The Sewing Mom

My step-daughter is pregnant with her 2nd baby and I am sewing a baby quilt for her. I started on another pattern, one with butterfly designs, but I screwed up the butterfly tails! I do plan on fixing my mistake, but, I am sort of under a time crunch with the baby being due in June, and it’s going to take me some time to fix my flub. So, I ran across this beautiful fabric and decided to make this quilt instead. Truthfully, I’m liking it even more for a baby than the one I was working on!

The fabric and pattern are both called Nana’s Garden. It is comprised of various width fabric strips with a narrow border to create a rectangle. I then machine appliqued the flowers and bunny to the top. I have a wider border ready to be sewn on and then it’s ready to be quilted.

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of PBM Products. All opinions are 100% mine.

The last 12-18 months have been pretty tough on our family, personally.  I was hired for a part time job and laid off 2 months later.  Fortunately, I did get rehired the beginning of last year and that’s been a big help, but we still have had to cut back on many things.  Things our family has cut back on include going out to dinner, to the movies, shopping less, cutting back on home utility expenses (as much as we can), and even cutting back on our grocery bills.

Recession, Recovery & Store Brands are 3 things that go together when trying to save money. I am among the 40% of supermarket shoppers who think the economy may actually be getting worse instead of better.  In fact,  8 of 10 supermarket shoppers see no improvement in the economy according to the Private Label Manufacturer’s Association (PLMA).  Grocery shopping is a huge chunk of our family budget, so I’m always looking for ways I can cut back on these expenses without cutting back on the quality of the food that I’m purchasing.  Obviously, I can use coupons, but I don’t seem to find the coupons I need for the items I want, so this really isn’t the answer for me.  It’s important to still be able to purchase the foods my family enjoys, even though there are some items like chips, and even ice cream that I’ve either stopped buying all together or I’ve cut back on the frequency of those purchases.

PLMA has found that 62% of consumers plan to buy more Store Brand products as they deal with the tough economy, a big increase over previous years, and I am one of those shoppers! 43% of shoppers are purchasing store brand items for the first time on products that they’ve regularly purchased national brands. Almost all of the shoppers who have switched to a store brand product have been pleased with their purchase. In fact, PLMA states that 49% say their new tore rand selections compare “very favorably”, an increase from 35% of store brand shoppers in June 2009.

There are so many product categories that carry store brands, everything from tomato sauces to ice cream to Parent’s Choice baby formula. I have definitely stocked my pantry with store brands, what are doing to help your family budget recover?