Monday, January 15, 2018

Frugal Friday: Money Saving Weekly Recap


It was a hectic weekend to be sure.  I was hoping to get my baking done in one day.  Yeah.  I'm still not completely done.  The son was a challenge all weekend long as he wasn't happy about not being out driving or out playing all weekend long.  We went out driving Saturday, but we were doing a balancing act to try and save gas and not spend money, but also give the son a fun outing.  I think we accomplished both, but we couldn't make a habit of it all weekend and the son wasn't happy about that.  So, dad didn't get much sleep and mom had a heck of a time getting baking done.

Bright side I did manage to accomplish some things.  I've just had to split it up all weekend, which wasn't in my original plan.  I was hoping to get all the baking done one day, clean the next and then catch up on laundry and mending today.  But here I am, still baking today.  I still need to get a couple more loaves of bread made (have plans for everything I'm making, so I really can't just say, "Eh, that's good" and move on) and a few other things, but at least I made progress.  Friday I made gingerbread cookies (still need to ice them, though) and rainbow chocolate pieces (think M&M's) cookies (from a Betty Crocker mix).  These will go into children's lunches in the coming weeks for treats.  Yesterday I made crumpets (couldn't afford English muffins in the budget this time around, so decided to make an alternative as I have plans for needing English muffins in the coming week in the menu plan), 2 loaves of German 3 grain bread (one will go into the freezer for use later), some rolls and a loaf of bread from the bread in an hour recipe (I added whole wheat flour to this batch to get more whole grains into everyone's diet). 

 I even made an attempt at pan de mie.  I used the King Arthur Flour recipe online...it was a fail on the rising front as it never got up to the point I could get the flat top on the loaf and it took FOREVER to rise in a very warm kitchen, unlike what the recipe said it should take.  I finally put it in to bake at 9:00 nearly in sheer desperation to just get it done and get out of the kitchen by midnight.  I want to try making the bread in an hour in the pullman pan as it should give me the light and airy texture I am trying for with Alvah, so stay tuned for that experiment and I'd like to give pan de mie another shot, but next time I'm using the recipe I book marked instead of trying to shortcut the long rise times involved (because it didn't work!).

So, I was juggling bread dough in various forms all weekend, while juggling a grumpy kid, dealing with my daughter's stomach cycling and me feeling like I was coming down with a cold (I still have a sore throat and am REALLY tired, so we'll see how that works out).  Not a lot of fun.  But, at least I'm getting there!

So, yeah, let's get onto the other adventures for the week!

1.  This was the first week where I made my list for the next two weeks and pooled my grocery budget to see if shopping for two weeks of groceries at a time was viable.   For the two weeks, so far, I've spent $91.00.  Not too bad as I know I'll have to buy milk and maybe another 12 pack of soda before the two weeks is over.  I was even able to get the husband some aftershave (he was out) and get enough cat food to last the rest of the month and cat litter as well.

2.  I had to run to my in-laws to get my husband's W2 for last year (still waiting on the rest of the tax documents to come in the mail so I can work on taxes) and quickly ran into Target to get tuna salad kits for the son for his lunches in the next couple of weeks (it's on the same road I take to the in-laws and very much on the way), since they used to be WAY cheaper than the other stores (like over 1.00 cheaper).  I found that the tuna salad was no longer so cheap that I would stop into Target to buy it there when in town, which was kind of sad, but I did still pick it up there as I was saving myself about 1.00 or so on all by buying it there.  I did not look around while I was there as I knew even if something was a good deal, I couldn't afford good deals, so it didn't fall into the category of a "good deal" at that point.

3.  My husband gave me a prepaid Visa card we had used toward car parts with 20.00 left on it so I could use it toward groceries if I needed to.  I am hoping to hold onto the card until we get paid again and use it to buy a big block of Tilamook cheese as the son has been eating a lot of it lately and since it's real food versus Cheetos, you bet I'm going to encourage that behavior!

4.  The headlight went out in my car.  We blow through headlight bulbs for that car to the point where we need to buy them in bulk.  I talked to my husband about it and since we can't afford to convert the car to LED right now (to help extend the life of the headlight bulbs) he told me to just get the basic bulb replacement instead of going for the more expensive bulb type.  Instead of nearly 40.00 for a bulb, I paid 14.00.  I was kind of down that the bulb chose this week to die on us, but at least it was a decently cheap fix.  The husband installed it over the weekend, saving us having to pay labor costs to someone else (I can NOT imagine how much we would have paid someone over the years replacing bulbs on that car.  It's nice to have a husband who knows how to do things :).

5.  I find that I really don't get to spend a lot of time with my daughter because my son is such a pull on my time.  I thought about it and came up with the idea that since my husband worked last night I could put the son to bed and then the daughter and I could stay up late watching the TV in my bedroom (a Christmas gift from my sister was a new Roku TV for my bedroom to replace our old TV that died a couple of years ago).  She was THRILLED with the idea and we had fun watching "Ever After High" for about an hour before we both ended up crashing (it was LATE by that point due to the pan de mie debacle).

6.  I introduced my daughter to "Lassie" yesterday and she's been having a blast watching the old episodes on YouTube.  I'm really glad that my husband and I have always  exposed her to old programming so watching things like Lassie in black and white doesn't bug her at all as it really has helped to expose her to a bunch of different movies and TV shows that she wouldn't have enjoyed otherwise.  I even explained how when I was a kid we had the old analog black and white TV in our house and she was utterly fascinated that you could watch color programs in black and white if you had the right TV *laugh*.  Sometimes it really does amaze me how far technology has progressed in just the last 30 years or so.  

7.  We gave the son a haircut this week.  Always fun as it takes one parent holding the child down (the husband) while the other parent (me) shears him with the clippers, but everyone is thrilled with how nice his hair looks now, and I'm just glad it's over and done with for a while *laugh*.

8.  We got the news on my son's yearly ski trip with the special needs programs through the schools.  Due to budget issues, we were concerned that the school wasn't going to do the ski trip at all, but they actually did cover the initial cost of the trip by having all the kids apply for a scholarship through the program that runs the ski lodge where the kids will be skiing.  We were going to have to pay a 30.00 fee to pay for bus fare however.  My husband had already decided this year that he was going to drive Alvah himself (as both of them did NOT enjoy the bus trip last year), so the school waived the 30.00 fee for the husband and son to go because they weren't taking the bus.  Since that's about 3/4 of a tank of gas in my car, we are definitely saving money this way.

9.  The kids had their dental check ups this week.  No cavities, both kids got high marks for having their teeth so clean (which with Alvah I honestly think it's more of a miracle than anything else, as brushing his teeth every night can be HARD when he doesn't want it done) and the son even got a punch balloon because he was so good during the appointment.  I always have huge amounts of anxiety coming up on dental appointments with the kids, especially Alvah as he has to be put under to get dental work done, so I was thrilled to hear good news!

10.  I am running out of sandwich bags and coffee and I knew that I wasn't going to have the money in the grocery budget for both the next couple of weeks, so I thought about it and decided I'd try to use reusable containers instead of sandwich bags (I usually use them to put Goldfish crackers and things in with the children's lunches) and I'd just make the coffee stretch as far as I could and then switch to tea when needed.  I've been using my coffee grounds to make two cups of coffee at a time versus one (which with store coffee leads to a kind of weak cup of coffee the second time around, but it's drinkable) and we shall see how it goes in the coming weeks.  

And there you are folks.  Some of the fun adventures we've had this week.  How did you do?

14 comments:

  1. Ericka, You breads look yummy! I made cinnamon rolls last week, they always come out good.
    Next on the list is dinner rolls and I want to try the 5 minute Artisan bread too.

    Glad to hear your kids had a good dental check up that is always a plus!

    I've been wanting to know about your Amazon affiliate link. Could you explain it to me and the link that is there now takes me to a page to buy a movie. I'm a little confused.
    I buy from Amazon on occasion and thought why not give you the points or however they do it.

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    1. Amazon changed the way they do the ads, so just go to the page they direct you too, ignore the movie they want you to purchase and just shop like normal. So long as you click through to Amazon through my link I'll get commission credit :). Thanks for thinking of me!

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  2. We've been doing this for several years. We have a reuseable coffee filter so it works....but on day 1, put the amount of grounds required to make the coffee you want. Do not remove the grounds and on day 2 put in half of the amount and stir the grounds up and then make coffee. Then, toss or compost the grounds. In our case, we use 7 scoops on day 1, and 4 scoops on day 2. I don't drink coffee and did it for several weeks and then asked the hubs if he noticed. He didn't. He is now retired and makes his own coffee and he still does it!

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  3. Wow! That’s a LOT of baking you’ve got there! Doing it yourself can be time consuming. You got a lot done, that’s for sure!
    I mostly tried to stay warm. We ate leftovers on top of leftovers. I’m still deconstructing a wool sweater. I got three movies from the library. I thought I could watch and deconstruct but that didn’t happen. My week was kind of meh...We did get sun for most of one day; that was huge! ��
    Debbie

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  4. All of your baked goods look so good. Your ambition amazes me. I have my moments - today I made potato soup, cooked potatoes to have later in the week with sauerkraut and kielbasa, and made the filling for chicken pot pies. I will assemble the pot pies later and add the crust before baking them. I need to do some baking. After Christmas we kind of tired of sweets, but some blueberry muffins sound good and they're not too sweet either. Maybe I'll get around to making some chocolate chip cookies later - I always use less sugar than the recipe calls for and neither my husband or I like too many chocolate chips, so I use half the amount. Still good cookies though. My husband wants me to bake chocolate chip cookies without the chocolate chips - heh. So, maybe some non chocolate chip cookies? Hope everyone is doing good - no sickness etc. I also have stretched my coffee similar to the way susanb does and no one can tell the difference unless it's someone who likes really strong coffee. Take Care - Ranee (MN)

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  5. Do you think grocery shopping every 2 weeks might save more than weekly? I do weekly, but since I menu plan, though I enjoy the weekly shopping, if it would save,more, I would try it!

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  6. We bribe my autistic grandson with cotton candy so we can cut his hair, but it still takes two of us. My daughter uses a clippers to cut his hair and I sit in a chair, facing him, hold his hands and tell him how good he is doing and how awesome that cotton candy is going to be. He used to hit and kick and we were all exhausted when we were done. I now gladly buy that cotton candy and don't care that it's pure sugar and bad for us. We cut hair every two to three months and it's the only time he gets it. Totally worth it.

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    1. Pure sugar, who cares! Glad the bribe works! Alvah takes off for the hills when he sees the clipper box. We used to have one of my barber trained sister-in-laws try and cut his hair, but he hated it and was getting to hate them when he saw them, so we went to the clippers. At least he doesn’t hold a grudge against his dad and I lol!

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  7. Glad to see things went well for you this week. I realize you need soda for your son. I suggest you read an article by frugalwoods blog about converting a soda stream. I think you may find the information about your choices and how to cut out the extra sugar and chemicals in soda. In addition they showed a cost analysis of their version (purchase plus continuing costs)and the cost of soda.

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    1. I’ have a Soda Stream that I bought years ago. I’ve tried every recipe I could find to try and recreate a Coke taste for him, but without all the bad add ins. Nothing has worked yet. Still trying. Right now he’s going through a phase where he refuses to drink out of anything but a can. He must watch you open it and you have to keep it in sight when you hand it to him or he won’t drink it. I was sneaking water into his cans. Obviously he caught on. I love him, but he’s one heck of a challenge. He has broke more than one feeding therapist in his time. At least with Shani working with him I can at least get him to lick things and then take bites out of food if I push it. One of these days he IS going to eat a regular diet. I am determined.

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  8. We have teeth brushing and hair cutting issues too. Our son has been having great dental check ups which we are great full for (and amazed at) since he also has to be put to sleep for dental work. Hair cuts work like this for us when I notice he Needs a haircut I start asking if he wants one, usually the answer is no, when he answers yes we get in the car and drive to his favorite walk in hair cut place and get it done. Sometime# we ask for weeks before getting a yes. Showering is interesting as well although since he got a waterproof speaker for Christmas showering has gone a lot better. There is nothing like a good loud dance party in the tub! Haha life is interesting on the spectrum.

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    1. Yes, life sure is interesting on the spectrum. Lol! Good for you to get your guy to take showers. Alvah can’t stand the water hitting him, so we are still on baths. At least he’s gotten to a point where he’ll sit in the tub and play in the water for a while. A LOT better for his eczema than the two minute in and outs he used to do.

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  9. All the bread looks wonderful! I used to bake so many baked goods, before I found out that I couldn't have wheat! Now I do occasionally make a gluten-free baked good, but always buy the wheat items. I love eating homemade baked goods! Way too much:)

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