You're So Cheap

Yes, it's true...I'm a pretty cheap person. But not when it comes to family or friends....nope...I only buy my relatives and friends at name brand stores. I am cheap when it comes to the rest of life. We eat out maybe once a month. MAYBE. Hugs is an amazing cook and he can make the most incredible dishes for two for less than $6. When I was working in an office, I took my lunch to work every day. Hugsy does the same thing. If there's a movie we kinda want to see, but aren't like, "we HAVE to see this toDAY!!"...then we'll wait until it comes to the $1 theater or we'll wait and Netflix it. I rarely, if ever, buy clothes or shoes at full price. Yes, Mother, I know if I buy a lot of clothes on sale it eventually adds up to the full price, but still..and, can you really talk? That's what I thought...Great Wall of China Shoeboxes in your closet...uh huh. Anyways. I cut mine and David's hair because I can't fathom spending $40 on a haircut. Gracious alive. I buy my make-up from eyeslipsface.com (girls, check them out, you'll love them!). I get the majority of our hygienic, kitchen and laundry products from the Dollar General.

Why am I so cheap, you ask? Well, fancy clothes don't matter to us...eating out doesn't matter to us...what matters to us is vacation. Yes...we save here and there all the time mainly for vacation. (And retirement, but we won't see that for awhile.) We loooooooooooove to travel. It's when we travel that we really eat out, so it's worth it to me to skip the $15/person dinner here in town and put that money towards eating at The Tower Restaurant in Edinburgh, Scotland. We'll also save up to get something nice for the house, like something grilling-related for David or something Apple/designer-y for me...but mainly it's for travel.

My Mom has been a big influence on me when it comes to saving and recycling old things to use somewhere else in the house, etc. She's taught me a lot. Thanks, Mom! She's a great bargain shopper. 

  

Here are a few ways we've saved around the house...

This is an old door I found at an antique store for $40. It used to be our headboard until we got our bedroom suite. I thought it was cute and hung it on the wall in the bedroom. My plan is to fill in the rectangular spaces with tiles I found at Lowe's for 10¢ apiece and paint them different colors. 

I did the painting above the bed on a canvas I got at Michael's for $15. I found a 50% off printable coupon online. The little calla lilies were from a wholesale store in my hometown for about 50¢ apiece and the vases were from the Dollar Store. We used calla lilies for our wedding and all of our flowers were fake...they look real because they're floppy...and they now decorate my house. Matching bedding is so pretty to me, but it's so expensive, so I buy mismatched stuff. The white comforter and blue spread are from Wal-Mart, the shams were $5 apiece from World Market and the pillows were $7 and $3 at World Market. The "plants" in front of the windows and vases were from Wal-Mart. 

My Mom's best friend gave me this ladder for my wedding. She'd had it for a long time and was cleaning out her garage. I painted it with crackle glue and then the white and used it for decoration at the wedding and now in my house. The mirror was from an antique store I found for $15. 

Here are some of the calla lilies we used at the wedding that are now spread out in the house. My mom found the buckets at TJ Maxx/Homegoods, I think.  

I found these towel/robe hangers at World Market for $1.50 apiece. 

This was an arrangement my grandmother helped me make for the wedding. She is an incredible artist and can pretty much do anything art-related. We got the flowers and vase from Pier 1. The old window was found by my sister at an antique store. The sconces were from Kirkland's for $12.50 for both. The paper lanterns were $10 from Kirkland's. 

This was my bouquet for the wedding. Not the greenery, just the lilies. I found the vase at Rooms To Go for $8. 

We have a small breakfast nook and I found this cutie patootie table at an antique mall for $150 for the table and chairs. The arrangement in the middle is a one of the decorations from the wedding. My grandmother and I made all of the arrangements with the fake lilies, river rocks and acrylic for the "water" and gave away these arrangements for the bridesmaids' gifts. 

My grandmother gave me this old ironing board. She worked an entire summer picking cotton to pay for it when she was a teenager. I've got my summer dishes on it. The majesty palm in the background is named Ann Claire. 

My Mom bought my sister and I old chicken coops she got at an antique store when we graduated from college. I was like...what to do with this...what to do...other than keep kids in it, I couldn't think of anything, but I loved it so much. So, I ended up staining it, putting river rocks in the bottom, having glass cut for the top and turned it into a coffee table. Saved me about $300. I saw this table runner at a Christmas show one time made of these beautiful leaves. It was $150. I was like, whatever. So, I decided to make my own. Got some cheap felt material from Wal-Mart and got some leaves from Hobby Lobby for like $3o and hot glued that sucker to death. I eventually understood why they were charging $150 for it. It took awhile. The green and white rug is from World Market...originally $100, marked down to $25. 

I wanted a wreath for the front door, but couldn't find any I liked, so I made this one out of supplies from Wal-Mart. Yes, the orchids should be white. That thing's been out there for almost 4 years. 

We really needed a computer desk for the both of us but #1. didn't want to spend the money on two desks and #2. didn't have the room. So, we came up with the idea of getting two boards and hinging them together and placing them on top of wire shelving. Chairs from Wal-Mart, painted green, of course. Voila! Desk for two...for under $70. 

When I married David, I didn't realize he came with so many books...so he needed some shelving. But once again, no room and once again, I'm cheap. So, we got some more wood from Lowe's, painted it, and built him some shelves. This is probably only about 6% of the books he has...it's insane. But, he's a smart one, so I attribute that to his reading. 

We're in the process of screening in our back patio...I wanted tile, but it was unfortunately dumb ole concrete, so we just painted it like tile. I'm adding some more palms and ferns to make it less barren, but I thought it turned out okay.