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In this post, I will share a few tips from my e-book MONEY SAVING TIPS FOR THE STAY AT HOME MOM.   In the e-book, I share more home tips, along with SO many other ideas to save your family thousands of dollars every year.   You will learn exactly how to save and what you can do to help your family!   This is just the tip of the iceberg.  This post contains about 2% of what is included in the book.  You don’t want to miss this! money saving tips for the stay at home mom

I love to decorate & re-decorate our home. I love to look up great ideas on pinterest or in my magazines & change things until it works for our family.  The thing that I love the most when decorating our home to LOOK like a million bucks, while only spending a few!

decorating for less
A few of my favorite tips…

1). Shop at the  LOWES SIDEWALK SALE (90% off of their items!) – On the first OR last Saturday of the month, Lowes will occasionally have a sidewalk sale. I call on the Friday night before the first & last Saturday of the month (call very late- around 9:30pm) and ask them if they are having a sidewalk sale. If the answer is yes, be there bright and early! The sale starts at 7:00am and they are outside, with customers waiting!
At the last sale, I bought a ton of things! The price marked is the clearance price and they re-mark it for you until it is down to about 90% off.
An example of this is the great set of brand new wicker baskets that I bought (originally over $65) – I paid $1. YES, you saw that correctly… $1.
That is just the beginning! I bought a full-size brand new wicker hamper for $1. I bought a ton of kids things, too, for 10 cents up to $3 each.

My
total was $33 and I saved over $300! We buy tools, household items, light-bulbs, tile… everything and anything for your home at 90% off! (Oh- and rugs!)
They mark them down after they have been on the shelves & aren’t selling or if something is wrong. I bought a box of 8 light bulbs for 10 cents because one bulb was missing! (They are the energy-saving ones, too!)

Tip 2). Shop the clearance racks first. I also shop the clearance first. As you saw in my other post on this is a great way to save. Once you find the throw pillows that you want on clearance, use the store coupon (most stores have one- ask at the register) to get an extra 15% or more off of your total.

lowes sidewalk sale

Tip 3). Use your friends things.  A friend of mine was literally going to throw away this beautiful $600 crib when she was done with it. I decided to use it in our daughter’s room (and passed along our oak crib to another friend). Isn’t it lovely?decorating for less crib

4). Exchange! My friend and I did a swap. She needed a crib mattress (which I had) and I wanted a mini fridge (which she had). Neither of us were using what we had, so we just exchanged items. We both had what we wanted and paid nothing.

5). Shop the mis-tints at the paint store. When I want to redecorate, I decide on which color I want to do in the room. I normally stick to “seaside” types of colors, so they are easy to come by. I go into my favorite paint supply stores (sherwin williams, Benjamin Moore & Lowes) and I ask to see their mistinted paints (AKA: “Oops paints”). They are marked down to $5 a gallon. This includes the very expensive paint that runs around $50 normally, marked down to $5.

6). Use your coupons at the competitor’s store. Many stores will take the competitors coupons. When we made a window seat/storage bench for our son’s room, I took my 40% off Michael’s coupon to Jo-Ann fabrics & they honored it.
Also- remember to use your 20% at bed, bath & beyond. My Mom & I both bought paintings that were $200 on clearance plus a coupon for $39.

7). Shop craigslist – I always check craigslist before I go to the store for big-ticket items. Now many things are better off buying new, but there are some items that I will buy used. I bought our kitchen table new at World Market. It is just what I wanted: it expands to fit over twelve and it is just the look I was going for. It was on sale, but was still expensive. To balance this out, I bought our six chairs on craigslist for $30 and painted them a seafoam green color. My husband then built a bench for our kids. It sits along the window-wall and it opens to hold all of my “not used very often” kitchen appliances.

I hope those tips helped a bit! Know what you are looking for & get shopping- CLEARANCE. As I heard a guest speaker say on Oprah, “Only fools pay retail price. You are giving more money for the same product- why?”. 🙂

Do you want more money saving tips? 
Check out these posts:

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save money on clothes

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Hi there!

I’m Becky, a former elementary school teacher turned certified child development therapist and blogger. I work at home with my husband and together we are raising (and partially homeschooling) our four children in the Carolinas. I love diet coke, ice cream, and spending time with my family.

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