Money Savers

For a while I've wanted to find a way to lighten up some of my furniture. Two of my criteria were not to spend much money and don't destroy the integrity of my older pieces.

I found leftover material I'd used years ago on my dining room chairs and decided to line the back of my china cabinet.



I emptied the cabinet and thought I'd remove the shelves. I couldn't get them out. Tim helped me. No luck. They'd budge, but they wouldn't come out. This thing was built in the 1700s, and I have no idea how they inserted the shelves but they were impossible to remove. I won't bore you with details, but we came up with a way to line the back wall and didn't break the glass or destroy the cabinet.



Mission accomplished.

BUT, I had a little more material left over. While I was at it, I decided to recover the seats of the chairs at my kitchen counter. There was no blood, but sweat and near tears were involved.



It may not be perfect, but I tried and didn't break anything, didn't spend money, and I did lighten up the atmosphere.

Sandy Island, South Carolina

Recently I was on a boat ride with friends on the Waccamaw River, and we rode past Sandy Island. I'd seen a sign on Highway 17 pointing to the island, but I didn't know much about it.

Recently, we went back to the island and had lunch at a quaint little Bed and Breakfast run by Laura Herriott. Laura grew up on the island, attended school there until sixth grade, and is also custodian of the island's only church, New Bethel Baptist Church.





Laura met us at the dock and drove some of our group to her B&B, while the rest of us walked up the hill past a cemetery and the fire station.

We had a delicious lunch of fried chicken, corn bread, green beans, and a delicious rice dish. During lunch, we learned that years ago a group of slaves were allowed to live on the island. Unsupervised! We heard a story about a census taker who got lost on the island and wasn't found until the next day.

The children living on Sandy Island no longer attend the island school like Laura did. Instead, they take a ferry over to the mainland where they ride a school bus.



We've been invited to come back and go to church with Laura, and we even sang a couple of worship songs while we were visited.









Whether you're in the Pawleys Island area or somewhere else, take the path less traveled. You might find yourself delighted.

Money Savers

I'm going to start posting a money saving tip once a month. I'd love for you to share your money savings tips with us.

It's so easy to say I'm not going to spend more than a specific amount of money on eating out lunch or buying coffee from a coffee shop. I began thinking how to stick to my goals, and this is what I came up with. I'll make my example buying coffee out. One of my sons thinks this is a problem area for me. He even hinted about needing an intervention. Bill, I hope you like this idea.

At the beginning of each month, I'll either buy a gift card to my favorite coffee shop or download my budgeted amount onto my app. The nice thing about apps is you can usually earn points for free coffee or treats. If I use up my gift card in the first week, I'm out of luck. I figure there will be a learning curve to this, but I will learn and stick to a budget.

Do you see yourself trying this? Maybe it's not coffee or lunch out, but what about the donut shop or ice cream shop?

Another thing I plan to do is experiment with coffee recipes. If you've guessed I'm not a purist, you're right. I have no problem making coffee fun. Please share your thoughts below and thanks for stopping by my back porch.

On a rainy day in France, Tim and I found a local coffee shop. We dried off and ordered in French. I can't tell you exactly what we ordered, but it was delicious.