saving money Archives - Page 2 of 5 - Slipcovers by Shelley

How to Slipcover DVD

September 11, 2015 by Shelley

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I came out with my How to Slipcover DVD 5 years ago! At the time I debated on how many DVD’s I wanted to have made. Ultimately I decided on having 1,000 DVD’s made. When I asked Heber how many he thought I ordered he said 300, and I told him 1,000 and we both laughed! I remember thinking–this could be a lifetime supply!

Guess what?! Last week I was down to 5 DVD’s left! I placed another order and just picked up 1,000 more. So in celebration and appreciation to all my followers, I’ve created a 30% off discount code APPRECIATION for anyone that still doesn’t have my DVD yet! This is the largest discount I’ve ever created for any of my tutorials.

I am so grateful to have the job I have! I love transforming old pieces into something amazing, to work with beautiful fabrics, to work with fun clients that have the same passion for decorating, to have a flexible schedule with my family and kids. I truly do love what I do, and nothing makes me more happy than when I get testimonials on my DVD and you tell me you’ve started up a little business of your own and how it’s blessed your family!

The holidays are coming and now would be a great time, to transform your space and freshen it up with some new slipcovers! Click below to purchase! ($31.50 plus $3.50 shipping with promo code APPRECIATION)

OHHH— and as a bonus, just because I want everyones house to look awesome for the holidays…APPRECIATION promo code will also take 30% off our Styling Cents Ebook–How to reuse, repurpose, and revive your space Click below to purchase ($10.50 with promo code APPRECIATION)

BYU Womens Condo Rental

March 26, 2015 by Shelley

Last week we purchased a BYU Womens Condo Rental! It was an idea that we talked about last month in Belize. It felt like the perfect investment for us. Many of you know we paid off our house in June 2009 and six months later purchased a fixer upper Cabin for $65,000 in Midway, Ut—which we paid off in March of 2012. This is our third property, which I have plans to pay off in 3-5 years. I know! I’m kind of CRAZY! I am 39 years old–my husband is a fireman and I sew slipcovers for a living and we have 3 boys. We live within our means and have always lived off my husbands income and have used my income to pay off debt, save for a house, invest for retirement etc. That was the only way we felt we could get ahead. Basically we are a two income household living off one income.

We’d been interested in the past on picking up a rental and had actually been under contract twice–but my fear and timing got the better of me and we backed out of both. I’ve had the last 9 months to save up since we became debt free again, so this time I wasn’t scared. It’s a better time for us, our kids are older (10,12,14 yrs old now) and I was feeling ready for my next goal/project. I wanted our money to be working for us instead of sitting in a savings account. I know most rentals are break even or maybe cash flow a few hundred dollars a month–so going into this, my plan is to cash flow once it’s paid off. In the mean time, I’ll apply all rents and my income to this property until it’s paid for. Once it’s paid for we will cash flow about $750-$800/month after expenses (HOA, Management, property taxes, insurance). I know it’s a different way of looking at it, but I don’t want to pay $60,000 in interest over a 30 year loan, and I don’t want to wait 30 years to get a decent cash flow. I’d rather dump everything I’ve got into it now and pay $5,000 in interest over a 3-4 year period–that sounds more like an investment to me! I like to look at it like a nest egg–I am dumping $ into this property which will start giving back in 3-4 years, but I’ll still own the nest egg. It’s guaranteed returns.

Here are the specifics–we did a cash out refi on our primary residence to purchase the condo. This entailed us to get a better rate and no PMI (since we were only borrowing 60% of our appraised value). We closed with 3.25% rate on a 10 year loan (cheaper closing costs on a 10 yr instead of 15 yr by $400—I can buy a lot of furnishings for $400!) Since I have plans to pay it off fast I went for it against my loan officers advice. We took a slightly higher rate to get rebate on closing costs. We received $2400 off our closing costs. We paid $100 in closing costs!

We closed last Thursday on the condo. Friday we furnished it, Saturday I showed it to renters. Monday and Tuesday we cleaned and did small handy man projects–replaced faucet, smoke detectors, patched holes, replaced screens, etc. Then we had renters move in on Wednesday! HOLY SMOKES!! 6 days and we are up and running! I’m still on a high!

We are going to let a management company manage it for us. They charge $75/month to collect rent, fill vacancies, advertise, deal with small maintenance issues. I’m assuming this will be fully worth it!

It’s a 3 bedroom condo and rents to 3 single girls. All private rooms. Here are some pics of the decorating I got to do! All on a budget of course!

Here is what the 2nd and 3rd bedroom look like! Picked up dark grey curtains, dressers, and office chairs from IKEA. White bedding with pop of color on the pillow.
This is the master with a full size bed. I got the antique headboard/ footboard for $55 off a local FB yardsale page. I got the desk from the thrift store for $17 (they had 5 identical desks!–I snatched up 3 of them). I purchased the turquoise corded light for $5 from the thrift store and attached it to an old plant stand I stole from my sisters dumpster pile. Topped it off with fresh white bedding, pillows, and foot warmer!

Family room has vaulted ceilings. Camille helped me hang curtains, I slipcovered a $30 Ethan Allen couch I got off local FB yardsale page and decided to bring my bronze antique chair into the mix. The coffee table was given to me last summer from a neighbor. Picked up lamp for $8 at thrift store, and mirror for $3! I made the pillows from a remnant at the fabric store.

It’s a new adventure, we will see how it goes!

16′ Sectional and Belize tips

February 12, 2015 by Shelley

My client picked up these used sectionals from KSL.com (online classifieds) for next to nothing. They came out of a Marriott hotel. She originally only bought 2 pieces, then got the fabulous idea to buy 2 more pieces months later and was lucky enough to find the exact same ones (mirror image) that someone else bought and changed their minds to make this massive sectional for her long, narrow family room. Essentially it’s a 4 piece sectional. 1 armed piece on each end and two armless loveseats in the middle. Sectional–BEFORE Sectional–AFTER This couch was massive! It ended up being 16′ long with 20 cushions and it needed 50 yds of fabric (I was scrimping at the end, but it all worked out) She already had some throw pillows on hand that pulled it all together for now. I love getting to meet other girls that are a lot like me…love to decorate, save money, and shop second hand–After I put the sectional on, my client showed me her room she just finished! HOLY MOLY!!! It was beautiful–here are a few pics! How beautiful is that Chandelier?? She picked it up for $25 with a few other light fixtures! It makes the room! She had a great story about the card catalogue! She won the bid on an online auction after the first bidder fell through. Her awesome husband flew to LA walked to the U-haul store, rented a truck and drove halfway through the night to get it home to Utah. It’s pretty amazing and makes for a great story!

SIDE NOTE–MY trip to BELIZE!

Well you all know by now I love to plan and go on trips! I love the game of trying to figure out how to do it for a great price. Our favorite tours were the Mayan Ruins, fishing, and riding bikes into town. Total trip for Heber and I cost $1850! This included airfare, car rental, gas, tours, food, souvenirs, etc.

How we saved $

-We flew into Cancun and drove to Belize (9 hours with border crossing). Saved $900 on flights. Flights to Belize were $8-900. Flight to Cancun were about $430-$460.

-We booked flights with our Chase Sapphire miles. When you book through their travel site you use 20% less miles than normal. We had enough miles to book both our flights for free! Saved $920!

-We traveled with 2 other couples–so we split the rental car, gas, and 1 night in Tuluum

-Booked the Jaquar reef resort on a Living Social deal–so it only cost $480 for six nights including the $100 resort tax. Normally their rooms are $275/night. Saved $1,170

-Packed a suitcase with snacks and granola bars for breakfast and also some PB&J. We only had to buy bread when we got to the resort. This was the plan –take a suitcase of food and eat breakfast and lunch on our own then go out for dinner. We stuck to the plan most of the days. Then we’d have an empty suitcase for souvenirs for the way home.

Here’s my rundown of the costs

$0-flights

$345–rental car/airport parking/room in Tuluum-

We rented a car in Cancun, drove 2 hours to Tuluum and stayed the night in a house we found on TripAdvisor. Then woke up early and headed to the Tuluum ruins before we embarked on our 7 hour drive to Belize. There are only 2 car rental companies that let you take their cars over the border to Belize. We went with http://www.america-carrental.com . Our flights were direct from SLC to Cancun (4-5 hour flights) with no layovers. If we would have flown directly to Belize instead, with layovers we were only about an hour longer driving. My thoughts–I’d rather see the country side for 7 hours than sit in an airport. The drive was amazing–so cool to drive through all the villages and see the culture.

$150-kitty for gas and tips (all the couples chipped into the kitty–then we used it for gas, parking, tour tips,etc)

$90–exit taxes- we had to pay exit taxes to leave Mexico on our drive to Belize, then exit taxes to leave Belize

$400–tours (fishing, cave tubing, Mayan ruins). This price was total for both of us! I was most proud of the Mayan ruin tour–at the resort they offered this tour for $120/person. We all wanted to do it, so we were planning on it. Then I started thinking about it. The Tuluum ruins only cost $8 for entrance. So I researched to see if we got ourselves there how much it cost to get in? $5!!!! The reason it was so much was it’s 2.5hrs from the resort–well we had our own rental car, no reason we couldn’t drive ourselves there and save $220/ couple after we all chipped in for gas.

$480–Jaquar reef lodge 6 nights

$385–food, souvenirs, and fruit punch poolside.

$1850 total Here are all of us at the Xunantunich mayan ruins–these were AMAZING! There were only 3 other people there when we arrived in the late afternoon. It was crazy quiet, and they allow you to climb on them (only allowed at these ruins). Here’s another shot of the ruins. To get to the ruins you have to drive your car onto a hand cranked ferry to cross the river. Minivans are the way to go with 3 couples! Plenty of room! We all packed light in one carry on bag each–we learned after our trip to Costa Rica last year… when we had to strap two large bags on the roof and we had no where to sit because of all the suitcases. The drive was crazy–lots of speed bumps throughout the whole country. We did feel safe the whole way, even though the police men stationed at check points carry large guns strapped over the backs. My favorite was riding bikes into down and seeing the culture. We were staying in Hopkins Village. The resort had complimentary bikes and kayaks! Got to go fishing for my first time ever! It was pretty cool. Between the six of us we caught 20 fish! The guide brought us back and cut them up for us and put them in a large baggie to take to the resort kitchen. They cooked them for dinner for us! Fishing tour only cost $100 each–totally worth it! Here are the 20 fish we caught! We kept about 8 and let the guide give the rest away. The fish platter was amazing with flowers and all. They served it family style!