The Simple Wealth

Day camps can be costly

Having kids costs money, yet they bring so much happiness into your life, and if you know how to find bargains, it need not cost you a lot of money. Summer is here. Day camps cost money, I searched online and saw plenty of camps that cost two to four hundred dollars a week. Wow! Really expensive! I signed up two weeks of day camps in a community center last year for $99 per week ( 5 hours a week, 5 days a week), but my daughter didn’t quite like it. I asked her why, she said that I was always late to pick her up, which was not true. I also put her one week of 3-hour camp in a neighborhood church for free. This year I was thinking of putting her again one week of church camp, and signing her up for swimming lessons, and spending most of her summer home having play dates with her little friends, but two weeks ago I got a brochure of recreation programs of the city in the mail, and saw that they have a tiny camp which only costs $80 for two months. It’s 4 hours a day, 5 days a week. That’s really cheap! I hesitated to go ahead and sign her up for a couple reasons: 1. it’s a little bit far, about 25-minutes drive; 2. it conflicts with her baby sister’s nap schedule. I tried to solve my dilemma by asking my friends to send their kids together to share carpools, and one of my friends happily joined me.

Cheap day camps don’t imply low quality

The camp started this week. I went there on Monday to check it out before I enrolled my daughter. The program leader showed me their camp schedule which includes many field trips, such as Oakland Zoo, Tilden Lake, Jelly Belly and Arden wood farms. It sounds a lot of fun. My daughter has been enjoying going there very much. She got up this morning, got dressed, wearing swimming suit underneath her outfit as her teacher requested yesterday, and putting sunscreen on herself, she is all ready to go to her camp by 8 AM, and yet her camp will not start until 12 PM. I’m glad that she likes it.

Blow are my tips for you:

1.Check out city sponsored day camps. Check out not only the city where you live, but nearby cities as well.

2.Search online first. Some cities’ web sites have detailed and up-to-date information, while some don’t, if you don’t see any day camp on the city’s web site, don’t assume that they don’t have.

3.Call or go to the city’s recreation and community services department to find information. I went there to enroll my daughter and saw that they have after school programs at different community centers for a very low price, and they also have a fitness center there for a low monthly fee. Great resources! You should all check out your local recreation department.

4.Go to community centers. There are usually flyers posted about available programs.

Last week there was a free music event downtown on the street, we usually don’t miss out on free entertainment and also we love our community and love to support its events. My daughter saw many kids having their faces painted and wanted to have her face painted as well, so my hubby was standing in line with her, but after waiting for a while his patience was running thin, he learned that it was not free and the cost was $5, so I talked to my daughter not to do it and promised her that I would paint her face the next day.

So I kept my words and painted her face with my make up, and she loved it, she said ” Mommy, you did a great job, even better than that lady last night.” She’s very sweet.

Below are 3 easy steps:

1. Use a lip pencil to draw an outline of a butterfly.

2. Use a eyeliner to draw the antennas.

3. Use eye shadows to color the body of the butterfly. Choose different colors for different parts.

My hubby commented that I didn’t have dramatic colors–yes, I looked through all my make up and couldn’t find any strong colors, I don’t have a big collection of colors since I don’t wear make up a lot.

“By the way, who cut her hair band?” you maybe wonder.

“Who else but herself!” This was third or fourth time she cut her own hair. Our conversation went like this:

“Why did you cut your hair again?”

“It’s too long.”

“Why didn’t you tell mommy to cut your hair?”

“I want to do it myself.”

“Don’t do it again.”

“Why?”

“It looks ugly.”

“No, it doesn’t. I like it.”

Well, it’s hard to tell her not to do it, if she thinks it looks nice.

Recent Carnivals

Total Mind and Body Fitness Blog Carnival 53 is hosted on FITBUFF.

Carnival of Financial Learning #4 is hosted on Financial Learn.

The Eight Little Pigs - Festival of Frugality #130 is hosted on Out of Debt Again.

Enjoy!

1 whole chicken

1 tablespoon salt

1 tablespoon black pepper

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1/2 tablespoon chili powder

2 pounds green beans

2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1.Preheat the oven at 375 degree. Rinse and dry the chicken. Mix all the spices in a bowl. Brush the chicken with a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. Sprinkle generously the spice mix on the chicken. Put the chicken on a baking sheet, and bake for about 1 hour 20 minutes.

2.Trim the green beans, and rinse them. Then put the green beans in a bowl, add a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, toss well, sprinkle a pinch of salt. Set it aside. Add the green beans to the baking sheet with the chicken at 40 minutes before the chicken is done, spread them evenly in one layer , turn the green beans over once.

Notes:

1.Roasted whole chicken is one of my favorite dish to cook because it’s so easy to prepare and I can let the oven do the cooking. I always stockpile whole chickens when I see them on sale.

2.Roasted green beans are tender and yummy, just remember to turn them once in baking, and take them out of the oven when they are done otherwise they may dry out, ideally they should be done at the same time when the chicken is done.