This week has been long.   Neither one of the boys are sleeping well anymore! Robert is having an issue with the big boy bed transition, and Jackson has been up every hour to two hours most nights. I’m exhausted.

While it’s been a tiring week, it’s also been a good week. Tom and I officially closed on the sale of our old home. Now we are in the clear to buy our next home! For the next 3 weeks we won’t be homeowners. I like the idea of not having the extra responsibility of taking care of a home. Things are going to move fast now and we should be able to move into our new home towards the end of this month.

Cheers! We did it. We sold our house. Next step: close on our next house. #champagneselfie

A photo posted by Eat, Drink and Save Money (@hmrinaldi) on Sep 1, 2015 at 4:43pm PDT

The idea of moving is starting to stress me out. Much of my time is going to go towards packing, unpacking and then decorating the new place. Because of that, I think I’m going to slow down on my blog posts. I’m not sure if you noticed, but this particular post is about 3 hours later than I usually post. I just couldn’t get everything together to post this “on time”.

I don’t want to back off from posting too much because I have some good momentum going on right now. I have several big toy companies sending me toys for Christmas reviews. I’ve also been chosen to be on the Chick Fil A mom panel! Good things are going on right now and I want to keep it up.

I also want to spend more time with this guy who is four months old! He’s awake more now which means I have less blogging time. I knew this would eventually happen.

Next week I’m going to skip the Thrifty Thursday post and move to “What I’ve Spent Wednesday”. Years ago What I Ate Wednesday was pretty popular among the healthy eating bloggers. I think going over my budget and inviting you to do the same could be fun every Wednesday.

Enough about the future! Let me go over what’s been going on this week.  Every week I give a little recap of all the thrifty things I’ve done through the week. I also give you a budget update. Here we go for this week’s update:

DIY Piddle Pad

I wanted to buy this car seat piddle pad for potty training. Then I had a genius idea, I could just use PUL fabric instead. I cut a piece that is one foot by two feet, cut a slit for the seat belt and we were good to go. I already had the PUL on hand so this little craft saved me ten bucks!

It doesn’t contain the pee if Robert has a big accident, but it does protect the seat once the kid is wet. It’s also been pretty great for our beach trips.

Summer wreath

I added the flag to my wreath for the Fourth of July and I’m keeping the flag there until Labor Day is over. I never did post about this wreath update, so here it is.

I can’t wait to break out my fall decorations when we move.

Amazon Reviews

I started working with Toppy Toddler a month ago to help them increase their Amazon reviews. Through this process I’ve found that there are a ton of online groups that connect Amazon reviewers with sellers. You can get free stuff in exchange for reviews. I knew this was possible, but I didn’t know how easy it was. I’m working on a detailed post about it now! This is a great way to get Christmas presents for free. Plus I’m having a great time getting packages almost every day.

I may become addicted to reviewing stuff on Amazon! So far I’ve received three bottles of high quality essential oils.

Budget

I budget $100 each week on groceries (learn more here), and another $50 for “fun money” throughout the week. I didn’t do too well this week!

Publix- $82.87

Target- $86.82

Total- $169.69

Over by $19.69

Of course I also bought my new hubcaps! They were only $28 on Amazon. That money came out of our “new home improvement budget”. I may have just made that up.

I don’t think this is too bad since I bought $25 worth of Pull Ups to get Robert through naps and night time sleep while potty training. We didn’t have any money left in our budget for “fun” this week though. Sometimes that happens!

How are you doing with your budget this week?