Happy Friday: Keeping My Sanity AND My Wallet Full

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Sent from reader, Melinda:

My husband travels often for work and I am a stay-at-home, homeschooling mom of 3, which means when he’s gone — I have a lot of time with my kids! I try to come up with extra activities to do when he’s gone and with the help of Hip2Save I can find cheap or free things to do!

Last weekend, we went to the free HomeDepot kids workshop and the worker blessed us with 9 extra kits from past events! We’ve had our own mini building events at home. We used the JoAnn’s coupon you posted last week to buy t-shirts for tie-dying, and we bought tie-dye kits back when there was a cartwheel coupon for Target’s dollar spot. Thanks to summer reading programs, we’ve earned tons of coupons for free food and went to the mall for free cinnamon pretzels. We won a $10 iTunes gift card from the Pepsi Sweepstakes you told us about, and I was able to get my kids 8 Disney e-books from it! We have plans to go bowling (again) tomorrow for yet another free activity, and we will go to Lowe’s and ToysRUs on Saturday for their free kids events.

We’ve had so much stuff to do this week that the time has just flown by! Thanks for all your hard work in bringing us deals and helping me to stay busy when my husband is away!!! These are the shirts we made. We also accidentally dyed our feet!! πŸ™‚

HAPPY FRIDAY! πŸ˜€


Do you have a funny, “Hip”, or unique photo to share?! Email us at happyfriday@hip2save(dot)com. Every Friday, I will post one photo, submitted by you and/or another Hip2Save reader, that gives us a glimpse into your frugal lifestyle or simply makes us smile. If your photo is published on Hip2Save, we’ll email you a $10 Amazon e-card!

Join The Discussion

Comments 57

  1. Kristin Vaughan

    I love the tie died shirts, they turned out great! Your kids are adorable ! My kids enjoy the home depot workshops too. Its fun to earn badges for their aprons. Enjoy bowling tomorrow!!

    • M

      Thanks! And we love the badges too!

  2. M

    I truly admire this kind of resourcefulness!😊

    • Melinda

      Thanks 😊

  3. justme

    Yes!!! I Love it!! I’m glad to hear there are others out there that live so similarly and thanks to Hip2Save we find all these fun things! I just took my kids yesterday to get their book at Barnes & Noble from the summer reading program that was listed here.

    • Melinda

      Thanks. I forgot about B&N, good for you!!

  4. Val

    Melinda, Your children are adorable and look so happy! Congrats on saving so much $$, keeping 3 kids busy and having a good time in the process. As Colin says “making memories” – priceless!

    • Melinda

      Thank you! And I love that saying 😊

  5. Kelli

    Super cute! My family dyed shirts a couple of weekends ago. Use Shout or Spray n Wash to get the dye off your skin. It works wonders!

    • Melinda

      Thanks for the tip!

  6. Whitney

    ❀️❀️❀️❀️

  7. Kidsallgone

    Off topic (sorry) but if someone would like my Dominoes code, u can post your address and I will email it to you. It is for $4 and expires tonight. I will post when it is sent to someone. Please don’t be mad if it wasn’t you.

      • Kidsallgone

        Emailed you. Let me know if u received it. Oh and I just saw it expires on the 9th so I guess u have one more day? Not sure tho.

        • Anna

          I received it. It expires at 2:59 am tomorrow, so I will use it tonight. Thank you!

    • sally

      I would love to get it if its still available. Thanks! Minieduhh at ymail.com

  8. Jessica

    I know what you mean! I’ve got two girls, and my husband has been gone most of the summer due to a new job. Regal has $1 movies on Tuesday and Wednesday that we’ve enjoyed and also taken advantage of teacher free days at museums….I’m sure it could also be available to home school teachers in your area!

    • Melinda

      Thanks and what a good idea!

  9. Missie B.

    Adorable children with an awesome mom!

    • Melinda

      Thanks 😊

  10. Rebecca

    I’m a stay at home, homeschooling mom with 2 little boys & we do many of the same things! We do all of the Lowes & Home Depot workshops, we have done our local library’s reading program. We do splash pads, lots of crafts. Hubby is deployed so we do whatever we can to stay busy. Love to see other people doing the same frugal activities with their kiddos!

    • Melinda

      Yes thank him for his service! It can be hard to have them gone but it sounds like you are doing a great job!!

      • Rebecca

        Thanks!

  11. jess

    Rebecca, thanks to your husband for his service to our country. God bless your family. πŸ™‚

    • Rebecca

      Thank you Jess!

  12. teri

    Your family is Soooooo super cute. Great share!!!!!

    • Melinda

      Thank you!!!! πŸ˜„

  13. Yoli

    Awesome way to keep busy. I didn’t know of the Lowe’s Workshop until now. Is it free? I just registered my boys for tomorrow’s workshop. Thanks for posting about it. Super cute kids!

    • Melinda

      It’s free and we love it!

  14. Lauren

    If anyone is looking for inexpensive craft ideas, my local michaels has 70% off the summer craft kits. I thought that was a good deal

  15. bero

    Too cute! Love all that you do with your family!

    • Melinda

      Thanks πŸ™‚

  16. Pdxsong

    We are part of a local chapter of moms club international. I definitely recommend seeing if there is a chapter in your area! My dues are $25 a year and there are 3-5 activities planned a week most of them free.

    • Melinda

      Awesome, thanks for the tip!

  17. amani

    I’m sure your little ones will remember all of these fun activities. My husband is always in awe of the number of fun free activities I do with the children.

    • Melinda

      I hope mine do, and keep up your good work. 😊

  18. W.S.

    Melinda that’s amazing! πŸ™‚

    • Melinda

      Thanks!! πŸ™‚

  19. Tracy

    Lots of great ideas! Those shirts turned out great. You found the dye kits at the Target dollar spot? Planning on going to Target tomorrow. I’ll have to look and see if I can find any.

    • Melinda

      Thank you! Yes we did get the kits from Target, but we were on the road and I didn’t see them at my local store so they may not be at every location?

  20. BETSY

    So awesome – your kids are super lucky to have such a fun and resourceful mom!

    • Melinda

      Aww thanks 😊

  21. Deb

    It takes a lot of work to keep 3 kids occupied all day and it sounds like you are doing a great job! It’s easy to understand why parents send their kids off to summer camps, but we just never had the money. One popular program here costs $4700 for 4 weeks of overnight camp! And they have a waiting list!

    • Melinda

      Thanks! And yikes on that cost! Yep we wouldn’t do that either πŸ˜‰

  22. tef

    Love!! Keep up! The good work! πŸ™‚

    • Melinda

      Thank you ☺️

  23. Carrie C.

    Fast Orange will take the dye off. You can find it in the auto section at Wal-Mart. If I remember right it’s natural, too. We used to use it at the print shop I worked at. We found it when I first tried tie dying & didn’t wear gloves. I had Grover hands! LOL!!! Love the shirts you made!!!! Great job!!! Thanks for sharing!!!! πŸ™‚

    • Melinda

      Perfect, thank you! πŸ˜„

  24. Tonya

    Aww! I don’t have any kids myself but I remember being one and you sound like an AWESOME mom!

    • Melinda

      Thanks so much! ☺️

  25. jhnicole

    Love it thanks for sharing

    • Melinda

      Thanks 😊

  26. Jill F.

    Cute kids! What a creative and resourceful mother!

  27. RB

    Hi, Melinda, I enjoyed reading your account of the kids’ itinerary with projects and other freebies. I’m glad you received the $10 recognition for your efforts.

    • Melinda

      Thank you! πŸ™‚

  28. Nancy

    My son is a senior in high school now, but when he was younger one of his favorite activities was going to the Lowe’s workshops. He would probably still go if they would let him. LOL! He also loved to cut pictures out of the newspaper coupon inserts (after I clipped the coupons, of course) and glue them onto construction paper to make collages. We would come up with themes for the collages such as all animals, or cars and trucks, or sports, or our favorite foods.

    • M

      That’s a great idea!

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