Let me just preface this post by saying that Dan and I are not interested in throwing our scraps, our left-over money, to the poor. What we are interested in is giving away as much as we can, living sacrificially in order to give and using our many blessings to bless others, not indulge ourselves. And when those things are your priority, every buck counts. The little things do add up. Every dollar you don't spend on yourself is a dollar you can spend on someone else -- someone who really needs it.

Here's an example of some cheap summer fun around the Owens house... We live about 1 mile from a Bruster's Ice cream stand. We frequent that place All The Time in the summer. But lately we've realized that it really is a bit expensive and yes, indulgent. A special summer trip or two is fine -- once a week, not so much.

Recently, I found a great recipe on this blog for super easy, super yummy homemade ice cream. It costs one banana ($0.19 at Trader Joe's) and a few drops of milk. I really am not a big fan of bananas and even I have to admit this stuff is fantastic.

Break a banana or two into smaller pieces and freeze. It'll look like this:



Stick it in your blender or food processor and blend with a bit of milk and eventually it looks like this:



I let my kids eat it for breakfast this morning and now they think I'm the coolest, funnest mom ever because I let them eat "ice cream" for breakfast. Don't tell them it's just a banana and milk.