Well, heck, I just had to ponder that at some point! I just got home from the movies, where my mom and I howled through Julie & Julia. Delightful chick flick, I must say! Maybe it's because I'm still on an estrogen high, but I thought that movie was absolutely terrific. I was especially inspired by the "Julie" part of the story - the one who cooks and blogs about it. Her blog was translated into a book, which became a movie! If you look, there are several books on the market that chronicle the experiments in living (Not Buying It) and they started out as blogs. Will this blog lead to something? Nope. But it is a chronicle of my cheapskatery, and therefore useful to myself, if no one else.
Today Catie's school had their annual uniform exchange - you bring in their outgrown uniforms and get credit toward larger outgrown uniforms. It's the circle of poly-cotton blend life. I had to upgrade most of Catie's things - she's been growing again - but all of her long sleeve Peter Pan collar shirts were disgusting at the cuffs. I don't know how they get so much gray pencil junk on them - she has a gift. So I looked at these blouses, at my meager bank account, and decided that I needed to get as much trade credit as I possibly could. I sat down, cut off all the long sleeves, rehemmed them into short sleeve shirts, and then they were acceptable trade items! I got her two jumpers, 4 blouses and a sweater only spending $7 out of pocket. Then we went to Payless. Her school has everyone, boy and girl, in the same style high top black leather sneaker, which was marked down to $16.99. But wait! They also had their BOGO running - I got her her current size AND the next size up! Now she's set for most of the school year.
Why didn't I get shoes for Daniel with my BOGO? He has shoes! I don't have to buy that kid shoes until he needs his uniform - I'm stocked with yard sale finds. I should get him something, I suppose, so he doesn't feel left out, but he did get a bag of Ring Pops at Dollar Tree for suffering through the shopping expedition.
Why didn't I get shoes? I bought myself a pair of never-worn Candie's pink sequined wedge flip-flops at Salvation Army for $1.99 - my feet are feeling pretty pleased with themselves. I don't want them to feel too important - they might swell, and at size 10 I can barely manage them!
Frugal experiment alert - I've been fusing plastic bags. It's a pretty cool process where you iron the bags until it becomes one thick piece of plastic. Where does my mind go with this? Impermeable, waterproof material = shelter. I am looking at making Geodesic domes from PVC pipe and covering them with fused plastic bags. With a crocheted plastic bag rug on the floor. Jake has been calling me the bag lady (with love, I hope!), and enabling my habit by finding new bag colors for me. Most of them are white around here, but if you know where to go you can find tan, blue, green, and yellow. Why do it? For the po', naturally. Make a house from trash, heat and cook with trash, and you have the freedom of Walden Pond without the extreme borrowing. I may see about making the dome kits to sell - there are plenty of eco-friendly people that might enjoy living or camping in something like that. :Note to self - see if Tiny Free House blogger would like to use fused plastic bags on his pallet construction house instead of Tyvek or tar paper.:
Whoa. One AM. Time for bed. If anyone knows how to shut a brain up for the night, I'd love to hear the tips! I'm going to have a hard time settling down tonight.
If you fuse plastic bags, two tips.
1 - always iron them inbetween sheets of paper
2 - don't breathe the fumes
and
2- don't breathe the fumes
;)
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