Five Ways We Saved Money In May

May. Was. Crazy.

Why? Because it rained every day. Or at least very nearly every day.

I also made a four day trip up to Tennessee with Garrett – 13 hour drive there, 1 day visiting family and friends, 10 hours driving in east Tennessee, and then 13 hours back home to Texas.

That was crazy too, and when I got home, I set my morning alarm up forty-five minutes later than normal, thinking it would give me time to catch up on sleep. HAHAHA. I turned the alarm off and slept until 7:30. That happened three mornings in a row.

But of course, that all has nothing to do with the various ways we saved money this month, which is really what you came here for, right?

Five Ways We Saved Money In May

1. Stockpiled ground beef. Our local grocery store had a major sale on ground beef, and I may have gone just a teeny bit overboard with the whole stocking up thing. I think we’re set for about two months now, and having a freezer full of food always makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. This is the why behind the $20 shopping list. It lets you save back – essentially stockpile – grocery money so that while you’re eating a bit of a boring diet for a while, down the road, you can take advantage of awesome sales, and eat better for less overall.

2. Took advantage of R.E.A.D.S an online library system connected to our local library. I’m really excited about all the online audiobooks they have. It’s so much easier to plug in earbuds as I’m washing dishes and folding laundry than it is to actually sit down and read!

3. Got a dog. WUT? Yeah, I know. She actually costs us money what with feeding her and such, but hear me out. I’ve been keeping my eye on craigslist and several buy/sell/trade Facebook groups for months waiting for the right dog to pop up. I wasn’t dead set on a specific breed since I knew that there was no way I was going to find a shar pei for cheap or free. I just wanted a smallish dog that was good natured. I think having a pet would be good for the kids. Well, this chihuahua finally popped up on a Facebook group for free, and she was perfect! So I took the leap and snagged her. She was free! I guess the moral to the story is, be patient and keep your eye open.

4. Stayed home a lot. Not including my frantic hurry-scurry trip to Tennessee of course. 😛 We chose to stay at home and spend time together as a family rather than going out which of course burns gas, and tempts us (me) to spend money that we don’t need to spend.

5. Combined our trips. When we did go out for shopping and such, we combined our trips. I don’t really mean that we combined them in the sense that we went went to Aldi, and H.E.B in one trip (although we did), but that I worked my shopping needs around Gabriel’s. He tends to be more fly-by-the-seat-of-the-pants, and I tend to be more scheduled. So instead of setting a specific day to go shopping, I got my lists ready, and waited until he had to run an errand in town. That doesn’t always work, but it did this month. 🙂

We’re doing some more traveling this month – starting tomorrow actually (What is up with this?!) – to visit Gabriel’s grandmother, and (hopefully) my new nephew (who’s welcome to make his grand appearance at any time!). Traveling is expensive, but we’ve found that there are also lots of ways to make it cheaper, and I’m looking forward to finding new ways to save this month!

What ways did you save money recently?