Image by tomeppy

If you have kids you know how much toys can cost. If you don't, try walking down the toy isle next time you go to the store. It'll be an eye-opening experience.

But when you run your household on a tight budget, it's painful to think of spending that amount of money on a toy when you know your kid is probably going to lose interest in it very shortly. You can of course do what we try to do...when the kids are done with their toys e.g. aren't playing with them anymore, we donate them. I'm sure there are kids out there who would be more than happy to have some lightly used toys.

Additionally, we encourage our kids to save their money if they want to buy toys. Even though they are still young, my daughter knows that if she wants a particular toy she will need to save her money (from grandparents, from her birthday money, for helping out around the house, etc.) in order to buy it.

But the other day a friend of mine showed me this great product called makedo? What is makedo? It's essentially how you "make do" with the materials you have around the house in order to build toys, forts, cars...anything you can imagine. And while you do need to invest in the makedo connectors, they too are reusable.

Take a look at this simple video to see what I mean:

how to makedo - extended version from MAKEDO on Vimeo.

If you had one of those kits at home, you and your kids could make all kinds of fun stuff.

But, I think one of my favorite things about it is that it gets your kids creating. They get to use their imaginations to make animals, cars, robots, boats, castles and more. Additionally, it teaches them about the value of re-using and upcycling materials. It can also help instill the idea that less really can be more - there isn't a need to spend lots of money on expensive toys, when you can create all kinds of fun and "new" toys right at home, anytime you want.

Maybe we'd all be wise to make do with what we already have - try it!