Ways I Saved

I learned that the Rocket costume makes for an awesome hat  ;)

Last week was a difficult one for us. We had many obligations and invitations with Halloween, plus the costume-making and the regular, everyday things that needed to be done. Oh my, I was not very successful with the regular, everyday things last week. SOMETHING had to be put on the back burner!

Even though the result of our crazy past week was that the party is over, I'm left with lots of candy to monitor and a very unorganized house, I'm grateful. We had a very sweet Halloween with lots of nice moments with friends and in our community.

I finished up my son's Halloween costume.  He was the Pat Pat Rocket from Little Einsteins.  He LOVES Little Einsteins, and I wanted to try to comply with his desire to be Rocket for Halloween.  It worked out great!  He is so happy with his Rocket, dragging it everywhere, laying on it, and sitting on it.  I used as much fabric and stuffing as possible from my stash.  I had to purchase a bag of stuffing ($6), a yard of red knit ($4.50), and a yard of red fleece ($4.50).  The knit and fleece fabrics were used to make a red shirt and pants to go under the costume.  I will be stenciling or using an aplique on the shirt, which he can continue to use, and he will use the pants as pajama bottoms/lounge pants.  $15 for an elaborate costume, a shirt, and a pair of pajama bottoms is a good deal to me!

I fixed my crockpot lid!  The plastic handle was being held on by glue to a screw that was drilled through the glass lid.  The handle came off and after several burns while using the crockpot with the lid in this condition, I grabbed a few bits of hardware to try to fix it.  I drilled a hole through the plastic lid, put a new screw through the handle and lid, and it was fixed.  No more burns, and the lid has an awesome Frankenstein screw going through it.

We updated the kid's bedroom and I cleaned the garage up.  I am very pleased with our work.  On Saturday, I spent 9 hours in the bedroom and garage.  My husband bought a few pieces of furniture for me, helped me move things, helped me with the children, repaired a picture frame, and pretty much was my knight in shining armor and did whatever I asked him to do all day long.  The bedroom has been getting worse and worse.  Even when things were put away, it looked awful.  I should have taken a before and after picture, but I'll have to post their new space soon so at least you can see the after.  They needed storage bins, shelving, a dresser, a step-ladder, and a bookshelf.  I moved and organized all of their toys into some inexpensive plastic bins and put them into their closet where their clothes had been.  Their clothes went into the new dresser, and their puzzles and books went onto the new bookshelf.  The shelf, toys, and dresser are all at their level, and I organized EVERYTHING so that they can access it all and put it all away on their own.  The step-ladder will assist if they need it.  We purchased all of the pieces used so that we could get better deals and have nice, solid construction.  We're really happy with the way the room turned out!  The garage is awesome too.  Very clean.

When I was cleaning and organizing the kid's room, I found a pair of footy pajamas that were in perfectly good condition with the exception of the feet.  My son had worn holes in the toes.  I've tried repairing footy pjs before without much success.  I thought of a new way to fix them, so I did.  He's very happy to have them fixed.  They are some of his favorites.

We went to home school group, to which I brought homemade sugar cookies, food coloring, and sprinkles which we already had.  The kids had a great time playing and decorating together.

How did you save this week?  Any great finds or spending discipline moments?