kids

3/25/2023 KPBS Be My Neighbor Day!

Abby H.Leave a comment

My kids loved Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood when they were tiny. I watched Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood when I was little. I love the lessons of kindness, sharing, and how Daniel and the whole Land of Make Believe gang live and work together to make their world a better place.

So imagine how excited I was when KPBS reached out to share Be My Neighbor Day.

In celebration of Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood (DTN) and PNC Grow Up Great® (an initiative of The PNC Financial Services Group), Fred Rogers Productions is working with PBS stations across the country to host Be My Neighbor Day community events. Building on the values and themes of DTN, the events are used as an opportunity for member stations to collaborate with new and existing partners while promoting local volunteerism, family engagement, and community development.

KPBS is excited to join forces with local community partners to host San Diego’s first-ever Be My Neighbor Day on Saturday, March 25 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at the KPBS station on the San Diego State University campus. Young children (ages 0-8) and their families will celebrate kindness and learn how their neighbors are working to improve our region’s natural environment (and preserve the planet!) through interactive displays and meaningful activities. Current exhibitors include America’s Finest Charter School, Climate Science Alliance, Girl Scouts San Diego, Japanese Friendship Garden Society of San Diego, Living Coast Discovery Center, Salk Education Outreach, San Diego Children’s Discovery Museum, and the SDSU Office of Energy and Sustainability.

If you and your family want to check out Be My Neighbor Day, click here.

March is National Craft Month! Free Crafts & Crafting Deals!

Abby H.

Did you know that March is National Craft Month?

It’s one of our favorite months of the year. We are definitely a crafty family. While I was researching for this post, Bitty Girl was drawing Gatcha girls at the kitchen table, and Big Kid was drawing maps for the dragon game he’s making.

For those of you who love crafts too, check out this sweet deal from Craftsy–Celebrate National Craft Month at Craftsy! Get your 1-Year Premium Membership for only $2.49, originally $97!

Craftsy also offers a lot of free classes. Here are just a few that I love:

Recipe: My Favorite Pasta Salad!

Abby H.

In my recent post about hosting a mermaid-themed party, I mentioned that we will be serving pasta salad.

One of the things that I love about pasta salad is that it’s so flexible.

Basically, all you need is a pound of pasta (your choice) cooked per package directions, drained, and rinsed. After that, whatever you add is up to you.

  • I use 1 cup of dressing to start. Usually, I use zesty Italian-type dressing, but if you are a pesto lover, 1 jar/can of pesto and a few tablespoons of your favorite oil (I like avocado oil) is excellent. Red or green pesto, whatever your preference is. If you are serving vegetarians, avoid red pesto because it contains anchovies.
  • 1 cup of diced cheese- Mozzarella, or mozzarella pearls, or cut up a couple string cheese sticks.
  • 2 cups vegetables, cut into bite-size pieces.  Bell peppers, broccoli, black olives, tomatoes (either grape or cherry), and fresh, shelled peas are some of my favorites.
  • Optional, but tasty: a bunch of fresh basil, cut into ribbons (chiffonade).

Mix all ingredients together, and store in a tightly closed container for at least 4-6 hours prior to serving.

This recipe serves about 8-10 as a side dish, less as a main dish. If you need to add meat to this, as a can or 2 pouches of chunk tuna, drained and rinsed.

Planning a Mermaid/Under the Sea Themed Party? Dollar Tree To The Rescue!

Abby H.

I’m working on planning a mermaid-themed party for a certain little girl in my house. Thankfully, Dollar Tree has some great supplies on the cheap! These are available in-store and online.

First off, check out these cool iridescent shell-shaped eggs. Perfect for hiding candy or tiny gifts like bracelets or rings. In the store, there are a lot of beaded necklaces, like there.

There are mermaid-themed party paper goods too. Plates, cups, and napkins. One thing I love about Dollar Tree is that with the rising costs of everything, I’m able to host cute themed parties and stay on budget.

I’m loving these cute mermaid buckets, they would be great for goodie baskets. If you aren’t sure what to put in them, I’d suggest mermaid facial masks, nail polish in “mermaid” colors- there are tons of colors in stores, mermaid tail shaped hand soaps,  Nail art sets, nail files (there are ocean/mermaid themed ones in the stores, and bath bombs- some stores have mermaid tail-shaped bath bombs. All locations have bath bombs in various scents and sizes.

Don’t forget to hit up the home decor area to look for beach, ocean, and mermaid themed signs.

As for snacks and menu, we’ll be serving:

  • Strawberry lemonade, complete with frozen strawberries (available in the stores) as our beverage.
  • Cold Pasta Salad using shell pasta (recipe is forthcoming)
  • Goldfish crackers
  • Fresh Fruit cut into star shapes- Watermelon, pineapple, apple (with a hole cut in the middle where I remove the apple core)

I love using the plastic “crystal” serving ware from Dollar Tree too. It makes the party look fancy, without worrying about little hands breaking anything special or vintage.

And for those wondering, we only invite 4-6 of Bitty’s good friends to parties. I can’t have a house full of 20+ kiddos. My neighbors would never forgive me. We may have a viewing of The Little Mermaid while we eat.

And of course, I’ll be making invitations on Canva for free, saving the image as a PDF, and either printing them out to hand out or emailing them to friends parents/guardians.

Select Southern California Museums FREE ADMISSION 2/5/2023!

Abby H.

Here in San Diego, February is Museum month, and that means 50% off admission to selected museums. Digital passes good for 50% off of up to four passes can be printed here, or visit your local City of San Diego or County of San Diego Library branch location.

Don’t forget that there is also Free Museum Tuesdays all year long for San Diego Residents and military families.

If you have an EBT/SNAP card, you can access over 1000 museums nationwide for FREE. Check out Museums4All here for more details and search for your local museums.

If you are looking for a fun road trip, or live outside San Diego County, there is a collection of 30+ museums in the LA/OC/Santa Barbara area with free admission offers next Sunday, 2/5/23.

Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
American Museum of Ceramic Art (Advance tickets required. Visit www.amoca.org to make a reservation.)
Armory Center for the Arts
Bowers Museum
Catalina Museum for Art & History
Cayton’s Children’s Museum (Advance tickets required. Visit www.caytonmuseum.org to make a reservation.)
Craft Contemporary
Descanso Gardens (Advance tickets required. Visit www.descansogardens.org to make a reservation.)
Fowler Museum at UCLA
Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, Pepperdine University
Hammer Museum
The Getty Center
The Getty Villa (Timed tickets are required for the Getty Villa. Visit www.getty.edu to make a reservation.)
Japanese American National Museum
La Brea Tar Pits & Museum (Advance tickets required. Visit www.tarpits.org to make a reservation.)
Laguna Art Museum
LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes
Lincoln Memorial Shrine
Long Beach Museum of Art
The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) (Advance tickets strongly recommended. Visit www.moca.org to make a reservation.)
Muckenthaler Cultural Center
Museum of Latin America Art (MOLAA)
Museum of Tolerance
Museum of Ventura County
Museum of Ventura County’s Agriculture Museum
Santa Barbara Museum of Art
Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
Santa Monica History Museum
Santa Paula Art Museum
Skirball Cultural Center (Advance tickets strongly recommended. Visit www.skirball.org to make a reservation.)
The Wende Museum
The Zimmerman Automobile Driving Museum
USC Asia Pacific Museum

For more information and details, check out the website.

 

 

2023 Birthday Freebies!

Abby H.

I’ve been working on this list off and on for over a month. The birthday freebies are starting to trickle into my inbox. Sadly, there aren’t many additions this year, and there are more than a few previous offers/deals that are no longer available.

Remember to read the fine print for these offers. Most of them are for adults, ages 18+ (19 in some states). Some offers require the coupon/offer be printed out, and some you can just show your phone.

This guinea pig is ready for some freebies.

First off, if you live in CA, OR, FL, NY, SC, AZ, WA, and NV, check out  eBirthdayClub. There are TONS of great freebies on this site.

Non-food Birthday Goodies:

Free Food Birthday Goodies:

  • Roundtable Pizza: Download their app, sign up for their rewards, and they will add a free personal pan pizza and 20 oz soda for your birthday (Received in 2023)
  • Red Robin:  FREE burger on your birthday and all the latest Red Robin news.
  • Rubio’s   Free plate/combo (You have to download their app)
  • Del Taco  Free Shake (You also get something free when you sign up!)
  • Starbucks – Download their app and get a free birthday handcrafted beverage of your choice on your birthday only.
  • Baskin Robbins– Download their app, and you can receive a small scoop of ice cream for your birthday.
  • Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream – Free single scoop.
  • Sonic Drive-in: Free Medium beverage.
  • Denny’s: Free Grand Slam for your Birthday. They also email out other freebies and coupons.
  • IHOP: Free Meal (It varies by year) on your birthday.
  • Arby’s Birthday Club: Offers a “surprise” it changes each year.
  • Dunkin Donuts Birthday Club will kick down with a free coffee.
  • Bj’s Brewhouse– Rewards members receive a free Pizookie for their birthday.
  • Jersey Mike’s: Free Sub for your Birthday! (No matter what you read online, there is no Subway or Submarina birthday Freebies- Those deals are DEAD)
  • Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt: When you sign up for a Smile-age Account, you’ll score a free Fro Yo for your B-day!  (I love Menchie’s!) Received in 2023
  • Nothing Bundt Cakes: Join their email list and receive a FREE Bundlet on your Birthday. (look for the link at the bottom of their website) Received in 2023
  • Sbarro Rewards Club: Free piece of pizza for your birthday when you purchase a drink. You’ll also get a coupon for a free slice when you sign up.
  • Golden Spoon Frozen Yogurt: Free Frozen Yogurt on your birthday.
  • Sprinkles: Get a free cupcake for your birthday when you join the Sprinkles birthday club.
  • Bruegger’s Bagels gives you three free bagels for your birthday. SCORE! Our family eats tons of bagels, so this is a sweet deal.
  • D Z Akins
  • Mary’s Donuts– East County peeps know what I’m talking about! Free drink and TWO Donuts!
  • Habit Burger Grill’s CharClub Score a free Charburger on your birthday.  Received in 2023
  • Panera– Sign up for MyPanera and get a free pastry or sweet on your birthday.
  • El Pollo Loco- Sign up for Loco Rewards to get a FREE birthday meal (2pc Chicken Meal or Classic Chicken Tostada Salad.)!

And as always-

There are tons of other birthday freebie lists, but they may include offers that are not available here or may include stuff that I don’t consider worth it (like a free Rice Krispy treat when you buy an entree that’s $10+, looking at you Noodles & Co.  That’s a hard pass from me, or the Aveda “freebie”- pay $10 and receive a product valued at $23+… No thanks).

Another deal that everyone and their mama go nuts about is Benihana Japanese Restaurant – a complimentary meal up to $30 when you purchase an Adult meal at Regular Price (You must sign up for The Chef’s Table club). This used to be a FREE meal, no strings attached, but it has changed to basically a BOGO. That’s a no go for me, but it may still get you excited.

I have not included Ulta in my list because you have to make a purchase the year previous (and it needs to be a certain amount- I’ve been told different amounts by various Ulta Employees anywhere from $5-$50), so for me, that’s not a freebie. If I have to buy something to receive something, that’s a BOGO deal.

Tea Collection MegaSale! Up to 65% off Sale & Clearance prices!

Abby H.

Now through Tuesday, January 31, 2023, you can save an extra 25% off sales and clearance styles at Tea Collection! That means savings of up to 65% off regular prices.

Tea Collection is one of my favorite brands for littles. The clothes are well made and the fabric is high quality. Tea Collection lasts and lasts- It’s one of the few brands our local kids’ resale shop buys year-round.

Remember to use coupon code: JAN25OFFSALE at checkout!

 

How I’m Saving Time and Money in 2023 and Beyond!

Abby H.

I’m posting a lot less these days because I now have a full-time job outside the house, and y’all- I’m freaking exhausted at the end of the day. weekends are spent doing family stuff (mostly playing with legos and drawing), and doing kid activities like martial arts and girl scouts.

I wanted to share with you some ways you can save money, score freebies, and even earn some money each month without running all over town, spending hours of time doing little penny surveys, or scanning your entire grocery order to earn points for junk (looking at you Neilson panel).

This is how I’ve been doing it for years, and now that I have even less time, I’m leaning on these more.

Automate

  •  Use the calendar in your phone to remind you of appointments, neighborhood free food distributions, sales, and even coupon events: I seriously put the Bath and Body Works coupon dates in my calendar so I remembered to use them.
  • I bought a subscription to  Yasukochi Family Farms CSA boxes. This way my fresh fruit and veggies are delivered to my door each week.
  • Set up auto-shipments for most needed household items. Vitamins/supplements, specialized food, and even pet food. There are all sorts of companies that offer this service including Amazon, Chewy, and Vitacost are just a few.
  • I order from Dream Dinners once or twice a quarter. Now that they have lower minimum orders, I can grab a few favorites and try a new meal with greater ease. I order online, and pickup is so easy- I drive up and they deliver to my car!

Organize

  • I reorganized the kitchen over Winter Break. I have printables available for free. If you are interested, please drop me an email and I can send them to you. They print in color or black and white.
  • I meal plan weekly. I may not have time to post them on the blog each week, but I’ll still have pics up on Instagram each week- it helps keep me accountable. I spend about an hour on Monday evenings meal prepping fruit and veggies that come in our weekly CSA box.
  • For more organization tips that work in our home, check out my post about managing a household with neurodivergencies here.

Disconnect

  • This one is hard, but I am trying to consume only meaningful media. Don’t be afraid to disconnect from Social Media Platforms, people, or advertising that does not serve you or your life. Unfollow people and brands, delete or pause apps as you see fit. Engage with media in a manner that serves you and fulfills you. Do what feeds your soul and makes you a better person.
  • Unsubscribe from emails that don’t serve you. It will make your inbox smaller and you won’t miss information and freebies that you actually want. In my case, it’s freebies from Social Nature, PinchMe, and research study invitations.
  • In the same vein, I am trying to consume less physical media, specifically, mail and advertisements. If I don’t see sales, I won’t be tempted to shop. Junk mail and sale fliers go directly into the recycling can next to our group mailbox.

Saving Money

This is the big one, the reason you wanted to read this post. All of the above will help you save money, but here are a few specific ways that I use to save money on top of all of the above.

  • Use the notes section on my phone to keep a running list of our stockpiles: Toiletries, laundry soap, canned goods, and paper products.
  • Use the notes section of my phone to keep a running grocery list for the week. As we run low on items, I add them to my list. Right now I shop at three stores: Food4less, Grocery Outlet, and Dollar Tree (for specific items that are cheaper there). Unless I have coupons or freebie offers for other stores-usually from Social Nature, I stick to those three. At this point with inflation, we eat meat once or twice a week.
  • Use money saving/rebate apps. My list is here, and it’s pretty up-to-date. Fetch, Ibotta, and Shopkick are my go-to apps, and they yield me the biggest payouts.

 

Are New Years Resolutions on Your List?

Abby H.

I’m personally not doing any NYR this year, but. I know a lot of you are.

If you are on the fence and feel like it might cause you more stress than it’s worth, it’s ok to skip New Year’s Resolutions or anything else that causes undue stress. We all have enough stress in our lives.

If you want to do them, I did a round-up of the top ten NYRs in 2018 (for 2019) here. Some of the links within the articles may be outdated, but if you are looking for something specific, please feel free to reach out to me either via email, Instagram, or Facebook.

You may have noticed that my posting has slowed. I’m spending time with the kids this winter break, and I start my full-time job in the new year. I’ll still try to post here a few times a week, however, it won’t be daily unless I’ve got time. I’ll be posting more on Instagram and FB than blogging.

 

Free Food Resources for December 2022(San Diego County)

Abby H.

A new month means a reminder about all of the free food options there is here in San Diego County.

Because of the upcoming holidays, you may notice that some locations will be advertising additional distributions or special Thanksgiving or Winter Holiday meal giveaway events. As information about these events becomes available, I will be sharing them.

Keep in mind there are still supply chain issues, so there may not be a lot of food at some distributions, especially those that serve a large portion of the community.

I recommend showing up a little early with a bottle of water and a book and waiting in line. Time passes quickly in these lines, and it’s a great time to learn from others about community food options. Remember to socially distance and follow local masking regulations.

You can find resources here for Central and East County, and Here for North County.

The Rock Church, which has many locations all over San Diego County has a food and diaper pantry distribution at many of its locations throughout the month. More info can be found here.

Our friends at Faith Chapel are super ahead of the game and sent out information regarding their 2022 food distributions early on in the year.

If you are located outside San Diego County, call 211. If you are not familiar with 211, here is their website and it can point you in the right direction.

San Diego Food Bank Distributions for December 2022 can be found here. Enter your address (or just your zip code) and the map will show you all of the distributions in your area or closest to you. You can filter by the days of the week to find food when you are available. If there is an income requirement/limit to participate, each location/listing will say such. You can learn more here about the Feeding San Diego Together Tour.

Neighbor distributions are intermixed with the San Diego Food Bank Distributions, however, they have no income requirements, and you come as you are. These Distributions are primarily fruits & veg, however, some locations may also distribute canned goods, dairy, and bread.

If you know of other resources, please leave a comment! And feel free to share this post with anyone you may know in need.