Gearing up for any event is a daily affair….
Posted by: KarenLynnI know us frugal people or ff’ers think differently about hosting events in our home or planning major events than other people. I know that because I listen to the other folks at work and often they are like…”so and so is having a birthday party…so we had to run out and buy a cake, decorations, balloons, a card and well now everything is perfect!” Well I am always wondering why are all those things necessary for everything to be perfect…..or atleast I question it. I plan for events all year long when I see party items such as plates, silverware, etc… I try to stock up on a few items that are neutral and could be used for many themes. I also am a big believer of trying not to use too many disposable products because we are only adding to our landfills so as you have seen me write in previous posts break out your cloth tablecloths. If you don’t have any try sheets like I have at my daughter’s garden birthday party (my next blog entry will tell you all about how to plan for one of these!).
I always pick up items here and there for future events for example the other day their was a pack of Valentines pencils of about 25 so I picked them up for 40cents I can even use them to be my daughters pencils they are cute and they just have hearts on them or I can use them for party favors. I also got some red and pink tissue paper and last year when my husband, kids and friends all through me a surprise party my neighbor cleverly took some clear tube vases and tucked in tissue paper in them so they flared out at the top they were very colorful and inexpensive. The sky really is the limit on clever ways to decorate and reuse party items in a new way!
We are renting a cabin down south on a bass fishing lake for our spring break this year I am thrilled my family all wanted to have a fairly simple vacation without amusement parks and crazy places to stop. We will be fishing, I promise you I will be reading and we will bring a bunch of games. Even still I have lots of groceries to stock up on for the big week. A lot of people wait until they get to the destination to a grocery store they are not even familiar with to buy everything but I prefer to stock up on deals and bring them with me. I am dieting now but I won’t be on vacation and I have already stocked up on some Dove chocolate hearts after Valentines, some cheese curls I got for free from Food Lion, I got an amazing deal on some pepperidge farm cookies at Target and I used a coupon on top of that. These are things a month or two before I go someplace for vacation I put into place so I don’t get there and need sodas, munchie food etc…although we do usually buy our milk, eggs and bread once we get there we are famous for crushing bread and eggs on a long trip and I don’t want to worry about those items I may pack some frozen meat as well. This adds up to huge savings for our trip and that means the vacation on the whole is less of a financial burden and more relaxing over all. Also I don’t want to spend my vacation grocery shopping I want to go boating and enjoy nature.
Whether you are going on vacation, throwing a party, or just having a few friends over preparing in advance makes the big difference. I don’t know about you but I cannot stand paying $4.00 for a grocery item that is not worth that amount because I did not plan well.