Thrifty Family Finds

11/30/2023

11/23/2023

Earthley’s Black Friday Sale went live earlier then planned to hopefully help with high website traffic.

Get 20% off your entire order with my custom code THRIFTY23. Shipping is free on orders of $50+ (after discounts) It’s the biggest whole-site discount available all year.

My family’s favorites to have on hand for our natural first aid kit are:

⭐️ Elderberry Elixir
⭐️ Feel Better Fast
⭐️ Mama’s/Infant Tummy Relief (depending on age)
⭐️ Cough-B-Gone
⭐️ Pain Potion

As well as the Goodnight Lotion, Charcoal Facial Bar, Soothing Skin Balm and Deodorant.

Affiliate Link:
https://earthley.com/ref/allison.dolliver

11/23/2023

12/04/2022

Sharing this from .handmadehope

Charlotte & Emma would like to say thank you to all who came out to the Children’s Marketplace today! They had a great time, learned a lot, and sold a good amount!

If you weren’t able to make it and are interested in placing a local order, send a DM with what you’d like and they will put an order together for you. Local pickup or delivery within 10 miles is available.

10% of all sales will be donated to the International Deaf Education Association.

🎁 $5 - 8oz Fizzy Bath Salts (Peppermint or Lime scented)
🎁 $5 - 8oz Sugar Scrub (Mocha, Apple Cider or Candy Cane)
🎁 $4 - Medium Hair Clip Set
🎁 $3 - Small Hair Clip Set
🎁 $2 - Hair Tie Sets
🎁 $4 - Paracord Bracelet w/ Basic Buckle
🎁 $5 - Paracord Bracelet w/ Survival Buckle (includes compass, whistle, and fire starter)

12/02/2022

Sharing what my girls are up to these days:

Handmade Hope by Charlotte & Emma will make its debut at the Children’s Marketplace in Monroe this Saturday, December 3rd, from 11am - 2pm. Handmade Hope will be selling hair bow clips, hair ties, fizzy bath salts, sugar scrubs and paracord survival bracelets (product photos coming soon). Ten percent of every sale will be donated to the International Deaf Education Association (IDEA) in the Philippines.

This event includes only child vendors, and is cash only. This gives the kids hands-on experience in customer service, handling money and making change.

Along with 40 kid vendors, there will be a book fair where you can fill a bag with gently used books for $5. There will be raffle items, a free gift for the first 30 shoppers, a food truck and coffee stand.

We hope you can join us Saturday! If you are unable to, but would like to purchase from Handmade Hope, send us a DM and we can put together an order for you. Local delivery is included (within 15 miles of 98296)

09/02/2022

Emma’s moving up to Explorers in American Heritage Girls this year, so it’s time to retire her Tenderhearts Vest 😢 She’s very excited to get her new Explorer vest though! ❤️💙

If you’re local and want to find out more about AHG, message me and I’ll give you the details for our troop. If you’re not local, check out the AHG website and you can search for troops in your area. Hope you can join us this year! Our troop meetings start up again in 2 weeks! 🇺🇸

04/25/2022

Part 2 of our recent anniversary trip. Anyone interested in tips on how we did this trip on a budget?

02/10/2022

One of my favorite memories as a child is of my dad making us cardboard cars for our AWANA Drive-In Movie Nights. (Swipe to see some vintage creations from my childhood 😊) So when I found out my kids were going to have a drive-in movie night at their AWANA program this year, I was pretty excited 😊🚗

Henry wanted a semi truck. And after getting his semi cab going, Charlotte decided she wanted her car to be the semi trailer to go along with Henry’s cab. And Emma asked for a sports car. It took three days, one night staying up until 4am and basically all the arts and crafts energy I had in me for the rest of the school year to get them done 😆 But it was SO fun 🤩

The kids loved them and the best part is that I didn’t spend a penny on them. I only used items I already had - rolls of white easel paper to cover the cardboard, cardstock or cardboard scraps covered in aluminum foil for the details. The empty easel paper rolls to make the exhaust pipes. Chris even designed a logo for “Charlotte & Henry’s Trucking Company” ❤️

Since I only had white paper to cover them, Emma decided to attach some favorite coloring sheets to hers. She brought colored pencils with her to movie night so she could decorate her car while watching the movie.

Now that it’s over, it’s time to go clean my house… 😂

12/15/2021

“Presents are the best way to show someone how much you care. It's like this tangible thing that you can point to and say, "Hey, man, I love you this many dollars worth." - Michael Scott in The Office

This quote makes me laugh, but I think too many people might believe it is true. I think it’s a myth that Christmas has to be expensive. Don’t get me wrong - it certainly can be. But it doesn’t have to be expensive in order to give meaningful gifts and make special family memories. I remember piling into our station wagon as a kid with Santa hats on, Christmas music playing on the radio, and driving through neighborhoods looking at Christmas lights. For just the cost of a little gas and time. Or popping some popcorn, and watching a Christmas movie on the couch together. We weren’t fancy, but it was fun and we were together ❤️

If your budget is tight and you need to come up with gifts for your loved ones, why not gift your time and talents?

Are you artistic? Paint a landscape or favorite Bible verse for those you love. Or make a certificate for an art lesson for someone you know who’s been eager to learn.

Great with kids? Offer a certificate for a few hours of babysitting. As a parent, I can attest to this being an awesome gift 🎁😉

My girls’ favorite gifts are “Mommy-dates.” A certificate for a trip to the bowling alley with Mommy, or for dinner and a trip to the bookstore to pick out a new book. These do cost money, but you can spread out the cost by planning them for after Christmas when you have less strain on a tight budget.

Search on Groupon for deals to your local ice cream shop or play space. They are already discounted and there’s usually codes you can use for additional savings. For example, our local frozen yogurt shop has a Groupon that’s $6 for $10 worth of frozen yogurt. But there’s also a 30% off code, so you end up paying $4.20 for a $10 voucher. We put these in our kids’ stockings for an “experience” gift on a budget.

My point is you don’t need to spend a lot of money to let people know that you care about them this Christmas ❤️ Drop YOUR ideas in the comments below 👇

12/13/2021

If you’re looking for an easy DIY gift for younger kids, you might try putting together a little homemade play-dough kit as a small gift or stocking stuffer. Henry (my 4 year old) and I whipped up a batch of play-dough recipe and used items from the to make little kits for some of the younger kids in our family. You’ll just need the playdough ingredients (For the recipe, go to Instagram page and click on the Playdough highlight), a jar or container, and any accessories you want to include. Henry chose a couple larger character figures for each jar, but there are so many ideas out there of things you could include. Pipe cleaners, pom poms, beads, gems, toy cars, tiny shovels and tools, etc. We avoided the smaller items because some of the kids we are gifting them to have younger siblings, but the possibilities are endless. What items would you put in yours?

Note: I did put the play-dough into a ziploc bag before putting it into the container to ensure it stays nice and soft.

12/02/2021

I was starting 4th grade when my parents decided to homeschool my sister and I. I remember there were a lot of things I enjoyed about homeschooling, but two in particular stand out the most:
1) We always finished our school year by my birthday (June 7th) and
2) We always got to take the whole month of December off from doing normal school like math (😝) and instead spent the whole month baking cookies, doing Christmas crafts and activities, and making gifts for friends and family 🎄

When I began homeschooling my oldest, I knew I wanted to do the same. My kids call it “Christmas School” and it starts each year on December 1st. There will still be lots of learning - it just looks a little different then opening up their textbooks. We will read a bunch - the Bible mostly. We’ll do tons of art projects and crafts (which I’m not great at implementing in our normal school routine so I basically save it all up for this month). And they’ll be learning life skills like baking and sewing. And practicing handwriting and spelling by writing Christmas cards and Bible verses.

This is what I love about homeschooling - the freedom to make our learning experience whatever we want it to be. It’s my favorite month of homeschooling each year because it’s just so fun 😊

So bring on a month of crafts, baking, learning Christmas carols, watching Charlie Brown and discussing the very best Gift the world has ever been given 🎁 "For unto us a child is born..."
Isaiah 6:9a

Activity Idea: This is the simple fingerprint nativity card we did yesterday for Day 1 of Christmas school. I got the idea from Pinterest and decided it would be a good place to start. Super easy and we had all the supplies on hand (card stock, paint, little fingers 🤷‍♀️😊). Today they are dry, so the girls will decide who they want to send theirs to, write their notes and mail them off. I’ll help Henry with his ❤️