Atlanta's Frugal Mom

holding a successful garage sale Holding a successful garage sale takes a little planning, and a little thought.  If you expect to just throw your stuff out on the lawn the morning of, with no price tags, and sell everything like hot cakes, then you’ll likely be sorely disappointed.  Unless you actually have hot cakes to sell, in which case, let me know; I’ll bring my own fork.  😉 As a self-proclaimed veteran garage sale goer and holder, I’ve picked up a few tips and tricks along the way. And with it being “garage sale season”, I know many of you may be looking to unload lots of your loot. So, here are my (sometimes rather opinionated) tips to making the most of your garage sale: Holding a Successful Garage Sale: Before the sale (Prep work) Take the sentimentality out of your pricing. So you’re ready to part with that adorable costume your kid wore for Halloween? Great, but keep in mind what someone would actually PAY for it, not what you think it ...

  Take a load off your laundry?  I’ll be the first to say it:  I loath laundry!  Perhaps because it’s one of those household tasks that literally never ends, or because stubborn stains just seem to laugh at you time after time, or perhaps it’s the snarky sock monster — for whatever reason, I know I’m not alone in my feelings about this.  Am I right? In any case, I’ve developed a few strategies to help ease the pain of this never-ending saga known as laundry.  Take a look, and see which ones work for you, or what more you would add to this. * Schedule it : I do one load of laundry every weekday.  (An awesome tip I picked up from The Stressed Mom !)  I’ve found that by sticking to a schedule, and doing just one load a day, it’s MUCH more manageable for me.  I bring that load down either first thing in the morning or after I put the kids to bed the night before; throw the clothes in the dryer in the morning; then fold while the kids n...

As I’ve mentioned before, our kitchen just does not have enough storage space for a family of eight.  We only have a few cabinets for pots and pans, and it’s just not been working out too well these past 3 years.  In our previous home, we installed DIY pot rack that was a rod that sat on top of the cabinets on either side of the sink, and used that to hang pots and pans.  I’ve been talking about doing the same thing in this home, and finally got around to it this week. Supplies needed: 1″ dowel rod 36-48 inches long (Less than $4 from Home Depot) 1 package of closet pole sockets ($2-6 at Home Depot depending on the type you purchase) 1 package of pot hooks (I got a dozen for $9 from a local store, but you can get them from Amazon for pretty cheap as well) It’s really quite simple.  You just install the pole sockets on the cabinets above your sink, cut the dowel rod to size and put it in place, and start hanging your cookware! The pots and pans are close en...

For Father’s Day this year, I wanted to continue to impress upon my daughter the importance of ownership of the gifts she gives. Gifts, thank you notes, and various cards hold more meaning to the giver and receiver when made more personable, so I helped my daughter create some cards for her daddy, and both grandfathers this year.  Thus, a DIY Father’s Day craft seemed in order…. Lesson learned: Glue the construction paper to the cardstock FIRST, to prevent the glue from interfering with the paint! We sat down, working bit by bit over the span of a few days, creating these cards. I brushed washable paint over her hand to create the “flower”. (The paint acquired, by luck, at a garage sale — a pack of 10 small tubs for a quarter.) Then, while she colored on a few sheets of construction paper (to be used later), I asked her “why do you love daddy?”, recording her responses and offering prompts (basically rephrasing the question) to redirect h...

I hoard containers. There — I put it out there. I save various, sturdy containers, with the idea that I could re-use it ….for something. This came in handy the other day with my 3-year-old daughter. I’m always looking for ways to keep my children entertained, as well as offer them chances to explore and learn.  If I can additionally do so in a “green” manner, even better. For this occasion, I put red food coloring in an old throat spray bottle, blue in an old dish soap bottle, grabbed some old foam letters (but sponges would work just as well) and put a little paint in old flushable wipes containers, gathered up a few unused medicine droppers, opened some paper bags at the seems, and threw in a few paint brushes, and  empty toilet paper and paper towel rolls. In our driveway, we “painted” a large hopscotch-like path with various shapes using the dish soap bottle. Then we experimented with painting with rocks, sticks, and our fingers. When asked ...