Don’t Like a Price? See if You Can Make It Instead

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When Turkey was born, my mother-in-law bought him this tall giraffe bank. We started putting our change in and it wasn’t long after his 1st birthday that he enjoyed “feeding” the giraffe coins.  I wanted Little One to have a similar bank and had my heart set on a flower.  We looked at several online and the cheapest price we found including shipping and tax was almost $55!  I couldn’t do it.  My mother-in-law wanted to buy it for her, but it didn’t sit well with me to ask her to buy something that I’m not willing to buy myself. It seems too hypocritical.

So I began to think about and research how we could make a bank for her. I felt like we could make the bank for $35 and decided to go for it.  My mother-in-law is really creative and she had the idea to use a mailing tube spray painted green as the stem.
We put our heads together and came up with a plan that worked. Here’s a list of the what we used and a picture of the finished flower bank to match Little One’s room.

 

  • 2- 36″ shipping tubes with an opening cut out on the side (the inside opening is larger than the outside so it can’t be seen) $8 for the pair
  • 1 plastic florescent light bulb cover that I found at Home Depot for $2.  We sliced it all the way down the side, opened it up and slid it between the two shipping tubes to cover the opening to see the coins
  • 1 flower pot $4
  • less than 2 ft. of 1×8 lumber $4 (It was a remnant from some shelving we put in) My husband cut a piece with the router to lay on the groove of the flower pot and put a hole in the center for the tube.  He also made sort of a box that the tube sits on yet the coins can spill out of to fill the pot and anchor all the weight. The wood is screwed to the pot.
  • Quilt Batting painted green Pennies since it comes in a roll big enough for an entire queen size quilt
  • Green spray paint $4 we painted inside the inner tube and outside the outer tube, as well as the batting
  • Flowers for the top of the bank $1 at dollar tree.  These are cardboard and came in a two pack. I glued them back to back.
  • Circular flower decorated box $1 at dollar tree.  We glued the top of the box to the bottom of the box (sort of like you’d put a marker cap while you’re using it) so that we could turn it upside down to use as a lid for the bank.  It’s glued to the flowers.  We lift it off and Little One drops her coins in.  Not exactly a flower eating the coins, but I thought it was just as cute as cutting a notch and making a money chute.  

Total cost was less than half the total online price and I’m quite pleased with the result.
I’ve seen people use decorative molding to make shelves, sheet sets to make curtains, and decorative ceiling tiles as backsplashes.  Have you ever used items in a thrifty way to make something different?  I’d love to hear about it!

This post has been linked up to the Sunday Showcase.

Comments

  1. I love it! This is a great ‘make it do’ idea.

  2. When I first moved into my apartment I needed a curtain that would close to keep the peeping toms out. I can’t remember how much they were but even with my 10% off at target it wasn’t worth it. I did find a cloth shower curtain on clearance (plus 10% off) so I lined it with an old bed sheet and added ribbon at the top to hang it and buttons to cover the holes for the hooks cut the whole thing in half and had curtains! I even added some glass beads as accents & got so many compliments on it! I even used the scraps to make tie backs for when I had them opened!

  3. That’s cuter than the giraffe. Great job!

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