A tool for grocery shopping!

I feel like my life is going from A to Z all day everyday, and I find it hard to plan my grocery shopping trips. This leads to me deciding meals on the fly - and food never being eaten! I am constantly finding myself without any 'real food' in my house--like now for instance. Last year I found this great printable via Realsimple.com. LOVE THAT MAGAZINE. I just printed out a few more, because I have decided this is a staple in my life! It is a great prep tool for shopping. It makes shopping and meal planning a no brainer.
I heart it.

You can find it here!

I just made my shopping list and if you are like me, you try to stay away from vegetable oil or canola oil.... really all oils besides butter and EVOO. So you can go here to find a list of 'substitutions' for common baking/cooking needs. This has not been tested by me, but I am intrigued to see how applesauce works as a substitute for vegetable oil with all my baking recipes. I have been using butter and it just doesn't hold the way I would like. Have you used applesauce in lieu of vegetable oil? How does it work?

Holidays and Finances

Do you believe that those holiday deals really are deals? I have been in the process of putting that theory to the test.

I found all the gifts I wanted for my boys WAY back in July. I wrote down their original price and I have been watching their prices fluctuate ever since! Now some days I would miss the price, and a day can mean a whole lot, for instance one toy went up $50 in one day. I was pretty good at watching the prices at least once a week.

Would you believe that the price on one of their $35 toys has gone up and down within a range of $20! I couldn't believe it myself. Here are my findings for the past 5 months. All toys were compared on Toysrus.com

The toy: Grow to Pro Super Soccer Sounds

Original Price: $34.99

Highest Price I've noticed: $40.00 - this was RIGHT BEFORE the holiday season started

Lowest Price I've Noticed: $20.99 - during the holiday season

Conclusion: Great buy during the holidays!

The Toy: Step2 Lifestyle Marketplace Kitchen

Background info: I noticed

that Toys R Us was overwhelmingly cheaper on this product; more than any other company. So I followed their prices. This item was my main item for the holidays. So I wanted to get a really good deal.

Original Price: $199.99

Highest Price: $219.99 before the holidays season started and randomly other times. This toys price moved often.

Lowest Price: $143.99 this buy was tricky! I literally watched this price daily. One day it would be $180, the next $200. Only 2 days in the past 60 days have I seen it at the $143.99 price, AND it wasn't that price on a black friday or any other special day. It reached that price on just a random day!

Conclusion: Big ticket items, follow the price for a few months. It's worth it!

Overall conclusion: Never pay full price! The holidays are a pretty good time to shop, most things I bought before the holidays on a 'good deal' ended up being on sale during the holidays anyway, and for a couple dollars cheaper too. If you are buying an expensive item, find the price in advance and wait. You will end up paying a lot less in the long run.

Also, don't forget to pay attention to shipping! The price on the toy may be better, but the shipping may be higher. Know exactly what you are paying for the toy if you were to take it home with you. I hope you all try this, it was a great lesson to learn. Now I am interested in the after holidays prices! I will keep you posted.

Have you ever done this? What were your findings?

-Kari

Lots of FREE Printables to Help with 25 Days of Christmas Activities!!!

I apologize for my tardiness in getting this done!!!  Between Thanksgiving, Christmas and all that goes on between with my daughter's birthday and Doctor appointments I am going to be very busy in the next couple weeks.  I am afraid this blog is going to be a little neglected, but we will see.

I  have been working hard over the weekend in making some new printables to use with the 25 Days of Christmas, as well as collate all the different free printables I showed you over the past couple of weeks into 1 PDF file.

However, it ended up being 3 files because the service I used was free and the files were a bit large.

Anyway, included in the files are some recipes, song lyrics, and a checklist!  Download your free copies...

HERE

HERE

HERE

Computers can be the BEST Invention or the WORST!

I have been working on a checklist, to go with the 25 Days of Christmas, for those interested, when I installed new updates to my computer and since than my Photoshop Elements hasn't been working properly!  I thought I had fixed it last night, but this morning it went straight back to being a pain.  Hopefully, I can find another copy lying around today so I can complete all the fun printables that I have planned to share with you!!!

I did, however, finished one printable before Photoshop decided not to work and it is a list of 40 different activities to choose from when creating your 25 Day of Christmas Activities for an Advent Calendar (what a mouth full).

In order to check out this free Printable click HERE.

Also, before I leave to deal with my photoshop problem I wanted to give you a couple ideas in helping you plan for your 25 Days of Christmas.  I printed out a free calendar of December HERE.  Once I had the calendar in my hand I sat down and wrote in all the events and parties that I know are going on.  For example, family parties, my daughter's birthday, a slew of Doctor's Appointments and so forth...I wrote all these events in a blue pen on the bottom line of each day.  I than grabbed a red pen and figured out what events would be best done on which days and filled those in above the blue events.  I don't want to plan two major events on one day, like go to a Christmas play and to a family party.

Beaware that other things may pop up and you can just quickly rearrange things the night before or maybe one day you may do two easiers ideas like color a picture and wrap presents.  Also if it doesn't all get done that is okay too!!!  The reason for doing this is to spend time with our families making memories.  Last year, I didn't get to all the activities either and I don't have the expectation to get through them all this year either.

Have fun this holiday season and don't STRESS!

PS: The elements I used to create the list of 40 activities, come from Just So Scrappy

25 Days of Christmas: Days 23, 24 and 25!!!

WOW!!! We did it!!!  We are to our last three days, so lets get started.

Day 23

Do a lesson or activity that deals with the true meaning of Christmas.  Whatever, faith or religious background you may have, keep with the spirit of Christmas and explain (especially for young ones) the reason for the season!

Day 24

Christmas Eve!!!  Through my years, I have realized that almost everyone has the tradition of getting new PJs Christmas night and at our home we aren't any different.  Although, we deliver our PJs a little differently, instead of opening PJs as a present there are Christmas Elves, who ring the doorbell, run away and leave the PJs on our front door step.

Once everyone is in their Christmas PJs we have a Christmas talent show!  Followed by opening our immediate family's presents from each other.

However, you celebrate the 24th, don't change it!  If it is opening one gift that is PJs perfect or if you do something entirely different...that will be your activity for the day!

Speaking of Christmas Eve traditions...What are yours?

Day 25

Of course, the activity for this day is to open the presents Santa brings us and spend the day with the ones we love and hold most dear to our hearts!!!

Now don't go away, we may have given 25 activities to use during this month, but I am not done yet!  I still have some free printables and other fun Christmas ideas coming for the rest of the week, so keep checking back with us here at All Things Family!

25 Days of Christmas: Days 21 and 22

Day 21

Another Christmas Craft!!!  When I saw this next idea I knew I had to add it to my 25 Days of Christmas, it was just too cute to pass up!

Click on Picture to be Taken to the Tutorial

A handprint Christmas Tree!!!  So CUTE!!!  I am also doing a little switch-a-roo with the different activities I have planned.  I originally had planned to give the kids a new Christmas book, but when I was at the bookstore I 'forgot' to get them Christmas books and instead got them regular, everyday books. 

At that point I decided I would teach my kids about how other countries celebrate Christmas, more specifically, in Germany.  In Germnay, St. Nick visits the kids on December 6th.  The kids put their shoes outside and during the night St. Nick would bring them a treat. 

My little switch-a-roo is with Day 6 where we will be doing putting our shoes out and their 'treat' will be their new book.  We will also be doing the handprint Christmas Tree that same day!

Day 22

Deliver Neighborhood Gifts!!!  On this particular day, we will be getting into the car and heading out to deliver gifts to our neighbors, friends, and teachers.  Nothing TOO stressful I hope!  There have to be a couple days where the activity is a no brainer.

25 Days of Christmas: Days 19 and 20

Day 19

Making Christmas Tags for Neighborhood Gifts!!!  I want to get my kids involved as much as possible.  I have already shared one card idea yesterday with the Santa Claus Handprint card, that we used last year!  This year we are going to be making Thumbprint Santa tags...

Click on Picture to be Taken to Tutorial

With the help of my children's thumbs we will be creating these little beauties!

Day 20

Make/put together neighborhood gifts!  I found this cute idea, but I have NO clue where I found it.

I haven't decided completely if I am going to do recipe cards or not or really what, but I will let you know what I decide to do in the end!  I just really love the little saying that I found and that is what I really want to use!