Penny Pinching Peach

For the semi crunchy, homeschool friendly and totally frugal!

Category Archives: Frugal Family


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Decluttering My Closet

The Great Closet Purge

The Great Closet Purge

My closet is the bottomless of abyss, a cavern full of miscellaneous items, gifts bought ahead of time and mountains of clothing that mocks me with the tiny sizes and even more youthful styles worn by my mother’s daughter who was not yet my children’s mother. It’s one of those things that makes me anxious to even think of tackling, but today I got the nerve up to try yet again. This time, however, I’m in massive purge and pack mode, since we are getting ready for a major move and I don’t want to carry all the clutter with us. I haven’t the slightest illusion that we won’t still have too much stuff with us. I am just determined to make sure not to take all of the things I haven’t used or worn in forever, because it is literally dead weight that steals my joy by making it impossible to keep my home looking neat. First on the list is probably my worst personal offense- my clothing!

If you share my struggle with clutter, especially clothing, maybe my mad methods will help you out (or at least inspire you that a fellow clutterbug was able to get rid of so much junk), so I thought I’d share. If I can clear things out, ANYONE can! (Well, I can’t speak for actual hoarders. I’m not quite there….yet!)

My criteria for getting rid of clothing? If I haven’t worn it since my nearly three year old son was born, it’s gotta go. There are very few exceptions to this. I made an exception for a dress my mom personally made me a patchwork bottom for, because it’s still beautiful and oh-so-sentimental. Also, obviously I haven’t worn my wedding dress, but I’m not going THAT far in my purging!!

What are the categories for clothing that I am no longer keeping? Throw away, thrift store, and consignment. Throw away is for the clothing with more than slight stains, tears, etc. that I can’t easily repurpose into rags or something I can use right now. (If you do alot of DIY and are not drowning in your stuff like I am, you can think alot more creatively with this part. I’m overwhelmed, so it is gone, gone, gone!) Thrift store is for items that are still good, but may be very slightly stained or totally outdated. Consignment is for items that are in good condition and either timeless or stylish, because I can use them to get things my kids will be needing. The photo doesn’t include the two bags of thrift store donations I have headed on out. 🙂

How in the world am I sorting the clothing I am keeping? Well, ordinarily I’d divide them by season and put up the out of season ones. However, since I’m having a new baby this summer and plan to breastfeed her, I’m doing things a lot differently. I got a huge storage tub and filled it up with clothing I can’t wear either while pregnant or during the early days as a breastfeeding mom who will not only need to be able to access aforementioned breasts to feed my precious baby girl, but whose body is most certainly not going to be back to normal for the remainder of warm weather. All of the clothing that I believe that I can wear between now and cool weather I kept out. It’s not as complicated as it sounds, since this is my third child and I know exactly which clothing is too aggravating to try nursing a baby while wearing. LOL

Anyone else purging that cluttered mess of clothing in the closet??


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Bunny Trouble

One of my kids' favorite Easter books!With Easter fast approaching, I wanted to share with y’all about one of my children’s favorite Easter bunny books.

My children love this book so much, I’m not allowed to put it up the rest of the year. It’s frequently requested, regardless of the season.

“Penny Pinching Peach is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com”

Bunny Trouble is the story of a unique bunny who was part of the Easter bunny’s colony. This little bunny’s love of soccer caused him to get into all sorts of trouble, but in the end, he learned to work better with others toward common goals and they learned to embrace those who may be just a wee bit differently. With adorable photos and an attention grabbing story line, this is a great story to celebrate the fun of the season, teamwork and appreciating what makes each of us just a little bit special.

To get your own copy, you can click the title  in blue and go to Amazon to order it new or used. I’m sure your children will enjoy this lively story as much as my little ones do. 🙂

Do you have a favorite Easter book? Try making our adorable Easter bunny cake!

 


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Keep Sliced Apples Fresh

How to keep apple slices fresh longer…

My kids love to snack on apple slices. The problem is, they frequently don’t finish all of the slices at one sitting. I got fed up with feeding the leftovers to the chickens, and remembered that I’d heard lemon juice would keep the slices fresh for longer. I didn’t have lemon juice, but I did have key lime, so I tried it. Here are the results, after 24 hours.

First, I put a slice aside as a control to see how well the key lime juice would actually work. Below is what it looked like after 24 hours, a sort of golden brown. It was also fairly squishy when I’d give it a squeeze between my fingers.

Apple slice without key lime juice

Apple slice without key lime juice

Next, I put a couple of slices of apple in a Ziploc baggie, sprinkled a few drops of key lime juice inside, swished it all around to make sure there was a light coating all over and squeezed the air out of the bag, leaving it on the kitchen counter with the other plain apple baggie. Below is what it looked like after 24 hours, almost as white as when I sliced it. The texture was also pretty much the same, and there was barely a hint of key lime flavor when eating it.

Apple slices with key lime juice

Apple slices with key lime juice

All in all, I’d say this experiment was a definite success. I’ve added a new weapon to my produce saving, grocery stretching repertoire! It’s also a great option for prepping healthy snacks the night before when you know you have a busy day coming up.

For more snack ideas, check out After School Snacks!


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Phonics Hunt Game

Phonics Hunt

Phonics Hunt

My oldest daughter is currently learning to read. She is doing an amazing job with her schoolwork, and has inherited my voracious love of learning. However, when we did our review work today, I spotted a couple of letters she was having trouble matching with their phonics sounds correctly. I decided that- instead of doing math today (which I don’t do daily with a kindergarten student, since she likes to do a lot at a time, anyway)- I would make up a fun game with multiple parts to help her get a better grasp on the sounds she was struggling with remembering. We needed some outside time to burn energy and get some fresh air, so I incorporated that in with our school time. (Gotta love homeschooling!! Learning happens everywhere!! Since I’m a second generation homeschooler, this is natural & normal for me, but I am seeing a whole different side of it now. Love it! 🙂 )

My Princess Pennypeacher was having trouble with the letters H and N. I handed her a grocery bag, and explained that we were going hunting for things that start with those letters, making the phonics sound for her. Our goal was to find at least three items with each phonics sound. She is very goal oriented, so she loved this!! As we went walking together, searching for objects, I kept repeating the letters and sounds and helping her come up with words starting with those sounds. We found a few things outside, then continued our search in the house. This kept her busily searching for a while, having a good ol’ time all the way, with her little brother following her around shouting the sounds with her without having any idea what he was talking about. 🙂 Once she found three items starting with the H and N sounds, we moved on to the next part of the game.

I had her sit down and choose two pieces of paper to write the uppercase and lowercase versions of each letter at the top of each sheet. Once she did that, I had her pull one item at a time out of the bag, tell me which sound and letter that item started with, set it beside the correct letter sheet and then I helped her write the words by breaking down the sounds in each word to see if she could tell me the matching letter. This was mostly to reiterate the sounds she was working on, but also to check for any other sounds she might be struggling with. This part was less of a hooray kind of fun for her, but she still enjoyed the challenge.

To finish up, we took a silly photo of my kindergartener, her project, and her loyal assistant! 🙂

Do you think your little ones would enjoy this game? It cost nothing whatsoever, so that made my pockets happy. It definitely helped her get a better grasp on the letters she was getting confused on, although I think we will need to do a couple of more fun reviews to make sure she really has it. I love having fun learning with my munchkins! 🙂


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Key Lime Rice Krispie Eggs

This is an oldie, but a goodie! My second child is nearly the same age now as my first was when we did this one, so it will work even for tiny tots. Definitely worth a try, y’all!

With Easter around the corner, and so many creatively cutesy activities floating around the internet, I decided to cook up a couple of simpler goodies with my 3 year old Princess. 🙂

One of the things we chose to do was Easter Egg Rice Cereal Treats, with our own twist. We used key lime flavored marshmallows and added lots of pretty colored sprinkles in with the rice cereal. We didn’t fill them or decorate them extra, since that was just too much to try to get accomplished with my dawdly darling during my little punkin’s nap. We were having oodles of fun doing a basic molded version, plus some that we shaped into eggs by hand, and that’s the main point of doing cooking or crafts with a munchkin. They turned out with the refreshing look and taste of spring, and my daughter is quite pleased with our handiwork.

Want to try your own hand at it? Here’s the recipe:

“Penny Pinching Peach is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com”

They're more green than this looks

They’re more green than this looks

Rice Cereal Easter Eggs

12  Plastic Easter Eggs 
3 tablespoons butter
1 package (10 oz.) regular marshmallows
OR
4 cups miniature marshmallows
6 cups rice cereal
Candy sprinkles
Frosting and/or candies, optional

Molding Cereal Eggs

Molding Cereal Eggs

Clean, then coat inside of plastic eggs with cooking spray. Set aside.
In large saucepan melt butter over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted. Remove from heat.
Add rice cereal and candy sprinkles. Stir until well coated.
Using greased hands, firmly press 1/4 cup of the cereal mixture into each Plastic Easter Eggs half. Press together. Remove from molds. Place on wax paper.
OR
Using 1/3-cup measuring cup coated with cooking spray divide warm cereal mixture into portions. Using buttered hands shape each portion into egg shape. Cool.
Decorate with frosting and/or candies, if desired.

MICROWAVE DIRECTIONS:
In microwave-safe bowl heat butter and marshmallows on HIGH for 3 minutes, stirring after 2 minutes. Stir until smooth. Follow steps 2 and 3 above. Microwave cooking times may vary.

For a cute way to store these once they cool, try this cute Easter Egg Shaped Chick Cookie Jar or this Easter Tupperware!

Princess and I got most of this done before my littlest booger woke up from his nap. Being the food loving fella that he is, he awakened just in time for the most important part of any recipe: taste testing!

This is a perfect recipe to do with a small & enthusiastic cook-in-training! I’ll be doing some rendition of it next year. I’m sure my munchkins would be looking forward to it, if they were old enough to plan a year in advance. 🙂

What flavor of marshmallows will you use in yours? For another fun Easter recipe, try my Peeps Easter Candy Cake!


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Winning Wednesday Again!

Great Gobs of Giveaways

Great Gobs of Giveaways

Another winning Wednesday here, just sharing some of the awesome- but less widely publicized- giveaways I find on the wonderful worldwide web. I love entering contests, although until the past several weeks I have rarely won anything. By rarely, I mean practically never, ever, ever. Just since Christmas Eve, though, I’ve won several awesome giveaways!!! One was a $20 boutique gift card! Another was a giveaway for the After Saga I featured here recently! Another was Christmas Eve and a higher entry giveaway for a huge prize package for our baby valued at over $1,200!! Another is a precious children’s book I featured here previously! More recently, I won a $25 Publix gift card, a craft kit, and a gluten free snack box! I’m not sharing to brag, but it tells you that people really do win! I think this baby in my tummy is my lucky charm, y’all! 😉 The giveaways I share here are not giveaways with hundreds of thousands of entries, so you actually have a decent chance to win something. Who doesn’t want to win free stuff?

Try to win a $100 Amazon gift card and other fantastic prizes! (Ends 3/16)

http://is.gd/K2sJbG

Enter to win a copy of The Fringe Hours! (Ends 3/14)

http://mtfw.net/me-time/

Try to win a pair of Freshly Picked moccasins! (Ends 3/14)

http://sarahontheblog.blogspot.com/2015/03/freshly-picked-review-giveaway-2.html

Try to win a Streaming Memories Cube!  (Ends 3/27)

http://www.sweepstakesfanatics.com/streaming-memories-cube-giveaway/

Here’s a huge blog hop with bakoodles of giveaways listed! (Ends 3/16)

http://mamasmiths.com/2015/03/lowes-gc-giveaway.html

Any bloggers or small businesses with current family friendly giveaways are welcome to post links to one or two of those giveaways with a brief description in the comments section. If you have an upcoming giveaway you would like to be featured, please contact me via my Facebook page with details. There are a several open giveaways remaining from last week, including a Tula baby carrier, huge kids’ prize pack, $500 Paypal cash prize and more, so head on over there for more chances to win some awesome prizes: https://pennypinchingpeach.com/2015/03/04/win-for-wednesday/ This will continue to be a weekly feature here on Penny Pinching Peach if there is consistent interest, so give a shout if you like this idea and let me know if you entered any contests! Oh, and definitely come back and let me know if you win something, please!!!


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The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game

Sneaky Snacky Squirrel Game

Sneaky Snacky Squirrel Game

If your kids are like mine, they love to play games together. However, it’s really hard to find a game that is fun for my very smart five year old, while being simple enough for my determinedly independent two year old to do with little to no assistance.

“Penny Pinching Peach is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com”

Educational Insights The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game is one of those rare amazing finds! They received this as a gift from a sweet friend of mine a few months ago, and they still play with it at least a couple of days a week. If you’ve been around little ones much, you know that this means this game is awesome if it’s surviving and still enjoyed regularly after that long!

If your child is old enough to know his colors well, or has an honest older sibling who can assist them nicely, you can let them sit at the table and play while you putter around the house getting things done. Since I initially helped them learn to play and they completely got the hang of it, which took about three or four games in all, they have rarely needed my assistance for anything except occasionally reminding Bambam to take turns when it’s not his turn. If you’re a mom, you know how valuable games and toys that encourage independent play can be for both you and your children. If you’re not, trust me when I say both parents and children will be happy with you for this gift for that very reason! 😉

Sneaky Snacky Squirrel Playing

Sneaky Snacky Squirrel Playing

Every piece of this game has proven to be sturdy enough to withstand the normal treatment of a little boy who earned every ounce of his nickname, Bambam, with all of that playing time. Both of my kiddos love their Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel game enough to willingly clean up and keep from losing the cutesy squirrel pinchers and numerous multi-colored acorns. The adorable tree shaped box is even much sturdier than the average game, so it’s still completely intact, as well. The only thing I would add is that if you have little ones who still put things in their mouths, please keep this game and it’s pieces safely away from that child, since the colorful acorns would be really tempting to taste and choke on. This should be common sense, but I felt I had to say it as a responsible parent of itty bitty folks. 🙂

I definitely recommend buying this game! I’m not being compensated for this review, just recommending and sharing a great product I think other families would love as much as we do, but I would be thrilled if you would purchase it through one of my Amazon affiliate links in this post, above and below. It costs you nothing, but it gives me a small commission to help take care of these cute little rascals. 🙂

Educational Insights The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game

Need some fun activities for your little ones? Check out 10 Preschool Activities Using Household Items!


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Easy Mexican Bean Salad

I love to cook, but don’t always have a lot of time to spend on making dinner. This super simple Easy Mexican Bean Salad is ready in a snap, healthy, delicious, kid friendly, and cheap enough for the penny pinching people among us! I mean, this is a meal I felt great about feeding to my family, but literally spent  less than 15 minutes int he kitchen preparing from the time I opened the fridge to get out things to start chopping! Who needs more meals like this? I know I do!!! 🙂 Keep reading for the how-to of this yummy meal!

Easy Mexican Bean Salad

Easy Mexican Bean Salad

Ingredients? You can choose your own! This time I use canned black beans (two cans seasoned with cumin, garlic powder and chili powder to taste should be about right for a family of four), avocado, tomato, cilantro, onion, cheese and sour cream. You can also use ground beef, venison, turkey, pork and chicken, shredded chicken or beef, pre-cooked dried beans of any kind you like, other types of canned beans, lettuce, green pepper, jalapenos, olives, fresh spinach, green onion, corn, sprouts and a variety of other things that sound appealing and reside in your kitchen at any given moment. The beauty of this meal is that it is so flexible to your individual tastes, pantry, dietary needs, and budget without being a hassle to throw together something different for everyone.

Give everyone a bowl, spoon in a healthy helping of your protein(s) of choice, then let them pile on their own choices from the rest of your ingredients you have set out for your family! My kids absolutely adore getting to pick all of their own toppings for their bowls of beans! It makes the battle of the belly filling non-existent, because most kiddos love to eat things they help prepare. Even my five year old, who is currently waging battle over half of her meals even when she likes them, didn’t give me a bit of trouble when she realized she was in control of all of her ingredients other than the beans she was piling them all onto! Since she chose it, she worked to make it herself and she is doggone proud of her own work in pretty much every instance…no arguments for the prissier side of my table. Bambam loves making his own selections, but he has a lifelong love affair with food, so if he ever protests a meal….well, the child is sick. 😉

If you pack lunches a lot, like I do for my hubby, this container is amazing for being able to carry leftovers to work or school for a healthy lunch without making a big soggy mess. Stay Fit Deluxe Salad Kit, EZ Freeze

Are there any toppings I didn’t think of that you think would be the bomb diggety on this easy Mexican bean salad? What do you think you’d like on yours? Are you hungry yet?? 🙂

“Penny Pinching Peach is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com”

Little Boy Approved!

Little Boy Approved!

Little Girl Approved!


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Winning Wednesday Again!

Another winning Wednesday here, just sharing some of the awesome- but less widely publicized- giveaways I find on the wonderful worldwide web. I love entering contests, although I rarely win. By rarely, I mean practically never, ever, ever. Just since Christmas Eve, though, I’ve won six awesome giveaways!!! One was a $20 boutique gift card! Another was a giveaway for the After Saga I featured here recently! Another was Christmas Eve and a higher entry giveaway for a huge prize package for our baby valued at over $1,200!! Another is a precious children’s book I featured here previously! More recently, I won a $25 Publix gift card! Just in the past few days, I won a craft kit! I’m not sharing to brag, but it tells you that people really do win! I think this baby in my tummy is my lucky charm, y’all! 😉 The giveaways I share here are not giveaways with hundreds of thousands of entries, so you actually have a decent chance to win something. Who doesn’t want to win free stuff? 😉

Excuse the short list this week. The ice and freezing rain has bogged down my internet so bad, I’ve had trouble accessing a lot of things! I still found some terrific giveaways to share, though!

♦ HUGE green giveaway with multiple winners of some great prize packages! (Ends 2/23)

https://gleam.io/Cbtmx-xkCQ2Q?l=http%3A%2F%2Fsomething2offer.com%2Fbig-green-giveaway%2F%3Futm_content%3Dbufferfb028%26utm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Dfacebook.com%26utm_campaign%3Dbuffer

♦ Enter to win an adorable Bamboletta doll! (Ends 3/1)

http://discoveringparenthood.com/2015/02/16/bamboletta-doll-review-giveaway/

♦ This book giveaway ends today, so Twitter users….HURRY!!!

https://twitter.com/Aquietplace…/status/567508656661753856

♦  Enter to win a Great Pretenders costume! (Ends 2/27)

http://discoveringparenthood.com/2015/02/13/great-pretenders-inspire-imaginative-play-review-giveaway/

♦ Enter to win a beautiful Mamas and Papas Gingerbread blanket! (Ends 2/25)

http://is.gd/CG29BB

♦ This blogger has a few terrific giveaways going right now, including a stroller, Lego prize and more!

http://conservamome.com/category/giveaway/

♦ This is a huge blog hop I think y’all will love!!! I entered tons of these amazing giveaways, and am thrilled to be able to share this list with sooooo many giveaways!!

http://notquitecrunchymommy.blogspot.com/2015/02/thursday-giveaway-link-up-212-edition.html

Any bloggers or small businesses with current family friendly giveaways are welcome to post links to one or two of those giveaways with a brief description in the comments section. If you have an upcoming giveaway you would like to be featured, please contact me via my Facebook page with details. This will continue to be a weekly feature here on Penny Pinching Peach if there is consistent interest, so give a shout if you like this idea and let me know if you entered any contests! Oh, and definitely come back and let me know if you win something, please!!!


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Frugally Fashionable

Her outfit came from this consignment visit, worn the day she found out the new baby is a SISTER! :)

Her outfit came from this consignment visit, worn the day she found out the new baby is a SISTER! 🙂

Soooo….my children were beginning to look like neglected waifs a lot of days, especially my long legged oldest with her floodwater pants and the many stains on my rough & tumble Bambam’s clothing. I am also finding myself scraping the barrel for clothing options for those times when short pants and stains were just not appropriate (like winter, for the former…LOL), since I wore out so many of my maternity items with my second pregnancy and prolonged recovery. I was pondering the horror of deciding what would actually fit into the budget, knowing I wouldn’t put myself in there, when the phone rang. *RING!!! RING!!!!* It was an auto call from a local consignment shop, informing me of half price days. Whoop, whoop!! Clothes shopping time, y’all!!! 😉

For just $31, at two consignment shops that are beside each other and run sales at the same time, we got a ton of very nice clothing in like new condition!!! For Princess Peachy: 4 pairs of pants, a ruffly skirt with a bow on it, a sparkly purple long sleeved top, a gymnastics/swimming suit and a short sleeved shirt. For Bambam: A jacket, 2 shirts, 2 pairs of pants, a pair of footie jammies. For Mommy: 2 shirts, a pair of pjs,  a dress, all of which will work through pregnancy and breastfeeding, both. Just the dress would have cost about $50-$60 new, and it looks brand new.

To save money on clothing while still looking fashionable and fresh, consignment shops and thrift stores are a terrific option! For me, I honestly don’t give a flip what is in style, but I don’t want to look like I got my outfit from a dumpster, either. Even if you care about the latest style, you can often find what you’d like at these places. Dumpster chic is not my thing, and consignment stores and thrift stores don’t leave me with that undesirable look. You can choose to consign your own clothing that is outgrown or just not worn often enough in exchange for money or credit toward clothing your family can actually wear. Half price days at these stores are a great way to save, as well as supporting local business and inadvertently being green in your choice of clothing. What’s not to love? 😉

Of course, this isn’t my only trick. I hit up online sales, piling coupon codes onto clearance and sales prices. I buy the next season’s clothing at the end of the season when everything is seriously marked down. There are countless little tricks that add up to serious savings!

What do you do to clothe your family on a tight budget? Another trick of mine is Schoola Discount Clothes!