A Handful of Money Saving Tips.

Sometimes we simply spend money that we don’t need to spend.

I do it and I know others do it too. When we have the “extra” money

we tend to be blinded by the convenience of buying new and we miss

the saving opportunities that are nearly always there.

Whether things are tight or not I get a thrill from saving my family

money. I have a few ideas for you today that can help stretch the budget

and get your creative juices going.

 

First up:  “Old Fashioned Mending”

 

My son has grown tall but still stays slim. So, this spring I started to

go though his clothing to see what I had and to make preparations 

for his summer wardrobe. I found several pairs of pants that had

worn knees and frayed hems. I decided to crop and hem them into

new shorts for the summer.

 

This can be done in a matter of 30minutes to an hour and for each pair

of converted pants to shorts, I saved my family anywhere from 5 –10

dollars! This is a total savings of $20-$40 for 4 pairs of shorts!

 

Second on the list: Iron-on $avings!

 

Never underestimate the power of a strategically placed iron-on

embellishment. Iron-ons come in every shape and size. They are

fast and require no sewing. They can dress-up an inexpensive, and

otherwise drab item and make it something fabulous! They can also

be used to hide a multitude of problems that would cause one to

throw an otherwise good garment away. I have two perfect examples

for you today.

 

I found this plain blue cotton-t on clearance for next to nothing. My

son was shopping the iron-on isle with me and found a race car patch

that he simply went crazy for!

 

I could have stopped with just the race car but I had some letters left

from another project so I decided to embellish this sleep-shirt with a

very “punny-saying”.

 

 

 

 

Total cost for a new custom sleep shirt: $5.00 (about a 50% savings)

 

 

My 3 almost 4 year old is very loving  but he is equally rambunctious!

I was doing laundry this winter when he ran full speed around the

corner and rammed into me as I was pouring bleach in the wash.

Needless to say, once you see the next pic, his favorite winter

hoody was ruined…or so I thought….

 

Iron on a soccer ball patch and…. you have

a $aved Fave!

 

 

Cost of new Hoody $10 – $12 vs. cost of iron on patch: $2.50!

 

 

Thirdly: “$craps of $avings!”

 

If you are a sewer at all, more than likely you have scraps of

fabric from other projects piled in a closet or stacked in a box.

Aiden needed new jammies desperately. Between myself and my

mother-in-law we found an old pajama pattern and three flannel

scraps of material that we were able to turn into three fabulous

pairs of pajama pants!

 

 

Three pair of pajama pants. Total Cost: $3.00 (for elastic) A total

savings of about $15.00 or more!

 

When sewing from scraps remember a few things:

1) Look through all your material to see what you have.

2) Ask your fellow sewers/crafters what they have as well.

(we sewers are always happy to use up our scraps)

3) Don’t disregard old patterns. Some things really never change.

Boys pajama bottoms are exactly the same as they were 30 years

ago. Don’t let the dated image on the pattern envelope discourage you.

Look through your stash or ask around before buying a pattern.

 

 

Pillows!

There is a running joke in my family about always “buying plenty”

and if you have too much “you can always make a pillow with the extra.”

This philosophy has resulted in a LOT of extra. So, before buying new fabric

for pillows look through your scraps first or in this case your wardrobe!

 

I had a new, awesome, white sweater until I spilled hot cocoa down the front

of it. I tried everything to get rid of the stain to no avail and the stain was

in such a place that I could not craftily place embellishments to hide it and

still look cute so…. I made my sister a sweater pillow for her house warming.

To embellish the pillow I made three different flowers with one from the

sleeve. The other two I took strips of the sweater, ran a running or

gathering stitch along one side and an decorative stich along the other

with contrasting thread. I used scraps of matching bias tape to make leaves

and before I knew it, I had a lovely decorative pillow gift for only $3.50! (for the stuffing)

 

 

 

These are just a few tips and ideas on ways I have recently saved money

for my family. If you stop and take a minute before throwing out the old or

running to buy new, often times you can find ways to reuse, repurpose and renew

items you already have and make them into things you really want to keep.

 

How do you save money for your family? Write to me, I would really love to know!

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