Finances on Friday! Except that it's Saturday!

Ugggh.

Sickness.

That's where we are this week. Thankfully there is no puking (I even hesitate to say that too soon) but lots and lots of snot and coughing. That might be TMI, but I like to keep it real around here. Unfortunately, even I, the one who really doesn't get sick often, have fallen victim to the yuck. I haven't felt terrible, but on top of being pregnant, I'm really drained of energy.

So, I am a day late, (and maybe even a dollar short which would fall within the theme of frugal living) to link up to Rebecca's Finances on Friday post over at Renaissance!

I still managed to do a few frugal things this week:

-Bought a scratch and dent dryer that saved us $300.

-Made burgers with elk meat added to some ground beef. We were given a freezer full of elk meat last year. The ground meat really blends in well with whatever you're cooking. Now, the steaks taste a little "game-y-er" which is the reason we don't care too much for venison. Even the ground venison tastes too much like game to me. But, I can handle the ground elk. I had taken a little break from cooking with it while I had morning sickness, because if I eat something that doesn't sit right with me when I'm pregnant, I don't want to eat it again. EVER. And, since we still have half a freezer of elk left, I didn't want to risk it. I used two pounds of ground elk, 1 pound of ground beef (80/20), chopped jalepeno from our garden last year, chopped garlic, salt/pepper and some Eskimo Joe's meat seasoning. They were yummy!

-I'm trying to keep the heater at 68 degrees. It has been a super cold winter here since November. Crazy. The windows here are AWEFUL, probably the original 50 year old windows, so we are trying to keep blankets over them when it is really cold. We can't hardly stand it set any colder than 68, but it does make a big difference on the bill when we don't bump it up to 70.

-One other thing we do regularly around here is to reuse towels after baths before we wash them. Especially if it's just a little kid who doesn't get the towel very wet. My mom made me do that when I was a kid and I HATED it, but my kids don't seem to mind. And I appreciate having a little less laundry to do!

And, where things went awry........

-Forgot to put the garbage out at the curb (twice!) and had to buy $3.00 worth of tags for the extra bags that wouldn't fit into the can.


And.........update on the house hunt!

We've been house and land hunting for about a year now and seriously looking for the last six months. We have been wanting to do some small scale farming since we first got married and feel like the time for that to become a reality is finally here. I've been praying that God would bring the perfect house at the perfect location for the perfect price at the perfect time. Well, last Wednesday a friend texted the number of two houses she had passed on her way home. One number she'd given me last month, but I didn't call because of some other things going on and we were just going to take a break for Christmas.

Anyway, long story short, I called them Wednesday, David happened to have a long break between driving on Thursday, and we went to see the house during his break.

Well, we loved it! I feel like it's exactly what I've prayed for! It's only two acres, where we had really wanted five or ten, but it already has pens for animals and plenty of room for probably two cows. It meets all the other criteria that I had in mind, and an older Christian couple own it and have lived there for many, many years, so it's very well kept. The only thing we know of that needs to be done is some siding boards and trim need to be replaced. And, the financing company will not approve it until that is fixed. Also, we don't know if they may find any other problems upon inspection, that could make it not be approved. So, I am praying, praying that if this is the house God wants for us that the boards and trim can easily be repaired and that nothing else is wrong with it and it can be ours!

Thank you for visiting my blog this week! Head over to Renaissance and see what ideas others had!