Save money on thread!

I love saving money (especially when I don’t have an abundance of it) and what I discovered yesterday is too good not to share. If you sew, pay attention! If you don’t already do this, you just might want to begin 🙂

Anyone who’s read my blog knows that I make denim quilts. A lot of my stitching is “behind the scenes”, meaning you’ll never see it. When I attach 2 pieces of denim together, I use whatever thread I have on hand, no matter the color. For top stitching, which you do see, I generally use a specific denim thread.

Since I was running low, I stopped at Fabricland on my way home from work yesterday. It’s close to where I live, so it’s convenient but I really don’t like shopping there. The store is often ablaze with cardboard, neon signs such as “Buy 1, get 1 (or even 2) FREE” or “Take 40% off the regular price!”. Sounds good? It is. Until you also see the “Members only” written in the corner.

And that irks me. I HATE feeling like I’m being forced into paying for a yearly membership just to get the odd sale price on thread. I very, very rarely buy material. I use old jeans for the most part. But NOW I’ve gotten around the whole membership issue and I’ve hugely reduced some of my thread expense. I had a brilliant, light bulb moment!

Here are the types of thread I usually purchase.

The first is a 500 m spool, $5.89 regular price. That kind of hurts considering how quickly I go through it. The second and third spools are designed for use with denim and I like them because the stitching “disappears” if the denim is just the right shade. Their prices are $3.89 for 200 m and $2.00 for 114 m. Ouch and ouch as well, unless I snag them during a great sale. I have. Only once. I wish I’d loaded up!

And then there’s this next spool of thread.

It’s for a specific type of sewing machine, a serger. I don’t have a serger so these extra large, uneven shaped spools had remained off my radar. But while I was looking at threads and bemoaning the prices, I saw these big spools and I began to think. It’s thread. Right? I could use it. Couldn’t I? OH YES.

Oh yes, I can!

Last night, I grabbed several empty spools (it does help to keep everything, lol) and as I watched Netflix, I transferred thread from the big spool to the smaller ones. My savings are phenomenal. If you have the stubborn determination I do, you can save money as well.

The serger thread, at 1500 metres, was only $4.00! Four dollars. Four smackers. Four bucks. Even without doing the math for you, you can easily see I saved plenty of money. And I’ll save more in the future because this is what I’ll do for all my hidden stitching and even some of my top stitching. I’m actually thankful for this financially strapped phase I’ve been experiencing. It’s making me look at money spending in all new ways.

I have 4 partial spools, I’ve learned I can put MORE thread on them, so I will from now on. I’m so happy. I am easy to please though!

I think most of us can be frugal, we just don’t think about it unless we absolutely have no choice.

Okay, I have to show the math anyway. It’s so amazing!

• 3 – 500 m spools x $5.89 = $17.67
• 1 – 1500 m spool x $4.00; savings of $13.67, yay me!

If I use basic blue thread over denim thread (in some cases), I can save there as well.

• 7½ – 200 m spools x $3.89 = $29.18
• 1 – 1500 m spool x $4.00; savings of $25.18!!

If that’s not incentive to ditch the denim thread, I don’t know what is. I believe I just convinced myself. I’d need 13, THIRTEEN, of the smallest spools to equal 1500 m.

• 13 – 114 m spools x $2.00 = $26.00
• 1 – 1500 m spool x $4.00; savings of $22.00, another wowzer!

Sew there you have it! Switch to spooling your own thread and save money! Big money, not mere pennies, although those do add up too. My $5.89 brand new spool of thread is going back to Fabricland tomorrow. The only downside to using serger thread is it’s not available in the wide array of colors normal spools are. However, I’ll be pretty satisfied with blue, black and white.

*** Vitally important update: (ha ha) Because I have the kind of mind that likes to figure out how to do something without necessarily spending more money, I put my thinking cap on after publishing this post earlier today. Transferring the thread from big spool to small spool was what I thought was a good plan (Plan A) until I had more time to ponder the situation.

Plan B is so much better! I had old plastic wrap that had been used as packaging (I do save everything!) and crammed a piece of it into the center of the spool and voila! Now it sits nice and tight on my machine, no wiggling, no budging, perfect 🙂 And it was 100% free.

I have proof.

And now I need to sew something!