A Hat Trick of Nifty Thrifty Gifties

Ok, I have been meaning to get a few more gift ideas up before Christmas gets any closer, but just haven’t found the time to sit down and blog.  So, instead of making this into three separate posts, I figured I’d slap ‘em all together and share ‘em with you faster!

1. Make your own paper dolls.
I happened upon this neat site once, looking for some craft idea or another, can’t quite remember!  ANYWAY!  I think these little paper dolls are so sweet!  You print off the outlines of the dolls ( or you can choose to print them in color) and choose from hundreds of sheets of hair, accessories, clothes and themes.  There is a complete nativity set, including animals, pirates, princesses, doctors, holiday themes, seasonal sets, cultural themes, the ideas go on and on.  I printed out a pilgrims and natives set right before Thanksgiving and used them as part of a quick study on the holiday. 

The site is www.makingfriends.com .  There are craft ideas, the paper dolls and lots of activity ideas based on theme or age group, definitely worth checking out if you craft with young children!

I got a cute flowered folio from the dollar store and printed off a pile of the outfits and accessories. I’m including some popsicle sticks to glue onto the backs once they are coloured.  They’ll make neat puppets in the puppet theater of a certain little girl I know!  Quick and easy, or hours of fun colouring and designing outfits for kids !  I don’t know how to price this gift, it’s basically just the cost of printing it off at home ( which for me with our photocopier is less than 1cent a page).  Whatever it costs you to run your printer, this is still a cute and easy gift.

The site also suggests you can laminate them after colouring and use a repositionable glue to hold the clothes in place.  Then you’d be able to change outfits instead of just gluing them in place as I’ve done with my kids.  I haven’t found this repositionable glue ( but I haven’t really looked too hard either).  If anyone tries this, let me know how it works for you!


2. Nail polish and stickers.

Ok, nail polish is not exactly a ground breaking gift idea, I know!  But, I like to give the little stickers with it.  I think adding the extra of the stickers makes it a fun gift for a little girl who I happen to know will love them!  I like to buy what (for me) is at least a decent nail polish, as opposed to a super cheap one that will not go on well and chip fast.  Added to the stickers, this gift cost me about $10 all together.



3. Mini dish cloths and doilies.

Lots of little girls love their play kitchens.  It takes no time at all to whip up a mini doily or cute fun sized crochet dish cloth, and give them some special “linens” to play with.  I made these out of some left over cotton I had, so there is no real cost to speak of.   My girls use theirs as place mats, table cloths, dish cloths… you name it!  Send along some new play food or little dishes for a sweet gift!

What is the Deal With Extreme Couponing?

Ok, just caught part of that show on extreme couponers.  I have to say, I don't get it!  What is the point of having a two year stock pile of junk anyway?

It looks to me like these people are just super organized hoarders.  Doesn't most of that stuff expire before they can make use of it?  Doesn't that mean it's just a huge waste?  What I noticed was that most of the "groceries" they are getting aren't real food.  "vitamin" water, candy, salad dressings, enough toilet paper to last 20 years... it's not actually food.

And the time that goes into that! Seriously, it's a full time job finding and organizing the coupons, then planning the trip itself.  I'm all for saving money, but I just can't see myself doing this.

As Shawn and I were discussing this idea, it occurred to us that even if we wanted to, it would be hard to attempt this here.  We don't really have coupons.  There aren't coupon flyers that come with the paper, like the places in the show, and our stores don't have double coupon days.  Oh sure, Superstore has that wall of coupons for some of their brand's items, but that's not really the same thing.

Where do they get the millions of coupons that they are sorting and filing so carefully anyway?  I saw one lady dumpster diving for them, another knocking on her neighbor's doors.  Do they have websites that they get them from?  Do they pay for that?

So, I'm curious, have any of you ever set out to coupon like crazy?  How do you do it? 

The Thank You Loaf

I am a huge fan of the good old fashioned art of writing a thank you note.  Don't get me wrong, I still fail to keep up on writing my own, but I am going to ask for mercy because I have four young kids at home.  I try to keep up, I honestly do! I think it's a little courtesy that has been going out of style and that's a real shame.  It's always good to take a moment and thank those who have done something nice for us.  I have a stack of postcards that I ordered from VistaPrint ( 250 of them for FREE) that have "Thank You" printed across them and this has helped me for sure!  But the title is not a typo, it says loaf, not note...so here's my story.

We've recently adopted ( or been adopted by?) our neighbors.  They're about the right age to be "grand parents" to our kids and they are very sweet.  Last week, they gave our kids the most beautiful child sized garden bench I have ever seen!  Within minutes of seeing it, the kids decided it was a train station bench and played "waiting for the train" all morning.  I wanted to find a way to thank "Nannie" and "Poppa" for their thoughtful gift, and a post card just didn't seem like enough.

I had baked some banana bread that day, and decided to send a loaf over with the post card.  I realized, though, that I didn't know what to wrap the loaf in.  I didn't really want to just put it in tin foil, and I didn't have a ziplock bag the right size.  Then, this idea struck me.

I got a piece of the flour sack tea towel material and fabric markers and had the kids write "thank you" all over it.  Then, Baden and Colleena each wrote their names, Lily scribbled across it and I added Bremen's name as well.  We wrapped the loaf in the towel and carried it over next door. 


It turns out that "Nannie" used to embroider and decorate tea towels as well, so she appreciated the flour sack material.  I think it turned out to be a bit more personal and a nice way to show our gratitude.

It didn't cost me anything to make (because I am the strange sort of person who has flour sack material on hand), but it turned out to be a priceless gift idea I'll probably use again in the future.

Flooring Dilemma Update

Thanks for your suggestions everyone!
In the end, we decided to live with the subfloor.  We ripped out the carpet one Saturday afternoon, and were pleasantly surprised to find the chip board underneath in great shape.  We decided to stain it to even out the multiple colors, and used a gift card we had at the home improvement store to buy the one small can we needed.  Shawn had a can of Verathane in the shop, which he used to seal the floor.  It actually looks pretty nice, I have to admit.  Several people have commented that it looks like flooring!  So for an actual out of pocket cost of nothing,  we are really happy with the floors.  I'm sure we'll be living with them for quite some time.
Before the clear coat was dried, I went into labor.  Good thing we got the floors done when we did!  While I was in the hospital, Shawn finished the floor and got the furniture out of the kitchen and back where it belongs! 
The above photo is of our newest little one, Bremen, with the rapscallion dog that caused the whole thing in the living room.


Wondering what dilemma I'm talking about?  Read the original post here (Does This Justify Raiding the Emergency Fund? ) 

New Uses for Homemade Laundry Soap

While reading another's blog about living frugally, I came across an idea that I loved.  Use laundry soap as general purpose cleaner, she said, it's cheaper then the specialty bathroom cleaners you buy, and does a great job.

Hmmm? But why not?  Now, she was talking about a store bought variety that she uses, and was also pondering attempting to make her own laundry detergent, but I immediately thought of my giant pail of laundry soap and decided to give it a try.

I only just finished up the first batch of laundry soap that I had made.  The couple of dollars I spent making 10 gallons of soap has lasted my family almost a year!  We're still loving it, and I was excited...have I discovered another use for it too??  I asked myself if it could work.  Why not? It's three ingredients are a water softener, washing soda and pure soap.  Why wouldn't that clean?  I normally use vinegar and water to clean my house, and it does a great job, but I'm always open to trying a new idea. 

Today I washed my kitchen floors using the laundry soap in a pail of hot water.  It did a really great job!  Tackled all the sticky food spills easily and left no residue!  I'm going to try the super dried on toothpaste spill on the bathroom counter next, but I'd say it makes a great, cheap cleaner!

There you have it, another cool use for homemade laundry soap!  And hey, even if you don't make your own, if you run out of cleaner, now you know, you could use laundry detergent instead!

Goin' On A Worm Hunt

Last week, the two oldest kids felt like they were on a grand adventure when Daddy got them out of bed at midnight, helped them get dressed and head out for a hunt.  A friend of ours had driven over to join them, and the four of them spent almost three hours out in the middle of the night, looking for worms.  Whenever we have a good rain, one question gets asked repeatedly at our house. " Daddy are we going hunting for nightcrawlers?".  I'm sure that of all the things we do that are weird, this one might be near the weirdest end of the scale, haha!

Around here, we have a large variety of nightcralwers that are excellent for fishing with.  When they come out during a good rain, our kids look forward to Daddy taking them for a walk.  They splash in puddles, get soaked and pick up all the nightcrawlers they can find along the way.  It's a big adventure for them.  The girls love to go too ( no squeamish sallys around here!) and Lily with her small two year old fingers tends to be the fastest worm picker-upper.

We put them in a large container, with dirt and miscellaneous stuffs, then keep them cool and use them throughout the year.  I've been doing some research on how to keep a "worm farm" with nightcrawlers instead of the usual red worms that one might use for a composter.  While we've always done this "just for fun", the kids think that it would be a fun "school" project to study the worms, and maybe even sell some of them.  Why not?  So... feeding the worms is now an item on our chores list... hahahahah!

This is completely free, and takes no real effort, but it's a fun little family activity.  I have kinda thought that we might be the only people who do this, but lately I have heard so many people telling stories about worm hunting when they were kids.  It's such a fond memory for so many people!  One friend tells of it being one of the funnest memories of being with his dad, another talked about how fun it was to sell the worms to local fishermen.  For some unexplainable reason, picking up these slimy little creatures is a very memorable childhood experience.  Remember that middle of the night adventure?  While they were out walking around, there were others out too!  One elderly gentleman they ran into talked about childhood memories of his own worm hunts and thought it was neat to see these guys taking the kids out. Talk about memories! One day they'll be sitting around laughing about the time Daddy took them worm hunting in the middle of the night and the ended up talking with some old guy!

It might be fun to try a worm farm of your own!  Why not?  If you're interested, here's a great link
Nightcrawler Worm Farm Info   from e-how.

Beating the Budget Busters: Spring

If the amount I spend on gardening every year was any indication, one would be sure I lived on an acreage.  I don’t know what size my imaginary acreage is, but it must be huge because boy is it costly to maintain!  Ok, all joking aside, every year I seem to manage to spend a small fortune on my postage stamp sized yard.  Something about spring makes me want to run out and buy a zillion plants. 

I head to a local garden center, or three or four, and load up on annuals, seeds, perennials and the odd bag of peat moss or compost.  Somehow I always manage to pick up enough to supply a hobby farm.  Last year I gave the extra annuals to neighbourhood kids to plant in their flower beds.  Even when I have enough plants for the few spaces I can plant them in, I inevitably find some beautiful little flower that I would love to have, which leads to me having to buy more pots.  Then, I can always squeeze another plant or two in…  You get the idea!

This year I determined to be more realistic about how much space and money I have.  I should have written this post a week ago, before I went to three local greenhouses…  Ok, yes, I went, and yes I bought a couple more things than I planned, but mostly I am on track for the year.

I decided to plan how many plants I could fit in the pots I already have, and only buy those.  This way, I know too that I will have the time to maintain them.  Besides spending too much, the problem with buying extra plants is that I always manage to kill most of them because I don’t have the time to water and maintain them all.  The girls want two hanging baskets on their playhouse, Baden wants two tomato plants, beans, peas, carrots and parsley in our children’s garden, and then I have three little window-box like containers that are hung on our fence.  That’s all, and this year I mean it! 

Buuuuuut, the previous owner of this house was an amazing gardener with no young children and therefore more time on her hands.  Front and back, this house has lots of perennial beds.  Over the last three years, I have changed and reduced them to a more manageable level for me, but every year, there is always more I’d like to do.  Just a few boards to make edging here… the odd plant to fill in where one died… and all those doggy spots on the lawn.  You get the idea.  I never seem to be able to leave well enough alone!

In this too, I resolved to do better this year!  I am 9 months pregnant, and cannot do a lot of the yard chores anyway.  Once I have the baby, the yard will be lucky if I remember to turn on the under ground sprinklers once a week!  Well, that determination lasted until my wonderful husband offered me a day of his labour.  All I had to do was sit in a lawn chair, and he would do whatever chores I asked him to.  Shawn got a lot done, and I got a nasty sunburn.  “ Hey hunney, you know, a few boards along here and this flower bed would look nice and tidy, it would really finish it well” he says… on his way to the garden center.  “ This old shrub is over grown and not too nice anymore, I’ll rip it out for you” was quickly followed by “ Hmmm, what should we buy to plant in it’s spot? Maybe some cedars?”  “ Would be nice to buy some boards and finish the walking path this year” had to be quashed, though.  “ You know, that edging in the back looks great, maybe I should grab some for the front yard too” is still in the negotiating phase.  I’d love to rip out the dead bushes in the front, change the shape of that bed and edge it, but I don’t really want to spend the money either.  I can’t decide, which is worse: the dead bush, or a huge bare hole?

Ok, there are some ways I’ve been frugal about my yard wish list.  Almost all of my perennials have needed dividing over the last few years.  I’ve used a lot of these cuttings to fill in spaces when needed.  I’ve also given away enough daylilies, irises,  and hostas to stock several friends’ yards.  This year, I’m mooching a few things from a friend who is cleaning up her yard.  There always seems to be someone dividing and cleaning out plants if you are looking around.  Also, because Shawn is always at construction sites as part of his job, he often finds odd scraps of sod.  Contractors order in enough for the project and then toss aside the one or two lengths that are inevitably left over.  He’ll grab them and use them to fix up the doggy spots in the lawn.

We’ve Frankenstein-ed together the sections of our fence that are the worst with scrap boards we had laying around, and determined to ignore how ugly it looked until we could afford to fix it.  But, in order to keep the neighbourhood kids out and the 70lb dog in, we really need to address the fence, or at least portions of it, and soon!  Several spans of the thing are rotted to pieces.  I am constantly hollering at the kids next door “ Get off the fence! You’re gonna get hurt!” and “ Don’t hit the fence, the boards are falling off!”  We had some wind this week, and the fence flaps like wind-chimes!  The back section is supported because our boat is behind it… classy, I know!  Several sections have been tied up with rope.  I don’t know how much longer we can ignore it!  I think we may have to pick the worst parts of it this year, and plan on replacing it section by section.  I remember from the last fence we built, fencing is a lot of work, and it’s expensive!

Alright, so if I was going to make myself a score card of how I’ve done so far this spring? I’d have to give myself koodos for improving, and tsk a little at how we did too.  Next on our plate this year is the job of finishing the playhouses.  Shawn built them the year Lily was born, two years ago, and has put time and money into them every year.  This year, we plan to finish the few details that remain, and stay on budget too!  Stay tuned!!

Books : To Buy or to Borrow?

For those of you who don’t know it already. I’m a bookworm.  A first class, library card carrying, piles of books all over the house bookworm.  So is Shawn.  As you can now probably imagine, there are books all over our house.  In fact, at the moment, I cannot think of a single room in our house that is NOT stocked with some books.

Over the years, we have spent more money on books than I could possibly imagine or estimate anymore.  I buy them both used and new.  I know that there are now so many ways to have e-versions of books, but it’s just not the same.  I like the feel of a book, the smell of the paper and the look of them on shelves.  We used to have a monthly budget for books ( yes, seriously) but that is something that has been cut out.

One of my favourite places to buy books was Value Village.  Often kid’s books are on sale as low as $0.25 each, and normally they are around $1.00 to $2.00 each. Buy four, and you get a fifth one free!  We used to go, and dig through the bins, finding “treasures” like old “Little Critter” books to add to their collections.  I would wander through the adult books and pick up a novel by a favourite author, or find neat reference books on topics that interested us.  It wasn’t unusual to come home with 20 books for the kids, and two or three for me. 

Another favourite of mine was online shopping.  I found great books, used and new alike on Amazon.  I also love Christian Book( www.christianbook.com).  They sell at wholesale prices, and even with exchange and shipping, their prices are great!

I have frequented the library over the years, often looking up topics I was interested in or authors I liked.  But, I was always returning things late because I wanted to re-read that chapter that had some great bit of information I wanted to remember. Since cutting out money for books, I  have completely fallen in love with my local library all over again.  I can look up any topic or book on the search engine, and they will order it in for me from wherever it may happen to be in the province ( a great new feature since the whole province joined into one giant group).  Our kids own mountains of books, but they still love library time, wandering along the shelves choosing whatever jumps out at them, or searching for a specific interest.  I love that we can still read mountains of books without spending a dime.  And now we’re there so often, I don’t usually forget to bring the books back on time.

I still like actually owning books though.  Sometimes, I just know that it’s something I’ll enjoy rereading again in the future.  Sometimes, it’s because we are studying it with our Sunday School group, or as part of a Bible Study and I know I am going to write in it.  Sometimes, it’s just an awesome reference book that I think we’ll use.

So for now, books are not a regular part of our budget.  There are special exceptions when we’re going to be studying one, or when I choose to use gift money on one.  I’ve started reviewing books, so I get some for free.  And, I’m making full use of what is already available to me for free : My Library!

Shower Stall Balloon Pit

Sometimes, I have to work really hard to come up with enough neat things to entertain my kids during these long stuck-in-the-house winter days.  And, then sometimes, they invent the funniest things themselves!

Last week, my kids took all the balloons that had been blown up and were still bouncing around the play room and piled them all in the shower stall.  They invented their own “balloon pit” and jumped around in there, squealing with delight!  I couldn’t resist snapping a picture!

“Free Stuff” E-mails

When I started seriously looking at what things I could find out there for free, I signed up for a couple of e-mail services that promise to send you leads on great free stuff.

After a couple months of daily deleting these e-mails from my inbox, I unsubscribed this week.  The one I did like was from PG&E, and the first time I was there to sign up, I got to choose a pack of products to sample.  It included things like mouth wash, a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, tooth whitening gel, etc.  I really like some of the products, and it came with great coupons. 

I signed up to get a sample of three different BIC pens.  They never came.

I signed up to get offers of free products from LivingWell, but all I am getting is junk “information” mailings, and offers of coupons.

Then I signed up for “free parent stuff” and “free stuff”, and I have to say, that personally, I found them useless.

Maybe there are better ones out there? Do any of you have some that you love?  Oh well, it was worth a try!  For now, I have unsubscribed from these particular ones, let me know if you discover one that is interesting!

Homemade Glass Defogger

Defogger, is that even a word?  Anyway, I ran across a neat tip when I was looking for something to prevent the condensation from building up on our front storm door.  Fun as it is for the kids to write their names in it, I was looking for a way to keep it from getting all fogged up.

After cleaning the glass, put a small glob of conditioner on a cloth and buff it into your windows ( or mirrors too!).  Rub in circles, buffing in until it’s all cleared and shiny clean.  The thin layer of conditioner left makes a barrier against the glass, which keeps fog from staying!

We always seem to run of shampoo faster than conditioner since not everyone in our house uses both, so this was a neat way to use up some of the extra.  It works with baby body wash too!

ACHOOOO!

BookSneeze.  I don’t know how they came up with that name.  It’s a resource for bloggers to get FREE books to review.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE books.  The idea of getting them free intrigues me, so I signed up.  In return for a free book, that I can choose from a list of available titles, I will need to post a review on my blog, and on one of the qualifying book sites ( like Amazon or christianbook).

I don’t know how many will be ones that catch my eye, but I am looking forward to it anyway.  The first title I chose was “ Regret Free Parenting”.  A friend of mine is reading this book, which is a Christian view on raising children well, but not obsessing about doing this job “perfectly” and not beating yourself up over mistakes.  I’m looking forward to it’s arrival!

As soon as I read it, I’ll tell you what I think, as well as whether the mandatory reviewing was worth getting the free book!

 

   Do any of you blog for books?  Which site? And what do you think of the experience?

Home Haircuts?

I miss my hairdresser.  Besides all the usual reasons to love having my hair done ( it looks nicer, those awesome salon products, and that wonderful feeling from having someone else wash your hair with that water sprayer…) I miss going to my hair dresser because she is such a great friend of mine.  When I decided to grow my hair out, she gave me a great cut that is still holding up well after several months.  I did make a coffee date with her just to go out and visit.

As much as I miss a fresh hair cut, it is something I can do without right now.  My kids, however are starting to look like a trio of cousin its.  Ok, its not that bad, but they all really need a trim.  Baden’s hair is past his eyes.  Maybe he’s taking after Shawn, planning on a haircut once a year?  My hairdresser friend is amazing with kids, and her prices are the best anywhere, better than the school even.  No matter how reasonable her rates, I still just can’t afford it.

This has me pondering home haircuts.  I cut Shawn’s hair once when he was in tech.  His friends recognized a “girl friend cut your hair” cut right away and ribbed him for it a lot!  I didn’t think it was that bad, but the teasing prompted Shawn to make me promise that I would “never attempt to cut the hair of any living thing ever again.” ( Seriously, I don’t know what he was complaining about, the man grows his hair to his shoulders, then buzzes it off once a year anyway…)  Never the less, with three kids it now seems he is willing to reconsider his strong stand against me holding a pair of scissors.  Not on his own hair mind you, that he had done last week at the local walk in hair dressers, but he’ll consider the kids…

So, here is the point of this whole thought train.  Those of you who cut hair yourself, yours or your kids, or your spouses… I need your help!  I think I can handle Colleena’s, it’s long and straight, and I can just trim all the way around as evenly as I can.  She needs almost 10 inches cut off, so I have lots of room for error. 

I’m not sure I’ll even attempt Lily’s.  Her curls probably need more layers than I can manage, and I’m not sure how much to trim off.  It’s down to the middle of her back right now, and I’d like it to end up curling just above her shoulders.  The long curls have become too much to manage, and the fight to brush the tangles out everyday is too hard on both of our nerves.  I hate pinning her down to comb her hair and having her scream the whole time.  Should I trim just a bit, and see??

My fear level for doing Baden’s hair lies somewhere in the middle.  I THINK I can use a shaver to trim the sides, and just use a longer shave at the top?  Those of you who have done little boy’s hair, what advice can you give me?  And do any of you have a hair trimmer I can borrow?

Can I just use a good pair of sharp scissors? For the girls', do I really just cut it all the same length?  HELP!  Maybe I should get Shawn to man the trimmer…then he wouldn’t be able to blame me… heh heh heh!

I guess, if I really mess it up, I still know that my wonderful friend would fix it for me!

“Snow Spots”

A friend of mine was blogging about things we think up to keep our kids busy this week, and it totally inspired me to share some of the crazy things we do at our house.  Many of our friends laugh and say “only at your house” when they see what we play with the kids.  I thought I’d spread them out and share some of my free,silly and fun activities.

The first one that comes to mind is “snow spots”.  It started when we were reading “The Cat in The Hat Comes Back” to our kids.  The cat, and his little cats make spots in the house, and then send them outside, where the new problem becomes snow spots all over the yard. I thought it would be fun to let the kids paint snow spots out in the snow.  We’ve been doing this regularly for years now, and they look forward to it every winter.

All you need is a few drops of food colouring in a squeeze or squirt or spray bottle.  I usually add warm water, so it doesn’t freeze once you’re outside.  Sometimes, I make it in big pitchers and just keep refilling the squirt bottles.
 


Lily even liked trying it when she was about one.  I just made sure to wash the snow suits soon after they came back inside.






Over the years, we’ve written our names, drawn pictures and sprayed wildly all over the yard.  The kids really like “painting” their snow forts.

A Great Idea Deserves to be Shared

One of the things I have enjoyed about sharing my frugal ideas with others is hearing theirs in return.  A friend of mine has so many great ideas, it’s a wonder she isn’t writing this blog! Haha!  Anyway, here is one of her ideas I wanted to pass on to you.

Buy bulk post cards from Vista Print when they are on sale with an image that works for boys or girls, and have the message read simply “ Happy Birthday!”.  Then you can always write your own personalized message on the back, and you’ll always have birthday cards on hand for those last minute classmate’s parties. 

I love this idea!  You could also order them in a “Thank You” theme if you are getting married, or are someone who uses thank you cards often.  Hey, they’d even be great if they read “Thinking of You”.  You can put them in an envelope as a stylish card, or write a short note and mail them as a post card. 

Right now, Vista Print has a special on, you can order 100 cards for FREE.  Might be worth checking out!

I love Love LOVE the Library!

If you and your kids watch the backyardigans, you might recognize that line from “The Masked Retriever” episode.  At our house, this is a very real thought.  And lots of times, it’s also a very real song, as the kids sing along….

Today I am focusing on some of the many great things about our local library.  Yes, yes, they have books of course, and for a book worm like me, that is enough to inspire a visit.  But there are so many other great things that I have been discovering since taking my kids there.  Our library is part of a consortium of the province’s libraries, so they will order in and hold any item from any other branch in the province.  You can borrow books, movies, CDs and even patterns! Yes, they have kids stuff of course, and that is what many of us think of as the list of things the library has to offer.

But our library also has lots of things to do!  There are knitting classes, which I was tempted to go to this year, but it didn’t work into my schedule.  There are kid’s and teen’s crafts.  One of my favourite features is our library’s full size theatre.  They play kids movies every day of school holidays, like Christmas or winter break.  Most often they are very recent movies, including some of the newest Disney films.  I love taking my kids to see movies there.  I’ve never seen it packed, the seats are great and in good shape, and it is always super clean.  No, you can’t eat snacks during the movie, but I think that’s a small thing compared to what I’m getting.  There are after school science clubs, and anime appreciation club, and so many more!

Last night I took Colleena to pre-school story time.  Yes, we read a lot of books at home together, but this way she gets to feel part of a group and do activities with someone other than mom.  She’s been looking forward to going for a few weeks, and feels like this is her “pre-school time”.  It was special to go out, just her and mom ( we left Daddy at home with Baden and Lily), and she got to read some great books, do a couple of great activities and then make a fun craft to bring home. Mommy got 45 minutes all alone to hang out in the library, a rare treat for me.  She got to experience a lot of the same things that Baden did in pre-school, like being part of a group, taking turns, following instructions and going along with a schedule of activities.  The class was led by a wonderfully friendly woman who was great with the kids.

All of these things are completely free.  There are also lots of summer programs at our library, and I’m looking forward to sharing them this summer too!  Check out your local library’s website, you might be pleasantly surprised at how much they have to offer!!

Nifty Thrifty Gifty: Crayons

This is a craft I’ve done before with my kids, and this Christmas season made as a gift for some of their friends.  It’s a fun way to use up bits of crayons:

For this gift, we unwrapped crayons and broke them up into little pieces.  I had this sun-shaped pan from a previous craft.

 

 

 

  




The kids had a lot of fun helping!  After we’d put enough crayon bits into each mould, I put it in my toaster oven, on a medium heat so as not to warp then pan while melting the crayons. (Lesson learned from past experience).


After the wax was all cooled down, I pushed them gently out of the sun shapes.  I snapped a few getting them out, and realized that if I ran the underside of the pan in hot water for a few minutes, it softened up the edges just enough to make it easy to pop the crayons out.


This time, we made each crayon one colour to make a nice set as a gift, but in the past I have done this with mixed up shades of left over bits, and the kids still love using them.  A fun activity, even if you aren’t planning on giving them away.  If you don’t have moulds in shapes, like this one, or chocolate moulds that can be picked up pretty cheap at any store, you can always make them in muffin tins, or even use a bunch of tin cans.  I wouldn’t use a pan or mould you intend to use for food again in the future though, since it does stain and leach colour into the silicone of the pans.

I feel almost silly to admit that in the end, my total cost for this gift was $0.  Made entirely out of stuff we had on hand, it’s a great idea to keep in mind.

Beating the Budget Busters: Christmas:Stockings

Ok, so we all know Christmas is a huge budget buster, and there is just no way I can cover it in one post.  The first thing on my mind is stocking stuffers.

I want to keep it to around $20 per pretty red sock to fill each kid’s stocking.  When I first started trying to come up with a number this sounded absurd to me.  How can I need  that much?!? It seemed too high.  But unless I am going to fill it with junk that will break right away anyway, there is just no way around it.

Some of the items I’ve been picking up include hair brushes, elastics and clips for the girls( around $13 for all of them).  Paint and brushes to divide up among all three( $15 all together), their favourite kids tooth paste ( $3), and hot wheels( color changers ones, which are $4 each) are also in my stash.  A refill for Colleena’s easy bake oven was almost $7 all by itself!  I have a Lego magazine subscription for Baden, which I got for free ( you can check it out at www.lego.com too) and will roll up the first one and stick it in his stocking too.  Some dress up items, like a mini parasol and pretty purse are also in hiding for the girls.

In years past, I have also made a stop at value village.  Those little bags full of items matched up together make great stuffers!  I’ve gotten a whole bag of model horses, which are over $10 each for $1.99.  Also, the bags of gaudy jewellery make great stuffers as dress up items for the girls.  Farm animals, Barbie furniture, and tub toys are all items that get lumped together and sold for a couple bucks.

Other things I have considered are new tubs of play-do to refill their supply, markers and stickers, coloring books and papers.

I always top off the stocking with a few candies, a candy cane, and of course, a Christmas orange.I think I have enough stuff hidden away for the girls, and might have to get just another thing or two for Baden, but I am almost done the stockings!!

What are your stocking stuffer ideas?

Movie Clubs: Worth It?

About six months ago, we joined the Disney Movie Club.  Even I am not sure what possessed me to do it, since I am usually leery of movie/music/book clubs.  Maybe they had some great promo, I don’t know.

Whatever caught my attention, I thought it through.  Our family buys lots of Disney movies.  I like the classics most, and every once in a while, I like the new ones too.  When we signed up, we got  7 movies, for  a total of 13 dollars ( shipping, discounts etc).  I ordered all classics, like Mary Poppins, Fox and the Hound, Aristocats, Sword in the Stone, and others.  I ordered a couple of live action ones too, from the Narnia series, since that is a set I’d like to collect as a family.  After the initial order, you have to agree to buy four more movies in the next two years.  I did not anticipate a problem, since we seem to buy more than that anyway.

Six months down the road, we have ordered our four mandatory movies, and then some.  We got to pre-order Beauty and the Beast, and now we get to buy movies at an even steeper discount.

I think my favourite thing is being able to buy classics that you don’t always find stocked at the store, like the original Winnie the Pooh series.

This year, as most years, each kid gets a movie they’ve been wanting for Christmas.  I got great deals on three movies for the kids : Beauty and the Beast; Winnie the Pooh: the Search for Christopher Robin; and a Bug’s Life.

For our family, it was definitely worth it.  Look into it, you might like it too!  And hey, if you want to sign up as my friend, I’ll get a free movie too!

www.disneymovieclub.go.com

Moving on Already

As I take down the Halloween decorations, and wrap up the awesome time we all had, I have to admit I am already preparing for Christmas in my mind.  I have been an early shopper for years, for several reasons.  First, I have to mail gifts to both coasts and the mail is cheaper and faster if you mail it the last week of November.  Seriously, the difference between Nov 30 and Dec 1 is surprising.  Also, I make a lot of gifts by hand, and that takes time and preparation.  Besides, in our area of the country, November feels like winter and time to think about winter holidays.  Shopping over a longer period of time helps me to spread the costs over several pay periods and lessen the impact on the budget.

So before I embark into all the many things I do for Christmas, I wanted to take a minute and celebrate the success of our Halloween this year.  I set out to have a free Halloween, and did it!  The kids loved their costumes this year.

Lily was a “little house on the prairie” girl.  So cute!  This outfit, straight out of the dress up bin, got her lots of OOOs and Ahhhhs.  She loved trick or treating, totally understanding the concept quickly.  At each house she said “ treeeet  treeet?”  and “peeze peeze?” Very sweet!!

Colleena was Snowwhite, also straight out of the dress up bin.  She loves the Disney Princesses, because, of course, she herself is a princess!  She was a real trouper trick or treating, going as far as her big brother who was driven to get the biggest haul ever.  The dress fit right over her winter coat. Ahhh, Halloween!

  

Baden’s costume was a bit more work.  We’d originally planned to use an old umbrella for wings, but we

could not get the fabric dyed right, or cut right, or to sit nicely on his shoulders.  It was a total failure.  We had to take a night to regroup and re-think the whole plan.  Shawn was thinking of things we had around the house, and came up with garden landscape fabric, or weed-stop. 

The light material did not weigh down the wings, or need help to support it.  We hot glued two layers together, creating a neat effect of having ribbing in the wings. Then we just safety pinned them to his coat.  The light shined through just a tiny bit and the material looked gauzy.  They turned out great!  Baden was able to wear them to the indoor carnival, then add layers underneath and be perfectly warm for trick or treating.  He was so happy with this costume, and was proud he was the only bat.

At the start of the Halloween season, I was feeling disappointed that I wasn’t going to be able to decorate as much as I usually do ( over the top).  I was out for a walk with the kids when I saw some cute little ghosties made from stuffed white socks.  What a great use for those mismatched socks.  Except, none of mine are white, because white socks do not cross the threshold of this house!  However, I do have a closet FULL of material left over from projects, bought at sales and stock piled over the years.  I even have some from when my mother in law cleaned out her stash!  Surely, I could find something!  I found a large piece of white-ish material, and cut out a bunch of circles, and stuffed them with the clipping bits from in between the circles.  I let the kids draw faces on them all, and hung them up around my house.  So cute! And free!  It was a great craft to do as a family.  Now, I will simply untie them, throw out the stuffing and stick them back in my decorations box for next year.  The kids love seeing things they have made proudly displayed around my house, and it was a great free craft.