Here is how we saved money/spent money wisely/made extra money this week:
- Last Friday, we celebrated Annabeth's 7th Birthday! In our house the birthday person chooses all of the meals of the day with the only rule being that only one meal can be an "eat out meal." Annabeth chose to have breakfast and dinner at home. Her eat-out meal was at her birthday party with friends. We met up with some of our favorite school friends at our local bowling alley for a unicorn-rainbow party. Our bowling alley is SUPER generous and allowed us to use a Fall Break coupon deal on our party. Instead of being the usual $139 party deal it was just $39.99 (shoe rental, lane, pizza, and drinks!) We also added the bowling pin for her friends to sign for $10. Thank you Hi-Way Lanes!!
- Friday we also gifted Annabeth her gifts from us. This year her "big gift" was a new bed and beautiful bedding set which we gave her a few weeks ago. I was able to give her some great Usborne books using my rewards and an adorable stuffed unicorn that I won from A GALIi on a Mission (thanks Susie!) Her wish-list was: JoJo Bows (a friend helped me get them through a co-op for just $3/each), Matilda Jane (I was able to get three pieces for $40 during sales this year - If you are a Matilda Jane fan I encourage you to shop with my Trunk Keeper Lauren Keeling ), and an American Girl doll. We don't think she is quite ready for a full size doll so we got her the Kirsten books (sourced used for $13 for all 6) and the Mini-Kirsten Doll. We love giving our kids the things they really want but also love saving as much money as possible so they can have the next fun thing as well!
- Saturday we met my family down at Apple Works for some pumpkin patch fun. It was 90 degrees and too hot and too sunny for most of us. My dad treated the kids to a quick train ride and then we headed back to Franklin for an afternoon dessert at the Hoosier Candy Cupboard. My parents also treated us all to dinner at Kumo for sushi where Owen and Annabeth ate more than the adults! Our friend at the sushi place surprised Annabeth with a birthday dessert. Our friend at the Greenwood sushi place was right, my kids are Asian!
- Sunday evening we had Mark's family over to celebrate Luke and Annabeth's birthdays. They each chose take-out food for dinner so Mark's parents brought Luke's and we supplied Annabeth's choice of Chicago's Pizza. Once she decided that, I hopped on Facebook and asked friends if anyone was selling the Chicago's giftcards as a fundraiser. We found a student who was and bought two from her. They are just $13 (less than the price of one pizza) so we didn't spend any extra per pizza but we were able to support her class trip.
- Our dryer broke, again, last week. It died about a year ago and Mark was able to work on it. It started this terrible squealing last again last week. Mark ordered a $32 kit and spent an evening fixing it. We saved the cost of a minimum $80 service call and/or the cost of buying a whole new dryer. I am SO thankful to be married to a man who can fix just about anything!
- I deep cleaned our linen closet since my Mama just brought us beautiful new towels! I exchanged a huge bag of new towels for a bag of ratty old towels. We plan donate them to our local animal shelter as they collect them for the animals there.
- Annabeth handmade all of her Thank yous. Some she painted and some she wrote on thank you cards that we had on hand. She also handmade glitter stickers for them. I am very serious about thank yous and insist that we all write them for all occasions. I hope that this means the kids will do the same even if I am not there to tell them to.
- Wednesday we had Annabeth's fourth, and final, birthday party with our best friends the Eblings. Rose and the boys came up for lunch, play, and one more birthday cake. Annabeth asked for roses, unicorns, and tie-dye and I made it happen!
Happy #7 Annabeth Sage!
- The absolute highlight of my week was a morning out with Mark, alone! My parents and sister took the kids to the park and Mark I went out to breakfast and then to coffee. We were able to have about 4 hours to ourselves to just sit and talk. We hadn't been on a date since March and it was much needed! Thank you all for keeping the kids for us!
We are all looking forward to a weekend of fun!
Happy Savings to All!
2 comments:
That was a great deal on the Bowling party! It is fun to hear what all you are doing. Our exciting discount this weekend was when Ken called to check on a bill that had been sent after Mara had some tests done down in Texas. The bill had come in at $1,600 quite a bit more than we were anticipating and it wasn't itemized. So Ken called to ask about that and to see if he could get a cash discount. They said they didn't really didn't have a cash discount but they were running a special test discount or something like that and if he paid $150 by Monday night they would mark the account down to $0. It seemed like a weird way to do things but that was a great discount so he happily took it.
Wow!! That is incredible! I have not ever heard of anything like that either but it sounds like he might the right call at the right time! What a blessing.
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