If your children read eight books this summer and track them on the Barnes & Noble reading log, they can turn their reading log in at any Barnes & Noble store between May 21 and September 3, 2013 to get a free book.
Don’t forget that you can also sign your children up for Kids Bowl Free and get two free games of bowling every day all summer long!
Thanks, Nikki!
Mark your calendars! All 398 National Parks are offering free entrance for five days from April 22-26, 2013.
Thanks, The Freebie Blogger!
Looking for a fun and frugal activity during the hot summer months? How about free bowling?
Sign up at KidsBowlFree.com to get a voucher for two free games of bowling for each of your children every single day all summer long. Check to see what nearby bowling alleys are participating here.
AMF Bowling Alleys also offer their Summer Unplugged program that also offers two free games of bowling for each of your children every single day all summer long.
Please note: Shoe rental is not included, so if you plan to take advantage of this more than a few times, I’d recommend purchasing bowling shoes for your children. You may be able to find a good deal on these at a local sporting goods consignment store. Or, you can purchase them on Amazon.com for around $25-$35.
Guest post from Rachael of Nothing if Not Intentional
As the snow melts and ice thaws, many families look forward to getting away for a spring break trip or a summer vacation. And whether you’re road tripping to Grandma’s or flying to the beach, these travel plans often include long hours with little ones strapped into their car seats.
How can we occupy little ones who can’t yet read and don’t like to sit still?
Since my husband is a pilot, our family has had a fair amount of practice traveling with our young girls (7 months and 2 ½ years). We keep a small bag packed that is filled with special travel toys. This bag is updated before trips, and we don’t play with it any other time. This keeps the activities special and new.
Here are a few cheap, screen-free ideas to help you pack your travel bag of tricks!
With diapers, wipes, clothes, and bibs, babies require more than their fair share of luggage. Luckily, there’s no need to fill your car or carry-on with lots of toys.
Play peek-a-boo or let them giggle at the friendly passenger in the row behind you! Make sure the toys you do bring are easy-to-clean. Baby toys will likely end up on the floor or ground.
Other ideas:
It’s tough to keep a mobile toddler strapped into a seat!
Make sure they get plenty of exercise before they’re expected to sit still. Cruise around your boarding gate and do laps up and down the airplane aisle.
If you’re traveling by car, play a game of follow the leader that includes jumping, running, hopping, and skipping each time you stop.
Other ideas:
Preschoolers still fidget and move, but you have the advantage of being able to engage their minds.
Encourage your preschooler to fix and serve a pretend feast. Talk about your child’s favorite memories. Ask your child to tell you his favorite story. Make up a story together. Let the imagination run wild since the body can’t.
Other ideas:
With all of these ages, bring snacks, offer drinks, pack a few books, and don’t forget your child’s lovey.
With a little frugal preparation, you’ll be on your way to a travel adventure the whole family can enjoy!
Nothing if Not Intentional started as a blog to share stories from Nate and Rachael’s ten trips to Guatemala. It is now an outlet for Rachael’s writing (she’s a former English major), and a place to share stories from their travels (Nate’s a pilot) and life with two young girls.
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So, I have a confession to make. Are you ready for this?
I’m just not a big fan of what my husband and I call “Hallmark holidays”. Sure, I love Thanksgiving and Christmas, but making a big to-do for Valentine’s Day just isn’t my thing.
This isn’t because I don’t love to show my husband and family how much they mean to me. Truth be told, it’s the exact opposite: I think it’s silly to only reserve roses and hearts and love notes for one day of the year. Instead, I think we should be celebrating Valentine’s Day every day of the year because every day is a day to show love to the wonderful people in our lives.
With this in mind, instead of sharing fun and cute ways to celebrate Valentine’s Day, I thought I’d share four frugal but very meaningful ways to celebrate your Valentine — either actually on Valentine’s Day or any day of the year! If you’re not married or in a relationship, you can tweak these ideas to apply to your children, a friend, or another relative.
When was the last time you wrote a note to your Valentine telling them how much you appreciate, admire, and love them? It might be one of the most simplistic ideas in the book, but writing a love note can also be one of the most long-lasting and appreciated.
The note doesn’t have to be long — and it doesn’t even have to be hand written! You can send a text, type up the note, write an email, or use a dry erase marker to write on your bathroom mirror. Your method of writing it doesn’t matter as much as the fact that it comes from your heart. To make things a little more fun, consider hiding a note somewhere fun or leaving a trail of little love notes around the house.
We all need to hear how much we are appreciated more often. Can I encourage you to be looking every day for something to thank your Valentine for?
Whether it’s that they ran an errand for you, picked up their socks, helped you with a project, or just have faithfully stood by your side through thick and thin. You never know how much a word of thanks can make someone’s day.
Want to take this a step further? Praise character that you appreciate instead of just saying thank you for actions done. Tell your Valentine how much you admire their patience, their hard work, or their amazing ability.
Don’t flatter and don’t lie, but you can come up with something to praise in just about everyone. Look for it and then let them know. It will likely mean the world to them!
Celebrate your Valentine by coming up with creative Valentine-themed twists on their favorite foods. For instance, cut the strawberries in a fruit salad into hearts, shape the pepperoni on the homemade pizza into hearts (or make heart-shaped pizza), make heart-shaped pancakes or cinnamon rolls, or even Valentine’s-themed bacon.
While I don’t like to box people into specific categories, every person has a unique love language. This is the way that they feel loved most.
If you’re unfamiliar with the five love languages, they are: Words of Affirmation, Acts of Service, Receiving Gifts, Quality Time, and Physical Touch. In many cases, you’ll be a mix of a few of these, but you’ll almost always have one that is dominant. If you’re not sure what you love language is, you can take this quiz here (and be sure to have your Valentine take it, too!)
Once you know what someone else’s love language is, it really helps you to be able to demonstrate love to them in a manner that means the most. For instance, my dominant love language is Words of Affirmation. It means the world to me when Jesse tells me how much he appreciates me and how proud he is of me. This speaks love to me much more than buying something for me does.
Jesse’s love language is quality time. It’s very important to him that we spend time together and just be together — without me acting rushed or like I’m busy. As a Type A person who does not have the love language of quality time, it’s been a learning experience for me to figure out that just being with him is extremely meaningful to him.
So if I want to bless Jesse, I express my desire to just spend time with him with no agenda in mind. And then I follow through with it. This means more to him than any gifts or acts of service ever could mean.
What are your favorite ways to celebrate your Valentine on the cheap?
Head on over to The Better Mom for over 50 Free Valentine’s Day Printables, Resources, and More!
Subscribe to Sidetracked Sarah and you’ll get a free Valentine’s Ideas ebook download.
Welcome to December’s series on 31 Days of Giving on a Budget. In this series, I’ll be sharing inspiring stories from my readers and posts with practical ways to give — even on a limited income.
If you have a Giving on a Budget story to share of a way you or your family has given to others this year or this holiday season, please email me your story and a picture to go along with it, if possible. I’d love to hear it and possibly share it during this series!
Recently, someone emailed in and asked if I died tomorrow would I regret the frugal choices I’ve made?
It was an excellent question and one that gave my husband and I pause — and produced a great discussion for us as a couple. Both of our answers were a resounding“No. We would absolutely not regret the frugal choices we’ve made.”
While we’ve made plenty of mistakes individually and as a family, we have zero regrets that we’ve chosen to live beneath our means, make sacrifices, delay purchases until we can pay cash for them, and live on a strict written budget.
To some people, not getting what you want right away or doing without might seem like a miserable existence. But truthfully, we’ve found it to be just the opposite: we live very fulfilled lives and we wake up excited about each day.
However, we both believe that the reason we feel fulfilled and passionate about life — even though we’ve made counter-cultural choices that some would balk at — is because frugality is a means to an end for us. If we were just frugal for being frugal’s sake, we’d likely quickly burn out or give up.
It’s not about saving money so we can continuously upgrade our lifestyle and always be buying bigger and better things. We want to live beneath our means so that we are able to give generously to others.
There’s a world of need around us. The more we steward our money well, the more abundance we will have to meet those needs.
Your efforts and my efforts might seem like a drop in the bucket when compared with all of the need that’s out there. But collectively, we can make a huge impact.
Let’s live simply so that others can simply live. Because truly, there is nothing more fulfilling than living a life with outstretched arms.
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