Ever have a super expensive week where everything breaks or requires a large bill all at once?
I guess we’ve all had Murphy come knocking at our door from time to time. It’s discouraging! Right around the time I was feeling pretty down about it, I found this lovely blog post called Today is Not Forever. You’ll want to check that one out for some nice encouragement!
The 5 Ways We’ve Saved This Week
Scrap metal. We had several bigger pieces of trash lying around that were made of metal. Also, whoever owned our property before we did left motorcycle parts and all sorts of junk lying everywhere across the acreage. So we decided to load it up and take it to the scrap yard.
Unfortunately our timing wasn’t great, since the price was just 3 cents per pound at the time. But with gas as cheap as it is, we still earned some money. And it was better than putting it out with the trash and hoping they’d take the larger pieces!
Gas savings. The price of gas has gone down significantly in our area! Instead of allowing the extra gas funds to fold back into the wasteland of “extra money” (where does all of that extra money wind up??), we’ve decided to use some of that savings to help pay down debt and bills.
Car trouble. Care to guess what the big expense that popped up turned out to be? A big repair bill for several different problems going on in our family van. We had to get creative and even wound up borrowing a vehicle and hitching rides for some of our kids to different events. But we managed to make it work without renting a car while the other one was in the shop.
It was aggravating, but I can only imagine the bill if we’d added a car rental to it!
Date night! As I’ve mentioned before, we really want to make an effort to have more date nights this year. Since our usual date nights amount to roughly 2 per year, it wouldn’t take much effort to do better! To keep date night in line with our BHAG of paying off debt, we did a few things to enjoy “us time” on the cheap. We used a free sitter, chose cheaper menu items at the restaurant (that were still delicious!), and enjoyed wandering about a local touristy area rather than paying for tickets to a movie or event.
It was just what we needed to reconnect a bit without breaking the bank.
Shopping at home. I’ve tried hard to get into the habit of being able to shop from my basement shelves as much as possible. Certain items that we use regularly (shampoo, detergent, toiletries, and foods we eat often) are things that I always want to have more than one of.
When I run out of shampoo (for instance), I don’t have to rush to the store for more. I grab the next one from my shelf and add shampoo to my grocery list. Then I can buy it at a more affordable store the next time I’m out.
[Tweet “Stop running to the store for last minute items!”]
Deals worth noting
I’ll be posting deals on items you might normally be buying anyway as I find them. Remember to never buy something just because it seems like a good deal! Only buy things you’re sure to use at the best price.
- Target has a deal on vitamins this week. You can get a $5 gift card when you purchase 2 Vitafusion & L’il Critters vitamins. We use vitamins regularly, so I’m always on the look out for deals like this!
- Amazon has a sale on baby items this week. You can get 20% to 60% off many baby items. Perfect for that shower coming up or the car seat your baby is outgrowing.
Share the ways you’ve saved this week!
I'm Jamie, and I want to help you afford a beautiful life with your family. 
