On the Cheap

The ceiling in Puerto Rico's Capitol.
 I want to design a quilt inspired by this.

Due to a change in circumstances...I am changing the focus of this blog a little bit.  It will still be all about crafting and day to day life and my kidlettes, but it will also focus on practising a hobby, quilting, that is traditionally quite expensive and figuring out how to do it on the cheap. 

It will also focus on my attempt to be a more frugal person and my challenges to do that...coupons?  I might actually be considering couponing.  Oh, whoa is me.  This is not my favorite thing to contemplate.  First of all, I usually feel that the coupons are for junk.   And as I try to feed my family a fairly healthy diet, this is going to be interesting.  I need to cut my food budget down to $500 per month.  I don't know if I can do it.  We will see.   I will let you in on my plan once I have one figured out...it will involve dried beans, lentils and tuna fish on a regular basis.  Yikes.

Luckily for me I already know how to make bread from scratch. 
I think I make 100% whole wheat bread for around $1 per loaf.

As of today, I scoured the coupons and ads in the Sunday paper and decided that the only way I can handle couponing, is if I have a database showing every coupon that I have and which ones are closest to expiring.  This way I can compare the weekly ads to my coupon database and figure out what I need to buy ASAP to avoid having something expire that I really need.  Luckily Mr. Because I Can is a computer whiz and he got my Excel spreadsheet to do exactly what I wanted plus threw in some fancy features.  If a coupon has expired, it will show up in Red  This way I can easily delete it and throw away the coupon, as I am going to file them in expiration date order.  If it is going to expire within 7 days, it will show up in Green  Otherwise it will be Black.  This will bring some order to what I feel is a huge hassle.  AKA storing a bunch of unruly coupons.  Oh BLAH!

 I am not known for being frugal.  So, this is going to be quite the challenge.  I am facing a couple years of budget crunch and I might have to cry on a semi-regular basis.  But I've got a couple of months to prepare.  So, we're going to be fine...just cross your fingers for me that I can figure things out without torturing my kids too much.  Bean soup again?!?!

Here's the back of My Oldest's Wizard of Oz quilt.  I wanted to make it Over the Rainbow themed, so I used solids in all the shades of the rainbow for my panels between the printed panels and along the sides.  I am going to quilt it probably using straight lines that way as the front and back panels are different dimensions, it won't take away from either side.  The wind was blowing extra fierce this morning and so that's why I couldn't get a shot of my fabric that wasn't being partially blown away.  And yes that is a sunscreen bottle holding down the top corner.  I had a coffee cup on one, my cell phone on one and my foot holding down the bottom.

If you insist on piling my cushioning up like this on your cutting mat, then I will just have to lay on them as best I can.  In the future, can you please put them in a more convenient spot?  A little larger would be nice too! 
Sincerely,  Puss

I guess one thing I have going in my favor is that I am headed into a solid phase of my quilting career.  And traditionally solids are less expensive than the designer prints as they are sold at JoAnn's-type stores.  Thanks JoAnn's and Fabric.com for your lovely selection of Kona solids.  So even though I will still look at all the beautiful prints that are being made and sold, I will restrain myself and only buy fabric and supplies as needed, vs. whatever strikes my fancy.  I've got my stash to keep me going in the meantime.  So don't feel too bad for me.  I am not in any kind of quilting crisis.  I will just use what I've got.