CraftyMamaMia's Frugal Living Tips

Hello and welcome to the 6th edition of CraftyMamaMia's Frugal Living Tips.

Tip #1 Grow your own fruits and veggies
Even if you live in an apartment you can grow your favorite veggies in your kitchen, even in the middle of winter. In fact I have 2 tomato plants in my kitchen that have been growing all winter, and my first tomato is growing. (Pic on Right)

There tons of information online about vegetable gardening, to help you develop the green thumb you've always wanted.


Tip #2 Save money watering your new veggie Garden
Collecting rain water is a great way to water your garden and save money on your water bill (if you don't have a well) Also if you wash dishes by hand, you can reserve the water to water your garden. Put a bucket in the shower with you to catch excess water from your shower. After you boil pasta you can reuse the water (after it cools of course) If you think of other ways you can reuse water, please leave me a comment below.

CraftyMamaMia's Tips for selling on Etsy

Welcome to the 3rd edition of "CraftyMamaMia's Tips for selling on Etsy"

Tip # 1 Descriptions
Many people would like to know the size of the item plus other details such as weight, materials, and anything else you can add to describe the item. Short descriptions may leave the customer wondering, and they will most likely pass up the item without asking the shop owner for more information.

Tip #2 Shipping
If you offer international shipping don't forget to add those to your shipping profiles. If you only stick it in your announcement an international customer may never see it and skip past your item. Don't rely on the customer to convo for international shipping prices. Here is fantastic blog with help on shipping internationally from home.
HOW TO SHIP INTERNATIONAL PACKAGES FROM HOME
and
International Rate Chart

CraftyMamaMia's Frugal Living Tips

Hello and welcome to the 5th edition of CraftyMamaMia's Frugal Living Tips.


Tip #1 Drink water
Why spend money to drink a bunch of sugar and calories, when one of the healthiest liquids comes from your faucet? If you have city water, buy a filter or a filtering pitcher. It will save you tons of money. I drink water all day every day.
I found some great reasons to drink water on another site.
9 Great Reasons to Drink Water, and How to Form the Water Habit

Tip #2 Get rid of the subscriptions
There is tons of info and entertainment online for free, I do not have any magazine subscriptions, we do not pay for television services, or even have a newspaper subscription. We find all our news, entertainment and more online and FREE. Think about your subscriptions to magazines and services, are they really needed? Could you get by just fine without them

CraftyMamaMia's Tips for selling on Etsy

Welcome to the 2nd edition of "CraftyMamaMia's Tips for selling on Etsy"

Tip#1 Consistency
Last week I touched lightly on consistency in photos. This week I want to talk about consistency in your whole shop. I never thought it was that important...boy was I wrong. Before CraftyMamaMia was Bath & Body and Incense, it was more of a variety store. I promoted on Etsy and away from Etsy, day and night, but I never sold anything...for months. So I decided that even though I have a bunch of crafts that I love to make, it just wasn't working. So I spent some time trading with other Etsy sellers to empty out my store some and I focused on Bath & Body and Incense. Once my shop was more consistent I finally started receiving real sales, and have had 40 sales in less than 2 months.
So if you are a Multi-Craft Artisan such as myself, either pick related items to sell in your shop and save the other crafts for craft shows or you can branch out and open another Etsy Shop. I have been working on opening a new shop myself.

Here is a great article from the Storque (Etsy's Online News) Finding your Etsy Niche

Tip# 2 Gaining Feedback
Most buyers will pass up a great item if the shop has little to no feedback. So new sellers need to find new ways to gain great feedback.

*One way is to go shopping on Etsy, you don't have to spend much, just buy a few items, make sure to pay right away and don't give the seller any reason to leave negative feedback.

*Another way is trading. There is usually a chatroom on Etsy dedicated to chat and trading (if there is not one currently, make one and name it "The Trading Room" or "Trade and Chat" doesn't matter as long as there is the word "trade" in the title) Sellers gather in the chat room and look through each other's shops. If you find an item you would be willing to trade for you can contact that seller either in the chat or through a convo. Be nice and ask specify which item you like and ask if they would like to look through your shop and maybe trade.
Don't be offended if someone says no. Everyone has their reasons why, and everyone has different tastes, so just say Thank you, send their shop a heart and move on.

You can find threads in the forums with people willing to trade, there is even a traders list.

*If you ever visit the Promotions Forum on Etsy there are games that sellers play. For every game you play or trade you make, you will gain 2 new feedback (one from the buyer of your item and one from the shop you bought from) plus you can make friends on Etsy (which is a good thing when you need someone who understands to lift your spirits)

To list a few:
Secret Shopper (SS)
Tag
BNR (Buy and Replace)
Trade Game (every Thursday evening at 9pm EST Hosted by EtsyFriends Street Team)

**When joining a game please read all the rules in the first post, if you are still unsure reply to the thread to have someone help you.**

My first 48 sales came from trading and games, but it helped me gain a ton of really great positive feedback, plus I was able to shop on Etsy and get some really great items without spending too much money.

CraftyMamaMia's Frugal Living Tips

Hello and welcome to the 4th edition of CraftyMamaMia's Frugal Living Tips.

Tip #1 Cooking from scratch
By Buying your own ingredients and cooking from scratch, not only are you saving money, but it will be a healthier meal for you and your family. This is my favorite frugal cooking website
HillbillyHousewife.com there are tons of recipes, baking your own bread, tortillas, pizza crust. There are even recipes for convenience foods, make a canister of hot chocolate mix, or even a spiced tea mix. One of my favorite recipes is for Granola Cereal
I hope you enjoy this website as much as I do!

Tip #2 Frugal Gift Giving
Gift giving especially around the holidays can take a big chunk of your budget, but it doesn't have to. Try making your gifts this year such as decorating a Jar and filling it with goodies, such as hot cocoa mix or a cake mix with instructions attached. You could make a collage, or a photo album. Maybe you could bake cookies or make fudge? I know many people appreciate handmade gifts.

Tip #3 Quit Smoking Cigarettes
Have you ever sat down and calculated how much you spend on buying cigarettes a year?
These numbers are all estimates, of course cigarette prices and packs per day vary, so do the math according to your habit.
If you smoke 1 pack a day:
Per day: $3
Per week: $21
Per month: $84
Per Year: $1008
Ok lets say you smoke for 50 years....$50,400

And after you've spent $50,400 on this habit it only gets more expensive once your doctor diagnoses you with Lung Cancer or Emphezima and you have to for pay doctor visits, treatments, and medicine.

Is it really worth it?



Brought to you by CraftyMamaMia.com

A StumbleUpon Opportunity for your Etsy Shop

A fellow Etsian is starting an email list of stumblers, who will all stumble each other shops and maybe blogs too, to get in on the action convo alwaysamy.etsy.com
If you have never heard of StumbleUpon, visit StumbleUpon.com

CraftyMamaMia's Tips for selling on Etsy

Hello and Welcome to the first edition of "CraftyMamaMia's Tips for selling on Etsy" I will be blogging each week to help my readers with their Etsy Shop, or maybe you don't have an Etsy Shop, but are interested in opening one?

First I want to say selling on Etsy is not easy, you can't just list a few items and expect them to sell within a few days. It can take a month or longer to snag your first real sale.

This guide is for those who would like to make a business out of their Etsy Shop, not just a hobby.
Tip#1 Don't, no matter what even think about listing an item that is not Handmade, or it will be flagged and your shop could be closed. Of course there are 2 exceptions to this rule. You can sell crafting supplies but the first tag must be supplies. And Vintage, it must be at least 20 years old and in good condition of course, and you MUST tag it vintage as the first tag. Do not list any other mass produced items, this ruins Etsy for all of us.

Tip# 2 Photos
Every experienced seller will tell you that if your photos aren't fantastic than than you may not sell anything. When people are shopping online, they can't pick up the item and check it out. Your photos need to make them feel like they are right there with the item. They need to be clear and full of light. Take photos from more than one angle, if you make clothing use a model for pictures or even a manikin, don't just lay them out and snap a photo, buyers want to know how it looks.
If you were unlucky enough to see my shop when it first opened you know that my photos sucked big time. They were blurry and out of focus. I knew that if I wanted to advance I would need a new camera. So I spent $100 on the latest version of Kodak Easyshare. My pictures improved a lot, but I still had to work on them, for months...
Another tip for photos is consistency, either always taking the first picture at a certain angle or using the same background or both. Make them recognizable as one of your listings.

CraftyMamaMia's Frugal Living Tips

Welcome to this week's edition of CraftyMamaMia's Frugal Living Tips! Has anyone out there started saving money yet? Feel free to leave me a comment.

Tip#1 Buy Used Items
If you need something, check out several thrift stores, there are several sites online (such as Craigslist) where you can find used items and sometimes free items! There is another wonderful site called Freecycle, yep everything is FREE! They have sites for every area, and if there is no site for your area, you can apply to start one of your own. When Freecycle members want to get rid of things, instead of chucking it in the garbage, they put an ad on Freecycle. If someone comes along and needs that item they work out a time and place to go pick it up.
Yard sales are another good one, the earlier you start, the better deals you will find.

Tip #2 Saving water
If you have a monthly water bill you can save money by filling a 1/2 gallon recycled milk jug and putting it the tank in your toilet. Make sure it does not block anything, it may be a tight fit. Every time you or a family member flushes you will save 1/2 gallon of water. It adds up trust me! And don't worry your toilet will flush just fine. You may have to adjust the jug every once in a while though.

Tip#3 Eating out less
I know my family still struggles with this one when we are running late. Did you know the average person spends over $2000 a year eating out? Restaurants are very expensive, you can save a bunch by cooking your own food. If you don't have time to cook every day, you can spend one day a week doing food preparation, then your meals will be simple to fix during the week.

Do you have the willpower to stay away from fast food? I know you can do it!

If you do decide to eat out for a special occasion, I found some money saving tips for restaurants
I hope you have enjoyed my tips this week, check back next week for more tips on Frugal living.

CraftyMamaMia's Frugal Living Tips

Welcome to this weeks edition of Frugal Living Tips.
Tip #1
Energy Saving Bulbs will help you save money on your electric bill, plus they last 5 years instead of a few months. You can read more about them here.
Tip #2
Making your own Laundry detergent is much cheaper than store bought, I want to share some recipes.

Laundry Detergent
Not suitable for Cloth Diapers
1 cup Borax
1 cup Washing Soda (NOT Baking Soda)
1/2 Bar Fels Natha Laundry Bar (grated with a cheese grater)

Mix the 3 ingredients, and use 1/8 cup per load

Laundry Detergent for Cloth Diapers
1 cup borax
1 cup washing soda (NOT baking soda)

Mix the 2 ingredients, Use 1/8 cup AND a squirt of Dawn (plain original Dawn dish Detergent) per load of Diapers.
Instead of Fabric softener use White vinegar, you do not want to use fabric softener on cloth diapers, residue will build up causing the diapers to stink and leak. (If this happens to you, don't despair, you can strip your diapers by washing them once with detergent and then 2-3 times in hot water with no detergent)

Not sure how to wash Cloth Diapers?
I put wet and soiled diapers in a "dry pail" (a dry pail is a trash can with lid and a waterproof liner, no water. also make sure to dump solid poop in the toilet) every 2-3 days I dump them all into the washer (liner too, after it is empty) and I do a cold rinse, then 1 hot wash with detergent, and 1 more cold rinse with vinegar.
If you have stains, hang them outside in the sun or in front of a sunny window to dry, the sun will bleach out the stains.
To save yourself more money hang them to dry, either inside or outside. I have a line inside and outside, plus a drying rack. I don't particularly like the smell of clothes after drying outside, so I only use the outside line for sunning my diapers to remove stains. I have my clothes line going through my bed room. I try to hang every load of laundry unless dry clothes are urgent.

CraftyMamaMia's Frugal Living Tips

What is Frugal living you ask? When you live frugally, you spend less money than you make each month. Resulting in saving money to pay off debt, build a house or maybe even retire early. Over year ago my husband and I did not know how to manage money. Our bills were always late, we spent way to much on groceries and other unnecessary items , etc. Now we have been living frugally and I am proud to say we have no debt, we have 4 acres and a mobile home, and a car, it is all paid off, our bills are now 1/2 of what my husband makes in one month. We are now saving to build an eco-friendly home on our land.

Tip #1
You can save money on the electric bill by unplugging everything when not in use, especially big appliances. They still use electricity when they are completely off, about 40% of what they use while on.

Tip #2


A BIG money saver is switching your home to all cloth, get rid of disposable. If you have a baby in diapers using cloth can save you over $2,000, cloth wipes too. It is not much different than using disposables, except for having to wash them. (Oh my, you might have to smell poop!) If you have sewing abilities you can save yourself even more money by making your own diapers. (I made the diaper in the picture above)

Tip # 3
Using cloth wipes instead of toilet paper for the whole family can be very beneficial too. Much softer than the cheap toilet paper, plus better for the environment and your wallet.
Cloth Menstrual pads, cloth napkins, towels instead of paper towels. There are so many things that people buy these days just to use for a few minutes and throw directly in the trash because they are too busy/lazy to do an extra load of laundry each week.

Qassia: A new place to promote your Website!

I found this site while I was looking through flickr. Basically you add your websites, and then you write about stuff you know, it can be anything, and submit it (they are called "Intel") Every time you submit an intel it will include a backlink to your site. When people read the Intel they will be linked to your website.

Here is the link
http://craftymamamia.qassia.com/

I-spy Spotlight

You can find a large variety of handmade items at CreativeThings. Knit and crochet items such as stuffed animals, scarfs, hats, washcloths, and even cell phone cozies! Creativethings is also a member of EtsyFriends.To visit her shop click the picture above.

Wanna see more Creative Things? check out these blog features!

http://www.EtsyFriends.blogspot.com
http://damdesigns.blogspot.com/
http://sygnetcreations.blogspot.com/
http://belladio.blogspot.com/
http://www.andreabakerdesigns.com/
http://kuncekrafts.blogspot.com/
http://ecram1.blogspot.com/

Keep an eye out on Monday's in the Promo section of Etsy Forums for more rounds of EtsyFriend Ispy for your chance to win free exposure! For more information on the Etsyfriends team please Click Here.

I-Spy Spotlight: Joeben Designs

The owner of Joeben Designs started out making her own invitations for personal events, she even made her own Wedding Invitations. She received so many compliments that she decided to open her own business.
In October 2007, she opened Joeben Designs.
In her shop, you will find a variety of handmade cards, from invitations for any event to Greeting cards. They are all fully customizable, and you can add your own photos as well. Below are some of the items available from her shop.
To visit her shop, click on the picture below.