When you’re having a no-spend month you’ve got to get creative when you want or need something. We’ve talked about lots of great ways to get free (useful) stuff, and how you can borrow things instead of buying them. Today we’ll discuss how you can make things that you want and need instead of buying them!
Whether you’re a DIY diva or a creative klutz, there are many things that you can give up buying and make instead!
What are some of the reasons that people choose to make things instead of buy them? Here are some of the reasons I thought of:
- Fun– You get a creative thrill!
- Customize– You pick your own ingredients, design, size, color, etc.
- Because you can— There’s just something cool about being self-sufficient
- Save Money– Some things are cheaper to make than to buy (but some aren’t).
We are going to focus on what we can make to save money. Particularly, we will focus on what we can make so we don’t have to buy something.
Here is a non-exhaustive list of some of the things I have made instead of buying. I’d love to hear what you’ve done in the comments. You can leave a link if you blogged about it.
Food
I’ve written a lot about cooking from scratch, so I won’t go in to great detail here. There are some food staples that we’ve pretty much given up buying in favor of making ourselves: yogurt, beans, tomato products (tomato puree, canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, etc), brownie mix, pancake mix, and bread. We also grow a garden, so we “make” our own produce for much of the year.
Home Cleaning Products
Pinterest is full of DIY cleaning products that really are money-savers. In fact, with just white vinegar and baking soda you can pretty much clean your entire house! Vinegar and baking soda are pretty dirt cheap.
I also use homemade laundry detergent and homemade dishwasher detergent. Because I have been making them for a long time, I keep the ingredients on hand and I never have to buy commercial laundry detergent or dishwasher detergent!
Clothes
With the price of fabric these days, sewing doesn’t necessarily save money. I have a knack for getting fabric free or cheap though, so I’ve sewn many things instead of buying them. I especially like making dresses for my daughters (though I haven’t made any yet for the baby). I often make ties for my boys that match.
Personal Care Products
Once again, Pinterest has your back on this one. You could spend your entire day reading blog posts about making your own personal care products.
There are some personal care products too, that while fun to make, don’t really replace something I would buy. A few years ago I learned to make sugar scrubs, which are easy and feel really nice, but they were just an addition to my current routine, not a replacement for something I was buying.
On the other hand, my recent post on homemade deodorant does replace something that I would otherwise be buying. Of course I had to buy a couple ingredients the first time I made deodorant, but they should last me a while (as in, I will be making it for my grandchildren a few decades from now).
Toys and Gifts
We keep gifts for Christmas and birthdays pretty simple. Our kids are young and we want to keep the holidays simple and meaningful. One way we keep them special is by giving handmade gifts. Whether they’re sewn or built from wood, we try to put love and effort into gifts.
When my oldest was three I wanted to get her a play kitchen. I found a tutorial for repurposing a nightstand into a play kitchen. My husband and I worked together to make a play kitchen out of some furniture we got for free. It has become a special treasure that traveled across the country with us.
Decor
When my husband was initially setting up his law office, he had some bare walls. I used a canvas that I already had at home and made some DIY modern art. I used different-size round caps or lids and dipped them into a plate of acrylic paint. Super easy, but I like how it turned out.
A Warning
If you’re on Facebook, I imagine you’ve seen the meme that says some variation of “I could have bought this for $7.99 but instead I spent $63.84 on supplies and made it myself!” Any crafter will admit that they have done that before, which is why I want to emphasize: just because you make it doesn’t mean it’s cheaper.
Lots of DIY projects cost money for supplies and consume time to complete. That’s fine if that’s your plan, but if your reason for making something is to avoid the cost of buying it, then be careful.
How about you?
- Why do you like to make things (it doesn’t have to be to save money)?
- What have you made to avoid buying something?
You’ll Also Enjoy:
I like making presents for my kids. I’m not a terribly good seamstress; but can still manage softies and quillows and simple projects; and it’s easy enough to get the fabric for free from clothes they’ve outgrown or old sheets or curtains or pillowcases. A queen size sheet with a hole on it still provides TONS of usable fabric for other things! There are also tons of cute printables that can be used to make really fun gifts for kids – room decorations, notecard sets, etc. I also make throw cushions for the house, which take very small amounts of nice fabric (backed with something cheaper) and almost always work out cheaper than store-bought cushions.
It’s almost always cheaper to buy curtains than to make them; however, the last lot of curtains I bought and then modified. I needed two sets of curtains for my daughter’s new bedroom. I priced fabric and choked. Then I found some very cute curtains that will grow with her with tons of colours so that we can pick out different colours to accentuate, on clearance for $5 a pair. The only problem was they weren’t black-out. But a quick stop by the clearance fabric turned up some hideous orange black-out material on sale for $3/meter. It was ugly; but I also knew nobody would ever see it; so I bought enough to line the curtains, and ended up with very cute black-out curtains for a fraction of the price of making them all from scratch or buying new black-out curtains.
Great tips Becca! And great job on the curtains– they can be expensive if you buy or make them, but you did a combination for a great price! 🙂
Clever ideas! Outside the box is my favorite place to play
Stephanie, I couldn’t help but chuckle as I read through this post – we had to make our own deodorant during this no-spend month as well! We also always make our own detergent with Borax and Baking Soda (although I use Dr. Bronners and not Zote [I don’t believe we have it in Canada] and add washing soda to ours due to our hard well water). We are all stocked up on shampoo and toothpaste at the moment, but we are about to have to start using our Dr. Bronners liquid castille soap for our dish detergent as well!!!
That’s a pretty impressive that you’re already making your own deodorant! Way to go with the no-spend month!
I love to bake from scratch as well, and I really enjoy it. I love to experiment and use natural products. Recently I have been looking into creating toys for my son as well. Nothing fancy, but rather fun, especially if I do it with him. If it helps us to save money, even better 🙂
My kids really treasure their toys and things that my husband and I have made for them. It is fun to do and more heartfelt, at least for us.
I love to make my own things but you’re right, you do have to watch the cost to see if you are actually saving money. One of my favorites is making my own liquid laundry detergent. I never wanted to hassle with grating a bar of soap. I’ve written a post on it and I made my own dryer balls too. http://www.thesmartandfrugalpath.com/8-ways-to-save-money-on-laundry/
Awesome Danell! Thanks for sharing!
I’ve been big on DIY. From furniture, to yard projects, to making my own beer. You save tons of money while learning new skills and hobbies at the same time. Nowadays there is too many tutorials and information not to take advantage.
It’s true– there are tutorials on how to make and do just about anything these days! It’s fun to learn new things and have the satisfaction of doing something yourself!
I’m not sure if I missed it, but did you post photos of the bunk bed your husband built? I realize it wasn’t free, but I’m sure it was much cheaper than buying a custom bed! Thanks!!
My husband mentioned that when I was writing the post. I took a picture a while back, but it’s definitely not a Pinterest-worthy picture. I’ll email it to you! 🙂 While we did have to buy the wood, it was definitely cheaper than buying one!
I make my own chapstick! I found on pinterest a DIY for Burt’s Bees chapstick and I will never go back! It did cost a little up front, and I didn’t do the math for my supplies, but the post said it worked out to pennies per tube. I’ve been doing it for a few years and I’m out of supplies now, but I have a large stash of chapstick. Next time I buy my supplies, I’ll see just how cheap they are. When they go for over $3 at the store and I lose most of them before I finish the tube, I know it works out!
Awesome Tracy! I think I pinned a post on DIY Burt’s Bees chapstick a while back on Pinterest, but I haven’t tried it yet!
When I started high school 21 years ago I got into making my own clothing. I had a 20 inch waist and a 35 inch inseam. The only brand of pants I could find that made clothes that fit me was Lucky. However, they were $120 a pair. It would take me 30 hours working on the farm I worked for in the summers to buy a pair of jeans. Instead I went to our local Wal-Mart and bought their sale $1/yard material. I made pants that fit me. I started doing skirts, dresses and had several people request I make their prom and homecoming dresses for them. I also started making quilts. I no longer buy fabric at Wal-Mart, instead choosing to stay away from fast fashion.
I make a majority of the costumes the kids want. After watching Frozen I recreated Elsa’s dress for my daughter. I recreated the Katniss cowl for my niece after she told me she liked it but couldn’t find it anywhere. I am working on an Oogie boogie costume from Nightmare Before Christmas for my teenager, a Mario costume for my 6 year-old and a ballerina for my 4 year-old for Halloween this year.
I make some food from scratch, most of our cleaning supplies, hats, scarves and around 70% of our clothes. I hope to eventually make all our clothing. It saves us money over buying couture and let’s me pick ethical fabrics. I compare prices for clothing I make to couture since the quality is more in line with that than fast fashion products. It also gives me something to do since I retired from working.
That’s awesome Amy! That’s great that you started so young! I love making costumes too (and get pretty carried away with it).