I now have an allowance. My husband quits his job and all of a sudden my crafting is the first thing to be budgeted, sheesh. Ok so it isn’t really like that. This last week at home has had me torn several ways: excited to go back to work next week, depressed my “summer vacation” is ending, enjoying my child’s smiles, hating my child’s screams, feeling like I should have a clean home before I go back but wanting to craft all over ever inch of the apartment…you get the idea. Well, Jacob cheered me up with some guilt-free spend money, the catch was that it was only a few dollars. See his post to get the details on my new allowance, but the just of it is that we each get $6 a week (handed out at FHE) to spend on goodies like vending machine treats or small projects.
I had a blast finding ways to stretch my little amount of money. My first day I spent 36 cents on a piece of felt to make a horse for the book I’m making.
On Tuesday, we went to Michael’s to see what else we could find to splurge on. Jacob got the equipment to make a cup out of plastic canvas that we’ve been planning for a while and I found some knitting needles in the clearance section for only $2. It inspired me to run home and cut up some t-shirts, make yarn and figure out how to knit. Last week we had a wonderful Relief Society activity about finding teaching moments in our lives and she used crafts as her object for the lesson. We made a vase out of lightbulbs and finger-knitted some bracelets. It really revived my love of wrist decorations, so I ran out and got some shirts to make yarn to make some more bracelets, but I can also use the yarn to knit with.
I watched some videos on knittinghelp.com and off I went a-knittin’ away. Using two needles, neither of which have a hook, is a bit harder for me than crocheting but I love the way the stitches look.
With all this excitement over my new allowance, I decided that spending my dollar coins out of a plastic bag was just silly; a coin purse was required for money handling. I saw this tutorial ages ago but wasn’t sure I needed a purse that size. Now I know I do. It is just perfect for my little bit of change. I didn’t quite have enough money to pay for the purse frame but Jacob printed off a JoAnn’s coupon for me which cut the price down to $2.40. Now I still have some coins left over after a week of crafting. I’m thankful too, because who would want an empty change purse, even if it is a cute as this one?
I was amazed to see how far my $6 went. It helped with three different projects. At first I laughed at the amount but half the fun of the money was getting the most out of it. I’m sure I’ll still enjoy spending it on a soda every now and then but this week I really got my money’s worth.