It's official!  All of my boys are out of cribs, thanks in part to the latest round of crib recalls. I now have an old crib (with a drop side) that is in such a well-used state that it needs to be retired and another crib that will be parted out when I get my repair kit through the recall.So now I have all of these crib parts and am wondering what to do with them.It seems like a tragedy to just toss all of that wood.  I know I can save the bolts and screws and castors... but for … [Read more...]

I'm the type of person who saves worn out things because I just know I should be able to do something with it. The problem is that I'm not very creative and so the stuff just clutters up the house.But that shouldn't be a problem anymore, now that I've found Katie's blog! Each week she publishes a post called Creative Recycling. It's all about reusing things you normally would throw away and/or items that many recycling centers don't accept, to create a fun craft or something useful.My … [Read more...]

Sometimes I wonder which comes first... creativity or frugality?Most of the time, I think being frugal inspires us to be creative.... but there are certainly times when using a little creativity can be frugal, too.Several years ago, back when snail mail was still cool, my frugal friend Marta and I would write each other letters. I always enjoyed getting snail mail from her because she usually did something fun with the envelopes (i.e. stickers, collage, drawings). So imagine my surprise when I … [Read more...]

One of my readers, Tanya, recently sent me a great use for those plastic grocery store bags.She writes, "There's a woman I know that makes bags of all kinds out of cut up plastic bags. You simply take a typical plastic grocery store or hardware store bag and cut it into 1.5-2 inch strips, horizontally. Loop them together, then crochet them into a bag. crocheting is very easy to do, much easier than knitting and it only takes one needle. Once you start, you can make them into any size or shape. I … [Read more...]