It’s cold!
I mean, it is February in Ohio, so that’s not exactly shocking. Still, any time you get a fat layer of ice topped with another layer of snow…well, you’d better prepare for power outages and shut ins.
And that’s what we’ve been doing this week!
I also had my wisdom teeth taken out early this week. Getting that done at the age of forty-mumble,mumble isn’t for the faint of heart!
So it’s been an interesting week in our house.
How We Saved Money This Week
Coffee
On top of all the other adventures, our coffee maker bit the dust this week. (sob!)
We tried all the internet tricks, but it seems to be truly, completely dead.
I suspect months of moving the coffee maker nearly every day didn’t help any.
Once I finally accepted the fact that my morning BFF was truly gone, I shopped around and found us a new one.
Yes, it’s a Keurig again. No, it’s not the most frugal choice. But since Hubby is strictly decaf and I can’t live without caffeine, we’ve decided that it’s worth the splurge.
I’d like to tell you that I saved $15 by not choosing the red one (that would go with my new kitchen better)…but we both know I was never gonna spend $15 just to get a prettier color. 😉
But we did manage to find a way to avoid trips to McDonalds for coffee while we wait for the new maker to ship.
That’s because my 16 year old son decided to start making us some cold brew so we could keep our bad caffeine habit alive. Yum!
Car Repair
The sliding door on our minivan somehow broke.
Not only did the “automatic sliding” buttons stop working, but a cable had wrapped around something, so that the door wouldn’t even open all the way.
Convincing big teenaged boys to crawl through a half open door, around a seat, and into the back doesn’t make my list of favorite things. And with all the house construction, Hubby had no time to look at it.
So we took it to our local shop.
They said the cost of repairing the automatic door could run into the thousands!
For thousands of dollars, we’ll just slide the door like it’s 1995, thank you very much.
They charged me $20 and called it a day. (God bless them!) And now those teens can climb right in again!
Installed Our Own Flooring
We’ve been working on our home addition, and most of the work that’s left is stuff we’ve chosen to do on our own to save money.
For the new kitchen flooring, we chose vinyl plank. Because it clicks together, it’s fairly easy to learn how to install on your own.
And it’s supposed to hold up really well to kids who act like kids 😉 which was a major plus.
The process of getting this flooring installed has taken a while (it’s going at the pace of life!). But so far I’m really happy with the look of it!
Stools
We needed bar stools for the new peninsula/bar we have in our new kitchen.
I did a lot of shopping around only to find out that new bar stools cost many hundreds of dollars.
(For 3 bar stools! That seems crazy to me!)
Luckily, I found these on Craigslist, and my sister was able to grab them for me. The kids love spinning in them!
I’m thinking of spray painting them red, but not sure if I have the nerve to go with such a bold color. So I haven’t pulled the trigger yet…
Bedroom
This week I put the finishing touches on our new master bedroom.
(Well, the almost finishing touches. We don’t have the floor in the corner of the room finished yet, because the trim pieces are sitting on a boat somewhere.)
Find out all the tricks I used to makeover the bedroom for under $200 here.
That’s how we saved money this week!
Hope this week has been good on savings for you, too.
I'm Jamie, and I want to help you afford a beautiful life with your family. 
