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Hoo boy, we have had a busy week here!

Between major home repairs, a pregnant goat, and a giant basement clean out, I’ve finally been getting that outside time I’ve been meaning to do.

But that has given us a lot of opportunities to save money, so at least it gave me something to write about this week.

ha!

The 5 Ways We’ve Saved Money This Week #167

If you’re into the simple life, you’ll definitely want to grab a copy of 500 Ways To Save Money.

Free Chickens

At our county fair, 4-H kids get the chance to win a set of meat chickens for next year’s fair.

We asked if my 8 year old could sign up along with his sister. He wasn’t old enough for 4-H yet, but since he would be old enough next year, they let him sign up.

Would you believe that not only did he win free chickens…but so did his sister??

Part of the popular 5 Ways We've Saved Money This Week series, money saving tips, money saving ideas, how to save money

It was so exciting!

Even more exciting when I learned that the price of 10 chicks had gone up to $25 each this year.

We saved $50 just by asking if my son could enter the drawing and throwing both of the kids’ names in the hat.

Epiphany Cake

Ok, ok, so Epiphany was really last week, but since I didn’t get around to writing a post I’m including it here.

Plus, you can make a king cake any time between Epiphany and Mardi Gras, so you have plenty of time to use this idea yourself. 😉

All you do is grab a couple cans of cinnamon rolls. Unroll them, braid them together, lay them on your pan in a circle, and bake like usual.

Once it’s baked and slightly cooled, add the icing from the can. Then put some food dye in sugar to make different colors to sprinkle over the top.

Extra savings…If you start with primary colors (red, blue, yellow), then you can use the same sugar for different colors by adding other colors like you did in elementary school.

If kids have fried your brain, just google it. haha!

Christmas Tree Bag

Back in the fall, our tent had a broken zipper and I was pretty nervous about my complete lack of sewing abilities.

But I decided that it was worth trying to replace the zipper to save the crazy costs of buying a new tent.

That worked out surprisingly well!

So when our Christmas tree bag zipper broker, I knew there was no way I was buying a new one.

As you can see from the picture, my sewing skills haven’t improved. BUT, I was able to repair our broken Christmas tree bag zipper the same way.

Boy was I glad that I had that pack of zippers on hand already. I just grabbed this pack from Amazon. But I noticed that they also have a pack of clothing zippers that would be great for rescuing jackets or other clothes you hate to replace.

And if you’re nervous about your ability to replace a zipper, trust me when I say that if I can do it, anyone can.

Chicken Nest Boxes

Much to my chagrin, our chickens haven’t laid in months.

You know about the price of eggs right now…yikes.

They say that chickens don’t lay due to not having enough light this time of year. So I decided to try running a light to the chicken coop.

I figure the cost of running one light bulb for a few hours each day won’t amount to much electricity costs.

But since I’m anxiously anticipating eggs now, I thought it might be time to put a couple of “nest boxes” in the coop.

Here’s the ugly, but free, solution I came up with.

I am aware that nest boxes should be lifted a bit off the ground. And if they actually lay an egg, I’ll worry about it then. ha!

Our goat is expecting babies any day now, so my main focus has been on that.

Dumpster

I’ll spare you the image of our ugly dumpster full of trash. 😉

In the past, we’ve found creative ways around getting rid of trash that didn’t involve renting an expensive dumpster.

Don’t worry, we used strictly legal methods. haha

But this time, I looked at the massive pile of construction mess and decided to bite the bullet.

Luckily, our contractor was able to help us find a more affordable option.

And once it got here, I realized we would have plenty of room to finally get rid of the giant mess we have in our basement/garage area.

So I’ve spent the past week pulling out old messes and walking them to the dumpster. I can’t believe how much junk we have saved over the years. (And why oh why did we save it??)

Not only have I been able to kill two birds with one stone, but it’s also going to give me incentive to keep clutter out of our house for years to come.

I hope.

Those are the 5 Ways We’ve Saved Money This Week!

Don’t forget to grab your copy of 500 Ways To Save Money.

Right now it’s just $2.99, and it’s designed to help you save money in the categories that fit your family the best. So go start saving!