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!