Frugal Friday 572

 Happy Frugal Friday!

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

- Last week, when we realized our new furnace/ac unit didn't use the same filters as our old one, I put our extras on Facebook for free. Within just a few minutes a friend claimed them and picked them up from our house the next day. Part of our decluttering journey has been the fun of giving away SO many items for free! 

- Mark spent a day giving speeches at one of the schools. They gave him a little gift basket as a thank you. He brought home a nice pen, coupon for a free McDonald's meal, candy, and a giftcard to Main & Madison which he kindly gave to me! 

- Saturday the kids had most of their group dances at a competition in Zionsville. The boys drove up separately to tick Boone County off our list. I left them to their own devices and instead of choosing some free fun they went to Greek's Pizza. They did compare it to our local one and said it's way better. They brought us girls leftovers and thus none of us ate the lunch I had packed. Saturday night we packed away the cooler food into the fridge and saved it for our Sunday lunch. 

- Sunday was Mother's Day. Both of our moms were out of state visiting family so we had the day with just the four of us. Owen had dance so he and I were in Zionsville from 9-3. Mark and Annabeth mowed the lawn, made a homemade cookie cake, and smoked chicken + Mac-and-cheese for dinner. On the way home from the competition, Owen and I popped into a "fancy" northside Goodwill. We were a little disappointed to not find nicer items then we find on our side of town but I did find a nice sweatshirt for Annabeth and a pair of pants for me. I had a giftcard so it was $0 OOP.

For Mother's Day they got me cute little items from one of my favorite local boutiques.

They knew I would appreciate that they shopped small, local, and woman owned! :) 

Annabeth chose this fun hairbow for me. 

It was such a great gift as it's something I would look at in the store

but never splurge on. 

Also, I love the dance costumes - always momming haha

- We had lots of free fun this week - visiting parks, going to the library, house projects put off during the school year, and lots and lots of board games!

- Wednesday morning Owen had a haircut downtown. We stopped in Main & Madison afterwards and I grabbed a salad for me and a drink for him. Thank you to Mark's mom for the gift card. $0 OOP

- Our neighbor planted her totatoes and had two extra plants. She kindly gifted them to us for our patio. Saved: $5

- Last night was our mom's planning meeting for next year for our co-op. The returning members hosted a pitch-in to welcome the new moms. The sign-up came out the week we were hosting Annabeth's Confirmation luncheon. I signed up for plates, napkins, and utencils. I brought items that we already had on hand (leftover from her party) so $0 OOP! 

This week we started Summer School. People often ask what our summers look like so I'll share here. The first week after school lets out I try to have zero requirements of the kids. They get long lazy days of reading, crafting, playing outside, TV, etc. Then, Week Two-End of Summer we have at least 30 minutes of reading a day and a math lesson a day. The reading has looked different over the years with everything from piles of picture books, to read aloud, to their own chapter books, and even audio books. The point is -we read! As for math, I've always mixed it up too. Addition races, games, out loud questions, multiplication races, and now they are each doing a lesson of next year's math. The average school child can lose two years of skills over the summer (they call it the Summer Slide) and it makes life SO much easier at back to school time if there hasn't been a big break in learning. We do these skills every day that we are home all day. If we're out on an adventure, at VBS, have company, etc we do not do Summer School. 

I hope that's helpful for anyone looking to continue summer learning with your kids!

Happy Savings to All! 

Frugal Friday 571

 Happy Frugal Friday!

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

- I took each of the kids on a little coffee date over the past few weeks. My best friend had given me a gift card and this was a fun way to use it! $0 OOP.

- Mark and I got ice cream one evening. I used a free Blizzard from the Dairy Queen App to make for a very cheap date. 

- We don't shop at Meijer super often but they do have some items we cannot find anywhere else. I made sure to use our "Free Item" coupons that came in the mail this month. We got a free peanut butter and free yogurt. Saved: $4.28

- Sunday the kids had a dance competition in downtown Indy. Our arrival time was 6 AM and we didn't leave until 8 PM. We packed along lunch and snacks. The boys went home midday for a break to let Oscar out. Although it cost them gas and time, it was more affordable than hiring a dog walker to come in for him. I did splurge on the way home and we ordered pick up pizza. After 14 hours of dance, I was in no mood to cook. I did use $2 Papa John's bucks and a 20% off coupon.

One year, Annabeth and I had seen another studio with the cutest, studded

studio jackets. We've talked about them on and off ever since. Annabeth thrifted

this black jean jacket last fall and a few weeks ago my dad got her the STYLE patches

for her to make her own. It turned out SO cute and earned her lots of compliments. 

- Monday, after two weeks without heat or ac, we had our new unit installed. I am very, very thankful that this happened in April/May when it didn't make any difference to not have anything running. We've had beautiful weather and typically don't run heat or air for most of April-early June anyway. We were excited that the new unit came in about $400 less than we thought. Even so, this was a major expense so are busy looking at our monthly budget to figure out how to trim it down to rebuild savings. Expect a LOT of free, frugal fun to appear here over the summer. 

- At my Wednesday night job, they often have excess food, supplies, etc that are donated. Once the group members go through, the volunteers can choose from what is left. This week's donation included some new-with-tag clothing basics donated from Maurice's. I chose 8 items for Annabeth and myself. We replaced worn out items in our dressers for free! 

- I ordered an item from Amazon that didn't come in exactly how I wanted. When I went to return it, Amazon told me that they would give me a full refund in the form of Amazon gift card and that there was no need to return the item. I will give the item as a gift in the future. I will also save the gift card amount until fall birthdays or maybe even Christmas as I don't shop online often at all. 

- Mark was sick all last week, I came down with it last Friday, and Owen started feeling poorly Monday. As a result, we've laid low the past two weeks trying to recover as quickly as possible. The worst part has been a persistent, dry, hacking cough. We hope to be fully through it soon.

Wednesday evening, I came home to our neighbor mowing our front yard. I was so surprised as he's a new neighbor, and we don't speak often. When I got out of the car to thank him, he just said he knew it had been rainy and maybe we needed that little bit of help getting ahead of Thursday's rain. It was such a simple, but deeply meaningful, act of kindness for us. It felt so wonderful to be seen and helped. It was a living reminder to us to always seek opportunities to be the hand and feet of Jesus. 

We are looking forward to another dance weekend! Good luck to our SDA Family at our last regional of the season!

Happy Savings to All! 

Frugal Friday 570

 Happy Frugal Friday!

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

- Last Friday we spent the day in Elkhart with our friends the Evans family. We enjoyed time at their house and had a snack lunch. Spent $0 for many hours of fun!

- The kids and I rounded out a 9 county tour of Northern Indiana. I found a good hotel deal for under $100/night at a very safe, clean place. Especially traveling alone with the kids I did not want to risk an unfamiliar area so I stayed right where I knew how to get places and with a chain I was comfortable with. We spent $45 on gas as we drove many miles and $30 on stops. We supported a small family owned bakery and local candy shop with that $30.

- Friday night through Sunday the boys had Spring Camp with the Scouts. They camped at Lakeview for the first time in a while and I know Mark really enjoyed sharing that special place with Owen. Together they caught around 80 fish which was the highlight of all of the stories from campt this week.

One of the MANY fish they caught.

- While the boys were gone, Annabeth and I enjoyed a Girls' Weekend. She had really looked forward to this and asked for pasta dinner and lots of Gilmore Girls. Saturday we spent lunch with co-op friends and it was the sweetest, sunniest afternoon with dear friends. The highlight for me was as the girls waited in line for their lunch a worship song came up on the playlist and together we all sang. It was sweet.

- Sunday after church we went to my nephew's baseball game. It's his first year playing and we loved cheering him on. He's been great about sitting through Owen's games over the years and we were excited to cheer for him now!

- Mark worked many overtime hours. We find that just as school kids get Spring Fever - so do grown-ups! He always has some strange cases this time of year. 

- In early April, I placed an order for a a nephew's birthday gift with 3+ weeks for delivery. It's been stuck in Ohio since April 11 with UPS saying they've handed it off to USPS and USPS saying they never got it. I asked the seller to either refund or send again once we were 10 days passed the delivery date. They haven't been good about responding to my messages so I finally filed a claim with my bank for failure to receive. They have refunded me the money. I doubt the original item will ever appear and at least now I have my money back. 

- In looking through my e-mails about that order, I realized I never got a confirmation for another item. I had seen a sunscreen shared over and over again by influencers and one had a great code for it. I went through her link, used the code, and had the money come out of my account before Easter. When I realized it never arrived, I went through to look for tracking. Then I discovered I never even got an e-mail. I wrote the company to see if they could resend it, or at least give me an Order/tracking number. I was a little worried I had ordered through a shell company instead of the real one as I've had that happen with Instagram before. This was not the case though! I had an answer, with order number and tracking, within 12 hours. I cannot wait for it to arrive!

- Annabeth took an online high school math class this year. It was $10.97/month. I realized mid-April that she would only have a couple of lessons after the April payment so we stacked her final unit on fewer days to save the final $10.97 payment. I spent quite a bit on next year so every little bit we can save on school this year will help! 

- Yesterday was our last co-op event of the year - Field Day! We played kickball, did stations, and enjoyed a gorgeous spring morning together. I am very thankful for this group of friends to do life with. 

- Yesterday was our last day of school! Annabeth completed 8th, and some of 9th grade, this year and Owen completed 4th grade. I am forever thankful to be a homeschool family! Our tradition is to eat out on the last night of school, our kids are townies so they chose The Willard. We had a great dinner out and used a $5 off coupon on our meal. We had a movie and living room camp-out to complete the festivities. I love that even though they are "big kids" they still want to celebrate this way. 

We are looking forward to a busy and fun two months of summer! We use May and June to wrap up dance, visit family, celebrate some special events, and to work on 4H projects. I find it hard to believe that when we head back to school in July that I'll be teaching my last year of grade school and my first year of high school! 

Happy Savings to All!