If you are looking for a fun way to add some pizzazz to snacks, lunches, and even dinners for your little ones I have the perfect tool for you!  My girls love their hardboiled bunny eggs.  Head over to Amazon where you will find the Rabbit and Bear Egg Mold and the Fish and Car Egg Mold to use on hardboiled eggs.  Turning the egg from its original smooth hardboiled egg into a shape is easy and only adds a few minutes to your day.  After the egg has boiled and set simply rinse the egg under cold water and peel.  Don’t let the egg cool off too much though.  Then put the egg in the mold, click shut, and submerge it into ice cold water.  Wait a few minutes before taking out and opening.  You will have a super cute egg!

You don’t have to be a Super Bento Maker to still add fun to meals!  I am anything but a Super Bento Maker and my girls still really like these special little additions to their lunches.

If you love saving money, and who doesn’t, check out these deals and freebies that will save you even more!  Be sure to subscribe to Coupons Are Great so you don’t miss out on great deals, fun freebies, crafts, and more.  

Hardboiled Bunny Eggs is a post by Coupons Are Great

When you are frugal there is a set of unwritten rules that guideline your life.

New isn’t always best. When I can get something used, I do! New cars lose their value almost simultaneously with the time you sign the papers. Buying used means you can save thousands of dollars. Used clothes are perfect for growing kids who need new wardrobes practically every season (it’s so unfair! I want a new wardrobe every season). The bells and whistles are unnecessary. Sure, we always want the latest and the greatest with the best features, but all the extras come at a big expense.

Scaling down your purchase can save thousands of dollars. When we bought our van in 2006 we were intentional with our finances and did not buy one with GPS (yes, this was a big thing back then), blue tooth (which had really just started to be a thing), or a back-up camera. We bought each of those things as after market additions as the years passed and paid a fraction of the price for what we would have paid when they were brand new.

Doing it yourself saves money. If you have time to do things yourself, you will save money. This requires that you have time though. Things you can do yourself to save money include changing your oil, yard work, cleaning, manicures, pedicures, and more.  If you are handy you can even build furniture.  My husband has build several pieces of furniture in our house which has saved thousands of dollars.  It is possible to have Pottery Barn taste on a budget when you build it yourself.  Ana White is my go-to girl when it comes to finding woodworking projects to do around the house.

Children do not need the latest and the greatest toys and gadgets (nor do you).  In a world of marketing to children it is easy to get caught up in the “wants” and the “gimmes.”  It seems like schools ask for a fair share of money as well.  Instead of handing money to kids you can make a list of chores for them to complete before they receive the coveted money.  If an item is truly important, they will work for it.  Having a chore chart for kids is another way to make sure kids are buying what is truly important to them.

Coupons are great and help save money on grocery trips, eating out, clothing, and more.  You can get coupons for free.  It is always a good idea to check Redplum,  SmartSource, and  Coupons.com before heading out on a grocery store trip.  The little coupons can drop the price of your total purchase by a significant amount and it makes clipping coupons worth your time.

Frugal people research and plan ahead.  This is true for everything ranging from dinners to vacations.  Having a meal plan will help you eat out less.  Planning vacations in advance can assure that you get the best price available.  I like the meal plans included in 20 Meals from Costco for $150 and 10 Freezer Friendly Organic Meals for $102.  The best deals on hotels and travels often happen by booking early.

Your community offers many free activities and events.  Books, DVD’s, and more can be checked out for free from the library.  Holiday events including parades and tree lightings are seasonal activities.  Some communities offer movie nights, yard sales, cooking demos, and more.  Getting out and seeing what there is to do for nothing out of pocket in your community is a great way to save money and to make new friends!

Saving money in an emergency fund is a must.  Something is ALWAYS going to happen.  The car may need a major replacement, the heater may stop working, or the child may need a cast for a broken bone.  Instead of floating the money on credit cards, frugal people know they must have money in the bank for all those unfun things that happen.

Being frugal does not mean you are a total tightwad who doesn’t like to have fun.  Our family is frugal because we like to vacation and to save money for our future.  I hand over a stack of coupons at the grocery store and then come home and upload my receipts to my favorite cash back apps because I like saving money and making our budget work.

Do you lead a frugal lifestyle and have a tip to add?  If you are starting to rethink how you spend/save your money, which tip from above is your favorite?

If you love saving money, and who doesn’t, check out these deals and freebies that will save you even more!  Be sure to subscribe to Coupons Are Great so you don’t miss out on great deals, fun freebies, crafts, and more.

Tips for a Frugal Life – Habits of Frugal People is a post by Coupons Are Great

Materials Required to a Burlap Bunny Garland Banner

• Burlap.  Burlap is $3.99 per yard at JoAnn’s.  (Find current printable Craft Store Coupons here to save a little bit of money!)
• Acrylic Paint
• Pom Poms
• Scissors
• Glue Gun
• Paintbrush
• Jute
• Discarded cardboard
• Waxed paper (optional, but a very good idea)
• Template

How to Make a Burlap Bunny Banner

1. Using the template provided, trace the triangle onto the burlap using a Sharpie along the edges.
2. Once you have traced the desired amount of triangles (I used 5) then you will cut the bunny from the center of the triangle template and trace that onto each burlap triangle.
3. It’s kind of fun to place the pom pom on there just to see how cute the finished project will be.
4. Once you have the triangles cut and the bunny traced onto the burlap it is time to start painting.  I use an old, stiff paint brush when painting on burlap.  This project may take two coats of paint.
5. While the paint is drying attach the pom pom tail using a glue gun.  Once everything is dry, glue the jute to the top back of each banner piece.

Tada!  Aren’t you so impressed with how frugal and easy this craft is to complete?  My girls fell in love with this as soon as they saw it.  I can’t wait to get a few pictures of them holding it…once things outside start to bloom a little bit more!

Will you make this craft or do you have another Easter/Spring craft that you love?  We would love to hear all about it!

See Also: Peeps Burlap Banner

We love crafting!  Be sure to check out our Craft Posts for more ways to create fun, frugal crafts and projects at your house!

Burlap Bunny Garland Tutorial is a post by Coupons Are Great

I tuck the girls’ lunch box notes into their lunch boxes with their EasyLunchboxes 3-compartment Bento Lunch Box Containers and they often come home from school saying that their teacher shared the joke(s) with the entire class.  How cool is that?

Wouldn’t it be really cute to use these jokes in an eggsciting Easter scavenger hunt? We just read Pinkalicious: Eggstraordinary Easter and I think these would be an awesome addition to a hunt around our house!

FREE Easter Lunch Box Notes

{CLICK HERE}To get your very own free, printable Easter lunch box notes.

Printable Easter Lunch Box Notes Using Easter Jokes for Kids is a post by Coupons Are Great

Below you will find some amazingly fun science experiments for kids.  Whether you are watching colors mix with paper towels or melting smores without a fire you and your kids will have a fantastic time together.   Be sure to print out this free Scientific Method worksheet to accompany each experiment you do. 1. Inflate a balloon using baking soda and vinegar
2. Dissect Owl Pellets 3. Science for Kids – Making Smores in a Box 4. Homemade Bath Fizzies 5. Green Eggs and Ham – Without using dye
6. Elephant Toothpaste – a fun foaming experiment 7. Sprouting Seeds 8. Make an Indoor Greenhouse 9. Color Transfer 10. Another Color Transfer 11. Extinguish a candle with a glass 12. Experiment with Dry Ice

This Magic Science book for kids is filled with even more scientific projects to complete at your house!  Check out our Science Experiments posts for even more inspiration!

Which one of these science experiments are you the most excited about?

A Collection of Science Experiments for Kids is a post by Coupons Are Great

Materials Required to Make a Pine Cone Bird Feeder:

• Pine Cone
• Peanut Butter (or shortening)
• Bird Seed
• Pipe Cleaner (AKA Chenille Stems)

Make a Pinecone Bird Feeder:

1) Spread peanut butter all over the pine cone.  You can use shortening (AKA Crisco) instead of Peanut Butter.   This makes this a nut-free allergy project for anyone who may have allergies.

2) Roll the peanut butter covered pine cone in bird seed. Coat thoroughly.

3) Attach a pipe cleaner to the top.  The pipe cleaner wraps around the pine cone and tree branch nicely.  One year we used ribbon and it damaged the tree.  Pipe cleaners can easily be removed after the birds have picked off all the seeds and they do not damage the tree!

4) Hang around the branch of a tree.  The birds will LOVE this eco-friendly bird feeder.  You are recycling the pine cone into a food source for the birds!

Another great bird related item to hang around your house is a Hummingbird feeder.  All you need is a simple mixture of boiled water and sugar to make the syrup to save money!

Bird Reading Materials

• Birds, Nests & Eggs (Take Along Guides)
• National Geographic Kids Bird Guide of North America: The Best Birding Book for Kids from National Geographic’s Bird Experts
• Everything Bird: What Kids Really Want to Know about Birds (Kids Faqs)

Once you are all done making your bird feeder, keep crafting! Create some rock bugs for the back porch or the garden.  Kids have so much fun painting and carrying around their creations.

Check out more Activities for Kids and Craft posts for more family inspiration.

Sign up for our Daily Email  – because you don’t wanna miss a thing (sung in my best Aerosmith impression – my husband rolls his eyes when I sing that song, which makes me sing it louder).

Craft Project Idea: Pinecone Bird Feeder is a post by Coupons Are Great

Rainbow Crafts for Kids | Rainbow Craft

• Rock(s)
• Acrylic Paint
• Paintbrush
• Newspaper or something to cover your workspace with in case paint spills

(The girls are 15 months, 3 weeks apart and we are ALWAYS hearing “Are they twins?”  It really doesn’t make people less confused when the girls dress up as twins….like they the day we painted rainbow rocks in 2013)

How to Make Rainbow Rocks

• Complete a nature scavenger hunt and search for rocks.  Look for small, long, bumpy, and flat rocks.  Bring those rocks home.
• Wash the rocks and allow them to dry.
• Using acrylic paint, paint rainbows on the rocks.  The colors of a rainbow are Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.

Looking for more rainbow crafts?  Check out these Tissue Paper Rainbows….ours are still hanging up in the window!

Rainbow Reading Materials

• All the Colors of the Rainbow (Rookie Read-About Science)

• The Weather Kids – and the Rainbow Superhighway

• A Rainbow of My Own

Once you are all done making Rainbow Rocks, keep painting! Create some rock bugs for the back porch or the garden.  Kids have so much fun painting and carrying around their creations!

We love crafting!  Be sure to check out our Craft Posts for more ways to create fun, frugal crafts and projects at your house!

Find a Rainbow Day: Rainbow Crafts for Kids | Rainbow Rock is a post by Coupons Are Great

Talk about the importance of giving.  Books that highlight the importance of giving include:  The Giving Tree, Random Acts of Kindness, The Giving Book, The Talking Eggs, I Can Make a Difference, and Uncle Willie and the Soup Kitchen.

Ways to Involve Children in the Act of Giving

Work together.  Create a list of ways that you can help others.  Kids have wild imaginations and you never know what will end up on your list.  If an idea is too crazy, add it to the list anyway!  A few days later talk about an alternative activity that would work.  Maybe adopting ALL the animals at the pet shelter isn’t going to work for your family, but donating food once a week is a great idea.  When brainstorming there is no such thing as a bad idea.  Be enthusiastic that you are working together on such an awesome task!

Start small.  Helping others doesn’t have to be a huge ordeal and kids often remember the small acts just as well as the huge acts.  Go around the house and find all the loose change you can (those couch cushions have to be hiding a few cents) and donate that money at a change drop off (we have seen them at Walmart, McDonalds, a local thrift store, and more).  It’s fun for kids to drop money into a box!

Money is not required.  Money is definitely not a requirement for teaching kids to be generous.  Make cards for soldiers and give them to your local Red Cross who will distribute them or mail them to Bert’s Big Thank You and they will take care of everything for you.  This is a great Girl Scout, Boy Scout, classroom, and neighborhood project.  Set up a singalong with a group of kids and ask if you can perform at a retirement home.

Volunteer with your children.  Finding a place that allows young children to participate is tricky, but volunteer with your children.  They may be able to help you shelve books at the library, stock items at the food bank, distribute fliers, or feed animals at the animal shelter.  By being part of the solution your child will learn how it feels to help others.

Shop for others.  Whether you are using a coupon and picking up a freebie (see what’s free this week) or budgeting a specific amount of money for charity you can have your child pick items from the store shelf while you are shopping.  Back to School and the Holiday Season are also great times to involve children in shopping for the less fortunate.

Here is a list of Ways Kids Can Volunteer (in case you need some more motivation)

• Donate old toys to a homeless shelter.
• Donate books to a domestic violence shelter.
• Donate food to your local food pantry.
• Donate Money – no explanation needed!
• Help neighbors – from bringing over a meal, walking a pet, or putting out the garbage no task is too small!
• Walk for a cause with a 5K or Fun Run for a charity that you would love to support.
• Create activity boxes to drop off at a children’s hospital.
• Pick up litter on your next nature walk or walk around your neighborhood.
• Create a butterfly garden in your backyard to help with the decreasing numbers of butterflies
• Make some no-sew dog toys for animals in shelters using old sheets or jeans
• Make birthday cards and deliver or mail to a homeless shelter.
• Deliver treats to your local fire or police station.

Make philanthropy a family value.

If you love saving money, and who doesn’t, check out these deals and freebies that will save you even more!  Be sure to subscribe to Coupons Are Great so you don’t miss out on great deals, fun freebies, crafts, and more.

How to Teach Kids to Give is a post by Coupons Are Great

Spring Quotes

No matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow. Proverb

Sitting quietly, doing nothing, spring comes, and the grass grows by itself.  Zen Proverb

“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.” From Meditations Divine and Moral Anne Bradstreet, The Works of Anne Bradstreet

“In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.” Margaret Atwood, Bluebeard’s Egg

“Spring is the time of plans and projects.” Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

“Spring drew on…and a greenness grew over those brown beds, which, freshening daily, suggested the thought that Hope traversed them at night, and left each morning brighter traces of her steps.” Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Spring is when life’s alive in everything.” Christina Rossetti

“The world is mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful.” E.E. Cummings

“The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another. The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month.” Henry Van Dyke

Do you have a favorite spring quote or tradition?  We will be starting out Egg Carton Planters this weekend as we gear up for our home garden.

Happy Spring: 10+ Spring Quotes is a post by Coupons Are Great

I love using non candy Easter Basket fillers for my girls.  We don’t have to argue over when is appropriate to eat candy (“No, before breakfast is a bad idea honey”) and the toys lead to imaginative play and last much longer than sticky sugar!  Not to mention, less threats of cavities!

100 Easter Basket Filler Ideas

Action Figures
American Girl Magazine
Army Men

Balls
Balloons
Band-aids
Bath Crayons
Barrettes
Beach Towel
Beads
Bookmarks

Calico Critters
Cards or card games
Cars
CD
Chalk
Chapstick
Coins
Craft kits (use Craft Store Coupons to bring your price down dramatically)
Crayola supplies
Dinosaurs
Dollars
Erasers
Fake flowers
Fairy Garden
Fairy Making Kit
Finger Puppets – Get a whole family or an assortment of animal finger puppets
Fisher Price Little People
Flip Flops
Flute

Friendship bracelets
Garden Seeds
Garden Supplies
Geocaching Bug
Glow Necklaces/Wands
Grow Animals
Hair Accessories
Headphones
I Love You Notes/I Owe You Notes to Kid from Parent
iTunes Gift Card
Jacks
Jewelry
Kazoo
Lazer Lights
LEGOs – This Lego Bunny is cute and the LEGO Friends Bunny Hutch Playset is perfect for Easter!
Lotion
Madlibs

Magic Kit
Magic Towels
Marbles
Mine Craft
Mini Maracas – Glitter Maracas
My Little Pony
Nail Polish
Origami paper
Outdoor Magazine
Plastic Rings
Plastic Stamps
Play-Doh
Punch Balloons
Puzzles

Qwirkle
Rainbow Loom Bands
Remote Control Helicopter
Rubber Duck
Slap Bracelets
Solar Powered Car

SpotIt
Spy Kit materials
Stationary
Stick on earrings
Stick on mustaches
Stickers

Stomp Rockets
Stretchable Flying Frogs
Squinkies
Sunglasses
Swim Suit
Tea Set
Temporary Tattoos
Telescope
Toy Animals
Tooth brush
Trading Cards
Ultra Stomp Rocket
Uno – This is currently our family game.  We have played UNO so much lately that I have dreamed about it!

Volcano Science Kit
Watch
Water Bottles (Reusable)
Wind Up Toys
Whistle

Wikki Stix
Whoopie Cushion
X-Box Live membership card
Yo-yo
Zingo
Zoo animals

Do you have any ideas that I missed from this list?  What is your favorite Easter Basket Filler?

See also:

Printable Easter Lunch Box Notes Using Easter Jokes for Kids

 If you love saving money, and who doesn’t, check out these deals and freebies that will save you even more!  Be sure to subscribe to Coupons Are Great so you don’t miss out on great deals, fun freebies, crafts, and more. 

100 Amazing Easter Basket Filler Ideas That Are Not Candy is a post by Coupons Are Great