Cute Child's Bank

This is my daughter's bank that we made. Its made out of a hawaiin punch container. We washed it out, removed the label, made a new label and cut a slit in the top. My daughter loves it! It's a great way to recycle too!


You'll need something strong to cut the slit in the top. I used my husband!  : )

How to Keep Cool This Summer

The fan, the air conditioner and the swamp cooler are the most common ways to deal with the high summer temperatures...

The picture on the right is our new portable swamp cooler. We got it on Amazon. It's great! It has wheels on the bottom that make it easy to move to another room if needed and has an alarm when it runs out of water. One con to this option is that it only cools the room its in.


Here are some not so common ways to keep cool this summer:

 Open the windows that can be opened and have screens on them. Once we opened the windows in all the rooms, it wasn't stuffy or as hot.

Try to watch tv less and keep other electronics off during the summer. They put off a lot of heat and contribute to the high temperatures within your house.

Use a crockpot to cook instead of the oven. The oven heats up the house and its very difficult to cool it back down afterwards. A lot of recipes that you bake in the oven can be cooked in a crock pot.

Keep the lights off as much as you can during the day and have the blinds open to let the light in. Lights put off a lot of heat. If possible switch all light bulbs out to energy savers, they put off a lot less heat and keep your utilities lower.

If you have your washer and dryer in a laundry room, keep the door closed while the dryer is going. It puts off a tremendous amount of heat.

Portioning

Have you ever thought about how much of something you're using and if you're using too much or going through something too quickly? Maybe you need to portion things so you are only using what you need. Portioning saves you money because you have to buy it less often and none of it goes to waste.

Take this dishwasher detergent for example. Its package design causes you too accidentally use too much and waste some of it because of the pour spout feature. Do you even know how much your dishwasher needs? I used to just fill up the soap cup and close the door with no thought of whether or not it actually needed that much. When we moved to this apartment, our dishwasher always left a lot of residue on the dishes. We decided it may help if we used less. We filled them according to the fill lines and it solved our residue problem.  But... we still had the problem with the dishwasher detergent package...oops! I spilled! We decided to put it in a container and figure out the amount we were to use in order to just reach the fill line. It ended up being only 1 Tablespoon. That's it! One stinkin Tablespoon! Now we keep a tablespoon scoop in the container and none gets spilled and none goes to waste.

Here are some other examples of portioning:

Ovaltine, we figured out that we use 2 Tablespoons in our cup, so we keep a 2 Tablespoon scoop in it now.

Laundry detergent. We decided one day that we're probably using too much in every load and should portion it too. If you look at the fill lines for Tide. It says for Medium loads, fill to the line 1, for Large loads, fill to line 2. We usually only need to wash Large loads. It turned out to measure out to be 1/3 cup.

                                                           

My two year old and I use the same body wash, shampoo and conditioner. Of course, I just bought them and used them in their original containers. The original containers had lids that you had to use all your strength to open and you tipped it upside down to get some in your hand to use. Of course, when you dump liquid into your hand, sometimes it pours out too quickly and you end up with too much. Then you waste time trying to get the excess liquid back into the opening and of course... that doesn't work.  So today, I went to Walmart and got these little beauties. They cost me $1.88 each. I like that they are clear so I can tell how low they are getting without hopping into the shower and discovering that and having-to hop out and hunt down a new one from the closet. I never end up with too much in my hand and I don't have to hurt my hand and waste all my strength on a lid. Genius!

What other ways do you portion?

Pepperidge Farm Thrift Store

We went to Pepperidge Farm Thrift Store yesterday and found soup for about $10 and it feeds approximately 12-15 people with large servings. The package has two separate sections so you can freeze one section of it and just use the one. They have several different kinds of soup. We purchased two different kinds: Cheddar Cheese, Ham and Bacon soup (also known as Wisconsin Cheddar soup) and Mexican Tortilla soup. We also bought goldfish crackers for $1 and a package of three loaves of french bread for $1.50.

We had family over last night and had the Cheddar Cheese, Ham and Bacon soup and the french bread with goldfish crackers. It fed the whole family and we still had leftovers. Everyone had large servings and loved the soup and french bread. The goldfish crackers are great for soup because they don't go soggy quickly. This is a really cheap meal with great leftovers and feeds a lot of people in case you have family over.

Let's Go On A Date

This idea from shannonbrown.typepad.com is called "let's go on a date." This is her description:

      "This basket holds 12 envelopes.  Each labeled with a month of the year.  And each envelope contains a pre-planned, (mostly) pre-paid date just for us.  Some of the dates will take place at home, some are planned for the local area, and some will take us into town.  All 12 dates are different.  Several, actually nearly all of the dates are things we have never done before.
The plan is to open the envelope together at the beginning of the month, look at the calendar and decide on a date.  So right from the beginning of the month, we'll have a fun date on the calendar to look forward to."

I thought this was a great idea if you could afford to pre-pay for an entire year's worth (1 each month) of dates. Click on the following link to view her full blog and examples. http://shannonbrown.typepad.com/life_in_general/2011/01/lets-go-on-a-date-january.html

Homemade Potato Chips in THE MICROWAVE?

Homemade Potato Chips in THE MICROWAVE?

That's right! And you don't even need some special tray or dish. Here's how:

1. Clean potato really well. Leave skin on but cut out bad parts.
2. Slice potato into 1/16" thick slices.
3. Dry each slice with a paper towel.
4. Toss in olive oil.
5. Place each slice on a piece of paper towel. (we doubled up the paper towel)
6. Coat with favorite seasoning on one side. (we tried salt at first and they were really good!)
7. Microwave for 2 minutes.
8. Turn over each slice.
9. Microwave for 1-3 minutes. (or until desired brown...ness)
10. Place potato chips on a piece of aluminum foil to cool.
11. Potato chips will crisp as they cool.

Tip: They will turn out better and will cook more evenly if placed on a flat surface type dish in the microwave.

My husband and I made many batches of these late at night, giggling to ourselves and trying to think of what other seasonings we could try.

Betty Crocker Loaded Smashed Potatoes

Mmmm...can you smell the melted cheese and bacon? This Betty Crocker Loaded Smashed potatoes package is $3.98 at Walmart. With a side, it fed our family of three. It takes ten minutes in the microwave and it tastes just like you made it homemade. And the best part.... you didn't heat up the house cooking it! They also have an augratin potatoes package that I haven't tried yet that's probably the same price.

Crafty with Cereal Boxes!

This Cereal Box Paper Sorter is a great way to reuse cereal boxes and to save space for those things that really need to go in the recycle bin. Tutorial by starsandsunshine.com.

 Here's a Cereal Box Organizer that is useful for scrapbookers with lots of stickers! Tutorial by breezypinkdaisies.blogspot.com.






             

You have probably seen a magazine holder out a cereal box before, but in case you haven't or want to know how to make one, this one from Or So She Says.. has a great tutorial

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When you look at cereal boxes, you probably don't think, "Ooo, I could mail that to someone!" But it's true! With this tutorial by the Crafty Crow, you can make and mail Postcards made out of cereal boxes.

   

Also, from The Crafty Crow you can learn how to use them as drawer organizers. Just click on the Postcard tutorial link.


These cute bookmarks by Plum Pudding are fun and easy to make.









          









Cereal boxes and other cardboard can make really cute homemade notebooks. This tutorial by Infarrantly Creative shows how.    

Who ever thought you could make a wallet out of a cereal box? Replayground.com has! This tutorial is all you need!

 


Have you always wanted to keep a journal? Now you can! The Long Thread shows how to make a journal out of an old cereal box!

 

Mummies! Then She Made has a tutorial on how to make adorable mummies out of cereal boxes!


  

What can you do with an old cereal box? Make music! These guitars made by The Frakers Acres are a perfect and cheap toy for kids.


 

Cereal box puzzles can be a fun, cheap and a great use of junk! Tutorial by centersandcircletime.blogspot.com.

 

Taste With the Eyes has a tutorial on how to make wall art and other great eco-friendly ideas.



This tutorial to make a halloween decoration is actually in Spanish but you get the general idea from the pictures. It is so cute!

4th of July Tags

These tags are so easy to make! Just print out the template from tatortotsandjello.com and have a few supplies ready. This would be so much fun to give to the ladies you visit teach!

Oh Snap! Craft Idea

This craft idea from eighteen25.blogspot.com are a cute idea for 4th of July parties! These poppers are cheap and enjoyed by everyone! Macey's in Providence are selling a box of 50 of these little snappers for .25 each!!! These could be used as a favor at a party, a fun gift for visiting teaching or to a friend. Download this topper and other similar tags.