Create Your Own Summer Camp

Saving Money Tip #87 - Create Your Own Summer Camp. It’s March, and now is the time for camp sign-ups for this summer. Camp prices vary greatly from very expensive private camps at about $400 per week to cheaper, county playground camps at about $100 per week. However, even cheaper than any of these camps is doing one yourself.

Of course one would have to factor in different costs based on your personal situation to find out if it’s worth it to you. But if you are a stay-at-home mom who is looking to put your child into camp for a week or two this summer, consider creating one yourself with a few friends. It’s remarkably easy and incredibly cheap. Here are some ways to set up a camp:

Suppose you find four friends who are also interested in sending their child to camp for a week? How about each of you, instead, take one day from the week to hold camp at your house? Or alternatively, you can do camp one day per week for the whole summer. So for example, camp would be every Monday and each mom would alternate holding camp at her house on Monday.

All you need is a little creativity, a little bit of money, and a few friends, and your child will attend camp for a week for very little money. Each mom would think of a theme for her day of camp. It could be cowgirl/ranch camp, beach camp, sleepover/pajama camp, cooking camp, nature camp, patriotic camp, water fun camp, camping camp. The ideas are endless.

On your day of camp, you would provide a few fun activities, a snack, a craft or two, some stories, some songs, and some free playtime. That is essentially camp. And on the other days you would drop off your child at your friends’ homes for their camp days.

In Real Life (IRL) – For the past three years my friends and I have held summer camp in our homes. I organized the idea in my moms’ club three years ago. There were 8 of us who participated that first year. We held camp every Wednesday from 1 PM to 4 PM for 8 weeks. Each mom held camp in their home one time and assisted in another mom’s home one time. The other 6 Wednesdays, she dropped her child off. The moms were so creative and the girls had a blast. I have sent my daughter to private camps, Girl Scout camps, and county camps also, and to this day, my daughter says she had the most fun at the camps we made up. As some real life examples, we had cooking camp, nature camp, carnival camp (mine – I’ll go in more detail), pajama party camp, beach camp, around the world camp, on the farm camp, and Aloha camp.

In general, first we had structured activities, then snack, then a craft, and then some free time. For carnival camp, first we played carnival games – toss beanbags in a cut out clown, ducks in a pond, and bowling. The kids loved getting the prizes. Then we had fairground-type snacks - cotton candy, chips, Popsicles, watermelon, and juice boxes. I also had lemonade and water out on the table throughout the day in case they got thirsty in the heat. Next we did face painting and tattoos.

In between, the kids played on the moon bounce (bought at Goodwill for $25 years earlier) and on our swing set. Afterwards, we went inside and did a mosaic clown face craft. I offered a second craft, but most of them were not interested in doing another one. The last 45 minutes were free play. Some played inside and others played outside. The total cost of my activities, crafts and food was well less than $20.

I assisted at Around The World Camp. The mom made up passports and the children visited 4 countries. At each country they learned a few words from the language and either a song or dance or heard a story about that country. They got their passports stamped for each country they visited. Snack was an exotic treat.

For cooking camp, the girls made and ate nachos and also decorated cookies. For nature camp, they all went outside and looked to identify birds. For sleepover camp, they made dream catchers and wore pajamas and played sleepover-type games.

As a mom, it was nice knowing that the girls were in good hands – those of a mom – rather than a teenager. And it was nice to know the other girls whom they were with. As a bonus, the bond among the girls (my friends’ children) grew stronger.

In subsequent years, we have whittled camp down to five of us. In these cases we just had one mom hold camp with no assistant. Two years ago, camp lasted one day per week for 10 weeks, with each mom holding camp twice at her home. Last year as the girls got older and busier; we found it best to do just one continuous week of camp with each of us taking a different day. And as moms had other children, we made the “rules” more relaxed – allowing for more free time and fewer structured activities.

That is the nice thing about doing camp yourself, you can suit it to your needs. Once a week, for two weeks straight, many structured activities or few; it’s up to you and your friends. And you can’t beat the price.

Take The Scenic Route

Saving Money Tip #55 - Take the Scenic Route. In today's busy world, we are usually in a hurry to get somewhere. And because of that, most of us take the highway when we have somewhere we need to go. The speeds are higher. There's no stopping and starting. And there are few distractions to take you off course. However, sometimes, it really pays to take the scenic route if you are not in a hurry.

You can save money in tolls:
If you live in the East Coast, you know that there are plenty of highways that are toll roads. And those tolls are not just a quarter or a dollar these days. The Verazanno Bridge is $10 to cross it! The toll on I-95 in Delaware is $4 each way. And the Pennsylvania Turnpike isn't cheap. It costs a couple of bucks to go about 20 miles. I'm sure other parts of the country has its share of tolls, too, although I am not personally familiar with them. However, I have found on the East Coast, by taking the scenic route - state highways or other less-traveled non-toll roads, you can avoid many expensive fees - often saving $10 or $20 per trip.

You can eat cheaply:
Going on non-main roads brings you into the heart of many cities and towns. There are many alternatives to fast food in these "hometowns." There are tasty diners and coffee shops that are frequented by locals but unknown to travelers. Often these mom and pop restaurants have good food at great prices.

You can save when buying gasoline:
Many of those gas stations right off the exits on the highways or in the travelers service station are overpriced, taking advantage of the convenience they offer you. On lesser roads, you can avoid this "convenience fee" and pay regular local prices for gas.

You may actually use less gas:
Experts on gasoline usage say that your car gets the best mileage when doing 55. But on highways, the speed limit is often 65 or even 70. On state highways, the speed limit is often 55, the perfect speed for maximizing your gasoline usage. Of course the scenic route may be longer and there may be starting and stopping, but not always.

In Real Life (IRL) - We live in part of the most-populated area of the country. We are in the DC area, and my family lives in Philadelphia. Therefore, we were traveling up the I-95 corrider quite often. But, we got sick of paying the high tolls that they were charging us on I-95: $2 each way at the Baltimore tunnels, $5 one way on the Millard E. Tydings Bridge, and $4 each way at the Delaware/Maryland border. So it cost us $17 just in tolls to visit our family. This was in addition to the high price of gas we were paying earlier this year. There wasn't much we could do about the gas prices. But we could do something about the tolls. We started traveling up Route 1 to visit our family. We still had to pay the $2 tolls at the Baltimore tunnel, but we avoided everything else.

That was $13 more we had in our pocket by taking the scenic route. And it is scenic. It has many farms, mom and pop restaurants, a huge aquaduct, and a thrift store that we like to shop at. For the $13 we save in tolls, we can feed our family dinner on the way. We sometimes find a deal or two at the thrift store. And the gas prices are cheaper than in our hometown. So we always fill up! On the negative side, for part of the ride, there is starting and stopping. And it does take us longer overall to get to our relatives' homes. But, the price we save on the tolls and at the gas station alone makes it worthwhile for us. And while not a monetary savings, my family can see beautiful scenic views of the countryside and of an historic aquaduct. These are things that we would never find on 95!

Consider The Alternatives

Tip #54 - Consider The Alternatives. We are given so many choices these days. If you go to the store to buy cold medicine, there are about 15 different varieties to buy. If you want to buy soda, there are about 8 different choices just for one brand. Have you bought bread recently? There must be at least 10 varieties of that, too! We are making decisions all of the time for the simplest purchase. Would I like the white with a bit of wheat? The whole wheat? The light wheat? Do I want soda with 1 calorie with caffeine or soda with calories and no caffeine? Do I want to buy the non-drowsy medicine that will help my aches or one that will put me to sleep and help my stuffiness?

Our brains are now wired to put lots of thought into every purchase we buy. Why not put that wiring of our brains to our advantage and use it to save money? Let's consider each purchase we make as if it's cold medicine and consider the alternatives. Some alternatives will be great and will save you lots of money, while other alternatives will leave you wishing you didn't have to save money. But you won't know which are the good ones until you consider them. Here are some ideas:

--If you usually take a trip to the seashore every summer, why not consider a trip to the mountains with a lake?

--If you eat out pizza every Friday night, why not make the pizza yourself?

--If you usually drive to work by yourself, why not try doing a carpool or taking a bus?

--If you usually go the movies every Saturday night, why not consider renting one or even better trading with friends or borrowing from the library?

--If you usually set your thermostat at 70 in the winter, why not try lowering it to 68 and putting on a sweater and using warm blankets?

--If you usually join a swim club, why not consider going to a county pool?

--If you usually do a getaway to the Carribbean every winter to escape the cold, why not go to the Southern part of the US instead?

--If you usually buy your lunch at work, why not bring your meal?

--If you usually drive your kids to school, why not try walking them there instead?

--If you usually use expensive shampoo, why not try switching to a no-name brand?

--If you go on vacation every summer, why not try going in the fall or spring instead?

--If you use a towel only once after a shower, why not try using it twice?

--If you usually put your dog in a kennel, why not consider asking your neighbors to watch her instead?

These are just several areas I came up with where there are alternatives to consider when spending your money. Some of these you would probably never do to begin with, and others you would never consider doing the alternative. Everyone has to figure out for themselves what they are willing to do to cut down on spending. But remember, there are almost always alternatives out there. There are often cheaper ways of doing things. Before you spend money, think about how you can accomplish what you want to do using a cheaper method.

In Real Life (IRL) - I seem to always look for a cheap way to do things. I borrow books at the library instead of buying. I buy used clothes for my children instead of new, and I eat in rather than eat out. I try to get the most for the money I do spend. So anytime I make a purchase, I try to consider how I can get the same satisfaction for less money. If I can't get the same satisfaction, then I stick with my original plan. I'll give some examples of alternatives I have tried in an effort to save money. Some worked, while others did not.

--My husband loves the Outer Banks, which is a beach in North Carolina. Since he moved away from North Carolina when he married me, I figured the least I could do is keep him happy with occasional beach weekends in his favorite state. Last summer he said we should plan to take the kids and show them his favorite seashore. But when I looked at the prices -about $150 per night for a basic hotel - I told him it wasn't in our budget. But he threw it back at me that we visit my favorite beach resort with my family ever summer in New Jersey, the least we could do is visit his as well. And he had a point.

So I thought about it and remembered that my daughter's school has a two-day break in early November. And the North Carolina beaches usually still have pretty warm weather that time of year. So I check the prices for the same hotel in early November - $65 per night! Best of all, we could cancel the reservation up to the day of arrival, if the weather was bad. It turned out that it was in the low 60s and sunny for the whole weekend. We had a great trip for about 1/3 of the price of the summer. This was a great alternative!

--We keep our heat on 70 degrees in our house in the winter. Our house is old, so it heats unevenly - with some rooms being warm and toasty and others being quiet cold. But of course I had to try the alternative that every money-saving article suggests - lower the thermostat a degree or two to save on our heating bill. And I did it. And I hated it. Then I tried it a few weeks later and I hated it again. Then I tried the following year and I hated it a third time. I really just hate being cold. So to me, this alternative was a flop, but for some people, it's worth a try.

--When we go away, we used to put our dog in the kennel. It cost about $20 per night. Unfortunately, the kennel is closed on Sundays. And because we would often leave on Saturday and come back on Sunday, we would have to keep the dog in the kennel until Monday morning. So for a weekend trip we were paying about $40. Sometimes we would even have to put the dog in on Friday, since the kennel is quite a distance from our house and we often needed to get an early start on Saturday. Those times the cost was $60 for the weekend! We did this for about 5 years when my husband decided that our dog was getting too old for the kennel. So he asked our teenage neighbor if he'd like to earn $10 bucks a day walking our dog and feeding her. This boy and his sister and brother loved our dog because they didn't have one of their own. They are also very nice, responsible kids. The boy jumped at the chance, and we haven't looked back. Instead of paying $40 or $60 for a weekend trip, we pay $20. Plus the dog gets to stay in the comfort of our house, and our neighbor makes some nice side money. It's a win-win situation. This was a great alternative for us!

--I usually am happy with store-brand foods. I don't think I have very discriminating tastes. I can't tell the difference between low-fat and regular cream cheese or Philadelphia brand and the store brand. Although my mom swears the Philadelphia brand tastes much better. But I'm happy with the cheaper store brand cream cheese. So one day when I was out of ketchup and we needed some, I bought the store-brand in an effort to save money. And try as I might, I could not get used to the stuff. I realize now that I have a taste for Heinz ketchup and only Heinz ketchup. So, now I to stock up on Heinz when it goes on sale. Because I will just not buy any other brand even if it saves me money. Store-brand ketchup was not a good alternative for me.

--One last example. When I was single and living in an apartment in the suburbs, there was a free bus from the complex that drove us downtown where I worked. This was a great alternative to paying about $2 per trip on public transportation to get downtown. There were two problems with this bus - it got me downtown about an hour before I needed to be there and it dropped me off in the business district. And my office was not in the business district - it was about 10 blocks (or one Metro stop) away. I could have hopped on the Metro and spent $1.10 to travel that one stop. But instead I made the 10- or 15-minute walk every morning to save the money. After all, I had the time and I was young. This was a great alternative for me. I got free transportation to work - practically unheard of. Plus I got exercise and a close-up look at our nation's capital. I appreciate those days so much now because I don't work in the city anymore and I don't get downtown very often. I'm happy I did it back then when I had the opportunity and I saved money while I was at it!

So there you have it, money-saving alternatives that have saved us money and those that didn't work for us. What alternatives can you try to save money?

Be Creative

Tip #27 - Be Creative When Trying To Save Money. There are the ways "everyone else" does things and there are the ways frugal people do things. It's easy to do things the way everyone else does - buy a new house, buy food at the store, send your kids to camp, have them take classes. And there are creative ways to do things in order to save money - buy a house that needs fixing up, make things yourself, create your own camp, or trade skills with friends for classes.

Being creative doesn't mean you need to be artistic or crafty. It really just means that you need to think of different ways to do things in order to save money. I gave a few examples but there are many more you or I could come up with.

1. Let's start with the first example of buying a new house. In the past few years everyone was buying a new house - usually the biggest house they could afford. Don't do it. Buy a house that needs some fixing up. Even if you are not handy - some houses just need cosmetic changes that any layperson can do - ripping down wallpaper or tearing up carpeting. If you've ever watched any of those home channels, you can get ideas for what people can do with little money to make a house look nice. You can often save a lot of money by buying a fixer-upper even just one that is outdated.

2. Buying food at the store. Easy enough and most people have to do it at least to some degree. But think about the things that can be made or grown. Food that can be made pretty simply at home include breads, waffles, pancakes, pizza, desserts, etc. These are all fairly simple. The more you make them, the more you will get better at it. Then you can expand into making other dishes. Food that can be grown pretty easily are tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, squash, peas, and herbs. By just growing a few items in a vegetable garden, you can save money each year on your grocery bill. As you get better at it, you can try to grow even more vegetables and even fruits.

3. Sending your kids to camp. Most parents are looking for fun things for their kids to do in the summer. Camps are often on top of the list for many parents. There are general camps and specialty camps such as dance camps, sports camps, swim camps, and computer camps. Some of them are very pricy, while others are more reasonable. But all of them cost money. Did you ever think of doing a camp yourself? Pool together with a few other parents and take turns holding camp at your house? Or perhaps setting up a camp for a week or two to make some money? I'll explain how we did something similar in real life to avoid the cost of camp.

4. Teaching your children new things. We all want our kids to learn things that will teach them skills, allow them to have fun, and make them productive adults. Many of our children play soccer or softball, and take piano or dance, among many other activities. Of course each of these activities cost money. How about swapping skills with a friend? If you know how to sew or cook, maybe you can give sewing or cooking lessons to a friend's daughter while your friend's mom teaches you piano lessons. Or perhaps you can learn a skill such as piano or French and then teach it to your child. It's amazing what is available online for free. There is piano lessons at Piano Nanny. There are many books at the library teaching knitting or foreign languages. It won't work for soccer teams or softball but there are many skills you can learn for free.

In Real Life (IRL) - I don't consider myself creative as in crafty or good at art. I'm probably average. But I do like to use my imagination to do things cheaply. When I'm planning a party, I look for things we can use around the house rather than buy - plastic bowls instead of paper; paper we can turn into invitations instead of buying new, etc. If there is anything I am going to spend money on, I first think if there is an alternate and cheaper way to do it. I've talked about our house in other posts. Most of the houses in my neighborhood are from the 1950's and frankly a lot of people don't look here for that reason. They want a newer house. We loved the neighborhood so it didn't matter to us to have the latest gadgets in a home. And those things can always be changed anyway. When we got our 1953 house it had awful red walls in one room that surely turned off a lot of buyers. Hmmm...about $50 of primer and paint will cover that, we thought. The house only had 3 bedrooms but had the land to add on to, if necessary. It had an old, outdated 1950's kitchen. We bought the house for a good deal since no one else was interested. We painted the "red room" (after 7 years!). We turned a porch into a fourth bedroom when we needed the space for only $12,000. Moving to a house with 4 bedrooms would have cost us at least $50,000 more. And we made our kitchen a fun 1950's kitchen for $1,000. We bought black and white sticky tile for the floor, got a fun diner border for the walls, bought cute diner signs for the walls, vintage looking curtains for the windows, and displayed some of my grandmother's depression era bowls. A new kitchen remodel would have cost $25,000 or more.

2. Cooking creatively. I am an average cook and I like to bake. My daughter had her birthday last week. We had a party at home, cupcakes for school, and needed something for her actual birthdate for our family. I could have easily bought a cake at the market for the party, but I made cupcakes instead. I made cupcakes for her class and then when it came time for our birthday dinner at home, I thought she might be sick of cake. She agreed that she'd rather have brownies. Simple enough. By making sweets for all three events instead of buying at the grocery store, I saved at least $25. My favorite food to make to save money is croutons. We always have bread left over at the bottom of the package that doesn't get eaten. I save them in the freezer and make croutons out of them. Very simple - just melt butter and add parmesian cheese and garlic to the bread. Bake in the oven and voila - freshly made croutons. They're healthier than the boxed kind (have you ever seen the ingredients in croutons?) and they're quick and easy to make. Best of all, you use up bread that would have gotten tossed to the birds.

3. I created a summer camp with friends. When my daughter was 4 or 5, I was looking for fun things for her to do in the summer. Camps were expensive but I remember how much fun they were when I was a child. I decided to do an "at home" camp with friends. There were 8 of us the first year. We were all in a Mom's Club together and had known each other since our daughters were babies. For one day each week for 8 weeks, our girls went to camp. Each week one mom was in charge of the camp and one mom assisted. The person in charge came up with a theme and held camp at her home for three hours on a Monday. So each mom was in charge of one camp and assisted in one camp. The other weeks she was "off." It was great because each mom had different strengths and interests. One mom held a nature camp and had the girls look for birds in their backyard, learn about birds and did a bird craft. One mom held a cooking camp. We held a fun carnival camp. My daughter still talks about that fun camp and asks every summer if we can do it again. The following two years we did it on a smaller scale with just 5 moms. Last year we did it over just a week's time with each mom holding camp on a different day for one week since everyone was so busy. I know I spent less than $20 in materials and snacks for each camp I've held.

4. Taking classes. My girls like being in activities - dance, piano, Brownies, etc. To keep costs down, we have taken classes at the community center in our town. For dance there is a dance studio that is $55 per month for one class! Instead I found a woman who teaches dance out of her home for $25 per month. What a difference. Piano lessons are $35 per half hour at a local music school. I found a woman who teaches for $15 per half-hour. Of course none of these are too creative. But I do know people who have switched skills. My daughter's dance teacher gave lessons for free to someone's daughter who painted her dance studio. I know two women from my Mom's club who swapped talents. One mom taught the other mom's daughter piano while the second mom taught the first mom's daughter French. If you have skills in an area, you could easily teach them. You could even do something as simple as teaching baking. Many moms don't bake from scratch or have the time to teach their children. By being creative you can save or make money in this area.