Works For Me ~ Book Orders

Every few weeks my Son gets Scholastic Orders sent home with him from school. This starts in preschool and continues for years and years! I love Scholastic and I love ordering books from time to time.

In my City we have a Library that is part of a Regional Grouping of Libraries that share a data base and books/DVDs/CDs...etc. I can sit in the comfort of my own home on this handy dandy computer and request items that I'd like my Family to have - this great system then gets these items delivered to my local library and sets them aside for me to pick up! How awesome is that?!

Well, last week I sat with all 5 of the different Scholastic Papers that came bundled together for my First Grader and opened up my Library's Browser and started to request books I thought would be a good read this month! Ha! What a great concept!!
These are some of the books (listed in these flyers) I requested late last week and picked up already today!To save a buck this month and next, see if your library has some of the books of interest!
Works for me!


I participated in the Works For Me Wednesdays hosted by We are That Family ... click on this button to go and visit more posts with frugal ideas!

Works for Me!

I participated in the Works For Me Wednesdays hosted by We are That Family ... click on this button to go and visit more posts with frugal ideas!
So by nature, I'm not an overly tidy person but since marrying my husband 11 years ago - his natures have rubbed off on me to a certain extent (he might not agree!). He's very organized, very "everything has a place and it's in it's place"...etc. Which is (can be) great!
My Husband is always the one to wash our vehicles and vaccum them out... but I thought I'd do it last week - which brought me to this WFMW post. I'd like to share some of his ideas with you!

Our van's mats stay nice and clean looking, see:BECAUSE of these custom cut (by my hubby) carmats that we lay overtop of the ones above! Isn't he so smart?! He used a cheap industrial carpet that you can buy from Walmart for under $10... and cut it up into shapes that fit!these are particularly nice when the weather changes and in/out of my van go 5-7children everyday!


I want to share with you what types of things we have in our van for "just in case" situations:

Soccer Ball; juice boxes & bottled water for the time I forget to grab our water bottles from the house (or if we run out of water); blanket for picnicing; and hand broom for getting sand from the beach off of toes before entering the van...One bag hangs on the back of our headrest for a spare change of clothes for my youngest children; and the other bag holds 'environmentally friendly' bags for grocery shopping
Some extra snacks in the glove compartment (and a pack of vinegar for the time we are in the USA McDonald's - since they don't have vinegar packets for their fries!)...and in the door pockets we have: a wide-mouth empty water bottle for my 2 boys to pee in when a bathroom isn't convenient (we use is LOTS), extra diaper(s), Wipes (I will buy these long after I need them for diapering purposes!) and some hard {organic} candy and Lollipops for "emergencies":
Do you have any great ideas regarding what you keep in your vehicle??? Please do share!
This works for me!

WFMW - Disposable Cameras

Lately I have found so many disposable camera lying around the house. Don't know where they all came from, but what a great idea for the kids.

If you are going on a trip. Get them a little disposable camera (though if you are comfortable with them using your digital, that works too) to document the trip kind of like a scavenger hunt. There are 24 pictures and you could make a list of 24 different things you know you will see, like a cool building or an out of state/province/country licence plate. Kinda like THIS photo hunt I'm doing but on a much lower level. Then you can put them all in an album and have their perspective of the trip... like this:
Keeping the kids busy on road trips Works For Me!!


I participated in the Works For Me Wednesdays hosted by We are That Family ... click on this button to go and visit more posts with frugal ideas!

Works For Me Wednesday ~ toilets & toothbrushes

Do you clean your family's toothbrushes? If so, how? How often?
I received the following book from a good, life-long friend Jamie from Encouragment for Today blog... she sent this book to me for a birthday of mine nearly a decade ago. I read this book and wanted to share one of the many great practical tips in this book that I've implemented into my life...
First of all, here is the book:
and the tip I want to share from it is this... cleaning your toothbrushes weekly by throwing them in the dishwasher or by soaking them in hydrogen peroxide - I've chosen to do the dishwasher method but I did not remember that it should be a weekly thing, which now I will try to do!
(yes, I'd think you throw them in the dishwasher with the detergent... just add them to your utensil holder with a full load of dishes and voila, clean brushes!)Here is her blurb on it from the book:

Which now brings me to another part of the bathroom - the toilet! My Husband read one time that a flushing toilet "spills/sprays" it's contents a certain radius (that I can't remember) in the bathroom; hence onto your toothbrushes, handtowel...etc. I can't find the article and haven't found key words to search on google in order to get me to this information for you... but trust me and if you think about it, you'll quickly see it's true.
So our solution (my husband must've read this in the same article) was to keep the lid closed all the time and especially before flushing the toilet! You might like to implement this in your home too!Works for me! (continue below for more info)






Added in after publishing: A friend of mine, Korinne, let me know that a toilet's radius of "spray" is 10 feet! YUCK!
And I thought I would add in a Homemade Dishwashing Soap in which I learnt about on a WFMW post from last week on Abigail's Mommy blog...

Mix equal parts Borax and Baking Soda, and add 2 Tablespoons per load. Increase proportion of soda for hard water. Use vinegar in the rinse cycle or free rinse aid.

Borax .32 a cup
Baking soda .01 a cup

.33 a cup or .04 a load

I mixed up a cup of each and stored them in a container with a tablespoon under the sink.


I participated in the Works For Me Wednesdays hosted by We are That Family ... click on this button to go and visit more posts with frugal ideas!

Works for Me Wednesday - Craft Closet

Here's my (alexa's) first attempt at a WFMW. I don't think I can compare to Jen because she is the most frugal person I know. She could do a post a week for that category! But lucky for me, this week is just what Works for Me!

We LOVE crafts in this house. And I don't like to have to supervise them.... I have what's called the "craft closet". I think it used to be a broom closet, but from the day we moved in, I filled it with wire shelves and crafts supplies.

This past week I felt the need to reorganize - a need I feel often in certain rooms (the craft closet, the store room and the playroom). We now have the bottom shelf with the supplies that I don't mind them getting into, the crayons, pencils etc. The shelf above has the paper supply and a few used coloring books. Above that, we have magazines for cutting out and the beading...

And higher up where they can't reach so easily, I have the supervision (to get started) only boxes. I bought these photo boxes at Michael's when they were on for a dollar. I filled them, opened the lid and snapped a picture, so the kids (and I) don't have to look far to find what we want.

The kids also have these photo boxes on book shelves in their closets packed with toys and labelled with photos.

Organizing (and reorganizing) Works For Me!

Works For Me Wednesdays hosted by We are That Family click on this button to go and visit more ideas!

Works For Me Wednesday ~ Goody Bags

I participated in the Works For Me Wednesdays hosted by We are That Family - this week was a theme of "Frugal"... click on this button to go and visit more posts with frugal ideas!

I am one that shops all year long - I grab bargains and fill up 3+ Rubbermaid totes with gifts for all occasions including fillers of goody (loot) bags for parties! Just like We Are THAT Family posted for her WFMW here: Gift Stockpiling.

I was talking with some friends a few weeks ago about this and I told them that my goody bags are not all the same most of the time - and that's okay because I give out the goody bags as children are on their way out our door, therefore no comparing can be done! So if you have 10 children but only 8 of something, don't worry and use it! You can find 2 other things for the 2 bags missing that one item.

I like goody bags to have a bit more of a substantial fill to them, rather than just a bunch of candy and toys that break before the child gets home!
Since I like goody bags to be more substantial, I could never fit the goody bag contents into the loot bags you buy from a Dollar Store... I use paper lunch bags (probably cheaper anyhow than even the pack of $1 bags) and then incorporate our theme somehow onto the front with the name... like this:Under the child's name I like to include a 'Thank You For Coming' note too and get that all taken care of right off the bat.

I do start to think of a theme for my children's birthdays far in advance (with my Child's input too) which helps! Or actually what can create a theme some of the time is finding something to work with first (a deal)... for example: I decided my son would have a Shrek Birthday Party in February (his birthday is in October) when I found packs of these (below) Shrek figurines marked down for $1.25 at Target - I bought all 4 or 5 packs that were left... some figurines were used for decorating part of the cake, and the rest were divided into the goody bags - each child got 3 different characters.In that goody bag was also a ziploc bag of slime (cornstarch and water), Prince Charming's truffles (which I had got a box of make-your-own-truffles mix from a Liquidator that was there after Christmas), a Shrek pencil (that came in a box of Shrek Valentines cards that I bought for 99c) and some candy.
As part of the Children's goody bag too, was to bring home the Gingerbread Man Cookie (Gingy) that they decorated at the party (another item, gingerbread cookie dough mix at the liquidator for less than $1)...

Another idea I have done in previous years is making several batches of playdough, putting it in ziplocs and having them as part of the goody bags. It's always been a hit!

Be Creative, Plan Ahead and keep your eyes peeled for RED TAGS, CLEARANCE SECTIONS, DISCOUNT BINS, and LIQUIDATION STORES! (no wonder every shop I do even at our regular grocer takes me one hour - I scour the places for deals!!!)

Last week at Michael's I found (by "accident") their Easter stuff that was still left (2 weeks later), now marked down to 90% off. I bought at lot of what was there including:
Playing cards that were 15cents a pack! These will be great for girl goody bags as well as for the shoeboxes I pack at Christmas Time for Operation Christmas Child. I bought a dozen packs I'm sure!
And carrot-shaped bubble pendants and bubble solution-rings... very fun things for extremely cheap!

I picked up these (below) once the "Back to School" stuff was on clearance... they are supposed to be lunch boxes and pencil cases - but to me they are great birthday gifts! This can be the wrapping paper... or it can be wrapped as the gift... perfect! I bought a few of each design.
This coming weekend the Princess one will wrap up a Webkinz for a birthday party my son will attend - the gift will have cost me $10 (Webkinz bought on "Webkinz Day" last week... buy one get one for $1. Sweet deal.) with the value of $25!


Do you have a cheap, creative idea for goody bags?
Who's birthday is next in your Family? Maybe your next dinner-conversation will be "what kind of birthday party would you like, son?"

Thanks for visiting! :)