Recent Hints
Priceless personalised gift for teachers
Our end of year teachers' gifts cost nothing and mean more to them than any expensive chocolates or mugs! For each of my young kids' teachers, we print a sheet each year titled "Tell Me About (Teacher's Name)..." It has 8-10 questions on it, with space for the kids' answers to be written in, either by them or dictated to an adult. Questions can be anything. We include things like:
How old is Mr X? What is Mr D's favourite food? Something Miss B always says is.... What does Miss J like to do for fun? Ms P loves it when.... If I had $1000 I would buy Mr H a .... Miss V is a great teacher because.... Mr K gets cranky when... And finish with: A Special Message for Ms A...
Every year it is a massive hit. Teachers love it and when there are multiple teachers, they love to get together and compare answers!
By: QLD Girl 2 responses in the members' forumRe-use butcher's paper to save on paper towel
Instead of buying expensive paper towel, which doesn't seem to last in our household, we use the butcher's paper that is wrapped around purchases such as deli products to clean out oily pots and pans. This saves us money, as well as a heap of paper towel, landfill space and our precious trees!
By: Akiko YoshimotoHottest Hints
A platter from 'nothing'
This hint was a saviour during our last $21 Challenge.
The girls were looking for lunch and complained there was nothing to eat, so I found a large plastic platter and put the following treats on it:
A leftover BBQ sausage, thinly sliced
Two slices of leftover bread, buttered and cut into quarters
A diced kiwifruit
Four strawberries
A small piece of cheese, diced
1/4 tin corn kernels in a lettuce leaf
A muffin, cut in quarters
Four leftover chicken nuggets, cut in halves
A dob of cream cheese with a little corn relish mixed in
Four cucumber slices
Four cherry tomatoes
One Vita Wheat, halved
I gave the girls and myself a saucer each, plus a cocktail fork and everything was eaten and enjoyed. Now we often have 'platter parties' for meals and snacks. A novel way to serve up a meal when you have 'nothing' to eat!
By: Mona 37 responses in the members' forum$20 Saturdays for fun weekends
My kids love doing things on Saturdays but even a trip to the movies for our family costs $70. So I invented '$20 Saturday'. We could go anywhere and do anything as long as it didn't cost more than $20 for the whole day. One Saturday each month we would find a spot in the street directory that looked interesting and take a picnic, other times we visited free places such as museums or community festivals and the $20 bought a drink, small snack or ice cream. Not every place was terrific but we gave each place or activity a score to rate whether we would like to do it again. My boys talk fondly of things we did together and places we visited on $20 Saturdays and they learn that you don't have to spend up big to have fun.
By: Alice Wheatley 1 response in the members' forumReceive a Free Newsletter