TODAY.com Parenting Team Parenting Contributor

Sunday, March 25, 2018

Best Stuffed Animal Storage Hack! 😍

Ask me how much I loathe stuffed animals! They are really the worst! I am a big-time minimalist and stuffed animals give me anxiety. They are also terrible for people with allergies and sinus issues.

Both of my kids are obsessed with stuffed animals! They get so excited when a friend or family member gives them a new friend.

In addition both kids have a Grandmother that  loves them very much and makes them a tremendous amount of knit dolls and toys. She is a master knitter and each one of her creations is more priceless than the last. What to do?

We love our new 'friend pens' made out of wall mounted flower pot holders.  They are made of lightweight metal. I spray painted ours and distressed them to give character. Our kids LOVE that their friends are not in a toy box, closet, or drawer. They love seeing them up in their rooms!

Keith and I are really happy with the way these friend pens turned out! We ordered our wall mounted flower pot holders on Amazon. Katie received 3 - 46 inch holders (triple stacked on her wall) and Jack received 4 - 24 inch holders (two stacked side by side at the 90* angle of two neighboring walls). They are not uber expensive relatively speaking. They were a splurge purchase basically but SO worth it! They look really awesome.

This would work for dog moms too. A small 24 inch holder would be great and so cute for doggie toys!

You could also use this hack for a small space to keep rolled bathroom towels, blankets, or other items. They come in all different sizes!

We love this storage hack! Happy kids, happy parents! Double win! Contained friends!




Saturday, March 24, 2018

Beacon Diner East Greenwich RI

Ok y'all I rarely give a shout to local businesses because I like to keep my reader base wide, HOWEVER I have to give The Beacon Diner in EG a shout!

Parents we simply LOVE the Beacon Diner on South County Trail in E.G.! This throwback breakfast diner has amazing food at even more amazing prices. The highlight of their menu is a $2.50 cent kids sizable Mickey Pancake with a chocolate chip face. If you have several kids for breakfast on the weekend or a school vaca day, this is your spot!

The coffee is amazing, service is great, facility is very clean, and food is delicious! Katie wanted earings on her Mickey so they did them for her! ❤❤❤

Bravo, perfect A++ Definitely best family breakfast in E.G. There has also never been a wait during our visits unlike the other waaaay more expensive breakfast spot in E.G.. They also have a great side door for elderly and handicap patrons. Cheers!

Beacon is also right off Route 4 which makes it a perfect stop on the way to South County beaches! 😍











Friday, March 23, 2018

Dinner Food/Prep Score for RI/CT/MA Parents

Hey RI and beyond parents! Everyone knows that my favorite thing in life other than my family and God is well a GOOD DEAL. I love all things cheap if not free and they have to be GOOD. Whether it's food, clothes, services, real estate, vehicles....my motto never changes!
I don't believe in being wasteful regardless if it's my money or the earth resources.

So anyway Stop and Shop has monster juicy turkeys right now for just 99 cents a pound! We already made one they are awesome. We bought four. We have a small deep freezer in our garage for this reason! The turkey we cooked last night will last us likely a week and we have had so much fun already making turkey soup, turkey salad for sandwiches, and all other things turkey!

If you have lots o' mouths to feed get your rear end over to Stop and Shop and score big! Sale is through Sunday. We bought ours at the Frenchtown Rd S&S....in E.G.



At some point I will blog about exactly why I am this way....until then I will just enjoy being my frugal self!




Tuesday, March 20, 2018

How storm ready are you?

How many times have we seen friends and loved ones over the past few years displaced because of some natural disaster. Hurricanes, floods, fires....and the list goes on! Right now here in New England we are waiting for another sizable snowstorm. This will be our fourth one this year. The last time snow hit Rhode Island earlier this month we lost power for 4 days. Y'all I'm still traumatized from the experience! It's one thing to lose power as an adult without children around...but power loss with kids is THE PITS!

Since we were so grossly ill prepared for the storm earlier this month...I have made it a top priority to storm prep from now until the next big storm whenever that may be! I will never get caught ill prepared like that ever again. 

So this is what my husband accomplished today on our prepping journey! He purchased these phone back up batteries from Marshalls. Each one will run a phone for two days without electricity. 

Awesome! 

I will keep posting what our storm prepping entails so you can work on yours as well! You owe it to yourself to get your family prepared too! Especially if you have pets or kids! Who knows, your geographic location could be next! 

These little gizmos were just $16.00 each (which is a lot I know I was mad at the price) but if we ever lose power again we will be super glad we have them! Even if you have a generator, that's one less thing you have to power off the generator.

#doit #gottalovemarshallsandtjmaxx These likely would have been much more at the AT&T Store or Verizon. 




Sunday, March 11, 2018

Because it's just hair!


Ok so as a busy mom I'm always looking of ways to save both time and $$$. A few weeks ago I ditched paper towls.... Last week I ditched my hair! GASP!

I'm growing it back but the maintenance had to go! If I had a bank account that held every dollar that I've spent on my HAIR over the last 20 years....choke gag I would likely have 100k in it or more sniff sniff. For 20 years I've been highlighting my hair! How STUPID is that!? 

My natural color is actually best it matches my green eyes....so by chopping I just gained so much time which is the most important and so much $$$$$. 

I seriously used to HATE sitting in salons once even twice a month for hours inhaling toxic fumes. Going natural is so much better for your health! 

The first hairdresser that I went to refused to do it! Ha! I grew out about 2 inches then had it chopped. It's actually growing back at a rapid pace so I'm good...it will be back in NO time! It took balls but being a parent takes balls so......

Here is a photo of hair phase one (sans makeup 😜) This was me and my E.G. mom friend @ URI Master Gardner class last week..I was telling jokes about my hair situation..she was cracking up! She is a great human being and fellow mom! We don't stop laughing! 😂🤣😂🤣

I guess when you go through a near death experience...as I did with Lyme Disease...your not willing to spend one second of time...or one dollar on nonsense! ❤ 
I will still have fun with my hair when it comes back.  I love getting occasional fancy cuts. 😘 







Friday, March 9, 2018

Great Wolf Lodge New England just $99.00! Best offer EVER!

SOLD OUT!

Ok parents this is the best deal I have EVER seen Great Wolf Lodge offer!

Holla! Just $99.00 a night! I don't think I would pay one dime more than that because I am so frugal...but even hubs said yes to this one! It breaks down to just $35.00 a person for a family of 4 with tax and fees. Each person only paying about $17...for the water park and $17.00 for lodging. That's CHEAP!

Great Wolf allows you to bring food so I will be packing our own food, which I prefer to do anyway! Huge cost savor!

Here is the link!

https://www.greatwolf.com/new-england/plan?utm_source=NEWEMA&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Mar2018_Getaway1_PG_M&utm_content=promo_button

The coupon code is RGETAWAY1

YOUR WELCOME! Offer ends 3/13, or while available! This offer will likely sell out.

#forallfamilies

Thursday, March 8, 2018

Home Depot Window Birdhouse March Free Kids Workshop!

So I'm pretty darn excited about Home Depots free kids workshop for March! Eeeekkkk! It's a window bird house for bird watching! Our kids will LOVE this! I think this is my favorite one YET! Only one problem and twist of IRONY!!!!! I won't be able to go because I am having lunch with my favorite famous FRUGAL FANNIE and America's Financial Father @ Boston University that day! Can you guess who it is???????? 👐✌👌🎉💵  #lovethisworkshop #ornithology  #livelikenooneelseso........... #registeryourkidstoday


Thursday, March 1, 2018

What fixed expense can you cut?

Finance...Ok I may be a little obsessed with saving money. It's actually almost like a fun game (if you make it that way).... Lately I've been sheering off as many fixed household expenses as possible! There is so much WASTE that goes on in American households.

So this week out the door went papertowels.. I've been wanting to do this for a while! Paper towels are just so wasteful! They are also such a pain to buy, lug into the house, then they are all covered in wasteful plastic that clogs our landfills.

I purchased three sets of cheap towels in preparation for the ditching. I purchased a utility hand towel set, a cleaning rag-ish sort of set...and my favorite from Wayfair..... a dinner/lunch casual napkin set. They were very affordable and we can use them again and again! I think cloth is so much prettier than paper any way!

So there ya go one less thing on our fixed expense list and one less annoying task to deal with! Bye Bye paper towels!

* P.S. We are on week two with no paper towels and seriously we don't even notice they are gone! 🎉🎊✌

#wayfairnapkins