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Happy Friday to you! It’s been such a busy week here that I’m not sure if I accomplished much at all from my weekly goals. But having baby goats is a very exciting time!
Having our first kidding has not been cheap, but most of the supplies we’ve bought can be used for many years. So as long as we continue to breed our does, it’s money well spent. And should we change our minds, we ought to be able to sell our supplies to another goat farmer.
Now, let’s get down to the 5 Ways We’ve Saved Money This Week. As always, if you missed a week or two, you can pop over here to see all of the tips in the entire series.
CVS I’m not sure if you’ve ever played the “CVS game” as they call it, but many times this store has special sales where they offer you ECBs. Essentially, they will give you free CVS money to use within a month for buying certain items. When you buy the items, you can use coupons and even stack them with CVS coupons.
CVS sends me an email nearly every week with a percentage off coupon. With 2 clicks I can send it straight to my CVS card and not have to worry about printing or remembering the coupon. (Go here to learn more. Not an affiliate, just trying to make it easy for you to save!) So I stacked these savings to buy the diapers I needed and they gave me $10 for free. When I needed some essentials like milk and eggs, I got them for free this week by using my ECBs.
There is a similar set up at Walgreens if that is more convenient for you. Money Saving Mom has a great explanation if you’d like to learn more. I highly recommend you give it a try!
Saved on a frame. My super talented Uncle painted a beautiful picture and gifted it to us for Christmas. Knowing that framing is usually costly, I cautiously began researching how to frame this large print. Having it specially framed would cost hundreds of dollars. Some friends suggested Craig Frames from Amazon, and that was a much better option at closer to $60.
But the winner wound up being Hobby Lobby, where I found a great barn wood frame to match my decor at just $36. I love the way it looks, and I love that I saved so much money!
Now I’ll have to add hanging it up to next week’s goals list!
Youth Night Our church hosts an occasional youth night where our kids can go play with friends, eat pizza, and get some great spiritual influences. It’s all free, and this week it was even better since we ended up going straight there from a basketball game. No need to worry about finding supper for everyone and hubby and I were fine with eating leftovers.
[Tweet “Check out the different ways one family #savedmoney this week! #frugal”]
Easy Suppers If you’ve read Medium Sized Family before, then you know of my weakness for fast food. And pizza. I’m not sure that I love the taste of that food nearly as much as I love hiring someone else to make it for me. That’s really the grand appeal.
But no more! It’s the #yearofno, after all. I have things I would much, much rather spend my money on. So I made it a point to keep easy foods on hand. Spaghetti isn’t a favorite meal here, and I don’t like to serve my family a whole lot of chicken patties. But this busy week, we’ve had both. And while it’s not a habit I want to keep up on a regular basis, I’m so happy that I planned ahead to keep meals easy on crazy nights.
(FYI, my friend Kyle is hosting an Eat At Home challenge if you’d like to join for some encouragement!)
Spread the Word My friends and family know that I love to use ham bones in my delicious Ham & Beans. So often, when we are invited to a ham dinner (especially at holidays), I am offered the ham bone to take home with me. I suppose some could view this with embarrassment, but I think that often they are relieved not to have to worry about tossing it or seeing it go to waste. And I wind up with an even more super frugal meal than I usually get with my recipe! Win/win.
And those are the creative ways my family saved money this week. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
How did you save this past week? I’d love to learn your frugal tips!
I'm Jamie, and I want to help you afford a beautiful life with your family. 
I love CVS! Sometimes the coupons and ExtraBucks are so good I wonder how they make any money!! 😉
I’ve thought the same thing! There’s one right in our small town, so I’d sure hate to run them out of business. But the manager is always happy to see me and tells me about the deals, so I’m thinking it must be helping them out still.
Great post. I’m going to check out CVS when I get some time. Thanks for sharing!
Hey Jamie Thanks for the shout out! I am so with you I have other things that I would rather spend that money on too! As we are busy remodeling our new (to us) house I ‘d rather buy trim or something to help me organize then McDonalds. Blessings, K
For me, when I cave to the idea of getting fast food, I’m relieved to have one less thing to think about. But it’s always immediately replaced by regret that I wasted my money on something so fleeting!
Thanks for visiting!
I definitely play the CVS game when I’m home too. I’m out working on a tour and one of the ways I save is to hit up the grocery store for tuna salad packets, microwavable soup – ready made meals on the go. While they’re usually an extravagance in my everyday life, they always wind up cheaper than eating out every meal and I wind up coming in way under my per diem.
That’s a great tip! I agree, spending a little more at the store is always better than spending a lot more for fast food. Thanks for sharing this post! 🙂
Sounds like a good week! It all adds up! I’ve also been enjoying following your goat adventure! Thanks for sharing in the Small Victories Sunday Linkup!
This is a great list of how you all have saved money. SmallVictories. I’ve started saving more money by making my own cleaners. I use Young Living products. One bottle of Thieves cleaner or making a bottle with some drops of essential oil, vinegar, or rubbing alcohol has lasted for so long. I use the Thieves all-purpose on EVERYTHING. I love it.
My cousin has been telling me about how great essential oils are. I really do need to give them a try!
Thanks for sharing at So Much at Home. I hope you will be sharing more each week! I love saving money, so your posts are very interesting.
I think it’s great that you let them know to save the ham bone for you. I’m sure they love to give it to you! great week!
Have a great day!
Thanks for visiting!
Great tips, Jamie. Thanks for sharing at My Flagstaff Home.
Jennifer
Congratulations! Your post was featured this week at So Much at Home. Please come and link up more this week! God bless.
Loved your ideas to save money. The frame is just right for your print.
I save money each week, by not having my nails done. I just keep nails closely cut and clean. The natural look.
Thanks! That’s a great tip. I love manicures, but the polish doesn’t last long enough to justify the cost usually.