Fun with Children: Making Memories on a Budget

Written by Nicole Dean


What childhood memories do you hold dear? For me, it was allrepparttar times "life happened". The little things like playing outside, riding my bike withrepparttar 110656 wind in my hair, playing atrepparttar 110657 park, swimming inrepparttar 110658 lakes, giggling with friends. None of those moments cost a cent, yet they are some of my most treasured memories.

Making memories on a budget is very easy to do. Choose any ofrepparttar 110659 ideas below and you'll have a fun-filled time without breakingrepparttar 110660 bank!

Garden - Plant flowers, fruit trees, herbs, or vegetables. Your child will learn science, responsibility and have fun!

Snip-it - Give your child old toy catalogs or magazines and safe scissors. Watch them cut all day.

Diggin' It - Send your child outside with a bucket and small shovel. Shoveling snow, sand, dirt or rocks -- it's all good fun.

Sing - Turn uprepparttar 110661 radio and sing! Teach your childrepparttar 110662 music ofrepparttar 110663 70s, 80s, or 90s.

Play Catch - Throw different items (balloons, tennis balls) to your child. Roll balls to young children.

Sidewalk Chalk - Lay onrepparttar 110664 sidewalk and take turns outlining each other. Decorate your flat selves.

Cardboard Boxes - Make towers, build cities, design play houses, airplanes, trains, forts and more!

Bubbles - Blow Bubbles. Take turns chasing and popping them.

Masks - Create Masks from Paper bags, paper plates, foam, or anything on hand.

Cards - Introduce your child to allrepparttar 110665 classic games -- UNO, Crazy 8, Go Fish, Old Maid, Memory Match.

Scavenger Hunt - Give your child a list of clues and send him out to find them. Clues can be simple (find a rock) or very advanced (find a piece of granite).

Throw Rocks - Go to a pond, creek, or lake and throw rocks. Try to skip them or aim for different targets.

Bath Time - Bring kitchen utensils intorepparttar 110666 bath tub. Bubbles and water can become an imaginary gourmet dinner.

Office - Give your child Junk Mail, stickers, a calculator and pen -- they'll have their own office!

5 ways to super savings internet shopping

Written by Prasad Kopanati


Save at least 200 dollars for 1000 dollars of shopping– that is 20% ofrepparttar total money spent. With common sense and little prudence you can save hundreds of dollars on your holiday shopping bills. From my past experiences, I have chosenrepparttar 110655 five best practices that will give yourepparttar 110656 maximum savings. Peruse them, put them into action and email me your numbers on savings.

Comparison Shopping: Gone arerepparttar 110657 days when there was no easy way to comparerepparttar 110658 price of a product at different stores other than visitingrepparttar 110659 stores. In this new era of cyber-shopping, there are numerous options to comparerepparttar 110660 price of a product at different locations ofrepparttar 110661 globe. With very little effort, internet would findrepparttar 110662 best and right price, atrepparttar 110663 right store for you to save big bucks.

A few days back, I was shopping for a Mini DV camcorder inrepparttar 110664 price range of $500 to $700. An ardent internet shopper, I researched on brands, their prices and decided to buy a JVC GRD200 Mini DV camcorder. It is (may be “it was”) my belief that Amazon.com deliversrepparttar 110665 best products atrepparttar 110666 lowest prices (It does sellrepparttar 110667 best products, but not atrepparttar 110668 cheapest prices – at least in this case). As always, I was poised to buyrepparttar 110669 product from Amazon.

The comparison onrepparttar 110670 price of this product (via www.shopping.com) revealed thatrepparttar 110671 product was sold as low as $299.00. With further research I understood thatrepparttar 110672 price was indeed 299 US dollars. Delaying no more, I boughtrepparttar 110673 camcorder from this seller instead of my first option – to save only $400.

As I look back, it still perplexes me how I saved $400 on a single buy. Does it not surprise you when you cut down 400 dollars on a single item? Perhapsrepparttar 110674 most important thing I did was comparingrepparttar 110675 prices for this product on www.shopping.com. It paid!

Cognizant Shopping: As a customer, your goal is to buyrepparttar 110676 best product atrepparttar 110677 cheapest price. Right?

You agree with me that it is not an intelligent idea to buy a product for 10 dollars when it is sold at 3 dollars less atrepparttar 110678 near by store. Neither do you accord it a savvy-shopping, to buy a product for 50 dollars when its price can be reduced by 10 dollars viarepparttar 110679 special store discount/coupon forrepparttar 110680 product.

Many of us do not realizerepparttar 110681 power of coupons. They hold tremendous potential for huge savings. Depending on how you use them, a coupon for 10 dollars for every 50 dollars would save 40 dollars over a period of month, assuming shopping once a week. Extrapolating, it is a 200 dollars savings over a 1000 dollar shopping-money. A typical Christmas shopping would amount to these numbers easily.

Althoughrepparttar 110682 example seems to be ideal, it resonatesrepparttar 110683 ideas of retails stores like JC Penny or Sears, whose holiday-shopping-placards read “$10 off for every $50 shopping – JC Penny”, “$35 off for every $250 spent on electronics – Sears”. Get intorepparttar 110684 habit of usingrepparttar 110685 coupons whenever possible to appreciaterepparttar 110686 savings accumulating into your pockets.

Selective Shopping: Depending on which state you buyrepparttar 110687 product from and which store you buy it from, you may or may not be charged a sales tax. Ifrepparttar 110688 sale is exemptedrepparttar 110689 sales tax, it is a savings of 6 percent to 9 percent of total sale amount. Each seller clearly indicates if a sales tax would be applied onrepparttar 110690 sale inrepparttar 110691 geographical location. Thus, a little cautiousness would translate to a savings as high as 9 percent.

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