A Simple Life

In these tough economic times, what's a girl to do? To quote Thoreau "Simplify, simplify".

• Bake homemade bread (maybe not much cheaper than store bought bread but oh such much more satisfying)
• plant a garden and save the seeds for next year
• eat at home
• hang the clothes out on the line
• re-use or re-purpose instead of buying new
• carpool when possible
• throw away the TV (OK, not really, but watching less means more time with the family and less ads telling us about all the things we "need")
• cook from scratch
• start making Christmas gifts now
• Volunteer in your church and in your community
• Appreciate the gift of now

Everything may not be the same, but it will be OK.

10 Ideas for Frugal Summer Fun

Picnic Lemon Label

I always seem to run out of fun ideas for keeping everyone busy about mid-summer. Or maybe I just forget. I hate to get into a rut and let summer slip away, but it's easy to do. So, I gathered a few ideas that might help us enjoy summer while we still have some of it left.

1. Stargaze: Get a book from the library about stars or visit a kids astronomy website for some information about constellations. Lay on a quilt with snacks and drinks and enjoy the show.  It's even more fun if you have a telescope.  We have one similar to this that we bought years ago when the big kids were small.  Sky-Watcher Great Start 70 AR-AZ2 70mm Refractor Telescope

2. Concerts in the park:  Check in your city to see if they offer any community sponsored events.   Our town has free concerts in the park and Shakespeare in the park.  It's fun to take a picnic and lawn chairs and make an evening out of it.

3. 2nd run movies: You may be able to find a theater nearby that offers 2nd run movies at a cheap price. We have one that shows movies for $2.

4. Movable Feast: Serve your meal somewhere different than usual. Have a picnic on the trampoline, inside the fort the kids built, or on the front lawn. Change things up a little.

5. Garage Sales: Load everyone up early on a Friday or Saturday morning. Let them take donuts and juice in the car (along with a damp washcloth in a plastic bag for sticky fingers), and hit the yard/garage sales in your neighborhood. Give each of the kids a dollar or two to spend. My friend Retro and I used to do this nearly every weekend. It was especially fun when we could find a block sale. You can map out your route the night before, but also keep an eye out for any signs you see. We've found some of the best sales that weren't advertised in the paper or online that way.

6. Bake:  Let the kids help you bake cookies.  Who says you have to wait until Christmas?  If you're like me, you probably have more time for it now.

7. Drive-in Movie:  Take the TV out on the porch or the driveway and let the kids pull their bikes up.  Even better if you own or can borrow a projector and show the movie on your garage door or a sheet.


8. Homemade slip and slide:  I learned about this from Retro.  She set out a big plastic tarp on the grass and used half a bottle of cheap baby shampoo and the sprinkler to make it slippery.  Her kids had a great time with it.  The even set up a ramp with a little easy set pool at the end. Of course, you'll also need to make sure there aren't any rocks or sticks under the tarp.

9. Roller Skating:  Our town still has a roller rink and it's cheap to skate.  They'll even let the kids bring in their scooters and roller blades if they want.  Plus you'll be able to tell them how cool you were skating in 1981 with pom-poms on your skates to Kool and the Gang while rocking a side ponytail. Oh, maybe that's just me.

10.  Play HGTV: This is especially fun if you have girls, but boys like it too.  My girls love to rearrange their furniture.  Help them draw their room on a piece of paper and figure out where everything will go.  We sometimes end up with strange configurations, but that's OK.  It won't hurt anything to have a nightstand in a corner next to a dresser.  That's how they learn, plus it's a good way to get a little de-cluttering and cleaning done in the process.

Hope the rest of your summer is fantastic!
Much love,

Kool-Aid Play-Dough

Even though my kids are big, it's still fun to do "little kid" things with them, especially in the summertime. They still like when I read aloud to them or break out the finger paints. I like it too!  Today I made homemade play-dough and my girls are having a ball rolling it, molding it and dirtying up all my cookie cutters. :)

This is my favorite homemade play-dough recipe because it's so easy and the Kool-Aid makes it smell good. I happened to have Pink Lemonade on hand so ours smells lemony and is pink (obviously).

Ingredients:
2 packages un-sweetened Kool-Aid
2 cups flour
1/2 cup salt
2 teaspoons alum
2 cups boiling water
3 tablespoons vegetable oil

Directions:
Mix the Kool-Aid, flour, salt and alum together. Add the boiling water and oil and stir. When cool enough to handle, knead. Add more flour if needed to reduce stickiness.

It will last for weeks and weeks if you store it in an air tight container.

Make Do Monday - Technology

My Family is what you might call "technology challenged". It's not that we don't like technology, we just don't have whatever is the latest "new thing".

My laptop was a freebie from my oldest son. All I had to pay for was a new power cord. Notice the cute electrical tape. That's to keep the cord from falling out of the back. The plug-in part is messed up so we are making sure it can't go anywhere although it still jiggles and turns off unexpectedly sometimes. :)

We don't have a flat panel TV, our TVs don't get a digital signal, and we don't even have Tivo.


Now, don't get me wrong I wouldn't turn down a new fancy TV (although I would much rather have a dishwasher), but we are getting along fine without one. No matter what you might be persuaded to think from watching commercials, you can still have a great life and even watch TV, check email and blog without that newest gadget. :)

Join Ann Kroeker and see how others are making do.

Make Do Monday - Iced Coffee

I looooove iced coffee in the summertime. I like the Starbucks version and the McDonald's version, but my budget doesn't like either. I only get to drink it occasionally as a splurge.

It finally hit me yesterday that I could make iced coffee at home (I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer am I?). Mike made me my usual cup of coffee and I just stuck it in the freezer while I took my shower. After it was nice and chilled I poured it into a tall glass, added milk, a couple of Splenda packets, and some ice. It was delicious! Even though that's probably not how iced coffee is really made, I like it so I'm going to keep it up. Why didn't I think of this a long time ago?

I'm linking this post to Ann Kroeker's Make Do Monday, but I don't know that it's really making do. After all, now I can have iced coffee anytime I want!

Family Date Night

Family Walking On Beach
I know it's important to spend time with your spouse and it's a great idea to have a regular date night. Trouble is, sometimes it just doesn't work out that way. When our kids were little a date night for us almost never meant only the two of us. We usually at least had whoever was youngest and still nursing along. We even took Marcia to the symphony with us once. She was so tiny and I just couldn't bear to leave her (she slept through the whole thing). Even now, our weekly "date afternoon" is getting a drink at Sonic and going to the library.

If you can't carve out a night to go out alone with your husband, why not organize a family date night? There are plenty of ways to have a sweet time with your husband even when you bring the kids along. We usually have family dates about once a month and I have to take the time to think about it and plant it. If I don't plan it, it won't happen. Life gets busy, the kids have activities, and the weeks slip away so quickly.

For me, the keys to a successful family date night are:
1) Food:
A fun date for us almost always includes a good meal. Good as in "nothing the kids hate and are going to gripe about". No trying out a new Brussels sprout recipe on date night. :) It helps the date along when everyone is happy with the menu. My husband and kids ALL are happy when I make homemade pizza or pasta and Italian meat sauce.

Make the meal part of the date night fun. Spread a quilt in front of the fire, eat outside on the trampoline, or get out the fine china and damask napkins and eat by candlelight.

You can also have the food reflect the theme of the night. You could have a fiesta night and serve tacos or enchiladas, or a 50s night and serve diner style shakes and hamburgers (play some 50s music to go along with it). The possibilities are endless.

2) Fun:
Games: Games can be a great budget friendly part of date night. Two of our favorites are Spoons and Sardines. They are both great games for all ages and any number of people.

Spoons: Set out one less spoon than the number of players in the middle of the table. One person is the dealer and deals out 4 cards to every player. He then passes cards around the table. Everyone looks through the cards and tries to get 4 of a kind. The first one to do so quietly grabs a spoon. The rest of the group grabs spoons as quickly as possible and the one left without a spoon looses the hand. This can get wild so don't have any cups or glasses on the table while you play. We've learned the hard way. :)

Sardines: There are lots of ways to play this game, but our favorite is to start outside. We turn off all the lights in the house and then "it" goes inside to hide. Count to 50 (or whatever you decide) and then split up and try to find "it". When you do, you hide with him and so does the next person and so on until only one person is left who gets to be "it" next time. One time there were 6 of us squished together and giggling in the shower. It was so much fun! Little ones can hide with an older sibling.

Around town: Get a visitor's guide for your town. We found lots of ideas for free and cheap things to do in our town. We found out about a free Italian landscape exhibit in our visitor's guide that we otherwise wouldn't have known about.

Movies: Rent a new release for $1 at Redbox (or even get it free with you sign up to get free codes every Monday), or check out a movie from the library. It's also lots of fun to get out the home movies. My kids love to see themselves as babies. Or show the kids your wedding video/ pictures and tell them how you met. Our kids love to hear the story of how I spilled my dinner down the front of my sweater on my first date with their dad. :)


3) Keep your ideas organized:
As you come across fun recipes, places to visit or ideas for your date night (family or otherwise) keep them organized. Make a folder, a section in your notebook or use the fun new date night planner at Springpad. Make sure you don't find yourself thinking "now what was that fun idea I was going to use this weekend?" :)

Happy dating!


Related post: Frugal Valentine's Day

Frugal Photographers

Clever Photographer
As a frugal mom, I almost never buy school pictures. They usually aren't that great and they are outrageously expensive. Why would I pay $20 for 8 wallet photos? When you have more than one child in school (and even if you don't), that's WAY too much. The elementary school takes pictures both fall and spring and I'm sure Cindy's softball team will want us to buy team pictures.

I was thinking of just taking my kids to a cheap photography studio, but retrohousewife had a great idea. She suggested talking to someone who is just getting into photography and is interested in building a portfolio. Now why didn't I think of that?

Her niece is just such a person. She will take pictures of my kids in several poses, in a location of my choosing and put them on a CD for me so that I can print the ones I want. I'm going to see if we can get some pictures at a nearby park that has a waterfall. I can't wait!

Frugal Valentine's Day

Love Collection
My husband and I don't make a big deal out of Valentine's Day and we rarely spend more than $5. That being said, we DO like to make sure the other feels a little extra love on Valentine's.

Here are my favorite ways to let Mike know he is loved and appreciated without spending money on a card or gift.

1. Pray for him. I let him know that I am praying for him every day and sometimes I will write down the particular verse I prayed for him that day and leave it on a sticky note on his pillow. For ideas on what to pray for your husband read 31 Days of Prayer.

2. Write him a letter. He loves to get letters that are in my own words and not pre-printed cards. It's also easier for me to say things in a letter that I might stumble over or forget about if we are talking. I tell him why I love him, the more specific the better. One year I wrote in the letter how spoiled and loved I felt when he filled my gas tank for me (for some reason I hate putting gas in the van). I don't think I filled it once for the rest of that year. He made sure to check my gas gauge every weekend.

3. Cook a special meal and light candles. Even though I cook every night, I try to make something special that Mike loves for Valentine's Day and for his birthday. I also make his favorite German Chocolate cake.

4. Leave him a "thinking of you" voicemail. Sometimes I will call Mike during a meeting or some other time when I know he won't be able to answer his phone and leave him a funny voicemail. I only do this on his cell phone though. One time I left him a "singing" voicemail on his office phone and he played it back with a co-worker in the room. It was G rated and he thought it was funny, but I was definitely red faced when I found out someone else had heard it...

5. Watch a movie or play a game that he likes. Mike loves to watch movies. I'm not much of a movie watcher (I can never seem to sit still long enough) and when I do watch a movie, it's NOT an action/war movie. He also loves to play chess and cards and I'm not too fond of either. One way that I can really show him that I love him is to sit and watch a movie that he likes(no fidgeting!) or play a game with him.

For more Frugal Valentine Ideas visit Money Saving Mom