Christmas tree on a budget

Even your Christmas tree can be done on a budget, and it is possible to work some magic with items from the Dollar Tree that might look kind of cheap or that you might not think will look "nice enough".  I did my entire tree for around $50 this year, and that includes buying the tree.  I got the tree for $20 from WalMart and I did purchase the lights from WalMart rather than the Dollar Tree.  The rest of the decorations were purchased from the Dollar Tree.

As you can see from the picture, I used three strands of 100 bulb colored lights, 2 9 ft spools of ribbon, 2 silver rope garlands, 2 decorative snowflake garlands, a package of silver pine cone ornaments (which could just as easily be made yourself) and four 10 ct. packages of white and silver ornaments.  I used silver pipe cleaner to hang the ornaments on the tree because I have cats and small children - I wasn't really comfortable with using regular ornament hooks at this point.  Everything from the Dollar Tree totaled less than $20, so for around $50 I managed to put together what I think is a fairly well decorated, decent looking tree.

Happy Thanksgiving

Home decor isn't the only thing that we can have trouble working into our budget.  Sometimes in our efforts to make memories with our children, we can go overboard trying to give them experiences that either we enjoyed as children, or we feel like we missed out on.  If we are really honest with ourselves, though, most of us would have to admit that it is the simple things about growing up that we remember and cherish the most.

This month, I stumbled on an idea to create memories with our children that was basically free.  In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I asked my 3 yr old daughter what she was thankful for one day while she was eating lunch.  I asked again the next day, and the next, and the next.  At one point, I decided that we needed to be writing this down and recording her answers.  I glued on a few extra leaves from our Harvest Tablescape to decorate the page and kept the list posted on the wall near our table so I would remember to ask each day what she was thankful for.

The more I thought about what we were doing, the more I have convinced myself that this is something that I want to make a tradition out of.  At this point, only the oldest of our three children was old enough to give coherent answers, but next year our second child should be old enough to participate.  I am still debating whether to make two separate lists next year or whether to just alternate their answers on the list.  I'm leaning towards two separate lists because I would like to save these lists for them over the years and give them their "Thankful Lists" when they grow up and leave the house.  I think it will be interesting for them to look back over their lives and see what was important to them at their different ages.  The picture above is our list from this year.

Challenge yourself, especially over this holiday season where spending seems to be the emphasis, to see what you can do to make it special for your family without spending much money.

free bags for the making

This doesn't quite follow the theme of "Dollar Store Decor" but some friends on twitter wanted to see these bags.  These are made by crocheting strips of the plastic bags that you get from the grocery store and WalMart.  The pieces of the bags are crocheted together with regular yarn because I have found through trial and error that it keeps the bag from stretching out as much.  These two bags are ones that I use on a regular basis.  I use the one with the red trim as my "carry-all" bag and carry it instead of a purse.  The one with the white trim is my "diaper bag" for church and similar functions.  The blips of red that you see in the tote bags is from the print on the bags that I used.  I try to use only one store's bags in each individual tote for consistency's sake.

Harvest Tablescape

    

 My first project was a "Harvest Tablescape".  I wandered around the Dollar Store for a little bit waiting for the inspiration to hit.  It finally struck when I saw the small bag of leaves and the small bag of gourds.  Originally I wanted to find a basket, but I couldn't find one that looked nice enough for what I wanted to do.  I wandered around some more until I found the pitcher and the mirror.  I didn't take the time to find the best flowers that were there, and I ended up regretting that decision when I was putting the tablescape together later.  I could have just stopped there and would have had a pretty centerpiece for around $7 plus tax.  I looked around a little more and found the table runners, place mats, napkins and napkin rings.  That added about another $10.  I was trying to stay pretty close to $20, so I chose to buy just the number of placemats and napkins that would fit on our table.  I could have spent a little more and had a few extra napkins and placemats to set on the table while the used ones are in the laundry.

Dollar Store Decor

    In our current economy, most of us need to cut corners wherever we can.  That doesn't mean we have to sacrifice on how our homes look.  After seeing a television segment about a cookbook based on items from the 99 Cent Store, I decided to give myself the challenge of decorating my home from the Dollar Tree store in our town.  This will be a year long project at minimum so that I can include all the various decorating seasons.