12 Creative Ways to Save

I have 12 creative ways for you to save money today!  Everything feels more expensive these days so I hope you find a couple of new ideas to save yourself some money. I'm doing the usual consigning things we out grow or no longer use, use apps for all the coupons and stock up when I find things on sale.  Here are some creative ways to save money:

1. Order kid's meals!  They are usually under $10, come with an entree, side and drink and sometimes dessert.  Culvers is the perfect spot to try this trick out.  You get a generous meal and can add a family cheese curd to share.

2. Buy cat toys at Dollar Tree.  We found the cutest cat chip bags at Dollar Tree for $1.25 each.  They are crinkle toys and have cat nip in them.  I'm saving them for Pumpkin for his birthday in June.

3. Borrow when you can.  Leo had a character day at school and instead of spending $40 on an Amazon costume for him to wear once, we borrowed a costume for free.

4. Homemade birthday treats!  We love Nothing Bundt Cakes, but I do not love paying $30ish per cake for a dessert.  I made homemade buttercream and added some extra ingredients to a boxed cake mix.  They cost me about $5/cake to make at home.

5. Birthday treat bags instead of a birthday party.  Leo is young and was happy to bring in birthday treat bags for his whole class instead of a big party.  We spent around $35 for treat bag supplies which is way cheaper than hosting a class party.

6. Party supplies at HomeGoods + homemade treats.  HomeGoods had the cutest Reese's Pieces party decor this Spring.  It worked perfectly for our Reese's Pieces loving guy.

7. Say YES to free fun!  Go for a walk, play outside, go to a park, meet friends at a local school park, invite friends over to your house to play, etc.

8. Teachers, I know it's tempting to buy all the things for your classroom, but opt for the free class incentives when you can.  My class has LOVED the following free class rewards.

Reading Mouse and the Motorcyle & watching the movie in class.

Water color painting anything they want.

Extra recess.

Pajama Day.

Bring a stuffed animal to school day.

Stinky feet day - go shoeless in your classroom.

9. Going out to breakfast can add up quickly.  Instead, grab some new breakfast foods to try at home for much cheaper.  We did Aldi canned cinnamon rolls cut up into bites for a cinnamon roll bite casserole.  The kids loved it and it cost me around $4.

10. Splurge on something at the grocery store and it's still a lot cheaper than going out to eat.  Grab a pack of giant muffins at Sams for $6 and enjoy them for a fun breakfast treat for several days.  These giant blueberry muffins are our favorite.  They aren't expensive, but they were a fun thing to add to our weekly shopping trip.

11. Save gift cards for a fun dinner out!  My parents gave the kids Azzip gift cards for Easter.  We used them last Friday night for a delicious dinner out.  We only had to pay $6 for our meal that night.

12. Switch some of your name brand products out for store brands.  I tried this Equate contact solution since my usual Renew Contact solution is now $12/bottle.  I loved the Equate version and it's just $5.82!  What a great swap!  I'm also enjoying several ELF beauty products. I'll have to do a make up saving recap for you soon.

Let me know some creative ways you are saving money these days!

Repot Those Plants

Do you have some house plants that have outgrown their pots?

I've got a special house plant that has grown a ton over the past four years and it's time for a pot upgrade.  I was a little hesistant to repot it for sentimental reasons.  This plant was a house warming gift from my aunt and uncle who has since passed away.  I didn't want to disturb the plant and risk making it unhappy or killing it.  It's been happy in the spot where it lives in my bedroom and I decided it was time to repot it.

I spent some Christmas gift cards on the prettiest purple pot from HomeGoods.  My uncle loved all things floral and I feel like he would have approved of this pot upgrade.  HomeGoods has a TON of pots this time of year.  Every size and color you could ever want.  This purple Martha Stewart pot had to come home with me.

I'll start with the AFTER.  Isn't this scalloped purple pot so pretty!?  I am so pleased with the makeover.

Before: It has grown significantly since it arrived at my house as a tiny plant in a small pot.  It's actually a couple different house plants in one pot.  I have so many new leaves growing.  

Much more room to grow!

My watering plan and location stay the same. I really hope this plant loves the bigger pot.

Wish it luck!  And go repot some plants this Spring!

Happy Friday

Happy Friday, friends!  I hope it's been a good week at your house.  We are ready for the weekend!  The best parts of our week were:

1. It was an exciting day in kindergarten!  One of my students said - Watch out for the turtle!  I stopped and picked up this tiny turtle on our way to recess.  We moved him closer to the pond.  After admiring him up close of course.

2. Surprise treats for Teacher Appreciation week!  I loved finding sweet surprises on my desk all week.

3. I transplanted these pretty flowers from Kevin's grandma's houses and they are coming back so nicely this year!  They seem really happy in our landscaping.

4. Bookclub + mexican is always a good idea.

5. The Dogwoods are blooming in Indiana!  We had a family gathering and the weather was just perfect.

6. Mr. Mittens loves to perch himself at the top of the stairs to keep a close eye on everything.

7. We celebrated my Dad's birthday.  Dad + Hardy his favorite child.

8. The weather has been so nice.  The cats love screen door season.

9. A sweet treat buffet was a fun treat for teachers.

10. Family walks every night!  The kids and I have been heading out on a walk every night after dinner.  I love chatting about their days, visitng with our neighbors and checking on all of the new houses being built.

I hope you have a great weekend!  Linking up with Momfessionals

Hosting a Boy Sleepover

Fletcher's birthday always falls on Spring Break so celebrating with his friends is tricky.  Last year we weren't able to pull off a friend party.  This year I knew I had to plan one in early March before all the busy Spring Break plans started.  I texted his friend's parents to come up with a date that worked for everyone.  Then we got busy planning.

You know we've hosted Olive's friends for sleepovers for years.  Fletcher was excited to host his friends for his first birthday sleepover.  He had a good time.  However, we quickly learned that it's different to host a bunch of boys than a bunch of girls.  Hahaha.

The girls are easier to entertain, calmer and stick with activities longer.

The boys were crazy.  Fletcher would agree :)  They bounced from activity to activity very quickly.  Inside.  Outside.  Upstairs.  Downstairs.  Around the neighborhood.  Ate all the snacks and the house was loud.  It was a lot of fun, but took us a minute to recover from all the fun.

Fletcher picked donuts and pizza for the menu.

We loved putting together favor bags for the boys.

We grabbed Fletcher's favorite things - treats and gifts.  Dollar Tree has the best crazy socks, a butter squishy and a cross necklace for all the boys.  They loved it all!

We did a candy snackle box.  We also realized for the boys it might have been better to do individual treat bags or candy salad bags for each boy.  Some boys took tons and it wasn't divided up very equally.  Lesson learned.

A pizza buffet.

Gifts and games.  The had a blast.

Then I did a cereal bar for breakfast the next morning!  That was a hit.  We had a busy Saturday so a quick and easy breakfast worked perfect.  I like to get 3 kinds of cereals, milk and then let the kids pick their breakfast.

It was so fun to celebrate Fletcher with his buddies!

3 Homemade Salsas

I made three different homemade salsas for the boy's family birthday parties.  They were all delicious!  It was an easy way to make taco night extra yummy.  They are all easy to prep a couple of hours before a party or dinner.

Guacamole //

3 ripe avocados

1/2 c store bought pico

salt

pepper

fresh squeezed lemon juice

Kinder The Blend seasoning

Mash the avocados, add in all the ingredients, mix until well combined.  Leave an avocado pit in the bowl to keep the guac from turning brown.

Pico //

Finely chop the following ingredients.  Stir until well combined.

Cherry tomatoes

purple onion

yellow onion

green onion

sweet peppers

fresh squeezed lemon juice

Kinder The Blend seasoning to taste

Corn Pico //

1 bag frozen sweet corn

purple onion

green pepper

salt and pepper

fresh squeezed lime juice

I served these salsa dips with two different proteins - seasoned ground beef and carne asada pork.  Look how yummy these tacos turned out!  I hope you can give them a try.

Friday Faves

Happy Friday!  I hope you've had a great week.  We had something fun every night this week!  Whew!  We are ready for the weekend.

1. Pumpkin posing for the camera is a favorite.  He's the sweetest cat in the world.

2. We popped into Chick-Fil-A for lunch and tried their new drink of the Summer - the Strawberry Hibiscus Lemonade Refresher.  It was good, but we love last year's drink more.  Nothing beats the Cherry Berry Lemonade in our books.

3. Dollar Tree has the cutest cat toys right now!  Look at this cuteness - Lazy chips, Furitos, Purr-ritos adn Cape Cat.  We loved the clever spin on popular chip brands.  Hopefully the cats love them when their birthays roll around.

4. Mr. Mittens loves a sunny spot!

5. The boys love an audience when they play video games together.  I have no clue what's happening, but I enjoy being included.

6. Yummy school lunches!  Add in some dry cereal, granola bar bites and strawberries this time of year!

7. Leo's teeth are all falling out!  He's lost 3 and has more wiggly ones.  This last one came out at school which was very exciting for him.

8. I love heading into school with the boys every day.

9. Olive and her favorite guys.

We learned something new about cats - turn their paws upside down and you get a teddy bear!

10. Working mom life.  Thankfully, Leo enjoys playing while I get caught up on work most days.

11. We got to celebrate the boys with Kevin's family.  I made bundt cakes and enjoyed celebrating them.

Linking up with Momfessionals

Have a great weekend!