I’ve got a premature spring cleaning itch. The weather has been nice enough to throw open the windows (odd for February in Ohio). But I think I’m just trying to clean away all the germs that keep making their way into our home!
Being Type A, I tend to prefer to use a checklist when I clean. Otherwise, I spin my wheels cleaning a bit of this and a bit of that. I’d rather know where I’ve been and where I’m going.
How about you?
Now let’s take a look back at our week and see how we’ve saved.
Here are the 5 Ways We’ve Saved Money This Week
Filed Taxes Myself
The day I file my taxes is the most anxiety driven day of my whole year. I hate doing it! But I do save a lot of money by doing it myself. I always make sure to start at Ebates so I get a little cash back for my filing fees. I found that TaxAct had the best prices again this year.
Be sure to check out my tips on what to do with tax money.
Played With Friends
The kids had a 4 day weekend. I did think about taking them somewhere, but since everyone’s been sick for two weeks, I didn’t. We need a little more time to rest and recover. And I can’t stomach the thought of bringing home more germs from a public spot!
It was ok. The kids got to play with the neighbor kids. Plus the weather was so beautiful that it was nice to just play outside for a while!
Reused Water
I made a butterscotch pie, which required a double boiler. Since I don’t have one of those, I typically just fill a dutch oven with water and use a double handled pot that fits nicely inside the larger pot.
Because our water situation is kind of crazy, I always look for ways to reuse water. Once my pie was made, I was left with a perfectly fine pot of hot water. I decided to use it to clean. So I poured it into a bucket with some Pine Sol and got some more “spring” cleaning done.
Generic Ink
I had no idea how many problems people were having with generic ink until I talked about it with some of you over on Facebook. Luckily my Epson printer still accepts generic ink.
That said, if we ever switch printers I’ll have to be careful to only buy generic ink if I’m confident that my printer will accept it. Otherwise you run into one of those situations where you actually spend MORE money by going the generic route. And I hate it when that happens!
Date Night
We managed to squeeze in a February date night! We kept it simple by having the babysitter for a short amount of time and just going for dinner. It was nice to have some conversation when we could actually hear each other!
Those are the 5 Ways We’ve Saved Money This Week
Kind of a simple week, but that’s what we needed after a few weeks of sickness anyway!
Be sure to check out How to Organize a Large Family in a Small House. Even if you don’t have a large family, I bet you’ll find some tips you can use in your own home!
How did you save this week?
Our daughter’s in the middle of her 3-week winter break. We are all about play dates and park trips this track out instead of going anywhere. Glad your kiddos had a good time staying home, (and glad everyone seems to be on the mend.)
Thank you! Have a fun break together. 🙂
Our grandkids had a four day weekend too and we all felt the same way. They just needed to relax and recover from this winter’s ills. They loved it and we took them to the park to play. It was 70 yesterday! Wonderful. Good luck with your Spring Cleaning. Great time to do it when it’s boring outside!
We’re going to have that nice weather today. I love it, but hope we don’t regret nice weather in February!
After reading what you just said about the printers, I think what I might do is make sure that the next printer I buy accepts them! The ink is a lot more expensive than the printers anymore! I tried refilling my cartridges, but that was a huge mess and I wasn’t very successful, but I am very thankful that my printer and my college daughter’s printer works well with generic ink.
We had a four day weekend here too. I took our kids north to my parents. We took the train to Chicago for the day. Our westbound travel was free and we only paid for the two adults going eastbound. We went to the Shedd Aquarium – I opted to purchase a membership that is 100% tax deductible rather than purchasing regular tickets. Got a 20% discount in the gift shop.
Today, I took items to Once Upon a Child to sell. They bought all of it; I only received $13 but the items are out of my house. YEAH!!!
Found your blog through Crystal’s. I didn’t even think of checking Ebates to see if TurboTax was listed. It is! Well, I will know for next year!
Thanks for visiting! Definitely start there next year. I’ve gone through them for the past few years, so I assume they’ll continue to carry tax places. 🙂
I am curious as to if you checked irs.gov free file. You can file your taxes for free if your income is less than a certain amount (I believe $64,000.00). I have used eztaxreturn.com for years. But you have to start at the IRS website and then pick one of the free file options. Then I file my state return online for free as well through the Ohio.gov website and I file city taxes for free as well. Just an idea.
Wow, that’s great info! I didn’t know about that. But this year I had to file on my blog and freelance writing income and I needed some extra guidance for that. If I had a more straightforward return I’d try those options. But I bet they’d work great for other readers, so thanks for sharing.
Ugh, I’m jealous! We had 3+ inches of snow yesterday and another 10(ish) inches last night. Wowza, you have had the germs hit haven’t you? Oh yea, and kudos! I’m a list maker/user too:) Just a tip, when the kids were wee ones, if someone got sick, I washed everything 3 ft. high – sounds funny I know, but door knobs, chair backs, light switches, drawer pulls, phone, etc. You keep well and enjoy that sunshine.
Great info! We need to start saving money on the little things. They all add up so quicklyl!
#fridayfrivolity