With Easter just a day away, you may be looking for a last minute craft to put out for the little ones. Guest poster Tanya Nusser shares how she makes bunny candy cups from recycled items and craft items you likely already have. All you need to add is jelly beans!
I came up with this project last year when I really needed a project for my son’s Easter party, but I had ran short on time and money. It was a huge hit and it costs just pennies per project.
What you will need:
Empty toilet paper rolls
White craft paint
Cotton balls
Glue
Craft paper
Scissors
Marker
Wiggly eyeballs
Chenille stems
Jelly beans
Cut 2-1” circles and one circle slightly larger than the toilet paper roll. Glue the two smaller circles to one edge of the large circle. This will create the bunny’s feet. Draw lines on feet to indicate toes if you would like.
Run a bead of glue around one end of the toilet paper roll and glue to the center of the paper circle. This will allow your bunny to stand up.
Paint your toilet paper tube with white craft paint and allow to dry (usually dry to touch within 10 minutes).
Starting at the bottom, glue cotton balls to the painted tubes until it is completely covered.
Take two chenille stems and fold each in half. Twist the bottoms to secure. Stick your finger in the middle of each stem to open them and form into an ear shape. Glue each stem to the inside of the toilet paper roll to make ears.
Glue two wiggly eyes towards the top of the front of the bunny.
Glue two cotton balls together and glue them to the back of the bunny to make its tail
When all of the glue has dried, fill the inside of tube with jelly beans.
Inexpensive hobbies are awesome. They help us make good use of our time and provide cheap entertainment. I personally love to travel. Love it. When I was still single I backpacked in foreign countries, staying at hostels and hitchhiking. Now that I have a family, travel is a bit more expensive so I don’t get to do it very often (though extensive travel is part of long term financial goals).
So enter the hobby of learning new languages. One thing I wish I had when I was younger was a rudimentary understanding of the language of the places I visited. I’m making up for lost time. There are tons of free online language sources available, many of them quite good. I am working on Japanese right now, but the following sources have tools for a large range of languages. Even my nine year old son is having fun with some of these.
Livemocha:
Livemocha is very similar to Rosetta Stone in its methodology. It is far and away my favorite resource! It uses pictures, audio and writing exercises to help you absorb the lesson. Setting up an account is free, and both the 101 and 201 levels are also free (beginner and intermediate). Your work is graded by a native speaker, and you grade work for those learning English or another language you are fluent in. There are some paid services also on the site, but they are not necessary.
Smart FM:
Smart FM is an application based site. It isn’t limited to just languages—you can learn geography, run math drills, or anything else you want to learn. You set goals on the site and choose which applications you want to use to reach the goals. Not all the applications are great, but a good many of them are highly useful and it is free to use.
Lang-8:
Lang-8 is for when you are ready to start putting into practice what you have learned. Lang-8 helps you find a native speaker to practice with, then provides a safe platform for your communication with them. I prefer Lang-8 to other penpal style sites, as it weeds out the creepy types and the scammers, staying on task as a language-learning site.
(This is not an affiliate post.)
Share your experience with these language sites or tell us some of your favorite free resources for language learning in the comments!
Today we have a guest post by writer Tanya Nusser. Tanya will be sharing her frugal tips here on Turnip Money every Wednesday.
Coffee filters aren’t just for making coffee. I use them for so many things around my house. Plus, they are super cheap and a pack seems to last forever. I save a lot of money on paper towels by simply substituting a coffee filter for most paper towel jobs. It is amazing the number of tasks these magical circles of paper can do. Below are a few things you can use coffee filters for around the home.
Instead of using expensive paper towels, use a few coffee filters to clean mirrors and windows for a streak-free finish.
Don’t bother purchasing furniture polish, just wipe down your furniture with coffee filters and get the same dust free results as you would with costly polishes.
Cover dishes with coffee filters when you put them in the microwave to avoid splatters.
Put greasy burgers, tacos or fries in a coffee filter before serving to catch any grease that might drip.
Coffee filters make the perfect vessel for a serving of popcorn, chips or other snacks.
When baking, mix dry ingredients such as spices in a coffee filter for easy pouring. No more dirtying bunches of small bowls!
Clean up spills in a pinch with coffee filters instead of dirtying a dish towel or wasting a paper towel.
Really, the possible uses for coffee filters are endless. Keep them in mind next time you are in a pinch in the kitchen, chances are you will find more uses for them than you would think.
Things have been crazy around my neck of the woods the past few weeks. On top of several projects that Andrew and I are working on for both our business and for scouts, we are also trying to get a house fixed up for my parents. They’ll be here in less than two weeks and there is still so much left to do!
Today we spent the day finishing up the painting. Two rooms painted—including ceilings!—plus the baseboards and trim in the entire place. I ended up spending most of my day laying on my stomach on the hardwood floors so I could paint the baseboards without dripping everywhere.
Needless to say, by the time we finished up this evening we were famished. We were also tired, and that chicken breast I thawed out this morning just seemed like too much work to prepare. We just wanted to go home and veg. Fast food or pizza delivery began sounding mighty nice, and we probably would have indulged but we had already used up one of our eating-out allotments for the month and we didn’t want to use the other one yet. (We budget for two meals out a month. We usually try to space them a couple of weeks apart.)
The grocery store to the rescue! We pulled up to the grocery store planning to grab a couple of frozen pizzas for dinner. Cheaper than delivery but less work than ‘real’ cooking. We marched into the store, a paint-streaked, rag-tag bunch. That’s when the sign caught our eye:
Family Pack
8 piece Fried Chicken
1 side
4 bisquits
$7.99
We rarely buy anything at the food counter, and we were completely unaware of this deal. Sure fried chicken isn’t the healthiest of meals, but as a once in awhile treat that’s okay. (Everything in moderation, you know!) We snatched this deal up quite joyfully.
Even if we had gone with frozen pizza, we would have spent less than $10. If we ordered pizza it would have run around $25 after tipping, and the drive-thru would be closer to $30. With the chicken, we also have a few leftover chicken pieces and some of the potato salad that came with it, so lunches for two or three people tomorrow are covered for that $8 as well. A good deal for a fast-food style meal.
The lesson here? Some days you aren’t going to want to cook. Normally, you plan ahead for these days by having some freezer meals ready or by throwing something in the crockpot in the morning. But on those days when the best laid plans go awry, stop at the grocery store instead of the golden arches for dinner. Chances are you can get better food at just a fraction of the price of fast food. It doesn’t really take any longer to run into the grocery store than to sit in your car at the drive-up window. Even if it takes an extra 10 minutes, the savings are well worth it.
As I’ve mentioned, the past couple of weeks have been insane around here. In fact, I’m squeezing this post in between painting a couple rooms at my parent’s house and picking up candy bars for a Cub Scout candy sale I’m in charge of. When things get hectic, I am tempted to eat out or grab something quick and prepackaged at the grocery store. But I don’t, and our wallet thanks us. Our health probably does, too, since restaurant and prepackaged food is usually fatty, salty or both. Here is a sample of our dinner menus from last week.
Monday
Meatball stroganoff
Steamed green beans
Rolls
I wasn’t actually swamped last Monday, so I took the time to cook. I made a double batch of meatballs and whipped up a bowl of refrigerator dough for the rolls. Refrigerator dough is awesome because you can store it in the fridge for a week, pulling off what you need each day. This alleviates the need for daily mixing and kneading but you still get fresh bread. I’ll post up a recipe soon!
Tuesday
Chicken stir-fry
Rice
Tuesday was one of the insane days. I worked all morning then had to be out all afternoon and into the evening. I pre-cut the veggies the night before to save time, but even if I cut them right before cooking it still would have been quick. I also like stir-fry because a single chicken breast sliced thin feeds four people. The veggies and the rice is what fills you up, the chicken is just a condiment for flavor.
Wednesday
Veggie soup
We had a Cub Scout banquet that night, so I knew we would be fed. I also knew the boys would be hungry again by the time we got home several hours later. I threw the leftovers from the stir-fry, mainly veggies and a handful rice, in a crockpot before we left and added some chicken stock from the freezer. It finished filling their bellies before bed and supplied lunch the next day.
Thursday
Beef fried rice
Steamed broccoli
When I make stir-fry I make a huge batch of rice in my rice cooker. I used a handful of it in the soup but there was still a mountain left over. Day or two old rice is perfect for fried rice. I diced up a carrot and a quarter-onion fine, threw in some frozen peas, and added about a ¼ pound ground beef. I used a little bit of chicken stock, some soy sauce and a few drops of oyster sauce to flavor it.
Friday
Meatball subs
Oven fries
Remember those extra meatballs from Monday? I made some large rolls from the refrigerator dough and warmed up the meatballs in spaghetti sauce for the subs. My oven fries are just thinly sliced potatoes coated in olive oil and whatever seasoning grabs me that day, then baked for about 20 minutes at 350 F.
Saturday
Pizza
Breadsticks
I used the remaining meatballs broken up on a homemade pizza. I cheated this weak and instead of make our normal crust I used the refrigerator dough for the crust. It is a little too airy for a good pizza crust but works in a pinch when you are tired and pressed for time. I also used some of the dough and rolled it into breadsticks.
Sunday
Leftover soup
Clover rolls
All the rest of the veggies and meatballs went into the crockpot Sunday morning. We were painting all day, so there was no way I was cooking when we got back. I also used up the last of the dough and made clover rolls in a muffin tin (three small balls of dough per muffin cup). I stuck these in the fridge while were gone all day so they didn’t over-rise. This dinner was on the table in 20 minutes with next to no hands on time.
You may have noticed the copious use of planned leftovers last week. Each time I had a little time to cook, I made extra. But we never once ate the same thing twice, instead we used the leftovers in completely new dishes. This is the trick that works for my family. We tend not to eat leftovers as is, but we will eat them if they are used as an ingredient in a new dish.
What are some of your quick recipes? Let us know in the comments!
I do something every four to six weeks that saves me a ton of cash and time. I had never really thought about it before, not until yesterday that is. Yesterday we went grocery shopping. We bought several packs of bone-in chicken breasts because they were on sale. I am not a fan of dark meat, so this was a steal for us. I busily set to work prepping the chicken for later use and it dawned on me that bone-in breasts are cheaper because people shy away from the extra work in prepping them. Yet for just a little bit of time you save quite a bit, even when they aren’t on sale.
It also goes without saying that buying other types of meat in bulk saves money. We also routinely buy steaks and other beef cuts right at their expiration date when they are marked way down for quick sale. People bypass them because they don’t think they can use up all the meat in time, but you don’t have to! It is perfectly fine to freeze it for later use. What follows here is my basic meat routine when we return from a grocery trip.
-I fill my largest pot with water and bring it to a boil. While the water heats, I skin and de-bone the chicken, tossing the bones into the pot.
-I throw any vegetables that are past their peak into the pot. Celery, carrots onions and fresh herbs that aren’t so fresh anymore all add flavor to the stock. I leave this to simmer on the stove as I finish working.
-I sometimes pre-cook some chicken, usually by baking, then package it up in freezer bags for quick meals down the road. Usually I just wrap each raw chicken breast in in a double layer of cling wrap and pop it into the freezer.
-I split open all the huge packs of meat and divide them into single meal portions. In my house we use meat more as a side than a main course, so a portion of ground beef is usually only ¼ pound. I do make a few larger portions for grilling hamburgers and such.
-Double wrap the portioned meat in plastic wrap and toss in in the freezer. Even meat at its sell-by date can be safely frozen for a few months. Just rotate the stuff in the freezer so you use the oldest items first.
-I strain the vegetables and chicken bones out of the stock. I let it cool to room temperature then stick the whole pot in the fridge for about an hour. Later, I remove it and skim the hardened fat off the surface and discard.
-There are several ways to freeze chicken stock. I pour it into ice cube trays and freeze. Once frozen I pop out the stock cubes and store them in a heavy duty plastic bag in the freezer. I can just pull out as many cubes as I need for whatever I am cooking.
Chicken stock is an awesome addition to your freezer. Use it as a base for soups, to add richness to sauces, to boil rice in, or in any recipe that calls for bullion cubes or chicken stock. You can also save more time down the road by pre-cooking some of the meat prior to freezing it. Cook up some ground beef crumbles for tacos later in the month, or throw together some meatballs and freeze them. It just takes a couple hours worth of time to prep a month’s worth of meat, saving you money now and time throughout the month.
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I have been busy cleaning all week. My parents are moving to my hometown in a few weeks. While their new home is nice, the previous residents did not clean often, if ever. There is at least a years worth of grime on every surface. The white baseboards were particularly dingy and I was afraid I would have to repaint all of them! Thankfully, I was able to clean them up and get them sparkling again with a diluted solution of white vinegar.
Most of us have probably heard of cleaning with white vinegar. The acidity of the vinegar cuts through grease and grime but is mild enough that it doesn’t damage paint, tile or woodwork. Vinegar is cheap, too. In my area a gallon of the stuff sells for less than $1. Much cheaper than most commercial cleaners, and better on your skin and the environment. Here are a few ideas for vinegar cleaning in your home:
Mix 1 part white vinegar with 1 part water in a spray bottle. Use this solution to wipe away soap scum in the bathroom or grease in the kitchen.
Use undiluted white vinegar in the toilet bowl to get rid of nasty rings. It works just as good as commercial toilet bowl cleaners without all the chemicals or odd blue coloring. You can also use it to get rid of scum rings in the tub.
Wipe down shower heads, faucets and other chrome work with pure vinegar to get rid of lime and hard water deposits. It unclogs the shower head quickly and easily. It is also great for getting rid of lime scale in kettles.
Add a cup of white vinegar to your laundry during the rinse cycle. It works as a natural fabric softener and help get the soap out of the clothing. It also helps towels become fluffy again, especially those that have been coated with laundry softener scum.
Run vinegar through your coffee pot to get rid of all the build-up. Run a few cycles of clear water through after the vinegar to get rid of any residue. The next cup you brew will taste excellent after this treatment!
Mix up a paste of 1 part vinegar and 1 part table salt. Polish brass, pewter and copper to a shine with this concoction.
Soak a cloth in white vinegar then use it to remove the sticky residue from stickers or price tags. Works in seconds and doesn’t damage the surface underneath.
Pour white vinegar between paving stones or in the cracks of a driveway to kill weeds and wayward grass.
These are just a few of the things white vinegar is capable of. What are some of your favorite uses for vinegar. I’d also love to hear about some of your favorite homemade cleaners. Let me know in the comments!
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In the mood for pizza but don’t have time to mess around with a yeast-dough recipe? Here is a recipe or a quick, yeast-less dough that turns out a very usable thin crust. While it doesn’t have the texture or flavor of a yeast dough, the added spices make it tasty in its own right.
No-Yeast Crust
2 cups flour
1 ½ teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 eggs
1 1/3 cups milk
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon oregano
Preheat the oven to 375 F. Mix all the dry ingredient together than mix in the milk and eggs. Pour the batter onto two lightly greased pizza pans. The batter will be pretty liquid and should pour easily, but you can also oil the back of a spoon and use that to spread the dough.
Bake for 10 minutes or until it begins to firm up. Remove from the oven and top with sauce, cheese and your desired toppings then cook for an additional 10 minutes.
20 minutes and only one dirty bowl to wash makes this recipe a winner for busy nights. As I said, it won’t satisfy your craving for a thick and chewy pizza crust, but it will please both kids and adult if they like a thinner crust. Enjoy!
What are some of your favorite recipes? Let me know in the comments!
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Happy Friday! Today is the final installment in the Cheap Birthday series, I hope you have all found some tips to inspire you next time one of the kiddos decides to get a year older.
Birthday invitations and favors fall into a single category in my mind, because neither is really necessary but both help set the mood for the party. You can always call and invite people, and favors are always optional. But I enjoy supplying both to our guests.
Invitations
Once again, you want to focus on the theme of the party when doing invites. Often dollar stores have packs of theme appropriate invitations available, but sometimes you may be out of luck or you may be trying to trim your party budget. A pair of scissors, some glue and some colored paper allows you to quickly throw together some invites. I usually cut the construction paper in half then fold each half in half to make a card. Decorate the front with stickers or glue on construction paper shapes. I once cut out a white and a red half circle and put them together to make a Pokeball (from the cartoon Pokemon). This was a simple invitation but it got the theme across well, so the guests knew what to expect at the party. Another option is to print invitations on your computer. There are many free templates available online plus some photo software comes with invitation options.
Gift Favors
Gift favors are the ones you hand out at the end of the party. Avoid expensive themed items. I purchase favors all year long when I see them on sale after the holidays. Gold and green kaleidoscopes from the Christmas section work well as telescopes for a pirate theme. Red-heart shaped candy is suitable for a princess party. Collect small items throughout the year. A handful of candy and one or two small toys are all that is required. You can also bypass the toys completely and instead make lollipop covers out of cardstock. Decorate a small piece of cardstock to match the theme, then fold it over the candy party of the lollipop. Staple the layers together on either side of the stick to secure it.
Activity Favors
These are the favors the kids make themselves. It could be a craft item or the leftovers from a craft activity. For example, the kids may paint with watercolors for one of the activities. Instead of one water color set and several brushes, give each child their own watercolor set that they get to take home after the party. Another option is to make a small costume item for the guests to wear at the party that they get to keep—princess hats, pirate eye patches, and magic wands are examples.
Favor Bags
Steer clear of the little plastic bags featuring licensed characters. Use plain brown or colored lunch sacks instead. I usually decorate the outside of the bag with stickers or I glue on cut-outs. For example, at the pirate party I cut squares out of old maps and glued them to the front of each bag then wrote each boy’s name in the square. Fold over the top of the bag then punch two holes through the front of the fold. Thread a ribbon through and tie in a bow to secure closed.
Also, remember to always set a budget for your party before hand. We have a budget of $25 for home/park parties and $50 for pizza place parties. Splurge on the parts your child enjoys most and cut back everywhere else.
I’d love to hear what you thought of this series. Would you like to see more series like this? Let me know in the comments!
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We’ve already covered location, food and decorations. Now it is time to entertain those little munchkins. There are two schools of thought on entertaining children. The first is to fill up every moment of the party with an activity so the kids don’t have a chance to get bored or out of control. The other school says to only choose one or two fun activities and let the kids have free play time for the rest of the party. I’m personally in the second school of thought, as I don’t think kids enjoy being herded from one game to the next for the entire party. If you have a lot of guests I guess you may need to supply entertainment to keep the kids busy, but we don’t throw big parties. A happy medium is to stage one or two games and have a couple of easy ones waiting in the wings just in case the kids get bored.
Crafts
Young children especially love getting messy but even older boys and girls enjoy crafts. Craft making doubles as both an entertaining activity and the finished item is the favor. Finger painting, making jewelry, slime, painting wooden cars and a large range of other craft projects are inexpensive for a group of kids. Choose a craft that matches the theme if at all possible. Encourage the kids to wear old clothes to the party or make art smocks by cutting holes for the head and the arms in garbage bags.
Pin-the-what?!
Pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey is a classic party game. So classic that most kids have played it a thousand times by the time they are five. Instead of the traditional donkey, make your own version of the game to fit the party theme. You could pin crowns on princess or pin wheels on trucks. While older kids may not enjoy it, younger kids will.
A version we have played with older kids that they have more fun with is draw-the-tail (or whatever). We made a posterboard up for each guest with the basic shape of a pirate head (it was a pirate theme). The kids were blindfolded then had to draw the face on the pirate with no peeking. The results were hilarious and the boys had a ball.
Pinata
I love pinatas. I make simple ones for our parties around here. You stuff them with the some toys and inexpensive toys then make the kids earn their party favors by whacking it with a stick. What could be more fun? The simplest way to make a pinata is to blow up a large balloon. Mix equal parts water and flour in a bowl, then tear newspaper into strips. Soak the strips in the flour mixture then stick them to the balloon. Build up a layer over the entire balloon that is at least 6 strips deep. Let it dry for three or four days then pop the balloon. Decorate with paint or crepe paper. With practice, you can soon be making pinatas that rival the fancy store bought ones!
Outdoor Activities
Send the kids outdoor after cake so you can clean up the party mess without screaming banshees under foot. In summer, a large supply of water balloons sitting pre-filled by the back door is enough to get the party really started. In winter, snow ball fights are an option if you have snow on the ground. In any weather, a homemade obstacle course entertains the kids for the last leg of the party. Use old tires and other items laying around the house. The kids take turns running the course. If you have a stopwatch that adds even more fun and authenticity to the course.
There are plenty of activities to entertain kids with. Use your party theme as inspiration when deciding what to do. Tomorrow we’ll wrap up this series by covering both invitations and favors.
What are some forms of entertainment you’ve found to be successful? I’d love to hear about them in the comments!
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I'm Jenny, a mom to two and wife to a wonderful man. Please join us as we follow our hearts and the rhythm of the seasons to a frugal and sustainable life.
