I’m hoping to monthly write a blog post on some of the ways that I have noticed we are saving money recently. Sometimes I just assume that everyone knows these little ways to save money, but that is not true! Here are just a few tips on ways to save money:

1. Flex Account – Child Care
   Wow I can’t even believe how smart and awesome Flex Accounts are. I encourage anyone paying for daycare to set this up right away if your employer offers the plan. This is a tax free deduction. The money is taken out of my paycheck and put in an account and then whenever I want to I can make a claim and the money is direct deposited into my account. I check out what the savings are and it my case I have 3,500 dollars pulled out of my paychecks a year, however I only notice a 2,500 change in my pay. So by doing this Flex Account, I am saving 1,000 dollars in taxes!!! That is money that I wouldn’t get anyways and I now use to pay my day care. Please, please set one up if you have fixed amount daycare I can’t recommend these enough.
2. Credit Card Cash
   This ONLY works if you know how to wisely use a credit card and pay it off every month. Me and my husband literally put everything on our credit card that we can. And then every month we pay everything off on time. We do this because our credit card gives you 1.5% cash back on all purchases ran through there. So say I have a 200 dollar bill that I pay on the credit card. I 1) have an extra month to pay it off and 2) I receive 3 dollars back on that purchase. I know it doesn’t sound like much but it adds up quickly. You then just push a button to have the cash applied to your account (or you can have a check but it’s easiest just to have it go towards your bill) and you get free money on purchases you had to pay anyways. In 2016 me and my husband ended up with $315 dollars in cash back, free money for making purchases we needed to anyways.
3. Gift Cards
   We do a program through the Christian school in our area where we buy gift cards and the company gives a percentage to our school bill. The amount is usually only 2-5%, however every dollar counts and my mom usually saves around $300 dollars a year doing this system. We only do it for our grocery store and gas station because we want to make sure we use them. It is also super helpful with budgeting because when the gift cards run out, that means I am going over my budget for the month.