Mama's Little Loves

Since Crystal is decorating her new house, I thought I would share a cheap way to use paint and spruce up a room. The first one is in my daughter's room. I bought the canvas painting with her name on it at a craft sale. Not the cheapest, but I thought it was so cute. I didn't just want to hang it on her wall, so I went down to our local paint store and asked to see their mistints. They always have a really good supply of these in the back. I found the shade of yellow that was fairly close to what I wanted. It was just a quart and rang up at a whopping $1.50. A definite deal! I then took it and out lined a frame around the picture and painted away. I then got the flowers from Michaels. Those were $.10 cents a piece on sale. I painted those and added just a little glitter to some spots on them. For the whole 'frame' around the picture, I spent under $5.00. (Sorry about the taped off portion of the picture, but my daughter's b-day is on there.)

The next two pictures are from in my basement. I wanted something different and so I just outlined random squares and rectangles on the wall and painted then in. Then I took some ribbon and out lined them to give it a finished off look. I love how it turned out. Very different and people are always commenting on it.



For more frugal ideas, go to Crystal and check them out.

Labels: Frugal Friday, redo basement

FRUGAL FRIDAY...

This Friday Crystal posted three questions that she wants you to answer:

1. What is the best resource for frugality you've found (book, magazine, website, etc.)?
2. What is the best deal you've gotten recently?
3. What is your best idea for a creative and inexpensive gift (I was specifically thinking this might be helpful for those who still are looking for some last-minute Christmas ideas!)?

Here is what I came up with:

1. I love Fat Wallet. You can get so many free things to try out on there from magazines to perfumes to pens, etc. You name it, I have probably been able to find it for free on this website. I gave the link to the free stuff forum, but they also have a coupon section and tons of other cool stuff.
2. One of the best deals I got would probably be when I got a bunch of Target coupons and instead of spending about $30.00 for my groceries, I spent $14.00! Way cool. I posted about that here. One other thing, which was a bonus from Fat Wallet, was that I got two free things of formula in the mail. Two nice 8 oz. cans! I don't use it yet, but it will definitely come in handy down the road.
3. Last, I don't have to worry about the whole Christmas thing, which is very inexpensive since I don't have to do anything :) But I did have Ambry draw a picture card for her Nana. I gave her glue, macaroni pieces, and marshmallows and just let her go to town. Then I wrote a note inside in "her handwriting". Just something small and thoughtful that I knew Ambry would be so excited to give her since she did it herself. EDIT:Please visit Esther's blog for why we don't do Christmas.

For more answers to these questions go to Crystal's Blog.

Labels: Frugal Friday

Thanks to Esther, I followed one of her llinks and am now visiting this site. On Fridays they do an activity called Frugal Friday and I thought it would be fun to participate. So my tip is about cleaning supplies. So many of your household cleaning supplies can be made instead of buying them...and you can save quite a bit of $$$ also. I make my own "windex" out of ammonia, baking soda, vinegar, and water. All it requires is some very strong nose plugs while you are making it. Take 1/2 cup ammonia, 1/2 cup vinegar, 2 tbsp. of baking soda, and pour it all into a gallon container. I use my old bulk windex bottles so they are already marked and I don't confuse them with other cleaners. Once those things are all mixed together, simply fill it up the rest of the way, and voila, you have got "windex"! Don't forget about bleach. I use that for just about everything. I use it to clean my toilets, wash out my sinks, and pour down the disposal while running to freshen things up. I also pour it into my trash cans regularly just in case anything icky spilled in there or got stuck. So if you just use bleach for those things, you no longer need to buy toilet cleaner, soft scrub or ajax (or whatever you use for scrubbing). Can you tell I love bleach?? It is also one of my mom's favorites. She always told me that if you ever want your husband to come home and think you've been cleaning all day, quick pour some bleach into your toilets, so you get that nice clean smell, and they think you've been cleaning all day even if you have stuff laying around--you just say your were scrubbing the grime off of everything!! :)

Follow this link to hear about other great ideas.

Labels: Frugal Friday