Hi everyone! I’ve recently returned back to university and I figured, as students are notorious for being broke 24/7, that I would share a post all about doing Project Life/scrapbooking on a budget. Below I’ve listed my tips for saving money while obtaining a varied collection of scrapbook supplies, but if you feel that you’ve got a great budget tip which I missed, feel free to leave it in the comments below.
Find a cheap printer
One of the first things you will need to do if you want to start scrapbooking is to get, or have use of, a good quality, cheap to run printer. Luckily, at this time of year, printers are on sale and can be bought in the Black Friday sales and the leading-up-to-Christmas deals (I added my printer to my Christmas wishlist last year). While a cheap printer is excellent, remember to look at the cost of the ink cartridges as this will be where you will be spending the majority of your money. I have an Epson printer which takes cartridges that cost around £5-£8 each which isn’t bad if you have to replace one, but often you have to replace the four of them at the same time which can be quite expensive.
Alternatively, if you don’t have, or cannot use a printer, there is always the option to have your photos/cards printed for you. I’ve found that supermarkets such as Asda (or Walmart) do fairly cheap photos and they often have machines where you can print and select the sizes right in front of you. The last time I checked, in the UK, a 6×4 photo normally costs around 40p to print.
Take advantage of digital downloads
If you do have a printer, digital downloads are a great way to save money. Often, digital versions of scrapbook kits and supplies are much cheaper than the physical. Just remember to take into consideration how much it will cost you in ink to print.
Keep it simple
Keeping it minimal and simple is a great way to keep the limited supplies you have lasting longer. I completely embrace the white space in my layouts, I like that it looks a little bare – or shall I say ‘minimalistic?’ – as I think it prints out the photos and colours of the layout more. Of course, this is entirely your own preference, after all, everyone’s scrapbooking style differs, but to keep your supplies lasting longer, try sticking to only one or two per layout.
Keep it small
One of the reasons I work in 4×4 size, other than being adorable and so easy to put together, is that it’s so cheap; photos cost less to get printed, I use less ink, my cards and embellishments go further, etc. A smaller size, or a mini album, is a great alternative to get those memories documented without breaking the bank.
Document less
This heading sounds like a joke, I know, why would you want to document less when the purpose of scrapbooking is to document everything? A good tip when scrapbooking is to only document the highlights of the week or the month rather than following the standard Project Life weekly format. I personally only document events when they happen as opposed to trying to document every week. This not only makes it so much easier, but a lot cheaper too.
Make. Make. Make.
Finally, if you’re super crafty, use it as an advantage and make your own cards and embellishments. Grab those watercolours, your sewing machine, your embroidery floss, whichever, and make your own scrapbook supplies. I like to use my embroidery floss whenever I can in my layouts. It adds a nice little touch to layouts and I already have so much in my stash.
Whether you’re a student like me, or you’re just trying to save some money, I hope you enjoyed this post and got some ideas. Scrapbooking is such a fun hobby, but it doesn’t have to be majorly expensive. Thanks for reading!
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These are great tips, I wish I would have taken this advice when I first started!