OpinionMom

Contents (c) Copyright 2007, Laura Spencer. All rights reserved.

I entered last Friday’s Frugal Friday in the 85th Festival of Frugality. The results for the festival are in at Frugal Babe’s blog. If you’re looking for ways to save money, this festival has dozens of tips.

The final results for MamaBlogga’s writing project are in.

Here is a list of the entries:

• No Market For Used Teenagers by Robin
• Thank you Mom! by Michelle Buck
• July MamaBlogga Writing Group – Thanks Mom! by Jennifer Hitchcock
• Thanks Mom! by Mama Zen
• To my mom by Deb
• If She Were Alive Today by Mommy Zabs
• Danke Rot Koph by Kymberlyn
• Will she ever say it? by Lisa
• Thanks, Mom. by Kulia
• Thanks, Mom! by Laura Spencer
• Thanks Mom – Group Writing Project by Amber
• Dear Mother…Thanks Mother! by Corey
• Thank you, mom by Lynnae
• My Mother, My Mentor, My Friend by Jill
• GWP – Thanks mum. by Amanda Regan
• Thank you Mother by Donetta
• I wanted to say thanks by Summer
• Thanks to my Mommy by Southerngirlmusings
• Group Writing Project – July by Jenn
• Blue Denim by bellevelma
• Thanks, Mommy! by Stacey @ Look, Mom, Look!
• Naming the Mother by Daisy
• I’m turning into my mother… by Summer
• I learned by example by Heather Erbe
• Making Memories with Your Kids—Be Crazy, Unpredictable by Karen (Pediascribe)
• There’s Loving and Then There’s Liking by Dawn
• Thank You Mom in Law by Julie
• Right from wrong by Jordan (MamaBlogga)
• Thanks for coming by Kate @ Babylune

After you’ve finished reading your way through this list, be sure to make MamaBlogga’s blog a regular part of your daily reading!

What’s the best way to save money? Stay at home.

Entertaining the family can be costly when you are on a budget. I don’t know about you, but there have been some months that we haven’t had much of an entertainment budget at all.

There’s no need to give up on entertaining the family when things are tight, though.

Here I’ve listed three family entertainment options with a do-it-at home alternative for each:

• A trip to the ballpark. So you want to take the family to see your favorite professional team in action. Be prepared to shell out the cash. Not only will you have to pay for seats (which could start at $8 a person for seats in the peanut gallery), you also need to be prepared to pay for parking. If your kids want food and drinks, you’ll have to pay for that too. A trip to ballpark for a family of four could easily total $75, or more.
• Do at home alternative: The sports channel. If you have cable then you and the family can watch a ballgame on TV. If the game is blacked out for the local team, try watching a college game and picking a team to root for. Those “ballpark” hot dogs and sodas can be made at home with a cost of under $10, which will probably be your only expense for the entire event. (Note: if you don’t have cable, try renting a movie about sports. There are some great kid-friendly sports flicks out there.)

• A trip to the movie theater. It’s fun to catch new movies in the theater when they first come out, but for a family of four the trip can be costly. In my area tickets cost between $6 and $8 a person. If your kids want popcorn, candy, and soda — watch out! We recently found that a large soda cost $4 a person at a movie theater near us. With the movies, you are probably looking at close to $50 for less than two hours of entertainment. That can really make a dent in a tight budget.

• Do it at home alternative: Video rentals. For about $4 (or free, if you go to the library) you can rent DVDs of older movies and have a home movie night. In fact, for less than half the cost of taking the family to the movies you can rent an older movie AND its sequel. (If you have girls try renting all three of the Princess Diaries movies.) For under $10 you can have enough popcorn, candy and soda for the entire family.

• Dining Out. This may not strictly fall under the category of entertainment, but it can take a huge bite out of the family budget. Meeting and eating with friends at the local restaurant may be convenient (and I love it because I don’t have to clean the kitchen afterwards), but it is expensive. For our family of four the tab usually comes to over $50. (That’s almost as much as my grocery bill.)

• Do it at home alternative: Host a pot-luck! Instead of meeting your friends and their family at the restaurant, why not host a casual pot-luck dinner instead? With a pot-luck dinner each family is responsible for bringing part of the meal, so your kitchen shouldn’t get too messy. You can even splurge and buy fancy paper plates to serve the food on. (That way there’s not too much mess afterwards.) Caution: be sure to agree in advance what each family will bring.

Contents (c) Copyright 2007, Laura Spencer. All rights reserved.

Contents (c) Copyright 2007, Laura Spencer. All rights reserved.

MamaBlogga’s July writing project is called “Thanks, Mom” and this is my entry.

I thought that it would be best to write it in the form of a letter.

Dear Mom,

I know that I haven’t always appreciated what you’ve done for me. There have been so many times that I’ve taken you for granted.

Today I wanted to list three things that you did for me for which I will be forever grateful:

1. You started teaching me to read when I was four. You didn’t trust the task to others; you took the time to teach me yourself. You had no way of knowing that I would grow up to be a writer or that I would depend so heavily on my reading skill, but I do. If it hadn’t been for your early lessons I might not be able to do what I do today.
2. You encouraged me to try different things. If some kind of lesson was being offered in the community, you made sure that I got the opportunity to take it. “She has to discover who she is,” you said, and you were right. I’m sure you remember all the activities that I tried and quit over the years: ballet, art, piano, clarinet, guitar, and probably many others that I can’t even think of now.
3. You took the effort to make life fun. You showed me that there was more to life than chores and work. I still remember the Halloween parties you planned, the Easter egg trees you made, the homemade valentines, and the glitter angel that we made together. Perhaps it was your extra efforts in this area that has taught me to look for contentment in whatever circumstances I find myself.

Mom, thank-you for all that you’ve given to me. I will always and forever be your daughter.

Note: My mom passed away four years ago. She is beyond needing to read this letter now, but I very much wish that I could give it to her. We weren’t always close, but before she died I came to love and appreciate her in new ways. Cherish your mothers while you have them because you never know when they will be taken from you.

Contents (c) Copyright 2007, Laura Spencer. All rights reserved.

MamaBlogga has announced her July group writing project. I participated in MamaBlogga’s project last month and I thoroughly enjoyed it! I’m already working on my entry for this month. Oh, and did I mention that you can win a $30 gift certificate to Amazon.com?

Recently I participated in some excellent carnivals:

•  All for Women blogging carnival. This is an excellent weekly carnival that rounds up the best of women blogging every week. Submit your best post. (If you want to see the week that I entered the carnival was hosted by Pearls of Wisdom that week.)
• Festival of Frugality. If you’re on a tight budget, as I am, then you’ll want to follow the results of this weekly carnival closely. (The week that I entered the carnival was hosted by Money Walks.)

If you haven’t already done it, I’d encourage you to participate in a group writing project and/or carnival. It’s a great way to discover new blogs that may be of interest and learn more about a specific topic.

Today I have teen blogger “Rae,” who blogs at Rae’s Random Rambles to help with the review of the new Harry Potter Movie.

OpinionMom: Was there anything about the movie that you didn’t like?

I did not like the differences in the book and the movie. I also did not like some of the changes that were made.

OpinionMom: Did you like the movie or the book better?

I, of course, liked the book better. In my opinion books are almost always better, allowing the reader to use their imagination while reading.

OpinionMom: What age group would you say that this movie is for?

I would say it is for children and adults over the age of twelve. If the children are younger make sure the parents are ready to talk about it.

OpinionMom: Was there anything objectionable about this movie?

There was nothing about the movie that I particularly objected to.

OpinionMom: Was the movie worth it? Would you buy this movie?

I would love to own this movie.

For additional opinions about the movie visit Rae’s Random Rambles.

OpinionMom was recently accepted by Gack Ink, a great network of independently owned and managed blogs. The network members work together to learn about blogging and to discover how to improve their blogs.

Gack Ink contains excellent blogs in many different categories (including family and parenting) and a great many talented bloggers participate. If you haven’t visited their home page, be sure to stop by the Gack Ink home page. You’re likely to discover some new favorites!

I’ve found a great way to save money at the grocery store that doesn’t involve buying groceries!

Now, of course, the most environmentally friendly thing to do is to bring your own reusable cloth grocery bags to the store. But, if you’re like me and haven’t managed to buy those yet, you’ll be happy to know that there are many uses for those flimsy plastic bags that they send your groceries home in.

Here are just a few of the re-uses that we have found for plastic grocery bags:

1. Lunch bags. The kids had hard lunch boxes, but a few years ago they decided that they were too old for them. I used to buy a package of brown paper lunch sacks for my husband and the kids (at about $2 for 100 brown paper sacks). Then, I discovered that plastic grocery sacks are perfect for packing lunches. I double them because the bags are so thin. The kids love it because it keeps the lunch dry when it is wet. The husband loves it because it saves money.
2. Trash liners. Those plastic grocery bags are just exactly the right size to line the smaller trash cans in my house. The paper trash container in my office is lined with an old grocery sack. So is the trash can in the bathroom. This saves the cost of buying the smaller trash liners. (Have you seen the price of trash liners in the store?) We use a larger trash can in the kitchen, so I still buy trash liners for that.
3. Going to the pool or beach. You need a way to keep those wet bathing suits and damp towels from getting your car seats wet. You could buy an expensive tote for this purpose, but plastic grocery bags meet the need perfectly. (Just remember to take the wet suit out and rinse it when you get home.)
4. Laundry bags on trips. Is your kid going to spend the night at grandma’s? You need a place for them to keep their dirty clothes separate from the clean. Enter the plastic grocery bag!

These are just a few of the re-uses we’ve found for plastic grocery bags. I’m sure that you and your family can find many more!

Contents (c) Copyright 2007, Laura Spencer. All rights reserved.