Friday, June 7, 2019

Frugal Friday 296

Happy Frugal Friday!

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

- Mark spent an afternoon fixing our black car. It had not been running properly since it returned from the repair shop and the check engine light had come on. Mark was able to fix two issues in about three hours for $50. I am very thankful that he could make these repairs at home - saving us the cost of going back to the repair shop.

- We do our electric bill on the budget plan. We have been trying SO hard to be very, very midful of how we use electricity and have been trying to use as little as possible this past year. We came out ahead and this last month's bill was $0 with a $25+ credit still on our account. This was a huge blessing following the cost of the car repair.

- We were very surprised to receive the bills for Owen's Immediate Care visit, x-rays, and cast work. Our new inurance made ALL of that less than one visit to Immediate Care last year! I will keep praising God for this new job and new insurance as it has truly changed our lives.

- We held Owen's fourth birthday last weekend. We spent around $12 on decor/party supplies, $24 on cake, and under $100 on food to feed 20 people. Owen very much wanted Chicago's Pizza so we budgeted, saved ahead for that cost. He was so excited and we were happy to be able to make it happen.

- Owen chose a very low key birthday day on Sunday. We had breakfast at home, lunch out as a treat from my parents, then we treated everyone to ice cream (under $20 for 7 people thanks to the affordability of Hoosier Candy Cupboard) Owen just wanted to ride his new ATV (a gift from his friends who were ready to hand-down. Thank you Eblings!) and play at home. We couldn't argue with that! Happy #4 Owen!

- We had a surprise change to make one of our upcoming summer trips longer (thus more hotel nights than we expected) I had a bit of panic about the price of that. As always, God is good and that same night when I went to book another trip for the year I found that the hotel there was now 15% off and I was able to save almost exactly the amount that I needed for the first trip's extra nights.

- I finished our Niagara Falls photo book and the base of it FREE from Shutterfly. (Saved $20) I did have more than the allotted 20 pages so I did have to pay for each of those extra pages. I also had a few prints that I wanted for frames around the house. I ordered online and printed at Walgreens using a 50% off coupon. I ordered all of this through Rakuten and earned $1.88 cash back.

- Annabeth completed 10+ hours of summer reading and redeemed her prize at the library. She chose a Lego minifigure to build. We spent Wednesday morning at our local library and enjoyed a walk at the Story Walk during a little sprinkle. It was extra fun since the book at the storywalk was about rain.

"Double the amount of time you spend outside."
- Erica Layne

- Annabeth used a coupon that we won around the holidays for a free meal at McDonald's. Saved: $6.89

- Thursday morning Annabeth enjoyed a fun class at a local library about games from around the world. Owen enjoyed playing with his friend and I had a good talk with a mama friend.

We are looking forward to a weekend filled with birthday parties and a graduation open house.

Happy Savings to All!

2 comments:

Abbi said...

Happy Birthday to Owen!
That is nice that Mark could fix your car. Jonathan has been working on his car today and seems to be figuring it out and I am excited about that. That is such a beneficial skill to have.

Amy Riley said...

It really is! I am so thankful for quite a few men in Mark's childhood (scouts, camp, his family) who really invested in teaching him so many life skills!