I wanted to take a few moments to let our readers know what we have been up to lately, and what’s on deck for 2018! You may have noticed our social media presences hasn’t quite been up to par, and our website seems like it hasn’t been updated in ages. This past year we missed our annual Christmas giveaways and didn’t get a chance to post about our site’s birthday.  So what have we been up to?

Our lives have been a bit crazy! With the Mrs. and I both working a full time job, and completing my MBA, our oldest starting school, and now becoming a family of 5, we haven’t had much time to post. We of course have gotten out for some Frugal Florida Fun, but sadly haven’t written about the mini adventures we have gone on. We also started two new websites: VolusiaLive.com that is dedicated to providing a local police scanner feed, and OurFamilyThyme.com about our gardening adventure. (Ok so that was late 2016, but the months are all blending together…) That’s all about to change! Now with some extra spare time on my hands, we’re gearing up to make this the best year ever!

So what do we have planned so far in 2018? Continue reading →

Usually I love to write about events, adventures, and venues, but tonight I want to tell everyone about a random act of kindness that has somehow managed to change lives in the blink of an eye. Last weekend my family and I went to a friend’s house for a BBQ and some much-needed social interaction. At one point my oldest went to the car with me to grab something and much to my surprise, we saw the neighbor’s flag laying on the ground under his flag pole. It was a fairly blustery day which is strange for our area. The cord and one of the clasps must have come undone with all that wind.

My oldest and I walked over, unhooked the flag and picked it up off the ground. He didn’t quite know what we were doing, but I told him we had to fold the flag and return it. He didn’t quite understand why we couldn’t just throw it over my shoulder or ball it up like a towel. Instead I took the time to show him how to properly fold it. We then knocked on the neighbor’s door and I introduced myself as a friend of his neighbor. I explained politely to him that his flag was on the ground and that we wanted to properly return it to him. At first he was speechless. At first I thought he might be upset that I was messing with his personal property, but he thanked me and had a smile on his face, especially as he saw that my little guy was with me. I politely asked him if he was a veteran, and when he informed me he was, I genuinely thanked him for his service, shook his hand and we were on our way. Here was a WWII veteran who seemed very surprised that a complete stranger would take the time to not only return his fallen flag, but to fold it properly and neatly as it should be. Continue reading →

This Christmas season Frugal Florida Fun would like to hook your family up! We have partnered with lots of events, venues, and companies to bring you and your family some great prizes, passes, and much more! Don’t forget to Like us on Facebook to make sure you don’t miss your chance to win.

Giveaway #4 – The Polar Express DVD & Book Set

• Prize: A complimentary copy of the Polar Express DVD and book! Read this Christmas classic to your little ones then watch the movie!

How To Win In 3 Easy Steps:

1. Leave a comment on the article below telling us about your favorite Christmas book! Be sure you let us know your email address when you leave the comment so we can get the details on where to ship the prize. (Don’t worry no one else will see it.)
2. Share this article with your Facebook friends! It’s super easy, we have a share button at the bottom of this article before the comments.
3. You’ll also need to be a fan of our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/FrugalFloridaFun).
   We have multiple passes and we’ll be doing drawings all month from the comments below.

Continue reading →

It seems like just yesterday that we had our very first post about visiting Santa Clause at Downtown Disney! We have grown from humble roots on the Google Blogger Platform, to having our own domain, then even transferring to a new web host last year. I’m excited to announce that we are growing again! We have decided to move our expanding site to a new website that specializes in blog sites! This should mean fast page loads, an improved process for updating, and we are looking forward to an uptick in our traffic! With that being said, our site may go down in the near future for a day or two tops as we make the transition. Don’t worry though, we’ll be back and ready to tell you all about our amazing Frugal Florida Fun!

Remember, if you’re just having Frugal Florida Fun withdrawals, be sure to visit our Facebook page!

https://www.facebook.com/FrugalFloridaFun

Have you ever seen those movies growing up, where there is a truly amazing thing that happens and the crowd doesn’t seem to recognize it? Then slowly but surely, one person begins the “slow clap”.  The excitement slowly builds until eventually the crowd is going nuts? That experience my friends is the Old Florida Outdoor Festival in Apopka! Just remember the slow clap is staring now, and by then end of our follow up you’ll be going crazy and wishing you were there this past weekend!

So a bit of background about the Old Florida Outdoor Festival before we begin. We have seen advertisements for the Old Florida Outdoor Festival for a number of years now, but our schedules just never really allowed us to go. We had no idea just what we were missing! We were glad to work with the City of Apopka this year to help a family attend, and look forward to what next year brings as well. Ok so back to the Old Florida Outdoor Festival…. We live about an hour and a half away so it was a nice car ride. We loaded up the boys, and had a chance to try out our new 3rd row seating in the new car since my sister’s family went along with us. We came around the back way and spiraled around the Apopka amphitheater complex. It was massive! I mean we’re talking Disney style parking. You would think we were about to roll up to the Magic Kingdom instead of the Old Florida Outdoor Festival. It was well organized, and there were plenty of actual parking lots so we didn’t have to worry about getting stuck anywhere like at some other events we have been to recently.

The ritual of unloading the boys, grabbing the stroller and of course a handful of return trips to the car and we were finally on the way to the ticket gate! My sister’s family took the complimentary shuttle which was pretty cool. We parked just a stones throw away from the back gate, so I took the stroller and they boys. If you have a stroller, some of the trams have storage space for them, but you may just want to be prepared to walk. Continue reading →