Marji | Fabulessly Frugal: A Coupon Blog sharing Amazon Deals, Printable Coupons, DIY, How to Extreme Coupon, and Make Ahead Meals

DIY Easy Chore Chart & Tips For Simplifying Chores

June 17, 2013 - Leave a Comment

Hey Y’all! I’m back! I had a bit too much on plate for a while so I had to stop doing posts here, but my load has been lightened and I have time to craft again! I am excited to be back! Summer is in full swing and having all the kids home has me reevaluating our daily schedule. I decided the kids needed to do more to help keep the house clean so I came up with this quick and easy chart to make my life a little easier.

My Daily Chores Strategy:

Rotate which room they are in charge of each day
Train your child on what is expected of them in each room
Once they’ve completed their job, they can move their clip to the other side of the chart.
Rule: they have to do their morning chores before they can do any fun stuff (play video games, watch a show, play with friends, etc)

So far this jobs system is working out great! They take care of their areas in the morning and in the evening and our house is a lot cleaner and I am a lot happier!

{Pin This}

[Read more...]

Pin It

By Marji

Quick, Easy, and Adorable DIY Bandana Dress

June 11, 2013 - 27 Comments

Every year we go to a big 4th of July party that our friends host. I wanted something other than the cheap 4th of July shirts you can buy everywhere for my girls to wear to the party. I decided to make them red & blue bandana dresses. These are super easy to make. I made 2 in under 30 minutes {with 2 little girls trying to help me!}. They are inexpensive, under $4/dress and turn out really cute. I am not a good seamstress and get frustrated when I sew and I didn’t have a problem making these. So break out your sewing machine {and dust if off} to make a cute dress.

{PIN THIS}

Here’s what you need: I got it all at Hobby Lobby

[Read more...]

Pin It

By Marji

27 Comments
Filed Under: craft, DIY, Frugal Living
Tagged With: bandana dress, DIY Craft Ideas

Recipe: Yummy Homemade Chicken Pot Pie

October 18, 2012 - 5 Comments

Hey Y’all! I’m going to share with you my favorite Chicken Pot Pie recipe. It is super easy and doesn’t take long to throw together. My little sister gave me the recipe and we make it all the time! All of my kids love it and eat it up when I make it.

{PIN THIS}

Here is what you need to make it:

2 Pie Crusts {you can make your own}

1/3 cup of Butter

1/3 cup of chopped onion {I love frozen onions for this}

1/3 cup of flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1 1/4 cup of chicken broth {I make my own with chicken base & water}

1/2 cup of milk

2 1/2 cups of shredded chicken

1 bag of mixed veggies

This is my favorite way to shred chicken. I boil it until it is done, then while it is still warm put some chicken breasts in the Kitchen Aid and use the flat beater. It shreds it perfectly in about 30 seconds. it saves so much time! I boil up a lot of chicken at once and then freeze in Ziploc bags what I don’t need to save for other recipes.

Melt the butter, then add the onion. I love using frozen onions because I don’t have to chop them up {and cry} and it is a bit of a time saver.

Cook the onions until they are translucent

You can use a can of chicken broth if you want, I love the chicken base, it is a lot cheaper to make broth with it. I just heat the water up in the microwave, add the base and stir and it is ready to use.

Once the onions are cooked, add the flour and salt and pepper. Cook for a couple of minutes.

Add the chicken broth, I use a whisk to get rid of any lumps.

add the milk,

chicken and

veggies. Use whatever kind of veggies your kids will eat.

Mix it up until warm.

Roll out a pie crust into your pie plate {I got this lovely one from my mother in law for Christmas, I love it!}. If you are good at making pie crusts then make your own. I am not good at pie crusts so I buy them. It also saves time to use premade crusts for me.

Put the filling in the pie crust.

Roll the other pie crust on top of the pie and filling

Seal and crimp the edges. If I think about what I am doing I mess up so I can’t really tell you how to do this part, sorry!

Cut vent holes in the top of the pie. I usually do slits, but you can get fancy if you want.

Bake at 425 degrees for 30–40 minutes. I have this nifty crust shield that keeps the edges from getting burned. You can find one here.

Doesn’t that look good? It is so yummy! I let it sit for 5-10 minutes before serving it. It is easy to double the recipe and make it in a cake pan or 2 pie plates and freeze one. I’ve frozen an extra one before and it still tastes as good cooking from frozen. Just wrap it good in saran wrap and foil before you freeze it.

Here’s my happy daughter, this is her favorite dinner!

{PIN THIS}

You can download a copy of the recipe here.

Good Cook 9 Inch Ceramic Pie Plate, Red $15.84

Pin It

By Marji

5 Comments
Filed Under: Frugal Living, Recipes
Tagged With: Chicken, chicken pot pie, recipe

DIY $1 Halloween Frame & Free Halloween Printable

October 11, 2012 - 2 Comments

How to turn a One Dollar Frame into a fun, frugal, and easy Halloween decoration:

I needed one more thing for my entryway table so I I picked up some of my favorite $1 frames and got busy creating this:

{PIN THIS}

It was quick and easy to make {and very inexpensive}. I made 2, one for me and one for a friend. Here is what you need to make your own:

Supplies:

[Read more...]

Pin It

By Marji

2 Comments
Filed Under: craft, DIY
Tagged With: frame, Halloween crafts

DIY Halloween Wreath {Picture Tutorial}

October 4, 2012 - 1 Comment

Last year my girl friends and I had a craft night {and tried} to make Halloween wreaths. We tried an idea we saw on pinterest and it totally flopped! I was so annoyed I threw the wreath away and didn’t think about a Halloween wreath until this year. I picked up the straw wreath from Wal-Mart for a couple of dollars and figured out what I wanted to do. I picked up some stuff at the dollar store and Michael’s and was ready to go. I love making my own wreaths because I can put just what I want on it and it is so much cheaper to buying a premade one. I got everything for my wreath for around $12. Here’s what I used:

halloween wreath

{PIN THIS}

Black Spray paint

Straw wreath

Wooden numbers

Ribbon

Wired ribbon

Spider & Owl

Hot Glue Gun and wire

{I didn’t use the spider web on my final product}

Spray paint the wreath and the numbers. It took a few coats for the wreath. I let it dry overnight.

I decided I wanted to wrap my sheer orange ribbon around the wreath. Put some hot glue on one edge and let it cool. I use a glue stick to rub the glue in place.

Wrap the ribbon around the wreath leaving space between it. I wanted the black to show through. Hot glue it in place after you have gone all the way around. the wreath.

Next I made the bow using wired orange ribbon. Wired ribbon is so much easier to work with when you are making bows. It was hard to take a picture of myself making the bow.

Basically you make some big loops leaving a tail at both ends, when you start the bow and end the bow. I also added a little pouf in the middle before making the final tail.

I couldn’t find my wire so I used a bag tie to hold my bow together.

Pouf it and and separate the loops. This is when the wired edge comes in handy, it helps the bow hold it’s shape.

For the tails, fold it in half and cut it diagonally.

Now you are ready to assemble your wreath. This is something you just have to play with before you glue everything on. I put things on and change it up until it looks how I want it too.

I used my hot glue gun to attach everything to my wreath.

Spider (from the dollar store) I stuck toothpicks in his belly so he would stay just where I wanted him to. I also used a little hot glue on him. I hot glued my owl on the wreath. I picked the owl up at Michael’s.

I decided I needed some sparkle on my wreath so I put some black glitter on my 31. I just brushed mod podge on them and sprinkled them with black glitter.

then I hot glued them on my wreath.

I used some of the extra ribbon to tie around the wreath to hang it on my front door. I just stuck some thumbtacks into the top of my door to hold it in place. Once I hung it up I puffed up my bow a little more and put the tails where I wanted them. Here’ s the finished product. I love how it turned out. When making wreaths, you just have to kind of let them evolve and you don’t always use everything you bought for them.

{PIN THIS}

Check out all of our other DIY and frugal crafts ideas!

Pin It

By Marji

1 Comment
Filed Under: craft, DIY
Tagged With: Halloween crafts, wreath

DIY Halloween Banner

September 27, 2012 - Leave a Comment

Can you believe October is almost here?! This month has flown by. I love Fall, the cooler weather and all the holidays coming up. I usually just do a little decorating for Halloween. Last year I kept meaning to make a Halloween banner and never did so I got it done early this year. It was easy to make and I love how it looks on my mantle. I haven’t found the rest of my Halloween décor (I moved and have no idea where the box of decorations is so my mantle is a little bare). Here is what you need to make one too:

{PIN THIS}

Some decorative Halloween Paper (I found mine at hobby lobby)

Black and Orange cardstock

Glue Gun {get one here}

Mod Podge {get it here}

Black Glitter {get it here}

Pom Pom Yarn

I used my lovely Silhouette to cut out the Banner pieces and Letters to spell Spooky. If you don’t have one you you can find a shape you want for your banner and just cut it by hand, the same for the letters. I used this fun font for my letters called Biker Bones. You can download it for FREE here.

Aren’t the letters fun for Halloween? I love how they look like bones. I wanted my letters sparkly so I put black glitter on them. Use a sponge brush to put Mod Podge all over the letter.

If you use glitter a lot, these trays are awesome! I can’t do glitter without mine, they keep it contained. You can find one here. I just dump a lot of glitter over the letter then shake it off and set it on some paper to dry.

Then you funnel the glitter back in to the jar!

This is a great trick that I LOVE, after the glitter has dried on, it still has a tendency to flake off {which I don’t like} if you take some Clear Acrylic Sealer and give it a light spray over the letters then it will stop the glitter from shedding. It dries fast too!

While the letters are drying, get to work on the banner. I decided I wanted my edges to look a little distressed so I took a sponge and some black ink and rubbed it along the edges of my patterned paper.

Hot Glue the patterned paper to the cardstock.

Next I place my letters on so I can make sure I spell it right in the correct order

Then hot glue the letters on

Then measure your pom pom yarn to see how long it needs to be for your mantle and place the letters evenly apart.

hot glue the pom poms onto the the banner, be careful not to burn yourself!

and hang it on your mantle.

{PIN THIS}

I used some of these 3m hooks on my mantle. I love them because they don’t damage my mantle and are out of sight.

Pin It

By Marji

Leave a Comment
Filed Under: craft, DIY
Tagged With: banner, craft, DIY, Halloween Banner, Halloween crafts, Homemade

DIY Large Typography Sign {Picture Tutorial}

September 13, 2012 - Leave a Comment

I have seen lots of large typography signs all over pinterest. I saw this one and knew it would be perfect for a wall in my house, but couldn’t pay the $45 price tag (my kids are always needing new shoes and things like that). I figured out how to make it for under $10. It takes a bit of patience to get it just right, but was pretty easy to put together. The only thing I had to buy was the large piece of wood. It is a 24X24 piece of plywood that I got at Lowes for around $5. Here is what you need:

{PIN THIS}

24X24 piece of Wood

2 colors of spray paint {I used Valspar Bright Red and Krylon Ivory both in Satin finish, I did not want it to be glossy}

Vinyl Stencil {I cut mine out with my Silhouette, you can download my studio file here} If you don’t have a vinyl cutting machine find a friend who has one or you could go to a local sign and banner place and they could cut some vinyl for you. Or you can print it out and use some carbon paper to trace the words onto the board and paint it by hand.

Mod Podge & Sponge Brush {forgot to get them in the picture}

First spray paint your board. My board was pretty smooth and didn’t need to be sanded at all, but it is a good idea to dust it off before you paint.

Red is a color you have to do lots of coats of. I’m not sure how many I did, probably around 4 or 5. I let it dry overnight (remember I’m in Arkansas and it is HUMID here so things take longer to dry!)

Lay out your vinyl stencils on your board to make sure they all fit. I wasn’t going to use transfer paper, but it was a little easier to use it. The vinyl didn’t stick great to the wood so I had to work hard to get the transfer paper off without pulling the vinyl off. Pulling it off at an angle seemed to be easier

It helped to put the backing on top of the vinyl to help press out the air bubbles. The vinyl can stretch or tear easily so be careful. Just using your fingers works good too.

Also don’t pull all the backing paper off at once! Pull about 2 inches off and get it placed then slowly pull it off as you press the vinyl down. This is the part not to go to fast and just take your time. I rushed on the first one and had lots of air bubbles to work out.

I put the “this” on vinyl first and you can see it has the most bubbles, I got better as I did the rest of the board

After you get them all on now you take your mod podge matte

and brush it over the edges of the letters. You do this to help prevent bleeding through. Don’t put it on too thick. I brushed it over the whole letter so it would all be the same finish when I painted it.

I taped up the parts of the board that the vinyl didn’t cover so they wouldn’t be spray painted. You can also paint it with acrylic paint if you don’t want to use spray paint.

Now I spray painted with the ivory.

I think I used about 4 coats, until the red didn’t show through. I let it dry for a few hours.

The next part is my favorite, peeling off the vinyl and seeing the magic!

You can see a little ivory bled through, but I think it happened more when I held the can too close.

{When I first hung it I used the 3M picture hanging strips. They didn’t stick good to the unfinished wood on the back and it fell off the wall. So I texted my friend who has a similar sign and she said she hot glued a soda can tab to the back of the sign. I tried it and it works perfectly! I love it because it is FREE!! The sign is so thin and I din’t want to nail into it for fear it would go through the other side.

Here it is on my wall:

I added some pictures to the wall:

{PIN THIS}

I love how it fills up this little wall in my house. I have a few more things I want to add to the wall, but haven’t found them yet (we just moved and have lots of things in boxes still!). So for around $10 I made this awesome sign that makes me happy when I see it.

Pin It

By Marji

Leave a Comment
Filed Under: craft, DIY, Frugal Living
Tagged With: DIY Craft Ideas, large sign

DIY Lego Table {Picture Tutorial}

August 30, 2012 - 10 Comments

I have 4 kids and they all love Legos. My husband loves to buy them Legos. Needless to say, we have lots of Legos. I’ve been struggling with a good place for them to play with them and keep them contained. One of my friends has a Lego table she made with an IKEA table, but we don’t have an IKEA that I can run to so I had to come up with something else. I saw a side table at Target and knew it would be perfect. Here is what you need:

{PIN THIS}

Side table-I found mine at Target it was $15, I have seen them on sale and clearance, you just have to keep your eyes out for it.

1 Lego building plate -you can find one here, I picked mine up at toysrus- make sure you buy the extra large one, it comes in gray

A glue gun {you can use a more permanent glue like e6000 if you want}

Our table was 18×18 inches and our base plate was 15×15 inches so my husband measured in 1 1/2 inches from each edge and marked it with chalk so the base plate would be centered on the table. I’ve seen other tables that they put together lots of smaller base plates to cover the table completely. When I found that Lego made a 15×15 inch base plate I decided to go that route because it was the easiest.

You have to work fast on this next part, cover the back of the base plate with hot glue. I used my big glue gun because it is hotter and the glue stays hot longer giving me more time to get it placed in the right spot.

Place it on the top of the table, lining it up between the marks you made.

Press it down with your hands to make sure it has stuck evenly all over.

We flipped the table over and pressed down for a minute for good measure.

Last,we screwed the legs onto the table and it was ready to go.

Our kids were so excited about I and have played with them for hours everyday. We had to make another one for the girls (using a red table).

It took us less than 10 minutes to make each table and was around $30 per table. All of kids (from 2 1/2 to 7 1/2) love them and have so much fun with them, they were worth every penny!

{PIN THIS}

What Lego set do your kids LOVE?

–>> LEGO Ultimate Building Set – 405 Pieces for $24.58! <<–

Pin It

By Marji

10 Comments
Filed Under: craft, DIY, Frugal Living
Tagged With: DIY, How To Make a Lego Table, Lego table

Bean and Corn Salsa {Picture Tutorial}

August 16, 2012 - Leave a Comment

Hey Y’all! I’m going to share with you my most requested recipe. I’ve made it for showers and parties and pot lucks and I always get requests for the recipe. Everyone loves it. I just had a friend Facebook me asking for it (she was on vacation and was craving it). It is perfect for a picnic or pool party.

{PIN THIS}

I love that it uses a few shelf stable ingredients that I can always have on hand in my pantry. Here is what you need to make it:

Drain and rinse the black beans in a colander.

Drain the corn & rotel.

chop the green onions

Now make the dressing: 2 tsp. extra virgin olive oil

2 tsp. red wine vinegar

juice of 1 lime

1 tsp. cumin, salt & pepper to taste

mix it up with a fork

pour over the veggies in a mixing bowl

I put it in the fridge to chill for a few hours. The longer it sits, the better it is as the flavors develop together. Right before serving it add the avocado. If avocados are cheap I use 3, if they are pricey I add 2 diced avocados. It is easiest to cut it in the skin then scoop it out with a large spoon.

Now it is ready to eat! I always taste it at this point to see if I need to add any salt or pepper or a little extra lime juice. My favorite chips to serve with it are the Tortilla scoops. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

{PIN THIS}

Here’s the recipe all together:

Marji’s Bean & Corn Salsa

1 can black beans-drained & rinsed
1 can corn, drained
1 can rotel (the Mexican one is good, but so is the original)
1 bunch green onions, chopped

2-3 avocado diced
Mix the above in a bowl, then add the dressing
2 tsp. olive oil
Juice of 1-2 limes
2 tsp. red wine vinegar
1 tsp. cumin
salt & Pepper to taste,
Mix the dressing in a small bowl and pour over veggies. It is good refrigerate until you serve it , a few hours to give the flavors time to really develop. I usually add the avocado right before I serve it so it doesn’t go brown.

Pin It

By Marji

Leave a Comment
Filed Under: Recipes
Tagged With: bean & corn salsa, recipe