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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Race Car Themed Room!

Hello Everyone,

Part of my New Years Resolutions is to work more diligently on my blog. As some of you

may have noticed, I have not been posting for several months. I found a teaching position

in the nick of time and shortly after I found out I was expecting! Although they are both 

huge blessings these two things put me in a state of high anxiety and consumed the

majority of my time the last few months. (My pregnancy is High Risk and my class has

been extremely challenging to say the least.)However, I am excited to find a new rhythm

and a stock pile of great posts to launch 2012 with! So I figured, why not start with a

big project first!

 With the baby coming, and discovering that we would need to switch out the rooms to

accommodate a nursery I went to work on making the room transition exciting and

remarkable for Aiden. This way he would feel special and not feel pushed out.

 

It has not been a secret that my son has been almost obsessed with cars/vehicles of

ANY kind so, I had my theme, that was easy… Cars! The two challenges were budget

and the fact that we are in a rental.The color of the room was white, and very dingy…

luckily our landlords offered to pay for paint if they pre-approved the colors. Naturally,

we had to go with neutrals. However, this is not too much of a compromise since neutrals

work with many color pallets.

The pennant banner material was  purchased and started for his Birthday in September

but I just finished them this week. I had extra material left over and made the Checker-

flag Valance. He got the Stop-light bank for Christmas. (Knowing our budget was

tight, we picked things that would work for Christmas and his room transition.) He

LOVES it! His Aunt made the red and blue afghan to match and the car blanket

at the foot was from his room before. The bedding and bed was already red and blue so

to save money we kept the same color scheme.

 

Aiden was extremely excited to use his “letters” in his new room. These were previously

used in his nursery and had yellow and green ribbon around the edges. I removed the

ribbon and found this old elastic belt in my odds and ends craft box that worked perfectly

as a backdrop to glue the letters to! the colors and design worked perfectly I think, as it

looks like a road! He has been fascinated with clocks since he was 18 mo. or so. Getting a

Cars themed clock was a no-brainer when it came to Christmas this year! The wall

clings came with the clock so homerun on a free and removable room décor helper!

The picture you see was colored by Aiden’s cousin as a gift. It added a great personal

touch to the room.

 

The red and blue wall plaque was a very inexpensive project made over the summer.

I considered  re-painting the lamp and the orange book case but I felt it added a bit

of “umph” and went quite well with the cars theme. Not to mention it kept the budget

pretty low. I had left over fabric from the pennant banner to recover the lamp shade

that helped to tie it all in. He loved the “new lamp” so much he literally squealed in

delight! I used his own toy cars to help drive the theme such as the remote control race

car on top of the bookcase and I reused the wall pictures that I had in his old room

to complete this room. They were cheaply made from a combination of cork tiles,

scrapbook paper, and pre-painted wooden vehicles. Several months ago I also picked up

the cars coat hanger on clearance for less than 5 bucks!

 

Tips to consider when on a budget…

*Repurpose, repurpose, repurpose.. ALL that you can.

*Choose a theme that you love!

*Go with solids on sheet sets so that in does not interfere with theme. (it is easier and

less expensive to recover throw pillows and throw blankets than it is to change an

entire bedding set!)

*Pick colors that can be used again as they grow or are easily added to, to make different.

* Check your scraps before shopping for new, you never know what can suddenly be a

great inspiration!

* mix it up, do not commit to a brand (such as Disney only) when committing to a brand

you limit your options on budget and in my opinion is too confining in style. For example,

I sprinkled Disney Pixar Cars throughout, but as he grows and his taste changes, I could

switch those items with Chevy, for example, with little added cost to me.

Things I would like to add:

*recover pillows with scrap material from pennant banner.

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Shower Curtain Up-cycle

Shower Me with Savings!

Just in case you haven’t noticed yet,  

I am not one to spend my money carelessly.

If I can find a way to make it for less I will.

When I went to buy a shower curtain I was thrown

into classic sticker shock! There was no way I was

going to pay 30 dollars for a curtain that hangs near

the facilities, and where my pigpen of a boy cleans up

after a hard day of play. Nope, not me, and not $30.00.

After many shopping trips and coupon clipping I

gave up an went the route of DIY!

Boring Hotel-Style Basic Shower Curtain

$10.00

Now, I have learned the hard way that for some projects, pinning

is a MUST and for others, over-pinning is IMPERATIVE!

To my dismay, the curtain was not straight to begin with

and the polyester was very slick to sew on. It took a lot of patience.

I had to pin and measure each ribbon and sew them one at a time.

Then, begin the process over, measuring from the last  stripes

placement.

Trendy Ribbon: $4.00

Uniquely designed, custom shower curtain

for only $14.00 = Awesomeness!

A 50% Savings…

I leave you triumphant!

Linked up: *Before&After Party   *Made by You Mondays

Just Something I whipped up Monday

Making the world cuter Monday   Market yourself Monday

Motivate Me Monday  Craft 

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Domestic Diva Aprons

So, back at Christmas time I was itching to work on a project. I was also very into the show Mad Men

and had been admiring all the cute clothes women wore in the 50’s. I noticed that the

“Domestic Diva”

kits were on a huge sale at my local fabric store and I thought to my self, “that sounds fun, easy

and would make a great gift for the girls in my life!” Of course the kits were sold out, but I was

determined now to make my aprons. I turned to the pattern section and found a couple of cute

retro-patterns that I knew would give me the look I was going for and would be

versatile enough for me to get 6 unique aprons.

Here are the patterns I used:  Simplicity 2592, and 3752

   

(BTW… I never pay full price for a pattern, they go on sale often enough that if you are patient,

you can save your self over 75%, I also try to get patterns with more than one option on them so that

I can get more use out of it. For these I paid .99 each) 

I tried to match my fabric and pattern to each of the girl’s personalities and color pallets while

still keeping to the theme of “Diva.”

You will notice that each apron is also related to each other through the color brown.

This way when we get together next year for Holiday baking we will all match!

So tell me what you think…. How did I do?

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Domestic Diva Aprons

So, back at Christmas time I was itching to work on a project. I was also very into the show Mad Men

andhad been admiring all the cute clothes women wore in the 50’s. I noticed that the

“Domestic Diva”

kits were on a huge sale at my local fabric store and I thought to my self, “that sounds fun, easy

and would make a great gift for the girls in my life!” Of course the kits were sold out, but I was

determined now to make my aprons. I turned to the pattern section and found a couple of cute

retro-patterns that I knew would give me the look I was going for and would be

versatile enough for me to get 6 unique aprons.

Here are the patterns I used:  Simplicity 2592, and 3752

   

(BTW… I never pay full price for a pattern, they go on sale often enough that if you are patient,

you can save your self over 75%, I also try to get patterns with more than one option on them so that

I can get more use out of it. For these I paid .99 each) 

I tried to match my fabric and pattern to each of the girl’s personalities and color pallets while

still keeping to the theme of “Diva.”

You will notice that each apron is also related to each other through the color brown.

This way when we get together next year for Holiday baking we will all match!

So tell me what you think…. How did I do?

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Halloween Cape!

Our Own Twilight Coven!

Halloween 2010, Trunk or Treat

 

I used Simplicity Pattern number 2571.

                                                                                        

 

You can see that I embellished a little from the original pattern

and lined the inside of the cape with Red for a much more classic and

striking look!  

 

For my self and my husband we bought pre-made capes due to time.

We look pretty convincing don’t you think? Cullen family beware!

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Ottoman Recover

A Goodwill Interception!

 

So while planning for my mothers birthday party my father in law

was taking me to a few Goodwill Stores in the area, he started to

load a worn and outdated ottoman into the truck as a donation.

I proceeded to remove said ottoman and place this little diamond

in the rough into my project pile. Take a look at the very dated,

“Before” Picture.

I removed all the old fabric with intentions of using it for a pattern.

I then added some remnant batting from prior quilting projects to

reestablish some comfort and shape. I bought about a yard of

upholstery fabric on sale for 50% off at a local fabric store but as

I was playing with my fabric I realized that I liked the way the fabric

draped around the corners andhow my new padding created

an elegant and rounded edge! I immediately threw out the idea of

sewing a traditional cover  and simply began going at it

freestyle with my staple gun!

Check out the “ After Photo!”

 

I chose to leave the legs exposed and added decorative

roping to finish it off. So for $22 dollars and about 2-3 hours time

I have a stylish updated ottoman for my family room… Now I need

to find a jewel of a chair to go with it!

-Trulie

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