Getting Frugal: Fabric Book Covers

With a new school year, comes covering books.  I chose to use fabric that I have on hand to cover the text books this year.  I refuse to pay $8 for 6 book covers, that I know sometimes don’t even last the entire year! 
I have accumulated fabric from my mother and my grandmother, and even extra from projects that I never got to.  It has been sitting in storage, and I refuse to throw it away, because there is going to come a time when I am going to need it for something. 
        
Well the time has come to use what we have!  LOL!
    
         
    
              
     
      
     
    
   
         
   
    
  
  
  
  
If you try this project or have any questions, please leave a comment.  I appreciate your correspondence. 

BuzzNet Tags: Sewing,Fabric,Book Covers,Back to School,Frugal,Crafts,Saving Money

Getting It Together: Back to School #2, Preparations.

Wow!   I was getting school supplies, and school clothes shopping out of the way, then Hurricane Irene decided to take away our power for four days, all while transitioning the kids into their school routines.  Sorry it has been a bit since my last post, this is a really busy time for us.

We ended up doing all of our school shopping this year, online.  This is quite unusual for us, we usually like to make an event of it and have a great day with the kids.  My husband was working so much overtime, it just didn’t fit into our schedules this year.  It worked out well, I only had to make one reorder from Kmart.com. 

Living in such a remote location, power outages are a semi annual event, being prepared is essential.  We usually experience the long term power outages during the winter, from ice storms.  Periods with loss of power in the warmer months, we aren’t accustomed to.  This time we had to worry about our freezer and refrigerator food spoiling, having a generator was definitely necessary.  We did fine, having family around to help was nice.

The kids are now days away from starting school again.  We are preparing for this by:

• Starting them back on their school bedtimes (about 2 weeks away from the start of school).
• Having them wake up at the time they would need to be up for school (about a week from the start of school).
• Double checking that they have all of their needed school supplies.
• Creating a routine with the them that they will need to use once school starts.
• Collecting ideas for quick and easy breakfasts, and school lunches.
• Washing up any school clothes that were put into storage, along with seasonal jackets.
• Scheduling any doctors or dentist appointments needed.  Getting any immunizations that the school is requiring for admissions.
• Filling out enrollment paperwork, or other paperwork that the school is requiring for the upcoming year.
• Attending any orientations at the school.
• Making sure that any assignments that may be due from over the summer have been completed.
• Getting haircuts for the new school year.
• Going over the updated school rules with the them, and taking note to how we can comply with them.
• Adding the school calendar to our family calendar.  (staff days, holidays, special days that require us to make other preparations and recesses.)

We usually finish the above list and then celebrate with both of our families for a few Labor Day celebrations.  Due to the power outage last week, we are a bit behind on some of our preparations, so we have bowed out of our normal labor day functions.

My oldest daughter will be starting 7th grade, my youngest daughter will be starting 4th grade, and my son will be starting Pre-K.  It should be an interesting year, but being prepared and starting the year off right helps relieve some of the first day jitters.  Each of them know what they can expect and aren’t overly frightened to start school.  If anything, I am frightened of the paper clutter that is going to come home with them daily!!!  EEEKS!   Oh yeah sorry (recycle bin, lol).

Getting It Together: Back to School #1, Shopping Plan.

It is about that time again and our kids have to start school in about 2 1/2 weeks.  The task of shopping for school is always very stressful to us and it takes a lot to face it sometimes.  UGH!  But I have a schedule to uphold, and have to get these kids ready before the stores run out of clothes and supplies to choose from.  This is how we create our shopping plan for back to school.


Clothes:
About a week ago we inventoried all of their fall and winter clothes.  We had them try everything on, then we tallied up what they had.  This gave us an idea of what gaps we had so we could create a list of what the kids need for school clothes shopping.  I created a worksheet in our word processor to help us streamline this.  Keeping this on hand will allow for easy annual inventories, and keep you organized.

The clothes that didn’t fit or were too old (or they just had way too many of…) went into 2 piles.  One to donate to Good Will and the other was items that were not good enough to give away and we threw them out or chose to reuse them as rags.

From this tally sheet I made a list for shopping.  I arranged it by the departments we would be shopping in, then by the items needed then by the person.  This way we would be first directed to the correct department and wouldn’t be having to go back and forth, searching for things.


Supplies:
Our school sends out lists with the children’s required school supplies at the end of the previous school year.  It is such a joy… to try to keep track of this list over the summer.   LOL!  Anyway, I place it in my Household binder so it won’t get lost. 

I take all of their lists and I go through all of our extra supplies that we have on hand (from previous shopping trips, and from what came back from last year that was adequate to reuse).  This generally takes care of most of the needed school supplies.  Then I start setting up their backpacks with the supplies that we do have on hand.  Again, like with the clothes inventory worksheet, I just have to fill in the gaps where we are lacking. 

From what we are missing I create a new list, and set it with the clothes shopping list in my household binder and wait for the right day to go shopping.  Prep work is now complete.


Having a plan and a budget in mind will really help you stay on track.  My children know that they are allowed to choose the items we shop for from the list, and from the store that we agree upon.  Children need choices, but families need limits.  It really isn’t responsible of a parent to spend all of the months money on clothes and not be able to buy food or pay the bills, just because they didn’t want to limit their children’s clothing allowance. 

Planning is key.  If you have any ideas or comments that you would like to add, I would love to hear from you.   My next Back to School segment will be about any other preparations that might be needed before the school year starts.

Recipe: Butter Spread

I love making my own butter spread.  Have you seen some of the ones today, some contain omega 3 fish oils.  I personally have to be careful, because I have an allergy to fish.  They cost quite a bit for something that should only contain butter, salt and vegetable oil. 
Example:  Great Value Light Cardio Choice Buttery Spread (I used this, and now reuse the container when making my own butter spread).
Butter isn’t listed. 

1. Water
2. Premium Oil Blend (Canola, Soybean, Palm, Palm Kernel, and Flaxseed)
3. Salt
4. Vegetable Monoglycerides
5. Potassium Sorbate (Preservative)
6. Soybean Lecithin
7. Alpha Tocopherol
8. Acetate (Vitamin E)
9. Citric Acid
10. Artificial Flavor
11. Vitamin B12
12. Vitamin B6
13. Polyglycerol Esters of Fatty Acids
14. Calcium Disodium EDTA
15. Vitamin A Palmitate
16. Beta Carotene
17. Vitamin D3

For our family, the 2 minutes it takes me to throw this recipe together is worth not having all of these “Yummy” ingredients on our table, at every meal.
I came across this a few years ago, I don’t exactly remember where. 

• 1 part salted butter
• 1 part oil (cooking, corn, canola, olive, whatever kind you prefer)

Melt the butter in a heat safe container in the microwave ( I use a Pyrex liquid measuring cup), then measure how much has melted.  Add the same amount of oil to it whisk together until well blended, then pour into an old butter spread container and place in the refrigerator.  Allow to set up, about 3 hours. 
*Spread is meant to be kept in refrigerator, if it does sit out for a long period of time it will melt and need to be put back in refrigerator.
My family doesn’t even notice the difference.  I should say my husband doesn’t seem bothered by this at all.  He is actually happier, because it has real butter in it! 
I would love to hear your thoughts on Butter Spread, and if you try this yourself let me know how it turns out!  Till next time.

Getting Green: Recycling #2, The Full Picture

Researching can sometimes take a little effort, but in the long run you will be benefited by it.  You will be able to make better decisions if you know all of the information.  I started by contacting our privately run waste management company.
To get the phone number to the company we use, I looked on one of my bills…  I found there website on the bill too so I decided to check it out.  When I got to the site, I hunted around for a bit before I called, to see if there was anything else I could ask them about.  I found their recycling page and was amazed.
I found out what they will take, not only curbside, but also if we took specific items to their transfer station (they would take these items for free). 
From Home:

• Pete Plastics #1-#7.
  
• Cans
  
• Glass bottles of any kind.
  
• Paper and Cardboard

At their transfer station:

• Furniture-$
  
• Kitchen Appliances-$
  
• Construction Debris-$
  
• Tires-$
  
• Concrete-$
  
• Mattresses-$
  
• Electronics-FREE

I didn’t realize that they recycled electronics!  Most of the things in our out buildings are electronics.  Craziness!  All this time, wasted, not knowing.  I feel really foolish, but motivated too.  But now we can really get all of that stuff out of there!  That really makes me very happy!
If you are someone that has a lot of clutter, don’t be afraid to do some research.  You could find better choices with another waste management company or you might, like me, learn that the company you use has updated its services.  Definitely weigh all of your options, you have nothing to lose but clutter for doing your homework.  If you have further suggestions that might help, or have any comments please leave them.