Last year, after being totally frustrated over numerous fundraisers, I wrote a little rant with 10 reasons why I can’t stand school fundraisers.  I understand though that schools need to raise money for things that our kids can enjoy such as playgrounds, picnic tables, and media items.  After speaking with some parents and personally critiquing some fundraisers, I’ve come up with a list of parent-approved fundraisers.  I know that you won’t agree with every suggestion on the list, but hopefully you’ll find an idea that you like.

1)  Grocery store customer cards – Some stores, such as Food Lion have a program for …read more

With school starting, family meals can get pretty tough to follow through on BUT it’s a good idea to eat as a family, even when you’re crazy busy for many reasons, including saving money. Why?

The family that eats together eats the same thing, thus saves money. It’s more expensive to cook a million different things.
The family that eats together avoids higher medical bills – kids who don’t eat with their family have more negative weight issues and eat less healthy foods and being unfit can cost you.
The family that eats together avoids therapy bills. Studies show that kids who eat …read more

Kids birthday parties can be costly, but only if you allow them to get out of control. There are plenty of ideas for less expensive and still fun birthday parties. Such as…

Nature fun party:

Hold a nature scavenger hunt – make a list with lots of nature items; ladybug, red rock, yellow flower, blue bird, and so on. For little ones, draw pictures of each item. Hand teams a list and a crayon and send them off at the park to find and check off their items.
Make leaf and flower rubbings.
Go on a nature hike or if you have enough adults …read more

Summer camp is fun for kids and sometimes necessary for working parents. However, for parents on a budget, summer camp can seem out of reach. Luckily, there are some ways to locate a less expensive camp or pay less for one, and still make sure that your kids have a safe and fun summer camp experience.
See if you can get a group deal: If you’ve got more than one kiddo, see if you can get a discount price. Most camps offer this deal. If you’re the parent of a singleton, see if the camp will give you a discount if …read more

In the last post we looked at if you should involve kids with the family budget. I vote yes, so here are some ideas that can help.

Explaining the concept of money:
Money is weird to kids; something I never realized until I tried to teach my son about it and he told me that he thought that “A toy car and a house probably cost about the same.” Just showing a kid money or just talking about it, is super abstract. Real life applications work better. Allow your kid to pay for items on a short shopping trip so they can …read more

In my life I’ve met two sorts of parents – the type who teach their kids about money and budget from the get-go, and the type who act like the household budget is the devil in disguise; sure to corrupt a small child. I don’t agree with the latter.

I’ve heard all the excuses…

“I don’t want my kids to worry about money issues – they should be having fun.”
“There’s no way my kid will understand.”
“The budget is an adult issue.”
“It’s too personal to discuss with the kids.”

And so on and so on.
I’m more of the mindset that the family budget is …read more

In a word – NO.
In many more words, here’s the problem with baby life insurance…
According to Smart Money and Consumer Reports life insurance for a newborn makes little to no financial sense unless your little one happens to be the sole bread winner in the family. Obviously this is rare unless your tot is big time Hollywood, so skip that insurance.

In the Smart Money piece, an actuary with the consumer advocacy group Consumer Federation of America, notes that baby life insurance is not only unnecessary but that, “It’s never a good idea.“
Why you don’t need baby life insurance:

The main reason …read more

It is time to start thinking about birthdays in my family. Since we all try to be a bit thrifty, most of us don’t do a birthday party every year. Growing up, it was the 1st, 5th, 10th, 16th, 18th and 21st. A few family members feel like their kids should get an actual party every year, but they don’t do big parties on the “less important” years.
Budget Goodie Bags
Last year, I talked about keeping an eye out for clearanced goodie bag items during after holiday sales. We also check the party store’s clearance table on a regular …read more

We had a few of the juice cans from those frozen concentrated juice drinks sitting around the house. We had a few bored kids. Mix them together and… free musical instruments. You can’t get much thriftier than that.
To make a juice can shaker, you’ll need:

A juice can and lid (We use Welches)
Beads, pebbles, beans, or rice
Hot glue or tape

Thoroughly clean the can and the lid. Pour the beads or other items into the can and hot glue the lid on. If you’re allowing a child to do the project, have the child tape the lid on with a piece …read more

If you have kids that like crafting, you have them, too. Those bits and pieces that are sure to be useful for some future project. You know, the four yellow sticky foam dots from that summer fun foam craft and the half a fuzzy pink pipe cleaner from that princess themed craft. Being thrifty, you aren’t about to throw those leftover craft supplies away. However, you don’t exactly want to have the current messy leftovers pile on the craft table, either. So, what’s the answer?
Bag it up and pass it on.
If that pile of bits and pieces is frustrating …read more