Here is how we saved money/spent money wisely/made extra money this week:
- Last weekend we splurged and rented a hotel room for Annabeth's dance competition. The dance venue was about an hour from home and with a 7:15 dressed and ready report time we just felt it was better and easier to be close to the location vs driving the hour. My fail was the hotel's pool was closed and my second reason for wanting to book a hotel was for the kids to have the fun of swimming. Despite booking directly through the hotel website and calling ahead, I had no idea the pool was closed. The kids were very disappointed upon check-in and the hotel staff kindly gave each of them a snack from the overpriced snack bar.
- We packed lunches and snacks for our 8 hour day Saturday. We did not purchase any concessions or dancewear from the event. My general rule is that I buy Annabeth one dance shirt from Nationals each year but not from any of the other events. Last year we did splurge and get two shirts at Nationals since she made Best of the Best and she wanted an "Award Winning Dancer" shirt.
- Sunday afternoon we celebrated my birthday at Mark's parents house. They made a nacho bar and chocolate cookies to celebrate. They also gave me a giftcard to use towards our big vacation for the year. Thank you all!
- Tuesday evening Mark and Annabeth attended his troop's Blue and Gold Ceremony. We are very proud of Mark for completing his Woodbadge. I was very sad to stay home with sick Owen but we enjoyed seeing Mark's pictures and awards when he got home.
- The kids are STILL sick - especially Owen. As a result we stayed home most of the week and skipped a field trip. While the admission was free and I had planned to pack lunch we did save the cost of gas as it would have been an hour each way.
- Wednesday evening Mark taught a class out of town so I took Owen along to drop Annabeth by dance. Even though he was not feeling well, we did stop by the store for a few necessities. He and I had an at home date night and made/ate rice krispie treats.
Making rice krispies.
No worries, our house is plenty warm (66 degrees) but Owen
loves to wear hats.
This was our fifth or sixth week of illness for the winter. We've made due by playing and reading at home and borrowing many documentaries from the library. Lots of free fun and thankfully my sister-in-law had even given us a bottle of kids Tylenol so I didn't have to buy any over the past few weeks.
Looking forward to a busy dance weekend and a birthday party for one of my favorite people.
Happy Savings to All!