No need for a pool!

If you have trouble affording a pool pass for a local pool or just decide not to, don't worry you can still have lots of free water fun. There are several different parks in the St. Charles and St. Louis areas that have water sprinklers set up in the parks. Downtown St. Louis has a great place called City Garden where the kids could easily spend an entire day and just take a short trip on the Metrolink for a few dollars and its a cheap fun day.
Just a short drive up to Troy is Cuiver River State Park where they have the beach area with plenty of swimming and playing in the sand. So don't feel like you have to leave your kids out of having all the water fun this summer, there is still plenty of free water fun to be had!
Even better, maybe make a friend with a neighbor who has a pool in their back yard and will let you swim for a bit.

Fun for boys!

My boys, as with most young boys, LOVE any kind of construction truck ever made. So we have found a cheap fun thing to do with them is to go and watch construction trucks at work. You can go to almost any construction site and see many trucks hard at work and they have it roped off far enough away that its safe for your kids to stand by and watch. We have gone to some spots and sat and watched for a good half hour. One spot had an awesome guy who saw us sitting for a long time watching let the boys come over to see the truck, how cool is that! I just wouldn't suggest doing this on a day that is extremely hot or cold or bringing along your daughter who is "so bored" after only 5 minutes of watching them.

Saving money on food!

THis is the best time of the year to be stocking up on fruit and veggies! I bought 4 big bags of produce yesterday from Anthony's Produce and only spent $20. I then came home and spent about 2 hours chopping up the veggies and getting them ready to freeze. Now our freezer is full of fresh veggies ready for the winter months when the prices skyrocket. I'm sure I will be making a few more trips to buy some more to store in our deep freeze. My garden is also growing like crazy and we are busy eating up fresh from our garden, saving tons of money from our grocery bill. I'm also planning on learning canning from my awesome mother in law and will be canning up lots of fruits, tomatoes, cucumbers, and other things that I know we will be eating up this winter. This will save our money TONS of money this winter plus its great to have FRESH food out of our freezer instead of the fruits and veggies they buy from far away countries and use chemicals to rippen them. So this is the best way I can recommend to save money on your grocery bill. If you have other ideas, I would love to hear about them!

Saving money on name brand clothing!

Thursday my kids go to gymnastics and me and the little guy always make a stop in next door to Once Upon a Child (a children's consignment store). I try to buy my kids shoes there along with other items they may need. Well with the little guy playing so well in the little playarea, I actually got to look through the clothes a little deeper than usual. Well my oldest is now into Justice clothes thanks to friends and grandma. It makes me nautius to even go in the store and look at the prices. Well this past week I was able to score a Justice sweatshirt (normally probably about $28 for $5! I was very excited and even more so because it was pink with a huge peace sign (two of my daughter's favorite things). So after we got home I showed her my new purchase. She was excited until she saw the Once Upon a Child bag and asked me why it was in there. I told her it was just a bag I had, but then she saw the receipt. She is too smart for her own good being only 6 years old! So I made a note to myself to hang onto all name brand store bags so I can stick the used clothes in there. On a side note, she did LOVE the sweatshirt and named it her favorite! So I guess I made her happy for this round.......next round will come with a Justice bag!

Cheap back to school shopping!

This is how we manage to save money on our back to school shopping. Each year right before MO tax free weekend, I sell my kids old clothes at a local consignment sale. I mark everything myself and keep 65-70% of my sales. I always make at least $100 and its a great way to clean out the old clothes to make room for the new and make some shopping money for back to school. Well this year was no different and I made about $150. Next weekend is the big MO tax free weekend and I'm preparing myself. I have my coupons and the ads ready. I will be checking prices at a couple of stores and making my shopping list up. I've checked which cities will be participating and will do my shopping accordingly. So after I price out the cheapest school supplies at the stores, I will make up my shopping list for each one along with my coupons. Target also has some bonus coupons for me to use at their store plus I also scored a $40 gift card for Target from work for the safety program....big bonus! I also limit my kids to the few things they can pick out such as a book bag and certain school supplies that will not break my budget letting them pick.
For those of you who don't know about the tax free weekend, it is great. It is at the same time that all the stores are holding their big sales on school supplies. You don't have to pay an state tax anywhere in MO or any city tax on the cities that will participate. Well thats a 7%+ break right there! It is on school supplies, all clothing up to a certain amount, and computers and programs up to a certain amount.
We will also do all of our summer shopping for the next year. Its the time of year when summer clothing is clearanced out to great prices with the bonus of no tax! So we plan to do some major bargain shopping with the money we made from the consignment sale and its no out of pocket money from our budget! Great way to shop!

How to beat the heat!

My husband and I are training for a half-marathon this fall, but with the 90+ temps going on it is hard to do any running outside. Luckily I work part time for the city which gets me an awesome price on a family gold plus membership to the Rec Plex. So I have been doing my training inside two days a week which means I have to bring the kids up there with me. Well I'm trying my best not to make them dread coming up there so I decided that each day we go I will let them do a fun activity. Tues it was ice skating, which we get free ice skate rentals included with our membership. Thursday it will be swimming inside. So what will this cost us? Nothing but the small fee they take out of my check each payday! That makes for a cheap fun time with the kids and yet I still get my exercise in so we both win!

Cheap date nights!

So here is how we accomplish having date nights without breaking the budget. We will usually find someone to watch our kids at their house.....grandparents, aunts, friends, etc. Then we will either go to the library and pick out a movie to watch or spend a $1 at the redbox. We take the movie back home and veg out on the couch with the movie and a bag of popcorn we pop at home. Very cheap but still romantic and counts as our date nights. If you can't find anyone to watch your kids at their house, you can always have a babysitter at your house and go for a walk. There are so many things you can do that costs little to no money while still doing the most important thing of spending time with your spouse alone.
Also, instead of going out to dinner we will make a nice dinner at home for a third of the cost while the kids are at a babysitters. Its so much cheaper than a nice dinner plus its just the two of us so it makes for a great, cheap date night!