Frugal Parenting Tips and Tricks

Here are some great ways I've learned to be a frugal parent over the years. Got more frugal parenting tips? Do share! :)

Chicken Orzo Soup

10/05/2020 by Barbara

**This post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small amount of compensation when you purchase from my links, which I"ll totally blow on waffle fries and sweet tea, y'all!**

Although we still have some warm days ahead, the cold autumn weather is peeking around the corner. The other day, I simply couldn’t get my fingers to warm up, so I knew it was the perfect night for soup! So, to the pantry I headed for inspiration, where I found a box of orzo. Lo and behold, the box had a simple recipe for chicken orzo soup. Naturally, I had to take the recipe and tweak it to make it my own. ….and because it forgot to mention garlic in the ingredients. The best part of this chicken orzo soup? Not only did everyone eat it, but they all said they LIKED it! That’s an extremely rare occurrence these days, so I’m claiming this as a victory, which means I’m sharing it with all y’all!

[Read more…]Keep on saving! :o)
--Barbara
**Remember, y'all, this post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small amount of compensation when you purchase from my links, which I"ll totally blow on waffle fries and sweet tea, y'all!**

Filed Under: Frugal Parenting, health and fitness, picky tot pleasers, recipes Tagged With: family dinner, kid-friendly soup, picky tot pleasers, warm soup

100+ Sensory Table Ideas for Your Preschooler

07/16/2018 by Barbara

**This post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small amount of compensation when you purchase from my links, which I"ll totally blow on waffle fries and sweet tea, y'all!**

100+ Sensory Table Ideas As a preschool teacher, I’m always looking for ways to spice things up in my classroom, including new and fun sensory table ideas. Thankfully, an amazing coworker created a master list many moons ago, and shared it with me as I was starting out.

Whether you’re a preschool teacher, or a parent of a preschooler, you’ll appreciate the diversity of a good sensory table. Sensory tables provide an opportunity for preschoolers to experience a wide array of fine motor skills, as well as some gross motor skills, all a sensory-rich environment. Don’t have a full-blown sensory table for your home or your classroom? Remember, water/sand tables make great sensory tables, too!

Also, the sensory table ideas listed below can be mixed and matched for whole new levels of experience. Toss in tools to assist in manipulating the items in the table, such as cups and measuring spoons for pouring, tongs/kid-friendly tweezers, and scissors for snipping and cutting. Also, you’ll notice, most of these items can be found for free or cheap. There are some items worth making an intentional purchase, but most of this can be found around your home, or collected over the course of a few weeks or months, or as a collective effort by classroom parents. [Read more…]

Keep on saving! :o)
--Barbara
**Remember, y'all, this post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small amount of compensation when you purchase from my links, which I"ll totally blow on waffle fries and sweet tea, y'all!**

Filed Under: Frugal Parenting, parenting, preschool

Car Games for Kids

03/30/2018 by Barbara

**This post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small amount of compensation when you purchase from my links, which I"ll totally blow on waffle fries and sweet tea, y'all!**

Morning car rides can be daunting if you’re not a morning person, and sometimes even if you ARE a morning person. Although I believe it’s perfectly ok to let your kids be bored, I also believe it’s important to use moments together wisely. So we tend to spend our morning car ride having conversations, and playing kids car games that help wake them up and keep them on their toes, AND it’s all done sans technology! Here I delve beyond “Punch-Buggy Charlie” and the license plate game for some good no-tech car games for kids.

Car Games for Kids

20 Questions – We each take a turn coming up with a person, place, or thing. Then the other participants take turns asking yes or no questions to figure out what it is. If we figure it out before the 20th question, we win; if not, then the person answering the questions wins. This is a good exercise in making deductions and also figuring out good “category” questions. [Read more…]

Filed Under: family, Frugal Parenting, parenting, travel Tagged With: no-tech

Spinach pancakes {Picky Tot Pleasers}

06/25/2014 by Barbara

**This post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small amount of compensation when you purchase from my links, which I"ll totally blow on waffle fries and sweet tea, y'all!**

This post originally appeared as a guest post on another site about two years ago, but that site is no longer around. :/ SO, I’m re-claiming it and adding it to my Picky-Tot Pleasers series. Lemme know what’cha think!

Call me Popeye. What can I say? I love to cook with spinach. Up until recently, it’s been in just about any dish I made with chicken or ground turkey. However, I crossed the line the other morning when I (deliberately) baked spinach in to my pancakes. That’s right, my daughter and I made spinach pancakes. On purpose. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Frugal Parenting, health and fitness, parenting, picky tot pleasers, recipes

5+ Other Ways To Play with a Water Table

06/13/2014 by Barbara

**This post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small amount of compensation when you purchase from my links, which I"ll totally blow on waffle fries and sweet tea, y'all!**

The holy grail of outdoor kids’ toys these days comes in the form of a water table. There are many great ways for kids to enjoy the water table with …water. And sand. I think we all know that, right?

But if you’d like to REALLY get more bang for your buck with these tables, consider alternate uses for the water table.

5+ Ways to Play with a Water Table

CARS! Most water tables have slanted surfaces, with ramps and other road-like twists and turns. Also, try trains, or any other wheeled hand-held toy.
Make it a sensory table. Fill it with a few cups of rice and beans one day, along with scoopers and small cups. Cotton balls and colored pom-poms the next day with kid-friendly tweezers, as well as big cups to transfer them in to. For preschoolers ready for scissors, toss in some straws, scrap paper, and kid scissors and let them practice.
Play dough. Seriously, what a great surface to create and mold with little hands. Toss in the play dough rollers, molders, and other fun toys, and let them go at it! For a fun textural change, mix the play dough with a little sand and/or glitter.
Noodles and rice make for another great sensory experience. (Dried, of course!) Grab scoopers, cups, and other toys you might use with your Play dough (see above) for a new sensation.
PAINT it! Water colors, some butcher paper or cardboard or just regular ol’ paper, some brushes, and -boom!- you’ve got a nice little, change-of-pace easel. Or kids can paint right on the water table, especially if you have washable paints on hand.
Mix it up: Fill it up with sand, or make your own “moon sand”, and toss in some cars, dinosaurs, scoopers.
Water Gun Station. Melissa from Stockpiling Moms suggested using the table as a water-gun filling station.
Shaving Cream – My kids frequently get “shaving cream baths” or showers – but you can also let them use shaving cream on a water table too. Bonus: the shaving cream acts as a cleaner!
Ice, Ice, Baby – Yeah, I just went there. Fill up some ice cube trays with small trinkets and freeze them. Toss a few small toys in small to mid-size tupperware containers, cover with water, and freeze them, too. Fill your table with the ice, and arm the kids with squirt bottles, and let them “rescue” the treasures inside!

Also, check out other ways to keep your kids cool this summer, free and frugal ways to beat the heat around Atlanta (splash pads around Atlanta, local water parks and aquatic centers, or indoor venues around Atlanta), great outdoor toys for tots, and outdoor toys for kids of all ages!

Filed Under: Frugal Parenting, Summer

Explaining Death to Young Children

04/09/2014 by Barbara

**This post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small amount of compensation when you purchase from my links, which I"ll totally blow on waffle fries and sweet tea, y'all!**

Explaining death to young children is never a particularly desirable subject, I find, as we wish to preserve their innocence and shield them from anything that may burst their fragile bubble, believing all is always well in their world. However, death is inevitable. Some folks lose loved ones later in life, while others experience death of a loved one at a tender, young age. Following is my story, explaining death to my five-year-old daughter, Carol.

My grandmother was fortunate enough to raise her five children, not only to see all eight of her grandchildren grow up, but also see her eight great-grandchildren, AND meet three great-great-grandchildren. She lived for almost 18 years after my grandaddy passed away, and was the last of her twelve siblings to survive. She lived through the great depression, and lost her own mother at a very young age. She was, in every sense of the word, a good Southern woman. She had the greenest thumb I’ve ever seen, able to revive even the limpest plant, and made the world’s best cornbread, biscuits, green beans, and fried apple pies. Fond memories of sitting on the front porch, eating watermelon after a big Sunday lunch sit firmly in my memory, holding a very special place in my heart.

She was four days shy of her 95th birthday when she went Home. [Read more…]

Filed Under: family, Frugal Parenting, parenting

A Dozen Reasons to Read with Your Child

03/14/2014 by Barbara

**This post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small amount of compensation when you purchase from my links, which I"ll totally blow on waffle fries and sweet tea, y'all!**

Do you really need reasons to read with your child??? Parents are told constantly to read to their children, or with their children – but perhaps having a little further explanation would help you understand WHY reading with your children is as essential as brushing your teeth twice a day. This list is from the Georgia Preschool Association Newsletter.

Reasons to Read with Your Child

Build a lifelong interest in reading. “Getting children actively involved in the process of reading and having them interact with adults is key in a lifelong interest in reading,” said BeAnn Younker, principal at Battle Ground Middle School in Indiana.
Children whose parents read to them tend to become better readers and perform better in school, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Reading to children helps them with language and speech development.
Reading expands vocabulary and teachers pronunciation.
Reading to toddlers prepares them for school, when they will need to listen to what is being said to them, similar to what is being read to.
Reading to older children helps them understand grammar and sentence structure.
Children and parents can use reading time as bonding time. It’s an excellent opportunity for one-on-one communication, and it gives children the attention they crave.
Being read to helps children learn how to express themselves clearly and confidently.
Curiosity, creativity, and imagination are all developed while being read to.
Being read to builds children’s attention spans and helps them hone their listening skills.
Children learn appropriate behavior when they’re read to and are exposed to new situations, making them more prepared when they encounter these situations in real life.
When read to, children are able to experience the rhythm and melody of language, even before they can understand the spoken or printed word.

Now that your motivation to continue reading with your child is renewed, check out these top 10 board books to read to your infant, as well as other great books picks in my “Whatcha Reading” series.

Filed Under: books, Frugal Parenting, literacy, parenting, Whatcha Reading

Potty Training Essentials & Tips

11/11/2013 by Barbara

**This post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small amount of compensation when you purchase from my links, which I"ll totally blow on waffle fries and sweet tea, y'all!**

It’s been almost two and a half years since I potty trained my daughter in four days at 26 months. Once we finished those four days, she never ever looked back! With that total success, and with my son (22 mo) on the brink of being ready, I’ve devised and revised some of my favorite potty training tips for other parents.

Here’s what I consider potty training essentials and/or what I’d recommend when undergoing the process:

Foam hand soap – it just makes hand washing more fun, and makes hand-washing easier. You can always check for coupons to print before you head to purchase! 😉
Keep towels for drying hands on counter in reach, if your towel holder is too high; I still keep hand towels on the counter for my now 4.5 year old daughter.
Potty seats for the big potty, as well as little portable potty chairs, because you never know what might interest him most! When you’re on the go, consider a foldable potty seat.
Step stools — for the sink, for the potty, for each bathroom he’ll be using; some portable potties double as step stools. If your child uses the big potty, you’ll definitely want something to plant his feet on, to make going a little more comfortable.
LOADS of paper towels. No explanation needed.
Throw in a good pair of gloves, preferably disposable.
You’ll want to invest in at least a few packs of toddler underwear. I think I started with three packs for Carol: one with princesses, and two generic packs. On the first day, I constantly reminded her to keep the princesses dry. Here are some girl panties and here are some cute boy undies.
panty liners – yep. You read that correctly. Place one towards the back of the undies (where the fanny lies) to help minimize -um- skid marks. Thanks Lady Poppins for sharing this tip!
Lots of fresh, juicy fruits. We lived on cantaloupe, watermelon, and milk that week! This is essential if you utilize Three Day Method.

Robbie Potty w Blankie

Not necessarily things you’ll need, but my additional two cents on potty training essentials and tips:

Make sure your child has the physical skills. Well before you start potty training, begin working on, and encouraging child to pull pants up and down – when undressing and when changing diapers. Getting them involved in the steps also helps her feel more independent and in control of the process.
Keep your laundry room available. You WILL be washing those cute li’l undies at least a few times during the process. This means you may need to shuffle your laundry schedule a bit.
Have as much prepped ahead of time as possible. On day one with Carol, I turned my attention to preparing our (simple) lunch, and that’s when she stood on her little chair in the kitchen and peed all over the seat, because she couldn’t tell me in time, and because I didn’t pay attention to follow her cues. (Remember what I said earlier about paper towels and gloves?)
If you use the Three Day Method, you’ll want fun activities, but you can’t get *too* involved in activities because they’ll forget to go potty! Pull out puzzles she hasn’t seen in a while (or new ones), introduce new library books, dolls, trucks, etc – things that could even be brought in to the bathroom while she goes potty.
Incentives. Of course, it’s always best to start something like this with non-tangible rewards (verbal praise, high fives, phone calls to loved ones, “happy dance and song”, etc.), but just in case that doesn’t fully motivate your tot, have small tangible rewards at the ready. M&Ms are popular, as are animal crackers, stickers, and other small trinkets. Consider creating a rewards chart. Sometimes, the simple act of placing a sticker on a chart is rewarding enough, but pair it with an additional small prize after so many stickers, and you’re golden! Check out these cute potty training charts here.

Keep your eyes on the prize: no more diapers!! Commit to ditching the diapers, and don’t look back. Investing in this time with your child, in taking this big step will pay off HUGE in the end!

Got any additional tips to add on potty training essentials? I’d love to hear from other seasoned potty trainers what’s worked. Leave a comment here on the blog, so others can see. 🙂

Filed Under: diapers, Frugal Parenting, parenting, potty training

Christmas on a budget: $250 for six kids

12/21/2012 by Barbara

**This post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small amount of compensation when you purchase from my links, which I"ll totally blow on waffle fries and sweet tea, y'all!**

Wowzers! I wrote this post last year to share what I purchased for my children for Christmas, and to show that it is completely possible to shop for six kids on a $250 budget. The information I shared is very specific to what I actually did and how I saved. As of late, this post has become very popular and I want to be sure to share information that is helpful for you as a visitor to my site. Please check out the 2 posts below some awesome tips that will help your holidays rock even with the smallest budget!

10 tips for planning Christmas on a budget

10 Stocking Stuffers for Whole Family for Under $2

Our family typically doesn’t spend a ton on Christmas gifts, but this year our budget is really tight. I decided in October that I was going to try to get gifts for all six children for under $300, and I did it! See what I bought and how I did it below:

How I saved

1. Earned referral fees from retail sites. Some of the items below were free with referral credits I had earned from various websites. You *do not* have to be a blogger to earn referral fees, and it’s a great way to save on things for your own family, some offer up to $15 per friend that you refer! Some of my favorites are One King’s Lane and Zulily. And yep, those are my referral links. 🙂

2. Enter giveaways hosted by local bloggers. Some of the other items say FREE because I won them through giveaways hosted by local bloggers. I do sometimes enter larger, national giveaways, but the odds are better if you stick with smaller, local blogs. I also won several Amazon gift cards as well, as you’ll see below. [Read more…]

Filed Under: finances, Frugal Parenting, holidays

Teaching My Child to Brush Her Teeth and Wash Her Hands

12/09/2012 by Barbara

**This post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small amount of compensation when you purchase from my links, which I"ll totally blow on waffle fries and sweet tea, y'all!**

We successfully tackled potty training about a year and a half ago, so when my daughter started preschool last year, her teacher taught the class a song to help with proper hand washing. To the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat:

Wash, wash, wash your hands,
Wash them very clean.
Wash the fronts and wash the backs,
and even in-between. Yeah!*

*My daughter and I added the enthusiastic “yeah!”

We would repeat a few times while she washed, and it served as a good way for her to remember to do a complete, proper hand wash.

So, here I find myself teaching my child to brush her teeth through song – along the same -ahem- note, we adapted the song to brushing teeth:

Brush, brush, brush your teeth,
Brush them very clean.
Brush the tops and brush the bottoms,
and even brush your tongue!

Do you have any clever songs you use with your kids? What ways do you help your kids learn and maintain good hygiene habits?

Filed Under: Frugal Parenting, parenting Tagged With: evergreen

Frugal Parenting Tips and Tricks

Chicken Orzo Soup

100+ Sensory Table Ideas for Your Preschooler

Car Games for Kids

Car Games for Kids

Spinach pancakes {Picky Tot Pleasers}

5+ Other Ways To Play with a Water Table

5+ Ways to Play with a Water Table

Explaining Death to Young Children

A Dozen Reasons to Read with Your Child

Reasons to Read with Your Child

Potty Training Essentials & Tips

Christmas on a budget: $250 for six kids

10 tips for planning Christmas on a budget

10 Stocking Stuffers for Whole Family for Under $2

How I saved

Teaching My Child to Brush Her Teeth and Wash Her Hands

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