$0.21 Clutch!!

I found this really bright and sparkly orange felt at Hobby Lobby last week. There were two sheets left in the clearance section for $0.21 each. I grabbed, unsure what I would use them for.

Well, I saw them in my office today, and decided to make something. A super fast, super simple little clutch. It took all of 5 minutes to make, and I think it is cute.

I think it will work well for shopping list and coupons, or as a receipt holder. It would even work as a bag organizer. Yes, I am one of "those" people who organize their handbag, with smaller bags. Yep, that's me. It makes it easier to switch bags. Anyway, on to the tutorial.

I took one sheet of felt, folded it a little less then half (you want to leave enough for a little flap), and sewed up the sides.

Next, I trimmed the flap, and sewed a little square of Velcro tape to both sides. That was it. Now I have a cute little clutch.

My daughter loves it, and wants one too, however she has placed an order for a pink one(princess of course).

I am linking to these great parties.

Trash or Teaching Aid??

When you look at this picture, what do you see?

Is it just a pile of trash, caps that need to be recycled, or is it a super frugal teaching aid??  If you guessed the second choice, you are right.  This is not just a pile of discarded drink caps, this is a pile of math and color manipulative's for my preschooler and kindergartner.

**NOTE:  Your child should be old enough to not place these in their mouth!!  I do not want anyone choking on me!!**  I am pretty sure most of you knew that, but I just had to add it in!!

These are great for learning colors and numbers.  I can ask my child to get 2 green, and see if she knows the color and the number.  I was shocked when we first started homeschooling at the price of everything, math manipulative's are Expensive when you buy them at an Education store.  They do not HAVE to be expensive if you use what you have in a creative way. 

Okay, so there is my frugal homeschool tip of the day, do you have one to share.  I always love learning new ways to save money, especially on homeschooling, we have five children after all!!

The Easiest Way to Save Money!!

So, what is the easiest way to save money??

The answer may surprise you. The easiest way to save your hard earned cash is to simply change your attitude!! That's right, change your attitude about money, and "things" in general.

When you finally realize that you CAN live without the latest phone, gadget, or car, you will save tons of money.

If you are a name brand person, ask yourself one question. Is this "name brand" worth placing my family in financial turmoil?? It may seem silly, one "name brand" purchase could not possibly do that, right?? Wrong, most of the time, you end up buying way more than one shirt, or whatever the item may be.

If you absolutely HAVE to have those name brands, buy them second hand. I have blogged several times before about all of the great deals to be found at stores like Good Will. They have name brands galore, you just have to look.

If the thought of second hand, or thrift store purchases makes you want to turn your nose up, don't. Really, who is going to know where you bought your shirt at??

So, if you truly want to get your budget out of the red, step back and re-evaluate your spending habits. With a few little tweaks, you could save hundreds or even thousands of dollars, with very little effort!!

photo source: sufinawaz

Myth-busting!!

That's right, today I want to do a little myth-busting!! It is a common misconception that in order to save money in the kitchen you have to spend hours and hours working your fingers to the bone, baking every little thing from scratch.

This is simply not true!! Although you can save even more money that way, you can still save a great deal of money in the kitchen with a minimal time investment.

Rather than purchase tons of convenience foods for breakfast, why not take one morning or afternoon and cook muffins or other breakfast items that will last for the entire week. Let's face it, whipping up a batch of muffins does not take that long.

One of the biggest factors in saving money in the kitchen is Planning!! Say it with me, Planning!! That's right, you need to have a plan, after all, can you ever make it to your destination, if you don't know where you are going??

By implementing a good plan, you can save both time and money in the kitchen. So, what is the final verdict on this myth, BUSTED!!

Look for savings in bulk!!

I have posted before about the pros and cons of shopping in bulk at large stores like Sams club, but did you know that you can find savings in bulk at your local grocery store??

At one of my local grocery stores, they sale bulk packages of things like sausage and lunch meat. For instance, they had a bundle of sausage (five rolls) on sale for $6.55. That breaks down to $1.31 per roll. That is a great price for a roll of sausage.

When you do find great deals on items in bulk, but don't think that you can use that much, don't forget about your freezer. Many things can be frozen until a later date.

So, you can find good deals on bulk buys at your regular grocery store, so always keep an eye out.

photo source: ortonesque

Save Money on Groceries!!

So, other than using coupons, how can you save money on groceries?? Don't Waste!! I used to be so bad about throwing out leftovers, but not anymore. Once I discovered how much money I was wasting by throwing them out, I was shocked.

Now, when we have leftover food I find a way to make it into another meal. For instance, we had baked chicken one night, and had a couple of pieces left over. It was not enough to have the same thing the next night, but there was still a good bit. I took the bones out of the chicken and chopped it up, make some BBQ gravy and cooked rice along with a vegetable and rolls. Instead of the meat being the main focus of the meal, it was more like a side dish, but it was good. The best part was, we did not waste it!!

There are tons of options for leftovers, you just have to get a little creative sometimes.

For other great money saving tips, check out Frugal Friday!!

photo source: arinas74

Pillowcase Dress Tutorial!!

I wanted to share this tutorial with you all. I love making little Pillowcase dresses for my girls. I think they are so cute, and they are super simple. Trust me, when I started making them I had NO sewing experience. Now it takes me about 15 minutes from start to finish to make one of the super cute dresses.

Okay, to start you will need the material that you like. If you want something a little more unique, buy two materials that complement each other and use one as a border around the bottom of the dress.

Next, you need to figure out your measurements. The dress that I am making today will be for a size 3T, and the measurements that work for my little one are as follows:
Base material: 19 inches long
Border material: 5 inches long

When I buy my material, I use the width that comes off of the bolt, and cut the length.

So, I will try not to be confusing with this part. I love using this method to add the border, because it looks neater to me. Once you have measured and cut your material, you want to take the base material and roll it up from top to bottom. Then you want to take the border material and lay it flat with the right side of the material facing you. Place the rolled up piece of material on top of the border material and then fold it over. You should have a layer of border, one layer of base material, and then another layer of border material. Pin this all the way down.

Sew all the way across. Next you are going to turn it right side out.

Next press your material.

The next step is to add a seam to the dress so you end up with a tube.

Turn your material right side out and press.

Now, for the arm holes. For a size 3T I measure down 6.5 inches from the top of the dress and mark. Fold over the dress, so you can cut both sides at the same time.

Once you arms are cut, you need to make your bias tape. You can use the kind that you purchase, but I like to take some of the extra material and make my own. It really is very simple. Cut a strip of material that will be long enough to go around the entire arm hole. Next, fold each side in, and then fold in half and press. Place on the raw edge of the arm holes and sew on.

The next step is the top of the dress. Fold the top over once and press, then fold it over again and press. You are making a casing for the ribbon. Make sure your casing is big enough to fit the ribbon through.

Sew across.

Next find ribbon that matches your dress. I take the ribbon and lay it across the top of the dress (the neck) and make it three times that length. That always ensures that I will have enough ribbon to make pretty bows. Place a safety pin in one end of the ribbon and use the pin to thread the ribbon through the casing.

Tie your bows, and ta-da you are done.

Show and Tell












Tales from Bloggeritaville
The Shabby Nest.

A simple way to cut your light bill.

Okay, so recently my husband and I sat down and tried to decide what we could do to lower our electric bill. Electricity is a necessity, but is it really necessary to run all of the appliances the way we have been??

After giving much thought to this, we decided we would cut out the use of our clothes dryer. This may sound drastic for some, and trust me I know that it is not for everyone, but we thought it was "do-able".

My wonderful hubby went out and put up a clothes line for me, and I found some clothes pins. At first I did not know if we could do it, because we have many children in our house, and that means lots of clothes. However, I am proud to say that it has now been an entire month since we used the dryer, and I am so excited!!

I know that it may seem really silly to be excited about something that small, but at our house we were washing and drying 2 to 3 loads of laundry per day. I have not received the bill to reflect this change yet, but I am interested to see how big of a difference it has made.

It really is the small things that make me happy, haha. What really excites me the most is that we were able to do something that we really wanted to do, simply because we put our mind to it and tried.

Although I may look a little old fashioned when I am hanging out my clothes, guess what, it doesn't bother me, it just makes me more unique, right????

So, what have you all done to save money this past month?

For more frugal tips check out:
Life As Mom


photo source: copta

Turn a normal t-shirt into a cute shrug!!

I am super excited about my latest project. I turned a normal t-shirt into a cute shrug. I found an easy tutorial here.

I started out with this shirt.  I found it on clearance a while back, and it has been hanging in my closet since then.  I loved the pattern, but never wore it.

Next I cut a line up the middle of the shirt and around the collar.

Next, I folded the edge over about 1/4 of an inch and ironed it.  Then I folded the edge over again about 1/2 of an inch and added a seam starting at the bottom of one side and went all the way around the neck down to the other side.

Once that was finished, I took some black ribbon that I already had on hand and stuck a safety pin through the end.  Using the safety pin, I threaded the ribbon through the seam that I made around the shirt.

This is what I ended up with. 

I like the shirt much better this way, and I think it looks great as a cover-up for the little black dress that I purchased recently.

So, for no money, and just a little time I made a cute little shrug out of a regular old t-shirt.  It was not hard, and even the beginner seamstress can do it.

For more Frugal Friday tips, head over to Life as Mom for tips.

Linking up to:

The Shabby Nest, Frugal Friday

Fingerprints on the Fridge, Feature Yourself Friday

Chic on a Shoestring, Flaunt it Friday

Check those bundles!!

I am not sure if many of you are the same, but when we signed up for our phone service we were told by the associate that our big bundle was great, and it would save us so much money. It looked good, so we went with it, big mistake #1.

This past week, I was working on our budget, and trying to think of ways to help us meet our savings goal faster. While doing this I decided to take out a phone bill and see exactly what we were paying for. Much to my surprise it was a ton of stuff that we did not even use, and if we have not used it in over a year I don't think we are going to need it.

By examining my bill, I found that we were paying for $40.00 worth of services every month that we don't even use, that adds up to $480.00 per year!!!

Our bundle included unlimited long distance, hundreds of channels, voice mail, and several other features that we don't use. In fact, there have been months when we did not even get or make one phone call from our home line!!

I was shocked to see how much money we were wasting every month. In order to fix this little problem, we downgraded our package to include only the things that we need. We now have 70 channels, and guess what you can survive without 300!! In fact we only watch a handful of those.

So, be sure to check your bills closely, and beware of bundles!! They don't save you money if you pay for things that you do not use!!

For more Frugal Friday tips, stop by Life as Mom.

photo source: gokoroko