Lets Ride!

Well this school holidays has been rather good for my scrapbooking.... Playdates are the answer!

I did this layout really quickly during another playdate this week.

As far as layouts go this one isn't very cheap, ($5) but the rub-ons were! I usually don't buy rub ons because they're usually so expensive. They take up my entire weekly scrapbudget in one purchase.

I did find these at a shop very cheap though. The whole sheet was $2.50. The only way to find a bargain is to constantly be looking and to aways know the prices of things! I was browsing in a scrapbooking shop and when I saw these rub ons I had to have them. The price was definitely right and the sayings immediately brought to mind these photos.

I do alot of browsing! Whether its online or in person. To enable me to take advantage of any "specials" I find whilst browsing, I have put aside $20 that I use for these shopping sprees. If I'm browsing in a shop and do find a great buy and have already spent that week's scrapbudget then I can dig into my emergency $20. Of course I'm not allowed to "browse" again until I have repaid the $20 so that may take a week or two but it is totally worth it! There's nothing worse than being unable to take advantage of a great special. I also put any unspent money from a week's scrapbudget into the emergency $20 kitty. That way sometimes (not often mind you...lol) I have more than $20 to spend when I find a great deal!

I find this method of budgeting is great for keeping me on target. If you really want to scare yourself and you're not 'budgeting' your scrapbooking take every receipt from every scrapbooking spend and put them in a file and at the end of a year ad them up. It'll probably shock you. My scrapbooking has always been limited by my budget but even then I was shocked at how much I had spent on my scrapbooking in one month. So now I use my budget system. I have a jar that I drop my weekly scrap allowance in (usually $10, but this could be less if there have been other unforeseen fiscal emergencies) then, if at the end of the week I have extra change in my purse I'll drop that in there too. This means that I can only spend the amount of money from the jar! If I'm wanting a larger ticket item (e.g. tools, stamps etc) I have to save several weeks budget to get it. But despite the fact it takes longer to get these I still think that tools are a much better place to spend your budget! They're well worth the wait because you get the use of the one spend over and over again!