Save Money And Get Creative With "Mommy Hacks"

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – Before you throw out your child's dried up markers or an empty tissue box, you may want to think about how you can stretch their use.

"Mommy hacks" are tricks to cutting corners on a budget.

And one mom has made a science out of it.

Meet Lisa Osbourne from Los Angeles. She's mom to 2-year-old Pearl, wife to Jack and the vision behind "RaddestMom.com" – a budget conscious blog with creative ideas called mom hacks, ways to milk everything you can out of something you have.

"I really believe that moms, whenever they become a mother, you also become a little bit sort of a hustler," she says. "You kind of make a dollar out of 15 cents every time you can."
Like turning a dried-out marker into new water colors.

"All you do is take the old marker and you dip it in some water and instantly it starts to bleed out the rest of the old ink," says Osbourne. "So you basically just turn it into water color."

To keep your little ones from falling out of the big kid bed:

"You take pool noodles," she says. "They're like a dollar each and you tape them up at the ends right here, put these under one side of the fitted sheet underneath and it really does not look that noticeable and keeps the kids in the bed."

And here's something you might already have in the kitchen:

"Glad Press and Seal works perfectly for art accidents," Osbourne says. "Just take a nice size sheet, peel it off and you just stick it to the front of your kid's shirt like this … and then whenever the kid's done, rip it off and toss it."

For loud doors:

"If you're tired of your kids slamming doors, a great way to silence those doors is by placing a rubber band around one side of the handle, twisting it around the other side," she says. "Whenever the door slams it doesn't have that locking slam. It will just kind of bounce back. So that's a great way to silence the door."

How about an ice pack hack for bumps and bruises?

"I like to use a simple kitchen sponge and then I just wet it," she says, "and then leave it in the freezer. And these are really great because after it freezes, they still get a little crunchy and moldable so they're really good for like knees and elbows."

And not all of Osbourne's ideas are for kids. Some are for the grown-ups too, like her hack for chilling wine in a hurry.

"The best way to do that is wet a couple of paper towels, fold them together, wrap it around the bottle and we're going to put it in the freezer for about 15 minutes and it'll come out ice cold," she says.

The bottom line is, be creative by repurposing the things you already have.

"Don't throw away anything until you know for sure that it's totally cashed out and you can't do anything else with it," she says.

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