Fun Items for Frugal Dress Up Play

There is a quick and easy way to entertain your preschooler for at least half an hour or so. Let him or her play dress up! Preschoolers tend to love this activity because it lets them “become” someone else for a while. Dress up is a great opportunity for using one’s imagination. Here are some frugal ideas for dress up play. Frugal Dress Up Ideas for Preschoolers Old Costumes Previously worn Halloween costumes are great for playing dress up in. Your child can become a princess, a superhero, or both in the same day. Reuse the Halloween costumes that your … Continue reading

Frugal Ways to Entertain Your Kids this Summer

Summer vacation is a time that most children excitedly look forward to. It is easy to see why. They get a whole lot of free time! Parents are going to need some frugal ideas for fun activities that will entertain their children. Here are a few ideas to try. Bubbles Little kids cannot get enough of bubbles! You can pick up small bottles of bubbles, complete with bubble wand, from a dollar store. Check the dollar racks at Target, too. Parents can sit down outdoors and blow bubbles that their toddlers will chase. Older kids can blow bubbles on their … Continue reading

Frugal Tips for Summer Activities

Summer vacation is a great time for families to go out and do things together. Visiting amusement parks, dining out, and staying in hotels can end up costing a lot of money. Travel expenses can quickly add up, too. Here are some frugal tips that will help your family enjoy summer vacation without having to go into a lot of debt. Pack some snacks. Make use of your child’s lunchbox this summer. It is the perfect container for easy to eat snacks that your family can bring along on car trips. Instead of stopping the car at the nearest fast … Continue reading

The Most Frugal Cities of 2013

How frugal is the city that you live in? Are you living in a city filled with spendthrifts or savers? Take your best guess as to the answer to those two questions before you read this blog. You might be surprised about which cities Coupons.com found to be the most frugal places in the United States for 2013. Coupons.com is an extremely popular website. It is where coupon clippers go to find awesome coupons for groceries, household items, and more. Using coupons is a great way to cut down on your grocery bill. If you are serious about saving money, … Continue reading

Frugal Attitudes Are Here to Stay

According to a Deloitte’s 2013 American Pantry Study, a whopping 94% of consumers are keeping their frugal attitude. The study said that, even if the economy improves, these consumers plan to remain cautious and keep their spending at current levels. It seems that many of us are taking the lessons that we have learned during the great recession and are developing a new relationship with our money and with our debt. Families who once didn’t blink twice about running up thousands or even hundreds of thousand dollars in debt are working hard to pay everything down, creating budgets and sticking with them. … Continue reading

Independently Frugal

Being frugal takes a bit of an independent streak, a willingness to take the road not travelled by most of the world. Buying the things that we want when we want them at whatever price is available seems to be the thing to do. Oh sure, most of us still look for bargains, but when we really want something, we usually buy it anyway. It takes the ability to not follow the crowd, when you shop at thrift stores, make your own laundry detergent, cook from scratch and spend the summer hunting down free entertainment. With the recession, came an … Continue reading

Frugal Is as Frugal Does

Life may be a like a box of chocolates, but for the really frugal minded, those chocolates were half price and purchased with a coupon. Pick a random group of 25 people and ask them what it means to be frugal and how they make choices to be good stewards of their money. Chances are that you will get a lot of different answers all across the board concerning frugality and saving money. It tends to mean different things to different people. I recently read an article in a national women’s magazine about a family that decided to be frugal, … Continue reading

Frugal Friends are Priceless

If you surround yourself with frugal friends, saving money will be easy. Yesterday, after the town parade and free hot dogs and games, my family headed over to an area attraction that was sponsoring free admission for the day. The promotion wasn’t widely advertised. It wasn’t mentioned on the website or put on any community calendars, so not too many people knew about it. Thanks to a faithful frugal friend, though, who alerted me to the event, my family of five was able to enjoy the afternoon, which included a free tour, a narrated tram ride, and time in “the … Continue reading

Camping the Frugal Way!

Family bonding! Fresh air! Life skills! Fun! No matter why you camp, there is no doubt that you ultimately do it because it is a great activity for your family. And while the expense might be worth the experience, that doesn’t mean that you have to spend more  money than is necessary. Camping can be expensive or inexpensive. It all depends on how you approach it. Here are some tips on how you can cut down the costs on your great escape. Go Car Camping What is car camping? Basically, you drive to the campsite and park your car and … Continue reading

Boston Bombings and a New Reason to Stockpile Frugally

The Boston bombings have taught us many things. Some we already knew, such as the resilience of the human spirit, how easily ordinary people become heroes, and the strength of a community all working together. It also has taught us some other, more practical lessons, such as to always be aware in crowds, to report suspicious activity, and to be prepared for the unthinkable. One of the many photos of that time that sticks in my head from the Boston bombings is the image of a police officer delivering two gallons of milk to a young family who couldn’t leave … Continue reading