Entire Wardrobe in a Day: $31.00

 See all of these great, like-new pieces of clothing?
(click image for closer look!)

I washed everything, but have not yet pressed, as I wanted to display it all for you to illustrate what you can get for your money during a Salvation Army Family Day (Wednesday in my area) tour of stores in one day and $31.00. Granted the photo doesn't show the items well, but it does show you that 12 items were bought for $31.00. Literally, a wardrobe of mix-n-match awesomeness!

What you are seeing:  knee-length Bisou Bisou wrap dress in an incredible print, Sonoma crop denim jacket, GAP khaki skirt, Liz Claiborne Crazy Horse gray skirt and black/white print shirt, lime green blousey shirt, Ralph Lauren navy v-neck & back tank and red tailored pin-stripe shirt, Old Navy 3/4 sleeve blue top, khaki crop pants, and two pair of khaki-style pants in different shades of brown. All items have classic lines in great styles. I'll have these clothes for many years to come and I paid less that a friend of mine just paid for one dress, (and, she admitted, NOT as fabulous as mine!)

Another friend of mine, when told that I paid $5.50 the 1/2 price cost) for the Bisou Bisou dress, said, "Isn't that kind of high for you?" I told her that when she saw it, she would understand, and she did. I love that I have a reputation for saving money, but no one would call me cheap.

A shopping day like I had is like it's own holiday. When you spend around $30 and can do a 30 minute fashion show with your big score, it's a great day! Round up some like-minded friends and make a day of it! Go to http://www.satruck.org/donation-value-guide and you will see two things - 1. the values of items donated (you get a tax deduction form for your donations should you itemize your tax return, so not only are you giving to a wonderful organization that truly helps people help themselves, you get a financial benefit for yourself) and 2. you can enter your zip code in the upper left and find all the stores in your area.

Shopping at SA is a cool challenge - almost like a treasure hunt. It's really no different than TJMaxx except a bit more time to size check (size tags are the only way to know what size, and sometimes they are cut out) and the difference on your receipt at check out! Have allergies? Make sure your shopping isn't interrupted - take some allergy meds before you head out as SAs can be sneeze traps for those with pet or dust allergies. So go fishin' and head to the changing booths and share your big scores!

Great DIY Tiling Tips (if I do say so myself, and I DO!)

Thinking of tiling your own home? Here is a great, easy-to-follow tutorial for tiling a floor and wall of a bathroom. http://www.bhg.com/bathroom/remodeling/projects/easy-diy-bathroom-projects/#page=13

Tiling, contrary to popular belief, does not have to be expensive. Inexpensive tile can be found at most home improvement stores. Ask for an employee in tiling and then ask if there are any special buys in store now. The glass mosaic tile I used on my Salvation Army table was $5.00 per square foot. Special order tile in other colors of the same manufacturer sell for up to $25 a square foot.

Doing a few projects at the same time will be cost-effective. Once mastic (the base adhesive for tiling) is mixed, it needs to be used asap. Perhaps you have a coffee table or outdoor table that could use an easy-to-clean new look. You can always return unused tile to home improvement stores, so buy 20-25% more than you think you will need. Chances are good that you might break a few with a tile saw and you can't be stuck with mastic drying and no tile. On that note, put down the mastic in small, manageable sections - don't do an entire counter top or floor. ALWAYS dry fit your tile (lay it all out as it will be on the wall, counter top or floor) - that way, tiles can be marked and all cuts can be made ahead of time. This will save you MUCH frustration during the project and you can rent the tile saw when you are ready.

A note about grout:  You might be tempted buy the cute little tub of premixed grout. Well, don't. Premixed grout is full of sand, is very difficult to get in between the tiles and can actually scratch your tile. Click the photo above and look at the grout lines - they aren't smooth, they're sandy and rough - that's premixed grout. Go for the box, do some math, and make what you need. You do NOT need to make the whole box at once as recommended. They just want you to buy more grout.

Dehumidifier? USE, don't dump, the water collected.

I have a damp basement in my old house. A dehumidifier runs all the time and helps tremendously, but dumping the tank is inconvenient and needs to be done every one or two days. Not anymore!

For less than $15, I now have a better system. A plastic barrel ($5 or less, mine was free), a scrap piece of counter top (plywood would work, too, ask your friends), $4.00 of tubing and a $9.00 pump, and I no longer have to pay for water for my plants.

Set-up your dehumidifier to drain directly into the barrel. Place the pump (mine is around 400 gallons per hours) in the bottom of the barrel (you can wire it to a clean stone to keep it on the bottom of the barrel) and lead the hose up and out. Make sure it's long enough to reach into your watering cans and/or buckets.

The barrel holds almost a week's worth of water in my house (yours may differ!), so less dumping and when I want to water my plants, I put the hose attached to the pump (at the bottom of the barrel) into my watering can and plug in the pump. My watering can is full in little time, and I am not paying for the water as I would if I used the hose. When you're done filling all of your containers, unplug the pump. The dehumidifier is running anyway, so why not make it convenient to use the water collected?

Remember: with a system like this, the dehumidifier will keep running even if the barrel is overflowing because its reservoir is always empty, so if you are going away for a while, be sure to re-plug the reservoir on your dehumidifier so that you don't wind up with an overflowing barrel!

Tiling a table top: a Salvation Army side table gets upcycled big time!

So I needed a new side table for the living room and went shopping. Store after store, including Home Goods, I might add, had nothing that I loved and the cheapest table I found that would meet my needs was over $100. No table bought that day.

A clothing trip with friends to the Salvation Army scored me a table for $5.99 and I was nuts over the style, if not the scratch-covered top. Fifteen minutes in Home Depot, four hours at home, and here is the equation for one very happy me:

If you are new to tiling, then a job like this is right up your alley - no saws, no noise, water-only clean-up and a grand total of $38.00, which includes the cost of the table - the major score! I used left-over simple mat tile adhesive from when I tiled my kitchen last year. It saves to save materials! It was $20 per box at that time and it took two sheets of the stuff for this table. Quick set is not expensive but I wanted to use what I had. The 12"x12" glass tile sheets were just $5.00 each at home Depot.

Here are steps of the project:

1. Sand and paint table. Paint is Rustoleum Satin Finish in Espresso. Paint top white so that translucent tiles will stay bright. I used about 1/3 of a little craft bottle of acrylic white paint and didn't get close to the edges so no taping! In this picture, the quick mat is already adhered to the white painted surface:

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2. This photo shows you the tools that I used, including a float, 5-in-One, and old spatula. All my tiling stuff is in one small plastic tub labeled, "Tiling Stuff" so that I can find it in the basement. I prefer to use this stainless steel dog bowl ($1.00 at a yard sale) to mix grout - the 5-in-One tool I use to mix can gouge plastic containers and when I wash this, I know it is truly clean. Tiling kits are a waste of money - they do not have quality products. Buy a float - you probably have everything else you'll need at home:

 

3. Follow the directions on the back of the grout box. There are pictures and it is very simple to do - just follow the directions! I used PolyBlend Non-sanded Grout (required un-sanded for glass titles due to their tiny spaces between tiles) in 'Nutmeg' as white would not have given me the look I wanted - the transulent, nearly clear tiles in my mosaic would have gone dark if I hadn't painted the top white. I used one fifth of the grout powder and have saved the rest for another project. The guide on the back of the grout told me exactly how much I needed. I used a postal scale to get 2 pounds of grout and added 9.6 ounces of water (yep, you'll need to use some basic math skills as not to waste 10 lbs. of grout, but just LOOK at the awesomeness that is my new table: 

 

And with two absolutely filthy, but totally stable yard sale chairs (marked $1.00 each, but offered $1.00 for both & they said yes!), lots of scrubbing and $8.00 of Krylon made-for-plastic paint later, here's the results:

You can do less with more! If you need ideas, ask crafty friends! Have an item that you would like to 'upcycle' but don't know where to start and have no craft people to ask? Send it to me and lets see what we can come up with!

A Few Great Places to Start

A wonderful first step to saving money is to use inexpensive, often chemical-free products in place of pricier, more complex ones. This article gives over 20 great ideas such as using baby powder instead of purchasing dry shampoo. Click for more money-saving ideas: http://www.allyou.com/budget-home/money-shopping/buy-this-not-that-00400000065125/page23.html

Having asthma and wanting to be able to clean my own home without wearing a mask and rubber gloves, I have replaced all daily cleaning products in my home with vinegar solutions and baking soda solutions. From stove tops to toilets, I can now breathe easy while I clean. The other awesome perk? It's CHEAP! I can tell how easy this was and how satisfied I am with the results, but you really need to jump in - the water's fine (and chemical-free!) Here are two must reads follow. On either site, use your Edit>Find option in your browser to find what you are looking for - for instance type in 'toilet' to see how you can replace that noxious-smelling toilet cleaner!

Baking Soda: http://www.allyou.com/budget-home/live-green-save/baking-soda-00400000048014/

Vinegar: http://www.vinegartips.com/scripts/pageViewSec.asp?id=7

After you try one or many of these ideas, please share your results!

No Such Thing As 'Away'

I have some heinously wasteful neighbors in my community. HEAPS of garbage on the curb each week. Prepackaged everything. Plastic bags inside plastic bags. Rotten food stinking up the block. Waste. Piles of Waste. Cardboard boxes left intact and full of junk (the trash company does not recycle intact cardboard - we are, and should be, required to flatten all cardboard for it to be recycled). Our local trash company doesn't charge per bag, so you can put out almost anything for the almost $500/yr. that we pay the garbage service. I see the piles that they put out each week and then I look at our little area of curb:  one not-even-full bag and a paper sack or two of recyclables. With very few exceptions, that is the garbage.

'Reduce, Reuse, Recycle' isn't a cliche or catch-phrase, it's what we really have to do. Look at our oceans - that's where everything goes 'away' - all trash flows to the oceans. In the near future, I will refer to various sources that prove this. What happens in heavy rains and floods? Trash get rushed to the oceans and, no matter where you live, you may be contributing to that. Please don't. There are literally islands of trash, but that's for another day...

Saving the Earth starts with saving your neighborhood. There will be no politics here - I am sick to death of people using politics to separate us. We are ONE PEOPLE, sharing this ONE EARTH. We need to be one team when it comes to clean air, water, and soil.

This blog is here to share ideas for taking action in your own life, saving money, and seeing the changes that others have made to make their little corner of the world a better, cleaner, more creative space. No matter how small your contribution, you need to know that it matters. Action means more than words. Saying you 'care' or saying 'someone should do something' is like handing the reins of your life to someone else, and you need to be careful who you pass those reins to -  they just might end up in the hands of my neighbors, and that would be one frightened horse.