web analytics

Medium Sized Family uses affiliate links. If you click a link, we could earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Read more.

Share or Save This

Why hello there!

I think it’s high time the 5 ways series makes a comeback to Medium Sized Family.  Don’t you?

I know this is one of your favorite things to read on the blog.  And I have always loved writing them.

It’s great for keeping me going on tough weeks.  And I always need a reminder of what’s going right.

(Don’t we all??)

Last year was a rough one.  And when things finally settled down, I decided to tackle a big blogging project that I’ve always dreamed of doing.

But…since I’ve never done it before, there was a steep learning curve.  And the whole thing took a lot longer than I ever thought it would.  (Big announcement coming soon!)

Then we started the 30 Day #Brightsaver Challenge (which, by the way, you can totally still join and not worry about being “behind” or anything). And that took some figuring out, too.

But NOW…here we are.  Back at the 5 ways posts.

Are you ready for this?

The 5 Ways We’ve Saved Money This Week

Every week this family lists the ways they saved money in their daily life

 

First of all, if you haven’t joined the #brightsaver challenge, you’ll definitely want to.  It’s never too late to color in your chart and save some money!  Join here:

Zumba

Let’s just say the baby weight from #6 hasn’t exactly fallen off on its own.

While she’s not quite one yet, and I do appreciate people who have told me that “I just had a baby and don’t worry about it” (seriously…I love hearing that!)…

it’s time to worry about it.

I just love our little town.  Someone offers a Zumba class throughout the week, and it’s just $5 to join.  No monthly fees or memberships.  I just go when I can find the time.  

It’s a great price for the motivation and enjoyment of being with other people with similar goals.

And when I can’t make it out, I’ll look up free Zumba videos online.

Downgrade Time

Keep in mind that we’ve never really had cable.  (Ok, there was a 6 month period when we were first married, but that was ages ago.) 

Last year we decided that we wanted to be able to watch some baseball games.  (We are huge baseball fans here.)  So we decided to try Sling.

It was awesome to have most of the cable channels we wanted for just $25. 

UNTIL…

they quit carrying our beloved Cincinnati Reds games.  (ugh)

So we switched to Hulu Live.  It was more expensive.

Then a month or two ago, they raised the rates and it got even more expensive.

So we’re cutting back to their cheap streaming service instead.  $7 per month instead of $54 per month?  Yes, please.

“Creative” Meals

I don’t know why I thought life would be a little easier as my kids got older.

Having two in high school (with no drivers…yet) is chaos!

Now we still have evening activities with the younger kids.  But we also have right after school activities for the older ones.

That’s made supper time crazy.

To combat the desire to grab fast food every night, I’ve done a couple of things.

First, I’ve been making meals ahead of time.  Surprisingly, I haven’t done as much crock potting as you’d think.

Instead, I’ve been putting together casseroles and meats in the afternoon and sticking the meal in the fridge.

Then I ask one of my older kids to put it in the oven while I’m out playing Uber driver to the other kids.

And it’s ready to go when we find 30 minutes in between activities to eat!

Another thing we’re doing is embracing the fact that some nights, supper looks like “All of you go find something you can eat.”  I don’t care if that’s leftovers, cereal, a Hot Pocket, or whatever mix of foods they discover in the fridge or pantry.  

It’s ok to eat like that occasionally.  Especially when one drive thru run costs $35 and you still have to find something the baby can eat.

I’m just sorry it’s taken me so many years to perfect the way I manage food around here.  But I think I finally have a system that works in most circumstances, so thank heavens for that.

Returns

I hate making returns.  But I managed to get some of it done this year.

I even sold some baby stuff she’s already outgrown, too!

Gutters

This was a huuuuuge savings!

Last year I had a roofing company come out and give us a quote on replacing our gutters.  (They just weren’t holding enough water…plus we need bigger ones for our upcoming water project.)

They gave me a big quote.  And then the car broke down and took that money instead.  (aaaaah, life)

Well, now I’m glad we didn’t spend that money.

Because a friend of ours gave us the number to a guy he knew who installed gutters.

This guy did an amazing job.  And it saved us about $1,000!

Now that is some amazing savings.

Those are the 5 ways we saved money this week.

If you love money saving tips, you would really enjoy our Facebook group.  It’s full of frugal folks like us who love to share their own 5 ways on (or around) Friday.

Click here to join the Facebook group.

Hope that 2020 has been kind to your wallet so far. 😉

How did you save this week?