Every month I make a savings challenge and work to eliminate excess spending. In short, spending wisely is our goal instead of being miserly or trying to out-cheap someone else. Sometimes it is better money management to spend more on quality rather than to take the cheap highway. I also factor my time into the spending well equation. If my time is better served to earn money and pay someone else to change my oil or clean my house. This is money well spent. So go forth and make good money decisions.
Eye Glasses- (saved $175.00)
My son with Type 1 diabetes, had his first checkup of the year, with his eye surgeon, to check on the size of his cataracts. His cataracts haven’t grown but his eyesight has gotten worse. I saved money ordering his new eyeglass prescription through Zenni Optical. They have affordable frames. You will need to measure the PD (pupillary distance) on your own with their printable rulers or ask the eye doctor. PD isn’t usually listed on the prescription. Our cost was $35.90. We saved $175.00 vs purchasing at an optical store.
*additional savings, before ordering, join Swagbucks here and receive 300 Swagbucks for joining using my referral link. You can earn Swagbucks points redeemable towards gift cards for many popular places. I trade mine in regularly for Amazon gift cards! Always check Swagbucks before ordering online. I installed their Swagbucks button for my laptop which reminds me, before I order, from a retailer who participates in Swagbucks. Earn additional Swagbucks for watching videos, playing Swag games, redeeming SwagCodes from their social media platforms, surveys, and taking the daily poll.
Plumbing (saved $179.00)
One of our toilets began filling with water without turning off. I replaced the toilet fill valve after watching a YouTube video. Saved a couple of hundred dollars not calling a plumber. Total time to drain, remove, and install new fill valve: 20 minutes. My cost was $10.04 for a new fill valve.
Library (saved $42.68)
Borrowed 3 books, including a newly published book, from the library. The Weekend Homesteader, The House of Sky and Breath, and 31 Days to a Clutter-Free Life. The cost of all three books would have been $42.68 had I purchased them on Amazon.
BLOG SCHOOL Training (saved $1995)
Elite Blog Academy has an enormous following of 1+million followers and offers a once-a-year Blog Training Course, with limited enrollment in March. At the beginning of February, the Elite Blog Academy had a giveaway for an ALL ACCESS PASS for their Build Your Business Workshop, on Instagram! I was the lucky winner!
I’m halfway through the training and am impressed by the content for both beginning, and advanced bloggers. One of the keys to successful blogging is consistency and streamlining the visionary process by establishing goals along with weekly accountability. I feel more accountable knowing that I am putting value into my blog every day and showing my blog work to my mentor and classmates.
Pinterest Training Class (saved $99.00)
I signed up for a free 90-minute training class on maximizing Pinterest for traffic acquisition.
Food: Dining Out (saved $360.00)
We eliminated dining out and instead dined in and enjoyed Homemade Sushi and Pelmeni (Siberian-style dumplings). We love to eat a variety of International Fare so I made some of our favorites at home. Check out my recipes for Australian Sausage Rolls, Takeaway Chinese Chicken and Mushroom with Brown Sauce, and American Meatloaf 2.0 (a standard Gen X dinner remade).
Food: Groceries (saved $60.00)
I was able to find some Christmas Hams and Turkeys for 99 cents a pound at the market. I bought 4 of each.
Food: Fancy Drinks ( saved $56.00)
Food: Groceries-Low Carb (saved $59.00)
Baked 4 homemade bread, 2 loaves of raisin bread in the West Bend bread machine. Made Protein Sparring bread, 4 batches-12 count keto blueberry muffins, and double batch homemade zero sugar marshmallows for hot chocolate. The cost if bought at the store $75.00. My cost for making it at home $16.00.
Zero Sugar marshmallows
Haircut (saved $25.00)
I cut my teen son’s hair at home with our hair clippers. Saved $25.
Garden Seeds (ongoing savings)
I picked up 4 packets of flower seeds at the Dollar Tree for $1.00. Saved seeds from an Heirloom Red Kuri Squash that I cooked this month. One Red Kuri squash had over 200 usable seeds in it. I plan to give many of those away to friends. Fortunately, I still have garden seeds that I ordered last year which I will use this year. In addition, I have raspberry, strawberry, blueberry, and numerous perennial plants that will produce food or flowers. Did you know you can eat Hosta plant shoots in early spring? Harvest when they are 5-6″ tall and cook like asparagus. Spoilers: they taste like asparagus too.
Taxes (saved $100.00)
I filed State and Federal taxes using Taxact software for Self-employed filers. Cost $113.00. Logged into Swagbucks to get back 10% of my payment credited as Swagbucks. CPA costs $225.00.
Exercise @ MyHomeGym (monthly savings $100)
Used our not-Peloton spinning bike (Amazon link) and free spinning classes from Kaleigh Cohen Cycling, which played on our television. Jumping on the Rebounder trampoline. The 10-minute workout is equivalent to 30 minutes of cardio/running. Yes, I’ll take jumping, please. This rebounder has bungees that are easy on the joints and a lot quieter. We haven’t been going to martial arts classes but we are practicing our forms at home. Knowing how to fall without hurting ourselves has been saving our collective keisters every winter. We had a nice sleet ice storm which gave my son and me, 60 minutes of workout time scraping the ice off the driveway. Monthly savings of $100 in gym memberships.
Car (saved $70.00)
I replaced the cabin air filter in the Jeep Wrangler. Saved $70 by installing it myself vs. Jeep Dealership. Cost: $24 for a cabin filter on Amazon and my sinuses are happier with a clean filter. Steve and I both work 100% from home so we are saving by not having a daily commute(time and fuel) and eating at restaurants.
The little things do add up to be bigger savings.
How did you save money in February??
*affiliate links are used at no extra cost to you for Amazon, Swagbucks in this article.
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