Education & Amusement

10 Family Board Games You Didn’t Play as a Kid

October 7, 2011

This morning bright and early I’m off to film the first webisode for TLC.com’s upcoming series, Frugal Mama Makeover. Thanks for all your encouragement, and for your comments and emails about the daily deals issue. I love to hear where you are coming from! In case you didn’t catch them yet at Parentables, I wanted [...]

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10 Cheap and Easy Kid-Free Date Night Ideas

September 15, 2011

Friend and children’s entertainer Melissa of Moey’s Music Party used to go on daytime dates with her husband. They had more energy during the day (and so did their son), so why pay a babysitter to sit on their couch? she reasoned. “One of our favorite adventures was going to a Greenwich Village wig store,” [...]

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Back to School Roundup | New Schools, Discount Supplies, Easy Volunteering & Something for Mom

September 1, 2011

Even if you’ve got all your school supplies packed away in those darling little backpacks, the tricks I found in 9 high-tech ways to save money on school supplies can be applied to all sorts of smart shopping. For example, you can get cash for old electronics, buy discounted gift cards, or open an online registry. For more, [...]

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12 Low-Cost and No-Cost Teacher Gifts for the Start of the Year (and Beyond)

August 18, 2011

Karen Bantuveris, busy mom and founder VolunteerSpot, shares a bunch of out-of-the-box ways to give to your child’s teacher in this guest post. For more easy ways to help your school from Karen, see our interview at Parentables. It’s still hot, August is only half over, but soon it’ll be time to jump back into the chaos [...]

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Earth-Friendly Tips for Saving Money on School Supplies

August 16, 2011

Yay, it’s that time of year! It’s not that I’m psyched to get rid of my kids, it’s just that back-to-school brings back good memories. I guess I’m a goober at heart: I loved brown leather shoes, pencil boxes, and cubby holes. I still love filling in forms, checking off supply lists, and taking tests [...]

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The True Story of How We Turned Our School Around (and How You Can, Too)

August 9, 2011

When my oldest daughter, Sofia, was four, we had a kindergarten quandary. I was in love with my neighborhood in Arlington, Virginia, but its school was not loved by the neighborhood. However, a few other families believed in it, and after visiting, I could tell it was a gem. To spread the news and to [...]

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5 Super-Frugal Ways to Ramp up Your Summer — and Enjoy the Afterglow

July 14, 2011

Don’t let this summer get away. At Buttoned Up this week, I wrote about some easy and cheap ways to seize the day and boost your friendships in 5 Super-Frugal Ways to Ramp up Your Summer. I love spending time at home with my family: it’s my meat and potatoes. But to add a little [...]

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Bartering and Belly Laughs: 5 Questions with Melissa Levis of Moey’s Music Party

March 22, 2011

Our first winter living in New York City, I was feeling down in the gutter with the truck traffic, cigarette butts, and exhaust fumes.  But after going to a Moey’s Music Party class with my son, I concluded that Moey is hot chocolate for the soul. Her exuberance, natural warmth, and sparkly get-ups were enough to [...]

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Send Your Child to a Bad Public School? I Did — and I’d Do It Again

March 13, 2011

Every time we’ve moved somewhere new, I’ve been struck by that heart-thudding panic when someone says: “Everyone here sends their kids to private school as soon as they get to third grade,” or “Most of the kids are on free lunch and they get bussed in from rough neighborhoods,” or “I would think twice about [...]

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9 Ways to Encourage Imaginative Play

February 8, 2011

Free, unstructured, child-directed play is vanishing in today’s society.  Yet many believe it’s crucial to children’s intellectual and emotional development, and to our survival as an innovative nation that is competitive in the global marketplace. Last week in Make-Believe: Free Yet Worth Thousands, we talked about why free play is good and why it is [...]

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Make-Believe: Free Yet Worth Thousands

February 1, 2011

The media has recently been touting the benefits of make-believe play for children. In December, CNN said Want to Get Your Kids Into College? Let Them Play. Last month, the New York Times noted in the Effort to Restore Children’s Play Gains Momentum that “scientists, psychologists, educators and others who are part of the play movement say [...]

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How to Keep that Gym Membership Fee for Yourself

September 21, 2010

We had a baby in late July and I’m taking some time off to welcome him to the world. I am grateful to friends and fellow bloggers who are helping out with guest posts.  This article is by Stefanie Cloutier of Thoughts from Space. I don’t love to exercise, but I do love to eat chocolate, [...]

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Nine Summer Family Activities on a Budget

July 30, 2010

We are expecting a baby around July 29 and I’ll be taking some time off to welcome him to the world. I am grateful to friends and fellow bloggers who are helping out with guest posts.  This article is by Sarah Welch and Alicia Rockmore of Buttoned Up. It was a warm summer night. The humidity [...]

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Winner of Tiny Art Director Book Give-Away

June 16, 2010

Thank you to everyone who entered last week’s contest by helping spread the word about Frugal Mama.  I wish I had a copy for everyone, but alas, the winner of the autographed edition of Tiny Art Diretor, generated by random.org, was entrant #2:  Lol Fow. Thank you once again for supporting Frugal Mama and for [...]

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Super-Frugal Ways to Encourage Your Child’s Artistic Ability

June 9, 2010

After-school classes can put a real drain on families’ budgets, and with the slow parenting movement gaining momentum, some parents are taking a stand against over-scheduling for philosophical reasons too. Yet it’s hard to totally step away and let our children run free, especially if they seem drawn to a discipline like art, or we [...]

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Save Money and Declutter with Online Book Swapping

March 2, 2010

Ever wondered how to get rid of old books, while getting new (to you) books? I explore one increasingly popular option — online book swapping — today at Buttoned Up. Here is an excerpt: We all know that the library is the primo destination for saving money on reading. But sometimes we don’t live near [...]

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