OK, ok, maybe a little more detail would be nice. Saving for a big purchase can be really hard, especially in these days of high limit credit cards. A lot of people have $10, $20, even $50 thousand available on their cards. So why wait to buy anything? Just go out, purchase it and pay it off. That way, you get the item now and instead of saving a little every month, you’ll pay a little every month and already have the item! What a great idea, right?

Wrong.

The entire time you will be paying interest on your card, sometimes over 20%! In the bank, your monthly savings will actually grow a little. And, I do mean a little. But a little is better than a big negative something. Also, what happens if you have an emergency need for money while paying off the card, you might miss a payment and that adds to your interest payments! Another benefit is that you might actually find you don’t want the item after saving for it and you can spend that money elsewhere.

Once you have decided what you want to purchase, get a pretty good estimate of the costs and where you are going to buy it. Include taxes and shipping on expensive items or really heavy items. That UPS battery backup might be $100, but it weighs 120 pounds and costs $50 to ship! Then, once you have a final cost, begin the saving.

I find that a separate account is the best bet. It is too much of a temptation to spend from it if you keep it in your normal checking/savings accounts. You’ll say, “Oh, I just need an extra $100, I’ll just use some of what I have saved.” If your item is small and you won’t gain any benefit from having it in the bank, a plain white envelope works great. I know, crazy right? But, an envelope hiding in the drawer is fantastic, you never see it, it just collects money, you can even write on the outside the current balance which is fun. Also, holding a wad of cash in an envelope is lots of fun.

Break your savings into amounts that you can handle every month. A great way is to always save an amount of money and put it in an envelope labeled, ‘Big Purchases.’ Then you always have a little seed money. You can up the amount if you need more for a larger purchase. Set a time frame where the item won’t be obsolete before you buy it. Tech stuff is notorious for this, although a newer model will come out so you can always buy that one. Or buy the original at a lower price.

Then, when it is time, get out your envelope and go buy what you have been wanting and know that you haven’t gained any debt from it. You also may want to just put it in the bank if you used an envelope and use your credit card. Then you get the benefits of using your card without the interest charges since you can pay it off immediately!

Decide what is most important to you and start there. Make a list or make a plan for how the organizing will be done and how it will be kept up. Set aside a period of time each day to work on cleaning out and organizing. Don’t try to do it all in one fell swoop.

organizedhome.com
unclutterer.com
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* Provided a predictable life with a reasonably ordered environment
* Held and touched often
* Talked to (or sung to) often
* Read to frequently
* Exposed to interesting experiences
* Given many opportunities to learn through play.”

All things that we at SIP advocate and encourage. The best part? None of these things will take your life’s savings. “Interesting Experiences” do not have to include flying to another country. It can mean taking an exploration walk around your neighborhood to look for insects, birds or colors. It can mean taking a backroad to Grandma’s house instead of the freeway in order to stop at a local cheese factory. Try it today!

Before you start cramming everything into your car and lashing stuff to the roof, consider these tips.

1. Many hotels and resorts provide baby gear such as pack and plays and high chairs. Restaurants provide booster seats. Call your destination before packing to see what baby/kid gear might be offered.

2. If you are traveling to a major city, there are usually baby equipment rental possibilities. Baby’s Away and Babies Travel Lite are two such rental outlets.

3. If you are traveling to visit relatives, ask them if they have baby equipment already or if they know of friends/neighbors in their area that might be willing to lend to you.

4. Unless you have a 15 hour flight or a seriously long road trip, you really don’t need too much for actual travel time. Keep your kids entertained with games like I Spy or the Alphabet Game. Take along books on tape or cd for the car. If they are old enough, give them a specific ‘travel’ bag that they can fill will activities. Or, my favorite, plan your travel for during nap time and hope they sleep most of the time!

Happy Traveling.

Luckily, there is a webpage that can help, imagine that? Here you can learn about how to keep fruits and vegetables fresh and prevent spoilage. It lists a bunch of common fruits and vegetables and where you can store them and for how long. For example, celery can go in the fridge but garlic should always be stored on the counter. A great resource for keeping your food fresh and not having to throw it in the compost pile.

We have ratty books, brand new books, books that make sounds, books that have lights and require batteries, puzzle books that come apart, cloth books, velcro books, old classics, new soon-to-be classics and possibly even lost library books. But how to keep track of them all and be able to share that list with relatives and friends so you don’t end up with 6 copies of Pat the Bunny?

Enter the website, LibraryThing.com. You can create a free account and start entering all the books you have by title, author or ISBN. When you are done you get a fairly simple looking URL that you can send around to family and friends. This lists all the books and you can even see how many people also have a certain book on their list. Over 2000 for The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein!

You can even make other lists for yourself, but since you can fit about 20 children’s books in the space that Andrew Carnegie’s biography would fit, it is especially helpful for managing the ever growing kid’s bookshelf.

1. Form a Playgroup. If you don’t know anyone in your area with kids, start hanging out at the park or another play area. If you already have some friends who are also stay at home parents, organize one or more day(s) per week to get your kids together to play. A park is an ideal place to start. When the weather turns bad, try a play area inside a mall or other free play area. This may not be a structured activity, but it will get your child playing with and around other children, an important part of early socialization skills.

2. Plan ‘Classes’ at Home. Plan an hour (or 10 minutes) every day (or once a week) to do some structures ‘class’ activities at home.

For Gymnastics: Put some pillows on the floor and let the kids do tumbling. Practice balancing on one foot, hopping and doing other stretching/tumbling activities.

For Art: Put a protective cover on the table and get out the paints. Use crayons, colored pencils, watercolors, scissors, glue, stickers and paper and simply let the kids explore different types of media.

For Music: If you are not a singer yourself, find a cd or dvd that has some good singing and encourage your kids to sing along. If you have toy musical instruments, get them out and have ‘band practice.’ Find songs that have a good rhythm for clapping hands and tapping toes. Sing songs that include movements like “Hokey-Pokey” and “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.”

Picking up Toys: I think the best way to start forming good habits is to have kids help pick up and put away their own toys. Teach them early on that part of playing with toys is putting them away. Even if you put away 90% of the toys and they only put away 10%, it is a good start.

Laundry: Putting dirty clothes in the laundry basket is a good place to start for kids helping with laundry. After they get undressed, ask your toddler to pick up the clothes and take them to the laundry basket. This works best if the laundry basket is low to the ground. If you have a taller hamper, consider putting a small step stool nearby. Toddlers and preschoolers might also be able to help load the washer and dryer, especially if you use front loaders.

Dining Table: Most preschoolers can start to help setting the table. Be prepared for things to be put in the wrong place and dropped on the floor though. Silverware might be a good place to start. For example, ask your child to take these spoons and put one at everyone’s place at the table. Or say, here is your cup, go put it at your place. Cleaning up after meals is a little more tricky. We typically head right into potty time or bath time or nap time right after meals, so help in clearing a washing up will have to start a little farther down the road for us.

Cleaning: Dusting is a great place for toddlers and preschoolers to begin helping. Give them a damp dust rag while you are dusting and let them go at it. They might just move the dust around instead of wiping it up, but at least they are getting the idea of wiping down the furniture. *Remember to keep toxic cleaning chemicals away from your child.

Yard Work: Most kids love to play outside. Make outside chores a fun activity for your child. If you are working in the garden, let them have a small plot in which to dig and use a watering can. Weeding (provided you are specific about what is a weed and what is not) can be another fun chore. The Boy also loves helping pick up clippings and taking them to the street or to the compost pile. Sometimes a child-sized accessory (like kid gardening gloves) is all it takes for kids to actually want to help out!

You probably wonder why these emails are even sent anymore, does anyone fall for them? Well, the reason spammer send them is people still get hooked. The lure of easy money is too much for most people, especially people that are pinching their pennies and are on single income. Since the cost of sending spam is next to nothing, even if they get a few responses for every million emails, they can still make a little money.

The truth is that there is no reliable way to make money quickly with no effort. No matter what the salesman on your doorstep tells you, hang on to your pennies! There are reliable ways to make money, but they usually take time and effort. Investing, side jobs, even this crazy thing called blogging are some of the ways you can get rich.

Putting away a set amount of money every month, even if it is only $50, can go a long way in 40 years when you retire. Compound interest is the best friend you can have in the financial world, it will repay you many times over. Ignore those hot stock tips and invest in a mutual fund or index fund that will grow at a nice steady pace. If you keep your money in safe places and limit your risk and the downside, the upside will take care of itself!

This program is amazing. It can watch your picture folders, adding new ones anytime you plug in your camera. It creates thumbnails of all your videos and pictures for easy organizing and editing. You can do a lot of basic editing, cropping, red eye reduction and a bunch more.

One of the best features is you can choose what format to print pictures in. You can have wallets, 5×7, 4×6, all the common formats. You can print out the best pictures and give to family members as gifts!

You can also have it resize images before you email them so you don’t clog your family’s email accounts with glorious pictures of your kids.

Once I discovered this, I threw out the horrible Canon software and have never looked back. And that was about 6000 pictures ago!

We have one 50 lb dog that we budget $50 a month for and that seems to work out fine. You will have months where the costs will be higher, the yearly checkup is one that comes to mind, but it will usually even out in the end. One way to save money is to purchase any medicine like Frontline or anti-flea soaps or sprays online and NOT at the vet’s office. They can be almost twice as expensive in some cases!

We do splurge a little bit in this food category, buying the slightly expensive Eukanuba pet food instead of a generic product. They are probably all the same but we have been with Eukanuba for the dog’s entire life so why switch now.

If you have a baller like we do, you can find huge lots of used tennis balls on eBay for next to nothing. They usually come from a tennis academy or school and have plenty of bounce left in them. You can usually get them in lots of 50 or more that will last for many many years. Don’t buy fresh tennis balls just for your dog to slobber all over and chew through.

Just keep in mind that pets are quite content with only a few things and really don’t need that plush velvet bed.

Be sure to include some books in your routine that do not have printed words. Children can look at the pictures and help you tell the story. Talk about what is happening in each picture. Pause occasionally and predict what will happen next. Make connections to the story, “Has you ever seen a helicopter like that?” One of my favorite picture-only books is Good Dog Carl.

Eventually, when your child has the needed attention span, try books that do not have pictures. Talk to your child about what they ‘see’ in their minds as you read the words. Or, have them draw pictures to go along with the story.

Be sure to include some non-fiction literature as well. Informational books about animals or trucks can be just as stimulating and interesting for your child.

Establish reading as part of your daily routine and your child will be one step ahead of the game when school begins. Did you know that there are some children who begin Kindergarten not knowing how to turn pages of a book and who cannot recognize the front vs. back of a book?

Finally: Reading is a FREE activity! You don’t even have to buy a book. Visit your local library and borrow books for free. Or spend a little money at a Friends of the Library Book Sale, garage sales, or online book trading sites. Organize a book swap with your neighbors or other parents of young children.

Keep on Reading!

1. Have your child ‘read’ a story to you. This works especially well when it is a book that you have read to him 159 times already.

2. After reading a story, ask what they remember about it. Talk about your favorite part. Even if your child cannot voice their own thoughts yet, they are getting good modeling from you. me: “What did you like best about that story?” him: silence me: “I really liked the doggie in the story.” him: silence me: “Remember that day when our doggie ran around in circles just like the doggie in the book?” him: smile me: “We were laughing and laughing, just like the little boy in the story.” him: “Molly ran round and round and round!” me: “Yeah, she did!” him: “Read the story again.”

3. If your child has enough words, have him tell Daddy (or anyone – his stuffed bear) about the story. Remember to model doing this yourself for a while first. Even if it sounds silly to you to tell your spouse about the Pokey Little Puppy and his adventures.

4. Make connections to the book. For example, if you are reading a book about baby animals, remind your child of when you saw the baby animals at the zoo. If you read a book about a boy who likes trucks, ask your child if he likes trucks too.

5. Make predictions. Pause throughout the story. Ask your child what he thinks will happen next. Even if they can’t respond, model making predictions yourself. “I think Thomas is going too fast on the tracks. I think he will crash! What do you think will happen?”

Infants may not understand the words, but they will certainly understand the soothing sound of your voice while you read to them. At this age you are already beginning to model reading fluency to them even if you don’t know it! As your baby grows, begin to choose books that have bright pictures and easy cadences. Rhyming and pattern books are good to start with too.

Older babies may start to grab at the book or even eat it! Don’t worry, keep modeling good reading. You can give them a board book or vinyl book to hold/play with while you read to them. When babies start to reach the toddler phase, they may appear to not be interested in books or sitting still. You can, however, still model good reading to them. Sit and read your own book, magazine or newspaper while they are playing. Read out loud just one of their stories and then go back to reading your own material. Read to your child in little spurts. One short book before each sleep time or maybe even a short book while they are eating a meal.

As your toddler begins to show more interest in books, let them choose what they want you to read to them. You may find yourself reading the same things over and over. If this happens, after a while, pause at familiar lines and see if they can ‘fill in the blank’ for you. To vary the reading selection use the ‘you pick one book and I’ll pick one book’ routine. While you are reading the same book for the fifth time in a day for the fourteenth day in a row, remember that one day you will probably walk into the room to see your child ‘reading’ that book aloud by himself! And all because you read it to him so many times.

When your child is old enough and has the attention span for it, try short chapter books. Read one chapter or more per day. Continue to read to your child (even for just 5 minutes per day) as your child progresses through school. One day they will probably be too ‘old’ for that. Treasure this special time that you have with them and love of reading it will develop.

For the very young: Write thank yous for the gifts your young children have received on note paper made from their own drawings. Let kids fingerpaint or color on blank notecards or on regular paper that can be cut down or folded to fit in an envelope.

For toddlers and pre-schoolers: Let your child ‘write’ the thank you themselves. Then ‘translate’ the scribbles into readable English. If the kids are starting to write their own names, let them sign the thank you note.

For primary ages: Kids can draw a picture of the gift (wearing the sweater from Grandma or playing with the toy from Uncle Matt) and you can write the thank you words they dictate to you. By this age, though, many children should be able to start writing sentences. A simple Thank You Frame (see below) is appropriate for this age.

For older elementary kids and above: By the time your child is in fourth grade an above, they should be capable of writing thank you notes themselves. One strategy for getting kids to get thank you notes done is to not let them use the gift until the thank you has been written. Another idea is to set aside one morning or afternoon for thank you writing. Put all the supplies that kids will need (pens, pencils, paper, envelopes, stamps, addresses, gift lists) on the dining table. Sit down as a family and have everyone complete their holiday thank you notes. You can do yours at the same time and be a good model for your kids!

All Ages: Take a digital picture of your child with or without the gift and attach it to an email to the giver. Or print the picture on regular paper and use that as your stationary.

This is a great time of year to bake cookies, breads or other treats for gifts. The oven will help to heat your house and you won’t have to run the heater as much! Wrap up a nice loaf of bread or plate of cookies for your workplace, or your spouse’s. Give treats to your neighbors and friends. Wrap a paper plate with saran wrap, tie a festive bow around it and, voila!, you have a lovely homemade, inexpensive gift.

Break out those craft scissors and some tape to create homemade cards or other crafts. Use old magazines or calendars to do collages. Four greeting cards can be made from just 3 or 4 pieces of 8 1/2 by 11 paper. Visit websites or a local craft store for ideas.

Buy an inexpensive photo frame and paint it or embellish it in some way. Glue on beads or shells. This could be a lovely gift for a grandparent, especially if your kids helped with the frame.
Cross-stitch or embroider on fabric to make a bread cloth, table cloth or napkins. Knitted and crocheted gifts are treasured keepsakes in our home. Keep checking garage sales and rummage sales for unused cross-stitching sets.

Offer to babysit or pet-sit as a Christmas gift. Give another Mom a day to do her Christmas shopping by herself. You know I’d love a gift of time like that!

Your kids can help with most of these projects. This is a great time to teach them about creative giving. Maybe they will even have some gift ideas of their own.

There are plenty of worthy causes out there. Charity Navigator is one website devoted to helping you determine what charity is best for your own giving.

Our personal favorite charity is Heifer Project International. HPI has over 800 projects in 50 countries. They offer livestock, education and other resources to families facing hunger throughout the world. With each gift comes the requirement of ‘passing of the gift.’ For example, a family may be given a gift of a pregnant goat along with the education of how to care for the animal. This family, would, in turn, be required to give the next female goat born to another family, creating a positive ripple effect. The goat will provide milk and manure to be used as fertilizer. HPI focuses on sustainable agriculture development education for all gift recipients. There is a donation level for everyone. From a $10 donation toward a ‘share of rabbits’ to a $500 Heifer, you can help make someone’s life better. For each $10 donation you may receive an honor card to give to your relative or friend if the donation is a gift in their name.

There are many worthy charities out there. Find one that works for you. Here are some more ideas: Habitat for Humanity, American Red Cross, Toys for Tots, Cancer Research, Wildlife Conservation.

Or keep your donation local. Donate to your local Zoo, Animal Shelter, Library or School.

1. Find some greenery. We have a juniper tree in our yard that works very well. If you can, go with something that won’t get brown too quickly. Evergreen-type branches work the best. Cut an armful (more if you want a bigger wreath).

2. Cut some rosemary (if you have it) to use as well. This lends a wonderful aroma to your wreath.

3. I used some red berries from a tree down the street (get permission if you are trimming from a neighbor’s yard!).

4. Lay out a sheet (especially if you put the wreath together inside the house).

5. Find some malleable wire. I used beading wire and it worked quite well.

6. Gather one or two pieces of your evergreen, one or two sprigs of rosemary and one sprig of berries. (I only used 4 sprigs of berries total; not every bunch had one.)

7. Bind them together toward the bottom with the wire.

8. Repeat for as many bunches as you need for the size wreath you plan to make. I think I made about 10 bunches.

9. Now lay the bunches out as you want them to look in your wreath.

10. Bind each bunch together by finding a sturdy part of the evergreen and using the wire to fix it to the next bunch.

11. If you can, purchase or make (using a wire coat hanger) a circle to anchor your wreath. I did not do this.
My wreath is fairly sturdy (I used quite a bit of wire), but it would have been much easier to just affix each bunch to a wire wreath instead of to each other.

12. Attach one more loop of wire to use to hang the wreath.

13. Add ribbons or ornaments to make it even more festive.

hints:
-If you have little ones, do this during a sleep time, as your hands will get very sticky and sappy.
-Our front door gets direct sunlight for most of the day. The berries turned brown after about 5 days and now, after about a week, the greenery is beginning to brown. I estimate that it will last about one more week. If you want to spend a little money at the outset, purchase fake berries to use year after year.

Handprint Wreath

1. Draw half a wreath on two pieces of 8 1/2 x 11 paper. Preferably green. Cut out the halves and staple together to form the whole wreath.
2. Trace your child’s hand onto some green paper. I used several different printed papers from a Christmas Paper Stack along with plain green. Cut out handprints.
3. Let your kids glue or tape (double-stick is the best) the hands to the wreath.
4. Make paper embellishments. Cut a ‘ribbon’ out of red paper. Or glue actual ribbon to the wreath. Cut out ‘berries’ out of red paper.

Handprint Christmas Tree

1. Cut a tree shape out of heavy card stock. It doesn’t have to be green, as the handprints will cover the card stock.
2. Cut a ‘trunk’ out of brown paper and staple to the bottom of the tree.
3. Trace your child’s hand onto green paper. Like the wreath, you could use plain green or several different shades/prints in green. Cut out handprints.
4. Let your kids glue or tape (again, double-stick) hands to the tree. It looks best if you attach the hands facing down and start at the bottom so they are layered to the top. Of course, I just let The Boy attach his willy-nilly, but it still looks good!
5. Cut out a star or angel and tape to the top of the tree.
6. Add ‘ornaments.’ We used stickers, lots of ‘em!

Be sure you write your child’s name and the date on the back of the crafts. In ten years it might be hard to remember which child/year it is from.

Cherry tomatoes are a huge hit with The Boy. I will often find him out in the garden, eating juicy, red cherry tomatoes right off the vine. Of course, by the end of the summer, I am giving away bags of them to everyone in the neighborhood.

The regular tomatoes, though, I am a little more frugal with. What we don’t eat fresh (on pizza, sandwiches and just plain!), I like to freeze. I freeze tomatoes whole, without cooking them. I don’t know if this is the ‘right’ way to do it, but it works for me. I cut off the tops, put several in a freezer ziploc bag and ‘suck’ as much air out as I can before sealing it. I label the bag and pop it in the freezer. Freezer tomatoes are great to use in sauces and such later on. Take a bag out of the freezer and allow it to thaw a bit in the refrigerator. Empty the tomatoes into a microwave-safe bowl and finish thawing. The skins slip off quite easily and the tomatoes can go right into the pot or the pan.

Another way to save your excess tomatoes is to make spaghetti sauce and freeze that. If you live in an area that will support the growth of tomatoes all summer, try growing some yourself and save some $$ on fresh tomatoes all summer and sauces throughout the winter!

We have a variety of herbs growing, especially during the summer months. Parsley, chives, rosemary, thyme, and basil are wonderful to have on hand and fresh. I hate to buy an entire bunch of fresh herbs at the store when a recipe only calls for one teaspoon or some very small amount. This feels very wasteful to me and I haven’t had success with freezing or drying the leftovers yet. I love to just grab my scissors and step outside to clip what I need right off the plant! Herbs can easily be grown in pots and planters too, if space or temperature is an issue for you.

We have had huge success with basil and rosemary especially. The Man has to hack back the rosemary every fall and we still get a huge bush by the next summer. Basil thrives in our region during the summer months. We love to use it fresh in salads, on pizzas and in sandwiches. But my favorite thing about basil is pesto. Pesto is so easy to make and freezes really well. Throw some fresh basil in a food processor with some olive oil, pine nuts and garlic. Process until smooth. Use it fresh with pasta or in eggs or as a sandwich spread. Or freeze it to use throughout the winter months. I freeze it in ice cube trays, then pop it out and store it in a freezer ziploc bag. At the end of the basil growing season, I make a huge batch and freeze it to use throughout the cooler months.

I haven’t tried the generic brand of Rice Krispies (Crisp Rice?), but I assume it wouldn’t be that much different than the Kellogg’s brand. And I always just buy the cheapest brand of marshmallow, especially if I am making the treats within a few days. Other than that, all you need is butter or margarine and perhaps some food coloring or other little ‘extras.’

Melting the butter and marshmallows needs to be closely supervised. We don’t want burned fingers or hands. Make sure you use a large pot so that it is easy to stir in the cereal after everything is melted. Once you have stirred in the cereal, it is easy for a young child to help press the treats into the greased pan or shape them.

I’m sure the ideas are endless, but you could add some food coloring to the marshmallow/butter concoction as it is melting. Add red and shape the treats into hearts for Valentine’s Day. Add green and shape into shamrocks for St. Patty’s Day. Add orange and make ‘carrots’ for Easter. I could go on. Shaping the treats is fun. Just remember to butter/grease your hands really well. Or use greased saran wrap to shape the treats. Add M&Ms or other candies before they cool to decorate. My favorite has been the carrot-shaped treats with green sour worm ‘tops.’

The Boy is not a fan of chocolate. (He doesn’t get it from me!) So these are a fun treat for him to help make and eat. If you wrap each square or shape in saran, they do last a few days, but of course, I think they are best when eaten right out of the pan!

A friend had made her son a cloth activity book a few years before and still had the pattern, so she lent it to me. The project was definitely more expensive than I had anticipated. I did, however, learn a lot and I have many supplies left over for future crazy projects.

The material was fairly expensive. I bought pre-quilted material for the cover and duck cloth for the inside pages. I used fabric scraps and buttons from around the house, but I did end up buying velcro, zippers, shoelaces, snaps and some other sewing materials. Oh, and heat-bond hemming material. Did I mention that I don’t have a sewing machine? (And don’t want one – that just opens up a whole new world of crafts that I don’t have time or space for.)

The heat-bonding took the longest. I had to heat-bond each page and most of the activities onto each page. I ended up using some heavy duty textile adhesive for the thicker pieces. All in all, if I ever attempt another one, I think I’ll spend a week with my mother-in-law and use her sewing machine.

However, if you know how to follow directions and like big craft projects, this might just be the thing for you. The book turned out beautifully and The Boy loves to play with it. I even got brave toward the end and changed a couple of the pages to suit us a little better.

There are many store-bought cloth activity books out there, but having the hand-made book really makes it more special to us. In the future, I can tell The Boy the stories behind many of the fabric scraps used in the book.

Happy Crafting!