Bargain price on a staple of my summer wardrobe

A simple white t-shirt is a staple for my wardrobe in summer. I wear them with jeans, capris, shorts, and casual skirts. A plain white women's t-shirt, bought in a clothing store, runs about $8 to $12. Thinking outside the box, and shopping in a craft store, a similar t-shirt can be had for a fraction of that price. This past week, I found a great deal on a summer shirt.

One daughter and I were picking up t-shirts at Jo Ann Fabrics for a family project. Jo Ann's had the Buy 1 Get 1 Free deal going on for a few days with the t-shirts used for tie dye, painting, iron ons, and silk screening. The regular price is not horrible, at $6.49 for women's styles, and $4.49 for kids and basic adult t-shirts. But with the Buy 1 Get 1 deal, that made the women's t-shirts (more body hugging style with a slightly lower scoop neck or v-neck) $3.25 each, and the basic adult shirts $2.25 each. With this deal, my daughter and I each got an extra shirt to keep as a white t-shirt for summer. Later in the week we went back for 2 more shirts for other family members. The B1G1 deal was no longer on, but I had a 50% off coupon with me, and my daughter was able to pull up a 50% off coupon on her phone. So, we were able to buy 2 more shirts at the lower prices of $3.25 and $2.00. In addition to white, these shirts come in a variety of colors, BTW.

I checked Michael's crafts, online, and this week they have the basic style, short sleeve t-shirt  for both kids and adults, in a bunch of colors, for $2, even cheaper than my deal at Jo Ann's. Hobby Lobby's shirts are slightly more expensive at $2.79, on sale. I consider a casual shirt in the $2 price range to be a great deal. My guess is these shirts are offered at such low prices because crafts stores expect that you will also buy paints, dyes, and transfers to enhance the shirts.

You may be thinking, "but the sales will have passed, soon." True. Here's the thing, when the shirts are not on sale, I can often find a 50% off (or more) coupon that is good on 1 regularly priced item, yielding that same great deal on a simple t-shirt.

For a casual weekend shirt, or a layer under another shirt, I think these shirts are a great addition to my family's wardrobes. Father's Day is past, but there are birthdays, and other holidays looming on the horizon, for which I think another couple of these t-shirts would make great gifts. My husband wears basic t-shirts around the house on weekends. For $2.00 to $2.25 per shirt, he could have 4 new t-shirts for $8.00 to $10, or about the price of 1 men's t-shirt at a store like Kohl's. Like I said, these comes in lots of colors.

Now, for that family project that I spoke of. . .

Sunday afternoon we had fun tie dyeing some shirts. And after using the dye for these shirts, 3 of us used the leftover dye, dumped into buckets, thinned with a little water and combined to make nice tones as over-dye for some of our existing clothing. I over-dyed a washed-out light blue t-shirt into a bright mint green one, a daughter dyed a pair of washed-out lavender long underwear/pjs a lovely shade of lilac, and the other daughter over-dyed her gray heather, short-sleeved sleep shirt into a magenta heather. one. Didn't want to waste that last bit of dye.

In preparation for the 4th of July -- making a batch of homemade rosemary mustard

For dinner on the 4th we're doing sausage, veggie, and potato kabobs. As a condiment, I've made some rosemary mustard using: ground mustard seed (the powder-kind of mustard), salt, water, rosemary from our garden, a spoonful of honey for sweetness, and vinegar. It's mellowing in the fridge for the next few days (the flavors mingle, the mixture thickens, and the heat reduces with time).

Homemade gourmet mustard is so easy to make, yet so economical. On Amazon, herb mustards range in price from $3.50 to $5.00 for a 6 to 8-oz jar. Yet it can be made at home for a fraction of those pricey jars.

By buying ground mustard in a 10-oz canister from Cash & Carry, for $3.49 (pricing similar to Costco), my cost for an 10-oz batch was about $1.15. Alternatively, I could have saved even more, by buying ground mustard from bulk bins at WinCo, at about $2.49/lb, yielding a cost of just under $1.00 for a 10-oz batch. If I had needed to order ground mustard online, I found it selling for just under $6.00 in a 1-lb bag, which would have brought my cost up to about $1.20 per 10-oz batch. Any of these scenarios is at most about 1/5 of the cost of buying commercial gourmet mustard.

Gourmet mustard is a great way to use up those odd bits of liquid leftovers, such as the last of a bottle of white wine, champagne, beer/ale, apple juice, or sparkling cider, by substituting this leftover liquid for all or part of the water called for in a mustard recipe.

The actual preparation for homemade mustard is under 20 minutes, including a 10-minute waiting period before adding the vinegar, and chopping herbs. Bonus -- it keeps in the fridge for several months.

A little jar of homemade mustard makes a lovely little gift, as well. The varieties are endless, by changing up the liquids and mixing in chopped solid additions, such as cranberries, herbs/spices, jalapenos, or horseradish; varying the sweet/hot ratio by adding honey, agave, or maple syrup, and timing the addition of vinegar to adjust the heat; and/or altering the texture by using some whole mustard seeds in addition to the ground mustard.

So, our full menu for the 4th of July looks like this:

• using our fire ring for roasting, we will each assemble our own kabobs on our home-fashioned, marshmallow/hotdog-roasting, long-handled skewers (as seen in this post). We'll be choosing from chunks of 3 kinds of smoked sausage (turkey, beef, pork), small, pre-cooked potatoes, zucchini chunks, green pepper pieces, pineapple chunks, and cherry tomatoes.
• condiments for the kabobs: homemade rosemary mustard, barbecue sauce
• rolls from the freezer, leftover from our reception in early June
• green salad of lettuce and kale from the garden
• this creamy rhubarb gelled salad using rhubarb from the garden
• red, white, and blue mini cupcakes from the freezer, leftover from the reception
• s'mores, of course