Too many kids?

[mouse]

[lyndafaye]

[Golden Eagle]

Chatty Cat:

Why is it when ever you post to any thread you have such wonderful advice, and then you bring it all down with your post scrips or when you make comment on someone else's post and retaliate to their advice? You have no right to do this! This is not a place to mock other posters who are trying to send their message to the OP. No one has done this to you, in any of the threads!
You are not bringing positive things to this site, only negativity and controversy and you need to keep that out of here!

Furthermore:

God save us from the idiots of the world!! More importantly, God save the children from the idiots! It'll be so great when people are required to get licensed and trained in order to become parents.

I object thoroughly to you taking God's name in vain, as you have here!
_________________
Be an organ donor; give your heart to Jesus.
Exercise daily; walk with the Lord.

[lyndafaye]

here are a few tips on hand me downs. what family doesn't get hand me downs parents love them children not so much.

winter coats and boots. if the coat is handed down from an older sibling get new mitts and scarf and touque for the recipient.

clothing see if you can add an applique patch to personalize it for the new owner. Or dye it a colour they prefer if that is possible.

bikes make sure they fit and get a new helmet. personalize it by adding those streamers to the handguards or just buy new ones. If you have to put a name on them to help prevent them being stolen print it where it isn't seen so they can be handed down. If it is beat up repaint it.

When you are looking for new toys post on a bulletin board what you want. Someone may have exactly what you want and you might get a good deal. I have given away many things that I am no longer wanting to keep since it isn't being used.

To save money on toys I used to pick out 2 from each child and put them in the linen closet. They were not missed but a month or so later on some snowy or rainy day when they were bored I would go to the closet and haul out one for each of them. They were like new toys all over again and I got an hour of peace.

For baby things (toys) I bought a big package of those colourful cleaning sponges. They made great building blocks and didn't hurt anything when thrown around.
When they out grew those I had cleaning sponges as well.
I kept the margarine tubs and yogurt containers in a large bag and when we went to the beach they had a lot of different size molds to make sand castles.
They also used these to make castles in the house.
You can also go to the lumber store and ask if they have bits and pieces of odds and ends from lumber they have sold and cut.
some places will give them to you but you might have to pay a small amount.
take them home sand the edges and then mix kool aide with water and soak the wood in the different colours. great for building blocks.
also the kool aide will not harm them but it may come off on their hands but not to a great extent. and that is better than toxic chemicals or perfumes.

[mouse]

[asker]

I had to pipe in after reading what you said....

I have 5 children myself. My husband and I had great jobs. I had to go on LOA because one of my kids was very sick baby and was hospitalized often which meant I missed a lot of work. My husband made good money working full time until he got laid off at Christmas.

Times are tight now for us...we already have 5 kids and we weren't in that position in the beginning and now we are. We just have to make do and my husband is looking for work and I'm working part-time at this time which makes me as much money as a full time job. I'm in a high paying job.

My point here is that you can't judge unless you know the FULL story.

The poster just wanted to know how to budget.....and is looking for tips and being personally attacked isn't one of them.

Here are some tips...

Use Vinegar for most of your cleaning jobs; it's great for laundry; acts similar to bleach which gets the urine smell out of bedding or undies. Half vinegar and water for windows/mirror and use newspapers to clean the windows/mirrors with. It makes a good floor cleaner if mixed with water as well.

As for food; you can use half a pound of ground beef for spaghetti, chili, etc. Any leftover veggies can be pureed and added to it as well.

Veggies are cheap where I live so use veggies for veggie platter for the kids to snack on and mini bagels are great as well. You just toast them and put butter on. I get a large bag of them at Costco; the mini ones are way cheaper at Costco than supermarket so is meat. Any seasonal fruits can be frozen and made into shakes, muffins, jam, etc...

Use flat sheets for curtains; sew them into curtains. PVC pipes makes great curtain rods as well and is cheaper.

That's all I can think of at the moment...there's a great websites out there if you goggle "frugal meals" and there's "Dollar Stretcher" website as well. Good luck!

[Happytobehere]

Nice advice on the vinegar! I just rediscovered it myself one day when I ran out of laundry soap

I use it alot when I run the dishwasher as well. It helps clean out the deposits in the machinery.. it is so good on so many levels!!! Thanks for the other ideas!

[bracas5]

Happytobehere, how do you use the vinegar in the dishwasher?? I have deposits in mine and would love to know how to clean it out.

One of my money saving tips is to fill the water bottle for my water cooler (hubby got free at work) with regular tap water. I clean out my cooler and water bottle with vinegar. I have 2 bottles that I rotate, so I fill one and let it sit until the other one is empty, the clorine taste evaporates in that time, so the water is just like filling it with "spring" water at the grocery, at a fraction of the price.

[lyndafaye]

I just read these 2 tips for using baking soda.
the one I already knew but the laundry one is new to me.
let me know if you try it as I can't test it with no children or crayons in the house.



# use baking soda to scrub plastic items like "Tupperware" when they age and develop that "sticky' or "tacky" feeling. The baking soda restores a smooth and bright appearance.

# Baking soda can remove crayon from laundry. I washed and dryed a load of whites with a black crayon! I thought the clothes were ruined, but I was told to put 1 C. baking soda in the wash and rewash the whole load again. IT WORKED! I was surprised, but very thankful

[Happytobehere]

I am not sure if there's another way to do it, I just dump a cup of vinegar in to it. I believe there's a stronger product, to do the first main clean, but I have been doing this about once a week since I got my dishwasher 5 years ago and have little to no buildup from the soaps I'm not sure if it's the most accurate way to do it, my mom just told me to do that .

[Sonia C]

Wow, some really good tips here in the last few posts about how to be frugal. Thanks - I have learnt a few things too.
Good to see this thread back on track.

[Candice]