Frugal Family Fun Blog » five dollar fridays

Wordless Wednesday — Sprinklers!!

Valerie — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 22:42:04 +0000

They say that money can’t buy you happiness, but for $4.99 it will buy you a sprinkler at Target — and that’s almost the same thing.

Lots of good (clean) FUN!!

$5 Friday — Dollar Store Smiles Edition

Valerie — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 22:55:00 +0000

When will the snow ever end??? I don’t know about you guys, but all this whiteness and being cooped up in the house for far too long was enough to drive us all a little coo-coo. So this afternoon I took Emily with me to the dollar store for another $5 Friday adventure! This time we focused on only buying items that made us smile.

We learned many things along the way! For example, did you know that curling ribbon makes for excellent pig tail holders?

Or that a five year old can fit one candy lollipop ring on each finger?

I think these shoelaces are AWESOME! But it wasn’t until much later that Mark pointed out to me that they glow in the dark! Now I think they are even MORE AWESOME!

Of course, we love flowers of all kinds! These bunches of fake flowers even had fake butterflies on them.

Blowing bubbles is always fun, but we managed to find fruit-scented ones that were even more fun! (Although I don’t think they would taste very good at all.)

Here’s the breakdown for how we spent our $5 today:

Curling Ribbon (3 pack) = $1.00

Shoelaces = $1.00

Lollipop Rings (6 pack) = $1.00

Fake Flowers = $1.00

Scented Bubbles (3 pack) = $1.00

Total Spent = $5.00!!

Having a fun “snow” day with my girls = Priceless!!

Fishy Fun on Friday

Valerie — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 22:30:00 +0000

We decided to have some fun with a “fish day”, so I took the girls to the local fish hatchery to learn all about the life cycle of trout. For just $1, you can buy a bag of fish food. Emily loved feeding the fish…. and ducks! Both of the girls had a great time!

Emily was loving this modern fish sculpture.

When we returned home (and scrubbed our hands with lots of lemon to get the fish smell off), we did a fun fish craft project! First, we covered a piece of cardboard with aluminum foil.

Then, Emily tore a bunch of blue, white, purple, and teal tissue paper into thin strips.

She glued them onto the aluminum foil, so the strips were overlapping a bit. She let some of the foil peak through.

Then, we used leaves from our backyard to make fish!

Adding googly eyes to the fish made them look so silly!

We really enjoyed our fun “fish” day!

$5 Friday — Crafty Dollar Store Edition (and Giveaway)

Valerie — Fri, 29 May 2009 21:14:00 +0000

I’ve made felt crayon rolls for Emily before, but when I took the girls to my local moms club meeting, Emily pointed out that we didn’t have any paper for her to color on. After the meeting, we had lunch and did a fun shopping trip to the dollar store! When we returned home, I started working on an improved crayon roll, a crayon wallet, if you will. This one has space for a memo pad!

And I used felt in Emily’s favorite colors ORANGE and green!

Look how nicely it folds up! I can’t wait to take this with us to restaurants, meetings, doctor offices, etc.

HERE’S THE FUN PART, one lucky reader will win one too!! Just leave a comment and be sure to mention your child’s two favorite colors and you will be entered for a chance to win a custom made one just for you! Ahem…. I mean, for your child, of course. ;-) Winner will be chosen by random.org and deadline for entries is Wednesday, June 3rd at 6:30pm EST.

Felt and ribbon cost a little less than a dollar, so we made a fun trip to the dollar store to spend the rest of our $5 on some summer toys.

It’s still too wet to use these, but that hasn’t stopped Emily from having indoor bug hunts.

Here’s a breakdown of how we spent our $5:

Felt for crayon wallet = $0.25 per sheet x 2 = $0.50

Ribbon for crayon wallet = on hand

Butterfly net = $1.00

Frisbee = $1.00

5 pack of glow sticks = $1.00

Bug house = $1.00

Total spent = $4.50!!

Get your entry in for this fun giveaway, and good luck!

$5 Friday — Outdoor Picnic Snack for Five Bucks

Valerie — Fri, 22 May 2009 20:56:00 +0000

This Memorial Day weekend, I’m sure there will be lots of picnics and barbecues. For $5 Friday, I took the girls with me for a special trip to the grocery store to see how far we could stretch our $5 for an outdoor picnic snack!

Here’s what we purchased for less than $5:

1 lb. organic carrots = $0.99

1/3 lb. red seedless grapes = $0.66

1 bag white cheddar popcorn = $0.50

1 bag soy nuts = $1.49

1 box pasta salad mix = $1.00

1 pitcher ice water = free

Total spent = $4.64!!

I made the dip for the carrots by stretching the ranch seasoning packet from the pasta salad mix with a little more mayo and added some milk to make it a little more creamy. It worked well!

Happy Frugal Picnicking!

$5 Friday — Window Crayons

Valerie — Fri, 15 May 2009 22:00:00 +0000

I was so happy to find these Window Crayons, and I scooped them up the minute I saw them at Target for just $2.70! I have let Emily use window markers before, but the ink seems to run out rather quickly, and the kids have to be really good about putting the caps back on because otherwise they will dry up easily. The crayons, however, are brilliant, and they work well on any glass surface. Emily drew on the storm door, some windows….

…and you know those vases you get from the florist, and you never really know what to do with them? She drew on those too!

Drawing on the storm door kept her occupied for a long time. She was really enjoying herself!

Don’t have any window crayons? We have used bath crayons with great results! They need to be a little wet, but they write well on the glass and they clean up easily. Have fun!