Frugal Friday 238

Happy Frugal Friday and even more so Happy Good Friday!

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

- Last Saturday we enjoyed a bridal shower for Mark's cousin Shelby. We enjoyed seeing his family and celebrating her upcoming marriage. Annabeth gifted her an item from her registry and I had my friend Katelyn make a beautiful sign. Katelyn has the cutest signs in her shop and does plenty of custom orders as well. Please visit at No Strings Attached Signs if you are interested in ordering.

The sign I had made for the bride's new home

Photo Credit: Katelyn Schwander of No Strings Attached. 

- Saturday we also got 10 inches of snow! It was beautiful and unexpected for the third day of spring!

- Sunday morning just Annabeth and I ventured out to church for Palm Sunday Service. She enjoyed carrying the palms in and I enjoyed many of my favorite hymns.

- I have been using a website that helps me organize and post items for my online Usborne parties. Now that I am more settled in my business, I am opting to cancel this service. I will save $9.95/month.

- I met up with two friends and sold them books for their children's Easter baskets. I know there are many places to buy books and I am so thankful when people do their shopping with me!

- I cut Owen's hair at home. I also trimmed Annabeth's. This saved the cost of two haircuts at a salon.

- Wednesday evening I set aside 30 minutes and tagged half of my items for the spring consignment sale. I have just 60ish items to tag and I am all ready!

We are looking forward to a weekend spent with family and celebrating our Risen Savior. I am so thankful to be loved, and saved, by the One who made us all. To Him be ALL the glory!

Happy Savings to all!

Frugal Friday 237

Happy Frugal Friday!

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

- Mark worked a couple of shifts at his part time job and I finished up my Flash Sale for my Usborne Books & More Facebook page.

- Last week, we hurried to use the kids' ToysRUs giftcards before all of the stores closed. Annabeth had chosen a big toy, one science thing for school, and thenn we rounded out with a coloring book for Owen's birthday. The toy was a Baby Alive "Mommy Kit" that Annabeth has been wanting forever. A few days after we placed our order, I got an e-mail saying that the science kit and coloring book had shipped but that the thing she really wanetd was out of stock :( Mark ended up finding it at Meijer and used a $6 coupon to buy it. ToysRUs sent us a refund and I used it to buy two little items (so they would ship free) for Owen's birthday.

- Saturday we split up and I had a Mama-Owen date and Mark had a Daddy-Annabeth date. Mark and Annabeth headed to the Brickworld Lego Show in Indianapolis. I had given them tickets as Mark's birthday gift. They had hours of fun checking out Lego displays. Owen and I went to a Teddy Bear Concert from the Indianapolis Symphony at our local library. Owen loved the music and most of all he loved getting to try to play a violin.

 Owen and I really enjoyed our music date. 

We also had lunch out and I realized it was the first time that just he and I

had eaten out together. 

Annabeth loved the Lego Expo. 

She and Mark also love the Despicable Me movies so she needed

her picture with the Minions made from Legos. 

- I colored my hair at home (after seeing how white my roots were in the picture above) for FREE thanks to a coupon from PinchME.com. We also received this month's box of freebies to review: shampoo/conditioner, Slim Fast craving control gummies, and a RXBar Kids. I love getting fun freebies in the mail each month!!

- Someone brought us a bunch of belts as part of a hand-me-down bag. Annabeth doesn't wear them so we took them to my nieces.

- My SIL was given a case of yogurt, due to expire soon. She split it amongst our family and then we took the extra to two families in our neighborhood. No reason to throw food away! We can always find a place for it!

- When we dropped off yogurt with one set of friends they traded up a huge bag of clothes for Annabeth. Some worked and some were similar to items we already had in that size. We passed all the ones we couldn't use along to another family.

- Wednesday night I cleaned out the car and found lots of junk AND $10! woohoo!! Clean(ish) car and a happy Mama!

We had such a weird weather week this week. Wednesday morning we drove to storytime in downtown Franklin and it was a beautiful, winter wonderland with all of the old trees and houses covered in snow. That night we drove to dance with all of the snow melted and the sun shining!

We are looking forward to a fun weekend (if the 8-12 inches of snow that we have forecasted doesn't ruin it) with a bridal shower and Palm Sunday celebrations at church.

Happy Savings to All!

Frugal Friday 236

Happy Frugal Friday!

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

- Mark worked one night at his part-time job and I hosted my Spring Open House with my Usborne Books & More business.

- Last Friday, we finally made it to the library. I have been staying away from playing there this winter since we've been sick and so many other have too. Now that we're past the worst of flu season we returned to play. The kids spent 90 minutes playing with all of the games and toys there. Then, Owen even agreed to go to the Hop and Bop class. He didn't love it but he did stay most of the time which is a first for Owen and library class. He also turned in his first 400 books from the "1,000 Books Before Kindergarten" I just started tracking late last fall  so we missed his first 2.5 years of books but I know we've easily read 1000+ books to him already and will read at least 1000 more before Kindergarten. He LOVES to read!

Owen was SO happy with his prizes! He earned stickers,

finger puppets, and PlayDoh! He LOVES the PlayDoh!

- Friday night Mark and Annabeth camped out in the living room. They love camping in our backyard but it was just too cold. I think Annabeth enjoyed the movie night and snacks with just Daddy.

- Saturday we spent the day at home working on projects. It was our first free Saturday in over a month and I got a ton of work done inside and Mark got a ton of work done in the garage.

- We ordered our favorite pizza (Greek's) for Sunday lunch with my parents. The kids and I enjoyed the leftovers for lunch on Monday. Yum!

- A few weeks ago I ordered through an online Thirty-One party and since I was the first order the consultant gave me a free tote. I was thinking it was a little tote but it came this week and it's actually a really good size, adorable bunny tote for spring! By far one of the best prizes I have won before!

How cute is this little bunny?

- I sold quite a bit of my Usborne and Kane Miller books through my open house and an online sale but I still had many left. While I enjoy having these on hand, I enjoy getting them out to little readers even more! Thursday the kids and I went out to the store and found some add on items to put with the books and I created two baskets for our church's Easter Basket Auction. The baskets will go through a silent auction Palm Sunday-Easter Sunday and all proceeds raise money for our church youth to go to summer camp.

Annabeth worked on the pink bunny basket to go with Are You There Little Bunny

and I made a dino themed basket to go with some dino books. 

I hope these are enjoyed by the families that win them at the auction!

- I do quite a bit of paying online through PayPal. In my e-mail this week, they sent me $2 to donate to a cause through PayPal. I selected my cause and was able to add their $2 to my donation. Thank you PayPal!

- I finally ordered our pictures from Halloween-Mark's Birthday. I took advantage of a free print offer from Shutterfly. Saved: $16.65

We had a great week! Annabeth had her three month check up following her eardrum-rupture from December and got the back to 100% notice from our doctor. We are so thankful that she is fully healed and not in need of future appointments! God is so good!

Happy Savings to All! 

Frugal Friday 235

Happy Frugal Friday!

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

- Annabeth and I stayed in a hotel last Friday night for dance. Although we splurged on the hotel (her report time was 6 am dressed and ready to go at a school one hour from home), we did take our own breakfast and snacks for dance on Saturday. We enjoyed Starbucks for free thanks to a giftcard from my birthday. We did spend $8 at the concession stand just because of how long we were at the school. Overall, we could have been more frugal but I was happy with how little we spent out of pocket for a long dance day away from home.

- Sunday morning I made the drive down to New Albany for a baptism. My best-friend's new baby was baptized into God's family and I was more than happy to wake up at 5 am as to not miss it! Mark and the kids stayed back and spent the day with Mark's family.

- Monday morning I did my "Big Closet Clean-Out" I do this twice a year, taking every clothing item out, and only putting back what I really think I will wear. I was able to get rid of 17 items. I will let my Mama and sister look through to take what they want and then I will donate the rest.

- I sold three items off the rack at our dance studio. Made: $15

- I sold three sets of kids clothes on Facebook. Made: $15

- I used two giftcards from Christmas/my birthday and did a bit of online shopping. I actually bought three items for myself and then used the rest to buy part of a wedding shower gift that we will give later this month. I spent just $.52 OOP.

- Tuesday afternoon, Owen and I took down all of our snow decor. I was happy to put out our cheery dragonfly flag and to look at pretty spring things. Much to my dismay we woke up Wednesday and Thursday morning to snow! Didn't the weather see my spring flag?!

- Annabeth and I played lots of games after school this week - Battleship, a few Shopkins games, and a fun Ballerina game as well. Mark and I also had a Battleship tournament on Tuesday night. We usually end up playing until both of us win at least one round of whatever game we are playing. I cannot wait until the kids are old enough to play tons of games as a family.

Snuggled up for movie night.

They love, love, love to just be together. 

All.the.time. 

We had a nice, low key week to play catch up from our busy weekend last week. We are looking forward to an Empty Day (!!!!) on the schedule tomorrow and my Usborne Books & More Spring Open House on Sunday!

Happy Savings to All!

Frugal Friday 234

Happy Frugal Friday!

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

- I had an online Usborne party and Mark worked shifts at both of his part time jobs and overtime at his regular job.

- We packed our lunches for Annabeth's dance competition last Saturday. We also did not buy anything from the concession stand. This was an added savings on top of the $140 we saved by being able to cancel our hotel room for the weekend.

- Sunday we celebrated Mark's and my birthdays with his family. We each got gifts that we love (tools and cigars for him and coffee and postage stamps for me) His parents also sent home tons of leftover dessert which we enjoyed all week! Thank you all!

- Annabeth had her first mini-4H meeting on Monday. This was a proud Mama moment for me as I did exploring 4H and then 10 years of 4H. She enjoyed an animal show from Silly Safari and was even brave enough to touch the snake at the end!

- We ended up modifying my Meal Plan quite a few times this week for simpler meals and came out three meals ahead! Next week's grocery trip will thank us.

- Wednesday morning the kids and I went an filled the March bulletins at church. Owen spent the whole time asking all of the helpers to sing with him and/or if they were doctors. Annabeth was much more helpful and did lots of folding for everyone. I love that homeschooling allows us to volunteer during the week and to spend time with different ages and groups of people.

- Last Saturday, when I went to turn on my computer, it would not work at all. Mark did some troubleshooting and found what part was broken. He was able to order it, have it shipped to the house, and have my computer back up and running by Wednesday evening for around $15. I was thankful to not have to repay a repair place or to have to completely replace my computer. I am SO thankful to be married to a man who can fix anything!

- A friend of mine is hosting an online Thirty One fundraiser for a woman with cancer. I was the first order in the party and won a free storage bin. I was able to get one (worth $22!) that I had been wanting for free! I was also more than happy to support this fundraiser and get a jump start on a birthday gift.

- Since our weekend is jam packed, we celebrated Mark's birthday last night. We made his choice of dinner, our family tradition is that the birthday person gets to pick all the meals for the day, which was party ham sandwiches and corn casserole. The kids and I made also made hime a homemade cake and birthday cards. Annabeth also found a fun little craft in her craft book and made him a fishtank decoration.

Owen chose the cake theme of strawberry cake with green frosting.

We frosted a strawberry on top instead of all green - that didn't sound so good to me.

Annabeth had fun getting out the birthday tablecloth and she enjoyed

decorating Mark's chair like a present. We also hung banners

and made him a special 30 themed list.

I LOVE birthdays and love being able to love on the birthday person!

I hope that Mark felt honored and special. 

We are looking forward to a crazy, busy weekend filled with birthdays, dance, and baptisms.

Happy Savings to All!