Learning to live simply and thrifty

I have always had the "thrifty gene" in me, but the last 2 years have really brought it out.  Going from a family that could buy whatever we wanted, go on vacation at the drop of the hat, not use coupons and just go to the store and shop at the mall to having to watch every penny has been a HUGE change!  The lessons I have learned have been priceless and the lessons I am teaching my children are even more priceless. 

Being honest here, when Hubby owned his own company, we were able to just pick up and go on vacation whenever we wanted. I was also selling on eBay and making over $1000 a month that we used for "fun money" and just frittered it away every month.  It's hard to look back now, after career changes and going thru Dave Ramsey's course, to see how much money we wasted. Yes, it was nice to be able to just pick up and go to the mall and buy everyone a new outfit for something, but now it's so much more fun finding treasures in resale shops.  Do I still get the same brands? YES  Is it quality clothing? YES...So now I see people buying stuff at the mall (I was only there because Miss Priss went to Apple camp at the Apple store. I don't even go to the mall any more!) and thought....how dumb are those people? They could buy an entire wardrobe for that!  I guess I'm jaded now.  

Some people would call that cheap, but I like to challenge myself. I am a smart shopper (that's what I am trying to teach my daughter) and the fact that I got that same White House Black Market pair of pants that you paid $60 for, I got for $1.49 just proves it!  Now I didn't know I was going to find those capri's like I would have if I had gone to the store to buy them, but the thrill of the hunt is even better! You never know what you might find at a thrift store!

This brings me to school clothes...

Last year I challenged myself to only spend $200 on school clothes for the three munchkins beginning of the year load. I did well and most of that stuff held them thru the holidays.  Then they grew. Of course...

So this year, my goal is to get the following items for UNDER $100 total. That way I can spend another $100 when it starts getting cooler and/or they have a growth spurt. They may have a few of these items left in their closets (jeans and shorts and such) so those will be checked off the list after I clean them out later today.

Here's my essentials list for this year:

Miss Priss:

• 3 jeans
• 3 non jeans pants
• 4 shorts
• 3 skirts
• 5 tees
• 2 sweaters
• 3 blouses
• 3 dresses
• 1 sandals
• 1 black flats
• 1 brown flats
• 1 new tennis shoes
• 1 boots

the twins:

• 2 new tennis shoes
• 6 jeans
• 4 non jeans pants
• 4 denim shorts
• 2 khaki's
• 10 tees
• 4 ss button downs
• 6 polos
• 4 sweatshirts
• 4 warm up pants

In my quest to become "living simply", I am striving to not have items that just hang in the closets because we have too much to wear.  I know I have stuff that just hangs there because it's "too good" to get rid of, but I generally wear the same 4 or 5 outfits all the time. WHY keep that stuff???  It's just clutter!  So...eBay here it comes!!!

This list should get them thru at least til winter. Here in Tx, it doesn't get that cold until after Thanksgiving.

This is starting to get to be a long post...sorry!!! I'm almost done....

So far, I have checked off the items I have purchased (15) and I have spent a little over $13!  We have an awesome resale shop here that has a $1 rack of items that have just been there for their allotted time and you can find amazing deals there!  I got Miss Priss an Abercrombie long sleeved top for 50 CENTS yesterday!!! SEE...name brand stuff!!!  That's all I will buy unless it's something like a solid polo. Then it doesn't really matter, right?

So...as of today 7/21, I still have $87 to spend!!! I'll keep ya updated!

Now, my challenge for you is to set a budget and buy used!!! You will get so much more for your money!

Coming up, how I made my kitchen over for under $150! And, my revamping my eBay store. From hair bows to dinnerware and vintage items...it's been fun!

Fun stuff....

Well, I'm at it again..changing the name of my blog. I've had about 6 blogs, both business and personal, and it's so hard for me to keep up with them. I just don't feel very organized these days, so "happily organized" is not really me.  BUT...we went to breakfast for father's day and the resteruant  called our name when our table was ready: "Kelly, party of five"...yep, that's us...the Kelly's and there are 5 of us!  So that's the blog's new name!  I will be posting a mix of personal and business stuff here so it's all in one place...

Now onto the fun stuff!  

We went garage sale-ing this past weekend and found some good stuff!  Several milk glass pieces, some vintage Tupperware, a Steve Irwin (Crocodile Hunter) wind up toy and some pillowcases.  The kiddos were great while we were out and really looked for stuff to sell.

Sunday we tried to set up a lemonade stand, but with 100 degree afternoons, it was just tooooo hot and when the wind blew the canopy away before we finished building it, I threw in the towel!  I'm sure my neighbors got a full view of mama yelling and throwing things in the front yard! mama + heat don't mix!

So I promised twin1 that we would try it again while people were coming home from work and we set it all up this afternoon.  We had a total of ONE customer, plus mama and daddy.  The boys are excited that they have $1.50 in their jar though!  They were invited to come play down the street and promptly put everything away 20 minutes after they opened!  Guess we'll try again another day!

Notice his record book! He wants to "keep track" of how much he makes!  My little businessman!

Teaching them young...

Today we hit a few of my favorite thrift stores, kids in tow...

Bribery was invented by mothers, so of course, this trip came with a little bribery...

I told them that they each had $1 to pick out an item to sell on eBay. Whatever money they make from that sale is theirs.  So off we went...

The first stop we hit the kitchen/housewares first and MJ picks out a glass Mickey Mouse.  It was only $1 and she was super excited to find it.  CJ and RPK didn't find anything really, so they have saved their $1's for Saturday when we hit garage sales!

So, we get home and start researching and low and behold....that Mickey is a commemorative collectible from when DISNEY WORLD OPENED!!! AHHHH!  There is one just like it listed on eBay for $40 right now, so we decided to list it for $32.99.  We already have a watcher on it and it's only been on there for about an hour!  I'm so excited for her! She's got a great eye!

Here's her auction: CLICK HERE

Birthday Party on a Budget...

Today we had our "park party" for the boys. I can't believe they will be 7 on Tuesday. With family coming in town for that, I decided to do a simple party for the friends on our block and some close friends from school.

With twins and 2 different first grade classes, there were 44 kids (plus parents) to invite to a party. I just couldn't do that this year, mentally or financially. I decided to invite 4 families that we do playdates with (they each have 2 kids) and we met at the neighborhood park.  It was lovely and shaded, thank goodness because it was 100 degrees today and there was a good breeze blowing.

I didn't want to spend a fortune or put on a super sweet seven yr old party, so I put my thinking cap on and off we went...

What do kids like to do at parties?  PLAY...that's it.  It doesn't matter if it's a Chuck E. Cheese or the local heathen hopper place (Jumpin' Jungle- you know, the inflatable jump house place), all they want to do is PLAY.  SO...what better place for a dozen kids to run off some steam...the park. It's free and wide open for noisy kids to RUN!  

What do kids want to eat?   CAKE...and snacks.  So we served hot dogs (our park has electricity, so I put them in a crockpot with water to keep them warm) and chips and juice pouches.  I also MADE my own cupcakes from $.88 cake mix and $1.38 frosting from Walmart.  (yes, we made them into an alligator)

All parents want to do is...RELAX and talk. There were a couple of picnic tables for us to sit at and chit chat while the kids ran and played.  IT WAS GREAT!  Caught up on the latest gossip. Bragged about all of our super smart and talented kids and just relaxed.  Everyone even stayed an extra hour cause we were all so comfy!

Party favors??? WHY spend a fortune on little crappy trinkets to stuff in a bag and worry about how full the bag is to impress all the parents???  All my kids do is lose, throw away or break that stuff anyway and no parent wants more candy coming in the house, so we opted for KITES!  The Dollar Tree had 2 packs of good sized kites for $1 each, so I grabbed up 6 of those babies, cut the packages down the middle and tied the top with curling ribbon.  $6. that's it for goodies.  

My total for the WHOLE party for TWO 7 yr olds  food, cake, goodies and venue was $30.  THAT'S IT!!! 

And I think they had a GREAT time!!!

I think they had a great time if I do say so myself!

Ebay Store

I've been scouring clothing resale blogs and figured out that most of them have an Ebay store. Now, I've had a store before a few years ago for my custom clothing designs, but I have reopened it under my new id.  I had a great shopping trip today with the munchkins and I will be stocking it full over this weekend!

Check it out here:
Wear It Again Sam Tx

Meal Planning Monday! 6/1

well, it's better late than never, right?

we have the LAST day of school/work tomorrow and then summer's here! exciting, BUT that means planning THREE meals a day! my kids eat ALOT, like non-stop, so i try to plan all that i can to keep the crazy pantry raids down.

here's our menu for the next two weeks. i plan two weeks at a time because Officer Hubby gets paid every two weeks.  we also have family coming in for a week, so i NEED to have a plan!

breakfasts:

      cereal

      bagels

      cinn. toast

      oatmeal

lunches:

      sandwiches

      smiley face plate (boiled egg cut in half for eyes, cheese triangle for nose, apple slices for mouth and whatever else i can add!)

      hot dogs/chips

      left overs

dinners:

      6/2 ham and cheese wraps

      6/3 chicken stir fry

      6/4 bday party with hot dogs

      6/5 meatballs, broc., mashed potato

      6/6 noodles (the kids love them with just butter, but i'll make some sort of tomato thing to go on top of mine!)

      6/7 chicken broccoli bake left overs out of the freezer

      6/8 pizza night

      6/9 left over noodles

      6/10 ham sand's/ chips

      6/11 taco night

      6/12 taco night left overs

      6/13 sausage, mac & cheese, salad

      6/14 brisket, mac & cheese, beans

      6/15 left over brisket

      6/16 YOYO dinner (you're on your own!)

i hope i get enough to make it thru the family visit! if not, we'll just eat out one night.  my family loves to get fried chicken usually when they come, so we may do that! 

i'm linking up here!  

New Ebay ID!

I have decided to start selling pre-loved clothing on Ebay! I've sold instruction ebooks for years (for hair bows, pettiskirts and more) and I used to design little girl's boutique clothing and sold it on there, but that's soooo much work and the market is now saturated with hair bow makers and pettiskirts from china, that I needed a new direction to go with.

I LOVE to thrift store shop and we were cleaning out our closets anyway, so now's the perfect time to start!

Here's my shop! Take a look! I plan on listing new pre-loved items every Sunday and sometimes on Thursdays. I will ship within 3 days of payment. All items are freshly washed and pressed!

Just call me Wear*It*Again*Sam!!! (Officer Hubby came up with that one!)