Cheap tricks: scissors

Do you throw away scissors when they go dull? I remember growing up, my mom always wrote "SEWING SCISSORS" nice and big on the handle of her good scissors so that we wouldn't dull them on paper or cardboard but of course, there was always someone who would ignore that and then mom would buy a new pair and we used the ones that used to be sewing scissors. Long story short, (or rather, short story long) Mom never had a nice pair of scissors for very long and I can't even count how much money she has probably spent on them.
So, my scissors were on their last leg, (you know how it gets when the very end is the only sharp part left and you're just making those short snips all the way down the length of fabric) when I had a lightbulb moment. Are you ready for it? SHARPEN THE SCISSORS!! Why have I never thought of this before? I sharpen my kitchen knives all the time, why not my scissors? So I took my kitchen knife sharpener and gave my scissors a good swipe or two and voila! Like new! So now I'm here to tell you, don't throw away a dull pair of scissors (or a dull knife) ever again!! If you don't have a sharpener, look into getting one, it would be worth it. You can even get a sharpener that has a notch specifically for scissors.
There you have it. Pinch those pennies!

Cheap tricks: tissues

I have to admit, I had sort of decided to stop blogging because there are so many awesome bloggers out there, and with Pinterest and Facebook, I didn't really see a reason for me to keep writing.  (Also, I don't think I have any readers) My mind was changed by a friend who came to visit me last week and kept saying I had all these clever little ideas that I honestly hadn't thought of sharing. She asked me to share them so that she could do them; so these are for you, Ash :)

I decided to call them cheap tricks because these really are cheap tricks. There are lots of little things a person can do to save a buck here and there, and for a low income student family of three, EVERY buck counts and I do just about everything I can to stretch a dollar. Now, don't get me wrong; I'm not trying to put Kleenex out of business or tell you that you shouldn't buy actual tissues. This is just one little thing to save on when the budget is tight.

I did the math one day and discovered that tissues cost about twice as much as toilet paper (based on Sams Club pricing and assuming you use 2-3 squares of TP for one tissue). Growing up, we actually always had a roll of TP on the kitchen counter in place of a box of tissues. I took this idea one step further and put my TP in a box just because it was slightly more convenient and I think it looks a little better.
I took a wipes dispenser (buying Huggies wipes in bulk comes with an empty dispenser in each box and they are useful for so many things) took the top flap off

and folded one roll of TP into the dispenser. 
Then I made a paper cover to label the tissue box and dress it up a little. Done and done. :) cheaper than tissues and not as tacky as keeping a roll of TP on the counter.

I also really like this for the car, in fact, this is one case that I would use this over a regular box of tissues.  I  leave that top flap on and the box never gets torn or dirty from kicking around the car (I leave off the paper cover). You could probably even put a regular box of tissues inside one of these cases.  I do love these containers. :)

*update 6/15/13*

Another way to do this is to just put a partial roll of TP in your container. 

 

Quick and easy :) if you don't have any containers like this lying around, start thinking of different containers you could use. A reused tissue box would work great! Get creative :)

Quiet book

I finished my first quiet book! Inspired by a book that I saw on Julie's Blog, I made this Star Trek quiet book . I made a few pages inspired by pages in her quiet book and the rest I designed with Spencer's help. It was a lot of fun! I have decided that making quiet books could easily become an addiction :) (Hopefully, they will get a little less sloppy as I get better at making them)

The Enterprise moves along the string.

This is a page that came directly from the blog
 where I found the idea

Tada! Finger puppets!

This page was also semi-inspired by the blog, 
I just decided to make it a little more involved :)

This was another I took directly from her book,
 I just had to use this awesome idea!

This page is probably my personal favorite, 
maybe because its the best,
 or maybe just because I came up with 
it all on my own :)  

You put the different faces on him and 
the name of the emotion above him

This last page was my husband's pure
 inspiration. He came up with the idea for 
using the zipper and he drew out the
 entire pattern for this page

The Bird of Prey pulls up to the Enterprise 
when you zip it