There’s nothing like a little late night (well, late for a second grader) time spent looking up a rhyme for the word “aren’t”. Helpful hint: there are no words that rhyme with aren’t. Luckily, I have a feeling the teacher will be pretty lenient about this.
The further I get in life, the more I realize that you don’t have to be perfect all the time. In fact, more often than not it sets you up for failure.
So sometimes, you fudge it just a little. Maybe you run out of money earlier in the pay period than you should have and you have to get extra creative about your spending until the next pay day. It happens.
Or maybe you have to rhyme “aren’t” with “weren’t”.
ANYWAY… it wasn’t the greatest money saving week ever. But we still managed to save a little money. And that’s why I like Fridays. It’s the perfect time to focus on what went right. Because that positive attitude will carry us a lot further in our debt pay off journey!
If you want to read about how we’ve saved money in other weeks, check out the full series here.
The 5 Ways We’ve Saved Money This Week
Shared Birthday Party
My parents now have 18 grandchildren, which means that we could have constant birthday parties if we wanted to. As much fun as that sounds, we’re all pretty busy.
So when our “baby” turned 4 this week, we decided to do a shared birthday party with his cousin who turned 5 just a couple of weeks ago. Neither of them minded at all (in fact, they thought it was fun!). So we shared the costs of the party and had fun once this month instead of fitting in two days of fun.
Homemade Cupcakes
To continue the birthday fun, our little guy wanted to take in treats for his preschool class on his birthday. I really entertained the thought of just buying something to take in. But in the end, I knuckled down and used what we had on hand.
Luckily we had a box of cake mix. I turned that into cupcakes. He wanted blue icing (sorry, teacher!!), which I made from scratch. It was 10:00 at night before I finished (not because cupcakes are that labor intensive, but because it was one of those looooong days!). But at least I didn’t have to add running to the store and spending money we didn’t have to my list!
I’m glad I hung in there and decided to #presson with our plan to not spend extra money while we get out of debt.
My sister-in-law decided to let the kids play a board game using themselves as game pieces! So fun!
Free Date Night
So I’m about to reveal that our family is a bunch of nerds.
(Have I revealed that before?)
Anyway, Hubby and I have always been fascinated by politics. We often have long conversations about political ideas at the federal, local, and state levels.
So when our local candidates had a town hall session, we decided to attend. We found a free sitter and managed to take part (we even got to ask a few questions!). It wasn’t what most people would consider a date night, but I’m counting it. We both found it much more interesting than watching a movie.
Fraud
Thankfully we are spending less, which made a fraudulent charge on my card pop right out. Someone managed to charge my card $43.77 from a Redbox several states away.
If you’ve used a card in the past few years, chances are very good that your information has been compromised. It’s more important than ever to pay close attention to your statements and watch for fraudulent charges. I would have felt awful to learn that I’d been financing some scum bag for months without knowing it. This world is crazy, and we all need to be careful and watch out for ourselves.
Said No (A Lot)
Here comes our family theme back again. We started our #yearofno in January of 2016 when we decided to get serious about paying off debt. And since then, we’ve said no to many things.
This week we said no to hanging out with friends at a bar, buying extras from the store, stopping for a quick drink at the gas station, and so much more.
It’s boring, but it has hands down saved us more money than everything else combined. Our non flashy #yearofno has literally changed our lives. We can’t wait to be debt free!
Those are the 5 ways we saved money this week!
We also had to find a rhyme for “isn’t”. If you have better suggestions than what I gave to her, let me know! (Visit??)
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How did you save this week?
I'm Jamie, and I want to help you afford a beautiful life with your family. 
I continued my saga of cleaning out my smallish home (912 sq ft) and have two more bags to take to the Salvation Army to donate. I have cleaned out a total of 15 bags so far. I really cannot put kitchen cabinets in my house (attach them to the wall, I actually have a couple that are sitting on the floor) until I have my house leveled. Our soil/clay shifts in this area, and in a house that was built in 1950, some leveling needs to occur. I first have to get the cash for that…lol. I also cannot get rid of any more stuff, until my daughter is ready to take some of it to her house, because it is my deceased mother’s things. However, I have organized everything, so I am happy with that.
I get rave reviews for my homemade cupcakes and people act like I’ve gone to so much trouble. Hmmm….nope. I always have cake mix in my pantry (bought on sale) and I always have eggs and oil on hand. It’s quicker and easier to make them than it is to drive to the store and buy the. Frosting comes in a can too.
That life size board game looks amazing! And it’s such an important time to be involved in politics. Date night win in my book!
I think it’s really cool you and your husband had a date at a town hall! My partner works at the our community access television and is responsible for making sure all the city and county council meetings are airing as they should. I like to hang out with him at work and watch the meetings with him. It’s important to know what’s going on in your town and also to make sure you and your husband have quality time together. A win-win!
Thanks! We have always enjoyed politics, but at the local level it’s the most interesting. Not only do you see the direct results of your vote in a more immediate way, but when a levy passes by 28 votes, it really highlights the importance of every single vote.
I’m a big fan of local politics, and I watch all the meetings on cable. I’m pretty sure my wife wouldn’t count that as date night, but it definitely is in my book.
I’m glad your little guy enjoyed a shared party and some homemade cupcakes. Sounds like a winning week to me!