Frugal Friday 437

 Happy Frugal Friday!

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

- Saturday afternoon we took the scenic way to an out of town wedding. I was very happy to share in the wedding day of Mr. and Mrs. Smith. The bride and I have been friends since middle school and it was such a blessing to pray over the happy couple and their family. I also really enjoyed watching her daughter play and dance with my kids. Having lived away from Evansville since I was 18, I don't have many close childhood friends and the opportunity to catch up with a couple and to watch our kids together brought me so much joy.

Happy to celebrate another wedding with my Forever Wedding Date. 

- The happy couple had an online honeymoon registry. Guests were encouraged to shop for an item on the list - like portions of the cost of hotel, plane tickets, special meals, etc. We gifted them part of a waterfall tour. I thought that was SUCH a fun idea it made for easy shopping and they are getting experiences vs stuff!

- Sunday after church we enjoyed lunch and games at Mark's mom's house. She treated us to pizza lunch and sent over a bunch of leftovers as well as some food for the week. Thank you Kristi!

- I cashed out a free offer and a $25 off $25+ offer from Shutterfly. I had additional of the $25 coupons but the website would only let me use one of them since they all were rewards from the same place. I sent the others I had on hand to friends so they could save money on their orders. I also shopped through Rakuten for 2% cashback.

- I mentioned at the end of February that instead of doing one big New Year's Resolution this year that I am doing Monthly Challenges. I did a low-spend January, 10 Minute Pick-Ups in February, and in March I committed to adding every dollar made online to a Principal Payment on our home mortgage. I listed and sold many items online and was able to make a $45 Principal Payment. It was great to make money on items that we are done with and to put that money to work in a good way.

- Mark made another sale in his Etsy shop and we added Arizona as a state that he has shipped to! 

- I finalized most of our homeschool book plans for next year. God is truly SO gracious! A few weeks ago, two friends shared (for free!) the exact history and language books that I had planned to buy for Owen. This saved us over $50. This week I chose his readers ($40+ new) but was able to find them on a homeschool resale page and got them both for $15! 

- After Mark had some items delivered, Owen went to work crafting with the box. He cut it how he wanted, painted it, and then created this campfire scene. I love watching our kids build and create.

- Last night we took dinner and dessert to a family in our homeschool co-op that just welcomed a new baby. We took some extra time and made a special cake for the family. This is something our neighbors did for us when we had Owen and it was so meaningful to us. 

Overall we had a great, busy week as we are in the homestretch of our school year and in the busy season of juggling dance, baseball, 4H, and scouts. I pray that we are building memories that will last a lifetime!

Happy Savings to All! 

**I realize that to some it may seem silly, or maybe even "pointless", to make a $45 payment. But friends, when Mark and I married we were nearly $30,000 in student loan debt and for nearly 2.5 years we threw every additional penny we had towards those payments until they were paid off. It has NOT been luck or chance that we've made big financial things happen for our family. It's been a lot of hard work and sacrifice to achieve the goals we set - $45 payments at a time.