Saw some great deals on lawn care and home maintenance at my weekly Target run. You’ll need to check the endcaps to look for the deals. Most of the ones I found were in the very back of the store - near the school supplies of all places!

Scotts Lawn Fertilizer - $2.49 per bag
Variety of grass seed and weed killer on clearance for 30% off.
Decorative iron pieces for the yard at 50% off
Bamboo tiki torches at 50% off.

There were a lot of other odds and ends as well - definitely worth a check of those clearance endcaps!

I have a friend who has a baby daughter. Her older children are boys so she has been trying to find ways to use their baby clothing but would prefer that her daughter be dressed in something more “girlish”. She has come up with a really nifty way to get more use out of their old clothes that are still in good condition. Basically she uses appliques or adds decorative trims to the plain shirts or overalls which then make the outfit more feminine looking. I have taken her example and done the same thing for a few of my son’s old polo shirts. I added nice appliques to the front which makes them much more tolerable to my 4 year old daughter. A nice way to use those hand-me-down clothes that are in great shape!

Besides using hand-me-downs, here are a few other frugal ideas for finding kid’s clothing:

Sign up for your local Freecycle and monitor it closely:
For the past 6 months I’ve watched my local Freecycle list for clothing for the children. Every once in a while I will see an offering in the sizes we need. I’ve received literally bags of clothing for free, and my children are well set with a variety of clothing items. Since clothing items seem to go pretty quickly, make sure you are keeping up with the offerings on a daily basis.

Arrange a clothing swap:
We have a large group of friends with kids in the same age ranges and clothing sizes. Every so often we arrange a clothing swap or simply bring bags of clothing to play dates and let people know what we are willing to swap.

Garage Sales:
This is a little bit more of a hit or miss method. You never know when you may strike gold on a garage sale expedition or be bummed out by not finding appropriate sizes. However, you can increase your chances of finding good items by going to neighborhood sales where there will be many sales going on instead of just one.

Shopping on Ebay:
I like this method but it can be a bit competitive, especially on the name brand offerings. This method is best combined by selling your own clothing items and then using the proceeds to purchase needed items. I have been using this method for a while with my Pay Pal account and it is working well.

I love to stretch our food budget by making a pot of homemade soup. I prefer the types of recipes where you just throw together whatever leftovers you have on hand. If you keep a few staples on hand all the time, then a delicious pot of homemade soup is just minutes away! It is so much healthier than store bought because you control the ingredients, especially the sodium and preservatives.

Last night for dinner I made one of our favorite soups - Italian Garden Soup. I used 4 cups of chicken stock, 1 can of diced tomatoes flavored with basil and garlic, 1 cut up zucchini, 1 can of new potatoes diced and drained, and 1 can of green beans drained. I add a few seasonings to taste and voila! A great pot of soup that was dinner last night and will be lunch for today.

Basically all you need to throw together a great pot of soup is chicken or beef stock, a few vegetables, meat or beans, and some spices. Experiment with different combinations. Here are some recipes to get you started:

Easy Vegetable Soup

Homemade Chicken Crockpot Soup

Copycat Recipe for Olive Garden Pasta E Fagioli

Broccoli Cheese Soup

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup