Happy Frugal Friday!
Here's how we saved money/spent money wisely/made extra money this week:
- I closed out my 2023 Fall Book Drive for the Riley Cheer Guild. We were able to donate a dozen of RCH's most requested books. Thank you to everyone who donated!
- Last weekend, we went west to Quincy, IL for our nieces' confirmation. We are their Baptismal Sponsors and as they are the oldest kids in the family they were the first to be confirmed. It was a very special church service to share together. As their house was quite full of out of town guests, we opted for a hotel stay. We were thankfully able to find a deal with points but in order to save as much money as possible we did drive over Saturday and right back Sunday so we had just one hotel night. Thank you to Matt and Jenn for your great hospitality in the form of a pizza party and pumpkin carving on Saturday night.
- When we travel, we now also have to keep in mind the dog-sitting fee for Oscar. Usually for our long, fall or winter trip my parents are able to keep him but for weekends and shorter trips we hire a sitter. We are very thankful to have an incredible one but it does add to the cost of each trip. This was also part of the reason we did just Saturday and Sunday for this trip.
- We packed out snacks for the 5 hour drive each day and did not eat until arriving at our destination. This helped us avoid the, very high at the moment, cost of fast food!
- We did our grocery shopping for the week on Sunday. I didn't realize until we got home that I had accidentally left three items in the cart from last week's Frugal Friday post where I told you how much I saved by leaving them out. So this week I ended up with an extra ketchup, mustard, and bread. Oh well. We have some in reserve now. We spent $70 on groceries for the week as many items were on sale!
- Monday we had "Recycle Day Lunch." We do this every two weeks. I pull out any items that are already open and we make a lunch out of it. This week we had turkey, cheese, Chex Mix, apples, carrots, and graham crackers. This helps us ensure we don't have any food going to waste and I like having all of the packaging cleared out to go with recycling.
- Halloween Night Annabeth took her usual dance classes with a Trunk-Or-Treat after class. Owen went to his Cub Scout Pack Halloween Party. They always do a HUGE event that is very fun for everyone. Mark and Owen took along $40 in candy. We gave each of the kids one plastic container (I know some families share one container but with food allergies everyone needs their own) and anything that didn't fit had to be donated. The kids had MORE fun filling Halloween baggies for Free Little Pantries than they did sorting candy for themselves! I love their hearts for others.
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