From Ricochet's Tool Box:

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I've been sewing for a few years now, but I only just recently bought myself a self-healing cutting mat to use with my rotary cutter.  What did I use before that?  The plastic chair mat under my office chair.  Yes.  Seriously.  You see when we moved into our current home, the carpet in the office was too thick to roll our office chair on.  So we bought a floor mat.  Turns out we bought one that was too rigid for the pile of our carpet so it cracked.  The cracked mat was rolled up and set aside.  I could see the ruined mat when I was typing away on the computer (as I am now!).  Throwing away all that nice plastic seemed a waste.  But what else could you use a cracked floor mat for?

I don't know how it works in your house, but in mine the leftover bits of furniture go to my craft room.  I have the old computer desk for my sewing machine, the old dining room table, the old filing cabinets, some mismatched end tables, bits and pieces of old closet systems, etc.  I eventually ended up with the old broken chair mat as well.  I'm not too sure what the circumstances were or when I started making cuts on the floor mat, but I did and it worked.  

I didn't have an acrylic ruler either, but I had a metal straight edge with a cork back.  The straight edge worked great with my little rotary cutter and the floor mat.  Remember my Naughty Notions Clutch?  I used my floor mat for all the squaring up and trimming in that project.

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The spikes under the mat (my mat at least) are spaced exactly one inch apart.  They form a perfect grid which I used to square up all my cuts.

Remember the patchwork pillows I made for my mom for Christmas?  I used the floor mat to cut all the fabric.  Even though it meant doing all the cutting on my knees on the carpet, it still beat cutting all those strips of fabric with scissors.

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Over President's Day weekend I finally bought a real rotary cutting set.  I waited for the 50% off sale and used my 20% military discount and bought this very nice cutting set for under $20.  It was well worth my money.  Now that I am making my first large quilt, I can appreciate getting up off the floor to cut all my strips of fabric.

Now you all know a bit more about me and my cheapskate make-do-with-what-you-got attitude towards craft supplies.  I have a few more tricks up my sleeve so stay tuned.

While I have you here, please check out our current (March 2012) sewing challenge HERE.

Happy crafting and big hugs from Montana,