After-school classes can put a real drain on families’ budgets, and with the slow parenting movement gaining momentum, some parents are taking a stand against over-scheduling for philosophical reasons too.

Yet it’s hard to totally step away and let our children run free, especially if they seem drawn to a discipline like art, or we want to redirect some of that creative, messy energy into something constructive.

To help me wade through some of these questions, I thought of Bill Zeman, artist, friend, father and author of the recently-released Tiny Art Director.

Published this spring by Chronicle Books, Tiny Art Director tells through pictures (and few words) of the tete-a-tete between an artist and his adorably grouchy toddler.   The two-year-old art director, whose sweet, pixie looks belie her pugnacious spirit, orders her uber-talented and clearly adoring father to draw various scenarios (often involving dragons). Presented with the masterpieces, she offers her critique (usually biting disapproval) in hysterical one-liners that prove that truth really is funnier than fiction.

My husband and children — aged 39 to 2 — all get a huge kick out of this pint-sized book.  Another thing I love about it?  The price is just as mini: you can get it for just $10 at Amazon, a perfect fit for Father’s Day.

Interview with Artist Bill Zeman

Frugal Mama: When parents want to encourage a child’s interest in art, we often think of classes.  But are there less costly and simpler ways to support a budding artist?

Bill Zeman: Absolutely. You can spend incredible amounts of money on art supplies and classes, but you can also get your kids engaged, help them develop skills, and get great results very cheaply.

Classes can be pretty cool, especially if they teach a specific skill or work towards a big project like a claymation film, or like some I’ve taught where we made a deck of game cards (like Pokemon), or a group comic book. But even if you are using classes as daycare after school, they can still be expensive.

Frugal Mama: Phew, I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks so. Can you give parents a little guidance on where to start?

Bill Zeman: Because we live in a small apartment and don’t have room to store a lot of projects, I always push the kids towards flat art – drawing and painting – rather than any three-dimensional projects.

But even motivated little artists will get bored of just paper and crayons, so I try to give them interesting or unusual materials to work on. Two of my (and their) favorites are free.

First, if you ever get those shiny white shirt boards with clothing or something you buy, hang on to them. Sharpies or other black permanent markers look great on them and the result is very satisfying. Just don’t forget to protect the table where they are working with some junk mail catalogs or something.

The next thing is brown paper bags or cardboard. Cut a nice flat panel out of a bag or a box from the recycling. That natural brown paper is a perfect midtone so they can use black and white to great effect. Markers, pens, colored pencils, or even crayons will work well, but try giving them just black and white for a dramatic result. For older kids you can encourage them to think about shadows and highlights rather than simple outlines as well.

Frugal Mama: Wonderful. I love these no-cost and resourceful ideas. If parents were to buy real supplies, what is worth spending money on?

Bill Zeman: Painting is one thing that almost always excites my kids. It’s messy, interesting, and feels like a special event. They especially love mixing colors.

I have tried a lot of different kinds of paint and methods, but in the end we have settled on watercolor and I highly recommend it. It’s much more economical because the dry paints last a long time, and cleanup is a breeze (although some colors do stain).

I also think kids get better results with watercolor than they do with acrylics or poster paint, because watercolors are so transparent. I encourage them to do a preliminary drawing in pencil and the transparency allows the pencil to show through. Since they have much more control with a pencil than a brush, that preserves the definition of the drawing.

Frugal Mama: I’m so relieved you didn’t suggest tubs of poster paint! Watercolors are totally doable and unintimidating, and the pencil drawing underneath is a good idea.  It can be hard — for anyone — to create a scene with a brush alone.

Bill Zeman: Yes, and you can get everything you need for good watercolor sessions pretty cheaply. For the paints you can totally get away with the cheap kids sets. Just look for ones with more colors and mixing trays built in to the lid. Keep in mind that they almost always come with white, which is useless (encourage them to make lighter colors by mixing in more water instead of using white).

Also some sets come with decent brushes and some with brushes that are complete junk. If you get one of those you really should consider spending 2 to 5 dollars at an art supply store on a decent smallish flat or round synthetic bristle brush.

After that you need paper towels or napkins and a water bucket. I use old take-out containers for the water, and I collect napkins that would otherwise be thrown away from wherever I find them.

The last thing is the paper, and while typing paper is fine, and probably the best everyday solution, a real watercolor paper is absorbent and gives a great result.

The best affordable option for this is to buy the cheapest grade of full sheet watercolor paper you can find and cut it up into smaller pieces. A full sheet is usually 22” x 30” so you can get 8 sheets out of one. I have found good quality full sheets for $1.00 each, so at 12.5 cents each it’s still something you’ll want to reserve for special paintings.

Frugal Mama: Once again, I love how you find ways to reuse everyday materials. For the real supplies, can you suggest a good online source?

Bill Zeman: Personally I love Pearl Paint, but I was just checking prices and Dick Blick looks a little cheaper and has a good range of the watercolor papers I was talking about.

Frugal Mama: Okay. Let’s talk about the more unpredictable human element for a moment. What if you get your child all set up with these great supplies and he says he doesn’t know what to draw?

Bill Zeman: Well, that will definitely happen and of course if you let them know how much you want them to do it, you’re sunk, so it’s always a fine line of finding what motivates them. For my 5-year-old (the tiny art director), she’s currently obsessed with horses so I’ve been suggesting that she observe her toys and draw from those. This has worked out really well and gives her a sense of pride as well.

For any age, self-portraits are really great. Just set up a mirror on the table with them. Again this teaches observation and I just think it’s a great exercise for anyone.

Finally some kids are going to be more interested in stories or characters, such as superheroes. You can walk them through doing a comic book, or even just a few panels by listening to their story ideas and repeating them back to them. Somehow hearing it from you lends it your authority and helps them solidify their own ideas. They will need your help to break the events of their stories into scenes, one panel per scene, and if your kids are like mine, you’ll have to walk a fine line between encouragement and pressure, but the results are really fun.

Frugal Mama: Speaking of encouragement and pressure, if you believe your child might have some real artistic talent, do you think formal instruction is the best way to nurture it?   If so, is there another option besides classes, like an instructive book or something?

Bill Zeman: I think the key thing for most young artists, at least up until middle school or high school, is to stay interested. Learning about materials and techniques is secondary to exercising their creativity and just drawing.

The only skills I would really push are observation and maybe basic design (photography is great for teaching composition and digital photos are free!). There are some great how-to-draw books for various techniques, but in general I would use those more as motivation than instruction.

Frugal Mama: And finally, for the skeptic in all of us, why is art important for kids?

Bill Zeman: I think about that all the time (for adults too), and I think there are tremendous benefits even for kids who won’t maintain an interest in art later in life.

For pre-literate kids, art is a terrific way to express themselves and communicate, and I think it helps them make sense of their world.

I love watching the way kids’ understanding of the human body develops over the months and years, from those wonderful crazy pictures with hands and feet coming out of their heads to slowly figuring out how to draw a whole person. The eye-hand coordination and understanding of symbols is also very valuable.

One of my favorite things about kids and art though, is the way it gives them confidence – not just in their drawing ability — but because they are in control of the world they create on the page. This lets them work through their anxieties and fears (by drawing monsters and dinosaurs) and lets them get a sense of their own abilities and power.

Frugal Mama: Thank you so much, Bill, for these valuable thoughts and ideas.  If people want to find out more about you and your projects, they can visit the Tiny Art Director blog.

Cheap and convenient might be good for our bottom line, but it’s often bad for the world at large.

As a frugal mama, I struggle with this dilemma.  I feel more and more uneasy about not forking it over for local, organic food (which often costs three times as much).  Yet I do force myself to buy pricier recycled printer paper, aluminum foil and paper towels, as well as eco cleaning products from Seventh Generation.

But taking care of the environment and looking out for number one do not always have to be on opposite sides of the coin.

WA$TED!

The Discovery Channel’s Planet Green show WA$TED!, now in its third season, is all about this win-win double-green.  At a luncheon last week, I got to meet the host of the show, pro-earth comedian Annabelle Gurwitch, and a few of the reality show families from the episodes I previewed.

These families — the sisters who run Sweet Melissa’s Patisserie in Brooklyn and the Space family in rural New Jersey — ended up saving thousands of dollars by becoming more cognizant about the ways they were being wasteful — with resources as well as money.  (As an incentive, Planet Green rewards participants with a cash bonus equal to the amount they saved.)

Composting was the key to the bakery’s savings (reducing the cost of carting off organic waste).  But how can regular households trim spending while feeling good about it too?

How to Save the Earth and $1000 or More Per Year

By cutting back on wasteful practices, most of the families on WA$TED! save on average $1000 per year, but some save as much as $2,500 per year.

The Spaces are in many ways a typical American family:  two incomes, four children, and a big new house.  Before the Planet Green team arrived, they weren’t recycling anything (even though as mayor of their town, Mr. Space had recently passed a law requiring recycling), they loved using disposable packaging including paper cups and plastic lids for their home-made coffee, and were driving two ginormous SUVs to the same job.

Reducing Electricity Use

The Spaces saved the most on their electric bill.  Jill Space started out the episode saying how much she loves to hear the sound of her washer going all day long.  The entire family — all super hooked up with computers and hand-held digital devices — took care to unplug items when not in use, turn off lights (especially during the daytime), and install power strips that help shut off unused appliances.  (Planet Green recommends the Conserve Surge power strip from Belkin.)

In addition, WA$TED! encourages and sometimes helps fund the purchase of Energy Star appliances as big money-savers over the long haul.

Conserving Fuel

Whether switching out a gas guzzling car, making an effort to combine trips for errands, or cutting back on unnecessary driving altogether, participants find that gas is another huge factor on their bottom lines.

While the Space family was not able to keep it up, during the show Jill walked the 1/2 mile to work instead of driving her SUV.  When another WA$TED! family didn’t have the funds to trade in their gas-hungry SUV, Annabelle showed them how to set up a carpool.

Cutting Down on Disposable Products

Countless households that the WA$TED! crew visited had perfectly good dishes in their cabinets but were using paper or plastic dinnerware for convenience.  Not only do the families who make the switch save a lot of cash from not buying disposable products, but the environmental impact is tremendous.

One family in Season One saved upwards of $500 per year on paper towels alone.

Eating Less Meat

When Planet Green visited a group of three bachelors, they convinced them to reduce their spending by eating veggie burgers and veggie sausages (which they loved).  Meat is one of the most expensive items in the grocery store and one of the most environmentally-damaging.

The UN Food and Agricultural Organization reports, for example, that 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions come from livestock (more than from transportation).  See No Impact Man for more on why eating less meat helps the environment.

Finding New Homes for Good Things

One of the funny yet excruciating moments of the show is when the participants’ trash is brought back to them, dumped out and examined.  The Space family had entire wardrobes of usable clothing in their dumpster.  Jill Space explained how instant gratification won over better intentions, “When I clean out a closet, I want the clothes gone immediately.”

While organizing clothing swaps and sharing hand-me-downs is a great way to recycle while increasing social capital (mutual good will), you can always donate clothing and  household goods to the other Goodwill.  Plus, if you take a minute to fill out a donation form, you can save money on taxes.

(For more on social capital and how helping other people and joining community groups can increase your wealth and health, see Get Rich Slowly’s Social Capital: More Valuable Than Money? and this excellent definition and discussion of social capital from the Encyclopedia of Informal Education.)

What about you? Do you always go for the cheapest and easiest, or do you make compromises for the greater good? Also, what are some things you do that are good for the environment and your wallet?

Watch WA$TED! on Planet Green, Wednesdays at 8 p.m. Eastern time.

Photo credits:  trash mountain, bulbs.

This article is the first part in a series about moving:
Part 2 | How to Find a Quality House to Rent
Part 3 | Find a Low-Cost Mover without Getting Scammed
Part 4 | How to Plan, Purge, and Pack for Your Next Move
Part 5 | The Ultimate Moving Checklist for Families

Moving can be one of the most expensive and life-changing financial transactions a family will make.  While a move can be exciting, it is also very stressful — right up there with losing a job and the death of a loved one.  Yikes.

Of course, relocation services can take some of the worry off your shoulders. But they can cost thousands of dollars.  The good news is you can manage a move by yourself, save tons of money, and still have some sanity left on the other end.

In this three-part series, I’ll talk about:

• How to identify the best neighborhood for your family
• Unconventional ways of finding a great house (with a focus on rental properties)
• Finding a trustworthy mover and organizing the details of your relocation

My family and I are in the midst of our fourth long-distance move (including one overseas), and as a single I packed up house six times.  While I’m not a relocation expert (yet), I hope that the skills I’ve gained from our itinerant lifestyle can help others make the experience a little less daunting.

HOW TO FIND A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD

Finding the right neighborhood is a huge factor in determining the success of your move.  Because we all have different needs, tastes and lifestyles, there is no “best neighborhood.”  One person’s paradise might be another’s dungeon.

Here are some methods for finding the right place for you.  I suggest trying as many of them as you can.  Finding a neighborhood is like assembling a mosaic:  each small tile you place will help you see the big picture more clearly.

Fun Online Tools

Of course visiting neighborhoods in person should be at the top of your list.  But with kids in tow and travel expensive, sometimes much of the legwork has to be done long-distance.

NeighborhoodScout.com

Recommended by Money magazine, NeighborhoodScout can help you search for the best neighborhoods for you, with categories such as urban sophisticates, first-time homebuyers, or great deals on great towns. In the advanced search you can even select median home value and an urban, suburban or rural setting.

If you’d like to find out more about a certain place, type its name in the Learn tab and get all sorts of details about a neighborhood and its residents, such as age and lifestyle, education level and income. The description tab is an especially welcome feature, which distills the statistics and gives you a written overview of the neighborhood.

NeighborhoodScout also has a neat Match tool where you can search for neighborhoods that are similar to ones that you already know and love.

You Are Where You Live

Another site that can give you a feel for the type of people that live in a certain zip code is You Are Where You Live.  Based on a “lifestyle segmentation” system called PRIZM from the Nielsen Company, it classifies consumers into 66 categories — like Shotguns & Pickups, Bohemian Mix and Newlyweds — based on census data, consumer surveys, and other sources of demographic and consumer information.

Because PRIZM operates on the principle that “birds of a feather flock together,” it can be a curious exercise to type in your own neighborhood and see if they’ve got your number.

WalkScore.com

If you’re like me and you enjoy being able to walk to shops, restaurants, banks, and schools, WalkScore is an excellent site to know about.  WalkScore ranks the most walkable nabes in the 40 largest cities, or if you want to know about a particular neighborhood or house, you can type in an address or a zip code and get a walkability score from 1 to 100 and a classification like “car-dependent”, “somewhat walkable,” or “walker’s paradise.”

GreatSchools.org

While I believe GreatSchools is the best of the school ranking sites out there, I recommend using it as just one of the many ways you judge a school.  Test scores — upon which most of their ratings are based –are only one aspect of a school’s overall success.

It’s tempting to whittle down your list based on this concrete, easily-obtained information.  But if you are very interested in a neighborhood for other reasons, I would not write the area off simply because its elementary school gets a 2 out of 10.

I have personally known schools to have low ratings on GreatSchools, but to be well-loved places where kids are engaged, challenged and thriving. Oftentimes scores are outdated, don’t reflect the dynamism of the teaching, a new principal, or how your child would do in that school.

Finally, standardized test scores and demographic information cannot replace a personal visit to a school, where you will immediately get a feeling about a place (see below).  Don’t underestimate the mother’s gut!

Also talking to parents who have children currently at the school is another great way to get a reading on whether you would be happy there or not.  (GreatSchools may have a few parent reviews about your school, but I would not count on them as an indicator of how most parents feel about a school.  And really, the most important thing is how you feel about a school.)

Tip: If you are not only looking for a neighborhood, but a city to live in, you might want to check out GreatSchool’s Best Cities to Live and Learn.  The series includes sub-articles on small, midsize and large cities with outperforming public schools, as well as articles which rate towns with great public schools based on median home prices that range from under $100,000 to $800,000 or more.

Researching on the Web

Mamapedia.com

Sarah from Buttoned Up recommends asking the moms at Mamapedia for advice about your new destination.  While this national networking resource probably won’t replace locally based groups (see below), it’s a good place to start asking questions about your city.

Use parent networks like this to find out more than just places to live.  In a search for Syracuse, I found moms exchanging advice about OBs, pediatricians and babysitters.  If you don’t find what you are looking for searching with key words, sign up and post a query yourself.

Tip: If you introduce yourself first — telling a little bit about you and your family and what brings you to the area — you might just sow the seeds of some future friendships.

Neighborhood Reviews in City Newspapers and Magazines

Many cities have a column dedicated to reviewing area neighborhoods each week.  In the Washington Post, for example, the column is called “Where We Live.”    The New York Times has “Living In,”  and New York magazine as well as Time Out Kids both run regular neighborhood write-ups and ratings.

See if you can get an online or paper copy of the local newspaper and magazine and check out the real estate or living section.

I love these articles because they mean an intelligent person has already done a lot of the legwork:  touring the hood, investigating its history, talking to residents, evaluating housing prices and commute times, and identifying some of the pros and cons of living in the area.

Good ol’ Google

Type in your city or county name with some characteristics you desire, such as “walkable,” “historic district” or “charming downtown.”  I found a few fantastic New York suburbs this way, and while we didn’t end up moving there, it gave me hope that there are places that are really right for us if we are just willing to unearth them.

Person-to-Person

Mine Your Personal Networks for Local Contacts

When we told people we were moving to Syracuse, we were surprised at the amount of friends, acquaintances and colleagues who actually knew people who lived there.

To speed the process, try writing an email to everyone you know asking if they know someone with experience in your city.  Once you make the connection, ask each person what neighborhoods they like best and which ones would they recommend for you.

While I had these personal contacts on the phone, I also asked their tips for finding rental houses, parent groups, and schools.

Join Local Parent Groups and Ask Questions

These online networks are invaluable sources of information.  Most membership mom groups will have an email loop that you can join before you move there and some are strictly online networks.  You can search the archives or just fire away.  I’m sure you’ll get lots of input from local moms who have been in the same situation you’re in.

How to find one in your area?  Ask your new-found contacts (or Mamapedia moms).  Search the online version of the local newspaper for articles about parenting or mom groups.  Another way to find people with similar interests is to search Yahoo Groups, Google Groups, and MeetUp.

Once you’ve found some, join the ones that you can for free and from a distance.  Introduce yourself in an email and ask members to recommend neighborhoods with the characteristics you seek.

Use Your Alumni Network

Most colleges have an alumni organization.  I can search mine for fellow graduates by city and other things like field of work and date of graduation.

When internet searching was leaving me thirsty for more information about our future city, I found a few people who lived there and who graduated around the same time I did.

Even though I didn’t know them from Adam, I just called and said we’d gone to school together and that I was moving to the area.  Did they have a minute to give me a lay of the land?

Nothing Beats Your Own Eyes, Ears and Sixth Sense

As mentioned before, neighborhoods will appeal to different people in different ways.  A place one person raves about may throw another over the edge.  Just remember that you are on a fact-finding mission and you might end up with a conclusion that will surprise you.

No one source is going to provide you with your answer.  It will be a process of gathering and selecting, like sifting sand at the beach.  Eventually you’ll end up with a few pretty shells to examine further.

That’s when it’s time to pack your bags and go see for yourselves.

Reconnaissance Trip

With no car, three kids and a tight budget, we didn’t visit our new city until we actually had some houses lined up to look at.  But if we had, we would have saved ourselves a lot of time and effort.

Neighborhoods will usually affect you in a visceral way.  You’ll know pretty quickly if it’s a place you’d feel comfortable or not.   This will help you eliminate houses that look great on their own, but whose surroundings would not fit your bill.

Check out the Neighborhood from All Angles

In How to Find a Good Neighborhood, the Life Hacker blog recommends visiting a neighborhood at different times of day and night.

Check out the area at rush hour and on the weekends.  You might find the place comes to life on the weekends (or the opposite), that traffic on the single thoroughfare is unbearable, or that university students hog all the street parking on weekdays.

Lifehacker also advises, “If you depend on public transportation, find out how accessible it is in this area. Drive to and from the house from several different directions, so you see both the scenic and not-so-scenic routes.”

Visit Schools, Libraries and Playgrounds

Make appointments with schools in neighborhoods you think you’ll like.  Ask to tour the school and meet the principal.  Peek in classrooms.  Do the children seem engaged and happy?  Do the staff seem cheerful and friendly?

If you and your children like to frequent the public library, it’s easy to walk in and check out what the local branch has to offer, who uses it, and what is posted on their bulletin board.  Same goes for the town playground.

Go to Open Houses

Even if you’re not serious about buying or renting a house in the area, it doesn’t waste anyone’s time to show up at a scheduled open house.  Touring a local house will give you a more intimate view of a neighborhood, almost from the inside out.  Plus you might get a chance to talk to the real estate agent or other house-seekers about the area.

Eat at Local Hang-Outs

Ask your new mom networks their favorite cafe’s, or go to the town center and arrive at a restaurant at prime time:  say 6 pm on a Saturday night.  You’ll get a sense of the kind of residents the place has and how friendly people are.

You might also visit the YMCA, community center, hardware store or even post office.  Check out the bulletin boards and observe people interacting in everyday ways.

Every place you visit will help you flesh out your picture of a place.  And once you’ve figured out some neighborhoods that will make you happy, it’s time to find that perfect house.

Stay tuned to Frugal Mama for the next three installments:  How to Find a Quality House to Rent, Finding a Low-Cost Mover Without Getting Scammed, and Frugal Mama’s Moving Checklist.

What do you think makes a good neighborhood? How did you find your favorite place?

This article is the first part in a series about moving:
Part 2 | How to Find a Quality House to Rent
Part 3 | Find a Low-Cost Mover without Getting Scammed
Part 4 | How to Plan, Purge, and Pack for Your Next Move
Part 5 | The Ultimate Moving Checklist for Families

Photo credits:  cherry blossoms, bulletin board & townhouses, moving truck , snowy town, fountain

This article is the last part in a series about moving:
Part 1 | 14 Tips for Finding the Best Neighborhood
Part 2 | How to Find a Quality House to Rent
Part 3 | Find a Low-Cost Mover without Getting Scammed
Part 4 | How to Plan, Purge, and Pack for Your Next Move

Who can remember everything that needs to be done to relocate your entire life? Based on the experience of moving ten times in the past 20 years, here are my best tips for keeping it together amidst the chaos.

Set Up Childcare, Schools, Summer Camps, Swim Lessons

Since there are deadlines associated with schools and camps, you’ll want to figure out childcare as soon as you know where you are going.

If you don’t know the area, the best way to start gathering information is by asking locals, like real estate agents, friends of friends, or online parent or neighborhood groups.

While public schools usually have to take you as long as you live within the boundaries, you can start organizing registration paperwork, such as proof of residence and health forms. You might also need to arrange for your child’s current school records to be transferred to the new school district.

Cancel Local Memberships and Services

Do you belong to a gym? Do you get your lawn mowed? Informing businesses of your move date is especially important if you are using automatic bank payments. Call two months ahead of time to make sure payments are stopped before your move.

Open a New Bank Account

With so many bills being paid online these days, getting all your financial transactions transferred to a new location can be quite a task.  Doing this ahead of time can prevent things from slipping through the cracks.

Plus, if you are signing up for direct paycheck deposit at your new job, you’ll need a check from your new account to get it set up.

1. Find a new bank. Since I don’t feel like going through the trouble of switching banks again, I decided to go with an online bank:  USAA Federal Savings.  (If a family member has served in the armed forces, this banking and insurance company gives excellent rates and customer service.)
2. Open an account with a minimum starting balance to get the ball rolling and your checks ordered.
3. Transfer extra cash into the new account until new job paychecks are deposited.
4. Go through past bank statements to remind you who is getting automatically paid from the old account.
5. Once you have a chunk of change in the new account, start moving your auto withdrawals to the new bank account by informing each creditor of your new bank information.  Usually this can be done online.

Find New Doctors and Have Records Transferred

To find a new pediatrician or OB-GYN, use your mom networks and local contacts together with health insurance rosters.

About a month before moving, have your records sent to the new providers.  Usually this requires filling out and signing a simple release form or, if you have to do it long-distance, sending a letter to the previous doctor.

If anyone in the family is taking medicine, you might want to take a moment to refill any prescriptions now until you get your bearings in the new place.

Change your Address with the Postal Service

The Official Change of Address form is now online.

Order New Address Labels

Get these ahead of time to tell friends and businesses of your new address.  For the cheapest return label that will do the job, try a sheet of these address labels at 100 for $1.

Notify Businesses of Your New Address

This used to be one of the most tedious tasks, but now most companies have a way for you to change your address online.  However, it can be hard to remember all the various entities you deal with.  Here is a list to help jog your memory:

• Newspapers, magazines
• Banks, investment firms, credit cards
• Old job, old school
• Frequent flyer programs
• Insurance (life, health, car, property)
• Doctor’s offices (especially if bills might be pending)
• Charities you support
• IRS (print out a form online)

If you have a list of all your computer login names and passwords, this would be a good way to remember all the companies you deal with.

Set Up Newspaper Delivery and Cable (or Not)

Since we are practically a TV-free household, we don’t sign up for cable when we move to a new place, but I do make sure a paper is delivered the first morning we move in.

For basic TV needs, we can usually get some kind of reception without paying for cable, and that works out just fine for us. (And this year, with no reception for our only TV in the basement, we went entirely without TV. The kids occasionally watch DVDs, but I’m loving that we find other ways to entertain ourselves.)

Register to Vote and Establish Residency

Sometimes to enroll in a school or to take advantage of other public services, you need a few documents to prove you really live there.

A voter registration card is usually among the accepted forms of proof of residency.  Check with your state’s Board of Elections for procedures by searching online for your state and the words “voter registration.”

Deal with the Department of Motor Vehicles

I know it’s painful, but if you can get anything done ahead of time, it’s gotta beat standing in line.

Find out what you need to do to register your car in the new state, county or city.  Some DMVs even offer a new resident ready pack.

Set Up New Utilities (and Cancel Old)

Once you know your moving dates, tell your old utility companies when you’ll be leaving and start setting up service in your new place.  If you can and want to stay with the same company, some national companies (like Verizon) can make the transfer pretty seamless.

Think about:

• Electricity
• Gas
• Phone (land and cell)
• Cable
• Internet (See my article at Parentables about telecom bundling)
• Water

Reconfirm Movers and Prepare Contact Info and Payment

When you reconfirm your move date, make sure the movers have ALL your details: old and new addresses and more than one contact phone number.

If a cashier’s check or money order is required for payment, get that ready, plus cash for tips.  (Ten percent of the total fee is considered standard.)  Make sure your checkbook is among the items that don’t get packed.

Pick up some Gatorade for moving day:  we were amazed at how much the movers will happily guzzle down!

Arrange for a Move-Out and Move-In Clean

Here is another instance of a luxury you might want to make room to afford.

Seriously consider hiring a cleaning service to clean your old house when you leave and your new house before you get there.  Even if you are not doing any heavy lifting, moving is incredibly draining. Remember it’s up there in the top 10 most stressful events in life!

Even if you are a clean freak, you’d be shocked at how much guck and dust accumulates under and behind things in your own house.

Ditto for the other end.  If time and energy are tight, consider paying for a move-in clean.

Arrange Travel and Accommodations

Where to stay the night when everything you own is locked in a truck?  If you don’t have a comfortable friend’s house to stay in, think about splurging on a motel. Since our next move is also long-distance, we’ve had to stay in hotels while house-hunting, and I recommend hotels.com as a way to find and book hotels.

We thought we’d camp out in sleeping bags in our house the night after the movers left, but that was before we saw what our house would look like.  To quote my husband:  “Empty, dirty, and full of flies.”

What would you include on your family’s moving checklist?

This article is the last part in a series about moving:
Part 1 | 14 Tips for Finding the Best Neighborhood
Part 2 | How to Find a Quality House to Rent
Part 3 | Find a Low-Cost Mover without Getting Scammed
Part 4 | How to Plan, Purge, and Pack for Your Next Move

Photo credits: keys, motel, newspaper.

This article is the third part in a series about moving:
Part 1 | 14 Tips for Finding the Best Neighborhood
Part 2 | How to Find a Quality House to Rent
Part 4 | How to Plan, Purge, and Pack for Your Next Move
Part 5 | The Ultimate Moving Checklist for Families

The problem with trying to save money on relocating is that you could fall into the hands of a cheap but unethical mover.  Ever since the moving industry was de-regulated in 1995, and federal oversight was reduced, it’s been easier for fly-by-night companies to get into the business and sometimes round up customers in sketchy ways.

For example, one tactic is to quote you a temptingly low price.  Once the movers get your stuff onto the truck and weighed at an off-site center, they tell you that the move is actually going to cost much more.  When I was moving from apartment to apartment in New York City one time, I ended up paying three times as much as the lady on the phone told me the move would cost.

I didn’t put up much of a fight, but they say that if you don’t agree to pay, the movers might refuse to deliver your things or threaten to sell them to make up for the loss in income.

One way to begin finding a trustworthy mover is to ask friends, online email groups, or a local real estate agent for recommendations.  I’ll talk more about red flags for scams later, but first here is a break-down of various ways to approach your move.

Large Moving Companies

The plus side of franchised moving companies like United, Allied, and Mayflower are that they are established, have a reputable organization to back them up, and are not likely to spring any surprises on you.  On the minus side, the costs will be higher than alternative or smaller movers.

Unless you have a huge house with tons of furniture, another disadvantage of large companies is that they will need to combine your stuff with others to fill the kind of tractor-trailer trucks that make up their fleet.

Not that there’s anything wrong with sharing.  The problem is that, because they have to load and unload several other houses, large companies can usually only give you an estimated delivery window of 2 days to 2 weeks!

If you don’t have a comfortable place to stay while you are waiting, this situation could be a logistical nightmare. It’s the reason I have not gone with a large company since I’ve had a family (thus less flexibility and more people to get settled).

Do-It-Yourself

The cheapest method — as with all things in life — is self-serve.  I have rented many a U-Haul in my day, and we even leased a bucket of bolts for our first move as a family.

The reason was partly financial, but also because of immediacy of delivery.  It’s just not so easy anymore to couch surf while your stuff is moseying across the country (as you will often have to do if you go with a large company).

The most well-known do-it-yourself moving companies are U-Haul, Budget and Penske.  (Penske gets the highest ratings of the three on epinions.com.)

Loading and Unloading Help

Don’t have any brawny friends you can ply with pizza and beer?  A still very economical solution is to rent and drive the truck yourself, but hire someone to do the heavy lifting.

To move our stuff from storage to the Budget truck we rented for our first family move, we called a locally owned moving company and asked how much they’d charge to simply load up our truck.

It worked out fine, but we were much happier with the professional service on the other end, when we hired unloading help through eMove.com.  The guys arrived on time, did their job extremely carefully, and there were no hidden charges.

eMove.com provides a whole online database of moving helpers with tons of consumer ratings to help you find safe and reliable help.  Quotes appear instantly online, including the number of workers and the estimated time to complete the job.  eMove.com can also find people to help you pack and unpack, clean, or drive.

You Load, They Drive

Driving a run-down truck full of heavy furniture across the country can be harrowing.  Just ask my dad.  Another budget-friendly option is to hire someone to do the driving part.

Perhaps the most well-known company in this category is ABF U-Pack Moving.  In this scenario, the moving company drops off a storage pod or trailer in front of your house or in your driveway.  You pack it up, and then they deliver it for you.  Watchdog website MovingScam.com also endorses United Mayflower Container Services.  Check the MovingScam website for discounts on some of these movers.

Small- to Mid-Size Moving Companies

This is the road we took with our move from Arlington, Virginia to New York City.  We found a New York-based company by consulting the moving watchdog website, MovingScam.com.  The company, All Star Moving, was only one of three companies endorsed by MovingScam.com at the time (now the website has a longer list of small- to mid-sized companies).

All Star received only positive ratings from people on that website, and I found similarly glowing reports in other review sites.  Perhaps most importantly, the company had small trucks available, one of which would be dedicated to our stuff only, which meant delivery the next day.

The cherry on top was that they came in much lower in price than anyone else.  (And the fee was not an estimate, but a guarantee — there were absolutely no extra charges added on at the last minute).

Watch Out for These Warning Signs

Years after my sketchy high-priced New York move, I was back in the city, this time with my family, and my friend Elizabeth was shopping around for movers to Pittsburgh.  She called several small companies who never made a home visit to give an estimate.  Elizabeth explained:

They’d stay on the phone with you, do an inventory from your memory of your things, then ‘take off for this’ and ‘deduct for that,’ reaching a price that was ‘in your price range.’  That was their first question.

I don’t mind getting a bargain, but it started to feel like these companies were a bit desperate (which did make me feel bad, I really like to help people out).  But this uneasy feeling, coupled with a few web searches for user reviews and the Better Business Bureau website ratings, showed that these companies — while small, cheap, and very keen for our business — were not the most reliable to deal with.

Elizabeth and her family ended up choosing a company called Flat Rate, which gave them an up-front all-inclusive price — not an estimate.  Even though the price was $1000 over the lowest quote, they liked the fact that the company guaranteed the price and they felt they could trust them to deliver on time (a common complaint about fly-by-night companies).

The extra money goes “a long way in the peace of mind category,” says Elizabeth.  And that’s saying a lot for a mother of two little kids in a new city, who will have to deal with it all if it goes awry.”

To avoid getting cheated, follow these tips for finding a reputable mover:

• Try to get an all-inclusive price, not an estimate, that will be free of hidden charges and last-minute fees
• Beware of companies that ask your budget straight off and tailor their estimate accordingly
• Do not rely on telephone quotes:  an estimator should come to your house and evaluate your stuff
• A mover should get mainly positive consumer ratings at places like Epinions.com or MovingScam.com
• Go with a company that has been around for many years
• Make sure there are no complaints lodged against the company at the Better Business Bureau

For more tips, see How to Find a Reputable Mover.

Get Estimates

Once you have identified a few companies that fit your bill, it’s time to ask them to come to your house, take a look at your stuff, and give you a cost estimate.

In Who Will You Trust To Drive Off With Everything You Own?, epinions.com advises negotiating.  Companies will often have different corporate and personal rates, so make sure you tell them if you are paying for the move yourself.  Ask if they have any discounts or specials running at the time. epinions advises,

Line up at least 3 companies to come to your house for a quote (free). Save your favorite company for last because they will usually price-match or match weight. Leave the previous estimator’s paperwork where they will see it. When they ask you about it ask them why their service is better. Estimators expect you to check out other services. You will also have a chance to negotiate when they call to see what you have decided.

Ask when you need to give them a definite answer.  Even if you are moving in high season (summer), often six weeks of lead time is all you need to reserve a mover.

Budget-Friendly Boxes and Moving Supplies

The cheapest and least wasteful way to find sturdy moving boxes is to check Craigslist or Freecycle for people getting rid of theirs.  If you don’t see any offers, put in your own request for moving boxes.  People are usually happy to see their old boxes get some good use again.

For regular boxes, which might not be as strong but will probably do the job, you can stalk the neighborhood on recycling day or go dumpster diving at the county recycling center (guilty!).

Here are nine more places to find free boxes (a post I wrote for Parentables).

Of course do-it-yourself companies like U-Haul and Budget sell moving supplies (that cost less than office stores), but to save more and have them delivered to your house, try UBoxes, endorsed by MovingScam.com, or BoxesDelivered.com, recommended by Real Simple magazine.

The next and final installment in this moving series is a moving checklist that will help you tie up loose ends and keep your life chugging along smoothly, even while relocating your family and everything you own.

This article is the third part in a series about moving:
Part 1 | 14 Tips for Finding the Best Neighborhood
Part 2 | How to Find a Quality House to Rent
Part 4 | How to Plan, Purge, and Pack for Your Next Move
Part 5 | The Ultimate Moving Checklist for Families

Probably the most dramatic way to slash your cell phone costs is to switch to a pay-as-you-go plan and use your mobile phone only for emergencies.  This is my tactic, but I know it’s not an option for most people who work outside the home.  So why not check to see if you can get an employee or student discount on your current plan?

Companies like Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile offer discounts —- as high as 25% off —- to thousands of corporations, government agencies, and schools.

To cash in on the discount, all you need to do is to enter your employer-issued email address into the phone company’s website. If your email address matches up with the phone company’s list of qualified businesses, you’re in the money.

Tip: Many universities offer free email addresses to their students and alumni.

Almost Too Good to Be True

We were chugging along paying full price for my husband’s Verizon cell phone service until I revisited a Money magazine article — 35 Minutes to Riches — that I had clipped three years ago. (Talk about procrastination!)

Buried among the 47 quick tips was a blurb on employee cell phone discounts that caught my eye. I went to verizonwireless/getdiscount and typed in my hubby’s work email address. Within seconds he received a congratulatory email with instructions on how to sign up for a 19% discount!

It’s Up to You to Claim the Discount

My husband has been working at this hospital for a year and a half, but we were unaware of the cell phone benefit. Informational flyers can get buried in the mountains of paperwork you receive when starting a new job. And because phone companies are not motivated to publicize these offers, it’s up to us to find out about the programs and claim the discount.

Just for fun, I typed hubbie’s email address into the AT&T and Sprint sites. Even though he doesn’t have service with these carriers, he would have gotten a 23% Sprint discount, a 13% Nextel discount, as well as an AT&T discount.

Since T-Mobile requires a T-mobile phone number to start investigating special offers, I wasn’t able to check that one out. But according to their site, if your company qualifies, you can request a corporate discount of up to 15%.

Start Saving Money Now

To find out if your employer or school has been offered mobile phone discounts, here’s where to start clicking — and cashing in:

Verizon

AT&T

Sprint

T-Mobile

Photo credit

Carbs have a bad rap these days. All those protein-pushing fads like the Atkins and South Beach diets have taken their toll on how we see bread and pasta.

A believer (not always a doer) of “all things in moderation,” I eat my share of carbohydrates like pasta, rice and wheat. (Do I have a choice with a no-meal-is-complete-without-bread Italian husband?)

So when I was invited by the Mom Bloggers Club to last week’s Bread Art Project event, I happily agreed.

The Bread Art Project is a team effort to fight childhood hunger in America sponsored by Share Our Strength, the Grain Foods Foundation, and Food Network host Melissa d’Arabian.

I was shocked to find out that in our land of plenty nearly 17 million children –- almost one in four –- struggle with hunger.

At the event, the vivacious TV host and mother of four, Melissa d’Arabian, talked about her own struggles, growing up in the South with a single mother who had a hard time putting food on the table.

She told us about a morning when their refrigerator broke and her mom broke down in tears, wondering how she could replace the food she had worked so hard to get in there.

A repairman, en route to a family vacation with kids hanging out of the car, came to their rescue charging either little or nothing for his service.  Similarly a school administrator helped Melissa get free lunches, and even a job in the cafeteria, ladling peaches in syrup and serving grilled cheese triangles.

d’Arabian’s Budget-Friendly Ways to Prepare Grain Foods

• My kids like sandwiches without crusts, so I am constantly cutting them off sliced bread. Instead of throwing them away, I save them in resealable freezer bags. I turn them into “dippers” which my kids use for dunking in jam (crusts are apparently completely delicious, just not on a sandwich when you are five), or I use the crusts to make fresh and fluffy bread crumbs. And the color of the crust makes for nice browning when I cook with the bread crumbs.

• Don’t overlook bread as a base for sweet snacks! My husband is French and he grew up eating bread and chocolate together. Try it — it’s a delicious dessert or snack. Just spread a baguette with a smear of butter and add a small piece of chocolate. Or, make an “apple pie sandwich” by spreading a slice of sandwich bread with a bit of butter and filling it with sliced apples.

• For parties, go to the day-old bread rack and stock up on a bunch of bread — the more varied the better! If it is not sliced already, slice the bread thinly and brush olive oil on all the exposed cut edges. Grill, roast or sauté the bread until golden and serve in a large basket with dips, spreads, grilled veggies, cheeses, garlic-infused olive oil or even simply alone. It’s a festive and inexpensive side item to feed a crowd, it looks beautiful, and it goes with everything! Plus, an interesting bread basket can double as table décor.

• Keep different varieties of pasta in your pantry for weeknight meals that are as nutritious as they are quick. Your weeknight strategy: get the pasta started and while it’s cooking, pull out a large sautépan. Add a little olive oil and then check your crisper drawer, freezer and pantry for aromatics, herbs, veggies or meats to sauté in the olive oil. You can always go simple with just minced garlic, red pepper flakes and some slivers of broccoli, for instance. Once the pasta is cooked, toss it into your sauté pan, adding a little of the pasta water and some parmesan cheese to make a light sauce.

• Check the bulk aisle for more unusual grains to try when they go on sale. Quinoa is uber-hip right now. It is a complete protein and the crunchy, nutty taste is crave-worthy. In addition to rice, mix things up by trying bulgur, millet or couscous.

Easy, Low-Cost Recipes from Melissa d’Arabian

BLT Tartlets

These bacon, lettuce & tomato tartlets were my favorites at the Bread Art luncheon.  Crispy yet creamy with no utensils needed, they would be perfect for party appetizers or as a potluck dish.

Note: A low-mess way of cooking a few slices of bacon, as called for in this recipe, is to sandwich the bacon between paper towels on a plate and pop them in the microwave until crispy.

Serves 4

Cook Time:
15 Minutes

• 8 slices white bread
• 3 T light cream cheese, softened
• 1 T light mayonnaise
• 1 t garlic powder
• 1 t dried oregano
• 2 medium tomatoes, chopped and lightly salted
• 4 slices bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled
• 3/4 cup red or green leaf lettuce, chiffonade (roll and cut into ribbon-like strips)
• Salt and pepper
• Olive oil for drizzling

1. Heat oven to 375°. Remove crusts from bread and, using a large spoon, gently press the slices of bread down flat until thin and almost doughy. Brush with olive oil on both sides. Place the slices in the muffin tin, pressing them into the muffin shape, to create a tartlet shell. Bake for 12-13 minutes, or until golden and crusty.
2. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, use a fork to mix the cream cheese, garlic powder, mayonnaise and oregano with salt and pepper until smooth and creamy.
3. Once the bread is golden, remove the shells and place them on a cooling rack to assemble. To make the tartlets, place a teaspoon of the cream cheese mixture on the bottom, followed by the bacon, tomatoes and the lettuce. Top with salt and pepper and a drizzle of olive oil.

Tuna Bread Salad

In honor of bread and the Grain Foods Foundation, here is a recipe from Melissa’s Food Network show, Ten Dollar Dinners.

Invented to make use of day-old bread, bread salad comes from a frugal Italian tradition.  Tuna adds protein to this recipe, giving it zip and a hefty lift into the one-dish meal category.  (Gotta love that.)

This salad will taste infinitely better if you use Italian-style canned tuna. No need to splurge on imported brands:  Cento and Starkist’s Genova Tonno brand are excellent and easy to find in the supermarket.  (See my 3 Super Fast Pasta Sauces Kids Love for another way to use this tasty tuna.)

Serves 4

Prep Time: 15 min
Level: Easy

• 1 cup halved cherry tomatoes
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup cooked great Northern white beans
• 1 (5 to 6-ounce) can light tuna, packed in oil, drained (see note, above)
• 1 shallot, thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup sliced pitted kalamata olives
• 1/2 long baguette, cut into cubes (slightly stale works great)
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh basil leaves (or oregano)

1. In medium serving bowl, add the tomatoes and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Let sit for 10 minutes before adding the beans, tuna, shallots and olives. Just before serving, mix in the bread cubes and combine gently.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the mustard, vinegar and salt and pepper, to taste. Drizzle in the oil, whisking to blend. Pour over the salad just before serving. Add the basil and toss. Taste for seasoning before serving.

For more budget-friendly recipes and video tips on saving at the supermarket, see Ten Dollar Dinners with Melissa d’Arabian.

As a frugal, earth-conscious and hydrated mama, I had been re-filling plastic water bottles instead of buying new ones.  But when I started writing this article for Buttoned Up, I re-evaluated my choices.

Read what I found out and a review of helpful alternatives in the full article.

Where do you stand in the disposable water bottle quandary?

In Part 1 of How to Start a Babysitting Co-op, I talked about defining the boundaries of your group, picking a co-leader and a name, deciding who can join, and selecting your system of tracking points.

Once you’ve figured out some of these nuts and bolts, you can move on to publicizing your group and choosing an important element of the glue that will hold your group together:  gatherings, meetings, and parties.

Getting the Word Out

If you are creating a group within a group as I mention in Part 1, it should be fairly easy to publicize your new babysitting co-op via established routes of communication:  email lists, newsletters, playdates, or websites.

Some groups only allow new members to be referred by current members.

If you’d like to cast the net further, here are some other ways to make your group known:

• Contact your neighborhood association or attend a meeting where you can ask for advice about how to reach community members.
• Post flyers at places parents might gather:  the local playground, community center, pool, preschool, coffee shop or toy store.
• Join a parenting email group and announce your group there. (To find one in your area or to start your own for free, see Yahoo Groups or Google Groups.)
• Ask the local preschool and elementary school for help in spreading the word.  Most have newsletters, message boards, backpack flyers or bulletin boards where you could post your announcement.

Hold an Opening Event

Invite people to find out more about your new group at a playground, church room, school gym, or someone’s living room.  This is a great way to involve interested families in the starting-up process and to begin getting comfortable with the idea of watching one another’s children.

If you don’t have set ideas or clear preferences, you may also decide to let these interested families help you decide how to organize your group — in terms of leadership, tracking points, and meetings.

How to Get the Fire Going

“A babysitting co-op is like a campfire.  Sometimes you have to blow a bit to get it started,” says Arlington MOMS club president, Allegra Jabo, who helped me start a babysitting co-op within our co-operative preschool.  For a brand-new co-op, in other words, it can help get things moving when a few core members start requesting and filling sits right away.

If the co-op concept is new to many of your members, they might need some encouragement to jump in and give it a try.  If they see others taking the plunge and being active, it will help warm everyone up.

Organize Regular Gatherings

Another great way of keeping the fire going in a babysitting co-op is creating lots of ways for members to meet and get comfortable with each other.

Getting together on a regular basis will also help maintain a sense of cohesiveness in your group.  It’s natural for members to come and go:  people move, kids age out, new people join.  This constantly-changing nature of babysitting co-ops makes face-to-face meetings even more important.

There are several ways I’ve seen this done, and the creative solutions you can come up with are endless.

Quarterly Meetings

The neighborhood babysitting co-op I joined held four meetings per year:  April, July, October, and December. Members had to attend three out of four to stay in the co-op.  Although this rule wasn’t strictly adhered to, it sends the message that each member’s presence is important.

The summer meeting was an ice-cream social, where the coordintors brought individual ice cream cups to the local playground, and the winter meeting was a Christmas party (scheduled on the same night Santa toured the neighborhood on a fire truck).

Otherwise the meetings were usually held in the community center, and were more business-like affairs:  new members were welcomed and any issues were brought up and discussed.  It also gave members the opportunity to “pay” the two coordinators (who were compensated for their one-quarter duty with a card worth one hour of babysitting from each member).

When the community center was closed for renovations, members offered to host the meetings.  Snacks were provided (paid for by $5 annual co-op dues) and the coordinators often organized a craft activity for the kids (painting pumpkins in October, for example).

Not everyone brought their children to these weekday evening meetings, so the chaos factor was not too high, with kids often playing together in the basement or in the host-child’s room.

Quarterly Meetings plus Seasonal Playdates

Our current parent organization babysitting co-op has four required meeting/parties per year, as well as optional playdates in the warmer months.  We all live in small apartments, so we have held our meetings in one of the apartment buildings’ playrooms.

We also invite the general membership of our parents organization so that prospective members can meet us and get more information about the babysitting co-op.  Sometimes families who didn’t even know about the meeting come in to use the playroom, which becomes a great opportunity to let more people know about the group.

At these quarterly meetings (we also allow members to miss only one per year), we provide snacks and drinks (paid for by our umbrella organization) and pass out name tags.  At about the halfway point of the one-hour meeting, we gather in a circle and introduce ourselves.

We try to play a game to help us remember each other’s names.  For example, when you introduce yourself and your children you also share something personal (like a funny thing your kid did or said, or what you are looking forward to doing over the summer) and then you repeat all the names of the people who have gone before you.

Optional Playdates Only

Allegra’s babysitting co-op — which is part of a MOMS Club — neither holds meetings nor requires attendance at their monthly playdates.  However they have an ingenious way of organizing the playdates.

The coordinator randomly assigns two members to host each playdate.  As Allegra explains, “Since you might be paired with someone you don’t know, co-hosting is a great way to get to know someone.  This also shakes up the attendees to meet new people too (as opposed to the same person organizing and the same people coming each time).”

Playdates are held the third week of the month and hosts are assigned six months in advance via their Yahoo email listserv.  If a member can’t host on her assigned day, it is her responsibility to find someone to trade with. Locations and times are completely up to the hostesses.  As Allegra notes, “this keeps it from being the same time every time, since some people can do mornings, some afternoons, etc.”

In warmer months, hosts often choose playgrounds or local events as locations.  In winter, playdates are held at people’s homes, libraries, soft play areas, or at indoor events.

Even though only about 20% of babysitting co-op members attend the playdates (which are filled out with general MOMS Club members wanting to learn more about the co-op), this co-op is very active.  The success of this kind of babysitting co-op could be attributed to various factors, including:  its inclusion within a dynamic, well-organized parenting group, the frequency and variety of the playdates, and the way hosts alternate each month which makes everyone accountable and creates ever-changing opportunities for social interaction among the members.

Potluck Dinners or Picnics

Smaller co-ops will probably find this is a comfortable and casual way of getting members together every once in a while.  With only four to six member families, it’s easier to have dinners at people’s houses.  Home-based parties create a warm, family-like atmosphere, which is exactly what you want in a babysitting co-op.

My neighborhood co-op had great success with a warm weather potluck picnic as a quarterly meeting, held outdoors in a grassy field near a small playground.

Potlucks can be made even more low-maintenance when you leave it up to each family as to what to bring. I’ve found that this hands-off approach somehow manages to achieve a balance among main dishes, fruit and veggies, sides and desserts.  Paper products and drinks could be provided by pooling money or by asking each person to bring some.

Other Event Ideas that Increase Unity and Fill a Need

One babysitting co-op I was involved with used to hold an annual yard sale.  Neighborhood residents really looked forward to this sale, where they could find used toys, clothing, and equipment at great prices.

The co-op would announce the sale in the village newsletter and with signs around the neighborhood.  The sale was held on the basketball court, with items simply displayed on tables or blankets.  Co-op members were responsible for transporting, pricing, and selling their own goods.

Organizing one or two special events like this can be great for bringing co-op members together in a more involved way, as well as providing another useful way for members to save money.

Other ideas?  Babysitting co-ops would be perfect venues for a clothing swap. Around the holidays, how about a gift swap (where each person brings a few new or un-used items and gets to take a few home), a $5 Secret Santa party, or a cookie exchange?

Groups could also organize trips to go apple picking, kite flying, or ice skating.  To keep things simple, just set up a time and place to meet up, with each family providing their own admission and transportation.

More Tips for Holding Successful Events

Send Frequent Reminders

People are busy.  I’ve found that frequent communication about upcoming events increases participation.  Remind members what they need to bring, where and what time they need to be there, and give them plenty of advance notice.

Ask for RSVPs

From experience, I’ve also learned it’s important to ask for RSVPs when organizing events that you expect everyone to attend, such as quarterly meetings.  Personal contacts and accountability are key.

For example, when we simply announced the quarterly meeting/party through our online co-op manager, our turn-out was low (even though the meetings are obligatory).  In contrast, when we asked people to let us know if they were coming or not, and sent personalized follow-up emails, many more people attended.  Not only did we achieve higher attendance, but the one-to-one emails also opened up the lines of communication with inactive members.

Touch Base with Quiet Members

In the above-mentioned communications about events, sometimes inactive members confessed that the co-op was not going to work for them (usually due to time and scheduling issues), but were reluctant to say anything.  As a result, we lost some members (who were not using the co-op anyway), but we also gained some members (by announcing the meeting to the public).  Most importantly, we cemented the ties between the members in the co-op who really wanted to be involved.

Try Getting-to-Know-You Games

At our parent group co-op’s February/Valentine’s meeting, we played Pass the Present.  While each family was introducing themselves, their child was unwrapping one layer of the present.  At the end, one child unwrapped the final layer and a bunch of Hershey’s kisses flew out for all the kids to gather.

Name games and activities are perfect for babysitting co-ops.  As I mentioned before, membership groups are always in flux — people drop out, others join in — so it’s important to keep a warm feeling and sense of family among current members.  After all, we are trusting each other with our own children — you can’t get more precious than that.

In the final part 3 of this series, you can find lots of resources to download and edit for your group, such as guidelines, brochures, and sign-up sheets.