Back in the Saddle

After a little time off we have jumped back into the saddle.

What to expect:
We will continue to share sales, deals, and savings of all kinds.

Lemonade That's Easy to Swallow

Alan loves drinking tea mixed with Lemonade. He would prefer fresh squeezed lemonade. Considering we don’t have a lemon tree (though our neighbor does) and it takes a zillion lemons to make a fresh glass of lemonade, we will continue buying the pre-made stuff. Since fresh lemonade isn’t an option, hubby prefers the Minute Maid brand. Imagine my delight when I was at Walmart tonight and found these cartons on sale for only $1.00 each! SCORE!!

I grabbed several and put them in my cart and rushed to the checkout before someone had time to change their mind about the price.

Wooden Beaded Necklace Craft

We found these really cute wooden beaded necklace craft kits in the dollar bin at Michaels a while back. We grabbed about a dozen various style necklace kits with plans to include them in goodie bags at Isabelle’s birthday party. So here we are on a rainy day and nothing fun to do so out of the craft stash comes the necklaces. I was so surprised that Josh was remotely interested in creating one because it’s a necklace and kind of girl-ish.

That didn’t stop him, he picked a flower themed necklace, while Isabelle picked a mermaid one. The kits are in tiny packets since they have small pieces, so there is a concern of choking hazard for young children. My kids are old enough not to try eating the pretty little beads. I cut open the packets and hand the kids the pieces. 

Isabelle immediately started stringing beads randomly on the necklace string. She soon found out that a knot was needed on one end to prevent the beads from slipping off. Once a knot was tied on one end she began again randomly putting beads on the string. 

Josh on the other hand was looking at the picture instructions on the back of the necklace package. He paid close attention to the pattern suggestion on the package and followed it extra precisely. He first laid out the beads in the order he wanted to place them on the necklace while I tied a knot in one of the string. Isabelle quickly realized that she needed to follow a pattern and took the beads off the string and started over, following the same idea as her brother, lining the beads in order on the table before adding to the string. The kids were done with the necklace in less than ten minutes. 

If you are looking for a quick craft this is definitely it! The end result is one cute necklace, which of course makes both of my kids happy. Quick craft or not, it is certainly a win!

Overall this was a super cheap and really cute craft that my kids enjoyed from beginning to end!

Target Dollar Bin Win

So I scored big on the cool mom scale and guess what? It didn’t cost a fortune. We are a frugal, coupon savvy family, so I am always in search of a bargain. One of my favorite bargain jaunts is Target. Okay, they have been in the news a LOT recently b/c of the Missoni exclusive. The site crashed a few times b/c of the popularity of this partnership. I would say Target and Missoni both made a great decision to work together. For me, I am all about the bargain. Isabelle and I went to Target to pick up a couple of the cube shelf organizers that were on sale.

(note: we bought a white one)

Our first stop of course was to hit the dollar spot. We were a smidge disappointed that there was not yet any Halloween stuff available, but we’ll check back in a few days. I was completely surprised to find that some of the $1 items were on sale for 50% off. WOW! Fifty cents for a puzzle. You cannot beat that with a stick! Especially when it is a shiny, sparkly puzzle that comes with a little mini poster for my little Tinkerbell fanatic.

The Tinkerbell box was a little dinged up. Since we don’t keep the original boxes it was definitely not a deal breaker. I managed to find a puzzle for Joshua as well. I also snagged two coloring books, two 6 packs of chipboard magnets (which I plan to alter), and also a Tinkerbell composition book for Isabelle. In all, there were seven goodies from the dollar bin and I only spent $3.50! SCORE!!

I do want to add that in the past we have had minor issues with the cheaper puzzles. Sometimes the pieces won’t stay connected as well as if it were a more expensive puzzle. On occasion, the puzzle doesn’t quite match the preview. For the reduced price we usually take the risk. Puzzles cost anywhere from $3.00 and go up from there. I have seen some of the kids’ puzzles marked at nearly $10.00. That is too much for our entertainment budget when you consider that we could purchase ten puzzles for that price.