Friday, January 13, 2017

Frugal Friday 176

Happy Frugal Friday!

Here is how we saved money/spent money wisely/made extra money this week:

- Mark worked 2 nights at his part-time job.

- The kids and I volunteered to help feel Meal Bags with the Church of God in Franklin. If you are local and interested in donating time or resources to this cause please let me know!

- Saturday night, Mark, Annabeth, and I camped out on the living room floor. Annabeth loved having both of us all to herself. She kept saying, "This is just like when I was an only child!" I know she loves Owen but I also cherish the times when Owen goes to bed early and the three of us can just be together.

- We did a grocery trip and saved $36 on our bill AND used a coupon to earn 2x fuel points! Our best deal was on laundry detergent. I combined: $.50 off online coupon + store sale $1.90 off + they were part of the Buy 5, Save $5 deal + one in the back had a Buy 2, Get One Free Coupon! I bought three of the biggest size bottles and they came out under $3 each. This should last us almost to the summer!

- Annabeth and I enjoyed a Starbucks date. I had a free drink in my rewards and I used a gift card to buy her a cookie. We sat at the counter for about 30 minutes and the baristas were so nice. They answered her questions and showed her neat things on the drive-thru screens. At the end, one of the guys even made his free drink from his shift and gave it to her.

- Sunday evening Annabeth and I cleaned out her spring/summer part of her closet. We found 25 too small items. I listed some for sale on Facebook but none sold. All were entered into the Spring Consignment Sale online. I also put a call-out on Facebook for wire hangers as we must have all hanging items on wire hangers for this sale.

- Monday evening we all worked together to clean-out and sort the living room toys. The kids picked a tote of toys to give away. About half will be donated and the other half I will try to sell at the consignment sale. We allow the kids to pick items but try to encourage them to choose wisely.

- We have been having some crazy weather! Some days are pretty warm (over 50) and then it gets cold again. We have been outside when we can but on super cold days we have been having daily dance parties. This week Owen chose bluegrass music, Annabeth chose Reggie, and I chose 90s boy bands (maybe I was feeling nostalgic for the year 2000)

Annabeth, dancing at home before we headed to her Thursday night tap class. 

Slow dancing to NSYNC with my little guy

Frugal Fails:

- We had to buy make-up for Annabeth's dance competitions this year. I used coupons where I could but unfortunately many items weren't on sale and didn't have coupons. We spent $80! :( I am hoping this lasts all season!

- My Momaw gifted us money for Christmas to buy new lights for the front of our house. We have cheapie, gold fixtures and we wanted something with more character. I had checked to make sure the store still had them the week after Christmas and they were 30% and 40% off! We were so excited but I was in Evansville with the kids and didn't have room in the car to buy them. We ended up buying them this week and one was not on sale at all and the other two were only 15% off each. I was glad they were a bit on sale and shopped through Ebates for 2.5% cashback but was bummed to not get the original awesome deal.

We hope you all had a good week!

Happy Savings to All!

2 comments:

Abbi said...

As usual I enjoyed reading about your week and all the different ways you have saved money. I sympathize with your missing the sale on lights. I have done that sort of things before too. It is always a bit of a bummer.

Amy and Mark said...

I misread the length of the sale on the lights. Regardless, we are very thankful for the gift of money for them we just wish we could have used it a bit more wisely. That being said, we are hoping to some other small home things with the 15% we did save.