned for her.
I got 3 more boxes of junque for our upcoming yard sale. I would love to find more, I just have trouble parting with stuff. Sigh.
Ohh but please...please cross your fingers for us!! The state might finally, after 10 years of nothing, give teachers a raise. Its small, but it would be so wonderful, just to help offfset the insurance hike I bet we get come September. Ugh.
Instead of Zyrtec, look into atorax as it's better for itching while Zyrtec is better for hives (least that is what our allergist told me). It seems to work better for us and you can stack it with the Zyrtec for double power. Hope your kiddo feels better soon.
DeleteAlso, look on Amazon and look up "Puriya Mother of All Creams". It has done wonders to keep Alvah's eczema nearly healed and the sub surface swelling is basically gone so it is just a matter of keeping the healing skin from itching too much and we might be in regression sometime soon!
Thank you, I will look into both of those right now!!
DeleteI forgot to mention, in addition to amazon Prime, we have Hulu too, it started off as a gift, now we are keeping it. Ill probably let it lapse over the summer, then pick it up again in the fall, so the kids play, not watch tv all summer. They spend too much time on youtube anyway! Its about $8 a month (i buy the gift cards, so no automatic billing) and theres a bunch of disney and nickelodeon shows on there for the kids.
Yeah, YouTube. I'm going to have to start plugging in shut off times on the daughter's kindle as she spends way too much time on YouTube. Mind you she's playing while she's watching it, but she really needs to be reading more and watching less I think.
DeleteI do so hope and pray your husband gets the job! Sorry about the strep! How's your arm?
ReplyDeleteIt's actually hot here in AR. I've planted a few seeds and plants in my garden.
We are on spring break this week. I, like Sarah, am a teacher, and though I don't expect a pay raise, I do have a nice break right now. Good luck to you, Sarah, on getting the raise. I'm sure you deserve it!
The arm has its good days and bad days. I've been pushing it slowly hut surely and am steadily, but slowly, getting flexibility in it. At least the shoulder is working a lot better, so I am down to getting my bicep to stretch out properly. Making slow, but steady progress.
Deletehope you keep heading better health wise... strep is no fun.. have thankfully only had it once, but that was bad enough.. you are still more then welcome to come dig up rhubarb any time when you're feeling better (and the ground thaws enough to actually be able to dig...)
ReplyDeleteI'll definitely take you up on the rhubarb. Waiting anxiously for Spring at this point :).
DeleteHaving had my share of strep throats and throat surgery when I was a young, stressed wife and mother, I suggest you eat yogurt to replace the good flora in your throat and gut, gargle with salt water, and, when your throat hurts, try liquid pain killer like liquid Tylenol that will coat your throat and, hopefully, offer some relief.
ReplyDeleteForgot to add be sure to toss your toothbrush and disinfect the toothbrush holder. Hope you feel better soon and that your husband gets the employment he is seeking.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Gail! Toothbrush is changed out, toothbrush holder sterilized and I'll be replacing everyone else's toothbrush today. And I'm definitely eating yogurt...learned that lesson the hard way a long time ago.
DeleteI think $12 per month is a "wow" savings. That's like $144 per year! We've been watching Prime stuff for about a year now. I don't think the selection is as good as Netflix, but if you don't watch a whole lot of TV it's fine. They have some BBC shows that I liked, plus some older movies that are pretty good.
ReplyDeleteWe don't watch TV really, so I can't say I'd miss that on Netflix :). You're right though, 144.00 a year is nothing to sneeze at. Thank you :).
DeleteSo sorry you have strep. It is not fun! Hoping for a speedy recovery for you and that the rest of the family doesn't get it. I agree change out your toothbrush and maybe everyone's toothbrush. Why is it that we get a little $ in our pockets and things like this come up? Also why do we get sickest when our regular Dr. is closed and have to use ER or Urgent Care? I think that might be a good chicken / egg solution for you if you can team up with your friend. Plus this year you won't have to shell out the $ and time to fix a coop. Where there is a will there is a way. I have a friend in KY that "grows" a garden at her friend's house. She buys seeds / plants and her friend who has a huge garden grows them for her. My friend has severe asthma and can't work outside during the spring / summer. So again - where there is a will there is a way for resourceful women! Hoping your husband gets the job he wants. Take care.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's like when you have money the universe becomes determined you spend it. I'm going to forcefully bank what money we have left for the gutters and pumping the sewer come summer and past that I am considering the tax return spent, period (the rest will go toward monthly bills). We got bills paid down and got one big one paid off (braces), got cats taken care of, got doctor visits paid for, got some things we needed (new bed for son, seeds, etc) and put money away for future maintanence concerns. I would say that was money well spent.
DeleteMan, it seems your household is in a constant state of illness (and I'm sure it feels that way to you, too!). I hope you feel better soon and I really hope your husband gets the job! Re: Prince...Do you regret getting a new cat with all the added expense? It just makes me nervous for you because he seems to be costing a lot of money that you can't really spare. Anyway, I hope the cats get better, too, and that everyone, human and feline, are all healthy at the same time!
ReplyDeleteI kind of do regret getting a cat from the shelter, but can't say I regret getting another cat as he's really helped to distract us a bit with Ginger being gone and having him and helping to take care of him has been a really good experience for my daughter. I wish I'd gotten a kitten from someone who had a litter versus getting a cat from the pound just because of all the illness and problems that seem to go hand and hand with the experience, but at least he seems to be better and he's turning out to be a good cat. We won't know for sure how good until hunting season kicks off this Spring, but I'm at least hopeful. Belkar, bless her, tries to hunt, but she really is not the sharpest knife in the drawer and has so far failed miserably as a hunter.
DeleteGetting the cat from the pound was a great idea. You may have saved his life :) Plus, I agree, with the loss of sweet Ginger, this is good for your WHOLE family.
DeleteLong time reader.
God Bless!
As much as it has cost you money to get him better, it probably would have cost more for a kitten. You would have needed to get all vaccines, then pay to get the cat fixed. If I remember correctly, you were able to adopt for a really good price, which included his neuter and first set of vaccines. And, as someone already pointed out, you probably saved his live. It is VERY hard to find homes willing to adopt a full grown cat, even if they are under a year. Everyone wants baby kittens! I think you've done well with this adoption, even if your timing wasn't the best.
DeleteYeah, it's true we did get a good price, neutering is a PAIN and it costs on top of vaccinations...yeah very good points. And he really is a good cat. The monetary hurting got to me for a moment there. The monetary hurting really just hurt because all three cats required medical attention at the same time, so timing wasn't great, but at least we got a cat at a good price, he now seems healthy as a horse *fingers crossed* and he's already trying to hunt birds out the window, so I have hope he'll be a good hunter. So, here's hoping!
DeletePrayers for your husband and a new job! My husband needs to find a new job. Or issue is our ages; he's 58. Being in construction, after a career in advertising, is tearing up his feet. I'm praying for both of us!
ReplyDeleteMy Mother, bless her heart, never, not once, took us to a Dr. when we had strep. With three younger sisters, we went through a lot of salt water. These days, I go to goldenseal for everything. It acts as an antibiotic; I can't recommend it enough. The creeping crud is going through the hardware where I work so I'll be drinking my elderberry syrup, spraying some colloidal silver and washing my hands raw.
Thank you for recommending Puriya; my youngest son may have a need for it. He's had skin issues for years that he's finally getting tired of taking care of on his own. (Plus, he makes himself and his mother CRAZY gooooogling a billion different things.)
I hope you have a fabulous week, now that you're all drugged up with antibiotics and feeling better! 🙂
Debbie