DIY frugal projects

[rainysparadigm]

Hi,

I was wondering, what current or past DIY frugal projects have you done? It can be something as simple as making a bird feeder from an empty carton, or maybe some larger house remodelling that by using a little creativity and some hard work, you saved $ and felt ... accomplished.

Here's mine to share, and what made me wonder what others have done. I have a ball python that I've raised since an egg (yep! an egg!) and he's fast outgrown his little 'starter' tank. He will get about 5 feet and will need a decently large tank to be happy, 35 gallon is min. But like others Ive seen on this board, I dont like to provide the bare minimum to my creatures. (I once spent an entire overtime paycheck on entertainment for the cats.)

A large tank and stand was offered as "if you can move it, it's free". After a couple attempts of finding someone with a vehicle large enough to move the 6 foot monsters, I got it home to realize that I had no way to securely cover it. So we bought 2 reptile tank lids for 55 gallon tanks, which fit perfectly except for each end that met in the middle. I enlisted my manager who was a former blacksmith to flatten each end, and they fit perfectly. Then I discovered that there was no way to clamp the lids down! So after some mulling it over, it was decided to cut thick plexiglass the length of each side, attach it with aquarium seal and clamped it until dry. Tonight was the anticipated unveiling and everything sits and clamps perfect and secure! All that's left is a little clean up and decorating, and by this weekend, the snake will have a huge tank to call home.

All in all it cost under $100. That sounds like alot, but the stand alone is worth at least that much, let alone a 200 gallon glass aquarium. It took the aid of several people, between brainstorming and handywork but in the end I think we're all happy with the accomplishment.

[GOTO Fashion]

I recently blogged about two projects I recently completed: cheap wall art and a maternity belly band. The wall art took about 1.5 hours to complete, while the belly band took about 20 minutes. I love DIY projects, and get immense satisfaction out of knowing that I made something myself instead of purchasing it ready-made. I also get a kick out of knowing how much cheaper something is when it's made by hand.

[rainysparadigm]

goto- i love the wall art! im inspired to do something along that line myself, as we have begun to 'theme' each room in our house and dont often find artwork to our liking that fits our theme. great idea to cover that one little wall that nothing fits =)

[gt0163c]

I've done a variety of projects around my house.
I built a book case and CD tower a while back. This was when I was still in my last apartment and wanted things that were of very specific sizes. I used inexpensive lumber, covered it with inexpensive cloth and a base coat of netural colored "oops paint" from Home Depot (or Loews. I don't remember which.). Then I sponge painted the pieces in colors that matched my general decor and they look great. I still use both pieces of furniture today and have, in fact, expanded the CD tower.

With the help of a few friends, I decked the attic of my garage. Basically that was just cutting plywood, laying it on the rafters and nailing it down. I also built some basic shelves for the garage. Just 2x4 and plywood, but since it's in the garage, it doesn't have to look great.

I've done lots of basic maintenance and parts replacement on my lawn mower. Last weekend I think I figured out why it's slowly leaking gas. By Googling the make and model number I've been able to find detailed part breakdowns for my lawnmower which has helped me figure out what I need to replace and how to get to it. I ordered a couple of replacement parts from a local landscape/lawnmower parts and repair place and hope that this will get me through at least another season. Seems like I spend about $20 and two afternoons per season in lawn mower parts and maintenance. I figure that's not too bad, especially considering the mower is 12 years old and I bought it used for $50.

I recaulked around my bathtub not long after I moved into my house. The caulk that the builders used shrank, dried and cracked in multiple places. I replaced it with a larger quantity of higher quality caulk and have had no further problems.

Before I moved into my house I also installed blinds and curtains in most of the windows. I've hung towel racks, many pictures and a number of hooks and such on the walls. I also hung some pullies from sky hooks in my master closet. That's allowed me to hang my sleeping bag and a bag that holds my down comforter when they're not in use. And it makes use of extra space in my closet that, for some reason, has 14 foot ceilings.

[lucille]

Goto- I did something similar with some old b&w images for our kitchen & bathroom. I found tons of smaller frames at the dollar store. You might want to mention though for people to not run vellum through a laser printer, it will melt.

If your looking for high resolution photos for a project like this the Library of Congress has a huge data bank of free to use images. Their newer collection of WWII women is really cool.

[rachael24]

Good deal Lucille...thanks for the info

[lucille]

We have bought many pieces of older furniture and refurbished them. We have found most of them at goodwill or off of freecycle. I found a 1970's era heavily carved wood bedside table. I painted it in pinks and greens to match her room, adding color to the carving. I also recently found another nightstand at goodwill for $6. It looked horrible so everyone was passing it over. Some kid had covered the front in stickers and hooked a combination padlock to the drawer pull. But the construction is solid and it is solid hardwood. It is out in the garage waiting to be stripped and refinished.

We also got our current bed off of freecycle. It is one of those late 70's captains style waterbed in dark walnut. It took me three of those wood knick pens and some furniture oil but it came out really nice.

I also got a rather cool chandelier off of freecycle, rewired it and added some shades. I have a blog post of it here http://darkstyleblog.blogspot.com/20...handelier.html

[jdp]

I do things that aren't so much for frugality but for 'green-ness'.

Instead of pitching those giant old boxes from ds's diaper days I covered them with wrapping paper from holidays or birthdays (don't laugh at me diving at a kid before they could crumple it lol) even if crumpled to act as ds's toy bins while friends and family were spending $40 or more on toy bins. Some needed a few layers or some strapping with duct tape to be sturdy enough.

Instead of buying starter trays for seeds I use an old tote that lost its lid (or it cracked or something) and save up tp rolls and do the newspaper wrap thing to create little pods that can later be planted.

I compost vs. buying.

Instead of buying space bags (but the organizer in me SO loves space bags) I put the word out at a family gathering that if people bought sheets/comforter sets or anything that came in those clear plastic zippered bags I'd take the bags if they didn't want them then I just compress and pack well.

Most yard stuff such as feeders, sand toys, etc. have come from household items remade (paper milk cartons as feeders, plastic ones as sand scoops and funnels, cereal boxes saved to make "ramps" for cars and trucks to jump). OJ containers, the plastic that look like glass - are pretty once de-labeled, washed and maybe painted with some floral pics and make nice 'vases' esp for as many as I need once summer comes and ds goes into collection mode.

Most of our decorations are from nature - pressings, dried things, ds's 'collections' from walks.

I've taken furniture that friends or family was going to discard because it was 70's out of style and painted it - its Broyhill and so solid its awesome!

When the neighbors were pitching their 'disposable' bookcase I snagged it and cut up the wood to make shelving in a closet that it was impossible to buy premade shelving for.

Instead of buying the kids 'play kitchen' stuff I offered a $1 for a bag of unsold things from a yardsale down the street. Then I reuse/recycle appropriate kitchen containers after cleaning them.

All halloween costumes are saved as 'dress up play' -which brings me to my next project - snagging a tall set of bookshelves or some such for cheap or free and remaking into a dress up storage unit. Not something you want to put a lot into as its not something that will follow them through the years lol.

[GOTO Fashion]

rainysparadigm - glad you liked it. I am notoriously frugal and picky when it comes to home decoration (it took me 2 years to find a wool rug for my living room that I liked), so after countless hours looking at all the stores I could think of for wall art, I finally came up with this idea. Have fun with it - you'd be surprised what you can find out there!

lucille - thanks for the tip on the vellum and the LOC database. I used an HP laser printer for this project and have used vellum in other printers before - have you had first-hand experience with this? I'd hate to have someone ruin a printer on this! I can't wait to see what the LOC database has in store - I've been wanting to do an old-fashioned circus-themed collage or one using antique photographs from India for a long time...

[lucille]

Originally Posted by GOTO Fashion

rainysparadigm - glad you liked it. I am notoriously frugal and picky when it comes to home decoration (it took me 2 years to find a wool rug for my living room that I liked), so after countless hours looking at all the stores I could think of for wall art, I finally came up with this idea. Have fun with it - you'd be surprised what you can find out there!

lucille - thanks for the tip on the vellum and the LOC database. I used an HP laser printer for this project and have used vellum in other printers before - have you had first-hand experience with this? I'd hate to have someone ruin a printer on this! I can't wait to see what the LOC database has in store - I've been wanting to do an old-fashioned circus-themed collage or one using antique photographs from India for a long time...

Some vellum is actually plastic instead of a paper product and will melt going through the high heat fuser of a laser printer. Uh, don't run glossy paper through a laser printer unless it is labeled for laser printer use. I learned that one the hard way. I had to replace the fuser in our big 4 color Lexmark. That was a really expensive oops.