It’s been ninety or close to for almost a week now, so I feel like I can complain about how stupid hot it is outside. While that may not be noteworthy in a lot of the country, around here it gets us heat advisories. A lot of our discomfort comes from not only the heat we are unaccustomed to, but also the fact that many places aren’t equipped with air conditioning so it gets up to 85-90 inside, even at night when you’re trying to sleep. We broke down and bought a couple of window units a few years ago, but we run them on energy saver mode so our house is around 72-75 degrees right now, which is so much more bearable than over eighty.
Crazy enough, this heat wave looks like it’s going to stick around next week, so we’re going to have to deal with it for a while yet. This is the time of year though that we really appreciate that our home backs up to wooded trails, so our backyard is pretty much always a nice place to hang out. That, and our laundry dries in no time flat.
Friday’s Frugal Five
1. Our neighbor texted my husband the other day and asked if he could use his larger car jack and help him rotate the tires on his Jeep. While this isn’t a money saving endeavor for us personally, it saved our neighbor the cost of taking his car to a repair shop AND the cost of buying the supplies to do something when we already own them.
While this might be a little thing, I feel it’s a good example of the sort of things we could – and should – be sharing within a community to save both costs and resources. Bonus, our son got to “help” them and he thought it was the best thing ever. Basically anything that has to do with power tools and he’s in.
2. The season for King salmon opened and closed quickly around here, but my dad was out fishing almost every day during that week and maxed out his catch every day but one, so he ended up with a ton of salmon, which he then shared with us, which was awesome for my husband and son (but not for me because I don’t like most seafood – odd for this area, I know).
In trade for the awesome gift of fresh caught fish, my husband took extra from my dad overnight to smoke at our house in his smoker, which created a bit more variety for my parents with the large amounts of salmon they were ended up with. Fresh or smoked salmon is crazy expensive, so the amount of money saved between our two families is probably in the hundreds of dollars all told. Fishing is also my dad’s favorite hobby, and it’s always awesome when a hobby is also a money saving endeavor.
3. My aunt and cousin were in town so they went up to Whidbey Island for a week, and we joined them for a few days. It is always great to escape to the islands and it was even better to spend some time with them. When the trip ended, there was quite a bit of leftover food in the rental fridge, and we ended up going home with a lot of it.
The timing was perfect because we had our annual neighborhood block party Sunday afternoon and I put together a nice spread to take down to the event. Even leftovers can look pretty fabulous when nicely displayed, and it was a great way to make sure that all the food got eaten (and made it so we had one less thing to do after getting back home after a short trip away.
4. I renewed my blog domain this week after I almost skipped over an email letting me know that my credit card information at GoDaddy was expired. I’m not sure if anyone wants my domain name, but how awful would it have been if I had accidentally let it lapse and someone had snatched it up?! Thankful that they don’t cancel it immediately and send a few extra reminders for people like me who are terrible at checking their non-work emails. I did at least remember to go through Ebates for the domain renewal so I am getting a little bit back on that purchase as well. I’m excited for the next check I receive from them because it will actually be a decent size (for someone like me who doesn’t spend a ton of money on online orders). If you haven’t used Ebates yet, use this link to get $10 – if you’re ordering anything online, you may as well get a little money back for it!
5. As you know by now if you follow along on Twitter or Instagram (or read my latest garden update), we are currently overrun by blueberries in the garden, which is a pretty awesome thing to be overrun by. While I could freeze or can the extras, I prefer to give away the excess whenever possible because there are few things that make me happier than sharing my homegrown fruits and vegetables. My parents don’t have a garden this year, so of course I took a full bowl of blueberries and Sungold cherry tomoatoes (my mom’s favorite!) over to them this week. Our three slower to ripen bushes are getting close this week, so soon we will have yet more blueberries ready for picking. I’ve been trying to eat as many myself as I can so that I’m sick of them by the time the season ends. So far, I’m not sick of them 😉
Running Update
This past week I managed to run four times instead of my more recent three days a week, and it felt awesome. While we were on the island, I managed to go for a bonus hour long run on Friday during nap time. I then squeezed in two short twenty minute runs on Monday and Tuesday; previously I would have made excuses as to why I didn’t have time, but as I’ve gotten back into the routine of running more I just had to make it happen. And then I ran to work again on Wednesday morning as usual. Again, I didn’t lift this week though, so I really need to find a way to make that happen.
What were your big frugal wins this week? Share them with me – I love to hear all about them!