Saving Money–Week Ending March 5, 2016

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On Friday, Rob and I spent the evening with 6 adorable children, ranging in age from 5-13. Our 2 youngest went with us, as well.  We took dinner with us and ate.  We also took these board games.  Every one of these games was played by one group of children or another throughout the evening.  The Wheel of Fortune is electronic, and was in high demand, so kids took turns with that one.  At one point, both Rob and I were involved teaching a couple of the youngest ones how to play Rack-o.  I was one team.  Rob was the partner for the 2 little boys.  For that game, you get the cards from smallest to largest and that was a bit of a challenge for some, but everyone had fun!  I played the stacking tower game quite a few times with the 5-year-old.  I also took a Pearler bead craft kit and several kids made a craft.  Then, we ironed them right away so they wouldn’t get bumped. After that, we cut up some apples and added them to some other snacks I brought, and pretty soon it was time to go home.  It was a fun, frugal way to spend an evening.

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Patsy played with Legos for quite a while on Saturday.  We don’t buy new toys often. These were the boys’ Legos, years ago.  Although Patsy doesn’t play with these often, she enjoyed them for an entire afternoon. She was pretty tired from a morning of trotting around fetching and carrying things for us and welcomed the chance to sit down.  I have a few well made, durable toys I will keep when we move, including these Legos and a large Thomas the Tank Engine train set.  I also have a Lincoln Log set.

I cooked at home and am making excellent progress on using things from the cupboards and freezers.  I went and got some groceries at Grocery Outlet and got some good deals on tilapia, lunchmeat and a bunch of other things. I easily fed extra people several times this week.  I love being able to offer a good meal to those who come and help us with this huge project of sorting and pre-packing.

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All of the piggies went to hog heaven this week, except this one. It was too small.  Rob has a friend who will finish it up.  He just needs to take this one over there within the next couple of days.  So, I will have pork soon.  We chose not to have them make sausage or ham this time and that will save money.  I still have some ham we got for a cheap price and love using the ground meat and roasts plain.

8 thoughts on “Saving Money–Week Ending March 5, 2016”

  1. Rack-o is a fun game that I grew up playing with my grandparents and cousins.
    Sounds like a fun evening you all had ?

    1. We played it with my Grandma. A few years ago, I found one and bought it immediately. It is short enough to be done in good time, and interesting enough to keep my attention–win-win when playing with kids. We did have a good evening. Rob and I were so tired, though, that there were a few times when we hoped we wouldn’t just fall asleep during the games, or when one of the older girls was reading to some of the younger kids:) The children weren’t what made us so tired, just to clarify. It was the long days we are putting in preparing for the move.

  2. That does sound like fun. I like to play board games, only problem is finding someone to play with. We used to have a family pizza and board game night when the boys were young. Whoever invented Legos, sure came up with a winner. We used to have a huge bin of them, which I wish I had hung onto. Boy are they ever expensive now! Sounds like things are moving along at a pretty brisk clip. Hope you have a restful week!

    Hugs
    Jane

    1. Oh, Jane, this week will be anything BUT restful, I’m afraid. We have the last “push” before the house is photographed and then goes on the market. Lots of good help coming in almost every day this week, and I’m so encouraged with the progress. Thanks for the good idea of resting, though:)

  3. We have a very old parlour game called “Peter Coddles” that most likely belonged to one of my great grandparents. Despite it’s age (the game has been around since the 1800s but our version is from the turn of the century), it never fails to entertain everyone who plays it. My Asperger’s daughter got a huge kick out of playing this when we introduced it to her!

    It is a story with blank spaces in it, and cards with three different things written on it that are passed out to everyone. Someone reads the story, then pauses at the blanks so someone can “insert” one of the items from their card into the story, making for a very funny and interesting story. The story is different every time you read it, so you can easily play it over and over again. I found an on-line version if anyone would like to try it with their family. Apparently the “blanks” will change each time you refresh the page. Hope you enjoy it as much as we have over the years. Here is the link:

    http://www.hoxsie.org/petercoddlegame2.php

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