Frugal Friday: Step Back

It’s my opinion that not only should we be frugal with our money by stretching it, and our possessions by making them last, but we should also be frugal with our time. As a full time homemaker and small business owner, I am amazed to find that I am busier now than I was when I worked full time outside of the home, and I was darn busy then!

The bottom line is our time is precious, no matter how we spend it, no matter our walk of life. So take some time and step back from the craziness!

And don’t worry, frugality is meant to be a help not a hindrance. You may find it easy to get frustrated or overwhelmed because you simply can’t do it all or be as frugal as the next person. Do what you can, even I don’t practice extreme frugality, I simply don’t have the time!

Holiday Grand Plan Week 14

Holiday Decor

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I know I did! But that's a story for another day.
Usually the day after Thanksgiving is when I start dragging out the Christmas decorations. I'm almost finished putting things up now and then I need to put the decor boxes back into the garage.
It's a time of traveling, visiting and parties for me but next week things should slow down slightly until Christmas weekend.

Now I'm concentrating on wrapping and mailing (all my shopping is done)!

Frugal Friday: soup Soup SOUP!

Take the chill off with some wonderful soups, I bet you've never heard of some of these! I can't wait to try the Southwestern Chicken Soup

Is there anything more frugal that a big pot of soup and maybe a slice of bread?

I'll be traveling each weekend for the next three weeks so I may not get Frugal Friday posts done for a couple weeks.

Happy Holidays!

Holiday Grand Plan Week 12

Attic/Storage

In my house I have a nice walk up attic but there isn't much room to store anything - which I'm actually grateful for. I grew up with a very messy pack ratty mother who never gets rid of anything. The attic in her house has about 3 generations worth of crud in it. Don't let this happen to you!

The only things allowed in my attic are baby clothes, infant toys and packing materials. Everything is neatly organized in tubs and quite frankly I only go up there once or twice a year. Nothing needs to be done up there so this week I will continue working in the garage and also I need to keep working on my son's new room project.

The next 3 weekends will be spent travelling and visiting family - the Holiday's have begun!

Winter Season Special

Now through Christmas if you purchase one of my hand knit items you will receive a free matching change purse.



If you purchase two or more of my items you will receive $5.00 off your order and I will combine shipping costs.

I'm also adding tartan stockings and pouches.



Please visit my online shop to see everything available!

Apology

Please accept my apology, I just saw an ad at the top of my blog that I don't feel is appropriate. If you saw it you probably know what I'm referring to. I'm not sure how to go about changing it, I'll look into my Goodle Ads account and see if I can get it filtered.

The Craft Fair Gone Wrong

At the very last minute I decided to enter my knits in a local craft fair last weekend. Now, from the title of this blog post I'm sure you can gather that things didn't go so well but I do want to say that it was a great learning experience and all in all, I did have fun.
I enjoyed getting to know my craft neighbors and seeing what sort of things people were doing. It was interesting to me to see what sold...my knits not being one of them.
Initially I was told that there was only going to be one other crafter there who did crochet/knit. But when I got there I saw there were 4 other crafters doing what I do and wouldn't you know it....my booth was all the way at the back, the very last stop that people would come to to see my knitting. I firmly believe that my location greatly hampered sales as I was not only in the very back (of the last room) but I was also in a room where the lighting was terrible and you could not see the true colors of my yarn (as I'm sure you can tell from the picture).
I have to believe that location was my downfall because I was getting wonderful comments on my items such as, "These are beautiful...so soft...wonderful workmanship...decent pricing...very cute."
I engaged my potential customers, they asked me how I did certain stitches and I even had a hat going on my circular needles because believe it or not some people didn't believe I made everything that was on my tables.

I didn't sell my first item (a hat) until about 3 hours into the fair, then maybe an hour later a little boy bought a change purse from me for his mom. About 30 minutes later he came back and bought two more...he was my best customer of the day. I didn't sell anything else the rest of the day and I was $30 away from breaking even.

A couple of people took my business card stating they were interested in custom orders (mainly for their little children). As it turns out my email and website that are on the business cards are not working. I knew this going into it but I thought they would be up by now, so I don't know if those people have tried to contact me (at least I did have my phone number on my card!) or not.

I am working on creating some new items and I'm thinking about doing the fair again next year but I'm going to have to insist on being in the first better lit room, if I can't get a spot there then I don't think it will be worth my time and effort to go back.

I learned a lot, I did most things right and a couple of things wrong. It was a financial disaster but it was an accomplishment in that I did it, I went out by myself, set up "shop" and was proactive in trying to sell my wares so I think I did indeed come out ahead!

Frugal Friday: 27 Cleaning Tips & Tricks

I get a great deal of enjoyment out of a magazine called Real Simple. Now, I don't have a subscription so I read some of their things online and whenever I go to my MIL's house I take a look at her magazines since she does have a subscription.

Anyhow, today I'm directing you to their website to read about some cleaning tips and tricks...one of the tips is downright funny ..."dust only as high as your tallest friend...", now that's a tip I can live with!

Read more here

These tips are meant to help save you precious time and not necessarily money. I try my best to keep a good balance of spending in both areas.

Take care!

Holiday Grand Plan Week 11

Garage/Storage

I know your dreading it...so am I!
But I do have something in my favor during Garage Week. A few weekends ago I had a yard sale and cleaned a little "junk" out of the place. I am still tripping over the clothes that didn't sell, the old couch and bed that my husband refuses to get rid off and the tools that are littering the workbench, but at least I have some room to move around in there! Eventually the garage will be my son and husband's art studio (along with storage for household decorations, tools, camping equipment, sports and summer equipment and extra food and paper products).

You should be coming to the end of your homemade gift making (not including baking). I probably wouldn't start any other large projects and expect to finish them in time. I am knitting my last scarf and then I have the picture calendars to work on then I'm officially finished with my homemade gifts. After that I will see if I have time to make some additional knit gifts for my husband and son.

You can now get your Holiday Stamps from the Post Office. Although there are different ones to choose from I personally will be getting Holiday Knits as that fits me too a "T"!

Alright, better git to gittin'!