5 Days of Frugality – Frugal Maternity Clothing

Welcome to my series, 5 Days of Frugality. This series is a part of the 5 Days of Blogging Blog Hop, hosted by the Homeschool Crew! For the next 5 days, I will be posting a series of articles focusing on Frugality. I hope you will enjoy them! Be sure and check at the Homeschool Crew blog to catch a TON more articles on different subjects by other bloggers!

With my last  pregnancy, we were on a really tight budget and to make matters worse, I had just started wearing dresses only, so many of my old maternity clothing wouldn’t work for me. These are ideas that I used to expand my maternity clothing wardrobe without breaking the bank!

•  When you HAVE to purchase maternity clothing, look first at garage sales, thrift shops, re-sale shops and then eBay…in that order. Your best deals will be found at garage sales, while purchasing in re-sale shops or eBay will lead you to higher priced items.
• Only buy new when you REALLY have to and then purchase items that are versatile and classic in design. For example, a denim, khaki or black skirt, pants or jumper will match nearly anything. Keep your eyes open for clearance racks. I got several cute maternity shirts at Wal-Mart, Target & K-Mart for under $5.00.
• Borrow maternity clothing when possible. Ask recently pregnant ladies at your church, family members and friends. For example, I got several cute maternity dresses from an online friend…all I had to do was pay for shipping (less than $10). All I did was ask and the offers came rolling it!
• Borrow some items from your husband’s wardrobe. Go for more fitted items so they don’t look too manly.
• Skirts & pants that button can still be used by using these simple gadgets called the Belly Belt or the Bella Band. It costs about $25 but it’s a great investment when you consider that you can wear your regular clothing instead of purchasing expensive maternity clothing. Even cheaper is to sew buttonholes on to both ends of a piece of elastic (whatever size you want/need). One end of the elastic fits over the existing button on the pants. Sew another button on the opposite side of the article of clothing and attaching the other end of the elastic to that button. This is a really inexpensive “fix”
  For those of you that sew, you can also purchase pre-made “maternity panels” to sew into your existing skirts & pants.
• If you wear dresses/skirts only, you can turn maternity jeans into skirts. You can find instructions at The Family Homestead.
• If you own jumpers or empire waist dresses, you will most likely be able to wear them throughout most of your pregnancy.
• You can wear your regular button up shirts under jumpers by leaving the last few buttons at the bottom unbuttoned. Since they’re under a jumper, no one will know! If you want to wear them with skirts or pants, just wear them unbuttoned over a T-shirt.
• If you have maternity clothing that’s out of season, you can alter the items. Long sleeves can be shortened and pants and be altered into shorts.
• Larger women’s sizes can be purchased much cheaper than Maternity clothing. This is a great source for T-shirts, blouses and elastic wasted pants. I found most of these on the clearance rack at Wal-Mart or other discount stores.
• If you sew, you can sew your own maternity clothing for pretty reasonable prices. Choose 1-2 patterns and continue to reuse them. Most maternity patterns contain at least a combination of items. For example the one I bought had patterns for a jumper, shirt, skirt and shorts/pants all in one envelope. You can nearly always find inexpensive fabric at Wal-Mart starting at about $2.00 per yard or you use fabric from your stash.
• Here’s a great article about How to Make Maternity Clothing from Existing Outfits.
• If you live near an outlet mall, check out their maternity clothing. You can find some really inexpensive items that are factory seconds and on the clearance rack. We use to have a Motherhood Outlet Store at the one close by me and with my last pregnancy, I was able to get some cute things for between $5-$10. I was able to get shirts, jeans, skirts & dresses for these prices.
• If the pants or skirt is tight enough in the hips, you can wear skirts or pants by leaving them unzipped. A long shirt will cover it.
• Elastic waist pants & skirts can be worn “under the belly” with a long shirt to cover it. Just make sure they’re snug enough to stay up!

As you can see from these ideas, you can establish you maternity wardrobe without breaking the bank!

See all of the posts in the 5 Days of Frugality series!

Don’t forget to stop by the Homeschool Crew to find a TON more articles!

Linking To: Frugal Friday, Mama Moments Mondays, Better Mom Mondays, Monday’s Musings, Welcome Home Link-Up, Titus 2sday, Making a Home, Teach Me Tuesday, Domestically Divine Tuesday, Living Green Link-Up, Titus 2 Tuesday, Thankful Homemaker Tuesday, Penny Pinching Party, Works for Me Wednesday, Women Living Well Wednesday, Homemaking Wednesday Link-Up, Encourage One Another Link-Up, Frugal Days Sustainable Ways, Wise Woman Link-Up, Wisdom Wednesday, Simple Lives Thursday, Hearts 4 Home Thursday, Beautiful Thursday, Proverbs 31 Thursday,

5 Days of Frugality – Make Your Own Mixes

Welcome to my series, 5 Days of Frugality. This series is a part of the 5 Days of Blogging Blog Hop, hosted by the Homeschool Crew! For the next 5 days, I will be posting a series of articles focusing on Frugality. I hope you will enjoy them! Be sure and check at the Homeschool Crew blog to catch a TON more articles on different subjects by other bloggers!

During the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, grocery stores often put flour and other baking needs on sale really cheap. I will stock up on them and put them into our freezer (I still have 2 bags of flour in the freezer from last year!). I then use these items to make up my own baking mixes which saves me time and money in the long run. I haven’t bought Bisquick or pancake mix in YEARS! Having the mix pre-prepared make for much quicker meals. Here are some of my favorite Make-You-Own mixes.

BISQUICK MIX
(Use same as Bisquick)

9 c. flour
3 Tbsp baking powder
1/4 c. sugar
1 tsp salt
1 3/4 c. powdered milk
2 c. shortening

Mix dry ingredients together. Sift together about 3 times. Cut in shortening until crumbly. Store in a cool dry place. I make this up only one batch at a time. Use in any recipe calling for Bisquick.

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Buttermilk Biscuit Mix

8 cups flour
1 1/2 cups buttermilk blend powder
4 T baking powder
3 T sugar
2 tsps salt
2 tsps cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
2 1/3 cups shortening

In a bowl, combine the first seven ingredients; cut in the shortening until crumbly. Store in an airtight container in a cool dry place for up to 6 months. Makes about 13 1/2 cups Use in recipes calling for bisquick

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CINNAMON PANCAKE MIX IN A JAR

3 cups all-purpose flour
3 Tablespoon sugar
2 Tablespoon baking powder
4-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1-1/4 tsp. salt

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Store in an airtight container. This recipe can be doubled or tripled.

DIRECTIONS:
In medium bowl, combine 3/4-cup milk, 1 egg, and 2 Tablespoons salad oil. With fork, blend in 1-1/3 c. pancake mix until moistened but still lumpy. Cook on lightly greased griddle or skillet. Makes about 10 5″ pancakes.

Check back tomorrow for the fifth and final article in the 5 Days of Frugality series!

Don’t forget to stop by the Homeschool Crew to find a TON more articles!

Linking To: Natural Living Link-Up, Ultimate Recipe Swap, Proverbs 31 Thursday, Thrifty Thursday, Beautiful Thursday, It’s A Keeper Thursday, Frugal Friday, My Meatless Monday, Better Mom Mondays, Monday’s Musings, Welcome Home Link-Up, Titus 2sday, Making a Home, Teach Me Tuesday, Domestically Divine Tuesday, Living Green Link-Up, Titus 2 Tuesday, Thankful Homemaker Tuesday, Penny Pinching Party, Works for Me Wednesday, Women Living Well Wednesday, Homemaking Wednesday Link-Up, Encourage One Another Link-Up, Frugal Days Sustainable Ways, Wise Woman Link-Up, Wisdom Wednesday,

5 Days of Frugality – Saving Money on Electricity

Welcome to my series, 5 Days of Frugality. This series is a part of the 5 Days of Blogging Blog Hop, hosted by the Homeschool Crew! For the next 5 days, I will be posting a series of articles focusing on Frugality. I hope you will enjoy them! Be sure and check at the Homeschool Crew blog to catch a TON more articles on different subjects by other bloggers!

Saving money on the electricity you use in your house is one of the easiest ways to save!  Just by taking a few easy baby steps, you can really make an impact on your electric bill.  While some of these steps cost more up front, they will easily earn back their costs.

• Switch over to compact fluorescent bulbs or the new LED bulbs! Yes, these are more expensive than regular bulbs, but they last forever and if replace all your bulbs with them, your electric bill goes down noticeably! We’ve lived here over 12 years and we have no regular light bulbs in the house. We have to replace one occasionally now, but so far, we’ve only had to replace 2 this year and they were 2 of our oldest ones (nearly 7 years old!).
• Also, get rid of your “ghost” loads. Any appliance or electronics with a “wall wart” (as my DH calls them!), plug into a power strip with an on/off switch. This also goes for ANYTHING with a remote control, clock, etc. These items use electricity even when you’re not using them (You’d be surprised by how much!). We’ve plugged our computers, TV, VCR, DVD player, etc into power strips and then turn the switch on the power strip off at night and when we’re gone.

Just by replacing all our bulbs and using power strips, we save a lot of money every year. It lowered our electric bill by nearly $20 every month, for a savings of about $240 per year!

Check back tomorrow for the fourth article in the 5 Days of Frugality series!

Don’t forget to stop by the Homeschool Crew to find a TON more articles!

Linking To: Penny Pinching Party, Works For Me Wednesday, Women Living Well Wednesday, Homemaking Link-Up, Encourage One Another Link-Up, Simple Living Wednesday, Frugal Days Sustainable Ways, Wisdom Wednesday, Wise Woman Wednesday, Natural Living Link-Up, Proverbs 31 Thursday, Simple Lives Thursday, Thrifty Thursday, Beautiful Thursday, Frugal Friday, Mama Moments Mondays, Better Mom Mondays, Monday’s Musings, Welcome Home Link-Up, Titus 2sday, Making a Home, Teach Me Tuesday, Domestically Divine Tuesday, Living Green Link-Up, Titus 2 Tuesday, Thankful Homemaker Tuesday,

5 Days of Frugality – Frugal Uses for Old Clothing and Bedding

Welcome to my series, 5 Days of Frugality. This series is a part of the 5 Days of Blogging Blog Hop, hosted by the Homeschool Crew! For the next 5 days, I will be posting a series of articles focusing on Frugality. I hope you will enjoy them! Be sure and check at the Homeschool Crew blog to catch a TON more articles on different subjects by other bloggers!

If you’re anything like me, you often have a pile of old clothing and bedding that cannot be donated.  Maybe it has a small hole or stain.  It’s not good enough to donate, but it’s still too good to just throw away.  Here are some strategies for using them instead of just tossing them!

• Old T-shirts make great cleaning cloths. I cut them up and store them with my cleaning supplies.
• Flannel sheets & shirts make great cleaning cloths as well, you can also use them to make things like diapers, homemade pads, and so much more.
• I save all the buttons and notions from off any clothes that are in too bad of shape to pass along. This is a great way to save buttons, zippers, snaps, etc. I use these items on other things that I sew or craft. For example, if you lose a button on a shirt and can’t find a matching replacement, you can use these saved buttons to replace all the buttons on a shirt so they all match.
• I use old sheets to make things like napkins and cloth grocery bags. You can often find these at garage sales for pennies on the dollar.
• Cut squares out of clothing made out of cotton fabrics or flannel to make into a quilt. Use an old or garage sale purchased sheet for the backing. These are perfect for camping, extra bedding or for picnics or car use.
• Have a pair of jeans with holes in the knees? Turn it into a skirt by cutting off the legs and adding material to make a tiered skirt.
• I save all the denim I can find and when I have enough, I’ll make a quilt. It will make a pretty scrappy style quilt.
• Save some of your kid’s old clothes and make a special memory quilt with them.
• Save T-shirts from different trips or school events, you know the ones with the graphic on the front that gives the event name and date. Take the fronts and sew together to make a quilt. This is a great gift for a graduate.
• Extra socks make great dust cloths, just slip them over your hand and dust!

Check back tomorrow for the third article in the 5 Days of Frugality series!

Don’t forget to stop by the Homeschool Crew to find a TON more articles!

Linking To: Titus 2sday, Making a Home, Domestically Divine Tuesday, Teach Me Tuesday, Living Green Link-Up, Thankful Homemaker, Titus 2 Tuesday, Penny Pinching Party, Works For Me Wednesday, Women Living Well Wednesday, Homemaking Link-Up, Encourage One Another Link-Up, Simple Living Wednesday, Frugal Days Sustainable Ways, Wisdom Wednesday, Wise Woman Wednesday, Natural Living Link-Up, Proverbs 31 Thursday, Simple Lives Thursday, Thrifty Thursday, Beautiful Thursday, Frugal Friday, Mama Moments Mondays, Better Mom Mondays, Monday’s Musings, Welcome Home Link-Up,

5 Days of Frugality – 10 Frugal Ways to Go Green

Welcome to my series, 5 Days of Frugality. This series is a part of the 5 Days of Blogging Blog Hop, hosted by the Homeschool Crew! For the next 5 days, I will be posting a series of articles focusing on Frugality. I hope you will enjoy them! Be sure and check at the Homeschool Crew blog to catch a TON more articles on different subjects by other bloggers!

I want to state up front that while I think that we should all do what we can to protect our environment, I do think that some people go completely overboard with it.  I believe that the Lord gave us this world and that as stewards of His world we should use it’s resources responsibly.  Too many people today spend more time worshiping the creation, instead of the Creator.  From the very beginning, when the Lord put Adam in the garden of Eden, man was given the command to cultivate and take care of what HE has given us (See Genesis 2:15).   While we are to take care of this world, we are not to raise up to be an object of worship (See Romans 1:21-25).

1. Use cloth re-usable grocery bags or reuse your plastic or paper grocery sacks. I’ve been making my own from material from the $1 fabric bin at Wal-Mart.   You can also make them out of old sheets, pillow cases, recycled clothing (skirts, shirts & dresses), and even old cloth tablecloths.  I use a pattern made from a plastic grocery sack for mine.  I also make smaller bags with ribbon ties to use as produce bags. I make them out of thin cotton fabric, old sheets & pillow cases are really a good choice for the produce bags.

 

2. Buy products that are minimally packaged. Instead of buying individual cups of applesauce, buy the largest size you will use before it will go bad and fill re-usable glass containers to use for lunches or individual servings.  Baby food jars work great for this…so start saving them or have a friend save them for you!  Many times these larger sized products are cheaper than the individual sized ones.  I repackage them into smaller sized using a variety of glass jars.  Canning jars (quarts & pints), gallon sized pickle jars, peanut butter jars,  baby food jars, and recycled glass jars work great.  I save all glass jars that my wide mouth or small mouth canning lids fit on to use for the purpose od storing bulk buys and left-overs.

 

3. Use cloth napkins for meals instead of paper towels or paper napkins. You can make these up really easily using inexpensive fabric. I use fabric from the $1 bin at Wal-Mart. Bandanas make great napkins! Also, if you don’t mind your napkins not matching, you can use up scraps from your sewing projects. I always have at least enough fabric left from sewing projects to make at least 1 napkin!  I also recycle all cotton clothing for use in things like this, as well as cotton bedding such as sheets and pillow cases.

 

4. Instead of throwing away old clothes, donate them. If they can’t be donated, take off any buttons, zippers, etc. that can be re-used in sewing. If you can’t use them, you probably know of someone who sews that can use them. If the material is cotton, I cut out 4-inch squares out of the stained/damaged garment. I use these to make quilt squares. Cut old T-shirts into cleaning cloths. Find a way to re-use it if possible.   Scraps from cotton clothing can be used on ALL sorts of frugal ways.

 

5. Shop at thrift stores and garage sales for clothing, house wares, etc. Not only will you save money, but you keep these items out of landfills.

 

6, Change light bulbs to compact fluorescent bulbs (CF), or better yet start investing in LED bulb. While more expensive in the beginning they will lower your electric bill and the bulbs last longer than conventional bulbs, so you save money that way as well. Our local Dollar store has started carrying compact fluorescent bulbs REALLY cheaply. I’m also waiting for the LED bulbs to get cheaper.  But if you can, go ahead and start purchasing the LED bulbs as you can afford them.  They last forever and do not contain mercury as the CF blubs do.

 

7. Wash all your clothing in cold water, this saves money on your electric bill.  Also, was a full load so you are not wasting water.

 

8. Consider investing in a solar-wind hybrid dryer….a CLOTHES LINE!!! (lol!!)

 

9. Change the way you clean house. Use cleaning products that are good for the environment. Some good brands are Method, 7th Generation, Mrs. Meyers, and Shaklee. The products are non-toxic, natural, biodegradable, and contain no phosphates or chlorine. Many are concentrated and use recycled packaging. I really like Method products, they smell wonderful! With the concentrated formulas, you generally don’t have to use as much and that saves you money. If you don’t want to use these type products, you can make your own, which is even cheaper. You can find ton’s of “recipes” online, just do a Google search for homemade cleaning products.  This is the route that I choose to go, as I like making my own and they are A LOT cheaper than the purchased kind.

 

10. Limit your use of paper products, such as paper plates, paper napkins and paper towels. We’ve pretty much gotten rid of all of these products. I occasionally use paper plates, but we never use paper napkins or paper towels. I use recycled T-shirts for cleaning cloths and I’ve purchased big cotton towels for use in the kitchen.

Check back tomorrow for the second article in the 5 Days of Frugality series!

Don’t forget to stop by the Homeschool Crew to find a TON more articles!

Linking To: Making Your Home Sing Monday, Marital Oneness Monday, Monday’s Homestead Barn Hop, Modest Monday, Mama Moments Mondays, Better Mom Mondays, Monday’s Musings, Welcome Home Monday Link-Up, Monday Meet Up, Titus 2sday, Making a Home, Domestically Divine Tuesday, Teach Me Tuesday, Living Green Link-Up, Thankful Homemaker, Titus 2 Tuesday,Penny Pinching Party, Works For Me Wednesday, Women Living Well Wednesday, Homemaking Link-Up, Encourage One Another Link-Up, Simple Living Wednesday, Frugal Days Sustainable Ways, Wisdom Wednesday, Wise Woman Wednesday, Natural Living Link-Up, Proverbs 31 Thursday, Simple Lives Thursday, Thrifty Thursday, Beautiful Thursday, Frugal Friday,

5 Days of Frugality & TOS Homeschool Crew 5 Days of Blogging Event!

Don’t miss it! I’m having a frugal blogging celebration on my blog next week–5 Days of Frugality. Be sure to stop by every day next week (starting Monday) to find a post about frugality!!

This is part of TOS 5 Days of Blogging series. Starting Monday, over 65 bloggers will be posting on a variety of different subjects. Don’t miss out, there are going to be some GREAT posts next week! You can get a complete list of participating blogs at http://homeschoolcrew.com/!