Here is how we saved money/spent money wisely/made extra money this week:
- Friday, while in Evansville, I ordered Owen's birthday cake. We used a Deaconess Spirit of Women card and saved 10%.
- Friday afternoon, my family and I took the kids to play at Willard Library. Annabeth really enjoyed looking at different books and seeing what kinds of puzzles they had. Owen loved running in the big yard out front. I loved seeing one of my best friends from high school who works there!
- My parents treated us to dinner at Mission BBQ - a restaurant that supports and thanks hometown heroes. Mark enjoyed his dessert, on the house, as a thanks for his service.
- Last Saturday we drove to Owensboro to visit my Momaw. She had Easter baskets ready for the kids and Annabeth loved hunting for eggs. We spent much of the day outside helping Momaw get her flowerbeds ready to be mulched this week. Momaw was very sick and in the hospital over Thanksgiving and it just reminded me to really treasure each and every moment we have together.
Celebrating Easter at Momaw's House
- Sunday, Easter, we enjoyed breakfast at Old North UMC as well as Easter services there. Then we headed back to my parents for an Easter egg hunt and lunch. Mama made all of our favorite foods and was kind enough to send many of the leftovers home with us. Dad made Easter baskets for each of us and the kids played with their new little toys on the way home. I am so thankful for my family!
The Riley Four
We took this in front of the chapel where we were married nearly 8 years ago.
Grandpa, Annabeth, Grandmama-Mimi, and Owen Merit
- I shopped Zulily and found Annabeth a rainbow stripe dress to replace the one she has outgrown from last summer and also found Mark a new pair of New Balance tennis shoes for half the price of anywhere else! I shopped through Ebates and earned 1% cashback on my purchase!
- My friend Ann told me that the Stride Rite Outlet near us is closing. I went two days and found 7 pairs of shoes for under $90 OOP! The first day I took a $10 reward and bought Annabeth tennis shoes in the next size, Merrell water shoes in her current size, and tennis shoes in the next two sizes for Owen. The second day, I had another $10 reward in my e-mail so we went back and found Owen a pair of sandals as well as rainboots for Annabeth - both items had been on my list and we didn't find them the first day. That day I also found Annabeth tennis shoes in 2 sizes up from now. Overall I saved $20 with Stride Rite Rewards and I saved another $215 off retail prices!
- I ordered FREE prints from Shutterfly using their Easter code to get up to 101 free prints. I just had to pay shipping. Saved: $9.90
- Wednesday our washing machine broke down mid-load, our amazing friends the O'Neals let us come over to rewash that load. I am SO thankful for their kindness!
And because people often ask "Are you always frugal?" No...this week we had some MAJOR Frugal Fails:
- We were involved in a hit-and-run accident while out of town. We were uninjured but the car did suffer some damage and, of course, we needed to replace car seats after the accident. We did file a claim with our insurance and will have to pay our deductible. We also had some out of pocket costs on the car seats since our policy only covered $200 in personal items in the vehicle.
- Monday I noticed our washing machine was acting funny, I was able to do some trouble shooting and was able to get it to limp along Monday and Tuesday but by Wednesday it was totally broken. Our old washing machine went out in November which we found out during an $80 service call. The repair company applied that $80 towards the cost of our next machine if we bought from them. They came highly recommended and have great reviews so we went to their store. Their store only had refurbished machines in stock and after some debate and research we decided to go ahead and to buy one that way. The machine came with a 60 day warranty so for the first 60 days I ran every load I could think of - big, small, bulky, delicate, shoes, comforters, uniforms, etc and we did not have any issues. Then this Wednesday, the repairman came and told me that the machine was completely shot - it would be more to fix then we paid for it. He called the shop owner who would not give us any kind of break on the repair even though we just bought the machine from them. He did agree to give an unspecified discount on our next purchase from them. We decided to cut our losses and to not apply Wednesday's $70 charge towards a machine with them and to just go buy a new one. In the end, we paid hundreds and hundreds of dollars on service calls and a machine that we only used for 6 months. Lesson Learned.
Happy Savings to All!
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