Frugal Weekender: Make Your Own Pizza

Recently, we did a Friday Make Your Own Pizza night. The kids love pizza, but I really prefer homemade pizza with my own sauce. So to make it fun for the kids, I had them make their own pizzas! Each kid got their own cookie sheet, ball of pizza dough, sauce, cheese and turkey pepperoni. It’s a great chance to get kids involved in dinner as well as a fun family activity!

Summer Movie Theater Discounts

Looking for something to do this summer with the kids that doesn't cost a lot of money? Movie Theathers are offering movies for a very cheap price. Usually it's movies already out on DVD. Harkins and Regal both have summer movie programs that are about $1 per movie. AMC has said they are not doing one this year, but will offer a discounted rate to new movies before noon during the week.


HARKINS:

If it's summertime, that means two things; blockbuster movies and the Harkins Summer Movie Fun program for kids (all adults must be accompanied by children). For over 30 years, Harkins Theatres has brought back some of Hollywood's best family films to keep kids entertained and cool during the summer. Kids can enjoy a movie a week for 10 weeks, for less than $1 per film. Make Harkins Summer Movie Fun for kids an annual tradition for your family.

http://www.harkinstheatres.com/summerMovieFun.aspx



Welcome to Regal's Summer Movie Express 2011. Moviegoers of all ages can climb aboard to enjoy a great selection of films. During this 9-week festival, select Regal Cinemas, United Artists and Edwards Theatres will offer selected G or PG rated movies for only a dollar on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 10:00am.
http://www.regmovies.com/summermovieexpress/default.aspx

Frugal Weekend: Yogi Bear & a Themed Movie Afternoon

Recently I was asked to rent and review the Yogi Bear movie. I was happy to do this because my 10 year old has been wanting to rent this ever since it came out. I rented the movie at Redbox and luckily still had a rental from my Groupon from last month, making this free!

The kids laughed throughout the whole movie. I thought the creators of this movie did a pretty good job of turning this classic into a modern day fun family movie. I personally used to watch Yogi Bear when I came home after school ( I really hope I am not dating myself here, lol). I thought the movie was fun and I loved the actors in it. I had no idea that Dan Ackroyd and Justin Timberlake did the voices of the bears.

In this movie, Yogi Bear and Boo Boo try to save Jellystone. Of course on their way they find picnic baskets and a bit of mischief. I think my favorite part of the movie was saving the endangered species the "Frog Tongued Turtle". I think this is a great movie to rent for a family movie night!

You can't watch this movie and not get hungry. So, while the kids were finishing the movie I headed into the kitchen to prepare a picnic Lunch. Although, it's been in the mid 90s here so we waited until after 6 to go to the park so we made it into a dinner :)



In our Picnic Basket (or reusable bag, which is the modern day picnic basket)
Peanut Butter Sandwiches with Peter Pan peanut butter and bananas
Fruit Salad with kiwis, apples, oranges, bananas, strawberries and grapes
Easter Eggs
Goldfish Crackers
Snack Pack pudding w/ Reddi Wip Whip Cream


This was a great way to spend a frugal afternoon. After the kids and I ate, they got to play on the playground at the park.

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Disclosure: This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. All opinions are my own.

Frugal Weekend: Dye-ing Easter Eggs

This Easter, when you and your kids are coloring eggs don't invest in the kits that cost money when you have the stuff to do it right in your pantry!

I used hot boiling water and few other ingredients:

My kids and I actually made an expirement out of creating our own dyes! First we started with spiniach for the green color. Unfortunately, this did not work.


Then for yellow we used Turmeric spice and it did work!



For red and purple, we just used food coloring on hand with 1/4th cup of vineagar combined with the hot water.



Use a white crayon to color on your eggs before dying them to make designs! Also pass the egg into different colors to create shades or use a spoon to half dye it one color, and half dye it another!

Frugal Weekend: Photo Shoot w/ Fun Props

Fun idea to do with the kiddies this weekend: Funky Photo Shoot

The kids and I got out the box full of costumes for Halloween, made a couple props and did a fun photo shoot. They thought this was hilarious and it didn't cost us anything! We cut out a couple paper mustaches out of cardstock and painted a couple frames that we got at Goodwill for a buck!

Other ideas for props:

Talking bubbles ~ Write out on a cardboard funny sayings then cut it out to be a "bubble" of what the person is saying.

Cutting out paper props ~ Cut out glasses, mustaches, hats, monocles, masks etc.

Put up a background ~ put up different bed sheets, use fabric from the thrift store or even paint a backdrop on a cardboard box.

Go to your closet ~ Get out dad's suits, ties, moms hats, jewelry etc.

Involve the pets and take fun photos of them too!