Use Watcha Got Challenge

Source: CR Artist http://www.flickr.com/photos/crartist/3784241787/

Let’s see: how can I start off a post with the most annoying and redundant phrase of our era?  Oh! I know!  With this phrase:

“IN THIS ECONOMY…”

Don’t you hear it everywhere?  In this economy, it really pays to shop (i.e., spend all your money at) Wal-Mart  In this economy, peanut butter has become a staple for frugal moms due to its surprisingly high protein content and ability to shut the kids’ whining up.  In this economy, pants are a luxury that some are dispensing with.  In this economy, _____.  C’mon, you try it.  It’s fun!  It’s almost like those Wacky Mad Libs we used to play when we were kids, only now we get to thumb our nose at the global financial crisis that threatens to destroy us all!  Yay!

Seriously, though, if I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard that exact phrase over the last three years, my personal economy would be making out quite handily.  And yet, as grating on the ears as the phrase might be, unfortunately there’s legitimate cause to use it a lot these days.  I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the proper use of money and resources.  For example, when I look back at the way I spent money in college, buying $200+ of clothes many months and yet many times not keeping up with my car insurance, I’m appalled at myself.  I’ve grown a lot more responsible since then, and yet somehow, I’m still, on a much lesser scale, guilty of mishandling funds from time to time.  It’s hard when there’s so much to want.

But this is exactly where my new idea comes in.  It’s my little way of motivating myself to live on a budget–and like it!  I’m calling it the “Use Watcha Got Challenge”.  It’s not really complicated.  You just use the things you already have in order to feed and dress your family, take care of your home, entertain yourself, and do all the things you’d ordinarily have to shell out to do.  I know, in short, it’s just being frugal, but the emphasis is on being frugal by not buying rather than frugal with what you do buy.  My hope is that this will be a way to re-acquaint myself with all the nice things I already have in my possession, things which frequently go ignored, some of which have never really even been used, as I run after the next shiny, new thing.  This is my way of, instead of feeling the pinch, feeling contentment and thankfulness for all the things that are right under my nose and which I so easily forget.

Do you have any ideas for how you can “Use Watcha Got” at your house?  Please do leave a comment.  I’d love to hear!  For my next post, I’ll talk about one of my ideas–and you may even get the see the dark underbelly of my closet or pantry!

School Room Revamp

I wasn’t sure whether to start the year before or after Mustard Seed’s birthday.  On one hand, I’d like to get through our first two units before Christmas, and that meant starting last week.  On the other hand, I knew that having birthday party would likely mean birthday-party-preparation-madness that would derail schooling anyway.  I opted to start last week and try to be disciplined about the birthday preparations, but it didn’t exactly work out.  The party (I think) turned out great, but school…well, hmmm.  Let’s just say we’re doing a do-over this week.

I promised you pictures of our school room once it was finished.  For now, “finished” will have to wait on account of financial considerations, but I’m pretty satisfied for the time being.  Step one was a nice coat of paint.  I’m so enamored of very striking color palettes, like arctic aquamarine with bright orange accents, or the one I went with, which was sky blue with rose red accents.  After painting, I had a small crisis.  If I had it to do over again, I would go way lighter on the blue, but all in all, I think it’s nice.  The other thing, as far as color, is that not all reds are equal.  We already had some red things, like these bins from Ikea…

…which I’m using to house our math supplies…

…and an angel my dad brought me from Guatemala when I was a little girl.  Now he hangs over the door of our classroom to bless and protect us.

The biggest thing was removing the mattress that my dad has so graciously lent us for house guests but which was taking up so much space and tempting us to nap during school time.  Now, we have a nice, open space.  I want to fill a little of that space up with this futon for having reading/snuggling time on.

I save up glass yogurt jars like a crazy woman.  Lately, they’ve been overflowing when the cabinet is opened.  At the same time, I was *so* frustrated with the jumble that was our little art supply caddy and wanting to buy some other organizers for its contents.  Well, voilá!  Two birds killed with one stone.  I used the jars to organize some of the supplies, and I plan to fancy them up sometime soon by heading over to Archiver’s to find some beautiful, color-coordinated paper to slip inside them.  For now, I’m just glad to have the colored pencils separate from the markers and to not have brads falling out every time I reach for the Elmer’s glue!

Also, while out shopping, I found several other little goodies.

These are the “People Colored Crayons” I got from Lakeshore Learning.  Mustard Seed was very excited about these, since, as a “multiracial” child,  she is now very curious about race and skin color.  Now she can color her people all the shades of the rainbow!

This is an Adding Machine, also from Lakeshore.  When your child presses the buttons, the answers to the addition facts can be seen on the side of the button.  We’re using Math U See, and I wasn’t sure how strong it is on math facts, so I thought this would be a fun way to beef up on them.

Now this, I know this doesn’t look like much, but this is my score from Ikea of a $1.99 curtain rod.  I plan to put a nice swag of super-cute fabric across the top of the window using it.

Other future plans include adding some big, cooshy pillows to throw on the futon out of more fun fabric,  and possibly creating two handmade wall hangings with a bird or owl theme and some Bible verses.

What do you think?  Any suggestions?