DIY Gift Ideas – Thanks Pinterest!

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This year I decided to do a {mainly} DIY Christmas.  I’m dying to share all my ideas and what I have planned, but some of the people I’m going to make gifts for actually read my blog!  Thanks friends :)

I thought I would share some nifty ideas I’ve found on Pinterest, in the hopes of helping others come up with some great DIY gifts to stay within budget.  Plus, what’s better than a homemade gift?  Whenever I receive a homemade gift I tend to enjoy it more because I know that the gift giver really took care to think about what I like and took some time and energy to produce it.

Here are a few (of MANY) DIY gift ideas to get you started

Brown Sugar Scrub

 

Brown Sugar Scrubs are SUPER easy to make and the dry skinned person in your life should love you forever for making it.  I  made one for a friend’s birthday recently and she emailed me later to tell me that she used it one night and didn’t even have to put lotion on her legs the next day.  In Colorado, that’s an amazing thing!

Oatmeal Facial Scrub & Mask

Source: greenearthbazaar.com via Emily on Pinterest

Peppermint Sugar Scrub

 

Homemade Bath Salts

 

Bailey’s & Hot Chocolate

Source: how-do-it.com via Emily on Pinterest

 

You may be asking yourself – where do I get such great looking bottles?  Well, you could go to a craft store (Michaels &/or Hobby Lobby) armed with the weekly coupon and buy one bottle at a time for a few weeks.  You can also save all those class containers that come through your life throughout the year.  Just think of all the glass jars that food comes in.  Once you’re done with the food, wash it up and store it until you need it!  The other place I would suggest hunting for fun bottles is the thrift store.  Once you get them home, just clean them up (bleach is probably in order) and you’ve got yourself a low cost container for all your great gifts!

Map Coasters

 

If you live in the Denver Metro area, don’t forget you can get FREE maps.  Click HERE for details. (I know the information in the above link is from 2011, but they do it every year…)

Baked Goods

One cannot forget baked goods!  Make up a tray of your favorite holiday goodies and give them to those you love.  Who doesn’t like homemade goodies?!

Do you get into DIY gifting? What are some of your favorite DIY Gift Ideas? 

Make Newspaper Gift Bags

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I love finding uses for things I have an abundance of.  Newspaper is no exception to that.  After Sunday rolls around and I’ve gotten my coupons and perused the paper, there isn’t much left to do with it.

(I do save the comics for wrapping paper)

You may have seen that I shared a ‘how to’ article on Facebook recently on making a gift bag out of newspaper. Click HERE for that link.

When I first read the how to, I got a little frustrated with it.  That particular ‘how to’ is very precise and I’m not a huge fan of precision. There’s a lot of measuring involved and it just feels complicated.  Not to mention that I don’t own a ruler.  Why in the heck don’t I own a ruler?!

Determined to top off my DIY Christmas with DIY gift bags, I took to the internet to find some other instructions.  That’s when I found a video that made this job look super easy.

Now I’m hooked!

I immediately got down on the floor with my glue stick (why on earth don’t I own regular ol’ Elmer’s Glue?!), newspaper, scissors, packing tape and a box of green tea borrowed from The Mister.  In about 5 minutes I whipped up a pretty good first try gift bag.

I  made a few rookie mistakes on this first try.  As you can see, I made the newsprint upside down.  Note to self, check that when making the next one.  You may also notice that there is a little coupon abuse happening here – in the second photo you can see a Hobby Lobby coupon on the bag.  Drats!

I didn’t bother to finish the project with handles, since this was my dry run.

This is something that is very doable, NOT time-consuming and perfect for the thriftster.

Would you consider making your own gift bags out of newspaper?  If not, why?

Monday Morning Money 12.10.12

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This is a new weekly series I’ve decided to do.  I enjoyed My Pretty Pennies Weekly Money Check-Up series, however she’s stopped doing it :(   Monday mornings feel a little lost without the weekly check-in, so I’ve developed my own questions to ask myself.  Now I just need to stick with it :)

1. My biggest budget FAIL of the week was paying the parking ticket I could have avoided, easily.  I got the parking ticket at the end of November, but finally paid it.  I thought I had learned my lesson about parking in the loading zones overnight, but I guess I didn’t.

2. How did my spending last week reflect my values? Most of the money I spent last week (aside from usual bills) was spent on others.  I bought some things for the holidays, bought my kitty some food and went on a date with The Mister.  I value those I hold dear to my heart!

3. The best way I saved a buck (or two) this week was using gift cards for my date, coupons for the kitty food and using some good old-fashioned will power to avoid some impulse purchases.

4. If I could tell last week’s me something this week it would be to get off my duff and start exercising again.  This happens every. single. year. around this time.  I get cold and then I get lazy.  I need to get back on the exercise routine!

5. My #1 financial goal for the week is to avoid grocery shopping to save some money.  I’ve gotten a TON of great deals on clearance and sales recently.  My pantry seems to be bursting, so it’s time to get cooking with what I have until I don’t have anything left to cook!

Bonus: My favorite memory of snow in the winter is waking up and listening to the school closings on the radio with my family.  When we heard our school, my brother and I would let out a gleeful cheer and immediately race to get our snow gear on for a day of sledding and general snow day shenanigans.

Feel free to answer the questions yourself and leave the answers in the comments below or if you want to participate on your own blog, fill out the Simply Linked form and give credit back to TTSW.

  1. My biggest budget FAIL was…
  2. How did my spending last week reflect my values?
  3. The best way I saved a buck (or two) was…
  4. If I could tell last week’s me something this week it would be…
  5. My #1 financial goal for the week is…

Bonus: My favorite memory of snow in the winter is…

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I’m A Cheap Date

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It’s true.  I am.  Would you expect anything less?

The $7.69 Date

On Saturday, The Mister and I decided it was time to go on a date.  A movie and dinner was just the ticket.

I had recently won a $20 movie gift card at my agency’s holiday party. {First time I had won ANYTHING at that party.  I gave out a ‘WOO HOO’ when I won…}  This movie gift card was burning a hole in our pocket, so we decided to go ahead use it this weekend.  We looked up the schedule and saw Silver Linings Playbook was playing.  I’ve wanted to see it since I heard a review on NPR about it a few weeks back. 

All you social worker types out there – I highly recommend this movie!  For you non social worker types, I still recommend this movie!

We went to a matinée showing, to maximize our use of the gift card.  Seeing a matinée was $17, but seeing a later showing would have been $20.  Since we had $3 left on the gift card because we saw the earlier show, we got ourselves a large drink to share throughout the movie.  This accounted for $2 of our total date expenditure.

After the movie, we went to Olive Garden with a gift card my aunt and uncle gave us as part of our wedding present.  Our total, after the gift card was $.69, but we had to tip.  Cheap or not, I will NOT stiff the wait staff.  EVER.  Gave her a $5 tip, making the meal total $5.69. 

There you have it – a $7.69 date.

Need some cheap date ideas?

Sometimes coming up with a cheap date is hard, especially when you don’t have gift cards to help you be cheap.  Here are some websites that might give you some ideas for your next date.

Nifty Date Ideas - These date ideas really are nifty!  This website is broken into different categories, from first dates, creative dates, romantic dates, indoor/outdoor, etc.  Give it a look-see, you may just find your best date ever.

Cheap Date Ideas - This is an about.com page with tons of ideas.  They’re broken up a little differently than the nifty dates.  This page is broken into personality types (homebodies, family focused, kids at heart…).

Denver Date Ideas (Thirty Dollar Date) – This site has some user submitted ideas specifically for my Denver peeps.  Not only are there some great Denver specific ideas, but you get to press a large red button to view each one.  Who doesn’t love to click on a big red button?

If you live in Denver, Denver365.com always has ideas for what’s happening in the area.  There’s even a section for free events!  Mile High On the Cheap is also a great resource to find things to do.

If these sites don’t give you what you’re looking for, your old friend Google is sure to give you more ideas.

I wish I had these sites on hand when a friend asked me about cheap date ideas a month or so ago.  I gave her a few options, but for some reason I couldn’t think of anything!  My last suggestion to her was to go up to Lookout Mountain and make out, cause, well, making out is always free ;)

What are your favorite cheap or free date night ideas?

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Feeling Blue?

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We’ve all had those days.  The ones where we’re just not feeling good.  Perhaps it’s a very strong feeling of not good.  Maybe it’s just a little not good.  Regardless  of the intensity of these feelings and wherever we may be on the spectrum of not good, we’ve all been there.  Kind of like this guy.

Cheer up little buddy. It’ll be okay.

Mood & Spending

When we’re feeling down – whether that’s blue, ho-hum, sad, depressed, under the weather, tired, worn out – you get the picture, we’re more susceptible to spending impulsively.  When we’re not feeling well, we have an internal drive to make ourselves feel better.  What’s better than the excitement of purchasing something new and exciting?  Spending money will certainly lift us out of that mood and make us feel better, right?

Sure, for a few minutes.  Then you might be adding guilt and regret to that already crappy mood.

Then what?

Buy  more?

Beat yourself up?

Try something different?

Yes!  Let’s try something different.

The internet plays an integral role in most of our lives (remember when it didn’t?  Weird!).  So, since the internet plays such a big part of our daily lives, why not use it to help us feel better and [possibly] curb impulsive spending?

Internet Sites That Make You Feel Good

Confession: I’m a complete NPR geek. 

Yesterday, whilst listening to NPR, I heard THIS story about a couple of internet sites that might make you feel better if you’re feeling down or need a boost. I drove down the road, repeating the  names of the websites until I could stop and jot them down.  I knew I had to share this story and these sites with all of you because, well, that’s what I do.  As I was looking these sites up (and feeling good), I came across some others that I’d  like to share.  These are in no particular order.

I recommend book marking this post, or going to each site and bookmarking them, in case of a down in the dumps emergency.

  • Make Everything Ok – This site has a button that magically makes everything ok.  Pretty straightforward.
  • Emergency Compliment - Sometimes we just need to hear something good about ourselves.
  • Cute Roulette – Now you don’t have to search for hours on YouTube to find cute videos.
  • HuffPost Good News- Need an uplifting or inspirational news story?  You can find them here!
  • The Nicest Place on the Internet – because sometimes we all need a hug.
  • 1,000 Awesome Things – Think of all those things that are awesome and then try not be feel better.  I dare you.
  • PostSecret – I adore this site.  Sometimes it’s not terribly uplifting but it helps us see that others are out there feeling bad too.  Sometimes that’s enough.

Hopefully after perusing one (or all) of these sites, you won’t look like the pup above, but more like this guy…

click image for original

Do you have other suggestions of websites that make you feel better when you’re feeling blue?  Do share! :)

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Checking Your Credit Score & Credit Reports

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A recent post on Facebook, from Jennifer at Live Simply, Live Thrifty, Live Savvy, reminded me that it’s about time I check my credit score and credit reports.  You know, to make sure everything is kosher in the credit department.

It’s generally a good idea to check your credit report once a year at least, to make sure there isn’t anything on there that shouldn’t be.  Let’s face it, identity theft is real and we’ve got to at least be aware of what’s on that report to make sure someone isn’t off in the Bahamas using our good name while we’re stuck in the 9-5 game.

The first of the year is a good time to do this checking.

Checking Your Credit Reports

Thanks to the The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (FACTA), everyone is entitled to get a copy of their annual credit report from the 3 major bureaus – Equifax, Experian, & TransUnion.

Here’s the tricky part – you want to make sure you’re not checking through a spam site.  If you google “free credit report”, there will be TONS of different websites that come up.   www.annualcreditreport.com is the only one that is backed by the Federal Trade Commission.  To be certain you are going to the correct website (or for more information) you can find the website on the FTC’s website HERE.

I moseyed on over to  www.annualcreditreport.com to check my credit reports.  From what I can see, there’s nothing goofy happening and everything is in good standing.  It was nice to see that I’ve never been late on a payment, EVER.  If there’s one thing I’ve always been very mindful of, it’s my financial obligations.  The thought of late payments and having creditors come after me is enough to keep me up at night, so I’ll do whatever I have to to make sure that doesn’t happen.  In the past I used to carry a credit card balance and there were certainly times I paid the bare minimum and accrued some serious finance charges, but I always made sure to make some sort of payment.  Ramen noodles used to be part of my in-house fine dining menu…

Checking Your Credit Score

Credit reports and credit scores are certainly linked, but are different beasts.  Your credit score is basically a number that is calculated based on your creditworthiness.  What you have on your credit report will affect your credit score.  The higher the score, the more ‘credit worthy’ you are and the more likely creditors will take a chance on you with a line of credit (credit cards, loans, etc).

Your credit score can be ranked very simply…

Thanks again to Jennifer at Live Simply, Live Thrifty, Live Savvy, I checked my credit score through two different, FREE, websites – Credit Karma and Credit Sesame.  Checking these put my mind at ease, as I’m now sure that I still have excellent credit.  I was even given a credit badge by Credit Sesame :)

Now, I will warn you about these two sites.  Because they are free, that means only one thing – they are free because of advertisements.  So, they give you your credit score and give you ‘useful’ information about how to make it better, save money, etc by giving you ideas of different credit cards, loans, insurance companies and the like, to check out. This could be helpful or you could just be suckered into applying for a different credit product.

For instance, one of the websites suggested I switch my student loans (APR at 3.5% and 6%) to a 3 year private loan at 12+%.  Probably not gonna do it…

So, there we have it.  A very rudimentary explanation of credit scores and reports.  I am in no way a credit expert, so if you have other questions or curiosities, I suggest you check out one of the gazillion books out there or talk with a credit professional.

Do you check your credit report & score at least once a year?  When was the last time you checked?  Do you have other resources that might be helpful? – Do share!

I just want to stress again – I’m not a credit or finance professional or expert!  Do your research and be informed about your financial world, it can only get you further ahead if you’re in the know.

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Monthly Update – November

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It’s December already?  Geez Louise, where did November go?!

Well folks, November marked my return to frugality.  It seemed like I was going a little spend crazy over the summer with all the stuff I had to do for the wedding.  Even though the money was going to something specific and in hindsight I didn’t go terribly overboard, it was a departure from my previous year’s habits. To make sure I don’t move forward spending in a haphazard fashion, I decided to nip it in the bud and tighten my belt as soon as things finished up.

Included in my return to frugality was finally making payments to my student loan again. I went on hiatus from August through October, so that I didn’t end up screwing myself in the end with the wedding stuff I had to get.  Don’t worry though, technically I don’t owe them a dime until 2017.

I haven’t gone into super thrifty mode quite yet – in 2013 I will be going ultra thrifty.  In November and December I will be easing my way back into it.

What I have spent money on

  • I did a little updating to my wardrobe this month, thanks to thrift stores. I spent a total of about $30 and for that I got 7 sweaters & 3 skirts.  Not too shabby, eh?  All but one sweater was a cardigan.  I’m a firm believer in layering in the winter, especially since I work in an office and the temperature varies greatly throughout the day.  Not to mention I live in Colorado where the temperature varies from minute to minute.
  • I took my car in for maintenance. This was my black Friday bargain – I got $60 off the total price and now my check engine light is off.
  • My pantry went bare over the month of October, so I’ve had to spend a little extra money getting it back up to snuff and so I have a little food on reserve.  This has also included indulging in some clearance meat to freeze.
  • Birthday Dinner. A friend of mine turned 30 and I joined her and some others for a dinner at the Cheese Cake Factory.  I drank water and ordered off their smaller plate menu.
  • Going Out. I went out a few times with The Mister and one of my besties. This included drinks & dinner.  A girl’s night was absolutely in order and there are no regrets here.
  • Car Registration & New License.  November means renewing my license plates and since I changed my name I had to get a new ID.
  • Framing.  We had a few things from the wedding that we wanted to get framed, so we went ahead and used some of our extra wedding savings to have this done.  Don’t worry though, for both items I had a 60% off coupon, so it didn’t hurt too much!

How I’m decreasing my spending

  • Eating Out.  I know I just wrote about how we went out, but believe me this has been cut back dramatically this month.  In October we ate out a lot – between having people in town, traveling and not having time to cook, it felt a little out of control.
  • Impulse purchases.  Without the black and white view of my spending, I noticed I had given into little impulse purchases this summer – a coffee here and there, a snack at the convenience store, something I don’t’ really need at Big Lots.  You know, that sort of thing. I’ve become much more mindful of my purchases in November.
  • Driving.  I’ve driven as little as possible and when I do drive, I’ve done so mindfully.  Slow to start, slow to stop; driving the speed limit; using cruise control.  I’ve also been able to score some sweet gas discounts through the King Soopers fuel rewards.  This week I got a tank of gas for $2.84/gallon thanks to King Soopers :)
  • Grocery Shopping.  While I may have spent a little extra getting my cabinets stocked up, I’ve started paying more attention to coupons and deals, to get the best bang for my buck
  • Insurance.  I called my insurance agent to let him know I got married and got myself a $10 discount on the premium!

 My Goals for December

  1. Increase my payment toward  my student loan by $200
  2. Spend under $50 for Christmas presents
  3. Get the monthly potluck set up with my friends again.
  4. Organize my living room closet (it’s out of control!)

What about you?

How did you do in November?  What did you spend money on?  Do you regret any purchases?  What have you cut back on?  What are your goals for December?  Do you plan to cut back on Holiday spending this year?

How I Got a Free Cell Phone Case

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This weekend I went to my cell phone carrier’s store to see what phones were available to get free when I renew my contract.  My contract just came up due and I had hoped to make my phone last a little longer, but unfortunately the processor in it is going to pot.  I found one phone that was $50 with a $50 mail in rebate.  Didn’t take me long to decide.*

*I had also done my research before hand, so I wasn’t going in blind.  It is actually a pretty good phone.

While we were there, the salesman tried to up-sell me a case for my phone – a $15 silicone cover.  My response was “nah, I can find it cheaper online.”

The old Emily would have bought a whole bundle of crap I didn’t need for $50  – chargers, covers, protectors, the whole kit and caboodle.  Not this time, no sir!

I decided to check out Amazon this morning to see what the offerings were.  If they weren’t good enough, Ebay would have been my next choice.  As I’m looking at Amazon, I remembered they’re in cahoots with my credit card reward system.  You can directly buy anything from Amazon and just use the rewards money!  $1 reward = $1 at Amazon.

I found a case for $2.92 with free shipping and paid directly through my rewards.  Final price for me: ZERO!  Take that sales guy!

In general, things like cell phone accessories tend to be cheaper online than through a cell phone retailer. Unless it’s a dire straights situation, shopping around generally pays off.

DIY Starbucks Holiday Drinks

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I’ll refrain from getting up on my soapbox about what a rip off fancy coffee drinks are – I’ve done it enough in the last 2 years.  Instead, here is a fun infographic with recipes for your favorite holiday drinks.  It’s had some serious rounds on Pinterest, but in case you’re not in that loop, here you go :)

Free Slice of Pizza Anyone?

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Check this out – Sbarro is offering a free slice of pizza when you sign up for their email newsletter.  What’s a little junk email for a free slice of pie?  I signed up yesterday and got my coupon.  I also made The Mister sign up so we can go on a little pizza date :)

Click below to get yours too!