Blending Away...

I'm all for saving money.  I have to be.  With a family of eight, I admit and am no where near being ashamed to say that I will save a buck any way I can.  If there is a way...I will find it.  With that said, I follow several blogs from couponing to homemade gifts.  I also think it's funny how our society, trying to make things "easier" has almost made things more complicated.  A recent magazine I received in the mail had this thing-a-ma-bob that you could order, for only $14.99 to use to stuff the yucky food down the drain to your garbage disposal.  Nifty, ya...but really?  To me all that says is that I have one more "thing" to find a place for when it's not in use.  This brings me to what is known as The Magic Bullet.  it's a nifty contraption, but again.....really?  Sure, it would be nice to make single serve smoothies for myself (who am I kidding, the sound of it would be a call to my kids and I would instantly hear, "Can I have one?!") but there is a solution, and it was right up in my cabinet.   A common Mason jar MAGICALLY fits onto the bottom mixing part of my blender!  Now, I won't be making myself a personal smoothy....but I can customize everyone's with what ever ingredients they want (even though I may not choose bananas and lemon juice, but who's judging, right?).  Oh, ya...it's great for making baby food too, no deep blender pitcher to try to scoop stuff out from.

14 Days of Love at the Toms'

Within the last couple of months I have joined some pretty neat websites and followed some blogs that have ideas ranging from easy, quick meals to couponing.  Most of the sites are run by SAHM's (Stay-at-Home-Mom's) and I always have the intention of doing some of the ideas that they throw out there, but the reality of it is, I can't.  I have six kids, I can't spend a day and a half refinishing the bathroom cabinets or making pretty little costumes for my kids to play in for no special occasion.  Yet I still find myself "trying" to do some of the cutesie-pootsie things featured on these websites.  One thing that I managed to get done, though it's not as pretty as the ones I've seen, is I created an advent calendar that leads up to Valentines day.  Each day one of the boys draws out a heart shaped card from the calendar that coincides with the date and on the back of the heart there are instructions on one special activity to do for the day.  It ranges from "make a Valentine for Grandpa" to "Go around the table at dinner time and tell everyone one thing you love about them".  I even have to say, my husband was even in to it.  I of course systematically put certain things in certain days.  For example, yesterday the card that was pulled said, "Enjoy a Valentine Themed Breakfast"  So, we had heart shaped strawberry scones with strawberries and topping.  I had to save that one for a weekend.  There was no way I was going to try to make scones and get all the kids up and going during the week.  Each morning the boys are excited to see what the calendar has in store for them, and in the end, we are working together as a family.

Wearing Thin...

During grandma's visit over the holidays, she had purchased a couple new pairs of jeans for the boys.  Last night as we were picking out what to wear to school today, I caught Sutton admiring the 'scratch' marks or 'wear' marks on some of the new pairs of jeans.  "These are kinda neat", he said.  

With four boys it has become custom that Sutton, our oldest, usually gets the newer clothes and the younger boys, of course, are blessed with his hand-me-downs.  It's been a while back that I figured out why thrift shops don't usually have many boys jeans, but we have only recently run into this little 'snag'...holes in the knees.

Girls jeans can be quite simple to patch.  You can put pretty little flowers on them and they can become "stylish" or even cuter that what they were before.  This is not necessarily the case with boys.  

As I looked last week at the pile of jeans on my dresser that were otherwise in pretty good shape, and most importantly, still fit them, the light bulb over my head slowly but surely began to flicker.  

What if I put the patches on the inside?  So, with about 10 iron-on denim patches and about eight pairs of jeans I whipped out that thing that maybe gets used once every couple of months (twice if I'm feeling ambitious)...the iron.  I cut the patches to fit the holes (making sure to cut rounded edges on the corners), turned the jeans inside-out and made sure that those obnoxious white strings that now replace where denim had once been were straightened out.  

The pairs that were so worn and no longer had the strings were put into another pile for shorts for next summer.  The great thing about patching the jeans this way is that not only are the patches "invisible" but Sutton can still wear his favorite jeans and they are now also re-enforced with the patch.  It also works great with jeans that are starting to wear thin but haven't quite ripped yet because it serves as a reinforcement for them then as well.  The patches also tend to stay on longer as well, there's not as much to catch on or rub up against.  

I guess this could be seen as a way of being thrifty and trendy at the same time.  It has long been a joke at our house how, when I was a kid, my mom once refused to pay fora pair 'ripped' jeans when there were plenty my closet.  No, it's not the same, but it works...

Free One Year Subscription to Magazine

I belong to a few money-saving groups and by far the best has been moneysavingmom.com   I just signed up for a free one-year subscription to Better Homes and Gardens and it took only a few minutes.  I also belong to BHG.com and get their daily e-mails that contain so many wonderful ideas and recipes, but thought getting the actual magazine would be nice too.  I am posting the directions to get the free subscription.  It doesn't have to be to BHG, there is a selection of other magazines as well as coupons you can use your 'points' for discounts at restaurants as well.

You can get a free magazine subscription from RecycleBank right now. Here’s how:

::Sign up for an account with RecycleBank, if you don’t have one already.
::Join the eBay Green Team, to get 50 free points.
::Learn about PET plastic bottles to get 30 free points.
::Explore the Future-Friendly Home to get 25 free points.
::Answer a question about water consumption of dishwashers (refresh the page if this one doesn’t come up for you at first) to get 10 free points.

You’ll then have earned 115 points — enough to get a free subscription to Better Homes & Gardens, Everyday Food, Parents, Country Living or Good Housekeeping magazine.
Or, you can also choose to get a $3/1 Kashi product coupon for just 90 points, which should net you a free or almost-free box of Kashi cereal at Walmart or other stores.

Birthday Party on a Budget

With six kids we host a birthday party on average of every two to three months.  I don't want to short change any of our kiddos in the celebration department, but it can really add up.  Our oldest son, Sutton, recently turned seven.  During the couple of weeks that lead up to his birthday, he and I brainstormed to come up with a fun idea of something different to do to celebrate.  In the past we have done the big parties such as bowling or going to a kids fitness center but typically we have parties at our house and grill out with close friends and family.  I wanted to do something special for him, but keep it well within our tiny budget.   

Sutton made the list of who he wanted to invite.  There were four friends and I thought, even if we went to a movie and had lunch, by the time we bought the movie tickets, the popcorn, drinks, etc. we were still going to shell out quite a bit, and he still wanted to include his brothers in the celebration as well.  So we came up with the idea of a Drive Inn Movie night at our house.  

I made the invitations on our computer and made them look like pillows and invited the kids to wear their p.j.'s, (this alone was nice because after the party was over, the transition for our kids to go to bed was already half done!).  There was one concern I had though, this was going to be the first time that I hosted a party where there were no other adults other than my husband and I.   I was trying to figure out, "How do I keep nine kids busy for three hours?"  I have to admit, it was a lot easier than I had first thought.  Each child had their own cardboard box that they could decorate to look like a car (I got the idea from Family Fun Magazine).  After gluing and coloring, their vehicles were complete and we moved on to the next project while my husband went to pick up the pizza.  

For the second activity, each child had their own white pillow case to decorate.  I wanted to keep it as simple as possible because we did have smaller kiddos that were participating so I bought a package of fabric markers for them to use instead of paint (less mess and less dry time).  I also had bought little plastic bowls for each child for fifty cents each and wrote their names on them with a sharpie.  The pillow case and bowl were part of their goodie bags that they got to take home with them.   After we ate pizza, sang "Happy Birthday" and had homemade cupcakes, it was show time!  While the kids "parked" their cars in front of the television I popped some popcorn and filled their bowls, ( I didn't realize this at the time, but with them sitting in their "cars" while they ate and watched the movie, it cut down on kernels on the floor tremendously).  I didn't even need to  rent a movie.  Sutton wanted to show his favorite movie, "Shorts", so that was easy enough as well!

All in all, I think the evening went rather well.  Sutton had the party he had imagined, there were smiles all around and laughter filled the house.  And we managed to only spend roughly $45, so averaging $5 per kid.  Now the next question is, "Will I be able to do it again next month?"