Diaper Bag on a Budget

I'm all about finding a good deal... heck that's what my blog is all about.  So here is my good deal find.

When you become a mom you're all about finding a bag that will not only hold your things but your babies things as well. Of course the more kids you have the more things you are packing as well.

I have had a petunia pickle bottom bag for a few years and have loved it.  The only down side is it's so hard to find things in that bag.  I do have a older bag so I know they have designed it differently and have come out with a bag with more space. But those bags don't come cheap. Insert saving mom now....

I started doing my research on finding a good diaper bag back pack for a good price but wasn't getting a cheap looking bag. I came across the SOHO bag. It only had a few reviews but all of them were really good. I needed a diaper bag back pack for my upcoming trip to Florida with my family. I wanted something that fit a good amount of stuff with out having it put a lot of pressure on my shoulders. This bag would be used at DisneyWorld and more wonderful places that we are going. Plus having strollers straps that comes with the bag was a big deal for me.

I found this bag on amazon for $20 dollars. That's right $20 dollars. It wasn't $20 dollars when I put it in my wish list, but the thing I love about amazon is they will email you when  an item in your cart/wish list goes down in price.

So far I am loving this bag. It's been so easy getting it on and off plus in and out of my car. There is more stuff in this bag and it feels so light. I'm excited to test this baby out on my trip!!

Melanie

Train Costume

This Halloween I wanted to make my kids costumes. I have said this for years but just haven't been able to do all of them because they don't think of what they want to be until a few weeks prior. Every year my family has a tradition of doing a family party at my Aunt and Uncles home. It's been going on for years and one of my favorite things to go too. This year the party was sooner in the month which made me more determined to get the costumes made on time

My son who is almost 4 kept telling me he wanted to be a ghost train for Halloween.  I kept asking him what kind of costume he wanted and he told me just a train. So I hit the web and started looking for ideas. I found a few pictures on Pinterest and showed them to my son. He then saw one that was a black train and told me that was it. My mom brain started to do some thinking of how I was going to put this together. Luckily my mom has a bunch of boxes in her basement and I found one that worked.

I took a paper box along with a shoe box and a toilet paper roll.

I cut a hole in the top and made sure I had room for the toilet paper roll and for the shoe box. I then cut the lid in half and put it on the back. I hot glued the shoe box and the lid. I used duct tap to make sure It wasn't going to fall off. I then took the other half of the lid and marked a curve on the side and glued that to the front.

After I made sure everything was glued or tapped on good. I duct tapped the entire box. I tried to find black construction paper but I couldn't find any by me. It was insane how many stores I went to in search for black paper.  But the duct tap worked great and it was cheap.

After I tapped it all up I added straps to the train. I ended up using some scrap black ribbon that I had lying around.  I glued them on and then tapped them.  I then duct taped the toilet paper roll to make it black and glued it on.

For the wheels I cut out extra cardboard and used white paper to make the spokes.  For the front I used a paper bowl and made it look like Thomas who turned into a Ghost.  That's what my son wanted. I used one of my sons trains to get an idea of how to do the trim around the train. I used red card stock and tapped that on.

This costume cost me a total of $8 dollars.

Melanie

Top Quality Clothes on a Budget

I've been doing some research on finding clothes that are good quality for a smaller price. I love higher quality clothes because they last longer and you know you're getting your moneys worth if you do spend more. But sometimes that's not always the case.

We can fork out a ton of money for a cute dress, shirt or jeans. And then we notice after a few washes or wears it's pilling (balls all over your clothes) and or getting holes in it. It's super frustrating. Even when you are on a tight budget.

I've heard about a few websites that sell cute good quality clothes for a cheaper price. I was skeptical at first. I'm mean who wouldn't be when it comes to cute clothes that are really cheep. I was surprised when I checked out Shein and Romwe. They have a lot of the same clothes but can be cheeper on the other sites.  So far I have purchased a hand full of tops and have been extremely satisfied.

This is a top I got off of Shein for $12 bucks!!! It reminds me of a shirt I wore when I was in elementary. haha I love the detail on the front and how it still makes me feel like I'm a grown up but not a sloppy mom. The fabric is extremely soft and so comfortable to wear. I did notice that the top is cropped shorter than I normally like to have my shirts be. So I would defiantly recommend wearing it with high rise
jeans/shirt.

Melanie