Much to do about crayons

The 24 pack of Rose Art crayons are on sale at Target for $.10 each this week. They also have Crayola's 24 pack on sale, going for $.20 each. I decided to experiment and so I picked up a couple of the Rose Art packs (I already had gotten some Crayola packs two weeks ago when they were $.15 each at Office Depot). Let's face it, at a dime each even if they aren't as good as tried and true Crayola, I'm out a whopping twenty cents. I'm sure I can shake down the couch and come up with at least that much lost coinage. But, I digress.

Back home, I decided to check out and compare the colors these two different brands put in their 24 packs. It was interesting to see that most of the colors have the same names (there were a few with similar colors, but different color names) and that there were only three colors that did not have a match in the competitions package. (see photo's below - click to enlarge)


Now, this may all seem fairly trivial to you, butI'm a sucker for a mystery, so I had to know what the big difference in colors would be between the two companys. Crayola has an indigo, scarlet and cerulean that Rose Art does not have. Rose Art has a turquoise blue, orchid and forest green that Crayola does not have. Here is my thinking: some (girls) might like the Rose Arts better because of the orchid (lavender), and some (boys) might like the Crayola because it has two more blues in it. The Rose Art crayons have a more colorful paper covering the crayon (though not always very close to the REAL color of the crayon) while Crayola's papers are more subdued (but closer to true color in my opinion). I think the Crayola's color a bit more smoothly, but for a dime, the Rose Art crayons are just fine.

On a related note, Target also had the Rose Art washable markers for $.50 a set of 10. You can guess I bought a few of those to tuck away for stockings and gifts too!

Edit: Just a quick additional note here. Per the Crayola website, the retail price of their 24 pack is $2.49. There are also lots of fun things to explore on the Crayola site: printable pages, lesson plans, card creator, etc. Per the Rose Art website (which I won't bother to link to because it is mostly about Mega Blocks - hard to even find the crayons listed there. Weird, huh?) their 24 pack of crayons retails for about a buck. So, are we paying more for Crayola's name or are Rose Arts just made of cheaper materials. Or????

My fugal mind says a dime a pack no matter the starting price is a good deal. My "eye-out-for-a-bargin" mind says I'm "saving" more money paying the twenty cents for the Crayola pack. LOL! What do you think?

Works For Me: "Back to School" sales

This is the time of year that most stores are starting to have their "Back to School" sales. This is a great thing for public, private and home schoolers alike, as well as those with preschoolers at home. Even if you don't have any little ones in your home, but have neices, nephews and friends children you regularly buy gifts for, you can do some frugal shopping in advance for gifts to have on hand. Here are some tips on how I "work" these sales.

First, make a list of the things you know you need. Most public and private schools have a list for each grade and the supplies they need. How easy is that? Home schoolers (like me) need to go through all our supplies, clean out, throw out and organize and see what needs replacing (crayons always!). Looking at the ads can help trigger ones memory (oh yeah I totally forgot we need some of those!). Also think about stocking stuffers and/or other gift needs for the coming year. It also helps if you know what these items usually cost. Make a list of the usual prices to keep on hand all year to compare to. For instance, if you know binder paper can be had for ten cents a pack during the back to school sales, you are not going to want to pay $1.99 for a pack of it in February! For a whole dollar you can have ten packs on hand for when you need them.

Second, I watch the Sunday ads for the stores closest to me. Since each store only has a few deep discounted items (loss leaders) each week to get you into their store (in hopes you will also buy many other items "you need" and pay full price), be patient, watch and wait. Don't drive all over town to get this weeks sales items at each and every store.

For instance, I live near a Fred Meyer and a K-Mart. I also go to physical therapy 1-2 times a week near a Target and Office Depot. So, I only watch those ads. Yes, it can be frustrating to see that Office Max has a great price on......, but it is too far away. If I am patient, one of "my" stores is bound to have that same item on sale in one of the remaining sales weeks before school starts.

Third, be sure to compare the items that are on sale at each store. One store may have the 24 pack of Crayola Crayons for $0.50, another for $0.25 and yet another for $0.20. Obviously, twenty cents is the best deal, but if there isn't anything else at that store you need that week and the store that has them for a quarter has several things you need on sale, pay the extra nickle and save yourself the time and gas money and shop at just one store.

Fourth, think about how these great priced items might also make inexpensive gifts or stocking stuffers. With my large family I am always trying to come up with inexpensive stocking stuffers. Usually by December those brand new crayons I gave them in Sept. for the start of school are already broken and ratty. Well, at twenty cents a box, who cares? It is so inexpensive to buy extra packs of crayons during the back to school sales, put them away till Christmas and put a pack with a coloring book (or make your own coloing pages by printing pages off the Internet) to put in their stockings! (side note: do you know how much Crayola Crayons cost in December? That twenty cent box will cost you about $1.99!) This can also make a great gift for any younger children you need to have a gift for.

Things to watch out for: quanity limits and two-for-one, or buy-two-get-one-free offers. I don't usually go for those last ones at all. I'd rather wait and see if those kinds of items will be offered at a reduced price by another store. Those types of offers are usually going to force me into buying more than I need. Case in point: Office Depot had Sharpie Markers sets on a buy-two-get-one-free offer. Well, the base prices were around $18.00 a set. I was looking at spending $32.00 to get three sets when all I wanted was two of the sets anyway! So, I waited. Another store then had the sets on sale for $8.99 each. So, for $17.98 I could buy the two sets I needed. Big price difference!

And, that is what works for me this week! Check out lots of other Works For Me Wednesday tips at Shannon's Rocks in my Dryer blog!

Works For Me Wednesday - Homeschooling Prep During Summer

Every summer I don't exactly look forward to doing lesson planning for the forthcoming school year. Afterall, we just finished school! Don't I get a break? Well, yes and no. Because homeschooling eight school age children does require quite a bit of planning I make a reward system for myself each summer. It goes like this: I don't indulge in any of my hobbies (mostly scrapbooking and some sewing) until school is set up and at least the first month of lesson plans are done. The sooner I get it done in the summer the more time I have to indulge in my hobbies. If I don't get lesson planning done until the day before school starts, well, at least it got done. I do not want to fall into the trap of having the summer "off" and blissfully scrapbooking the summer away just to find Sept. 5th arrives and I am unprepared.

And that is what works for me!


note to self: Get lesson planning done before you go away to the coast in August for a scrapbooking get-away! You have 24 days, better get cracking!

note back to self: Hey, give me a break! I've had a slow start this summer because we remodeled the school room. It is just about done now and I can start my lesson plans and school prep with renewed gusto!


Go visit Rocks in My Dryer for a list of more great tips!

Laundry in the summertime

Summertime brings on a few new challenges to the laundry system, so I thought I would pop in here and add a few more lines on that subject.

First of all, summertime in the Northwest is a bit tricky. The kids have more clothes than they do in winter, because the weather is unpredictable. Until at least August, the boys might need long sleeves and jeans, or shorts and short sleeve t-shirts and the girls have both short and long sleeve dresses in their closet. It isn't fun. As fewer and fewer cool days happen, pulling out most of the clothes for cold weather can start to happen. Those of you in warmer climates probably would laugh at us on the 4th of July all bundled up in sweaters and blankets to do fireworks! But, alas, it was so.

So, come August I will be going through all the kids clothes again, pulling out the items that have gotten too small and too warm (for a few months), thus reducing the amount of clothes in the drawers and closets. Hopefully!

A new reader of my blog (hi Shelia!) asked me this week how often do I go through the kids clothes and pull out the items too stained (or too many holes!) to keep? I have been thinking about this question the last few days. I believe it comes down to two things:
1.Keeping clothes from getting stained (holes are a bit harder to stop).
and
2.Pulling out the items that the children cannot be allowed to be seen in anymore (no matter how much of a favorite it might be!).

The business of laundering clothing is huge. There are many opinions, seeming zillions of products and still we have stains. I had read a while back on someone's blog (sorry, can't remember - that is what I get for reading blogs while I nurse the baby...brain cells are being sucked away as I read! It's a miracle I remember anything!LOL!) about Charilie's Soap and finally went to the website recently to check them out. Of course, all the info sounds great, almost too good to be true. I decided to do a trial of their products and bought the Combo Powder (80 Wash loads) & All Purpouse Pre-Spray for $19.00. (all prices include shipping) That is less than $0.15 a load for washing clothes AND the package takes up about an eighth of the space the Tide With Bleach box I usually buy from Costco. (less clutter!)

Side note: One thing I had noticed with the Tide w/Bleach is that the clothes were fading. Not terribly noticeable, but I could tell. Plus, bad stains still stayed in. Spray 'n Wash, and other products would have to be used and the item run through the wash numerous times and wouldn't always result in the stain being gone. So, why pay the big bucks for Tide w/bleach if it really wasn't helping? With having children doing their own laundry, even though I remind them to look for stains, some clothes get through. In a perfect world, I would like to have whatever I use in my washing machine to attack and remove any and all types of stains. Period. No having to check everything as it goes into the washer and then again as it goes into the dryer. Ah, a perfect world.

Back in the real world, and about 30 loads into the Charlie's Soap, I have to say I'm liking it! And, I really, really like the All Purpose Cleaner as a pre-spotter! It does work great! Baby poop stains and all! So far, so good! If you decide after reading all the info on Charlie's website that you are going to give them a try, would you please put my name in the "Comments/Referrals" Box on the order form when you place your order? They will send me out a FREE Gift Box of Laundry Powder. That is cool! And, if you decide you like their products you can let your friends know to put your name in as a referral and you'll get some free laundry powder too!

Also, if someone knows the cost of the Costco Tide w/bleach per load and/ or the Costco brand laundry powder, would you please post it in the comments or email it to me? Would like to compare with the cost of Charlie's.

Recap - Work at keeping clothes from getting so stained you can't use them. Then, if they are too stained, grab them during your laundry routine and don't let them get back into the kids drawers/closet. If you are keeping the kids down to 8 sets of clothing, go get into your stored clothes (or go to a thrift store) and pull out replacements for what you tossed (or make into rags, etc.). Summer leads to more dirt and stains and holes, so even though you don't keep lots of clothes in the kids closets, you should still keep an eye out for inexpensive replacements to have in a box where you can get to them if you need them.

Recommendations to share!

Here are some of my favorite items I have purchased in the last year:

Bravo to MamaK for recommending Signing Time! My kids LOVE it! And, they are learning soooo much!


Someone else recommended the Leap Frop DVD's, sorry, can't remember who, but they have been awesome! My little ones have learned all the letters and sounds so quickly and easily! We had been watching the purple dinosaur video's for too many years, and the kids knew all the songs, but they weren't learning anything worthwhile.


Best marriage book we have ever read is Love and Respect by Emerson Eggerichs. I got the book on CD for my husband so he could "listen" to the book while communting to and from work and I got the hardbound for me. It is the most awesome, helpful book we have ever read on marriage. Debbi Pearl's book, Created To Be His Helpmeet, is my second favorite, but it is written to women, not couples. Love and Respect is so practical and eye opening! This book will make bad marriages better and good marriages great! Okay, it isn't a magic pill, you will still have to work at your marriage, but you'll have the information you need, and understand why your spouse reacts the way he/she does at times. Reading this book is the best investment you can make for your marriage!


If you use the links I have supplied to make a purchase I will earn a few pennies toward a Amazon gift certificate (which also make great gifts!). Amazon also has free shipping for any purchases over $25 (on most items). I love being able to shop at home and not have to pay for shipping!

If anyone wants any other book/DVD/etc. recommendations let me know in the comment box.