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Happy Frugal Friday!  I always like to celebrate this day by reflecting on some of the ways we’ve saved money this week.  Since this is week number 37, I’ve accumulated quite a long list of ideas.  You can read back through the archives here if you’re interested.

Let’s talk about the latest 5 Ways We’ve Saved Money This Week!

We set up a list of goals for the year back in January.  Our biggest goal remains to pay off a big sum of debt.  We’re calling it the #yearofno.  You can read about it here.

One of our yearly goals was to finally get our kids swimming.  And now that warm weather has arrived, we can finally tackle that goal!  We’ve already had the kids in the water quite a bit in the past week.  I’ve been looking for frugal ways to accomplish this task, but since we don’t own a pool I know that we are going to have to invest some money into this.

That’s fine by me, because I think that swimming is such an important life skill to have.  It’s worth the investment.

Small pool.  Last fall I found this pool on clearance at my local Dollar General store.  I wound up paying less than $5 for it.  I kept it in the attic all winter, and now we have a brand new pool!  I always love finding great deals at the end of one season.  Not only do I score a deal, but I also already have new items on hand when the season approaches rather than having to make a special trip for things.

Water.  I’ve written about our strange water situation before.  (Find that and extra money saving ideas for your water bill here.)  The short story is that we have to have water trucked to our home every other week.

It’s expensive, and it also means that the kids don’t get to play in water all the time.

We pay for our water by the truckload, but our tanks don’t hold the entire truck load.  So once our water guy had filled our house tanks, we asked him to pour some of the extra water into our small pool.

Fun times.  We had a picnic with family at a state park.  While we were there, the kids begged to play in the lake water.  Luckily, I had just placed some extra clothes in the van for such an occasion, so I told them to go for it.

I’ve been keeping an eye out for clothes that fit the kids fine, but they don’t wear quite as often.  Then I put an outfit for each size in the stow and go area of our van.  It’s come in handy many times!

Free Educational Websites.  If you missed it, I share a whole list of free educational websites for kids on Monday.  But I have to admit that some of those websites are fun for adults, too!

My kids have especially been getting a kick out of Khan Academy this week.  It’s great for a bit of rest time in the middle of a hot, busy day.  And I love that they are still learning over the summer break.

Pet Supplies.  Our giant puppy needed some flea drops, so I decided to shop around.  I was surprised to find that Best Deal Pet Supply had a great deal on it.  Their price, even with shipping, beat Amazon’s price!

Just goes to show you that you should always shop around to find your best price.

These are just some of the ways that our family has saved money this week.

The 5 Ways series is just one of the many ideas we are using to have a successful #yearofno.  If you’d like to get better control of your finances, you might be interested in a free challenge called Identify and Destroy Your Budget Busters.  This free email course is for people who are interested in getting out of debt, ending paycheck to paycheck living, and/or getting real control over their finances.

If that sounds like something you’d be interested in, you can learn more here.

Did you have a frugal week?  Let us know about it!