Many of us haven’t seen all the movies yet, but it’s still fun to watch the stars come out and see who wins. Make it more fun by inviting a group of girlfriends, couples or neighbors that are movie lovers. As always, we have some ideas for keeping the party fun and staying within your frugal living plan.
Refreshments – Ask your guests to bring either a bottle of inexpensive champagne or an appetizer. We found a website called thatsthespirit.com that has fabulous cocktail recipes using champagne. Here’s one that will be great for your party:
RED CARPET FIZZ (from thatsthespirit.com)
1/3 oz. Orange liqueur (Cointreau, Triple Sec, Grand Marnier)
1/2 oz. pomegranate juice
1 750-ml. bottle champagne
fresh raspberries
Mix Pomegranate Juice and Orange Liqueur with plenty of ice in a cocktail shaker and strain into a chilled cocktail or champagne glass. Top with 4 ounces of Champagne and a raspberry.
Attire – If you’re hosting only women, ask them to wear the most outrageous earrings they can find. I won this contest one time with a pair of $2.00 Goodwill earrings. If you’re hosting couples, ask the men to wear an Oscar-worthy hat or tie. Give small prizes to the best dressed attendees.
Fun – Have everyone put three dollars in a hat and do a “pool” for Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Film. Have a little voting sheet that they fill out when they come in the door. Divvy up the money at the end of the night or as you go along.
Hosting doesn’t have to cost a lot, you just need to make a little effort to get your house tidy. Don’t hold yourself to Martha’s standards and you’ll have a relaxing evening with your friends. Have fun at the Oscars!
Going to the mall for a shopping outing isn’t the best thing to do when you’re on a budget and a trip to the movie theater for 4 can set you back $60 dollars these days. But the weather isn’t great at this time of year for the cheap outside activities like hiking and biking. So what activities can you do this winter that will provide cheap family fun on the weekend? We’ve put together some money saving tips for you that will appeal to all ages of kids.
Go visiting. – Visiting has become a thing of the past but most friends and family would love to have a visit with you. The key? Don’t show up empty handed. Bring a dish of food and some drinks and even a game or two.
Take in a local high school basketball game. – It’s fun to route for your home school and you’ll probably see some friends you know.
Go on a local architecture tour. – Wikipedia is a great source for exploring your city’s architecture. Enter the name of your city with the word “architecture” in their search engine and you’ll be surprised by the great tour information you’ll get.
Warm your hands and tummy with this sweet, creamy holiday drink for adults and kids. Enjoy it in the evening by the fireplace or after some outdoor winter fun. If you want to warm your spirits, as well, add some peppermint schnapps.
Hot Peppermint Chocolate
Serves 4
3 cups hot nonfat milk
6-8 York Peppermint Patties
A dash of salt
1 cup half and half
Heat 1 cup of the nonfat milk with the peppermint patties until combined and thoroughly melted. Add the rest of the milk and the salt. Heat to simmering and add the half and half and heat gently without boiling. Serve in tall, clear mugs and top with whipped cream if you feel extra decadent. Yum!
Whether you’re snowed in, or just stuck in the house due to lack of funding, our Book Club Ladies have once again come through for Ms. Nickel with a list of the family board games that they recommend. If you don’t have some of them, why not try a board game swap with your neighbors or friends? Perhaps you have a game that someone else has grown tired of. In addition, Walmart (yes, I said it) is having some truly good sales on toys and games this year so you might be able to find one of the old standards for a steal of a price.
Apples to Apples – Our Book Club reviewers gave this game the highest rating. Here are some of their reviews: “We play “Apples to Apples” which is lots of fun. There’s also an expansion pack of additional cards that can be bought separately.”, “We like Apples to Apples for all that can read (or team w/ someone who whispers well and can read).”, “We love Apples to Apples, Jr, regular and Jewish editions. It is fun for all ages.”, and “We love to play Apples to Apples”.
Blokus – Once again, a Book Club family favorite. Our reviewers recommend “Blokus, regular and trigon editions”. They call it “fun for all ages (with modified rules for 3 year olds)” and many of them simply said “we love Blokus”.
New books are so 90s. With hardcover novels approaching the $30 mark, it is ridiculous not to take a look at the used book section on Amazon and give they guys in your life a classic that they can keep forever, re-read and loan to their buddies.This December, get your hubby, brother or male co-worker a classic used book and save a little cash while you’re at it. You won’t regret it and it’s the ultimate in Eco-thrifty to buy used books.
We’ve compiled this list with the help of a cheeky website called the Art of Manliness and we’ve researched the used prices at Amazon.com. We hope you enjoy our picks!
If you have a good, used, local bookstore, even better and you’ll save the shipping charges!
Good luck shopping!
Darcy Ratner
Co-founder, Rubbingnickels.com
It’s certainly been a while since my family has traveled and we are starting to miss it. Unfortunately, our days of visiting the Westin Maui and sipping $15 cocktails by the pool waterfall have temporarily been put on hold. We’d still LOVE to get away during the holidays so I started digging around on the internet for cheap holiday getaways and was encouraged by some of the resources I found.
Road Trip – Re-think your classic road trip this holiday. Visit somewhere off the beaten path where you can have a nice, simple, small town holiday. I’m sure you’ll still find good food, nice lodging and the people will probably be friendlier. While you’re there, find somewhere to go sledding or hiking and visit to the town’s local historical spots. Hotels.com has a section when you can also get screaming deals on next day hotel rooms. I saw $39 in Vegas, $59 in Denver and $79 in San Francisco, and all were at well-known chain hotels, but you’ll almost always pay less for a room in a small town as opposed to a city.
Home Swaps – It takes a leap of faith to open your home to a stranger but if you’re willing, Budget Travel magazine suggests that the best sites for vacation home swapping are homeexchange.com, homelink.org and intervac.com. HomeExchange.com claims that “In 14 years and tens of thousands of exchanges, (they’ve) never had a report of a theft, malicious vandalism, or a case of someone getting to their exchange home and finding a vacant lot.” Homelink.org recommends the House Swap because “since their travelers don’t’ pay for lodging, they can afford to take more or longer holidays, or even pay for indulgences that turn good holidays into great ones.” Intervac.com is another great site that offers destinations like Dublin, Lisbon and Oslo right on their home page.
Last Minute Travel Deals – There aren’t a lot of deals on air travel this year but Travelocity has a section called Last Minute Packages. If you’re ready to get up and go with a few days notice, you can save BIG on your hotel bill and save a little on the airfare as well. Hotwire.com has a fantastic section tabbed “deals” and that sight claims to be able to get you the best airfare online.
Are you looking for a fun, family-friendly way to exercise both your mind and body? Try geocaching (“jee-oh-cash-ing”), the fast-growing sport that’s similar to a modern-day treasure hunt. Instead of a worn map marked with an X, you use a GPS receiver, a set of coordinates and (optionally) clues. And instead of hunting for a buried chest, you’re looking for a cache of goodies hidden in an eco-friendly site above ground.
With geocaching, there are no dues to pay or clubs to join. Simply log onto geocaching.com to find a cache near you. Geocache sites range from easy to challenging, and their level of difficulty is indicated alongside the cache’s coordinates.
An expensive and elaborate GPS device is not necessary. At the simplest level, you will need a GPS device for which you can easily enter coordinates. A device should also be easy to use, accessible, and durable. The GeoMate GPS is one example that is family friendly.
You can usually find GPS units at electronic, camping and boat supply stores or online. Although geocaching has been traditionally done with a GPS device built for outdoor use, you can now even use an iPhone with Groundspeak’s Geocaching iPhone Application.
No matter which device you use, make sure to take along a good map. Geocaching employs the skills of problem and puzzle solving: you’ll look for and identify clues, learn navigation and orienteering, and you may get an introduction to other related games such as letterboxing. The beauty of geocaching, besides getting out in nature and having an adventure, is that it is an activity that can be enjoyed by all ages all over the country and world.
Who wants to spend money this year on plastic or rented Halloween costumes? Not me! I DO still want to dress up, though, because being silly is the best part of Halloween. My husband and I have Star Trek costumes, disco outfits, and tons of wigs and hats (Samurai and Superfly) that we’ve been known to wear when it’s NOT Halloween. If you don’t have a costume box like we do, there are lots of great costume ideas that you can make. Check out these sites …
parents.com – This website has ideas for kids that you can whip-up with supplies from around the house. They include a scuba diver (swim mask and fins), crayon (colored paper party hat and one-color outfit), weatherman (raincoat, umbrella and fake microphone), and a piece of sushi (all white outfit with an orange pillow pinned to your back).
Here at rubbingnickels.com, we love to party! Any excuse will do. This month we’re putting on a Canning Party. It’s in the tradition of my Grandma Richardes, who always had fruit “put up” in the cellar for the winter. Today, we get fresh fruit all year round but the best local fruit always comes at the end of the summer.
Don’t know how to can fruit or veggies? Neither do we! Get a group of friends together and you can learn lots. With the help of a few cookbooks like my favorite “How to Cook Everything,” by Mark Bittman, we’ll be professional canners in no time. The fruit can come from your yard, the farmer’s market or the grocery, but try to buy local and as fresh as you can get it.
We may be ambitious, but at our party we’re going to try Mark’s recipe for traditional and low sugar jam first, using local strawberries. Next, I think we’ll try his recipe for tomato salsa with tomatoes that I’ll steal from my friend Miriam’s garden. Last but not least, we’ll “put up” some homemade applesauce, which looks super simple to make and is a wonderful “diet” dessert or topping for potato pancakes.
In the end, it doesn’t matter what you make. Use what you have and we hope you’ll have fun the in the kitchen with friends. If you supply good music, snacks and drinks, this party may become a yearly event at your house.
Here are a few canning resources for you:
How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman
Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook
www.freshpreserving.com
Canning, Freezing and Drying by Sunset Books, 1981
Submitted by Darcy Ratner, Founder, rubbingnickels.com
At Pandora.com you can create personalized radio stations and listen to the music when you’re online. For those in our families that get tired of music quickly (teens), you can listen to new music and avoid paying $1.29 per track for the songs.
Alaska Airlines offers travel to destinations including Portland, Seattle, Chicago, and Las Vegas with its spring promotion. These are solid fares, though American, Delta, JetBlue, and United are matching many routes' rates. […]
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– Once again, a Book Club family favorite. Our reviewers recommend “Blokus, regular and trigon editions”. They call it “fun for all ages (with modified rules for 3 year olds)” and many of them simply said “we love Blokus”.
