by Jamie Jeffers | Aug 14, 2019 | Saving Money
These ideas about how to save money every month are awesome! Because once you get them in place, you’ll save month after month. Who doesn’t want extra money lying around??
When you look over your family budget, do you ever get the urge to reach into those numbers and give them a tight squeeze?
No, not in a “I wanna give you a hug!” way…
…in a Homer Simpson “Why won’t you go lower!!!” way.
I’m not always that violent with my budget numbers, but it is fun to see how much I can squeeze from a penny!
Since so many bills demand to be paid monthly, one of the best ways to get more from your paycheck is to figure out how to save money every month.
You can never have too many money saving tips! So today, let’s talk about some ideas that you probably haven’t tried yet.
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by Jamie Jeffers | Aug 2, 2019 | Ways We Saved This Week
What do you know? Planning ahead really does save money!
Not that it’s always easy to do. We’ve been in a season of life for months on end that made it very difficult for me to wrap my brain around meal planning and careful shopping.
I even hesitate to say that we’re “back” to planning ahead on a regular basis. We’re just taking it a paycheck at a time.
If you have a rough season of life and you feel guilty about not saving the maximum amount of money, remember that it’s ok. We all go through ups and downs.
One thing I’ve found to be true is that you can’t let yourself wallow in guilt. Believe me, I’ve tried it.
When I finally stopped feeling sorry for myself (not to mention letting go of the guilt of being a frugal blogger who couldn’t be perfectly frugal all the time), that gave me the permission I needed to try again.
Because here’s life in a nutshell:
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by Jamie Jeffers | Jul 19, 2019 | Ways We Saved This Week
This week I’m reading an amazing book that I think every mother should get her hands on. It’s called Cleaning House: A Mom’s 12 Month Experiment to Rid Her Home of Youth Entitlement.
There are so many good points to this book (especially the fact that giving kids meaningful work is the best gift you can give them).
But it made me aware of the fact that I might not be teaching my own kids enough about money.
Not just how to be responsible with it…but how to use it.
How to swipe the card at the gas station.
Comparing prices at the grocery store.
Having the courage to actually speak to a cashier while they make a purchase.
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by Jamie Jeffers | Jun 28, 2019 | Ways We Saved This Week
While driving home from a far away baseball game earlier this week, the dashboard of our 2005 Tahoe lit up like a Christmas tree.
This is one of those moments when you wonder if the savings of buying an older vehicle is worth it.
Our whole family was in the car, and all Google could tell me was that it could be as simple as a sensor…or as awful as the steering and brakes not working while you’re flying down the highway.
Lovely.
We made it home safely and now we’re waiting on word of how much this repair is going to cost us.
And I’ve decided to try to keep track of the amount of money in repairs (as well as the time we are without a vehicle) so we can see if driving an older car is truly worth the savings.
What do you think about driving older cars?
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by Jamie Jeffers | Jun 25, 2019 | Debt, Saving Money
A sinking fund is the only thing standing between you and freedom from paycheck to paycheck living. Here’s how to get started.
Watching the balance on our biggest credit card shrink over the past year has been…how should I put this?
Ah-maz-ing!
Our main goal in our #yearofno has been to knock out debt every chance we get.
Read all how we’re getting out of debt here (yes, even while raising 5 kids on one income!).
But there is one thing that I wish we had done differently.
Something that could have made a bigger difference in our debt payments.
It’s called a sinking fund. It’s a genius (but uncomplicated) idea that prepares you for those nagging expenses that add to debt.
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by Jamie Jeffers | Jun 21, 2019 | Ways We Saved This Week
Ugh, setbacks.
This week we found out that we can’t install the cistern for rainwater that we were hoping for. So we’ll be looking for a different solution to bring water to our old home.
We still want to save money for whatever solution we come up with, so the big summer savings goal will definitely continue!
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I'm Jamie, and I believe that you can build your savings, even when life is frustrating. 
