Reduce reuse recycle Archives

Create a keepsake Christmas card ornament

Make a keepsake ornament out of your Christmas cards

January 13, 2019

This Christmas card ornament will solve your Christmas card pile troubles in the most wonderful way. Every year, we get loads of Christmas cards in the mail. It’s truly one of my favorite things to receive these from friends and family! I even put them all on display in our open kitchen so I can see them and add a festive feel throughout the holidays. But then, when the holidays are over and it’s time to take everything down, I…

Easy Halloween Decorations from Your Christmas Stash

October 29, 2018

Joni Smith

Family, Holidays, Outdoor DIY

Let your Christmas decorations do double-duty this holiday season by using them for your Halloween decorations! We have a lot of Christmas decorations in our family. Christmas is the holiday that we “overdo it” on decor, if that’s possible. 😉 But my daughter also really loves Halloween. She wanted to decorate more this year, and I needed to come up with some ways to make it happen. Walking through the stores, it was tempting to buy some of the neat…

Trash to Treasure - DIY Patio Chair Transformation

Patio Chair – “Trash to Treasure” DIY Transformation

August 14, 2018

Joni Smith

Outdoor DIY, Saving on Shopping

Do you ever pass furniture and random items that people have put out at the curb for trash pickup? Well, I recommend taking a closer look when that happens and you might find your next cheap and easy project! I’ve started doing this in the last few months and have picked up a coffee table (which just needed some screws tightened to make it like new again), a small desk (which I up-cycled into an entryway bench and garden supply…

Never pay a late fee for overdue library books again

July 27, 2018

Joni Smith

Family, Money Saving Apps

If you like to read and spend money on books, you’re going to want to read this post about the Overdrive app. I’ve been on a reading kick lately. It’s something I enjoy doing to relax and de-stress. I usually try to read self-improvement books. However, I’ve recently been reading a whole lot of books from my favorite genre: fantasy. I’m hooked on the fantasy series The Iron King by Julie Kagawa. I’m currently on book 6- and that’s not…

11 Facts that will make you want a cordless electric lawn mower

11 Reasons You Should Switch to a Cordless Electric Mower

July 2, 2018

Joni Smith

Saving on Shopping, Yardwork

Buying a cordless electric mower ten years ago has been one of the best purchases we’ve ever made!!! In fact, I feel that way about a lot of the electric items that we’ve switched to using over the years, like our electric car and robot vacuum cleaner. But back to the electric mower. Did you know that the average lifespan of a lawn mower is 8-10 years? If you have a traditional push mower, you’ll have all those years of…

DIY easy outdoor pillows for free

June 19, 2018

Joni Smith

Outdoor DIY

I made a bench for our outdoor space and decided it needed some pillows. But outdoor pillows can cost anywhere from $10-$20 or more each at the store. These outdoor pillows cost me zero dollars to make. “How,” you ask?

Make a bench for less than $10 and transform your porch space into a reading nook

June 12, 2018

Joni Smith

Outdoor DIY

Is your porch space underutilized? Would a bench transform it into an area where family could sit and enjoy the scenery or read a book-or even just make it nicer on the eyes? But you don’t want to spend the upwards of $100 for a new bench (that may or may not even fit the space perfectly)? Well, I have a solution for you! In this post, I am going to show you how you can make your own bench-…

Skip the straw blankets and use your ornamental grass to spread over grass seed

June 7, 2018

Joni Smith

Gardening & Growing, Yardwork

I left my ornamental grass tall and uncut all winter for these 7 beneficial reasons. If I’m being totally honest, the main reason was there was plenty of other yard work to do in the fall without adding this to the list! So when we hit spring, and I couldn’t put off cutting down that huge mound of ornamental grass any longer, I seized the opportunity to use it as straw to protect the grass seed that I needed to plant…

29 Ways to Save on Your Bills and Utilities Budget – “Saving on Necessities” Series

April 9, 2018

Joni Smith

Budgeting, Finances

Want to save money on your monthly bills and utilities? It can be done with some savvy service switches and easy home maintenance tweaks. You may even enjoy making some of these simple changes, knowing you’re saving money while saving the environment. Read on for some ideas that you can implement right away to start saving.

Spend nothing and bring home (nearly) all of the Scholastic books that your kid wants

March 14, 2018

Joni Smith

Family, Money Saving Apps

Is your kid like mine? When it’s Scholastic books time, she wants all the books! She comes home from school with the Scholastic book order forms, grabs a pen, and starts circling. The next thing I know, I am being handed order forms that look like poorly written papers graded by a strict teacher – covered in markings with upwards of 30 books that my kid wants me to buy. Now, don’t get me wrong – I absolutely love how…