Frugal Friday! Week of March 28-April 3, 2020

 

Hello Frugal Friends!

This was a hard week, and doesn’t really feel like I did a whole lot to save money—yet I know that I did, even in just “normal” living. I bet you as well have things you do on a day to day basis that saves your family dollars and stretches what you have. We do not often give ourselves credit when we should. So on to the frugal things: 

*I had food frozen away in meal containers in our freezer for an “emergency.” Our week started with my needing to drive my hubby to a doctor visit at the local hospital. He had an out patient surgery last week, and this was the first follow up appointment and my hubby had not been cleared to drive yet, so therefore I needed to drive him. We had HOPED that he would have much improvement at this visit, but he was not as improved as expected. The nurse sent him home, with instructions to call their office if things did not improve during the day. It had taken us one hour to drive to the hospital, about an hour of waiting there, and an hour drive back home. I was pretty tuckered by the time we got home, right about lunch time. How thankful I was for the simple spaghetti and sauce that I had frozen another time when we had had too much left over. It was a blessing to be able to pull it out of the freezer, already in a meal size portion, and pop it in the microwave. It tasted wonderful to these weary travelers! I was especially glad we had a good meal when we realized that my hubby needed to head back into the doctors office. Sooo, another hour drive in, another hour waiting, and another hour drive home. After a total of six hours going to, from, or waiting at the doctor’s office that day I decided having prepared food in the freezer is huge in saving money and just plain saving your sanity. We also ended up with another trip to see the doctor on Thursday, thankfully that time at a closer office so it was a little shorter of a drive to get there. And while it is incremental, there is some small improvements, so we are thankful. You can see in the picture above the meal containers I use.  I have learned to label the ends of the containers with what is in them. What seems super obvious at the time you freeze it has a way of becoming a bit less obvious as time and memory passes, if you know what I mean!  I have found the small post it notes to work well for this, and I do tape the sides onto the container.  I wondered if the tape would stay on in the freezer, but it has worked just fine. I need to get a stash more made up, so I can in this way have my own version of "fast food."  Not only is it much less expensive, but since I have some food intolerances it is very difficult for me to purchase ready made foods.  This way I can have convent foods that won't make me sick--AND they are inexpensive as well.  Win, win, win in my book!

*I called to receive help, and when the first person was not helpful, I called back later to speak with another person.  This concerned my teen daughter taking the ACT exam. She registered six months ago, to test at a testing center a mile from out house. With COVID, testing is especially difficult to get a spot as the test centers are having to socially distance students, etc. So that was why we had to wait for six months to get a testing spot. Well, it is a long, sad tale which I will spare you the details, but in a nutshell the ACT messed up my daughter’s test reservation, and unknown to us ended up switching her to a different test center on a different day—and the day they changed her to did not work for her at all. As soon as I discovered that her test reservation had been changed, I contacted ACT. The first person simply told me we would have to make a new reservation. Well, the test cost $55 to register for, plus the fact that our daughter had been waiting all school year for her turn to test. I did not feel it was right for us to have to pay the fee all over again, when it was the ACT that had messed up her reservation. I called back, and received a very helpful employee that time. Unfortunately, they could not get her into the original test center that she registered for, as all the spots had been filled by other students when they moved her off the list for that test center. But the employee did manage to get my daughter another test center a few days later. Sadly it is an hour drive away, but she will be able to test and she was not charged a change fee. Under the messed up circumstances, it was the best solution that could be done.

*I ordered my hubby’s birthday gift online, during a 20% sale. When I realized that I was just missing the limit for free shipping by 60 cents because of the sale prices bringing my total down, I asked if there was still any way I could receive free shipping. The employee readily said my total was “close enough” for the company to give me free shipping on my order. This saved me $5.00. Our "kitten" (I use that term loosely, since he is now a grand total of 14 pounds!!!) of course, thinks the present is the box and paper, and he is convinced it is for him! ;) 

*I bought flowers for my soul on clearance. By Friday, I was feeling such relief at having made it through a difficult week.  As I was shopping for groceries at Walmart, I ran into an employee that works in the garden section of the store.  I stopped to chat for a minute with her, and asked if they had any plants on clearance.  She directed me to several that I would have never seen on my own, and told me she had just marked them down to $2.00 each! 

Our area has just had several nights of literally freezing weather, which is not normal for us at this time of year. Walmart had covered all the plants, and most of them looked pretty good, but some of the plants that had been on the top of the racks had had the tarps laying directly on top of them, and had gotten a bit smooshed.  The employee told me that she had decided to simply clearance those plants out, but she was positive they would recover. 

I went ahead and purchased all three that she showed me.  This big one of geraniums was normally priced at around $20! And the other two were around $13.  I paid a total of $6 for all three.  They are annuals, and I normally do not spend my dollars on annuals, preferring to put my money into perennials that will come back each year.  But after my crazy week, I decided having some pretty annuals to place on our back porch was not a bad idea, and one silver lining is I do not need to come up with a "permanent" spot for them in my garden area.  I can just enjoy them now, and throughout the summer, and not worry about them dying because I know they will. So I bought these three plants instead of getting an Easter lily.  And I won't have to worry about my cat chewing on them and getting sick, since they will be outside and our cat is an inside only cat. Since our weekend weather was for more frost warnings, the plants lived in my basement sewing room for the weekend, and will move out to their back porch home today. 

Well, that was my week!  It was busy and flew by and I was exhausted by the time it was done.  But God is good, and carried us through each problem.  How was your week?  What have you done to save money and bless your family? I would love to hear about it!

~Susan