A Royal Wedding: Saving on Your Dress

(continued from the previous post)


Your Dress:

First, have a game plan. Finding and buying your dress is an emotional and exciting event. Decide before you go if you need a blusher, a tiara, and other stuff that a sales person working on commission will surely try to sell you. Do you need the earrings at some specialty store or can you get them somewhere else with a coupon? Having a plan will help you stay on budget and not get carried away with the magic of the moment.


Find sales! I bought mine from David's Bridal. I did not pay full price. My goal was to spend less than $500. I walked into specialty shops, shared my goal with the sales ladies, and I got shocked reactions in return. Do listen to them. You can do it.


I tried on several dresses just to fine tune what style I wanted. The first dress I tried on was not ivory like I wanted, and it was a size too big, but it was PERFECT. I look at the price tag: $700. ::pouts:: I tried on a few other dresses, but kept thinking about that first dress. A few minutes later, the lady helping screams from across the store, "I FOUND IT!" She ran up with that perfect dress, in my size, AND ivory. Okay, I have to at least try it on. It was perfect. The women told me that DB was having a sale. All dresses were 25% off. Okay, I can try that. I double-check the tag; it reads $199. What?! With 25% off, my dress was $150. Yes.

Don't settle, trust your gut, but stay within budget. I would also encourage you to check out department stores for white dresses. Weddings today allow the bride to do whatever she wants. There are so many great dresses out there that can pass as a really elegant wedding dress. You can often find dresses in your color scheme if you want to save your bridesmaids money.

Also, don't buy new shoes for the occasion if you have an existing pair that could work. They are unnecessary. I wore a cute pair of flats that I already had. They weren't even ivory. They were silver with black lace. People thought they were a great unique touch. Little did they know that I was just trying to save a buck. Ha. Basically, don't believe the lie that tells you that you need something new for your big day. No, you don't.

A Royal Wedding: Saving on Your Reception

In honor of today's Royal Wedding, I figured I would post some tips for the thrifty brides that might read this.

Every bride wants a fabulous wedding. After all, this will be the biggest event you likely ever host. So how can you do it without fitting a bill of $55 million? You become resourceful.

I'm going to divide my wedding tips up because or else you'll get bored sitting here reading. Today's topic?

The Reception:

Some tips I can share are that weddings in the off season (November-March) are cheaper generally speaking. Many reception halls, for example, have off season pricing. Another way to shave off a few dollars is to have your big day any time other than Saturday night. Fridays, Saturday afternoons, and Sundays will save you money. When I got married, we had our reception on a Saturday afternoon in November. We were out by 4 and managed to save about $5 a plate. This is a great way to have a meal, without breaking the bank.

Us signing the Marriage License!

I'd also suggest staying away from reception halls, and instead using restaurants or country clubs. Picking an atypical location will not only save you money, it will also help your shindig stand out as unique. Our reception was at a country club on a golf course. We had a fire in the fireplace. This country club also had windows allllll around, so it made it that much more special. (Side note, the manager of the club let us use a few golf carts to go take pictures in the golf course. SO MUCH FUN!)

For your centerpieces, get creative. Also understand the timing of your wedding. We got married a week and a half after Halloween. You know what we were doing after Halloween? We went out and bought as many bags of bite size candy we could... and it was all 75% off! We bought $5 vases from Hobby Lobby, filled them with bite size candy, and they were far better than anything else we came across. Picture people pouring these vases into their purses. It was priceless.

I also made everything I could think of. Maybe you're not equipped with a graphic design degree like I am, but I'm willing to bet that you can easily make stuff or find a friend that can offer their services.

Additional advice: This place was going to charge $300 for the dance floor. Do you need a dance floor? Not really. It's not like your guests will be worrying about the floor cracking apart Indiana Jones style. If you want dancing, the floor is just fine.

We also didn't have a DJ. That saved us about $1000 or more. We enlisted my brother to man the iPod. I had previously asked the manager if we could use the speaker system and he was more than willing to show us how to use it. We saved money AND I got to use our personal favorites.

Stay tuned tomorrow for saving on your dress.

Freezer Recipe: Making Beef and Bean Burritos in Bulk

I got this recipe from an AMAZING book called Fix, Freeze, Feast. A friend had told me about the book a few months ago, we did this recipe for her family, and now I just did it again for my own family. It takes a bit of work, but it is sooooo worth it.

The idea behind freezer meal in bulk is to save you money, time, and sanity. Many of the recipes that I will post are from this book. The authors gear the recipes to buy from warehouse stores like Costco or Sam's where you can often buy things cheaper by the pound when you buy it in bulk. The great thing here is that you are using all of your fresh ingredients before they spoil. You get homecooked meals from scratch, and you have a large assortment on hand for dinner when you need it.

I am HORRIBLE at planning ahead. My husband comes home from work and asks me whats for dinner. My answer? "Ummmmmmmmmm......."

Recipes like this one allow me to have it already made and ready. All I have to do is throw it in the oven. Bam. Dinner is ready.

I'll talk more about freezer meals later with other recipes, but lets get started with these burritos.

As one of the authors of Fix, Freeze, Feast describes these burritos, "We keep these on hand for quick lunches - homemade 'fast food.'" 100% truth right there.

This recipe makes about 40 burritos, so make sure you have room in your freezer for about 6 gallon size bags.

Ingredients:

1 Tray (6 lbs) Lean Ground Beef (cooked)
1 Cup taco seasoning
3 Cups of water
8 15-ounce cans of Refried Beans - any flavor
40 10-inch Flour Tortillas (I happened to buy mine in packs of 6, so I bought 7 of them, making 42 shells)
Mix-ins (Salsa, cilantro, cheese, onion, etc.) optional
Aluminum Foil - Sams sells Aluminum foil sheets. I bought those to save my sanity. It cut down my time for sure.
Gallon size Freezer Bags

Directions:

Brown your ground beef. Doing this much ground beef will take about 20 minutes.
Drain.
Add in taco seasoning and water. Bring to simmer. Let cook until most of the water has evaporated.
Let beef cool.

The next step I suggest is lay out your aluminum foil and your tortillas. I found that doing it this way allowed for my to do about 14 at a time, and I could be sure I added in everything I wanted to. My set up looked like this:

Notice my little helper.

This setup allowed for me to keep track of doing different fillings. I have a strange weakness for cilantro, so I made sure that some had that in there. My husband, however, does not share this love of cilantro with me, so I made sure that I had several groups without it. My kids like their burritos without onions. You see where I'm going with this. Just make sure you group them together and label your bags!

I strongly suggest you do not do this with a 1 year old running around. I turned around to grab something and I found her like this:

She stole a tortilla right off the table!

Once you have your set of burritos like you like them, wrap the burrito (Side note: Did you know that on the tortilla package, you can often find instructions on how to wrap it properly?) and then wrap it in tin foil. My tip for this step would be to lay out your foil and then lay your tortillas right on top. Before you wrap it, you should have something like this:

A burrito for my non-salsa/cilantro/onion-loving children of mine.

Once you have them wrapped, start putting them in freezer bags and put them in the freezer. I repeat, make sure you label your bags! My permanent marker *somehow* disappeared off of my desk. I chose to use some leftover Avery labels instead. Make sure you have the date on there as well.

Yummy goodness!

These burritos are good for about 3 months after you make them. If you're like me, I can eat Mexican food all day long. I know these won't go to waste around this house.

Now I bet you'd like to know how to cook them. Let me tell you. It's soooo easy!

To Cook:

You can thaw them out if you want or just bake straight from the freezer. If thawed, bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes. If they are frozen, bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

You can also cook them in the microwave if you're in a rush. Unwrap it (duh!), hit "Thaw" and then "Reheat."

Now, when my husband asks me what we're having for dinner, I can tell have an answer and food on the table quickly.

These are also fabulous for when you have guests come over. Ten people from church decide to come over? No problem! Just bust out your cookie sheet and a few bags of your burritos, and you are good to go.

My total burrito count: 41 (it would have been 42 if it hadn't been for some thievery)

Let me know if you try this recipe! I know I love it!

A Quick Tip - Unplug It!

A quick tip for you to start practicing at home is unplugging anything that isn't in use.

We do not keep the toaster or any other counter appliance plugged in unless it is currently in use. When we leave for a trip, we unplug nearly everything. It's amazing how much electricity "idle" electronics can use.

Things that need to charge can be left plugged in, but keep in mind that many batteries (like the battery for your fancy DSLR) can actually lose their lifespan if you leave them plugged in. So with this tip, you're not only saving a little bit on your electricity bill, you're conserving energy, AND saving the life of your stuff.

Homemade Laundry Soap (Liquid)

This is an easy way for you to start saving money. It is a great "experiment" to do with your kids, it saves money, and after you make it, your home smells unbelievably clean for days.

There are likely a hundred recipes on the internet for laundry soap. This is the one that we've found works the best, and we've been using it for almost three years.

All in all, you end up saving about 85% on laundry soap for however long you decide to do it. It takes about 15 minutes, will last about 64 loads (or 128 loads if you have a High Efficiency washer), and the ingredients will last for about a year or more. It does a great job for normal laundry. If you have a load of extra soiled laundry, you might want to add a scoop of OxyClean or use your leftover regular stuff.

All of the ingredients are found in the laundry aisle. Look high and low for them. They are there. If you happen to use a small store that might not have everything like Walmart, you can try asking a manager to order it for you. It's worth it. Trust me.


Ingredients/Supplies:

1 bar of Fels Naptha - a really strong bar soap for laundry (you will use one 3rd of this per batch) **You can buy a different type of soap, but you might need to use the whole bar in that case**

1 box of Washing Soda - We bought Arm & Hammer

1 box of Borax - We bought 20 Mule

A two gallon bucket (with or without a lid. We covered ours with a towel)

A whole bunch of tap water




Directions:

Use a cheese grater to shred 1/3 of the Bar of soap (you may need to use the whole bar if you bought something other than Fels Naptha)

Bring 6 cups of water to a high temp (doesn't matter if it's boiling or not) with the soap in it. (You can add the soap before or after it boils)

Keep stirring until all of the soap melts

Add 1/2 cup Borax and a 1/2 cup of Washing Soda and stir until it dissolves

Put 4 cups of warm-hot water into the bucket (we let the 4 cups boil in another pot while we were messing with the rest of the soap mixture)

Stir in soap mixture

Add 1 gallon and 6 cups of warm-hot water to the bucket and stir

Let it sit for 24 hours to gel

The end product will be a mixture of solid gel and water (similar to the texture of egg noodle soup)

This batch will last about 64 loads. If you want to add fragrance, you do that when you're boiling all of it.

Use a 1/2 cup of laundry soap per load. If you have an HE washer, use 1/4 cup per load.

We bought/found a pot, spoon, cup, and cheese grater that we will only use for this. I think that as long as you wash it with dish soap it will be fine, but we did that just in case. We also poured half our mixture into an old All container for easier use. Since it didn't all fit, we just left the rest in the bucket and covered it with a towel.

I'd say try it. Even if you decide that you don't like using the laundry soap or whatever, the ingredients individually are great for cleaning laundry, the kitchen, and the bathroom. They are also all natural, so you can feel like your being green at the same time!

I also know of a dry homemade laundry soap recipe, but you're just going to have to wait for that one!

Getting Started

You should ask yourself why you want to save money. Keeping this motivation in mind will help you with your goals of saving pennies. When you want to give up or take a break, figure out if your goal should be a higher priority over convenience. Because let me tell you friends, the tips I'm going to be sharing are not what you do out of convenience. Many are hard work, some are just practical habit changes, regardless, if you find yourself spending too much now, you're going to need an adjustment.

My husband and I survived for 2.5 years off of unemployment and jobs that barely paid minimum wage. We were able to keep a roof over our heads, stay up to date with all of our bills, and still managed to live a life of great quality.

I will tell you now that I am no expert. Some of my tips are practical tips that we've just adjusted how we live. Others are ways that I'm still experimenting with. Over the next few months, I'm going to share ways to save and tutorials for money by making your own stuff (of the crafty and non-crafty variety), pinching pennies in the kitchen, ways to save energy (and go green!), and ways to keep focus. I'll also be inviting you, my readers, to email me questions you'd like to see, or if you have tips you'd like to share. I'll also be scouring the internet for additional ways to help you out.

Stayed tuned for I will be sharing my first tutorial soon!