Wedding Invites on the Cheap!

So, eventually...I will figure out how to upload pictures, and either add them to this post, or re-write this post with pictures. Either way, hopefully soon, there will be pictures! :)

Mr. Wonderful and I got married in a quick minute earlier this year...not because we had to...because we wanted to. My Grandma (whom I'd been EXTREMELY close to my whole life..she lived across the street from us), was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor. It was a long journey of ups and downs, she was doing really well, and then she started to not do well. We had already made an engagement commitment, and in hopes that Grandma could be there, we moved everything up. However, it simply was not meant to be. She saw my flowers choice, my guest list (from when she was doing well), and even my dress! But the day she saw my dress, and cried with me over how beautiful it is, she treated Matt and I, along with my parents and sister to lunch. Little did I know it was the last time we would see her that she was conscious. That night, she slipped into a coma, and passed away the next Tuesday. Many tears were shed, and many gasps were had when we realized the ceremony was to be the day of the funeral. Needless to say, we postponed everything a week (we had already arranged for out of town family to come, etc), and had a simple ceremony at my parents house. Now that everything has calmed down, we are going to do a vow-renewal/wedding ceremony and reception. Which, of course involves invitations.

SOO. Long story short-here we are.

I picked up plain white invitations, that have vellum connected by a ribbon bow to the paper. These I got at Wal Mart (not my favorite shop, but it did in a pinch), on clearance. I picked up 150, which is about 30 more than I need. These I can make up and save for our own keepsakes, as well as give some to friends and family in frames later in the year.

I then used my free 50 prints from CVSPhoto (Which everyone gets when they sign up with an e-mail address!) I used all 3 of my e-mail addresses, because I needed 150 prints. I then attached the photo's to the invitation (under where the vellum will be), using photo glue-sticks. Rubber Cement could work-but it's a heavy liquid, as well as having the possibility of being too acidic for some photos. You could also use scrapbooking squares or glue dots, but the glue stick was cheaper for us to buy.

Now, just print the vellum like you normally would, and voila! You have a wedding invite on the cheap that's personal, and fabulously cute and frugal!!

Til then,
C.

So little to do, so much time! Scratch and Reverse that...

Alright. Here we go. This is my to-do list...and then I'm off to sleep. Hopefully tomorrow I can scratch off my progress! :) That's assuming I make progress...but I think I can, I think I can..

Tuesday:

*Pick up Wedding Invitation Pictures. (Note to self: Blog about chic, frugal wedding planning)

*Address invitations (Note to self: Get the rest of the addresses!)

*Buy stamps

*Send invites

*Buy Rubber Cement to make invites! (Note to self:List not in order...)

*Laundry

*Exercise ???

*Laundry (if time allows)

*Drop off at GoodWill

*Pay Phone Bill.

Wednesday:

*Laundry

*Finish Organizing Basement.

*De-Clutter Basement

*Etsy?

This Week In General:

*Clothes to consignment shop

*De-Cluttered items to GoodWill, Listed on Craigslist, or taken to consignment shop

*Laundry done and PUT AWAY in the correct place/manner.

*Prep for school.

Ok. And now, I think I will go to bed. I am sleepy with much to do!

~C.

Check it out on the Daily!

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So-let's face it, I've been wishy-washy on the blogging train. Which, I'm hoping will soon change! :) I've put together a fabulous Home Binder, which I copied from Joy over at Just Organize Yourself, you can find her site here: http://justorganizeyourself.blogspot.com/ I'm a big fan of her blog, because anyone who knows me knows that organization is so not something I'm good at...and it's a constant battle, and I'm working on it! But anyway, this thing is hopefully about to become my best friend. And this is how I plan to start being more accountable not only to my blog, but to myself, and my life! :)

I have a job interview next week, at a facility I've been trying to get into since I was 18 years old! It's next Friday, mid-morning, and I want this so desperately I'm actually nervous for the first time in my life about an interview. So, I'm all over the place right now emotionally, and trying to get everything done. BUT here's a run-down of what I hope to do this week on the blog: Give a list of the blogs that I read on a daily/every other day basis to help me with my frugal journey, explain how excited I am about some new FREE software that helps with our finances, talk about how we're planning a vow renewal ceremony on a VERY limited budget, and then who knows what else!?! Let me know what you'd like to get from this blog-ideas, deals, concepts, topic for series, that type of thing!

~C.

ADD, Goal Setting, A New TV Show.

So, I'm sitting here with my husband, watching Rizzoli and Isles (Which we were both nerdily excited for...as in LOST excited...oh wait-the ending of that show killed me..but never mind!), and reading some e-mail, and catching up on my fav blogs while Mr. Wonderful is working on putting together some computers and techno stuff. The more I'm reading, and researching, and trying to change my life, the more I realize I need to set some consistent goals. And if I do them here, and have to update them monthly, I will be more inspired and accountable!

So. Instead of blogging about what I thought I would be (that sounds familiar...dejavu from yesterday maybe?? Haha...), I'm gonna switch it up AGAIN! Oh-please note-I do have a slight case of ADD, and I'm ridiculously easily distracted, and I'm relatively scatterbrained, AND I could just go on and on and on...just for future reference.

Goals:

De-Clutter. By de-clutter, I mean EVERYTHING. Clothes, school supplies, books, Mr. Wonderful's techno stuff, furniture, whatever! :)

Become Financially Independent and Responsible. This means I will be disclosing how we are doing on paying off our debt (depending on how brave I feel, I may even disclose how much debt we have! We'll see)

Budget twice a week. With Mr. Wonderful. (I think that is my new code-name for Matt...because I like it, and it's fun)

Exercise. Anything is better than nothing, right?

Eat better.

In conjunction with eating better, Cook at Home More.

And with that, I think I'm done for tonight. Because now, I am sleepy, and desperately trying to peg tonight's serial killer before Mr. Wonderful does... ;)

C.

A Sunday afternoon Quic

So, I've decided to split up the post I originally had planned...because some of these subjects cause me to get excited, and therefore long-winded! :) I will be telling you about how I coupon today, and then offering a link to a blog I read on the daily who is sponsoring a $10 Target Gift Card Giveaway! :) YAY!!!

How I coupon.

My current method of couponing is this: CUT IT ALL OUT! I cut every coupon available in Sunday's paper. I am fortunate enough that our paper has a few options for subscription-daily, weekend, Sunday only. We go with Sunday only, my parents get it daily, and my work receives the paper on the weekends. This gives me access to 3 sets of coupon inserts, while only paying for one.

****But before I actually cut and organize, I do go through and take out all expired coupons! These can be thrown away, recycled (which is one of my faves!), OR sent to military families...I will try to find the link for that and put it up at a later date-I just can't find it! :(

*If you are at a point where you are ready to tackle couponing, and can handle more than one insert some options to do this are to go to your local recycling plant and check out their paper section (some people I know do this and come away with 6-10 inserts a week!), ask a gas station or grocery store if they will save the inserts only for you (they get credit for the papers they turn in, but inserts don't matter...at least here), or have family, friends and neighbors save them for you! :)

*After I cut them all out, then begins the organization. I am currently using an old plastic box to hold my envelopes. Other methods include binders (which I LOVE LOVE LOVE, and am saving up for!), boxes, and who knows what else! My envelopes are labeled by subject-such as Milk/Dairy, Cereal, Eggs, Frozen, Meat, etc. (By the way-I will try to get a picture of my old plastic box up here..it's old, and sort of tacky, but I love it!)

And that my friends, is the gist of how I coupon. More in-depth posts to come later, with what websites I use to match up my deals, how I match up my deals, that sort of stuff! :)

Now...as I'm sure you've all been waiting for it-here's the $10 Target Gift Card Giveaway I was talking about! It's over at Couponing To Be Debt Free (which is a newfound fav of mine), and everything you need to know about entering should be one click away on this link: http://couponingtobedebtfree.com/?p=5201

Head on over, and check it out! :)

Later Gators,

C.

My goodness this night got away from me! I worked both second and third shift yesterday, and so unfortunately, my Saturday morning and early afternoon were spent napping. But then Matt found a spectacular Craigslist ad, and we went and retrieved some treasures! He got some computer tools and parts that he needed, or can use by converting them (tech-talk is so not something I understand!), and I got some clothes for a friend of ours who is pregnant, as well as my mom, and some material for a new project that I'm trying to put together...maybe an etsy shop is in the future? We'll see! :)

But...on to the good stuff. Now that it is Sunday-(only officially, via the timezone), I want to share a heads-up as to what I'm going to be sharing with you either tomorrow, or Monday! I am a firm believer in coupons, and bargains, and deals, frugality and thriftiness! Sooo...seeing as coupons come in the Sunday paper, and today is-You guessed it! Sunday! I'm going to explain to you how I coupon, why I coupon, how I organize my coupons, and some of my great success stories! I will also offer links to my usual go-to deal sites...these are sites that offer daily deals, fabulous frugal advice, as well as coupon match-ups for the week!!! It is AWESOME and I can't wait to share!!!!

Do you coupon? Do you have a preference as to organizational method? How do you clip your coupons? Which do you clip and why? I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to hear!!! :)

Until another time, another place...

C.

What we did with a plethora of Irish Springs...

One of the things that I do to help save us money is make our own laundry detergent. The first time I did this I did a liquid recipe, and I have to admit-I rushed through it a little bit...and while it turned out alright for the first week or so, it did soon begin to separate into a sort of gel that neither my husband nor I wanted use. So, the next time I went with a dry detergent, and so far-this has been awesome!!! AND perhaps even cooler is that it doesn't take long to put together.

For the version that I use, here are the directions.

1c Borax

1c Washing Soda

2c grated bar soap.

Now, there are people and blogs who use only certain brands of soap, but we were recently given a plethora of Irish Springs bar soap, and this is what I've been using. Neither of us have super sensitive skin, so this has worked well for us. Some of the other soaps I've seen recommended or would personally recommend are Fels Naptha, or Ivory. I imagine this would work with any bar of soap you have on hand.

To grate the soap I use an old cheese grater. I grate the cheese into a bowl or container we just have on hand, and then when I have the 2 cups I need, I combine the soap with the Borax and Washing Soda. I stir it up with a spoon and shake it-you can do either/or, but I prefer both. This detergent can be stored just about anywhere, in anything-a disposable container, a diaper wipes box, anything you have lying around that will fit the mixture should work. My work uses insane amounts of the Clorox Wipes for the Kitchen (the kind in the cute little box), and so I bring those home and use them to store my detergent in.

If you want to try this, or check out other recipes, there are tons of options on google, however, one of my favorite go-to sites is WiseBread, and they have a link for household cleaning hacks...which is http://www.wisebread.com/household-cleaning-hacks-that-save-you-money , and they have a link there for an option for 10 homemade laundry detergent recipes, and the link is http://tipnut.com/10-homemade-laundry-soap-detergent-recipes/

Hope this helps! If you decide to do this, or already do-I would love some feedback as to why you chose homemade detergent, and why you chose which version to use! :)

~C.

Vacations are good. Even the Universe Maker thinks they're a good idea. I know this, because of Sundays/Sabbath. The day of rest. However, in my house, we don't really have schedules that allow for full days of rest or meditation...which means we take what we can get! :) While Matt and I no longer work opposite shifts (for the most part), we don't have a single day off together as of right now, unless someone swaps out with me, or one of his get cancelled. Being able to camp together, and with our friends was a nice reprieve from the every day craziness. We enjoyed walking through small towns in Northern Michigan, holding hands, watching camp-fires, making s'mores, and so much more. It was truly a sad day when we had to come home. But not coming home wasn't really an option. So now, it's laundry/cleaning/babysitting/figuring out our week day. But there will be more to come later this week!