Back to school supplies add up. 10 cents here, 25 cents here 80 cents there, but you need multiples of the item. And of course if you have more than one child who is attending school you begin to push the budget just to get it all.
This year I have two in school, granted one of them is going to prek for the first time, and the other is off to Kindergarten. I noticed though that the prek school supply list is actually more than what my oldest sons list for Kindergarten needs. Needless to say, I have to learn to be frugal, especially when the third little one goes off to school in a couple years.
The easiest way to get all of this at the best discount possible, no easier way to say it, than to come out with it. You need storage.
Last year my oldest was in the 4 year old Prek program, his birthday was also right after school started. I actually came across this idea, looking for party stuff for his birthday that year.
I now have started a box for each child, that will contain the basics for the following school year, all of which, I paid roughly 20.00 for the entire set.
Again, I started this, because I was searching for some fun cheaper and useful ways to fill my sons goody bags for his party.
2 packs of scissors (the dull ones they use for the younger grades). They're roughly about 50 cents (at a sale) to 1.00 for the pack. After he started school, everything went on sale, So I shuffled and I went every few days to the store, Target and Walmart mostly and once things really hit 70 to 90 percent off. I picked them up. I purchased all of these at 5 cents to 10 cents a piece. Now I bought several, not just one. So spending 20 dollars was pretty good in my opinion.
Well we had leftovers of course. So this year, the only thing I actually had to go out and buy for my sons, was the one green folder they needed. I still have plenty left for even next year. Between papers,pencils, pens (they always get lost in my house).
The easiest and best way to achieve getting exactly what you'll need is to go ahead and grab the list for the next grade up. After school has started, just hit up the stores every so often, it does pay more to wait, although you don't always get the best selection because many are picked over.
Now to get my kids excited for school this year, I did let them get new backpacks this year. This is where the other 30.00 came in. I bought them each a backpack and lunchbox, from toys r us through their website. The lunchboxes were free, and it was free shipping. Now if you don't have an overly picky child or a child that can go through backpacks (like mine). You could also wait till the school supplies go on clearance, and pick up a brand new backpack for roughly 3.00. I picked up two. I had orginally planned to save one of them for him for this year. But my son ripped his backpack towards the end of the year, so he got it early on.
It really does pay to wait though. I will be there waiting too. Once I gather up everything (and more than likely extras). I will place it in their boxes and store in our garage with their label. I'll also save the list so we have it to compare to the list that comes out right before school starts next year. This way I don't have to go through the box to double check I have everything. I can just see what is different between the lists, and check my extras box and good to go for the school year.
Now to get this started. Unless you can wait a little ways into school, you'll need certain supplies to start. You can get the basics, and hope for the best, or you can check the ads. Don't just go to walmart and expect their prices are the best every single time.
I noticed that the glue sticks were in different amounts in the packages, and if you need 24 (my son did) then buying the 12 packs seemed like a great idea. Nope, they were actually more expensive than if you bought 6 of the two packs. But then again, target happened to be cheaper all around for their 6 packs.
Each week before school, grab the ads from the sunday paper, and compare them to your list. Most families go grocery shopping once a week (or at least make a run for milk once a week if not more). This is the best time to grab the sale instead of doing it all in one stop and spending more on the supplies.
Those little numbers really do add up fast.
And then you add in the back to school clothes.
Luckily my kids are quite picky on that yet, but I do know where I'll be going for my discounts.
Happy Back to School Shopping!
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Friday, August 7, 2009
Playdough Factory- Video
I love my son's imagination. There is something so innocent about the way they think and the things they can come up with because of how they perceive the way the world works.
For a little over a year now, my son has come up with that at night after we (his parents) are in bed, he goes to work at the playdough factory. Not long after his younger brother (my middle son) started working with him. The story is so adorable and its amazing how over the course of telling this story, not every single day but just every so often, how much of it he actually retains.
It really may have been over a year ago that he started telling this story, but either way, its been great to hear it and to see how much of the story stays the same, and see what information he changes each time.
I will have to catch another video soon, I wish I would have caught this on video before now just so I can go back and compare. But either way, for your enjoyment, my oldest son, (with a little bit of my middle son making funny faces).
For a little over a year now, my son has come up with that at night after we (his parents) are in bed, he goes to work at the playdough factory. Not long after his younger brother (my middle son) started working with him. The story is so adorable and its amazing how over the course of telling this story, not every single day but just every so often, how much of it he actually retains.
It really may have been over a year ago that he started telling this story, but either way, its been great to hear it and to see how much of the story stays the same, and see what information he changes each time.
I will have to catch another video soon, I wish I would have caught this on video before now just so I can go back and compare. But either way, for your enjoyment, my oldest son, (with a little bit of my middle son making funny faces).
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Pocketville Want to try it yourself?
Yesterday was a busy day for me, first a metro moms event, which was great as usual.
And then I got home and played a new game with my oldest son. Now when I first got the email about trying out this new site, I really didn't think he'd be interested in playing it. As I was trying to set up the account for him to play, he didn't seem too interested in it, although he did stand there and ask questions. For a good few minutes, I thought I had lost him while I was setting the account him, but he stayed, something had peaked his interest in it even if he did look at me with a confused look and asked isn't this for girls.
Now my boy, is ALL boy. There is nothing girlie about him, if he sees a pink toy, its not a toy for him. He's always been that way from the start. He wants to learn to sew, and wants his own machine, but of course the only one out there for that age group, is a barbie one.
He says no to that of course.
So once the account was set up, we made him. It took a minute to figure out that it wasn't just for girls, as soon as we made his avatar up, which let me just say looked nothing like him since he chose black hair instead of his dirty blonde hair that he has. I was pretty surprised with that.
What was also odd is that he chose a cat instead of a dog as his pet. But he was pretty happy about it once he started playing.
He got around to playing the games with his pet, and had a blast doing it.
Now I asked him after he had played for a little bit what he thought about it.
He said in the I'm a cool kid tone, "it's cool" and then went right on to play it more.
He didn't want to stop playing which means something. My oldest is just like his father, very much so into video games. And can play for hours upon hours with one video game. Something he's never done with toys. Most toys are short lived for him, so to catch his interest is amazing.
I made him stop playing because we were getting ready to sit down for dinner, he wasn't very happy with me. And then immediately after eating, he asked to play again.
All in all, I really think he's enjoyed it, and I as a mom really like this one better than some of the video games he plays and watches his father play. I don't think we own one video game that is not some type of fighting or violent game in one way or another. So for me, Pocketville was a big change in my house and something I could see him continuing to play and be ok with.
Would you like to try out Pocketville with your kids? Want 250 free tokens? Well I have it for you.
Go to www.jungleinmypocket.com Set up an account with your kids. As you are setting up your account, use the Voucher Code: B9GX8NUDYS and it will add 250 tokens to your account. My son used majority of his tokens to give his cat a shirt and a toy.
If you would please come back and leave a comment about the game. I'd love to know what you and your kids think of it as well.
And then I got home and played a new game with my oldest son. Now when I first got the email about trying out this new site, I really didn't think he'd be interested in playing it. As I was trying to set up the account for him to play, he didn't seem too interested in it, although he did stand there and ask questions. For a good few minutes, I thought I had lost him while I was setting the account him, but he stayed, something had peaked his interest in it even if he did look at me with a confused look and asked isn't this for girls.
Now my boy, is ALL boy. There is nothing girlie about him, if he sees a pink toy, its not a toy for him. He's always been that way from the start. He wants to learn to sew, and wants his own machine, but of course the only one out there for that age group, is a barbie one.
He says no to that of course.
So once the account was set up, we made him. It took a minute to figure out that it wasn't just for girls, as soon as we made his avatar up, which let me just say looked nothing like him since he chose black hair instead of his dirty blonde hair that he has. I was pretty surprised with that.
What was also odd is that he chose a cat instead of a dog as his pet. But he was pretty happy about it once he started playing.
He got around to playing the games with his pet, and had a blast doing it.
Now I asked him after he had played for a little bit what he thought about it.
He said in the I'm a cool kid tone, "it's cool" and then went right on to play it more.
He didn't want to stop playing which means something. My oldest is just like his father, very much so into video games. And can play for hours upon hours with one video game. Something he's never done with toys. Most toys are short lived for him, so to catch his interest is amazing.
I made him stop playing because we were getting ready to sit down for dinner, he wasn't very happy with me. And then immediately after eating, he asked to play again.
All in all, I really think he's enjoyed it, and I as a mom really like this one better than some of the video games he plays and watches his father play. I don't think we own one video game that is not some type of fighting or violent game in one way or another. So for me, Pocketville was a big change in my house and something I could see him continuing to play and be ok with.
Would you like to try out Pocketville with your kids? Want 250 free tokens? Well I have it for you.
Go to www.jungleinmypocket.com Set up an account with your kids. As you are setting up your account, use the Voucher Code: B9GX8NUDYS and it will add 250 tokens to your account. My son used majority of his tokens to give his cat a shirt and a toy.
If you would please come back and leave a comment about the game. I'd love to know what you and your kids think of it as well.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Back to the basics
I can't lie in this, and show that my life is all fine and dandy, when in reality, it is not.
My life revolves around my three boys, literally. If raising my boys was a regular job, I am sure someone would have sued for more time off. I work 24/7. My last vacation, was spent visiting my parents, and we went to Orlando, while we had a great time. I was still "working" the entire trip, (with the exception of two outings without my kids).
I have been married to my husband for 6 years as of this past June. I do love him, please don't think I don't. But our marriage has changed, and over the last year, has taken its turn for the worse. There are so many things that I feel are wrong with our marriage, and honestly, I'm not sure of the words to describe those things.
I can only start at the beginning with this, and over the course of time maybe get to the current.
We were young when we got married, I was 19, he was 20. Typical Navy guy, typical 19 year old girl (with some baggage of course). We got pregnant about 6 months after we met. We weren't even in a committed relationship for a full two months before we found out we were pregnant with our first child. Of course, we did the right thing, went ahead and got married, before he left for deployment. As soon as he came home, he had a 4 month old son, whom he just wasn't quite understanding was his child. I probably didn't make it any easier for him, and I'm sure a big part of that was because I didn't understand how this handsome baby could not be accepted, and there was no doubt of paternity, he looked exactly like him. Dirty Blonde hair, brown eyes, tall and handsome. His father, tall handsome dirty blonde hair, blue/green eyes. Me, dark brown hair and dark brown eyes, many Asian traits. Yes my son ended up with brown eyes, and the ability to tan, but everything else is his father.
This is where it started though.
I didn't get a fairytale sweep me off my feet proposal, followed by a romantic, non pregnant wedding ceremony with all of my family and friends. Instead, I met his family(mother,father,sister,and grandmother) two days before we were going to be married. What a way to start a new life together. The moment we decided to go ahead and get married, was what has helped bring us to the point we are at today, and unforunately, that is not the best spot we should be in.
My life revolves around my three boys, literally. If raising my boys was a regular job, I am sure someone would have sued for more time off. I work 24/7. My last vacation, was spent visiting my parents, and we went to Orlando, while we had a great time. I was still "working" the entire trip, (with the exception of two outings without my kids).
I have been married to my husband for 6 years as of this past June. I do love him, please don't think I don't. But our marriage has changed, and over the last year, has taken its turn for the worse. There are so many things that I feel are wrong with our marriage, and honestly, I'm not sure of the words to describe those things.
I can only start at the beginning with this, and over the course of time maybe get to the current.
We were young when we got married, I was 19, he was 20. Typical Navy guy, typical 19 year old girl (with some baggage of course). We got pregnant about 6 months after we met. We weren't even in a committed relationship for a full two months before we found out we were pregnant with our first child. Of course, we did the right thing, went ahead and got married, before he left for deployment. As soon as he came home, he had a 4 month old son, whom he just wasn't quite understanding was his child. I probably didn't make it any easier for him, and I'm sure a big part of that was because I didn't understand how this handsome baby could not be accepted, and there was no doubt of paternity, he looked exactly like him. Dirty Blonde hair, brown eyes, tall and handsome. His father, tall handsome dirty blonde hair, blue/green eyes. Me, dark brown hair and dark brown eyes, many Asian traits. Yes my son ended up with brown eyes, and the ability to tan, but everything else is his father.
This is where it started though.
I didn't get a fairytale sweep me off my feet proposal, followed by a romantic, non pregnant wedding ceremony with all of my family and friends. Instead, I met his family(mother,father,sister,and grandmother) two days before we were going to be married. What a way to start a new life together. The moment we decided to go ahead and get married, was what has helped bring us to the point we are at today, and unforunately, that is not the best spot we should be in.
I am just a busy bee
Over the weekend, I had one kid, and oh boy was that, well, quiet.
Although we didn't get alot done, we did work on the yard Sunday evening of all evenings. Got quite a bit done as soon as I was able to lay my youngest down for bed. So at least we feel the older two spending the weekend at their grammy and gramps was used wisely, well as wisely as the two of us wanted it to be.
So they ended up staying again Sunday evening, and I headed out this morning to go meet my MIL halfway. Since they hadn't left, I managOed to make two quick trips to the thrift stores in my area. I found a few cool finds, mainly vhs movies as my boys broke their dvd player, so all they have left is a vcr, well we really didn't own many vhs tapes, so I've raided the movie selection at the thrift store locally, all in all I found 16 tapes for about 6.00. Several were old Disney movies. I was quite thrilled, and so where they as soon as they got home and saw them.
I hate to spend a fortune on movies, because those are always the first to get ruined with my boys, mainly because they'll fight over the movie. Toys, eh, things get lost, but not really broken, so we can always find the item after doing a quick search. But movies, no.
So I've banned buying movies for them, I'll rent occasionally so we can watch a family movie downstairs, but thats about it as far as dvds go anymore.
After getting my older kiddos from their grammy, we all had lunch and then we headed home. Only to sit down for a bit and then as soon as my husband walked in the door he changed and went right to work outside. Of course I couldn't let him just do all of the yard work himself, especially if I wanted everyone to eat dinner together. So I went out to help him and ended up clipping the bushes that are right outside our front door, and boy did it need it.
After that, I figured out I do NOT need to go to the gym and lift weights, just doing what I did this evening was plenty for me.
The next three days will be busy, two events this week, plus an appt, and a movie date with my boys on Wed. Friday will be my day off. I promise.
Although we didn't get alot done, we did work on the yard Sunday evening of all evenings. Got quite a bit done as soon as I was able to lay my youngest down for bed. So at least we feel the older two spending the weekend at their grammy and gramps was used wisely, well as wisely as the two of us wanted it to be.
So they ended up staying again Sunday evening, and I headed out this morning to go meet my MIL halfway. Since they hadn't left, I managOed to make two quick trips to the thrift stores in my area. I found a few cool finds, mainly vhs movies as my boys broke their dvd player, so all they have left is a vcr, well we really didn't own many vhs tapes, so I've raided the movie selection at the thrift store locally, all in all I found 16 tapes for about 6.00. Several were old Disney movies. I was quite thrilled, and so where they as soon as they got home and saw them.
I hate to spend a fortune on movies, because those are always the first to get ruined with my boys, mainly because they'll fight over the movie. Toys, eh, things get lost, but not really broken, so we can always find the item after doing a quick search. But movies, no.
So I've banned buying movies for them, I'll rent occasionally so we can watch a family movie downstairs, but thats about it as far as dvds go anymore.
After getting my older kiddos from their grammy, we all had lunch and then we headed home. Only to sit down for a bit and then as soon as my husband walked in the door he changed and went right to work outside. Of course I couldn't let him just do all of the yard work himself, especially if I wanted everyone to eat dinner together. So I went out to help him and ended up clipping the bushes that are right outside our front door, and boy did it need it.
After that, I figured out I do NOT need to go to the gym and lift weights, just doing what I did this evening was plenty for me.
The next three days will be busy, two events this week, plus an appt, and a movie date with my boys on Wed. Friday will be my day off. I promise.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
I can cook!
I can finally cook!
Yesterday was make baby food in bulk day! I spent about 3 in half hours or so in the kitchen. I made about 6 different kinds of baby food for my little man.
I have a book that my sister had gotten while I was still pregnant with him. It's all kinds of information on making baby food organically of course.
So we're about to hit the 8 month stage, so I moved up to the next level of foods in the book. Lumpier foods. If I do say so myself he is doing rather well with my foods, and so far my new dishes have been a success except for one. He just doesn't care for peas puree, but Chicken and rice went over very well. This morning he had a rice pudding mixture and he downed it like it was going to expire in the next 30 seconds.
But either way, I feel like I can cook. Yesterday my husband said I spent more time and got more into cooking the baby food than I do our dinners. Yeah well my little man appreciates it more. The older two either don't eat the food I put on the table, or they start playing with it, and it ends up on the floor. Ok well sometimes.
But how can you mess up baby food? I'm sure eventually I'll find a way.
If you want to learn how to make baby food for your own little one, check out Wholesomebabyfoods.com they are a great source of information for making and storing your own baby food.
The book my sister purchased for me is here.
Yesterday was make baby food in bulk day! I spent about 3 in half hours or so in the kitchen. I made about 6 different kinds of baby food for my little man.
I have a book that my sister had gotten while I was still pregnant with him. It's all kinds of information on making baby food organically of course.
So we're about to hit the 8 month stage, so I moved up to the next level of foods in the book. Lumpier foods. If I do say so myself he is doing rather well with my foods, and so far my new dishes have been a success except for one. He just doesn't care for peas puree, but Chicken and rice went over very well. This morning he had a rice pudding mixture and he downed it like it was going to expire in the next 30 seconds.
But either way, I feel like I can cook. Yesterday my husband said I spent more time and got more into cooking the baby food than I do our dinners. Yeah well my little man appreciates it more. The older two either don't eat the food I put on the table, or they start playing with it, and it ends up on the floor. Ok well sometimes.
But how can you mess up baby food? I'm sure eventually I'll find a way.
If you want to learn how to make baby food for your own little one, check out Wholesomebabyfoods.com they are a great source of information for making and storing your own baby food.
The book my sister purchased for me is here.
How to carry your little one
How do you carry your little one without hurting your back? Now my answer to this question is still always, I don't! Because my little man was an ounce shy of 10 pounds at birth, and he is no stranger to the weight.
However, The Beco is so far the only carrier I have used, (that my son actually likes) that helps to distribute his weight, (and there is plenty of it) to where my back isn't killing me at the end of the trip. I've found that carrying number three, while spoiling him, it really is much easier for me to hold the hands of my other two. Which helps to keep mommy from having a heart attack. (Come on mamas, you know we all do when they get close to getting hurt).
The new colors on the Beco Butterfly 2 are very nice.
I'm loving the new Duos.
However, The Beco is so far the only carrier I have used, (that my son actually likes) that helps to distribute his weight, (and there is plenty of it) to where my back isn't killing me at the end of the trip. I've found that carrying number three, while spoiling him, it really is much easier for me to hold the hands of my other two. Which helps to keep mommy from having a heart attack. (Come on mamas, you know we all do when they get close to getting hurt).
The new colors on the Beco Butterfly 2 are very nice.
I'm loving the new Duos.
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