"Rapunzel.....let down your hair! Now you say it, mommy."

This is the phrase I keep hearing from atop my daughters bunk bed as she pleads for me to say it to her. Guess what she wants to be for Halloween?

When she told me that she wanted to be Rapunzel for Halloween I cringed at the thought of paying for a Disney princess dress. I never imagined a Disney Rapunzel dress would be $42.50. $42.50 for a one time wear dress!!! I don't think so. I was talking with my mother-in-law about my daughter's wishes and she immediately thought of a purple skirt that I could use for material. With that in hand I watched Tangled for the millionth time with my daughter and just looked at her dress. I could make that, I thought.

Next trip to the fabric store I scowered the sale patterns to see if I could find anything close to it and low and behold I find the trademarked Disney Rapunzel costume pattern. And even better it was on sale for $0.99! Needless to say I picked it up. The purple skirt wasn't quite enough for the entire dress, but I sifted through my fabric bin and found enough scraps of a white material to do the rest with. I had scrap ribbon (from my wedding 9 years ago) and I just used white thread.

Grand total? $1.08 for one Rapunzel costume that my husband has dubbed "adorable." To make things even more adorable I'm going to use more left over material from my wedding and make our youngest Pascal (the chameleon from Tangled). Her costume will be completely free.

(The yellow is fabric for her very long hair.)

Even if you don't know how to sew you can borrow, trade, and barter for a killer costume this year. In fact I just heard about a store in Kirkland, WA that is doing a costume swap. Its deadline is past (I heard about it too late), but I'm sure there are others like it out there. Just get creative and spread the word. You never know who will have what you need.

Messy Eater

My youngest is a really messy eater. And to make things worse her neck is so skinny none of the waterproof bibs completely cover her neck. All of her shirts have a brown haze on their necklines. Instead of buying new clothes, or new bibs, I got creative and made these:

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh Cheap!

I was at a playgroup today and the hosting mother had a craft out. And what an easy and inexpensive craft it was. The kids made paper bag puppets and then put on a puppet show. Each kid used one paper bag, scraps of paper, and crayons. If you were to purchase the materials it would only cost a few cents per puppet! I usually keep small paper bags in good condition for such an occasion and I scrapbook so I always have a pile of scraps for my daughter to use. I could safely do this craft for free.

No need to pay outrageous prices for art kits. A well stocked art corner (with lots and lots of free and recycled materials) are all you need.

Returning for good......hopefully!

I'M BACK! I have survived another child's baby years and am ready to get back into blogging. :) I will be doing it a little bit different than I did before but posts will still be packed with money saving tips and creative ideas to help anyone live more frugally. Hope you enjoy!

GroupOn

Here's an interesting site that I ran into. You can get amazing deals and coupons each day for your area (in my case Seattle). However, the catch is that unless they get enough people to sign up for it in that day, you might not get it. The concept is group buying. Go to http://www.groupon.com/ to check it out.