Saving on Shopping Archives

Read real-world examples of saving on shopping and learn to apply these simple tips to your own shopping routine.

I Fixed Our Fridge’s Ice Dispenser for $20.14

June 26, 2024

About 4 months ago, our refrigerator stopped dispensing ice. It would still provide nice cold water, but whenever we switched to the ice setting, the fridge would just make a clicking noise. I immediately assumed that it would be an expensive fix (which turned out to be wrong). I’m embarrassed to say that I didn’t really look into it much at the time and just started emptying the ice into a bucket that we kept in the freezer. I just…

Stuck at Home? Take the “Food On Hand” Mega Meal Plan Challenge

March 22, 2020

Joni Smith

Food, Saving on Shopping

Inspired by current events and the need for my family to self-isolate, I decided to do the “Food On Hand” Mega Meal Plan Challenge. After inventorying all of our food, we were able to make a meal plan that should last us at least 3 more weeks – without going grocery shopping!

Save BIG Money by Shopping Online: Real Life Scenario Refrigerator Edition

February 28, 2020

Joni Smith

Home, Money Saving Apps, Saving on Shopping

In this post, I share how you can save money on a refrigerator. Our family bought our refrigerator for half off the retail price simply by shopping online. We literally saved more than $1,600 on a brand new refrigerator!!!

Lessons I learned from a DIY Fail: Microwave

February 27, 2019

Joni Smith

Home Projects, Saving on Shopping

Sometimes, DIY projects don’t go as planned. But that doesn’t mean that they can’t provide plenty of lessons and still work out in the end. Find out what happened when our Microwave broke and we tried to fix it.

Make Your Own Farmhouse Table for $75 – Part 2: Finishing the wood

August 30, 2018

Joni Smith

Home Projects, Saving on Shopping

So you now have a farmhouse table with unfinished wood. (If you don’t and want to make your own, get instructions here. Or if you have any project with unfinished wood, read on for simple instructions to finish it.) That table wood definitely needs to be finished before use. Otherwise, you’re going to stain or scratch the table with things that you did not want to stain and scratch it with. Like food, crayons, water rings, milk, any liquids soaking…

Trash to Treasure - DIY Patio Chair Transformation

Patio Chair – “Trash to Treasure” DIY Transformation

August 14, 2018

Joni Smith

Outdoor DIY, Saving on Shopping

Do you ever pass furniture and random items that people have put out at the curb for trash pickup? Well, I recommend taking a closer look when that happens and you might find your next cheap and easy project! I’ve started doing this in the last few months and have picked up a coffee table (which just needed some screws tightened to make it like new again), a small desk (which I up-cycled into an entryway bench and garden supply…

11 Facts that will make you want a cordless electric lawn mower

11 Reasons You Should Switch to a Cordless Electric Mower

July 2, 2018

Joni Smith

Saving on Shopping, Yardwork

Buying a cordless electric mower ten years ago has been one of the best purchases we’ve ever made!!! In fact, I feel that way about a lot of the electric items that we’ve switched to using over the years, like our electric car and robot vacuum cleaner. But back to the electric mower. Did you know that the average lifespan of a lawn mower is 8-10 years? If you have a traditional push mower, you’ll have all those years of…

Make your own tall planters and save over $100 on each

May 15, 2018

Joni Smith

Gardening & Growing, Outdoor DIY, Saving on Shopping

Since moving into our home nearly four years ago, I had a plan to put some nice tall planters on our front stoop. But I just never got around to it. Whenever I saw them for sale in the store or online, the tall planters (nearly 3 feet high) would go for more than $150 EACH! So I resolved to figure out how to make my own. Luckily, Pinterest came to my rescue and I found this wonderful tutorial on…

How to Clean Your Own Gutters to Save Money

December 4, 2017

Joni Smith

Home Projects, Outdoor DIY, Saving on Shopping, Yardwork

It is extremely important to clean the gutters on your home at least once a year. Twice a year is even better. You don’t want to skip it. Why? Gutter cleaning is one of those small home maintenance jobs that keeps other bigger and badder things from happening. However, it can be a bit expensive to hire someone to clean the gutters for you. For our smaller home, it would run about $100 per gutter cleaning. So I tried to…

How I Saved over $300 on Glasses for My Kid

September 28, 2017

Joni Smith

Health & Fitness, Saving on Shopping

My kiddo was so lucky! Her eyes held out until second grade before needing assistance in seeing. I myself had to get glasses in first grade. She suddenly was struggling to read the board at school and the teacher moved her to the front row. So off we went to the eye doctor. Luckily, our health insurance includes vision coverage for dependents, so we didn’t have to have separate vision insurance for the appointment or for the glasses-or so I…