Cake, pies, cookies, or chocolate truffles are the usual desserts we think of for Valentine’s Day, so lets think outside the box! What dessert can we make that won’t cost too much? How about Nutella filled wontons fried with a strawberry dipping sauce!!! Kids are going to LOVE this!!! My husband and I have made these a few different times and they have always been a big hit!

Ingredients:

Small size wonton wrappers

Nutella

Water

Cooking oil

Directions:

Place a dollop of Nutella in the center of your wonton. Dab your finger in a little cup of water and brush the edges of the wonton. Fold the wonton over in a triangle shape and seal the edges together by pressing the two sides together and set aside. Continue this method until all your wontons are ready to go. Fry your wontons in hot oil in a skillet until each side is a nice golden brown. Once cooked take out of the skillet and let the excess oil drain off onto a paper towel. Once all of your wontons are cooked sprinkle with a little powdered sugar.

Strawberry Dipping Sauce

Ingredients:

2 cups of frozen strawberries, thawed

Lemon juice

Sugar or sugar substitute

Directions:

In a blender add strawberries, a squirt of lemon juice, and some sugar (adjust sugar to your taste). Blend these ingredients together. This will stay very nicely in the fridge for up to 4 days.

Thanks, crazyjamie for the picture

I approach any holiday asking myself: “How can I enjoy that special day while living a frugal lifestyle?” It’s the same with Valentine’s Day. I am always looking for the hottest deals our stores have to offer, so that I can get the biggest bang for my buck! Thankfully, our stores are offering some pretty great Valentine’s Day deals!

When I think of Valentine’s Day I think of 4 things: a card, balloons, flowers, and chocolates! Where can we get the best deals for these items? I’m here to tell you.

Cards:

Receiving a card is always meaningful and special. Cards range from $1.00 to $5.00 each. If you are planning on buying several cards the cost can add up. Albertsons is offering a promotion where if you use their in ad coupon and buy 3 American Greeting cards, then you will receive a free Stuffed Valentine’s Bear. To make the deal even sweeter, coupons.com coupon of the week is an American Greeting coupon buy 2, get 1 free. Pair the 2 coupons together and buy 2 American Greeting cards for just $1.99 each and get 1 card and teddy bear for FREE. Also, don’t forget that The Dollar Tree has very nice quality Valentine’s Day cards for just $.50 each!

Balloons:

Balloons can be pretty expensive, ranging from $3.99 and up per Mylar balloon at most grocery stores, but one of the best kept secrets on where to find beautiful decorative Mylar balloons is actually at The Dollar Tree. You can put together a very nice grouping of these balloons at a very frugal cost.

Flowers:

Roses are definitely the classic when it comes to Valentine’s Day. In most cases it doesn’t seem like Valentine’s Day without them. However, they can be quite costly. Most florists start their one dozen arranged red roses at $75.00 or more, and that’s ok if that’s in your budget, but for those that are trying to keep the cost down there are some alternatives. Thanks to our local grocery stores like Fresh n Easy you can buy 1 dozen bouquet of roses for $11.99 which is the best deal. Other than that you can buy 1 dozen bouquet of roses at Costco for $15.99, Target for $16.99, and Save Mart or Food Co. for $17.97. If your significant other doesn’t mind something different like a pot of red tulips, then you can find that at Foods Co.for just $6.98, Vons for $7.99, and Albertsons for $8.99. So whatever your budget is you should definitely be able to find something to give that special person that will fit into your price range.

Chocolates:

We just can’t have Valentine’s Day without chocolate, however, chocolate truffles can also be pretty expensive. Once again our stores have come to our rescue and are offering some great options. For instance, Albertsons has hand dipped chocolate covered strawberries 4ct for just $5.99, Vons has the same for $6.99. CVS, Walgreens, and Walmart have heart shaped boxes of chocolates starting at around $1.00, and Foods Co. is selling 1 dozen Valentine Cupcakes for $4.98.

There are a lot of options out there that can fit any budget, big or small. Thankfully I’m out there looking for these deals, so that I can tell you all about them! Then you can decide what will work best for you, so enjoy your Valentine’s Day!!!

If you are looking to live a more frugal lifestyle, then refer to my website saveathomemommy.com for more tips and deals.

Valentine’s Day will be here soon, so lets get ready and have us a FRUGAL Love Day with our family!! These heart shaped crayons are adorable and I’m sure my little one will enjoy making them with me!

I found my heart shaped silicone pan and crayons at Target in the $1.00 section by the front door!!!

Simply preheat your oven to 250 degrees. Take the paper off the crayons and break them up into small pieces. Place the crayon pieces in the silicone mold (don’t fill them up too much or crayon juice will run off the baking mold) and bake the crayon hearts for about 10 –15 minutes or until melted. Once the crayons have cooled, then pop them out of the molds and you’re done! Now print some FREE Valentine’s Day coloring pages from HERE and you’ll have yourself a frugal Love Day!

I cannot take the credit for coming up with this adorable craft, it was all inspired from Emily on Anderson Family Crew. I just loved this idea of love notes and chocolate or stickers magically appearing in the mail box throughout Valentine’s Day! You can easily make this for your son or daughter for less than $4.00. It only cost me $2.00 to make since I already owned some of the supplies.

Supplies:

1 Mailbox from Target’s $1.00 bins

1 Candle stick, any size (mine came from the Dollar Tree for $1.00)

Acrylic paint

Stickers

Modge Podge

Ribbon

Hot glue gun

Directions:

I painted 3 coats of red acrylic paint over the glass candle stick. Once dry, I mixed glitter and modge podge together and painted 1 layer over the acrylic paint. Then I hot glued the candle stick to the mail box. I decorated the mail box with rein stones and stickers and hot glued the ribbon on. It was a lot of fun and I hope you will enjoy this easy craft too! I’m sure your kids would love to decorate their own mail box!!!

Thanks, Anderson Family Crew

So I thought I’d share with you my refurbished picture frame I painted yesterday! I have a drawer full of old picture frames that I just don’t want to throw away, so I used one of them and made this. Thankfully I had all the supplies for this project and I didn’t have to leave the house! Here is what I did:

Step 1:

Paint 2 coats of red acrylic paint on a picture frame (any surface). Please allow the first coat of paint to dry before applying the second coat. Allow second coat to dry. *This frame came from Walmart and cost me $3.00 a few months back. They still are selling these frames at the same price.

Step 2:

Mix red glitter and modge podge together and cover the entire surface. The frame should be white with flex of glitter coming through because of the modge podge, allow this to dry completely. The modge podge will dry clear, so don’t worry.

Step 3:

Paint a final coat of Satin Varnish over the top to protect the paint from chipping. This will also help keep the glitter adhered to the frame and it won’t flake off.

Step 4:

Decorate with a pretty bow or flower by hot gluing it on!

Now you will have a gorgeous Valentine’s Day frame for your home! So cheap and so cute!

Go HERE for some cute ideas to do with your kids on New Years Eve!

Tonight decorate a “Kids” table with all kinds of crafts, games, and fun snacks for the kids, while you celebrate with your friends and family! Make a pizza that looks like a clock for their dinner with funfetti cake for dessert! Here are a few frugal and creative crafts that any child would enjoy making! Have a Happy New Years Eve!

Go HERE to make countdown clocks!

Go HERE to make noise maker shakers out of ribbon spools!

Go HERE to make cool party hats!

Go HERE for FREE printable coloring pages!

Go HERE to make a confetti balloon to pop at the stroke of midnight, outside of course!

Thanks, She Knows, Kaboose, Family Fun, Color Me Good, Free Kids Crafts for these great ideas!

My daughter and I had a blast making these ornaments yesterday! With such an easy recipe I’m sure you already have all the ingredients you need! Enjoy our fun little tutorial!

Yields: at least 8 ornaments

Ingredients:

1 cup flour

1/4 cup table salt

1/2 cup water

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together, then knead dough for about 10 minutes (this will get out any air bubbles). My daughter smiles by scrunching her nose up, a very 2 year old thing!

Then roll dough out, cut shapes (make sure to put a whole in the top for ribbon), and bake on a silicone mat or a foil wrapped pan in a 375 degree oven for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.

While baking, let your child play with the scraps!

Once cooled down, paint ornaments with acrylic paints, and walla! They are ready for the Christmas tree! This was a very fun project to do with my babe. Merry Christmas!

So at MOPS this week we were told to bring an ornament to our December meeting for an ornament exchange, so I decided to make one! I thought this would be a lot of fun for older children to make, and what a fun and inexpensive project! The felt is from Michael’s Craft store that I had leftover from last year. I stuffed it with tissues and used liquid stitch to glue the eyes and felt on. This is just my idea of a homemade ornament, but there are several more. Have fun making ornaments! It really was a lot of fun! Next, I’m making a Christmas tree ornament with presents around the bottom!