How has your week been??? Mine--busy like always! I did something different this week and last week--I started writing down a little list of things that I did to help save money during the week, instead of just thinking about it at the end of the week. And you know what happened? I realized that I did more than I thought I did! I don't say this to brag--only that sometimes I think we do not give ourselves "credit" for all the good stuff that we ARE doing, whether it is in saving money or other areas of life. Why is it that it is always easier to beat ourselves up over what we are NOT getting done? Anyway, something I am pondering. I am sure that I can always improve--but I think too often I sell myself short on what I am getting done. Perhaps you do this too?
Anyway, on with my week! This is not everything that was money saving--I also was busy just plain living life, so did not walk around with a notepad in my hand all week! That would be foolish of me! But this is what I got written down on my list, and I know that there were many other frugal things that I did as well.
* I cashed in my Office Depot rewards that I earned last week, and used them to purchase a box of 10 reams of computer paper. I found a coupon to use on the paper, which cut the price in half and was within a dollar of the amount that I had back in rewards. It felt pretty good to walk out of the store with my box of paper paying almost nothing for it that day, but of course in a sense I had "prepayed" when I purchased the original batteries the week before. I look at this as a "buy paper, get batteries free" kind of deal. It is just I actually bought the batteries, and got the paper free. With the coupon for the paper, it brought the paper down a little below what I would have paid at Walmart. In times past, I have been able to coupon pretty heavily and get completely free computer paper from stores like Office Depot and Staples, but I am in a busier season of life right now, so if I can get it less than Walmart price I consider it good.
*I sold a few books at a used book store. They offered me $4.00 in cash, or $9.00 in trade. I took the trade, because there are ALWAYS some books we are looking for, whether for homeschool, music books, spiritual books, cook books, health books, etc. Our family is all bookworms for sure!
*My hubby and I fixed our shower faucet ourselves! Well, mostly HE fixed it, but I did help physically with figuring out how to get the old part that was frozen up out of the fixture. I also took pictures of the torn apart faucet and helped him figure out at Lowes what parts we should buy. But he did 99% of the work. It is pretty handy to have someone like him around--I think he's a "keeper!" ;)
*I ordered a 50 pound bag of oats from a co-op. I have the space to store them in our basement, and have plastic buckets to store them in. And ordering from the co-op ends up being cheaper than Aldi's price, which is pretty good!
*My daughter and I watched a free math "Mind Benders" class through our college library system. It was fun to watch, and counts as part of our homeschool. I am always looking for enrichment things for her, and the price of free is just my price!
*I cashed in a $10 off of a $10 purchase coupon for JoAnns, and used it to purchase two skeins of yarn plus six containers of hand soap. The yarn I hope to use for a new scarf pattern I found free online. If it works out, I will end up with a pretty scarf to add to my winter wardrobe. In addition, I will have the fun of crocheting when making the project, so it is sort of a craft plus clothes shopping all rolled into one! :). The hand soap was simply a practical thing that we needed, and I like the pretty scents that the soaps sold there have.
*I trimmed our dog's nails myself. I hate trimming dog nails, probably the same amount that our dog hates having her nails trimmed! I have done her nails for years, ever since we got her and she is nine years old and we got her at age two. Before that, I was trimming my son's service dog's nails. I have cut a lot of dog nails! NOT my favorite activity, but at $20 to pay someone else to do them, I will continue to do them myself! Don't know why I never really realized and "counted" this as something that I am doing to save my family money, because I am certainly NOT doing this just for fun! But it actually made me feel better when I realized that this is also a way to bless my family, by doing it myself.
*I took our daughter to Penney's and had her school pictures taken. O.K., so this one really IS spending money, not saving, but at the same time, if you ARE wanting to get pictures taken for back to school, and you are a homeschooler so do not have a school doing picture taking, you might as well find a frugal way to have them done! I would love to hire a professional photographer to do some lovely outside pictures, but my budget does not expand for activities such as that. But I decided to see what we could do at Penney's, and I have to say I am VERY happy with the results, both price wise AND picture wise! We had signed up last month for their "Perks" membership club, which basically waves our sitting fees for two years. So I am going to get my money's worth out of joining the Perks club for sure! So we did not have any sitting fees, and I also had a coupon that made whatever pictures I did purchase just $4.00 a sheet. So one 8x10 is counted as one sheet, two 5x7's are one sheet, etc. We were able to get some REALLY nice shots, and it didn't cost all that much considering what pictures CAN cost. . .
The nice gal taking her picture was very open to any ideas that my daughter had about shots she wanted to try, and she also had some great ideas of her own.
These are just a couple shots I took on my cell phone, so the quality here is nothing like the "real" pictures turned out. The lovely dress my daughter is wearing we found at a thrift shop locally for .75 cents. It was a little big, but I adjusted the neck line up a little bit by taking it up at the shoulder seams. I also took in a little tuck at the waist on each side seam. I wanted to leave it large enough that she could still raise her arms and play the violin though. . . We also had a garment change, and had some shots with a lovely blue satin full length dress that I found up in Michigan at a thrift shop when we went to visit our son. That dress was a little more, at $7.50, but it was lovely on her. It was still a little big, and I realized I could have brought a clothes pin from home to take it up just a tiny bit in the back--and the clothes pin would never show in the pictures. But I had not thought at home to bring one--but I asked the photographer if she might possibly have one. She did not, but she did come up with a large binder clip! Yea! So we cinched up some of the extra dress in the back with the binder clip, and also used the binder clip on this black dress. A little creative thinking made the dresses fit much better for the pictures!
Well, that was much of my busy week! What did YOU find to do to bless your family this week? I am looking forward to getting ideas from you!
~Susan
1 comment:
Your daughter is beautiful - so modest and feminine. It is wonderful to see in this day.
I have found great deals at Penney's by using their coupons and charging things on my Penney's credit card. We are NOT credit card people at all, always pay off all bills every month but I found I could get points by charging. It has added up to some good savings. My oldest son wears an impossible to find size but Penney's carries it in the online catalog. I am able to shop for him (he hates it), order the clothes in his colors (he is clueless), have them arrive at a store close to him (he is lazy), he tries them on at the store and keeps or returns. He really needs to find a wife to dress him because his executive job requires smart professional attire and, bless his heart, he needs help.
Congratulations on the savings this week.
Jeannie@GetMetoTheCountry
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