In the spirit of Dave Ramsey...

I find it amazing that even though we have a salary now, we still have no money. Weird. Anyway, in my effort to keep money in the bank, here are my latest money saving efforts, many thanks to Dave Ramsey for the inspiration.

So it turns out that 4 kids x 20 dollars per costume = a lot of money. So we got creative. This is Tamsyn's last years costume.

With a little seam ripping here and sewing back up here and there, we transformed last years ninja into this years Hermione. Tamsyn made the Hogwarts crest herself, and she insisted the robe needed the red strips down the front. I found a yellow cotton belt from a dress that I was planning on refashioning and with some red strips of fabric, I made her Griffindor tie. She is wearing Anders church shirt. Lohn made the wand, and Tamsyn recovered some books and titled them "Muggle Studies" and "Hogwarts, a history." Then we braided her hair, waited until they were dry and fluffed up her hair. A little work intensive, but it DIDN'T COST ME A CENT!!! Plus she looked awesome when it was done.

With the leftovers from Tamsyns last years ninja costume, we made Gunnar a ninja. Once again, it didn't cost me a cent. BOOYA!
And Sylas wore Gunnars costume from a few years ago, and Lohn ripped up all my white fabric and made Ander a mummy. My costume I dug out of the clothing exchange at the Village. Don't tell anyone, but I think it was a negligee (shhhh!) I grabbed it for the purpose of refashioning the skirt for Tamsyn.
Today I made homemade laundry detergent. I paid 1 dollar for the bar of soap, I already had the oxyclean, and I paid 2 dollars for the Washing Soda, and 2 dollars for the bucket. This website says that its about 1 cent per load of laundry. I will let you know how I like it (FYI, I substituted the Borax with Oxyclean, because a different website said it works better) I bought these for baby gifts at Kmart for 2 bucks each. For little girls, I make girly hats and booties, but baby boy gifts are harder for me. I like to look for deals and stock up. Lohn disagrees that this is in the spirit of Dave Ramsey and thinks I wasted money. I told him, "But it's for when my friends have babies!" and as Lohn so eloquently put it, "But Sharon, you don't have any friends." Humph. Maybe I don't yet, but I will. :D
I am suffering with a bit of homesickness for ANYTHING familiar. But I keep telling myself, that I am going to LOVE it here. I'll give it some time. But please know, all my dearest peeps, I miss you!