1) Get everyone involved in saving money when eating out
The next time you go out to eat with your family give everyone a maximum amount they are allowed to spend on their meal. This promotes good financial practice for all members of the family and you can even turn it into a game to see who can save the most.
2) Leave special notes in your kids lunch box or notebook
Put a little note in your child’s notebook or lunch box once in while so that when they get to school they have that little extra love from you. Guaranteed to brighten their day. This is great for the beginning years especially when they want to be home with their mommmy.
3) Start a Gratitude Box Tradition
Have a craft session with your kids. Take an old shoe box and cover it with paper & have everyone get involved and decorate it. Cut a hole in the top for inserting paper and every week have your kids write something they are grateful for in their lives. This makes us all step back and be more grateful for our blessed lives. You can even save them all year and opening them during Thanksgiving.
4) Share Babysitting with Friends
What’s more reliable than having another mom that knows your kids take care of them. Find friends and family that have kids and offer to schedule some time for swapping some babysitting times so that the adults can get out and do their own things, while the kids have some play time with their friends. Plus an added bonus, it’s free.
5) Wake up to Music in the mornings
What better way to wake your kids up in the morning than to put on some good ol’music. When kids wake up themselves, they tend to be less cranky and more willing to get going. Plus this starts a fun family tradition the kids will remember for their life time.
6) Sneak Vegetables into your Home-Cooked Meals
Sounds bad I know, but we moms do what we can go get our kids & our partners to eat healthy. This is especially easy to do when making sauces for spaghetti or creamy casseroles or even meatloaf. You can puree mashed eggplant, cabbage, carrots etc. and it adds some much flavor to the food.
7) Dilute Juice to Reduce Sugar Content
Before I serve real fruit juice to my family, I always pour some out and add 1/6 portion of water. This makes me feel better about them drinking the juice as my family members are huge juice drinkers and you know they won’t just drink just 1 cup. Make sure they don’t see, especially the hubby because he will start suspecting it.
Chore & Prize Lottery
You will need two “fish bowl” like containers. Fill one fish bowl or container with chores and the other with prizes. Every week, have your kids pick out a chore that they need to do and when they are done, they get to choose one out of the Prize bowl. Prizes can include things like pizza night coupon, choice of movie on movie night, any snack of choice at any time, double allowance etc.
9) Pack Outing/Snack Fun Bags
Whether you are going to a movie, the park, the aquarium or even a restaurant, never leave home without packing an Outing/Snack Fun bag for each child. You never know when they need something familiar or maybe even during the car ride. Include such things as favorite cookies, treats, card games, crayons, small note pads, stickers and juice boxes.
10) Make Milestones Extra Special
Some things only happen once so why not go the extra mile to create those extra memories that will last forever. For example: Make loosing a tooth a real special event. Put a fairy dust trail from the window to the bed where the tooth went missing. Kids notice all the small stuff. They will talk about it for weeks!
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