Saving mulah

Quilting is a very expensive hobby. There are a lot of start up fees (especially when you buy a Bernina like me!) and then the cost of supplies adds up quickly. Here are my money saving tips and tricks when buying my fabric and other supplies.
1. Coupons! Use them religiously at big stores like Joann's. There is always at least a 40% off one item. I like to save up and wait until they have a big weekend sale with a special discount on top of their other sales. I can usually get my thread and batting at least half off retail. Another place to use coupons is online. Never ever checkout until you have searched "(website name) coupon code". Retailmenot.com is usually my favorite go to because they don't have so many ads. You can usually get at least another 10-15% off. And if you sign up at ebates.com you can get 4% cash back from fabric.com.

2. Buy online: for the same reasons I stated above about the coupons, but they also usually have a wider selection and slightly cheaper prices. Don't be afraid to make purchases. Most places have free shipping and some eve have free return shipping if something really isn't your cup of tea. Still afraid? Go to your local shop and pick out all your favorite fabrics. Then write down the information on the top of the bolt and go home and order them online. Another perk to buying online is that there are often custom bundles made by designers in case you are afraid to put different fabrics together yourself. And you can also find more fabrics in a coordinating line.

New cute micro mod fat quarter bundle from hawthornethreads.com

Here is an example of a recent purchase I made at fabric.com:
A. I routed through my ebates account so I would receive cash back
B. I waited to purchase my fabric until it was 15% off from the 12 days of Christmas sale
C. There is free shipping on orders over $35
D. Ran search for coupon codes and found one for an additional 15% off my entire purchase if over $40 (a great excuse to get that extra half yard I wanted)
E. so I ended up with over 5 yards of fabric for $34 and free shipping (because they are cool like that)
This is my favorite way to buy fabric.
My second favorite is of course browsing through my local fabric shop. Even though it is slightly more expensive I can't help but buy some while I'm there. The colors are just so bright and fresh and call to me. I try to get the stuff that they have on sale every month (usually 25-50% off certain lines or past years) and they always give ten percent on top off of all non-sale items.

Here are a few of my favorite online shops:
Fabric.com for their wide variety and free shipping over $35
Missouriquiltco.com always has a one day exciting deal
Fatquartershop.com is a new found love. They always have fun new stuff but mostly precut bundles
Hawthornethreads.com has the most modern fabric and you can search by color
And fabricworm.com has a great selection of Japanese prints

I'm also trying something new linking up to Tips and Tricks Tuesday at Sew at Home Mummy. I've just joined her simply solids bee and I'm super excited to get started.

Good luck on your savings, I hope you don't spend too much!