1. A frugal take on a scary experience: our soon-to-be 12 year-old son had a bad fall this week that we did not see happen. He hit his head hard and was disoriented after the fall. After speaking to the nurse at his pediatrician’s office, we were encouraged to get a scan of his head to make sure he didn’t have any internal bleeding so we took off for the closest ER. While there we waited the requisite eternity hour to finally be seen by an MD, who then took a quick assessment of the situation and proceeded to discuss how their particular ER is a 0 level trauma center so they wanted to transfer him an hour away by ambulance to a children’s hospital. As you can imagine, this was a lot to take in, especially since we had fuzzy details at best from our son about his fall. After talking with the nurse and discussing options, we pushed back and asked if we could please get imaging at the ER so we could make a more informed decision. Ultimately, the nurse helped us in communicating those wishes to the Dr., and we stayed put. After another couple of hours we got the results from his head, abdomen, and wrist scans and he was all clear! Why spin this into a frugal tale? The cost of transporting our son, plus an overnight in the children’s hospital was very likely to cost way more than our ER copay. In the end, it was hard pushing back on the Dr., but our intuition helped guide us. A good lesson for us all.
2. I accompanied my mom to her orthopedic pre-op appointment yesterday and was rewarded with a free lunch at our favorite Mexican food restaurant.
3. Our oldest son recently graduated from his Gabb phone to an old iPhone (which he paid my mother $75 for). His upward mobility prompted one of our twins to ask for his brother’s old Gabb phone, which would be an upgrade from his Gabb watch. A quick online chat session to transfer his phone number and now he is happily able to text his friends and have more options than he did with his watch. Our other twin does not particularly care about phones/texting/etc. so he’s still fine with his watch (which he forgets to wear 90% of the time). I was able to quickly clean up and list the extra watch to eBay and it sold within hours. The quickness of the sale led me to believe I could’ve listed it for a higher price, but I’m happy with the sale and someone else gets a gently used entry-level phone/watch for their kid.
A note on tech – we have taken a cautious approach when allowing our kids to have access to technology devices and screen time. As they age, this becomes increasingly important AND difficult. We are learning as we go. When they were little it was much easier to manage screen time and shows, as we presented few options and they were generally happy with those. When we’d hear clamoring’s of “why can’t I have an iPhone?” starting around 5th grade, we towed the line. Our 13.5 year old 7th grader has shown consistent responsibility and good reasoning so we made the decision to graduate him to the next level. Each kid is different and our main concern is social media. For this reason, we still have a “no social media” rule, and that’s not hard for our oldest to follow.
If you’re interested in checking out Gabb for your kid, use promo code 415902956 for a discount and I’ll get a month of free service. A win-win!
4. And now for a frugal fail (of sorts). My husband started a new job last year working for the local government. He kept his previous job as he owns his own business and was able to make it work as a lucrative side hustle. After 8 months in the job, it was clear this wasn’t the right career for him and he gave his notice this week. He is able to do his side business as a main gig for the time being, but he’s also looking for something part-time and hands-on to give his day some structure. That said, his government benefits were crazy good and we’ll lose those after March. Back to the ACA we go.
5. And finally, I’m thinking ahead to summer (already!) and looking for ways to create fun memories on the cheap. As such, I woke up early one January morning to book a yurt for 3 nights at a central Oregon campground, where my sister will drive down from Portland to join us for some camping. It was $161 total, plus we’ll make our own food and spend our days on the river and hiking the local trails with possibly a brewery visit or two! I also reached out this week to a family we did a home exchange with last year, as we have some extra “guest points” on the HomeExchange site (affiliate link). The house was large and in a Lake Tahoe neighborhood we have visited many times. We’re hoping to make it back there this summer for at least a few nights as it’s one of our most favorite places to visit!