• Disclosure Policy
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Contact

Protecting Your Pennies

Buy Smart. Plan. Play

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • YouTube
  • Home
  • Trim Healthy Mama
    • Meal Plans
    • What I Ate Wednesday
    • Recipes
      • Breakfast
      • Main Meal
      • Desserts
      • Snacks
  • Buy Smart
    • Discounts
    • Holidays
    • Sales & Deals
  • Plan
    • Holiday Treats
    • Cleaning & Organization
  • Play
    • Travel
    • Kid Activities
    • Gifts
  • About Me
  • Contact
  • Shop
  • Cart
  • Checkout

saving money

No Spend January 1 Week Review

January 10, 2020 by Stacy Craft Leave a Comment

The things that I learned during my first no spend week and the place that I overspent (and why I’m ok with it). 

Copy of No Spend Month Week 1 Review

I started a No Spend January plan just over a week ago.

After evaluating my spending from January of the prior year it was clear that my spending had gotten out of control.

I wanted to use this no spending purge as a time to focus on financial goals, cut back on frivolous spending and get back to my frugal ways.

It has only been a week but these short few days have taught me a lot!

Affiliate Links are used in this post. A small commission may be paid to me at no extra cost to you and that helps to support this page. Please see my disclosures page for additional information.

No Spend January 1 Week Review

Sharing about my finances and decisions seems very personal to me but I am hoping that you might find something useful to meet your own goals.

Using What We Owned

I think it was on day 2 of my spending freeze that I “needed” my first item.

As I was cleaning, I realized we were out of those little tiny bathroom trashcan liners.

Now keep in mind that I did allow myself to purchase core items (food, needed household supplies/consumables) as part of the no spend January project. So I could technically go out and purchase them without breaking my goal.

But then I started thinking. Instead of spending $4 on a new roll of bags, I could just do what my grandparents always did.

So I lined that trashcan with a grocery bag and saved my $4!

Delayed Grocery Shopping

Sunday came around and I found myself saying that I “needed” to go to the grocery.

We were out of basics like bananas and bread.

And I had school lunches and dinners to prepare for the week so I should go and pick those things up plus a week more of food.

But the truth was that we had plenty of food. It just wasn’t the things that I necessarily wanted. The things that make day to day tasks a little easier.

So I spent the next 4 days cooking from my pantry and fridge.

Homemade lunchables were made for the kids instead of purchasing them.

A less than fresh loaf of cinnamon bread was transformed into French toast. The extra slices were frozen for a simple breakfast for the kids.

We ate all the apples and every grape. There was so much less waste than normal.

We had breakfast for dinner one night to use up the last of the eggs and some sausage that needed to be cooked. My kids love brinner!

So instead of going to the grocery just because that was my habit, I waited until we really needed to.

If you spend an average of $15 a day on food for your family, that means that delaying shipping for 4 days saves $60!

Yes!

Changing Grocery Habits

When I finally did get to the store, I noticed that my mentality was different from other trips.

Instead of mindlessly grabbing a box of cereal because I always do, I remembered that we had half a box at home. And with my homemade French toast and a few other breakfast options, we didn’t need a new box for the week.

Shopping Sales/Clearance

Ibotta also came back into my life. I found a few things that I would use this week that could be purchased at a good price when combined with a rebate.

I got a $3 rebate in my Ibotta account after my shopping trip. Doesn’t seem like much but it add up.

Shopping the clearance produce section is something I traditionally pass right by. I’m a smidge picky about quality and state of my produce.

So with my bag of $5 apples and $4 pears, I pushed past the clearance bin of fruit past it’s prime. But this time I stopped.

And as I looked, the fruit that I expected to be bruised and battered looked quite good.

For .99 I got 5 Granny Smith apples and only one had a small bruise. Another .99 got a bag of amazing pears. There were a couple that looked ugly but they were not really bad.

In fact, they seemed a lot better than the rock hard pears that I was about to spend $4 on and not be able to eat in the near future.

So I saved my $9 and put the pears and apples back. Into my cart went the ugly pears and the one bruised apple.

Tonight I peeled the ugliest pear in the bunch. And my daughter ate it up and asked for more! Mom win.

Avoided Triggers

A few days in, I was scrolling Facebook and happened upon one of my favorite BST groups for kids clothing.

A woman was doing a clothing purge of the cutest stuff and it was in my son’s size. And it was at Incredible prices.

Without even thinking, I typed out my email address, readying myself for the next item that would be listed so that I could swoop in and purchase it.

OMG! I am not supposed to be spending money! I felt like someone had swatted me on the hand.

Since then, I have tried to be present in what I’m doing. I am deleting my favorite smocked clothing company emails as soon as they hit my inbox.

Why open them? I’m not going to buy.

Overspending

While sharing the no spend January 1 week review, it is only fair to share both the ups and downs.

And I want to be clear right off the bat, I don’t consider this a failure!

After not buying unneeded stuff for 7 whole days, I have been on a decluttering binge (more on that in a minute)!

So in my original no spend January post, you learned that we have a ton of family birthdays in January.

One of those happens to be my husband’s! He asked for one thing that he needed, a new belt.

But after I bought that, I had some leftover in my gift fund to buy something else. I spent a few hours luxuriously browsing the online aisles of some of my favorite retailers that I had been intentionally avoiding.

Originally I was searching out several options and piecing out a way to make it work within my set budget.

Then I realized that I was just buying stuff so that my husband would have a couple of gifts to open. Would he have liked the items? Probably.

Would they have really been something that he truly wanted? Something that wouldn’t get pushed back on a shelf and forgotten about? Probably not.

So I decided to overspend in the gift category. And I bought him an outdoor heater for our porch. It is something that we have discussed at least 20 times over the last two years.

Something that will allow us to get outdoors and spend more time together as a family. An item that I think we will still be using frequently a year or two from now.

Intentionally (and with the money in hand) I overspent on a gift for my dear husband. And I’m not sorry about that!

Found Treasure

You may have picked up on the words ” being present” throughout this no spend January week 1 review.

Being present is a goal of mine in 2020. Enjoying the now.

I didn’t expect my no spend month to influence that goal but it has.

Instead of spending tons of time online shopping or mindless browsing retailers looking for sales, I have been doing other things.

And one of those things is decluttering. When you stop buying things, it seems to make you want less things around.

I started this week decluttering my bathroom vanity. I tossed tons of old makeup, expired items and donated more cosmetic bags than I would like to admit.

But my favorite thing this week was some found treasure! Under a box of old makeup was a pair of earrings that my husband gave me that I thought I lost more than a year ago!

So today, although I didn’t buy anything new, I had a pair of earrings that made my day.

Books & Media During No Spend Time

The other thing that I wanted to share during this No Spend January 1 Week Review was the books and show that I watched this week that pertain to spending. 

I listened to the audiobook called The Year of Less. It came from the library Libby app so I didn’t spend any money on it before you ask. 

The book was an interesting look into the life of a woman that decided to stop spending for a year and declutter tons of her belongings. 

She shares her victories and struggles as she went through that year. 

The other thing that I wanted to share is a Netflix documentary called Minimalism: A Documentary about the Important things. The minimalists are two guys traveling around and sharing their story of getting rid of all their things. 

I appreciated their approach and the documentary also shares the story of a few other families that have chosen to live simply.

Filed Under: Featured, Plan Tagged With: frugal habits, no spend, saving money

4 Ways to Save Money On A Chuck E. Cheese Birthday Party

October 30, 2018 by Stacy Craft Leave a Comment

We love birthdays in our home and are known for celebrating birthday month instead of just one single day. See how I am going to save money on a Chuck E. Cheese birthday party and how you can too!

4 Ways to Save Money On A Chuck E. Cheese Birthday Party

(Affiliate Links are used in this post. A small commission may be paid to me at no extra cost to you and that helps to support this page. Please see my disclosures page for additional information.)

Birthday parties for kids at an establishment can get expensive very quickly. What happened to the days of having cake and ice cream at your house and just playing? Geez. I mean I get it. The big and elaborate, Pinterest worthy parties at lovely venues make for great pictures and are super fun. But many of us want to find ways to please our children and not spend a fortune at the same time.

My daughter chose to have her 5th birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese so I went on a mission to see how we could do that in the most economical way possible. I wanted to save money on a Chuck E. Cheese birthday party and still have the magical experience that my daughter desired.

Save Money on a Chuck E. Cheese Birthday Party

Book the Star Package

The Star package is the least expensive package that you can purchase. When you choose this package, it will automatically prompt you to upgrade. It is “only $5” per kid and may seem tempting because it shows you that you get a lot more stuff. If you upgrade, you receive 15 more tokens per child, a souvenir cup per child, 250 extra tickets for birthday kid and some extra balloons.

I have been to what feels like 100 birthday parties at Chuck E. Cheese’s and I can honestly say that I have never noticed rather a table has 3 balloons (included with the Star package) or 6. I don’t think your kid will either.

The souvenir cup is not something that I personally think is worth it. The kids already get unlimited drinks in the regular paper cups that are provided with your party. To me, the magic is in playing the games and riding the rides not a cup that may or may not get taken home.

If you move to the next package, you receive an additional 250 bonus tickets for the birthday child. You get 250 with the Star package (so you would get a total of 500 with the upgrade). Again, to me this is not worth it because my child is going to get birthday presents at the party. I don’t feel the need to upgrade the party for additional tickets to get extra stuff at the toy counter.

You also get 15 more tokens per child if you upgrade. To me, this would be the most legitimate reason for upgrading. If you have 10 kids coming, that is an extra 150 tokens that you are paying $50 for (if you agree with me that the other extras that you get are not really worth it). If you keep reading, I will show you how to get 120 additional tokens for free. So you can save money on a Chuck E. Cheese birthday party and go with the Star package.

Book the Party Online

Book your party online to get 20 free play points. It is that easy. The online process is easy to use and you can see available dates and times. You can also set up your deposit payment online and avoid having to make a trip up to the location (which I would probably never remember to do).

Book Friday, Sunday or Saturday Morning at 10

If you book a party anytime on a Friday or a Sunday or Saturday morning during the 10:00 time slot, you get 100 free play points. I love that they offer this for the early morning Saturday party. Friday or Sunday parties are not usually possible for us but the Saturday morning time works awesome!

We can get to Chuck E. Cheese, party all morning, eat lunch and still be home for nap time. And get extra play points for free just for booking that early time. Use them at the party for unexpected guests or if you don’t need them, save them for a rainy day. If you are feeling generous, bless someone walking in the door that is bringing their kids in to play. I think that would be such a fun thing to do.

Use Coupons for Extras

On the Chuck E. Cheese website, they always have great coupons that you can print or save to your phone. There are two ways to save money on a Chuck E. Cheese birthday party using these coupons.

When we have parties, I am always worried that a sibling or someone that I had not planned for might show up and need tokens (maybe someone forgot to RSVP). Or there may be a kid or two that use all their tokens up in 30 minutes and have nothing to do for the next hour. You can buy extra play points using a coupon that is a pretty good deal.

I often see a coupon for 100 points for $20. Every time that I have used this coupon, the staff has been good about breaking the amount up over a few cards for me so that you don’t have to give 1 child a card with 100 tokens on it.

There are usually food coupons online as well. The pizza prices are usually the same that you are offered during the birthday party online booking. But you will find good deals on drinks using a coupon. For example, there is a coupon currently for 2 large pizzas for just over $30. That is the same price you will get during birthday booking. The kicker is that with the coupon, you also get 4 drinks. The drinks are $2.49 for adults so that is right at a $10 savings using the coupon. That is great if you want to have food and drinks for your adult guests.

I am not sure if they will let you use the coupon at the actual birthday party (I will find out at our party booked in a few weeks for sure). Worst case, I will send my husband or Dad to order and just pay for it separately from the party.

Chuck E. Cheese Birthday Party Value

Chuck E Cheese pizza with kids at Birthday party

Last year I started searching different kid focused venues for birthday parties when it was nearing our birthday season. Several different places that I searched for had parties that started out at $250 or $300 before you even added food. In addition, many of these large dollar amount parties included a very limited number of kids. In order to get the number of kids included that we needed, some of these places would end up costing $450-$500.

I just couldn’t justify spending that type of money on a birthday party. The Chuck E. Cheese facility really offers a nice middle ground. It offers an indoor space (which we need for a December birthday) and the kids love it. Overall, I feel like the money spent is a good value for the experience that your kids receive. Especially if you follow these tips to save money on a Chuck E. Cheese birthday party.

Do you have any money saving tips for a Chuck E. Cheese experience? I hope this list helps you save money on a Chuck E. Cheese birthday party for your child.

Filed Under: Buy Smart Tagged With: birthday party, Chuck E. Cheese, frugal, how to, kids, saving money

Primary Sidebar

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • YouTube

Subscribe & Never Miss a Recipe!

A Little About Me

Hey - I'm Stacy! Join me on a journey to buy smart, plan and save so that you can also PLAY!

Copyright © 2023 · Lifestyle Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in