I recently stumbled across this great blog. Ana takes furniture you can order from places like Pottery Barn and Land of Nod and provides plans for them. She gives you a list of the supplies you will need and the cuts you will need to make. She gives great instruction for completing your projects. She seems to be very interested in empowing women to do their own construction projects.
My family made this bookcase for the new little baby we are expecting. My stepdad and brother in law made it and I painted it. It's a lovely shade of smurf blue that looks cute in the nursery. I really wanted to help since I don't know how to use a circular saw, but they did it while I was at work. I'm thinking of looking into classes at the trade school here, because there is a lack of patient teachers in my family. Honestly, I'm a little afraid of the saw and would like a safe environment to learn.
The whole project cost $83, but the wood cost about $50. Instead of the cheap pressed wood bookcase I was going to buy, I know have a sturdy real wood one that can be used for years to come. Of course Smurf blue might have to go, but that's not big deal! The Land of Nod version cost $350 plus shipping. See why I want to learn how to do it myself?!?
Does anything catch your eye? Anything you'd like to make?
Monday, February 22, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Year of Savings
One of the best coupon resources from last year was the Proctor and Gamble Year of Saving book. P&G is doing it again this year. Just purchase $50 (before coupons) of any P&G products, mail in your receipts, along with a form, and they will send your coupon booklet with $100 of savings. You can find more information here. It's very easy to spend $50 on Proctor and Gamble items. Cover Girl, Head and Shoulders, Aussie, Ivory, Pantene, Secret, Crest, Oral-B, Venus, Pringles, Tampax, Bounce, Bounty, Dawn, Pampers are all Proctor and Gamble products. There is a complete list on the above website. Plus there are always tons of coupons for those brands. It will be super easy to come up with $50. If you shop at Target, they are starting to mark down the bonus size packages they have with the seasonal aisles. Pair those with some coupons and you'll have tons of stuff for your $50. I'm watching Pampers. 2 big boxes should do it. Your $50 doesn't have to be on one receipt, so pick up a few things here and there. Just be sure to save your receipts!
Friday, November 20, 2009
How I Organize my Coupons, or "Let me Show You How Cool I am"
My system for organizing my coupons is based on two things. I don't want to spend tons of time on it, but I want to have the coupons I might use available if I happen to stop at Target on the way home. I also don't want to be the person with the whole top of the shopping cart filled with boxes of coupons/flyers/binders. It's important to me to have a system that is quick and easy to access and use. I've adapted it since I started, but this is that's working for me now.
This is all of my couponing stuff. The purple thing is just a plastic envelope. I put coupons I get in mail, my coupons from the paper, receipts I need to save, anything like that, in there. It keeps everything together and not scattered around my house.
I like to spend an hour or so every week (sometimes every other week) getting my coupons organized. I use the paper cutter to cut the coupons out in strips, like they are on the pages. Then I use the scissors to cut the individual coupons apart. The paper cutter is so much faster than the scissors. Some people only cut the coupons they are going to use, but I cut them all. After all of them are cut out, I sort out the ones I will never use and pass them along to friends. The coupons I think I might use, I put into my book.
This is my coupon book. It's really a photo album from Target. It has 25 pages with 4 pockets on each page. It's my second one. The first on I used had more pages, which I liked better. This one has a elastic closure that keeps it closed when I put it into my purse.
I used Avery Tabs to label the pages for the coupons. My old book had enough pages that I could have had 50 categories, but I've had to combine in this book. Since I use most of my coupons at the grocery store, the grocery categories are a little more specific than the other stuff.
I have Drinks, Breakfast, Fruits/Vegetables, Meat, Frozen, Dairy, Paper products, Baby, Pet, Cleaning, Hair Care, Make-up, Soap, etc. I tried to put them in the book in the order they are in the grocery store.
When I'm ready to sort, I have index cards that have the same labels as my tabs. I spread then out on the floor in the same order (they are numbered) and sort the coupons out on them. I've seen this made as a big mat that you can fold up, but I had index cards already. I keep the cards in the purple folder.
After the coupons are sorted, I put them into the pages. The one in the picture is Drinks. I like to divide them up a little further into the pockets. I put water in one, juice in one, coffee/tea in one, and whatever is left into the fourth one. I also pull them out and check for expired or close to expiring coupons then.
Like I said, I don't like to be sorting through coupons in the store. I try to get my trip planned out ahead of time, but sometime I'll see something on sale that I need or something that will be a great deal that I have a coupon for. I like to bring my book to the stores with me, just in case something jumps out at me. My book is organized so that I can quickly flip to the page where the coupon is and it's small enough to fit into my purse (I carry big purses, but it's about the size of a day planner). I also put pockets on the front and back cover. These are just the sticky CD holders that you can get with the office supplies. In my old book I did the same thing, but with envelopes and double sided tape. It's very convenient for holding the coupons you are going to use or any that you might grab in the store.
This is the blue book from the first picture. It's just a $1 notebook I got at Target. I used card stock to rig up the envelopes in the front. I tried using this at my main thing in the store, but it didn't work for me. It is very handy for making shopping lists and holding receipts, coupons, etc. I mainly use it to make my lists now.
Like I said, I like to be very organized when I go to the store. I hate to be sorting through coupons while my kid runs wild, or be blocking the aisle while other people are trying to shop too. Before I go to the store, I use southernsavers.com or hotcouponworld.com to print off the list of sales and the coupon matches. I also like to have the Publix ad. I make a list of the things I'm going to buy and how many according to what coupons I have. I also add anything I might need.
After I've made my list and pulled out the coupons I am going to use, I put them into my green accordian file. It's very small, a little larger than my check book. I put the coupons that I know I'm going to use in the second slot. I put the ones I might use in the next slot. These are usually coupons that are about to expire or are things I might buy, depending on how much they will be when I get to the store. There are a couple of extra slots I use to put coupons I pick up in the store or coupons that I haven't sorted out yet. I also put my list in there and drop the whole thing into my purse, or even better, my shopping bags so I don't forget them!
When I get to the store and start putting things in my cart, I move the coupons I'm using to the very front. By the time I get to the check out, all of the coupons I need are right in the front, and I can just pull them out and hand them to the cashier. This works very well for me as I never seem to have enough hands to hold the coupons I'm using and to look for one I need. I used to just use the envelopes in my book to do the same thing, but I like having a little more room and division.
This system works very well for me. The only problem I have is that sometime I just don't feel like sorting out the coupons. That would be a problem with any system I use, though. I did try to do the binder thing with baseball card pages, but that was just too big for me to carry around. I have the same issue with using a box and divinders. It's just too much. What do you use? If you have any questions or suggestions, I'd love to hear them!
This is all of my couponing stuff. The purple thing is just a plastic envelope. I put coupons I get in mail, my coupons from the paper, receipts I need to save, anything like that, in there. It keeps everything together and not scattered around my house.
I like to spend an hour or so every week (sometimes every other week) getting my coupons organized. I use the paper cutter to cut the coupons out in strips, like they are on the pages. Then I use the scissors to cut the individual coupons apart. The paper cutter is so much faster than the scissors. Some people only cut the coupons they are going to use, but I cut them all. After all of them are cut out, I sort out the ones I will never use and pass them along to friends. The coupons I think I might use, I put into my book.
This is my coupon book. It's really a photo album from Target. It has 25 pages with 4 pockets on each page. It's my second one. The first on I used had more pages, which I liked better. This one has a elastic closure that keeps it closed when I put it into my purse.
I used Avery Tabs to label the pages for the coupons. My old book had enough pages that I could have had 50 categories, but I've had to combine in this book. Since I use most of my coupons at the grocery store, the grocery categories are a little more specific than the other stuff.
I have Drinks, Breakfast, Fruits/Vegetables, Meat, Frozen, Dairy, Paper products, Baby, Pet, Cleaning, Hair Care, Make-up, Soap, etc. I tried to put them in the book in the order they are in the grocery store.
When I'm ready to sort, I have index cards that have the same labels as my tabs. I spread then out on the floor in the same order (they are numbered) and sort the coupons out on them. I've seen this made as a big mat that you can fold up, but I had index cards already. I keep the cards in the purple folder.
After the coupons are sorted, I put them into the pages. The one in the picture is Drinks. I like to divide them up a little further into the pockets. I put water in one, juice in one, coffee/tea in one, and whatever is left into the fourth one. I also pull them out and check for expired or close to expiring coupons then.
Like I said, I don't like to be sorting through coupons in the store. I try to get my trip planned out ahead of time, but sometime I'll see something on sale that I need or something that will be a great deal that I have a coupon for. I like to bring my book to the stores with me, just in case something jumps out at me. My book is organized so that I can quickly flip to the page where the coupon is and it's small enough to fit into my purse (I carry big purses, but it's about the size of a day planner). I also put pockets on the front and back cover. These are just the sticky CD holders that you can get with the office supplies. In my old book I did the same thing, but with envelopes and double sided tape. It's very convenient for holding the coupons you are going to use or any that you might grab in the store.
This is the blue book from the first picture. It's just a $1 notebook I got at Target. I used card stock to rig up the envelopes in the front. I tried using this at my main thing in the store, but it didn't work for me. It is very handy for making shopping lists and holding receipts, coupons, etc. I mainly use it to make my lists now.
Like I said, I like to be very organized when I go to the store. I hate to be sorting through coupons while my kid runs wild, or be blocking the aisle while other people are trying to shop too. Before I go to the store, I use southernsavers.com or hotcouponworld.com to print off the list of sales and the coupon matches. I also like to have the Publix ad. I make a list of the things I'm going to buy and how many according to what coupons I have. I also add anything I might need.
After I've made my list and pulled out the coupons I am going to use, I put them into my green accordian file. It's very small, a little larger than my check book. I put the coupons that I know I'm going to use in the second slot. I put the ones I might use in the next slot. These are usually coupons that are about to expire or are things I might buy, depending on how much they will be when I get to the store. There are a couple of extra slots I use to put coupons I pick up in the store or coupons that I haven't sorted out yet. I also put my list in there and drop the whole thing into my purse, or even better, my shopping bags so I don't forget them!When I get to the store and start putting things in my cart, I move the coupons I'm using to the very front. By the time I get to the check out, all of the coupons I need are right in the front, and I can just pull them out and hand them to the cashier. This works very well for me as I never seem to have enough hands to hold the coupons I'm using and to look for one I need. I used to just use the envelopes in my book to do the same thing, but I like having a little more room and division.
This system works very well for me. The only problem I have is that sometime I just don't feel like sorting out the coupons. That would be a problem with any system I use, though. I did try to do the binder thing with baseball card pages, but that was just too big for me to carry around. I have the same issue with using a box and divinders. It's just too much. What do you use? If you have any questions or suggestions, I'd love to hear them!
Friday, August 14, 2009
Friday Favorite
Vocal Point is a community for moms. They have a message board, surveys, articles, etc. The reason they are a favorite of mine is because they send samples and coupons. The coupons are usually for a free product. I've gotten Frosted Mini-Wheats before. It came with a sample box of cereal, a buy one, get one coupon, plus about 6 $1.50 coupons to share with friends and family. Yesterday in the mail I had a pack that was coupons for Rice Krispies: one coupon for a free box and 5 for $1 off, I think. I also received a coupon for Bounce's new dryer bar for free and several coupons to pass along. I can't remember what else I've gotten from them except for Kashi Waffle coupons. They also don't send out a lot of emails. Maybe once a week, I'll get one that serves as a remind to check the site and see if they have anything I'm interested in. If you have a minute, check it out.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Favorite Friday
Every since I was a little girl, I have loved to read. I used to spend weeks at a time with my grandma, and the first day I was there, she would take me to the store. I got to pick out 4 or 5 books to read while I was stay with her. I had a collection of Box Car Children, R.L. Stein, Baby Sitters' Club, Anne of Green Gables, you name it. Grandma always read romance novels and I read my pre-teen fiction. We had snacks and spent the days reading. I loved it. I still do. (And I've been know to pick up a romance novel of my own from time to time. Don't judge.)
Adult books are more expensive than children's books. I'm weird about going to the library. I don't like the time constraint hanging over me. I just like to have books lying around when I want to pick one up and read it. We go to the trade book store in our town every once in a while, but I like to have a bunch of books to take in to her. The solution: Paperbackswap.com.
Basically I list the books that I have to trade. When you first sign up and list 10 books, you get 2 credits, meaning you can order 2 books. Those 2 are sent to you. When someone requests one of your books, you pay to send the book to them (usually around $2.50). For every book you mail, you get another credit. When someone requests one of your books, all you have to do is print two pieces of regular paper from your printer which includes the mailing address and the recommended postage. For $0.25 you can buy the postage and save the trip to the post office!
I'm sure that you have some books on your shelves that you are never going to read again. List them on paperbackswap and get something new to read. I recommend:
anything by Jodi Picoult
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (really anything by her)
Eat, Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Marek Halter's series on Sarah, Ezra's sister and Zipporah, wife of Moses
Adult books are more expensive than children's books. I'm weird about going to the library. I don't like the time constraint hanging over me. I just like to have books lying around when I want to pick one up and read it. We go to the trade book store in our town every once in a while, but I like to have a bunch of books to take in to her. The solution: Paperbackswap.com.
Basically I list the books that I have to trade. When you first sign up and list 10 books, you get 2 credits, meaning you can order 2 books. Those 2 are sent to you. When someone requests one of your books, you pay to send the book to them (usually around $2.50). For every book you mail, you get another credit. When someone requests one of your books, all you have to do is print two pieces of regular paper from your printer which includes the mailing address and the recommended postage. For $0.25 you can buy the postage and save the trip to the post office!
I'm sure that you have some books on your shelves that you are never going to read again. List them on paperbackswap and get something new to read. I recommend:
anything by Jodi Picoult
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (really anything by her)
Eat, Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Marek Halter's series on Sarah, Ezra's sister and Zipporah, wife of Moses
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Coupons...Where are you?
There are coupons hiding all over the internet. Today you can request a booklet from Home Made Simple. I've gotten this one before and it usually has lots of good coupons in it. There is usually a coupon for something free in it as well. Last time my booklet was missing the pages. I think the mailman must have taken them!
Friday, July 10, 2009
Favorite Friday
I've been feeling quite crafty lately. I think it has to partly do with the half finished desk that's currently living in my kitchen. I'm refinishing and painting it. Hopefully this weekend. I'm on the hunt for the perfect knobs for it, but I'm not having much luck. Maybe I'll just make my own.
There are two great sites for getting ideas for your own crafty inspirations. The first one is Craftster. You can see all of the different stuff people have made and posted. Lots of them have tutorials to show you how do to it yourself. If you have a question about a project you're already working on, you can find the answer on here as well. The best thing I've seen was a little kid's play kitchen made out of an old entertainment center.
The other site I like to look at is etsy. Not only can you look at things people have made, but you can just buy them and save your time! I've ordered several things from different sellers. You can also find vintage items on the site. It's great for handmade gifts you didn't make yourself. I always get inspired to make things when I shop here.
Go to one of the sites and find something to express your creativity this weekend. I'd love to see something you were inspired to make!
There are two great sites for getting ideas for your own crafty inspirations. The first one is Craftster. You can see all of the different stuff people have made and posted. Lots of them have tutorials to show you how do to it yourself. If you have a question about a project you're already working on, you can find the answer on here as well. The best thing I've seen was a little kid's play kitchen made out of an old entertainment center.
The other site I like to look at is etsy. Not only can you look at things people have made, but you can just buy them and save your time! I've ordered several things from different sellers. You can also find vintage items on the site. It's great for handmade gifts you didn't make yourself. I always get inspired to make things when I shop here.
Go to one of the sites and find something to express your creativity this weekend. I'd love to see something you were inspired to make!
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