One of the smaller costs of a wedding is invitations but all those small costs do add up. Here are some suggestions on how you can save on the cost of wedding invitations.

The first thing you can save on is not buying them from a wedding invitation catalog. You can find cute ones but you can also do the same or similar cheaper by doing them yourself or having a friend who is great with graphics and print.

Don’t buy the inner envelope or blotter paper. Chances are your print job will not smear and you can eliminate the weight on the invitation.

Instead of having a RSVP card, have your guest RSVP by phone, email or set up a Facebook event page for the wedding and have them RSVP there.

Find Wedding Kits from Michael’s or AC Moore’s and wait for a Sunday Insert coupon for 40% – 50% off and get a pack of 20 reg. $19.99 for $10.

You can have them printed at Staples or OfficeMax for as low as 20 cents each if you do black only.

Often times Target, Party Co., or any party store will have wedding invitations on clearance typically in August which is roughly the end of the High Wedding Season.

You can also print at home but be sure you get extras so you can handle messing up on a few. You can also have them printed at Walgreens, Wal-mart and CVS. Just be sure to wait for a sale to get them 9 cents or less each printed.

If you are really needing to save every cent you can, you can always check out Family Dollar, Dollar General and Dollar Tree who have some great invitations. Dollar Tree has the generics for $1 and do have some really nice ones you can print on yourself.

I hope these suggestions will help you save some money.

When I first got engaged I was really overwhelmed.  Excited…but overwhelmed.  I was not the type who had her wedding planned since she was a little girl – in fact growing up I promised myself I’d never get married!

I mean, who would marry this fool?  

I learned after a lot of blog reading that the first thing I needed to decide on was the venue – and that was supposed to take half of my budget.  But just as weddings are expensive

VENUES. ARE. EXPENSIVE.

So how do you cut down on costs for a venue?

1.  Have a country wedding!  Now this doesn’t mean get married in a barn (though if that floats your boat do it!).  This means choose hotels and venues that are outside of major cities.  For instance, go 30 miles outside of even a small city and your venue prices will be cut in half.

I live in the middle of nowhere so this was going to be inevitable. In order to get married in a vineyard in the closest city it would cost me at least 5,000 dollars, just for the VENUE! A similar venue costs $1280 only a few miles away!

2. Check out local parks – a lot of parks and rec centers have indoor venues that people rent out for dirt cheap.  These can be very inexpensive – and include tables and chairs!  (Or you could just get married outside.) Check your local parks and rec center for information. One of my friends had an amazing wedding at a parks and rec center for much cheaper than a traditional venue!  [Tip: Some even have cabins your out of town guests can rent!]

 How beautiful is this one? I had the honor of attending their wedding.   The parks and rec center had this very inexpensive venue and it was GORGEOUS!

3.  Use non-conventional or new venues!  Botanical gardens, urban garden centers, museums, art galleries, etc. Sometimes you might find a deal – though as these are becoming more popular they are becoming more expensive.

4. Keep your ceremony and reception in the same place – this can save you hundreds of dollars

5. Use your connections!  Have a friend with a barn and giant field? Ask them if they’ll rent it out!  Have a family member with a gorgeous backyard?  Beg Aunt Mildred to let you invite 100 people for a party 😉

6.  And lastly, use your backyard!

**BIG CAVEAT HERE!  It’s not always less expensive to use your own backyard or a friend’s house or a field.  These can be cheaper than venues in the city – but many of them come with hidden costs.  Sometimes it is MUCH cheaper to use an all-inclusive wedding venue!!! Why?  Well that’s the subject of my next blog post!

Remember to keep on budget no matter what! What inexpensive wedding venues have you found? Any other tips for brides out there?

Mary

Topic: Venues on a Budget

Here are some tips that I have done or will be doing when my
DH and I renew our vows on our 10 year anniversary.

Part 1- Photography

-In this day in age everyone has a digital camera or cell phone with a camera. Ask your guests to take pictures of your wedding and have them upload to a Facebook group or fan page you create. Sure beats having to pay for a professional also most photo developing places you can now load pictures directly from Facebook to your account to print off. Also if you wait for a great sale on picture prints you can score some free or very cheap prints. Also have them sent to the store and wait the extra hours so you don’t

pay for shipping!

-In case you want some of the more professional looking pictures ask around your friend you are bound to find one of them or someone they know who has an SLR camera or its equivalent who will take picture for you or at an extreme low rate. The average cost for a basic package of wedding

photos costs around $935. Who has that kind of money?

-Start your planning early because often times the disposable cameras go on sale at Walgreens and Rite-Aid for B1G1 Free and if

you use your Register Rewards or +UP Rewards you can score them even cheaper.

-Also do your research and get a list of possible pictures you would like. Putting a list together and giving it to your photographer helps insure you get the pictures you want. Get ideas for those fun pictures. It is hard to think of posses when you are the bride even when you are renewing

your vows.

-When asking your guests to take pictures place a gentle reminder on the program and invitation. Also offer an incentive for every person who loads pictures to your fan page they get an entry to a drawing to

win a $10 Gift Card to a local store.

* Hope this helps save some money and if you have any tips
about photography please post in the comment section.

Topic: Save money on wedding photography

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Are you drained from the unnecessary drama of your children arguing over who’s turn it is to sit in the front or in the middle? I made this handy Car Ride Schedule when one of my children had hurt feelings over not getting as much time in the front seat or who they got to sit next to in the back. 

It was unnecessary drama and made getting kids to school ever so challenging. I have 3 of my own and I also take another child with us to school. Of course everyone wants to sit next to their friend that is not their sibling!

I have a hard time remember who did what last so this schedule came about. We still have some drama on occasion but now all of them can see for themselves the equal amount of time each spends sitting in different seats. 

We have a rotation! 2 of the 4 can sit in the front while the other 2 are still in booster seats in the back. It took some doing but we managed to get a routine going.

So if you desire to print out your very own Car Ride Schedule you can find the FREE printable below. Keep in mind I only use this schedule for school days and not the weekend when it doesn’t seem to bother any of them who sits where. Feel free to take the idea and make it your own to fit your needs. Take into account No School days and holidays.

Hope this helps you out and eliminates the unnecessary drama and arguments between kids.

Topic: Car Ride Schedule

Do you feel your home is out of sorts? I know my home gets out of sorts all the time. I admit, I pretty much am a slob. I had to get control of my house. We have been in our home for just over a year. I admit we had more stuff then we really needed and for the first few months we evaluated what we needed and what we didn’t. I thought that if I had a place for everything I wouldn’t need to get rid of anything. That simply wasn’t true. Check out how I quickly de-cluttered. These 9+ Simple Home Hacks were ideas I used to help get our home organized. I had to learn that if everything of that like kind did not fit in these areas than I had to re-evaluate if I really needed everything.

9+ Simple Home Hacks

Shoe Organizer Door

I used a staple gun and attached this shoe organizer to the inside of my hallway linen closet. In here I placed our extra toiletry items that don’t necessarily need to have in the bathroom where the kids can get into them. My kids are getting older and know better but I am still pretty cautious.

We have the following items:

• Bar Soap
• Tooth Brushes
• Tooth Paste
• Finger nail clippers, tweezers, wet ones
• Wash Clothes
• Band Aids
• Sunscreen
• Medicine (Top sleeves)
• Hair Brushes and combs

Inside Closet Jewelry

In my daughters room, first off its a smaller room but that’s ok, she is the only girl and doesn’t share a room. She has a deep closet so I decided to utilize the inside of her closet. On the one side we have a shoe holder which is great for her play dress up shoes and flip flops. On the other side we found this jewelry holder at Goodwill. The Goodwill I found this at, you pay by the pound so we paid maybe a quarter for it.

I hung all her jewelry. She has tons of play jewelry and real jewelry.

You can get this jewelry hanger on Amazon.

Paper Door organizer

I was given a paper organizer that I stapled to the inside my living room closet. When I put it up it was the towards the end of the school year so I originally placed the papers that came home in each sleeve from my kids. By the last day of school the holders were so full. I had to de-clutter the papers. I eventually removed the papers and had to think how would this paper organizer benefit me and my family. There are six slots so I eventually created a slot for each kids with their summer reading logs and math packets. If they complete them they get ice-cream and game/popcorn time when they return to school.

The remaining three, I divided it up between my three kids. Each one has a pouch that holds the papers and certificates they wanted to keep. This limited the amount of paper hanging out each of the pouches.

Kitchen Hooks

I took hooks from Dollar Tree and screwed them into the bottom of the cabinet near my stove. I don’t have much counter space or cabinets so I created an area to hang my cooking utensils. They hang at the back of my cabinets near the wall.

Kitchen Bookshelves

I have a small kitchen but it lacks cabinet space so I created my own storage. I found two white bookshelves from Habitat for Humanity Re-store Store for $10 each. They are pretty tall bookshelves for me! Needless to say I put my cups and bowls there. They are at eye level for my kids. On one of the bookshelves has boxed goods and cereal, breads and cookies.

Dollar Tree Plastic Storage

On my kitchen bookshelves I got plastic storage containers for my cereals and plastic containers for my food items I need to pour like sugar, beans, rice, potato flakes, noodles, etc. There are many plastic storage containers you can find at Dollar Tree for many uses. My kids have the mini tubs that house their toys into categories; animals, people, cars, furniture, dolls, LEGOs, Pony, etc.

Cabinet and Sink holder

I found a couple door holders that you screw onto the inside of your cabinets. I placed on inside my bathroom cabinet to create place for smaller tubes like toothpaste, lotions, sprays, etc.

Use paper/magazine holders along with Dollar Tree hooks to place on the inside of your cabinet doors like I used under my kitchen sink. These hold me cleaning supplies on one side and the other door I have my Aluminium foil, Saran Wrap, paper lunch bags, etc.

Inside closet bag holder

I got some hooks from Dollar Tree these can be found in the automotive/houseware isle. They are the individual hooks that can be screwed into places. I screwed 3 into the side of the wall inside my Living Room closet and hung my kids book bags. This was done for the summer while the kids are out of school. Normally my kids hang their book bags just inside from the front door during the school year.

Living Room Bookshelf/End Table

I have a smaller living room that doesn’t have much of an entry way from the front door. I needed a place for our shoes as we come in the house. Since its a small living room I can’t exactly have traditional end tables. I found this thin bookshelf at a Thrift Store for $5. It works perfect for both an end table and has three shelves we can put our shoes and house slippers at that are in season.

Living Room Closet Shoe Racks

I have wire shelves I think I got them at a yard sale, I can’t remember but I didn’t pay much for them. They are the ones that you can connect by stacking. I have 2 which gives me room for 3 areas for shoes that are out of season like boots or flip flops depending on the season.

Closet scarf holder

Technically this holder is suppose to go over the door, but I screwed it into the side of my closet and using the hooks to hold scarfs and gloves as well as the extra jackets.

Dresser Side elastic Toy Holder

Yes I did staple elastic to the side of my boys dresser. Here is why! First the dresser was free to me. Its solid but dark brown. It is a functional dresser but nothing special. My boys have what I call their Toy Weapons, mostly Light Saber and Swords. They do have a couple Nerf Guns. There is really no good area in their room to put them. I tried the closet but then they get moved around and just being shifted from one place to another. Have the elastic helps them stay in place.

Closet clothes holder

I stapled the clothes holders into my hallway closet, that houses our cleaning items and toiletries. Instead of clothes in the holder I rolled up our towels and put them in the holders. I also put a few open toilet paper rolls in some of the sleeves.

What clever Organizing hacks do you have? Let me know about your bright ideas in the comments below.

Don’t get stuck with every single paper your kid comes home with!!! Let me show you a way to digitally save papers your kids bring home so your tower doesn’t start to pile up.

Digital way to save your kids Projects

As the school year begins papers and projects will be flowing in steadily learn a digital way to save your kids projects.

Don’t make the mistake I did. Take control now and save yourself time and space. My boys have speech delays and as a concerned parent, I want to make sure my kids get the best services they can so I kept EVERY and YES I mean EVERY paper, project and art piece.

But after 1 school year I have a Huge Box and 3 Binders full of paper from my son. YIKES is right! Well my reasoning for keeping everything, is because I kept things when I was growing up, but also I wanted to see the progress my kids are making over the year.

Well, please don’t make this same mistake. There is a much easier way to keep those images of their work, but not in paper form.

1. Simply Scan their papers and projects each week using your printer/scanner.
2. Save as a PDF and make a folder or even a DVD+RW to place all the images on. This way you still have the memories of their work, but its not taking a lot of room up. I’m not saying throw out all their paperwork. Keep those that mean a lot to you and them, just be careful not to over indulge and keep tons!
3. Also another creative way to display their art each week is pick one item each week to display on the frig. I have 3 kids so 1 for each is enough and doesn’t clutter my frig. Display it for a week and then pick a new one for the next week.
4. You can keep these special projects in a Binder.

See my How to Organie your kids Paperwork article.

Topic: Digital Way to Save your Kids projects

Have a small kitchen with hardly any cabinets or storage? Here is a creative way to get extra cabinet storage for your small kitchen or any kitchen of any size.

SEE ALSO:

Extra Cabinet Storage

Very simple and cost less than $2.

The hooks are from Dollar Tree and come in a 9 pack for $1. They have the sticky backs and all you need to do is remove the protective paper and just press them where you want them. Let them sit for a couple of hours before hanging anything on them.

I got the magazine holder from a Salvation Army for 50 cents, but you can also find them at Dollar Tree for $1. Make sure you get the ones that can hook on the hooks. Magazine holders come in a variety of designs and colors. Keep an eye out at Thrift Stores or yard sales.

I liked the big holes and even used one to place the trash bag roll with the end pulled through one of the holes to easily pull them and tear off as I need them.

What creative storage idea do you have in your kitchen? Leave me a comment below with your ideas. If you liked this post be sure to share and like.

Topic: Extra Cabinet Storage