Show and Tell Tuesday | Steal & Splurge

I'm so psyched to be joining this link up.   I'm linking up to Andrea and today I'm sharing how I save my family lots of money and what I think is worth the splurge.

Steals:

1.  Amazon Prime 

This is something that more than pays for itself.  You get free two day shipping, access to all kinds of videos and tv shows, you get to use Prime now, the prices are very competitive and the list could go on.  It's definitely a steal for our family.

2.  Costco membership

Again the membership more than pays for itself.  I not only use it for food, but also for the gas (lowest by far) and also for ordering pictures or large prints as well as refilling printer ink cartridges.  Love this steal for my family.

3.  Aldi's for grocery shopping  

Ya'll if you are fortunate to have an Aldi's near you totally try it out.  I can do a weeks worth of shopping for my family of three for around $60.  That includes fruit/veggies, meats, dairy, etc.  All of it!  I try to shop there as much as possible because the savings are HUGE!

4. Public Library

 Okay so this technically isn't a steal or maybe it is, but I use my public library for all of my reading material as well as getting movies and books for John, my library has a great children's section and I love to take him in and let him go crazy.  And it's completely free!  Probably saves me somewhere in the 3 figure range because I love to read!!

Splurge:

1.  Childcare

And trust me we learned the hard way.  Long story short, my husband and I both work full time so we needed full time childcare and we went with the closest one to our house.  Big mistake, lesson learned.  So when we chose the daycare that our son is at now it was for the safety, staff, curriculum, and bonus they provide food for our son.  So while it's the more expensive it's worth every penny!

2.  Gym membership

We pay a decent amount for our gym membership because it has indoor family pools as well as a great outdoor pool facility that we use all the time in the summer.  Plus they have an amazing kidzone that we can use if we want to drop John off and go work out.  (we rarely use that though). 

3.  Target trips (vacation)

 Oh man, I don't splurge on one thing per se but more just everything.  You've heard the story a million times, you walk in with two things on your list and $120 later you walk out with 6 bags full of things you didn't realize you needed.  Target is an evil genius.   

4.  Starbucks

Do I really need to pay $5 for a coffee?  No I don't, but I do anyway.  I have no reason for justifying either, I just do.

#truth