I refuse to pay for someone to do something that is an easy fix and I can do myself. Sewing our clothes is no different. DH needed 4 pairs of work pants hemmed so he can wear them. He wanted to buy new shorts because the shorts he has have broken buttons.
I am not great at sewing but I can sew on buttons. I can use hem tape and an iron to hem our clothes. Hem tape costs about $3. It took about 10 minutes. Hubby always wears a belt so the color of the buttons don't really matter and I save the buttons off of all of the outfits we buy.
By hemming his pants myself, I saved $40 per pair. By fixing the 3 pairs of shorts he has, I saved $10 per button as my dry cleaner charges or $20 per pair for him to get new shorts. Not to mention it felt good doing something for him. I also love the old show like Leave It To Beaver and The Wonder Years where mom could fix everything. I live in the wrong era.
Total Savings: $200
I wish that I had taken a picture of it but...
Today we took all of our cans to the scrap metal place. 29 pounds of cans and then my grandmother gave us scrap metal that we took as well. This is not a get rich quick thing but we did make $33.68. That of course went to our surprise for K.
While there I talked to the man about maximizing the amount we could be making. I told him that we both work and DH works two full time jobs so it is just to have as fun money, but we have a lot that we want and very little spare money to play with. Items that my scrap guy said to save:
*Soda/beer cans
*Cans that veggies come in
*Aluminum foil
*Appliances
*Car parts
Obviously, I am not going to become a hoarder and start collecting absolutely everything in sight, but if I can hold on to these items and make a few extra bucks each quarter, why not?
Game plan:
1. Set up 3 containers as all items. I chose 3 because soda cans, tin cans and aluminum foil will be what I have 99.9% of the time.
2. Designate a spot for each
3. Start collecting. I will be asking friends and family to save their cans for me or ask if I can take their recycling for them. Many people are busy and do not have time to take off their recycling and are not willing to pay for recycling collection service. Why not start taking recycling for friends and family that live close by.
4. Put a small container with a lid in the trunk of my vehicle. All too often we see litter bugs throw their soda cans in parks and parking lots. Why not pick up and make a few cents in the process. This will also have a ziplock baggie in it to hold found coke caps.
We had a great Fathers' Day. With the family away, we took my grandmother out to Shoney's for Dave's FD dinner. They boys ate for free and drank water so no expense there. Grandma drank water so no drink cost, by her choice FYI. I splurged and had a coke and DH had tea as always. We had a $1 off each adult buffet cost coupon. So dinner was reasonably priced.
We came home and the boys played and cleaned up and now I am doing my normal Sunday night routine:
*Enter coke reward to my account and my mom's account (I get more tops collected than she does and I usually get some of the free products she gets)
*Run Laundry- I rarely do laundry during the week so Sunday is the day to catch up
*Watch Swagbucks TV while I clean (earn points and have a clean house... score!)
*Play a couple rounds of Spider Solitaire on Swagbucks
*Fold laundry while watching Drop Dead Diva on the DVR, right now I am finishing my favorite movie "The Blindside"
*Finish cleaning the bottom floor.
My favorite kind of Sunday Fun Day... a free one. Today we took the kids on a trip to the splash pad in our neighborhood for a picnic and water day. We had a blast. DS1 and DS3 jumped right in the water and got drenched. DS2 due to his super powers (he is on the Autism Spectrum and has SPD) played by the water and got very upset when he was put in the water. *Note to self* NEVER DO THAT AGAIN. We really had a great day. The kids loved it and hammed it up for some pictures. My fair skin beauties got a bit red. While I didn't burn or tan... stupid acne medicine!
This may become a weekend ritual.
