Greetings, and welcome to what I hope will be the first of many articles touching on money-saving ideas. Let me start off by saying that none of these ideas will guarantee you enough money to pay off your house. They are small strategies that will start you thinking in a new direction. It’s a way of taking care of the small things that translate into a larger picture. Rethinking how you use the resources available to you can save time in the form of hours you would have to work to earn the money to buy things, and resources, by re-using the items you have on hand and keeping them out of landfills

For example, my husband and I just refinished our daughter’s bedroom. Actually, we’ve finally furnished one with matching furniture, coordinated bedding, etc. They are two and four, and quite frankly, a matching bedroom was not a priority for them, so it was not for me. They were very happy when they could have their Sesame Street sheets and their Pooh pillowcases at the same time. I let that lead me in the direction that décor didn’t matter so much as long as they were happy with what they had. Now that they have outgrown the toddler bed and crib (mismatched, but both freebies given to us) and we have the time, energy and resources, we put together the typical pink and purple princess girlie-girl bedroom. First I acquired the bedding – finding two lavender coverlets/quits at the local warehouse store. I then shopped the chain stores and found coordinated sheets and accessories. I scanned the sale flyers each week, waiting until they went on sale. Then I swooped in like a duck on a June-bug first thing on a Sunday morning a bought them. The savings there of about $30 doesn’t seem like much in the big picture, but since we also bought three gallons of paint on sale for $15 a gallon, it was like getting two gallons of paint for free. Patience is a virtue when saving money is a goal. It took me about three months to acquire everything, including the paint, that we needed to start the job.