Frugal Friday: Money Saving Weekly Recap

Wow!  Has it been busy this week!  The husband had Monday and Tuesday off (he took a furlough day one day and took a paid leave day for the other) and the kids had Monday and Tuesday off because of parent teacher conferences, so the beginning of the week was kind of full, but in a good way.  We went to an open house at the fire station on Halloween (I forgot to take pictures as we were pretty busy) and then I took the daughter trick or treating in a new neighborhood we discovered in the area, which was well lit, nice subdivision and it was basically one long street.  Since it was cold, wet and foggy, my daughter was doubly thrilled that her costume would go over a coat well.  Overall, we had a lot of fun, didn't get too much peanut containing candy (which I'm going to pull out of her sack and send in her lunch at school as small treats...I still need to do that...busy week) and my daughter got to hang out with another little girl about her age who was trick or treating on the same route we were.  And the son got french fries (McDonalds) and a long car ride, so he was happy too.  The kids got McDonalds.  The husband and I waited and ate left overs at home, which we were both okay with. We got home earlier than usual for Halloween (my daughter the last three years, insisted on dragging me through these meandering neighborhoods that required a lot of walking, a lot of wind in your face and not much candy overall), watched some Halloween cartoons and my husband and I got about 1/4 of the way through "The Changeling" (a Halloween tradition around here) before the husband totally crashed on me and had to go to bed.

But, yeah, after the kids were back in school and the husband was back at work, it was time for me to start trying to catch up on work around here. 

So, let's get to the rest of the week shall we?

1.  I made home made "Crunch" bars, cut them up, wrapped them in wax paper, put them in a freezer bag and stuck them into the freezer to eat as treats later (probably for Christmas since we were so busy doing other things Halloween, we didn't actually eat them).  A pic of the final product, before final freezer-bagging is seen up top.  Overall I got a ton of candy bars, so I was happy.  And the best part is that they are completely safe for the son's peanut allergy!

2.  Fred Meyer gave me free Oreo cookies for being one of their "Best Customers".  Since I've been spending about 100.00 per quarter at the store, I sure hope they have customers better than me *laugh*, but was thrilled with the freebie none the less as the son LOVES Oreos.

My husband and I went into town to see if we could fill a new script for him and while in town we stopped by Fred Meyer to get the cookies and just generally look around.  The store opened up it's new location last year and I've always been so busy that I've just kind of rushed through the food section and not really looked at the rest of the store.  It was kind of fun spending time with the husband looking around and I found a cool find!  My son LOVES blankets and throws (he wraps up in them, makes tents over his head with them...he has fun) and we've been trying to find one that was at least close to his favorite baby blankie that he's been attached to since he was born.  We actually found a clearance throw that felt close to the texture we were going for and I thought that it might work as a Christmas gift for him.  But when I looked at the clearance price it said 15.97.  I had just gotten done lamenting to my husband that I really didn't want to spend 16.00 on a blanket for Christmas the son might or might not want, when my eyes fell on the clearance sign and I realized that home clearance items were an additional 50% off!  8.00...that I could do!  So, we got the blanket and the free cookies and made our way (cookies seen, blanket not as that's currently hidden from seeking children *laugh*).

3.  Shopping went well this week.  The biggest find this week was definitely getting a big value pack thing of chicken drumsticks.  They are on sale for .97 lb this week at Carrs and they were 50% off on top of it!  So, I got a big value pack of drumsticks for 2.50.  I also got a whole chicken for 2.83 after 50% off discount and a package of boneless, skinless chicken thighs for 2.72 after discount.  Yay for cheap meat!  I even got eggs for .97 a dozen with a personalized price.

Overall I spent 54.00 on groceries this week, but a portion of that went toward getting some things out of the way for Thanksgiving that I knew would sell out pretty fast in the next week or so (like heavy cream), so I did plan for more in the budget to accommodate the extras.  I'll go more into that on the shopping goals post for the month later on.

4. I have been without a wall calendar all year, and honestly I've felt the pinch more than once as I LIKE having a wall calendar, but I didn't want to spend the money on one or waste the printer ink printing one off.  So, instead, I've been making my own...with some gaps in between when I got too busy and just forgot about it and relied on my phone instead.  This month I asked my daughter to do a quick drawing for Thanksgiving for the top of the calendar.  I thought it was cute, so I thought I'd share a pic of the calendar.  I told her it looked like the turkey god was going to either bless the meal or strike us down at the table.  She said it was because she loved turkey.  That works too *laugh*.

5.  I mended my husband's jacket that he's been using as a rain coat.  It was a real pain to repair as the outer fabric was a thin, lightweight nylon-like material, so it kept slipping as I was repairing it, but I got it done.  So, one raincoat repaired!

6.  I worked some new elastic thread through some of my old socks that are in good shape, but the elastic around the legs is going and so they keep slipping down while I'm wearing them and driving me crazy.  This is the first time I've ever attempted this type of repair, but I had plenty of elastic thread in my stores, so I figured "why not"?  We'll see how the repair does.

7.  I finally got my canning for the year completed (I hope).  Today I canned apple pear sauce (I wanted to try pear sauce, but also was worried it would be too strong tasting for the daughter's milder palette, so I combined it with apple sauce.  It worked great and it's pretty tasty! 

 I took the cores and peelings and some older apples, boiled them all together and made apple pear juice.  For a big pot of scraps, essentially, I got three quarts and one 10 oz jar of juice (or whatever size the smaller jar is).  None too shabby!  It tastes good enough to just drink it, but I am thinking of mulling it when I open it, like I like to do with apple cider and serving it as a hot drink this winter.  Either way, it's good!

8.  I gutted the master bedroom closet (see I told you I would *laugh*) and have been going through everything in the den so I can do it when my husband is sleeping.  I took a huge amount of donations to the used store with my husband (he carried the huge boxes *laugh*), which felt good.  I still have a bunch of stuff to go through (I'm trying to figure out how to adjust a full sized sheet into a twin sheet at the moment as I have some full fitted sheets I'd like to shrink down to fit the kid's beds) and I'll take donations to the used store as needed.  The winter gear I put aside that doesn't fit the kids anymore so I can donate those to the school nurse for needy families in the area.

9.   Got more insurance renewal paperwork done for the son, which I'm praying is enough to get us renewed for the coming year). 

Speaking of insurance, I got a reminder card for the son saying he was late for his dental cleaning.  I was confused as I was pretty sure the kids had been into the dentist later than last January (which is when the card said was his last appointment), so I called and checked.  Turns out that they had been in in June (I knew it!), which led to me talking to the receptionist about the kids upcoming appointment date in December.  I was worried about my daughter as I thought our insurance would only cover one dental cleaning a year, but it turns out that our insurance covers two cleanings a year, but only one set of X-rays (which we only get one of those done a year anyway).  So I was definitely happy to hear that!  I'm going to call the insurance company and confirm, just to be safe, but if it does cover that, yay!

10.  I took down the Halloween decorations and put up the Thanksgiving decorations yesterday.  We normally don't have many Thanksgiving decorations as the kids just haven't brought many home from school, but last year my son actually brought home a bunch, so between that and having my daughter do a few drawings, we're good on Thanksgiving decorations for the year :).

So, there you are folks.  Some of my frugal adventures for the week.  How did you do?