Quarterly review

Wondering how I'm going with the budget this year?  And the $1 per use guideline?

Well first I thought I'd quickly share with you what I've been working on in the past week or so.  Lately, as each month draws to a close, I look through the sketches and other challenges pinned to my board and see if there's any I really want to complete by the end of the month.  This month,  I realized that it wasn't challenges I needed to catch up on, it was "non-challenge" pages!

When I first started "spend less, craft more" I only knew of the existence of two challenge blogs, and my goal of completing 2 challenges per month seemed almost a "pie in the sky", no drama if I didn't achieve it  sort of goal.  But last month alone I completed 9 challenges, leaving no time for those less challenge-worthy pages I still want to scrap.

This first page I quickly whipped up about one of Maddy's Taekwon Do gradings, very appropriate with her and Angus grading again just last weekend.  It tickled my funny bone to use a very feminine floral on a martial arts page, appropriate for my once ballerina princess who is now more of a ninja warrior!

This next page is still a work in progress.  It is about Rohan's 11th birthday party, which we had at a sports centre.  I had printed out heaps of photos, and instead of culling, I decided to use Shimelle's double page and a half concept, with a divided page protector in the middle (from 4x6 photo love, sorry not sure which one, somewhere between 9 and 11?)

For this one, I am using papers from my "A Boy's Life" 6" pad, mostly off-cuts.  I decided to let the photos and story speak for themselves: no extra embellishments!  Some of you might have heart failure even considering this concept, but to me, this is somewhat of a relief, not having to come up with embellishments for a boy page beyond just the papers.

And now to the budget . . .
As of the 31st of March, I have spent $55.40, plus a rather large sum on re-inkers (see the least fun experience of the year  to read that story).  I am still working on exactly how they fit into the budget, and probably won't finalise that until I have my swap/sell/re-ink day hopefully early next term.

I have purchased:

• stamps for $17 - used those stamps 4 times and other stamps 14 times, meaning $11 worth of value so far.

• black and white tulle, which I have used enough times in terms of the $1 per use guideline, but there sure is plenty left!
•  2 6" pads at $9 each.  have used these new ones 10 times, and older ones 4 times.  
• spent $18 on empty misting bottles - used 3 times so far.  a good reason to have a review . . . don't forget to keep using them!
•  a sheet of label stickers for $2, haven't used them yet, but have used older stickers twice (I think it actually might be more, but that's what I have written down)
• I've found patterned papers a tricky one, what sort of cap should I put on how many to have in the stash?  Because I do still like the idea of some stash, as long as I am working my way through it! I have bought a total of 18 new sheets of paper this year, and have used 8 new sheets, and 2 older ones. 

So, overall travelling OK, but I seriously need to get out those misters, and keep stamping!