School is out for summer now! Do you see my happy dance? I’ve exchanged my travel mug of coffee for my pretty peacock blue coffee mug. The alarm clock is turned off. Lunches are simple instead of a planning adventure.
So much to celebrate on this Frugal Friday!
If you’re a new reader (welcome!), each Friday I like to share 5 new ways that our family has saved money this week. If you want to read back through the entire series, you can find it here.
Now without further ado, here are the 5 Ways We’ve Saved Money This Week.
Teacher gifts. My kids enjoy giving their teachers a little token of appreciation at the end of the year. I want to say thank you, but I have to do it in an affordable way. Between my 4 school aged kids, we have 10 different teachers to buy for!
A couple of years ago, I decided that a simple potted plant would make a nice gift. As a former teacher, I know that the teachers already have a whole pile of candy and sweets. Also, a potted flower can be planted outside or kept in the pot. I also choose a size that’s big enough to be pretty, but small enough to be carried home easily.
Check out the pretty flowers we found here. (Be sure to follow me on Facebook for money saving tips all week!)
Kindergarten Recognition. Just a few years ago, I learned that many schools and areas do not celebrate kindergarten graduation. It’s been celebrated in my area for generations, so that was a surprise to me!
Our daughter had her celebration for the last day of kindergarten this week. Some families go all out and celebrate with meals and gifts.
With our oldest son, we began a simple but special tradition. We take our kindergartner-turned-first-grader to make a special ceramic plate. They get to paint it with Mom on a one on one outing. When it is finished, we let that child use their special plate on special days. Birthdays, days when they are recognized for something special, holidays, any time we can find a reason to celebrate.
It’s simple and doesn’t cost much. But it’s truly a lasting gift, and I love our little tradition!
Car repair. It’s been a crazy week around here. The van had a flat tire last week. No sooner did we get that fixed than the car died. It’s discouraging when you are making payments on a car so you have something reliable to drive; and it still doesn’t drive reliably! (Just one more reason to get rid of those payments, right?)
Lucky for us, Hubby did some research and learned that the problem was so common that the repair would be covered by the dealer. At least we don’t have to pay for the repair. It always pays to do a little research when things go wrong with a car.
Tow bill. When we tried to drive the car to the dealer, it died on the side of the road. So we had to call a tow truck.
Luckily, I have coverage for this on our car insurance. It only costs a few bucks to add it to your policy. We’ve had to use it so often that it has paid for itself easily. Don’t tell the insurance guys that, though!
Changed the plan. I hastily put together my meal plan for the week, assuming that pork would be on sale. (It always seems to be on sale!) But when I got to the store, it was double the price I had expected. So I changed my plan on the fly and just added one more burger meal to the menu since it was on sale. It’s important to be flexible, right?
Those are the 5 ways we saved money this week.
I hope you found some inspiration here to help you save money in your own home.
I’ve got something exciting in the works for my email subscribers. If you join the list now, you’ll be one of the first to know when it is ready! And in the meantime, you’ll get extra money saving tips right in your inbox each week. It’s totally free, and your email address is always safe with me!
How was your week? Do you have any frugal finds to celebrate? Tell us all about them!
Meat sales and timing those right is definitely one of the hardest parts of meal planning. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to when they do them or for how much and it’s quite frustrating! We only eat meat in about 75% of our meals, and even still it’s hard to keep up and have enough to not have to buy any off sale.
I’m glad your car repair was something that was of the easy-to-fix variety – it is insane at how much it costs to keep a car up and running, considering how much they cost just to have *insert sigh here*.
Great job making meal plan changes on the fly!
Good job! Car stuff stresses me out so much! Even when we have money to pay for it, it just is so stressful for me.
Hey Jamie, way to be flexible! Those grocery stores can really ruin it for us sometimes huh 🙂 Congratulations on your Kindergartener’s graduation, what a wonderful time in your life!
Love the ceramic plate idea, what a great way to make a child feel special time and time again.
Meat sales timings can be so hard to predict (especially over here in England). Being able to be flexible is such a great trait.
Timing meat sales is tough and I can see where it would be even tougher to work into meal planning. We generally just pick up stuff on special to stock our meats, and then work around what we have. I guess if I was a better planner, I’d scope out the sales ahead of my trips.
I normally try to plan my meals around the sales flyer. That’s what I get for trying to take a shortcut!
Sorry to hear about your car issues!
I had a surprise find of butter for 1.99/lb… Kind of odd since Memorial Day and butter don’t naturally go together.
One of the parents of a daughter’s classmate collects for a group end of the year gift. People cam use PayPal or send her a check. Last year we collected enough to give a financial gift to all of the class’s teachers and aides. People can give 5.00 and up.
A group gift would be much simpler. That butter deal sounds great! Hope you were able to stock up.
Your flowers are so pretty…I’m sure the teachers will enjoy them.
Car problems are a hassle but I’m glad you had the coverage for a tow truck.
Have a great day!
Me, too. I’ve never regretted getting the towing package coverage added to our car insurance. You have a good one, too!
Good for you. You did great!
We had a car repair that ate our food budget this week!
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ஐღLauraღஐ
Harvest Lane Cottage
…doing what I can with what I’ve got where I am
on a short shoestring budget!
~~~~~
I am so sorry you had car problems. I hate car problems (I know that’s a strong word but really!) Glad the dealer covered it.
I hate them, too! They always seem to pop up out of nowhere at the most inconvenient times.
It always stinks when car troubles come out of nowhere! So happy that you were able to save in this area, as it can get pretty expensive. Thanks for sharing at Friday Funday Blog Hop 🙂
Thank you for sharing your tips with us on the Art of Home-Making Mondays at Strangers & Pilgrims on Earth 🙂
You honestly have a knack for discovering different routes to save! Very inspiring! I love your kindergarten recognition tradition; I know it must mean a lot to the little ones! Great job this week! Thanks so much for sharing!
It’s great that your car insurance was able to cover the cost of the tow truck! I’ve been lucky enough to not need towing services for the past few years, so I’ve somewhat neglected adding that to my insurance coverage. However, if it’s only a few extra dollars to add it to your policy, I’ll probably follow your lead and pay a little bit more and maybe save a lot in the future. Thanks for the article!