Spring is around the corner and this is the most exciting time of the year for my frugal family–consignment sale and yard sale season! I have been faithfully consignment shopping and yard sale-ing for my family for over 8 years now (my husband calls it an addiction) and have come up with some tips and tricks that might help you find the best deals.
Before shopping, think ahead to what your children might need for the upcoming year: rain boots, jackets, snow boots, hats, mittens, sunhats, and items that could be put together for Halloween costumes all make great deals.
Other ideas to consider: You may have an infant now, but will you or your child want to play with Trains, Legos, Duplos, Puzzles, Board Games or other “classic” toys down the road? If you see them at a consignment sale or yard sale for a great price, buy it now to put away for later. Sometimes you can find toys and games still in the original packaging that you can put away for gifts.
Now is the time to Plan for Consignment Sales and Yard Sales
Most Parents of Multiples clubs will be having a consignment sale which is a great way to make a quick bit of cash on last year’s outgrown clothes and those toys that were holiday “misses.” Check with your local group for information on how to participate in their next sale. Often you can volunteer in exchange for shopping before the sale opens to the public, and/or receive a better rate of return on the items you are selling. Because they sell only infant or children’s items and sometimes maternity clothes, they are usually well organized and target what you might need with young children.
Some cities host consignment sales that are open to the public, but be prepared to pay to sell or pay to shop. There is a wide variety of children’s merchandise, but I often find (in my area) that sellers overprice items to recoup the costs involved.
Yard sales are a great way to find toys, clothes, sports equipment and other odds and ends that your children need without breaking the bank. However, there is a little bit of skill, as well as a lot of luck needed to be successful:

• Search multiple sources for listings. Craigslist is a great resource, as well as your local paper. However, some of the best yard sales I have found have been just driving up and down the main residential roadways looking for signs.

• Look for multi-family or neighborhood sales to get the most variety in items for very little time and effort.

• If you are shopping for kids clothing, know your brands. If you know an Old Navy 4T shirt costs between $7-9 in the store on sale, and as low as 3.99 on clearance, then don’t pay $4 for it at a yard sale! Shoot for between .50 cents to $1 a piece for baby/toddler clothes and $5-8 a pair for shoes. Be ready to bargain, especially if you are buying more than one item. Name brand clothes will command higher prices, but still less than the consignment sales.

• When at a yard sale, have a price in your head that you are willing to pay and walk away if the item is priced too high and the seller won’t bargain. Things to keep in mind: Wood toddler beds generally go for around $40. Dollhouses sets complete with furniture and dolls–$25. Hannah Anderson play dresses between $10-15. Anything Playmobil is a bargain if it is less than $20. Thomas, Brio and other train sets range from $10-25. Books and videos are one of the best bargains at a yard sale with books ranging from $.25-1.00 and DVD’s for $1.00-5.00.

Do you use consignment sales or yard sales to save money with multiples?

Leslie H. is a freelance writer and parent to three children who grow like weeds–justifying the hours spent yard sale-ing each spring. It is a sport.

I don’t know about you, but winter is not my best parenting season. Wintertime brings longs nights and little sleep as my children suffer from colds, or are feeling cold and need help covering up with blankets. Winter brings short days with little sunshine, no recess due to the weather, and lots of sibling bickering. In winter we try to recover our pre-holiday routines, start our goals for the new year, and no one is interested–not even me. It is a struggle.

Each year I seem to forget this sluggish season in my parenting life and am surprised when it returns. I am tired, I have no new ideas, I am not patient. I’ve forgotten everything in my bag of tricks. It is hard to find ways to fill up my bucket, and renew myself, so I can give the kids the time and attention and love that we all need. I long for warm weather, time outside, the next season.

So we muddle through. I schedule one-one-one activities with each child. Pulling one child aside to go to the grocery store counts. Even going so far as to get one twin a playdate so I can have lunch at McDonald’s with the other. Going to the park and freezing, I mean, playing. Giving my undivided attention.

I am a big believer in the theory of “floor time”. When the after school bickering is too much I drop what I am doing–usually cooking the next meal for hungry children–to facilitate a quick game of Zingo Bingo, to sit on the floor with a wronged child and listen to a litany of complaints, to separate the older girl from the boys for a few minutes breather before joining her to brush American Girl hair and listen to her day. We all have the wintertime blues.

We try to cope. We make plans for the spring. We look at gardening books from the library and catalogs in the mail. We buy a few houseplants and make a bird feeder from a milk carton. We take quick bike rides around the block looking for the first flowers and trees to bud. We count down the days until spring.

Do you parent differently in the winter than you do in the warmer months?

Leslie H. is a freelance writer and parent to a spunky eight-year-old girl and two adventurous four-year old boys.

Traveling with small children is tough for every family. Oh how I have dreaded flying with twinfants–you know what I mean!

Our family recently made a two day January car trip through flat prairies land as far as the eye can see, and we have more travel coming up this spring. While we prefer to drive over fly with three kids (and their stuff, and their carseats), and our kids are older, it doesn’t get any easier. We have tried everything to entertain the kids: new books and toys; games and candy; lots of stops at McDonald’s. In the end, we fall back on handheld game devices and DVD players–all three kids playing on watching with headphones means peace for the driver. Extremely bad parenting according to the experts in the books, magazines and websites. But I’m want to absolve you of all the guilt and tell you to do what you need to do to get to your destination safely–with your sanity intact!

As my kids get older, it becomes almost as much about the journey as the destination. At the end of the trip, while we all emerge from the crumb encrusted car tired and frazzled and sick of each other’s company, I can’t help but notice that there has been some bonding between siblings–some good has come from the hours on the road. An “we’ve been through this together” camaraderie. A “remember when we saw the giant airplane wings on the back of the truck…” reminiscence that continue to be discussed for hours as we drive. My husband and I join in with our memories of long car trips as kids: when there were no DVD players or ipods or carseats(!), when you could ride backwards in a station wagon or sleep on the floor of a sedan, where stopping for a bite to eat was not convenient as it is today and was always an adventure.

I think these trips form the foundation of our children’s lives and become part of our family history together. I end up being grateful for the excuse to to travel, grateful for the hours on the road, grateful for the whining, and the bad food, and the “he’s looking at me” and the “are we there yet” statements. I’m grateful once we are all out of the car!

How does your family handle car trips?

Leslie H. is a freelance writer to a spunky eight-year-old girl and two adventurous four-year-old boys.

I now understand why January is full of messages of lighter living and organization. Our family has had a great winter holiday! Rich food weighs us down, sleeping-in and late night fun put our kids off bedtime schedule, we have great new toys to explore, and enjoyed family visits. But all this fun has wrecked havoc on our lives and bodies–is there such a thing as too much fun? My house is a giant “before” picture. But now we are back to real life–back to school, work and schedules. Time to set some goals:

1). Eat right;
2). Exercise;
3). Keep the house cleaner;
4). Cook nutritious meals.

Same resolutions every year that fall by the wayside in February. Try again:

1). Cure picky-eater-ness;
2). End sibling bickering;
3). Enforce good table manners.

Now I’m just dreaming.

I have so much to learn in 2012. Starting with striving to make our mornings smoother. I have schedules posted all over the house, bans on T.V. during the week, and when I am really on my game–both breakfast and lunch made before the kids get up. Yet every morning it feels like a race to the finish with a lot of cajoling to get everyone out the door. It makes for a stressful start of the day and I wish I could figure out what key ingredient I am missing to fix the situation.

Next, I need to learn how to take my kids (all with different skill levels) biking safely: an 8-year-old with a brand new mountain bike, a 4-year-old daredevil on a balance bike and a hesitant 4-year-old on a trike who longs to catch up with the other two but is not confident enough to try. If you can imagine me running around the neighborhood after this crew, dodging speeding cars, then you can understand my need for a new plan.

Finally, I need to figure out new and interesting ways to teach my boys their letters and numbers. They attend a fabulous play-based preschool and are learning social skills everyday and kindergarten requirements somewhat by osmosis. However, September is fast approaching and while we have a great (but competitive) elementary school, I feel the need to catch them up a bit so they go into kindergarten as prepared as any other kid.

What this really comes down to is learning how to accept and thrive in the challenge of:

1). how to be a great parent to an 8-year-old girl and two four-year-old (almost five!) boys;
2). learning how to balance the talents, needs, and desires, of everyone in the family so that my husband and I can reach our full parenting potential.

My goals all relate back to one thing “I” need to accomplish for success in my family. So I have chosen a word of the year to help me keep it all in the front of my mind: LEARN. I need to learn new skills in both parenting and time management in order to be a great parent this year and fulfill my goals. Do you have new year’s goals for yourself or your family?

Leslie H. is a freelance writer and parent to three great kids (two happen to be twins).

I fully admit, I am not as far along in my holiday shopping as I had expected. This is new to me, as in years past I am generally finished early, adding a few Black Friday deals as icing on the cake. I swore that this year I would buy the boys each different toys that suited their personalities, and then I caved, or was caved, by the Imagintext Batcave.

As my boys approach five, I am torn between buying them the same gifts as I have done in years past, or buying slightly different ones that can be played with together. It starts as twinfants by well meaning family and friends who buy two crinkly toys, two bouncers, two walkers, and moves on thru the toddler years where two ride on toys become a necessity to prevent their fighting and Mom’s headaches. I had hoped that this year I could follow their interests (helicopters and police cars for one and batman and spiderman for the other) and buy them individual gifts instead of treating them as a unit, but as much as I hope this would work, I must admit defeat. While only one boy is interested in the batman Imagintext products, they will both be receiving them because they are just too super cool to just have one in the house. Jealousy would abound.

I do pat myself on the back for purchasing complimentary Playmobil pieces: an ambulance, a police car, and a plane for big sister. I know that many hours of imaginative play await. And since I’m not quite done with my shopping, I am open to any and all ideas for imaginative, creative gifts for almost five-year-old boys.

Lest you think our holiday plans are all toy related, I leave you with an image of a recent crafting session. As my kids get older, crafting gets more “doable”–projects are completed successfully and with less mess. Here we are making salt dough decorations. The recipe is simple and very similar to homemade playdough:

1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1/2 cup water

Stir to combine. Roll out on a floured surface, cut shapes, be sure to poke a hole for stringing. Bake at 250 degrees for two hours. Enjoy!

How do you manage gifts for your multiples?

Leslie H. is a freelance writer and mom to a spunky 7-year-old girl and police and ambulance and batman loving four-year-old twins.

Thanksgiving is time to count our blessings. My heart is full of the gifts all my children have given me. I am especially thankful to have been given the gift of multiples. Having two kids at one time has stretched our family in new ways that we have never thought possible. I will fully admit–and friends will agree–that I was a not myself during the newborn days with twins an a three-year-old. But as the kids get older and relationships change, I am able to look back with pride and nostalgia for all that we have accomplished together, growing as a family, as well as look forward to fun years ahead.

In the book, “One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are,” author Ann Voskamp encourages readers to look beyond the day to day grind of lives and to keep a counting of our blessings. These three children have given my husband and I so much to be thankful for–my heart is full. A recent counting of my families’ blessings include:
The ability to walk my older daughter and her friends to and from school. Pickups that become huge playdates with friends and their siblings

Legos and polly pockets and imagination games that all three can play

Loving the old dog

Boys and dog in the stroller

Halloween and Holidays. Busy-ness and slowing down. Time flies

The ability to stay at home these beginning years and trying every day to remember to enjoy each minute

Wanting, needing, demanding time with Daddy, especially when it involves hitting golf balls or hammering nails

Kids Meetings (where they scurry away to have discussions and usually involve filched treats like potato chips or candy). I try to be mad because I think I *should* but it is just so cute!

“Mommy, I need to be outside, or I’m just going to die!” My nature-centric kids

That twins and an older sibling play together, love each other, need their time together without Mom or Dad interfering

From our family to yours, wishing you a heartful Thanksgiving Season.

Leslie H. is freelance writer and mom to a spunky seven-year-old and rambunctious four-year-old twin boys.