Just in case you’re new here, let me catch you up. I’m a tightwad! I’m a single mom, living on a teacher’s disability retirement. If you’ve ever heard about how poorly teachers are paid, you REALLY don’t want to know what a teacher’s disability retirement is like, it’s even more depressing.
There isn’t much money in the budget for redecorating. Even when there was more budget available, I was notorious for being able to decorate on a dime. My greatest purchase ever was a double reclining LazyBoy sofa that I paid $50 for. One end was wobbly but it didn’t stop me from loving it. I loved it even more when I realized that the wobbly arm was caused by a long screw that had worked itself loose. A thorough cleaning, a screw tightening, and my $50 couch still looks great years later!
Since I frequently shop at yard sales, thrift shops, Bookoo, and other frugal locales, I often find things that grab my eye. If they’re fairly inexpensive, I go ahead and pick them up, even if they aren’t the right color. As long as it’s a style that matches mine, it’s mine. It may sit for a while until I figure out exactly what to do with it, but eventually all of my little purchases find their home within mine.
Over the summer, my daughter and I found this cross at a local thrift shop. She loved it, but it didn’t match anything in our house. At the whole whopping price of $1, I couldn’t refuse her though. I knew that eventually we would find a place that it would look right in.
Then my daughter asked me to go with her to her dad’s house and help her make her room feel more like her own. Until then, it was a hodge podge collection of her things, her dad’s things, and things her grandparents had brought to make it homier for them all. We started with her comforter and found paint colors that matched it. Then we raided my stash of little goodies that would make her room her own.
We were able to transform this cross into a beautifully new styled cross which matched her newly made over room. In addition to my stash of “pretties,” I also have a great stash of spray paint. Some friends had recently moved and donated a TON of great spray paint to us. In this stash we found a can of Rust-Oleum Hammered Spray Paint in Brown. It was perfect to go with her new digs and kept the cross from having that dull, flat looking finish. We had to hunt and hunt and hunt at multiple stores in order to find a bag of marbles to replace the red ones. Our were found at a toy store, but thankfully Walmart does sell them as well.
The end result? Absolutely beautiful, don’t you think? We were very impressed and it was a beautiful tie-in to the rest of her new decor. Best of all, we spent less than $5 and have plenty of materials left over for future projects.
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