Easter on the Cheep

Some kind of calendar anomaly occurred this year that caused Easter to fall the day after my son's second birthday. This meant I wanted to keep the Easter basket simple and more importantly, cheap (see I do know how to spell it, I just liked the play on words for the title).
Last year I decided that a precious little Easter basket was not going to withstand the crushing hands of a toddler and would probably be reduce to bits that would surely be the size of a choking hazard within minutes. I saw the decorated buckets for only $1.00, but my cheapness kicked in. I realized I have extra 5 quart buckets and the pounds on my thighs to show what happened to the contents. I also had stickers left over from the Easter egg coloring kit. Watch out Martha- I can put stickers on a bucket, I've never seen anyone on your show do that.

Here's how to keep the Easter basket under $12.00

• Bucket-free 
• Sticker book $4.00
• Books, side walk chalk and car $1.00/ each from the dollar section at Target
• Bunny Pops from a fundraiser for my niece $1.25 each
• Some candies inside the eggs, which I already had.

The Big Boy Bed

My son, at least in his own mind, will soon be making a transition to the big boy bed from his crib. He sometimes naps there or falls asleep there on nights when he is sick. I remembered my sister-in-law's cost saving idea for those awkward bed rails. I can only imagine how much fun a 3am sheet change would be with those things in the way.  The plain bed rails seem to cost about $20.00 and the ones with a licensed character on them cost double that. My sister-in-law used foam pool noodles placed underneath the fitted sheet. It seems that all kids really need is a gentle reminder at the edge of the bed. The pool noodles served the same purpose for a fraction of the cost.
I priced pool noodles this afternoon at Target and the larger ones were $3.99 each. If you need to safeguard both sides of a bed you could save $32.00 by using the pool noodles. Best yet, they can still be used for their intended purpose once your child no longer needs them on the bed.
I took things one step further in order to spend no money guarding the side of the bed. During the holidays we replaced the memory foam pillows on our bed. I was left with two memory foam pillows that looked like they had to be useful for something. They sat in a corner for a few days waiting for me to get the motivation to get them to the attic for storage before the idea hit me. I sliced the memory foam pillows in half lengthwise (that's the hot dog way, not the hamburger way) and then put them underneath the fitted sheet. I only needed to guard one side of the bed because the other side of the big boy bed is against the wall. So far, it has worked just fine. I had one more section of pillow than I needed for the side, so I put it across the bottom.