Decorating for Fifty Cents.

That’s right my friends, $.50 decorating. And you probably are thinking, “We know YOU can do it Michele but but but…..we don’t want to rummage through a yard sale, thrift store or the curb for our things. We don’t have you talent, your flair, your style……” Ready to gag yet? Yea, me too. Any who………anyone can stretch their decorating dollar just by ~insert cliche here~ thinking outside the box. The sale box that is. For instance…..this ribbon here….

$1.93 for 9 feet or 3 yards for you decorating/sewing peeps. Good deal? Yes. But here at A Decorated Life ‘good’ is not enough. We want you-paid-HOW-MUCH-?!?!?! deals and they are not hard to find. It won’t require you cutting a coupon, though I do love them. It won’t require you to dig through a thrift store bin, though I do enjoy that more than a normal person should. And lastly it will not require you tear through your neighbors trash……..and yes, I do that as well. So back to our ribbon…..

Said ribbon was in the Halloween aisle, tons of it actually, at our Wal Mart. After Halloween I make it a point to stop in regularly to see when the items go to 75% off. You can bet it will be about 4 to 5 days at the most after Halloween. There is still plenty of stuff for the picking. So here was the ribbon, 75% off of it’s $1.93 price. Roughly $.50 a roll. I bought ALL they had. It was a neutral non-holiday color or pattern. it was wired, meaning I can use it for a variety of items, not just for gifts.

In this case one roll helped perk up my new to me office. Here is another after Halloween 75% off find…..a beautiful basket from Target. It is huge and it was suppose to be $20, but of course I got it for a whole $5. Did I mention it was huge? Like hold a good size child huge. Not that mine tried that…………………..yet.

It holds my fliers, my cheap decorating magazines, coupon binder and so on. Looks lonely doesn’t it? Let’s dress it up. With just 1/3 of my ribbon on this one roll I have made it a bit more warm looking.

I plan on going through my scraps of scrapbooking paper and making a tag for it. Just cause that is what I do. I label even obvious things.

I didn’t stop there. Nooooooooo, my inner Martha couldn’t let me. On my desk to help cover up the back of my laptop I have silk greenery display perched on a black glass $2.99 cake plate that I knocked over old ladies picked up from our Goodwill. The greenery container was black as the cake stand, so it needed something. Another bit of my ribbon will do the trick….

And at the end of the day I still have half of the one roll of ribbon I started out with. I didn’t have to climb though a dumpster, clip coupons until I developed carpal tunnel syndrome or spend hours going through stacks of polyester suits at Goodwill. When you see these 50 - 75% sales, don’t just think of stocking up for the next holiday that the item came from. Think of how you can use it year around. We will revisit this before Christmas when I will tell you how to maximize those after Christmas sales to help you start a gift closet and a year around gift wrap center for pennies. And I promise, you will won’t have to be in your neighbors trash bags to do it. Promise.

God Bless,

Michele