February happenings

Birthdays, my oldest turned 20, my youngest, 15. So many friends pregnant or have just had chubby cheeked temptations. This would be the downside to having started our family so early. The up side is that well, I'm still young yet, even though my oldest just turned 20 and my youngest, 15.

That's all I will say about that right now.


The last couple of weeks have been filled with a bit of this

Reorganizing my floss..they were a mess!

Some more of this

Destashing fabric, I've far too much!

And even more of this

The new 5" binder, Coupon-ing is not quick, neat, nor for the weak of arm!!

So I can refill this

hmm...I think I need to reorganize before my shopping trip on Wednesday!

Until next time!

Meal planning..and a printable!

 In my quest to simplify our lives, and my continued efforts to keep grocery costs down and the budget under control, I'm adding a more structured meal planning to the my weekly regime.

The trap I was finding myself in, and I'm sure the same goes for all coupon-ers, is getting lost in the pursuit of a deal..I was so focused on maximizing the coupons/sale combo, I was running out of budget before I got my staples or meal items. That isn't to say that I bought stuff we wouldn't use, just that I would lose sight of the bigger picture and would need to spend more money to flesh out what I had already bought.
Which is counter productive in the face of maintaining a lower grocery budget.

But I digress..The point is that I was making my lists according to sales and coupons but I was not tracking the actual costs, so when I would get done with the coupon deals and only had $10 to buy $50 or more worth of staples/needed items, well, I'd messed up, big time.

Sometimes in the past I was on my A game and had decided what we were going to eat that week and made my lists accordingly, but didn't factor any stock ups, and ended up having to pay full price mid summer for soups because I hadn't maximized my coupon/sales deals the fall and winter before. So after much research blog hopping and pinterest browsing, I came up with a series of printable ideas..And since Hubby likes playing around with desktop publishing, I presented him with an example of a layout I liked, and the information I needed to have on it. and here is the result:

The meal plan, shopping list, check box for coupon, where it's on sale (in case I need to price match at Wal-Mart) and the cost. As you can see, I'm not completely done here, and since I haven't finalized my staples shopping list needs for him to play with, I just added them to the bottom of this list.

Hubby has given me the green light to share the printable he made for me, But I do need to say thank you to http://www.fontspace.com/ for the shareware font that he used!

You can find the PDF here: 
Menu planner & shopping list printable

Until next time!

Fabric envelopes tutorial

Today I thought I'd share how I made my fabric envelopes for my coupons. These could be used for so many other things, the cash envelope system, a savings tool for children, just to name a few that popped to mind at the moment.

Don't be afraid of the number of steps in this tutorial, I will be giving complete step by step instructions so that even the most novice of sewing enthusiasts will be able to whip these up.


What you will need for each 4" x 8" envelope.
Vinyl -  2" x 3" piece (this is usually sold with tissue paper between the layers, do NOT discard, you will need it to sew with.)
Binding- 1.5" strip for binding the edges of the vinyl
Decor bond - 9.5" x 8"
Outer fabric- 10" x 8.5"
Lining fabric - 10" x 8.5"
Velcro - 5" piece
Thread
scissors
ruler
pins
sewing machine
Iron

We will begin with binding the edges of our vinyl window.

 1.  Take your 1.2" binding strip and trim the selvage off one end. fold the top corner down to the bottom edge of the strip (wrong sides together) to for a diagonal end. press.

2. fold binding in half, wrong sides together. press.

3. making sure that the tissue paper is under your vinyl piece, line the raw edge of the binding strip to one of the 3" sides of the vinyl, with the point ending 1/4" shy of the bottom corner. sew with a 1/4" or scant 1/4" seam allowance stopping 1/4" from corner. back tack and remove from machine.

4. fold binding strip up to line raw edge up with 2" side of vinyl hold diagonal fold, then fold the strip straight down. sew along edge and stop 1/4" from corner and remove from sewing machine.

5. Repeat step 4 until you reach the straight edge of your diagonal fold that you began with.

6. trim off your strip and feed under the straight edge. the diagonal fold will hide for a casing for the raw end of your binding, hiding it inside.

7. trim threads and remove tissue paper.

8. flip window over and pull folded edge of binding to the front. it will look like a shallow box at this point.

9. starting with your ending/beginning diagonal fold, fold against the vinyl and sew down. when you get close to a corner, fold the other side down to for a mitered corner, turn and continue sewing next side of the binding down. repeat until all sides have been sewn down.

10. trim threads and set aside.

Now we will work on the body of our envelope.

1. Press decor bond to back side of lining piece, centering so that 1/4" of material "frames" the decor bond.

2. press outer fabric. place right sides together with the interfaced lining and pin around edges.

                       (this is me, not following my own instructions about pinning...I highly recommend pinning!)


3. with a 1/3" seam allowance, and starting on a lower side, sew around the edges, making sure to leave a 2" gap for turning. (helpful hint: when you get to the end of your sewing, turn your fabric and sew across the seam allowance, this will make it easier to fold your edges in after it is turned)

4. trim corners

5. turn right side out, using a turning tool, or blunted point to poke corners out.

6. press, being sure that your opening is even with the rest of your outside edge.

7. top stitch across the bottom edge

8. finding your fold. Now we will bring our bottom edge up, lining sides together, to form the pocket of the envelope. I folded mine so that there were 2" of my fabric piece sticking up to form the flap that will fold over to close. Press the fold.

9. Adding velcro. Here you will be adding velcro to both sides of your fabric piece. On the bottom of your piece we will be working on the outside fabric. Pin fuzzy side of the velcro down along the edge, maching the top of the velcro to your top stitching. Sew into place.
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(As you can see, in this picture I had already sewn on my window, for the rest of them, I discovered it was a much better idea to velcro first!)
Now on the top edge, and lining side of your project pin the sticky side of the velcro and sew into place

 10 Now that you know where your bottom fold is, place your label window centered between the bottom of the velcro strip and the fold. Sew into place making sure to leave the top edge open for labeling

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 11. creating the pocket. starting at the bottom left hand corner, top stitch around both side and the top flap. (you can also edge stitch the bottom if you like, it isn't necessary, but some prefer the look) reinforcing the stitching at the top of the pocket.

Print or write out your label, insert it into the window and you are ready to go!