Fantastic Frugal Family

In honor of the new Mickey Mouse Club House movie Search for the Crystal Mickey, you can print some of these fun activities for your children. My kids love Mickey and we always do these great activities so I wanted to share these with our fantastic readers so they can do the same.

Just click the image above to check out the activity sheets!

I love finding a great deal and zulily.com is an amazing online boutique for moms, babies and kids! You can find unique brands and find quality products up to 90% off retail prices. Only members can shop zulily events, but membership is free and signing up is quick and easy. This week you can find great deals perfect for the entire family. Don’t miss your chance to shop today!

Wednesday, May 15th
ASICS Women, Kids & Men: footwear for the entire family
philosophy: beauty products
Tory Burch & Coach: sunglasses up to 65% off
 Thursday, May 16th
Gifts for Dad: MLB Fan Shop, NCAA Fan Shop, Apparel, Accessories, Sunglasses & Watches
angelo: Home Decor
OshKosh B’gosh & Jambu

Friday, May 17th
Under the Hooded Towels: Apparel & Accessories
Michael Stars: Up to 40% off women’s apparel, maternity, and accessories
Calvin Klein (girls): Up to 60% off

Saturday, May 18th
Summer Smocking Collection: girls & boys apparel

Sunday, May 19th
Corky’s Kids & Frankie & Daisy
Summer Fashion: maternity apparel under $20
Ferrari (gear): Strollers and more!

I am in love with Zulily, I have gotten quite a few fantastic deals from their site and I have been really happy with all of my items, now I want to share the sales here on the site so we can all take advantage of the super sales at Zulily.

Today when I popped over to the site the first thing that caught my eye was the Summer Getaway Gear sale, there are lots of travel friendly items for your littles like sun shades, strollers, and portable high chairs and boosters. My favorite item would have to be this car kit, I love the baby on board sign and who couldn’t use some sun visors?

There are so many more sales at Zulily, and they are constantly changing, so hop on over and check them out!

So, show of hands, how many of you made a resolution to be more fit and healthy this year?

And….how many of you have kept that resolution?

If you’re like me, you go in spurts. You get inspired and go hard, but something happens and a day off becomes two or three days off and the next thing you know it’s been three weeks since you’ve worked out. Oh crap, now what?

Now you go check out DDP Yoga. Remember him? The guy from wrestling when we were younger? Yeah, well, he’s back, and totally owning this thing. The tagline is, “This ain’t yo mama’s yoga”, and you know what? NAILED IT.

Let me back up, though. So, I’ve tried some yoga before but never really put effort into it. I always thought yoga was for girlly girls or pansies who didn’t feel like doing a “real” work out.  But the very first thing you learn with DDP Yoga is that you have to engage all of your muscles and use your own body resistance. Just learning the basic moves made me sweat!!

DDP Yoga isn’t just a workout program, though. The combo pack comes with programs for beginner, intermediate, and advanced workouts, along with a program guide and handy positioning reference poster. And by “program guide” I mean more like “lifestyle guide”, because it includes basic workout schedule to start you in slowly as well as some tips, encouragement, and a nutritional plan! Seriously, they’ve thought of it all!!
And the best part (for me) is that it is light-hearted and personalized. Dallas even says a few times in the Energy! workout to “make it your own”. He encourages stops to lower your heart rate, and reminds you that it’s not about who can work the hardest and the fastest. With that in mind, I don’t feel so bad if I miss a day or two, or if I feel like repeating a workout instead of moving on to the next one. It’s okay, because its MY workout. MY choice. If I’m going to change my life, I want to do it in a way that makes me happy so that I am not unsatisfied.

I think I should mention again that this isn’t like those intense workout programs where you kill yourself for an hour and all that. I don’t feel like collapsing (too much), and I don’t feel like a monster after. But I do feel good.
Oh, AND! When you buy DDP Yoga, you get access to their free online support system. Yeah. Online trainers, ready for your questions, your encouragement needs, and tips! AWESOME.

So is it working? Well, I think so! I don’t see any huge noticeable changes in looks, but I am a slender person. I want to tone up though, so that will take time. I am, however, seeing a big change in my endurance levels. That’s pretty important because with three little boys, I have to keep my energy up!

I hear you, “I don’t have time for this!”
But you totally do. It’s about a half an hour of your day, usually, and my kids are pretty into participating with me. They can do some basic moves, and why not? Teaching them about an active lifestyle is only going to benefit them in their adult lives!

My review? I am LOVING it. I plan to re-post with some progress pictures later on in the summer, and I encourage you guys to give it a try! What do you have to lose, aside from some inches?

To help you out, how does a giveaway sound? One lucky reader can win a DDP Yoga Combo Pack, and the chance to rock out your health! Use the Rafflecopter below to enter! Don’t forget to come back for the daily entries!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

  ***DDP Yoga provided me with a Combo Pack for review as well as sponsoring one for a giveaway. Thanks, DDP Yoga!!!

Did you know my mortal enemy is plastic wrap? I hate the stuff, and although I do my best to avoid it I just can’t. I want to try to get along with the necessity for my home so I tried out the Wraptastic. I am the kind of person who is the “BEFORE”  in the infomercial, my plastic wrap box looked like it was mangled and mauled in some sort of attack, the sides were ripped and the top was crushed to the point that when I started to pull the end the whole tube just came popping out.

I say this in all seriousness, I NEEDED the Wraptastic. There is something so wonderful about pulling off a sheet of plastic wrap and cutting it swiftly in a clean, crisp line. There was no fuss or waste and it felt so right. The Wraptastic is simple, it is a plastic case that holds your plastic wrap, waxed paper, or aluminum foil securely with spring loaded adapters that allow you to have a strong hold on your end while you get a crisp cut from the sharpened blade in the top.

Just pull, push to cut, and fol the edges around!

Basically you pull, push, and done! Pull the end to expose the desired length, push the top down to cut the end and you are ready to go! I have never enjoyed cutting plastic wrap so much in my life, now I don’t dread covering the leftovers and more of the food makes it to be reheated because the wrap isn’t tangled and actually keeps the seal.

it fits into the same (cluttered) drawer I kept the plastic wrap in.

The Wraptastic ($10.99) can be purchased at https://www.buywraptastic.com/ and is a fantastic addition to a kitchen. I can’t wait to get more, I want one for my aluminum foil and waxed paper as well.

April was a busy month for us, we had good news on my husband’s PET scan saying his chemo is working and our younger son started having home visits from a teacher to help him overcome his speech delay. Through all the busy days I still managed to read 12 books, most of them parts of the series I had started in March.

I have my top three ready to go, and all three of them are from well known series.

#3 The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner- a book that goes with the Twilight Series, it tells the story of a girl turned into a vampire that ends up in the final battle of Book #4. As the title says it is short, but it was an interesting perspective to add to the other books in the series.

#2 I will just say any of the books in the Pretty Little Liars series are good, but books 1-8 are the ones I enjoyed the most, these wrap up nicely and you wouldn’t need to continue on, but I did and was less than thrilled with the way the story continued after book 8.

#1  The two Sookie Stackhouse books I read in April were Dead Reckoning and Deadlocked. I loved both of these and I had to wait until May 7 for the last book to finish up the series. I really did fall in love with the characters so I would recommend this series in a heartbeat.

I will have more recommendations and a recap after the end of May, as always if you want to follow me on GoodReads just click HERE to see what I am reading.

I have heard about the benefits of dryer balls before but it never really crossed my mind to try them until I became more environmentally conscious, now with my family trying to be as frugal and green as possible in our lives we are trying more of these great ideas in our home.

Did you know that using just 6 Woolzies dryer balls in your dryer can not only save engergy but can also spare your family from exposure to chemicals that come in most fabric softeners? Most commercial fabric softener products contain chemicals that take away the fire retardant properties to your family’s clothing? When you checked the tag to make sure those pajamas were flame retardant for your child I bet you didn’t think that your fabric softener would render that null and void!

Most fabric softeners aren’t cloth diaper safe and when you use them on the other loads of laundry they are actually coating the inside of your dryer? I haven’t used fabric softener in years because of this, but I only recently started using Woolzies dryer balls and I can see the improvements to the softness of my family’s clothing.

When I started using these dryer balls I thought they would help with the stiffness I get from line drying my diapers, I usually would bring them in off the line and toss them in the dryer for a few minutes to get the stiffness out but the addition of the Woolzies made such a significant difference. I can now have softness without the harsh chemicals and still use the clothes line.

I decided to play with the settings on my dryer to see how much time and energy I could save by using dryer balls to create loft in the loads. I started with a full wash load of bath towels, these would normally take 45 minutes to  dry and somtimes they would still feel damp to the touch so I would run a touch up cycle to ensure they were completely dry. With Woolzies I was able to set my timer to 30 minutes and still have 100% dry towels, this was a 15 minute improvement!

Now I have heard that people throw tennis balls into their dryers to replicate the loft that allows the loads to dry quicker but consider that these tennis balls are made with chemicals that are released into your dryer and are not only dangerous to us but are not good for the environment either. The heavy balls can actually damage your dryer band can also melt causing stains and smells that are not pleasant to deal with.

We here at Fantastic Frugal Family are able to host a giveaway thanks to Woolzies, they will give one lucky reader a 6 pack of Woolzies dryer balls! To enter please use the rafflecopter widget below and a winner will be chosen on May 11. Good luck!

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Have you ever heard of Udi’s? If you haven’t I will gladly spread the word, Udi’s is a company that makes delicious varieties of gluten free products perfect for everyone, even picky kids! I recently had the opportunity to try many varieties of the Udi’s line and make a grilled cheese to celebrate Grilled Cheese Month this April.

First let’s talk about the delicious breads, everyone in my family had their own favorite kind. My husband was into the white bread, he isn’t the kind of person that likes too much “texture” to his bread and he said it was very good with his hot ham and cheese sandwiches. My kids liked the hamburger buns, they had some cheeseburgers and ate every last bite! I am the more exotic taste of the family in that I liked one kind so much I finished the whole loaf by myself, the Omega Flax is hands down my favorite.

As for my scrumptious grilled cheese recipe I went for the Omega Flax bread (of course!!) with some mozzerella and some fresh, crisp sliced cucumbers. It had wonderful texture and just enough gooey cheese. I have always eaten cucumbers on my sandwiches since a friend talked me into it about 10 years ago, but I had never added it to a grilled cheese before.

Thanks to Udi’s samples of their many breads I had a fun Grilled Cheese Month full of experimenting and taste testing, and I would suggest trying Udi’s for yourself!

This is a partnered post, Udi’s Gluten Free provided samples for my family to try. 

Sometimes I cruise around on the internet in search of new things to learn (cause I love to learn, yo!).  And occasionally I jump from blog to blog, or look for new infographics. Today I found this infographic on the amount of waste produced by using disposables. I thought it was really eye-opening!

I don’t ever tell anyone who doesn’t use cloth that they are “bad” or “harmful”, but I do encourage parents to look into cloth diapering purely for environmental and monetary reasons. Seriously, with two in diapers the amount of money I have saved is incredible. INCREDIBLE.

And to learn that we are effectively reducing our household waste by half (or more, with two!)? Amazing. That’s just amazing to me. I love realizing that things I am already doing are helping Mother Earth while helping us live within our means.

Why do you guys use cloth (or not)?

-Paula

It can be a strange thing to think about, but I am proud of the changes I have made in my life. We started out as an overly plugged in family with horrendous spending habits and now, since my husband’s illness, we have buckled down and made a life we are happy to share with others.

Just the other day we were talking about how I am oddly happy to go out and hang my diapers on the clothes line. It’s like a break for me even though I am still doing work, I get to go outside in the sun and breeze and just do something quiet for a few minutes.

Another one of my favorite household tasks is letting the chickens out into the run, I feed the hens and then watch them for a few minutes as the peck around and eat whatever treats I have brought them from the house, this time around it was watermelon.

This year we spent Earth Day teaching the kids how to grow their own plants. We planted pumpkin seeds we got from our Halloween pumpkins last year. We also got a dogwood sapling from the bank, planted strawberry plants, garlic, mint, and some flowers. The kids had a blast and we felt like we were doing something not only good for our frugality (by growing our own food) but good for the planet.

We have cut out so much extra stuff and we are able to spend money fixing up our vehicle which feels nice. We didn’t need two cell phones, or cable tv, we don’t need name brand labels or disposable diapers. In all honesty we spend so much more time together it is worth every so called “sacrifice” we have given up.