Sharing Ways We Save

Has anyone else struggled with or noticed that the cost of most things are still just going up and up.  My husband says everything goes up except his amount of pay.  Sometimes it can be tough to try and continue to pinch pennies, somedays I feel ready to give up the fight.  This week though, we carried on.


I worked more intentionally to earn swagbucks each day.  I usually make about 20.00 in gift cards a year just doing the bare minimum, but we have some personal goals we would like to meet, and every bit counts.  I have read lots of blogs that talk about earning up to 60.00 a month.  That would be nice to achieve.

We recieved a free box of food from a local church that does a bread basket and food program every other Thursday.  We recieved quite a bit.  A 1/4 sheet cake that served all week as dessert.  2 pks bologna, 2 packs of italian beef, 1 pd ground pork, 2 diet sodas, 4 water bottles, 4 packs of pop tarts, queso cheese, rolls, and bacon.  This was truly a blessing and will help keep our kitchen stocked.

I also shopped Winn Dixie and purchased some items on sale.  They mark down their things that have to sell on Mondays, and I got some great meat deals this way.

In the kitchen we made, chili, and cheese sauce for our potatoes from scratch.

My husband was treated to breakfast by his boss on Friday and lunch by a sales lady.

He also cut our kids hair.

I repurposed a dog food bag as a trash bag.

Saved .20 per gallon of gas using the fuel perks reward program at Winn Dixie.

We had a free lunch at the senior center on Saturday, a lady there gave us 4 croissants, and we had an extra piece of cake and cup of potato soup to bring home.  While out, there was also a little free bread stand we received one package of hamburger rolls, a loaf of bread, and two small apple pies.

The kids and I also stopped to look at a yard sale and found many items and most of them were just $.50

(The kids got a couple of books.  I got a new cross body purse/  We found some great items, some of which will be re-purposed as gifts for upcoming summer events. One of the little bags of jewelry was just .50 and had three pieces in it)

On Sunday with my husband we found another yard sale and got some gorgeous glasses that I will share at another time, but several weeks ago a reader shared with me about how she and her family "ate fancy" and we purchased some great glassware that will work great for the tips and ideas she shared with me.....I think her name may have been Sherry and I just wanted to say THANK YOU!  We paid 1.00 per set of 4 glasses.  I can't wait to get them cleaned up and to use them.

My daughter has a dance recital in the next couple of months, and I am not exactly a girly girl and have been struggling to figure out just how to do her hair.  Pictures are actually this coming week, and we had to figure out a style, we actually almost considered just going to the local cosmetology school and paying them to do her hair, but we decided to get up and do a "dress rehearsal" of hair and make up today.  I also took a few pictures of her myself our in the yard because I have no idea how much the studio pictures will be and if they are in our budget.  Anyway, we played around...this was our end result...

How did we do?  She really liked it.  She was excited and felt beautiful.  I took a few more shots with my regular actual point and shoot camera that I have.  I may edit those, and share another time.  I don't really know what I am doing with the hair, makeup, or the camera...but sometimes it just all works out!  I am sure this will work and we won't be paying anyone to do her hair.

We were richly blessed this week, and I know some people may or may not approve of the ways we receive our food, but it allows our dollars to be stretched in many ways, and we at times get to do some extra activities that way. 

I also want to invite you to check something a friend of mine wrote here.  It is called Beach Therapy.  It is very much worth the read, and you may want to even try it!