My new year's resolution is to keep up with this blog. In keeping with that goal, I realized I have to expand my topics beyond gluten-free cooking. I'm going to post recipes/substitutions when I find a good one, but will also post topics on the general concept of frugality.
In addition to raising a 4 year old and a 5 month old (already!), I am also working with my husband on renovating a house we bought last summer. We moved in 16 months ago but I have been a little busy for...umm...the last 14 months to really do any contributions to this time-consuming project.
Our current office/guest room was apparently done in a Hawaiian motif, complete with orange and blue walls and rust colored outdoor carpet. Anyone who knows me can guess this isn't exactly my taste; also, part of the wall was damaged. We are going more with neutrals (gray walls, wood print vinyl floors), with the color coming in the form of yellow curtains to replace the broken closet doors. For the last two weeks, we have spent several evenings after the kids go to bed removing the old flooring and patching the holes and other wall damage.
Which brings me to the frugal aspect of my post: custom $12.50 paint. I have long been a fan of the mis-tint paint section at most hardware and home improvement stores. Often, though, quantity is limited, hence my oldest daughter has a two color room: half dark purple, half light purple. I really don't want to do the patchwork look on all my walls, though, so I have been scouring the clearance section for good neutrals. I found two slightly different shades of gray. They were the same sheen and were close enough that I thought they would mix well. I dumped both cans into a bucket, stirred really well with a paint stick, and poured them back into the cans. Ta da--two gallons of paint for $5 each, plus a $2.50 bucket=custom paint for less than a quarter of the cost. Besides the savings, it's just fun to mix paint!
