Several mornings ago, I pried my eyes open and discovered that a hard storm was hitting our home. I’d been up all night watching the radar, and nothing had come our way. Until now.
I walked out to our dining room and looked out the window. I couldn’t see anything. We were being hit hard by straight line winds.
I casually told my son that maybe we should head to the basement. I quickly woke the other kids and shuffled them downstairs. By the time we got to the bottom of the steps, the winds had died down.
Luckily, the only damage we had were some downed trees (away from the house and barn). Our area was hit with a few small tornadoes that did big damage to some homes. So we were especially grateful to have made it through without many problems.
Unfortunately, the power went out and wouldn’t come back for over 36 hours.
It’s a good thing we keep ourselves prepared for this sort of thing. We often lose power for long periods of time once it goes out, so we’ve learned the hard way!
I hope you stayed safe from that bad round of storms!
Now, let’s celebrate Frugal Friday the right way.
The 5 Ways We’ve Saved Money This Week
Generator
The autumn that we first moved into this home, a freak storm went through that knocked out power for nearly a week. We felt like we were camping! We grilled a lot of food, relied on others to store our freezer supply, and found other places to shower.
(When our power goes out, the pump on our water supply goes out, too.)
After power was restored, many people started selling their generators on Craigslist. Personally, I can’t understand why you wouldn’t want to keep it on hand for the next storm. But it was ok by me.
We grabbed a nearly new generator for a fraction of the cost. And the next time our power went out, we had a small generator to run the things we needed.
Having Supplies on Hand
I mentioned this before, but having the supplies we needed on hand was a saver in more than one way! It was nice to be able to light up my lanterns that were already filled with oil. We had firewood to keep the house warm and flashlights. (Although I did have to run out for some D batteries…something I need to do better about keeping on hand.)
Read more about the things we keep on hand for such an occasion here.
Relied on Friends and Family
I’ll say it again…I’m very blessed to have awesome friends and family. People offered to let me do laundry and to feed us during the blackout. That saved us plenty of money over buying fast food or paying for the laundromat. Now I’ll look for ways to repay them when they need help!
Clothing Coupon
Once Upon a Child mailed me a $5 off anything coupon. I don’t think I’ve ever received a coupon from them before, so I was kind of excited about it! Our 3 year old needed some pants for church and our daughter needed a cardigan (also for church). So on top of the bargains I already get there, I added some coupon savings!
Donations
Our school is getting ready to hold a fundraiser. We are going to do a Penny War, which we haven’t done at this school before. So we needed some big buckets to collect all the money.
Our school is extremely frugal (which I certainly appreciate!). So I sent some emails to see if any companies would help.
Sure enough, I was able to get all the buckets donated! After having babies for so long, this is my first chance to dip my toes in and volunteer more at my children’s schools. So I’m anxious to see how this goes.
Those are the 5 Ways We’ve Saved Money This Week!
Be sure to check out the March check in on our debt free goals. I’m so excited about our debt progress last month!!
I hope you had a great week, and I’d love to read about the ways you were able to save!
I love getting coupons to use at places where I already know I’ll get a good deal!
I’ve never heard of a penny war before, how does that work?
I’m glad you all made it safely through the storm! When we got hit by a bad hurricane a few years ago, we were really lucky that my grandmother lived on the same power grid as the hospital. Nowhere had electricity for nearly 10 days, but hers came back on within a few hours. We spent a lot of time over there eating and showering.
Wow, that’s a lucky break!
Glad you guys are safe.
We’ve lost power a few times, usually due to ice or snow storms. Fortunately, we have gas logs, and Jon bought a little inverter from Harbor Freight so that he can plug small appliances into an extension cord that runs in from one of the cars. He bought a generator as well, but we’ve never lost power long enough to drag it out of the barn (since he bought it, anyway.)
Glad you are all ok and nothing too serious happened. It’s great that you’re prepared for storms. I’ve done a little preparation, but really should have more things on hand. So now inquiring minds want to know….what’s a penny war?
That’s such a good idea to have a generator on hand. Especially with running power to keep food refrigerated and frozen, it can save a lot of money in the long-run. Smart purchase!
I saved money this week by catching an awesome sale at the Childrens Place. At check out, they gave me coupons for $10 off of $50. I will use them at the next sale. #Winning Glad you all made it through the storm!
Neighbors and friends are very important during a crisis. I’m glad you had such good ones! We were lucky to keep our power last week when the big wind storm came. Some people are still with out it. It’s very cold now too. Glad you got a deal on a generator! It will be so helpful and reassuring. Have a great day.
That’s great… the more I save money and think about it, the more I find more ways to save money. 🙂
That’s true. It’s funny how practicing just about anything will make you better at it.