Finding Frugal Ways to Create
Having creative outlets and opportunities is an important aspect of everyone’s life – especially for children.
Frugal Children’s Crafts
Fortunately for younger children, crayons, water colours and most of their craft supplies are inexpensive and easy to find at the dollar store or in your home.
Many creative supplies for younger children come from the kitchen, from macaroni for necklaces or pictures, to homemade flour ‘glue’ – and so much more.
Paper mâché which is just shredded newspapers and flour glue – can provide your little Picasso with hours of fun and the joy of making something.
The old standby salt dough (check online for the amazing easy recipe) will give your children hours of creative fun.
Yes, a lot children’s creativity is messy – but as long as it is kept in an easy-to-clean location (usually the kitchen) and the children are wearing their play clothes – the joy of their creativity will not be diminished by the clean up.
Frugal Fabric Finds
It has been many years since sewing clothes from new fabric has been consistently cost effective. Most clothes today (especially when they are on sale) cost less than the fabric it would take to make them at home.
However, many frugal sewers have faced up to this challenge and found new ways to sew frugally.
There are a number of websites dedicated to sewers who scour second hand shops and yard sales for clothes they can refashion into ‘new’ garments for themselves and their families. Those websites are definitely worth checking out – even if you do not sew – as it is always encouraging to see creativity and frugality at play together.
Some patch work quilt makers are taking their craft back to basics and using second hand clothes and bedding to stitch their traditional quilts.
Frugal Lumber Finds
The cost of ‘just puttering in the workshop’ has skyrocketed – and keeping costs down has proven a challenge to dedicated hobbyists.
Old shipping pallets are often available for free – and there are large number of people enjoying the challenge of using this extremely frugal source of wood. From deck chairs, to bed platforms, to coffee tables their uses are as diverse as the crafts people building them.
Second hand furniture – can be a great source of wood – it is worth checking out the second hand stores, yard sales, online classifieds and keeping your eyes open for abandoned/free roadside furniture.
Get to know your local lumber yards and find out what they are doing with their wood-cutting leftovers and damaged wood.
Find out if salvage wood from old homes and new builds is available in your area. Check at the site and online, you might be pleasantly surprised at what is available for free or next to free as long as you are willing to haul it away.
All of these methods take longer than just going to the lumber yard and buying what you want retail – but that is part of the creativity and the bragging rights that surround frugal wood projects.
Other Frugal Crafts
Unless your hobby is diamond cutting, the odds are you can find a way to keep the costs down and prove just how creative you really are.
Remember, where there is a frugal will – there is a frugal way.
