Waterfront Park

The weather has been beautiful lately, and with our weekends free, we've been trying to get out of the house with the kids on Saturdays. Money's really tight so we're trying to spend as little as possible. Our usual routine is to hit the beach-we just spend money in the parking meter. But today we went to Waterfront Park in downtown Charleston, and for a whopping $0.60 for 45 minutes in the parking meter, we had a wonderful picnic lunch!

Frugal How-To: Autograph Books

We went to Disney over the weekend and part of the Disney experience is meeting the characters and getting their autographs. You can buy all sorts of autograph books inside the park for about $15 a pop, but when you multiply that by three kids, it gets pricey. So, to save some money (which of course we later spent on a bunch of other souveniers for the monkeys), I decided to make them for the kids and add a little personal touch to them.

I used these chipboard books from YMBD and let the boys each pick out some Mickey Mouse stickers to decorate the covers with. I bought some coordinating scrapbook paper and stickers and decopaged everything to the front. I cut printer paper into pieces the size of the covers and punched holes in them, then used the rings to hold it all together. I added some ribbon cuts from my craft stash and tied them to the rings to finish it off. All in all, it cost me about $20 start to finish (including buying pens for each of them) for all three books. And the best part is that the kids loved them!

Noah is really into the Pirates of the Carribean and these stickers were perfect for him! Yes, I know, the play on words is a bit cheesy, but that's what happens when you've got Dutch dry humor running through your veins. And hey- my 7 year old loved it!

Jonah thought these stickers of Goofy & Mickey were really cool!

Sophia LOVES Minnie Mouse and I thought that fun red rhinestones and black & white dots was just right!

Frugal How-To: Girl's Night Out

Here's my formula for how to have an inexpensive Girl's Night Out.

Dinner: Olive Garden-Endless salad & breadsticks for my meal, water to drink.Total after tip:$7

Entertainment: One ticket to see "Bride Wars" at the cheap theater: $4.75

Total damage done to the wallet: $11.75. Not too shabby for 5 hours out with the girls!