Here is how we saved money/spent money wisely this week:
- We continued to track our Pampers and Kellogg's Points.
- I signed up for Swagbucks and am now 1/5 of the way to earning a $5 Starbucks Gift card!! :)
- We rolled the change in Annabeth's piggy bank and took $16.50 to the real bank for her college account.
- I bought Annabeth church shoes in the next size with our $10 off coupon. We buy Stride Rite dress and tennis shoes in each size so we make sure to register ALL of our Stride Rite purchases and receive a $10 coupon for each $75 spent.
- I found cute party decorations on Pinterest to make for Annabeth's party next month and was able to find everything I needed at Hobby Lobby for 50% off this week. We saved $8.25.
- Annabeth and I enjoyed a Free Gym session at FFY in Columbus with good friends of ours. They run quite a few open gyms there during the week and kids under 2 are free! We had SO much fun!
- Mark and I were both able to trade things we did not need for things we do:
Mark traded a Pellet Gun that he has never used for some kind of all-purpose utility tool that he has already used a ton! The tool would have cost Mark nearly $100 to purchase new.
I was able to trade school supplies with my best friend who is a teacher in exchange for 4 bottles of baby soap! It would have been nearly $15 for us to buy the soap at the store.
Total Estimated Savings: $133.25!
What have you been doing to save money? What does your family trade?
Happy Savings to You All!!
"Buy Used and Save the Difference"
Friday, August 30, 2013
Thursday, August 29, 2013
D.I.Y : Homemade Baby Gifts
We seem to be in the "Baby Years" of our lives and are enjoying lots of baby showers for first born babies and also gift-giving for younger siblings. For showers I generally choose to shop off people's registries, I know that they really need the items they have requested, but for "Welcome to the World" gifts I like to make things from home.
This summer TWO of my cousins and their wives have been blessed/will be blessed with little girls!
Charlotte Blair arrived in July and we sent her a little hat with a huge flower as well as a homemade onesie. A little over a year ago, my Grandma Chico gave me part of her "stash" of crafting supplies. My grandma was a wonderful sewer and made many a dance, Halloween, and musical costume so she had lots of scraps of "pretties." I have been treasuring that stash, even before she was sick or her passing, but because I don't sew I did not really know what I was going to do with it. Then, I thought, I might make something that had pieces from her stash for baby Charlotte. It isn't intricate or particularly well done but I loved sewing the little roses on it, praying for Alex, Sara, and their little Charlotte and remembering Grandma.
Next week, Lord willing, my cousin Adam and his wife Angie and big brother Wyatt will welcome Miss Ava Rae. Angie is really fun and a animal print, fun color kind of gal and when I saw these iron-ons at Hobby Lobby I knew her girl would need one! I just ironed on the "A" and found a matching clip to add to a headband.
What have you been crafting? Do you make your own baby gifts?
Happy Crafting!
This summer TWO of my cousins and their wives have been blessed/will be blessed with little girls!
Charlotte Blair arrived in July and we sent her a little hat with a huge flower as well as a homemade onesie. A little over a year ago, my Grandma Chico gave me part of her "stash" of crafting supplies. My grandma was a wonderful sewer and made many a dance, Halloween, and musical costume so she had lots of scraps of "pretties." I have been treasuring that stash, even before she was sick or her passing, but because I don't sew I did not really know what I was going to do with it. Then, I thought, I might make something that had pieces from her stash for baby Charlotte. It isn't intricate or particularly well done but I loved sewing the little roses on it, praying for Alex, Sara, and their little Charlotte and remembering Grandma.
Next week, Lord willing, my cousin Adam and his wife Angie and big brother Wyatt will welcome Miss Ava Rae. Angie is really fun and a animal print, fun color kind of gal and when I saw these iron-ons at Hobby Lobby I knew her girl would need one! I just ironed on the "A" and found a matching clip to add to a headband.
What have you been crafting? Do you make your own baby gifts?
Happy Crafting!
Monday, August 26, 2013
D.I.Y. Homemade and Remade Hairbows
I LOVE (understatement) little girl hair bows so it seems that I cannot leave Hobby Lobby or a craft show without at least one.
Originally, I purchased a lot of the crochet style headbands with bows and flowers attached but within the last few months, Annabeth's head has outgrown them. So, instead of letting them sit in the drawer, I have cut the bows and flowers off and attached them to little clips so she can still wear the bow part. I will save the crochet headbands for other projects or to pass along to other little girls.
I have also started purchasing "Big Girl" headbands at the stores, the ones with the plastic band underneath the fabric, but unfortunately a couple have snapped under the wrath of little hands. So, I cut off the excess ribbon and also turned the bow from that one into a clip. Seen here on Annabeth.
I have beensaving hoarding lots of decorative bows and ribbons that my Momaw has given to me. So a rainy Friday a few weeks ago, I got into it during naptime and was able to make three new matching bows out of extra material. I saved one for Annabeth, one went to her bestie Bella, and one went to a friend's new baby Jenna. It was about a 15 minute project and I was glad to use up some extra supplies.
What have you been crafting? Do you make your own bows?
Happy Crafting!
Linked Up to: Teach Me Tuesdays @ Growing Home Blog
Originally, I purchased a lot of the crochet style headbands with bows and flowers attached but within the last few months, Annabeth's head has outgrown them. So, instead of letting them sit in the drawer, I have cut the bows and flowers off and attached them to little clips so she can still wear the bow part. I will save the crochet headbands for other projects or to pass along to other little girls.
I have also started purchasing "Big Girl" headbands at the stores, the ones with the plastic band underneath the fabric, but unfortunately a couple have snapped under the wrath of little hands. So, I cut off the excess ribbon and also turned the bow from that one into a clip. Seen here on Annabeth.
I have been
What have you been crafting? Do you make your own bows?
Happy Crafting!
Linked Up to: Teach Me Tuesdays @ Growing Home Blog
Saturday, August 24, 2013
Frugal Fridays (a day late)
Now that we have the internet at home (yes, I realize paying for internet is not frugal but we've saved for SO long to make this a possibility AND we are going to use it to save/make money) I really want to do Frugal Friday posts like so many of the blogs that I follow.
So, here's how we saved money/spent money wisely/worked creatively to make money this week:
- We entered our Pampers Points on pampers.com to add to our points collection there. This is a great, easy way to get things back from the insane amounts of money spent on diapers - we've already earned a completely FREE Shutterfly photobook!!
- I signed up for Kellogg's Family Rewards to earn points from items we already buy (cereal, crackers, eggo waffles) Just one more mini-wheat entry and I will have earned a free museum ticket in addition to all my other points!
- We used a $5 off coupon on Sally Beauty Supply combined with a Buy 2 Get 1 Free deal to purchase hair accessories that we are going to give as Christmas gifts. We were able to get all three for less than $10 - retail would have been $27.
- Annabeth and I hit two garage sales in the neighborhood and came home with a new pack-and-play for her baby dolls for $1! I believe they retail around $20-$25 at the stores.
Estimated Total Saved: At least $38 between the good deal on hair supplies and the used pack-and-play!
Happy Savings to You All!
"Buy Used and Save the Difference"
So, here's how we saved money/spent money wisely/worked creatively to make money this week:
- We entered our Pampers Points on pampers.com to add to our points collection there. This is a great, easy way to get things back from the insane amounts of money spent on diapers - we've already earned a completely FREE Shutterfly photobook!!
- I signed up for Kellogg's Family Rewards to earn points from items we already buy (cereal, crackers, eggo waffles) Just one more mini-wheat entry and I will have earned a free museum ticket in addition to all my other points!
- We used a $5 off coupon on Sally Beauty Supply combined with a Buy 2 Get 1 Free deal to purchase hair accessories that we are going to give as Christmas gifts. We were able to get all three for less than $10 - retail would have been $27.
- Annabeth and I hit two garage sales in the neighborhood and came home with a new pack-and-play for her baby dolls for $1! I believe they retail around $20-$25 at the stores.
- I spent this morning entering 15 baby items for the Here We Grow Again - Indy South Sale that is the first weekend in October. I now have 50+ items entered into the online system and organized for sale!!
Estimated Total Saved: At least $38 between the good deal on hair supplies and the used pack-and-play!
Happy Savings to You All!
"Buy Used and Save the Difference"
Friday, August 9, 2013
A Goodbye Year
This year has been a Goodbye kind of year.
January - We saw the "new" house for the first time and Mark fell in love with it. He could talk about little else and for the first time, in so long, he seemed so excited and happy to talk about house projects.
Feburary - I turned 26. Inching towards 30 which very much makes me feel like I am saying goodbye to the "young adult" years of my life.
March - Mark's knee surgery meant the season of our lives, the one that started with that arrest in December of 2011, was finally coming to a close. Mark would finally be able to enjoy evening walks, crawling on the floor with Anna, hiking, etc with our family.
April - Matt and Jenn announced they were planning a move back to South Dakota - going from 50 minutes away to 20 hours away. The next day, the phone call that Grandma Chico had gone Home to be with our Lord.
May and June were spent working on the new house, each day a happy reminder that life continues on, and a sad reminder of the house and memories that we were leaving behind.
We moved into the new house on July 6 and finalized the sale on the old house on July 19th. And then...it wasn't our "old house" anymore...it is someone else's "new house." Our "new house" was becoming home.
The first weekend in August we packed Matt and Jenn's house into a moving truck and after a Mexican feast, we said our tearful goodbyes. I love this year. I am thankful for this year. I hate this year's goodbyes.
As we look ahead to Labor Day Weekend on the schedule, I thought "We should stop by Grandma's Saturday night" only to remember that Grandma's is just an empty house. As I woke up today, on a rainy friday, I thought "I'll call Jenn and the kids and see if they want to play" only to remember it's a 20 hour drive.
I vote no more Goodbyes this year.
January - We saw the "new" house for the first time and Mark fell in love with it. He could talk about little else and for the first time, in so long, he seemed so excited and happy to talk about house projects.
Feburary - I turned 26. Inching towards 30 which very much makes me feel like I am saying goodbye to the "young adult" years of my life.
March - Mark's knee surgery meant the season of our lives, the one that started with that arrest in December of 2011, was finally coming to a close. Mark would finally be able to enjoy evening walks, crawling on the floor with Anna, hiking, etc with our family.
April - Matt and Jenn announced they were planning a move back to South Dakota - going from 50 minutes away to 20 hours away. The next day, the phone call that Grandma Chico had gone Home to be with our Lord.
May and June were spent working on the new house, each day a happy reminder that life continues on, and a sad reminder of the house and memories that we were leaving behind.
We moved into the new house on July 6 and finalized the sale on the old house on July 19th. And then...it wasn't our "old house" anymore...it is someone else's "new house." Our "new house" was becoming home.
The first weekend in August we packed Matt and Jenn's house into a moving truck and after a Mexican feast, we said our tearful goodbyes. I love this year. I am thankful for this year. I hate this year's goodbyes.
As we look ahead to Labor Day Weekend on the schedule, I thought "We should stop by Grandma's Saturday night" only to remember that Grandma's is just an empty house. As I woke up today, on a rainy friday, I thought "I'll call Jenn and the kids and see if they want to play" only to remember it's a 20 hour drive.
I vote no more Goodbyes this year.
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