Hello dear One!
It has been two weeks since I have posted my penny-saving list. This is NOT because I have not been trying to save and stretch our pennies! Oh no! Quite the opposite in fact. But I will get to that in a bit.
Two weeks ago, we had a couple large expense things again! First, the fitness watch my college daughter uses for her college P.E. Class broke! It it was simply step count that she needed, she could have used the Fitbit watch that she already owns. But sadly the class requires this specific type of watch. She had this one since last year when she started college, but I would have hoped it would last longer than one school year, especially since it is $150! And I know my daughter is a student who is extremely careful in taking care of her things! But as the expression goes, there is no use crying over spilled milk! I told her to not let it make her sad, and to just go get another one from the school and charge it on her school bill. Each day that she didn’t have a working watch was a day she was losing points in her class since she wasn’t getting the exercise recorded on the class platform. At least now we know, that this is not going to be a one time purchase so we can sort of plan on one watch expense for each year. And if this watch lasts longer than one year—great! But I am going to think of it more as a lab fee that is paid yearly. Silver lining is my daughter has a credit balance on her school year, thanks to wonderful scholarships she has earned, so even though she would like to not have had this expense, she DID have the credit saved up to purchase the needed second watch.
Then, just the very next day after the watch breaking, my car left us stranded! It literally would not start when I tried to take my daughter home at lunchtime. And yes—this is the same car that just broke on me the very first week of school. Deep breath! Well, the good news is it turned out to be “only” a new battery that was needed! And thanks to my husband coming to jump it and follow me to the auto place, by the close of the day that I was left stranded I had a new battery. I am thankful that when I was stranded, it was in a safe place and only a mile away from home. I am VERY thankful it did not happen just four days earlier when our family was on a very long drive to the “big city!” We could have all been stranded there, far away from home and our second car to jump it!
Those above things were not so “frugal” feeling for sure! But I am still thankful the funds were there to replace what needed replacing. And while it may not feel like a money saving event—it IS the result of having saved money so that provision was there when needed. And I am thankful for that!
In other endeavors:
1) I joined in a free online “paint party.” This was a watercolor painting class, by a professional artist who lives across the world from where I live—isn’t Zoom amazing? I was struggling for sure as I attempted to follow her step by step instructions and her camera showed her paint strokes, one by one. It felt FAST to me—a literal very beginner! BUT—I learned a lot! And I tried! At the time I painted it, I felt pretty discouraged about my painting, because compared to the one the artist painted, it did not look at all like I had tried to make it look! But when I came back and looked at it later on, I actually really liked it!
My friend has purchased a book by this artist for me as a gift, and I look forward to working through the exercises in the book. I also learned that she has a paid online class, and I decided to go ahead and invest in myself and purchase her paid class. I am benefitting greatly from being able to watch her paint in “real time,” and not ONLY seeing pictures in a book. It was not inexpensive—but I had the funds saved up for doing something to invest in myself, and I decided this was a skill I would truly enjoy learning. And overall, watercolor painting is not a terribly expensive hobby. Even good quality watercolor paper is pretty affordable, and the paints and brushes do take a bit to purchase at the front end but they are going to last me a very, very long time. I had to laugh at a shipment I received of watercolor paint that I ordered to do the class lessons. It was a very large box I thought, for such small contents!
2) I visited with a dear friend who lives states away from me. Happily, she was in my area to visit her adult children who live not far from where I am, and whenever possible she makes time to come see me when she is in this neck of the woods. How can one put a price tag on a friend? You cannot—for they are priceless. No amount of money can “purchase” a true friend, one who cares, who listens, and who prays for you. I so appreciate God causing our paths to cross years and years ago. At the time, I did not realize what a gift God was bringing into my life—but I do now!
3) I found a cook book for my daughter in a Free Little Library! We have a couple tubs stored in the basement with things she has received that will come in useful when she moves out on her own. Most of the things were gifts to her from my brother, who is always very generous with his nieces and nephews. Some things she was given when she attended a cooking class with me put on by a local state extension agent. And so we are collecting what comes her way, and when she actually moves out we will fill in what she still needs.
4) I went to a doctor check up. This is frugal because she can help me stay in good health, and hopefully head off anything while it is still small and before it becomes a big problem. I am blessed that my health insurance covers a yearly check up at 100%, so truly there is no good reason NOT to go. Besides that—my doctor is a good friend, and I trust her and her advice completely. Going to a check up is literally going to visit a friend. I had already had bloodwork done free of charge at the health check my husband’s employer does yearly for all employees and covered spouses, so I was able to take the blood results with me to the doctor visit and my doctor could look at my numbers and we could discuss anything of concern. I feel this is a great use of our check up, and am so glad I am able to get the bloodwork done ahead of time and THEN go discuss the results with her.
Well, that was my list for two weeks ago. This past week started off in a flurry, as my daughter was invited to join a group heading for hurricane disaster relief! She received the invitation on Friday, decided to join the group on Saturday, and they were deploying to North Carolina on Wednesday morning! So all of a sudden in the course of three days my daughter had to make arrangements with all of her college professors, make arrangements with her boss to cover her work while she was gone (and find other employees willing to take her times), collect a long list of needed items to take with her, etc.! And so the week began. . .
1) I went to the thrift store where I volunteer, to look for some long sleeve shirts for my daughter to take on the trip. Long sleeve is recommended due to sunburn and scratches if they are helping with cleanup, and my daughter literally only has a very few long sleeve shirts—and none that she wanted to risk getting ruined. So I told her I would look for some for her at the thrift store, and she tells me “Don’t get anything I will be embarrassed to wear!” This—coming from a girl who is the most flexible EVER in clothing, as long as it fits. She truly could care less about name brands and such, but she does know one can find some rather interesting things at the thrift store! I promised to do my best, and came back with three long sleeve tees and one long sleeve button down, which she happily took with her as her trip wardrobe along with a smattering of short sleeve tees. And the pics she has managed to get through to home showed her happily wearing her “new” wardrobe, so I think it worked! I shopped for her on the clearance side of the store, where all clothing items are .75 cents each—so paid a grand total of $3.00 for her four shirts—except that I had a gift certificate from being a volunteer there, so my actual out of pocket cost was zero. Just my price!
2) While at the thrift store, I also ran past the music CDs. Yes, I know CDs are kinda out of style now. But I am old, and my car is old. And my car has a CD player, so I looked! AND I found a treasure!
If you play the violin, then you will know that it doesn’t get any better than Perlman!!!! And at just $1.00 in cost, I was delighted! And yes, my gift certificate paid for this little gem as well!
3) Speaking of volunteering, this past week the thrift store had “Volunteer Week!” Each day of the week they had something special for the volunteers. It might be a free cookie one day. A free muffin (GIANT size!). A free brownie. A free volunteer tee shirt, and then one day they had a free meal catered in that was yummy! I do not eat sugar, so passed my brownie and cookie and such on to a friend who works there and she was delighted to receive them, but I DID enjoy that catered meal! And I also just really enjoyed them doing this for the volunteers. Even if I didn’t eat the sweets, it touched me that they were doing this, and I was happy to be able to pass mine on to a friend! They also had a raffle where every day when you came in you got a ticket to put in a group of your choice. They had some REALLY nice groups! One with gift cards to area restaurants, a camping one with a super nice cooler and camp chairs and camp blankets and lantern, a garden themed one, a tea themed one, and an ice cream maker with ice cream Sunday glasses to complete it! None of my raffle tickets were drawn on the last day for the groups of prizes, but I still had fun and I really appreciated everything they did to show that we were valued!
4) I looked at first for a new piece of luggage for my daughter to use on her trip—but didn’t find exactly the size she needed. So in the end, she made do just fine by using two smaller duffle bags that we already owned. It was more single items for her to carry, but I figured out at home how she could carry all the “parts” in just one trip, all by herself. If she picked them up in exactly the right order, she could put on her back pack, sling a duffle bag over each of her shoulders, and that left her hands still available for carrying her sleeping bag and pillow! I did purchase her a foam pad, and we stuffed that inside her pillow case to not have another loose item for her to chase down!
5) I found another book in a Free Little Library. Sometimes I go for months without finding anything that interests me, but have been recently leaving some books off for others in a Free Little Library near where I live. But this week I found a book that I was interested in, so it was a blessing! I have completed reading it, and it was EXCELLENT! My first time reading this author, but it won’t be my last!
6) I took a box of books from a friend that I am helping clean out her guest room to a used book store. My friend had insisted that I keep anything the books brought, as “payment” for helping her with her cleaning. It was a small box, and of course you do not get very much when you are selling used books, but the store did offer me either $11 in trade, or $7 in cash. I choose to take the trade! And while I was there, I looked around and found myself two more books by the same author as the book above!
One book was $2.00, and the other $4.00, so I still have some credit left! :) I have started reading the “Nor Forsaken” book already. It is about our Heavenly Father not forsaking us, and is looking to be as excellent as the “Goliath Must Fall” book was!
WELL, friends, that was my busy last two weeks! Some things were expenses, not savings, but I saved where I could and I was thankful to have the means in hand to spend where needed—or to even splurge a bit as in the case of the watercolor class. I count that as an investment in myself and mental health! It is good to take care of all parts of us, physical, mental, and spiritual, and sometimes something that will be a stress reliever is a good investment!
How have you been the past two weeks? I would love it if you care to share! Do take care of yourself and help others out whenever you can. This sinful world is hard, and we need to support each other. But remember God has not left us abandoned.
Until next time!
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