Cheaper Starbucks

There aren't many people that don't like Starbucks. Coffee and a great atmosphere can't easily be passed up. And let's face it, it's everywhere. In a five mile radius from where I live, there are at least 10 Starbucks according to Google Maps. And in fact there is one about 200 yards from my apartment. So, it becomes a great place to read my Bible and hang out with my friends.

But there is a down side to Starbucks (and to almost every coffee shop). It's expensive and we just can't afford a large coffee budget.

There are a few ways around this.

1. Get the house brew. A great option and probably my husbands favorite. Plus if you are a Starbucks Gold member (which we are) you get free refills. This option is also available in an iced version which is nice for the blazing summers here in Phoenix. I surely don't want a hot beverage when it's 108 degrees outside.

2. Get an Americano (espresso and water). One of the cheapest espresso drinks and also available iced.

But what if I want something a little more substantial? Like an iced mocha, which is my favorite. Well, a Grande Iced Mocha at Starbucks is about $4.35 + tax. Those can start to add up fairly quickly with how much I go to coffee shops through out the month.

So, I figured out a way to make my favorite drink cheaper. I just bring my own milk.

Before I head over to Starbuck, I fill a canteen with some milk from home (which I already get on sale at the grocery store for $1.57/gallon most weeks). Then I order 2 shots of espresso, on ice, with 2 pumps mocha in a Venti cup.

        

And then I add my milk.

Voila! A Venti Iced Mocha.

How much does it cost me??

$2.78

I think that's one awesome deal! Obviously, this only works for iced espresso beverages. 

But I am totally happy with that.

Grocery Savings

There are lots of ways to save money on your monthly grocery bill. Some people do coupons (even to the extreme). I tried doing that for a while. I did most of my shopping at Fry's Food, which is the local Kroger brand grocery store. At the time they were accepting competitor coupons which made some things really cheap because I could use multiple coupons on one item. It got a little crazy cutting so many coupons and trying to keep them all straight. And when Fry's stopped accepting competitor coupons, I decided I didn't want to put the time into coupons that was needed in order to get a big savings.

So, I have a new method now, which takes only about 20 minutes a week and saves me quite a bit of money. My co-frugal wife, Denise Meyer, and I go grocery shopping together on Mondays and we make two stops.

The first stop is at American Discount Foods. It's a local, Christian owned, store that sells that stuff that other grocery stores don't want anymore. Some of it is slightly damaged or about to expire. Some of it is already expired foods, but they are usually either canned foods or frozen foods that won't really go bad until the end of time. I don't buy everything there, but I see what they have and try to buy for the future. Like if they have a great deal on frozen brats, I'll buy them knowing I can plan them into next weeks meal line up. Denise and I like shopping there a lot and we enjoy supporting that store.

Our second stop is Walmart. Why Walmart? Because they ad match. So, I spend about 20 minutes looking through the weeks ads from the local grocery stores and write down the things that I want to buy. They I simply take that list with me to Walmart, and when I get to the register I just tell the cashier what I have ad matches for. If they want to confirm that price they have to have the ad and check it themselves. I love it! I get all the different deals from every grocery store at one place!

On average I spend about $40 a week on groceries for 2.5 people (we have a roommate that sometimes eats at home). It's no extreme couponing, but it works!

Reupholstered Ottoman

Hi all, my name is Beth (but some call me Kat) Randall and I am a frugal wife. I also blog here but I am all about the bargains and diys! My latest undertaking was reupholstering an ottoman. For about two years we had this ottoman tucked into a vanity-turned footboard.

We have it partially for looks, mainly so Lilu, our corgi, could get on the Bed. Unfortunately it was made of vinyl, so after 2 years of corgi bounces it was ripping pretty badly. It was on the top of my hubs list for me to reupholster for awhile. Eventually the ottoman's day came when I was invited to a craft night, composed of other frugal wives, so I packed up my sewing machine and officially began.

Step 1.) I started by ripping out the staples on the bottom of the ottoman

Step 2.) I cut off the old vinyl in a strip around the base (so it was a long rectangle.) The top circle part basically fell off in chunks.

Step 3.) Then I saw this underneath, not what I was expecting. Thus I knew a future step would involve buying new foam. I put the white batting that you see here around the base to make sure the straw wouldn't poke through. I also changed my approach to more of a slipcover technique since the bottom was the only thing that could be stapled, there was no wood in the frame. This link was very helpful.

Step 4.) I used the strip of old fabric as a pattern and cut the new fabric to match, adding a little extra for seams. My fabric wasn't long enough so I had to seam two pieces together, (But I did my best at matching up the plaid stripes! See the vertical seam below)

Step 5.) Next, I re-sewed the piping into the new orange plaid. I basically cut a long skinny piece of fabric and wrapped it around the vinyl covered piping and using a zipper foot on the sewing machine (which will allow you to sew snugly right next to the tube of piping) sewed it up

Step 6.) Then I sewed one side of the seam allowance hanging off the piping onto the rectangle of fabric.

So now the sides are done, it basically becomes a tube of fabric with piping on the top. The tricky part is the circle...

Step 7.) Measure from the middle of the ottoman (there was a hole where the old button was) to the edge, then take that measurement and cut string to match. I pinned one end in the center of my square of foam ($7.50 with my jo-ann's coupon) tie the other end to my sharpie and drew a circle.

Step 8.) Cut out the foam into a circle, (make sure it fits the top of the ottoman nicely) and use that circle to trace another circle on the top fabric piece. Then cut out the circle out of the fabric with about .75" to 1" extra.

So this is the part that took me a few minutes to think though, I kept thinking I was over-simplifiing, I was so scared to sew a circle but all it ended up being was

Step 9.) I matched up the line that was drawn on the fabric with the seam line that was sewn when I stitched the fabric to the piping (the side that is showing the picture, farthest from the fabric is the side I sewed onto the circle of fabric). Making sure right (patterned) sides of the fabric are together. I sewed very slowly making sure the lines matched up and stitch by stitch we made it around the circle.

Step 10.) Once the base was sewn onto the top, the only thing left to sew was one side. I decided to do that one by hand in order to ensure a tight fit.

No my stitches aren't discreet, I used the thickest thread I had to protect my ottoman from numerous corgi leaps, plus you don't see half the ottoman when it is nestled in place.

Step 11.) we used the same thread to pull the same orange button through, using a hanger, it took a lot of nick's muscle but the straw gave way and it came through, tufting the top!

Step 12.) Last step was just to pull tight and staple the fabric to the bottom, (I misjudged how much added height I would need with the new foam so I ended up sewing extra fabric on bottom so that we would have plenty to staple.)

And it's done! I was glad to keep the pop of orange and the plaid adds another layer of texture to our space.

Lilu was happy to have it back, the 3 days it was out of commission she was a little diva about whining to get up on the bed.

That's it! I found the fabric at Tempe Sales, I think it was $1 a yard and I got 2 yards. the foam and batting were around $15, and it took about 6 hours, two 3 hour stints :) Nick was a happy camper.

Until Next time!

Cooler Catcher

An end to drink cooler puddles! I found this great idea on Pinterest. I had an old 2 Liter soda bottle and used an exacto knife to get the cutting started. Scissors have better precision after the initial cut. And viola! 

Monkey Knot

I have been in my house for over a year now and my living room walls are still bare. I want to decorate with a nautical theme. Grandpa Geraghty would be proud. I found a sailor's knot called the monkey knot on pinterest  http://www.designsponge.com/2012/03/diy-best-of-rope-projects.html . Below is how I made mine.

Start with 13 ft of 1/2 inch manila or unmanila rope.
Fill a ziploc bag up with stones or use an old tennis ball for the center weight.

Wrap the stone bag with tape to shape it into a ball.

Wrap the rope 4 times around your hand, about the size of your  stone bag.

Turn the coils to the side and wrap another 4 times in the opposite direction.

Finally, turn coils again and weaving under & over, make a final  side of 4 coils.

Tighten the knot starting at the beginning coils and working the rope around.
This step requires quite a bit of work. We had to do it several times over
before getting the knot snug. 

Finished monkey knot!

Paired with an antiqued lantern

My mantle- beginning stages...

Homemade Kindle Cover

I bought Eddie a Kindle Touch for Christmas last December. I wanted him to have a cover for it, but I didn't really have the extra $20 or $30 to spend on one nor did I think he would like one of the fancy covers. Plus I knew that one thing Eddie didn't like about Kindles is that you don't have the feel of holding a book. So I decided to make him a cover out of a book. Unfortunately I didn't take pictures from start to finish. But I have some of the finalized product. I think it turned out awesome!

 

I started with this little book that I got at a second hand store for about $1. I pre-measured it to make sure it would be the right size for his Kindle. Then I used a knife to take out the pages of the book leaving just the outer cover.

 I cut two slits in the back for an elastic strap, pulled the strap through the back cover and glued them to the inside.

I cut and sewed a piece of fabric to the size of the back and binding and then sewed elastic straps to the fabric. After the elastic straps were sewn on, I then glued the whole piece onto the inside of the back cover. For the inside of the front cover I glued a piece of felt to help keep the screen from getting scratched.

And there it is! Now Eddie can have the feel of holding a book and it offers plenty of protection for the Kindle.

Nalgene Cozy

For those that don't know, Phoenix gets really hot in the summer (never gets below 100 degrees, even at night). So, as I was thinking about ways to stay cool and hydrated, I wanted a way to keep the water in my Nalgene cold as long as possible. But I didn't want to buy a cozy for it, I wanted to make one. But most homemade cozies I found online were crocheted and I didn't want one like that because I knew it would just get soaked from the condensation on the bottle. So I came up with my own solution from a canvass lunch box! And it turned out perfect.

 Here is my canvass lunch box and my Nalgene.

The first step is to cut down both sides of the lunch box and across the bottom.

This is the remaining result.

Wrap it around the bottle to make sure it's the right size.

Then cut off the extra rounded end.

Turn inside out and pin together.

Do an extra check to make sure it fits snuggly, and then sew up the side.

And there it is! The finished product. And it even has a handle!