It pays to wait

My kids gave me a $100 gift card for my birthday, and I've probably stretched it at least 2x as far as the ordinary person. "Ordinary person" does not, of course, include my fellow frugal bloggers!

Okay, so I've had my eye on the Vidalia Chop Wizard for a while now, but even with the gift card I wasn't sure I wanted to pay $20. So I kept passing it by.
What do you know? Today I found it on the clearance rack at Walgreen's for only $12.99! Seven dollars saved just by putting it off.

Think about it. How often do you just 'need' something, but it's really a 'want'? If you are willing to wait a bit, most of the time those 'wants' go on sale for a much better price. At the very least, if you wait until they show up on an "As Seen on TV" shelf, you won't have to pay for shipping.

I've heard a vast range of reviews for this puppy, mostly very good, so I'll have to let you know how I like it.

Frugal Friday Tip: Butter

It's time for Frugal Friday over at Biblical Womanhood. Wow, there are some great tips this week! Here is mine:

With the holidays approaching, many 'special dinner' foods are on sale. Butter is one of them. We eat butter a lot in this house (btw, my cholesterol is almost optimal--I had it checked), but I sure don't want to pay $5 a pound for it! So when it is on sale, as it is this week, I stock up. You can freeze it just fine. I always have several pounds in the freezer and one pound in the fridge. All the stores in my area are selling it for half price or less. Check your own local circulars, if you happen to like butter. I buy a mix of the salted kind, plus some sweet butter for baking.
Don't forget to see what other things are on sale that you can put in the freezer--like ham and turkey!

A visit http://www.biblicalwomanhoodonline.com/blog.htm for more great, frugal ideas!
(BTW, I'll be back later with my "Sew Crafty Friday" post!)

Sew Crafty Friday: What to do with a 25 cent T-shirt

No kidding...a quarter. CVS had their summer things on clearance at 90% off and it was only 2.50 to begin with. Granted, it isn't a heavy t-shirt (although it is Hanes), but for that price, who cares? Well, it's also cheap enough to play with. In the first picture, I layered a sleeveless top over it that has shrunk too much, and has some bleach stains. I'm using a cutting board as a dress form--how pathetic. (But, I have a real one on order!) Okay...so I pinned it around the lace collar with a LOT of pins. You don't want this going anywhere. Off to the sewing machine, where I stitched around the lace, through both shirts, leaving about a half inch border. I carefully cut away the bottom part of the old shirt, right near the stitches (picture 2). In the 3rd picture, you can see that I have now cut away the neck part of the new shirt.

I don't have a picture of the finished shirt, but I covered up the raw edge of the old t-shirt with some bias tape I'd made from fabric I had. You could use flat lace or purchased bias tape, too. The fabric I used is the same I used for the skirt, purse and headband I made a while back. I haven't worn the t-shirt with that skirt, but it would match.

One thing I didn't do, and would the next time, is to remove the label from the old shirt. It kind of shows after you trim everything away.

Please visit "Waiting for Him" (see my blog list) for more great ideas from "Sew Crafty Friday!"

Sale, or not?

This morning I got an e-mail from a sewing pattern company. It is a reliable one from which I've bought patterns before. So I was excited when I saw "All Butterick Patterns 5.99." I went to the site and chose 3 cute patterns for children's outfits.
And then I got to thinking...what about shipping charges? The regular Butterick site doesn't charge shipping in the USA (and Canada, I think). Would the sale price make up for the shipping charges?
So I opened up my calculator and did some math. My three patterns, including shipping would be $24. 32 from the first site. Same three patterns from the mfr's site...$20.13. This does not include sales tax, of course, but I assume it would be the same for either site--or at least close. Well, there's a savings of a little over $4, at least.
And speaking of shipping deals. Sometimes, a site wants you to spend X dollars to get free shipping. This is great if you're really in the market for X dollars worth of stuff. I needed some muslin and some white cardstock, which I bought from Joann's. In order to qualify for free shipping, I would have had to spend almost $20 more...to save about $7. So, needless to say, I paid the shipping.
It's all a math game, but in the end, the idea is to keep as much in your pocket as possible.