Frugal Friday 255

Happy Frugal Friday!

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

- We did a garage sale at our house with two families that we are friends with. We did Friday 8-1:30 (I made $65) and then again Saturday 8-2ish (but had to pull everything into the garage at 10:30 due to rain) I only made $22 on Saturday. So, made $87 while hanging out with some of my favorite friends while my kids played outside for 9 hours with their friends. Not bad for a weekend that we didn't have other plans! :)

- I receieve People magazine free through Pinchme.com. People sends me a renewal notice each month with a postage stamp inside. I don't renew but always use the postage stamp on another piece of mail.

- Mark has been gone for most of two weeks and then was out of town completely for the past 8 days. My parents, thankfully, came up Monday through Wednesday to help me and to keep us company. They treated Owen and me to dinner at Chicagos on Monday night for a fundraiser for the Moyra McCain Memorial Scholarship, bought us groceries, mowed my yard, and Dad brought the first part of a huge project he is building for our schoolroom. I am SO SO SO thankful for parents who are so generous with their time and talents. I pray that I am raising my children as well as they raised me and am taking notes on how to care for my kids after they are out of the house.

- Wednesday morning, my parents took the kids out to the park, library, and lunch and I spent the morning ALONE at home! It was glorious! After nearly three straight weeks home alone with the kids, it was such a huge blessing to have that quiet time! Thank you all!

- Wednesday night, after we dropped Annabeth off at dance, Owen and I checked out a new place for us the Hoosier Cupboard Candy Store. It's a candy/ice cream place in an old train depot with a real train outside which is basically Owen's version of heaven on earth. We had so much fun! I love sweet time with just one kid at a time.

 Mr. O loved his ice cream and time out with just me.

I loved it too!

Conductor Owen. 

He "drove" the train for a good 20 minutes.

- When flipping through a library book, Annabeth found a business card for a church and a $5 bill. She was so excited. We were thankful for that little blessing and she plans to put it in the children's offering plate on Sunday.

We had such a good week, even with Mark gone, and I am so thankful to my family for coming and helping. July is always a pretty Mark-free month between some different work things and scouts and the extra support from my family is much needed and appreciated.

We are looking forward to him getting home this weekend and a visit with my sister!

Happy Savings to All!

Frugal Friday 254

Happy Frugal Friday!

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

- Friday night we went to the city pool for Twilight Swim with friends and spent just $2/person to swim. When we got home, Mark was watering our lawn and so were our neighbors. The kids spent over an hour running between the sprinklers while we all visited. We have been so richly blessed with neighbors who are such an encouragement to us. They treat us like their own children and grandchildren.

- Saturday Mark picked up overtime hours working security for my favorite politician. I wasn't happy to have Mark gone all day but was so proud to have him serve someone we admire so much.

- Saturday afternoon Mark's mom took Annabeth Back-to-School shopping. They came back with a few new outfits and some specials toys/snacks for both Annabeth and Owen. Kristi also thought to bring me Starbucks! Thank you so much for spoiling our girl! :)

- Sunday morning we were able to worship at our own church. After a busy summer worshipping at our family and freinds' churches and at camp, we were very happy to be at our church home. The kids were SO happy to be back at their class and Owen got to play handbells for the first time.

- We started back to school (2nd grade for Annabeth and Preschool for 3s for Owen) on Monday. We have all gotten back into the swing of our school schedule very quickly and it's made a huge difference in everyone's attitudes. We are all happier on a firm schedule.

- Tuesday we spent the day at the fair. We parked at our friends house, their backyard is the fairgrounds, to avoid paying to park. We enjoyed seeing Annabeth's projects, a free dinosaur show, and all of the animals.

We did splurge on Lickity Split Snowballs

My parents always got us ice cream from the Young Dairymen so I found

our own Anna-Safe tradition for the fair. As a 10 year 4Her it brings me such joy

to see Annabeth fall in love with a program that taught me so much!

- I took the time to clean all of our doors this week. I dust them quickly each week when I dust the furniture but I only manage a good wipe-down every two months or so. How do you stay on top of cleaning projects like that - walls, windows, doors? Tell me your cleaning secrets!

- Last night we enjoyed a free swim at the pool to celebrate our friend Drew's 5th Birthday. We met Drew, and his amazing family, when he was just a few weeks old at Wonderful Ones Storytime. His mom was my first Franklin friend outside of work and I am so thankful for 5 years of friendship with their family!

- Today and tomorrow we are garage sale-ing at our house with two friends. I did a little preshopping during set-up yesterday and I scored the health book I had planned to use for Owen's Kindergarten for just $5! I'll update next week with how much we made and if I thought it was worth it. I haven't hosted a garage sale since 2012 because I find the kid sales so much easier but we'll see how this goes.

Happy Savings to All! If you're local, come buy our stuff! :)

Frugal Friday 253

Happy Frugal Friday!

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

- Friday night it was GORGEOUS and we finally did a backyard camp-out. Annabeth has always loved doing this and we were finally brave enough to include Owen. (Owen only sleeps well in his own bed and is very attached to his night-time routines) It turned out great and both kids had so much fun!

 

Little Campers

- Saturday we drove down to our friends Luke and Katie's house for a late 4th of July cook-out. The kids loved playing down by the lake and getting to have cake AND jello with their dinner. We took the kids on a little walk to see the bridge where Mark and I got engaged in 2007. Then, we left the party a bit early, to watch the Lutheran Lake Fireworks show from Chapel Hill as it's our tradition. I have been enjoyed fireworks there since high school, loved working fish fry, and then they became even more special as we were engaged during the fireworks show 11 years ago! 

- Annabeth wrapped up her dance season with three amazing performances at Applause Nationals! She is sad to see three special dances end but it already cooking up big plans for next year!

- Monday night we had dinner out, a rare treat, at Dairy Queen for a fundraiser for a special young lady who was called Home earlier this year. Owen kept saying, "This is so special! We IN a restaurant" Mark made the dinner more special by letting the kids have flavored Sprite Zero which made him a hero! We were thankful to be able to support the Moyra McCain Memorial Scholarship Fund.

- Annabeth and I got our free prize leggings from Lularoe with Shelly! They are SO fun and we cannot wait to show off our patriotic legs! :) Thank you again Shelly!

- For Annabeth's birthday, in October, we are giving her a twin bed (she is so tiny she's still in her toddler bed) and bedding. The bed frame is mine from childhood but I wanted to get her a pretty, nice comforter that she can use for years. Her one request was butterflies. I have one I have been watching for months at Pottery Barn Kids and it went on sale this week AND there was a free shipping day! Saved: $37.00!!!

- Yesterday, we had our friends the Eblings up for lunch and play. We all enjoyed an amazing free event at our public library - SHARKS from the Newport Aquarium! The kids all loved it and so did the mamas! We love our public library system so much!

- Frugal Fail: Owen has outgrown his church/nice shoes and I had to buy the next size online with no sale or coupon :( I did earn 4% cashback through Ebates but it really didn't feel like a good deal at all. We have always purchased good shoes for our kids (Stride Rite, Keds, Sperry) because I believe in good shoes and up until a year ago we had a Stride Rite outlet near us where I never paid over $25/pair. Well, they closed so now I am at the mercy of online sales. On top of that, Owen is extremely picky and only likes two styles of shoes (both are tennis shoes so he wears one kind for play and then a more "dressy" style one for church/dress up times) I have tried many times to get him to try other kids and he refuses. He also refuses to wear rainboots, snow boots, or sandals so he is always in his tennis shoes.

We had a busy week and are looking forward to our county fair and Annabeth's first mini-4H projects next week!

Happy Savings to All! 

Frugal Friday 252

Happy Frugal Friday!

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

- Last Saturday, we attended the gorgeous wedding of Mark's cousin Shelby. She had such a fun reception with a literary theme - books and love quotes from books on every table, a book cake, and lots of fun touches like a coloring table for the kids! The kids had such a blast dancing and we outlasted the rest of the family because we couldn't get Annabeth and Owen off the dance floor!

These two love to dance!

- Sunday morning we visited Mt Olive for church as the VBS group sang songs for the congergation. The church was also kind enough to have a frozen yogurt place come and bring treats for the kids! Annabeth and Owen loved that so much!

Thank you to Mt. Olive Lutheran for a great week of VBS 

and Ella's Frozen Yogurt for yummy treats!

- After church we headed out to lunch with Mark's parents and Luke and Cassidy at one of our very favorite pizza places - Jockamo's. When we lived in Greenwood, it was about the only place we ever ate out at and we miss going now that they don't deliver to the new house. Thank you to Brian and Kristi for lunch and for sending home plenty of leftovers for dinner that night too!

- We spent Sunday afternoon as we have most afternoons for the past week - the kids played in their pool/slide from Aunt Lu and I read in the shade. It's been hot hot hot and the water keeps us all happy while still enjoying the sunshine!

- Monday we did our massive back-to-school schoolroom clean out! This took most of the afternoon but we got rid of nearly an entire tote of recycling and nearly one whole tote of sale items. Unfortunately, our kid bookshelf broke (we have had it about five years and it was a $20 WalMart special) so although we are sorted our books are in totes at the moment. I am glad to have the big clean out done as we head into school later this month.

- I took advantage of Shutterfly's 4th of July Free Prints Special and ordered our pictures from the beginning of March to now. Saved $15.75

- Tuesday morning we all went to the library to play and to get new books. After that, Mark and Annabeth had a date and went out to lunch and to the grocery. After nap, Owen and I went to our new Freddy's restaurant to cash-in coupons from summer reading. We each enjoyed free ice ceam. Saved: $5.18

- Wednesday was the 4th of July. We hosted most of Mark's family for lunch and Mark made amazing pork tacos/nachos and Jenn and I made four kinds of dessert! We were happy to see our nieces off to camp afterwards. Annabeth and I put together little goodies for them to get in the "mail" during mail-call one day. We found cute camp stickers (6 sheets for $2) and also two little light-up bracelets ($1/each) so for $4 we were able to make K&E special little camp goodies.

- Wednesday evening Annabeth and I ran up to the mall to do a bit of Back to School shopping. I had a Macy's giftcard and we were able to get her two tops and a pair of pants with it. We also enjoyed dinner out as a treat.

- My sweet, life-long friend Shelly is a LulaRoe gal and ran a 4th of July contest on her Facebook page. I entered and won free leggings!! Thank you Shelly! Be sure to check her out:  Lularoe with Shelly

We had such a great week with Mark's first AT HOME week of vacation in a year!! NO training or scouts or out of town business - just the four of us and we loved it!

Happy Savings to All!