Category Archives: On The Cheap

December 20, 2012 · 10:23 pm

Simple Drink Storage Solution

We are lucky enough to have enough room, in our kitchen, for 2 refrigerators.  One is our everything fridge and the other is our drink/overflow fridge.  If you have a large family and enough room in your kitchen, I highly recommend 2 fridges!

Before, whenever I tried to put cans or bottles in the door they would fall over and jerk around each time I opened the door.  And then I did this…

I saved the 4 and 6 pack carriers from beer and wine coolers.  We very rarely drink so it took me a while to get these 3.

Now the drinks all have their own cozy spots and I can stack them two high in the back, without having them fall every time I open the door.

 

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Filed under Everything else, Let's get organized, On The Cheap

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November 18, 2012 · 4:37 pm

Repurposed CD Jewel Cases

My good friend Patti, recently presented me with a ginormous box of empty CD jewel cases, and asked me if I had any creative ideas for them.  I love a repurpose challenge!  I took a huge stack home with me and here’s what I came up with.

We now have an awesome and free “stained glass” window in our family room.

I just stuck them to the window with double stick tape.  The edges were tricky because these things don’t like to be cut.  They’d rather crack, snap  and send pieces flying across the room. Watch your eyes!  With patience and a little finesse, I managed to cut them down to fill in the gaps.

It’s a fun and looks really cool at night. The best thing is when we get tired of it, it will be super easy to take down.

Here’s a close up of my never-gonna-be-finished Kermit portrait, that had a cameo in the first photo.

For 5 years I’ve been saying I will finish him…some day, and haven’t yet.  When I tried to donate him to Goodwill, Der and the boys pitched a fit, so here he sits ever so patiently waiting to be completed…one of these days…maybe.

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October 13, 2012 · 12:22 am

Trail Riding In Pinetop

Trail riding together as a family was so much fun.

Der taught the boys to skip rocks at a little watering hole.  We saw bear tracks right at the waters edge.

Conrad and I missed the memo telling us that is was green T-shirt day.

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Filed under Adventures, Amazeballs, Family, Making Memories, Natural Happenings, On The Cheap, Rodents aka kids

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August 16, 2012 · 10:49 pm

Citrus Vinegar Cleaning Spray

I was inspired by This Pin on Pinterest and just had to make my own citrus vinegar cleaning spray.

Weeks ago, I put the peels from lemons, grapefruits and oranges into separate mason jars.  Then I poured white vinegar over them, until the jars were full.  I used my huge jars.  Smaller ones may have been a better choice, since now I have a decades worth of citrus vinegar.  If you were my neighbor I’d share with you, so you wouldn’t have to make your own.  I’d also give you lots of free eggs, from our egg factory out back.  We are swimming in eggs.  But alas you are not my neighbor, you may want to reevaluate your living situation.  Free eggs and citrus vinegar, those are perfectly valid reasons to move, just sayin’.

And now I’ve gotten off track.  Focus, Amy, focus.

They were so pretty, I let them sit on the counter.

They sat there for about 3 weeks.  The directions called for 2 weeks, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt if they sat a little longer.

When I felt they were all sufficiently marinated, I poured each type into a separate spray bottle, half way, with a funnel.  Then I topped them off with H2O.

My favorite one is the grapefruit, not pictured because I put that in my empty Mrs. Meyers spray bottle and was too lazy to peel the label off, so I didn’t take a photo.  Mrs. Meyer’s is awesome, but homemade citrus vinegar is WAY cheaper!

It smells good, cleans well, is cheap and super easy to make, so why isn’t everyone doing this?

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August 6, 2012 · 5:40 pm

Rainbow Paper Suncatchers

I freehand cut blue sheets of paper into clouds.  Then I cut their centers out.  I cut 2 at a time, so there would be twins that we could stack to match.

After cutting tissue paper into thick strips, I gave each boy 1 in every color.

Conrad’s friend, Gavin, was over again and was happy to make one too.

The photo’s pretty self-explanatory, but you outline the cloud with glue and overlap your tissue paper on each previous piece.  We made sure to leave plenty of tissue hanging out the bottom of the cloud.

As you can see we used white glue, but glue stick would have been better.

If you look closely at the tops of the clouds, you can see the hanging string we glued to the tops, in-between the paper.

The cloud shape is clearly visible through the tissue paper, so it was easy to see where to put the next layer of glue, in order to attach the twin cloud.

The boys gently tore any tissue poking out of the top.  Scissors would have created a cleaner edge, but this way was much faster.

Rainbows are so happy!  I love them!

I also love how the different colored paper overlapped creates new colors.  It was a makeshift course in color theory for the boys.

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Filed under Entertain Me, Feeling Fartsy, Let's make things pretty., Making Memories, On The Cheap, Rodents aka kids

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August 3, 2012 · 9:39 pm

Organize Me Happy

Our friends, Lynda and Graham, are off having adventures, on the other side of the world.  Before they left, they liquidated everything, with several moving sales.

On our first visit, I saw this wood tool chest and immediately wanted it.  I had no idea where I would put it though, so we decided to think on it.

Der and I walked through the house, contemplating where we could put it, and what function it would serve.  Finally, my brain clicked and all things fell into order.

We had been looking for the perfect microwave cart.  Our microwave had been on top of the fridge which was kind of a pain.  Having it so high up made it a challenge to get things in and out of it.   This chest would bring the microwave down to a better level, PLUS give us tons of utensil storage, and do it all with style.  SOLD!!!

It’s so nice not to have to dig through a pile to get whatever tool I need.

Good, straight forward organization is something that calms my nerves.  Disorganization gives me ulcers.  True story.

Thanks, Lynda, and Graham, for giving us deals galore on some really great stuff, stuff I didn’t know I was missing, until we brought it home.

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July 24, 2012 · 12:35 am

Food Hoarder

Have you heard of Bountiful Baskets?

You should go check it out, because it’s a great way to bring fresh fruit and vegetables to your table without breaking the bank.

The gist of it is once a week you can buy into a share of fruits and veggies for a very low price.  There are conventional baskets and organic baskets.  I usually get one of each.  Saturday morning you go to your local pickup site and collect your booty.  Bountiful Baskets are now available in 20 states, if you’re lucky, you live in one of them.

The baskets are fun because you never know exactly what you’re going to get.  We’ve tried all sorts of stuff that we might not have otherwise.  Just last weekend we were surprised with purple carrots and red corn.

Here are a few shots of our take last weekend.  Please excuse the bad flash photography.

This is a combo of 1 conventional and 1 organic basket.

Not pictured are a 2 cartons of raspberries, because they were almost immediately devoured.

Dark purple on the outside and normal carroty orange in the middle.  They tasted delicious.

Super sweet and juicy red corn!  YUM!

To lessen the pressure of eating it all before it goes bad, we cut up all of the squash, carrots, green beans, and broccoli and froze them for later.  That way we have a nice variety of yummy goodness ready and waiting in the freezer.

Speaking of freezing…

Not too long ago, one of our local grocery stores had peaches on sale for less than a dollar a pound.  I can’t resist a good bargain, so I bought something like 12 pounds of those furry beauties.  (I’m still waiting for the whopping 4 whole peaches to ripen on our tree.  They are so close, but not quite ready.)

I set the ones I bought on the counter to ripen for a few days.  Once they were perfect and just begging to be devoured I sliced them up, put them in single layers on cookie sheets, and froze them.  The next day I took them off the cookie sheets and put them in zip lock bags.  I can now reach in and grab a handful without them being all stuck together and I will have peaches long after peach season is over.  I can add them to smoothies, cereal, ice cream, eat them as is or if I am feeling like an overachiever make peach pie…which I never have and probably never will do, but I can dream.

I loved the way they looked all bright, cheerful and uniform, in all their delicious peachy-ness splendor.

Having a freezer full of healthy options makes me happy.

Do you have any money saving, healthy eating tips?  I would love to hear them!

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July 4, 2012 · 12:43 am

Tape Thank You Cards

With Ami’s birthday in June we had some thank you cards to send out.

We worked on them in shifts over a 3 day period.

Ami gets super whiny if he has to write more than 2 sentences in 1 sitting.  He’s in for a rude awakening, when he starts first grade, but for now, I’m choosing to pick my battles.  I want him to think of writing thank you cards as something fun, not a chore.

I had him write his thank yous on lined paper.

Later I cut them out and we used glue stick to attach them to the inside of each card.

The cards were different colors of card stock folded in half.

I found this cute rainbow duct tape in a half roll.  We still have tons left.

Ami absolutely loved the taping part.

I made him a sample one for reference.  Then I cut off pieces of tape and handed them to him for him to stick down.

Also pictured is Conrad’s page of practice words from our weekly spelling test.

Please forgive the bad flash photography.  I definitely prefer taking photos in natural light, but we’ve been so busy nighttime was the only time we had to do this.

He was super proud of the finished product!

I could gobble him up, he’s so cute!

The finished cards fit perfectly in half size manilla envelopes.  I found a package of 6 in white at the dollar store.

 

 

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Filed under Feeling Fartsy, On The Cheap, Rodents aka kids, With Gratitude

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July 2, 2012 · 1:08 am

Cornstarch Sidewalk Chalk Paint

I saw this on Pinterest, and had to try it.  I swear I don’t spend all day on Pinterest, though I probably could.

I mixed up the chalk paint like the recipe said.  1 part cornstarch 1 part water and then I just added food coloring until I liked the saturation level.

It was all very pretty to look at.

Then I called Jeremia out to paint by himself.  I felt like he needed a break from his brothers.

As you can tell by his smile, I was right.

It was HOT outside, like 110 degrees HOT! The paint dried almost as soon as it hit the ground.  This project would be better suited for a cooler day, but we’ve been so busy lately, I felt like it was now or never.

I didn’t even bother to clean the pine needles off of the driveway.

When JP was done painting his potted plant, I called Ami and Conrad out for their turn.

I always ask Conrad why he doesn’t put shorts on instead of jeans, when it’s so hot and he says “I just like pants”.  I say “Suit yourself goofball.”

The painting was fun-ish, but it was frustrating how quickly it dried.  It would be a great project for cooler weather.

The best part about the whole thing was when we decided to have a chalk paint race.

I dumped the paint out, on the downhill part of our driveway, and we watched the colors run together, and made guesses on which color would go the farthest.  Orange won.

It was seriously fun.  And gorgeous.

When Derek got home, he took special care  and tried not to park on it, because it was so cool looking.

I took this one with Instagram.  If you haven’t tried Instagram, you should.  It’s just another way too addicting modern marvel.

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June 22, 2012 · 11:39 pm

How To Keep Your Kids Happy And Quiet For A Few Hours

With a house full of kids, in the middle of summer vacation, contented quiet is in short supply.  If you are a mom you know what I’m talking about, and I’m happy to offer a break for your overstimulated ears and joy for your stir crazy kids. Use the quiet time to return phone calls, pay bills, or peruse Pinterest, which coincidentally is where I found this idea.

You need:

Paper to cover your table

Vinegar

Food Coloring

Baking Soda

Pyrex dishes or cake pans

Droppers-if you’re like me and don’t have droppers just use…

Straws!  I cut 5 straws in half so their were two straws per color.  Every kid who has ever used a straw, knows how to pick fluid up with them.

I gave the boys a super quick demonstration.  It’s pretty straight forward.  Pick colored vinegar up with straw, drop it on dish of baking soda, then ooh and aah at the coolness.

It’s so pretty.

They had a blast.  The house hasn’t  been that quiet since school got out.

They played happily for almost 2 hours and would have played longer, but we had errands to run.

Clean up was a cinch.  The dishes rinsed right out.  The paper protected my table, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have 2 or 3 layers of paper down though.  And I wouldn’t do it the day of anything important, because their hands were stained for the day.

Enjoy the silence!

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