Scrapbooking on a Budget, Part V: Setting up a Budget

We’ve raided our houses and found some free supplies, so what else do we need? First, for those of you who didn’t have any of the scavenger hunt items or just want to start fresh, let’s talk about basic supplies. If you want the best value on basic supplies, I recommend you go to your local Dollar Tree store. If you don’t have either of those stores, then try Dollar General or Wal-Mart. As school supplies are on sale at CVS, Walgreens, Office Depot, and Office Max right now, you’ll be able to get some great deals on scrapbooking items like glue sticks, scissors, rulers, pencils, and so forth!

$10 + tax
Scissors
Garden pruners (make great small needle nosed scissors)
2 packs scrapbooking or gel pens
Glue sticks (acid-free)
Ruler
Compass
Pencils
1 pack plain paper
Tape (double-stick if they have it) or photo mounting squires

I’m not sure if the Dollar Tree stores have photo squares or acid-free double-stick tape. You might have to get them elsewhere. I have seen mounting squares at our Dollar General Store.

Now, decide what kind of page or album you’re going to do. As we continue this series, I will work on pages for three albums: my parents’ wedding (a gift for their 30th anniversary), a tea party album (featuring the tea we held for my cousin’s wife last year), and a sister’s album for my foster sister for Christmas.

Next, set a budget. How much do you want to spend on this album? In the series, I’m going to include two budgets--$15 and $25. If you would like to see another amount for a budget, please e-mail me. I’ll be happy to include it in our series. I will spend different amounts on each of the albums. I’m going to use albums and materials previously purchased, so I don’t expect to pay much more. If I do spend any more, here’s my budget:

$10 Tea Party
$15 Sisters
$25-30 Anniversary

These amounts are probably more than I should spend, and I will do my best to avoid spending any more on scrapbooking. I’m making it my goal to use supplies that I already have and repurpose other things I can find at home in order to save money.

Now that we’ve talked a little bit about setting up a budget, I wanted to give you a few tips and warnings before you go shopping. I’ve made a list of the stores where I purchase most of my scrapbooking supplies.

Big Lots
Big Lots is really one of my favorite places to find scrapbooking supplies. I don’t get to go very often, but when I do, I try to set aside some of my spending money just to use on scrapbooking supplies. The last time I was there, I found 12 x 12 in. scrapbooks for $4-$7 each. I’ve also found name brands such as Making Memories, Mrs. Grossman’s, and Jolee’s there before! If I say this once in this article, I’ll probably say it a million times… “you just never know what you’re going to find!” Make sure you have plenty of time when you hit the Big Lots crafting/ scrapbooking section. More than likely, you’ll have to search through piles to see what they have!

Dollar Tree
Most of their scrapbooking stuff is on the stationery aisle. You might also want to check out their crafts section too. I’ve found foam stickers to use in scrapbooks before, as well as beading kits. You could glue the small beads on a page with something like Aleene’s Tacky Glue (I’m pretty sure it’s acid free). In the gardening section, I found little handheld pruning shears which are perfect to use as scissors to cut out small details! This is one of those stores that you never know what you’re going to find! If you buy your scissors at the Dollar Tree, you won’t feel so bad if they get gummed up. This is also a great place to stock up on scrapbooking paper packs!

Dollar General
Check out their stationery aisle for acid free gel pens, glue sticks, etc. Scrapbooking items, however, are found with picture frames and picture albums. In our local Dollar General, these are on opposite sides of the store!

Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart now has a scrapbooking aisle, but also make sure you go through the entire craft section. You’ll find foam stickers with the kid-friendly projects, and most of the time, an aisle end-cap might have clearance items from the scrapbooking section. Make sure you also check out the stationary products…I’ve found acid free glue sticks, gel pens, and so forth at a much cheaper price in this section than in the crafts section. Right now, with all the school supplies on sale, you can get acid free glue sticks dirt cheap! My recommendation of a must-have item is “Undu, the Scrapper’s Solution.” You can squirt a little of that on a sticker, remove the sticker from your page with the scraper on the bottle, and the sticker will retain its adhesiveness…that way you can reposition the sticker on the page or on another page! It’s also great about removing price tags from items! Our local Wal-Mart has marked down the prices on a lot of items in the scrapbooking aisle, so I’ve stocked up on some things I’ll need for the Disney scrapbooks I’ll be working on in the future.

Sam’s Club
If you’re just starting out and you want to do a lot of scrapbooking, Sam’s Club is a great way to stock up. I’ve bought glue sticks in large packages there before. I’ve also found large packs of gel pens, crafting scissors, and some scrapbooking supplies there before. I don’t buy as many scrapbooking items there as I used to, but you never know what you’re going to find!

Now that I’ve made recommendations about a few of my favorite places to buy scrapbooking supplies, let me just say that it’s hard to stay on budget. It can be really hard sometimes! When I went and saw that sale in the Wal-Mart scrapbooking aisle, I’ll admit it…I got a little crazy and bought three cricut cartridges that were on sale. That being said, I knew if I didn’t get the Disney cricut cartridges for $45 that I would regret it later on, and I consider it an investment in future scrapbooks.

For the purposes of this series, however, I’m going to do my best to stick to the budgets I’ve set for myself. By setting a budget for your scrapbooking project, and forcing yourself to stick to it, you’re also ensuring that your creativity will be at its peak. You’ll have to do more with the supplies you do buy and hopefully we’ll find more things around the house we can use! Good luck! I can’t wait to start scrappin’ with you! Please join me again next week, as we conclude the first section of our “Scrapbooking on a Budget” series, with a blog about frugally organizing our supplies and setting up a special area where we can scrapbook!