The MomSpeak

I didn’t do it last year, and I felt so great about it, I’m never doing it again.

I didn’t buy a shred of wrapping paper.

Now I love beautifully-wrapped gift as much as the next guy, but buying paper specifically produced to be thrown away? Between the Earth’s stretched resources and my stretched budget, there’s just no way.

Are you with me on this one? Give it a try this year. A few ideas:

Craft paper. My daughter has an easel which uses an attached roll of recycled newsprint. She draws or paints, then pulls the roll revealing new paper. But what to do with the miles of resulting art? Turn it into custom wrapping for the grandparents’ gifts. Same deal with the art projects that come home from school.

Second-hand scarves. I know someone who picks up Goodwill scarves — the more garish the better — for pennies apiece and then uses them to wrap gifts. Also: baby blankets.

I used to think babies were expensive, with all of their baby toys, exersaucers, developmental playthings, and of course the Baby Einstein DVDs. And then my oldest grew into a preschooler, and I realized the entertainment only gets more expensive as they grow older. The newest electronic toys, that Dora DVD, and let’s not forget her begging to go to the local children’s science museum or the zoo constantly. It all adds up. 

Here are a few ways to save on entertainment so your little one can be happily occupied without draining your bank account:

We have tried to develop a love of books in our daughters. Our three-year-old loves to pick out her favorites for nighttime reading and even “reads” them back to us. Our eleven-month-old likes to chew on the corners — you can’t win ‘em all. As a family we are always looking for new books to cycle through the collection. This can get expensive if we were to buy new every time. Instead, I have compiled a list of ways to obtain free or inexpensive copies of our favorite tales to share with our readers.

Your clever little ones already figured out that the best fun of all is made with the stuff you have on hand. Or outside the front door. Or pretty much anywhere you look.

It’s you who occasionally benefits from a reminder.  No trips to the toy store or the art supply store or even any outing in the car or stroller necessary.  Here are some great ideas from the Savvy Source to make fun with what you’ve already got!