Frugal Friday 478

Happy Frugal Friday!

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

- Last Friday the kids and I had our last Christmas experience of the season. We saw Disney on Ice with some of our co-op friends. We were able to get tickets to the educational matinee for $17/each with zero fees. Our seats would have been over $100 the rest of the performances. As this was the kids Christmas gift we had budgeted for them each to get one souvenir - they each chose a special Disney cup with icee. A wise choice as it was both a snack and souvenir. 

Very happy with their souvenir choice

Fun Fact: I still have MY Disney on Ice icee cup from the 90s. 

We had a great time!

I love gifting experiences vs stuff

- Saturday we did a MASSIVE clean-out of our kitchen. We decluttered over 100 items! A good three dozen of them were new, or like new, items that we were able to donate. We found a great deal of paper clutter like old owner's manuals for kitchen gadgets and scrap paper. We recycled all of that. We also found a massive pile of grocery sacks which we took to recycle as well. We had some items that had rusted and just needed to be trashed. Finally, we had a neat sushi set that we never use. We will pass that along to friends who just began making sushi at home.

- Saturday evening we had friends over for a movie night. They brought pizza and we made a salad and served ice cream dessert. They are headed to Disney for the first time as a family this year and I was more than happy to help talk them through certain aspects of their trip. Want to talk Disney or just vacations in general? Reach out - my services are always free! 

- Sunday after church we had a nice, slow afternoon with games, puzzles, and naps. It's rare for us to have quiet time at home and we're working really hard to build it into our schedule where we can.

- We did our grocery shopping at Kroger and Meijer this week. Meijer was nearly out of produce so the Kroger run was necessary. We spent $64. Our dinners this week: pizza rolls/salad/fruit, pasta bake/salad/garlic bread, homemade waffles/bacon/eggs, pork and veggies over roasted squash, and homemade burgers/asparagus/roasted squash

- Monday evening we delivered a meal (pasta bake with veggies, rolls, and a birthday cake) to a family at our co-op that just welcomed a baby. Our co-op has a Meal Train going for the family through next month and I consider it such a joy to be the hands and feet of Jesus. 

- We FINALLY had some snow this week. The kids had a great time building snow animals out back and we enjoyed hot cocoa afterwards.

We had a nice, slow winter week of school. I am so thankful that we have had a wonderful sunny winter!

Happy Savings to All!