Frugal Fridays #16

A pregnancy update for those interested: I’ll be 37 weeks on Monday. Being stuck inside due to extreme winter weather has resulted in me gaining about 12 lbs more than I have in previous pregnancies (4 in the last 2 weeks)…and I still have 3 weeks to go. My midwife informed me today that I can’t go into labor early because she has to go out of town to help her daughter who broke her shoulder and needs help taking care of the kiddos. I won’t begrudge a grandma helping out her daughter and grandkids. And I don’t typically go into labor early anyway. Although the last one did come 9 days early…that’s abnormal for me. I’m having a hospital birth, so in the event that I *do* go into labor early, there will be an on-call OB available. I’ve never delivered with an OB, though. I’m hoping to hold out for my midwife. She’s delivered my last 2 babies and has been amazing.

Also hoping that we don’t get too much more snow, because that might make things interesting if I go into labor and can’t get out of the driveway. My last labor was only about 2 hours long…so, yeah.

I’ll be going for my pre-labor haircut and pedicure on Monday. Anyone who knows me would probably be surprised to hear me say such a thing. And it really isn’t a very frugal thing of me to do. 😉 I typically get my hair trimmed before labor because it’ll likely be a while before I can get out of the house alone to get it done once baby is born. And the pedicure? Yeah. I don’t even really enjoy pedicures because I’m horribly ticklish. But I’ve done it before my last 2 births and for some odd reason, having pretty toes really helps me get through labor. I know. It’s weird. I have big babies and have never had an epi or pain meds. And I think it’s just so abnormal for me to pamper myself in that way, that during a huge contraction (oddly enough) I’ve caught myself being slightly distracted from the pain and thinking, “Wow! My feet look really nice right now!”

… I can’t really explain it, but it works for me. And a pedicure is way cheaper than an epidural. So that’s how I’ll justify it. 😀

(And, side note, please don’t take this in any way as me bashing moms who do get pain meds during labor. That’s not it at all. It’s not a competition. We’re all different and have every right to birth the way we need/want without having to justify it to anyone. Your value as a mother and woman is not measured by how much pain you can tolerate. I have very, very easy births. My labors are as straight forward as they come, and I’ve just simply never felt the need for help. If/when I ever do have an extraordinarily long or intense labor, I won’t hesitate to ask for whatever level of help I feel I need).

Successes:

I knit 2 hats, a sleep sack, and crocheted a hat for the new little one using yarn that was given to me.
I won an auction on Ebay for a history book that I’ll start using with the kids this Spring after our “baby moon.” The cheapest I could find the book was $21+ shipping and I won this auction for $4 including shipping. It’s a pretty beat up copy, but I’m okay with that as long as there are no missing pages.
I made some Valentine’s Day goodies for the kids including these bookmarks which I printed and laminated, and these pencil Valentines. I also crocheted these cute little Love Bugs for them, and my husband picked up some candies on sale at CVS using ExtraBucks.
We went to the Presidents Day sale at our favorite thrift store for a 50% off sale. We got 1 pair of jeans for each of the 2 older boys, 2 pair of jeans for the girl, 4 toys (husband approved these…not me lol), 5 books, 2 shirts and 3 sweaters for me…all for less than $35!
My mom cut my daughter’s hair. She’s not a hairdresser anymore, but she finally agreed to cut M’s hair after I begged. We cut off 10 inches with the intention of donating it.

Fumbles:

At this point, there aren’t so many fumbles. More like calculated decisions to make my life easier because I’m too pregnatired. Yes. I made that word up. 3 weeks, folks. 3 weeks.

Goals:

Honestly? Don’t cave to the temptation to order pizza too many times out of pure exhaustion and crippling back pain. If I can manage that over the next 3 weeks, I’ll be happy.

How did you save money this week?

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