Funky Frugal Mommy

What a creative piece of software. I have added music to my ipod numerous times and every time I autofill it seems I have duplicates of a ton of songs. And at the bottom of all my music there is all these songs that say "untitled" or "unknown artist". What a pain it is to have 50 songs and you have no idea what they are until you actually listen to them. So now all you need to do is use TidyMyMusic to help organize all your itunes music! And right now you can get this $40 software absolutely free for one day only, read on for more information!

Let's face it, whether we like it or not our kids are growing up surrounded with all the latest technology (as opposed to playing  golf   when I was a kid).  And sometimes this can be super scary with all the accessibility they have. I think the worst part is not knowing who they are talking to, or who can get a hold of them online. There are a lot of bad people out there and some of those are even children that come in the form of "bullies". I think that is one of my biggest fears as a parent is having my kids tortured in school by other kids. Between that and scary predators its really a challenge to keep safety nets without acting like a "helicopter" parent. There are different parental controls on your computer to keep kids from visiting certain sites but they only work to a certain extent in blocking content and have nothing to do with who they are talking to, and then when another person goes on the computer they need to change the settings if they

I had a couple extra canvases left from my sons party so I decided to try my hand at melted crayon art. It is lots of fun and looks really cool! I have a video on youtube on how to easily remove crayon wrappers and another showing how to make melted crayon art . It is quite simple all you need is a canvas, crayons, tape, and a hair dryer. Simply peel off the wrappers of the crayons and tape them to the canvas wherever you want, then start melting them with the hair dryer. You can flip the canvas any way you want during the melting process to create a unique piece of art all your own. There are a million ways and a million color combinations to work with. For the fall colors below I am going to paint something else on it to create a nice fall picture.  

My beautiful boy turned 5 on August 14 and we had his party this weekend. It was so much fun! We had a ton of activities and wonderful party guests. So I would love to share with you my frugal party plans. I only have a very modest budget to begin with and to add in things like parties I really need to be my best frugal self. So how do you have an amazing party with on a budget? Well you think like a kid of course, the one mistake parents can make is having everything scheduled for the party. Kids do not like to wait in lines for their turn or be ordered around rushing to the next activity. The best thing you can do for kids at a party is just let them be free and do what they want to do. I don't mean don't have activities for the kids but don't make them mandatory or scheduled. Here is what I did and what I spent to give you an idea. Activities Painting individual canvases - 20$ for 10 canvases & $5 for paint. Make fruit loop necklaces - $5 for cereal & $2 f

I have decided to join in on promoting another awesome giveaway for my amazing readers! Because all parents need help with the costs of back to school this is a giveaway that is worth sharing! So here you go. Welcome to the Ultimate Back to School Bash #bts2013! 3BoysandaDog has teamed up with A+ Interactive Math and some fabulous other brands to bring you this giveaway. Prizes: A+ Interactive Math - 1 year FREE Online Full Curriculum - A+ Interactive Math - 1 winner (choice of: grades K - Algebra I) Value $124.99 . A+ Interactive Math is dedicated to making math enjoyable and learnable for all ages. A+ Interactive is perfect for homeschooling parents or parents that just want to give the child some extra math help. A + Interactive Math offers full curriculum books, workbooks, online education and interactive math CD's. You can purchase A+ Interactive Math or view their catalog here . Door Prize for all participants: Multiplication for Elementary &

In addition to the Purex Laundry Detergent Giveaway I am hosting Purex is also having a sweepstakes called the Bid Adieu to Stains Sweepstakes! One winner will receive $500 courtesy of Purex! And 50 second prize winners will receive a coupon for free Purex Plus Oxi! About the Sweepstakes! From August 19 - September 19, Purex will be providing one lucky winner with $500! For years, stains have caused you endless grief and frustration. No matter what product you use, nothing seems to give your family’s clothes the Bright, White & Clean look they deserve. But now that you’ve found Purex plus Oxi detergent, specially formulated to fight 101 of your toughest stains, you can finally bid adieu to stubborn stains for good. To enter go HERE  Also I have a coupon code for you to use on your first order at well.ca! Use code "frugalmom" to get $10 off

I am trying to teach my kids to be good to the environment as well as the value of money and why it is important to save and stuff like that. So I got to thinking what can I do that can hit both birds with one stone and not cost a dime to do. So I can up with a fun game called "power out". Last night we unplugged almost everything except the fridge and stove and spent the evening by flashlight and candle light. We had a blast! We ate things we already had made and stuff that never needed cooking. Because my kids are small it is hard to get them to grasp the concept of electricity so by pretending the lights don't work it really helps. So I am easing them into the money concept as well by getting them to buy small things at the store and showing them what it costs and what they have. I also am giving them an allowance for doing small chores so they understand they need to earn what they want. I am quite pleased with the results so I am going to try and do this "power

This is the lovely brick fireplace hearth I have surrounding my electric fireplace positioned right in the centre of my house where I smoke   mild cigars  from time to time , so there is no hiding it.  I even have my older kids tripping on it as well as skinned my own ankles on it. So this is an unavoidable daily obstacle! I am a renter so removal of this is not an option plus who would want to do that kind of major renovation. I am obviously going to use the most cost effective way. I have researched to see what other parents have done and everything seems to cost an arm and a leg. I am not going to spend 200 dollars on a special gate, or 600 dollars for a custom fit hearth guard. And most of the covers they sell are for rectangle shaped hearths. So here is my latest project. Most of these items parents have on hand and if not it is going to cost under 20 dollars to complete! You will need: 2 Pool Noodles (depending on size of hearth) Duct Tape Scissors Interlock

I love this unique gift tag! I personally do not drink wine but I do give it as gifts at Christmas time. So I was pretty happy to do this review because I am just getting started on my Christmas shopping. Yes I am crazy. But I am the one who has almost all her shopping done by Christmas, saved the most money in the end, and avoided most of the nasty Christmas rush! But Wine Wear is great for any occasion, birthdays, house warming, thank you gifts, or any time you want to give your wine loving friend a unique and creative gift. It is so cute to see a bottle of wine wearing a shirt! There is a space on the back to write a personalized message and the front is really cool. They have many different designs to choose from.     This is a great gift for someone who likes wine; it provides packaging for a wine bottle and delivers a sentiment at the same time - the patented greeting card for a wine bottle from Wine Wear, Inc. Wine bottle Wear™ is revolutionizing the way

I got the pleasure of reviewing some fantastic products from Manning Canning! I received 4 different kinds of preserves, 2 sweet and 2 savoury. I got a raspberry jam, strawberry jam, spicy tomato jam, and a zucchini relish. I love handmade preserves, I eat a lot of store bought jams and such but nothing ever compares to handmade. Manning Canning makes a fantastic product. I decided to have toast with my jams this morning, for both myself and my kids and I was in love at first taste! My kids had nothing left but sticky faces and they were very pleased with how delicious the jams were. I am very impressed at the subtle sweet flavor of the strawberry jam. It is my favourite. The raspberry jam is perfectly balanced and not too sweet, so yummy! The spicy tomato jam is sweet with a mild kick of spice to it, I would like it on hotdogs, hamburgers, or just eating it with chips! The zucchini relish is sweet with the perfect combination of spices. It is such an amazing textu

 Having three kids means having a ton of laundry to do. Its not always a fun job especially when you have a hard time finding a detergent that will take out "baby blowout" stains and stay within my price range. In case you didn't know a "baby blowout" is a common problem where your baby has a giant poop that actually comes straight up and out the back of babies diaper covering his clothes practically up to his/her hair line on the back of their neck. Some people will just strip the baby and throw out the clothes, well I am a very frugal/cheap person so that is usually not an option for me. So being the cheap arse that I am I was super excited to get to review Purex liquid laundry detergent with not just one but two stain removers, Oxi and Zout!  I was very satisfied when I did my first load of laundry because my babies clothes came out very clean. Not only were my baby blowout stains gone but so were the food and drool stains. Bonus! Purex has b