Search Results for: blog keeping your children from feeling deprived

Avoid Feeling Deprived

The best way to save money is to set it aside and not spend it. That’s a simple thing, right? Not too hard to figure out? But sometimes when we want to save money, we must do without some of our little personal favorite things in order to have money left over to save. It might be that special body lotion we love, or our favorite snack items, or a date night. We may have to sacrifice in order to create money for our future, and while that is noble and good, we are human. And humans feel deprived when … Continue reading →

Snowflake Your Way to Savings

Using the snowflake method, you can save enough money for vacations, private school for the kids, groceries, holiday gifts, or your emergency fund. You can snowflake to build up your stockpile or be a stay at home parent. You can even snowflake to buy an iPod. Many people use the snowflake method, whether they work outside of the home or not. it is easy to do, and you can earn as much or as little as your time allows. What is the snowflake method? You basically find ways of making small amounts of money (the snowflakes) in short bursts of … Continue reading →

Keeping Your Children from Feeling Deprived

A few weeks ago, we had some new neighbors come over for a visit with their children. The kids are all about the same ages and number as our own, and they had a great time playing together as the adults chatted about the neighborhood. As we showed the neighbors around our home, we passed through the family room on the way to our outdoor porch. One of the children told one of my children, “My TV is bigger than yours.” Now, I’m sure that the child meant no harm by that statement, but as a parent, I had to … Continue reading →

Creating a Rich Environment for Kids

Since we have moved to our new area, we run into families that are what I would consider affluent. The kids live in large, new homes and are surrounded with plenty of the latest toys, clothes, vacations and possessions. Each home has an expensive outdoor play systems, trampolines, pools, a number of current video game systems, etc. With our frugal budget, we can’t quite compete with all of that. But what we can do is create a rich environment for our kids. I think we have managed to do that, since our house is the current “hang out house” for … Continue reading →

Ideas for Volunteering with a Toddler or Preschooler

Making the time to do good works is important for all families. Getting children started early with the concept of volunteerism is a wonderful way to make the acts so much a part of their lives that it comes natural for them. One of the added benefits of volunteering with your toddler or preschooler is that it may give you the means and motivation to volunteer yourself. Isn’t it difficult to carve out the time to volunteer when you are busy taking care of little ones. Making volunteering a family affair solves that problem! So how can you get started? … Continue reading →

Optimizing Our Errands 2

This is part 2 of a 2-part series. If you missed the first article earlier today, click here: Optimizing Our Errands. After lunch, we visited the library to return books and stock up on enough reading and listening material to last us six weeks (the maximum amount of time we can hold items). I estimate that getting extra books and CDs shaved off at least one extra library trip. I decided not to take out any DVDs, since these are due in three days time and would require an extra trip back to the library. We have plenty of movies … Continue reading →

Optimizing Our Errands

So yesterday, I decided to take a little bit of my own advice and combine our errands into one day. This way, we would spend less money on gas, since we could map out an efficient route that covers each stops. This lessens the extra back and forth trips to and from the house. We would also spend less gas by limiting how often we make trips to any given place. If we designate one weekend a month, for example, to errands, then we know that we need to take full advantage of the trip, stocking up at the grocery … Continue reading →

Prepare for a Recession

Financial analysts are predicting that there will be rising prices on consumer goods in 2008. Everything from home heating oil to milk will cost more than it has in the last number of years. Couple that with problems with the interest rate and a plummeting stock market, and you have everyone talking recession. If you practice a frugal lifestyle, you should be more prepared than most others. Still, what can you do right now to ease the burden? Prevent a loss of employment During a recession there may be some job loss. Try to prevent this in your family by … Continue reading →

Ask and Ye Shall Receive

Need something? Sure you can go out and spend money for it, but chances are that there is a way to get it for free, just by asking. Here is how. Need some hangers for your closet? Whenever you buy any clothing from a store, ask them if you can have the the hangers that go with the items. You can even ask for extra hangers. Most retailers are only too happy to give away all of their extra hangers, if you just ask. And this is a tip that is especially apt at this time of year, in the … Continue reading →

36 Money Making Ideas for Kids and Teens

The next time your kids or teen needs something new, why not suggest that they earn some money on their own. Sit down with this list and see if there is anything on it that they would like to do to earn some cash. Of course you want to encourage them to be frugal about their money, and when they have to earn it on their own, it may bring the money value lesson on the forefront of their thinking. Obviously, you want to keep the child’s age in mind as you review this list. A five-year-old would find it … Continue reading →