It was a little surprising to get mail from the dealer that we bought our van from just 10 months ago. Guess what? They want to buy our van back from us!
It’s time for an upgrade!
I had to shake my head. Marketing like this must work, and it’s a shame. There’s no way they would pay us back anything close to what we paid them last year. And people who fall for this are probably rolling lost money into a new payment plan.
Cars are already expensive enough without feeling like you deserve an upgrade every year!
It’s frugal Friday! Around here, that makes it time to reflect on the ways we’ve saved money this week.
If you love money saving tips, be sure to check out the book 500 Ways to Save Money!
The 5 Ways We’ve Saved Money This Week
Road Trip!
We took a road trip to Tennessee to pick up our oldest son from Boy Scout camp. Since Hubby and I traveled this without kids, we decided to use it as our date night for the month.
It was nice to get that alone time! And it gave us a chance to come up with 100 Road Trip Questions. Print them off for your next trip!
Paintbrushes
I’m still putting some last minute touches on our living room project. That means using lots of those cheap foam paintbrushes.
I thought it was nice that I could find them for 60 cents. Then I went to our new dollar store and found an entire pack of them! For just $1!
That was a bargain for sure.
Backpack
Our oldest son has outgrown his backpack. It still has plenty of wear and tear left! But now that he’s going into high school, it’s time to retire the bag we bought him in second grade.
He found another LL Bean bag that he liked. I scoured the internet for coupon codes with no luck. I know they tend to have sales this time of year, so I considered waiting for one.
Then I got curious and checked Ebay.
Now, you have to be careful about buying used bags, because there are fakes out there.
But this one looked fine! It’s gently used (in fact, it doesn’t look used at all). And I saved $20! This is probably the last backpack we’ll buy this guy.
If you’d like to buy a bag once and be done for years, here’s a list of our favorite durable backpacks.
Fish
Our third born had a birthday this week. We decided that a tank of fish would be more fun for him than another toy.
He loved it!
Sadly, one of the fish died the first night we owned it. So we asked for our money back. The store has a 10 day guarantee. But they do want you to bring back the fish body. (Ick)
Gas
We love small town living. But for some reason, the gas in our small town is especially expensive.
Lately, I’ve been paying special attention to getting gas whenever I’m running errands. That’s saved us quite a bit, especially since the price of gas has been creeping up again.
Those are the 5 ways we saved money this week!
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How did you save this week?
I'm Jamie, and I want to help you afford a beautiful life with your family. 
Hey, my son was at Boy Scout camp in Tennessee this week, too. He was at Boxwell. Our troop has been to Buck Toms, Davy Crockett, and Boxwell the last few years. We love Scouting!