Frugal Family Ideas

This Week’s This & That

April 29, 2013 by Sharla Leave a Comment

(This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosure policy.)

I’ve decided that every Monday, I will write a “This Week’s This & That” to be able to share with you some of the great deals that I am aware of and any really great upcoming happenings or even just a few ideas I’ve found that may help you out.

Ultimate Homemaking eBook Bundle

I’m super excited to share this first thing with you because it is a FANTASTIC deal! It’s one of those almost-too-good-to-be-true things…the Ultimate Homemaking eBook Bundle includes 97 books with a value of $640.00 and for six days only (beginning today), it is being offered at $29.97!

The Ultimate Homemaking eBook Bundle includes books on Beauty, Budgeting, Education, Health & Fitness, Cooking, Holidays & Special Events, Marriage, Motherhood, Pregnancy, Parenting, Spiritual Growth, Blogging, Homemaking, and more! Even if only a few of those categories appeal to you, it is well worth the cost.

To sweeten the pot, they’ve also teamed up with 10 companies to bring you over $140 in bonus offers, giving you an affordable opportunity to get products you’ll use and love for only the cost of shipping, or in some cases, entirely for free!

The fine print:

Bonus Offers

Each bonus offer can be redeemed once only per eBook Bundle purchase.
For each bonus offer, transaction numbers or proof of purchase may be required at the time of redemption.
All bonus offers are free gifts from the bonus sponsors, are their sole responsibility to provide, and are subject to availability.
All bonus offers expire at midnight on May 19th, 2013 (2 weeks from the last day of this sale).

General

It is your responsibility to download and back-up your purchase within the 1-month download time-frame. With proof of purchase, we can renew download links up until August 1st, 2013. After this date we will no longer have access to the books and will not be able to provide any new links to download.
Due to the nature of this sale, there will be no refunds available. However, please read the Frequently Asked Questions page to learn more about the file types, the download process, how the bonus offers work, etc.

Please note: This collection is only available from 9 a.m. EST on April 29th to 11:59 p.m. EST on May 4th. There will be no late sales offered, so make sure that you get your bundle right away!

Particularly for those wanting to read these ebooks on their mobile devices (iPhones or iPads, Android, Kindle, etc.) you will want to learn more about the file types, how to download them correctly, and how to transfer them to your device.

Free Bowling

Kids Bowl Free – this is a fantastic summer program that we took advantage of last year and will be signing up again this year. There is no downside whatsoever. Free bowling for your kids at a bowling center near you. My kids really enjoyed the bowling and I really enjoyed the price!

What’s in the Bible? Discount

It’s no secret that we are fans of the What’s in the Bible? series. Volume 11 has now been released and you can get a 20% discount on Volume 10, 11 & the My Jesus Journal by using the coupon code: MJJBUNDLE.

Homeschooling 101

Erica from Confessions of a Homeschooler has come out with a new ebook, Homeschooling 101 that is perfect for those just starting their homeschool journey or who are considering if homeschooling is right for them. It covers basics like choosing and gathering curriculum, scheduling your day, organizing your home, and a free lesson planner. We used Erica’s Letter of the Week Curriculum for two years and she shares so many helpful tips and printables on Confessions of a Homeschooler and can offer a lot of wisdom to those in their first few years of homeschooling (and probably to us veterans too!).

Homeschool Field Trip Ideas

We love field trips! They are one of the fun perks of homeschooling. Last week, I shared some of our past field trips as well as a list of ideas for unique and inexpensive field trips over at the Homeschool Village.

Exciting Fundraiser for Adoption

During the entire month of May, when you order my book That These Two Will Live or the Kindle version or my eBook Shield: A Framework of Self-Care for Foster and Adoptive Families, I am donating 20% of all sales to The Sparrow Fund, an organization which encourages and supports adoptive families with such things as training and grants. I am happy to be able to partner with them in this small way. During The Sparrow Fund’s May Building the Nest campaign, there will be many other companies partnering with them as well. Once the campaign gets underway, I will provide a link to their information.

Homeschool Showcase

The most recent edition of the Homeschool Showcase is out today, including some great ideas for Spring and for learning.

Filed Under: Frugal Family Ideas, This Week's This & That

Easy Christmas Gifts to Make

December 9, 2012 by Sharla 1 Comment

(This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosure policy.)

Last year, I made a few really easy things to gift to some friends and neighbours for Christmas.

I got this idea from here. These are so easy to make and a unique way to gift some holiday cookies.

You need:

-empty Pringles can
-paper
-ribbon
-double sided tape
-hot glue gun

I found that the hot glue didn’t work well for attaching the paper around the Pringles cans so I used double sided tape for affixing the paper but added a drop of hot glue to the bottom of the can to secure the ribbon. This is such an attractive way to present your gift of cookies and my kids loved helping empty the Pringles!!!

It has been my experience that most kids like playdough. I decided to make it in army green and brown because most girls will enjoy playdough regardless and boys love to drive little matchbox cars through the “mud” so I made the colours appeal to boys.

I will post my recipe below. As another gift idea, you could make my gingerbread playdough and gift it with gingerbread cookie cutters.

I put the playdough in plastic containers and using ribbon attached cookie cutters to the top of the containers. These were very well received!

Playdough recipe:

1 cup flour
1 cup water
1/4 cup salt
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 Tbls. vegetable oil
food coloring or food paste (I used paste)
optional: a few drops of essential oil for scent (I used vanilla)

Put all the ingredients into a pot, stir. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it forms a ball. As soon as it goes into a ball, take it off the heat and dump it onto the counter or wax paper. When it is cool enough, knead it until it is nice and soft.

Here is a group of them all ready to go out the door. Obviously, there is nothing fancy about the packaging…some scotch tape to secure the ribbon holding the cookie cutters and a bit of curl added to the ribbon ends.

Filed Under: Crafts and Activities, Frugal Family Ideas

How to Make Sensory Balls

August 22, 2012 by Sharla 6 Comments

(This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosure policy.)

I have been busy making activity bags (also known as busy bags ironically!) for Dancing Queen and one of the things I decided to make for her was a sensory ball. I had read online about how easy they were to make and set out to make a few.

First I made some playdough. I didn’t bother to add scent or food colouring as once it was inside the “ball”, it wouldn’t be seen or smelled.

The next step seemed easy enough…stuff some of the playdough into a balloon…much easier said than done!!! I tried holding the balloon open with my fingers and shoving it in with the other hand. I tried holding it open with the fingers from two hands while having one of my girls shove playdough in and that resulted in little cuts on my fingers from her nails. At this point, I still did not have one full ball! I then came up with the idea to insert a coupler (cake decorating tool) into the top of the balloon and make skinny snakes with the playdough and get them in that way. It was still tedious but it was much easier than the other methods I had tried.

After making about five of these playdough filled balloons, I began to think that there must be an easier way to make these sensory balls. I did a google search and read about filling them with flour. I made a funnel out of paper and quickly filled five balloons with flour. The flour filled sensory balls felt very similar to the playdough filled ones. They had somewhat of a soften feel and did not hold their shape when pressed in the way the playdough filled ones but when surveyed, every one of my kids preferred the flour filled balls. I also filled a few with dry rice (also using the paper funnel) for a different sensory experience. None of the kids like the rice filled ones.

The next time I make these, I will fill all of them with flour instead of messing with the playdough or bothering with rice. The kids really like squeezing the sensory balls and they were a fraction of the cost that store bought “stress balls” are.

*note: use the helium quality balloons for best results