Frugal Living Today

Today’s tip is a way to help keep children busy while home on vacation, especially when the weather outside is, to coin a phrase, frightful.  Making your own play dough is very simple to do but it does require preparation a day in advance.  Here is the simple recipe:

•  4 cups flour
• 1/2 cup salt
• 4 teaspoons alum
• 2-2 1/2 cups boiling water
• food coloring

Those are the only ingredients you need to make homemade play dough that your kids will love.  Here’s how to do it:

1. Boil water.
2. Add food coloring to boiling water, then introduce flour, salt and alum and mix thoroughly.
3. Allow mixture to cool to room temperature before refrigerating uncovered for 24 hours.
4. Work the dough through with your fingers then returned to the refrigerator covered.

If it really is that simple to make homemade play dough and it doesn’t even require a trip to the store for most of us!