Bedroom Redo

So weeks ago I decided to redo my bedroom. I wanted to do it for less than $50 since I had to use my own money. Plus I like a challenge! See the bottom of the post for my budget vs. what I spent!

I really had no idea what I wanted to do just that I was tired of brown and blue. I began perusing Pinterest and fell in love with gray and yellow.

Now one thing you should know before I start this before & after post is that I'm terrible about taking before pictures. I never remember until I've already started...

The Walls...

Started out brown (the blue flowers were only on this wall)

In process...

End result: gray!

The Curtains...

These were our blue curtains. Notice I forgot to take a before picture BEFORE we took all the drawers out of the dresser...The curtains we had before were a lot longer so I had to hang them up high. I've been wanting to lower them since I got the blue ones but I never got around to it. I was so excited to do it now and in the end I had to fold up the bottom of the new curtains because they were too long! But I wasn't ABOUT to move them AGAIN!

I had budgeted $10 for curtains from Goodwill. I wasn't sure if I wanted gray or yellow. I ended up with Cream and Gray. Since our blue curtains were lined I wanted to make sure I had 2 layers of curtains. I dyed the cream colored curtains yellow and sewed them to the top of the gray. Since they weren't as wide I got a nice set of gray "stripes" on either side of the yellow! :)

 Tada!

Like I said...the curtains were longer than I anticipated so I bubbled the bottom and it's being held closed by a t-shirt rose I never wear.

Over the bed...

I knew I wanted something over the bed. I searched Pinterest for a sign or clever saying and ended up with "You Are My Sunshine"...it seemed fitting with the yellow theme. I bought an old shelf at Goodwill for $1.49, took off the brackets and modge podged letters cut out on my cricut.

I had 2 white picture frames hanging over our dresser for years (only 1 had a picture) so I moved those, added yellow backgrounds and new pictures.

Before...

 After!

Over the dresser...

Like I said the two white picture frames were originally over the dresser. I didn't get a picture of them but you're not missing anything. I tried to hang them asymmetrically and it didn't turn out well, plus one was empty. So, what to put over the dresser now?? While looking through a box for a different picture frame I found a stack of small framed pics that I'd had hanging in our old house. The frames were from Ikea (the cheap kind that don't even have glass). I had stained them but I wanted to keep things mostly white in the bedroom so I painted them. Then because I'm lazy and didn't want to individually hang all the frames I glued them together!

The Other Wall...

I have to have my full length mirror and for most of the time we've lived in this house it's been sitting on the floor leaning against the wall. It was briefly hung but in the middle of the night it fell off the wall, scaring the be-jeebers out of us! 

The one picture that had been hanging over the dresser is one of our favorites so I decided to move it to this wall. I hung the mirror and frame with yellow ribbon to bring more yellow into the room.

The Bed...

I knew I couldn't afford a new comforter so I went back and forth about what to do. I considered trying to dye our old one gray but finally decided to buy some king size sheets and make a duvet. Let me tell you I was NOT looking forward to it but it was really my only option. So I budgeted $15 for sheets at Goodwill. I walked in and went straight for the bedding area and the first thing I pulled out was a king sized gray duvet cover. Yes. You read that right. Exactly what I needed...for $2.99! 

Our old comforter...

The new Gray duvet!

The Lamps...

I actually wasn't sure if I was going to change the lamps because it wasn't really in the budget but since I got the bed covered for $2.99 I decided I could swing it! I found 2 awesome white lamps at Goodwill but they didn't have shades so I ended up getting shades at Walmart. Believe it or not the lamps (including shades) ended up being my most expensive purchase.

The lamps originally had gold trim...

I painted it gray and put a satin sealer over it. It's not perfect but it works!

The Budget...

Here's how it turned out:

                 

Paint - 

(Budgeted) $15  (Actual) $8.97

Duvet - 

(B) $15 (A) $2.99

Curtains - 

(B) $10 (A) $9.96

Sign - 

(B) $2 (A) $1.49

Ribbon - 

(B) $2 (A) $.62

Pictures - 

(B) $2 (A) $2.94

Dye - 

(B) $2 (A) $2.87

Lamps - 

(B) $0 (A) $5.98

Shades - 

(B) $0 (A) $9.94

Total Budgeted = $48/ Total Spent $45.76

There you have it! I love all the new stuff. Jarrod hates the gray. That's life :) 

There's an app for THAT too!

My latest favorite money saving app is called...

Ibotta
This app is full of coupons! Here's the basics:

Choose an item in the list of 50+ and picks ways to earn. Some of them have quick one question surveys, some have a short video to watch, some you can share on facebook. You pick and the money adds up.

THEN, you shop! When you purchase things on your list you take a pic of your receipt with your phone then scan the items barcode and BOOM the money enters your account! It's a few steps but honestly the coupons are really good! I got free chapstick!!

You get $5 just for signing up and $1 for every person you refer.

Click on the name above to join!!

There's an app for that!

I've been encouraged by some friends to blog again. And since I'm always insisting they try new money saving apps they suggested I write a post about them so all the world can join in the fun! :)

Let's start with...

Shopkick

So far I've had this app for 3 months and I've earned $20 in Target Gift Cards. There are other gift cards you can get but since I frequent Target I found them to be the most valuable. It takes 500 "kicks" (which is just a fancy name for points) to get a $2 Target Gift Card. I'm terrible about saving up my gift cards so I basically use them as soon as I get them and just look at it as a $2 coupon off my grocery bill.

The app can be a little tricky to figure out at first but once you get it, it's super easy! There are 5 ways to earn kicks (I only use 4 of them)

1. Walk in the store. Yes it's as easy as that. Just make sure your ShopKick app is open, walk in the store and boom you get kicks! It can be anywhere from 25-200 kicks.

2. Scan items. For some stores there is a list of items you can scan as you walk through the store.

3. Flip through "Lookbooks". Each store on the ShopKick list has "books" you can look through. Basically just advertisements although occasionally there are coupons. The books with blue stars at the top have free kicks inside.

4. Bonus Board. To be honest I haven't totally figured this one out but occasionally something pops up saying I got kicks on my bonus board and I say "Yay!"

5. Spending Money. This is the one I don't use. If you link your credit card to the app then some stores give you kicks for spending a certain amount of money.

So there you have it! Click on "Shopkick" above to join!

Come back tomorrow (or maybe the next day) for another exciting app recommendation!