Journey To Me

Early Frugal Friday!

I am doing my Frugal Friday post early because I plan to sleep in on "Black Friday". 

My frugal tip is that I will NOT be shopping on this day! 

I have in the past and found that I spend MORE money.  Just because something is on sale and is a good deal, doesn't mean I need it cluttering up my house!

My mother is notorious for this!  She buys everything on sale, but needs none of it!  I am going to break the cycle. 

I already have my list made and it is very small!!!

I am going to make everyone else something.  Whether it be cookies or homemade christmas ornaments or a table runner.  I will use items I already have on hand or items I can re-use (such as my fabric I am going to use to make curtains for my bedroom; it is currently a beautiful table cloth for my Thanksgiving guests!) and make my dollars stretch! 

Happy Thanksgiving to all!  And remember, just because it is on sale doesn't mean you NEED it!!!  Spend wisely!

Frugal Fridays!!!

Welcome to this week's edition of Frugal Fridays!

My tip for today is on Thanksgiving Dinner.

I am hosting 12 people for Thanksgiving Dinner and it is my first time having this dinner at my home.  My husband's family is well-to-do and they break out the china and real silver at their houses for dinner.  I don't have china or real silver (though I do have my great grandmother's everyday flatware, which I will be using) and was feeling down in the dumps that I would not be able to host dinner in a grand dining room like they are able to do. 

So, I just put it out of my head that I (at 29 years old) am supposed to have a huge house with a formal dining room and china and silver...  I have beautiful stonewear dishes which I received as wedding gifts (we specifically requested NO CHINA as we would so seldom use it) and I am going to place 2 borrowed "church basement tables" in my large living room and cover them with homemade tableclothes.  My wine glasses are made of glass, not crystal, which is okay with me because it costs me pennies to replace glasses instead of dollars (I break things often when handwashing) 

They will just have to live with bringing a dish to pass (I requested they do this if possible to cut down on my stress and grocery budget) and sitting on folding chairs for one afternoon.  Plus, in the three and a half years I have lived at this house, they have not once come to visit (most live over an hour and a half away).  So, I guess it is even a blessing that they would choose to drive all that way to spend Thanksgiving with me! 

I am going to just let it happen as it is supposed to.  Maybe my next house will have a large formal dining room!  (Probably not as my husband thinks they are a wasted space!!!  What a smart man I have!) 

So, I could go out and buy all the fancy things I think I need to host this meal, but I am going to let myself be happy with all the great items I already have to use in making dinner an event to remember!

Frugal Friday

Welcome to this weeks edition of Frugal Friday!  Crystal hosts this on her blog, but she is out of town today for the FILM FESTIVAL, so I thought I would do an independent post!

 My money saving tip for today deals with date nights.  My husband and I occasionally get together for date nights and since the money is scarce these days, we have come up with our new money saving date night idea of "Exploring A Town".

We pack a picnic lunch complete with beverages and head out to a town.  It could be a historic town, a town we have never been to, or a place we have wanted to take the time to explore but have not yet.  We will do window shopping, antique shopping and have a picnic in the local park!  It is a great way to spend an afternoon or evening.  We tend to stick with smaller towns that are more historic and have great shopping (even though we rarely purchase anything!).  This weekend we are hitting Stillwater, Minnesota. 

I am so excited to spend the day with him that I can hardly wait!!!

Frugal Friday

Today's frugal tip is to use your local public library. 

I have been using mine for quite some time now.  It is wonderful because it is within walking distance of my house!  They have FREE internet access (you can use their computers, or bring your own laptop) and they also have a network of other public libraries that they share books with.

I can go online, request a book from a different library and it will be to my library within a week (as long as it is not currently checked out by someone else). 

This is how I got the Dave Ramsey "Total Money Makeover" book and workbook.  A library over 3 hours away had copies of these books and they sent them off to my library as soon as they were checked back into their stock!

I also like using this technique to preview books I have been interested in purchasing in the past.  I have saved a lot of money by previewing the book before buying, because 95% of the time, I can talk myself out of purchasing the book!

Frugal Friday

Today is Frugal Friday!

When I bought my house 3 years ago, it came with mini blinds, really ugly discolored mini blinds.  I grew up in an old farmhouse that had beautiful lace curtains in the living room, velvet drapes in the bedrooms and the pull down shades on every single window.  I started to look at buying draperies for my home and quickly realized that there was no way I would be able to afford the type I wanted.  I live in Northern Wisconsin, so I wanted heavy thermal lined draperies to help keep the heat in during our cold winters where it can be below zero for days at a time. 

So, after getting really discouraged, I realized that my Mother taught me how to sew and that I could make my own draperies!

I designed them myself, purchased fabric from the outlet store (close to 100 yards), and spent about 60 hours sewing them, but do they ever look beautiful!  I would have paid well over $2500 to have an interior designer make them (I know this because I have a Mother-In-Law who is an interior designer and that was the estimation she gave me.) And I did it all for under $800 (hardware to hang the draperies are included in this price!).  Plus, they are made of a name brand fabric (this didn't matter to me, I just liked the colors and patterns) but I know it does matter to some people and hopefully will help when we sell our house in the future. 

Now I know that $800 still seems like a lot of money, but I made curtains for all 12 windows in our house.  One being a huge bay window that now has floor to ceiling drapes and 3 being for our sunroom which has three huge windows.  This also includes a decorative valance for each of the windows. 

I still feel very proud of my homemade draperies, and even more proud of the fact that I saved approximately $1700 by taking the time to make them myself! Even though I would have NEVER paid $2500 for drapes for any house, even if I did have the money to do it!!!