Frugal Friday 553

 Happy Frugal Friday!

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

- Last Friday night, we went to our first Indiana Fever Game. Mark found a great deal on tickets that included our seats, dinner, and hats. It was a great time and the kids are already asking to go back! We were especially excited to see Caitlin Clark play live and to cheer for the kids' dance friend Makayla as she danced with the Inferno Dance Team.

Annabeth and Ioved putting together outfits with

Fever yellow, navy, and red. 

Since it was a Family Night anyone who wanted to

could go down to the court after the game to shoot a shot.

Looks like we're definitely raising dancers vs ballers.

- Saturday morning, Mark took Owen's Cub Scout Pack on a 2 mile hike. The boys enjoyed time in the woods and then treated Mark's mom to lunch as she lives near the park they hiked at. Annabeth and I took care of the mowing, house chores, and ate lunch while we watched HGTV.

- Sunday after church we went to lunch at Mark's mom's house. We had pizza and salad. I enjoyed an afternoon of baby snuggles and conversation with the big kids - my perfect afternoon! Kristi sent home fruit and salad for us for the week - thank you!

- We are continuing our Shelftember Challenge. We spent $50 at the grocery this week. That was mostly paper goods and supplies for a Cub Scout Project this week.

- For Cub Scouts, Owen needed to make a family holiday recipe. He chose Miss Katelyn's Cookies. Our sweet friend Katelyn is an incredible baker and has always has her special cookies at her kids' parties, she sells the cookies in home decorating kits, and even brought us them during the 2020 Easter. Since she makes many gluten/dairy free kits with her business now, she generously gave me her secret recipe so we could make them at home safely for Annabeth. In honor of how she shares her cookies, Owen took them to scouts, neighbors, and even gifted some to our dog groomer!

- I worked really hard to use up meals I have frozen in weeks past and also random items from the kitchen as part of Shelftember. Our meals this week: chicken quinoa chilli, spaghetti and meatballs, ham+egg biscuits with fruit, and chicken fajitas. We also ate a LOT of leftovers! We are clearing our way through the pantry and fridge really well. 

- I have always printed our tags for the kids' sale at a local print place. This week they completely failed me and after 48+ hours of dealing with them I just asked for a refund. I ended up having to get sale tags printed in Greenwood BUT the new place offered a coupon. It was not worth the hassle at all but that coupon was the only thing that made me not just lose my mind over it. Saved: $7.50

- I spent about 8 hours tagging for the Kids' Sale. Annabeth generously offered to help me tag our books, games, and puzzles. She put in about 2 hours of work. That made a HUGE difference! We have everything done and ready for drop off next weekend. 

- Owen took a free Coding Class at a local library. I am so thankful that our libraries offer so many classes and that our kids have been exposed to so much for FREE! 

In life lessons for the week:

Last Thursday, while at the park with friends, Owen and some of his friends borrowed disc golf frisbees from a family. Owen had never played and one of the discs ended up in the woods. The boys weren't able to get to it. Owen immediately came and found the mom who had loaned them out to let her know what happened and to apologize. The mom said it was fine as accidents happen. That evening, we got online and he searched for one that looked like the one he lost and we shipped it to their house. We were so incredibly proud that he immediately took responsibility for his actions, was honest, and rectified the situation. Yesterday, he got the sweetest card from the dad of the family thanking him for the new disc. Owen was so proud to receive that man-to-man mail and we are so proud of the man he is becoming! 

We are looking forward to a busy weekend. Happy Savings to All!