Howdy Frugal Friends!
How was your week? Mine was good, on many accounts! One of the most exciting parts was that on Sunday my daughter had her “Hope Twinkles” Play-a-Thon, which was a charity fund raiser to raise monies for hurricane relief in the Bahamas. Specifically, a school in the Bahamas which suffered damage from the hurricanes, and some of the teachers lost their entire homes, as well as some of the student families the same. The school, while damaged, is not damaged so much that they cannot operate—yet most of the student’s families are unable at this time to pay the tuition for their child to attend school. The school does not want to refuse the children coming to school. At this time in their lives, they need the steady, security of school even more than ever. Yet, of course the school is unable to operate without any tuition money coming in. SO—when my daughter’s music teacher learned about this school, Grand Bahama Academy, it became the focus of this year’s charity fund raiser. This is the third year that “Hope Twinkles” has happened, and each year it has grown larger than the year before.
Hope Twinkles Play-a-Thon
The first “Hope Twinkles,” the children raised money for Hurricane Katrina relief. Last year, they raised money for a school in Santa Rosa, California which was destroyed by the terrible fires. And then this year, of course, was for Grand Bahama Academy hurricane relief. With the Play-a-Thon, the children all solicit pledges from people who agree to either sponsor them for how long they play, or simply make a donation. Last year, my daughter played for SEVEN HOURS that one day! She knew that the longer she played, the more money she would be raising for the Santa Rosa school, and in her heart she wanted to raise as much as possible! This year, however, while her heart was the same—she has suffered from a terrible tendonitis attack since last May, so she was not able to play as long as she normally would. In fact, her physical therapist told her that she was allowed to play for two hours, and that was it!
So she did the best she could in fundraising, and decided to create a video this year which explained what the children were doing. My niece set up a GoFundMe page which linked the video, and my heart was so touched as my daughter received some donations from people that were total strangers to her! She also had several people mail in donations, marking her as the child they were sponsoring. What a blessing! The final numbers are still to be determined, as the music teacher has given the students until November 22 to collect and turn in all of their pledges, but from the numbers we have heard so far, the children have raised more than they have the previous two years! I will be sure and update when I know more!
But on to other frugal activities:
*I accepted two boxes of bananas that my very kind nephew offered me! We live just down the road from the college my nephew is attending, and evidently there had been some food leftover from a weekend event that the college had hosted. The school was giving the food away for free, to whoever wanted it. My nephew called me and asked me if I had any room in my freezer, as he knew I have an upright freezer. I said that I did, and he brought over two large boxes of bananas! We were delighted! We have been enjoying them by indulging in smoothies several times this week, as well as banana ice cream, a cookie recipe that is sweetened with bananas (more similar to muffins, really, than cookies), as well as making home made granola which is also sweetened with bananas (as well as dates). So as you can see, we can use up quite a few bananas, in a short amount of time!
*I was able to use several Kohl’s coupons and order four pairs of wool socks from their web site at a price that works out to be $3.14 each pair. I will use two of these for myself, and gift two of them to my daughter in her Christmas stocking. They aren’t the Smartwool brand that I have been impressed with after trying, but the price was good and it will be nice to have a few pairs of wool socks instead of just one pair.
*We had a termite inspection done. I consider this frugal because it can save MUCH money and grief if the termites decide to make lunch of your house! And since we live in the South, termites are quite prevalent around here! In fact, one of my hubby’s co-workers DID have the unhappy discovery of termites eating up part of his house! We keep our house under a contract for termites, which works basically similar to insurance. As long as we pay our contract to keep it active, if our house is discovered to have any termite damage, the company will repair the damage at no additional cost to us.
*I bought two books which will become Christmas gifts, as well as a covered casserole dish and an adorable three miniature milk bottles in a metal container at a thrift shop using my gift certificate from being a volunteer there. After all the holiday decorations are packed away, I will use the milk bottles to hold flowers, either artificial in the Winter, or real in the Summer.
*I bought six silicone molds at half off at JoAnn’s Fabric Store. I will use these for an Art project that I am doing with my daughter in our homeschool. They will be long lasting as well, as they do not get used up with use, so we will have them for a good while. My husband’s employer has some monies that they reimburse us for our homeschool expenses, up to a certain amount, so I will turn in this receipt and will be reimbursed for the entire expense.
*I ordered a Christmas present for our cat, using a $5.00 coupon. Yes, a present for the cat! But he is a very sweet and very old cat, and my husband—it REALLY was him, even though this is generally my pussycat—my husband started sending me links for heated cat beds, because our cat is so old—19 years best as we know, as he was a stray— and telling me that Pumpkin needs a warm bed because he is old and arthritic. I did some looking around, and found a bed that was 50% off of the regular price, and was able to use the $5.00 coupon on top of that. When I saw that I did not have the option of shipping it to the store to pick up, and I was going to be charged shipping to my house, I called the customer service number and simply asked if there was any way that I could receive free shipping. I figured it never hurts to ask! And I am glad I did, as the agent said they could happily do that for me, so it is on it’s way! And if, by any chance, Pumpkin does not care for his new bed, I can return it to the local store for a refund. I hope he likes it though!
Well, that’s it for my busy week! What did YOU do to save money and bless your family? Thank you to all who have shared, as I really love learning and hearing about what others are doing!
~Susan
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