Frugal Friday: Money Saving Weekly Recap

Well, it's been a hectic week.  We went to see the psychologist early in the week and she upped Alvah's Prozac to see how he does once the medicine is completely built up in his system.  So far I'm kind of mixed on it.  On the pro side of things he had a GREAT week at school, had a decent day at therapy mid-week and seems relatively happy for the most part.  But, I have seen an uptick in him hitting on the higher dose of medicine, so I'm paranoid watching him to make sure the hits are mild and that he's doing it when he's genuinely frustrated.  So far, so good, I think.

Then in the middle of the week my husband's truck broke.  His windshield wipers keep coming off of their linkage and so he's been driving home in rain a couple of times and had the windshield wipers go out and would have to pull into a gas station to rig them back up to get home.  Well, in the middle of a downpour the wipers just went and wouldn't stay on the linkage anymore.  And while out trying to rig them so they might work he realized that he had an out headlight.  Since he has full lamps (basically full headlights) that need to be changed out he knew that if one went out the other one was soon to follow, so he wanted to get replacements for both.  And he needs a new muffler.  We knew that the truck was going to need maintenance, but weren't expecting it in the same week.  So, basically we are a one car family until we can get the truck fixed.  Luckily the husband works nights now, so I can still make it to Alvah's therapies and get the kids to school during the day.  Thank goodness we at least had that option available to us.

The chickens went to their new home yesterday and it actually went really well for a change.  Every other time I've moved the chickens it was basically a bad comedy skit with me chasing chickens all over the place, so this time I made sure to move them RIGHT before dark so they were all in the nesting box and kind of loogy, which made it a lot easier.  They seem to really like their new home, my sister-in-law is signing up her kids for 4-H and the kids have already named the chickens.  I'm glad to be free of the added financial responsibility, honestly.  I was starting to get better at cheap chicken keeping, but still the feed bill was really sawing at a threadbare budget, which caused me additional stress whenever I'd see a broody hen in the coop because I knew their feed consumption just doubled.

I heard from Shani and she at first thought that the prognosis was really good for her to recover to a point and be able to live for years.  They did the special scan for her cancer in California and found that it was all still in her liver, so they thought they could remove the tumors, get her on the right meds and she could live for years with a decent quality of life.  And then they did an in-depth MRI on her liver.  Her cancer is inoperable.  She has 40+ tumors in her liver and the doctor said if they waited another week it would be over 60 how the tumors are popping up and growing.  They also found that she had lesions in her colon in various places due to the cancer as well on further testing.  So, they are putting her on meds to try and stop the cancer from spreading so quickly and giving her injections and things to help at least give her a decent quality of life in the time she has left.  She's seeing a naturpathic oncologist who has her on a very restricted diet, so she's hoping that they can do something where modern medicine is failing.  So far she's already lasted longer than they said she was going to at first, so we'll see how it goes.

And yeah, between that and my daughter not sleeping this week (you read that right...THE DAUGHTER decided not to sleep and be louder than anything while doing it all week, which kept me up and has made me decently cranky at this point.  Grumble)...I'm tired and hoping that tonight I can get some sleep so I can at least get some of the things I wanted to get accomplished this week DONE tomorrow.

Now, onto the money saving things that happened this week!

1.  My daughter got invited to her friend's party again this year.  Her and this particular boy have been friends since we moved here and they met in first grade, so I try to make sure to at least get him something decent for his birthday (and he spoils her rotten for Christmas and things, so I feel terrible if I don't do something decent anymore).  This year, however, with the truck needing to be fixed, the mortgage NEEDING to be paid this week and all out of one paycheck and still have enough for gas and things for the next two weeks I knew money was going to be super tight, so I tried to think of an alternative to buying him something.

He loves Minecraft and Leggos, but I didn't have any reserve Leggo kits around like the one I gave him last year, so I tried to think of something I could make a young boy who liked Minecraft and Leggos with materials I had around the house.

After hours of scouring the internet and studying Minecraft (since I had NO IDEA what that was) I came up with a Minecraft sheep pillow (seen up top in all of it's "sheep like block glory") based on this example (I sewed mine, though, obviously).  I was going to try to make him a Creeper pillow (it's a green critter with black eyes and things), but I didn't have green material.  I had white muslin because I always have muslin and I had a tan sheet I'd bought to use for material to hopefully make my husband a few shirts out of, so I dug around and found some pink fabric for the mouth.  I didn't have black material for the eyeballs, however, that I could find anyway, so I dug out some permanent fabric markers (a used store find that was brand new from a quilting store that went out of business and I got them for .75 ages ago) and colored in the black with those, which worried me as it was pretty wet and smudgey and I was worried it would bleed if washed, but after talking to people who had used them before they basically told me not to worry about it as the markers were definitely permanent once dry (here's hoping).  It took me two nights to get done as I was doing it around chicken transfer and kids and things, but it got done.

It might not be the best Minecraft anything ever made, but my daughter helped me to fill it and she's super looking forward to giving it to him tomorrow at his party, so I know he'll love it even if it wasn't a dream gift he'd wanted to receive (he really has a super soft spot for my daughter and treats her really well).  HOPEFULLY he'll like it.  Fingers crossed.

2.  Shopping went minimal this week.  I went to the store and picked up the bare minimum of stuff (boy food really and some milk) to see us through the next two weeks.  I spent 65.00 for two weeks and I think I'll be okay with what we got until the next paycheck comes in.

3.  When my husband was looking for truck parts we went on Amazon and put together an order, figuring we'd have to wait a week until parts come in and then my husband went around and checked locally for parts.  By looking around locally he was able to find the parts he needed for the same price or cheaper than Amazon and we didn't have to worry about them shipping late or that they didn't ship to Alaska (it was surprising, but a nice surprise).

4.  When my daughter ran out of her favorite flavored water for school lunches and we were waiting to get paid earlier in the week, I asked her if she would be okay taking some pink lemonade or other reconstituted drink mix we had around the house for a few days.  She was perfectly okay with that, which saved us a trip to the store, which conserved the gas for the husband having to commute my car to and from Anchorage every day.  It also made me realize that there were more options on drinks to send in school lunches for the daughter, which makes me happy as variety is nice once in a while (and in the case of things like say, Tang, will also give her some added calcium and vitamin C).

5.  When the chickens really needed their bedding changed was about the time I realized things were going to get tight this week until we got paid, so I didn't go and buy bedding like I'd planned on.  Instead I took the advice of one of our blog readers and went out and collected leaves when we had some sun for a bit one day (I had to go out and mix them up a few times to stop them from being damp, but it worked!).  I think my neighbors might have thought I was nuts as I was running out to the driveway in between appointments to stir leaves around with a broom to make sure they were nice and dry.  But hey, other than labor the leaves were free and did help to freshen up the bedding in the coop.  Thanks to whoever gave out that advice :).

6.  I looked out my door this morning to see sunlight and went out and stood on my deck breathing in the cool, crisp air as ANY sunlight we are getting this year has been rare and wonderful.  I happened to look over at the rhubarb plant on the side of the house.  Remember the teeny tiny rhubarb plant I planted last year?  I thought it had gone to seed and was done early in the year (which I thought sad, but figured it was due to the temperature changes and things we had), but it must have been the variety of rhubarb it was, because I looked at it and did a double take as I realized the plant was HUGE compared to how it had been at the beginning of the summer!  I went out and harvested about 1/3 of the stalks as I want to make sure it's nice and well rooted for next year and such, but I got a big sink full of rhubarb from what I picked.  I now have another huge freezer bag stuffed full of rhubarb in the freezer (yay!!!).

7.  My husband desperately needed some new jeans.  Normally we buy his jeans at Sears because we found that the Lee jeans hold up okay, but the last couple of times we've been in the store Sears was out of pretty much everything and trying to find jeans in his size (and he's a decently common size) was really hard.  I was figuring on buying some from Amazon, but my husband came up with the idea to check the used stores first.  Normally I can't ever find his size at the used stores (like I said, common size, so they tend to be sold out of them), but we happened to hit at just the right time and found two pairs in his size!  So, hopefully they fit him alright (as they are brands different than he normally wears), but we shall see as they are in the dryer now.

I also hit the used stores earlier in the week in the hopes that I could find a small remnant of black fabric (as all I have in black fabric here is canvas and I didn't think that would work very well with the other materials I had for the pillow).  I didn't find any, but I did find a Anniversary release of "The Tigger Movie" and "Bambi" for 1.00 and it was 50% off day at the used store for kids things.  I was thrilled as both DVD's were in brand new shape when I checked them and I grabbed them with some pocket change for the kids stockings this Christmas.  Both movies we only have on VHS tape at the house and my daughter loves "Bambi" and my son likes "The Tigger Movie" so I think that will work out well for gifts for the kids.  Good to put a few things away for Christmas anyway as the time is ticking away.

Now I just need to run into "Toy Story 2" in good shape and my son will be really happy *laugh*.

8.  I darned a couple of holes in a pair of jeans of mine.  I have no idea how well it will work, but since it was in an inconspicuous location I figured it was worth a shot (wearing out on the inside of the legs).

9.  We put up Halloween decorations this week.  Both kids were thrilled.  It always amazes me that we use the same decorations year after year, most of them the kids made at school or we made here at home, and the kids love them more and more every year (or so it seems).  I was able to add a few new decorations that the kids made at school last year to the walls, which was fun.

10.  I took advantage of lifetime oil changes on my car this week.  We built this into the price of the original car loan and are allowed four oil changes a year over the entire time we own the vehicle.  As a result I've always taken advantage of the four oil changes a year, which hopefully helped to keep the car in decent shape, and since we paid the car off years ago it's definitely cost effective to have the lifetime oil changes on the car now.  While at the dealership waiting for my car I took advantage of free coffee and popcorn and worked on some of my projects that I wanted to work on this month.

And there you are folks.  Some of my frugal ways this week.  How about you?  How did you do?

P.S.  By the way the menu plan is coming, it's just late.  It was hectic this week and I just never got an opportunity to sit down and make one.  I'm hoping to do a week plus one tomorrow to see us through till week after next.  We'll see how tomorrow goes as I have a lot to do this weekend!