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This week I managed to spill coffee on the top of my head.

That’s not relevant to saving money (I mean, ok, I did brew it at home!), but after a week of being sick, that seemed like a good mental image to show the kind of week it’s been.  😉

Luckily it wasn’t all awful.  I did manage to find a few ways to save money!

The 5 Ways We’ve Saved Money This Week

Love money saving tips?  Then you’ll love my book!  500 Ways to Save Money: Build a Cash Jackpot for the Best Things In Life.

Columbia Coat

My 14 year old won’t stop growing, no matter how much I forbid him.  😉  I tried to put off buying him a man sized winter coat last year, and we managed to make the child sized one I found work.  It was a good #yearofno solution, but it was never going to be a permanent answer.

Lately I’ve noticed that the coats I buy from the mall using a coupon and a sale just don’t last.  So I was determined to find a deal on a coat from a good brand name.

Don’t confuse a good brand name with being stylish!  I’m talking about the brands that have a reputation for outlasting the competition.  If I spend a little more, it’s worth it, because I know we’ll be able to use this coat for years instead of one year of frustration.

Happily, I found a deal on a Columbia coat from Ebay!  Many of the coats listed were still brand new, but were selling for half the cost of a brand new coat from the Columbia website.

My oldest is a frugal soul like I am, and he was happy with a slightly used version that was even cheaper.

When it arrived, we searched the coat over and couldn’t find any real signs of wear.  I couldn’t be happier with this deal!

And if it holds out for several years, I’ll be over the moon.

Cheap Lunch Date

On Election Day, Hubby and I had to run a few errands.  While we were out, we grabbed a quick lunch together.

Turns out he had a Subway gift card that had been living in his wallet for a couple of years!  So we used that to pay for about half the cost of our lunch.

Now that’s a cheap date!

Cut Back On Produce

This pregnancy, I’ve leaned heavily on Kroger Clicklist.  That’s the grocery service that hauls all of your chosen groceries to the car for you so you don’t have to heave your heavy belly through the store while hoping to feed 7 people for 2 weeks using everything you can fit into a cart.

This service is a great in a lot of ways.  But being as picky as I am about produce, I kind of hate to have someone else choose it for me.

That means I’ve started buying less produce.  Not less healthy fruits and vegetables for the family to eat…but fewer options.

If I feel more comfortable about them buying peppers than cucumbers, I just add more of the peppers to my cart.

Fewer choices has lead to less waste.  You better believe I’m noticing that!  Too many choices is overwhelming, and it tends to make us forget that there are grapes in the bottom drawer of the fridge until it’s too late.

Homeschool Textbooks

This hasn’t felt like much of a savings.  Every time I think I’m done buying homeschool textbooks for our eighth grader, something pops up that means I need one more.

This is our first year homeschooling, and I’m only teaching one of our 5.5 children 😉 .  I can definitely say it’s been a learning experience in more ways than one!

Luckily, by now I’ve realized that my two best choices when it comes to shopping textbooks are Ebay and
Christian Books.  Strangely, Amazon is rarely the best place to buy!

Skipped Clearance

One thing I missed during our #yearofno was hitting up the clearance shelves after a holiday.  I always wished I could grab some cute decor or clothing.

Now that we’re beyond our #yearofno, I can browse those shelves again!  But guess what?  I didn’t see anything there I can’t live without.

The simplicity of the #yearofno was wonderful, and now that we’re beyond it, I can’t help but want to continue the idea of carving out unnecessary spending.  I’m happy with what I have on hand for Halloween!

Those are the ways we saved money this week!

Do tell us how you saved in the comments!

Then pop over to this week’s new post that gives you total permission to skip these 7 things if you’re spending your Christmas season in debt!

How did you save this week?