This whole week has been full from start to finish. As a result, I’ve been just focusing on one day at a time. Today we had to get up early to drive quite a ways to be at an early swim meet for Kathrynne. {Most of you parents are so used to this kind of routine… but for us, this whole arena of sports and activities and competitions is very new.}
So we made it through the morning and early afternoon and then I realized: We were supposed to go to a friend’s 30th birthday party tonight and I kind of forgot to actually plan a side dish to bring tonight nor had I bought ingredients for it.
Since it’s been a week since we last went grocery shopping, I kind of panicked, thinking we probably wouldn’t have enough ingredients to actually make anything presentable. And I considered just running by the store on our way to the party and picking up a veggie tray.
But then I decided to see what I could scrounge up with the odds and ends of veggies we still had on hand. I surprised myself that we had more than enough to make a veggie tray!
This was a good reminder to me to challenge myself to always try to make do with what I already have instead of rushing out to buy something new.
Share How You Saved & You Could Win a $50 Starbucks Gift Card!
Who wants to have some coffee dates on me? Leave a comment on this post telling us how you saved today — either in a big way, a small way, or multiple ways.
I’ll choose one winner on Monday and will send them a $50 Starbucks gift card!This giveaway is over with. The winner is: Becky {t_3_st@}
The winner of yesterday’s $50 Amazon gift card is: nktimmerman@. You should have received an email with details on claiming your prize.
My boyfriend was concerned that our shower pipes were backed up and said he would need to call someone to snake them. I told him he didn’t need to all we would need to do is buy one of those zip lines at Loews for $2 and clean ourselves. I went to Lowes bought the zip cleaner and a bottle of Drano and did it myself!
Today, I made a bread pudding with all the dry bread who was not eaten from this past week (soak in milk and add eggs, marmalade jam and raisins: everything was already in my fridge). It’s smell yummy and my kids will love it tonight. After that I brought a full bag of gently used clothes, who were too small to my kids, to Once Upon a Child, and they gave me 25$ in cash. Then I stop by Harris Teeter and I got 6 pounds of squash for 3$ (re-wrap for quick sale). And on my way home I spoiled myself with a cup of coffee at Starbucks (I brought an empty bag of Starbucks coffee and they gave me a free coffee !)
I saved today by making a “survival kit” as a gift. I just go through the items I have instock at home and put little post-it notes on them for gifts. Maybe 3-5 in a bag. I know I got these items on sale and with coupons so the cost is very minimum. Example: candy bar because you are so sweet to me, hand lotion because I appreciate the work your hands to and all the kind things you do for me when I need help, Tums because I know there is frustration and heartburn in all your hard work.
I thought about stopping at the local gourmet bread store to pick up something to go with our stir fry for dinner. Then I remembered I had a loaf of (the best!) banana bread in our freezer. It’ll be thawed by dinner time!
Made coffee at home instead of buying it out.
decided to pack lunches for myself and husband today instead of our normal Monday lunch date
I cleaned my drains using baking soda and vinegar, made a quiche using ingredients I had on hand (including making my own crust) and made of loaf of chocolate banana bread using very ripe bananas that were left in our fruit bowl from last week and leftover chocolate candy from a box that we were given several months ago (I just cut up of the candy and tossed it in the batter). The quiche and banana bread came out really well! My entire family loved it and I didn’t buy anything new.
I bought a 4.8 lb pork loin yesterday when it was on sale. I sliced off about 3 lb for a crockpot pork roast for tonight’s dinner and I put the remainder in a Ziploc freezer bag for a future meal of pork chops (probably enough for 4-5 chops). This was $1 to $2 cheaper per pound than buying either cuts of meat separately and took very little effort on my part.
We made breakfast together instead of eating out. Since I hadn’t been feeling well I didn’t want to have to clean up a huge kitchen mess. We ended up having a nice time cooking together and the mess wasn’t so bad. Plus breakfast was way better (and cheaper) than any fast food.
My son has holes in pretty much all of his jeans. So I’ve been repairing them to get more life out of them. I’ve also lapsed in my cloth diaper usage. So I got them all fixed and in use again!
I am making my own chili beans in my crockpot from dry beans, to freeze and have on hand for soups this winter.
We saved by making our own Halloween costumes and decorations and they kids were so much in love with the costumes and we all had a great time and the most important thing is the we spend quality time as a family and made wonderful memories for our kids. We will definitely make this a family tradition each Halloween and also we are going to try making our own Christmas decorations.
I went to the True Woman conference and I saved by packing enough food for three lunches instead of eating out. Sandwiches and taco salad in a jar and almond flour muffins. I ate breakfast in the motel and splurged and ate out supper with my friends.
I found out when our local dollar store gets their deliveries. I bought a massive amount of fresh produce for less than $10. Among them were gorgeous bell peppers (red, yellow, green variety back) three for $1! We had fajitas over the weekend with chicken I bought on sale. The corn tortillas? Those were on sale too!
For dinner last evening I challenged myself to use ingredients the house to come up with dinner. I used left over turkey, carrots, celery, chicken broth, and whole wheat spaghetti noodles to make a quick turkey noodle soup. It was super yummy! My husband enjoyed it too:)
I don’t drink much soda (maybe once a week), but if I decide to buy one from the vending machine at work, it is a cost of 75 cents. I saw a sale on the off brand of the kind of soda that I like, and got twelve cans for $1.88, so I bring my own and keep it at work so it is there for when I get a hankering for one.
I saved by sewing up a hole in my shirt instead of using it as an excuse to buy new clothes.
At the auto dealership this morning, I read their newspaper, saving me $1. I went to the library and checked out 4 books and 2 dvds. I hardly ever buy books brand new. Instead of buying a coffee while I was out running errands, I waited until I got home and brewed it when I got back.
Like you, I used what I had for a soup recipe instead of rushing out to buy the “correct” ingredients. I also plan on making muffins today with some black bananas in the fridge, and baking bread in the bread machine.
I do a little photography on the side and offered to take maternity photos for a friend for her baby shower gift as a way to serve her and save me money on buying her a gift. Win win!
I saved by not getting the frappucino that I wanted but do not need.
My husband is a teacher, so we were able to get free teacher tickets to the Texas State Fair. We had a great time as a family, and loved that we were able to save 30 dollars on tickets. The fair can be expensive!
We saved today by trying to fix our sink ourselves instead of calling the plumber. It’s just a minor issue so we are able to figure it out.
Where do I start:
-meal planning
-lower the thermostat
-make my own breakfast sandwiches for the week (biscuits, scrambled egg that I bake into a squrare and cut into smaller squares and canadian bacon)
stop relying on juice and drink a lot more water
-get samples of anything I can (it’s one-3 less uses of my items I have to use)
-make a point to not throw food away (which results in a lot of leftovers for dinner)
-take my lunch to work
-price match for our dog medications
-use the credit card on items that will result in cash back for using it at certain stores (on things I need only…not just for the heck of it)
-shop the grocery on days I can get 5% off the entire grocery purchase
-coupons
-cut my dryer sheets into 1/2 or thirds
-wash clothes in cold water
-(gross…how do I say this nicely) “if it’s yellow, let it mellow”
-never leave on lights/tv
-if lights blow, make the upfront investment to buy LED bulbs
-make just about anything I can rather than buy
-as your article says, I just make do…
I too, used what we had in the house. I mixed up brownies for my husband’s Bible Study tonight instead of buying something on the way.
We went to a chalk festival and knew we would be tempted to buy food treats, so I made muffins and popcorn to take along. We had great fun and kept our tummies full so we didn’t buy anything. 🙂 Thank you for your encouraging blog!
I saved recently by borrowing decorations from a local buy-nothing group, for my son’s upcoming birthday party. 🙂
The biggest way I have saved money, being a mom of 3 with another due around Christmas, is by stocking up on diapers. I spend less than $150 for all the diapers for each one of my kids by using coupons, sales and drugstore promotions.
We’re trying to eat healthier meat, so I saved by finding some “Laura’s Lean” beef on clearance at Kroger and also a Simple Truth Organic “chicken griller pack” which was on clearance–and I had a coupon for $1.45 off any STO chicken. Yay!
Yesterday my Hero Husband traded fresh made applesauce and 40.00 for over 50 lbs of grassfed angus beef, several beef roasts and 2 turkeys! We ran out of space in our freezer so he worked on canning one of the turkeys last night 🙂
Fed baby applesauce for breakfast instead of baby food from a small, expensive jar
I make my own ‘fabric softener’ with vinegar and whatever herbs (usually lavender or basil) we have around, but I kept rusting the lid of my jar. Hubby had some storage jars in the garage that had plastic lids so we traded one of my metal lids for one of his plastic ones. He is going to cut out the middle and cut a circle out of some plastic mesh he has so I will have a perfect straining lid for my fabric softener.
Instead of purchasing cookies for lunches I used pantry ingredients to make pumpkin bread and chocolate chips!
I saved this weekend by carefully making sure my purchases rang up correctly at target. The products I purchased clearly were labeled $5 gift card when you purchase 3 products and this isn’t how they rang up. The cashier gladly gave me $5 off my purchase to compensate! Better than gift card 🙂
I took advantage of some of the weekend yardsales and mall sales to go ahead and buy some Christmas presents & decorations I had my eye on for family. This way, I know I paid the price I thought fair and I won’t be as stressed when Christmas comes!
I made your freezer bean burritos over the weekend and brought one for today’s work lunch! Excited to see how it turned out.
I’m using the peppers my father-in-law gave me to make pepper jelly. We wouldn’t be able to use all of them before they spoil, but the jelly will be great this winter.
Finished up a re-do project. Instead of buying furniture for my new office at work, I stripped, sanded and painted a bench my father made several years ago. Lots cheaper and now I have something sentimental at work too.
We went to a fall foliage festival and instead of buying expensive drinks, I packed waters for me and the kids!
My kids were involved in a weekend soccer tournament. It is so tempting to just buy your lunch and snacks at the concession stands they have but I packed sandwiches, drinks and snacks and we ate out of our car all weekend. The kids did great and I felt good that I didn’t have to open my wallet once!
Made my own Pumpkin Spice Latte mix instead of buying one in a coffee shop or any premade products at the grocery store!
Brought breakfast and water to work instead of purchasing from the vending machine !
I buy all of my clothing & my 4 yr. Old son’s clothes at GCF. I hardly, if ever buy retail. It’s not worth it. I bought an almost brand new pair of dansko’s shoes worth $129.00 for $10.00. Thanks!
I made coffee at home instead of purchasing it on the way to work.
Today I saved by purchasing gifts on sale two months ahead of the date, and wishing my Godson a happy birthday today with that purchased gift.
I bring aluminum water bottles and baggies of snacks that I prepared for my daughters when I pick them up from volleyball practice and take them to tumbling practice. This saves us expensive trips to the convenience store for when they are starving and we’re short on time. (I made that mistake once, and to buy snacks and drinks for everyone cost me nearly $10. Now every Monday I feel proud that I save $10 – that’s $40 a month!)
I have a scheduled c-section with our 3rd child next Tuesday. Since I know what happens when exhaustion sets in (we grab food on the go, don’t plan ahead and end up running out to the store and paying full price, etc.) I have been doubling my recipes and freezing them as I cook for our family so we’ll have them after all the help goes home. But I’m only doubling the meals I can make at a low price. Last night I went through the acme circular & found their “stock up” sale. I’m heading to the store today to get frozen veggies, cereal and other non perishables for a deep discount with the sale prices and coupons. This way when the baby comes I won’t have much shopping to do for quite a while!
I did “Operation Use Up” and haven’t went shopping for a week! It’s amazing what you can find & create!
Used Pinterest to figure out DIY drawer fresheners, which helped use my hotel toiletries collection! The little soap bars were simply placed in each drawer. It’s always great to find uses for what you have on hand.
I saved money by creating a menu plan and grocery list for the rest of the month. If I don’t do this I end up with miscellaneous ingredients that have no home. I also incorporated things that are currently housed in the pantry into the menu plan.
Yesterday I saved in a small way by ordering only one kids meal and having my kids split it (they are 4 and 21months) I brought drink from home for one of them, too!
Before grocery shopping I determined to look through our cupboards and freezer and plan as many meals as possible with what we already had. I cut our grocery bill in half!!
I wanted to take my daughter on a little mommy and me date shopping but there wasn’t really money in the budget. But I knew I had 2 free items at Bath and Body works and $1.38 left on a gift card. Then Eddie Bauer sent me $10 to spend and I had $15 dollars in reward credit at Children’s Place, my monthly free truffle at Godiva, and then Lindt’s chocolates always gives out a free truffle. So after school on Friday we went and did a little shopping spending $0 out of pocket and she had a great time. Eddie Bauer even gave me $1 back from my free coupon!
I saved money by not going to the mall. I have recognized that I have all the clothes I “need” so even though one of my favorite stores had a $10 off special, I stayed away.
I used Greek yogurt that I had on hand in a recipe instead of running to the store for sour cream
I saved by eating from the cupboards instead of going out, after working a consession stand all day. And trust me I really didn’t want to make anything after 10 hours of making everyone else food.
I FOUND MY HOME DEPOT EXTENDED WARRANTY FOR OUR DISHWASHER! So happy!!
Instead of buying prepackaged snacks for baseball, we’re bringing bananas for the team snack.
Went camping on the beach. I had all the meals prepped and ready so we did not spend any extra on food! We made our own pancake mix ahead, put baked potatoes in the embers to bake for another meal. Froze homemade bread pre-sliced and served with cheese and veggies as a snack on the beach. In the past I have also froze a soup and then brought along the crock pot – meal cooked while we were at the beach.
Today I got two credit card offers in the mail. Instead of just throwing them out I made it a point to loudly tear them up in front of my kiddos. When they asked “what are you doing Mommy?” I began a lesson on what the Bible says about debt. Although this is not saving money in the way we traditionally think of, like Dave Ramsey says, “not spending money is a lot like saving it.” 🙂
We went to the Halloween section at Target, and were awfully tempted by all the fancy and expensive Halloween decorations. Instead, we opted for a pack of four spooky tombstones for eight dollars, and talked about how to embellish them with things we have at home. Score!
We saved by having a fire in the yard and cooking hot dogs and sausages instead of going out to eat. We also got to talk to each other in a more relaxed and fun way than we would have n a restaurant, such a great time with my kids!
We brought snacks which turned into lunch on a family reunion getaway; lunch out for a family of 9 can be pricey!
We saved by taking time to pick up 2 large bags of hand-me-down clothes a friend had for our kids.
We like to have soda with pizza but I need by if unless we are getting pizza. Well husband for got it on pizza run so instead we used sparkling water with some pineapple juice. It was great. No one missed the soda at all and much healthier.
We buy in bulk and use manufacturer coupons to add up to our saving. Instead of buying a party trays, we make our own from scratch with our favorite finger foods. We love homemade fresh food and making them fresh is the best way to impress our guests!
My kids lost their baseball bat and instead of running out and buying a new one we found one at a thrift store. Simple but a good way to save money — not to get caught up in the now culture. Taking a little time to find what we need at second hand stores has helped us save money and also helps us focus more on what we really want. We want our house paid off and are working toward achieving that goal.
I saved by doing the following:
– Hemmed a tear in a sheet
– Made sandwich & french bread
– Menu planned for the next few weeks based on pantry contents
– Shopped at Aldi for bare necessities and only spent $60 ( 4 ppl/2weeks)
* their eggs were only 69c/dozen and pumpkins $1.99
– Used my rewards card to get a free drink for filling up my gas tank.
– we recently made the switch to the cash system & stopped eating out
We took advantage of kids eat free night at our local Dickie’s.
I saved for my family today by making all home-made party decorations for our daughter’s 1st birthday party …which was today! I was tempted by cute new purchases, but with the help of pinterest… 😉 I made the banner, food labels, decor all around the house, home-made party favors, and home-made meal for guests! Lots of work, but also lots of memories!
Today we were blessed in a way that also helped us save money on a meal. My husband has been part of a group that has been ministering at a nursing home each Sunday for the past few years. A recent attender wanted to do something nice in return and put on a beautiful appreciation lunch for the group and their families. We had a great time spending the afternoon with them, and had an extra special meal! I’m more and more convinced that just by being involved in the lives of others, you are blessed in return. Saving money was just a small part of that blessing today.
Today I saved about 60% on baby food and diapers by shopping at a discount outlet versus a grocery store. Paying attention to the expiration dates, using my phone’s calculator to find the best price on a box of diapers, and shopping at this discount store was SO worth it! This store trumps even the big box store prices, woo hoo!
I prayed. Yup. I prayed. Since my husband’s income dropped 40% 6 months ago, things have been, well you could say, rather tight. So I pray like never before over every need and every purchase. I am very close to being out of coffee. A simple pleasure I enjoy each morning before our homeschool day begins. Being close to empty, I prayed I would have enough this week to buy more. Yes. It is that tight around here. I had a coupon for $2 off my next coffee purchase that I left out. Then today, upon my husband’s return from the store to purchase a school supply, he presented me with a store coupon of $5. Now I have $7 extra this week to buy a bag of coffee. And that is how our last 6 months have been. A need is there. We pray. He provides. It is a beautiful place to be. Dependent on the Lord for everything. He truly has been giving us our daily bread.
Aw… sweet reminder, fellow mommy & sister! The Lord faithfully provides 🙂 He cares about the little things! Coffee!!! 🙂 Love being reminded of these stories.
I started keeping a journal so we never forget! And when doubts creep in we can look back and remember He was there then and will be with us in the now. A few weeks before all this began we began to ask God to increase our faith. Then our journey began. And God’s grace has been sufficient. Oh, the miracles we have to share!
Our God is sooo faithful! Such a sweet walk you are on !!
My mom is visiting cross country, and we saved by going on a hike instead of an expensive attraction… And took snacks we had on hand, rather than eating at the mountain lodge!
Today we were blessed in a way that also helped us save money on lunch. My husband has been part of a group that has been ministering at a nursing home each Sunday afternoon for the past few years. A recent attender wanted to do something nice in return and put on a beautiful appreciation lunch for the group and their families. We had a great time spending the afternoon with them, and had an extra special meal. It seems that by just being involved in the lives of others, it turns out many times you are blessed in return. Saving money was just a small part of that blessing today.
We saved by stocking up on some breakfast supplies that were on sale at the store today!
I saved by using produce from my garden to make homemade spaghetti sauce. I also received a generous bag of apples from my inlaws’ tree, which I used to make an apple crisp. It was yummy and frugal!
We had a surprise blessing that allowed us to save today. I don’t know if this counts, as it wasn’t an active way of saving, but my husband has been helping out with a church service at a retirement/nursing home for a number of years. A more recent attender decided she wanted to do something to show appreciation for those who have been involved in putting on the service, and put together the nicest lunch for the group and their families. Because of this lady’s kindness, we saved money by not making lunch today and got to enjoy a wonderful lunch with some awesome people. Oftentimes just being involved in the lives of others, you find that you are blessed in return. In this case, saving money was just a small part of that!
We started homeschooling this year with a kindergartener and a preschooler. What I really wanted for my classroom was a table we could work at easily together and of course storage. I had looked around and found some options, but the money thing was stopping me. Then one day I noticed an old glass table in our basement, along with some chairs in desperate need of being reupholstered, and a metal shelf that wasn’t really being used. Perfect! We fixed up the chairs for a minimal amount and had our classroom furniture for next to nothing! I was so happy to save the money, but also to have given new life to things we had assumed were unusable in our home!
I meal prepped all of mine and my husbands meals today for the week ahead! Doing this has incredibly reduced the amount of money we spend on eating out. Thank you for all of the budget information and tips you share–this blog has helped me in so many ways. 🙂
We harvested veggies from a friend’s garden! They had TONS of ripe cherry tomatoes, which most of my kids love, plus some other things that they didn’t want to go to waste. Not a huge savings BUT delicious, nutritious, and FREE!
I saved today buy using my rewards coupon to score free toilet paper and by using a mobile coupon to score 3 packages of toilet paper for a dollar at the dollar store. Its a small save but every penny counts to me!
One black lab and one lap dog are the equivalent weight to one tube of Flea, Tick repellant dose of a really large dog ….it’s the end of the season and I hate having lots of this sitting around, so instead of buying two separate packages, one for each dog, I just bought one for a really large dog and split it accordingly a between the two. Saved $30.00!
I need to make 3 table centerpieces for my daughter’s upcoming bridal luncheon. I went to Pier 1 and headed straight for the clearance table where I found 3 adorable black lanterns that will be a great “base” for these. Just $11 each– yippee!
Today instead of buying a bouquet of flowers as a thank you to a friend, I cut some dahlias from my garden. I live in Washington so Dahlias start blooming in july and here we are in October and they are still blooming. 4 months of bouquets for inside my home as well as being able to gift a bouquet to friends and family who happen to need a thank you or a happy birthday. It’s saved me so much money.
I really wanted coffee from the bux today. Instead I made my own and saved the coffee and the gas money!
As a homeschooling Mom, I always watch for free and educational opportunities in our area. Yesterday I attended a 3 hour photography class at our local library and learned how to take better pictures. I love to photograph seasonal nature scenes. Then I print the pictures when Walgreens has 10 cent prints. I use two sided tape to attach a photo to a plain card and then use the cards for whatever occasion I need a card for. Each card (with envelope) costs only 20 cents so I feel free to send alot more cards to encourage people. That is how I saved money today.
We are flying home tomorrow from our trip and I made sure to pack lots of snacks so we don’t have to purchase the overpriced food from the airport/airplane.
I had to bring the drinks for my daughter’s cheer squad this weekend. I got Adam & Eve Fruitables for $.99/pk with a rain check from the King Soopers mega event and coupons; $2.00 for the whole squad.
Even though we really wanted to, we did NOT go out to eat today! We scrounged around through what we already had.
I love Recipe Maker from Cuisine Magazine online. When I have randomness in my pantry I get so excited that you can enter a protein and up to 4 ingredients and poof! There’s dinner!!!
I really want to go to a scrapbooking retreat in November but it costs $100 (2-night stay at a hotel – it’s some serious scrapbooking time!!). Instead of taking the $100 from our already tight budget, I decided to sell some things around the house on my local Buy Sell Trade sites on Facebook. I buckled down and took the pictures and posted them today. So far I’m at $35 from selling a few unused toys. I’m going to enjoy this scrapbooking retreat – especially knowing it was essentially for free! And – our house is less cluttered! Woohoo!
My 8th grader told me his school uniform shorts were getting too tight in the waist. I called our Old Navy store to see if they had the size in stock that he would need, but they didn’t have any left. So, I was about to order it online and pay $14 plus tax and shipping. Then I thought maybe I can somehow make them bigger in the waist. So, I just cut off the button and moved it over about a half inch and sowed it back on so it gave him just a bit more room in the waist. He tried it on and said it was perfect!
I found a $5 giftcard in my desk today for a local movie theater…now when my out of town friend comes into town this weekend we can see a matinee of the new Nicholas Spark’s movie and I can stay within my no non-essential spending challenge. 🙂
It is my son’s 10th birthday. I was able to save in several ways. He had asked for 2 xbox controllers which cost $50 each. When I asked him what he would like to do for his party, he said a video game truck. I told him if we spent the money for the video game truck that he would not be able to get the controllers as his gift. He decided he wanted to do a sleep over with friends which cost much less. Also, I was able to find 2 controllers on sale by looking for them every time I was in a store. And, I wanted him to have a nice cake for this special birthday of moving into double digits. I figured out how to make the cake myself to look like the digits 1 and 0 for the 10. My son got to have a fun time with his friends celebrating his birthday and mom and dad got to save money!
We have been shopping around for a new dishwasher. Once we found the one we wanted at Home Depot we decided to hold off until we could do some price comparison on line. We were able to find the same appliance for $50 cheaper from Best Buy on line. Plus we get rewards points from BB that will help with Christmas shopping 🙂
I saved by doing an extra errand while already out so tomorrow i can stay home. Gas is so expensive!
Saved money by getting standard produce at Aldi instead of buying organic. Also, I didn’t buy packaged cookies, planning to bake them at home from scratch instead.
We saved today as we headed to Disney. Our 1st stop was free coffee and a pastry each at Race Trac with a coupon and it’s free coffee week there. We shared a lunch at our halfway point, under $6, knowing we had a buy one get one free at Bob Evans when we arrived here. Yay for us! Now we await for the magic to begin, wow, a gift card for the Starbucks at Disney would be such a blessing! 😉
We saved today by taking a family bike ride for fresh air and exercise. There are tons of ways to stay active without paying for a gym membership.
We ate all of our meals at home today rather than dining out! We’ve been doing that a lot recently and it saves so much money!
We ate lunch at home today instead of eating out after church.
We had a nice dinner of a baked whole chicken, covered with herbs from our garden that we harvested this morning such as thyme and sage, and stuffed with rice, cajun sausage, okra and peppers from our garden. This was very delicious and all the kids liked it. The garden is almost done, but it’s been a great frugal adventure!
Instead of grabbing dinner after a tiring day of painting we ate at home.
We saved today by resisting the temptation to grab dinner out since we were out with the kids and it was dinner time. It would have been so much faster and easier but we came home and made grilled cheese instead! Happy with our decision!
Not sure if this counts but we went to the grocery and bought a half gallon of ice cream instead of going out for ice cream. For the same price of the half gallon, we could have bought just one ice cream out. Not the same as not spending any money but we did save some for sure.
My daughter woke up with a stuffy nose and was all congested, while my husband said we should take her to urgent care – since it costs us the same a doctors visit – and is across the street from church – I used the essential oils we already have. She is feeling much better and is MUCH less congested and we didn’t have to pay for a doctors visit – Yea!!
My daughter complained about her tennis shoes, stating that they looked old and grungy. I showed her how to clean the white rubber around her shoe ( they are blue keds). I then borrowed some clean shoe laces from a pair of my shoes and voila! Her shoes looked 100% better, she no longer thinks she needs new ones, and it cost nothing.
I saved today by cutting off the end of my moisturizer. It was so close to being empty that I couldn’t squeeze anymore out, so I cut the end off so I can now dip my finger in it to get every bit out of it 🙂
I made half a pan of lasagna using left over ingredients in the fridge and pantry: pasta sauce, cottage cheese, a block of mozzarella cheese, and shredded zucchini, and half a box of no cook lasagna noodles. It turned out delicious and it was a great meat free option.
I ate leftovers from lunch for dinner, and also carpooled to a study group!
Today I saved by making homemade bread (and making an extra loaf to stick in the freezer). Thanks!
We ate all meals at home instead of eating out, which would have been so much easier!
Took lunch to work although lunch out sounded great today…
We saved today by only driving 2 hours instead of 4 to pick our daughter up from college. She got a ride from a friend and met us halfway. Saved on gas and time!
We had a lego birthday party to attend, and had not purchased anything yet, but remembered I had the perfect gift set aside. As I was at a garage sale, there was a brand new lego set with book included and for only $1.00. YEA!!! So, all in all a great gift for only $1.00!!! Brand new! That is how we saved money today!
Thanks for this post 🙂
I saved today by getting creative with the leftovers and pantry items for our dinner, rather than dip into next week’s grocery money. We also save in a big, BIG way today. Our family vehicle needed an overdue maintenance that runs over $1000 at the dealership. Thanks to my talented and handy husband, he did all the work himself. We paid less than $200 for the parts, a saving of over $800!!!
I did the same as you. Only, I wanted a hearty meal and couldn’t think of anything I had on hand that I could use, but I dug through my chest style freezer and found everything I needed for a special and satisfying meal.
My husband and I saved today by walking, instead of driving, to our local outlet mall and walking home.
I almost bought a loaf of banana bread at Bob Evans today, but I went home and pulled overripe bananas out of my freezer stash and baked two.
I went to make my kids their Saturday morning pancakes and realized I was out of Bisquick. So I found your biscuit mix recipe and realized I had all of the ingredients. So instead of having to run out and spend the full $5 on the mix I made mine for free. Very tasty too.
Today, I reused a gift bag to wrap a birthday present for a friend.
We held my sons birthday party at our house with homemade favors and games. I also started our Halloween costumes, which I will make instead of buy.
Made homemade pancakes and pizza. Used cloth diapers. Made tea and coffee at home. Stayed home. Meal planned for the week using inventory we already had at home mostly and/or where items we needed to buy for one recipe would also be used in another.
I needed a new hairdryer. Target was having some awesome deals with gift cards given back for purchasing certain items.
List in hand, off to Target. I bought eight items total $47. After coupons and gifts cards I had in my purse, total was $14.50 and I received $25 in Target Gift cards.
Went back into store and bought Hair Dryer and a reversible mop for 30¢.
A little work, a little cleaning out my purse and for $14.80 I received $72.30 in products.
We had a fun “picnic” in the family room instead of eating out.
My daughter is going to be a bridesmaid, and had found a $60 dress that the bride liked; while $60 is pretty good for a fancy dress like that, I went ahead and googled for a coupon just in case. To my happy surprise, the dress was on sale for $33 *AND* I found a $10/off coupon! Zipped right over to the store, paid $23 and daughter is all set for her friend’s wedding. Happy day!
Things are very tight right now due to my husband getting a surprise medical discharge from the military and having to move home, 800 miles away and now carrying a mortgage plus rent. I have had to become extremely frugal and find ways to make every dollar count as much as possible. I furnished my 4 bedroom rental home completely from the local consignment shop this week for less than $50.00 I repurposed a beat up dining room table and 6 chairs by sanding them and staining them myself. I made slip covers for a not so pretty but still full of use couch using sheets. I sanded and stained 2 end tables and 2 night stands. I made curtains out of sheets and I made some very pretty (even if I say so myself) lamps out of some thrift store clay pots and shades.
Instead of paying to get my nails manicured for an upcoming event I did them myself with a little manicure set that I got at Walgreens for $10. It even has a little LED light to help speed up the drying process. They turned out just like shellac nails and cost a fraction of the price. And I can use the kit again and again. 🙂
We have been saving money by using cloth diapers, I bought four shells and 12 inserts. Gets us through two days then wash. Love not having to always run out and get disposables 🙂
I have become a coffee addict. It started off with an occasional cup (always black), then after my son, a cup a day. I had my daughter, and two kids meant two cups. Then, I discovered cream. Oh, and the good coffees, not the cheap, pre-ground, can stuff! Then, I started sneaking and afternoon cup. Then, I relied on my afternoon cup…I mean, it’s so good! But, it doesn’t stop, because Starbucks is yummy! Only…wow, going from that occasional cup to three cups with extras really adds up. This last month, I have forced myself to cut back. I start with a cup of water, if that doesn’t kick it (which, you’d actually be surprised), then, I can make my own. I am back to one, sometimes two, with a very occasional Starbucks. It really has helped the budget (slowly but surely) from one drink! ****but now you offer a Starbucks reward and I want it!
My daughter-in-law and I pooled our veggies and stew meat and canned 18 quarts of homemade vegetable beef soup. It was fun and will taste great this winter.
I saved by cooking a double amount of beans for the soup and using half the amount of meat!
My husband and I made breakfast sandwiches at home instead of running through the drive-thru.
Repurposing leftovers was my best savings today
We were out of quite a few things today – second day of a three day weekend [hate shopping on weekends!]
Made do with almond milk bought for .75/qt on amazon for coffee since we were out of regular milk [I mostly use the almond milk for baking as we find it very sweet!] and saved a trip to the store.
I sliced leftover end pieces of homemade bread [stale enough to be rejected in school lunches – thus intended for croutons or breadcrumbs] thinly and toasted to go with eggs for breakfast.
There was NOTHING leftover for lunch so I used the half of a meatloaf I’d intended as kid dinner [my dh and I had a dinner date planned] and saved a trip to the deli [which I’ll have to do tomorrow for school lunches but hey, it’s a small savings]
Refused to order pizza for the kids’ dinner as they suggested and instead made them pasta with sauce from our homegrown tomatoes before heading out with my hubby – saving the takeout money for another, far more desperate, day LOL
Our dessert was my home canned applesauce. Healthy, delicious, and only one ingredient!
We made a delicious pasta and chicken supper with what we had in hand and froze the leftovers to be lunches for my husband. We also stopped to get gas as we drove past a gas station that has much cheaper gas.
For dinner tonight, we ate leftovers that were frozen from a previous meal we ate several weeks ago.
I was about to buy a bunch of not-so-fresh looking basil at the store for a pizza I plan to make tomorrow night. Then I remembered that my parents keep an herb and veggie garden and that I was running by my mom’s house this evening anyway. I called her, and she did in fact have basil that I could clip. Saved $2.19!
I went grocery shopping today and was planning on buying multiple cans of black beans and pinto beans. But, I remembered that my husband recently bought a few bags of bulk beans that he found very cheap at a local farmer’s market. So, I decided to cook both kinds of beans in our slow cooker and then freeze them for future use. It took a little more effort, but my pocketbook is happy. 🙂
A community garden in our neighborhood is starting to get covered with hay.
I went over to see if there were any veggies left… green beans had just been covered with hay yesterday, so I pulled the hay back and picked enough for a pot full of green beans for dinner!
Urban foraging 🙂
My son wanted to go out for pizza and I told him we need to eat at home.
We saved today with new pants for the kids… Headed to goodwill first and scored 5 pairs of jeans/pants for $15.:-)
We usually end up ordering pizza for the kids when we have a babysitter but today I made english muffin pizzas with homemade english muffins and homemade pizza sauce. It was way cheaper than ordering a pizza and the kids loved them because they were able to help make them! =)
What recipe do you have for English muffins? I have always wanted to try and make my own.
I used a calculator today while I was grocery shopping. Helped to stay under the budget but we didn’t have to rush through it too.
We had to attend a baby shower for a friend today. Instead of buying the gift at the last minute, we bought the gift (a bouncer) when there was a sale on toys few weeks ago. I’m sure we saved more than $10 by doing it. I’m so proud of myself 🙂
We were invited to a wedding this weekend. We usually spend about $30 for a wedding gift. I bought two items off their registry that are usually priced at $30 and $20, but were on sale for $20 and $12. Then I had a store coupon (Kohls) for 20% off the transaction. So we were able to give them two nice gifts valued at $50 for just about half of that.
The way I saved today was by staying home and cleaning my house. I didnt go anywhere and spend any money. Thanks
I requested cookbooks from my library (online) instead of buying them!
We saved today by listening to a football game on the radio rather than going to watch it at Pizza Hut or BWW.
I shopped online today. I bought three Christmas gifts for my nieces. Saved 70% plus used a one time promo code for additional $6.25 off. I feel so excited to have got three bags for the price of one! It certainly is more blessed to give!
I love chai latte mix, especially now with the Wisconsin temperatures dipping down below 30 at night. So it went on my grocery list. I was absolutely appalled to discover, however, that the only mix I could find locally was in a tiny 10-ounce can (only about 12 servings) and cost $5.00!
I decided to find a recipe online and make my own mix. After purchasing the ingredients I didn’t already have in my spice cabinet or pantry, I spent around $16.00. My first batch of the mix was about triple the amount of the 10-ounce can at the store, so already I had pretty much broken even! Today I mixed up my second batch, and I should have enough of all my ingredients for at least one more! Instead of paying $15 for three tiny cans, I paid just a tad bit more and will get triple the amount!
(Did I mention that it tastes delicious?) 🙂
I made soup for dinner with odds and ends that normally would of ended up in the compost pile, And it was delicious! It felt like a free dinner!
Cleaned out everyone’s closets and decided to donate or sell all the items we didn’t need. Ended up with 4 trash bags of clothes! Felt so good about getting organized that I decided it’s time to tackle the playroom next 😉
I saved today by staying home.
My husband is the pastor at a church and it’s often a long and busy morning for me to get our infant, two young kids and myself to church, along with staying for both services, serving and tearing down. I rarely have a lunch plan when we leave at 12:30 and in some ways it would be easier to stop and get lunch on the way home. But today – and several others – we just hurried home and made a quick batch of eggs, bacon and homemade pancakes. It wasn’t that much more time consuming and it saved money and saved me from a restaurant experience with 3 tired kiddos at naptime!
Cvs had 12 pks of coke on sale for 3 for $9.00. (Yes, I know water is cheaper but it’s our weakness.) I had a $5.00 off of $15 cvs coupon sent to my card last week that I had forgotten about until I scanned my card at cvs. Needed toilet paper which was on sale 12 rolls of Scott for 6.99. Plus had 0.75 coupon on the tp. Had $4.00 in extra bucks from last visit. Out of pocket with tax 7.24. Then I had $5.00 in extra bucks print for purchasing $15 in coke products. (I had added it last week to my extra savings page.) the cokes rang up 5.99 each with a special purchase deduction, giving me the $15 coke purchase. So 3 12 pks of cokes and 12 rolls of Scott toilet paper for 2.24!!!!!!! Amazing!
We’re eating out of the pantry and fridge again today! Nice chilly overcast Autumn day at home with grilled cheese, homemade chicken soup, and steamed veggies. Yum!
I saved today by getting my husband 10 deodorants for free! With my coupons!
I saved money today by feeding 18 members of my extended family your hamburger vegetable soup. We all stayed in had dinner together at home instead of going out to dinner. Yummy!! Everyone loved it!
Free carbonated drinks and donuts! Praise God for the gas station receipts that allow me to leave comments in exchange for free drinks, donuts, or coffee. The gas station near our house is Race Trac. On the bottom of each receipt is a website you can go to which allows you to take a quick survey. When you are done, they will give you a redemption code for a free item. I usually save the receipts and take the girls out for fun sodas or I will take a dozen donuts to the kid’s games, etc… Today we were running late and needed a quick breakfast and drink, so we cashed some in. It was quite a splurge for a Sunday morning, but well worth it 🙂
Happy saving!
Made homemade donuts.
Tonight my husband and I made burritos to put in the freezer for him to take for a quick lunch. Our church gets meat donated from Chipoltle and we used that meat to stuff the burritos, making them an even better value!
Well, I can’t say that I saved anything out of the ordinary today since it was spent at church and eating at home, but I have saved this week. Years ago, my daughter and I planted seeds in cups to start a perennial garden in our front yard. They have grown so big, I was able to split them and plant all around three sides of our home. We have shasta daisies, black-eyed susans, stella dora day lillies, cala lillies, hostas, salvia, and irises – all for free! Can’t wait til next spring!
I saved today by repurposing some hand me down clothes to create new outfits for the girls.
My husband patched some spots on our roof himself and we made up some bug treatment paste instead of calling an exterminator.
Today I saved by making muffins for breakfast instead of going out and buying donuts!
I saved today by making my own Italian Seasoning from single herbs, rather than driving to the store and buying some.
Speaking of Starbucks… I love their cinnamon dolce lattes, but I don’t love the price. I am a big cinnamon fan and have been craving cinnamon dolce lattes lately, but just haven’t gone to get one. I ran out of coffee creamer the other day so I looked on Pinterest for a homemade cinnamon coffee creamer to help take away my craving for Starbucks. I made the creamer tonight and it was soooo good! It was cheap, easy, and made with ingredients that most people would have on hand anyways.
I made my own iced coffee this morning and took it with me in the car to enjoy. . . and then my husband and I made do with snacky dinner at home instead of eating out like we wanted to.
I saved today by using a homemade throwaway tray for brownies instead of buying an aluminum one at the store. I cut up a sturdy cardboard box, covered it with aluminum foil, placed the brownies on it, and covered it with plastic wrap. So easy, and I didn’t have to worry about bringing my “dish” home, or going to the store to buy one in the first place. It actually looked like I had purchase some amazing homemade specialty brownies!
After church, instead of going out to breakfast, we at Pillsbury cinnamon rolls that I got for under a dollar earlier this week.
I accepted some free potatoes today! I’m loving this new series. 🙂 It’s fun to read through all the money saving tips!
We really wanted to go out to eat tonight after getting in from a weekend away. However, We went home and had “forage in the fridge” night for dinner. I made one chicken quesadilla out of grilled chic leftovers for one person’s meal and boiled egg noodles and added it to homemade chic broth from the fridge for the rest of us. Add sliced fruit that needed to be eaten TONIGHT and I felt so good using up leftovers that were probably going to be thrown away anyway. Plus it was way healthier than what we were going to eat at a restaurant!
Pulled out a freezer meal instead of driving through somewhere after church.
One way I saved today is by using meat we already had at home for this week’s menu. While looking at meats to buy, I realized if I just used what I already had at home we wouldn’t need to buy meat today.
Another way I saved is by stocking up on parrot food during a special coupon sale that saved me an additional $5 from what parrot food normally costs : )
We went to a local festival today. I planned ahead and pre purchased our tickets at a discount!
Part 2: I mixed the egg whites with the four whole eggs we had left to make the scramble eggs. I had just enough shredded cheese to add to it as well. Had enough to feed our family of six.
I listed some old kids’ costumes on ebay and three of them sold right away. (I only paid a few bucks for them at garage sales and they sold for $12-$15 each on ebay.) Yahoo!
Today I was running low on eggs. I have been keeping my egg whites when I separate the whites from the yolks (I can’t eat the whites). Then at supper we had eggs and hashbrowns and I I used the whole eggs that we had left to make scramble eggs for our breakfast supper.
Bought a used chair off Craigslist! The chair in our living room had kind of, um, collapsed. 😉 We got a great deal on a used chair.
We also bought honey in bulk from my husband’s coworker who keeps bees. (We use it a lot for baking.)
Oh, and my husband just about finished our new chicken coop, which we built almost completely from salvaged materials. (And it looks great!) We call the project “Henvironmentalism.” And having the chickens will save us a lot on the pastured eggs we prefer to buy!
I sewed a vintage scarf from my closet on the front of a weary accent pillow on our couch which gave the pillow new life, instead of buying a new one & the couch a pop of color.
Instead of going to breakfast, we had blueberry muffins for about 0.55 each.
We had a wedding to go to yesterday and I didn’t have it wrapped yet. I was able to use boxes I keep from other gifts, wrapping paper we already had on-hand (bought on clearance), and ribbon from 10 years ago that I bought in bulk when I worked at Jo-Ann Fabrics! Sometimes it pays to be a “hoarder” (not really, but I have a nice stock pile of some things). I would have paid over $5 in Target for a bow and paper or a gift bag and tissue. There’s my latte:)
We came home and ate sandwiches after church instead of going out today.
Very simply by not eating out and cooking at home.
Today I saved by making my own meatballs instead of buying store-bought.
Last night for dinner we had a “clean out the fridge” night. We ate down our leftovers and didn’t turn on the oven!
Went to a local farm to see animals instead of paying for the zoo!
We went to a picnic after church today for people who are new to the church. I packed a picnic lunch of chicken tacos from leftovers in the fridge, instead of buying fast food on the way to the picnic.
I save two similar ways today! First, we were out of bread so instead of buying a loaf for $2.50 (sale price!) I whipped up a loaf of no-one bread for pennies that we used for toast and for grilled cheese today. My husband said he liked better than even fancy La Brea bread. Then I made an Apple crisp but we were also out of vanilla ice cream so I made my first batch of vanilla ice milk. Healthier, cheaper, and still yummy.
My husband and I celebrated our 27th anniversary yesterday. He wanted to go out for a pasta dinner because he was also competing in a weight lifting meet in the morning. I told him that I did not want to pay $15 each for a plate of spaghetti and meatballs. I bought about $6 worth of ground beef and made my own spaghetti and meatballs. We fed 5 of us and have leftover meatballs to put in the freezer for another meal.
Today I had a lunch meeting at a Mexican restaurant. I ordered off the lunch menu, instead of dinner menu and saved a few bucks. And I ate a lot of free chips and salsa and only ate half my lunch. I saved money on lunch and had a free dinner of leftovers!
I saved money by not taking my kids to the grocery store with me today! My parents were in town and took them off with them so i could shop and focus and find my coupons I needed. 🙂
My husband was about to run out and butY a new baby monitor, but I was able to fix the one we had by googling the problem! Yay
I’m taking a meal to a family tomorrow with 9 kids, and made everything from scratch to save as I needed a large volume of food, including a couple loaves of rosemary bread that’s supposed to be a recipe mimicking Macaroni Grill’s rosemary bread.
Our church had a Family Fun Day today, so we got to play group games with church friends and have a lot of free fun 🙂
To treat my sons diaper rash, (exacerbated by the non-wicking nature of the lovely cloth diapers we are using) I cut up an old fleece blanket to make wicking liners to protect his sweet little bum from the wet and protect the diapers from the cream. This saved me from throwing in the towel and reverting back to disposables, which would waste our investment and cost more money in the long run. His bum is less red and he is happier already!
I save the kids’ off season clothes in Rubbermaid tubs, labeled by clothing size. As I shop clearance sales, I toss the next year’s stuff in the tubs too. I was able to pull out pj’s and sweatshirts from last year, as well as brand new pairs of shoes (bought on previous clearance) shoes for both kids from the tubs!
We had a church hayride today, and I usually take a made from scratch dessert…this time, I made two boxed mixes of various things that we had been given from someone in the past, even though it goes against my way of doing things. I also ended up using less cream cheese in my cheesy corn recipe than it called for, even though I had it on hand, as our grocery budget for our family of 11 has been tight for a long while now (and our previous budget was $100 weekly!), so I figured an extra cream cheese for the children’s breakfast bagels would be helpful (we get free day old bagels from a local store). When we got home, I had leftover muffins and coffee cake from the mixes, so I put them together into the coffee cake pan, and covered them both with the plastic wrap from the muffins, instead of covering both with new plastic wrap. I also got a gallon of raw milk for $1 through a friend at church who lives across from a farmer. None of these were major things, but every little bit adds up!
I had my 10 year High School reunion family night but it was very soon after the homecoming parade my daughter was in. By the time we got home I only had about 30 minutes to take something to the potluck style supper. So I thought of just buying a fruit plate but instead I cut up a bag of apples, kiwi, and a few last grapes I had on hand! Wasn’t the prettiest fruit plate but it worked and saved us money :). Yay!
Save gift tissue paper and gift bags and reuse for gift that I give
I made two foaming soaps for our bathrooms.
We made a day of fun in our own neighborhood instead of paying for an outing. We went on a bike ride, had a special lunch on the porch, then spent the evening by the pool. Didn’t spend a dime!
There are a couple of things that I need from the store but decided to wait and make 1 trip later in the week
We did not go to Starbucks even though it was right next to our destination. Instead we made our coffee at home!
Insead of using my dryer today, I hung up all the laundry from two different wash loads on drying racks and hangers. Every little penny saved helps with lowering our electric bill for the month!
I saved today by using the left over pot roast and turning it into a bolognese sauce. I served it over a box of ziti that I got for free! May not have been traditional, but it sure was good!!!! I also saved some of the roast and made a stew with the extra veggies and broth left over!!! Three meals for the price of one! That’s what I have learned from having six kids!
I quit smoking!!!
We didn’t go out to lunch after church and instead made a pot of chili – most of the groceries we already had on hand!
We played board games as a family!
I used a coupon that my doctor’s office had given me for an expensive prescription!
Instead of spending the $1100 that the mechanic wanted to fix our car, my husband researched how to do it on the internet and bought the part and did it himself today. He deserves some coffee for that:)
Every Sunday while waiting my kids at Awana club at our church, I treat myself some simple lunch, which normally cost me $10 including tax. But today, i decided to skip my lunch and instead using the money to buy some frozen mixed vegetable from out local dollar stores. I am going to makes a lot of food out from 10 packs of frozen veggies!
I made a refill of laundry soap for our family today instead of buying some.
Today I used two awesome coupons to Carson’s that I’ve been saving for the perfect sale! (Aka Elder Beerman, Bonton, etc…a department store). They sent out a coupon for $35 off of $35 for shoes and $15 off of $15 for cosmetics. I purchased my favorite Clinique eyeliner, normally $16, paid $1.68! I also got a pair of Morena riding boots, originally $99.99, marked down to $39.98, with my $35 off coupon, I paid just over $5 for a $100 pair of leather boots!! Total I spent just over $6 for $116 worth of stuff!!
What a deal! Just think of what the cost per wear will be on those boots! Enjoy wearing them.
Wow I have a similar story to you 🙂 today we were watching the Bears game and instead of going out to purchase snacks to bring I managed to scavenge through the cabinets to create a side to bring. I was very tempted to just buy something because I didn’t feel like cooking but persevered and saved a few dollars 🙂
Today I traveled from TN to GA. My husband was sick and I had to do all the driving. First, we ate lunch at my in-laws before hitting the road. Second, I was able to save by filling up at a station for 2.89/ gallon! Woohoo! It is around 3.15/gallon at home. Then I traveled a good bit of the way on cruise control which is an eco feature for my car. Last but not least I used a coupon for dinner. So even on the road I saved $$.
I made a new valance for our bedroom window out of some free fabric I received a while back. We have also covered a chair seat and ottoman with this fabric.
I also made 7 pans of enchiladas (6 for the freezer, one for tomorrow night), so on “those” days, I can pull out dinner instead of takeout or go out!
You have inspired me to start writing down my own “how I saved today” things to remind me that it isn’t a giant leap, it’s the baby steps that make a habit.
Before grocery shopping today, I went through the fridge to see what I had leftover and made a menu plan based on using these things up early in the week. A couple of nice zucchini a will make a great zucchini “pasta” and the last bit of salad dressing went on still-fresh kale for a healthy side for hubby at lunch this week.
It’s so fun to read how everyone saves! As part of cleaning up/out the garage I wanted to build a small wooden bike rack to keep everyone’s bikes and scooters and such organized. Rather than a trip to the hardware store I scrounged around and found enough scraps to build it for free! I saved the cost of wood and kept from wasting lumber.
In thinking about the upcoming holidays, my hubby and I were visiting about what we want to do for our 3 children. We have a goal of giving them each 3 gifts just like Jesus received from the wise men. So, this year we decided to make one of the gifts. I already have the yarn and have decided to make each of my children a blanket. This will save a lot in our Christmas budget! 😉
After church w went to a fellowship luncheon and I made dessert instead of buying one….skipped fancy coffees for our own homemade ones!
I wanted to buy the Sleeping Beauty DVD for my daughters that came out today, so I went to check Amazon and it was only free delivery with a $35 purchase – so while I was looking around on Amazon for items to add to my cart for free shipping I, on a whim, checked Target who had a better offer, I could use my red card to save an extra 5%, and was offering in store pick up today! So no waiting and I got a great deal!
I made a double batch of tonight’s dinner – spaghetti, marinara, mixed steamed veggies, and garlic bread. I portioned the extra food into single serving “tv dinners.” Our household has adults and older teens with crazy schedules, so we aren’t always able to sit down together for dinner. It’s an easy 4-5 minute microwave prep (while the garlic bread slices are in the toaster oven) for an easy, homemade meal — and so much cheaper than a frozen dinner from the store! A bonus: after double-batching multiple meals, there are a variety of things to choose from in the freezer 🙂
We ran out of certain clean clothes on our trip and I hand washed them in our hotel room instead of going to laundromat. My husband walked to convenience store and bought a two liter drink which we drank in free cups in our room and ice from hotel instead of buying drinks in vending machine. More money for educational
sightseeing! Saved about $9
We used leftover building materials from one of my husband’s carpentry jobs to finish one of the bathroom walls in our house. Slow but steady progress!
We saved today by eating at home instead of going to get cheeseburgers like we really really wanted.
I saved today by hanging clothes out on the line instead of the dryer and by eating leftovers rather than making something new and letting them spoil.
I bought two, huge, discounted bunches of slightly brown bananas. I slice them up and freeze them in a large Zip-loc. The frozen bananas make my morning smoothies very frothy and sweet.
Today I saved money by getting a free dryer from a friend instead of buying a new one. I also got a free pizza for dinner using a coupon!
I saved today by using washi tape to upcycle some fake pumpkins I had thought lost to the destroying properties of a 3-year-old boy! I also used the magic cleaning power of hydrogen peroxide + Dawn + baking soda to get a nasty shower curtain liner looking like new. It was so satisfying to scratch out ‘Shower curtain liner’ on my wish-list!!
I saved this week by doing a “Christmas on $25 a week” Challenge. This is my third week and the challenge to not spend more than $25 a week on Christmas gifts has helped me stay on budget and will also help me to not overspend this year on Christmas gifts.
Even though I haven’t felt well for almost 2 weeks (almost to the point of needing to be hospitalized) I made myself go grocery shopping yesterday. Bought some frozen stuff that my hubby or I can just throw in the oven. I know its more expensive than cooking from scratch but I can’t stand longer than about 5 minutes at a time right now and after my hubby works 12-14 hr days he doesn’t feel like standing making stuff by scratch either. So I figured that $2-$3 (con agra products on sale) for a meal that will feed both of us, sometimes with leftovers, is saving us money over going through a drive through, ordering pizza or going out to dinner. Plus the ones I got are fairly healthy including veggies in them.
My recent savings was while I was grocery shopping last week I came across a yummy meal at home. I bought P.F. Chang’s meal and two appetizers at Target. The meal was $5.99 and both appetizers were $3.19 each, total was $12.37; however after using the target red card ($0.61), cartwheel ($0.54), target coupon ($2.00), ibotta ($2.50) and Snap by Groupon ($3.00). I got this complete meal for $3.72 and it fed my family of three. It was something new to us and we didn’t have to go to a Chinese restaurant and we saved about $12.
I love savings!!
Today, my husband and I cooked our lunches for the week to take to work. It’s much cheaper than always running to buy something out.
I made your peanut butter apple dip for a get together this morning. Inexpensive and delish! It was gone pretty quickly 🙂
I made a meal plan, grocery list and clipped corresponding coupons, all while caring for my young ones who were sick. Feeling accomplished ! 🙂
I made soup with leftover taco meat, frozen vegetables and tomato sauce. Then I made a weekly menu using pantry food. My grocery bill will be very low this week.
Turned hubby’s indulgence in a not-on-sale ham into a few nights’ meals by using the soup bone and my bulk-purchase navy beans to make a hearty but cheap soup. Along with bulk-purchased cornmeal for cornbread, a great frugal dinner balances out his splurge!
Today was just a small savings day, but my husband and my two kids were helping my in-laws with harvest, so I have a day at home to catch up on the little things 🙂
So, for me, this little Sunday retreat from the everyday feels like a spa day (but no money spent!), since I’m enjoying some solitude and my favorite TV show in excess.
But, I’m also working hard on laundry and tidying around the house. I’m saving us a bit by hanging a few loads inside to dry (forecast of rain means no clothes line!).
Just a small thing, but I made up a batch of pancakes and some pumpkin bread so that we can have easy breakfasts this week instead of buying things on our way.
I needed to just zone for a bit…And earned my first swagbucks gift card in the process!
I made my own breakfast sausage using ground turkey from the freezer. It’s super tasty and better for you without all of the additives in most store bought sausage. This gives me twice the amount of sausage for meals as opposed to 6-8 in a store bought package. I saved money, time and my health! 🙂
This sounds silly, but I like to wear black athletic socks to the gym. I have a hard time finding them in the morning and I was convinced I was down to only a couple pairs. For weeks I’ve had it in the back of my mind that I needed to buy more.
Today as my son was napping, I was seized by the urge to clean out my sock drawer. It took less than 10 minutes. I threw out a bunch of old mismatched socks and matched up the rest. I discovered that I had more than enough socks. I’d even forgotten about a multi-pack of really nice Nike moisture-wicking socks that my husband gave me for Christmas. I definitely do not need to buy more!
We all ate leftovers after church 🙂
I realized I had run out of conditioner after I was in the shower, so I wrestled the lid off and filled the bottle with water. I think I have enough for the next week or so now 🙂
I went through all of our old costumes today and listed them on Ebay. Not sure what I will make, but we are no longer using them! We also went through my closet and found a long black jacket that I have not worn in years, we are in the process of converting it into my son’s Halloween costume! After all this I should have at least $100 saved!!! Yahoo. Every bit counts!
I worked out with an online exercise program at no charge. I cooked some chicken thighs that I’ve had in the freezer for a while and some squash that needed to be used. I will have leftovers from these for lunches for most of the week, and I don’t mind having the same thing more than once. I did not go to see the movie I’ve been waiting for, but read a library book instead. I will go on Tuesday when I can see a matinee after work for a lower price. A frugal day!
Also, you reminded me of a saying that my grandmother said she heard and said a lot during World War II: Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without!
I baked blueberry muffins for quick breakfasts on the run for this coming week instead of stopping at the bakery and added lemon juice to vinegar instead of buying buttermilk to make them.
Made my own chai tea with non fat milk & a tiny amount of sugar and saved money and calories too.
Took back some bargain clothes that I bought at Macys that I still liked, but had not worn in almost 1 year – still had tags on them & I had the receipts and all together got back almost 50.00. This may not seem like I saved, but I think I did as I recognized that even if something was a bargain, if it’s not being used or worn those small amounts add up.
I saved today by shopping at Aldi for groceries and then making snacks and putting them in bags so the kids can have something easy for snack time and lunches at school rather than the more expensive prepackaged snacks (they’re probably a little healthier too).
I saved today by bringing a frugal gift to a birthday party that I had bought on clearance earlier in the year. I also drove our more fuel-efficient car around while driving my son to the party and doing errands.
We took advantage of the rainy weather to oven-fry 5lbs sliced potatoes for the week. We’ll be less tempted to pull those slightly-more-expensive french fries out of the freezer if we find ourselves rushing to make dinner! Got the potatoes for a great price at Kroger last week — 10bs for $2.99!
Today, I repaired a small hole in the lining of our freezer with $4 marine epoxy and a piece of plastic cut from an empty Clorox bottle.
Also froze a bunch of veggies that were gifted to us. 🙂
I am an empty-nester for the first time (both our boys are away at college) and am having a tough time with the transition. I could not bring myself to be very productive this weekend, so since I knew I wouldn’t accomplish much and wanted to be distracted, I went through a bunch of the coupons that had been accumulating and used a bunch of them on things that I needed anyway. I also loaded up on holiday gift cards since Kroger is running their 4X the points deal on their cards.
I didn’t serve a meal for my daughter’s birthday party yesterday. We just had cake and air popped popcorn, and chips and salsa I got on sale at the local grocery store. We had fun and good fairly healthy snacks!
I didn’t plan for the church potluck today either. But I ended up having lots of salad items in the frig including boiled eggs. It was only one of the few veggies which was great!
We fought the urge to go to the movies and stopped at Redbox instead 🙂
I’ve made my own coffee all month! Going out for a latte would be a treat!
This might sound funny, but we needed a new toilet and it wasn’t in the budget thanks to shoulder surgery for me 2 years in a row, so I saved up Swagbucks and Perktv codes for Home Depot until we had enough to get a dual flush toilet! Now it only takes 1 flush and the plunger has been retired!
I got 40 feature films for family off a local buy and sell for $20. We don’t have cable so I was excited to have some quality tv programs for my family for the winter months:)
I was tired and wanted to order out but we couldn’t figure out what we wanted. I looked in fridge n saw a piece of chicken I had made the day before, corn tortillas and cheese. So I whipped up chicken enchiladas n made some spanish rice. It took all of 20 minutes since chicken was already cooked. I too learned that there is always something to whip up if you look hard enough. My grandpa always said, “when you are hungry, everything is good.”
We are saving today by blanching and freezing two boxes of potatoes that we realized are quickly going soft. It’s a lot of work but so much better than throwing them out if we don’t eat them soon!
I saved today by sticking to my list at the grocery store. Even though I was hungry and normally would have grabbed a snack, I waited and ate at home.
My friends and I set up a quarterly kids clothing and toy swaps to share what we already have. It is especially great for trading kids books and dvds. And it is a great excuse to have a girl’s night.
For a Friday night date, my husband and I scurried over to Trader Joe’s for a loaf of yummy bread, a wedge of fancy cheese (anything other than a block of cheddar qualifies as “fancy” for us :), some fruit, and chocolate. We also rented a Redbox movie.
It still felt like a special treat but was much cheaper than going to a restaurant and movie theatre.
Today I made my own coffee at home before church, even though I would have much rather just stopped at Starbucks on the way to church! 🙂
Today my daughter wore hand me down leggings to church and I’m wearing a borrowed maternity sweater. Both are super cute so it sure doesn’t feel like a sacrifice at all 🙂 And we are so grateful for friends and family that share!
My cousin took my kids Christmas pictures for free since shes still learning..but they are awesome pics! And I went to zazzle.com and used a coupon code and got christmas photo cards for .50 each!
My daughter decided she wanted to be a bumblebee for Halloween and showed me the costume she wanted – it was $30! So I went through her closet and found black leggings and a top and long black socks. Paired them with some wings from a fairy costume we had and sewed black and yellow striped gloves, and she’s a bumblebee! Saved us $30!
My husband was commenting on how our little dog Zephyr needed a dog bed. We don’t really have the money as Zephyr was recently diagnosed with kidney failure and the vet bills were over $500, which were unplanned for. I have no sewing skills, but managed to find a youtube video that helped me construct an awesome bed using 2 pieces of fleece, cutting fringe, tying the fringe and stuffing it with the insides of some old pillows that were ready to be tossed. Zephyr loves it and even my perfectionist husband was amazed! Total cost: zero!
My father used to say “use what you got” so for our Frozen themed birthday party, my daughters made a castle entrance using blueprint tubes that I took home from work, laundry soap buckets, paint obtained for free as hardware store samples plus some paint obtained from a school that gave us half used finger paint supplies, and some paper cones for the top. I only purchased $3 worth of silver glitter and it looks pretty good.
Instead of shopping at HyVee- I hit up Aldi instead for canned food and saved a bunch of money on grocery shopping this week!!
We have started eating meat with dinner only twice per week. My children have learned to love beans, lentils, eggs and cheese. I am still working on veggies though. Hoping to make a veggie lover yet!
I did not realize I was out of pasta sauce so I made do by throwing olive oil, cottage cheese, mozzarella and a little balsamic on my rotini. My kiddos actually like it, oh and some pasta seasoning mix from penzeys.
I saved today in two ways, both involving food, and the first way was similar to yours! We have new neighbors who moved in a couple of weeks ago. I have been wanting to bake them something and go over and introduce myself, but I wanted to give them some time to settle in. At the last minute, I decided today would be the day. But instead of buying ingredients at the grocery store, I realized that I had some bananas that were getting pretty ripe, so using those in a baking dish would save me both from buying new ingredients and wasting food. So I made a loaf of banana chocolate chip bread using ingredients that I already had on hand, and my son and I delivered it this afternoon! The other way I saved was by making pasta for dinner tonight instead of our usual steak that we have on Sundays. (My father was visiting last week and we had more costly meals than we normally would during the week, so I thought it would be okay to substitute a meal that we would have typically had during the week rather than our typical Sunday dinner.)
Instead of picking up fast food after church, I used up some milk that was expiriing today to make some pancakes for a simple lunch.
I saved today by painting my mudroom myself. That room has not been painted since we moved in our house 10+ years ago. I had been putting it off until we could afford to hire someone because both my husband and I are terrible painters. It needed to be done and we still didn’t have the money to hire someone so I decided to face my fear and just do it. I took me several hours to paint a small room but it is done and it looks good. There are a few streaks on the ceiling (even using tape to edge) and a few runs on the walls but I am happy with the end result. I may not be the best painter but I am good enough and more importantly I gained enough courage that I will tackle other painting projects in the future. I would say that I saved around 150 dollars by painting the room myself today but in the end I will have saved even more because I will no longer pay someone to paint for me.
My job requires that I go to different offices every day. I bring PB&J sandwiches with me so I don’t have to buy my lunch. I make the sandwiches all at once and then freeze them. In the morning, all I have to do is take one out of the freezer and throw it in my lunch bag with a drink and whatever else
I want.
When I do go out for a meal, I always ask for water.
we used the saving start to save $20.00 on our grocery. 🙂
We sanded our unfinished bedroom floor (with a handheld electric sander instead of renting one) and varnished the floor. It was a big undertaking, but it saved us so much money without having to hire out. It turned out fantastic–I was a little worried since we had not attempted this type of DIY project before.
My family ate leftovers today for lunch instead of grabbing something while we were out. I hate wasting food.
My beaters to my mixer disappeared in a move. I was able to find the same beaters on Amazon, and I purchased them with a gift card earned from Swagbucks.
Leftovers!
Today, I saved by making a blended iced coffee drink rather than going to a coffee shop to buy one. As an added bonus, mine was considerably more healthy.
I saved today by using free cycle… got two great 4 shelf plastic storage units for our family for $0. Someone else in our area no longer needed them and didn’t want them in the garbage( really nice and even clean :))
This will help our family try to better organize our storage area… last week I gave 2 bags of clothes that our kids had outgrown to a free cycle family.
My daughter and I mixed up several bags of meatloaf mix and breakfast sausage from some ground turkey we had in the freezer to keep on hand for future meals. We also challenged ourselves to make almost every meal at home for the next two weeks. So far we have eaten much better than we normally do. We feel treated instead of deprived we’ve been pleased to discover.
I saved money two ways – first, I used some Swagbuck Amazon GCs to purchase my 2 year old some Christmas gifts when I saw a superlow price on a few items I had wanted for her then, while straightening up my desk/work center/mess station, I filed and organized my coupon inserts so that I will be able to make a list and actually be able to find the coupons I need. Woo-Hoo !
This week my family and I ate at home, even on our very busy days and I did not feel like cooking(but I did). It saved us about$80.00. I have been using what we have in our pantry and freezer to make our meals as I stocked up on the case lot sales and meat sales. Instead of walking the mall today, I read a book and took a small nap.
When my key fob remote for my car door locks stopped working a few months back, I picked up a new battery and swapped it out. Even with the new battery, the remote didn’t work. I asked a couple friends for suggestions and everyone concluded that the remote must just have gotten old and worn out. I couldn’t bear the price tag for a new one, so have been manually locking and unlocking my car doors the last few months (poor me ;). Today, I finally took the time to do some research online and found an reference that made me think I might have to reprogram the remote after changing the battery. I dug out my instructions and sure enough, that did it! I now have the luxury locking and unlocking my car with the key fob again, without the hefty price tag of buying a new one!!!
Saved all my diaper points from Pampers (generic diapers didn’t work for us) to buy my son his first birthday gift – a Little Tikes Cozy Coupe. Didn’t even have to pay for shipping!
I didn’t have the extra money in my budget to use my Gymbucks, so I sold them to someone who could use them. I didn’t go over my budget and was able to get a little cash instead. Win-win!
I bought only what I needed at the grocery store…sale items and store brands when possible…checked unit sizes for best price…bags of produce that weigh a pound more than the label says at the same price…then had coupon for $20 off of $100 from a mailer. In the end, I did quite well!
I am on an organizing frenzy and used shoe boxes to sort things for my cabinets rather than go buy new organizing containers!
It is Thansgiving weekend here. I bought a Grade B turkey using a 10.00 off coupon. I toasted old buns to use for stuffing. I went to a u-pick and dug onions, potatoes and carrots. Someone was giving away parsley from their garden so I got some of that. For the stuffing, I used chicken stock I froze after making stock from a chicken we had last month. I bought a bag of whole cranberries for $.99 and made my own cranberry sauce. Of course the turkey carcass will be used to make stock which will be frozen. I have a tiny freezer, so once every two weeks I make a meal using frozen ingredients, to make room for more.
This may seem small but it is big to me. We belong to a CSA and pick up local organic veggies twice a month. Often times they are veggies that are new to us or that we have not had many times. It is often a challenge for me to find unique ways to use them up without having to go out and buy tons of other things. Well, today we had leeks and potatoes to use up so searched for a recipe on pinterest and made a super tasty dinner. Yay for using up what we have!
Movie night at home with the kids, plus some homemade popcorn as a snack – sure beats the prices of the theaters these days!
My husband and I had a free date night by watching a (free) movie on amazon prime. We no longer subscribe to cable or satellite!
We went on a road trip and brought lots of snacks, lunch, etc from home so we wouldn’t have to buy them on the road!
Rather than take my daughter and her friend out for a treat, I helped them make individual apple crisps in little ramekins. They learned some cooking skills, I saved money and we all had a blast!
I saved today by hanging up all my clothes to air dry. It was a pain to hang them up but they last longer this way!
I returned my library books on time!
So this is probably just a little way, but we were having a family fish fry, (with free fish my dad caught) and I was going to pick up some Apple Cider, which had been sounding so good with the cold weather we are having in Indiana. I really had my heart set on some and it was on sale this week for 2.99. Well when I got to the store I had apparently misread the ad, because it was for only a half gallon, not a whole one. $6 for one gallon was not in my budget since I needed to buy 2. (Which was only a $6 difference but I’ve been sticking to my Dave Ramsey envelope system and just couldn’t do it.) So I decided to “make due” and just make a couple pitchers of sweet tea with lipton bags I had at home already, and truthfully everyone liked it and we had a wonderful time. No missed the cider but me lol.
Instead of making a half portion of lasagna (to feed hubby and I) I made a large tray and divided half into lunch size portions and froze. Enough for lunch for the next week!
Shopping at Target…combined sales, coupons and cartwheel to get Chicken Noodle soup for 44 cents a can and pasta noodles for 66 cents a box. I’m having a baby in a couple weeks so convenience foods are a must for when the baby comes!
I did spend some money, but I saved by purchasing three layering tanks for myself at Old Navy for $1.49 each. Can’t beat $4.78 (tax included) for three tanks.
I drove to my parents’ house for a weekend. I saw gas for $0.20 less per gallon than back home, so I made a special pit-stop to refuel to save a couple bucks.
Lastly, I brought snacks from home in my daughter’s lunchbox so we didn’t need to purchase any this weekend. It’s a 3+ hour drive and Grammy doesn’t always have the healthiest snack options. 😉
We would love new family pictures this year but don’t have money in the budget to hire a photographer. My husband is a photographer so we are making a trade with a neighbor (also a photographer) for professional family photos he will do her family and she will take ours!
I redecorated my house with things that I already own just by moving them around. It gives the house a whole new look without spending a dime. I keep extra decorations that I love in the garage on a shelf so I have options to shop1
We decided to “make do” too and scrounge up some leftovers instead of grab some take out!
I sat down and make the menu for the week and then shopped for it so we are ready to go!
I saved money by when I refill my soap dispensers I add water to them to make the soap go farther.
Sound like not eating out is everyones savings today! For my daughters birthday party, I bought frozen party pizza instead of getting little ceasers. saved $8!
I cooked up a bunch of food from the freezer and cabinets to use for lunches at work this week, so much cheaper than shopping for new items or running to subway at work for lunch!
I had left over Rotel cheese dip (with ground beef and green chilies) from game day, so I added that to half a jar of spaghetti sauce and turned it into baked spaghetti. Yum. I might add that my husband (who is a chef) asked for seconds of something I cooked… Which never happens! 🙂
We saved by having leftovers for lunch today, for our noon meal. We have been having leftovers on Sundays for about 4 years or more now. It saves so much time and money for us! I don’t have to come home and spend an hour making dinner, so we’re able to eat right away. And of course having leftovers in the fridge prevents us from saying we’ll just go out for dinner!
Didn’t make it to my regular grocery store this week, so while at Target getting baby shower gifts, I picked up a few necessities to get us by. I decided to pass on the milk, as it was considerably more than my regular store. I also got gas at the cheapest place I’ve seen this week. And it was in the same shopping center as Target. Yay!
I wore more layers of clothes instead of turning on the heat & am cooking in the crockpot.
We ate leftovers and picked vege from our garden. Still getting okra and tomatoes, I will freeze the okra.
I saved today by twice by getting free coffee and doughnut from my local gas station by downloading their app to my smart phone. Secondly, by going to buy tissue and dish detergent from cvs instead of my usual store of kroger because i was able to combine my mfr q with a cvs q and cvs bucks! Total was $7.00 but w/ q ended paying $3.00! Score!!!;)
I saved today by using a gift card to satisfy a Subway craving. A Starbucks gift card would make a perfect Christmas present for my sister! Thanks for hosting this giveaway!
I saved this week by using frozen bananas I had on hand to make banana muffins for a breakfast item I had to bring for a school function. No need to run to the store and much healthier!
I am blessed to have a handy husband who, with the help of Youtube, can fix almost anything. He has fixed our 15 year old washing machine at least three times. Last week, a new problem began where the washer would not spin and drain. Checking on the washer and finding a full tub instead of a finished cycle was frustrating! My husband tried a few fixes but the machine still performed only erratically. We have the money to pay cash for a new washer, and I confess that I was excited at the thought of owning a more modern machine. I even went to Lowe’s on Saturday to window shop. But even though I wanted a new machine, and we could afford it, it seemed wasteful to throw out a large appliance so I asked my husband to give it one more try. He disabled the safety lock on the lid, so I have to avoid opening it at certain times, but the washer is back to doing its job. It may not be fancy, but it works, and we saved a lot money!
Today, we had a major savings day! My husband and I got up early and starting removing a few cracked tiles downstairs and then a neighbor came over to help install new tiles. Not only did we save on the labor by using some of our own elbow grease to remove them, but we swapped services with a neighbor and even used recycled tiles from another location in the house that we had previously replaced. We recycled, swapped and saved!
I mowed my own lawn instead of paying a landscaper.
We’re making a hut back drop for an event this weekend. It looks like we’ll be able to make it without using much money. It’ll be made out of cardboard from cardboard boxes and some wood my dad got free, which he’ll probably also use to burn once we’re done with it. So it looks like the only money spent on it will be nails, duct tape, paint and the paint brushes! Now let’s just hope it turns out okay! 🙂
We just filled out our pledge card at church to give above and beyond our ten percent tithe in our current campaign to grow our campuses and reach 40,000 for Christ. We are a one income family since I stay home with our boys and my husband is a self employed mechanic who is having back surgery on October 29th. We are trusting God to provide as He always does. And on our way home to eat leftovers for lunch, we stopped for groceries at Aldi’s (we make all the stops we can while in town to save on gas) and I found several packages of meat with $2 and $3 off stickers!
A few ways I saved this week. I ran out of my favorite stevia sweetener for my coffee, it’s vanilla flavored. But buying a $10+ sweetener when the grocery money for the week is gone is not ideal, so I used a plain stevia with vanilla extract. Also, I was looking at all the veggies from our CSA that need used up before wasted and made a meal plan for the week based on that. Plus I roasted 3 small pie pumpkins with the recipe Money Saving Mom posted earlier this month. I used that to make a coffee cake for Sunday school today. Will freeze the leftovers.
I made my own coffee at home and carried it in a travel mug so I wouldn’t be tempted to swing through a drive-thru on the way to church!
I saved today by using (2) $2.00 off coupons for my hubby’s favorite deodorant and paying with my Target debit card for an additional .35 cents off. Every little bit matters
I usually make breakfast for dinner on Sunday nights, but I had some leftover rice I needed to use up, so I made what I am calling “Mexican Breakfast Rice.” Instead of the usual frozen hash browns I normally cook up for the meal, I decided to incorporate the rice. I scrambled up several eggs, cooked up & crumbled breakfast sausage, added those two ingredients to the rice in a frying pan with some salsa & drained canned black beans. I then added a cup of chicken broth & heated it all together. I can use the hash browns for another meal & the rice got used up before it went bad. And my husband loved it!
Instead of eating out after church we came home and ate leftovers.
We have taken full advantage of a new Kwik Trip gas station and the flyer that came in the mail to save on gas, get a free gallon of milk, some free coffee and a free pound of potatoes. Every little bit helps 🙂
Left overs for lunch and used my $10 off coupon at JC Penny instead of paying full price.
My boots for the winter are starting to fall apart, but instead of just buying new I took them to get fixed. It only cost me $7.50!
I signed up for the rewards program offered by the vitamin manufacturer I use. (It is a brand found in stores.) For every bottle you buy, you enter the code on their website and earn points toward high value coupons ($3- $7.00). I waited until vitamins were buy one get one free and used the $7.00 coupon on my “buy one.” I got 2 bottles of vitamins (90 tablets each) for $4.99 instead of $12.00 for one bottle. =)
I made chicken stock from the remains of a rotisserie chicken- something from the “waste” and good nutrition and flavor!
I used some credits from Paperback Swap to order books for my girls for Christmas. (And I’m shopping ahead….yay!!)
I hung our clothes outside on the clothesline instead of using the dryer.
I, too, had to bring a side dish to a gathering (a pasta salad) . I realized too late that I didn’t have any rotini, but I had plenty of spaghetti. I then remembered a recipe for cold spaghetti Italian salad and promptly made that. It tasted great and I didn’t run out to the store for my forgotten item.
We were having friends over — and one of them CAN REALLY EAT — and I had been busy with a garage sale all day. I was tempted to order several $5.99 pizzas from Domino’s but gathered the energy to make breakfast for dinner (without going to the store!) instead. Crustless quiches and cinnamon rolls were fabulous and a much cheaper option.
I saved today simply by using restraint. I was away from home, hungry, and tempted to buy lunch. Instead, I reminded myself “We’re saving for ______,” and waited to eat lunch when I got home.
I used coupons, checkout51 app, savings catcher app, and snap app when grocery shopping. Plus I only bought the items I needed!! Huge victory! 🙂 Going to try to use up some of the items we already have on hand this week.
Goodwill outfit rather than the mall. $2 vs $100!
I saved today by going to the park down from our house to watch hot air balloons with my son instead of going to the actual fiesta where I would of spent close to $30 just for parking and admission!
After a day of catching up with cleaning, laundry, etc. I was really tempted to go out and pick up pizza. Instead I decided to use what we had in the freezer and pantry to put together a taco soup and it tasted so good! Much better than driving to town for pizza (15 miles away) since we live in the country!
We went to the pumpkin patch (free admission!) and they were charging $15 per pumpkin! We chose to go to a local small business which was only charging $3 for the same sized pumpkin, but then discovered a small “imperfect pumpkins” section where they were only $1 for the same large pumpkins! We chose all of our pumpkins from that section, they all look fine to me, just missing a stem or a small blemish here or there….4 large pumpkins for $4! 4 large pumpkins at the pumpkin patch would have cost me $60! I saved $56!
I made our daughter’s 2nd birthday shirt using my Silhouette instead of buying it on Etsy!
The little loop on my wrist watch broke, the one that holds the large strap down. Instead of buying a new watch like I usually do, I wrapped two hair bands around it and it works great, and I always have an extra hair band if I need it!
I roasted a chicken & used all the carcass to make broth, then gave the dog acceptable scraps, no waste and a full fridge!
I saved by not leaving my house on Saturday. I spent some time just relaxing at home, which I feel like I never do anymore. My husband and I got to watch some college football together, and we spent no money! I truly believe the more you leave your house, the more money you will spend.
at the last minute, we remembered we had fresh deli meat for sandwiches after church instead of going out to eat!!
I wore an outfit made up of thrift store purchases to church today, after which I put together a quick lunch of clearance sale deals, repurposed leftovers, and pantry items. Everyone will pitch in on the food for the Bible study that meets at our house tonight, but I’ll have reusable table service items and a pot of coffee ready for this chilly evening.
I went to Target and I had my trip planned and coupons printed before I went. I saved by only buy what I planned on any nothing else and using some great coupons.
This morning I was able to redeem yet another $5 amazon gift card with my swagbucks points (learned about swag bucks from money saving mom.com back in 08′). I’m gearing up for another free year of Christmas presents! 4th year in a row!
I went to CVS to buy my root touch up color that was on sale and was able to use a 5.00 coupon also. I am able to save money by coloring my own hair as often as I need to.
We were going to go out to eat but, decided to just buy something at the store while we were there anyways getting groceries and take it home to cook. It probably saved us $30!
Today I made peanut butter and jelly and froze it–I think I learned that here on this blog!
My daughter had a soccer tournament that was over an hour away and it was going to run over lunch time. So I packed a lunch and snacks and a big jug of water so we wouldn’t have to eat out while we where gone.
I am a member of Eddie Bauer rewards, although I only shop there once or twice a year. Friday I received a $10 off $10 purchase coupon in my email. Oh, I was so excited!!! I decided I would make a special trip to EB on Saturday to spend my free $10.
Fast forward to yesterday when I came to my senses and realized that in order to get my free $10 worth of stuff I would have to spend money, likely twice what I am saving. Plus the time (min 1 hour) and gas money spent. I am out of clothing money this pay period (my teens are growing like crazy) so I would have been overspending my budget anyway. I deleted the email and the freedom I felt was amazing!!! Sometimes saving money happens because we choose not to spend money.
I took the kids to a free picture with Santa event and at a consignment sale. IT was a little awkward seeing Santa in October, but it was free and it it will make for a little more time in December.
This is also for yesterday. My son has been begging for pumpkins to make Jack-O-Lanterns this year and I’ve been putting him off. Last night, we went to my husband’s work party at a local farm, and we not only got in free (to pet tons of cute animals) and received a free dinner, but we also each got to pick out a free pumpkin from the pumpkin patch! It was a fantastic, cheap night 🙂
I spent a considerable amount of time on the phone with both AT&T billing and Direct TV retention department. Almost an hour was spent on the phone with each going over my bill. Surprisingly, I was able to save a combination of $75 a month! That’s time well spent!
Picked up pine cones and acorns to use for a wedding reception in January. free!!!! Love it!
i saved money today, buy buying some clothes for my daughter at a consignment store were i take clothes that my children have outgrown – and i had over $15 coming to me from previously sold clothes.
My boys made a feed trough for the sheep instead of buying new ones that cost over $100.
I’m planning on saving on painting my sons’ room by borrowing supplies likes trim painters (doubt that’s a technical term), brushes, rollers, etc.
We saved today by giving to our church. We have found that when we give God what is His, He always returns it many times over!
We ate leftovers for lunch even though I really wanted to go out 🙂
I actually remembered to put some leftover chicken noodle soup that was about to go bad into the freezer today so I can take it out someday in the next couple weeks when I need a quick lunch rather than throwing it out and wasting food. Plus now I won’t be tempted to eat lunch out when I know I have a quick, healthy, frugal option in the freezer! 🙂
My husband is running the Chicago Marathon this morning so after church I felt I needed a little treat. Me and my two little girls went to breakfast at the old local diner. The lovely waitresses always make me and my girls feel spoiled. I was careful not to spend too much, like no drinks, using the children’s menu. When I went to the counter to pay, the total $14.60 seemed too high for us girls. I kind of asked if that was right and come to find out the dear old waitress had written down the price of two of our little meals too high. Just paying attention, with a line of customers behind me! saved me $2.13. Not a lot but we love to eat out so every little bit helps!
I picked dandelion leaves, washed them well and added them to my salad.
My husband works 7 days per week this time of year and I have gotten into the habit of taking the kids out for a quick lunch after church since I don’t feel like cooking a meal just for us. Today I warned the before church that we would be eating at home. I had leftover spaghetti, salad and one frozen dinner. Everyone was happy and I saved about $10!!!
I made Mexican pizza for lunch and we were out of salsa so we made do without it and just added a bit of crushed red pepper for heat. I’m trying to train myself not to run to the store to pickup one thing.
I’d love to have coffee on your Crystal! And with you 🙂
I meant on you not on your 🙂
We have a big kid’s sale in town twice a year. I usually go early so I can have my pick. This year I opted to wait until today for the half-price sale. I got tons of clothes, movies for Christmas and homeschool flashcards/puzzles for less than $100. This would have cost $200 without the half-price and I don’t even want to think of what it would have cost at retail.
Instead of going out for breakfast, I made pumpkin chocolate chip muffins (your recipe, but 2/3 wheat flour, half the sugar, and half the oil). Planning my meals for next week’s shopping trip so I can watch ads and prepare coupons and Cartwheel. I usually only shoot for over 10 Swagbucks a day, but made 92 with special offers today :o)
We grow a large garde and can and freeze lots of produce. I can some salsa and apple pie filling and apple jelly to give as Christmas gifts.
I made a commitment at the beginning of the month to not use the dryer and so far have hung all of the laundry.
We’re heading out for vacation next week, so I’m saving now by planning and preparing our meals! Saving $$ by planning food we can eat in our rental & saving my sanity/relaxation time by doing the work now so that the Mom actually gets to relax on vacation!! 😉
Sometimes it really pays to just do extra prep beforehand so you can have time later to just r-e-l-a-x.
I was sorely tempted to buy a fancy coffee to “waste some time” because I was early for an event on Friday – instead, I showed up early and read a book!
I steamed some spinach for our lunch veggie since it’s a little limp to enjoy in a salad.
We’re always STARVING after church and tempted to eat out on the way home but I made pasta salad yesterday that will be ready when we get home! (We’re driving there now… 🙂 )
I love iced coffee from starbuck but I am really trying to cut back. I made my own cold brew coffee for the week and vanilla flavored simple syrup. This will save me money all week for the cost of almost one coffee.
I saved today by making my own pumpkin purée for a my pumpkin bars for a dessert tonight!
I had a family get together at my house and served a large crockpot of meatless chili (used lots of pinto & black beans instead that I’d soaked and cooked) and baked potatoes. Very economical way to feed a large crowd!
We will be staying home all day. No wasted gas and unplanned purchases.
i’ve been planning my kids’ halloween costumes and i needed a black shirt for my 1 year old, but remembered that i had a bag of bigger clothes stuck back for winter in a size too big for right now, but there was a shirt in there that will be perfect (even though it may be a bit big, it’s only for a couple wears)!!
I’ve been wanting a Radio Flyer wagon for my daughter for over a year. I read about some people finding one on clearance at Target, and I happened to swing in there today and I found one! $27 instead of $100, AND I had a gift card from Shopkick to bring it down even more! It might seem odd that my ‘saving’ was actually spending, but hey!
I saved money today by talking to my husband about mowing / mulching the leaves in the yard, instead of raking and bagging them and then paying for pick up. I’m excited to see the cost savings ahead!
We salvaged the rest of our tomatoes from the garden. Will make tons of green tomato relish. Also canning apples galore given to us by a kind neighbor. Cleaned out deep freeze to see what we can utilize this week from home. Creating own decorations for upcoming party instead of buying pre-made ones.
I saved today by hosting a birthday party for my son that only cost me $2! And that was only because I forgot to figure in 2 bags of marshmallows into my grocery budget! He wanted a Doctor Who theme so instead of buying things, I looked into my stash where I put leftover party supplies. I came up with a Tardis blue plastic tablecloth, some blue & black balloons, & some blue & white crepe paper. I cut the tablecloth in half & used part for the table (on top of a regular white cloth tablecloth). The other half I used printer paper & painters tape to make a Tardis to hang on the wall! For the other decorations- we used crepe paper for streamers & to hang the balloons. My daughter & I painted a few pictures (on cardboard cut from a box since I didn’t have any canvas!) to place on the table. For the food, I made several things. We had Gallifreyan Cookies (sugar cookies with writing on it), Ginger Companions (gingersnap in shape of people), Time Lord Hearts (sugar cookies in the shape of 2 hearts), Fish Fingers & Custard (sugar cookies rolled in brown sugar to look like fish sticks dipped in pudding), & Adipose (little aliens made of marshmallows). For the goodie bags, I used extra material I had to make bow ties for the 4 kids and my son made Tardis’ out of perler beads he had. I also used some craft foam from my stash to make some “vortex manipulators” & “pyschic paper wallets” that I found tutorials for on Pinterest! Between watching a few Doctor Who episodes & a game of “Blink, Don’t Blink” (aka Red Light, Green Light)- all the kids seemed to have a great time! We just didn’t have the money to go crazy on a party, but the kids all seemed to love it anyhow! It also helped show my son that the important thing is to have fun with his friends!
I made my own granite cleaner and really like it!!!
1/4 tsp liquid dish cleaner
1/4 cup rubbing alcohol
2 1/2 cup water
My mom was in town visiting this weekend, and instead of taking her out to eat like we normally would, I pulled a Cheeseburger Meatloaf (thanks, MSM Recipes!) out of the freezer, mashed up some potatoes that were on their last leg, and cooked a butternut squash that we’d bought from an orchard that afternoon. It was a blessing to be able to cook a nice meal for my mom, who has been defaulting to meals out since losing my dad 4 years tomorrow. Plus, I got the satisfaction of using those potatoes before they went bad! 🙂 It was a great part of one of those perfect family days you’d love to live over and over again.
I went to Aldi’s grand re-opening (oh how happy is my grocery budget this month!). When I checked out, they gave me not 1, not 2, but 3 (!) $5/30 coupons for the next three weeks.
Ord
Oops ordering water while eating out today.
We ate out at a restaurant that allows 2 free kids meals with
each adult entree purchased. Our family of 6 had nice Sunday
dinners at a cheap price!
Made cream of mushroom soup to know what is in my recipe & save myself from having to buy a can. The recipe was delicious!
Today on our way home from church my son really wanted to go out for pizza. I managed to convince him that we could not only eat a frozen pizza at home, but also play some games.
My sister gave me a bag of apples. She helped me to save:)
I am making homemade dog biscuits instead of purchasing milk-bones or other biscuit treats. Frugal plus I know what ingredients the pups are eating.
I am trying to eat from my pantry by using up three bags of beans. I am trying some new recipes besides the standard chili. This week I making Cuban Black Bean Soup, Refried Beans, and White Beans with Rosemary Soup. I am learning to do without by making my own bread and tortillas.
http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-cuban-black-bean-soup-98048
https://moneysavingmom.com/2012/03/how-to-make-homemade-refried-beans.html
http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/article/12-easy-ways-to-cook-a-can-of-cannellini-beans
We stayed at home all day, no using gas in the car or unplanned purchases. Watched football, cooked, enjoyed fellowship with extended family, and went on a long bike ride. It was an awesome day!
Mapped out shopping trip stops to prevent back tracking and wasted gas. Saved time and money.
I made a batch of salsa today with tomatoes and peppers from our garden! So much cheaper and yummier than store bought! So thankful for the space to have a garden!
On Sunday mornings after church, my husband and 3 boys are starving, but it’s a difficult time to get a meal together quickly. It’s really tempting to just go through the drive-thru on the way home, but we removed that temptation by planning ahead. My husband grilled meat for dinner last night, so we grilled double so our meal would be ready when we walked in the door today!
Usually I shop at Walmart and price match. A sprouts just opened a few miles from where I live so I have shopped their the last two weeks. I have shaved $30 to $50 off my grocery bill each time just by shopping at Sprouts and buying what is on sale.
Between my schedule and my teen daughter’s schedule, we leave the house at 7;15 in the morning. Two days a week we don’t get home until after 9:00 pm, and around 7:00 on the other three nights. We eat breakfast at home most days, but sometimes take it to go. We brown-bag lunch, dinner and snacks most days in order to avoid takeout and fast food. So .,., meal planning is an absolute must.
We don’t cook on weekdays, only on weekends, and prep as much as possible so that taking meals with us is a quick and easy as possible. On the weekends that we go out of town (once every month or two), it really sets me back.
Because of our busy schedule, I budget for the occasional Subway sandwich or other fast food meal, sticking to the healthier options. No guilt here.
I love all these ideas! This is a fun/helpful read. Our saving money today is, borrowing a cider press and collecting apples from the neighborhood and pressing our own cider and freezing it. The apples are free (this year is an amazing apple year here). Then instead of buying juice, we can unfreeze some whenever we want, or heat it up for hot cider in the winter. We go for walks and look at who has fruit on their trees and is not picking and ask if we can. This has become part of our daily fall walks.
We saved this year on soccer registration fee by my husband signing up to coach. Earning swagbucks and bing points to use toward Christmas presents. Bought window wrap on sale to help with heating costs this winter
We buy bacon ends and pieces because they are so much cheaper per pound than rashers. So, when I have time, I slice the jumble of odds and ends into little bits, then I cook them slowly in a big pan over low heat so that the fat has a chance to render out. If you cook the little chunks too fast, they will brown on the outside and be raw and chewy fat in the middle…yuck. After about 45 minutes, the fat has mostly melted out and the bacon is swimming in a big pool of bacon fat. Then I will scoop the bacon out and into a different pan to crisp it up at a higher temperature. I don’t throw the bacon fat away, though! I wait til it cools down a bit, then I add in water until it is about equal parts bacon grease and water. Then I boil it for a few minutes, pour it into a glass bowl, and refrigerate until the bacon fat hardens on top, and salty, smokey water separates to the bottom. Then, I pour out the water, rinse off the fat, and boil it with equal parts water again. Then to the refrigerator again, then rinse it off again. Then I put it in a pan and heat it up to be sure that any water left in it is cooked off. Then, I put it in the frig and it will keep a crazy long time. I use it to make bread. With butter around my area over $4 a pound, I love this as a money saver. And the little bit of bacon flavor that is left after two washings is a nice addition to the bread. It is AMAZING in pasty crust, too. You don’t have to boil it twice, but I like the smokey flavor tamed down. I know it seems like a lot of work, but, it doesn’t involve a lot of hands on. It is mostly letting it simmer in spare time, and letting it sit in the frig to cool. Totally worth it to me!
We didn’t go out to eat today. It’s the small victories sometimes.
I saved today by making the healthy blueberry crisp with things I had on hand, instead of running to the store. YUM!!!
Instead of buying a new gift bag for a birthday present I had to wrap today, I used tissue paper and some ribbon I had on hand for wrapping.
Instead of ordering pizza out I made my own. Not only does it taste fresher but I get to put a ton more veggies on and so I saved on calories too. 🙂
I wanted a new dress for my toddler but instead I repurposed a too-short tee shirt and added some fabric from my craft stash to create a “new” fall dress.
I have a chihuahua puppy that uses training pads for potty indoors. Instead of buying puppy training pads (14 ct. for $4.00), I buy adult underpads (15 ct. for $6.00) and cut them in half giving me 30 ct. that are the same size as the 14 ct. pad. A Starbucks gift card will definitely come in handy for time with friends!
I guess this was for yesterday…Yesterday I saved by not only bringing a lunch to work but also putting a few random things in the lunch so they would get eaten instead of thrown away. We like to eat out for dinner on Saturdays, so I stopped at Papa Murphy’s for a pizza on my way home. This is already an affordable option, and I even had a $5 off coupon. We stayed home the rest of the day (3 pm on), saving on gas and avoiding other purchases. Today we are staying home, playing games, catching up on household tasks, and eating food we have on hand.
My mother always tells me to put in a dry towel with my wet load of clothes to cut down on dryer time to save money. I thought it was kind of a “smaller way” to save money, but I put it to the test this month to see my results in my bill. My clothes did dry faster and I actually ended up saving about $10 this month! We do a lot of laundry with little ones in the house. 🙂
This morning I am hoping to save a ton of money on clothes for my 5 kids by going to huge consignment sale for the first time instead of just buying brand new clothes online!
I found canned tomato soup at Aldi for $0.25 each. I work long shifts and was thrilled to have a convenient lunch to pack. My son also enjoys dipping his pepper jack grilled cheese into tomato soup. I bought a few dollars worth and saved plenty for the next customer!
Our toilet has been running off and on for a while, so my husband went out and got a new seal so we could stop the waste of water.
I picked all the green tomatoes fm my garden a few days ago before the big frosts hit. They are ripening in bowls all over my kitchen and I am thrilled we will eat fresh, home grown tomatoes all of October. Then we will start in on the canned ones. We do not buy tasteless tomatos from the store and I did not have to pay end of season prices at the farmers market because I took the time to pick and am overlooking the crazy counters! Waste not, want not 🙂
I was putting in a load of laundry this morning and only had about half a load. I was tempted to just run it like that, but I went and found some other items that could go into the load to fill up the washer, saving the water, electricity, and detergent costs of having to run another load later to wash the items I was going to leave out.
I try at least once a month sometimes more I try not shop and get creative. I shop lots because I feel like having something not always because I need it. I save alot and have been able to go 11day’s this way. The best food comes from being creative and thinking outside the box.
Since I was a cpl of days short on my paycheck this last time, I decided to do something to make up for the lost income in our budget. I looked around my house and my kid’s closets and toy boxes for items that we did not use or no longer needed. I listed them on our local give and take page on facebook to earn a little bit of money. I got rid of lots of stuff and earned extra $ to help balance our budget. AND ended up cleaning out some unnecessary clutter around my house. I say its a win-win situation! 🙂
I made my own coffee at home instead of getting Starbucks. 🙂
My daughter’s opening night for her musical and normally we go out to eat, but since our budget is tight, I decided to pack a picnic and eat in a nearby park. My sons loved it and got out plenty of energy before the show started!
I ran out of shampoo and conditioner but am already nearing the end of my “personal care” budget for the month. I broke into all the free samples I’ve been receiving from filling out links on MSM and other blogs – it’s been almost two weeks and I’m still going strong, haven’t had to buy new bottles yet! 🙂
I made my own salted caramel coffee creamer. The recipe calls for sweetened condensed milk- it is NOT low fat/calorie/sugar- and I made that myself, too. A little goes a long way, so I’ll be enjoying it for a while!
I went to my first-ever Mom 2 Mom sale. I’m expecting our second child, and while our list of items needed/wanted for baby #2 is small, a few of them are quite expensive items. One item I want is an Arm’s Reach co-sleeper. These retail for more than $100 and in checking on craigslist.com, the least expensive one I found was $70 and several towns away. Anyway, at the Mom 2 Mom sale, I paid $1 for admission and there were about 15 mamas selling items there. I was beyond excited when one mama had an Arm’s Reach co-sleeper for…. $20!!!! I quickly glanced it over and handed over $20. The one I had been eyeing online was $150, so I saved $130!!! It made my whole week 🙂
I have a group of girlfriends visiting me from out of state next weekend for my 40th birthday. 🙂 And I have recently moved to a new rental home. I’ve been frustrated for a few weeks with the rough looking kitchen and laundry room walls (off white-dirty scuffs), but didn’t really have the extra $ to go buy new paint. But this week I found a totally full can of a yellowish/tan paint in the garage left from the last tenants! So you know what I did this weekend! 🙂 YAY! It covered both rooms and looks so much better! Now I am ready to entertain my friends! I can’t wait!
I am prepping food for the week. Dinner will become part of my lunch this week. And making banana bread with really brown bananas.
We brought our own snacks to a concert in the park instead of buying them there!
I used a “buy one entree get one free” coupon in the mail for a rare dinner out. It never ceases to amaze my family members that I can whip out a coupon for nearly everything!
I food prepped and cooked all our lunches for the week (I work full time with 2 kids in school). That way we will eat healthy and not spend on lunches 🙂
I let myself stray from couponing for a while. I had been through some trying times and didn’t make it a priority. Once I started teaching at a new school, I began to tell teachers how easy it is to save money couponing. They were very interested since teachers in my state are some of the lowest paid in the country. Long story short, I am now teaching a couponing class to the educators in my school. I LOVE being able to help others save money!!!!!
In order to encourage my husband to not eat lunches out so often during the work week, I usually purchase a whole cooked Sam’s chicken (under $5.00) on Sunday and hit the local produce store for marked down veggies (1.00 a tray) to make him awesome salads! The chicken will last all week, and generally at the produce store I can find 4-6 different vegetables to buy. The salads are usually never the same, sometimes adding craisins (from my pantry) or fruit, and I trade up the dressings by having 3 different ones to use (from Aldi’s). Also some nights I have leftover proteins from dinner so I will do a taco salad with cut up burgers and tortilla pieces from the bottom of the bag, or ham for a chef’s type salad. I do add salad spice mix and red pepper flakes (we get free from the local pizza place). A salad lunch container is great as it has a cold pack on it. He loves not knowing what he will get and I love the savings and healthy eating!
I went to the library to pick up some books and DVDs.
We had a very busy day and were planning to eat out a quick meal before heading to a football game. Instead, I got out an extra meal I had doubled up on and frozen part of, so we ate a much healthier meal at home and saved some money.
We Have All Been Sick This Week. All I Wanted To Do Was Get Drive Thru For Breakfast Lunch And Dinner (And Late Night Snack). Instead We Prepared Simple Wholesome Meals With Food We Had On Hand. With 2 Adults And 2 Kids Over 4 Days, We Saved A Lot Of Money.
I’m a coffee-a-holic and I love lattes but the price and all the sugary stuff they add at the coffee shop isn’t in my diet or budget, so I saved all my swagbucks to get an amazon gift card which I bought a cheap espresso machine with. Now I look up healthy latte recipes on Pintrest and today I made my first “healthy pumpkin spice latte” I saved about $5 and about 40 grams of sugar compared to a Starbucks pumpkin latte! Yippee!
I just realized the prize is a starbucks gift card, lol!! :o)
We are on vacation visiting wih our daughter/family. Today would be full of soccer games. Instead of grabbing a quick drive thru meal we chose to eat left overs. It saved us some money and we were able to use up leftovers.
We were flexible in our schedules and said “yes” when a chance for two free tickets to a major sporting event in our area was offered to us by friends.
My parents had given us a $100 gift card to Sam’s. We spent all but $7, which i thought we could use for dinner. But, my husband suggested we eat at home and use the remainder of the gift card to buy gas. Also, on the way out, we returned the leftover Sam’s baby wipes we had that had been recalled and got a $20 giftcard- so, long story- we used both of those gift cards toward gas and got some groceries, too!
I took the leftover french bread from my son’s baptism and put it in the freezer a few months ago. I went to make some toast this morning and found it was now freezer burned. Baked it in the oven and made some homemade bread crumbs.
We made tortillas today. I’ve been trying to slowly make instead of buy our bread products and making our own tortillas will save at least $2 a week.
My brother & sister in law just moved into a new home. We wanted to get them a house warming gift, but didn’t have a lot of money to spend on it. I decided to make them some word art for their basement/game room. I used the free software program Picmonkey to make two 8×10 word art displays. One was Green Bay Packers & the other was Miami Dolphins… Since these are their 2 favorite football teams. Then we went to Hobby Lobby & purchased 2 8 x 10 fames that were 50% off & 2 pieces of white cardstock to print the art on. Our brother & sister in law loved them & the total project cost us $8.00!
We are saving today by making freezer meals and make-a-head snacks for the week.
I have been saving my family’s old jeans when outgrown/worn out for a couple of years, and I now have enough to make a denim quilt! I’m using some flannel from my fabric stash as a soft, warm backing, and the finished quilt will go on my youngest son’s toddler bed when he transitions out of the crib later this year. I’ve also got a few spare sheet sets, so new bedding for my son won’t cost me a cent!
Despite having sports five nights per week for the past six weeks, we have managed to only hit the drive thru two times. Meal planning ahead of time has saved us from eating out.
I love Bath & Body Works candles and had gone into the store for them earlier this week but they weren’t on sale so I left without them. Ended up there again last night with some friends and sure enough they were on sale + I took 2 seconds to look up a coupon and ended up getting a $12.50 item FREE! Plus a friend got to take advantage of the coupon too! It pays to wait for a sale + take the time to search for a coupon!
I decided to go through the garden and pick what I thought was the last few cucumbers. Well there was a lot. So I buckled down and canned them all making 19 jars of pickles. Pickles here run anywhere from 4.50 to 5 dollars a jar this saved me a lot of money.
We needed to bring a meal to my husbands boss and I had done some freezer cooking a couple of weeks before. So we saved by having an entree in the freezer and only had to buy the salad and dessert!
I brought some clothes to a consignment store to sell, and bought several quality items at a deep discount. We would have spent easily 3x the amount on those items new. Actually, we would have come home with only one or two things instead of several.
I like consignment because of the price, first of all, but also because these clothes have already survived at least one owner and have lasted. Quality clothing, recycling, and saving money all at once.
We worked on cleaning out our refrigerator all day for meals because we are going out of town this week.
We saved by eating every meal, including dinner home this week. It was a BUSY week, but luckily I had freezer cooking meals packaged and ready to be put in the crock-pot, 3 nights. The other nights I cooked something we had.
Today we saved by using our extra bucks to get milk and breakfast foods at CVS. After reading the post about the veggie tray, I challenged myself to skip a week of grocery shopping and save that $. We have plenty in our pantry and freezer. Just need to take the time to look!!
Making a list and taking my coupons to the grocery store so I stay on budget!
We needed some storage for games and toys in our basement, and having a contractor build me built-in bookcases with base cabinet storage was out of our budget, so we decided to build one ourselves. After purchasing stock unfinished kitchen base cabinets and Ikea bookcases for 1/12 of the cost of having them custom built, I found I still needed 2 more base cabinets. Instead of buying more, I decided to rearrange the base cabinets and add 2 that I already had. They are not the same, but I am going to repaint the whole thing to match, and make the differences look intentional. We are almost finished now, and we saved ourselves over $11,000!!! By the way, they look amazing!
I would love to see these….we need some built ins too and are trying to figure out what to do!
I still need to add one more section of shelves, paint and a few more pieces of trim. Maybe I can put a picture in on one of the How I saved today posts. We took base kitchen cabinets that we bought unfinished at Lowes. We removed the base trim on the wall and attached them to the wall. We cut a piece of wood the width and depth of the cabinets and attached it to the top of the cabinets like a counter top. I nailed quarter round trim to the front of the counter top to hide the rough edges. I purchased Billy Bookcases from Ikea (they have several sizes and come in white, brown and a more neutral color. I put them together, and mounted them to the wall on top of the base cabinets. I butted them tightly together, so it made a solid wall of shelving. The seam between the two book shelves showed, so we cut a piece of trim about 1/4″ thick and 3″ wide and cut it the same length as the bookcases and nailed it between the two bookcases to cover up the seem showing between the two bookcases. The Ikea bookcases have a raised base at the bottom of the bookcases, so I cut a piece of wood and mounted it in-between the opening, and put a knob on it to make it look like narrow drawers, they are non working drawers, just faux. I put crown moulding around the top to give it a finished, built in look. I have found at Lowes – a Rust-Oleum cabinet transformation refinishing kit, which can be applied to cabinets without any stripping or sanding. It is in the paint department, covers 100 sq feet and is $75. I will paint the entire unit, caulk the trim, make sure that you use a nail set to push the nails into the wood, and fill with wood filler so that it is a smooth surface. The entire project cost me under $950 for 18 feet of cabinets and shelving. If you are looking for just shelving, Ikea has tall Billy Bookcases and even an extension for them, to make them taller. Trim and crown will make it look built in. For a good tutorial on this type of built in look – go to Centsationalgirl.com and click on the project gallery and look for Turn Ikea Billy into built-in Bookcases. She did a great job.
We were out of granola bars so I made Homemade Energy freezer bites. My kids LOVE them! They are way healthier as there are no preservatives. I will never buy store brand granola bars again!
I bought a gift certificate for one of our favorite restaurants on a daily deal site and saved 50%!
We are trying to save money to go on a mission trip to Panama, and it’s definitely been a challenge. Instead of going to the movie theater, we had a throwback theater night at home. We introduced our kiddos to the Back to the Future trilogy, and allowed them to eat any goodies they could find in the pantry. One of them even lucked out and found a box of girl scout cookies I forgot that I had hidden months ago! It was a family night that was FUN and FREE!
I’ve been wanting to update my kitchen for some time. Since brand new cabinets were out of the question I decided to do a little research on painting them. Wow, three days and $160 later, sure has paid off. I love my new freshly painted cabinets!
I used a free redbox code to rent RIO2 for my six year old twins to watch this morning, I worked overnights and want to sit and relax with them since my husband left for work when ai got home.
We saved today by doing free things for weekend family time. We went to the wild bird conservatory since my daughter loves looking at the owls. We decorated the house for Halloween by making construction paper pumpkins and link chains for the banister and dining room. All were done with things I had on hand.
I made French toast for breakfast with leftover bread my husband brought home for work.
I made a garlic chicken and rice bake on TH. It was basic. There was a lot left over. I tried serving it at lunch but no one was crazy. So I still had about two cups left.
I turned it into a chicken and rice soup. Sautéed mirapoix, added stock, and then the chicken and rice. I reinvented the meal and it was gobbled up!
After realizing I could sign up for 5% cash back to Lowe’s using my existing (0 balance – we use credit cards but do not carry balances) Discover card, I took my receipt for yesterday’s $870 purchase back to Lowe’s and asked if they would do a return and charge my Discover. I was upfront about the reason and they were very kind to have no problem to do this for me. $43.50 cash back just for asking!
We also went to a swim meet, and instead of going out to dinner and lunch, we packed lunch, and then hit Winco on the way back for some bagels and some snacks. Much cheaper than dinner out!
I’m returning a couple items to Lowes that I did not end up needing for a project.
We were planning to go grocery shopping today because “we have no food.” Our little one is not feeling well so I decided to go through the freezer and pantry to see what I could find. I was able to come up with 6 more meals that we can do this week! That will save us some money and my husband won’t need to go grocery shopping until mid week!
We saved in our house today by eating at home instead of going out breakfast. We are challenging ourselves more everyday so that we can go down to one income in the next few years.
I had found some less than perfect fruit in the fridge and instead of tossing them we had smoothies for lunch!
Our son had a soccer game early Sat morning, and it was pretty chilly outside. We were running late, but knew we (my husband and I) needed our morning coffee and my toddler needed snacks. We took the extra 2 mins to brew 2 cups of coffee and grab a banana and some snacks. We saved time (by not standing in the concession line – not to mention missing part of our son’s game) and money! Win-win!
For a girls night out, my sister-in-law and I went to a Mary Kay facial party. I had told the host in advance that I would not buy any product, but she didn’t care, she wanted us there. We had a great time trying and learning about new facial care products and visiting with old friends. And I didn’t buy any product.
When bananas start going bad, I usually stick them in the freezer so they don’t go to waste. I just made chocolate chip banana bread using three of those bananas from my freezer.
We have been slowly re-doing our kitchen/dining room. Taking out a wall to make one big room. Doing it ourselves takes longer but the money we save makes it worth it! Today my husband and brother in law moved and re-did the gas lines in the basement so they are above the bottom of the joists. We need to put up a long beam across the floor joists to level out the 2, now 1, rooms. It took most of the day but the money we saved by not having someone come do it was worth the time! Soooo glad my hubby is able and knowledgeable to do these things!!!
I’ve learned that the best way to save money is to just stay home. I got a Belk’s sales paper and really wanted a new pair of jeans that were going to be on sale. But, I went and looked in my closet and had 4 perfectly good pair. So no need to go shopping. Yay!!
I packed homemade trail mix for my girls before we went on a shopping trip with my mom. It was a long day, but we didn’t have to buy any snacks to prevent toddler meltdowns 🙂
I saved this week by making our own pizza instead of calling for delivery. We feed 6-9 people every night, so three pizzas made at home are a real deal! We had fantastic pizza – for what it would have cost us to have one mediocre pizza delivered.
I spent yesterday painting my sons’ room with plans to redecorate in a sports theme. I am practicing contentment in using items we already own to decorate rather than buying new. I think as women that we sometimes have to retrain our brains from “I saved 50% when I bought this!” to “I saved 100% when I stopped the urge to buy it at all.” 🙂 (Well, I’ve certainly found this to be true of myself anyway.)
I was gone until late last night for a volleyball tournament for my son, and had to be out the door by 7:00 this morning to take my daughter to her softball tournament. I know when I’m not home, the temptation is for my hubby and other kids to run through a drive-thru. So, got out both crockpots and put soup in one for lunch and a roast in the other for dinner. Then scrounged through the cabinet and fridge and packed a cooler for myself and daughter. This will keep us from spending a TON at the concession stand today, as we will be at the tournament for at least ten hours. I can always find stuff to take if I get a bit creative. We had apples, and I put a little caramel in a container. That will satisfy her sweet tooth. Found a couple cheese sticks, granola bars, etc to complete the task!
Took our kids to the library to meet Curious George – free!
And, similar to your situation, needed to bring food for a party. Took meat out of the freezer for burger patties and made homemade hummus to serve with veggies I had on hand. No spending for additional ingredients or special dishes. 🙂
We bought items for our son at a consignment sale. 9’books, a cd and a DVD for $6.50
We used H&M gift cards from Wrapp to get cute matching shirts for the boys for just $1 each
My son needed new pants for school. My plan was to get some this weekend. I thought about the mall, but didn’t want to pay those prices. Went to the resale shop and still $8or $10 a pair. We got back the car and went to Goodwill and found 2 pair of Chaps khakis for $2 a pair!
Using my stale homemade bread for breadcrumbs.
I finished painting the ceiling of the kids’ playroom, after painting the walls last weekend. Not only did we not have to pay a painter, but we bought the paint during the Labor Day sales.
I saved by resisting the urge to get out of the house & go somewhere. Instead, I made a pizza at home for me & the kids & we did a little scavenger hunt around our neighborhood!
When putting away leftovers I sometimes have a very small amount of vegetables leftover. Often it’s not enough to reheat for another serving. To prevent waste, I have a freezer baggie I keep in the freezer and I add the small amount of leftover vegetables to. When I make soup or potpie I have a bag of mixed frozen vegetables already cooked and ready to add.
Not drinking a Starbucks.
Sounds silly, but I didn’t let myself stop at the dollar section at Target. I can get myself in a lot of trouble there!
Used coupons for salad kits making them .50 for 5! Also got creative with leftovers, making a new meal instead of pitching!
I am always trying to save a penny. My thing is we try to not throw away anything. If there is food left over it can become lunch the next day or frozen for another time (if possible).
Was able to get creative with some produce in my fridge and make a healthy version of Polish cabbage rolls
I made muffins from scratch instead of my using my go-to box mix. And yesterday, we had two parties and family pictures (and like you we really aren’t used to having activities all day quite yet) and I really wanted to just stop and get a pizza to go. But I went home and found some tortillas and I had some pizza sauce and cheese so we had tortilla pizza for dinner.
We are doing a home repair ourselves. The back door thresh hold has rotted and the old one has been torn out and new parts cut and are ready to install. Hubby will have to finish it up today as he ran out of time and daylight yesterday.
We saved by not having to get a babysitter and dividing and conquering our responsibilities. My husband and I were going to attend a function together to help a friend and pay a sitter to do so. At the last minute the event changed venues, and he no longer had to do his part to help. I went and he cancelled the sitter and stayed home with the kids. We were also able to save by having community connections so that he and the kids were waved into a competition that our teenage son was a part of. The time and energy we had spent helping over the years and relationships we had built caused the worker at the gate to wave him and the kids in to watch their brother perform. We were prepared to spend $ on admission. Those were unexpected ways that we saved by taking on some work ourselves and by being willing to invest time and energy in community.
We needed new socks and underwear for our two older boys as well a T-shirts for my husband. Instead of spending out of pocket for those items, we returned some items that had recently been given to us (and still had the price tags on them) that we didn’t need, and we used the store credit to get what we did need. We ended up spending only $1.50 out of pocket for 12 pair of socks, 2 packs of underwear, 2 packs of T-shirts for my husband, and a hair trimmer. Not too bad!
We made fast food at home! I made home-made chicken nuggets for the kids from a few chicken breasts that I thawed out of the freezer. Three large breasts made enough nuggets to feed two kids, and I have a nice gallon zip-lock bag of the extras that are now in the freezer for future meals, so I can avoid the temptation of the drive-thru. My daughter (5) said, “these taste better than McDonald’s!” I was happy about that 🙂
Went to the mall to redeem Bath and Body works coupons- love it when they have freebies! Great for Christmas stockings-
We ate dinner at home even though we wanted to eat out. We saved money and it was healthier.
I also needed an extra item to take to a gathering – didn’t think I had anything but scrounged around and made some cookies from nearly-expired cookie dough that had been gifted to me from my mother-in-law (and I had forgotten about.)
Saturday was more than a little busy for us, but rather than resort to take-out, we made do with what we had in the freezer and cupboards. Each one of us had a different meal, but that just makes it more like going to a restaurant, right? 😉
How I saved: by shopping Goodwill and scoring 3 pairs of jeans for less than the price of 1 new pair in the store. Yay!
I read some of your Swagbucks tips and completed some of the tasks…hoping to save up for a new printer.
Walked instead of taking public transportation or a cab.
My daughter needed new boots for winter. I have been watching sales but the best I found was about $20. I kept looking and was lucky to find some on an online garage sale. Turns out the person selling them even goes to my church. I will get them this morning for only $3.00.
I needed some decor for the kids bathroom. I took some frames we already had but were not using, spray painted them and added the kids artwork I had kept from years past and put that in the frames. Looks great on the bathroom wall! They enjoy seeing their masterpieces again, me too!
We stayed home and we also found a bargain on laundry soap and stocked up cheaply!
I had to buy a new printer ink cartridge, and I needed it right away. I bought it online at Staples through Swagbucks and picked it up at the store 2 hours later. By doing this I paid no shipping costs and got the item I would have driven to Staples to get anyway…and I earned Swagbucks for the purchase.
My friend and I went to Iron Sharpens Iron yesterday and could have bought their box lunch or went out to eat (very tempting for me), but instead I made lunch for us – chicken salad with a clearance marked down can of chicken to boot. : ) And brought some free bags of chips our church handed out the weekend before. Cost way less than it would have to buy our lunches.
Went running in my new nikes that’s I purchased with gift cards from My Coke Rewards- making them free!
I saved a ton of money this weekend by having my husband borrow tools to install trim in our recently purchased home.
Had to go to one of my son’s school friends birthday parties, I took a gift out of the gift closet we have only to realize that we were out of wrapping paper and we didn’t have a gift bag. I looked around the house, because I knew we would be late if we stopped and there wasn’t any store we could go to one the way that would be reasonably priced. I found the Sunday paper on the table and also found a brown grocery bag. I cut the grocery bag open and wrapped the gift in it, it looked so plain, so I took the comic section out of the Sunday paper and cut some of the shorter strip comics, I glued them on to the brown paper wrapped gift. Some of the mom’s even asked where I bought the wrapping paper, because it was so cute! Even the Birthday Boy started reading the comics before opening the gift. Funny what you can do when you look around your home and repurpose things.
We have a friend visiting for a 5K we’re running. Instead of going out to dinner or doing anything too exciting, we played free ping pong at the university for family weekend (boyfriend is a grad student). Then after checked out the progress of the volunteer project our friend had been working on before he moved. Great project of using old railroad shipping boxes to create something new for the community. After instead of taking him out to dinner. We made him is favorite pasta dinner at home! Great weekend with a friend for hardly anything!
I made a huge batch of rice to divide up and freeze. While the rice was cooking, I added 2 pans of muffins in the oven to maximize energy. We had left over vegetables with our dinner (green beans and kale) all from our fall garden.
We went to a free fall festival instead of going to an actual pumpkin farm. The kids got to ride a horse, go on a hay rack ride, barrel rides, paint a pumpkin, play in corn and beans, and play a lot of carnival games. We saved $40 and they loved it just the same.
I made homemade soup that will last for the next 5 days. I added Chicken to it (earth fare has a special on baked chicken for $5 on Fridays). I made homemade cookies and crackers instead of going to a coffee shop or eating out this weekend. I’m a grad student and have been reading your blog for two months now. It’s helping me so much!
We are in the midst of a 30 hour refrigerator defrost. Our fridge was slowly leaking water, and while the repairman thinks he might know how to fix it, he suggested defrosting the whole thing first to see if it fixes the problem. He said the repair would be $500+! So we’re trying the defrost method first 🙂 although not having a fridge causes us to have to order out, we are getting take out and using drinks I have in a cooler on the deck.
rather than throwing an extravagant birthday party for my three year old I opted to make a cake and invite friends to the playground. My son can still celebrate, we have little mess to clean up and everyone will have just as much fun.
I saved by not leaving the house to get a quick lunch after the crazy morning of everything going wrong & threw together an awesome taco salad from what we had on hand.
I hosted my daughter’s 8th birthday this weekend and used decorations saved from parties from past years, made homemade cupcakes with ingredients already in my pantry, and served plenty of snacks I bought on sale over the past few weeks. It was still a great party!
I made my own chicken stock using the bones left from a whole baked chicken we had for dinner. I labeled and froze the stock in freezer Ball jars.
I saw your post on the Menu board and loved it so much and wanted to make it. With sick kids I haven’t been able to get out the house and was looking forward to a shopping trip. Anyway things didn’t go the way I planned and I started scrounging around the house and made it from mainly craft things I had laying in my house. (My husband bought the board for me on his way home from work!)
Also, used up all my produce that was on the verge of going bad for supper tonight! We left the dinner table feeling like we had eaten a healthy meal and it saved us by not tossing out food!
made homemade birthday signs for my brother’s birthday celebration. saved money on going out a buying cards and decorations.
I took Craiains to the mall for the kids instead of buying a snack from the food court!
Similarly to Crystal, we had a party tonight that I needed a dessert for. Instead of buying a prefab dessert from the grocery store, I made my own homemade pumpkin chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches! They were more nutritious & flavorful in addition to being much cheaper! A win!
We are leftovers yesterday night which saved us time and money because we were all exhausted after a day of sports. We also did a date night in and watched Narnia after our boys went to bed while drinking hot coco we had in the Pantry.
I meal planned and prepped for all meals next week. I grocery shopped based soley on the few things I didn’t have and just enough to make those meals. $15 to feed a family of 5 is pretty decent id say 🙂
Yesterday it was horribly rainy and we decided to spend the Saturday indoors. We cleaned out our closets and low and behold we both have a practically new wardrobes since we found things we didn’t even know we had!!
I always buy meat in bulk and then cut it up to make more meals. I also have been making a lot of deserts from scratch for my daughter who has multiple food allergies!
I cooked a huge ham (from Aldi) for dinner last night so we could eat that for several meals this week. Last night we had it with sweet potatoes and green beans. We’ll have it with soup beans with cornbread another evening, on homemade biscuits for “sandwiches” another meal, and then whatever else we can come up with using what we already have on hand.
I did freezer cooking, so I always have a meal on hand and don’t need to go out to eat!
We went to the zoo for our entertainment. We used our membership which is gifted to us each Christmas and even includes free parking. So it was a free outing! Not to mention it’s my daughters favorite activity!
I traded babysitting with a friend. She sat for me on Friday and I sat for her on Saturday so we could both enjoy an inexpensive date night out!
We made a quick lunch of pizza out of ingredients we had on hand instead of going out for lunch, and my husband worked from home instead of at a coffee shop, saving on gas and a few bucks for coffee.
I asked a friend to go in with us for a good friends daughters 1st birthday party gift – so we still got a wonderful gift at half of what we would have spent and both of our families saved money! 🙂
Used a birthday coupon for a free pizza and drank water with dinner when we went out.
We bought generic soda instead of name brand for my daughter’s bday party. She wanted cream soda and walmart didn’t have the name brand anyway.
Brought my own coffee in a travel mug, (bought at Aldi) to my daughter’s volleyball tournament, brought our own snacks and water bootlegs to avoid the concession stand!
We, too, were out of town most of the day for a sports competition. Before we left I throw some ham & beans on low in the crockpot. When we got home, dinner was ready!
It is still pretty hot here in Alabama so we are still running our air conditioning. We were leaving for an extended time today so I made sure to turn the air up and turn off all the lights. All those little things add up.
My savings today were small but I scored a free pack of mini sandwiches, free apple juice, free candy bar and free bag of sugar. The sandwiches and juice were Food Lion Flash Freebies I won, the candy bar the Friday freebie from savings star and the sugar was a coupon for free sugar from the Dixie Crystal contest months ago. Free is free and that’s a savings to me. I also scored some price reduced ground turkey to make homemade chili this week since it’s in the forecast for cooler with rain.
I chopped and froze some peppers and mushrooms before they could go bad in the refrigerator.
I saved on gas by doing a gift card deal the grocery store was
running.
I wanted a head of cauliflower WHEN I went shopping for the week. I noticed one of the organic heads had some small spots that would need to be cut off, so I asked the lady in the produce department if she would mark it down, so I got it for $1.99 instead of $3.99!
We had leftovers for lunch and I used some coupons at the store.
We had my boys’ birthday party today and really had to work within a tight budget. For food, I ended up making potato soup and chili and homemade bread. It was perfect for a brisk fall day and we usually have most of those ingredients in our pantry. As a bonus, my family now has enough leftovers to cover us for the week.
I was on the road at normal dinnertime but had packed a snack and managed to hold off on dinner until I was home (even though that was 9:30 pm!)
Freezer meals!!
I went through hand-me-down clothes instead of buying new!
Good Day,
Today, I just booked on Southwest Airlines a free round trip ticket to Florida from Ohio. I do have a Southwest credit card, however I was able to book using my referral points. Southwest had a promotion that if you referred a friend to apply for a credit card, and the friend obtained it, once the friend made their purchase, I would receive 5000 points. I had obtained 20,000 points thru this program. After booking my Florida trip, I still have points available. Luv it !! Saved over $600!!
I saves today by making homemade date balls at home with ingredients on hand!
We traveled to my parents and I packed snacks and made sandwiches so we would not have to stop at a restuarant.
We were lucky yesterday to find a late season garage sale. I was able to find car haulers for my grandson, bushel baskets, canning jars for ten cents, plus more odds and ends for the house.
I am redecorating (out of necessity due to water damage) our laundry room/bathroom, and I was able to give our mirror and giant metal air return-thing a new look using patterned contact paper I already had.
At the grocery store my son wanted to buy this $6 pack of pumpkin muffins. I told him maybe we can find a bit cheaper way to make them instead. I’m not a big baker so I don’t do a ton of homemade because of time, etc. my son was so proud of himself for finding a $2 box mix. He helped make the muffins and is excited to take some I. His lunchbox this week at school too!
We get rewards points when we buy fuel. Used them to get coffee for me and my hubby, and a slushie for our son. Free things for buying what we need. Yay.
I downloaded the Berry Cart app to save on some groceries, and made sure that I scanned everything before I bought it at Target with the Cartwheel app to make sure I wasn’t missing anything. I found out I save an extra .50 on all the cream cheese I bought.
Okay so this wasn’t today but it is recent. I have been convicted for a while to get my oldest son piano lessons, but we didn’t have room for a piano in our house till we moved somewhat recently. A while back, I went to a local used piano shop and priced a new/used piano at around $1000, but we just did not have that kind of money available at the time. So, I decided to leave it for then and I honestly just prayed about it as it came to mind – that if this was God’s will, he would provide us with a piano. One day several months later it came to mind again and I prayed again. Then I opened up our church newsletter email a few days later and saw that someone was offering a completely FREE piano! All we had to do was arrange to move it ourselves. A few days later, we had the piano sitting in it’s new home in our living room. A few days after that, I went garage saling, as is my habit in the summer/early fall when I have some extra time on a Saturday morning. Lo and behold, what did I find but beginning piano books for 0.10 a piece. I spent less than a dollar on 8 piano books – score! I knew they might not be the right thing, but if they weren’t – hey – I was only out less than 1 dollar. I showed them to piano teacher friend who will be my son’s teacher, and she said they were perfect. I love how God provides things that don’t seem terribly significant.
A belt broke on my son’s car. It had been replaced last year. I called the auto store that we bought it from and we had about 12 more days that the belt was under warranty. So the new belt was FREE. I asked a friend to see if he could fix it. One hour later the car is fixed!! And he would take no money for it, just a dozen of our chicken eggs! Car part and labor = 1 dozen chicken eggs.
I am hoping this isn’t too late! As with everyone (I am sure), I was worn out from the week and absolutely did NOT feel like making dinner. I am challenged with having a gluten free person in my home, so just ‘coming up with something’ can sometimes be quite a challenge, although not optional. But, I found some frozen meatballs for my gf kid, and the remnants of a bag of meatballs for the rest of us in the freezer. Adding some spaghetti sauce and putting them in hot dog buns made for some tasty meatball sandwiches!!! It also didn’t cost us anything ‘extra’, even though I would have rather eaten something that someone else prepared. Looks like I will need to restock the meatballs…they hit the spot with everyone…and made for easy clean-up!
Had a kid’s birthday party to go to. Re-gifted a book we had 2 of & bought 2 more books at Marshalls (paid for both what we would have paid for 1). Reused a gift bag & tissue paper we already had & skipped the card. Spent $7 total on the gift!
We were traveling today. Ate at Fazoli’s, used a coupon, drank water/juice boxes from home for the kids. Used the gas buddy app to find gas .30/gallon cheaper. Gave pics of our kids for a bday present instead of buying something. Refused to stop at every McDonald’s our four kids saw and requested to go to. 🙂
Today I saved by my son needed a pair of pants for his Halloween costume. We went to Goodwill and found some for $2. I’m sure that’s way cheaper than I would have gotten at a “regular” store or costume store. thx
I hate wasting that tiny bit of something left in a jar or bottle that you just cant get out. added water to a jar of sauce and was able to get the rest of the sauce out using every bit. I do thiis with ketchup salad dressings liquid soaps and shampoos…
After soccer games, I was thinking it would be so much easier just picking something up for lunch, instead I challenged myself to go home and make food with what we have. Turned out to be a great lunch and saved the cost of fast food for 6.
We found a great bookshelf by the side of the road when some acquaintances posted on Facebook that they were getting rid of furniture. They had also stuck a whole basket full of coloring books and crayons on the curb, so our kids were happy too. We had been needing a new bookcase for years! We also bought a new electronic piano and saved the $125 delivery fee by buying the floor model and transporting it ourselves…that was a free workout too. 😉 the kids colored in their “new” coloring books while we moved furniture. Win win win!
Instead of going out anywhere this holiday weekend I’m trying to focus on making money instead of spending any by doing a few tasks that will bring in a little bit of cash. Every little bit helps for sure.
I saved today by planning ahead. We ate lunch before leaving for the zoo. I used items received from a freezer swap, I do with friends from church! We have for membership that I asked for the children in lieu of gifts at my son’s second birthday. So, free for us. He wore a hand me down costume to boo zoo. Also, free. We all packed a water ball and snack from home, and he even scored some free candy. We had a really fun evening for 0.00 and ate leftovers from lunch for dinner! So, no need to eat out even though we were really busy!
I took garlic that I harvested this spring and replanted some of the cloves so that I can harvest more garlic this coming spring. I should hopefully never have to buy garlic to plant again!
We had a very rainy weekend, so we stayed in instead of going camping – saved the cost of the campsite.
I planned my meal plan around stuff I already had in the fridge, pantry, and freezer so I used up fresh groceries I might have forgotten and only spent $30 on groceries this week.
I saved by resisting the urge to go to starbucks, ironically 😉
Today I saved money by going out to eat with my husband using a $15 restaurant.com certificate that I bought using points from http://www.valuedopinions.com/. Love date night and have a goal this year to have two ten dollar dates a month. This one was $9.57 before the tip. (And our oldest babysat for us.)
After a long day of canning some apples I had bought in bulk, my husband asked me what I had planned for dinner. I had been focused on the apples all day, and I hadn’t even THOUGHT about dinner! I was so exhausted, and although we rarely grab take-out, I knew that’s what my sweet hubby had in mind, since he could see how tired I was. I was just about to say, “let’s grab some pizza!” when I thought about that almost non-existent savings account we were going to have to dip out of. 😉 It gave me the last-minute boost I needed to throw together a nice dinner of turkey meatloaf and some squash that needed to be used up. I was so glad that I didn’t cave in and spend money that we didn’t need to spend!
We usually eat out a ton but since discovering your website we have implemented a lot of money and time saving ideas! This whole week was clean out the fridge/pantry week. I was shocked at how many meals I could throw together by just sticking with it. So I saved money this week by using what I already had 🙂 🙂
My boys and I were in the mood for a movie night, so we went to our library, which is only a few minutes from our house, and checked out some movies!
My husband and I went out for date night. We saved money eating out by sharing an appetizer and a side salad 🙂
We normally eat outside once every weekend, but today, during lunch time, I took my daughters to filled the gas at Costco and stopped by for shopping. They tried sample foods and refused my offer to eat lunch because they said the already full 🙂 Tonite dinner also from our left over. Tomorrow their swim meet as well, so they want all healthy home meals all day. 🙂
i cashed in some Swagbucks for a Paypal deposit so Netflix and Hulu Plus are free this month! 🙂
Today’s savings I price matched several items at FoodMaxx saving over $10 on a $50 shopping trip. Not huge, but it’s something. Also bought bone in breast at .99 per pound vs boneless for 1.99lb. It’s going in the crockpot tomorrow.
I spent a lot of money today, actually, but I shopped the Columbus Day clothing sales to get some necessities for my son. Also searched out and used coupon codes for greater savings. Found a less expensive and higher quality option for my son’s Halloween costume than the actual costumes they sell. We went out for pizza at a locally-owned place and ordered their monthly special, which wound up costing half of what we usually spend there. And dinner was a cobbled-together meal using several items that were going to go bad if I didn’t use them up. It wound up being awesome.
by not going to Rite-Aid, I saved time and money (I went yesterday so I didn’t have to go again). 🙂
I saved today by going to Costco with my dad (who has a membership, we don’t) to get toilet paper and frozen blueberries. I’ve researched and they seem to be almost unbeatable prices, especially for the quality. And on the way, we went to a local junior college’s Science Expo day, for free and educational entertainment for my little girls.
Today we finished our new dining room set and moved it into our house. My husband built me a large farmhouse table (it comfortably seats 8 – and that’s without using the extensions!) using free online plans, and we stained (using stain we already had) and recovered (using half-priced fabric) what were originally pretty sad looking chairs that I found on craigslist. The final total was around $250 for the table and six chairs, which I thought was pretty good since I’ve seen tables like ours (without chairs) that cost $900-1000!
Even though it was tempting when my husband offered to bring something home for dinner, I told him we had everything for homemade pizza, saving us money on eating out.:)
Rather than stopping at the new Starbucks next to my work I had coffee to go at home, compliments of my honey.
I saved money today by hanging my clothes on the clothesline. We don’t use that much electricity in our house and our electric bill is always under $20. I just bought a house with my boyfriend but we try to save as much as we can. I am lucky enough that we bought a house that is a few blocks from my work so I ride my bicycle to work and saved a ton on gas! Thanks for all of your saving tips; they have been a huge blessing on our lives.
I saved today almost in the same way! Our family was running around town like crazy today…lots of errands and appointments. My daughter was begging me to stop at McDonalds and I was so tempted! But we headed home and found we could make a pretty great meal at home with things we already had. The kids were excited, too, because we had ingredients in the freezers to make “Orange Julius” green smoothies, so my daughter didn’t even mind missing McDonalds! 🙂
Today we saved by walking to the store for a few items that we needed. Not only did we save money on gas, but we got our exercise too. 🙂
Thanks for an awesome giveaway!
We’ve been living in our first home that we bought for over two years now. It was a fixer upper so we’ve put a lot of money into it doing the necessary fixing. My living room has had a very large empty wall that drives me nuts! I wanted to do some sort of gallery wall or a big piece of beautiful art for it but those usually cost a fortune. 2 weeks ago at our MOPS group I won a door prize of a $10 gift card to a local Christian bookstore/gift shop. Today I finically made a point to go check it out and buy something for ME. They had a great selection of the perfect size poster board, perfectly matching the rest of my living room decor and theme for $4! I couldn’t pass it up and now I will “splurge” to get a large picture frame to put it in. Finally I will no longer have a blank canvas!!!
P.S. I LOVE STARBUCKS PUMPKIN SPICE FRAPS AND LATTES!
I got 6 loafs of wheat bread at my local Kroger for .49 cent each just by making sure that I keep an open eye at the store because they were tucked away at the back of the store with no sign. I also downloaded the Ibotta, Snap, Checkout 51, and Shopmium apps today on my phone to help pay for the gallon milk and bread I purchased.
We packed all of our food for a short weekend getaway instead of going out to eat. It’s saved so much time and money!
Dropped off a box of outgrown clothes at a new consignment shop in town.
We scored a Williams Sonoma bread machine at the charity thrift shop! Marked $25, but was 25% off!!! There might’ve been some happy dancing.
I learned how to make satin flowers for my sisters wedding bouquets. She found a set she was absolutely in love with and really wanted but I couldn’t get for her. Luckily my sister was using an ombre of colors and I save all fabric scraps so I made them almost entirely of remnants and for essential items that had to be purchased I waited until I had a 50% off and a 40% off store coupon then combined it with a student discount and spent less then $20!! The set she wanted was over $600 so it was a HUGE savings!!! Yay!! I wanted very badly for her to have what she wanted on her special day but could not afford it. everyone including my sister loved them and it was extra special because it was handmade!
I used up some veggies before they got too old.
I saved by sticking to my list at the store today, no splurges at all.
Reloaded my prepaid phone for $20.67 for three months of service instead of going out to buy the new smartphone with $60/month contract.
I had my aunts watch my three kids for a day date with my hubby. We were supposed to go out to lunch but decided to just go home and eat leftovers instead so we didn’t waste money on eating out. Free babysitting and no eating out but still had some great alone time!
Learning how to make satin flowers for my sisters wedding bouquets this weekend instead of buying SUPER expensive ones on etsy. Luckily she was using an ombre of colors and I save all fabric scraps so I could use mostly remnants I already had and for things that had be purchased I combined coupons with a student discount to spend the least amount possible. I spent less then $20 the bouquets were over $600 on etsy (for the whole bridal party and they were gorgeous nothing against the designer at all they were amazing!!) they turned out great everyone including my sister loved them it was a very proud moment!! I couldn’t afford the set she wanted but new she wanted them badly so it meant a lot to my whole family!
I am tempted every night to just go out to dinner bc by 5pm I’m too tired to start dinner. But this week I’ve been doing my prep in the morning and used the crock pot as well, so all week we ate home cooked meals!
We borrowed a car from a family member for a few days after my husband’s died yesterday, instead of rushing to purchase & finance one immediately!
This evening I went to a fundraiser barn dance. I bid on a $50 gift card to the salon where I get my hair cut. I won the card with a bid of $34, and the proceeds went to ALS. A win, win!
I cut my daughter’s hair myself instead of paying to get it cut at the salon.
We opted to watch a movie on Netflix instead of renting a new release.
I bought 2 whole young chickens which were marked down to $4 each. Then I spotted a coupon for that brand on the shelf and so I got each chicken for $3, woo hoo!
We saved today by burning, composting and recycling our trash. I started making Christmas gifts instead of buying. And made our own pizza instead of getting take-out.
Took inventory of fridge/freezer and pantry – planned 4 dinners to get me thru to my mid month shop on the 15th.
Today I saved by having my parents watch my baby so my husband and I could go to my high school reunion. It was free instead of having to pay for a babysitter. Thanks for all of these giveaways too Crystal!
My husband and I had a date night planned for tonight (first one in months) but our 3 year old woke up from his nap with a fever. So we stayed home instead. My hubby ran to panera because we happened to have a gift card, and we signed up for a free month trial for netflix and watched a movie after the kiddos went to bed. Not such a bad date night after all…dinner & a movie for free, and we didn’t have to pay a babysitter either 🙂
I was asked to bring a dish to a family dinner tomorrow. I saved money by not buying shredded potatoes from the store and will shred my own that we already had.
I made bread instead of going to the store to buy some. I used a copycat Olive Garden recipe and it turned out great!
I spent time today making a list of everything I had in my refrigerator, freezer, and cupboards. Then I went through several recipe websites matching up my ingredients with fun and new recipes to try. I have enough written down now to cook good meals for the next three weeks at least! I also shampooed and hand trimmed my Kurly dog myself rather than pay thirty dollars at the groomer. It may not look as fancy, but she feels just as cool and clean.
I saved today by asking for a review of a medical bill that came in with some unexpected charges. I called the insurance company and they agreed that there were a number of charges that needed additional explanation and may be covered. I am waiting for the final bill, but I’m hopeful that by keeping an eagle eye on medical bills, I can save money.
My husband wanted to go and buy a bag of baby carrots to use in the kids’ lunches. While I know they aren’t that expensive, I told him no. There were some leftover big carrots from when I made chicken noodle soup this week. I told him to go peel a few and cut them into carrot sticks. No point in wasting what we have, just to go buy convenience packed. Every dollar saved matters.
I saved today by spending less than $30 on my weekly grocery budget. I made my own coffee this morning and stayed in crocheting (discounted yarn) winter hats and scarves for my family.
I saved today by doing some ad matches at the grocery store. Love getting the lowest prices without having to bring my kids to several stores!
By using Ibotta, Cellfire, register rewards and coupons on my shopping trips today!
I scored a WONDERFUL deal on my Halloween candy at Smiths. I was able to buy bags of fun size candy bars for a $1 a bag. My husband has also been wanting some treats for his desk at work but everything was so expensive but I was able to buy enough to stock his office too.