A Molly Review About Homemade Happiness: Frugal Fun and Games

• 
• Tweet
• Sumo

• 
• Tweet

When the air warms up and the grass begins to turn green, we all want to concentrate a bit more on outside fun and games. But what if it rains?  Molly’s Money-Saving Digest for April has lots of creative ideas for rainy days, as well as the usual recipes and more. 

The Digest starts off with recipes for several delicious-looking muffins.  Two of them have gluten-free versions, and we tried the gluten-free Harvest Muffins (with many alterations for health reasons).  They were OK, but we probably made too many alterations.  (Sigh!  We’ll have to try again.)  The other recipes look good, too, for a family that can enjoy gluten.

The printable forms include the usual monthly calendar page as well as a page for price comparisons (I prefer a price book), a yard sale wish list (I would use it for thrift shops as well), and a handy chart of weight and measurement equivalents for the kitchen.

“Feather your Nest—Frugally”  features a stunning wall decoration even non-crafty types can make.  The instructions look very doable, but I don’t have any available wall space for a big project.  I’m filing the idea in the back of my head, though.

Teach your children while cooking delicious meals. “In the Kitchen with Molly” has a week of yummy recipes that the kids can help prepare.  This is not a gluten-free menu, but much of it can be adapted.  The Rocky Road Candy dessert recipe looked so good that I bought some of the ingredients and planned to make it for a church function. Then I remembered that one sweet little fellow has a peanut allergy.  Oh well, we’ll have to make this treat for a special event at home.  The Grilled Veggie Sandwich is just what we need to add more vegetables to our diet, and will be perfect for hot summer days when there’s an abundance of garden produce.  As usual, Molly provides a shopping list for all these recipes.

Are you looking for a sensible, thrifty, hands-on math study?  Check out this month’s “Kid’s Corner” project: comparing the costs of different types of cookies, including homemade (recipe provided).  Or try the same project with pizza.  Although this is something we have done informally for years, it’s a good project, and we may do something like it this summer.

“The Something Old—Something New” feature is truly astounding this month.  If you are handy—and brave—you could tackle this project and make an amazing play kitchen for your little one at a minimal cost.

“Frugal Fun and Games” is full of creative rainy day ideas that range from making rag dolls to playing three-penny hockey, and from mini yo-yo’s to indoor Olympics.  There’s something here for all sorts of interests.  For the next while our rainy days will be filled with schoolwork, but these tips will be great in the summer.

And of course, my favourite feature, the one I always turn to as soon as I get my Digest, is “This is My Story.”  This month it is about a mom who grew up in a frugal family and who has been living frugally all her life.  ‘Because I’m willing to bargain shop and be conscious of my spending, we are able to live much better than our income would indicate….’  A tiny glimpse into this mom’s life shows that ‘frugality inspires creativity and provides freedom.’

The final gem in this month’s Digest is a list of thought-provoking quotes.  Here’s my favourite:  “While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.” -Angela Schwindt

You can download your own copy of Molly’s April Money-Saving Digest for $4.95 US, or you can be frugal and spend $3.95 US for a monthly Molly Membership that includes the Digest as well as a whole lot more.

Disclosure Policy:   I received the April edition of Molly’s Money-Saving Digest for free so that I could review it and give you my honest opinion.

For more great tips see Tightwad Tuesday, Tuesday’s Tips , Tuesday’s Tip Jar, Works for Me Wednesday , Making Dollars out of Change, Frugal Friday, Finer Things Friday  , Thrifty Thursday, and another Thrifty Thursday .