How To Have Fun With Grandchildren Without Ruining Your Budget?

Enjoying Her First Pony Ride

          Lately, our 9-year old granddaughter has been spending time with us on weekends. She is the type who wants to be entertained constantly. My husband and I sat down to plan and find ways to let her have fun and at the same time, not break our budget.

         These are the ways we found:

1. Check your local community if there are places or activities for children.

We are blessed to live in a community that do so much for kids specially in the summer. A nearby park has a newly-remodeled swimming pool and water slides. Residents can use the facility for a very small fee. For the three of us, we only pay $9. When we get hungry, we can literally walk home to eat.

There is also another park closed by that offers pony rides for children. For $3, your kids can have a blast!

2. Pay the membership fee instead of just a single day entrance fee to your favorite park. 

My husband and I love Huntington Garden and luckily, our granddaughter likes it, too. There is a children’s area where kids can do so much activities, educational or just for fun. If we pay a single day entrance, it would cost us at least $60 just for the day. By paying for annual membership, it only cost us $90 for one year and we can bring our grandchildren for free. Not only that, every time we renew our membership, we get 2 guest passes that we can share with adult friends and families.

We always bring our food and drinks so it would not cost us extra. There is a designated area where you can eat your own food.

3. Ask around for free passes.

Our church have this ministry group where people can offer unwanted things for other people in the group to use. In the same group, you can also ask for something you need and in most cases, people respond and offer what they have. I see so many people who ask for passes for places like Disneyland, Legoland or Zoo. Believe it or not, there are people in the group who have those kinds of passes sitting in their drawers. They are always willing to put them into good use.

You may not have a group like this but I am sure you can ask friends and relatives who might know somebody who have those resources.

4. Do something productive around the house.

  I love gardening and although our granddaughter is scared of bees, she loves to help me tending my vegetables. I let her plant some seeds or pull weeds. She is into bugs so she spends so much time looking for them under the bushes. 

I also loves to sew so the next time she spend weekend with us, we are planning to make a new dress for her. She is looking forward to it!

Don't Waste Your Left Over Brewed Coffee

Every Friday morning, it is my routine to clean up the coffee pots that I used for the Bible Study that is held in my house on Thursday nights. I usually get 10 to 15 women so I make sure that there is enough coffee for everybody. It is better to have more than less.

While I was pouring the left over coffee last week, it occurred to me that maybe I could use it to fertilize my plants instead of wasting it. I have been using used ground coffee for years, so why not the left over brewed coffee? I stopped what I was doing and started searching the internet. Voila! I found three helpful articles about it.

No more wasted leftover coffee from now on. I only need to dilute it then sprinkle my vegetable garden and flower garden with it. You can find the information on this link.

Easy and Low Cost Gardening

I was talking to a friend about home gardening and she was very frustrated that she spent so much money on soil, fertilizer, pesticide and pots last year but she only was able to harvest 6 tomatoes. 

Gardening does not need to be expensive. I compost all year long and use it to amend soil in my vegetable garden. I do not even have a real compost bin. I use the big trash can that has been sitting inside our garage for years. I poked holes around it and I roll it on the ground once a week.

My improvised compost bin.

I also save used ground coffee and eggshells. I crush the eggshells into small pieces and mix it with ground coffee. I then put it around the base of the vegetables. It protects my vegetables from the slugs and provides the nutrients that they need.

Ground coffee and eggshells are good for your garden.

Lastly, I practice companion planting. I personally do not like using pesticide in my garden. I strategically place my vegetables where each kind can benefit from the other. An example, I plant tomatoes with garlic, marigold, and nusturtium. Garlic repels spider mites, marigold repels nematodes, and nasturtium deters aphids, whiteflies and squash bugs. I let my vegetables help and protect each other.

I never had to buy fertilizer or use pesticide. All I do is water my plants regularly and wait for the harvest. 

My husband said I give to much caffeine to my plants and that is why they are hyperactive that they could not stop producing. 

Too much caffeine? This is a photo from last year when my kabocha squash took over the backyard.

From carnivores to...wait, what?

Kale became a vital part of our everyday diet.

During the flu season in 2012, my husband and I caught the virus. We got hit so bad I thought we were going to die. Even when we recovered from it, it took us a few months before we totally gained our strength back.

That experience made us reconsider our eating habits. We both love meat. We can eat steak everyday. When we were newlyweds, we ate steak almost everyday until we got so sick of it.

My husband hardly ate vegetables. I do like vegetables but I like meat better. We were a family of carnivores until my husband's primary doctor persuaded him to eat more vegetables and less meat if not at all.

It was hard in the beginning. My husband does not like cooked vegetables and munching on carrots and celery can get boring. 

One morning, my husband suggested, maybe if we would make a smoothie out of different vegetables, we will be able to eat it.

It took a few experiments before we finally perfected the right combination. It is a mixture of banana, blueberries, tomatoes, carrots, celery, kale, spinach, cucumber, chia seeds and flax seeds. I know, it does not sound appetizing but believe me, it is good and it works. We eat it everyday for breakfast.

Another flu season had passed and thougn we were always surrounded by sick people, we did not get sick at all. We even stopped buying and taking vitamins and other supplements. We get all the nutrients we need from fresh vegetables and fruits.

Eating healthy can save you money in the long run. You will not be spending it on doctors, medications and hospitals. 

A Savory Saving

We love herbs. Every time we cook, it will not be complete until we put some fresh herbs on it. Our favorites are basil, oregano, parsley, rosemary, thyme, and lemon grass. If you buy those, a small pack would cost $3 to $4 each. We try to save the leftovers but most of the times, they end up in the trash can.

I always feel bad everytime I throw away the wilted or dried herbs. It is like throwing money in the trash can. 

Since we only like using fresh herbs, I decided to plant my own to eliminate waste. I bought two large pots and planted basil and parsley on one, and oregano and thyme on the other. I planted the rosemary and lemon grass on the ground. 

The ones that I planted on the pots are the ones that cannot stand very cold temperature. During winter, I move them to a protected area or inside the house. I even transfer some in a smaller pot and place it on the kitchen counter. In that way, I would have an endless supply of herbs. 

If you live in an apartment and do not have a yard, you can always plant your favorite herbs on small pots and have a little herb garden in your kitchen.

I let the herbs flowers and produce seeds, then let the seeds fall in the pot and grow. They reproduce themselves pretty well. It has been three years since I planted my herbs and I have not yet had to buy any new seeds.

Not only the herb adds beauty to the landscape, it also provides soothing aroma. What a way to save!