Binnorie Artwork / Flickr
This is a post by BargainBabe.com writer Yazmin Cruz.
I love tangy yogurt for breakfast and recently tried my hand at making my own. The yogurt recipe I made is ridiculously easy to make. The best part is you only need two ingredients and it costs less than the store-bought stuff.
I like my yogurt with fresh fruit and a crumbled granola bar. Check out Julia’s granola bar recipe if you don’t have a favorite one, yet. This recipe is also tasty when accompanied with a healthy muffin. Give my healthy muffin recipe a go!
Owenfinn16/flickr
By Bobbi Burger Brunoehler of BobbisBargains.
A watery glass of luke-warm coffee is a bummer. A good cup of coffee is a treat. A glass of perfectly made iced coffee is a spiritual experience!
Years ago a barista taught me the secret of correctly made iced coffee. The secret is so simple and easy that it is a constant wonder to me that so few coffee shops make so-so iced coffee. Learn my secret and save yourself a few bucks while sipping a delightful beverage.
Here is the secret:
We ate these homemade granola bars in no time!
My husband and I eat a fair number of Nature Valley granola bars, which run us about $3 for 12 pre-wrapped bars, or about $.25 a bar. Could I make these myself? Here’s my version of a recipe I found in my favorite cookbook, The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook.
I have not calculated exactly how much this recipe costs to make, but it yields three times as many bars as one box from the store and tastes a lot better!
What do you make instead of buy to save money?
By Bobbi Burger Brunoehler of BobbisBargains.
Four years ago, Dove beauty products ran one of the most successful viral video campaigns of the time. It graphical showed that our perception of beauty is twisted by the ability of makeup and graphic artists to make the human body look drastically different than it actually is. In the hands of an expert, Photoshop graphic software can drastically change the way that anybody looks.
These constant visual illusions set the stage for cosmetic companies to sell overpriced and unnecessary products to young and old, male and female, rich and poor. Do we really need toxic chemicals from cosmetics added to our skin and our budgets? No.
The best beauty is natural beauty. It is lasting. Really.
Here are 8 tried and true simple steps you can do to bring out your natural beauty.
BaconThenEggs / Flickr
This is a post by BargainBabe.com writer Yazmin Cruz.
Want to save even more money on Christmas? Here are eight homemade stocking stuffer ideas you can make if you are on a tight budget. The best part is that you don’t have to be super crafty to make them.
By Bobbi Burger Brunoehler of BobbisBargains.
Romantic Crafts/flickr
I love homemade holiday gifts the best. Anyone can go to the store and buy something, but it takes time and thought to give someone a gift that you made.
Here are 7 unusual frugal and homemade holiday gifts. For more gift ideas, check out the Bargain Babe Hot Holiday Gift Guide.
- Firewood. With all the recent storms, it is possible that you are now in possession of lots more wood than you need. Bundle it up and give it as gifts to those you know with fireplaces. Include a couple of mugs, hot chocolate mix and marshmallows. (more…)
This post is brought to you by Mes Footwork, an online custom shoes retailer.
This looks like a really fun DIY project! Just think how fun it would be to go to a holiday party in these bad boys, and how much money you’d save compared to buying designer brands. I wonder how long the glitter really stays on, though…
By Bobbi Burger Brunoehler of BobbisBargains.
wuestenigel/flickr
Now that Halloween is past us and we’ve eaten all the candy corn and miniature Snickers bars that we can hold, it is time to turn our attention to one of my favorite of holidays – Thanksgiving. Although Thanksgiving has become as commercialized as all the rest of our holidays, you can still create a special family event that brings years of memories without destroying the budget.
Here is a list of ten wonderful frugal and homemade Thanksgiving decorations.
By Bobbi Burger Brunoehler of BobbisBargains.
MegaMind mask on cool dude
With Halloween only moments away, here are six last minute frugal activities, costumes, and decorating ideas.
- The MegaMind website. This site is full of activities that will keep you and your kids busy through Halloween week and beyond. Click above to enter the site, then click or skip intro (or watch it because it’s cute), and click on games, and activities. This will land you on a page where you can select an action figure to download. There are other activities as well – a board game, comic books, bookmarks, brainteasers, card games, and coloring sheets. There is enough cool stuff here to make an entire MegaMind party. A truly great site for a MegaMind fan who is young or old, as you can see from the picture to the right.
By Bobbi Burger Brunoehler of BobbisBargains.
Robert Couse-Baker/Flickr
When I was a little girl, Halloween was a simple and cheap affair. We’d make costumes out of stuff we had at home, grab a pillow case, and walk up and down our block. Everyone who opened the door knew who we were, and we knew them. We returned home with warm homemade cookies, fruit, and my very favorite, a little envelope with 10 shiny pennies from the man who worked at the local bank. That, my friends, is what Halloween is supposed to be.
Unfortunately, Halloween has gone the way of all holidays: a commercialized spending spree. The average person will spend $72.31 on costumes, candy and decorations, adding up to a total holiday splurge of $6.9 billion, according to the National Retail Federation.
Today is your last chance to win!
Today is your last chance to win “Fix it, Make it, Grow it, Bake it: the DIY Guide to the Good Life,” by Billee Sharp. Not that I want to give it away. Win my review copy below.
Sharp tackles extreme thriftiness, shares a detox bath recipe, promotes bartering over buying, and that’s only half the book! I got sucked into her tips for unsticking wood drawers, making sourdough starter, and constructing your own Christmas tree decorations. You can read the 263-page book front to back, or flip to a specific topic, using it more as a reference.
Sharp’s directions are simple and easy to follow. What astounds me is the breadth of her expertise. She has suggestions and ideas for every aspect of home and life. Make no mistake, Sharp is a hard core do-it-yourselfer.
But you don’t need to convert to enjoy this book. You can learn and create new habits as much as you are open to.
To win my review copy, comment with a DIY project that you have been putting off, and why. So far, 51 people have entered the contest, so your chances are good! Or buy a copy from Amazon for $12.44 (orig. $15.95). Comment by tonight, Thursday Sept. 29, 2011 at 11:59 p.m. EST to be eligible to win. A winner will be announced Friday!
Fruit leathers reader Stephanie made!
Reader Stephanie makes her own fruit leather, beef jerky, and more using a food dehydrator. She initially left a comment on Bobbi’s post about 10 alternative cooking methods and I was so curious I asked for more. My only experience with a dehydrator is the one my grandmother gave us (that promptly went into storage under my Mom’s house). Stephanie’s enthusiasm and her two easy recipes has me re-thinking these small kitchen appliances:
Using the dehydrator to make fruit leathers is so ridiculously easy (and healthy!) it should be illegal.
Hanging baskets are beautiful adornments to any garden or doorway. Depending on the effect you are looking for you can use trailing, tall or ‘ball effect plants’ to make your own.
Flowers that trail down from the basket give the effect that they’re just growing in the air as they swamp the basket and hide it. These include fuchsia, pelargoniums (ivy-leaved), trailing lobelia, campanula ‘bellflower’ and verbena. Tall flowers that grow upright can add height to a garden by drawing the eye upwards and include geraniums, pelargoniums (dwarf zone), petunias, begonia and upright varieties of verbena. ‘Ball effect’ flowers grow in a bushy style and include impatiens ‘busy lizzies’, bushy varieties of lobelia and clematis.
Not all hanging baskets need simply be a mass-produced pot you affix to your wall, however. With a bit of imagination and a lick of paint you can transform objects you find in second hand stores into stunning centerpieces for your garden. How about removing the seat from old chairs and letting blooms drape down it?
First browse local flea markets for chairs with wicker seats or those whose seat is easily removed. Paint the chair and remove the seat or cut a hole in it.
Next take some chicken wire and make a wire frame in the shape of a bowl to fit the seat. Attach this to the chair – use a nail gun to tack the wire to the wood, or get out your trusty Bosch drill to screw the wire against the wood.
Next line the frame with coconut fiber and fill this with a potting mix. Now you are ready to plant a very unique hanging basket. You can use this simple DIY hanging basket effect on any items you wish – so get creative and enjoy your garden.
This is paid content. Interested in a sponsored post? See Bargain Babe’s blog advertising page.
iriskh / Flickr
This is a post by BargainBabe.com writer Yazmin Cruz.
In a recent post I showed you how to make a statement necklace from an old T-shirt. If you enjoyed that DIY project, you’ll enjoy making your own ruffled T-shirt.
I’m a fan of ruffled T-shirts because they’re comfortable, yet flirty by adding femininity and flare. You can pair them with jeans for a casual look or wear them with trousers and a cardigan for a polished look.
The ruffles can run horizontally or vertically on the shirt depending on what you like. You can also buy flower appliques from a craft store and sew them on the side. Here’s what you’ll need: two T-shirts, scissors, thread and needle, ruler, and pins.
How to make a T-shirt with horizontal ruffles.
lazytcrochet / Flickr
This is a post by BargainBabe.com writer Yazmin Cruz.
Bargain Babe’s post about using wine cork and Patron bottles to redecorate your home on a budget, made me want to share a do it yourself project with you that will help you save money on fashion.
A fashionable and eco-minded friend of mine loves making her own statement necklaces like the fancy ones you see in magazines, at right. These necklaces will set you back about $10 to $30 at a store, but you can make your own and save money! I haven’t made one because I’m waiting for the perfect old T-shirt to upcycle into something fashionable and green. My friend has made several and showed me how. This necklace is super easy to make.
You’ll need an old T-shirt, scissors, and a couple of minutes. You can add flare to the necklace by incorporating beads. Here’s what to do:
- Cut the hem off the T-shirt. You won’t be using it.
- Next cut the body of the T-shirt into quarter-inch strips.
- Once you have the desired amount of strips, stretch them out one by one until they’re really thin.
- Then cut one more quarter-inch strip off the T-shirt and cut this strip in half. If you are adding beads, you can thread them on these strips, which will be used to tie the other strips together. You can also braid these strips or if you know how to knit, you can skip cutting this last strip and instead knit strips to tie the side of the necklace together, like the one pictured above.
- Lastly, put the necklace straps around your neck and grab all of them on one side. Use the beaded, braided or knit strips to tie the necklace on the sides so they are not loose. (You can also do it on just one side like the necklace pictured above.) To hide the ends of the beaded or braided strips either cut them off or tuck them underneath.
These are a great frugal gift so start making them for friends!
