Election Signs - How to Make Your Candidate Save You Money

I'm all for voting and the "democratic way", but it sure is annoying that these political candidates and their campaign teams, put up a tremendous number of campaign signs, all over the cities of America.....and just leave them there. Whether it be city,state or national elections, the streets are literally littered with campaign signs. In my particular area - a nice size, popular, main stream city - for weeks prior to the election the streets of the city are bombarded with these "Vote for..." signs. The closer to election day, the more they put up. The city is littered with them. Talk about looking trashy.

But, okay, fine, get the work out to vote, but people are driving - they should be watching the road and traffic, not the advertisements along the way, but more than that...for weeks and even months after the election is over, these campaign signs are not taken down. They continue to litter the streets until the weather wears them out and they blow off their stakes and litter somewhere else. Seems to me that if the candidates can't be bothered to clean up their own mess, how am I supposed to believe that they will clean up the messes of where they represent to make it a better place?

Well, since that is never going to be addressed muchless taken care of, we have to look at it from a frugal point of view. Here are 10 ways for YOU to use those signs and banners to save YOU money!

Put 2 same size signs together, back to back (so both sides of YOUR sign are blank) and:

1. Make your own YARD SALE signs. These campaign signs have great stakes and they are very easy to put in the ground. No more taping or nailing on telephone poles, street signs or cement walls! They are a nice size with plenty of space to write your directions. Plus, they are easy to grab up and trash when your sale is over.

2. Make "direction" signs for the kids in the back yard! Have them "map" out their "imaginary" travel path. If they like to re-create the adventures in a book they read, or just create an adventure on their own, these signs can mark all kinds of places of destination! For instance, if the kids like playing Star Trek, have a sign for each planet they will visit in their playtime excursions through space! There's several places in 100 Acre Woods that they could go meet Pooh and his friends!

3. Save them for the holidays. Assemble them and then slide them to the side in the closet or in the garage. Come each holiday, create a sign! For Thanksgiving, it could be "All turkeys eat here", Christmas could be "Santa, please stop here". Easter is "The Easter Bunny hopes here". The kids would have a blast begin able to create their own sign. And who says it has to be limiited on one sign per holiday? Halloween could be grave stones (push the sign in all the way to the ground) and "beware" signs.

4. Keep some of the smaller signs for craft projects. Take the sign off the stakes and on the blank side of the campaign poster, have your child draw their best art work, then mount it on the wall! (No one will know what's on the back!) The heavier poster board style (the smaller campaign signs that literally litter the sides of the roads) are particularily good for any glue and glitter art work or gluing on beads, rhinestones or other "bulky" type of item.They are strong enough to handle the extra weight!

5. Use the stakes or stands as plant climbers! Tomatoe plants need support to do their climbing. Have some
house plants that you want to stake up? Use the campaign sign stakes! I have seen some pretty tall signs on
those streets! Don't be afraid to take a look at what's available!

6. Got a painting job coming up? Those really large campaign signs, (the ones that obstruct the view of a driver as they are driving by looking for direction signs!) grab those and use them to cover your carpet or other areas you don't want to get paint on. If you are using a spray paint gun, these large signs would be great for taping to the wall you don't want painted so no over spray gets on them. You could tape a few together to make a dividing "wall" to keep the paint spray out. If you are spraying or painting outside, the very large paper signs are great for protecting the ground around where you paint.

7. Are your kids actors? Use those really huge campaign signs, as the "stage curtain". Have the kids decorate the back side of the sign with the name of the play or whatever they are doing. Then, depending on where your home "stage" is, use the paper signs to roll up, roll over or pull away the "curtain" of the stage and let the show begin!

8. Most of the signs are thick poster board. So they would make great moving supplies material! Cut the smaller signs in half and slide them between breakable plates before you wrap the plates up. Make divisions in the box between the glasses that you wrap in newspaper. USe them to add strength to the boxes and any other protection you need. They are light weight so it doesn't add much weight to the box but are great protection materials!

9. Take the poster board sized ones, and cut them into smaller sizes - they make great like "tools" for when nothing else works. Got a table that wobbles because one leg is shorter? FOld a piece of heavy poster board up until it is the right height to slide under the leg to stop the wobbling. Need a door-stop? Again, fold some poster board up to the shape to fit under the door to keep it open. Need a wedge for a window or a "partition" between two things so they don't rub together - poster board fold-ups to the rescue!

10. Roll the smaller but heavier poster board signs into a roll, secure with tape or glue or a rubber band and stand it at a slant in a lizard's cage so the creature can have something to climb on. Cut the roll in half and lay it down so he has something to hid in. Use them to line the bottom of a pets cage, the bottom of a kitty litter box or the bottom of a bird cage.

There's alot out there available! Go take a walk and pick what you want your candidate to do for you!

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To make money, save money or just stretch what you have-continue reading articles for more tips, ideas and ways to do all 3!