DAY 42+43

Saturday
Lizzy- Today was another free lunch at Sams Club and tonight I am attending the womens conference and dinner before hand. I will offer my services to clean up tonight as well so that I feel accepting of the free meals lately. Although there was no urge to buy something specific I am starting to see all the Halloween decoration out on display. This is my favorite holiday so to not purchase a little something to add to my decoration collection will be dificult. But wont count any money saved for those until I see something that is hard to walk away from.
Ryan - I spent the day working at Chad's as part of our trade out work. I building a retaining wall for his trampoline. Watched the kids while Lizzy went to a RS dinner. The kids fell asleep early and I worked on my lesson for Sunday. Pretty uneventful financially.




Friday
Lizzy- Friday was a special treat for us. After the typical work day ended my mom wanted to let Gracie spend the night at her place. Great for everyone all around although from what I heard Gracie never really slept which means grandma didn't sleep. But that's the excitement of sleepovers for kids. You forget as an adult that staying up late is fun and exciting! After we dropped her off we headed over to Rafael's (now don't panic...no money was spent) A neighbor (who doesn't know about our plan by the way in case you think we are moochers) gave us a gift card to Rafael's. I'm not sure if they just had extra or they don't like the place or just couldn't go before it expired but in any case he gave it to us and we were very excited. Of course it was only $20 so we had to be very careful. The card also said that we could not use it as a tip for the waiter so we first thought "well...then I guess we can't go" Until Ryan came up with a better idea. His friend Chad was coming with us so we decided to let him use $5 of our ticket (that we would have given the waiter) towards his purchase if he would use his cash to pay for the tip. It worked out perfect. So for $20 we got the free

chips and salsa that kept coming to the table, a pina colada, an all you can eat salad bar and a chile verde burrito which I must say both the burrito and the pina colada were HUGE. The portion sizes could have fed 3 people. However I am sure we each would have chosen our own entree and drink. So $12 more dollars would have been spent that night. So both of us walked away very full. After Chad wanted to treat us to frozen yogurt  (he was the one who came with us before all those times) So we were hesitant but he insisted and Ryan is always doing some work for him on the side free of charge so we accepted his offer. Normally we would have used our own money or even bought his yogurt on our next outing. It felt so wonderful to sit in a restaurant and enjoy the weekend experience. Now that there are few  we are cherishing every moment!!!
Ryan - I'm just trying to catchup here, unfortunately this usually results in a subpar entry. Since I work all day I'm not dealing much in finances other than earning a paycheck.

TODAY'S WANTED ITEM:Rafael's (separate meals) / Yogurts

COST: $12/$10

TOTAL $ SAVED YTD: $2979.56