Frugal Friday: Money Saving Weekly Recap and Garden Update

Man, blogging is so late this week.  It's just been one looooonnnnggg week this week and I think blogging kind of illustrated that.

I nearly posted this as "Frugal Friday Fails:  Money Spending Weekly Recap" but it seemed kind of dark and self defeating sounding so I decided against it.  If you can't look at the bright side of things, life gets a lot more depressing.

But, I do have to go through the week, because trust me, this week was an interesting one.

So, let us first start out with *does the dramatic sounding "Dum, dum, duummmmm" sound of doom* The Saga of the Phone!

So, the cell phone I ordered from Amazon that I mentioned last time came in, me spending 18.00 to expedite ship it and the new phone case for it.  And it did come within 48 hours, so kudos to Amazon for that.

So, I went online to Tracfone and went to change over my old number and my existing minutes onto the new cell phone.  Now in the past (mind you my old phone is like four years old now) I would just have to walk through a process where you put in codes on one phone and on the other and looked a few things up via the directions online and voila!  The phone number and minutes would be switched over in like less than a half an hour.  This time you were supposed to put in your number you wanted to transfer, so I did, and got an error message telling me to call Tracfone.   Not knowing what was going on, I call Tracfone.  TWO HOURS LATER after numerous times being put on hold as the guy with the heavy Indian accent who mumbled really bad kept telling me he was "finding a solution to the problem", I find out that the bloody Tracfone doesn't work in Alaska!  Now mind you this phone is available in brick and mortar stores up here, including Target and Wal-Mart.  Turns out the new spiffy smartphone cells from Tracfone run off of Verizon and Verizon is up here but doesn't run THAT system up here.  Tracfone did 100% nothing for me as I angrily asked how in the heck I was supposed to get my money back for a phone that was a glorified brick because they had the GALL to ship this phone to states that didn't support them. 

I then called Amazon, who, once I explained the situation were kind enough to at least refund me my money on the phone once I ship it back to them (which means I had to go and pick up packaging tape to tape up the box and then I have to somehow find time this weekend to print off a bunch of labels in color to adhere to said box and THEN find a UPS Store on Monday and ship the phone back).  The gal from Amazon apologized for them selling a phone that didn't work in my state and that they had shipped it to Alaska...she was actually baffled, but I then explained it was 100% Tracfone's fault as Amazon wouldn't KNOW the phone didn't work up her, meanwhile Tracfone bloody well did.  Oh and I couldn't return the case on Amazon's dime because the case wasn't defective.  The gal tried, but the computer kept telling her no.

So, let's keep score shall we?  So far trying to get a new cell that would actually, you know, work, I was already in the red 25.00.

I then ran to Target the same day, because I NEED a phone that would work, and the guy at Target was, in all honesty, wonderful and awesome to deal with.  He walked me through all the pay as you go phones and tried to convince me to switch from Tracfone.  And I would have in a heartbeat I was so ticked of, except all of the other plans were a set monthly amount you'd get charged for a phone.  Now mind you they weren't bad and I actually found a good plan that would allow my husband and I to both get phones and share minutes, text minutes and data and only pay 50.00 a month for both of the phones for a decent plan (once we actually get ahead, I'm hoping to go and do that).  The only reason Tracfone got my business this time around was because I could still do the non-monthly pay as you go thing.  I even bought a smart phone minute card just in case with everything else that had gone wrong with Tracfone thus far.  And he also pointed out all of the Tracfones that wouldn't work in Alaska and said that they kept asking that they not be sent those phones, but they kept getting sent them anyway.  Figures.

I get home and walk through the online process and it states that my number should transfer to my new phone from anywhere from a few hours to a few days, but they stated it should only be a few days if you have something like a land line you want transferred to a cell phone.  Considering I was going from a Tracfone to a Tracfone, I figured a few hours tops.  I get a text on my old phone, which is BARELY working at this point, that the phone was going to be shut off at midnight and my new phone would be working at that point.  So, I go to bed with both phones plugged in and figure all will be well in the morning.

No such luck.

I wake up in the morning and my old phone is sure enough now shut off.  I find this out before the screen freezes up and it turns into a real life brick.  And my new phone still doesn't work!!!  Furious doesn't even begin to express the levels of anger I was feeling at that moment.  Thank goodness I couldn't set a corporation on fire with my mind.

I called Tracfone, went off on a rant and told them that if they didn't get the new phone turned on NOW that I was going to shove it back into it's package, return it to Target for whatever I could get and get a new phone through ANY other company.  And all I get after going on that rant is a gal with a heavy Indian accent saying, "I'm sorry you are disappointed with your new phone, allow me to connect you to the right person."  Get the guy in technical support, go on the same rant, and get another canned response from him.

Another hour on the phone with tech support and the minutes and texting were finally working.  The data took another three hours before it would work.  I even got a phone call to confirm the phone was working from Tracfone and the phone dropped the call.  Twice.  I found that ironic as Heck. 

But, yeah, I am NEVER buying a Tracfone again after this.  I'm done.  Totally done.  This was one of the most ridiculous experience I've ever run into in my life.

But yeah, after nearly a week of heartburn I finally have a phone that works. 

Then there was the husband.  He just wasn't getting any better and after missing three days of work this last week and him complaining about Urgent Care charging him and not giving him antibiotics, I took him back to the doctors yesterday.  He's now on antibiotics, nice strong cough medicine and nasal spray.  I pulled out the health insurance binder and found that our deductible was 250.00 per person and 500.00 for the family, so since the Urgent Care visit had been so much our deductible was met, so I went in with that knowledge and told them we only owed 20% of the doctor's visit.  Turns out that doctor's visits at mine and my husband's doctors office are up to nearly 400.00 per office visit (I couldn't BELIEVE it would be cheaper to go to Urgent Care than the actual doctor) and the 20% of the visit, after a credit we had on our account from overpaying, was still 72.00.  MAN!!!  So, yeah, there went another 100.00 (which at least my husband is STARTING to slowly feel better, poor guy!).   The only thing that was kind of scary about the visit was that his blood pressure was really high.  I kept telling the doctor that my husband had been taking WAY too much albueterol to try and breathe this week and I figured that was part of it, but the doctor was convinced it was probably due to the Sudafed that my husband insists on taking when sick.  So, we've got to go and get his blood pressure checked somewhere on Monday and see how it's doing (I'm going to try and convince him to stop by a pharmacy and have someone check it for him) and if it's not down he's got to go to a doctor and figure out what in the Heck is going on.  I just hope he's okay :(.

But, yeah, between all that, the kids starting school this week and the school district's "new and shiny, state-of-the-art online everything system" screwing up EVERYTHING, it's been a full week.  They had to retrieve my daughter from the bus one day and we had to get the kids pick up and drop off options straight (even though I fill in that on the registration forms EVERY year).  Then the medicine consent forms got way more complex so we had to fax things to doctors and get all kinds of stuff straightened out.  Top it off with my daughter getting the same teacher team she had in second grade which made the second grade year miserable (two hours of homework per night in second grade at least...I WAS burned out about 3/4 of the way through the year with that and them holding my daughter in from recess to finish work that they thought she should have had done, which led to a meeting, etc...it was not a fun year), so I'm nervous to how things are going to go this year.  So far she's assured the kids that they will only have  homework if they don't finish things in class, so we'll see how it shapes up in the next couple of weeks.  I'm praying it's not as bad as second grade anyway as with everything else I'm juggling anymore if there's like four hours of homework every night...to Heck with it she'll be homeschooled by the end of the school year.

The son had an appointment with his psychologist this week.  We talked about options for his OCD type of behaviors (he's been turning the inside of his bottom lip into hamburger for a long time now...the Stritera helped with that, but just didn't agree with him so we're looking at a different option), so we started him on a low dose of essentially Prozac.  Bright side is that she's had really good luck with the med helping with those things, but the downside is that we're looking at  six weeks about until the meds build up into his system and we start seeing results.  So, I'm praying we're on the right track and everything works and we're not wasting six weeks of our time.  Fingers and toes crossed.

To top everything off this week the local news station that did the work up on the drug treatment center going in next door called and asked me for a follow up interview.  I told them no.  I explained that there was no point in doing a follow up interview.  My concerns were definitely still there (actually by the way my concerns on their Facebook page were completely blown off, I'm even more concerned than I was), but at this point the community council thought it was a good idea for it to go in, the borough thought it was a good idea for it to go in and we'd exhausted all avenues we knew of to relocate the thing, so there was no point in doing an interview as it would just give the ruddy thing free publicity and I didn't want to do that.  So, yeah, they interviewed me anyway it turns out.  They did a big story on the treatment center that night and they just used the whole of the original interview I did months ago.  So, the next day I ended up getting some dirty looks from a few people as I was out and about and a lot of people coming up to me and saying, "I saw you on the news!" and a LOT of them were furious that the treatment center was going in where it was and that the local news stations didn't do a big story on it ages ago so they could protest the center going in equal distance (and easy distance at that) from three schools.  So, yeah, I wasn't pleased that the news gave the center yet more coverage at this point and used me to help, but not a lot I can do about it at this point since they reused old footage.

So, anyway, in the middle of the stress and panic of the week, I did manage to actually get some things accomplished. 

1.  A pregnant lady who was a friend of a friend of mine asked for help harvesting potatoes as she is nine months pregnant and on pretty strict rest due to a kind of hard pregnancy.  My friend called me and asked if I could help her dig the potatoes as she had twisted her ankle the night before and she could use the help.  Since I had an hour window in between other things I was doing, I gladly gave her an hour.  The ground was so wet I was worried it would be hard to dig the potatoes (not ideal and both my friend and her friend both knew it, but the potato plants were getting blight so she wanted to dig the potatoes before they were affected), but it actually went rather well.  The gal we dug the potatoes for cured them in her garage for a few days under a fan (or something...my friend wowed me with the details, but for the life of me I was so worried about getting Armina off the bus I didn't hear half of what she was telling me) and my friend handed me a bag of potatoes as the gal had given her a big bunch of potatoes as a thank you for doing the work and she wanted to make sure I got some.  I was happy to accept them as I was going to need potatoes here soon, so that worked out (the potatoes are seem up top there).

2.  My mother-in-law called me and said that some freeze dried snack packs I'd asked her to add onto her next order had come in in the hopes the kids would eat things like freeze dried yogurt and things for a snack (still trying to get them to try them, but we're getting there).  I managed to stop by to pick them up and she told me to not worry about paying her back for them (thanks, Stacey) and I got to sit and visit with her for quite a while, which was a fun time.  She even let me pick over her raspberry bushes again.  Between what I got from her bushes and mine I'm up to two freezer bags full of raspberries now (woohoo!!!).

3.  The son grew again suddenly in the torso and his fall jacket was riding a bit high.  I looked over the jacket and figured out I could let out the bottom seam and add onto the jacket by a few inches while I looked for a new jacket for him, so I picked out the seam and did a quick extend on the jacket with some blue nylon that I had (that actually was so close in color you could only tell it was there if you really looked at it).

I found a replacement jacket on Land's End in their clearance and found a code for 30% off your order while I was on their site, so I used the code on the jacket, which actually paid for the shipping plus a dollar or so.  All totaled I spent 27.00 on a new jacket for him and it should be in the mail in the next couple of days.

4.  With my husband's new job he's shaving every day and had finally blown through all of the razors I had accumulated in my couponing hay day.  I went and explored all the options and finally signed him up for the Dollar Shave Club.  He, so far, likes the razor and every month he'll get four refill blades shipped to him, so that should take care of his razor needs.  And it's a LOT cheaper than going through the stores for razor refills, for sure!

5.  I made a recipe that called for green onions.  I subbed out chives as my chive plant has definitely recovered from when I harvested on it earlier in the year.  It worked great and I was out no money for doing it :).

6.  Grocery shopping went well this week, especially since we were waiting on three of my son's meds to get delivered so I was at the pharmacy at LOT this week between my husband and my son's meds, so I could have gone over shopping pretty easy if I'd slacked off thinking about it.  I managed to get a good deal on beef roasts as Carrs has them on sale this week for 2.99 lb, so I got three.  The more broke we've gotten the more I've gotten to liking beef roasts vs. steaks as the beef roasts go so much further and can be turned into a lot more dishes.

7.  I used some clear nail polish to fix a small tear in my daughter's umbrella caused by an overly enthusiastic cat who thought it would be fun to crawl into it until it started opening and panicked.  It actually worked rather well.  I was nervous about it as I was worried the chemicals in the nail polish might melt the material in the umbrella (because who KNOWS what's in nail polish really).  So far it's holding up well and it cost me nothing to do the repair.

8.  I took some bolted lettuce one day for lunch that was really bitter tasting and instead of eating it cold, I actually took it and prepared it like you would a really bitter dark green (boiled it briefly in some chicken broth and then sauteed it in some garlic and olive oil).  It actually worked and I ate the "lettuce saute" for lunch one day :).

So, yeah, I'm sure there is more there, but I'm really shot energy-wise right now and I'm praying I'm not fighting off my husband's cold, so let's get to the garden update!

I went out today when we had a bit of sunlight to do the part of gardening I hate the most.  Basically I'm not an expert so I end up having to pull up a few veggies with the root vegetables to see where they are growth-wise, so I get a better idea of when I'll need to harvest them.  I always hold my breath and pray before I pull them out, hoping that everything is going okay below ground where I can't see.

The turnip I pulled was depressing.  There's definitely bug damage on the root where things have munched on the turnip while it was growing and for the size of the greens the root was still awfully small...I'm hoping that now that the weather has gotten cooler maybe I'll see better progress on root growth.  But, yeah, I'm not sure how well the turnips are actually doing overall.  At least I know if they don't do well I can go to the you pick farm and pick some, but I'm really hoping to avoid that expense. 

The carrots though I went to just thin some out and figured if I had some baby carrots I could throw them into stew and they'd be yummy.  I was REALLY surprised at the size of the carrots that were coming off of even the little greens I was pulling!  So, I'm hopeful that the carrots are jetting right along, anyway :).  I did pull the volunteer carrots from the beets and the corn patch as the carrot in the beet row was right up against a beet and I had so few beets actually germinate that I want to give the beets every opportunity to grow and the one in the corn patch was getting run over by the cat as he was going to eat grass every day so I just wanted to pull it up and give the poor thing a break *laugh*.

I also harvested a few green beans and a few peas from the garden this week as well.  And I harvested the few remaining chard plants as they were going to bolt...and they were tiny...disappointing!  All of them went into a bag in the fridge and my plan for them is to go into a beef pie next week.

So, there you are folks.  My week in a nutshell.  How did you do?