Thrifty Thursday: Decorating on a Shoestring Budget

I haven't done a Thrifty Thursday in months and thought I was due for one.  Today I want to talk about decorating on a shoestring budget.

I generally decorate for different events at our church.  I love being creative and making things look pretty.  However, the church is on a shoestring budget and I'm on one too.  So, there isn't a lot of money to make things look beautiful.

However, there are a few things you can do to make things look nice, yet not spend big bucks.  I'll give you an example of a ladies Christmas tea I hosted at our church last Saturday.

The theme was "The Simplest Package Can Hold the Sweetest Gift" and I went with a red and gold theme.

I bought a pack of scrapbook paper.  Then I made petal boxes for each table.  Inside each box were 2 pieces of Ghiradelli chocolate.



I also made a tea tote for each lady.  The fabric was material I had on hand that I bought years ago after Christmas.



I put red & cream candles in mason jars that I had and took a piece of garland and broke it into smaller pieces.  I then wrapped it around the mason jar.


With Dan's help, I lugged all the china from my house to set the tables.  I used cream colored linens and tied each one with a piece of red and gold ribbon with a candy cane.


I bought four little gold colored baskets for $3 each and filled them with tea bags on each table.  This one was on the dessert table.  In hindsight, I could have taken a plain basket and spray painted it gold and added my own embellishments which would have saved some money.


The tables looked beautiful when they were done.


Everyone had a nice time which was the goal.




Total cost for the decorations was $ 25.  I did go out and have the church purchase table cloths this year.  For 4 tablecloths it came to $30.  I did not include that in the price here as they will be used year after year for different events.  So if I want to add them in it came to $55.

It is possible to decorate without spending a fortune.