Saving money with the Silhouette

I love my Silhouette machine. I don't love that it costs so much to use it. The supplies are downright expensive and most of the bloggers I read that use a Silhouette machine, have deals with Silhouette so they only talk about Silhouette's exclusive products. Not me. No deal here (don't think I haven't tried!), so guess what? You get the inside scoop on some of the tricks I have learned with using non-Silhouette supplies. First up, the tool kit. I picked this tool kit up at a garage sale for $1. I don't know how I lived without it. I've been doing a lot of vinyl and heat transfer and the hook has been priceless! You can find the Cricut tool kit for around $20. Silhouette sells a few of the individual tools, but for three of the most used tools you are looking at over $18 not including shipping. If you can find the Cricut tool kit on sale, it's well worth it! I've been making a lot of t-shirts so I needed some good heat transfer paper. Silhouette sells rolls of 9x36 paper for $14.99. It comes in HUGE rolls that are 15"x 5 yards. You can have them custom cut it down to size to fit in your machine before they ship it. A roll this size is $35 and in my opinion, it actually cuts better and irons on much easier than the Silhouette brand. If I bought 5 yards of the Silhouette brand it would cost me $75! I've heard that the Expressions brand works really well too. I haven't tried it, but it's worth a shot if you are looking for something different. At the same garage sale that I bought the tool kit at, I also purchased several rolls of adhesive vinyl as well. She used to make and sell vinyl signs at craft bazaars and she told me that the Oracal brand was the best and cheapest she had found. You do need to cut it to size to fit in your machine, but there is a graph on the back with easy to follow lines for cutting. I've been using this vinyl and again, like it more than the Silhouette brand vinyl. Silhouette vinyl comes in rolls that are 9"x10 feet for $14.99. Oracal sells rolls that are 15" x10 YARDS for the same price. Remember, there are three feet in a yard, so Silhouette is selling you around 3 yards, you get 3 times that with the Oracal brand for the same price! These are the few things I have found that I love and that work for me. Have you tried anything that works that is helping you save money while using the Silhouette?