Frugal Winter Fun with Kids

Winter is upon us. The kids get cabin fever quickly when their outside free time is limited. Youre looking for some fun things to do before you all start climbing the walls. You dont need a wallet full of cash to enjoy the cold, snowy days. There are all kinds of frugal ways to enjoy the winter season together both indoors and outdoors. Here are a few frugal boredom busters to have as your 911 plan for the winter blahs.

Outdoor Fun

1. Homemade Snowman Kit
Its just not winter fun without building a snowman. Assemble a snowman kit to have handy. Your kit can contain the following: A hat, scarf, mittens, plastic carrot nose, charcoal briquettes, (place in plastic baggie) buttons, and can add two dowels or branches for arms.

2. Obstacle Courses or Winter Olympics
Jump over the mounds of snow or have relay races.

3. Snow Paint
Mix food coloring and water and add to spray water bottles and spray the snow to make colorful works of art outside.

4. Homemade Bird Feeder and Bird Identification
Need large pine cones, peanut butter, and birdseed. Add peanut butter to pine cones and roll in birdseed. Keep a journal of birds in your yard. Can borrow a field guide from your local library.

5. Snow Ice Cream
Mixing together a quart of milk, an egg, 1 cup sugar, teaspoon salt, and 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract in a pan. Cook on stove top until mixtures thicken and cool to room temperature. Pour this mixture over fresh snow.

Or

3 cups loose clean snow
2 Tablespoons milk
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Mix all the ingredients.

6. Snow Golf
Use a tin can buried in the snow for the holes or just carve out holes in the snow.

7. Winter Photography
Take pictures of nature. Icicles, birds, trees, etc.

8. Identify Tracks in the Snow
Check out a book from your local library on animal tracks.

Indoor Fun

1. Paper Snowflakes
http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/dstredulinsky/links.html

2. Paper Airplanes
http://www.bestpaperairplanes.com/

3. Make a Snow Gauge
Mark inch lines on a coffee can or plastic liter bottle with the top cut off and setting it outside to catch snow in.

4. Mister Grass Head
Materials Needed:
nylon knee stocking
Grass Seeds
Potting Soil
Baby Food Jar
Wiggle Eyes or glass paint/markers

Using hosiery, place some grass seeds in the toe which is where you want the grass to grow. The hosiery is the head and the excess will be placed in the baby food jar to soak up water. The toe of the hose is the head and the grass will look like hair as it grows. The baby food jar is the body. Add some potting soil in the end of the hosiery on top of the seeds. Make sure the hosiery of seeds and soil is bigger than the opening of the baby food jar.

Tie a knot in the hosiery to keep the seeds and soil in. Completely soak the soil/seed ball. Place the hosiery in a baby food jar filled with water making sure the head is above the mouth of the jar. Decorate the jar to look like Mister Grass Heads clothes and add a face onto the head.

5. Smores
Indoor Smores
1/3 Cup light corn syrup
1 Tablespoon. butter
1 (12 oz.) package chocolate chips
4 cups honey graham cereal
1 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows

Bring corn syrup and butter to boil. Lower heat and add chocolate. Stir until chocolate melts. Add cereal and marshmallows and stir. Put in square pan, covered with foil. Let set and cut into bars.

6. Shadow Drawing
Take brown grocery bags and tape together until you have enough paper to be the same size as your child. Have your child lie down on the paper bags and trace your childs outline. Your child can then color her shadow drawing to look anyway she wants.

7. Homemade Toys
Decorate a paper towel tube. Paper punch a hole about an inch from the end. Now tie a mason jar ring to a piece of string about one foot long. Attach and tie the loose end of the string through the hole in the cardboard tube. Hold the tube and flip the ring up and try to catch it onto the tube.

Or

Try taking a plastic, Styrofoam, or paper cup and poking a small hole in the bottom, running a piece of yarn through and tying it securely in place and adding a large button on the loose end. Catch the button in the cup.

8. Bubbles in the Bathtub
How fun to blow bubbles indoors. Here are some homemade recipes: http://www.bubbleblowers.com/homemade.html

9. Homemade Bowling
Use empty water bottles or coffee creamer containers as the pins and find a spare ball to roll.

10. Indoor Snowball Fight
Wad up newspaper balls and have a snowball war inside.

11. Homemade Hot Cocoa
Nothing beats the winter chills away after a day of snow fun outdoors than hot cocoa. Make your own with this recipe.
2 Cups nonfat dry milk
1 Cup white sugar
1/2 Cup cocoa
1/2 Cup non-dairy creamer
1 pinch of salt
Miniature marshmallows

Combine ingredients and mix well. Store in an airtight container. Add 4 tablespoons of mix to a mug and add boiling water. Stir.

12. Window Fun
Crayola Window Writers are a product that writes and easily washes off of windows. Can also purchase spray snow for windows.

Sara Noel is a freelance writer and the Editor/Publisher of http://www.FrugalVillage.com

http://www.HomesteadGarden.com and http://www.Homekeeping101.com Visit these sites for information on getting back to basics through frugality, gardening, organizing, home keeping, lost arts, simplicity, homesteading, and natural family living.

Learning How To Play Backgammon Has Never Been Easier

Backgammon could stake a good case for being our oldest known board game with a history going back at least five thousand years. The simplicity of the game and hence the ease in which the backgammon rules can be learned, is a key factor in the games continual popularity. Although the backgammon game has developed a number of variants in different regions around the world, the various versions share sufficient in common to allow players who learn how to play backgammon in one country, to be soon able to pick up the rules of the game in another part of the world. Another important factor to take into account is the impact of backgammon gambling. Arguably even more than playing for fun, the draw of backgammon gambling has brought in many new recruits to the game over the centuries and provided motivation for learning the rules well.

When the game first made its appearance on the scene of human leisure, one person taught another how to play by word of mouth, and by observing how experienced players play backgammon. For most of the history of the game this will have been the way new players were inducted. The early players might also have been taught how to make their own backgammon set. This would not have been such a difficult task since all the materials needed could be found locally, such as stones or pieces of pottery for the pieces, and a wooden board into which the divisions of the backgammon board can be carved. The first codification of the backgammon rules was not published until 1743, and so printed materials for learning the game were absent. However, given the fact that most of the worlds population was illiterate, backgammon players included, the lack of books was not an issue.

With the spread of literacy over the last 150 years and the increasing amount of leisure time, new possibilities for learning backgammon opened up. Besides the old method of sons learning from fathers, or learning by watching other players, people began to write books about backgammon. In addition, clubs at school and at meeting places such as popular cafes, starting to appear. These provided many new opportunities for becoming acquainted with the game and learning its strategy.

Today, the introduction of backgammon software for playing backgammon online harnesses the latest technology to bring the game to a new audience, as well as broadening the playing possibilities for experienced players. Online backgammon sites provide full information on the rules of the game, and they also offer the chance of gaining valuable playing experience against a sophisticated backgammon computer. Wherever you are located, as long as you have access to the Internet, you can login to one of these backgammon sites and in a short while progress from a novice to an experienced player. There has never been a time in history when it has been easier to learn how to play backgammon.

Online backgammon authority Gene Marshall is commissioned by a few different top internet backgammon web sites. He specializes in articles about backgammon game download and backgammon gaming. More material and writings published by Gene Marshall on the theme of backgammon can be found on line.

Cricket Statistics Reveal Position Of Player, Team And Matches

Statistics are numerical and factual analysis of a matter. It implies the collection of data of a particular subject. Statistics of almost all matters are maintained to get a clear picture of subject. When it is related with cricket, it is called cricket statistics. Cricket statistics give details of each and every facets of cricket. Statistics are in fact a very important aspect of cricket. It enables fan to be acquainted with the going ons and compare the status of one player with the others. Cricket statistics tell fans the number of matches being played in a particular series, who has won how many matches, which players performance has been wonderful and in this regard who is close to lift the title of man of series etc.

Cricket statistics are detailed report of matches played by any player or team, which contains numerical calculation of a series or matches. It includes report card of player and team too. It is helpful in giving clear picture of a series. In fact, cricket statistics help expert to predict performance of a player numerically. The statistics for test match, one-day match, individual player and entire series are maintained separately. It determines the best performance of individual player and a whole team.

Fans are very curious to know cricket statistics as it helps him to join any debate or discussion. So, it becomes very important for a fan to keep a record of cricket. Cricket fans all over the world are crazy to catch the glimpse of a match that is being played anywhere. The importance of cricket statistics are not essential only for a fan who preserve it for knowledge but essential for cricket experts, commentators, and most important for letting fan know the comparison of previous records with the present ones.

Cricket statistics help team to make strategy to bring it on winning position. Team can plan out to make some changes to face the opposing team. Cricket statistics tell the players and teams position and rank. The previous knowledge of figures help the team and player not to repeat the fault made in earlier match. Moreover, cricket statistics develop healthy competition among cricket players and they can excel through it.

Cricket statistics make a player realize his fault and gives a chance to improve their future performances. It is a depiction of declining and rising graph of player and teams rank Cricket statistics are very important for many aspects. There are various field in cricket in which statistics are maintained. As in batting, statistics reveal the position and strike rate of a batsman, run rate and also the overall performance. Similarly, it is of high value in respect of bowling, fielding and several other facets of cricket.

Cricket statistics help cricket board to analyze their selection procedure. It also helps in deciding the replacement of player in a team for forth coming match. One will not be able to know the rank of player or team without cricket statistics. The performance of player or team is subject of it as how the team or a player is performing and how much his game is improved or worsened. Statistics keep changing with every demonstration of performances.

Ella Wilson is a cricket fanatic. She simply loves the game and tries to catch live action no matter where she is.At Stickiewicket she works on Online cricket statistics,world cup schedule,live cricket match and cricket world cup records among other things.You can see her works at http://www.stickiewicket.com

Sell Your Structured Settlements - Why, When and How!

With a structured settlement, you do not simply get money at a regular interval to cover your basic living costs and other expenses like medical costs; you also have the option to sell the right at any point of time to get a lump sum amount to meet up sudden needs.

At the same time, you can also settle for periodic payment options to cover occasional costs like education, marriage if you have other means to support you in regular life. In reality, a structured settlement offers you enough flexibility to plan your income depending on your financial conditions.

To add to this, the amount you receive on a regular interval is completely free of federal or state tax. Whereas if you had taken a lump sum amount and invested them otherwise to earn a monthly income, you would have ended up in paying a big part of your earning as tax. For the last comment, we assume that the concerned person have invested the amount wisely. These are reasons enough that people in general love to get a secured structured settlement instead of a onetime lump sum amount.

Nevertheless, here comes the crux why, when and how do you sell your settlement in an urgent need! Say, you settled with your company for a monthly coverage option but all of a sudden, you got yourself deep in soup and needed some liquid cash urgently. What would you do if you do not have any other option to support yourself with a lump sum amount! If this is not enough, you may find some people who sell their settlement to get lump sum amount to start their own business or to build their portfolio. If there is no option left, you can sell the right of your structured settlement and Government allows you the provision to do so.

Many companies purchase the structured settlement rights at a discount price. The amount you can get depends on your attorneys negotiation skills and market reputation of your previous employer and other conditions. Often the settlement purchaser demand for a higher discount rate not only to cover all the risks involved in the process but also to draw a bigger profit margin. There is a common misconception that you must sell all the annuities at one go. However, here you have all the flexibilities to sell your annuities partially and thus you can sell only as much as needed to overcome the immediate expenditure. The rest can be left, as it is, to cover your regular expenditure. The first thing you need to do is to hire a professional financial advisor and/or an attorney to get the best

deal for you. An attorney can guide you further through the legal procedures like court oversight, consumer protection statutes and legal approvals for selling structured settlements.

Robert W. Hunt is a financial advisor by profession. For more information on structured settlements, he recommends you to visit http://www.structuredsettlements.bz

Internet Lead Generation For Insurance Agents

Insurance agents have two sources of leads when it comes to Internet lead generation. An agent can buy leads from an Internet lead generation company, or they can build a lead generation web site and create their own leads.

Buying Leads

It's important to buy leads from a company that has experience generating Internet insurance leads. New Internet lead generation companies have a tendency to rely upon questionable marketing tactics, and this can affect the quality of your leads.

Internet insurance leads can range from $5-$30 each, depending on what kind of lead it is (life insurance, annuity, auto, etc.), and whether it's an exclusive lead or not. An agent should verify if the leads are exclusive because some lead generation companies sell the same leads to multiple agents.

Also, legitimate Internet lead generation companies will credit you back for bad leads. You should be able to call into the lead generation company and speak with a service representative on the phone in case you need to discuss a bad lead so that you can get credited for it.

Building a Lead Generation Web Site

There is a good opportunity for agents to build a quality lead generation web site of their own. An agent can create a web site in their local market and build pages based upon what people are typing into the search engines. For example, if an agent lives in California, he/she can research keywords like insurance, and California, as well as specific towns or counties in his/her area (keywords is a term used to describe what people are typing into the search engines). So if an agent discovers that people are searching for California insurance broker, and San Francisco insurance agents, he/she can create one page for each of these keyword phrases.

As an agent digs deeper into their keyword research, they may uncover quite a few keywords and keyword phrases. But one page is not going to do it. You need a combination of dozens of pages because each page will get a few searches per month, and this can add up. Plus the more pages you build, the better chance you have of getting ranked in the search engines. Web sites with multiple pages of content are called content based web sites.

The key to success in building a successful content based web site is to focus on quality content first. The reason that content is important is because you don't want your web site to look like you're trying to sell something. You want to build pages that relay good quality information in order to build trust with your prospect.

The second mechanism that is needed is an opt-in lead generation system. For example, offer a free quality newsletter, and/or a free course that your prospect can subscribe to via an autoresponder (an autoresponder is a simple web based marketing tool that automatically sends information to people who opt-in for your information). This way, you capture names and e-mail addresses (as well as mailing addresses) for your Internet direct marketing and direct mail efforts. But if you do not have quality content and you ask for someone's e-mail address or mailing address to sign up for your newsletter or auto responder, you may not get good results.

Fortunately, the time you spend building this web site can pay off because big commissions can arise from just one lead, paying for the time and money you have invested.

An alternative to the content based web site is a landing page web site. A landing page is basically a one-page web site and its main goal is to get the prospect to subscribe to a free report, mini-course, or newsletter. Instead of relying on your content to build credibility and trust, you will have to rely upon your copywriting ability to get your prospect to give up their contact information on your landing page.

A landing page web site usually does not get good placement in the search engines, so in order to generate Internet insurance leads, an agent will have to rely on pay per click advertising (where you pay for traffic to your web site), and other advertising mediums.

An insurance agent can build a significant clientele buying leads from reputable insurance lead generation companies and building a quality web site. All it takes is a little bit of due diligence and patience.

Copyright 2006 Brian Maroevich

Brian Maroevich is an Internet marketing entrepreneur and has written courses on lead generation and marketing for insurance agents, financial planners, and small businesses. You can read Brian's articles for free at http://www.insurance-leads-advisor.com