What is the best way to find money in the budget for Blythe? Save money in other sections! This is me assuming that you can pay for everything else in life (rent, utilities, food and other necessities) and you don’t need to sock away the saved money into savings… Although if you put all the extra money that you don’t need to spend into a savings account, you could save it for a rainy day… or a Rainy Day Parade.

Blythe isn’t cheap. It’s really not. I wish it was a cheaper hobby, but it’s not. The dolls are money, the shoes, the glasses, the clothes, the fabric and yarn is all money. Money, money, money. So what can you do to save money to have more room in the budget for Blythe (or maybe savings?).  There’s couponing, for one. And shopping for things that you would have bought anyways while it’s on sale. There’s no need to go all Extreme Couponing (because, let’s face it, no one needs 50+ bottles of mustard in their personal grocery store in their basement), even a few savings here or there can all add up!

The important thing to remember about couponing when you want to save some money is that you’re not saving anything if you wouldn’t have purchased it anyways. Say you have a coupon and you could get a $1 jar of peanut butter – it’s still a wasted dollar if you and everyone that you know hates or is allergic to peanut butter. Take that into consideration when looking for coupons to supplement your weekly grocery trip.

And, as a note before you go of and start downloading coupons – please exercise caution when giving your address online (some sites will mail the coupons to you, while others are printables only).

For my Canadian readers, I know of a few couponing websites, blogs and forums:

• BargainMoose.ca – blog – sales or coupon codes for Canadian and American based shops
• Save.ca – coupons – free coupons that are mailed to your home
• SmartCanucks.ca – forum + coupons database – lots of great resources!
• RedFlagDeals.com – forum+ coupons database – lots of great resources, I tend to avoid the forums section because people are rude, but the content is still good.
• Websaver.ca – coupons – free coupons that are mailed to your home (minimum 3 ordered coupons at one time)

For my American readers, here’s a small selection of US couponing/deal-finding sites (there are a lot, so Google away if you want to find some more!):

• CouponCabin.com – offers of grocery coupons and coupons for clothing stores as well, many of them are printables.
• CouponMom.com – many grocery coupons and state-specific coupons, there’s even a section for restaurant coupons (for those who like to eat out).
• Coupons.com – customizable by your postal code, you can find printable a lot of printable coupons for groceries, house hold items and services in your area.
• RetailMeNot.com – it’s a fantastic website that I use from time to time (for cross-border online shopping), mostly showing coupon codes for a certain amount or percentage off, or coupon codes for free shipping (always important!).

For the Australian readers, I didn’t want to leave you out of the money-saving fun! I haven’t tried most of these (seeing as how I’m not located in Australia), but they seemed to be pretty straight-forward when it come to using them, so hopefully they’ll be of use to you.

• ShopADocket.com.au – the site offers coupons for restaurants, retail shops and services, all you need to do is type in your location or postal code to get coupons for your area.
• TopBargains.com.au – a little searching is involved, but there’s a whole section dedicated towards pizza coupons, yum! There’s also a freebies & samples section, which I think is totally awesome.

For people who aren’t from Canada, the USA or Australia… I ran into a bit of a roadblock when trying to find sites that didn’t seem scammish, sorry! If you have any additional websites that you would like to share with your fellow Blythe enthuiasts, please comment below with the URL of the site and what country/countries it caters towards.

Happy saving, everyone!

I find pull charms really cute on dolls, especially when there’s a theme or it just goes well with the doll’s personality. If your Blythe has sleep eyes and you find that the lids are a little droopy, the main suggestion that you’ll find is to add a heavier charm to the string for sleep eyes. It needs a weight to keep the lid open after you’ve taken away the spring.

A lot of people like using beads. As someone who will dabble in designing jewellery, I like using beads too. Some beads can be really expensive (seeing as how you don’t need that many!), but there are a lot of inexpensive sources as well – especially if you can shop smart. You can find beads at a lot of different stores – dollar stores carry both plastic beads and nicer beads (one local dollar store had semi-precious stones and glass beads). If you’re opting for beads from a big box craft store, many have sales or regular 40 or 50% off coupons that you can use on regular priced strands beads. You can cater the doll’s charms to match their hair colour, the theme of their face-up or just whatever you like.

Other sources for charms for your doll’s pull strings are: beads or charms from jewellery [you can find inexpensive jewellery at thrift stores, dollar stores or clearance bins], make your own with polymer clay, vintage buttons or small plastic knick knacks. These are just some suggestions. I’ve also seen people use alphabet beads to spell out their doll’s names, plastic Kewpie charms or even Swarovski crystals (but that’s not really budget friendly!). Whatever you choose, it doesn’t need to break the bank and you can use a lot of things that you already have.

To attach charms, you can undo the knot of their pull string and add the charms on. After, you just retie the knot with or without the pull ring. For the sleep eye string, you want to make sure that the charms are heavy enough to keep the eyelids open so your Blythe doesn’t always look tired.

What sorts of charms do you have on your doll’s strings?

Auctions can be a fantastic way to save money on a doll that you really want. Sometimes they don’t go up as high as the average cost of a doll, and sometimes they got for buckets of dollars more. How do you decide how high to make your maximum bid? What should you take into consideration? What kinds of questions should you ask about that grail dolly? So many things to consider!

About the seller

• Always check the seller’s feedback and read the comments made. Be sure to read not only the neutral and negative feedback but also the positive feedback comments. Take into account how many stars they have for shipping, accuracy of description, etc.
• Has the seller ever sold something so expensive before? How many times have they sold in the past?
• Don’t feel shy about messaging the seller about any questions you may have about the doll. For instance, if the description of the item says that there is a scratch, ask for a more detailed photo if there isn’t one already.

About the item

• Read everything through once. Then read it again. Is it the item that you want?
• How much does the doll/item normally go for? Is it cheaper on Blythe Kingdom or This is Blythe? What are the lowest and highest price points you’ve ever seen for it?
• How much is the shipping charge from the seller’s location to your house? What method are they using? Does the shipping included tracking, delivery confirmation or insurance? Do you need these shipping add-ons? (If you are purchasing a vintage Blythe, I would highly recommend insurance and tracking. Or any Blythe, really.)
• If the shipping method listed does not include signature upon delivery, confirmation, tracking, insurance, etc. and you want these additions, message the seller to as how much it would cost to have these extras tacked on. Take this into account when determining how much you’re willing to spend.

Onto the auction

• So you’ve done your homework by now (I hope), what is the maximum amount of money that you’re willing to spend on this doll? Keep in mind that you also need to pay for shipping. If you are purchasing from outside of your own country, you should also remember that you may incur additional fees or taxes from customs charges. If the maximum amount you’re willing to spend requires you to borrow money or beg for money off of a loved one, please refer to this handy (tongue-in-cheek) chart.
• Keep in mind when the auction ends, set yourself a reminder somewhere that you’ll look (on your phone, alarm on your computer, etc.) for a time before when the auction ends (maybe 30 minutes?).
• Bid your maximum amount. And then go away from the computer. Do not engage in a bidding war – that’s how auctions go higher than a doll is worth or how you end up spending more than you originally planned for. It’s stressful to just sit there and watch the time tick down. It’s also stressful to see others trying to out bid you (or even successfully outbid you). Go away. Wait for an email to see if you’ve either won or lost the auction.

And lastly… Have fun. If you lose an auction, it is not the end of the world. There will be other dolls.

So it’s under a week until Halloween and what’s a Blythe to do if their owner can’t sew (or just doesn’t have time to sew) and there’s not enough time for that pretty outfit to come in via the mail? Improvise! My dolls had a bit of a discussion to come up with the three best ideas that they had for cheap and easy Halloween costume ideas:

1. Birthday Suit: Not only is it quick and easy, it also doesn’t involve needing to change! (A minor suggestion: include some black privacy bars.) Cost: nothing (or black cardstock).
2. Mummy: Wrap yourself up in tissue! Downside, you probably can’t run around in it without it ripping. Cost: only tissue (and your dignity).
3. Yarn Ball: Take any old ball of yarn, unravel it, wrap it around yourself until you become ball-like. Cost: only yarn (and a potential hospital bill for when you trip over yourself).

However, after much debate that went from Halloween costumes to the fact that Sophie needs more clothes in general because her massive wardrobe just isn’t large enough, the general consensus among the Blythes here at my house that it’s better to be a doll wearing something rather than a doll wearing, well, nothing at all. So don’t go with a Birthday Suit, even if it is one of the cheapest options there is (you never know who may be lurking with a camera).

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Image by sxc.hu user Dioptria.

It can be very, very easy to lose track of how much money you’ve spent on dolls and doll things. Maybe you won’t forgot how much that Kenner cost you, but how much did that Simply Lilac? Or that super cute dress with an unknown designer? How about all those boots? Were they a dollar? Maybe five? Budgeting isn’t all about knowing exactly how many dollars you can afford to spend on Blythe in a month, but also where you can cut back for the more important things in life to save for something or to go towards another expense. It is very difficult to do that without keeping track of how much you’ve spent.

Of course, everyone has their own methods of keeping track of money spent, so I’m just going to go through the way that I do it (and this applies to all sorts of money spending, not just Blythe and other dolly goods):

1. I carry around a small notebook and a pen in my purse at all times. All expenses that I do when I’m not at my computer gets recorded down with the date, what on earth I bought and how much total it cost me (if that includes tax, then I include that in the total as well).
2. All expenses get recorded on an Excel spreadsheet, I have different rows for food, school (tuition, textbooks, general supplies), clothing, dolls and doll stuff (stands, clothes, shoes, accessories). But these are just ‘general’ topics that they go into.
3. In the next tab over in Excel, I have a list of each of my dolls and how much they’ve cost me (base cost of doll, shipping, cost of pullrings/charms, eyechips, etc.). This way I know how much the doll cost me originally but also how much I’ve put into her. (This is not because I anticipate selling them in the near future, just for my record keeping purposes).
4. I also include different sections for other doll things and try to make a meaningful description so I know what I’m talking about regarding different clothes, specific pairs of shoes, etc.
5. If I buy something in a ‘lot’ or a grab bag of doll clothes from the thrift store, these generally do not get a meaningful description but just an overall description like ‘thrifted doll clothes bag’ with the total price paid for the entire bag.

This system has worked really well for me so far in what I do. It helps if you start off keeping track of things from the very beginning – it can be overwhelming to try and remember how much you spent on specific dresses or clothing if you didn’t do it from the start (and, to be fair, most of my dolls’ clothing came in lots or thrifted bags so it’s really easy for me to keep track of things that didn’t come that way!).

What methods do you use to keep track of your dolly (or other) spending?