Friday, January 14, 2011

Time and Money-Saving Tips

The Time Keeper, a spiral bound daily planner designed by a stay-at-home mom, can be a tool for you to find joy in a well-kept life.  Each weekly page includes space for daily entries, menu planning, and a "To Do" list.  Spiral bound for your convenience, this planner also includes monthly pages with project lists, a page to jot down gift ideas for family and friends, an organizer pocket, and several pages for personal ideas and notes.  You may contact Starla Krieder for details at 717-933-54-82 or timekeeper@emypeople.net.                             
                                                               
Cut Your Family's Hair rather than always having them go to the barber or beauty shop.  You can save several thousand of dollars!  I figured it out once and our family's savings came to over $2,000 during the time our children were in the home.  Have a friend show you how or check out books from the library on how to do it.
 
Learn How to Sew the Basics ~ One definite way to save money is to learn how to sew. Sewing classes are available, but if a friend enjoys sewing, ask if she might teach you in exchange for your teaching her a skill you enjoy.  In order to sew on buttons, and sew some hems, you don't need a machine.  A sewing machine that sews a straight and zig-zag stitches is quite inexpensive, and you can find a good used machine for even less.  Knowing how to mend clothes, towels, sheets, etc. will extend the use of many items.  What do you do when you have a ripped seam, the way clothes are sewn with such long stitches? Making simple curtains, pillowcases, and other items in the style and color you need is certainly a plus in sewing.  You may find that you enjoy it so much that you'll want to do much more!
 
End of the Season Plants ~ At the end of the growing season many plant nurseries greatly discount their plants and shrubs or even toss some out.  You may want to check to see if they want to get rid of anything, especially if you have a green thumb and are able to nurse an ailing pant back to health.
 
Card Making Supplies ~ Paint stores as well as Home Depot and Lowe's discontinue their paint color cards.  Those little cards work great for hand embossing, crimping or cut-outs in making greeting cards.  Ask when the color cards will be discontinued, and be on the look-out.  They also make great gift tags.  Just punch a hole in the corner and tie them on a package.
 
Beautifully Framed Pictures can be hanging on your walls for a low price by using a nice calendar.  I've really been enjoying a calendar this year from the Christian book store of darling children.  I was thinking last week how nice those pictures would look in frames, with matting.  Since calendars follow a theme, you could have a group of pictures following a theme - not necessarily twelve though!  For the look of an oil painting, glue the picture to a sturdy flat cardboard back, lay a piece of cheesecloth (found in the canning section of grocery stores) over the calendar picture, and paint a thin coat of clear shellac over the top.  Then mat and frame the picture.  Buy mats and frames at a craft shop, where they have great discounts.
 
Framed Puzzle Pictures on the wall can be a wonderful memory for your family, especially if all the family had worked on that puzzle together.  Simply paint a thin coat of shellac over the top before framing.  At the beach our daughter found a puzzle with three sections, consisting of tiny puzzle pieces for the adults, medium sized pieces for medium sized children, and large pieces for the youngest children.  It's being worked on right now, spread out on their dining room table, but we might need to visit them to help finish it!  Pawpaw is really good at puzzles.  He inherited that from his mother!
 
Repair Scratched Furniture by using a can of wax shoe polish that matches the furniture.  Rub the polish into the scratch, let it set for a few minutes, and buff lightly with a soft cloth.  Depending how bad the scratch is, it may not completely cover it, but it will diminish the scratch.

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