Monday, November 22, 2010

check out this FANTASTIC blog

I'm so glad that I stumbled upon this blog.
Beth's 'slogan' is "ON A MISSION TO SAVE MONEY AND EAT WELL!", love it.

I think this blogger is in America, but the principles still apply anywhere, the numbers wont be the same but with these recipes you're sure to enjoy cooking and eating well AND saving money.

What more can I say? - just go and check it out.

http://budgetbytes.blogspot.com/

Monday, November 8, 2010

Christmas Shopping at home

No, I don't mean online or from catalogues... I mean from your home!

In the last post I told you about my Garage Sale, well, before I opened up the sale, I walked around myself as a shopper and picked up a few items that were in perfect condition that will now be wrapped up and used as Christmas gifts!

You don't have to have a garage sale to find presents in your own home, how about the garden?  If you've a green thumb (lucky you) what about re-potting some herbs or a decorative plant for someone from cut-offs.  This is especially nice if the plant is not yet at it's peak, as the receiver will enjoy your gift for longer and then for years after will be reminded of your thoughtful (thought secretly frugal) gift.

Do some web surfing for DIY gifts such as gift hampers (can often use boxes or baskets from home etc.)  you'll be surprised how cheap you can be!

One woman's trash...

By the end of this year we hope to be in a new home.  Well, new to us.  The building is actually quite old.  We've managed to find a place to save us a bit of rent.  The only problem?... its much smaller.

Every cloud has it's silver lining, in this case, an opportunity to de-clutter our lives and maybe earn a little moving money in the process.

So, this past weekend, we hauled all the trash we could find out of our wardrobe, bookshelves and cupboards and into the garage... GARAGE SALE!

After a few hours of standing around pointing out all the uses for my useless stuff we came out $400 over richer! 

There are several websites to help you organise or advertise your garage sale, I liked:
Simple Savings (Tipsheet download - "How to Host a Garage Sale")

Here's how we did it: 
  • place adds in local paper, listing some of the item you'll be selling, for the week leading up to the sale
  • price everything, either with tags or coloured dots (each colour representing a standard price)
  • write a sign for the coloured dot price list
  • put a few signs out on the street
  • lay out all the items in a logical and appealing manner (toys with toys, books with books, kitchenware ... etc.)
  • have plenty of change and at least one helper to do the coffee run!

We also had some friends with stuff to get rid off so they went haves on the cost of the add and brought their things over and helped out with the sale too.  A great day was had by all!

However, the garage is still FULL! ... I know, I know we have A LOT of trash!  ... but we're going to give it one more shot at a local trash and treasure day in a few weeks time.

We it comes down to it we just want all this excess stuff gone so we'll be having each item at just $1 and anything that doesn't sell will be donated to a charity thrift store and books to the library or local book drive.

So if you're finding yourself a little over crowded and would like a little extra pocket money - dig out your trash and sell it to someone to treasure!