Paper Plate Crafts

I like to do crafts with my kiddos. They love it, I enjoy it, and we have good times together. There are so many things you can do with el cheapo paper plates. You can cut a triangle out of it for a fish mouth and put that piece on the end for the tail. You can staple two plates together with noodles in the middle for a shaker instrument.  You can glue noodles on them. You can make masks out of them.  And the list goes on and on. AND you can get a BIG stack of them at the dollar store.

Bake Bread

I make my own bread. After noticing that even the "good bread" had ingredients in it that I didn't understand I took to baking my own bread.  I use the Williams-Sonoma Essentials of Baking cookbook for my soft whole wheat bread but you can do online searches for free recipes as well.  This is not only healthy but it is inexpensive too.  And it doesn't take as much time as you think it does.  I spend maybe 10 minutes letting my KitchenAid doing the kneeding and then it's a mater of moving it from the bowl to the pans when it's done rising and into and out of the oven. Easy peasy right?! The "hard part" is planning a little so that you have time to let the dough rise. But you can still do things around your house while it's rising! You can even go for a walk or play outside with the kids if you want. The dough will still be there!

Omma Brand Shout Out

I have a confession, I dislike cooking. I love to bake. I could bake all day (ok, I have actually done that). But I just find cooking to be such a chore.  That's why I love to use my slow cooker! And why I love to make big batches of whatever I do cook and freeze a portion of it for next week.  It's like making two meals at once!

And I have to give a shout out to http://onceamonthmom.com/ who has great slow cooker recipes that you can freeze.

You need gluten free and dairy free? She has it.

You need baby food ideas? She has it.

You need vegetarian meals because you are vegetarian or are just trying to save on meat costs? She has it.

Inside Out

I love hand-me-downs. I love passing on hand-me-downs. There's just something wonderful about FREE CLOTHES!

But after a few children, things start to look a little ratty.  Here's one way to help prevent that.

Turn the shirts inside out.  (And pants and dresses for girls.)  Specifically if they have a screen print or patch or embroidery on them.  This will help prevent that "cracked up" look screen prints get from too many trips through the washer.  It will help prevents snags on the embroidery on girl's shirts, pants, and dresses.

Let's face it, kids are hard on their clothes, but we can do little things to stretch the life of clothes. Like turning them inside out and air drying.

Used Parts for Appliances and Cars

This is a post for those of you handy-women or handy-men out there (or those of you married to one).  I'm very blessed to have a husband who does all our car repair work.  He also does most of the fixing around the house too.  I'm a rather handy gal myself but the ways of the car elude me.  Not to mention it's rather difficult to fix the washing machine with a tot and a preschooler climbing on me.

So where do you get that random part needed for the washing machine or car?  Well you could go to the store and buy one. OR you could go to your local junk yard.  Wait wait! Don't run away! I think we all have a picture of a big nasty place piled high with garbage bags when we think of a dump. I'm not talking about that.  I'm talking about the junk yards that hold large appliances and cars.

Did you know, most people will toss BOTH the washer and dryer if only one of them isn't working? (Most not be overly frugal people right? ^_~) Well if you need a part for your washer or dryer you can harvest the parts off the ones in the junk yard for a good price.

We upgraded our seats in our vehicle to leather by buying them from a junk yard.  Now our vehicle has safe head rests for every member of the family, front and back seats.  And yes, we sanitized the seats.  Which is much easier to do with leather than cloth I might add.

Obviously use your common sense with buying parts from the junk yard.

Curtains

I have black out curtains in the children's rooms.  They block out any street lights, cars going by, random neighbor's oversensitive motion sensor flood lights... They also keep the the heat in better thus saving energy.  The best part is, I only bought one panel for two windows.  I cut it half and hemmed it.  One half panel covers the whole window when closed.  Plus, for little ones there isn't a long draping curtain to tug on because it is out of reach!

Sticky Stuff

I love to cook with honey.  It's a good substitute for sugar too.  Use 3/4 cup honey for 1 cup sugar.  But that measuring cup....always gets really sticky with honey.  So I spray the measuring cup with butter first.  The honey comes out easy peasy.  Also works great for other sticky items like molasses.