Here’s an excerpt about decluttering kids’ rooms from one of our Saving with Kids e-books.

De-cluttering Kids Rooms

I just did this for the boys yesterday. It’s funny– kids really do love a clean room!

BJ (13) asked David (7) “Would you please ask mom to help you clean up your stuff!” Not even two seconds later, David came out and said, “Mom can you please help me clean up my room”. After it was cleaned up, they both said “Thank you so much mom!”

Kids love neat and clean areas just as much we do. I know kids need to keep their own stuff picked up but there are times when the cavalry does need to come in and save the day. We’ll be running more posts on this subject over the next few days. Enjoy! Tawra

De-cluttering Toys

Make piles and label boxes according to these categories:

Trash (I bring in the kitchen trash can and just throw it straight in there.)

Sort and put away in room

Yard sale/Give away

Put in another room

Pack and store

Decide

BE RUTHLESS!

I can’t stress enough how important it is to be ruthless in getting rid of your children’s excess toys. As parents, we know we are supposed to protect our children physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Often we worry so much about others harming our children in these areas but, more often than not, we are the ones who do the greatest harm to them. One of the ways that we forget to protect our children emotionally is by allowing them to have so many toys and things that they become overwhelmed and frustrated.

I know this may seem like something trivial compared to what is going on in the world, but you have to realize your child’s room and toys are his world. Children really aren’t interested in anything else but their own spheres, and if that little world of theirs is piled with mounds of toys and other things, it can be overwhelming for them to deal with on a daily basis.

I can’t handle it if I have too many things to choose from, and I’m an adult. What did you feel like the last time you went to buy something new like shampoo or make-up? Were you overwhelmed with so many different kinds to choose from? There’s nothing wrong with any of them. It’s just that there are so many kinds. Put yourself in your child’s place. A child isn’t as emotionally mature as you are. Imagine how he feels.

I just watched an organizing show where the parents (at the advice of the organizer) spent several hundred dollars on shelving and storage containers to store the children’s toys. One container alone held 75 small cars. No child needs 75 or more of any type of toy at all. Do you know how much money could have been saved on shelving and containers if they had just gotten rid of more of those toys? Think of the headaches you have just trying to keep all those toys under control.

Don’t feel guilty or think you are depriving your children when you reduce excess toys. You are doing them a favor, and besides they probably won’t miss them. Have you noticed how children usually play with the same handful of toys over and over? In the same way, we keep 25 different colors of eye shadow, but only use 3-4 favorites over and over. If the rest of them were dumped, we wouldn’t even miss them, and our kids won’t miss the extra toys, either

Of course, this doesn’t mean to be cruel and get rid of their favorite bears or dolls, but I’m talking about all those things buried at the bottom of their toy boxes and closets that haven’t seen the light of day for years.

       -Jill

PS  Since I wrote this I saw a show where these 2 boys had mounds and mounds of toys. For fun they would throw their toys out their bedroom window to watch them break and shatter. The parents didn’t have a clue so they had someone come in to help and the first thing they did was take away all the toys but 10. The interesting thing was the boys took care of the toys better, put them up without a fuss and actually played with the toys. These facts might help some of you parents be more ruthless.

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Gift Wrapping Money

We exchange money a lot at our house for the holidays. It may seem crazy but the adults and older kids are always saving for something so we would rather give them the cash to help pay for it than some trinket they won’t use.

Just because we give cash doesn’t mean that we can’t do it in a creative way. There are lots of ways to give cash and the receiver will never know it’s cash by looking at the gift.

As with all the gifts we give each other, we put some thought into it. Here are a few of the many ways we’ve given cash:

• In a piggy bank. The kids wanted a "real" piggy bank. So mom got them one and put some money in it.

• Mom made my nephew his favorite cake (Boston cream pie) for his 16th birthday and made 16 "candles" out of money. (We didn’t burn them of course!

• I gave Mike $50 for Christmas to go toward the digital camera he wanted. The catch. I gave it to him all in PENNIES!!

• Get their favorite candy, like a bag of M&M’s and make the wrapping paper out of cash! Just tape the ends of the bills together. I usually use one dollar bills. It’s always a huge hit!

• Mom found a monster faced Peep candy in a jar after Halloween for .25. My son loves Peeps. She folded the one dollar bills like a fan and taped them to the top of the head for "hair".

• I gave Mike and my brother cash one year for their digital toys. I got a piece of plywood and made a heart of out one dollar bills for Mike and a Superman logo out of one dollar bills for my brother.

• One year for my son I taped 20 one dollar bills end to end and gently folded them into a new cat coffee mug. He loves cats and coffee! Then when he pulled it out there was a huge string of ones!

• My sister in law gave my son some of his favorite coffee creamer. She folded a $10 bill and put it into the top so when he opened the pour spout he saw a "10."

• Treasure Hunt- We stuffed a box full of 20 one dollar bills. Then we put a clue in another small box he opened and we sent him on a treasure hunt. When he came back, the gift with the bills was wrapped and on the table ready for him to open.

• Mom found a huge clear jug and filled it with one dollar bills for our son. She put a label on the outside that said, "Millionaire Jar".

• Mom found a new "expensive, never used money clip" for $1 at yard sale. Then she clipped some money in it and gave it to her grandson.

• Mike needed a new wallet so Mom put some money inside of it and gave it to him.

• I wrapped some Hershey’s chocolate syrup (Mike’s favorite) and put money around it to buy ice cream later because I couldn’t get it right then.

• For a 16 year old saving for a car: Get a hot wheels car and wrap it up with some money.

• Mom got my son a ledger to keep track of his money. She put one dollar bills all through out the pages.

Photo By: Refracted Moments

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Frugal Presents – Beyond Reusing and Recycling

We were talking two weeks ago to my grandparents about birthday presents. We bought BJ a new bike for his birthday. He had outgrown his old one and I found a really nice one for cheap! That was his only present from us but he loves it.

My grandparents were saying that when my uncle was little my grandfather would repaint the bike, put on a new handle bar, new cushions and add something new like a bell. They then gave the same bike to my uncle and he thought he had a new bike every year!

They did this for several years! What a hoot! I have done some things sort of similar but not like that! I love it!

      -Tawra

BTW, this was my mom’s folks who are very frugal too.

photo by: ricoslounge

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Scented Cinnamon Ornaments

If you have gone to the trouble to make someone homemade gifts, go the extra mile and make the presentation and packaging special too. It can make the difference between an "oh, thank you" gift and a "how cute is this, I love it, it’s adorable!" gift.

This following recipe can be used for more than just ornaments for your tree. Tuck them in different corners of your house to add a lovely spicy scent here and there. It is also fun to tuck a few into a package you are shipping or delivering so when the person opens the package he or she gets a wonderful Christmas smell before even seeing the gift.

Scented Cinnamon Ornaments

1 cup cinnamon
1 Tbsp. cloves
1 Tbsp. nutmeg
3/4 cup applesauce
2 Tbsp. white glue
ribbon

In a bowl, mix the spices. Add applesauce and glue, stirring until well blended. Work mixture until dough is smooth and ingredients are thoroughly mixed. Divide into 4 portions and roll each portion on a floured surface to a 1/4 inch thickness. Cut dough with cookie cutters of desired shapes. Using a straw or toothpick, make a small hole in the top of each ornament. Place on wire racks and allow to dry at room temperature for several days.

(For more uniform drying, turn ornaments over once each day.) Thread ribbon through holes to form garland. You can also glue to a wooden hoop, forming a wreath and decorate with ribbon as desired. Makes approximately 32 two-inch ornaments. DO NOT EAT!

For more creative holiday recipes, check out our Dining On A Dime Cookbook!

photo by: davefayram

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Low-tech activities for kids

One of our readers sent in this suggestion for fun activities for kids. I thought this article on low-tech activities for kids was a great place to get some ideas to get the kids off the computer this Thanksgiving! 

      -Tawra

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Halloween – Homemade Face Paints, Food and Ideas

Frighteningly Frugal Fun!

The average American family spends over $100 per year on Halloween goodies. As your kids drag you through aisles full of ghosts and goblins, the scariest thing about Halloween is threatening to leave bite marks in your pocketbook. No wonder so many moms flee screaming from the store… It can be much less expensive and a lot more fun to devise your own chilling creations. Here are a few tips that you can use to stave off the greenback gremlins and exercise your creative muscle. It won’t hurt a bit!

Face Paint

1 tsp. corn starch
1/2 tsp. water
1/2 tsp. cold cream
food coloring

Mix all ingredients together in an old muffin pan and you are ready to paint. This amount makes one color.

Need more creative Halloween Ideas? Halloween On A Dime shows you practical and creative ways to make your own decorations, costumes, party games and more! Buy Halloween On A Dime e-book now! $5.95

Fake Wound

1 Tbsp Vaseline
tissue
cocoa powder
2-3 drops red food coloring

Place Vaseline in a bowl. Add food coloring. Blend with a toothpick. Stir in a pinch of cocoa to make a darker blood color. Separate tissue. Using 1 layer, tear a 2×3 inch piece and place at wound site. Cover with petroleum jelly and mold into the shape of a wound. The center should be lower than the sides. Fill the center with the red petroleum jelly mixture. Sprinkle center with some cocoa. Sprinkle a little around the edges of the wound to make darker.

Wormy Apples

6 apples
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter or margarine
1/2 tsp. each ground cinnamon and nutmeg
6 gummy worms
1 cup whipping cream,(optional)

Core apples from blossom ends, leaving stem ends intact. Mix raisins and walnuts and stuff into cavities of cored apples. Set apples, stems up in a 9×13 pan. In a saucepan, mix brown sugar, water, butter, cinnamon, and nutmeg; stir over high heat until mixture boils. Pour hot syrup around apples. Bake, uncovered, at 350°, basting occasionally with syrup, until apples are tender when pierced and skin begins to crack, 30 to 35 minutes. Remove apples from oven; cool in pan at least 10 minutes.

Set each apple in a small bowl and spoon syrup around fruit. In the top of each apple, cut a hole large enough for one of the candy worms and tuck one end into each apple, leaving most of the worm dangling. Offer cream to pour over apples. Makes 6 servings.

From: Suz

You can add this to your Halloween hints—I make excellent monsters–I use a women’s mud mask for the base skin, let it dry & crack and shade with dark eyeshadow, rim the eyes with red and chew those dental tablets that show where you need to brush —looks like a bloody mouth… and twigs and baby powder in your ratted up hair. Make a shroud out of a sheet and tear the edges off and stomp it in the dirt.

• Fake Blood- Mix 2/3 cup white corn syrup, 1 tsp. red food coloring, 2-3 drops blue food coloring to darken and 1 squirt dish soap (helps blood to run well).
• Abrasions -Dab brown, red and black eye shadow on area. Apply blood over area with cotton balls. Use comb to gently scratch area in one direction. Apply cocoa or dirt over wound with cotton balls.
• Black Eye -Apply red and blue eye shadow to depressions around eyes.
• Bruises-Rub red and blue shadow over bony area to simulate recent bruises.
  Blue and yellow eye shadow to create older bruises.
• Look Old – Cover face with baby powder. Draw dark lines on your skin for wrinkles. Smooth edges to blend. Cover again with baby powder. Add baby powder to your hair to create gray hair.
• Deviled Eyeballs – Make deviled eggs. Add a green olive with pimento in the center for an “eyeball”.
• Radioactive Juice – Mix equal parts Mountain Dew and blue Kool-Aid
• Toxic Juice – Add some green food coloring to lemonade for a spooky color!
• Brains - Scramble eggs with some green, yellow and blue food coloring
• Bloody Eyeballs - Boil cherry tomatoes 30 seconds. Allow to cool; then peel skin.
• Goblin Hand – Freeze green Kool-Aid in a rubber or latex glove, float in punch.
• Use the tape from old cassettes or black yarn to make spider webs.
• Use cotton balls stretched out for small spider webs.

Need more creative Halloween Ideas? Halloween On A Dime shows you practical and creative ways to make your own decorations, costumes, party games and more! Buy Halloween On A Dime e-book now! $5.95

• Glass Jack-o-Lantern – Outline a pumpkin face on a spaghetti or pickle jar with black paint. The paint around the outside of it with orange paint. Place a candle inside for a jack-o-lantern.
• Halloween Guess It Game

  In this game, you challenge the participants to reach into mystery boxes filled with creepy things and try to guess what each item is. The person with the most correct answers wins the game. An example is if you want them to guess “grapes”, you might try to confuse them by saying, “I think it’s eyeballs…”
  Cut a hole in the top of a shoe box or laundry box for each item to be used. Cover the box with black spray paint. Decorate each box with pumpkins or spiders for a more festive flavor. Place the following items inside, one per box. Be sure to place enough of each item so the guests can adequately “feel” the guts.

  • Eyeballs – grapes or peeled cherry tomatoes
  • Intestines- Cooked Spaghetti
  • Skin- oil a piece of plastic bag
  • Brains- scrambled eggs
  • Hair- an old clown wig
  • Bones- thoroughly washed chicken bones placed in some sand
  • Vomit-chunky salsa
  • Fingers-hot dogs cut into finger sized pieces
  • Teeth- corn nuts, pine nuts or popcorn
• Have a Pumpkin Hunt – Hide mini pumpkins like you would Easter Eggs. Let the kids find and decorate them. For small children use glue sticks with construction paper cut-outs for decorations.
• Edible Slime – Pour lime gelatin into a glass bowl. After it is partially set, add gummy worms. Chill until lightly set. Then serve slopped all over the plate.
• Bloody Popcorn – Add red food color to melted butter and pour over popcorn.
• Freeze gummy worms in ice cubes and add them to drinks. Cut gummy worms in half if needed.

For lots more creative and inexpensive Halloween Ideas, check out the Halloween On A Dime e-book here!

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Halloween Treats and Not So Scary Food Ideas

I found some cute ideas over at www.delish.com that had some not so scary food ideas for Halloween. Some of these were cute and some most people know about but it might give you some more ideas. These are simple things you can do if you are going to have a Halloween party like our $25 Halloween Party.

If you want some scary Halloween foods, check out these from www.cutefoodforkids.com

      -Tawra

For lots more creative and inexpensive Halloween Ideas, check out the Halloween On A Dime e-book here!

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Creative Halloween Decorations

I just stepped outside and took a deep breath and then another one and another one. No I don’t have a breathing problem or anything. It’s just that for the first time in months, I don’t feel like I’m breathing in an aquarium. The air is crisp and cool and that means fall is here.

At one point in our lives, that would have been the signal for us to haul out boxes and sacks full of Halloween decorations and go to work. It would usually take us at least a month to put everything out. We were one of those families who would put out a "monstrous" (Ha!Ha! No pun intended) display.

We literally had hundreds of people drive by our home just to see our decorations. It really was a lot of work, especially because back then you couldn’t buy much to use for outside Halloween decorations. We had to use our imagination and make our own.

We like to have fun at Halloween and not scare the wits out of everyone, so we try to keep our decorations cute and funny looking. To us, Halloween is a time for children to dress up and for one night a year be what they always dreamed of being, whether it’s a fairy princess, a ballerina, Superman or even a robot. They get to be on the "stage" for one night to show everyone how beautiful, strong or funny they look. And to end a perfect night they get tons of candy, bags of candy and did I mention, a whole bunch of candy??

Here are some ideas of things we did to have a whole lot of fun for very little money. You can use these same basic principles for any holiday decorating.

1. You don’t have to have a lot of decorations for your display to look nice. I drive by one home every year and each season the owners put out one simple something. For example, in the summer they have one beautiful pot of flowers sitting on their porch. In the fall a pot of mums, for Halloween, one pumpkin with a smiley face and at Christmas one pretty lit up wreath on the door. It’s never a lot, but I always get pleasure when I drive by the place and see their one simple decoration.
2. We work all year buying things at garage sales or thrift stores for our decorations. We started out with about 25 plastic pumpkins to set out for a pumpkin patch. The next year we added another 50 and drilled holes in the bottoms so we could put lights in them. After a few years we had 200-300 of them that we had collected. We never paid more then 5-10 cents for them. If you want to have a big display, start small and just add a little bit more to your decorations each year.
3. If you see something in a magazine or somewhere that you think is cute but too expensive, try to copy it and make it yourself:
   • I saw a cute rake in a magazine that I loved. It was an old rake that had a few silk flowers tied on it and a sign that said "Free leaves, rake all you want." I just happened to have a dead 50 year old rake in my shed I was going to throw away, so I pulled it out, found an old board and some paint (I could have used a marker too), painted on the words and tied on a couple of stray silk flowers that I had and voila! I had a cute rake and saved about $25.
   • It takes nothing to stuff some old clothes with plastic bags and make a scarecrow family.
   • If you are a little handy, put your talent to good use. My husband took an old metal trash can and motorized it so that the lid moved up and down and when it opened it popped out a Sylvester the cat.

4. We found decorations in unusual places. Once we went to the grocery store where they had a gigantic pumpkin. The thing was about 8-10 feet across. We asked the manager if they threw it out at the end of the season and he said no. We told him what we needed it for and discovered that he had seen our display and liked it. He said "Come by on Halloween morning and you can take it to use and then bring it back." It doesn’t ever hurt to ask about anything. Most people aren’t mean and hateful, but are usually kind and helpful
5. Get more bang for your buck. Buy things that have a big impact but cost little. A couple of bags of spider webs and plastic spiders can cover a lot of area and look "cool" but cost very little. I use spider webs for everything. They’re great to use to cover throw pillows for a party, put in your hair, hang on the lights or wrap around the handles of silverware. You just can’t have too much.
6. Use what you already have around the house.
   • We were having a Halloween party and to add to the effect, we dug out some black sheets and covered all the furniture. It changed the whole look of the room.
   • Another year, my husband found some 10 foot long, thin metal rods. We stuck them in the ground, added styrofoam wig heads to each one and hung some large pieces of sheer fabric I had gotten for free from a friend over the tops of the heads. Everyone loved them. The sheer material had a much more realistic see through look then just a sheet. At night, you couldn’t see the rod so it looked like these ghosts were floating 10 feet up in the air.
7. Start the day after Halloween to prepare for next year. If your kids get a bunch of plastic spiders when they go trick or treating, save them and add them to the decoration box. If your child dressed as a pumpkin this year, save the costume, stuff it next year and set it out with the decorations. Try to think of ways to incorporate any old costumes into your decorations.

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Teaching Respect To Children

Our lives are made up of so many habits, most of which we don’t even realize we have and, whether they’re good or bad, all habits are very hard to change.

I heard a preacher this weekend say if you don’t believe that you are bound by habits and that they are hard to change then try this: Ladies, the next time you shave, start with the leg opposite the one you usually start with. Men, try shaving the opposite side of your face first. Even something that small and unimportant is hard to change.

This is why teaching your children good habits when they are young is so very important.

We often hear about teaching our kids good grooming habits, eating habits and learning habits but one thing I don’t think I have ever heard anyone talk about is teaching your kids respect for the things around them.

What do I mean by that? Well here is a list of some things parents often don’t teach their kids about and, in some cases, the parents don’t even do themselves.

• Set things on a table carefully, making sure you won’t scratch or mar the table by doing so. Find a coaster if you need one.
• Make sure you don’t have mud on your shoes before coming into a home. Wipe your feet or take off your shoes. Cleaning or replacing carpet is expensive.
• If you drag a chair or something across a hardwood floor, stop and ask yourself, "Will this scratch the floor?"
• Don’t jump on furniture. Kids jumping or sitting on the backs and arms of furniture can wear out the furniture ten times faster. Furniture is expensive to replace.
• Sit gently in a chair. Don’t flop down hard– and especially don’t lean back on the legs of a chair.
• When using the bathroom, make sure it is left clean and neat for the next person.
• Don’t write on walls or furniture.
• Don’t get into someone’s car with mud caked on your feet.
• When eating food, be sure to use a napkin or a plate so you don’t drop crumbs everywhere, even if all you’re eating is a cookie.

I could go on with examples of things to do when teaching respect to children but I think you get the idea. Because we have so many possessions, a lot of which are disposable, we don’t bother to take care them properly. If they get messed up, it is easier just to buy a new one than it is to take time to teach our children good habits about respecting and taking care of things. As parents we, ourselves, often don’t bother to take the time to take care of things.

The problem with that attitude is that we tend to lose respect for our things and even worst for other people and their things.

There was a reason that the generations that preceded us taught rules, habits and manners to their children. We have thrown so many of those rules and habits away that we can’t even remember what they are or why we had them.

Let’s wake up and look at our habits and our children’s habits. Replace bad habits with some good ones. Start with showing respect for everyone and everything.

      -Jill

P.S. Just after I wrote this, I saw a show where the children had floor to ceiling shelves full of toys. What was their favorite pastime? Throwing toys out a second story window to see if they would break. They knew that, if they broke the toys, mom and dad would buy them more.

In the show, they took all but 10 toys away from the children and guess what? The children were so careful with those 10 toys because they knew those toys were all they were getting.

Photo By: Gray Marchiori-Simpson

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