Boys on a Budget- Letterboxing

Ever hear of letterboxing? I hadn't either, until a friend had told me about it about 2 years ago. And apparently at that time in my life I had too much happening, so we never took it any further. But, now, my boys are gonna need activity this summer. And not running around mama while she's pulling her hair out, kind of activity either.


Letterboxing is kind of like Geocaching, if you have ever heard of that. Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online. Geocaching is enjoyed by people from all age groups, with a strong sense of community and support for the environment.


Well, letterboxing is a simpler version of that. And you don't need a GPS system. Which is great for us, because we don't own one! LETTERBOXING is an intriguing pastime combining navigational skills and rubber stamp artistry in a charming "treasure hunt" style outdoor quest. A wide variety of adventures can be found to suit all ages and experience levels.

To get started, you’ll need a “trail name,” rubber stamp, pencil or pen, small sketch book, one or more ink pads or brush markers, a simple compass, and clues.

So, basically you can click on a map, to which state you want to find the letterboxing boxes. When you find a location, you can get some very simple clues to find the box or you can get some with more elaborate directions. You end up stamping your book with the stamp found in the box, and stamping with YOUR stamp in the notebook found in the letterbox. To see exactly how this works, go HERE. I just didn't want to have to type everything our that has already been said very well.

So, there it is Letterboxing, a fun (cheap) family activity!

Have you ever tried letterboxing? If you have did your family like it? We will be doing this, this summer. We will keep you updated on it!

Feeding Boys on a Budget

As I think about living with boys, on a budget, I also HAVE to think about how I am going to feed their ever increasing appetites! My brother, while in High school ate 2 peanut butter & jelly sandwiches AND a big bowl of ice cream BEFORE BED. Not for dinner, not for lunch. AS A BEDTIME SNACK!

So, as I think someday I will have an 18 yo, a 16 yo, a 14 yo, and an 11 yo all under my roof in 10 years, I also have to wonder how we will manage buying all of the food that we will have to have to feed them.

Right now, I have a $70 a week budget. That includes laundry soap, shampoo, napkins, cereal, meat, milk, etc. Everything basically. I deal shop, using coupons. So, I look at all of the sales at several different stores, then I try to see if any of my coupons match-up. If they do GREAT! If not, I still have to consider if I can get it that cheap anytime from somewhere else. If it is the lowest price I will probably see for a while I stock-up! This method has worked well for us this last year (I started doing this about a year ago). We will be doing a lot more gardening and canning/freezing this year also. Hopefully that will help!

I wonder what everyone else does for saving money on groceries and/or feeding boys (or any teens really). Can you give advise to us with younger children? If you have some good advise to give, please leave us a comment or a link if you have written about these things on your blog. Thanks so much, can't wait to hear your comments!

Boys on a Budget- Thomas Train!

Another thing that has been well worth the money spent, was when we started buying these little dudes here:

Thomas the Tank Engine, and all of his friends. Now, we own LOTS of pieces of track, train & places from the Island of Sodor. We started purchasing pieces when our oldest was about 2, so we have has some of these pieces for about 6 years now.

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They are very sturdy toy, even for all of the "roughing" the boys do with the pieces, you know, train crashes and such... Most of the pieces that we have are made of wood, the wheels are plastic, but the bodies are wood. Some of the pieces you just can't do with wood, and are made of plastic, like the aquarium car, and the zoo cage cars. But they are still kicking today, after my boys playing with them (I would estimate) 4-5 times a week.

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I love these instead of video games because they make them use their imagination. And when building tracks for them to run on, they need to grasp the concept of how the track is going to fit where they want it to, and then making it fit all together in the end. I love to see the elaborate track designs they come up with.

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We also own SEVERAL movies. They are all a very good message, and the original creator, Rev. W. Awdry & his son, Christopher (who later too over and made the stories himself) are Christians!

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Here are some Thomas activities you can do on the Internet too.

If you want to find some reduced prices on Thomas Toys, go online and look at Ebay. They have lots of good stuff on there, and we have used that resource a time or too!

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We have even been to a LIVE Thomas event where we got to ride on Thomas the Train. Do searches for this on the Internet. We rode on Thomas at the Whitewater Railroad in Indiana. This was the highlight of my boys for at least a year!

As long as your boys collect Thomas stuff, you will always know what to get them for Christmas & birthdays!

Do YOUR boys play with Thomas the train???

Boys on a Budget- NASA

Tonight, my boys and I watched as a space shuttle blasted off and went up into space. This space shuttle, we learned was headed for the space station that is circling the Earth. Did you know it circles the Earth once every hour? I learned that by watching it one afternoon on and off as I did my chores. There is some pretty cool stuff to be learned about space exploration!

So, this "Boys on a Budget" is going to give you info on how to feed those space lovin' little boys in your life. You are going to want to visit NASA TV. There you will be able to see where the space station is, and it's orbit. Also be able to hear people on the space station communicating with people in Houston, and also Russian people communicating with their people. You can also see, like we did tonight, when Space Shuttles get launched into outer space!

We literally spent 3 hours watching the different stuff going on tonight before the launch. They showed the astronauts suiting up, they were interviewing people on their knowledge of working with the NASA programs, they showed the astronauts getting taken to the shuttle then getting buckled into the actual seats in the shuttle. There was even a camera on the last tank to drop off of the shuttle, so you got to see a little of what it looked like heading into space.

NASA Photo courtesy of NASA.gov

I am also on Twitter, and receive updates and info from NASA, on there. So, they give me info when something cool is coming up, like the launch.



So, free (well, besides paying for Internet) and it holds a boy's attention and gets their brains going on what it would be like to be an astronaut... Check it out! You won't be sorry!

PS- Thursday & Friday they hav space walks scheduled, MAYBE they will be showing those (live) on the NASA TV! We will be watching for it!

Boys on a Budget

I have 2 readers in my house now, Deklyn who is going to be 8 and Austin who is 6 1/2 yrs. Both of them LOVE to read.



On a surprise trip my husband took me on to Chicago for our Anniversary in February, we actually had time to go to a bookstore. Which we used to do a lot when we were dating and before kids.



We talked about how we wished that there was some type of story books that was for boys that they could read that incorporated History and other information. So they could read the story and get into it, and still be learning useful information. We searched through the kids books, and we found Magic Tree House books. These are stories about "Jack and Annie" and their adventures. All of them are informative, and the thing that really sealed the deal for us was that these stories came with "Research Guides". So "Tonight on the Titanic" comes also with a Research Guide book that has a lot of additional information on the Titanic. These are generally for kids reading on a 1st-3rd grade level. Each book has a different reading level.



I am adding this to my "Boys on a Budget" link because, the books cost around $2.99 ea. The Research Guides run a little more at around $4.99. I do not know if the woman who writes the books is a Christian, so you may want to preview some of the books before your child reads them. Ones like the Dinosaur book, just because I don't know if it is a "millions and millions of years ago" book, or not. But so far my boys have read quite a few through their library at school. Deklyn can read one in about 2 days, if we let him. And he absorbs the info too.



And these are a "Boys on a Budget" idea too because they can be read time and time again, by child after child. They can be used as supplemental reading for Home school and for public school. And their research guides make it easy to answer questions about the civil war or about tornadoes and weather.



DO your boys enjoy reading? What do they read that you would recommend to other mothers of boys?

Boys on a Budget

Let me start off by saying, I am a frugal mom. I don't want to spend any money that doesn't make sense, ON anything that isn't going to LAST, and isn't going to improve our lives in one way or another. I live in the country, in Indiana, and my boy's school is a small one. So, thankfully there are no "I HAVE TO HAVE THIS!!!" or whatever. They of course come to me with their requests and we talk about how bad they want something. Do they have money for something that we(mom & dad) aren't willing to shell out the money for? If they don't, then we discuss why we (mom & dad) will not be buying them their desire of the day. They have never walked away upset with our decision.

So, the first thing that I think every boy at age 4 or older should have is LEGOS. My boys play with their Legos, literally every day! We have bought them multiple sets, and they have received lots as gifts. And I don't think there is a Lego that has been wasted!

Don't want all of those tiny pieces all over your house??? I only allow Legos in certain parts of our house. Their rooms, and our basement which is basically their run & play area. They have a basket that they keep all of their Legos in, and they do a pretty good job of keeping them in the basket. They know if they don't, that I will take the pieces I find and throw them out. Actually, between us, I haven't thrown any pieces out, but I have actually taken them away, and they thought I threw them out. This has only happened enough times to count on one hand. But, they know they want to keep their pieces and they take good care of them!

This year, my boys (with my help) built 3D projects for their Learning Fair at school with their Legos.

Here is Deklyn with his TIV (tornado intercept vehicle, for those of you who don't watch the Discovery Channel!):

And here is Austin's Rocket, it's the red thing just above his shoulder:

Legos not only are fun for them, but they can really learn how things work! Like Deklyn learned that there has to be a "base" to build his TIV on. I told him that was called a Chassis. So them we had to figure out how each piece fit together, and how to support different things like the wheels, etc. With Austin, I think his favorite part was building a "control panel" inside. Oh, and putting a coffee cup in there so the Astronaut could drink (that's my Aus).

Plus, they have gotten some big imaginations building boats, cars, trucks, buildings, etc.

So, I would say Legos were one of my top picks for great investments for toys you would buy a boy. You can go HERE to request catalogs and a free Lego Magazine.

Our next Legos? Probably Indiana Jones...

Do your boys play with Legos? What do you think about them???

Coming Next Week

How do you teach good morals, keep their minds off of the material things without depriving them of fun "boy" stuff and NOT break the bank? What are some of the product recommendations? What books?

I will be reviewing some "frugal" items, that are not only budget friendly BUT fun for boys! Good deals for boy's items will also be added here!