Our family has been taking advantage of the beautiful summer weather while we still can. Summertime is my favorite!

Mainly that means getting outside as much as possible, whether that’s doing fun stuff like swimming or jumping on the trampoline, or finally tackling long overdue barn chores.

One thing’s for sure…right now I’m a peach shake girl in a pumpkin spice world. haha

This week, I have definitely noticed one summer thing that I need to do better, as far as saving money goes.

I need to stop underestimating the amount of water we drink when we are out in the heat. We pack drinks, but it never fails that someone needs more water when we pile back into the car.

Why hello!

Long time, no type!

Well, I’m just gonna jump right in here like I haven’t been taking huge breaks from this blog for the past year and a half, ok?

So I don’t know if you’ve noticed (ha!), but the price of pretty much every single thing has gone through the roof.

Trips to the grocery store have been an adventure ever since that one big thing happened in 2020. And it’s just getting worse.

I figured the best way to do better about my spending habits is to jump back into this blog. I mean, I’ve been using this thing to help me save more money (and stay accountable to saving more money) since 2016.

And those were easy years compared to now.

It’s cold!

I mean, it is February in Ohio, so that’s not exactly shocking. Still, any time you get a fat layer of ice topped with another layer of snow…well, you’d better prepare for power outages and shut ins.

And that’s what we’ve been doing this week!

After taking a good 9 months (plus?) off blogging, I’m finally back in the saddle.

Whoop!

Time to dust off the old “5 Ways We’ve Saved Money This Week” series and see what fun things we can add to it.

It’s challenging to come up with ideas I haven’t shared before. I mean, come on…I’ve done 162 of these things! I can’t promise there haven’t been repeats.

But I do my darnedest to try to come up with outside the box ideas whenever I can. (Also, I just learned how to spell darnedest for the first time.)

We live in southern Ohio, where we tend to get either a lot of snow, or hardly any at all. Our winters are unpredictable anymore.

This year, we’re getting lots of snow!

It makes me happy that we always prepare as though it will be one of those cold, snowy winters. It’s nice having plenty of food in the house and a backup plan in case the power goes out (which always happens at the worst time!).