You all already know that I love to craft and DIY.  But what you may not know is how much I love making lists and checking things off. It gives me sick pleasure to check things off a nice, pretty list.  Sometimes I make a list AFTER I have already done things just so I can check it off.  Weird, but true.  It is particularly true when I am working on a room makeover or DIY project.  I want to see that I have purchased certain items and what I have left.  And I definitely want to know where I stand with my budget at all times.

My sick, twisted, insatiable need to create pretty lists, check things off and stay on budget has resulted in me finding a new best friend.  And it's not a person.  It's itsusms.com.  Don't judge me.  You will understand my obsession if you keep reading.

Friends, meet itsums.com!  Itsums.com, meet my lovely readers!

Now that you have been properly introduced, let me explain how it works.  First, you will need to create a FREE account.  After you do that, click “add new sum board” and give it a name.  Then, install the itsums bookmarklet by clicking and dragging it to your bookmark bar {yes, it's that easy}.  Next, START SHOPPING!  That's the fun part :)

As most of you know already, I have been helping my good friend Raquel plan her son's “big boy” room, and itsums was so handy in planning for it.  We discussed a budget and I began perusing tons of my favorite retailers.

Each time I found an item that was perfect for the big boy room, I simply clicked on itsums button in my bookmark bar.  This handy little box pops up and you enter the price of the item, how many you need and any other details you want to make a note of for later.

Repeat, repeat, repeat until you have all the items you are going to need for your project.  This is what my completed board looks like:

Best of all, if you hover on an item, you CAN CHECK IT OFF ONCE YOU HAVE PURCHASED IT. Woooo hoooo!  Another really cool function is the “hide” function.  If you find that you are going over budget, you can “hide” certain items to see how taking them out of the equation affects your bottom line.  So, if there is an item you can live without for a while, but add later, such as a rug, you can easily see whether holding off on that item for a while can keep you within budget.

Now, words and pictures just done do itsums.com justice, so I have created a short video tutorial showing you how to use it.  Enjoy and BE SURE to check out itsums.com for yourself.  You will LOVE IT!  Click here to head over to itsums.com now!  {PS- it's also a great way to put together a birthday or Christmas wish list, too because you can easily share it with your friends and family!}