Friday, November 9, 2018

Frugal Friday: Money Saving Weekly Recap


Well, this is really, really late following the other post that was really, really late.  Good reasons for it though, so read on!

First up, be prepared as the recap of the past couple of weeks is probably going to be a lot longer than the actual frugal recap part of this post.  Why?  Well, reason number one is we've been sick for the last two weeks, nearly straight, so I don't have a ton to report.  It's like we couldn't kick the cold we've all been suffering from.  We'd feel good for a few days and then wham the cold symptoms would come back.  Alvah woke up Wednesday this week with a TERRIBLE cough and suffering so badly that I took him to the doctor just to make sure his lungs were clear.  Honestly I was half expecting antibiotics would be needed.  No, we learned something that was actually a bit more depressing than finding out your kid needs to be on antibiotics. 

Turns out that there's a new virus running around.  Our pediatrician, when the first wave of sick kids came in with cold symptoms that had lasted more than three weeks, got worried and ran a bunch of kids in for a barrage of tests to try and figure out what was going on.  The test results came back the same on all of the kids.  They had an adrenal based virus and everything else came back clear.  So, what is the fun that comes with this lovely virus?  Well, how about cold symptoms that don't go away.  For two to three MONTHS! 

So, we're thrilled as can be with the news.  Really.  Sigh.

I just wanted to pass the news along to everyone, though, because if this is running around up here that means that if it's not in your area it's heading your way. 

So, yeah, we've spent a lot of time the last couple of weeks with the son home sick from school feeling miserable on the bad days and then when he was in school (or even when he was home) I have been super duper busy with tons of stuff to do (all the while TRYING to fight off this thing).  I've had tons of paperwork to do for the school and for TEFRA renewals (tis the season) and stuff, so trying to do that while feeling kind of yucky has been a challenge.

Whenever I've had a second I've spent it in the garage trying to get it cleaned out so we can put vehicles in it instead of it just being full of stuff.  I've made decent progress and was hoping the husband could help me with some of the stuff I'm not sure what to do with, but he's been fighting the cold/virus the last couple of days so not a whole lot has gotten done on that front (he's trying though).  It's frustrating as it seems like we just can't get things done without something getting in the way anymore.  I still need to get winter tires put on my truck and haven't had a chance to do that either.  Ugh.

Oh and by the way we DID finally see a snow plow.  The day after election results were final and we got a new governor in office suddenly a plow went down the highway in front of my house plowing mainly bare pavement by that point and today, after the warmer weather today had finally started putting some holes in the ice skating rink that my road had quickly become we had more plows go down our road than I saw on our road all last winter.  It was ridiculous.  They not only tried to plow us in with a ice wall (I swore they were trying to build the Great Wall of China out of ice they went up and down the road so many times) at the end of our driveway but then they'd go down the road, spread salt and sand, and then go down 20 minutes later and PLOW THE SALT AND SAND UP!  I've spent a good portion of my day staring flabbergasted out my living room window.

Which leads us into our list for frugal things that happened the last couple of weeks!

1.  We did the ultimate free thing that makes a difference in your life and the life of others.  We voted.  I stayed up way too late that night waiting for our polls to close and votes to be tallied to make sure the state wasn't going to continue down it's current path or worse.  Hopefully things will improve up here now under the new leadership.  I can pray.

2.  When cleaning the garage I realized that the small window we had was going to be uncovered when I got everything out from in front of it.  I didn't want to leave the window uncovered (crime up here is really bad due to a really BAD law called SB91..see above about new leadership being desperately needed) so I went into my fabric stores, found some thicker fabric and took some thumb tacks to make a make shift curtain for the time being.  I'm hoping to make a small curtain rod out of something and put up a bit better curtain in the future, but for now the curtain looks pretty good (I'll try to take a picture for next week's post :).

3.  I made sure to purchase things on sale when we went shopping last week and was happy with how little was spent when it was all said and done.  The guy who was in line behind my husband and I even congratulated me on how much money I saved.  I actually found it kind of funny as that hadn't happened to me since my super couponing days *laugh*.

4.  We made a big batch of Halloween sugar cookies, which the kids had a lot of fun decorating the cookies (and also eating the cookies *laugh*).  The kids are finally old enough and the son loves the cookies so much I'm thinking that I'm going to have to make a double batch of Christmas cookies this year :).  I can't believe how thrilled I am that my son will actually EAT home made cookies...sure only sugar cookies at this point, but I'll take it!!!!

5.  Instead of buying chocolates for Halloween (which is REALLY expensive if you go for peanut safe chocolates), I instead melted some chocolate chips (I buy some at the store that are safe for the peanut allergy) in a make shift double boiler (I use my 8 cup Pyrex measuring cup as it fits over one of my pans perfectly and just melt the chocolate in that while it sits over the simmering water in the pan) and poured the melted chocolate into Halloween chocolate molds I already had.  The kids have enjoyed them and it saved me a TON of money making the chocolates myself.

6.  I took down the Halloween decorations and while I was at it I went and kept up the ones that would work for Thanksgiving.

7.  I, while cleaning the garage, had to put stuff out in storage, so I cleaned up the massive collapse we had in the storage van.  All it took was my time to get it done and I felt good about it as the Christmas decorations and tree were stuck behind the cave in, so it will definitely save me time later getting it done when I did (and while it was actually somewhat light out, so I could see better too).

8.  I added water to a bottle of shampoo and a bottle of hand soap to make the bottles last a little bit longer.

9.  I took a small amount of credit (it was less than 2.00) I had with Amazon and bought my daughter a Christmas gift with it, as I found a seller that sold a piece of jewelry I had been wanting to buy for her with free shipping (even to Alaska) for super duper cheap compared to other sellers AND they had a good reputation on Amazon with thousands of reviews so I figured they were safe to order from.  I quickly found out why the gift was so cheap through them.  Turns out that the gift got shipped out from China (wasn't overly thrilled at that, but by the time I realized that it was shipping from China it was too late to cancel the order or anything).  The item was so cheap to purchase and was taking so long to get here that I figured that it might not come at all.  The item took over two months to get here, but it did INDEED get here last week.  Took me by surprise when it came.  I'd actually forgotten I ordered it by the time it came in (oops).  So, yay for one Christmas gift being out of the way for super cheap (I'd say what I got her, but she reads over my shoulder from time to time so I don't want to wreck the surprise *laugh*).

And yeah, I'm calling it good there as I am really running down here, the son crashed early (best possible thing to help him build up some type of resistance to this thing) and before the sinus headache comes back I'm going to bed.  How did your last couple of weeks go?  Well, I hope?

4 comments:

  1. I'm pretty sure we've got that same virus here - notes came home from the school nurse this week and I am really hoping that it doesn't land at our house! You've done so well with all that going on - Hurray for cleaning up and out and better organization. I'm always surprised how good it makes me feel when that's done and that we can do that without spending money.

    Your snow plow comments made me giggle - we live in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro and a few years ago the plow situation in St. Paul proper was so bad that they actually fired the person in charge after the city ended up in a rather large pickle in terms of clear roads! In a way it was quite funny, you would be driving in perfectly clear (and I mean clear - smooth, dry pavement) in the suburb coming in and then hit the boundary and it looked like the roads had been turned into an ice skating rink. Side streets were completely impassable and the fire department was having issues arriving places. Totally ridiculous! I understand budget "stuff", but when you live in an area that has snow and ice, you should plan accordingly!

    We have the same coasters you have in the photo at the top! They're great!

    Prayers that the virus leaves quickly!
    Lea

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  2. Erika, it sounds like the virus my niece and I have had. We live in Washington state, so its definitely in the Northwest corner. I can imagine living with all of the snow you guys have around must make things a bit more miserable. Cold and damp, but it is pretty! I hope you and your family get over the nasty bug soon. Take care! Cheryl

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  3. Oh, boy, let's hope the cold I just caught isn't that! I cannot see how anyone has time for that--as if we have a choice:)

    I have been buying several of the holiday sale items at the grocery store, and have gotten my first turkey at 47c/with $50 purchase. I hope to get at least one more, maybe 2, and would rather have more than one at a low price than have to buy $150 worth for an entirely free one. I got free instant mashed potatoes and 8 oz baggies of cheese for 99c/each. My best deal I bought from the Whoo-Hoo rack was some boxes of packets of steel-cut oats. They were marked down to $1.59 and there was a $1.50 Ibotta rebate on them. I bought the 5 allowed, and my end price was 9 c per box. I am sharing a couple of boxes, and we have already eaten 1 packet. There was no salt of sugar in them, so I'm thinking they are pretty healthy, and those things were easy to add. I was happy to add a small amount myself than have to eat the large amount that is often added to those kinds of products.

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  4. Judging by how sick some friends have been - and how long it has held on - it sounds as though that virus has hit here as well. Hope it eases up soon so that you get some energy back and feel at least a bit better.
    We've had some snow flurries already and it looks as though there may be a few more tomorrow - it has also been very wet and windy so very much November weather.
    I purchased my Christmas cards & a few other Christmas items on sale last week so I hope to get the cards written this week. I don't do many Christmas gifts now - friends have all decided on consumables and books - nothing else as we all seem to be in purge mode at the moment. I don't see family very often as they all live out of town and I don't drive but I will be seeing a niece, her family and my stepmom next weekend - and may travel to my brother's for Christmas this year so I've been thinking about what to do. I've decided to go through my Safety Deposit Box and pull out some of my my jewelry to gift to 3 great nieces - I don't have any children and it seems a shame to have it hidden away. These are little ones so the gifts will be a set of pearls that I received as a child, a locket and a bangle.
    I have started some baking and getting things put away into the freezer so I'll continue to do that. I will have to get in some more baking supplies this week but luckily my local No Frills store has them on sale this week!
    I honestly don't know where October went - I'm hoping that November slows down at least a little bit!

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