Frugal Friday 396

 Happy Frugal Friday!

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

- Last Saturday was picture day at dance. While the photographers take great dance pictures, we always opt to take ours at home. We print for under $.10 a piece and give to the grandparents that way. 

- Saturday afternoon I volunteered at the Resources of Hope Foster/Kinship Picnic. I donated nearly $700 in books (a picture book for each child to take home and magic paint books to paint while we were there). I met so many incredible families and had some great conversations with kids while painting. Last June, I set a goal of donating $5,000 in books and cash to local groups and this weekend's donation finished out that big, scary goal!

- I had a couple dozen books leftover so I donated 17 of them to my friend Rebecca. She will be gifting them to her students as an end of year gift. 

- Sunday after church Mark and the kids enjoyed lunch at his parent's house. I went to a baby shower for a dear friend. I enjoyed connecting with many of my old coworkers from JCSO and had a great time celebrating T, Shane, and Baby. Tiara was my very first friend when we moved here and it's so exciting to think of her being a mama!

- Sunday was also our 12th Wedding Anniversary. We splurged on a babysitter AND a dinner out! This is a rare, wonderful treat. We had a lovely dinner and drive afterwards. I am so grateful for a dozen married years.

- Monday we took a mental health day. We chose to step away from home and work to road-trip and play! We ended up at Marengo Cave and had a wonderful family day out. We did both the long and short tours and were very, very fortunate that we were the ONLY people on the 60 minute tour! It was a little eerie but very neat as I have only ever been on a cave tour, even while spelunking, in a group of 20+

- While the cave tickets were a bit pricey we did do a package deal on the two tours. We also ate breakfast before we left, packed in a snacky lunch, and refused many tearful pleas for fast food on the drive home. We were home by 4:15 and we cooked dinner - saving the cost of eating out. 

- Tuesday was Owen's last night of Lions. His pack had their annual Pinewood Derby Race. Owen's car made it through about half of the races before he had too many points and was out. He did win the Leader's Choice for best car design though. He was very proud of that.

Owen designed his car after the El Chromino from Demolition Ranch on YouTube.  

- We are hosting, for the first time in two years, a family cookout this weekend. When all of the kids were younger, we made due by having them sit at our children's size tables. Now with most of the kids ages 9+ we need big tables/chairs for everyone. Mark talked about buying/borrowing one but on Wednesday our neighbor messaged to see if we could use a 6 foot table they wanted to get rid of. Yes please! God is so awesome in the many ways he meets our needs!

- A homeschool mama friend had some items for sale on Facebook. I snagged a free Charlotte Mason book as well as three card sets and two geography games. She sold me all of that for just $15 which was amazing because the C.M. book alone would have been $20 used! What a score! We have already enjoyed Geography Bingo several times and already built the European Map Puzzle two times. 

Frugal Fail: I, once again, forgot to check our Hello Fresh and it delivered without us wanting it to. Thankfully we hadn't grocery shopped for the week yet so that became our dinners. I did go ahead and cancel our Hello Fresh subscription as this is quite the expensive mistake to make. Thankfully we were able to have three dinners and leftovers from the box this week.

We are looking forward to a fun, busy weekend with ALL of our out of town family in town! We are excited!

Happy Savings to All!