A Few Thrifty Crafting Tips and a Winner

Jen is the winner of the teapot paper giveaway! Congratulations, Jen! If you'll email me your snail mail address I will get it off to you right away.

Recently I read a post by someone who wanted to craft but found that it was "so expensive." I could spend ALL our money on crafting supplies, but as it is I spend very, very little on my hobbies. Here are a few crafty tips that might inspire you.

Get on Hobby Lobby's email list. Weekly you will learn about their sales, and they frequently include a 40% off coupon for any non-sale item. Their sales are great!

Hand in hand with above, wait for sales. This may be obvious, but do you know how much scrapbook paper you can get for $5 if you wait till it's 50% off? A lot!

Join Freecycle. I often see craft supplies being given away.

Shop thrift stores. Recently I have seen knitting needles, fabric, yarn, embroidery hoops, and other items for sale at my local thrift store.

Make sure other people know you enjoy crafting. I'm not saying to fish for giveaways, but if people know you love to craft, they will often unload their excess on you. Sort through it and get rid of what doesn't work.

Big Lots ribbon. Big lots sells generous spools of ribbon for $1 each. Their craft aisle is tiny but yields great rewards.

Buy small quantities. Almost anyone can shake out their change jar and buy 1/4 yard of fabric or a spool of thread. If you can only afford a small amount at a time, you'll be surprised at how quickly it adds up. Soon you'll have an overflowing stash and you'll have to find someone with whom to share.

I *Heart* Bargains

Funky shoes.

$5.00 on clearance.

The pink ones are Keds.

The brown ones were $40 before they went on sale.

I've wanted to buy some cute lightweight shoes for a long time. But I knew they wouldn't last long, so I couldn't even really justify $15 at Wal-Mart. It seemed a little ridiculous.

Isn't it amazing how God cares for the silliest little details of life?

Window Mistreatment

Blogger's acting wonky, so let's try this one more time!

The Nesting Place is hosting a Window Mistreatment Party. Wonder what window mistreatment is? Here are her definitions:

Mistreatment: (n). covering for a window that is quick, cheap and pretty. may or may not need hardware does not require sewing. a real designer's worst nightmare.

Mistreating: (v). the act of treating a window with dignity and respect without use of the following: hundreds of dollars, sewing, time, crying, divorce, child neglect...

Here's a window mistreatment of my own. It's just an (unironed) old tablecloth and a couple lengths of grosgrain from my stash, hung over an existing rod. And now it's the only window in my house with a curtain. (In the ugly bathroom at that!) But with all the great ideas I got at the party, that's about to change!

Frugal No-Sew Pillow Hack

Several years ago we ditched our delapidated old couch for a Freecycle futon. I saved the old couch's original pillows, though, and re-covered them in some upholstery fabric someone gave me.

They've gotten kind of grungy, being used for naps, forts, and pillow fights.

When I re-covered them, I made 2 of them reversible by putting different fabric on the opposite side. Since I rarely display this side, they are still looking pretty good.

With the 3rd pillow (which didn't have a reversible side), I used a piece of dollar a yard cotton from my stash and wrapped it like a gift. Safety pins in back.

I could have sewn it, but I didn't have time.

I finished it off with a length of grosgrain ribbon--a dollar for a big roll at Big Lots--also from my stash.

I also had this pillow, which I think is really cute. I especially love the color combination. But I don't really have an appropriate place to display something that says "Mommy Time Out."

A scrap of cotton someone gave me and a scrap of ribbon from a gift...

Fold, wrap around the middle, and pin...

Here's the front.

Tied with lavender.

Voila! So much lighter and brighter! If I count materials I actually bought, the total cost is less than $3. But I don't usually count the cost of stuff that's been in my stash for a long time.

And time? Ten minutes, tops.

Cheap Lunch

I'm not a fan of fast food, but if we are going to occasionally splurge on cheap, nutritionless treats that don't even really taste that good, I don't see any reason to spend more money than necessary.

Yesterday the kids and I each got a double cheeseburger from McDonald's dollar menu. The dollar menu isn't where McDonald's makes their money, though. It's the side items.

So instead of buying fries and drinks (we usually get a cup of water, honestly), we hit the dollar store and got 3-for-a dollar cheetos and a 2-liter bottle of Sprite.

Total to feed all 4 of us, with leftovers? $6.

From now on, I think I will keep a small stash of 3-for-a-dollar chips in the van so all I have to do is add dollar sandwiches and water in a cup (unless we bring our own drinks). That leaves a few more dollars for real eating out, which is a lot more fun!

Frugal Fridays hosted by Crystal.

Frugal Container Repurpose

As any regular readers know, I'm all about using what I have in my hand. Our new house is large, but the master bathroom is tiny, with 6 inches of counter space and one very small cabinet for storage. I have to get creative.

When I was given a pretty bath set in this tin, I knew just what I'd use it for. On the back of the commode, it saves counter or cabinet space, and washcloths are always in easy reach.

The creamy box is an old keepsake video box, just right for small toiletries.

Don't you just love the mint green tiles? OK, I'm kidding. Hopefully they will go one day. Meanwhile, I'll be content with what I have. My dad grew up without indoor plumbing. I can hardly complain!

Books!

Here are just a few of the wonderful hardcover children's books we got at a library book sale last weekend for $2 a bag. You can't beat a used book sale for excellent bargains! More info on building your home library cheaply here.

Show and Tell Friday hosted by Kelli.

Frugal Home Library

One objection I sometimes hear to homeschooling is "It must be so expensive." Not really. Not only is it possible to buy curriculum inexpensively, a home library provides excellent resources for your homeschool. But books are expensive, right? They can be...But they don't have to be.

The cheapest way I've found to build your home library is used book sales. City libraries almost always have a yearly book sale of some kind, and some even have free tables or free rooms. In the city where Billy and I last lived, one of the local colleges accepted book donations all year and had a huge sale in the basketball coliseum. (Billy really loved this one because sometimes the families of deceased pastors would donate their entire libraries, providing an awesome selection of Christian books.)

These sales are almost always reasonable. I've been to some that charge a dollar or so for hardcover books, to as little as 10 cents apiece. Our local library has a sale where they charge 75 cents an inch. You can get a lot of children's books at that price. The other day we happened on a special sale that charged just $2 for all the books you could fit in a paper bag. By the time we were able to attend, the books were well picked over, but we still came away with 3 large bags of wonderful books, including children's classics as well as older history and science books. We spent just $6 for 50 or more books!

A side note that really has nothing to do with frugality: I love old history books because they are far more accurate (and less PC) than more recent ones. Science books may not be as up-to-date, but typically those about nature are still very accurate and tend to have beautiful illustrations. Finally, I really enjoy children's fiction from the 50's and earlier. I've noticed that there was a sharp turn in children's literature around 1965 from happy innocence to much darker subjects. Even the convers are less cheery. I might be old fashioned, but I think small children should read happy books. They will have enough death, depression, and drama to deal with in real life without providing it for their entertainment. Now that my 7-year-old is reading well, I'm much more aware of what I provide for her reading pleasure. Many years of used book shopping has taught me to scan spines for books that likely fall into these categories.

So call your local library and see if they have any kind of sale. Even if they don't they can probably point you in the direction of someone who does.

One more bit of advice: If you do find a good sale, try to arrive early. You'll discover that dyed in the wool bibliophiles will do just about anything to have first choice. At the college sale I mentioned, people camped out with lawn chairs and snacks as early as 3 hours in advance just for a chance to be first in the door. It became a fun tradition for us, too. It might sound like a lot of hassle, but it's worth it to build a home library for a little bit of nothing!

Frugal Fridays hosted by Crystal.

Laundry Room

I looooove my laundry room! Laundry has always been my waterloo, and although a great deal of my trouble has been poor execution, some of it has just been inconvenient arrangements. I prayed for an adequate laundry room and this one definitely fit the bill!

We got this vintage dresser secondhand for a little bit of nothing. It's just right for the spot, and now I have a place to fold laundry AND storage for old towels and other supplies.

I've heard for years that you should fold the laundry as soon as it comes out of the dryer, but it just didn't seem feasible to me. I guess it is more feasible to search for socks and wrinkled shirts out of the mountain on the couch. Anyway, since we've been in this house I've followed that advice religiously. If I can't fold it immediately, it stays in the dryer. What a difference!

These little baskets are the other thing that made a great difference in my laundry success. An older lady at church passed on the tip. Each child has a basket above the dryer, and when I sort the clean clothes, they go directly into each child's basket. When the baskets are full, they go to their bedrooms to be put away. This is a great time saver.

I got the baskets at a garage sale, by the way. Love them!

Show and Tell Friday hosted by Kelli.

Frugal Clothes Shopping

Sorry I haven't been around much lately. Two months of pregnancy sickness has put me very far behind, and quite honestly, blogging is at the bottom of the priority list right now. Unfortunately. I enjoy it so much. It's really my one indulgence.

Tuesday was errand day and I knew we needed to go clothes shopping for Elizabeth since she has suddenly outgrown pretty much everything she owns. By several sizes. Jeans that fit fine a few weeks ago won't even go on now. I guess our new location agrees with her.

I've honestly never had to shop for clothes for my kids before. It's not that I've been unwilling or unable to, but between gifts and hand-me-downs they have had more than enough. However, Elizabeth is getting to an age where hand-me-downs aren't as readily available, and it's harder to find decent (read, not trampy) little girl clothes anyway.

So we set out for Goodwill. Samantha Blythe once said she has no idea why anyone would sew when there are so many beautiful and economical clothes available at thrift stores. This week I realized what she meant. We came away with a nice selection of new and like-new clothes for $25. The whole lot would have easily cost $100-$150 at a retail store. The little outfit above is one example. The shirt is from Old Navy and the skirt is from Limited Too. I looked up girls' skirts on LT's website, and those of similar style and quality cost $45-$50 new. We got it for $2.50. So, within my budget, I could buy a cheap skirt from Wal-Mart for $12 or $15 or a designer skirt for $2.50...To me, that's a no brainer.

On Grocery Shopping Frugally...

Or, I Don't Have it All Figured Out!

Erica asked the following questions in the comments below:

I saw somewhere that you shop once a month??!!? I have to know how this works and what your list looks like! Maybe you could do a new frugal post on once a month shopping with a list example. Also, how do you keep fresh things in the house? Do you shop the local farmer's market?

To be honest, Erica, shopping monthly is not working that well at this point. It began because we lived far from town (at first) and then as I had more kids, Billy really didn't want me trying to go alone, even when we were closer. So I'd wait to go when he was able to go with me, which turned out to be roughly once a month. He is not a fan of Wal-Mart! But it was a lifesaver to have him come with me when they were all so small.

The problem of fresh food is exactly where the system broke down. We planned to go in every now and then just for produce, but...I would inevitably run out of eggs or some other staple, and we would always end up picking up this or that and it just adds up, I guess. While we have never been at all extravagant in our grocery shopping, monthly shopping has turned out to not be the most frugal way to go, as best I can tell.

It would probably work better if I had a better plan. My mom always went twice monthly and she had a detailed list and a cash envelope system, which enabled her to shop very frugally. Also, she blocked out the entire day for grocery shopping, so she was able to take her time, compare prices, and write everything down in her little grocery notebook. I'm finding that it really takes much more time to shop frugally than just to run in and grab things off the shelf. this system also enabled her to budget grocery money so that she could save up what was leftover and use it at the whole foods co-op or to order hormone-free cheese or to get berries at the local u-pick or whatever.

Anyway, I am hoping to move toward something similar. Recently I made a month's worth of menus broken down by week, and my new plan is to shop and run errands weekly since the kids are bigger and we are now just minutes from the store. Since it was nearly a month since I had been, I was out of a lot of things and I see that it will take a few weeks of juggling before I get it down to an art, but I think weekly shopping according to a menu plan will be more frugal than monthly shopping--at least the way we have been doing it. I find that when I'm using a menu and shopping each week, I am more aware of our food consumption and we waste less also.

I read somewhere that the average American family throws away half the groceries they buy (whether by leaving food on plates, not eating leftovers, just letting things spoil, whatever). That was so horrifying to me. It made me much more aware of how to cut down on the amount of food that is thrown away. One of the biggest things was to just give the kids tiny portions. They can always ask for more, but often I find that they do not eat that much.

What that has to do with monthly shopping, I am not sure. I should re-title this, A Long Answer to a Short Question! I guess I said all that to say that I really do not have it totally figured out. We've been in constant transition, so I am still finding my way and figuring out the most frugal way to shop for our family.

Thanks for asking!

End-of-the-month Soup

If you're like me, sometimes you get to the end of the month and you need to wait till payday to get groceries. Now I'm very blessed, and we always have something in the house to eat and plenty of it, but often by the end of the month it is just getting a little...boring. I guess that's the price you pay for getting groceries monthly.

Anyway, I was looking for something a little different to make using what I had, and someone in the blogosphere mentioned vegetable soup. Perfect! Cheap, easy, and I had everything I needed. And the thing is, that even if your cupboard is looking like Mother Hubbards, most of us keep these basic ingredients around. Since fall is around the corner (well, not here, but everywhere else in the Northern Hemisphere), this is a great thing to make anyway.

Here's what you'll need.

Vegetables. Frozen mixed veggies, canned mixed veggies (like Veg-All), or best of all, the wilting carrots, celery, zucchini, or whatever, and sprouting potatoes that need to be used before they spoil, with a can of green beans and/or corn thrown in for good measure.

Tomato product of some kind. Almost anything works. The goal is just to make a nice tomato-ey broth. Canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato juice, V-8, fresh peeled and chopped tomatoes, or even salsa (for Mexican veggie soup) or spaghetti sauce (for an Italian flair).

An onion, or onion powder, or dehydrated onion flakes.

Salt, pepper, parsley, bay leaves and whatever other seasonings you fancy.

And here's how you make it.

Pour the mixed veggies in a big pot, or chop the fresh ones. If you're using fresh, just start with hard vegetables like carrots and add the fast-cooking ones a little later.

Add tomato product. If you're using juice, you don't necessarily need to add water. If you aren't using juice, add enough water to cover everything nicely. Add onions and seasonings, and simmer till the veggies are soft enough to your liking and everything looks yummy. Eat with crackers or, best of all, fresh homemade bread or cornbread, which is also cheap and takes just a few staple ingredients! Yummmm!!!

Oh, and if you want you can add a bit of meat with the veggies--whatever you have on hand. Stew meat, ground beef, ham, sausage, whatever. Then it's not veggie soup, but a bit heartier for the men in our midst.

Rose Bowl

A first commandment of frugal living is Despise Thou Not Free Stuff. I found this little vintage bowl on a free table at an antique store (along with this silver tea pot), and fell in love with it. I keep it on my dresser to catch stray pennies, or my earrings when I take them out last thing at night.

Show and Tell Friday hosted by Kelli.

Save on Magazine Subscriptions!

During the month of July, Amazon offers many magazine subscriptions at already-low prices with an instant $5 rebate at checkout. Now they offer a wide variety of magazines, I'll tell you right up front, so not all of them are wholesome. But there are quite a few good ones, and I plan to renew my Country Living subscription this way...It works out to be about 60 cents per issue as opposed to the regular $3 or $4 you pay at the newsstand.

Frugal Fridays hosted by Crystal.

More B&BW Bargains and a Fun Question

Like some of you, I really love Bath and Body Works, but they are pretty expensive, at least for my frugal sensibilities. So I look for bargains, like the 75% off clearance deal going on right now.

Here's another way to get B&BW products for deep discounts. They have really good promotional offers. If you get on their mailing list, you will get a little card about 4 times a year that offers a free item from a particular line of products if you buy any other item at full price. Usually the free item can be up to a $12 value. It also has an expiration date.

Now this is not a good deal if you go in just looking for something to buy, or if you get snookered into impulse purchases (which is why they are trying to get you there). It is a good deal if you go in with your guard up and with a plan. Determine in advance that you will not buy anything besides what you're planning to purchase (unless, of course, you find an excellent deal on clearance as I did yesterday). Then know what you want. I honestly can't bring myself to spend $10 or more for a bottle of lotion or bubble bath very often, so I buy either two items in my signature scent, or one thing for me and one to put back as a Christmas or birthday gift. If I'm shopping with a gift card, all the better. I will even do this if the card is good through, say, the end of August, but I know I'll need a gift in December. This is especially good if I already planned to get them a B&BW product. Just buy in advance.

Our friend Carla Emery used to call it being a smart fish or a dumb fish. Most people have been fishing at one time or another. If you've been fishing, chances are you've had your bait stolen by a smart fish. For really great promotions (whether B&BW, long distance service, whatever), be the smart fish. Take the bait, but don't get hooked.

And now for the question...What is your favorite B&BW fragrance? Mine is Warm Vanilla Sugar. Mmmmmmm...

A Long Shot...Never Mind

I had already planned to read the book So Much More by the Botkin sisters, and in light of this conversation, I will definitely get a copy in hand pretty soon. But before I paid full price, I thought I'd ask...Anybody have a copy they don't want that they'd sell for a bargain? It's a long shot, but I figured I'd try asking before I bought a new copy.

Bargain Heads Up

Bath and Body Works has a bunch of stuff 75% off right now. They have quite a few large fancy lotions and body butters (in fruity and lavender scents, which I like) normally $15...So you can get them now for just a few dollars...But the best bargain I found were small bottles of verbena and lemon lotion, normally $5, so on sale for $1.25. I only got 2, but I should have gotten a dozen. These would make great little gifts, especially included in a gift basket of some kind, or as stocking stuffers, teacher gifts, etc. They are in pretty bottles, and who's to know you got them on clearance? Very nice. I've been trying to buy small things like this, either to have on hand for unexpected birthday parties and the like, or for Christmas gifts. Not long ago I found several Christmas gifts for my kids at deep discounts.

Speaking of that, one of my favorite frugal places to shop is Tuesday Morning. They are a closeout store, and like any closeout store they have a lot of junk...But many treasures are to be found, especially in the stationery and cooking sections. You have to be careful because sometimes the savings are relative ($200 for a sheet set that was originally $600, for example), but I got several very nice gifts there for under $10 each.

Boy's Room on a Shoestring

I'm doing a 2-for-1 this week, combining Show and Tell Friday with Frugal Friday. This frugal bedroom is what I wanted to show and tell about! Hope the blog police don't get me!

I've had a week with fewer commitments than usual, so I took the opportunity to decorate and organize. I spent part of this afternoon on Silas' room.

He loves to sleep with his army sleeping bag, which is just fine, but it didn't look very inviting, or very neat. I've been wanting to buy him a spread, but today I simply asked, "What do I have in my hand?" I dug around in the cedar chest, looking for something, anything, to put on his bed, and found this pretty afghan that Billy's great-aunt made us when we got married. I had forgotten all about it. It was just right. No money spent.

The bed itself came from a garage sale. I am not sure; it might have even been free.




The big middle picture is a signed pen and ink print that we got at a garage sale. I got the other pictures from an outdated calendar I bummed off my brothers, and framed them in frames people had given us. Total cost for this little arrangement: $1.




These beautiful signed lab prints belong to Billy. I believe he got both of them as gifts. They go perfectly on the big wall opposite the bed.




This kid-sized gun rack came from a garage sale, too. I think Billy got it for $2 or $3.

The thing about "What do I have in my hand?" decorating is that you can't be too much of a perfectionist. I think it boils down to contentment. Silas' room does not look like a designer room, although if I had the time and went to the effort I could do that for a reasonable cost as well. But I'm happy with it the way it is. He is too, and that's what matters. Thrifty decorating also means patience. Most of the time, if you want to save, you don't just go out and buy the whole ensemble at once. You have to wait for those good deals to come along. But I don't mind. I guess I'm strange, but it brings me a great deal of satisfaction to have made my little guy a cozy space so frugally.

Show and Tell Friday hosted by Kelli.

Frugal Friday hosted by Crystal.

Retro Cuties

Meet Nellie and Emily, two cute little retro ladies I printed for Elizabeth a long time ago...




With their extensive wardrobe. For the life of me, I don't remember where I found them. We cut them out and played paper dolls yesterday as one of the final lessons in Elizabeth's home speech therapy.




The girls got all dressed up and had a tea party. Emily was a bit of a blabbermouth, but Nellie, the hostess, was kind and gracious. Uh, in case you were wondering, Emily was played by me. It's fun to have a little girl so the little girl in me can come out and play. Do we ever really outgrow dolls?

Simple Craft: Totally Cheating French Photo Board Tutorial, Sort Of

So how's that for a long title? Elizabeth and I made this inspiration board for the craft room today. I've wanted one for a long time, but gosh, all that canvas, batting, fabric, and so on sounded like a lot of trouble, and I'm too cheap to buy one. So I came up with this.

I bought a little cork board for 5 or 6 dollars and a spool of 1/4" grosgrain ribbon for a couple bucks. I wanted to cover it in paper with shabby chic roses, but Wal-Mart (Corrected-I can't believe I actually said Wal-Mark!!! I will never live this down!) didn' t have anything of the kind. At first I thought I'd settle for just the ribbon on a plain cork board, but then I remembered to ask, "What do I have in my hand?"

My wrapping paper box yielded a scrap large enough to cover the inside of the board. I just trimmed it to fit. (Here you see the back of the paper.) I have to tell you, the wrapping paper was even used. I just ironed it. Yes, I'm cheap. But hey, I didn't have to buy any!!!

Then we attached the ribbon in a criss-cross design with flat push pins, putting one at each end and one at each place where the ribbon intersected. I meant to get better pics of this step, but we just started with a giant X, corner to corner and then added pieces to the grid.

Don't look too closely, it's not perfect! It would look a lot better if the frame was white or pink, but I'll settle for this for now. I'm really pleased with how it turned out for about $8. And it was such fun to make something with my girl.