Making the Most with What You Have

Totality this is as dark as it got here

Well yesterday was the Solar Eclipse and where I am in Arkansas it was 98% Totality. It was very interesting to watch to say the least. The girls were napping when this happened it was so nice to watch the eclipse from the luxury of my own front porch haha…

After the Eclipse I wanted Toddler E to play outside which I am so proud of her she spent like 3 hours outside yesterday which is so good for her! I would love to do the 1000 hours of outside challenge each year I think we thrive in nature. 

What I wanted to talk about today is that it doesn’t take much to have a fun day outside!

Toddler E enjoying the 83 degree day! Budget pool! 

This past weekend I found a kiddie pool just a simple plastic one at Dollar General and some pool toys for her (Measuring cups, little bowls, diving rings and a couple wind up toys.) With the pool and the toys it was like $16 total! 

I am all for a cheaper budget! Most of my daughters’s toys have come from thrift stores. When I am thrifting I do look for more of a Montessori approach and more wooden toys, but we have a variety of wooden and plastic toys. Seeing what new toys go on Amazon is crazy to me! I have found some serious top brand toys for only a couple of dollars. We also finally got Toddler E a play structure for the yard and we found that on marketplace this last weekend. Seriously some of my favorite toy brands (Hape, Manhattan, Melissa and Doug and Fat Brain Toys) I have found at thrift stores usually all under $3. I highly recommend checking out your local thrift stores! 

Another place I absolutely love is Once Upon a Child. Depending on location you can get some pretty good deals! I got Toddler E’s swimsuit for like $3.50 there! There is also a really good consignment shop up NWA called Little Darlings and their prices are phenomenal!

Backpack Carrier we use a Ton!

We found a backpack carrier there and our baby shusher (normally retailed at $40 we paid $5.) Last summer actually we were coming back from Missouri and we stopped at Once Upon a Child in Springdale and they were having their end of summer sale! Anything spring or summer (short sleeves, shorts or tank tops) were 90% off! We were able to bless the pregnancy center here with 2 huge bags of clothing all for a total of probably $22! It was unbelievable I was getting an outfit for like .10 cents! 

You can usually find some good deals on Marketplace too! When Toddler E was a baby we got some of her most expensive items actually off of marketplace in such good condition! I’ll be talking about this in another post but one thing we have utilized for both girls is the Snuggapuppy Swing by Fisher Price. I absolutely adore this swing as I think it is so functional it can swing both ways side to side and back and forth. Normally it is $250 brand new we paid $50 on marketplace for it. Another one of my useful things we use daily is our Ubbi diaper pail! I got recommended to get this one from my cousin because unlike diaper genies or other ones this one is a steel container and it can use any garbage bag. These range on average $80 new on Amazon. We paid $35 and it was new (it was on one of those Amazon pallets and the only thing that was wrong with it was a dent in the side.) it’s not like a baby is going to care about a dent right? Haha 😂 

Another cheap budget idea is to make your child a play garden! It is very low budget and just requires a place where dirt can be, I find a lot of really cute kids garden things usually in the dollar section or dollar stores! My Toddler loves to play and also eat the dirt haha…I found these really cute mini pots for 4 for $1 at the local dollar tree! They are absolutely perfect for a child’s imagination. Children thrive imaginative play. I am all for that. 

The Play Garden 

Now however I will say stimulating toys do come in hand when Toddler E is screaming and then Baby E is screaming to, so to keep some of my sanity I will pull out a battery operated toy for Toddler E, we maybe have a total of 2 of them in our house. I am also not against screen time again there is a time and place for it we try to limit Toddler E screen time and when we do use screen time we try to go for a lot less stimulating shows like (Spot the Dog, Kipper the Dog, Mister Rogers, Little Bear and Hey Bear Sensory.) There is definitely a time and place for screen time. 

So whatever your means look like I wanted to give you some budget friendly ideas to do with your kids this summer. Whatever your means look like it is enough for you child. I encourage you to even just get outside for an hour with your child today. May you be blessed wherever you are reading this from!