FANtastic Beer Steins on my $0 budget

I can't believe I can say this...I have not spent a penny in 1 week! We had some returns to do from Christmas gifts this week and we were fantastic to return the items but did not buy anything after. Even the kids returned a couple of items and they took the money and have saved it for another time. I would like to say they are learning to save, but I know this is not 100% true. I have to admit that teaching my kids to save and value money has been one of the toughest things we have been trying to deal with lately. If anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear them. Please share how you have taught your kids to value money.

We have already noticed that the amount of time we spend together has increased. We spent today as a family playing outside (our weather is ridiculously warm), reading in the sun, doing a couple of crafts and taking down the last of the Christmas decorations. My husband and I both commented how wonderful today was because we didn't run around shopping.

I made my own bread and hamburger buns today and used up a few small items in the freezer (we had hamburgers and hot turkey sandwiches for lunch) but we are starting to run out of fresh vegetables and milk, so I will have to stop by the grocery store quickly tomorrow.

How are all of you doing? Are you saving a few dollars? Are you also spending more family time?

Here is my $0 budget post for today.
Have you seen the NFL beer steins on Pottery Barn's site? They are FANtastic (hee hee hee) and if your football team is in the playoffs it makes you want them even more. Well at $24.00 EACH!!! they would have to have some gold content in order for me to feel they were worth buying. But as soon as I saw them, I knew I could make them for nothin.
Source Pottery Barn
Source Pottery Barn
I should now share a picture of my husband's beer stein collection but I won't because it might make you think he has a drinking problem, which he doesn't :). Well he has lots of beer steins! So I grabbed 4 of his favorite shaped steins and snuck away to my craft room.
I designed the team logo using Sure Cuts a Lot and cut it with vinyl I had left over from my marble tiles. Yes, I could have used contact paper but I really didn't want to mess up one of the beer steins so I used my good vinyl.

To be honest with you, the larger steins with the handles would work easier than this shape since it was difficult to get the vinyl to lay flat on these.  But these did work out great, I just had to cut the vinyl and overlap it carefully to create the circles.
I used a flat knife that I have to cut 4 straight lines to quarter each of the circles. You could use an exacto knife or a pair of scissors to do this too.
I used my painters tape technique to transfer the vinyl to the glass.
Be sure to lay the logo down first and then carefully the circle around it. Remember the circle will be bunchy, so you will need to carefully separate the vinyl where you cut it and overlap it. You can get a perfect circle this way, just be careful not to damage the vinyl otherwise the etching cream can creep under.
You can see the outer part of the circles are bunch and bubbly but that does not matter. You just need to make sure the part that will be in contact with the glass and etching cream is flat and tight on the glass.

Lay the glass on something to prevent it from rolling. The etching cream can run, so you want to make sure the glass doesn't move.
I used Armour etch to etch the glass. My instructions are covered with a million warnings so I have had to learn how to use this from trial and error. I now stir the etching cream before I apply it. This seems to make it give a more even etch.
I apply the cream using a cheap foam brush. I apply it really thick and evenly over the entire area to be etched. Be sure to not get any on the other part of the glass. It will etch almost immediately.
I recommend letting the etching cream sit on the glass for 20-25 minutes. I don't know what the jar says to do, but I did 4 of these glasses, 1 for 15 minutes, 1 for 20 and 2 for 25 and I found the 25 minute ones looked the best.  Once the time had elapsed, I scrapped the etching cream back into the bottle. I was told to do this by a fellow blogger and it seems to work. I then take the steins to my laundry sink and run them under warm water to get off all the excess etching cream.
 Peel off the vinyl and wash the glass with dish soap and you are done.
They took some time and were a little finicky to make, but they turned out great and cost me zero dollars, so well worth it.
 
What do you think? Not bad for nothing!

Have a great spend free weekend.

Stephanie

Comments

  1. I've been pretty good at not spending anything, except I took my son for lunch and to a movie....I didn't really include that kind of any outing in my pledge for non essential spending (I'm trying to do it for 3 months....)
    My son isn't back in school yet, I think the real test will be when I'm out and about everyday.

    But if I had a penny for every time I THOUGHT I needed to buy something (ie. I need some new eyeliner) I would be rich! One thing I'm learning is how often I decide I need something -- in the past I would just buy it....now I'm waiting....

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  2. I am loving these $0 posts! I am going to give this a try. Thanks for the cheap inspiration. :)

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  3. That's terrific! A set of these would make a great gift.

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  4. Living in Steeler country I know a lot of people who would love to have those! I can't wait to try this awesome idea!

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  5. When my son was about 5 I decided it was time for him to learn the value of a dollar. I was going broke, and fed up with pleas for a Hot Wheel here and Pokemon there. So with age appropriate chores and an allowance decided he was off on a quest to earn for his wants. I was surprised how quickly he caught on and began looking at things he thought he wanted but would then decide they were too much money. He's now 9 years old and this past year after investing his birthday money in supplies for making and selling paracord bracelets he has earned over $300 dollars on his own. I was shocked at Christmas when he gave me a beautiful sterling silver locket that he bought me with his "own money". I'm so proud of him and so glad that I decided to teach him about money early on.

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  6. We started Ramsey's budget for the first of the year. I am actually loving the challenge of paying only with cash and we are just one week in. This is the year to get back on track for us!

    Love the beer pilsnars!

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  7. Nice tutorial! My favorite kids' budget hint revolved around the Scholastic book sales at school. My husband and I wanted our kids to read but also wanted them to learn about budgeting, so we gave each child a book budget for the year. They could order any book(s) they wanted, but they had to deduct it from the tally sheet (also taught math skills/checkbook balancing). As they got older they could order magazines or books from other stores, but the budget was finite. Did they make some mistakes, sure. Could we have prevented some of them, sure, but that would have defeated the whole learning experience. It took all the pressure off us and on to them to make choices/good decisions.

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  8. Great idea! I've never tried glass etching but you make it look easy.

    Here's one idea on helping your kids learn to save, and what my mom did for me. I'm now 20, and am definitely one of my only friends who can happily say I am debt-free and very thrifty when it comes to money, especially given that I love fashion. When I was young, whenever a relative gave me a check or cash for a holiday, my mom would tell me that half had to be saved and half could be spent. That way, I got the sensation of getting to purchase something new, but also learned that there had to be a healthy balance. Often, what I wanted to buy was more than half of what I received, so a lot of the time I ended up saving the "spendable" half anyway so I could get what I wanted after a small wait! :)

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  9. I have really been loving your posts about no cost crafts and there are several I am going to make for little or no money. (I don't have etching cream on hand so I would have to get some)
    I have COMPLETELY fallen off of the $0 January though. Work has been crazy because half of the office is out sick/hurt so my husband and I have been working until 9 every night and its hard not to pick up something to eat when you are tired and its late. Other than food stuff I haven't bought clothes or craft stuff at all so that's something I guess. Keep up the posts. =)

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  10. Stephanie- These look amazing! how did you cut around the "Steelers"? P.S. Thanks for the post today. I added a link on my blog to direct traffic to you. xo, laura

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  11. Love this idea. I just discovered your blog through Pinterest. I am so excited. Ok need to get back to checking out old post!

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  12. awesome idea! I can't wait to try this!

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  13. Where did you get the vinyl?

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  14. Looks fantastic, how did you came up with this vinyl?

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