One of these days things will stop happening and I'll be able to get back to a regular blogging schedule. Sigh.
My dad used to say that there was an
old Chinese curse that went something like, “May you live in
interesting times.”
Boy, am I feeling that right now.
Week before last started out pretty
productive and I really felt like we were on the upswing, finally,
when it came to life throwing us unexpected curve balls and was
hoping that we could finally start moving forward and getting things
done.
Then last Monday happened.
My husband was sitting at a red light
on his way home from work when a fully loaded dump truck side swiped
his car and damaged another car. Thank GOD no one was severely hurt
as that truck could have literally driven right over the top of a
smaller car (such as the one my husband drives). It's a miracle that
no one was severely hurt, or killed, in the crash. Our car took the
most damage and the passenger side of the car is pretty much gone, so
it was towed to the same body shop that did our car when we got rear
ended a few years back.
So, the last couple of weeks have
been anything but productive on the home front. We've had calls from
insurance companies, loads of paperwork to fill out for the police
department and others, calls to the body shop to see if they have
done any under body exploratory on the car yet (SO far it looks like
the side of the car will need to be replaced and we'll need a new
tire, but it's repairable, but we're not sure what damage might be
hidden in the frame underneath when they start tearing the car apart
to fix it, so we're in a holding pattern waiting for news), visits to
the chiropractor for the husband (he sprained his neck in the crash)
and other things. Thank goodness for full insurance coverage on a
vehicle as Geico has been really good about everything.
On my part, I have been doing
everything in my power the last bit to show my husband how much I
love him and how much we appreciate him. I keep going back to how
that accident could have gone and am just so grateful my husband is
still here. We are both just kind of worn out feeling right now and
tired of having to jump from one crisis to another, but I got the
back up vehicle we have insured until we can get our other car back
on the road so my husband has something to drive back and forth to
work. We have rental on our insurance policy but they only cover up
to 50.00 per day for five days and then you have to start fighting it
out over the rental fees. Since we are going to be without a car for
at LEAST two weeks as we wait for parts, I just didn't see the point
in fighting about it when I can insure the car for about 100.00 per
month, full coverage (which is a lot cheaper than 50.00 per day) and
we'll see if we get our other car back or if it ends up getting
totaled for one reason or the other.
So, yeah, monthly goals got pushed
aside and shoved into a box marked, “later” until everything with
the accident is taken care of and things. I'm still hoping to get a
few more things on my “to do” list done, but we'll see how it
goes.
On top of everything, my hips have
really been giving me problems the last bit, especially my right hip.
They ache during the day and when I lay down at night they start to
really bug me to the point I can't sleep. This is one of those
things where I'm pretty sure this was a self-inflicted condition
which I knew would come to haunt me one day. Basically, I have a
special needs son. For a long, long time he was a flight risk and
the only way to keep track of him and to keep him calm when doing
things like waiting for my daughter after the bell rang and stuff was
to pick him up and hold him on my hip. When he was little it wasn't
that big of a deal, but as he got older, and taller and I was
carrying around an 80lb plus kid on my hip for quite a while, I knew
that it would effect me later in life. But, I didn't see anything
else to do at the time, so I willingly decided that I would pay the
price.
I don't regret the decisions I made at
the time, but now I need to go to a doctor and see what I can do to
help it as much as I can. Hopefully I can stave off things like hip
replacement surgery and things later by tackling the issue early. I
can hope anyway. At the moment if I can figure out what to do so I
can at least sleep at night, I'll be happy. Wish me luck there.
So, let's get into more frugal matters
as I don't want the post to get too depressing or something.
1. We got our septic pumped! I was so
relieved to get that done. We'd gotten a recommend to definitely do
it after the earthquake to make sure the septic was in good shape and
to pump out things that ended up going into the system post
earthquake as well (like broken glass and things), so I finally just
made the appointment and we got it done. Our septic tank looks to be
in good shape and our leech field is doing well, so I was super happy
to hear that. I also now know how much, approximately, it will cost
to get the septic pumped in the future (about 200.00) so hopefully I
can put that money aside to get the job done every two years (which
was what the guy recommended with the size of our septic combined
with the size of our family). Always good to have numbers to work
with instead of dreading how much things will cost when you get them
done.
2. I was on Amazon one day and was
amazed when I pulled up my shopping cart to find that one of the
“price changes” they notified me about was boy's underwear in my
son's size for 2.00 per package of 7! And they were not add on items.
You could only order a max of three, but boy did I do that as my son
needed underwear. And the full order actually came, more's the
miracle! Usually when I run into a deal like that, that is too good
to be true, I end up getting sent like one pair of underwear per
order and then have to get my money refunded and stuff. So, now my
son is good for underwear for a little bit and I paid less for three
packages than I would have normally paid for one.
3. My son's back pack started to fall
apart, so I decided to see what I could find for clearance sales on
Pottery Barn Kids for a new lunch box and back pack (as my son has
been using an old lunch box of his sister's and he's not been overly
happy about the pink lunch box with butterflies on it). I found some
really great deals and went to check out and was really sad to see
that the
“free shipping” that used to apply for those items to Alaska as well as the Lower 48 was no longer honored for Alaska and I was looking at 10.00 per item to ship them up here. I refused to do that and ended up going through LL Bean (I would have gone through Land's End instead, but I saw some of their back packs in Sears a bit ago and wasn't impressed with the quality) and getting a clearance lunch box and a back pack on sale. Even at higher prices it was still cheaper than Pottery Barn kids would have been. I'm sad that Pottery Barn did that with the shipping as I really liked their items, but such is life. The new back pack and lunch box are not the quality I remember from LL Bean growing up, but they'll do for a while. At least they guarantee their items for a year (which is sad that they don't do the lifetime guarantee anymore, but a year is better than nothing), so if the zipper or seams go I have some recourse to getting a replacement.
“free shipping” that used to apply for those items to Alaska as well as the Lower 48 was no longer honored for Alaska and I was looking at 10.00 per item to ship them up here. I refused to do that and ended up going through LL Bean (I would have gone through Land's End instead, but I saw some of their back packs in Sears a bit ago and wasn't impressed with the quality) and getting a clearance lunch box and a back pack on sale. Even at higher prices it was still cheaper than Pottery Barn kids would have been. I'm sad that Pottery Barn did that with the shipping as I really liked their items, but such is life. The new back pack and lunch box are not the quality I remember from LL Bean growing up, but they'll do for a while. At least they guarantee their items for a year (which is sad that they don't do the lifetime guarantee anymore, but a year is better than nothing), so if the zipper or seams go I have some recourse to getting a replacement.
4. I found some curtains at the used
store that would actually span the distance across my window in my
bedroom (we have windows that are like 3 feet high by nearly 6 feet
wide, so they are difficult to fit). I had to buy four panels (which
were each like 90” high...they pooled on my floor from my ceiling
when I was measuring the length of the window, which was impressive
to say the least) to make sure I'd make the length without coming up
short and the curtains had large metal rings built into the curtains
which wasn't going to go with my curtain rod. So, I knew I had some
creative sewing to do. I cut off the metal rings on the top of the
curtain panels and then sewed the curtain panels together by twos to
make two larger panels out of the four. I then measured and folded
the curtains over at the height I wanted as the curtains were kind of
thin and I wanted to get as much insulation and light blocking
capabilities out of them as possible. I then sewed a new top onto
the curtains for the curtain rods to fit through and thought, “Yay!
I'm done!”
Then I went to hang them up and
realized that there were thin parts in the curtains, like they had
been up against a heater or something that wore them down a bit on
the liner side. I knew that the curtains would be weak at those
points and wanted to mitigate against it, so I decided to sew in my
own liner into the curtains. I looked through my fabric and found a
lighter blue fabric in my stores that would work for the height and
lengths I needed. I sewed the liner onto the back side of the
curtains and then hung them up. I took my old curtain rod system
apart. It was an old track system where you pulled the cord and it
would open and close the curtains for you...in theory, but it never
worked well. I removed all of the track system hardware from the
curtain rods and then hung them back up and just reused the rods,
which worked perfectly.
I have to say that the finished
curtains are not my dream curtains by any stretch, but they work,
only cost me about 12.00 for the materials (the curtain panels were
3.00 each) to put together, they don't look like hotel curtains
(which, I swear, the old curtains were old dark beige hotel
curtains), they aren't falling apart (which the old ones were) and
they do lighten up my bedroom a bunch, so I am happy with them.
5. For Father's Day my daughter really
wanted to get my husband a gift. Instead of spending additional
money (which we really didn't have) I suggested we make him cookies
and a card instead. She was thrilled with the idea and my husband
loved the gifts. We went out to dinner a few days before Father's
Day to celebrate the day early (since my husband works nights and
would be asleep for a good portion of Sunday) and used a gift card my
Mother-in-law had gifted us to help pay for the event. We had a lot
of fun.
6. The last time I bought a bulk thing
of flour, I was thrilled and kind of surprised to find flour in an
old fashioned cloth sack versus paper AND it was cheaper than buying
the bulk thing of flour from our local bulk store. I bought the
flour, emptied it into my bulk five gallon bucket for flour storage
and then washed and dried the sack. The sack shrank significantly in
the dryer, but it was still large enough to cut the seams out of it,
hem the edges and turn it into a really nice flour sack towel to use
for the kitchen. For about 20 minutes worth of work I thought it
turned out really well!
7. I used up leftovers and started to
work on a detailed inventory of my freezers to figure out what we
needed to use up. I've been rotating out anything old and will worry
about replacing them with newer stock when sales come up later. I'm
overall pretty happy with what I'm finding in the freezers as nothing
has been too terribly freezer burned, nothing has been super duper
old and worrisome about how good of quality it is or anything like
that. So, I'm glad that I'm getting better about using things up as
needed to stop things from getting buried too long in the freezer.
8. I made menu plans and stuck to
them, which it has been nice as I feel a lot less stressed about
dinner when I have a plan of action in place. It has also helped
with the plan to use up older stock in the freezer as well because I
know what I'm having a few days down the road and am able to get meat
in the defrosting drawer in the fridge (I turned my bottom crisper
drawer in my fridge into a meat defrosting drawer. This keeps cross
any cross contamination that might occur from meat juices contained
to the drawer so I can just pull the drawer out, wash it and replace
it without worrying about any meat juices getting onto other food.
9. My Amazon card statement came in
and I found that I had a decent amount of reward points available to
spend. Instead of putting it toward my card balance (which was
actually turning into a nightmare trying to get it to apply), I went
and spent the money to buy my husband an anniversary gift and a
birthday gift. I let him pick the gifts from his wish list, so he
knows what he is getting, but we ordered him some tools he has been
wanting to get for around the house and for different side projects
at work and things, so he is happy. I was even able to order him a
book I've been wanting to get for him that he doesn't know he will be
getting and I spent next to nothing out of pocket to get them after
the rebate was applied. Now I can concentrate on getting the bill
paid off in the following months.
10. I have been teaching my daughter
more domestic skills around the house and have been really happy with
her progress learning to do things like laundry (she already knew how
to fold, but is finally big enough to switch the laundry from the
washer to the dryer and start a load of laundry in the washer and
such), taking care of the cats, doing the dishes and things. The
side benefit of teaching her these things is that the house is
cleaner and I'm not so exhausted all of the time trying to do
everything that needs to be done. And I'm grateful.
I'm still hoping to start her on sewing
and cooking this summer as well. It's been rough trying to teach her
things when she was smaller as Alvah took up so much time and energy,
so I am glad that she's picking up the skills quickly and we're
moving forward at a good pace :). My husband keeps trying to
convince her to let him teach her how to fix a car, change a tire and
other skills that would definitely be beneficial to know, but so far
she's fighting him as she has always hated getting too dirty and the
idea of messing around with a car just puts her into full rebellion
mode. He has, however, gotten her to start driving the lawn mower
and mowing the lawn, so he's sneakily getting her to at least start
in on pre-driving skills.
11. Carrs has been giving me some
major bonus gas reward point opportunities, like spend 90.00 in one
shopping trip and I get 4 rewards automatically types of things on
top of just plain giving me four times the fuel rewards for a week on
shopping trips. As a result on our big shopping trip for two weeks
worth of groceries we ended up with like 14 fuel rewards in one week.
I cashed in, I think, like three of them and got a free 24 pack of
water, which went into the emergency water storage. I cashed in a
few more to get 3.00 worth of free produce. Which, combined with a
personalized price of .61 on bananas last week and some personalized
prices on melon and things, resulted in a pretty decently cheap
produce bill.
12. I made a frugal recipe my mom taught me to make when I was a young kid one day a couple of weeks back when the weather was set to be hot and I knew no one would want me to turn on the oven. Behold! Krab Meat Salad! I'll try to find time to share the recipe in the next couple of days if I can. This is one of the few recipes on the planet that calls for imitation crab meat (thus the "k" versus "c" in Krab) I think, but it really is a great recipe to have for hot weather. The few times I've made it for friends they have all raved about it, so I think my mom did a good job creating the recipe *laugh*.
