Your Fall Decor can Look Like a Magazine Cover, and Frugally
Fall is my all-time favorite season and Christmas/winter is a close second. I know what you’re thinking, “but Cara you live in Arizona, how can cold seasons be your favorite”, and I’ll tell you it is because I grew up in the North East and now miss those cold seasons. (UPDATE: I now live in the Northeast again!) Ya’ll it is still so bloody warm in AZ most of the year I will tell you what. Here’s the deal. I found a cute way to decorate for Fall and Christmas last year using all the same décor except a few small items. Weird? I thought so. Hubby seems to find my imagination interesting when it comes to creating décor. Send me into a Hobby Lobby or Michaels and I am bound to emerge with savings and 1 million décor ideas I can promise you that.
I got two plain wooden crates from Home Depot, I had one lone soldier at home. Funny story my husband DONATED my other two to Goodwill a year or two ago thinking that seemed like a good idea. It wasn’t I made him pay for the wood crates and stain. ($26) Hehehe. I mean if he had not donated them I wouldn’t have had to get more. I warned him this time and I’m pretty sure he listened up since his pocket felt that hit. Silly Husband. Stained them with a light grey stain so you could still see the wood grain. One of them I had my all-star hubby screw some wheels into the bottom. This is the main attraction as far as the décor goes. See below my fall set up. The largest cost was mums. Who doesn’t love mums? A pop of color in an otherwise colorless landscape of fall back east and the brown desert in AZ. They were $30 in total. I bought a small bale of straw from Home Depot for $10 and placed that on top of two of the crates.
Wreaths are not cheap. I repeat. Wreaths are not cheap. If you go to the store looking to buy one you better be prepared to spend a lot on a premade wreath. The average price for a fall wreath in the store already done and ready to go ranges from $40 – $100. That’s a chunk of change for a few short months of hanging on a door, shoot. After seeing these prices last year I decided I would just make my wreath. Why not? I’m pretty crafty. I picked up a 24” grapevine wreath for $7.99, bare bones to start with guys that is the best. They had a great variety of fall picks in the seasonal section at hobby lobby where I went and each pick was 50% off. I spent $10.00 on the picks for the wreath and $4.99 for a garland to get the wreath feeling fall-like. All in all the total cost of my fall wreath was $23 ( now remember taxes vary from state to state and town to town so I never include that in my cost because it will be different for you than me). I could technically make 2 wreaths for the price of one you can get in the store.
They have these really cute little pumpkins there too for décor that I got. All 4 of them cost me $10.77.
This was the 2nd year I used the decor and only changed up a few things. I stood the crates up tall and omitted the straw bale. Used the same 3 crates, the same decorative pumpkins, same signs. of course I had to get new mums they only last a short time in AZ especially. As for the little scarecrow guys I picked them up at Goodwill for a couple bucks over the summer.
Cute little munchkin alert!
The total cost to dress up my front to look like fall might happen here in Arizona? $99.77 So for just less than $100 I decorated my front porch and the only reoccurring cost will be mums. Everything else will go in the garage once the season is over.
I love fall and I know so many other people who do. You don’t, however, need to go nuts spending money to decorate. Be creative, work the sales, and most importantly have some dang fun with this! I know I sure did.
Happy Frugal Living from your Neighborhood Frugal Wife.
