Kid's Art Supplies

I've found that my kids love to do art projects. But, it can be expensive to have them use up a sheet of paper for a few scribbles or to continue to buy them stickers. Luckily, there are many items around your house that you can use for free or next to free. It's also a great way to recycle. Some things we save:

toilet paper and paper towel rolls (once the paper is used)
return address labels (the free ones from the mail)
empty envelopes (after bills or whatever have been removed
used paper (the backside is still good!)
ribbons and bows off of gifts
packing paper or cardboard from boxes (Amazon sends great HUGE sheets of paper)
cardboard boxes

Just gather up a few of these items, give them to your kids with some crayons or markers and watch them spend a few hours creating!

Frugal Fridays

Yeah for Friday! Today's frugal tip is perfect for date night or a night out with friends: Check your local restaurants for happy hour.

Last Friday, the kids were at Grandma's so we went to dinner and a movie with friends. Instead of an expensive dinner, we went to the bar area (non-smoking!) of a very nice restaurant. All their appetizers were 1/2 price from 3 - 7 and they had drink specials also. One drink each plus six appetizers fed us all for less than the price of two of us to have dinner there!

Of course the movie was free from previous Walgreen deals I had done (AXE bodyspray and Mamma Mia Ponds). We didn't need expensive popcorn as we were full from the much healthier appetizers.

Listen to these yummy appetizers we enjoyed: sweet potato fries, chipolte blue cheese potato crisps, Kobe beef sliders, salmon scallop lollipops, fried calamari and buffalo wild wings.