Archive for the 'Smart Buying' Category
Tips for Inexpensive Birthday Parties
Children birthday parties can become quite the expensive endeavor if you aren’t careful. Locations can cost hundreds of dollars, and then there are the added expenses of the decorations, party favors, food, cake, and entertainment to consider as well. Here are six tips to keep your budget from rocketing to the roof when throwing a birthday bash for your little one.
Location. Sure it’d be fun to take the whole brood to some overpriced pizza chain geared toward children or something along those lines but it isn’t necessary for kids to have fun. Instead have the party at home, in the backyard, or at a park. The plus to having it at one of these locations besides the “free” part is that there is no time frame. You can have your activities when you want to and stay as long as you want. The one drawback is that you have to clean up the aftermath yourself as opposed to someone who gets paid to deal with the mess.
Guests. The more guests you have the more money you spend on food, beverages, and party favors. The rule of thumb is to have the same amount of kids plus one as your child is old so that they aren’t overwhelmed. If you’re child is turning four years old, five kids total is plenty to make a party and have fun.
Food and Drink. Keep it simple and keep in mind that finger foods are best for kids that aren’t going to want to stop playing in order to sit down and enjoy a meal. You can pick up a couple pizzas from a wholesale warehouse like Costco for 10 bucks a pizza or go the take ‘n’ bake route for less than having something delivered. Cut veggies and dip make an excellent healthy accompaniment to go with the pizza. You can pick up juice boxes and bottled water at wholesale warehouses for fair inexpensive as well.
The Cake. It’s much cheaper to bake your own than to buy one from the bakery. Can’t decorate? Try this. Instead make cupcakes and provide toppings for the kids to decorate their own “cakes”. You can have candied sprinkles, marshmallows, crushed cookies, crushed cereal, cut up candy bars, really anything you can think of. You’ll be horrified at the creations and watching the children eat them but they have a blast and enjoy the treat so much more because they got to decorate it.
Party Favors. For little kid’s parties it’s important to have little gift bags for the guests to take home with them. It makes it easier for little ones to see their friend get so many gifts when they are getting something as well. They don’t have to be expensive or elaborate. Hit up discount stores or keep your eye out on sales all year long for things that would make good party favors. Things like bubbles, stickers, tattoos, plastic jewelry, bouncy balls, cars, puzzles, coloring books and crayons, and books can all be found for relatively inexpensive and children really are just excited for having gotten something.
Entertainment. If you have your party at your home, why then you have all your child’s toys they can play with as well as the opportunity for games like musical chairs. If you have it in the backyard there is always games of tag, water balloon fights (depending on the season), and relays like the egg on the spoon game. And if you go to a park, pick one with a play structure and you’re good to go.
So next time you throw a birthday bash keep these tips in mind and you can easily throw a great party for a hundred dollars or less.
Posted in Arts and Crafts, Finance, Holidays, Smart Buying, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tips for Saving Money for Back-to-School
Back to school can be an expensive venture. New backpacks, lunch boxes, notebooks, binders, scissors, glue, crayons, markers, and that doesn’t even cover the new school clothes, the must have haircut, or the latest fad in sneakers. Here are some tips on how to make the joyous freedom granted by kids going to school a little less painful to the ol’ pocketbook.
Bargain stores. Start checking things off your back-to-school lists at discount stores. A lot of discount stores can have the same brands of school supplies as the major department chains and they’re at least 50% cheaper.
Sales. The back-to-school list should be no surprise to you so you should be watching for sales year round and stock up on the staples: paper, pens, pencils. This stuff never goes out of style and if you can pick it up in bulk during a great sale you’ll save quite a bit of money.
Clearance. Wait until after school starts and when the overabundance of supplies goes on clearance stock up then. This method is especially helpful if you already had stuff in reserve. Your child can start the year with that stuff and still get the hip new trends stuff as well before the month is out. The only drawback is sometimes selections can be limited.
Second Hand. If you’re child is in a school that enforces school uniforms — why spend department store prices on something your child wears for a year maybe before they outgrow it? It all looks the same and you can find major deals getting the uniforms from consignment shops.
While you’ll have a tougher time with the name brand sneakers and the fabulous makeovers that your darlings so desperately “need” before they can be seen by their peers at school, you can still save money in other aspects of the back to school experience.
Posted in Finance, Smart Buying, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Educational Market Trips
Every trip the the market can be fun and educational for the little ones. Even tiny babies (assuming they are awake) can benefit from the learning possibilities while you get your grocery shopping done. Here are some tips for making your next trip to the market (or any store for that matter) fun and educational.
Babies
Toddlers
School-aged
These are just some ways that you can turn a trip to the market into an engaging, fun and educational experience, foster communication and teach your child about their world. Come up with your own to add that work for your family.
Posted in Activities, Child Education, Guest Blogger, Lifestyles, Parenting, School and Learning, Smart Buying | No Comments »
Take the 4-point plastics pledge
Probably everyone has seen that one scene from The Graduate where during the Benjamin’s party, one of his parent’s friends says something to the effect of: “I’m going to tell you one word about the future. Plastics.” Many of us even remember the old commercial sponsored by the American Chemistry Council that stated: “Plastics Make It Possible.” For years we’ve come to rely on the convenience, portability and “safety” of plastics.
Then, we got a collective environmental conscience and realized that plastics were filling our landfills and destroying the planet.
Now, we know that certain plastics contain Bisphenol-A a possible endocrine disruptor and hormonal disruptor as it mimics the female hormone estrogen.
It is in many items that we use daily and consider safe: from baby bottles to sports bottles, the linings of metal food cans, and in nearly any take-out container that isn’t foil or a paper product. The least safe plastic items are those labeled 3, 6 and 7 and their unsafe properties increase with heating from the dishwasher and microwave. A recent report by Catherine Zandonella, M.P.H. in the Green Guide states that “the plastics industry says it is harmless, … a growing number of scientists are concluding, from some animal tests, that exposure to BPA in the womb raises the risk of certain cancers, hampers fertility and could contribute to childhood behavioral problems such as hyperactivity. …[And] ninety-five percent of Americans were found to have the chemical in their urine in a 2004 biomonitoring study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).” The company bisphenol-a.org asserts that the levels of BPA found in the items we use daily are safe, and are only unsafe at high doses. Zandonella’s report continues that according to Frederick vom Saal, Ph.D., a developmental biologist at the University of Missouri, “low doses that are now proving to cause a myriad of harmful effects in animals, including chromosomal damage in female egg cells and an increase in embryonic death in mice. A follow-up to this is a study indicating a relationship of BPA blood levels to miscarriages in Japanese women.” While the FDA sees no reason to change its 2003 opinion on the safety of BPA in conjunction with food use, they have been wrong before. In contrast, in December 2007, the Center to the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction issued a detailed report about BPA and its implications in humans, concluding that more study on the effect of BPA in humans is needed.
Hmmm. Some experts say BPA is perfectly okay; others, not so much.
So what are we to do?
After a thorough check of my cabinets for anything labeled 3, 6 or 7, I was happy to find that all of my son’s sippy cups were labeled 2. But that was just the cups themselves. What about the lid–the part that he actually sucks on? What about the ones that have been saved by relatives with toddlers before us and passed down to us and clearly show the wear and tear of little toddler nibbles? Are the ones that are a decade old (and clearly flaking) still safe? There was no way to know…as neither the contemporary lids nor the older sippy cups had any numbers on them. Am I to assume that because the newer cups have a “2″ imprinted on them that the lids are also twos?
You see. More questions.
I checked my son’s bowls and other plastic that we use for food regularly as well. No numbers there either. Luckily, I never heat food in plastic, but what about transferring hot food to a plastic bowl?
As you can see, the new information only leads to more questions, concerns and decisions about food container choices.
While on one hand I don’t want to give my toddler a glass bowl…it is much easier to take care of a cut than potential future problems that could affect his internal functions.
I put my mind at ease with the intent to make some behavioral changes and wiser shopping choices. Luckily, I didn’t have to grapple with how to dispose of any threes, sixes or sevens properly.
But later in the day, the question arose again. I was at my favorite local cafe, where as I sipped my steaming coffee from its cardboard-lined cardboard cup, I stared down at the number six on the lid. How many times have I sucked on a hot liquid in one of these lids in my lifetime? How many times have I consumed hot food from a number 6 container? Sure, my exposure has been minimal according to the FDA and some scientists, but the questions still lurk.
What about you and your family? It makes you too, wonder now, doesn’t it?
Armed with this new information, I am willing to take a four-point pledge for myself and for my family and make a behavioral change to reduce my (our) exposure to BPA.
Will you too take the pledge?
Feel free to make it public and claim the pledge in the comments field.
Posted in Daily Living, Guest Blogger, Health, Health Care, Healthy Living, News Items, Poison, Smart Buying | 1 Comment »
Thrifty Thursday: eBay
You’ve found what looks like a great deal for kids’ clothes…2x your bid in clothing. Who wouldn’t want to get their hands on $100 worth of clothing for $50? And hey, look, it’s Gymboree! That stuff costs an arm and a leg, this is a killer deal! Woo, yay, hoohaa!
Hold on there, Nelly. Did you read the whole ad? That’s two times your bid in RETAIL price. If that still sounds good, then go and check out www.gymboree.com. Look for the proper size and style you want for your little prince or princess, then calculate the prices. If you bid on one of these popular 2x your bid auctions, you will not be getting a huge amount of clothing unless your bid is very high.
If you can afford to place a really high bid, then you’re in luck. But for those on a tight budget, I suggest looking for other auctions. It would be very disappointing to place a low bid and only receive one item. There are plenty of auctions for Gymboree clothing, plus other quality names like GAP, Baby GAP, Disney, Healthtex, and The Children’s Place.
Keep a shrewd eye on the shipping and handling. While I am willing to pay more for a large lot since it takes the seller time to package the items, even if they are reusing an old box, drive it to the post office, and pay postage. I think about the washing and folding, then packing when I look at their shipping and handling rate. For many clothing items in one lot, I don’t mind paying $15 to $20 for the s+h. More than that? I skip it unless it’s a really, really nice lot.
One more tip…try some misspellings of what you’re looking for. Also, don’t go directly to the proper section. Try typing in your search in the All Categories choice. You may find things in odd areas! I once found a lovely lot of clothing for a low, low price because it had accidentally been placed with socks. Go figure!
Posted in Finance, Home Budget, Smart Buying | 2 Comments »
Shopping… How Taxing.
For the first time in my life, yesterday, I took advantage of the “no tax” weekend and went to Opry Mills Mall - truly one of the most disturbingly over-the-top places in the universe. The place was packed full of people trying to save a buck. It was so unpleasant that it left me wondering if tax free weekend is really worth all the hulla-baloo. I mean, really. All the frightening crowds made it crystal clear to me why I had been wise to avoid malls in previous years during this weekend of wonder and made me question why I didn’t have the divine perspicacity to realize it this year. Needless to say, I won’t be doing it again any time soon - or ever again. Saving six or seven dollars wasn’t enough to make me ever, ever go back for more of that kind of torture.
Posted in Healthy Living, Mental Health, Smart Buying | No Comments »
Ain’t No Ride Like The Ride I Got….
Wow. Wow. Wow.
So, I have crossed over a thresh-hold that I never thought I would cross. We were successful in the haggling game of buying a car and we are now the proud owners of a mid-size SUV. To go from a Toyota Echo, which is about the size of a two seater bicycle, to this (a lovely, wonderful, comfortable, reliable, stylish Pontiac Torrent -sigh) is a euphoria unlike anything I have ever known. We drove home from our vacation feeling happier, and roomier, than we ever have before. You never know how cramped you are until you are un-cramped.
The old “selling out” question has come into play, I’ll be honest. I’m just uptight enough to have worried about my prior disgust with our biggie size culture and whether or not I am becoming all that I find detrimental to our society.. Blah Blah blabity blah.. You know what? My kids are safer, happier and much (much!) more comfortable - and so am I. The AWD and airbags to spare make me feel much more secure. And, you know what, in my little bug of a car I was never noticed in the midst of all the 18-wheelers and oversized trucks and uber-sized SUVs. I like feeling heartier and more noticable on the road. The XM radio doesn’t hurt either.
It is just one of those “nevers” of mine that has put me in check. Never say never. And leave your judgement at the door - because, one day, you might just be all that you say you hate and you might love every minute of it.
Posted in Cars, Smart Buying | 1 Comment »
