My "thing" is a little frivolous, however I am going to say our Zoo membership. For our "big" zoo it's $75/yr for a family membership. A single trip for me, my 4kids (1 is still free) and parking would be $38 - not to mention an additional $12 if DH came with us. Last year we LIVED at the zoo in the summer visiting every other week at least (really!!). My kids love it - it has saved us $100's of dollars, not to mention giving us something fun to do (and access to their Free members only events & admittance discounts to other zoos).

This year we live an hour away - but I still think I am getting the membership. It's just so worth it to me

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I was going to say this too!! General admission is up to about $9 pp, children and seniors being a bit less. It costs about$40 for my whole family to go in one day. SO we purchased a membership for $70, that pays for itself in 2 visits. And as members of the zoo, we get advanced notice of any upcoming functions and things of that nature. AND we got the membership that includes guests, so I can bring friends and thier children for free as well.

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~Missy~Mommy
Meghan9.Samantha7,Cameron5

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Great post!

I often ask myself this question before I buy something.

I try to "do the math" on something before I consider buying it.

Example. Seven years ago now, I really wanted to try the Diva Cup and Lunapads . I calculated that I was spending $12 a month on supplies. The cost of the cup and pads was about $120. So I calculated that I would need to use the products for at least a year to pay itself off, and then at the one year mark, I'd be saving $12 a month. After 7 years of using the products, I have saved $720 (6 years x $120 - the first year paid for the product and doesn't count) not to even mention the savings to the environment!

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Mom to dd (age 9) and ds (age 11)
blogging daily about purpose and personal identity

lets see i have a few things

the pool(i did not buy it the inlaws did) it costs me $11 dollars to fill it up with 2500 gallons and the chemicals cost me about 25 for the year(fil bought me tons last year so i only needed shocker this year) and it only cost me about $30 bucks to run the pump all summer. and we used it almost everyday so it saved me in pool costs and gas to get to the nearest pool 35 min away....

our new windows and siding have saved us tons of money over the last 6 years..we are better insulated we really see this in the winter we used to use 2 tanks of fuel oil for our furnace the last 5 years we have only used one.

programable thermostat i recommend this to everyone this has cut our bills by a good 25 bucks a month...

flourecent bulbs they are brighter use less energy and last longer...

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SILENCE IS GOLDEN BUT DUCK TAPE IS SILVER.

we bought a tent!! and I am planning on it paying for itself in us camping and even just camping out in the back yard and being a family!!!

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We, too, bought a little car a few years ago for DH to drive back and forth to work. It paid for itself in gas and insurance savings in 13 months.

We purchased a high efficiency washer/dryer set. I haven't done the math, but it should pay for itself in detergent savings (I can use the make my own versus the expensive brand I had to use before plus it takes less!), water savings (water bill decreased $8/mo), and decreased wear and tear on clothes.

We, like most of you, have hair clippers. They pay for themselves in one setting. Cost of clippers is about $30. Four haircuts for all the males at our house would be $48!

entertainment.com coupon book cost me $9.95. My first coupon used was for $9.95 off at Dick's Sporting Good. Everything else was bonus! I passed along anything I didn't use.

Heated mattress pad cost us $50 on sale. We can keep our heat a few degrees lower at night to save on heating costs PLUS it helps our achey muscles!

Cloth diapers & cotton training pants more than pay for themselves in disposable diapers & pants savings!

Breastpumps quickly pay for themselves in formula and healthcare savings.

A waffle maker can pay for itself in no time if your family eats a lot of frozen waffles.

We bought a wet (tile) saw so that we could lay our own ceramic tile in the bathroom. It costs $100. It saved us from having the tile professionally installed. Plus, we can use it to lay the new countertops and backsplashes in the kitchen and the basement entry tile. More than payed for itself!

I'm sure there are plenty of other tools we've purchased that have allowed us to do the same sort of thing. i.e. extension poles to paint the outside of the house, brad gun to install trim, wallpaper brush & roller

Lots of "how-to" books have paid for themselves. Cookbooks allow me to make things that I might normally buy ready-made.

Our internet service has saved us a ton, too. (Of course, ours is free as DH's work pays for it.) We've used sites to diagnose appliance problems and make the repairs ourselves (reset the stove from a faulty error message instead of calling a repair man and/or replacing a part, replacing the icemaker, learning to reset the diagnostics on the Dodge Dakota Quad cab instead of taking it to a mechanic, I could go on and on), buy discounted items (icemaker $40 instead of $125 from the retailer, camera $600 instead of $1200, not to mention all the freebies and great sales), etc. I can't even imagine the savings it's allowed us.

I'm sure there are plenty more, but that's all that's coming to mind right now!

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Homeschooling Mom to Daniel (13 Years), Andrew (10 Years), Stephen (8 Years) and Emily (4 Years)

Of course...it's a vacuum sealer!

JardenStore - Home Page

We got ours as a wedding gift and love it. Kohl's usually has great prices on them, and I think Sam's is the best place to buy the rolls of bags, though I use the canisters most often.

My pressure canner and supplies.

Got all of my jars for free thus far, had to buy a pressure canner last summer and new lids every year, but more than paid of itself the first year with the saving of being able to can my own fresh organic veggies. If I bought that amount of canned organic produce in the store would have long ago exceeded the cost of my equipment.

My retractable clothes line - $10 brand new, have saved way more by line drying instead of running the dryer all the time. Toss in a $1 every few years for clothes pins.

Gas for pickup truck to pick up horse manure. Way cheaper to mulch my garden with sawdust and manure thus conserve water and reduce the amount of water used in the garden. Also provides fertizler, no chemical mircle grow stuff on my land.

Regular car/ truck maintance - pays to do little things along the way before a major issue develops, thus costing more money.

Wash out ziploc type baggies (not if they held meat thou) - way cheaper to spend a few more cents in water to wash out a baggie than to constantly be purchasing new ones.

Just a few things that came to mind, but sure there are many more.

I am there with you too. We love the Zoo and when we did our renewal this year, before a certain date for $69, we got 18 months instead of 12. It was a great deal and we have already more than paid for it. Another thing is the hairclippers for Dad and Son.

we got a pool too andit saves us time and money on going to the public pool!! plus I can still keep up on the house as I make the kids ge out if Im not watching themor i get outside work done

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