Making Lemonade- DIY Dress

 

We've all had it happen to us in one way or another, and if it hasn't yet it will.... Ruined clothes!  Take a look at my brand new $20 tank top.  I was given a gift card to Motherhood Maternity and thought I might use it to get some clothes.. I ended up buying 2 dresses and 2 tank tops.  Here's one of the tank tops.  I loved it because it was flowy and light and brand new.  I wore it once.. and then I washed it...and when I opened the washer it was wound so tightly around the agitator that I couldn't get it off.. Paul came to the rescue and gently got the shirt off the agitator.  And then I saw it...RIPPED! I was so sad.  It got looped around the agitator in the wash and RIPPED the top of the shirt...SEE?

 

So..I got really upset..because I hardly ever buy clothes for myself brand new much less spend $20 for a tank top and I'm frugal so don't judge my upset-ness. Sweet Paul immediately thought..Hey you can make P something...so I did...

 

I took a dress she already had and used it as a pattern to cut the shirt to her size.  I left the edges raw because it's T-shirt material so it won't fray.  So the only sewing I did was up the sides to close them and the detail on the front.  

For the detail on the front I used thin elastic and wound it around a bobbin and popped it in.  Cut 1 1/2 inch wide strips from the scraps and then sewed them on and the elastic kind of gathered it together for me...I did 5 or 6 strips close together. I then tied a knot at each shoulder to close those.  And that's it. Easy Peasy.

Extreme Couponing

If you haven't jumped on the bandwagon of extreme couponing yet, you totally should this week.  Kroger is having  their March to Savings mega event this week and next week (which starts for us in the south tomorrow).

Here are just SOME of the deals I got this week.  My large trip I didn't get a picture of but I can do the breakdown for you below.

Total for everything in these 3 pictures..around $13 bucks out of pocket~

How do you ask? COUPONS TO THE EXTREME!!!

When you clip a coupon only on things you buy every grocery trip you can save a little bit of money...but when you shop sales and match coupons to sales even on brands you dont normally buy, you can really come out spending little to nothing on products..sometimes even being paid to take the product home.

Take for example Annie's Natural Salad Dressing... I have never bought this product in my life.  Nor would I spend $4.29 (regularly priced) on salad dressing ever. But..with a sale....I was actually PAID $2.50 to take home 10 bottles of this dressing from the store.  Yes Paid.

Here's the break down on the items that I bought.

Annie's Natural Salad Dressing - $1.49
use $1/1 tearpad by product, 
Every 2 you buy produces a $1.50 ONYO catalina

profit of 0.25 each dressing.

Red Gold Tomatoes – $0.49
Buy 2 and use $0.50/2 printable
Free after coupon

Heluva Good Dips - $0.99
use the $0.50/1 printable
free after coupon

Ronzoni Healthy Harvest, Smart Taste or Garden Delight - $0.49
use the $1/2 Printables
or $1/2 Printables
or $1/2 Printables
or from the 1/23 Smart Source
Free after coupon

Butterfinger Snackerz - $0.50
-$1/2 BUTTERFINGER® Snackerz (Available at Kroger) zip 75201
Free after coupon

Mentos - $0.89
$0.50/1 Mentos 2/6/2011 SS Insert
Free after coupon 

Starkist Tuna Creations- $1.45

use .50/1 printable
Buy 5, get $1.50 ONYO catalina
$0.15 each after coupon and catalina

Philadelphia Cooking Creme - $1.99
use the $1.50/1 from the 3/6 Smart Sourceor use 1.50/1 tearpads by product
$0.49 after coupon

Annie's Natural Mac N Cheese -$0.49


Welch's Healthy Start Juice- $2.39
use $1/1 blinkie by product
$1.39 after coupon


Strawberries - $1.88

FREE holiday cards? yes please!

Shutterfly is giving 50 completely FREE holiday cards to bloggers! Get all the details here.  I'm all about saving money and Shutterfly helps me do just that! They always have great promotions and FREE items! What can beat free anyway?  I know most of you plan to do holiday pictures this year anyway so this is a great opportunity to save in a season that tells you to spend, spend, spend.

Some of my favorite Holiday cards they offer are Colorful Joy, Mod Snowflakes, and Merry Merry Swirl
They offer so many different styles, it's hard to narrow it down to just a few!

Shutterfly also offers many other printed gifts. We have a large canvas of Paul and me, and Paul made a coffee mug with pictures of Piper when she was born...which he drinks out of everyday! He loves it so much!

See :)

You can get 50 free cards too..just sign up here:

Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly…
to sign up: http://bit.ly/sfly2010

free

Like getting stuff for free?

I DO!

Today’s outing.. 10 Sobe Lifewaters 10 for $10 this week at Target -used 5 B1G1 -used 5 .50/1 Target Coupon =$2.50 + $5.00 GC to Target

2 Scrubbing Bubbles Power Sprayers Regular priced at $6.99 -used 2 $5.00 coupon(from Sunday paper) -used 2 $3/1 Target Coupon =FREE + 2.00 overage!

Pure protein Bar $1.00 at Kroger - 1.00/1 Coupon from All You Magazine =FREE

2 Colgate Total toothpaste $2.99 (get 2 ECB) at CVS this week -used 2 1.00/1 Colgate (from sunday paper) -used $4.00 ECB from a previous purchase =FREE (+ I got my $4.00 ECB back)

Power Bar at CVS $.99 (get $.99 ECB) -used $.99 ECB =FREE (+ I got my $.99 ECB back)

So.. All in all I was paid $4.50 to score all of this stuff!! Woohoo!!