My husband was out of town this whole week on a hunting trip, so it’s been an odd seven days to say the least. Since our son has been born, the longest he’s been away overnight was two nights in a row prior to this, and the kiddo wasn’t exactly thrilled about daddy being gone for so long.

In order to keep him distracted from the change in schedule, we’ve been extremely busy every day since he left. We’ve had a lot of fun, but the around-the-house stuff has definitely been left to a minimum. So life goes sometimes though, and worth it to make it a good week for him.

I realize that some kids don’t see their parents for longer stretches more often, but as we pretty much always bring him along, having daddy go on a trip by himself was an adjustment to say the least. Cross your fingers for us that he does okay while mama is gone for a long weekend at Cents Positive in a couple weeks, as the longest he’s spent away from me since he was born has been a one night stretch at a time.

Friday’s Frugal Five

1. I filled my gas tank over the weekend and used our grocery rewards number to get 40¢ off/gallon. This should have been a pretty decent frugal win, but my gas tank was only about half empty, so I didn’t actually save that much. Since we only rack up grocery rewards points once a month, I probably should have waited until I needed more gas to do the fill up with the rewards points. Instead, I only ended up saving a couple dollars.

2. As I mentioned above, I’m headed to Cents Positive in a couple of weeks, and there is a onesie party on Saturday night as part of the conference. Of course, there’s no requirement to dress up, but I wanted do. Since I’m still in the thick of my ever-lengthening clothing ban, buying one was out of the question. Of all the possible things I will someday end my ban over, a onesie won’t be it.

Instead, I mentioned the party to some friends and one of them said she had a onesie that I could borrow. It’s a little large, but it’s totally awesome. I wore it at home the other night and my son put on his old Toothless costume so we could be “Mommy Dragon” and “Baby Dragon.” The only downside of borrowing the onesie is that at some point I’m going to have to give it back.

3. We came back from visiting those friends in the South Sound on Sunday afternoon to find that the furnace wasn’t functioning. I tried troubleshooting, but all of my basic attempts got nowhere, so we were headed to the store to pick up a new battery for the thermostat to see if it would make a difference. Our neighbor caught us on the walk out, and when I explained that the thermostat wasn’t functioning along with the furnace, she brought us inside and found a pack of batteries that would work.

Unfortunately, a new battery didn’t fix the problem, but that same neighbor sent up her husband to take a look with my since my construction-knowledgeable husband was still off on his hunting trip (of course this would happen while he was gone). He wasn’t able to fix the furnace, and the HVAC company is finally coming out today as was their earliest non-emergency time available, but I so appreciate the kind of neighbors who will drop everything they’re doing to try and help out when help is needed. I do talk about our neighborhood a lot, but it’s for very good reason. We’ve found ourselves a real community here.

4. Again, this has been a WEEK. Of all the times for my husband to go out of town without us, he sure knew how to pick it. I was a cohost of an event Wednesday evening, and since it wasn’t the kind of thing the kiddo would have any fun with at all (and perhaps the venue was 21+? Now I’m not sure?), my plan was to leave him at home while I went.

I’d forgotten when I agreed to cohost that my husband would be gone, so I’d usually ask my mother to hang with the kiddo, but she’s out of commission for a little while and wasn’t able to watch him. I’ve got a heck of a village though, and I was able to ask my husband’s godfather to come down to hang with him for the evening. He’s recently moved back to Washington, and it was so helpful that he was able to assist on short notice. Having a big support system is the best.

The event didn’t start until 6PM, but once he showed up, the kiddo more or less kicked me out the door so he could have one on one time with his “uncle” and I found myself leaving a few hours before I needed to be at the event. It ended up being the perfect time to do some other work stuff that had been put off, and it always feels good when I know he’s having a great time without me whenever I have a commitment outside of normal work hours.

5. I went to that event in a “new to me” dress that my mother had given me a little while back, and I felt so good and fancy to be wearing something I hadn’t worn a hundred times before. I may have mostly gotten the shopping bug out of my system, but it still feels good to wear something new once and a while.

I got multiple compliments on the dress, which just solidifies the fact that something doesn’t have to be new to be nice. I debated wearing make up to the event, but as I haven’t worn any in a good year, I decided to stick to my guns and go bare faced as usual. I haven’t worn make up regularly in a long time, but I still feel the draw to wear some on fancier occasions from time to time. I don’t have anything particularly against make up, but it feels good to remove one more “extra” piece of life and focus on the stuff that matters to me instead.

Running Update

Like I’ve said, this was a weird week and we were thrown totally off schedule, so the only day I got a run in was Monday. I’m not happy with my lack of exercise, but some weeks happen. I did manage to hit my 12,000 step goal every day, but that was about it. The weather has been lovely, so we’ve spent a decent amount of time outside, but it’s a little difficult to go for a real run with a three and a half year old in tow. Give it a few more years though, and he’ll be running with me.

What were some of your frugal wins this week? I’d love to hear them!