Re-Fashion: Sweater

My darling little almost 8 year old has gotten some very stubborn opinions of late on what her wardrobe should include, and what it most certainly should not include. I recently picked up a cute aqua cardigan at Goodwill for just $.29. Of course, she hates it.

While I was sorting through my sewing desk the other day, I came across some Dollar Tree fake fur boa's I had bought for a project last year. I wound up with several left over, though, and nothing in mind. Today, I pulled them out. They are a lovely purple (though they look blue in the photos I took), and the sweater has a pink and purple argyle pattern around the waist. A match was born!



If there is anything Gilly WILL still wear, it's pink, purple, furry, sparkle laden, and gem encrusted clothing. Very princessy. She's my girl's girl. My oldest outgrew that girly girl stage when she was 4.


It took me a bit of time to figure out just where to start, but once I did, the collar was very easy to add fur to. Originally, I was going to do the cuffs, but I think I like it on just the collar.

I sewed it inside out to the outside of the sweater, then rolled it over the neck line, and sewed it down again. I would recommend a straight stitch. I started with a zig zag without thinking and it showed up- big time. When I was done, I had to go back and add material to cover the zig zag.

What do you think? I was going to save it for her birthday in December, but I love it to much to wait!

Family Gift Idea: Game Night

My friend Sarah over at Sarah's Deals posted a pretty slick deal yesterday. This is primarily good for the younger kids, but it's a great gift idea, especially those that buy for a lot of kids!

Toys R Us is having a Hasbro game sale right now, with several preschool games marked only $3.99. When you buy $25 worth of Hasbro games, you get a $10 gift card back. In addition, you can get a $2/game rebate (limit 1 per game title- so you can't buy 3 of the same game title, and get $6, you'd only get $2) back in refund from Hasbro.

The gift card activates 6 hours after making the deal (presumably so you have to come back to the store a second time). That frees you up $10 to buy another gift at TRU.

The math would require the purchase of 7 games at $3.99 to hit the $25 mark. Once you did, you would get $10 off your next purchase, and then a rebate of $14 back, making your total purchase only around $4 for 7 games. That's pretty much buy 1 get 6 free!

There are also some $7.99 & $9.99 games listed, which means buying less to hit the $25 mark, but saving less, as well, since the rebate would go down. To buy the fewest, at the cheapest price, you would want to buy 2 of the $7.99 games, and 1 of the $9.99 games to equal $25.97. You would get a $10 gift card back, and a $6 rebate, making it just shy of $10 for 3 games.

The more expensive games are geared at older kids- Clue, Boggle, Scrabble, Mouse Trap, Yahtzee, etc.

Thanks for the great deal, Sarah, and good luck shoppers!

Saving Money on Groceries

Groceries can add up to being a huge expense, and the more people in the house, the bigger the expense. I really miss the days when our 3 kids would barely finish a box of mac n cheese. Now, making mac n cheese requires 2 boxes for just those 3, or 3 boxes if we are all eating it.

One of the ways I save both time and money on groceries, is by using Savings Angel. I scoffed at the site for a few years. After all, I knew what they were doing, and knew I could do it for free on my own. What Savings Angel does, is finds the sale ad for YOUR area, and they go down the list, item by item, matching the sales with coupons from the Sunday paper, or coupons found online.

The hardest part of doing this on your own, is knowing where to find the online coupons, and taking the time out of your hectic schedule to do it. It is time consuming! Especially if you you have to sort through all your coupons each week, to see what you have.

Then there's the mess of removing expired coupons, and clipping all the new ones, and putting them in their place. It can be a total pain. In fact, it can down right wear a person out. I was an avid coupon clipper and shopper for a long time, but as the kids got older, and my time got shorter, I just let it fall to the side.

Recently, I decided I can't afford to shop the way I was, not anymore. I needed to save more money, and get more bang for our bucks. So, I sucked it up, and started to try again. I quickly remembered why I had stopped- all the work put into it, the time spent pouring over ads, sorting through the coupons, it was too much stress for me to be able to get it going.

About that time, a good friend of mine and my brother both signed up for Savings Angel. After talking with my brother about all the tips I had for coupon clipping (I had a lot, I realized!), I decided maybe Savings Angel would be a kick in the fanny to get me going on saving money again.

Savings Angel is a pay to use site, and there are similar sites out there that do the same service for free. However, what I found, was when I compared the SA site to the free sites, very few of the free sites listed had all the deals listed. Most of them missed coupons along the way, some missed the entire deal along the way. They just did not compare once I started looking at both.

Savings Angel is $19.95 per month. When you buy the first month, the second month is free, so up front, it's $19.95 for 2 months of service. There is a forum for help, and "mentors" who can also help people one on one. The site has coupons to print, and points out coupons found all over the web to print. When they list a sale item, they list all the non-expired coupons that were in the Sunday paper or online, AND, they tell you what week that coupon was in, or if it was in a magazine, or they show a link on where to print it.

Now, $20 a month is a big deal, I get that. For me, I look at what I'm saving on groceries that I wasn't saving before. My first 3 trips to the grocery store resulted in just over $100 worth of groceries. I paid just under $20 total for all 3 trips, saving me $80 off my grocery bill!

$80 is a lot of money saved. With a teenager, a preteen, and a school aged child in the house, we go through food a lot more quickly now. Getting the freezer filled is a big deal for us, because of how quickly we can deplete it.

Anyway, I highly recommend Savings Angel for anyone who needs the extra help saving money, like I did. It's been a very helpful site so far. Just click the banner above, or the image below to check the site out!

Making a (Cheap) Meal Plan!

One of the hardest parts of feeding a family of 5 is planning ahead, and getting what I need when I grocery shop. For a while, I fell into a bad rut- go shopping, come home, and realize almost every day that I didn't have everything I needed for specific meals. It was an expensive time, because of all the side trips to the store for something else.

With the economy what it is, people are looking to lower costs all over the place, any way they can. Here are a few tips to help you get the most for your grocery money.

1. Get coupons- get the Sunday paper, ask friends, family, and coworkers for unwanted coupon ads, and learn your way around the internet if you have a printer.
2. Learn the sales- take the ad you got for the local supermarket in your Sunday paper, and read it cover to cover at least two times. Scan everything, and look at the prices.
3. Get out a notebook, and a calculator, or use a word document and the calculator on your computer.
4. Go back to the ad, and starting on page one, write down ideas for meals on the notebook- complete meals, not just portions. If you want a pot roast, write in the veggies you’ll add to the meal. As you scan the ad, write down the sale price for the items. Your goal is to find as much of the meals as you can on sale.
5. Once you have some complete meals listed, try to figure out the costs for the total meal, and the cost per serving. Here’s an example:
   • Spaghetti Sauce is on sale for $.99 per can.
   • Rotini noodles are on sale for $.79 per box.
   • Garlic Bread is on sale for $1.99 per package.
   • Green beans are on sale for $.66 per can.
   • You now have all the items needed for a spaghetti meal. First, add up the total cost for the items. In this case, the meal will cost $4.43. Then, divide it by the number of people it will serve. For me, that’s 5 people, making it $.89 per serving. Now, there are ways to get that cost down. If you are only serving 2 people, for instance, you probably don’t need to use the full box of noodles, or all the garlic bread. If I were to only use 5 slices of garlic bread, that would be $1.25 instead of $1.99.
   • Last, factor in coupons. For the meal listed above, I had 3 coupons- $1 off 5 cans of sauce, making each can of sauce only $.79. $1 off 2 boxes of garlic bread, making each box only $1.49. $1 off 3 cans of vegetables, making each can only $.33. Once you factor in the coupons, figure out the bottom line price: $3.40 for the meal, or $.68 per serving for a family of 5.
6. When you have an idea of how much each meal will cost, figure out how many times you want to serve it. Is it something everyone likes? Do you often serve it once a week, or more? If so, plan to stock up on enough while it’s on sale, to last you several meals worth. Why go back to the store for the exact same items next week, and pay more for them? Here’s a break down of the same meal, not on sale.
   • Spaghetti sauce is $1.29
   • Rotini noodles are $1.19
   • Garlic Bread is $2.39
   • Green beans are $.99
   • The total price is $5.86, or $1.17 per serving for a family of 5.
   • In buying enough of the makings while on sale, I’m saving $1.43 over the sale price, and $2.46 over the sale price with coupons. It’s not much, sure, but let’s say you make that meal 5 times a month, and only buy it on sale 1 time per month. If you buy the items 5 times, and only once on sale, you are spending $5.72 more per month for the same items. Factor in the coupon savings, and you are spending $9.84 more per month. Those savings are easily another 2-4 meals, paid for.
7. Now that you have a basic idea of which meals will cost more, and which will be cheaper, write down your grocery list, listing all items needed for each meal. You want to make sure you have enough meals for your time frame. If you grocery shop once a week, you want 7 dinners, enough food for breakfast 7 days, and if you eat lunch at home, or take lunch from home, 7 days of lunches.
8. It’s important to remember that you don’t have to stick to a set day. Just having a plan in place before you go grocery shopping, will save you money and time. Often, people are running back and forth to the store several times during the week, because of little forgotten things, or needing to grab something for dinner. Those little trips add up- fast! How often do you run into the store for 1 or 2 things, and leave with a bag full? With a meal plan in place, the likelihood of doing that is much smaller.

The bottom line is this- shop smart. Use the sales to get the best deals. Take a calculator with you, so that you can add up the costs of items NOT on sale. Figure out if the item is cheaper in a larger or smaller quantity! Just divide the price by the weight (ounces, or pounds). Do it for 2 size packages, and you will get the price per pound or ounce.

For instance:

Let’s say a 10 ounce can of soup is $.89, and a 15 ounce can of soup is on sale for $1.29. Which is cheaper? Well, the 10 ounce can comes out to $.089 per ounce, and the 15 ounce can comes out at $.086 per ounce, making it slightly cheaper, though since both would round up, it would be the same- $.09 per ounce. However, now you know that on a regular day, when the 15 ounce can is NOT on sale, and is $1.39, that the 10 ounce can is the better deal.

Bigger is not always better. Years ago, product designers realized that if they sold a bigger container for a slightly cheaper price, people would buy it for the deal. Somewhere over time, however, they also realized that now we’re conditioned to think that if you buy more, you get it cheaper. So, while most of America is still buying into bigger is better, the savvy shoppers have realized- no, it’s not!

Your calculator will become your best friend at the grocery store. Don’t feel dumb or in the way when you stop to check the price. Your fellow grocery shoppers might get annoyed, but your bank account won’t!

One more piece of advice- always plan for at least 1 "quick serve" meal per week- something you can pop in the oven, microwave, or stove top with almost no prep time, or cook time. For me, this is soup & sandwich night. I reserve those for the nights when I have no desire to cook, and want to "cheat" by ordering in, or grabbing drive-thru meals. If I get everything on sale, I can provide soup & sandwiches for 5 for under $.40 per person, and it takes far less prep time than waiting for a delivery, or driving to McDonalds!

Good luck!!