1)  Grocery store customer cards – Some stores, such as Food Lion have a program for schools.  Basically, the school registers at the grocery store and then the parents, grandparents, etc register their store card under the school’s account.  The school automatically gets proceeds from the sales.  There’s no need to sell anything.

2)  Restaurant fundraiser - Your child’s school can sign up at a restaurant such as Chick-Fil-A for a special fundraiser night.  Proceeds from that night go to the school.  Again, no need to sell anything.  If you want to show your support, you just come to the restaurant to eat.

3)  Cookie dough - Most people like cookie dough, especially around the holidays.  It’s easy to sell and it brings in a lot of money.  I was talking to a teacher last month and she said their school made about $10,000!

4)  Invest-in-a-Kid – My kids’ school does a fundraiser where they don’t sell anything. They simply ask for monetary donations for things the school needs.  It gives parents an opportunity to just give without having to sell.

5)  Candy bars -  These are a bit more aggravating, but pretty easy to sell.  After all, they’re only a buck. Most anyone will buy a candy bar. People don’t have to wait around for something to be ordered.

6)  Sodas - Schools can partner up with a soda company such as Pepsi or Coca-Cola. They take orders and money for the soda and then the soda is picked at the school on the arranged date. No delivery needed.  Usually the soda is about the same price as the soda from the grocery store.

7)  Read-a-thon or Walk-a-thon – Most people don’t mind donating money if the kids are going to do something useful like reading or walking.

8)  Silent auction – Parents and the community donate items of value.  It’s an easy fundraiser and you can get some great bargains.

9)  Coupon books – Each year my husband and I buy at least one coupon book which has coupons for dining out and entertainment.  The books generally sell for $20 and the school gets $10 for each book sold.  Most coupons in the book are for buy 1 get 1 free.

10)  Dinner or festival – Have a dinner or festival for the community.  Usually, schools serve spaghetti because it’s an easy, cheap meal.  Perhaps the school could do a fundraiser dinner and silent auction on the same night.

11)  Buy a privilege.  Some schools have one day each month where the kids can pay $1 to wear a hat to school.  I’ve also heard of paying $1 to wear a costume, flip flops, or crazy clothes.

12)  Box tops  – Most schools participate in this program and it’s super easy with no pressure.  Simply save the box tops from specially marked products.  The schools get 10 cents for each box top.

What do you think of these fundraiser ideas?  Do you have any others to add to the list?

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• 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 family meals are better adjusted than kids who don’t.

How to make it happen:

Just do it – if you have time for TV, extra shopping, golf, kids in sports, reading a magazine, coloring your hair, or other extra curricular activities then you have time for a family meal. Don’t make excuses.

Eat breakfast – technically I think breakfast and dinner together is manageable, but maybe your family can only handle one meal a day. That’s cool. Reconnecting doesn’t just have to happen at dinner.

Focus on table time not eating: If you have young children, or a partner who gets home later everyone can still take the time to sit together. If the kids eat at 5 and the adults eat at 8, give the kids dessert, a coloring book, or a puzzle, and have them attend the adult dinner. Connecting is this big a deal.

Aim for healthy but fast – the food is less important that the time. Get healthy take out two nights a week if you have or cook healthy and faster.

Check out the following for fast recipes:

• Family Fun Quick Meals
• Cooking Light Everyday Menus
• Dinner Tonight
• Quick, fast, and easy recipes

See the Family Table for more tips.

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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 to help supervise head to the lake for a swim.
• Have everyone plant their own egg grass heads.
• Make a homemade cake with candied flowers or fresh flowers from your garden as the decorations and serve punch with an ice ring full of flowers.
• See more nature activity ideas.

Fireman fun party:

Most fire stations will set up a tour for free for kids. It’s nice to take along some cookies though and / or make a small donation to the station as a thank you.You can set up a tour, have all the kids meet there and have cake at a nearby park or head home for cake if you’ve got plenty of drivers.

Magic party:

You can rent DVDs that teach kids how to do magic tricks OR snag a library book all about it. Gather up some coins, silks, playing cards, and other “magical gear” and let the kiddos learn to do tricks. Cheaper then hiring a real magician and way more fun. See some free magic party supplies you can print out on your computer – plus some more ideas and free trick tips.

What are your best ideas for a less expensive birthday party?

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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 you get some pals to sign up their kids as well. The camps want attendees, so it’s worth asking.

Work it off: Many camps offer parent volunteer programs, and some will lower your child’s attendance costs if you volunteer. Usually this means a few hours per week.

Consider day camp: Many parents think about overnight camps, but there are tons of great day camps that work with parent work schedules and can save you money as your child is there less.

Shop around: Like anything, camps vary in cost and services. You can shop the major brands of camps through a site like through the The American Camp Association but you might be able to find a less expensive camp by first checking with your child’s school, the local community centers, your local park & rec association, or your local YMCA.

The American Camp Association has some great money saving tips as well, such as…

• You can lower camp costs by registering early and by signing up for full-season attendance.
• Many camps offer “camperships”—partial or total scholarships and financial assistance. You don’t have to be dirt poor to qualify either, but you should start looking early because some camps have limited scholarships available.
• Parents should ask if the camp participates in income-eligible subsidy programs, for instance through Title XX.
• You may be able to use a Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account to pay for camp. Visit the FSA Feds Web site for more information.
• Once in a while, summer camp may be considered dependent care services and thus is paid with pre-tax dollars. Visit the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for more information.

Is your child headed to camp this summer? Are you worried about the costs? (I sure am, I’m going to have to follow my own tips!)

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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 see what it’s like to hand over cash and get a bag of food in return. Take them to the toy store with $10 and then go find all the items they could actually afford – also point out some they can’t afford and discuss how much more money they’d need to get the item.

Explaining the concept of budgeting:

You can use a pie chart or envelopes for this. If you use a pie chart (better for older kiddos) then chart off different areas like food, rent, electricity, savings, and extras. Envelopes are really good for teaching kids about the budget – even little kids seem to get this technique.

Grab some pretend paper money (preferably about how much is in the family budget each month). Stack it up and then have your kid help to brainstorm envelope categories – i.e. grocery, water bill, pet supplies, and so on. Make sure you have one envelope marked as savings and one marked as extra (or fun) money. After you jot down categories on each envelope have your child help you put the correct amounts per bill into each envelope. This is a good visual way to see how much cash ends up in the “fun or leftover” category.

Explaining the concept of a deal or choice:

The most common two ways people save money is by getting a great deal or by making a choice. Teach your child about deals. For example, if they always want a specific cereal, teach them how to find the store brand, a coupon, a sale, or some other way to get a better deal. Then point out that the money saved on the deal goes into the leftover money category. Teach about choices too. So if their choice is to skip the cereal above altogether, they can save even more money into the leftover category.

NOW: Tell me some of your best ideas for teaching kids about budgeting…

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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 just that; the FAMILY budget. If the family budget is for the goals and good of the family, then kids can and should be involved.

Why kids should be involved with the family budget:

Kids are smart. If you take the time to explain something to them, they will eventually get it. Saying a child won’t get the budget is not an acceptable reason to cut their knowledge stream off.

Kids do worry, but that’s life. Kids worry about all sorts of stuff. (Remember being a kid). While it might seem kinder to never have to say, “We just can’t afford it” that’s not reality, and it’s way better than kids assuming items bought and paid for pop out of thin air. I’m not for telling kids all the down and dirty of a super dire money situation, but I do think kids can handle some real life knowledge. I remember when I was a kid and it always seemed worse to not know what was stressing my mom out if I asked for something we couldn’t afford – a simple “We can’t get it right now because it’s not in the budget” would have made me feel better.

Kids grow up into older kids and adults who spend money. They can either grow up into people who spend money and who know how to budget because they grew up with a budget OR they can grow up into people who spend money and who have no budgeting concepts what-so-ever. Which group would you rather your child grow into?

The budget is not that big a deal – people really overreact about budgeting sometimes, making it into this huge secondary issue, outside the norm of real life. However, a budget is part of every life so incorporating budget know-how casually and regularly is much more normal, more educational, and more practical than making the budget this big old deal.

For some tips asap read: How to totally mess up your kids when it comes to money. Later we’ll look at more ways to involve the kids in the family budget.

What do you think? Do you actively involve your kids in the family budget? Why or why not?

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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 you don’t need baby insurance is because your money is more useful when spent in other ways. Better things to spend your cash on includes issues like a 401k, college funds, retirement funds, or even basics like groceries or savings.

Your insurance and your partner’s insurance is far more important than baby insurance. Life insurance only does one thing, it protects and provides for those left behind when someone dies. As noted above, unless your child is making bank for the family somehow, you don’t need the protection if your child dies.

Some parents think, “I should get that insurance, in case my child can’t get any later” however, it’s extremely rare that a young adult would be turned down for life insurance.

It is tempting…

When my son Cedar was about six years old he told me this; “For my own personal security and smart peas of mind (yes he did say peas) I should have life insurance…. and bonus, it will double by the time I’m 21! CAN we get some?!” Um… if the insurance companies can sell something as non-flashy, non-toy-like, and boring to a six year old, then places like Gerber Life are doing a kick butt job advertising this stuff, but honestly you really don’t need to waste your money on it.

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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 basis.

This year, I have the advantage of some very budget friendly goodie bag ideas I just saw a friend use and I will be incorporating them in our bags. I thought you all could use some of the ideas, too.

She found a printable coloring sheet and a printable word search with the party theme. Then, she shrank each sheet to 25% of its original size so she could print four small coloring sheets and activity pages on each standard sheet of paper. The quarter page size sheets were the perfect size for the goodie bags.

Next, she created her own themed kits in ziplock bags for each child. She cut the pieces from craft foam, which resulted in a much nicer craft than if she would have used construction paper. I think I’ll use my die cut machine to cut my kit pieces out, since it can easily handle craft foam.

Do you have a great idea for cheap birthday goodie bag fillers?

Photo by Michaela Maslarska

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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 of duct tape instead. That’s all there is to it.

We tried different filler items for different cans to create a slightly different sound for each one. If you don’t have juice cans, you can always fill a plastic water bottle halfway with rice or beans instead.

Do you make musical instruments from things you find around the house?

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Bag it up and pass it on.

If that pile of bits and pieces is frustrating you, bag it up and drop it by your girl scout leader’s house or send it to school with a note to your child’s elementary school teacher that explains you were cleaning out and thought the items might be useful in the classroom. While I had plans for most of my other leftovers, there was a huge bag of foam stickers taking up an entire craft drawer that hadn’t been touched in over a year. I sent them to school and the teacher was able to use them in a class project that week.

Make your own craft kits.

Every once in awhile, I take all the bits and look them over to see if I can make a set of new craft kits from them. Usually, I can make several kits by combining foam die cuts made with my Sizzix machine and the leftover googley eyes, pipe cleaners, foam stickers and assorted other items. (I have a ton of dies that I collected over the years when I worked as a librarian and teacher.)

Toss the leftovers in a bin and give it to the kids

Who would ever use that ugly bit of paper or that ratty piece of pipe cleaner? You can toss all of this random stuff in the trash, right? Not so fast. Some of the smallest, most unattractive pieces have been transformed into works of art in a child’s hands. I personally put all the extra scraps in a craft bin that the kids are free to dig through when they just want to make some cards or bizarre recycled container creatures.

What do you do with your leftover craft supplies?

Photo by Valerie Like

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