A friend of mine was telling me about this show and how much I would love it/hate it/barf when I watched it, so I set that thing to record and finally got around to watching the horrors last night. Have you seen it? DID YOU GAG? I mean, I gagged, at least 45 times during the goat head segment alone. Okay, I’ll stop being all vague and explain.

The episode highlighted 5 or so people who are extremely consumed with the idea of saving money. I’m not ragging on them for trying to be frugal, it’s just the lengths they go to save VERY little are just… I don’t even know. Watch this clip about a lady who doesn’t buy toilet paper for her family. Keep an eye out for the STAINS.

You saw the stains, right? gaggfaklsdjf;alksdfjgag

There’s also a guy who goes dumpster diving for funsies and collects a bunch of random crap to give his wife for their anniversary. Like, he actually presented the gifts to her while they were out to dinner in a ceremonious fashion, right before he asked the other dining patrons if he could have their leftover food. Classy fella, that one. What exactly would you do if your husband gave you an old tea kettle with mysterious dumpster stains on it? I was asked this same question, and I can honestly say I would first beat him over the head with said kettle, then promptly drown myself in the moldy dumpster water it contained. There’s… there’s just no point.

So after Justin and I watched the show, we were so inspired by all the people who could think outside of the box that we started coming up with our own winning money saving ideas. It’s our new thing now, and our goal is to make our ideas as gross as possible. I’ll be washing dishes and Justin will come in and be all, “I have another good one. Clean all your old hair out of the drains, dry it out, then use it to stuff pillows for the couch!” And I’ll be like, “Why don’t we rinse out that bag the hotdogs came in and I can carry my makeup in it!”

Today I was hanging out with my brother and he came up with some pretty inventive ones too.

Old grapefruit peel as a key catcher on your entry table.

Old shoe becomes the perfect charging station! (Notice the cord running through the hole? I die.)

Soda can vase... a frugal gift for that special someone.

Don't throw away that toothpaste tube! Cut off the end and you have a glasses case. (Thanks for the high fashion model pose, bro.)

It’s all about upcycling, people. Now go find that show and watch it.

A couple weeks ago, my friend Natali and I went to downtown Fresno to visit the old thrift shops. I didn’t go into it thinking I would find anything other than maybe a little bowl or something (I have an ungodly obsession with cute bowls), but I was actually super surprised with some of the things I was able to find…

Natali pointed this cute little dress out and I was all, GIMME! and practically snatched it out of her precious little hands (sorry, Nat). It’s seafoam green with polka dots and has the perfect neckline for wearing to work. I don’t show my boobs at the office, so this is particularly pleasing to my prudish side (ha). I am in love. Oh, and I paid a whole $3 for it.

This little brooch is adorable, but I made it into a ring with a little hot glue. I’m all about yellow right now, so that rose drew me in like a zombie to some brains.  I think I’m going to start searching for pretty old brooches and things to convert into jewelry because HELLO? I’m all about being cheap and easy — wait. I said that wrong. You know what I mean.

I’m one happy girl right now.

We’ve come up with little tricks to save money and I’m actually really proud of how well we’re doing.  It’s pretty insane when you have to be thrifty… you realize how much money you were just throwing away without realizing it!

With that said, I’d like to give you all this opportunity to send me money for some new shoes.

Kiddiiiiiing.

Though I do strongly feel someone should give me a few gold stars and a cookie for all my hard work, the one thing I haven’t quite nailed down in the money saving department is grocery shopping. It is the bane of my existence, and quite honestly makes me want to stab myself in the eye. Nay, EYES. I seriously hate it.

No matter how much planning, list-making, and leftover-eating I do, I still feel like we waste so much of what we buy.

The one big lesson I’ve learned is this: Do NOT shop while you’re hungry. I’ve made this mistake so many times and it’s left me with the most random array of items in my fridge. (Pickled okra? TWO jars? SERIOUSLY?!)

So how do you all handle the hellish task of grocery shopping? How often do you go? How much do you spend a month, if you wish to share? Any other tips/tricks you’d care to share??

Call the waaaambulance, I know. :)

Anyway, while at Target today I happened to see these little pears on clearance and snatched them up. They reminded me of a post I saw a little while ago on Thrifty Decor Chick and I figured I could do something with them.

After taking a quick chop to them with a kitchen knife (they’re made of foam and little white crumbs were beautifully sprinkled all over the counter and floor, so it wasn’t quite as gratifying as it sounds), I ended up with these…

With a little gold spray paint (addict), some hot glue and a piece of brown scrapbook paper, I think my entry table and I may have found some peace.

…well, until next week. I’ll let you know.

I found these irresistible Amy Butler die cuts at Michael’s (of course), popped them in some white picture frames I had up in my closet and voila!

It had to be the quickest and easiest project ever, and they ended up being quite adorable.  I still have a nearly-full box of these little goodies, and I can’t wait to find other uses for them!

I also had quite a few of you ask where I bought the bird decals… an Etsy shop called The Cat Place had them a few months ago and they were super affordable, but I don’t see them in the shop anymore.  Sadness!  If you are dying to get your hands on them, it can’t hurt to ask the owner.  They are SO worth it!

The part I have the most difficult time with is the whole gift wrapping thing.  Shoving the item into a flimsy bag with a wad of tissue paper (or even worse… too little tissue paper) is like a dagger into my little snobby heart.  Of course, I’ve been known to do this if I’m in a pinch, but ONLY when absolutely necessary and ONLY with the cutest bag available (none of those plain, $1.99 Target crummy things).  Are you seeing the elitist thing coming out?  I’m ridiculous, I know.

Justin (a frugally-minded fellow) is highly bothered by this and likes to stress the point that we don’t have a ton of extra money to be spending on gifts for everyone we know.  He gets frustrated with me for wanting to give the gift that ‘little extra something’, when all those little extras add up.  This is also the same guy that wanted me to give a $10 gift card to his sister for her 25th birthday.  Yeahhh, we’re just not on the same page here.

I have come up with a little plan in an attempt to please everyone involved in this gift-giving fiasco — do it the Semi-Homemade way (à la Sandra Lee, minus the .15 blood alcohol level).  What I’m doing is purchasing either the gift wrap OR the gift, and while keeping a budget in mind, I make the other item.  It’s interesting to see how your creativity comes out when you’re working with a budget.  And the bonus: The recipient can see the time, thought and effort that was put into their gift.

A Recent Example:

• Store bought necklace
• Box from my collection of random items up in my closet
• Scrap booking paper, leftover from another project
• Labels I printed (downloaded from Creature Comforts)

Supplies before...

Basically, all I did was wrap the boring, plain box in some cute scrap booking paper, tied some ribbon around the edges and secured it with one of those super cute labels.  I LOVE those things!

The finished product

Happy Birthday, Mom!

How do you all keep gift-givings within your budget?   Is it rude of me to ask?

Since we don’t have a printer at home, we ran over to my parent’s house to print out Jamba Juice’s Buy One, Get One Free coupon that I had linked to a few weeks ago. Being the genius that I am, I didn’t realize it had expired in July. Flop #1.

We sped over to Jamba Juice anyway, being that two smoothies aren’t really all that expensive, and picked ourselves up a Citrus Squeeze (Justin’s favorite) and my first true love, a Strawberry Surf Rider with a calcium boost for my baby’s bones. I made sure sure sure to tell the girl at the counter to put the boost only in mine because Justin’s would go ape-crap crazy if he ended up with the ‘chalk’ in his. What did they do? Put the calcium boost in his Citrus Squeeze. Flop #2.

He was not amused.

We did manage to get into a very inexpensive movie, Iron Man, that was showing at one of the old theaters in town. I seriously love this place! They renovated a bit and now show month old movies for $3.00 a ticket. I shoved our smoothies in my purse and smuggled them on in. Success!

Cheeeeeeeese

Once in the theater, we couldn’t help but notice a trend. We happened to be among the four people that weren’t over 50, carrying a lifetime supply of candy in loud, plastic grocery bags, making out (remember the age group we’re dealing with here), and fall into the category of… Ohh, what’s the opposite of black-treasure again? Yeah. At one point, Justin turned around and said, “PLEASE, SHUT UP!” to the grocery bag lady, which was really nice and not embarrassing at all. We take our $3.00 movies very seriously, people.

The movie was pretty awesome, once I was able to block out the older couple to my right who could not keep their hands off each other. Cooties… gross.

I would say our attempt at a cheap date failed (considering I was starving and ended up spending $5.00 on popcorn and even more at Taco Bell later), but Justin and I were able to get a good laugh about how absolutely ridiculous it was afterward.

A movie at an old theater, chalky smoothies and a whole lot of white trash isn’t necessarily the recipe for a perfect date, but it sure was interesting!