This is the summary for a couple weeks. I’ve been extremely, extremely sick and unable to work my part time job at the restaurant. Fortunately my main job teaching is done for the summer but I really haven’t been able to do much lately.

I have saved a lot of money in the past two weeks because for one of them I was unable to get out of bed and for the other I’ve barely been able to leave the house. Unfortunately, any money I may have saved has gone to medical expenses and missing work has been another unexpected financial blow. This only reinforces the fact that having an emergency fund to help get through times like this is vital and being frugal helps too, of course, because the less money you spend equals the less money you need. I’m really grateful for the help of my family and B during this illness and hopefully it will be over soon. I am also grateful for medical insurance because otherwise my finances would be in much worse shape without it.

Extra Income Update- 

I didn’t earn a lot of extra money in the past couple weeks while being sick but figured I’d mention it anyways.

– I earned enough Swagbucks for a free $10 gift card of my choice. I love Swagbucks and have earned quite a lot gift cards in the past few years. If you want to join you can do it by clicking on my referral button below and help me out 🙂 Earned- $10 

– I sold $20 worth of clothes to Plato’s Closet, I also discovered another store like Plato’s Closet but for women called Style Repeat, the clothes that they didn’t take will either be sold on ebay or at our yard sale in August Earned- $20 

– I bought some Sperry’s at Goodwill and I am going to try to sell them on eBay as well as some of the clothes that Plato’s Closet didn’t want, I am going to restart my eBay business as soon as I am feeling better, I have very slowly started getting the inventory I already have organized

How I saved- 

– I was able to return a couple of over the counter medical items that I didn’t end up needing and that was $11 back in my pocket. Saved- $11

– I exchanged about $7 worth of stuff from dollar tree that I didn’t end up needing for $7 worth of groceries. Saved- $7

– I had some coupons for CVS and in one trip got a 6 pack of Cliff bars, a luna bar and a travel size CVS brand Advil all for free. Saved- $11

Can you see the bored look on the cat’s face? Yeah, it didn’t work.

– I bought a small decorative fountain at Goodwill for $13 (see above) because I have been looking for a pet water fountain for our cat. I thought this fountain might work since it was only plastic and glass. This was definitely a frugal failure. However I turned it around when I exchanged the fountain at Goodwill for a dress skirt, a sweater, a clear glass Pyrex bowl (a move in gift for my brother because who doesn’t need a big glass kitchen bowl) and a set of three vintage Pyrex bowls. Saved- $12

– A local thrift shop gives away day old bread for small donation so for .50 cents each I got two packs of bagels and some kind of pastry. Saved- $7

– I bought crutches for a friend who hurt herself for $5. Saved her at least- $18

– We watched a movie we had been wanting to see at home for free instead of going to the movies. Out local movie theater isn’t cheap. Saved – $30

– Found a new dress with the tags on it for our trip to CA later this summer for $5.99 Saved – $9

– Although it has cost me a lot more to miss work, I have saved about $20 a shift in gas and tolls (I’m trying to look on the bright side)

– Bought what medical supplies I could at the dollar store rather than a drug store. Saved – $9

– I made my own all natural, chemical free dish soap from a bar of soap (see above). This didn’t save a lot of money but it’s a great use for extra bars of soap. I’ll write a post about this soon. Saved – $4

– We bought an entire watermelon for $5 and cut it up ourselves instead of buying it pre-cut Saved – $4

– We went out to eat for a family member’s Bday and went to a really awesome local family owned restaurant, this didn’t actually save us money although they are very affordable but we did support a local family owned restaurant (many of which have gone out of business in the area we lived in). Afterwards, we made our new favorite recipe a No Bake Peanut Butter Pie recipe instead of a cake. I’ll post the recipe soon! You will love it!

What frugal things have you done this week?