Colored Sprinkles for a lot LESS....

One of our special birthday “traditions”.....  I make each member of our family a unique themed cake for their day.  This has been a fun, yet challenging.  Each cake is a SURPRISE which does not allow for me to practice the design before their birthday.  There have been many birthday-eve nights that I wonder WHY I dreamed up this tradition….HOWEVER…it has also been a wonderful opportunity for creativity—not just the design of the cake, but coming up with ways to re-do the design elements in a frugal way instead of expensively.

This year’s themed cake for my daughter came from a book called, “What’s New, Cupcake?”.  

Yes...these are the actual ones I made...it is NOT a picture from the book! 

They were remarkably simple to make--just time consuming!

  I termed my daughter’s cake as a “bouquet of flowers”. 

In this design, it required using many colored sugars to coat the “petals” (made of sliced marshmallows).  Those Cake-Mate colored sugar sprinkles are expensive!!  (But they are even more expensive when considering a project like this!!)  Soooo….for this cake I learned HOW to color my own sugar!  (Holy Cow!!  The Cake Mate company is making a fortune on  those little bottles of colored sugar!!)

HOW to make your own colored sprinkles:
1) Put some white sugar in a plastic baggie.

2) Add a couple drops of food coloring

3) Mix it up.  You will need to knead it a little with your finger tips.  Initially, the drop of food coloring dissolves the sugar it lands in making a wet, grainy clump of sugar.  BUT as you knead it, the color spreads out and the sugar returns to its “dry” state.

Make as many colors as you like....I used yellow, pink, purple, blue and white to color the "petals" of my daughter's bouquet!

Happy Stretching Pennies...

Birthday Candles Can Be Reused...without anyone noticing!!

While I’ve been dealing with what life throws at me this summer and into the new school year, I have fallen farther and farther behind.  Sometimes, it is just hard to keep up with the punches!!  Soooo….Here’s to being more caught up…and catching up on a few blog entries I’ve taken pictures of but never written!!

My daughter’s birthday was this weekend.   I learned a new money saving trick and took pictures for a new blog entry.  However, as I review the pictures I have stored on my computer,  I see that I still have pictures from her LAST birthday to write about.  I can’t believe it has taken me over a full year to get around to it.

Did you know that those candles you put on birthday cakes do NOT have to be thrown out after ONE use?? 

How much of the candle do you use after one use? 
Each candle COULD be used 2-3 times, depending on how much wax you burn through!!

Once you pull them out of the cake.... just rinse them off, dry them and put them back in the box and use them for another birthday moment!! 

In case you were worried about looking "cheap"...this is what they look like BEFORE they were lit!

Once the candles are lit, NO ONE can tell that they were reused!!
These are the REUSED candles on my daughter's "PURSE" themed birthday cake.

I know that is just saving a few “pennies”…but my favorite quote by Benjamin Franklin is “a little leak can sink a great ship”.  For me, this is an epitome of the application of this philosophy!!

 Happy Stretching Pennies...

P.S.  In the 14 years we have been married, we have only purchased 2 boxes of birthday candles...so I guess this "saving candles" has more than paid off over the years to be more than  a few "pennies", huh?

GIFT GIVING without the stress of high prices!

There’s always a reason to celebrate or give someone a gift.   It goes hand-in-hand in associating with people.  There are plenty of occasions that “pop” up!!  (Birthdays, weddings, births, Christmas, funerals, baptisms, other holidays, etc.)

An invitation to a party does NOT have to be a reason to go shopping!  I have applied the Boy Scout motto of “BE PREPARED” to gift giving.  I keep a plastic tote, in my garage, for potential gifts. 

My "GIFT bin"...
Notice it is NOT labeled, because I don't want my kids snooping through it!!

When I am out doing my normal shopping, I am always on the lookout for good prices on ANYTHING.  When I find a cute item at a smashing price- that could be used as a potential gift- I buy it and put it in my “gift bin”.  This means when my children come home with another birthday party invitation, I don’t instantly freak out about where the money will come from to purchase their friend a gift!  I pull out the appropriate possibilities and let my child “shop” through my “smashing deals” and pick out a present to give their friend.

Birthdays and Christmas for my family is rather simple and stress free as well.  I actually have 2 “gift bins”.  One bin is for giving gifts to others…the second bin is for gifts for my family.  I shop year round for my children’s birthday and Christmas presents.  I’m always on the lookout for sale or clearance items that could be used for my children.  After a holiday is over is a great time to pick up the next year’s item.  I’ve learned that certain holidays provide certain types of potential presents. 

·         Valentine’s Clearance: girl’s trinkets, girl’s clothes, next year’s class Valentine’s, movie candy, baby clothes, and wedding items (as everything is LOVE themed).

·         Easter Clearance: Girl’s trinkets and clothes

·         Halloween Clearance: Boy’s trinkets and clothes, boy’s baby clothes, and dress ups.

·         Christmas Clearance:  NEXT year’s presents (mainly for the grown-ups), decorations, household type wedding presents (ie. Extension cords), Christmas crafts for the kids to make for grandparents, and wrapping supplies for the entire year.

The month before the family “event”, I open up my “family gift bin” and select what I’d like to give that person.  Usually, I already have purchased what I need at a great price….BUT if I am short what I need to give them; I have a month to find the needed item at a good price.

IF you shop A LOT, you have the potential to find a lot of great deals….BUT that means you have the potential to spend a lot more than you need to!!  My rule of thumb is to ONLY have one bin of each: OTHERS & FAMILY!  When that bin is full, it is time to WAIT to buy more “gifts” until you have given enough away to provide the room to store them.  This way you never have one gift sitting on the bottom of your bin for years without ever finding a recipient for it!!

On a side note: if you are attempting to scale back your gift giving expenses even more.... a thoughtful, well made, handmade item can be much less expensive AND more meaningful to the recipient.  Don’t rule them out!

Happy Stretching Pennies…