• Home
  • About Us
  • Archives
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Privacy Policy

Kids Ain't Cheap

But They Sure Are Worth It

  • Home
  • Toolkit
  • Parenting
    • Baby Stuff
    • Books and Reading
      • Aesops Fables
      • Comic Books
    • Education
    • Family Time
    • Green Living
    • Growing Up
    • Healthy Living & Eating
    • Holidays
    • Parenting
    • Random Musings
    • Shopping
    • Stuff to Do
  • Money
  • Product Reviews
    • Books and Magazines
    • Discount Sites
    • Furniture
    • House Keeping
    • Reviews News
    • Toys and Games

Archives for October 2010

Cheap Costume Ideas For Kids

October 14, 2010 | Leave a Comment

Between the endless bags of candy we buy and the Halloween costume ideas that seem to get more elaborate every year, Halloween festivities can certainly get pricey! The good news is, dressing your child up in a great costume doesn’t have to break the bank. Fortunately, there are plenty of creative, easy and cheap costumes that you can make at home even if you are not a world-renowned artist or an expert seamstress.

Cheap Costume Ideas for Kids

Make Your Own

Think inside the box! It is amazing what you can do with a large cardboard box and some poster and face paint. Using a box that is big enough for your child to fit in, cut out holes for his or her head, arms and legs. A simple box can be transformed into a:

Robot…don’t forget the silver face paint and use a smaller box for the head.

Television…ditto with the silver face paint and then add a headband with antenna.

Aquarium…paste some plastic or Swedish candy fish onto the box and cover with a square of clear, blue plastic or plastic wrap.

Some other last-minute and inexpensive Halloween costume ideas include:

Witch or Wizard…dress your child in their own black clothes and add a simple witch or wizard hat and cape.

Monarch Butterfly…dress your child in black and make cardboard wings with a swirly pattern of orange and black.

Mummy…dress your child in white and wrap him or her in white fabric strips or gauze.

Ghost…this costume costs next to nothing if you can part with one of your white sheets, and never goes out of style!

Buy Secondhand

LIttle Girl Witch CostumeIf your child is older or has a specific character in mind that they simply have to have, then secondhand shops can offer an affordable solution. Many thrift stores have a children’s Halloween section every fall and carry an amazing assortment of sizes and styles. I was lucky enough to find my son’s first choice of costumes the last two years running at my local second hand store (Dracula and Ninja Turtle) for under $10.00 a piece! Not only is a secondhand store a great way to find cheap costumes, it is a green practice as well, as it is a classic example of “reduce, reuse and recycle.”

Swap and Shop

If being green is important to you, consider organizing a costume swap at your home and invite a bunch of moms you know who have kids the same age as yours. Invite the kids to come along and make a Halloween play date out of it, complete with apple cider and cookies. Not only can you find a gently used costume this way, you can also explain to your child how swapping is a form of recycling, which helps the planet. If you do not want to host a swap yourself, there is even a website that lists local costume swapping events: www.greenhalloween.org/CostumeSwap.

Do you have other ideas for easy and cheap costumes?  If so, we’d love to hear from you…

Trick-or-Treat!

Where do you get your kids Halloween costumes?

Brian
Brian

Brian is the founder of Kids Ain’t Cheap and is now sharing his journey through parenthood.

 
Email • Google + • Facebook • Twitter

Filed Under: Holidays, Shopping Tagged With: Cheap Costumes, Halloween, Halloween Costumes

A Fun and Economical Way to Get Kids Interested in Reading: Comic Books

October 10, 2010 | Leave a Comment

Batman Brave and Bold 21Yes, I am indeed a comic book geek but I am a proud geek at that.  As a parent, I think we all hope that our children will come to enjoy the same things that we enjoy.  To have a son or daughter you can share your hobby with is a fantasy most parents have, whether that hobby is sports, a favorite team, movies, music or in my case, comic books.  I grew up with comic books, they have fueled my passion for reading and have kept my imagination active.

Instilling a Love of Reading

We try very hard to instill a love of reading into our children.  Every night when we put them to bed, we read them 1 – 2 books each and we encourage them to spend time with their books on their own.  They are always getting new books on their birthdays and Christmas, from friends and relatives whose children have outgrown their books, from the library and from Goodwill when we can spare a couple of bucks.  They love it and I hope it continues.

One of the things I started incorporating into their reading just this week is comic books. Comics can be a bit edgy and most are no longer written for kids, they are written for adults. The content of comics, and even Japanese manga series like onee-chan wa game o suruto hito ga kawaru onee-chan, is typically too mature for young kids. However, there are a few publishers that make comic books specifically for children. DC Comics puts out a few featuring their stable of heroes as does BOOM (who bought the rights to make Disney comic books). Both are putting out quality books every month for younger audiences.
Both of my kids know who Batman is and both like him so for our first month I got them Batman Brave and the Bold from DC Comics.  So far, they have requested that comic as one of their nightly books every night this week.  It’s been really nice to see their excitement and interest.  They are still a little young for it but they love it nonetheless.

Comic Books Can Be Educational

I believe comic books can be an educational experience for children and an economical choice for parents.  On average, comics cost $2.99 each.  That is actually a bit steep when you are an adult and you are getting 20 – 30 titles each month.  As adult collectors, we buy them, read them and then generally stick them in a back with a backer board and save them as part of our collection.  Children get significantly more use out of them.  They aren’t concerned with saving them forever now are they worried about keeping them in good condition.  Even though they can’t read them yet, they pour through them and look at the pictures, they come up with their own stories and they exercise their imagination.  It gives them exposure to a new art form that they may not have ever experienced before.  It helps them develop their imagination and most important of all, it is a fun activity for Daddy to share with his boys.

If you don’t have a comic book shop near you, there are plenty of online comic book stores. When I was buying comic books for myself every month I used to use Discount Comic Book Service, now I just go and get 1 or 2 titles per month at my local comic book store.

What are your thoughts on using comic books as a reading tool?

Brian
Brian

Brian is the founder of Kids Ain’t Cheap and is now sharing his journey through parenthood.

 
Email • Google + • Facebook • Twitter

Filed Under: Comic Books, Education Tagged With: Comc Books, Reading

Win Free Diapers for a Year

October 6, 2010 | Leave a Comment

Huggies US PromotionsHuggies has a pretty cool giveaway running right now.  I don’t know how long it’s been running but I stumbled across it today.  Each day, they are selecting one person and giving them free diapers for a year.  That is a pretty big chunk of change when you add up diapers over a full years time.  The giveaway runs until 12/31.

Why free diapers?

We know why they do something like this.  It’s been shown in study after study that parents who find a diaper that works for their baby, generally stick with that diaper and get it over and over again.  Not only that, they buy the diaper to use in diaper cakes when giving baby gifts to friends and they recommend their favorite brand to new mothers.  They get free publicity for running the giveaway, a database of people who are interested in getting diapers and get one lucky winner comfortable with their product by having them use it for a year.  It’s a great way to market themselves to parents and a great prize for the winners.

If you sign up for the giveaway, the only negative I can think of is that you will end up getting junk mail from Huggies but much of that junk mail will probably include coupons so it balances out if you have an interest or need for their products.  If you want to try your luck, you can signup here.

What is your favorite diaper brand?

Brian
Brian

Brian is the founder of Kids Ain’t Cheap and is now sharing his journey through parenthood.

 
Email • Google + • Facebook • Twitter

Filed Under: Baby Stuff, Contests and Giveaways Tagged With: Diapers, Free Diapers, Giveaway, Huggies

Follow us on Twitter! Please!

October 5, 2010 | Leave a Comment

We are a new site that hasn’t really even officially launched yet but we are working on it.  We have setup a Twitter account that we will use to let you know how we are doing and what we have recently added to our web site.  We don’t have a lot of followers but please don’t let that stop you from following us.  We promise not to bombard you with generic tweets.  As with our web site, we want to bring real value to you with everything that we do.  You can follow us on our KidsAintCheap Twitter page.

Kids Ain't Cheap

Are you on Twitter? What kind of content do you like to see there?

Brian
Brian

Brian is the founder of Kids Ain’t Cheap and is now sharing his journey through parenthood.

 
Email • Google + • Facebook • Twitter

Filed Under: Site News Tagged With: Social Media, Twitter

Today was launch day…

October 1, 2010 | Leave a Comment

…sort of.  We still have to add a lot of content, fix a bunch of bugs and finish our coupons and shopping comparison sections but we did take the design and format live today for whatever that is worth.

The site may not look like much right now but we are going to work hard turn it into one of the best parenting resources online.  Since the site isn’t actually ready for anyone to view it and consume our content, it was a very quiet launch that only me, my wife and web designer actually participated in.  But that’s alright, you have to start somewhere!

Kids Ain't Cheap

So what do you think of the site?

Brian
Brian

Brian is the founder of Kids Ain’t Cheap and is now sharing his journey through parenthood.

 
Email • Google + • Facebook • Twitter

Filed Under: Site News Tagged With: Kids

Kids Ain’t Cheap But They Sure Are Worth It!

October 1, 2010 | Leave a Comment

Kids Ain't CheapWelcome to KidsAintCheap.com. This site was put together by parents, for parents. My goal is to build a web site that will allow all of us to become smarter consumers and maybe even slightly better parents.

Who runs Kids Ain’t Cheap?

My name is Robert but for the most part, I got by GiantRobo online. Why? Well for starters I am a geek. I like comic books, sci-fi, fantasy and anime so the whole giant robot thing always appealed to me. I have other hobbies but they have nothing to do with my online persona. Secondly, I am 6’6” so to most people, the giant title suits me. This is not my only site but it is the one I am most passionate about.

In addition to that, I am married to a wonderful woman named Stephanie and I have two of the most amazing boys anyone could have ever asked for. Our oldest, Harrison, is 4 ½. His brother is Sean and he is 2 ½. They are opposites in many ways but they get along well (for the most part). Nothing makes me happier than seeing those two boys play together.

I am a business man by nature and desire but not all of my ventures have been successful. One of my businesses ran for several years but ended in complete failure and left me and my family with a lot of debt. More debt than most people could ever imagine possible so it’s not really worth talking numbers. I am proud to say that despite the gargantuan amount of money I owe to unfriendly people, I have never filed bankruptcy and am working my way back to a debt free state.

It’s a long road and I didn’t want my decisions to impact my family any more than it had to. Despite our poor financial health, we have managed to provide our boys with love, a good home, healthy meals and if I do say so myself, a damn good life so far. We have had to cut a lot of corners and work the system in order to provide for our children. Our goal for this site is to help you do the same no matter what your financial predicament may be.

We all know that kids ain’t cheap but I am here to once again say they are more than worth the effort.

What kind of content would you like to see on Kids Ain’t Cheap?

Brian
Brian

Brian is the founder of Kids Ain’t Cheap and is now sharing his journey through parenthood.

 
Email • Google + • Facebook • Twitter

Filed Under: Site News Tagged With: GiantRobi, Kid's Aint Cheap, Kids, parenting blog

Reviews Coming Soon

October 1, 2010 | Leave a Comment

Parents are a hot demographic. Meaning, companies want to get there message in front of parents because parents buy a lot of things. They buy things for themselves, they buy things for their spouse and they buy things for their kids. With all of this brilliant marketing and advertising being directed at us, it can sometimes be tough to tell the good products from the bad. We will do our best to review as many products as we can and post those reviews in this section. Our reviews will be honest and will reflect that reviewers honest take on the product.

Kids Ain't Cheap

What kinds of products would you like to see reviewed?

Brian
Brian

Brian is the founder of Kids Ain’t Cheap and is now sharing his journey through parenthood.

 
Email • Google + • Facebook • Twitter

Filed Under: Product Reviews for Parents, Site News Tagged With: Parenting, Products, Reviews

Freebies Coming Soon

October 1, 2010 | Leave a Comment

The best things in life are free! We will be scouring the Internet every day to find you the best freebies, giveaways and trial offers that we can find. Our focus, of course, will be on freebies that parents can benefit from the most. Please bookmark our site, subscribe to our RSS feed and check back often.

Kids Ain't Cheap

What kinds of freebies would you like to see?

Brian
Brian

Brian is the founder of Kids Ain’t Cheap and is now sharing his journey through parenthood.

 
Email • Google + • Facebook • Twitter

Filed Under: Freebies for Parents, Site News Tagged With: Contests, Free Stuff, freebies, Giveaways, trial offers

Contests Coming Soon

October 1, 2010 | Leave a Comment

We went live but our site is still a work in progress. Our contests page will keep you up to date on the latest contests and giveaways that we find online. We will post contests that we believe families can benefit from and that we are reasonably sure are legitimate. Please subscribe to our RSS feed and check back soon! We think you will be proud of what we are going to turn this site into.

Kids Ain't Cheap

What kinds of contests would you like to see?

Brian
Brian

Brian is the founder of Kids Ain’t Cheap and is now sharing his journey through parenthood.

 
Email • Google + • Facebook • Twitter

Filed Under: Contests and Giveaways, Site News Tagged With: Contests, Giveaways

« Previous Page
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Basic Principles Of Good Parenting

Here some basic principles for good parenting:

  1. What You Do Matters: Your kids are watching you. So, be purposeful about what you want to accomplish.
  2. You Can’t be Too Loving: Don’t replace love with material possessions, lowered expectations or leniency.
  3. Be Involved Your Kids Life: Arrange your priorities to focus on what your kid’s needs. Be there mentally and physically.
  4. Adapt Your Parenting: Children grow quickly, so keep pace with your child’s development.
  5. Establish and Set Rules: The rules you set for children will establish the rules they set for themselves later.  Avoid harsh discipline and be consistent.
  6. Explain Your Decisions: What is obvious to you may not be evident to your child. They don’t have the experience you do.
  7. Be Respectful To Your Child: How you treat your child is how they will treat others.  Be polite, respectful and make an effort to pay attention.
Best Parenting Blogs

Copyright © 2025 Runway Pro Theme by Viva la Violette