Being in a single income is not easy.  You have to really budget and often times you have to pass on doing fun things for financial reasons.  One thing I used to find that Saturday was our most expensive day of the week.

It was like we were celebrating it was Saturday by going to fancy ice cream shops or spending money like crazy at the mall.  Because we had all this free time, we would go to local attractions as if we were tourists and eat at a restaurant on the way home.

There's nothing wrong with all of those things. In fact, we did that for years and it was pretty awesome.

Lately when money became a little tighter, I decided to re-evaluate our Saturday regime and come up with something a little more affordable.  This was the best decision I have ever made!

Without further ado, here is a list of some of the superfun awesome things we do on Saturdays:

Get free swag!
Stores like to have events on weekends where they know you are going to drag your kids in to have fun and hopefully spend a lot of money in the meantime.  A few Saturdays ago, we left a local shopping plaza with all of this free stuff:

Toys R Us: Captain America Lego, Nintendo lanyard and key chain  Home Depot: Rio 2 Bird Feeder

We started at Toys R Us where they had a Lego event going on (these happen multiple times a month.  You can see the calendar for Toys R Us events in Canada here: http://www.toysrus.ca/shop/index.jsp?categoryId=3373022 ).  Toys R Us also had a lovely Nintendo representative in the games department that day who taught us about the new Yoshi game and gave us some super cool Nintendo swag!  I had to pick up a birthday present and I also earned Air Miles.  So all of this free stuff just for doing something I had to do anyway.

Home Depot has kids workshops every second Saturday of the month.  We love going to these!  Not only does my son get to learn how to build various items, he gets to take the project home.  When the project is completed, the kids get a little pin and a certificate. 

He even gave my grandparents a napkin holder he made himself at Home Depot as a Christmas gift.  Grannies love homemade gifts and this one was a big hit!

Explore Your City!
I grew up in this city.  I feel like I know my way around town - but every weekend we've been taking different paths and visiting areas we don't frequent very often.  We have found some amazing parks and some beautiful views that I didn't even know existed.   We usually don't even take our car.

For extra fun, I let EVILBOY decide which way we are going to go sometimes.  It's interesting to see where we end up - usually at an ice cream place - but it's actually a lot of fun letting him make the decisions sometimes.

Sometimes we even bring along a GPS or use the Nike Plus app on my iphone to track how far we've gone.


Be Creative!
I love Saturdays because I always find time to get back to the work I've been looking at and avoiding all week.  I'm kind of  on crunch time with some cosplay projects so I've been cheating and working on my balcony in the dark this week, but usually Saturdays are a good day to catch up.

EVILBOY recently has begun working with clay.  I buy it at the dollar store so it's really cheap. Unfortunately his projects always fall apart...even when we reinforce them with toothpicks.  Either we're not doing something right or we may have to get a better quality of clay.

Paper mache is also very inexpensive and very easy to work with.   Once I realized you could make bases for paper mache projects out of cardboard and not just balloons, paper mache became a great source of enjoyment for me.  Click here for a tutorial of some paper mache candies I made recently.

Local Events
Keep an eye on local newspapers, websites and social media accounts for events at libraries or local festivals that may be happening!

I'm trying this new thing.  It's called saving money by not leaving my house.  It's actually working out kind of well for me.  I figure, as long as I don't leave my house, I won't spend the money that I don't actually have (excluding the pay-per-view rentals and ebay purchases...).  As long as you don't leave your house, it doesn't count. Sort of.

The hardest thing I have had to do so far with my money saving plan is not upgrade my phone this year.  This is the first time in the history of my whole entire life that I have denied myself something shiny and new - and it really, really sucks.  This is what has to be done though - as hard as it is for me, I just don't need it.

My mom came to visit take home her devil car.  She is just the sweetest - she brought baked goods for my co-workers, made us stuffed peppers for dinner and then set me free so I could see this movie with my friend.  I had a really good night. I needed a really good night - and all was good.

This morning was one of those "I'm not leaving my bed" kind of day.  I watched a few old movies, stayed in my pj's until well after noon.  It was lovely.  Then I remembered, my mom is visiting, and I could see she was not enjoying my laziness.   So I showered, and got dressed - sort of, and off we went to a thrift store.

I saw this at the thrift store a couple weeks ago. Today it was gone. Somebody is not spending their money wisely...I mean they have BROKEN ARMS!

It was hard not spending money - especially in one of my most favourite places in the world!  There were so many things I wanted to buy... a little glass bird, printed Tupperware...I left it all behind to protect my bank account.  It was hard.

It's like an alcoholic hanging out in a bar, only instead of cheap bourbon, my vice is your used shit. I spent the rest of the day cowering under my covers and putting my bank card in a block of ice.

How do you save money?

HMV in White Oaks Mall is having a clear-out sale.  Kind of sad to see them go honestly, but I can never pass up these store closure sales!  Right now you can get items at up to 60% off. Most items are at 10% off still, but you can find some pretty amazing deals.

Tonight I got Jeff Buckley's greatest hits for $4.50.  It's almost sad to buy the great Jeff Buckley who provided the entire soundtrack to my 1998 trip to England.  Some arseholes broke into my apartment and stole that CD and I've been mourning its loss for a very long time.  Also:  who even buys CDs anymore?

Anyway....it's a great sale and I am sure the prices will come down more over the next week or so!

Sears Canada has 50% off clearance toys this week! I managed to finish my Christmas shopping for all the kids on my list this weekend and I spent a total of $110.

I got Hot Wheels sets for around $10, I got a V.Tech reader (regular $69.99) for $8. I also got a Paper Jam guitar for $7 and some Transformers (around $5). There were also many newer toys like Squinkies ($5) and Zoobles as well

The best part is, it hasn't been very picked over because not many people know about the sale and they keep bringing out new items.

***If you are in London, Ontario, the Westmount Mall location has a bigger selection than Masonville and their clearance prices are more reasonable. ***

Hope you get some great deals!

UPDATE: (11/23) As of last night, the sale signs have been pulled down. A friend spoke with a sales consultant who informed her that the sale had been pulled due to incorrect signs. 

Two years ago I bought Mason a $4 winter jacket at Old Navy. I was lucky that he wore it all last winter. When this winter came around, I thought of getting him a new coat but this $4 jacket was in such good condition, even after a whole season of wearing it, that I just didn't feel the need.

Fast forward to this afternoon. I picked up Mason at daycare, zipped up his coat and off we went. Half way down the street I noticed his jacket was starting to unzip. I wondered if I actually did it up all the way or not and then did it up again. A few steps later, I looked back down and it was down again. Broken zipper...arrrgh!!

I had to take him to the mall to find a new winter jacket. I didn't want to spend a whole lot because a)This jacket was only $4 and it lasted 1.5 seasons...where am I going to find that deal again?? and b)I like to buy new winter jackets at the beginning of the season...it's just my thing!

Where to find a cheap jacket? Wal-mart!! Did they have any?? No of course not!! :/ Next stop The Children's Place...$34.99 for a jacket that felt as thin as a garbage bag. Not likely. Feeling defeated, with nowhere else to turn, I went to The Bay where I found a $20 jacket and earned 950 HBC points on top of that (woohoo).

It's not my favourite jacket ever...light grey with "fur" around the hood...but at least the zipper stays up!

Today we spent a lot of time outside fixing up some "problem areas" in the backyard. First of all I wanted to put up my clothesline. It's one of those old fashion "umbrella" type things...wow...this is a "quotation-y" post ha ha ha!! Normally this would be an easy task. You just have to go to the hardware store and spend $24.99 for the little metal piece that goes into the ground. Do I like to spend $24.99 on a stupid piece of metal that goes into the ground?? Hell no!!! I'm too cheap! So I do what any good bargain hunter does...I improvise (which was also a pet peeve of mine growing up since my mom usually "improvised" which one year led me to having nylons on my head spray painted green to look like a martian for Halloween.).