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We made it to another Friday.  Some weeks, that’s a real success.  Am I right?

Our last baseball player ended his tournament this week.  So we have wrapped up yet another ball season.  And just in time to get our 4-H critters to our county fair!

Life as mom isn’t boring, that’s the truth.

But enough chit chat.  I think you really came here to check out the latest edition of the 5 Ways We’ve Saved Money This Week series!  If you’d like to catch up on back episodes (which you can binge read, Netflix style.  No judgement here!), read any or all of the previous 41 weeks here.

Otherwise, here are the 5 Ways We’ve Saved Money This Week.

5 Ways We've Saved Money This Week 42

Made pancakes at home.  IHOP had a pretty great deal happening this week.  They celebrated their 58th year by offering a short stack of pancakes for just 58 cents.

That sounds delicious, and it’s a deal that even a #yearofno family could enjoy.  But our IHOP is at least 45 minutes from home.  Hauling all of the kids that far wouldn’t exactly be a bargain.  So we enjoyed homemade pancakes instead.

That made me realize how long it’s been since I made homemade pancakes.  I must make this more of a priority before school starts again!

Deals Email.  Speaking of IHOP…if  you’re a fan, be sure to sign up for their Pancake Revolution email list.  You’ll get free pancakes on your birthday, among other deals.  I opened a special email address dedicated to deals like this so I can sign up for deals without clogging up my regular inbox.

School Supplies.  I wrote about my 5 Best Ways to Save Money on Back to School Supplies earlier this week.  Taking my own advice, I decided to pop into Office Max while I only had one child with me earlier this week.  (That feels like a vacation when you compare it to shopping with all 5 kids!)

I’ve always heard about the great deals Office Max offers in July.  They are among the first to start putting out some great back to school specials.  I grabbed Crayola crayons for just 25 cents per box.  You used to see them everywhere for that price, but last year I ended up paying double that.  I also grabbed a 5 pack of highlighters for 25 cents.  That was a real bargain!  Those are usually priced at $3.29.

Summer Reading Program.  We joined our summer reading program at our local library.  Many libraries across the country run a similar promotion.  It’s a great way to keep the kids interested in reading during the summer months.

My kids were able to earn free books (the littlest guy is super excited to add to his Curious George collection!).  The older kids love to rock out with inflatable instruments.  And I have earned a free flash drive.  We are all entered to win bigger prizes, too.  Pretty cool.

The best part is that we were given a stack of coupons for free food and a discount on camping.  That saved me a ton when I booked our camping trip this week!

Used blinders…carefully.  Have you noticed that more and more places are hosting some great sales in July?  I think many of them are trying to create a Christmas feel during an otherwise dry spending season.

This week, we had Amazon Prime day and Bluehost is putting on a great deal for people who want to start a blog or website.  (Read all about how to create a blog here.)

Don’t get me wrong.  Some of these sales are pretty great.  I found some great deals on items I needed anyway.  But stores are great at marketing.  It can be hard to distinguish between getting a deal on something you’ve been meaning to buy anyway, and buying something you didn’t even know you needed until you saw a sale.

Trying to find a balance between tuning out all sales and tuning out no sales is hard.  I don’t want to miss out on what really are some great bargains, because I do need certain items.  Kids still need school supplies and clothing, even in the #yearofno.

So I’m weighing sales carefully and putting up blinders to sales as I need to.

That’s 5 more ways we’ve saved money this week!

Be sure to check out my new post: Cheap Dinner Ideas That Fit the Budget.

Cheap dinner ideas that fit the budget

And be sure to like Medium Sized Family on Facebook to keep up with the latest.

 

 

Did you find any great bargains this week? Or did you save by avoiding “bargains”?