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Money Saving Tips

50 Homemade Cleaner Recipes – Midwestern Momma

One of the easiest ways to save money is by making things yourself. Here is a list of DIY cleaners for everything from dish soap to laundry stain remover!

A Fast Way to Heal Chapped Hands – Crafty Journal

Chapped hands are inevitable during the winter. Here is a budget-friendly way to help!

Why We Still Shop at a Bulk Discount Store – Morgan Manages Mommyhood

Why shop bulk, especially if you have a small home?

Frugality from the Greatest Generation – Le Chaim on the Right

Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without with these fun 10 tips with WWII-inspired frugality in mind.

2 Secrets of Monthly Meal Planning – Your Vibrant Family

Meal planning can be a hassle, but it doesn’t have to be!

Homemade Cold and Flu Season Remedies – Midwestern Momma

No one likes cold and flu season! Here are some homemade remedies to combat this!

Homemade DIY Eye Make-Up Remover – The Crazy Organized Blog

Make-up remover can be expensive, especially when you can make it yourself with household items!

How to Get Smells out of Wooden Cutting Boards – Morgan Manages Mommyhood

Instead of buying new wooden cutting boards, here are some ways to get the weird smells out of your current ones.

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Up Next Week: Alphabet Activities!

The post Money Saving Tips and Mom’s Library #173 first appeared on True Aim.

Look around the next time you are at the park in the fall. Most of the children there will have a runny nose or cough.

It can be hard to decide what to dress your children in when the fall weather changes so quickly. It may freeze at night, but then gets warm and sunny during the day. Here are three tips that I use to keep my little ones comfortable during this unpredictable weather season.

We live in Idaho, so most days are sunny. That can be misleading because you’ll look outside and see the beautiful sun, but step outside and you may feel blistering winds and chilling temperatures. It can be 10 degrees cooler in the shade and if the wind stops, you’ll be sweating in your thick winter jacket.

Dressing Children Comfortably and Frugally

I’ve had to get creative when it comes to dressing my little ones and not busting my budget. Here’s what I keep in mind when I’m shopping for clothes or putting together an outfit for fall.

1. Layers

Instead of a thick winter coat, it is better to dress kids in a couple layers of light clothing. This way, they can remove them and put them back on as the weather changes.

I usually pick a short sleeve shirt/dress and a light sweater or hooding for their top half. For my girls, I choose thicker leggings, or even tights under light leggings as pants. For my boys, I like sweat pants or jeans.

Garanimals from Walmart always has seasonally appropriate choices for babies and toddlers that won’t hurt your budget. I can usually find great pieces for about the same price as thrift stores.

2. Heat Rises

Most parents forget one of the easiest ways to dress their children comfortably. It is also really inexpensive. Just get them a hat!

This will help keep the warm air from escaping from the top of their head and can protect their eyes and ears from the wind. Ear muffs, or a thick headband works too.

3. Extremities

The first thing to get cold on my babies are their fingers and toes. Extra socks or a pair of boots help keep their feet cozy.

For fingers, I hate regular gloves. They are so hard to put on and my children can’t pick anything up or do much of anything with them on. Fingerless gloves or mittens that fold back for easy access to fingers work best for my children.

Please leave your tips for dressing children for the fall season below and then check out Garanimals affordable solutions.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Garanimals. The opinions and text are all mine.

The post 3 Frugal Tips for Dressing Baby for Fall first appeared on True Aim.

There are two sides to this topic. How to make toys last longer, physically, and how to ensure your children will be interested in them for years to come.

We have 4 children and rarely ever buy new toys. That’s because we do 3 things that help make our toys last longer, and ensures our children still enjoy them year after year.

How to Make Toys Last Longer

These aren’t just frugal tips, but ways to preserve those favorite toys that you may want to give to your grandchildren someday.

1. Maybe you’ve already heard of rotating toys, but it really works. Toys that you rotate last longer and children won’t loose interest. Simply create two piles, one with toys that are classic, like building toys, art supplies, and Fisher-Price Smart Stages toys and the other pile with toys that your children loose interest in quickly, like dolls, stuffed animals, and figurines.

Put all the toys into medium sized bins and leave 1-2 bins from each pile out. Then store the rest out of the sight of your children. Rotate your toys every 1-4 months. Classic toys will require less rotating.

2. Buy toys that last. Think quality over quantity. This is easier said than done. The most difficult age to buy toys are the baby stage. They grow and develop dramatically in the first 2-yrs of life. It’s important to offer lots of learning content in these early years. So, try to find toys that will grow with your baby.

That’s why we love how Fisher-Price has added Smart Stages to their Laugh and Learn line.

This new feature allows their toys to grow with your child. The three settings match your baby’s developmental levels.

First you’ll set your baby’s age and then use the controls on the front to pick a level. Each level offers new learning content to keep your children engaged.

Level 1 – Explore – is for 12 months and covers first words and the sounds spark baby’s curiosity. Level 2 – Encourage – is for 18 months and asks simple questions and gives directions to follow. Level 3 – Pretend – is for 24 months+ and it engages with imaginative fun and early roll play.

My baby is on Level 1. He is more interested in moving the toy back and forth than listening to what it says, but he is learning simple cause and effect even if he doen’t understand the concepts just yet.

I watch another baby sometimes and can change the level for her since she is a little older. She loves level 2 because of the songs and questions.

Even my 2-year-old stays engaged with level 3 and my 4-year-old loves to use it as a chair for her baby dolls. It really is a versatile toy that I can see us using for years to come.

You can find Fisher-Price Laugh and Learn Smart Stages products at major retailers like Walmart, Amazon, Target, and Toys-R-Us. Save up to $5 on any Smart Stages Laugh and Learn Toy with a coupon from Coupons.com.

3. Finally, keep indoor toys in and outdoor toys out. My kids love to bring toys outside, but they get muddy and damaged from the weather. So, we bought some real tools, like shovels, watering cans, and small buckets for play outside.

They will last a lot longer and are useful. We also encourage our children play with nature; dirt, plants, and rocks make great outdoor toys.

Do you have any tips for preserving toys? Leave a comment below!

The post 3 Ways to Help Toys Last Longer first appeared on True Aim.

This post contains affiliate links that help support my family.  For more information read my full disclosure.

In celebration of the launch of Today’s Frugal Mom, founder Carlie Kercheval and several of her blogging friends are giving away a Breville BJE200XL Compact Juice Fountain!  One person will win one of these phenomenal juicers to start the new year off right!

Today’s Frugal Mom was created as a way for a 4th generation frugal-living mother to share her knowledge and know-how of the debt-free, frugal-living lifestyle.

Carlie will share what she knows to help you as you pursue to make the most of your hard earned money. You can expect to see practical tips on how to save on groceries, amazing daily deals, frugal-living tips learned from both of her great-grandma’s, and so much more.

It is her hope that through this website she can help countless others gain a new perspective that will help other families achieve financial freedom and pad their savings account. Read more about Carlie here.

Enter to win a Breville BJE200XL

To enter, please follow the instructions on the Rafflecopter widget below.

Must be 18 years of age at time of entry and have a Continental US mailing address (sorry no APO/FPO) and agree to the Rafflecopter terms.

Winner will be notified within 48 hours of giveaway ending on 1/18/13 (midnight EST).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The post Introducing Today’s Frugal Mom with a Breville Juicer Giveaway! first appeared on True Aim.

I’m guest posting!  For 10 unique staycation ideas the whole family will enjoy got to the Enchanted Homeschooling Mom.

 Linking up Here

The post Top 10 Staycation Ideas first appeared on True Aim.