5 Ways We’ve Saved Money This Week #164

Why hello!

Long time, no type!

Well, I’m just gonna jump right in here like I haven’t been taking huge breaks from this blog for the past year and a half, ok?

So I don’t know if you’ve noticed (ha!), but the price of pretty much every single thing has gone through the roof.

Trips to the grocery store have been an adventure ever since that one big thing happened in 2020. And it’s just getting worse.

I figured the best way to do better about my spending habits is to jump back into this blog. I mean, I’ve been using this thing to help me save more money (and stay accountable to saving more money) since 2016.

And those were easy years compared to now.

So why not get back into the 5 ways we’ve saved money this week? Yes! Let’s do this.

The 5 Ways We’ve Saved Money This Week, Version #164

If you’re new around here, welcome! You can read through all 164 episodes of this series one at a time right here, if you want to.

Or, if you want the handy dandy version where I sorted the first 100 episodes of this series into categorized chunks, you can grab the ebook here.

I haven’t raised the price of that, yet, so you can still get it for the 2019 price of just $3.99, fyi. Guess you can still find a bargain now and then!

Ok, time to jump in.

Mint

A million years ago, I used Mint to put together a budget for our family. (No worries, it’s free to use!) Cash envelopes are great, and all, but I just don’t use much cash.

Mint will pull in all of those debit card purchases you make and plop them in budget categories so you can easily see that you are spending waaay more money on Amazon than you thought.

Yikes.

Good thing I decided to open it up and update everything so I can start using it again.

It’s a tool I’ll definitely be using a lot more for the foreseeable future so I can get our budget back on track. We have been overspending, and that’s on top of the huge price increases on everything.

Amazon Prime Day

We saved who knows how much money by not even looking at Amazon on their Prime Days this week. haha!

Diet and Exercise

I’m making an effort to live in a more heart healthy way these days. Mainly that consists of not eating as much junk food and trying to walk more. Those things are free!

(Admittedly, I am trying to eat more fresh produce. I keep costs down by choosing fruits and veggies that are in season and on sale.)

I did decide to purchase a cheap pedometer (using a gift card I’d forgotten about). I’m pretty happy with my small purchase. It has honestly made me more aware of the fact that I don’t get up and move often enough during my day.

(This is the pedometer I purchased if you’re curious.)

Homeschooling

Once again, I’ll be homeschooling a couple of kids this year.

After asking around a bit, I found a great co-op to join that is super cheap.

When I was looking at the required books, I did all of my usual things to try to find a good set of used books.

But my usual tricks weren’t working.

Before I hit the checkout button on the brand new, full price site, I decided to ask in one more place if anyone had a used copy.

Luck! I found it for less than half the price in a private Facebook group!

Ebay also gave me a deal on another set of books. And I found a few required novels at our local St. Vincent de Paul for 50 cents each.

New (To Us) Car

…one of these things just doesn’t belong here. Now it’s time to play our game.

(Anybody else raised on Sesame Street? Or is it just me singing this song?)

Buying a new (used) car probably doesn’t make sense considering that we really need to be saving money right now.

But…

Hubby has been driving the same car for years. And it’s still a good car. But with 2 teenage drivers (and another who will be getting his temps in a matter of months), we’ve gotten to the point where we need another car.

Luckily, we’d saved up a bit in our savings account and were able to find a used car on a private sale that was within our budget.

If you can swing it, a private sale is definitely the way to go. This car was half the cost compared to what we saw advertised at dealerships.

Hooray for no car payments! And Hubby is pretty happy with his new toy.

That’s how we saved money this week.

And now I probably owe you an update on our $100 100x goal for 2022. That’s been trucking along in real life, even if I haven’t been sharing very well in the virtual world. I’ll do my best to get that up soon!

Assuming real life doesn’t continue to bat me around like a cat with a yarn ball.

How have you saved money lately?