How to Save Money Shopping

I love a good bargain, who doesn't?!  I wanted to share some of the ways that I am able to get good deals and never pay full price for items.

- Rewards programs- sign up for your favorite store's Apps or rewards cards.  Most of the time, the Apps have coupons you can use.  I also check for promo codes online while waiting in any checkout.

- Sign up for a credit card (only if you shop there frequently and don't have too many cards already).  I have two to my most frequented stores because of the amazing coupons they send.

- Head straight to the clearance section.  I always find good deals in the Target and Old Navy clearance sections.  Sometimes I don't even let myself look anywhere else but clearance!  Once you get used to paying 50-70% off it is really hard to ever pay full price again!

- Shop for the opposite season.  Because I am a clearance shopper, when all of the winter clothes become discounted in the spring, I buy for next winter.  Again in the fall when all of the summer clothes are marked down, I buy for next summer.  You do have to have patience, but it pays off in the end!

How do you save money shopping?

Our Wedding!

 Today is our first anniversary!  I cannot believe it has been a year already... it still feels like yesterday!  The entire day was perfect and I would not have changed a thing!  Enjoy checking out our decor for any brides looking for inspiration!

I found something similar to this on Etsy and decided to make it myself to save some money.  I used Word and was able to recreate almost the exact thing.  I bought the frame from the dollar store and it added a nice personal touch to the front table.

You can never go wrong with painted wine bottles!  I did three coats and they turned out great!

I got wooden letters from Michael's and painted them.

This was the sign for our guest book.  I found this image on Google and reused the frame from my shower.

The front entrance table turned out great!

Our beautiful cake!  Each layer was a different flavor... I cannot wait to eat our anniversary layer!

Home Tour!

We were very exited to begin building our house last year and now that we are all settled in I wanted to share it with all of you!

Entry

Downstairs Bathroom

Office

Downstairs living room

Roxy was too tired to leave the couch, hehe!

Upstairs loft

Master

Upstairs Bathroom

Wedding Bells

I wanted something for our exit out of the reception hall at the conclusion of the wedding so we decided to make wedding bells!  

Materials:

Wooden sticks

Ribbon- I used two colors and it looked great together.

Bells

I attached all of the bells to one color of ribbon.

Then I tied on both colors to the top of the stick.

I twisted the ribbon down to the bottom and used hot glue to attach the ribbon at the very bottom.  I also added some ribbon to the top to hang as additional decoration.

We put them in glass jars for the guests to grab on their way out!  They held up great!

Wedding Shower

My sister did an AMAZING job with my wedding shower.  She made all of the cookies herself and decorated beautifully!  I cannot wait to return the favor for her one day!  

How cute are the favors?!  They are soap inside of a cupcake liner with a loofah on top!  They are adorable!  We played two games at the shower that made everyone laugh.  The first game was a Scattergories game where we had to list things using the letters MRS.  The second game was how well we know the bride.  There were quite a few funny responses.

All of the guests signed the "G" and wrote a date night idea on a Popsicle stick.  I now have a jar filled with fun date night ideas!

Each balloon had a picture of us on it.  This was one of my favorite things at the shower!

Roxy

Meet our newest little edition- Roxy!  She is a Chiweenie (Chihuahua and Dachshund mix) and literally the cutest dog to ever exist!  I can honestly say that I am obsessed with her and cannot imagine what I will be like when we have human babies!  Ha!

Table Monitors

One classroom management strategy that I found to work great is having a table monitor to distribute and clean up table materials and text books.  It makes transitions much smoother and the kids love the responsibility.  Each Monday they rotate so each child gets to be table monitor several times throughout the year.  I have used SO many different signs including magnets, frames, and stickers but nothing lasted.  I finally found these cheap and durable frames from Ikea and made little signs to slip into the frames.  They are double sided and did I say durable??  They do not break no matter how much the kids mess with them and they wipe clean!  Win- win!

Valentine's Box

We exchange valentine's cards each year and I thought I should make a box that matches the theme of my room!  Here are the steps and materials needed to make this adorable owl Valentine's box.

1. Cut the top off of an a cereal box.

2. Wrap cereal box with wrapping paper.  Go into the top of the box since it shows when it's empty.

3. Cut out scrapbook paper for eyes, wings, feet, nose, and heart.

4. Arrange materials as you would like and glue/ tape them down.  I used double sided sticky squares found in the scrapbook section of most stores.  I also put a small bag of rice at the bottom of the box so it would stand up and be more sturdy.

Overall, it was a big hit and held all of the big Valentine's!

Peek into my Closet- May

Necklace: Etsy

Dress: Meijer

Peek into my Closet- May

Top: Old Navy

Pants: Kohl's

Shoes: Tom's