Hauling in the recycling for a bonus payday

Hubby and I took in our crushed aluminum cans the recycling center this last weekend. We live about 20 minutes away from a place called West Virginia Cashin Recyclables in Nitro West Virginia that will buy any kind of recyclable metal materials you have. The rate at the time we took ours in was 69 cents per pound for pop cans. We ended up having 140 pounds of cans to turn in so our take was $96.60!! Not bad for something that we would have recycled anyways for free! Now I know that recycling laws and what facilities are available vary from state to state, but it is worth checking into to see if these facilities exist in your area. If this idea will make one non-recycling family decide to start recycling then it is worth every little bit of time it would take you to do it. We have a separate garbage can inside for our cans then transfer them outside when the bag is full. We then crush the cans in our can crusher ( $10 at home depot) that drops them into a big garbage bag to store them in till we have enough to fill the back of our S-10 Blazer with bags of cans to take to the recycling center.

The other types of items they take are anywhere from small appliances, deep freezers, sheet metal, engines, even old aluminum rims off of cars! The small appliances are normally purchased for a small flat fee due to them having to be taken apart for recycled pieces. Plus you need to find the current prices for your recycling center, the prices they quote can vary almost daily as its tied to how much those materials are worth on the market that day.

A final note to leave you with about the benefits of recycling- For each can recycled, you save enough energy to run a big screen TV for 4 hours, run a 100 watt bulb for twenty hours, or enough energy to equal a half a gallon of gas! And that is just for one can! Thats enough of a reason in my book any day, but the value of them adds another fact to it;

1. Between 1990 and 2000, Americans wasted a total of 7.1 million tons of cans: enough to manufacture 316,000 Boeing 737 airplanes—or enough to reproduce the world’s entire commercial air fleet 25 times.

2. Had the 50.7 billion cans wasted in 2001 been recycled, they would have saved the energy equivalent of 16 million barrels of crude oil: enough energy to generate electricity for 2.7 million U.S. homes for a year, or enough to supply over a million cars with gasoline for a year.

3. From 1986 to 2000, about 9.6 million tons of cans with a market value of over $10 billion were wasted

Source- http://www.container-recycling.org/publications/trashedcans/sample.htm

Have a great week everybody! And happy recycling!!!

Spotlight on; Remaking Crayons!

http://mommysblessings.blogspot.com/2010/08/remaking-crayons.html

This is the link to Holly’s blog called “Mommy’s Blessings” and her post on how to save all of the broken crayons that we all have laying around! She’s got 6 kids worth of broken crayons to deal with and found a way not to waste any of them!

The Price Book- A grocery shopper’s companion

If you are new to the idea of keeping a price book then here is what they basically are; It is a book that you record the prices, unit size of the item, and what store it was purchased at, to know what you normally pay for items. Depending on what you work with best some people just handwrite the info into a notebook that fits into their purse, while others will make an excel spreadsheet and record the prices from their store receipt onto it. The price book helps to serve you in several different ways after you have recorded your recurring items into it. First of all, it will help you be able to spot when an item is truly on sale at another store or your normal one, or if the sale is just a percentage off of an inflated price that the item is never priced at, thus making it on “sale” for its regular price. Second, you will be able to identify when the store you shop at is increasing their prices. I noticed this several weeks ago at Wal-Mart while shopping there, only to see it confirmed on Yahoo’s home page the next week….

Some people’s price books only contain the items name, the price, and what store it was purchased at. This is fine and a good start to keeping track of prices and when an item is on sale. But I really do recommend keeping track of the unit size on here as well to make your pricing book serve you better. Since so many products come in different sizes and their sale cycles will change what size is on sale from time to time it’s important to know whether the peanut butter you got the other day and wrote down as paying $1.99 for is the same size as the 18 oz. jar of it that’s on sale this week. And since manufacturers have a habit of changing a products packaging, as well as the amounts in the package during the year, you will be able to quickly decide if the price is still about the same or if the new shiny packaging is costing you a couple of ounces for the old sizes price. Another bonus to this method is being able to figure out the cost per unit of an item if it’s not displayed on the store’s shelf tag prominently. The cost per unit can be figured out by dividing the price of the item by the unit amount ( i.e.  10 ounces, 5 pounds, 550 ml etc.) to arrive at something like ” this costs 37 cents per ounce”. Knowing this can help you decide which size of the product is the best deal which, contrary to popular belief, is a lot of times not the biggest size on the shelf. 

Starting your price book and logging in all the items you normally buy will take a little bit of time, but it is well worth this investment. You can keep track of the average price of an item at multiple stores and for multiple product sizes after creating it. Combining your price book with reward cards, coupons, manufacturer’s rebates, as well as sales you will get more for your money at the grocery store. And it doesn’t have to stop at grocery stores! With all the reward programs at pharmacies such as Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid, more and more people do a chunk of their shopping at these stores that goes way beyond getting their prescriptions refilled, over the counter medications purchased, and the in-store photo services. Keep a separate notebook for these stores or give them their own section of a notebook and keep track of the items you buy from which pharmacy and what the price was. Mark beside the item if it was a buy one get one free item and note the price you paid for the one. On your next trip to that store check and see what the price of that item is when it’s not on a BOGOF sale. Did the item cost more on the sale than it does now that it’s not on sale? Keeping track of these will let you know when to steer clear of certain sales at certain stores that have a habit of increasing an items regular price before they put it on sale! It will also shine a new light on some stores “10 items for $10″ sales where they put items that are already $1 on these sales to get you to buy more of them than you normally would. There are times that these sales are great deals, and armed with your price book you will be able to spot these sales easily!

Another way to help your price book help you is getting acquainted with your store’s coupon policy. Most stores will have copies of their policy available if you ask for one while some will direct you to the store’s website to print one off yourself. Since policies vary greatly from chain to chain it helps to know what store will let you combine store coupons with manufacturers coupons ( sometimes called stacking) on the same item, what stores will do double or even triple coupon days, and what stores will accept expired coupons, which some will actually. For instance, all the Kroger stores where I live will double the first 6 manufacturer’s coupons up to a value of 50 cents each. Another example would be Rite Aids coupon policy on buy one get one free coupons, if they are running a BOGOF sale on an item that week and you bring in a coupon for the same item that is a BOGOF coupon then they will accept the coupon and you get both items for free…

There will be an upcoming post about the big  pharmacy chains where we will be discussing  their rewards programs, coupon policies, and their prescription savings programs and compare them side to side.

I hope this encourages at least some of you all who havent created a price book yet to go ahead and make one. If you do put together one let me know how it goes for you and how much you think it is helping you save money. For those of you all out there who already have one I’d like to hear your opinions as well, especially anymore tips on creating one or if you put any additional information in yours that I don’t put on mine.

Have a great Thursday everyone! Friday is just around the corner!!

Jessi

Multitaskers Part 4- Baking Soda

The next multi-talented star of the pantry is an unsung hero. Here is a roundup of some its very handy, economical, and environmentally friendly uses;

1. Yucky thermos - Remove residue from a thermos by adding 1/4 cup of baking soda to 1 quart of water in the thermos and let it soak overnight.
2. Cast-iron burns – To loosen up burnt on food from cast iron skillet just add 2 tablespoons of baking soda to 1 quart of water and pour into skillet. Boil the solution in the skillet for about 5 minutes then rinse!
3. Coffee pot cleaner -Brew 1 quart of warm water mixed with 1/4 cup baking soda in your coffee maker to clean any residue out of the lines. This is especially good to do when you notice a bitter taste start occurring in your morning cup of Joe.
4. Clean stovetop – To remove grease stains on your stove top first just moisten the grease with water. Then cover the spot with baking soda , wait a couple of seconds, then wipe clean with a damp cloth!
5. Shine stainless steel -Bring back the luster of dulled stainless steel by sprinkling it with baking soda then rubbing it with a damp cloth.
6. Coffee stains -If your good set of china ends up with some unsightly coffee stains on it try this trick; Dip an already damp cloth in baking soda and rub it on the china. The mild abrasive action of the baking soda is the trick to this one. Note; always test on small spot on delicate or antique china.
7. Smelly dishwasher -If you notice the smell of last weeks garlic sauce still in your dishwasher here is an easy way to deodorize it. Pour about 1 cup of baking soda in the empty dishwasher and run it thru a rinse cycle.
8. Greasy pans -If your dishwashing liquid doesn’t seem to be cutting the grease on dishes add about 2 tablespoons of baking soda to it to help boost its grease cleaning.
9. Enamel cookware -Enamel cookware can be easily scratched by abrasive cleaners so you need an alternative that will still get it clean but leave the surface intact. Coat the stubborn stain with an equal parts paste of baking soda and water then let sit for 1 hour. The spot should easily wipe off then. You can also make this paste with baking soda and some dishwashing liquid.
10. Stained utensils -To remove stains from plastic utensils or rubber spatulas make the same baking soda paste as above and rub on with a sponge or scouring pad.
11. Odor away -Baking soda can remove odors from refrigerators, freezers, plastic food containers, garbage cans, diaper pails, work boots, carpets, and litter boxes!
12. Garbage disposal -To get rid of grease down in your garbage drain just remember to occasionally grind a couple of ice cubes along with 1/2 cup of baking soda. To flush it out fill the stopper sink with 2 or 3 inches of hot water and run the water thru the disposal.
13. My favorite multitasker duo use -To keep your sink from ever clogging up in the first place use this preventative maintenance on them once a month or whenever you think the drain is sluggish and maybe on the verge of clogging. Pour 1/2 cup of baking soda down the drain and follow it with 1/2 cup of white vinegar. Cover the sink for a couple of minutes while the 2 are reacting chemically ( kind of reminds you of that first volcano you built as a kid doesn’t it?) then flush the drain with warm water. Note: Do not do this after you have poured a commercial drain cleaner down the sink and it did not work. The cleaners chemicals could possibly react with the vinegar and create fumes that are dangerous to inhale!

I hope you find these ideas as helpful as I have over the years now. Part of the reason for doing these posts was how frustrated I used to get looking for cheaper and safer cleaning alternatives online and having to go to a dozen different sites to find them. And with the way the economy has been lately I think that we all could use some tips on doing things a little cheaper and easier. If you have anymore uses for these products please feel free to leave them in a comment or email them to me at jessislate@yahoo.com. If you have a site that’s about money or time-saving ideas, or about coupons or freebies leave your site address as well so I can link to you!

Thanks for reading!

Jessi

Multitaskers Part 3- The incredible, edible lemon!

Sure, they are awesome to feed to a little kid to watch them make that cute pucker face or to garnish a fresh glass of iced tea, but did you know how many ways you can clean with a lemon? Here is some of the ways you can get more bang for your buck out of a couple of lemons!

1. Delicate fabrics? Soak delicate fabrics in lemon juice for a mild bleaching effect that wont damage fabrics.
2. Dingy white socks? Take 2 lemon halves and put them in a pot of boiling water with the socks to get them super white again!
3. Mildew on clothes? Make an equal parts paste with lemon juice and salt and rub on mildew stains on clothes, let sit, rinse, then launder as usual.
4. Ants in the kitchen? Add the juice of 1 lemon to a gallon bucket of mop water to keep them away. This mixture will also keep cockroaches and fleas at bay also!
5. Got a fireplace? To make your fire smell as good as it sounds throw some lemon peels onto the burning logs.
6. Smelly humidifier? If your humidifier has taken on a funky smell lately you can deodorize it by pouring 3 to 4 teaspoonfuls of lemon juice into the water.
7. Yucky toilet stains? Mix equal parts lemon juice to borax to clean and shine up your toilet. Just swish with a toilet brush then flush, it will also leave a clean citrus smell behind!
8. Water spots on doors? You can easily remove water spots on the metal parts of a shower door with lemon juice! I tried this all over the door but did not like the effects on the glass part so I left it to the metal parts only.
9. Marble stains? If you have beverage stains on marble they can normally be easily removed by rubbing the spots with lemon juice.
10. Chrome looking dull? If your chrome needs shined back to its original sparkle then simply rub it with the inside of a lemon rind.

Bounus Health and Beauty uses To make the luxurious exfoliating scrubs that you find in stores try this the next time you’re in the shower; take the cut half of a lemon and dip in a small container of sugar. Rub on places like your elbows and knees, or anywhere that you develop a dry skin to sloth off dead skin. You could even add baby oil to this concoction to keep skin moisturized and baby smooth! Note; when using lemon on the skin be aware of any small cuts or scrapes you may have since the lemon juice will burn these areas, as well as using baby oil in a shower can cause the shower floor to get slippery quick!

You will notice on these multitasker cleaners that the most they ever need combined with for cleaning is another multitasker or maybe water. This makes them  ideal because 1)you have everything you need on hand to clean a tricky stain without getting an expensive cleaner 2) You are saving a considerable amount of money using items you already have on hand 3) You are helping the environment cause you are not introducing more chemicals into the earth and these items are biodegradable, as well as reducing your carbon footprint because you’re not running out to the store for more cleaners, which in turn reduces your gas consumption. It may just be a little bit in savings at first but the more you make your own cleaners and solutions from these the more it will definitely add up!

Have a great week everyone!

Jessi

The anatomy of a grocery store

How many times have you went to the store to just get milk and come out with nothing but milk? Or went to a super center for food and not ventured into other ares of the store? The grocery stores of today have spent a lot of time and money to make sure these things happen rarely. But learning more about how they do it along with keeping track of your own shopping habits can keep the size of your shopping cart smaller and your wallet bigger.

You’ve come a long way baby!- Before todays modern grocery stores existed the consumer had a very small role in shopping. For the most part the only thing the shopper did was walk in and hand the store clerk their list, the clerk then gathered the items and did the shopping for the customer. The first self-service grocery store was The Piggly Wiggly in Memphis Tennessee in 1916. The man behind this, Clarence Saunders, patented this idea because it worked so well for his company’s revenue. He knew that as people walked the aisles of the store looking for the items on their grocery list that they would inevitably purchase additional items as well, possibly doubling their bills!

  Play that funky music!- Did you know that music played in a Major chord sells more items than music in a Minor chord? And that if certain beats of music are played that are soothing it will slow a shopper down and they will hover over items longer and go down the aisles slower thus looking at more items? You may not of even payed attention to the music they play in the background while you are in a store but you can bet it was selected by someone for that criteria.

  Do you smell what I smell?- The outer perimeter of the store is called, among other things, “a racetrack”. Most staples, like meat, dairy, veggies, fruit, and etc. will always be found in this area, thus getting more people to walk thru the aisles to get to the back of the store for a staple.  There is one other thing that is normally in this area, the Bakery/Deli.  These little areas can be a godsend to someone needing veggie trays for the office or a last-minute cake for their spouse’s birthday that they had forgotten about. You would think that the stores big payoff from this area would be from the overpriced frozen cakes they sell or the markup on cut vegetables but it’s not really.  Tons of marketing studies have been done to show that the smell of freshly baked bread makes a person feel hungry, and we all know what happens when we go to the grocery store hungry! Those little samples they give out in stores are another effective strategy to get you to buy something new. One marketing study done at the University of Buffalo showed that the majority of people who purchased an item they had just sampled did not even ask the price of the item before putting it in their shopping cart.

  Look me in the eye-The  placement of items on the shelves is very well planned out in more than one way. The more expensive items will always be at the average person’s eye level, with the most expensive of them being on the right of the area. The research showing here that the Brand labels packaging will catch your eye and attract you to it. It has also been shown in studies that a lot of people will think that the lower priced items, on the lower shelves normally, are a lower quality item than their eye level counterparts. The right area being reserved for the most expensive comes from our reading habits. Since we read from left to right they are hoping that when your eyes come to rest on the right product that your brain will record and remember that item and end up buying it.

  Endcaps; The faux finish of groceries- A lot of people think that when they see an endcap at the end of an aisle filled with large stacks of a certain item that it is a sale item. The items on endcaps are normally not even a featured item, let alone a sale item. The stores will have their employees stock large amounts of an item on an end cap of have a pyramid display of an item in an aisle so that when a shopper looks at the item on display like that their brain will think its a sale. In some instances they will even raise the price of the item they put on display!

  Buy One Get One Free deals-  Also known as BOGO sales, these sound like a great idea, but sometimes its a markup instead of a mark down.  Pat Kendall, Ph.D., R.D. is a Food Science and Human Nutrition Specialist at Colorado State University and she has this to say about BOGO sales: “Although “buy one, get one free” may sound like a good deal, the “one” is often marketed at an increased price, so the product is costing you more than if it wasnt even on sale.” She also says to remember that sometimes a tag, is just a tag. “We rely on retailers to use tags to highlight sale items, but they also may attach tags to non-sale items that say things like “everyday low price” to help maximize the sale of a product.” says Kendall.

  These are some of the strategies being used on you that you need to remember when shopping. But being aware of them and avoiding their traps will help you save money in the long run. Preparing and sticking to a store list, giving yourself a time limit, not going to the store hungry, or with hungry kids are other ways to help reign in the super center money machine.

In an upcoming post im going to discuss some methods to making and keeping a price book for grocery items that you buy frequently. This is a great way to figure out what your average cost of an item is and to see when a sale price is a great deal on it. This will also help you get the rhythm of your particular stores sale cycle, which are normally six-week cycles, and know when you need to hold on to coupons for that item until its week to be on sale to maximize your savings.

Everybody have a great weekend and happy bargain hunting!

Freebie Alert- Free Air Wick Car Air Freshener

Click on the following link and fill out the small from for a single Air Wick Citrus Zest scented Car Air Freshener

Terms, Conditions, And Privacy
Only one sample per household. Allow for five to eight weeks for delivery. US orders only, no international orders, no Alaska, no Hawaii.

(http://tampagpcarwash.com/free_airwick_car_freshener.html)

Back to School Deals this week

Here is the big deals from the back to school sales for this week. Most of these sales will be good thru Saturday but some of the stores, like Target for example, will keep running certain loss leads if they generate a lot of customers and they still have stock of the item available.

Walgreens- Deal of the week is Penway 2 pocket folders for $.09 each! Limit 4 per checkout. They also have High Trails Backpacks that are full size (16.5″x12″x15.5″) for $3.99 in solid colors. The 2 packs of Elmers Glue sticks are $.19 each with no limit stated and Penway brand 130 ct. filler paper or 80 sheet composition books are $.49 with a limit of 6./ Kleenex tissues in 78 or 110 ct packs for $.99 each/   Coupons in circular for Bic stick pens 8 pk for $.79, limit 3/  Penway 1 subject notebooks for $.49, limit 6/  Elmers 4 oz. School Glue for $.49, limit 6/  8 oz. Hand Sanitizer for $.99, limit 3/ Paper Mate Eraser Mate Pens 4 pk. $.99, limit 4/ along with several other good deals and coupons. It’s a good week to use your register rewards to make the savings even greater!!   Free Child ID Kit- Walgreens will have free ID kits from the makers of Triaminic available at the photo counters in store! They have a place to list all of your childs vital statistics and keep them close by in case of an emergency. The ad says that you can have the photo for the ID kit taken at the photo counter also!!!

CVS (with CVS extra care card on most items)- Paper Mate Writebros. pens 10 pk or mechanical pencils 5 pk for $.99/ Caliber #2 pencils 24 pk. for $.99/ Portfolio 2 pocket folders in asstd. colors are 8 for $1, limit 8/ 500 sheets of Georgia-Pacific Copy & Print paper for $3.99/ BOGOF on Bic Mark-it 12 ct. or Pilot G2 pens 2-5 ct. packs/ and if you spend $15 on Five Star Notebooks or Binders between now and 8/28/10 you will receive $5 in extra bucks, limit of 2 per household with card. Bonus- If you go to www.cvs.com/email and sign up for their ExtraCare email you will get a $4 coupon instantly to use on your next shopping trip! Note: this excludes cardholders who already have their email address on file with ExtraCare.

Kmart- If you have the Kmart Shop Your Way Rewards card and purchase $25 or more on Crayola, Mead, 3M, Sanford or Avery brand products you will receive $8 off your next shopping trip of $8 or more in purchases. Coupon prints at checkout and must be used within 2 weeks of receiving it. Sale items; RoseArt 24 pk crayons for $.25/ $.50 item sale on Write Bros. 10 pk pens (asstd. colors, blue, or black limit 4), RoseArt 40 ct. pencil top erasers, Simmons 10 ct. wood case pencils, Paper Mate 3 pk pearl erasers, 150 ct. wide or college ruled filler paper limit 4, and RoseArt 12 ct. colored pencils, limit 4. / 4 pk of Expo chisel-tip or fine-point markers for $2/ PaperMate 10-ct pencil grips or mechanical pencils for $1 each/ Scotch 3 pk. Satin tape for $3 each/ Sharpie 4 pk chisel-tip or fine-point Accent highlighters for $2 each/ Kleenex tissues 75-130, 184 or 200 ct. 4 for $5

Big Lots- $2 each on the following items: 24 pk ball point pens, 36 pk colored pencils, 50 pk #2 lead pencils, 15 pk of glue sticks, 5 pk portfolio folders, from various brands and selection varies by store. Also on the $2 sale is Pilot G2 2 pk. gel pens, Carolina pad fashion folders, organizers, and 1″ or !.5″ presentation binders in asstd. colors, as well as Bic 25 pk pencil grips, 2 pk mechanical pencils with lead refill included, 12 pk mini mechanical pencils, and 4 color ball point pens. They also have 8 piece twin or 10 piece full size Dorm in a Tote sets for $44.88 in assorted colors and patterns. Attention Teachers! Shop at Big Lots on Saturday August 14th and receive 10% off your total purchase when you show your valid school ID!!

Target- The Weekly Wow $.50 items are standard size book covers (Jumbo size covers on sale for $.75) and Scotch Magic tape single packs/ On Sale for $1 each items; Five Star 1-subject notebooks, 3″x3″ Post-it notepads, and 2 ct. Sharpie fine-tip markers/On sale for $2.50 is assorted style locker accessories/ Sale for $5 is Five Star or Mead planners, Sharpie 10 ct fine-tip markers or 5 ct. pens, and Crayola 50 ct. Supertips scented markers or 120 ct. crayon chest./ Kleenex 10-pk. 110-ct. flat or 10 pk. 60 or 78 ct. upright tissue boxes for $8.99/ Dorm room deals- Emerson .7cu.-ft 700 watt microwave oven for $45/ Emerson 4.6-cu.-ft refrigerator with freezer compartment for $99/ Black & Decker 2-slice toaster or 4-slice toaster oven for $24/ Rubbermaid Roughnecks 18 gal. tote for $5.99 or 25 gal. tote for $9.99/ Room Essentials stackable storage drawers for $7.99 or 16-pocket over-the-door organizer for $8.99    Dont forget your Reusable Bags when going to Target, they take 5 cents off your bill for each one used!!!

Office Depot- $.05 each for Paper Portfolios (limit 5) and Tug brand 2-hole manual pencil sharpeners(limit 3)/ $.25 each for 1″ Wilson Jones Poly Binders (limit 3), Schoolworks 5″ scissors in blunt and pointed tip (limit 3), and assorted book covers/ $.50 each for college or wide ruled composition books (limit 3)/ $.75 each for Sharpie 6 pk. Accent Pocket highlighters ( asstd. colors or yellow, limit 3)/ $.99 sale on assorted fashion portfolios, notebooks, composition books, binders, and pencil pouches, and etc. Back To School Program- Office Depot will give 5%  of qualifying purchases back to your school in credits if you tell them the school you choose and the school chooses to opt in for the program!!

Staples-  The majority of their big deals involve the easy rebate program, so 4 to 6 weeks after submitting your rebate online you’ll get your gift card that makes a couple of their items free. They also have two pages in their ad of in store coupons for school supplies such as $2 for an Expo 8.9″x11.8″ double-sided dry erase board, limit 2/ 12 pk of Bic Round Stic Grip ballpoint pens with medium points for $1, limit 2/ and 50 pk. Staples brand Photo supreme 8.5″x11″ paper for $1

Rite Aid- Mead 1 subject 70 ct. notebooks in wide or college ruled are 4 for $2 plus you get $1 in their +UP rewards at checkout for your next purchase, limit 1 offer per household. Also you can buy either a Texas Instruments Scientific Calculator or HP brand black ink cartridges ( #21, 92, or 74) for $14.99 with the Rite Aid Wellness card.

That is the notable deals that I have come across so far this week for school supplies. Some items are the same price at 2 locations and I have tried to include those when I come across them to save people (time and gas) from making a trip to another store when it’s not necessary. If you happen to come across another great deal this week at another store, something i’ve missed, or an online only deal please leave it in the comment field and we can compare and see how all of us fare on supplies this year! I’ve got 3 im buying supplies for now and im going to keep a running tally on supplies and post it on here at the end of the first week of school, so around 8/28/2010. Have a great Hump Day everyone and happy hunting on the savings!!!!!!

Jessi

Tips on Birthday cakes, wrapping, themes, and more!

My youngest, Quen, turned 4 last month. These birthday tips are in honor of him, aka “Booty Man”. If you’re wondering about the name it’s due to the booty dance he does every night at bedtime, which like his personality, is hysterical!! If you have a tip you would like to add about parties, feel free to leave it in a comment or email me at jslate304@yahoo.com.  Here are some of my favorite party tips at the moment!

Single item vs goody bags- Dont get me wrong, I love handing out goody bags at parties, but they can get expensive quick. Instead of handing out a bag of treats, why not a single item to go with the parties theme? We handed out water guns ($1 each found at The Dollar Tree) at my sons water battle party. They were made so you could attach a standard size water bottle to them to make reloading easier and repurposing a plastic bottle at the same time! Everyone loved their new toy and with cake and pizza being served already, no one even asked where the candy was. The moms of the kids attending the party will thank you for that alone! Some other examples for this would be to burn CD’s of your daughter and her friends favorite songs for a sleepover party. We have also made use of our daughters fashion design obsession and did a “Design your own shirt” party and laid out her screenprint supplies along with beads, fabric markers,rhinestones, and anything else that could be adhered to a shirt! You can either have the kids bring a blank shirt with them or stock up on cheap blank t-shirts. Both Michaels and A.C. Moore craft stores regularly have sales where you can get these shirts for $2 each! Throw in a couple bowls of popcorn, drinks, and some good music and you are set! Younger boys also like making stuff to wear, just trade the beads and such for more masculine items, like taking a small monster truck, put fabric paint on the tread of the tires, and have them drive their way across the shirt! Making stamps out of items around the home, such as cut potatoes, leaves, or their own handprints will get rave reviews also.

Dental Floss- If you are doing any type of birthday cake other than cupcakes, which are already cut and self serving, nothing beats dental floss to cut it with! Just cut the floss to desired length to go across the cake and leave some to wrap around your hands. Hold the floss (preferrably unflavored floss) tight between your hands and slice  into the cake till you hit the cake board. Repeat process spacing cuts to desired serving size and you will have perfectly shaped, even slices to serve with no bunched up icing spots. This will save you time and have the whole cake ready to serve before the birthday kid decides if they want chocolate or vanilla ice cream!

Don’t buy out the party section on theme items- It may be tempting to make your table look like G.I. Joe just commandeered it for a mission, but it will also take a hunk out of your birthday budget. Here is a tip to make sure that more of the budget gets spent on presents than table decorations.  Pick certain key items from the theme your little birthday darling requested, then go solid colored on the rest. Example, get a table decoration, banner, etc. of Spongebob along with an item like party hats or blowouts in the theme. Stickers are always a good item if they are reasonable (or raid your kids sticker stash) cause of all the uses for them as treats, decorations, or just to put on a scrapbook page of the party. After the themed items are picked choose the colors in the theme, in Spongebobs case you could do bright yellow with nautical blue and select tableware in those colors. Dollar stores along with anywhere that has a party aisle will have solid colored plates, napkins, cups, and cutlery in coordinating colors that are tons cheaper than their themed counterparts!

Speaking of plates-If you’re having trouble finding the right color of plates and can’t find a secondary color you like then you can normally either go with a clear, white, or black plate so it won’t clash with a theme color. If clear is chosen and you think the look is too plain, or just invisible try this solution; take clear plates, a clear drying glue of your choice, and theme stickers to dress them up quick. To do this take 2 plates and adhere the stickers to the top of 1 plate, dabbing glue around edges. Sit the 2nd plate on top of the stickered one and press gently for a few seconds to join plates together.Voila!! You now have custom made and inexpensive tableware! This can be used to pretty up clear plates for just about any party. Instead of stickers you can use flower petals, glitter, ribbon of about any type, images on a napkin, even pages from a magazine! The possibilities are endless, as long as the item is relatively thin and fits to your plate size leaving room for glue!

To wrap things up- I dont know about you all, but the idea of paying $4.99 for a miniscule role of Hot Wheels wrapping paper to wrap a $.99 Hot Wheels car makes my blood boil! Especially knowing that it will be ripped to unrecognizable shreds within 5 seconds of being picked up by the birthday boy. I love solid colored wrapping paper and small gift bags for this reason. Stock up on solid colored wrapping paper and gift bags at after Christmas sales, when they’re super cheap, along with coordinating solid colored bows. But what happens if its no where near Christmas, you have gifts to wrap, and no time to run back out and hunt down a role of wrapping paper? Well……

1. The Sunday paper- Recycle and save money on this one! Use the cartoon section for a colorful paper but dont limit yourself to it. If the birthday boy loves anything with wheels use a car lot ad. Got a 16 year old with a license? Use the help wanted section of the classifieds, giggle, giggle, giggle…
2. Sock it to me- Lets face it, nothing is going to make socks an exciting present, unless you use them to “wrap” a smaller item (cars, jewelry, makeup, giftcards, etc). Just tie a small piece of ribbon around sock to keep the item from falling out, if no ribbon just use what comes natural, like a shoelace!
3. Dorm room present- If the recipient is headed to college make the wrapping useful too. Put the gift in a mesh laundry bag, a portable laundry basket or lidded hamper, a storage tote, over the door organizer, bath towels, or even a bathrobe with the sash tied around it as the bow! You could even make it really simple and just use an envelope and give the gift that every college student loves to see, which is cash!
4. Paper or Plastic- Skip the plastic and cut open a plain brown paper bag to wrap a present in.  You can dress it up anyway you please with items like ribbon,stickers, stampers, chipboard letters or shapes, you name it! Or to give them something they will use again and again put it in a reusable shopping bag from one of the many stores around that sell them for 50 cents to $1.00, which is less than most gift bags cost! You may also be saving them some money since some retailers like Target now take 5 cents off your bill for each reusable bag used during your trip!
5. Gift Bag Exchange- I keep all of the gift bags that we receive from holidays and birthdays and use them to put gifts in throughout the year! But since I have 2 boys and only 1 girl I normally end up needing a bag for a girl at some point that my stash wont have. To spare my 10 yr old from being humiliated that her BFF’s present got given to her in a Thomas the Train bag I exchange gift bags with relatives and friends that do the same from time to time. This is especially helpful if something would happen as in your sister has a wedding gift to send and you trade her a Congratulations bag for a baby themed bag for the shower you are invited to coming up. Just make sure that bags are still in good shape and that you have removed all “to” and “from” tags from the previous gifting before handing it over to the recipient. 

That’s all for today folks! I’ll be posting the best of the best of Back to School sales tomorrow, along with some tips that will help save time, money, energy, and hopefully parental sanity for school time. Please leave your own comments or advice on the topics being discussed, I look forward to reading them and seeing what all of us can brainstorm together to make life in general easier on all of us!

Hey everybody! Long time gone but getting back in the saddle!

When I logged into WordPress I realized just exactly how long it had been since I posted anything on here. Sorry to anyone who was reading this blog that I started then basically abandoned without a word. The only thing I can say in my defense is that life kinda took over in a big way and I hadnt made it back here to do anything about it. I guess after so long I was too ashamed to try and pick up and take off with it again. But none of that matters now that ive got a recessions worth of reasons to save me and anyone else in a position like our families some money! So, without further ado and rambling on my part, lets get to the good stuff shall we???

Happy Reading and Saving

Jessi