Budget-Friendly Bungalow

We must confess we've been lacking a little in the posts lately. And although we're sad we don't have nearly enough time to blog about our adventures in budget-friendly living as we did when we first launched this blog, we admit our confession is somewhat bitter sweet. Because this good-for-us-but-maybe-sad-for-you news means that we've been busier than ever with other exciting projects! With the launch of Bri's grahic design studio {check that out post here}, and Tyler making the transition from finishing his undergrad to the working world {and maybe even grad school}, we just can't seem to find enough hours in the day to get everything accomplished.

But after a much-needed holiday break, we plan to get started again in the new year. And although we'll be cutting back to blogging just a few times a month, we promise to keep throwing our budget-friendly finds your way!

Thank you all very much for your companionship in blog land this year and warmest wishes for a happy holiday season to everyone!

To tie in with the upcoming holidays, we thought we'd share a project we recently completed that helps us stay a little more organized during the hectic holiday season - our nifty little stationary/wrapping paper organizer. Since moving into 213, we lost a considerable amount of closet space, which meant stuffing things in places that aren't as easily accessible as we'd like. And although I don't mind grabbing the step-stool on occasion and rock-climbing my way to the top of the closet the few times a year that I need wrapping paper or birthday supplies, during the holidays, it's a bit of a struggle. {Especially when Tyler isn't home and I actually have to do it myself!}

But with the overwhelming amount of coats, tools, sporting equipment, and kitty supplies taking up the hall closet, and the lack of storage space {and by that we mean absolutely no closet at all} in the guest room, we needed to get creative to find a place to store our gift bags, ribbons and wrapping paper that had temporarily been shoved into the top of my closet.

We did a little investigate work on the good ol' World Wide Web to see what others we're doing to store their gift wrapping goods. We soon decided that anything relating to a "closet" would have to be re-purposed to use behind the guest room door. Despite my need to remain uber-organized, we figured the gift wrap storage could be a bit of an eye sore if we put it right out in the open.

So we headed to Target to see what storage solutions we could find....and we immediately stumbled upon these boxes ....the exact same color and style we used for our pen holder in the guest room. Not exactly what we were looking for, but a great find that we figured we could work with.

See how well they match our other office accessories?

So here's the less-than-lifeless corner where we began. It obviously wasn't being used for much since it's right between the guest room door and the bathroom door.

We started by drilling a few small holes in the back of the box. Since it's made up of cardboard backing, we wanted to drill the holes before we attached it to the wall, just to get it started.

We then attached the box to the wall with a few screws and measured a few feet up and did the same with the upper box. After filling the boxes with stationary and gift wrap, we realized we also needed a way to keep the gift wrap secured to the wall so it wouldn't fall out of the box. We found some extra door hooks and grabbed a piece of ribbon and minutes later...

A quick and inexpensive solution for our gift wrap storage dilemma. And although we would have preferred to have this stuff stored away in a closet, we decided this was the next best thing!

Got some nifty storage solutions of your own? Send 'em our way!

Happy Monday!

Real Simple Magazine recently compiled a list of discounts and freebies that some people never even know about - "secret" discounts, you could say. We can't confirm that all of these special discounts and freebies still apply, but we figured it was worth passing along to our budget-friendly readers.

Check out a few suggestions of "The Best Bargains You've Never Heard Of" by Real Simple Magazine:

2 Companies That Give Cash Back for Paperless Billing
These businesses pay you for the privilege of de-cluttering your mailbox.

• Allstate Insurance: Up to 5 percent off your auto premium.
• Progressive Insurance: A percentage off your monthly bill (depending on the policy) when you enroll in the paperless billing program and/or elect direct payment from your bank account.
  

9 Discounts You Get With AAA Membership
The card you whip out when you’ve got a flat also delivers unexpected savings. (To sign up, go to aaa.com. Membership costs about $50 a year.)

• Best Western hotels: Up to 20 percent off room rates.
• Hard Rock Café and Landry’s restaurants: 10 percent off.
• LensCrafters and Pearle Vision: 30 percent off eye exams, eyewear, sunglasses, and accessories.
• Hilton Worldwide hotels: At least 5 percent off room rates.
• Hyatt Hotels: 10 percent off room rates.
• Target.com: 10 percent off online purchases (through AAA.com).
• Starwood hotels: 5 to 15 percent off room rates.
  

3 Places to Get Cheaper Coffee With a Reusable Mug
Pay less for your daily jolt by sipping from your own cup.

• Einstein Bros. Bagels: Coffee in your personal mug costs just $1—that’s up to 40 percent off the regular price.
• Peet’s Coffee & Tea: 10 cents off with a refillable cup. Bonus: Get a quarter off when you reuse a bag when buying beans.
• Starbucks: Save 10 cents when you bring a mug.
  

3 Companies That Reward Recycling
What goes around comes around, sometimes in the form of cash.

• Apple: Go to apple.com/recycling to find out if your old computer—Mac or PC—is worth anything. If it is, you’ll get that dollar amount applied toward an Apple gift card. Plus, the company will send you a prepaid label to mail your old machine in for recycling. Bring an old iPod to an Apple store or mail it in and get 10 percent off a new one.
• MAC Cosmetics: Customers who return six used MAC product containers receive a free lipstick.
• Staples: Bring any used ink or toner cartridge to the store and receive $2 in Staples Rewards for use on future store purchases.
  

6 Places That Give a Rebate When You Use a Reusable Tote
Go green (as in: count your savings) when you bring your own bag to these stores.

• CVS: $1 off after four visits when you pack a tote. (You need to buy a tag for 99 cents that is scanned with each visit.)
• Giant: 5 cents a bag.
• Kroger: 4 cents a bag.
• ShopRite: 2 cents a bag.
• Target: 5 cents a bag.
• Whole Foods: 5 or 10 cents a bag, depending on the store.

5 Stores That Offer a Price Break With a Teacher or Student ID
Bookish types can score with deals from these education-friendly brands.

• Apple: Students, teachers, and school administrators receive $50 to $450 off computers.
• Club Monaco: 20 percent off for college students and professors.
• J.Crew: 15 percent off for college students and professors.
• Loft: 15 percent off for teachers (you must enroll at teachers.anntaylorloft.com).
• Topshop: 10 percent off with a valid high school or college ID.

For a complete list of fabulous freebies and secret discounts, check out the full post at Real Simple Magazine. Know of some secret money-savings discounts?  Send them our way and we'll happily share them with our budget-friendly readers!

Thanks!

Wedding season is well underway {as you can tell by our many wedding-related posts} and we've got our hands busy with a variety of wedding day necessities. As we mentioned in previous posts, we've been busy helping our good friends Amy and Kent made their dream wedding a financial reality. And this past weekend, they finally tied the knot...which means we get to share a few more wedding-themed projects we recently completed.

We gifted the bride and groom with wedding invitations that Bri designed and printed. {See that post here.} To tie in with her homemade gift-giving theme, she decided to tackle a fall-themed card box for their special day. I was a little skeptical when she mentioned the need for a card box - don't you just put all the cards on the table? Apparently, I didn't take notes at the gazillion weddings we've attended the past few years, because after a little research, I realized this card box thing was kind of a big deal.

My card box research resulted in two important take-away points:

1. The card box serves the purpose of keeping all the cards in a central location. Since many of the cards contain cash, checks, or gift cards, it's essential to have a specific place to keep the cards and ensure their contents be safe and secure. Slot-type boxes are best, as cards can be easily inserted but not easily removed.
2. Although the functional purpose of the box was pretty clear, I also noticed that the card box also doubles as a nice little decoration. Bri chose to design her card box using the colors and theme that Kent and Amy had picked out for their wedding invitations. 

So here's the breakdown on how the card box was created...

We searched high and low to find three boxes we could use for the three-tiered wedding box. We were able to recycle a few boxes we had laying around the office, but resorted to purchasing an inexpensive circular box for the top tier.

Bri made a quick trip to Michael's to purchase a few necessary elements for her design: gold and white wrapping paper (thick stock), ribbon, faux leaves, and a few flower bunches for the finishing touches.

After wrapping the boxes with the paper, she then went to work on hot gluing the ribbon and leaves.

And more hot gluing...

Then we moved on to the base box, which is usually the focal point for the design. Bri started by wrapping the box with ribbon...

I figured I couldn't just sit around, so I made myself useful and cut slots in the top of the box for the cards.

Bri added some finishing touches by printing out a simple name plate on white paper with the couple's name and wedding date. She also added some additional leaves and flowery bunches with a little hot glue.

And here's what the final card box looked like. We were pretty pleased with the results!

So there you have it - an easy {and inexpensive} do-it-yourself Wedding project. We did a final price breakdown and determined that we only spent $22.34 for all the supplies {not including the hot glue gun and glue sticks, which we already had.} We didn't think it was all that bad for a functional and decorative wedding day necessity. And best of all, Amy & Kent loved it!

Well, that concludes our streak of wedding-related projects for now. Wedding season is finally over for us this year, but stay tuned for some upcoming budget-friendly holiday projects - Christmas is just around the corner!

Last fall, we stumbled across a fun tutorial that led us through the steps of using recycled magazines and Mod Podge to create a bowl or pot. Unfortunately, we forgot to flag it in our favorites file, so we'll do our best to explain our process!

After perusing our favorite stores to find some modern and colorful decor items, we were disappointed to see that many of our favorite items - those made of recycled elements - were quite pricey! So to save a little cash, we decided to once again, turn our trash to treasure, and make our very own pieces using some random materials around the house. A quick glance around our pad revealed a number of old magazines we had been saving to use for a rainy day project. We spent a little time doing some research and found a great way to reuse the magazines and create a colorful flower pot for our family room!

What you'll need:

• Magazine Pages
• Large Rubber Band
• Scotch Tape
• Mod Podge

What to do:

• We started by ripping out a bunch of pages from a magazine - we tried to use colorful pages and even used some thicker stock pages, like the front and back covers. Depending on how large you want your pot or bowl to be, you may need several magazines to acquire a considerable number of pages.

And here's how our final pot turned out:

Although this project was a little time consuming, it didn't cost us a cent, since we used old magazines we had sitting in our recycle box and Mod Podge from another project. A great way to save some moolah AND create some colorful pieces using recycled items!

Thanks for popping in!