The weather is finally warming up around here, and my kids were in need of some summer clothes. We did a little summer clothes shopping in our garage. OK, so we really didn’t go “shopping”, but we did go through the bins to see what we had for summer. I have mentioned before that I buy our families clothes “off season”, and it saves us tons of money.

We went to the garage and grabbed the bins, I have a separate bin for each child. All of the clothes in the bins are items that I bought at the end of the season last year. I went through each bin and took out the items that would fit my kids this summer.

These are the items I had for my youngest son, he already has several other short sleeve shirts and swim trunks, so I won’t need to get him anything else for summer. All of these items were at least 75% off. The sandals were “hand-me-downs” from my nephew. Hand-me-downs are another great way to save lots of money on clothing.

The benefit to shopping ahead of time, means you can buy clothing when it is marked down and it saves you from having to pay full price for your clothing. I have a rule that anything I buy ahead of time has to be at least 75% off. Lots of the items I buy ahead are actually 90% off. That is a huge savings on the clothing budget.

I would love to hear what you do to save yourself money on clothing.

Hello everyone! It’s so nice to be here. I’m Stephanie from My Frugal Lifestyle. I love being a frugalista chica and I can’t wait to show you some of the things that I like to do in my everyday life to help my family and I stretch a buck or two. I’m a stay at home mom to 2 handsome little boys. I’m married to my best friend and soul mate for almost 7 years now {Yeah!!}. Life is great and I couldn’t be more happy.

When most people think of the word frugal or thrifty, they instantly think we’re paupers who have to live with less. That is SO not true. You can still live your life frugally and have everything you’ve ever wanted. I want to show that anybody and everybody can be frugal, just by slightly changing their everyday decisions and lifestyle. I love couponing, but I don’t really post about it too much. That is a whole other blog in and of it’s self. That’s what Christy’s for, right? Ha ha! I prefer to talk about the FUN frugal stuff.

Here are some example’s of what I’m talking about:

Have you ever wondered how to make your own liquid or dry laundry detergent. It’s amazing how much money you can save by making your own detergent. I have a family of four and I only paid around $6 dollars for a year supply of laundry detergent. I prefer making the liquid detergent, but it depends on what you like. I’ve got the recipes for both.

I love making my own household cleaners. Not because it’s green {except that is a bonus}, but because it’s easy and really cheap. Want to learn how to make your own Comet? You probably already have the ingredients in your house to make it. It’s safe to use around your children and pets too. I’ve got several household cleaner recipes, and I’ve got many more to come in the future.

I also love to share great Beauty Tips that anybody can afford! Learn how to make your own homemade bubble bath recipe for your kids, facials for yourself, footscrubs, and tons more! It’s amazing how many things you can use Olive Oil to make yourself more beautiful.

There’s no better feeling than trying to reuse or recycle something in your home to help stretch your dollar. For instance, what do you do with your old scentsy wax? Learn how to reuse the wax. I made my very own emergency candles by pouring out my used scentsy wax into old jars. These are great to have in your food storage for back up candles. They burn longer than your normal candles and sometimes, you can smell a small remainder of yummy goodness from them. Waste not, want not!

Here’s another trash and treasure awesomeness. Learn how to make a magazine organizer from a used cereal box. Decorate it with scrapbook paper and you’ve got a great organizational piece. Get creative and have fun! Make them for the bathroom, the living room, or even for a friend.

My oldest son, who’s 4, is such a picky eater it makes my teeth ache. So, over the years, I’ve had to become really tricky into making his food look fun. One of my all time favorite fun recipes is homemade edible playdough. I’ve got several more “picky eater” recipes, but I also have tons of regular “cheap” recipes that are great for the family budget.

I want to thank Christy for letting me guest post today. I love reading Christy’s blog everyday! Keep up the hard work! I know we all appreciate it.

I’ve only scratched the surface on the things that I do and can’t wait to share more with you. Come on over to My Frugal Lifestyle and join me in the fun! I can’t wait to meet you. If you stop by My Frugal Lifestyle, I’d love to hear from you! Give me a “Shout Out” or a “Hey!” Hope you have a Frugalistic Day!