How To Make Sprouts

Sprouting seeds is really easy for anyone to do, even the kids or grand kids can do it. It is perfect for anytime of the year and produces some wonderful edible greens, for a fraction of the price of store bought sprouts. 

If you are doing a few varieties at a time you will need to use separate jars for each seed.

You will need:

Seeds for sprouting like alfalfa, mung beans, lentils or chick peas

A jar

Square of material like muslin or cotton, a hanker chief works well

Elastic band

Paper towel

Spray bottle

Fist place a couple of tablespoons of seeds in the jar and half fill the jar with water. 

Place the fabric over the top of the jar opening and secure it in place with a rubber band.

Leave to soak for at least 6 hours, then drain the liquid and rinse a few times.

Lay out some paper towels on a plate and spread the seeds out on top.

Keep the plate in a warm area and spray the seeds with water when the paper towel feels dry. 

Within a few days you will have some lovely edible sprouts. They can be stored in a container in the fridge.

Enjoy!

Bunnings Easter Family Night

I have mentioned before that we love Bunnings! It is a great store for families on a budget. They run  free kids workshops every weekend and also have free family nights during the year.

This year our local store had a dinosaur themed night. We really look forward to these events because they are done so well, and free activities are a winner in my book!

Unfortunately, I didn't take as many photos as I would have liked due to a severe tooth ache (I had it pulled out the following day and part of the reason I forgot to blog about this earlier!)

When we got there, the store was decorated with inflatable dinosaurs and each child was given a gift of a growing dinosaur egg as we arrived.

There were several tables of activities set up including face painting, 2 different excavation activities, exploding volcano experiment, safari hat craft, inflatable dino land and Easter egg hunt.

We also each got a sausage sizzle and drink for dinner. Such fun!

These family nights are run on Christmas, Easter, Mother's Day and Father's Day. Because these events do get busy, you have to book in advance but can do so on their website: Bunnings

What are some of the free events your family have been to?

Finding a matching up some fossils.

Digging away at a plaster egg. Inside was a little dinosaur.

Dinner.

Bicarb soda + coloured vinegar = chemical reaction!

Free chocolate!

Inflatable dino world.

Eating for Free on Your Birthday

Mr 10 with his free birthday balloons and lolly bag from Miss Maud.

 Because it is my youngest son's birthday this week, I thought I'd share some birthday freebies for you all. Nothing beats free! Our family have been taking advantage of some of these offers for a few years now and it has become a tradition to take the birthday person out to pick up their free Subway lunch and Baskin Robbins ice cream.

So here are my top picks for eating for free on your birthday- no strings attached! I have included hyperlinks in the sub titles and have also listed whether it is an online club or if you have to go in store first. Enjoy!


Subway 

Join the Subway Club online and receive a free 6 inch sub and drink of your choice.

Free 6 inch sub and drink.

Nicholsons Bar and Grill

Register online for their birthday club and receive a free meal to the value of $30 during Monday- Thursday on the month of your birthday. Or on Friday, Saturday and Sunday get $15 off a main meal. I have eaten at Nicholson's a few times and find the food to be very good quality and you do get a very generous serve.



Miss Maud

Kids under 12 years old can join their mailing list and receive a card in the month of their birthday. This card entitles the child to a free smorgasbord lunch or dinner, free balloons and a huge treat bag filled with lollies. We have found the cheapest option is to allow 1 adult to accompany the child and this parent buys them self a meal from the menu and drink water as we find the smorgasbord to be really expensive. This year it was hubby's turn to take Mr 9 and he bought a steak burger and chips which came to $21.50, it was a huge serve. All up not a bad price for a really nice lunch out for 2 people.

 At one point I did start to think that it would be "nice" for us all to go out for lunch there as hubby and I would eat there regularly in our pre-kid days.  I did the math and for our family of 5 to eat there this would cost $180 for a weekday lunch or $225 for dinner. That's more than my fortnightly grocery shopping. No thanks, I'll stick to the free meal! In saying that though, the staff there are always really lovely and the food is amazing.

Mr 9 enjoying his free Miss Maud lunch last year.

Baskin Robbins

Join their  Club 31 online and receive a voucher for a free scoop of your choice.

Free ice cream!

Muffin Break

Free introductory coffee, plus a muffin on your birthday.  You will need to pick up a Muffin Break card in store first, and then register online.

San Churro

Free churros for 2 worth $13.95. Sign up online.


 Oporto

Grab a card in store and then sign up on line to get a free meal.


Cold Rock

Sign up online and get a free ice cream scoop.

Boost

Grab a Vibe Club card in store, activate online for a free birthday juice.


 Outback Jack's

Another online sign up. 6 months out from your birthday you will receive a 1/2 birthday meal voucher via email. This will entitle you to a FREE* $35 meal voucher at your local Outback Jacks store. 

Birthday month.  BOOK A TABLE with your local Outback Jacks store and present this email to receive the $35 meal voucher. I checked the fine print on this one and a minimum of 2 adults must dine.

Jamaica Blue

This is a loyalty style program. Pick up a card in the store, apply online and get a free slice of cake on your birthday.

Sumo Salad

A free regular salad on your birthday. You must pick up a card in store first and activate online.

Salsa's

 Receive a free burrito after getting a card in store and activating online.

One year I got a free burrito, coffee and muffin.

I hope you like my list of birthday freebies. Are there any other birthday offers you know of that are  missing?

Frugal Valentine's Day Ideas

Valentine's Day can seem super commercialized and cliche. But it can also be a really lovely chance to show the people you care about some love, without breaking the bank! To me, Valentine's Day doesn't need to just be for lovers. I have heard of single girls who celebrate "Galentine's Day" with dinner and wine, for them it celebrates friendship. Hubby and I used to go out for dinner or he would buy me flowers, but now with our thrifty lifestyle we celebrate at home with our kids and try and do a little something special for them too.

With a bit of planning and thought, you can come up with something handmade and meaningful without breaking the bank!

Here are some frugal Valentine's Day ideas that we have done or made in previous years.


Valentine's Breakfast in Bed

This was something my eldest son did for me when he was about 11, and learning to cook. He made some simple pikelets served with jam and a heart pick from our craft box. If you have a metal biscuit cutter you could pour the batter into that and make heart shaped ones.

Other breakfast ideas are pancakes, french toast, scrambled eggs or even just a couple slices of toast and tea would be nice too. 

 For my international readers, pikelets are like a small sized pancake made with self raising flour so they are thick and fluffy. We like to have them for breakfast or a snack and serve them with jam or lemon butter. Delicious!

Homemade pikelets served with jam.

 Kids Valentine Craft Basket

 A few years ago I set up an invitation to craft Valentine's basket. I looked through all my craft supplies and filled the basket with red, pink and white card stock, glitter paper, pipe cleaners, red, pink and white felt hearts, heart shaped biscuit cutters, ribbons, white match boxes, tissue paper, mini pink envelopes and some "I Love You" Valentine's hearts on a stick. These were all items I already had, and I layered them in a wicker basket and tied a red ribbon to the top. The kids all had fun making cards and collages.

Our Valentine's craft basket.

One of the creations made with craft items from the Valentine basket.

 Paper Heart Garland

I made a cute paper heart garland to decorate our house that I found the instructions for here at the time I only had pink paper, but it still looks great! They can be hung from the ceiling, or made into a wreath. Another idea is to cut hearts out of paper and write love notes on them and stick them around the house. Hubby did this for me on one of our first Valentine's Days together.

Instead of hanging the hearts you could make a wreath.

Valentine's Lollipops

I bought a few of the large $1 lollipops which are sold at Kmart and found some free printable labels, glued them on and added a bow. So adorable! Unfortunately I can no longer find the link to these, I can only see paid versions but you could draw your own up on paper or use a word document to type some up.

I loved these lollipops, maybe more than the kids.

Vintage Valentine Printables

A simple picture or message on cardstock makes a cute Valentine. I particularly love these vintage ones. Which look great cut out and glued on some card. I have also glued these onto a flattened paper muffin cases as pictured below.

Homemade Valentine's we made from with free printables, cardstock and muffin cases.

These are some other cute free Valentine printables 
and because we love Nightmare Before Christmas I found some on The Binder Ladies website. They also have a list of Disney and other character ones.


Bake Cupcakes or Biscuits 

One of my favourite Valentine's Day's was when my hubby, who is not known for his culinary skills I might add- baked me some shortbread hearts and dipped half of each one in chocolate.

Homemade cupcakes are also a cheap and nice idea. I have made vanilla cupcakes in the past, decorated with buttercream, red sugar and some free printable flags I found online. I just glued each one onto a toothpick. If you do a Google search for "free Valentine's cupcake toppers" there are many to choose from. I have also made chocolate cupcakes, again with buttercream red sugar and chocolate hearts I got on clearance one year.

Valentine's cupcakes I made. Every picture looks better with an IG filter I think!

Homemade cupcakes with buttercream and red sugar.

Shortbread biscuits made by my hubby.

Cheap Chocolates

In the past I have bought hubby a $2 box of strawberry truffles which are his favourite and wrapped them in white paper and decorated the paper with stamps and a felt heart.

Last year after Christmas I scored a heart shaped box of chocolates, reduced to $1.50 soI bought them and stashed the box away for Valentines Day!

If you have moulds, you could make your own chocolates. We are having a heatwave here at the moment, so I won't be doing that this year.

A cheap box of chocolates, fancied up with white paper, stamps and a felt heart.

The $1.50 box I bought after Christmas.

Our homemade chocolates with white and milk choc.

Going Out or Staying In?

A few years ago we attended a free outdoor movie. We packed a picnic dinner and were given free cupcakes. It was a really special night out. You could check the Weekend Notes 
website to see if there is anything cheap or free on near you. 

If you don't feel like going out, or your budget doesn't allow, you could always make a romantic meal at home. Set the table with a nice tablecloth, some candles and cook something yummy. Maybe add a homemade cake or treat for dessert and voila instant romantic dinner!

What about a movie night at home? One year I made hubby a romantic movie box. Which was just a cardboard popcorn tub which I printed out one of the vintage Valentine's to go on the front. I filled it with things we already had. Red tissue paper, microwave popcorn pack. Lindt chocolates and a "movie of your choice" voucher. I already had a few books of vouchers which I bought from a cheap variety store, and we just keep reusing them. But I found a website with free love coupons which might be useful.

Cupcakaes were handed out at the free outdoor movie

This year I plan on making some heart shaped biscuits, I will make a few of the paper heart garlands now I have red paper in my craft stash, and am sewing up a little garland of felt hearts for our mantle too. I will make a chocolate cake for dessert and might see if I can borrow a movie from the library.

What are your plans for Valentine's Day?

Bunnings Family Christmas Party

Mr 9 with Santa and Mrs Claus

 It has been a busy week here, as the lead up to Christmas always is. I have done most of my shopping for the rest of the month and we will eat out of our freezer and stockpile so only need to buy some fresh fruit and vegetables.

Mid week, we attended a Christmas Party held by Bunnings Warehouse- which is a bit like Home Depot for my American readers. We have gone for the past few years and have come to look forward to it because it's a great free night out! Miss 16 and Mr 14 are still happy-ish to come along, though I don't think that will be for much longer!

Instant snow and a photo frame made by Mr 9

Giant inflatable "snowballs"

The Bunnings store we go, to has the most awesome themed family nights, so we are very lucky.
This year's theme was Santas Workshop. The trade area of the store was set up with trestle tables holding different activities.

 Miss 16 and Mr 9 enjoyed rolling around in the giant inflatable "snow balls", there were snow cones in a cup, photos with Santa and Mrs Claus, instant snow and photo frame making and a lolly buffet.

 I was really impressed with the lolly buffet! They had 6 types of lollies in open jars with labels in front. The kids could eat Frosty's scarf (red and green sour straps), reindeer noses (maltesers), holly leaves (jaffas and spearmint leaves), Santa's cookies (choc chip biscuits), reindeer poop (clinkers) and snowballs (marshmallows). I think this is such a great idea for a Christmas party.

Not a great pic of the lolly buffet, but you get the idea.

Christmas pudding options

For supper we all enjoyed individual Christmas puddings with custard and drinks. I did note the absence of a traditional pudding with fruit, so I chose the sticky date.
But hey, it was all free so I won't complain!

Most Bunnings stores run Christmas family nights each year and also free events on Easter, Mother's Day and Father's Day. These do tend to book out rather fast so you can book on their website and keep and eye out for some free fun at your local store. 

Walking With A Baby T-Rex

Next month the Walking With Dinosaurs Arena Spectacular show is coming to Perth. We all thought this sounded pretty impressive until I checked out the prices, which are not for the faint hearted. I mean who could afford these tickets? Certainly not anyone on a budget!

Then I found out via social media, that the baby T-Rex dinosaur as featured in the show, would be appearing around Perth shopping centres to promote Walking With Dinosaurs. Best of all, this would be for free! Which coincidentally, is the price I can afford to pay!

We made sure we got there early to get a good view and we were not disappointed. There was also some prizes being handed out for answering dino related questions and Miss 16 and Mr 8 both won a set of cool badges each.

The baby T-Rex itself was amazing. It moved so realistically and would stalk and snap and roar at the crowd.  We somehow forgot it was a puppet and not a real dinosaur and were completely immersed in this great show.

The baby T-Rex was quite happy to be petted. Seeing this dinosaur was awesome and made me feel the wonder and excitement of being a kid again. If you have the means to do so, I would definitely recommend seeing either the free mini show at a shopping centre near you, or the arena spectacular.

Sometimes living on a strict budget can get me down. I feel guilty for not being able to afford to go to the movies or big shows such as this. We are currently saving up to get our pool repaired and leaking gutters and patio fixed and I know this will be worth it in the long run, but there are days when it is tough. We try to save up for a local holiday each year, but other than that most of what we do for entertainment is free. I do feel very grateful to live in a great city like Perth which host a cool range of free family events.

Hula Hoop Tutorial

We recently went to an outdoor concert where we were entertained by a lovely Eco Fairy doing some hula hooping. There was a heap of spare  hula hoops for the kids to join in but Mr 8 was too shy, which got me thinking... why don't we make these at home? So that is exactly what we did!

I had a look online for custom handmade hula hoops and a large hoop which is ideal for beginners, retails for around $35! I made two hoops, one for Mr 8 and one for myself for a fraction of that price and still have leftover materials to make more!

To make a hula hoop you will need:

19mm poly drip irrigation tubing (mine was from Bunnings)
A 19mm barbed joiner for each hula hoop
Scissors or pruning shears
Coloured tape, sheet of silver book adhesive or washi tape for decorating

Unfortunately I could only find the 19mm tubing in a 25 metre length. But on the positive side, now I can make ALL the hula hoops! these would make great gifts as well.

First off you will need to measure out your hula hoop. A good rule of thumb is for a beginners hoop, the bigger the better. The hoop should come at least up to your waist when in it's on it's side.

Unwind the tubing and hold it up against your body so it reaches waist height. Mark  where you need to make the cut with a bit of tape.

Cut the tubing with some garden pruners or scissors.You will now have long length of tubing.
















 In a medium sized container pour in some boiling water and hold one of the tubing ends in the hot water for about 20 seconds. This will make the end pliable enough to attach the connector. 

Push the connector into the plastic tubing. Then repeat the process with the other end of the tube so that both cut ends are now attached to the connector.

The join in the hoop should look like this. If you just want a plain black hoop, then your DIY hoop is good to go. But if you prefer yours a bit fancy, keep reading.

I bought a pack of coloured insulation tape from Kmart. I also had a couple rolls of silver adhesive book covering that I got for 50c each last year, so I used those to decorate Mr 8's hoop as well. The stuff I have is similar to this. 

Starting at the join, and at a slight angle, wrap the insulation tape carefully around the tubing until it is all the way around. I think it looks good just like this, but if you want to add some sparkle, cut the silver adhesive into 1-2cm lengths depending on how big your black gaps are. Mr 8 wanted his to be black, red and silver so I positioned the silver tape to go in between the black tubing and red tape. This part takes a while so just take your time. 







Because you know I'm all about being frugal, everything I buy has to be as cheap as possible.
Here is the pricing for a DIY hula hoop:

25 metres of poly tubing: $14.90- works out to be 60c per metre
Barbed joiners: 75c each 
Insulation tape: $2.50 for a pack of 5
Silver adhesive: $1.00 for 2 rolls on sale

With these materials it would cost around $2.40 per hula hoop. 

I've been practicing every day but still can't keep the hoop up for more than a couple of rotations. However, Mr 8 is becoming a pro!

Happy hooping everyone!

Geeking Out At Supernova

Recently the children and I went to Supernova which is a pop culture expo. It's been on my to-do list for years but each time something came up. Well, not this year folks, this year nothing would get in the way of seeing what it was all about. Hubby decided he wouldn't come as he has trouble walking and standing for long periods of time and is not a fan of large crowds.

 

The boys with Princess Bubblegum who was giving out free lollipos!

I bought the tickets online as it was a few dollars cheaper, luckily kids under 12 get in for free so I only had to pay for Miss 15 and myself, woo hoo!
We decided to catch public transport in to the city, as here in Perth a family day pass costs around $13 and I knew that by the time I bought petrol and paid for parking at the Convention Centre I'd need to take out a second mortgage! Jokes aside, when traveling into the city on a budget, public transport is the way to go. I also packed us some lunch, snacks and water as I know the food at these type of events is exorbitant.

Mr 8 was excited to meet Batman and Catwoman

And some elves from TLOTR

My kids are big fans of Adventure Time and the boys had decided to cosplay as Finn and BMO. We made Mr 8 a BMO costume from a cardboard box, the instructions are in a previous post, and Mr 12's costume was mostly items we had on hand with the exception of a backpack he bought and the hat which we made from a tutorial on the Instructables website. I thought it would be cool if Miss 15 also dressed up as an Adventure Time character but she had already decided to go as Nepeta from Homestuck. Oh, well.
Just for future reference if you ever decide to cosplay and catch public transport be prepared for some peculiar stares, questions and comments.

Miss 15 as Nepeta Lejion

I'm not sure what I expected of Supanova, but we were amazed at the amount of cosplayers. It was fabulous! Within the first few minutes we had seen people dressed up as Katniss Everdeen, Cruella DeVil, various Doctors from Dr Who, several Maleficents, Pyramid Head from Silent Hill (I still regret not getting a photo with him) and the crew from Mystery Inc. I was definitely in the minority of the small percentage of people who weren't in costume.

Orun High School Host Club

Rose McGowan

The venue was set up with stalls selling assorted pop culture collectables. There was also an area set up where you could sit and listen to a Q&A with some of the celebrities who were appearing, this was included in the entry price. We went to the Q & A with Jon Heder from Napoleon Dynamite who was funny, delightful and down to earth.  He told a few anecdotes on what it was like working with Will Ferrel on the set of Blades of Glory which was particularly amusing. Miss 15 and I were also excited to see Rose McGowan best known for her roles in Charmed and Nip/Tuck. We had front row seats to this event and were fan girling hard. I had an urge to ask her what it was like dating Marilyn Manson but was too nervous. More regret!

Jon Heder

At Supernova there is an option to get photos and autographs with the stars for an additional cost, but being on a budget we decided not to do this. There was so many stalls and cosplayers to see, so we spent a lot of time just walking around. The other thing that really struck me was that everyone was so polite and more than happy to pose for a photo. Lots of people came up and got pictures with 'Finn and BMO" and we even bumped into some other Adventure Time characters. Mr 8 later informed me that he now knows what it is like to be famous!






It was a fun day and it awesome to see some of our most loved characters bought to life. My favourite was Sarah and Jareth from the 80's movie Labyrinth. I watched this movie hundreds of times as a child and can still pretty much quote the entire movie.

Sarah and Jareth from the ball scene

We can't wait to get started on making costumes for next year and maybe I'll dress up as well!

 Have you ever been to Supernova? What did you think?