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Further
Reading ...
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Teach Me: Fun Books for Kids with the Purpose of Learning
Learning is a wonderful thing. My mother always told me that children are like spongesyou can teach them just about anything, and they usually remember it. Here are a few books your children can absorb. THE ABCS OF FOOD: A Study of Food as...
You Want to be a Stay-At-Home Parent
The subject of stay-at-home parenting is touchy, and emotionally tangled up in a maelstrom of emotion, advertising, society pressure, culture demands, and personal beliefs. When you have a mixture of that many ingredients swirling around, the result...
Who’s Your Daddy? How to be a Great Dad in 5 to 7 Minutes
I am a dad. I have been now for over 8 years. And I suppose I don’t know just everything there is to know about being a dad, good bad or otherwise. I have learned a couple of things. My wife, Susan and I had been married for about 6 years before...
Managers: Get Real, Please!
Personnel mentions in the newspaper and product plugs on radio hardly qualify as an adequate return on your public relations dollar, and you probably know it! Especially unfortunate when your PR budget could be doing something really positive...
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The Cheapest Christmas Ever!
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Written By:
Ann Scaling Tucker
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Have you ever said "I wish we didn't have to spend so much money on Christmas?" or "I wish we could have Christmas without going into debt!" Well here is your answer - tell your family that next Christmas no one is allowed to buy a new, expensive gift for anyone! Yes, I really said that. Tell them that all presents must be from garage sales, tag sales, yard
sales, auctions, handmade or made over.
You really need to start now, or start next spring/summer, hit all the garages sales and auctions that you can. Find
items that your family collects, things from sports teams that they like, such as T-shirts with silly sayings, posters, glasses, etc. Pick up craft items that will look cute around someone's home. You can find games for the kids by the carload and puzzles abound for that person who lives to do puzzles. You won't believe how many golf clubs you can find, bicycles, tricycles, baby toys and clothes. You can find records, cassettes and videos (old classics make great gifts). Did you know that a 45 record of Elvis in the cardboard cover was found for a quarter recently and a collector
offered the person $150.00 for it. Think how many gifts you can collect over the summer for a quarter to a dollar. The person who collects cats or bears can double their collection just from items you find. You will be amazed at the silly things you can find at garage sales for that special brother, sister or best friend.
Look at items as they will look cleaned up or painted. Pieces of furniture like cabinets, bookcases, dressers can look terrific if sanded and restained or painted the color of someone's room theme. You can make them match by adding wood cutouts, decals, or ornaments. Cute 2 and 3 drawer end tables for playrooms, a home office or kids room can be painted with each drawer a different color or painting stripes. Knobs can be painted or replaced. Old trunks, foot lockers, old part metal suitcases can be made into neat storage or toy boxes. Be sure to fix lids so they won't fall on
children when they are open. - continued below ...
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continued ...
Decoupage the inside lids and bottoms with wallpaper, newspaper or wrapping paper.
When buying clothes out of season, buy them a little larger for next year. Also if you find a really good buy but it is a little large get it anyway. If it will save you money when the child gets a little larger, it is worth the storage. Bed spreads; comforters and sheets are always found at sales. This is a good buy if you find your color or design. Used sheets, etc., are also great to send off to college, camp or in kids rooms.
Educational toys abound at garage sales. Be sure and ask if they work, even better carry a couple of batteries with you and try them out. Dead batteries are usually the reason toys don't work. If you need to find baby things, go to neighborhoods that tend to have younger families. Older neighborhoods with older homes will have more things since they have had longer to collect. Older or middle aged families will also have good children's furniture such as playpens,
high chairs, etc., since they usually have grandchildren who have outgrown these items.
My family did this several years ago and the floor was covered with gifts, hundreds of them. What fun you can have opening something silly or watching the face of a family member as they unwrap a collectible. The people in your family who are crafty can present everyone with a beautiful handmade item that they will treasure for many years. The year we did this we had absolutely NO BILLS, NO CREDIT CARD DEBT or empty bank accounts. Try it one year and you will probably be hooked plus you will be amazed how nice it is to not have to worry about paying for it the rest of the year.
About the Author
About the Author:
Elizabeth Ann Scaling Tucker is a retired grandmother of 5. She retired after 35 1/2 years with the Department of Defense. In her retirement years, she is a grandchild sitter and an assistant webmaster for family websites. You can see one of the websites at http://www.zoinkies.com/free-stuff/
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| _Additional Resources ... |
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e-Book on Russian Women (Part 9)
Russian Women and Sex Needless to say that sex is too personal a matter to analyze and classify it. Nevertheless, it is possible to distinguish a series of peculiarities characteristic of the Russian woman's attitude towards sex. A Russian woman...
Do It Yourself Divorce Forms
Do It Yourself Divorce is an easy way to file the divorce for people who have no time to visit a lawyer or an attorney. But there is a partial list of paperwork that you will need to fill up, for a Do It Yourself Divorce. Each state has its own...
How to Buy Healthy Fish
Well, of course there is no guarantee that the fish you see, you are interested in (and you are going to buy) is totally healthy. A Fish can appear as healthy as it could be but in fact it has invisible inner problems. There are many ways, many...
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