Between ice storms and illness, we’ve had a crazy week. But we were able to do a couple of things to get us closer to our goal, including filing our taxes.
While I’m no fan of giving the government an interest free loan, we do get a return each year. But at least we have a plan for it! We knew we’d be getting enough back to cover what’s left of our credit card debt.
So now we play the waiting game. As soon as that money is direct deposited, we’ll pay off those bills and finally end our debt free journey!!
However you feel about tax returns, the most important thing is to make sure that, if you are getting money back, you have a plan for it before it comes. In case you haven’t noticed, everyone in the world knows people are getting money this time of year… and those big sales are designed to take it from you.
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The 5 Ways We’ve Saved Money This Week
Each Friday, we look back at the ways we saved money all week. This has motivated us to pay off thousands of dollars of debt! And we look forward to continuing to use our money wisely even once this debt is gone.
If you love money saving tips, you can read through the entire series here. Or, make it on yourself. I compiled all of our money saving tips into a book, sorted by categories to make it easy to find the tips that apply to your life!
Get your copy of 500 Ways to Save Money: Build a Cash Jackpot for the Best Things In Life here.
Taxes
Like I said, we worked on our taxes this year. I always use an online service, because, though I love to pinch pennies, math is NOT my strong suit. Rather than be penny wise and pound foolish, I think it’s important to invest in a program that can help you get the most on your return (not to mention avoiding costly errors!).
If you made less than $66,000 last year, you can file your taxes for free! And this isn’t the kind of free where they only allow you to use the EZ form. My friend Hannah has all the details for you here.
If, on the other hand, you don’t qualify for that, I’ve found TaxAct to be the best bang for your buck. I sprung for the “Freelancer” version to make sure I got everything ironed out with my blog income for the year.
In the past, I’ve saved on tax returns by paying for the federal version, and then using that to fill out my own state taxes. But this year, I paid for the state taxes, too. Taxes always make me nervous!
Super Bowl Snacks
We missed out on football parties this year, due to a nasty stomach bug that made an unwelcome visit to our home. I’m not a football fan, but I sure love the snacks! So we decided to grab a few easy snacks and have a quiet day at home instead.
Those of us who didn’t have a sick belly enjoyed favorites like Skyline dip and buffalo chicken dip (I had all the ingredients on hand).
Date Night!
We missed out on a January date night, but we squeezed in a quick one to kick off our February. A small corner diner opened in our little town, so we took an hour to get away and eat in an atmosphere where we could actually hear each other talk.
Blog Logo
I’ve wanted a nicer looking blog logo for…well, about the entire time I’ve been blogging! I’ve heard mixed reviews about the results you can find on Fivrr. But, I decided to go ahead and give it a try!
Design is not my strong suit.
No, I don’t have a new logo yet. But watch for one coming soon! And let me know what you think of it.
If you’ve ever been curious about what blogging is really like, read a little more on what it takes to start your own blog. I’m giving you the straight scoop, because it’s not always sunshine and rainbows!
Junk Mail
When someone brings in the mail, I try to go through it quickly and get rid of whatever I can. The last thing I need is more clutter around here! I nearly threw a piece of junk mail in the trash. But the coupon piqued my interest. It was for $15 off a $49 purchase of dog food from Chewy.com. Plus free shipping!
We have a Great Pyrenees and a lovable mutt. They aren’t cheap to feed! I usually save money on my dog food by buying it from Dollar General on Saturdays when they offer a $5 off of $25 purchase.
The price worked out to be at least as good as my usual cost, so I went ahead and ordered several bags of dog food. I love that it will be shipped right to my door. Hopefully it will be a good experience!
I can’t find a coupon code for this online, but you can get 20% off your first auto ship purchase (just be sure to cancel it if you don’t want to keep paying for it) from Chewy.com.
The real lesson here is to take a second look at that junk mail!
Those are the 5 ways we saved money this week!
If you end up having to mail your return (like we did…there’s an aggravating snag in our state legislature), be sure to send it certified mail with a return receipt. You’ll want to know when they get your return so you don’t have to worry about it being lost in the mail!
Be sure to “like” Medium Sized Family on Facebook for even more money saving tips I don’t always share on the blog!
Our February goals check in is up if you’re curious! How are you doing with your goals for the month/week/year?
How did you save money this week?
I'm Jamie, and I want to help you afford a beautiful life with your family. 
Thanks so much for including my post! I love seeing how you’ve saved money each week.
I always open junk mail. I get free address labels, bookmarks, coupons, notepads, occasionally stamps and cash. MY dil tells me that twice now a car dealership has sent them $2 cash in what looked to be junk mail. She came very near throwing it away but opened it and wondered after how many people had tossed that money into the trash without looking!
I have been quick to throw things away lately, but looks like I’d better get back to opening those envelopes! It’s not like it would take that much time, anyway. 🙂
CONGRATULATIONS!!!! You’re so close to the end! 😀 I love, love, love your note about making a plan for your tax refund money. It disappears so easily if people don’t plan for it. I submitted ours this weekend – we’ve committed to using the bulk of it as a principal payment on my husband’s car and a certain portion for investing in some tangible items we want to have on hand. Part of it may go to replacing my laptop battery (if I do it myself, it will be about 1/3 the cost of what Apple would charge me).
We don’t get as many coupon mailers (not even sale flyers!) at our current base, but we used to get lots of them at our old place and found all sorts of goodies too. From just a simple penny glued to the mailer to coupons for free goods and services.
This week I did get a coupon for a discounted oil change and tire rotation for my husband’s car – he doesn’t put a lot of miles on it though, so we’ll see if he actually needs an oil change before it expires. (They also thought he’d need a 50K check-up, but he just broke 40K miles this month!) We also got coupons from Subway, including some BOGO deals. I’m considering using those for a dinner next week – we’ve tried really hard to cut going out for food and while we’re doing better than past years, it’s still a work in progress. Baby steps, right?
You’re getting some awesome deals! I’m definitely going to keep a closer eye on my mail.