I have a lot and for that I am incredibly grateful. I've been able to fill my pantry and freezer
with healthy food, my linen closet holds plenty of toiletries and laundry
supplies, our closets adequately hold enough good clothing, shoes, outerwear
and accessories. In my craft and sewing
room I have an abundance of items to create with. My garage holds a good amount as well.
This year, as was the case last year, I will focus on using
up what I already have before purchasing something else. If I need something extra I will really think
about it first and make certain there isn't another suitable option I may
already have before buying that item.
With food I'm going to be scaling back a bit on the volume of I
store. I will focus those purchases more
on fresh items like milk and produce and replacing items used such as canned
goods and meats. I also plan to make
more items from scratch which will save money and stretch our current
supplies. And of course eating our
leftovers before cooking something else will be important as well. We want to minimize any food waste.
I have loads of items already on hand for making gifts and
wrapping them too. I want to focus more
on creating and crafting so I plan to work on several small projects this year
that will become gifts for those I love.
Making my gifts will help me stretch the Christmas fund much further and
since I don't have a budget this year for any other type of gifts, our
household budget as well.
We have games, music CDs, movie DVDs and we need to enjoy
them more. This year we let go of our
Netflix membership in order to cut some spending. We all agreed that although it isn't a lot of
money, every little bit helps, and it would be good for us to do different
things this year to entertain ourselves.
By going through what we already have we can also decide what we want to
keep and what we are willing to let go.
I'm excited to work on the projects I have swirling around
in my little noggin. I have an empty
gift box and a lot of ideas for using up items I already have. Not only will those items get used up, but
I'll be gaining some much needed space as well.
Do you need to use up some items around your house?
The easiest way to save is to use what we have instead of buy. Let us know (as much as you can) what wonderful gifts you will be making!
ReplyDeleteI will Anne! :0)
DeleteYou read my mind! I do have lots of things to use up - lots of fabric, thread, paper craft supplies and more. What I need are ideas with goals in mind. I have made many of the ideas you have shown before like the tissue holders. I know there are TONS of ideas on the internet but I seemed to get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of it. Does that happen to you? I am working these type of things into my planner I made.
ReplyDeleteHave you had an issue with your gifts being received? I am careful who I make quilts for as it is a lot of work and I have heard horror stories from other quilters about finding their quilts in the garbage, in the dogs bed, being used to change oil in cars!!! I get that not everyone is going to like every gift but wow, I have always been touched at a gift someone loved me enough to make - no matter what it is.
I would be sick if something I put that much work into wasn't properly appreciated. Fortunately, I'm not aware of anything ending up in the trash or used as a rag. So far my handmade items seem to be well received.
DeleteI crocheted a doll blanket for my niece. One day, about ten years later when I was at my sister's house, the little blanket was used for a dog to sit on the top of a recliner. I was aghast. My sister laughed. Another time, I had made a monogram of needlepoint, paid a fortune to frame it, and I found it in the closet on a shelf. Never again will I waste my time and money making something for her.
DeleteIt has happened to me a few times. What has happened lately was that several of the younger moms in our church that have learned I make quilts want to basically tell me what they want in advance. They typically try to "hire" me to make them a quilt but I think they know I will do it for my gift. Several have wanted to use their fabric choices which can be a disaster. They often pick wrong scale fabric (like a 10 inch arrow that was supposed to fit in a 3inch square), the wrong type of fabric (once was given home dec and duck cloth for a baby quilt they insisted on me using....)and limit my choices. I consider quilting an art form and I have had a lot of issues the last couple of years with lack of sewing mojo. I think this is why. I am determined now to only sew with my vision, I am good at what I do and don't want this type of thing to cause me to never want to quilt again. I am just now picking up an old project that I never finished and have created a new vision for it that will work great in my own home. I still plan to make for those I love but will only do it for those I am sure want/appreciate it. After all, not everyone likes or wants a quilt. They are a very expensive gift if you consider the price of fabric,batting and other materials. They are certainly not a "cheap" gift.
DeleteThrough our library we can watch a movie streaming service called Kanopy.
ReplyDeleteThat's terrific! I'll have to check and see if our library offers something like that.
DeleteHeh. This year my husband's "big" gift from me was a shoe box with fabric from my stash and a picture of a quilt pattern. I have finished the quilt top, and am now in the quilting stage. Beyond some wine he really likes and a new pair of pajamas, we couldn't really justify bringing anything new into the house after all the purging we did prior to our move. Even my kids have sort of caught on to this mindset!
ReplyDeleteCurrently, I am working on using up the meat that is in our freezer. I have at least two turkey breasts, a corned beef brisket, several beef rib roasts, some salmon, and several pork loins. I also have a plan to make four more quilts this year from my fabric stash.
That was a neat idea for a gift! I'm sure he will really enjoy it too. I have a couple turkey breasts to use up too. You just gave me a great idea to cook one up.
DeleteWorking on cleaning out and rotating pantry areas and freezer. Need to stay out of the stores for most stuff and start eating it down more. My down fall is I make something and put the left overs in the freezer for me in individual portions (which I do eat) and then my freezer is full again. lol. What a problem to have. I am also going through all my partial tubes of hand cream and other lotions. I love them but realize I never seem to finish them. Already three done and yes I do squeeze out every drop! I have a couple of boxes of craft stuff I need to either plan things to make or donate or give to a crafty friend. When I did craft fairs I loved making things so this may go the way of making and putting in gift storage. Take care!
ReplyDeleteHa! I do the same things. I keep squirreling stuff away in the freezer so progress is slow. Not a bad problem to have though. I've also made it my mission to use up the odds and ends of things. My girls are terrible about leaving little dibs and dabs of stuff so I'm using theirs up too! :)
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