I managed to remember to leave the house a little early so we could shop for a leotard before dance class started.
My teenage daughter has the nerve to continue growing on me, despite me trying to shrink her back to her cute little twirly mini self. 😉
She and the instructor looked through the rack to find something that might fit her, when her teacher remembered that they had a small bin of hand me downs she could search through for free.
Well, guess who found one in that bin that fit?
Gotta love a kid who helps you stay frugal!
I told her thanks for making the 5 ways post for this week. But since I’m using this idea up here, I guess it’s a bonus!
The 6 5 Ways We’ve Saved Money This Week
Have you seen this freebie? It’s a fun way to check off little things you can do all month to save some more cash. I think you’ll find it’s a more fun way to save. Funner way to save?
Hand Me Down Air Fryer
My Pappaw passed away earlier this year. 🙁
In the process of cleaning everything out, my Mom asked if I’d like his air fryer.
I’ve kind of been thinking about getting one for a while. But I just wasn’t sure how much we would use it.
An affordable 😉 air fryer doesn’t hold enough food for the six people who still eat here regularly, really.
But I’m glad I took it!
You can do so much with these things. The kids can make some pizza rolls for a snack.
And if you dump a can of chickpeas in there with some spices and lime juice, it makes an amazing snack!
Now I’m using this in my arsenal of kitchen gadgets that I have accumulated, despite insisting that I was going to pare way back to a more minimalist kitchen.
sigh
But you know what? Using the pressure canner, stove, dehydrator, and air fryer at the same time to cook up a bunch of food sure saves me a lot of time.
(Not to mention money…it’s way cheaper to make those foods from scratch!)
Growing Garlic
I really wanted to grow some garlic, but our local feed mill wasn’t selling garlic bulbs for planting this year.
Several stores were searched to no avail. Then I looked around online only to find that I could buy garlic for the “low price” of something like $15 for a couple of bulbs (plus shipping).
Well, that’s crazy.
The only reason I didn’t grab a bulb from the fridge and plant it is because I know sometimes they won’t grow. And I didn’t want to waste good food.
But at this point, it was definitely worth the gamble.
So, I just grabbed a random bulb from my refrigerator drawer and plopped the cloves in the dirt.
I was pretty excited when I went up to water the ducks and found garlic growing like crazy!
(You want to start your garlic in the fall to get a crop next year, so it’s not too late to try this if you want…probably. Guess that depends on your weather.)
Bonus money saver: I used an old drawer from a broken bed to plant them in! Will this “raised bed” last more than a season? Probably not. But at the cost of free, who cares?
Butterfly Entertainment
My little 5 year old has some sharp eyes.
She was playing in the backyard and found a pretty caterpillar. We learned that it would grow into a swallowtail butterfly.
So we took it inside and put it in the old butterfly growing kit my oldest son used years ago.
It was fun watching the cycles of the butterfly without having to buy caterpillars. And she was so pretty!
Furniture
This one may be great timing, or terrible timing for you.
This year we have discovered that Big Lots is a great place to get furniture.
Our old couch was literally falling apart, so we grabbed one from Big Lots.
We were able to stack the sale with a 15% off coupon by shopping online (after going to the store to sit on it first and make sure it’s what I really wanted, that is).
What a bargain!
I mean, we haven’t had it that long, but so far it has held up great.
Lots of those stores are going out of business, so you might be able to get an even better deal than we did. Or maybe your store has already bit the dust.
But hopefully, if you need furniture, you can take advantage of those sales.
Clean Up
We have had an especially hard year, and keeping up with the house has been a low priority.
But I find that a messy house costs me a lot of money.
Here are some of the ways it has cost us:
- ordering pizza because the kitchen was overwhelmingly messy
- buying new dance shoes because we can’t find the hand me downs we got
- leftovers in the fridge went bad (that could have been eaten or frozen)
- bought duplicates of things I forgot I had already bought
- forgot things at home and had to have them driven to us (it’s easy to overlook things when there is clutter everywhere)
- difficulty packing for trips due to clothing clutter
Slowly, I’m finding the time and mental space to catch back up.
If you, like me, feel totally overwhelmed by the mess and spend too much time beating yourself up for letting it get so bad, just remember to breathe, pray, and do just one thing at a time.
This isn’t a cleaning blog, so I can’t help you with that part. But I can recommend this free organizing challenge that I think will help!
I'm Jamie, and I want to help you afford a beautiful life with your family. 
