SFS SAL for January - Month #1!

Thank you all so much for your wonderfully kind Christmas wishes!!! I had a lovely holiday with my family, and am happy to be back to blogging just in time for the first month of the Stitch From Stash SAL (Stitch Along) at Epic Stitching :)

This post is actually a little backwards, since the project I was working on this month is for the Just Nan SAL at Keep Calm and Cross Stitch. I intended to combine both SAL posts today, but since I'm running short of time I'll just cover SFS tonight.

Stitch From Stash SAL #1: Spontaneous Stash!

The thing I love most about the SFS challenge is that it is flexible and encourages you to set personal goals to fit your own stitching and spending style! Indeed, I'm really looking forward to seeing the different ways that other stitchers chose to interpret the SAL in the coming months ;) For me, it's not actually about the budget (!!!).

In all honestly, I have seldom spent more than $25 a month on stitching supplies, and I'm not much tempted by all the lovely new patterns because I don't shop online and local availability is slim to none. That helps a lot! But I do love to go "treasure hunting" (thrifting) for stitchy magazines and supplies, and for fine crochet and other crafty supplies too, and so I mostly purchase things spontaneously when I find them.

My other usual purchases are specific things needed for a project - skeins of thread, etc. - which are usually small. So the ability to have spending money each month is essential for me, but I don't think I'll have any trouble keeping below the yearly total of $350. My challenge to myself is not to limit stash acquisition - as I know it is for many stitchers, understandably (if I was an internet shopper, I'd be broke!) - but to use what I already have, especially the "treasures" that I hoard ;)

But back to the Spontaneous Stashing, LOL - I made two lots of purchases this month, one planned for near-future projects the other unplanned and just for fun:

This was my planned purchase, a pack of 28-count white Evenweave by US company M.C.G. Textiles. This is where the backwards part comes in - I used this fabric (which I purchased last month before the SAL) for my Just Nan SAL project this month, and loved it so much that I immediately went out and bought another pack :) It retails at Michaels for $9.99, but I used a 40% coupon so it came in at about $6.00, plus tax.

I'll be putting together a little review in my JN SAL post, for anyone who's interested!

And while I was waiting for the check-out in Michaels, I spotted all the calendars and planners on deep discount, so I picked up this cute one to plan out my SALs (so this last-minute thing doesn't happen again LOL) and stitchy goals for the year for the grand sum of 30 cents ;)

The other items I bought were found at my favourite dollar store, a local branch that is unique because it has a lot of brand-name clearance and end-of-the-line products.

I was thrilled to discover these Singer Transfer Fabric Crayons, that are meant to be permanently ironed-on to cotton fabrics. I bought two packs - one to experiment with, and one to use - and a special pencil sharpener for them since I know from experience with regular crayons that the soft wax sticks to the sharpener blades, and I imagine the permanent pigment might be hard to remove.

Each pack of fabric crayons was $1.50, and the double-hole pencil sharpener - despite the label - was only $1.00!

I also picked up this neat white pencil for drawing on dark fabrics for $1.00 and two packs of binder rings - which I use to hold working floss tags for my projects - for another $2.00 (at $1.00 a piece). These come in and out of stock at the dollar store and they hadn't been in for a while, so I took the chance to snap up two ;)

My Monthly Total for January: was $15.30, plus tax = $19.12, leaving me $5.88 to bank for next month.

Woo - one minute left, I need to hurry this up LOL! That's it for me for now, I'll be back in a few days with the JN SAL post :) Happy Saving on Stash everyone!

UPDATE: Whoopsies! I totally misread the deadline date as *before* the 28th of each month, when it's actually by the end of the day :) Definitely going to have to bust out my new little planner for next month LOL!

And if that wasn't embarrassing enough, I just released that I totally goofed on my figures too :( When I wrote this post, I was in a bit of a hurry (just a little wee bit mind, ha!) and I couldn't find my receipt for Michaels while my dollar store craft buys were mixed up with personal buys and very vaguely identified on the bill.

The amounts are right, but I forgot to calculate the tax on both lots separately. Also, I had the tax rate wrong *is mortified*. For anyone else living in Canada, this official GST/HST Rate Chart is extremely helpful :) So my new numbers are: $6.30 + 13% tax = $7.11 for my fabric and planner, and $7.00 + 13% sales tax = $7.91 for my dollar store goodies. Grand total = $15.02, so my bankable amount for next month actually increases (yay!!!) to $9.98. At least something good came from this mistake!

So, a valuable lesson learned this month. I should've saved my receipt from one purchase and checked in my stitchy items separately on another purchase. Now, these are totally common sense things that I've done before, but I forgot and maybe you might too, so I hope this helps! I'm starting to think that the road to SABLE (Stash Beyond Life Expectancy) is paved with Sales and Bargains LOL ;)