March Thrifty Carnival

Spring has well and truly sprung this week.  With sun around most parts of the UK.

Family

Firstly I bring you Climbing Rainbows, which is a beautiful blog about having fun with children and has fantastic ideas which are not expensive or like this Mimi beast hunt, which costs nothing.  A great inspirational blog.

Another great blog packed full of ideas for fun with children is Nurturestore and Cathy has a great post on homemade play dough, which is filled with tips and ideas.

If you are stuck for Spring Inspiration as a family, then head over to A Mothers Ramblings and follow her 10 things to do in Spring as a family.

Victoria from It's a Small World After All tells us about how she managed a nine month trip with her family.  She also has a new Blog called words and pictures.

Garden

I love pallets, you can do so much with them, but this fantastic pallet planter from A Randomnest had me wanting to go out and steel them off the industrial estate!

Food

Frugal Mum of Three has a super post about how batch cooking makes a huge difference to her budget, not to mention the fact that there is always a dinner ready to grab on the run.

Waste not want no, Eco Thrifty has a recipe for the best banana tea bread ever to use up those black bananas.

Each week Utterly Scrummy Food for Families does a menu plan with prices.  If you do not follow this blog then you really should.

I am currently reviewing Kitchen Canny and I would really recommend you looking in to it if you have food waste as you could make massive savings.

I know this is an old post, but I made Chris from Thinly Spreads baked bean curry last week and it is a real use up all your old vegetable meal.  Plus Maxi ate three bowls of it, so I had to include it here!

Also from Chris, but at Fab Food, I made her soda bread and it is great frugal easy receipe.

Household

It takes a woman tells us about her top five tips for a thrify household.  5 super tips that do not take much implementing but make a huge difference. 

Becky from Baby Budgeting tells us how to stop unnecessary spending in four easy steps.  

I posted about my Spring Financial Manifesto on A Thrifty Mum.

Jax from Making it up blogs about making savings and reducing waste at the same time.

Over on Frugalicious Food, I tell you how to clean your oven with just Bicarb and water.

Cass at a Frugal Family shares her thrifty tips with us this month too.

Living on a budget doesn't have to mean that you look like you do.  Karen from the White Approach is extremely stylish and her home is warm, welcoming and filled with thrifted finds (I should know as she welcomed The Mad Family in to it last year).  Here she makes over a thrifted hanger and it only cost her a pound.

Kelly from A Place of My own, shows that a thrifted find can be much more homely than just going straight to Ikea with her new desk.

A new blog to me and one which I have already added to my reader is Lulastic and the Hippy Shake, take a look, whats not to love.  Here Lu shows us how to make a shelf out of a book and she also has a great post about the politics of thrift.

Beauty and well being 

Everyone needs a bit of me time and I adore this post from Eco Thrifty on how to make home made massage oil. 

Family budgeting gives us 10 easy, inexpensive ways to look gorgeous.  

Mummy Limited shows us that we do not need to spend pounds to make us happy when we are having a bad day with her Ye Olde Bad Day Remedies.

Crafts

I show you how to transform a basic play pot with some scrap fabric to make a patchwork fabric plant pot at The Mad House.  Kat from Housewife Confidential also made some, which are much neater than mine!

Heather at Growing Spaces has a fab video tutorial on how to make your own magnetic blackboard wall.

Lizzie from Me and my shadow show us how to make a necklace from bubble wrap (yes bubble wrap),

Kat got the cream has a great blog post about making home made button hair slides.  Buttons and slides two of my favorite things!