Traveling to New York on vacation – with the whole family – doesn’t have to cost a fortune. With some planning, there are many things you can do for free.

The hotels in downtown Manhattan tend to be, by their very nature, tend to be extravagant and fun to browse compared to the average hotel (You can see what we mean by checking out the New York hotels listings on Orbitz).

Toys R Us on Broadway cannot be missed. It’s not just any Toys R Us store, there’s a ferris wheel in the store that kids can ride for free! And Ray’s Pizza? Always packed but always a hit with the kids with every slice.

That being said, there is so many more attractions to visit while in New York that you simply must experience for yourself and through the eyes of your children.

Below are a few of our favorite places to bring the kids in no particular order.

Bronx Zoo

The Bronx Zoo is a great place for kids of all ages. The zoo contains more than 4,000 animals, the bug carousel, camel rides and more; although, additional charges may apply. There’s also Prospect Zoo and Queens Zoo but we are partial to the Bronx Zoo.

New York Aquarium

Jump on the subway to Coney Island and enjoy a day at the New York Aquarium. It’s rainy day friendly and boasts more than 10,000 species of marine life which is great fun for you and your toddler. During your visit, don’t forget to check out the Planet Earth: Shallow Seas, 4-D show.

PuppetWorks

Located on Sixth Ave. in Brooklyn, PuppetWorks caters to children ages 3 and up. They perform classic fairy tales such as Aladdin and Cinderella.

Big Apple Circus

Acrobats, clowns, horse and more! This one-ring circus is two hours and 15 minutes long and runs from October through January at Lincoln Center and May 14 through 30th in Cunningham Park in Fresh Meadows.

Rockefeller Center

From soaring views of Top of the Rock to a backstage pass at NBC Studios, outdoor gardens and historic buildings and more. This is a must see, particularly if you are visiting during the holiday season. They host the biggest Christmas trees in the area.

New York City Fire Museum

Little ones enamored with firemen and fire trucks will love visiting the New York City Fire Museum, which houses one of the nation’s most prominent collections of fire related art and artifacts from the present back to the late 18th Century.

World of Disney

Like Toys R Us, World of Disney is more than a store. Located in Times Square it houses several exhibits and activities for the kids which also includes a chance to meet some of the Disney characters. It’s worth the visit.

A Slice of Brooklyn Pizza Tour

You can’t visit New York and not have pizza! Adding in a tour only makes your pizza experience that much better. Learn the history of pizza, visit locations from movies, Coney Island’s landmark amusement park and boardwalk and more. While on tour you also get to sample their thin-crust pizza and Sicilian style pizza.

Empire State Building

Kids of all ages will get dizzy with delight at the views atop the Empire State Building, which also has the New York Skyride. Parents will enjoy it just the same, even if they’ve already been there.

If you have time, also try to squeeze in Books of Wonder, NikeTown and Dylan’s Candy Bar, for a Willy Wonka experience.

And there you have it, some of our favorite New York City attractions for the whole family! And most of them are affordable which is always nice when going on vacation.

Rae is a mom of four, a work from home mom and owner of various small niche websites, including ApronAddicts.com which highlights the best in women’s aprons and gives tons of ideas on simple recipes, including slow carb recipes.

For moms, entire days can be spent trying to keep kids entertained in order to finish simple tasks like washing the dishes, doing laundry, or cooking meals, in a timely manner. Outside of the home, waiting for a dinner table at a restaurant or trying on clothes can be excruciating with bored and fussy children.

Luckily, Android phones and thousands of apps available in the Android Market can be a great distraction for kids, while helping them learn and keeping them creatively engaged.

Kids Finger Paint

The Kids Finger Paint app unlocks the endless creativity of your child with no mess or wasted paper. Kids can use their finger to draw and paint on colorful, seasonal backgrounds or simply on a plain white screen.

Designed with young children in mind, Kids Finger Paint lets kids choose their own background, brush size, and paint color from a color wheel, and comes with a “back” key to undo mistakes. Shaking the phone clears the screen so kids can start over with a new picture, and when the artwork is finished, it can be saved to the gallery and easily shared with friends and family via email and Facebook.

This is a particularly great app because there’s no limit to the fun. As long as your child has an imagination, Kids Finger Paint is in style.

iStoryBooks

The iStoryBooks Android apps are the next generation of storytelling for children. Integrated with the latest technology, iStoryBooks lets children to enjoy their favorite stories without needing an adult read them aloud.

Each book published by iStoryBooks is a picture book with audio included, so bedtime stories and fairy tales read themselves. With new books downloaded to the app automatically every two weeks, kids won’t run out of new stories to enjoy. In addition to classic tales like Cinderella and Snow White, iStoryBooks includes educational books to help children learn the alphabet, solve riddles, and identify national monuments.

The iStoryBook website also offers games, puzzles, and coloring pages so kids can have fun offline with some of their favorite characters from the stories.

Kids Numbers and Math

When handing off your Android to your kids (I tested all of these on my daughter’s T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S as an FYI), you want to be confident that the time they’re on your phone isn’t wasted. The Kids Numbers and Math app a fun way to not only keep kids busy, but also help them learn numbers and build basic math skills.

And with fun, engaging games, parents find that their kids actually enjoy learning math skills – from basic counting to addition, subtraction, and advanced exercises.

Kids Numbers and Math doesn’t overload children with too many audio and visual stimuli, making the game a delight for children and a winning choice for parents. The app strives to give children just the right balance between education and fun, so it doesn’t feature fun at the expense of education – or education at the expense of fun.

Kid Mode

The Kid Mode app is packed with hundreds of fun, educational games and videos perfect for kids ages eight and under. Babies can listen to baby songs, lullaby music, and videos about shapes, letters, patterns, numbers, the alphabet, and animals, and older kids can play math, reading, brain, and action games and try their hand at logic puzzles all from the same app.

For parents, the app’s biggest advantage is its Child Lock feature, which keeps the phone inside Kid Mode. Even when kids press the home screen button, the phone will remain in Kid Mode, eliminating the risk of having a child email your boss, call an acquaintance, or get on the Internet.

Parents can also add other favorite apps, such as Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja, to the app, so kids can play without accidentally or intentionally accessing apps intended for adults. Wi-Fi and Flash are required for many of the app’s features, so make sure your phone has these capabilities.

Air Penguin

On the non-educational, non-creative front, Air Penguin is a game that appeals to every kid’s “just one more time” instinct – and parents will love it, too (even CNet loved it)!

The goal of the game is simply to jump, fly, and dodge by tilting your phone to guide Air Penguin through Antarctica to save his family from melting ice caps. With adorable graphics and easy-to-play design, Air Penguin will keep kids hooked and entertained for hours on end.

Rae is a mom of four, a home based business owner and owner of various small niche websites, including ApronAddicts.com which highlights the best in fashionable aprons and gives tons of ideas on simple recipes and other creative kitchen ideas.

Curbing your impulse buying when you are shopping with kids isn’t always easy.   In fact, many people buy on impulse with out even realizing it is happening.   It’s when they get home that they wonder what happened to all that careful preparation that was supposed to help balance their income and bills.

The most common place to impulse buy is the grocery store and I find when I am shopping with kids it’s even easier than when I am alone.   I’ve learned two very helpful things about food shopping.   The first is, don’t go hungry and the second is make a list and stick to it.   When you are hungry it is easy to stray from your shopping list.   All those specials and display products look so good when you are hungry.   Don’t give into those cravings, eat first and shop second.

Of course, everyone’s food list needs some treats on it, so plan accordingly.

When you are going shopping with kids let everyone add a favorite snack to the list.   Try and find coupons for those snack items to save some extra money.   It pays in the long run to add a few treats and snacks to your weekly food list because financial budgets are very similar to dieting for calories.   If you keep denying yourself the good stuff, sooner or later you are going to breakdown and go overboard by spending too much or gorging yourself.

Another helpful trick is to ask yourself if you really need this item.   A simple yes or no answer will usually do the trick, don’t argue with yourself, just answer the question.   When you can’t say yes right away, you don’t need it.   It’s also a very good question to ask when you are shopping with kids.   Teach your children how to curb impulse buying and it will help them learn to use self control and it will save your family’s shopping budget as well.

In my last post I talked about how much I love ALDI grocery stores.

Recently I decided to create a printable ALDI shopping list. And I wouldn’t be a very good blogger if I didn’t offer it to my readers for free, would I?

So here goes:

Free ALDI Printable Shopping List

(Click on the link and a Google document opens in a new window.)

The shopping list is organized according to how the ALDI stores I’ve been to are  laid out.

As you know if you’re a fan of ALDI, they are smaller than most grocery stores and only have a few aisles. Their merchandise also doesn’t change as much as other stores. (I think this is a blessing because fewer choices often mean less stress for me!)

This list will stay in my household binder or on the fridge, and as I run out of things I simply circle the item on the list or write it on the lines.

Of course, this list reflects things I buy at ALDI.  It is a Google document, and cannot be edited by readers, but you can copy and paste it into your favorite program and edit it that way.

I hope it’s helpful and saves you time!

Several months ago, I discovered ALDI grocery stores. I don’t know where ALDI had been all my life, but I’m so glad we found each other!

There are a few important reasons why I now do 90% of my weekly grocery shopping at ALDI.

Cheaper

No doubt about it, this is numero uno. I feed a family of 8, and manage to do it healthfully and frugally. ALDI’s prices are cheaper than any other store in my area – especially when it comes to produce. In the last couple of years I’ve gotten good at getting great deals at my other grocery store with strategic shopping tactics (combining sales with coupons), but ALDI has simplified my life. They don’t accept coupons, which saves me time – but the final shopping tally is still about the same as what I spent at the other store!

No Frills

I love that my shopping trip takes less time. Because ALDI only has about 20% of the items that a regular grocery store has, there are far fewer choices that I have to make. Instead of this being frustrating, it’s quite liberating! The fewer choices I have to make in my life, the less fatigue I experience. I don’t have to compare brands because there is only one of every item. Anything that can decrease the decision making Brain Strain is a win in my book.

In addition, the no frills concept means I am far less tempted to buy impulse items and other things I don’t need, which means further savings.

On the downside, there are some items that I cannot find at ALDI (such as gluten free bread for my 5 year old daughter).  However, the benefits of shopping at ALDI still far outweigh the minor inconvenience of having to get those items elsewhere.

The Kids Work

And finally, I love that when I shop at ALDI the kids work a little harder. You see, one of the ways ALDI keeps prices low is by keeping staff to a minimum. This means that you bag your own groceries. This is no problem for me since I take several “helpers” to the grocery store every week. They actually get a kick out of bagging up groceries, and I think it teaches them a vital lesson. After all, they’ll be doing most of the eating!

One of the biggest concerns for new parents is their baby not sleeping. Many times parents don’t understand how much their bodies can take and end up pushing the limits of their physical capacity. If this is your case, then it’s important to know that you’re not alone.
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5 Minutes for YOU to read, relax and connect with other moms online. We’re here to inspire, encourage & empower you.

That’s the mission that Susan and Janice live by over at 5 Minutes for Mom.  I’ve been following them online for the last four or five years now. I don’t even remember how I first heard about them but the main thing that intrigued me was that they are identical twins and started their work at home careers with their mom running two online toy stores.

I love their site as it’s a combination of several things. They share about giveaways that are going on, jobs that are available, they even have a games section and of course they blog about parenting. It’s not just ‘another site’, it’s a community where moms can go to find informative information presented in what’s often an entertaining way. Susan and Janice also do a great job of promoting the WAHM community. They have a place on their site where they promote other mom blogs, mom stores and mom directories.

Recently they’ve added several sister sites – 5 Minutes For Parenting, 5 Minutes For Faith, 5 Minutes For Books, 5 Minutes For Special Needs and 5 Minutes For Going Green.

If you haven’t checked out 5 Minutes For Mom yet be sure to head over there now!

Wow! That’s the only word I could muster as I sat and wiped tears all choked up after coming across the Give Every Day blog. Started by Stephanie Sheaffer, founder of Metropolitan Mama, this blog details her and her families journey to give every day.

As if giving every day wasn’t an awesome enough undertaking, her family (her husband, her and their 2 children) sold their house to buy an RV and travel cross country as they give every day! Read about The Plan: Sell Everything. Live in an RV. Give Every Day.

Today, February 17th, marks their 12th day on their give every day journey. This site is so worth schmoozin on! Talk about truly selfless people! Be sure to check it out at Give Every Day.