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Cheap Crafts To Entertain Your Family on a Snow Day

January 22, 2016 By Laura

Source: Pinterest

If you live along the upper east coast of the United States, you are probably preparing for the impending snow storm that is expected to hit sometime between Friday night and Saturday morning. Hopefully at this point you have all the food and supplies you might need during the storm. Snowstorms like this one are good excuses to spend your weekend relaxing at home. You can get cozy in your warmest pajamas and heat up a nice cup of coffee or tea and enjoy the snow day (or days!) Although snow storms can be relaxing or romantic, they can also make some people feel bored and even a little stir-crazy. To deal with those feelings of boredom, why not do some fun, cheap crafts that will preoccupy you and your family while the flakes fly! We even have some fun and easy ideas for DIY crafts for kids.

Snow day winter craft ideas for kids and adults

Have your children create edible snowmen out of marshmallows. This project works best with jumbo sized marshmallows. You can use chocolate chips, mini M&Ms, or food coloring to make eyes and pretzel sticks or spaghetti noodles for arms. Microwave your snowman for a few seconds to make an ooey gooey treat.

Make a beautiful decoration for your front door from pine cones, paint, glitter, ribbon, hot glue, and plastic snowflakes. Paint white paint down over your pine cones. Before the paint dries, sprinkle white or silver glitter over the pine cones. At one end of each pine cone, tie or hot glue ribbon (it looks best with white ribbon) to the base of the pine cone. Attach a piece of ribbon to your small plastic snow flakes. Once your pine cones have dried, tie the ribbons from each pine cone and plastic snow flake together in a knot. Hang this lovely winter decoration from your door!

Put food coloring in spray bottles with water and have your children create beautiful works of art out in the snow.

Create detailed paper snowflakes by folding white paper into a square. Make numerous cuts into your paper with scissors to create a beautiful snowflake that can be hung from your ceiling or windows!

Your children might enjoy these FREE printable coloring pages for kids. These pages are winter weather themed, but there are other types of coloring pages as well.

Create your own easy winter wreath with a foam hoop, tulle (in white, blue, and/or silver), small plastic snow flakes, and small color coordinating colored balls (Christmas balls work well). Cut strips of tulle that are all the same length. Then, tie them tightly around the foam hoop. Alternate colors as you tie the tulle around the hoop. Continue tying the tulle until you have it completely encircling the hoop. Then, hot glue the snowflakes and Christmas balls around the perimeter of the hoop. Voila, you have a beautiful winter wreath!

Indoor picnic ideas are also great for snowy days. You can let your children help you plan and prepare the food. Get a nice picnic blanket out and feast on your tasty indoor picnic meal while you watch the snow fall.

Have a safe and enjoyable snow day (or multiple snowy days if you live in the mid Atlantic region too)!

Ways to Save On Your New Years Party Celebration

December 23, 2015 By Laura

Christmas is just around the corner, and before we know it we will be ringing in 2016! If you are planning a New Years party, now is the time to determine what News Years Eve party supplies you will need, what New Years Eve party decorations you will need, as well as what food you will serve when you and all your friends watch the New Years Eve ball drop 2016! Although parties can get expensive very quickly, there are ways to have affordable celebrations. Today, I am giving you some suggestions on how to have an excellent and affordable party on New Years eve.

Inexpensive Party Favors for a New Years Party:

Oriental Trading Company is a great place to get extremely affordable party favors. They sell reasonably priced bulk candy, party hats, necklaces, shutter shades, and much more!

Dollar Days also sells a variety of fun party favors including noise makers, party headbands, poppers and other fun favors.

Bulk Party Supplies offers so many great party favors in bulk so you get more for your money! Like the other stores, they sell party hats, festive glasses, necklaces, and more.

Affordable New Years Eve Party Supplies:

In addition to having a variety of party favors, Oriental Trading Company has a variety of drink ware, tableware, and other party supplies for your New Years Eve party.

Party City has a large variety of party supplies for New Years Eve. Their supplies come in different color schemes, patterns, and sizes. Their prices may be a bit higher than other stores, but they have many different options to choose from.

Cheap New Years Eve Party Decorations:

Martha Stewart has a variety of affordable decorating ideas and suggestions on her website. Some of the decorations can be easily made at home using household items.

Shindigz offers many reasonably priced New Years Eve decorations including number balloons, ceiling danglers, scene setters, paper lanterns, tissue poms, and so much more!

Inexpensive And Unique Gift Wrapping Ideas

December 11, 2015 By Laura

Christmas is just 2 weeks from today! Can you believe that? At this point, you may already have purchased all (or nearly all) of your presents. Or, you may have a few final gifts left to purchase. One of the last things most people do before Christmas is wrap the presents. For some, present wrapping is a fun experience. Other people loathe wrapping presents and would prefer to shove their gifts into bags. It can get costly to purchase wrapping paper and all the frills to make your packages look extra special. If you struggle with creativity, it can be hard to think of unusual gift wrapping ideas. Today, we are giving you some suggestions for inexpensive and unique gift wrapping ideas. Check them out below! [Read more…]

Black Friday FREE Shipping Deals!

November 24, 2015 By Laura

Source: Wikipedia

This year, Thanksgiving deals and sales are beginning in many stores on Thanksgiving! That means, you do not have to wait until Black Friday to start shopping. As in years past, the Black Friday sales flyers are already circulating. You can plan out in advance what you want to purchase and where. As we all know, stores tend to get rather chaotic on Black Friday. The long lines, crazy shoppers, and packed aisles can be overwhelming for some people. Did you know that many stores are offering the exact same sales online? Yes, you can skip all the craziness in stores and do your purchasing right from the comfort of your own home. If you find yourself thinking, “But then I have to pay shipping charges so I will end up spending more money!” You might actually be wrong! [Read more…]

One Way To Have An Affording Thanksgiving: A Potluck Thanksgiving!

November 23, 2015 By Laura

Source: Flickr

Making a Thanksgiving meal for a large group of people can be very costly. The turkey alone typically starts around $12 and goes up depending on weight, whether it is fresh or frozen, and several other factors. In fact, the average cost of a Thanksgiving meal for 10 people is $50.11, largely depending on how many side dishes and desserts you prepare in addition to your turkey. If you are feeding an especially large group of people you may be wondering how you can save money on your Thanksgiving dinner. One easy way to distribute the cost of the meal is by hosting a Potluck Thanksgiving dinner! We absolutely love the idea of a potluck Thanksgiving. With a potluck meal, everyone brings a dish. This is great for many reasons. As we mentioned, this helps distribute the cost among several people. Another great benefit is that you get to try new recipes that you would never have known about, but end up loving! This enables you to broaden your food horizons. [Read more…]

Save Huge with these Amazon Black Friday Sales

November 20, 2015 By Laura

With Thanksgiving and Black Friday not far away, stores are rolling out their special deals and discount offers. From coupons to online discount codes, savings opportunities are plentiful this Thanksgiving and Black Friday. If you are like some of us, you are not fond of the hustle and bustle of Black Friday shopping. Those crowds can be overwhelming, and the long lines and rude fellow shoppers can test your patience. If you don’t feel like venturing into brick and mortar stores this holiday season, you still have plenty of options. [Read more…]

Save Money with Affordable And Cheap Thanksgiving Decorations

November 13, 2015 By Laura

Thought it may be hard to believe, Thanksgiving 2015 is now under 2 weeks away. When people think of Thanksgiving, their first thought is typically the feast that they will prepare and consume (or for some people, just the feast that they will consume!) Preparing and cooking the food takes some degree of planning and organization. A lot of time and thought goes into planning the menu, shopping for groceries, and ultimately prepping the food. But what about those all important Thanksgiving decorations? Believe it or not, it is possible to find cheap Thanksgiving decorations. Several stores offering discounted or cheap Thanksgiving decorations.

Thanksgiving decorations Dollar Tree– Seriously, give Dollar Tree a chance! They have some really great, simple, and CHEAP decorations. Typically, they have festive placemats, plates, napkins, and decorations. They even have chargers to make your dinner table look fancier! Everything costs $1, and you can’t go wrong wit that price! While you are there, check out all their Christmas supplies.

Thanksgiving decorations Oriental Trading Company– Oriental Trading Company has tons of great Thanksgiving decorations. They have affordable tablecloths, decorations, plates, utensils, and much more! Need a nice Thanksgiving centerpiece? They have those too! Right now, various party and holiday decorations are on sale for up to 40% off! You have to hurry because the sale ends tomorrow!

Thanksgiving decorations Party City– Party City has a variety of festive Thanksgiving tableware, serve-ware, decorations, and more. You can nab some money saving Party City coupons on websites like retailmenot.com to help you save on your Thanksgiving decorations and supplies!

Thanksgiving decorations Party Cheap– Party Cheap has Thanksgiving scene-setters, decorations, table settings, banners, and even Thanksgiving apparel (think turkey hats!) Party Cheap’s products are very reasonably priced and perfect for making your home look festive for your Thanksgiving feast.

When in doubt, use what you have around your house to decorate for Thanksgiving! Uncarved pumpkins leftover from Halloween, dried beans layered in a clear vase, Indian corn, pine cones, leaves, and apples can all be used to decorate your home for Thanksgiving.

Cheap Pumpkin Decorations That Look Spectacular and Save $$

October 16, 2015 By Laura

Credit: Pinterest

As hard as it may be to believe, Halloween is just over 2 weeks away! That means there is just enough time left to decorate your house for Halloween. You can decorate with gourds, mini pumpkins, bales of hay, dried corn husks, and so forth. You may think “what would Halloween be without the classic carved pumpkin?” I am here to tell you that no carve pumpkin decorating ideas are some of the best because they are less messy! You don’t have to deal with all the pumpkin seeds and goop that you encounter when you carve a Halloween pumpkin. And lets face it, there is no such thing as easy pumpkin carving! It takes a lot of effort to carve a pumpkin. To save you the hassle, we have some inspiration for cheap pumpkin decorations that are DIY no carve pumpkin ideas. Seriously, save yourself the hassle. [Read more…]

Where to Get Cheap Halloween Candy

October 9, 2015 By Laura

Source: Dollar Tree

If you live in a neighborhood full of young children, you can anticipate needing a copious amount of holiday candy to hand out on Halloween. Also, if you are throwing a Halloween party you may need a large quantity of candy. Buying candy can get rather expensive pretty quickly. Why not save money and get cheap Halloween candy! Check out these websites and stores that sell cheap bulk Halloween candy.

Oriental Trading Halloween candy can be purchased in bulk and is relatively cheap. They have many varieties and combinations of cheap bulk candy to choose from. For example, you can get a bag of 66 Slime Balls Bubble Gumballs for $2.88. They also have a Hershey’s Greats Mix of 105 pieces of candy for $14.98.

Costco candy can be reasonably priced depending what you buy and how much you need. For example, Costco chocolate may be a bit more expensive than Costco gumballs. They do offer a variety of bulk candy, so shop around to find the best bargain.

Dollar Tree may not have bulk candy, but they have smaller packs of candy for only $1.00. They also have movie theater sizes boxes of candy for only $1.00.

Walmart sells a variety of cheap Halloween candy bulk. For example, you can get a 220 count Hershey Bars Mix set for $19.84. You can also get 48 Fun Dip pouches for only $4.65. Or, you could get an 80 count Lifesavers, Skittles, and Starburst variety pack for $6.98.

Candy Warehouse also sells bulk Halloween candy. They do not have the lowest prices, but they have the most variety and most unique selection. For example, you can get a 5 pound bag of licorice skulls for $29.50. Or, you could get a bag of 50 Chocolate Googly Foiled Eyes for $5.00

Money Saving DIY Fall Decorations

October 2, 2015 By Laura

Fall is here, which means it is time to put out your pumpkins, leaves, gourds, and other autumn decorations. It does not have to cost a small fortune to decorate your home for fall. Today, we are giving you some suggested simple, inexpensive, DIY fall decorations that will have your home looking festive in no time! Give these easy DIY fall decorations a try!

DIY Fall Decorations – Fall Decorating Ideas:

Purchase various pumpkins and gourds at a local farm stand for fall room decor DIY! You will probably be able to get the pumpkins and gourds for a low price. You can stack them in vases inside, or arrange them outside on your porch. If you are keeping them inside, we recommend preserving them by cleaning them with a mixed bleach solution. When they are dry, spray them with a clear preserving spray. This will delay the growth of mold.

Did you know that you can get fake fall leaves at craft stores and decoupage them onto mason jars? Inside the mason jar, you can place a real or fake tea light for the perfect DIY Fall Decorations. The light will shine through the fake leaves creating a nice, autumn ambiance in your home.

An idea for cheap fall table decorations requires a deep vase, dried corn, dried red beans, and dried green lentils. Layer the corn, beans, and lentils in your vase and place a candle on top. Tie a bow made of twine at the top of your vase and you have a nice candle holder.

A simple idea for DIY fall decor requires leaves, glitter, ribbon, and glue. Gently cover your leaves in glue, and then sprinkle fall colored glitter (gold, brown, orange, etc.) over the glue. Allow to dry and then punch a small hole near the stem. Carefully attach a ribbon and hang from your ceiling or mantel.

Make a candy corn banner out of a white paper plate. Paint an orange circle around the outer perimeter of the plate, and then a yellow circle inside the orange circle. The white center will be the end of the candy corn. When the paint dries, cut it as if you were cutting a pieces (triangles). Attach a ribbon to the “candy corn pieces.” There you have it- simple DIY fall room decor!