By combining sales with coupons at a store that doubles/triples coupons, I managed to pay $1.35 today for:
two pillsbury french bread loafs (the refrigerated dough stuff)
one 4-count pillsbury croissants
two 5-count Grands buttermilk biscuits
one 5-count pillsbury cinnamon rolls
one betty crocker chocolate chocolate chunk cookie mix
one betty crocker cinnamon streusel muffin mix
one lipton alfredo noodle side
one lipton spanish rice side
Price before sales/coupons---$17.86. I would say that was definitely a dollar thirty five worth of food ;-) On the croissants and the cinnamon rolls, I actually got more money off than what the item cost. It doesn't happen often, but I love it when a store pays ME to take something. Even though I always say only use a coupon if you were already going to get the item, sales like this are why I cut coupons I never have an intention of using (I'd usually make all those things from scratch, I wouldn't have used all those coupons if there wasn't such a big sale). I always check the clearance rack for things that are cheaper than what my coupon's for. If something is $0.75 and your coupon is for $1 off, most stores still give you the full $1. You can also combine store coupons with manufacturer coupons a lot of times (Fred Meyer in Utah was the best for this---I got a TON of cheerios for $0.40 a box one time when we lived there).
Monday, April 7, 2008
Sunday, April 6, 2008
LOTS of pictures!
Well, just like ditching the TV actually decreased our boredom, quitting work seems to have increased the number of things I have to do. Of course, they are all things of my choice, which is infinitely less stressful ;-)
Allow me to show you our week in pictures:
Sedona has figured out how to use a sippy cup. She doesn't always remember she has to tilt it up, but if you hold it, she can drink from it. She has also learned to make "beautiful beautiful music" (or so she thinks) by banging it as hard as she can against her high chair tray. This has also led to the implementation of the "3 drop rule". We only pick things up twice, the third time you drop it, it's gone (because, yes, gravity works EVERY time. Newton proved it, no need for an 8 month old to question it). P.S. on the TV in the background (we ditched TV, not movies we rent from the library ;-) is Fraggle Rock!!! The only thing I remember about fraggle rock is getting in trouble for asking to watch it (long story that most of you already know), so I had to watch the movie
And oh to have the life of a baby. One of the books I read recently had a comment about how it must be wonderful to be a baby--to wake up one morning and realize you have body parts you didn't even know were there. Okay, when I say it, it sounds kinda creepy, but you get the point. Babies are absolutely amazed by TOES!! It's pretty fun to watch (not so fun to change her--she throws a complete hissy fit until you finish and let her have her toes back). Sidenote: she was sick this week, so she went to the doctor and her weight gain is actually doing better--she's up to 17 pounds now! We still have GI issues we're working on, she sees the GI doc on the 17th.
She's still trying to crawl and still not succeeding. A few times she has scooted both knees forward at the same time, but she's just not getting the concept of moving her hands. Have no fear, she practices constantly. 3am is one of her favorite practice times
Another Sedona/Sierra comparison pic. I think it's really easy to tell them apart now (I don't know how Sedona has managed to keep so much of her hair, most of Sierra's fell out and had to grow in again), so I won't bother labeling ;-)
My latest frugal living adventure---homemade laundry detergent! I think it's gone quite well. Price comparison--my "stock up" price (the price that's reliably cheap enough to justify buying 6 months worth) on laundry detergent (All or Purex free and clear liquid) is $3.00/100oz of non-concentrated stuff. According to the bottle, that's 32 loads worth. Making my own detergent, it only costs me $0.32 for 32 loads worth. It took me 15 minutes and I saved $6.53 (this recipe makes 78 loads worth). Directions:
Buy laundry soap bar (regular ol' ivory soap works too---one guy even uses Lever 2000--any bar soap), washing soda (not baking soda) and borax. This involves a *slight* investment (about the same as one bottle of ready made laundry detergent), but the ingredients last you a LONG time.
If you have laundry soap, use 1/3 of the bar. If you use regular soap, use the whole bar. Grate the soap (just use a regular cheese grater). I missed a pic of this part because the camera batteries were recharging. Mix soap with 4 cups of water over medium high heat until soap *completely* dissolves
Mix in 3/4 c. of Borax and 3/4 c. of washing soda. It gets kinda thick at this point. Stir to dissolve completely
Put 4 cups hot water (just the hottest from the tap) in an appropriate sized bucket. Stir in your detergent mixture, then add another 1.5 gallons (6 quarts) of hot water. Stir and let sit. You're done!
Use about 1/3-1/2c per load of clothes. It won't suds up as much as commercial detergent, but seems to clean just as well. Also, after it sets up, the consistency is kind of liquid with chunks of gel (actually, it's gel on top and liquid on bottom if you don't disturb it at all), I have mine in a scoopable container, but I suppose if you had it in an old detergent bottle you could just shake it up before measuring it out.
In garden news, Our potatoes have gone nuts. 51 of the seed potato pieces we planted ended up sprouting, some of them made 2 or 3 plants. If this hay bale thing works, we will have LOTS of potatoes
While adding hay, we found a very very large spider "friend" Not sure what type this is. We have seen garden spiders (the huge black and yellow ones) around here, but this one's new. I suppose it can eat really big bugs!!
We also started our "three sisters" planting today. We made rows (9 rows, 15 feet long) and planted corn today (every foot, so somewhere around 135 plants :-o There is a small section of baby corn, but most is sweet corn. Sierra of course immediately asked if the baby corn was for Sedona LOL
If you're looking to plant corn and want to save yourself the back breaking part of the work, I have an awesome 3 year old I can lend you....poke holes in the ground with a long stick and she happily does all the ground work of dropping a kernel in and covering it with dirt ;-) Just a reminder, the 3 sisters concept means planting corn, then after the corn sprouts, planting pole beans (that will climb the corn stalk) and any sort of squash/melon (the furry/prickly leaves grow all in between the corn/beans and keep critters away from the corn). The beans and corn compliment each other at a soil/root level as well.
The tomatoes are very happy to have moved out to the garden, they're getting huge already!
The strawberries are also happy--the bigger plants are already loaded with lots of berries, just waiting for them to grow/ripen!
And the chickens are HUGE! we have another month or so before they start laying eggs, but they look like chickens now! Sierra loves to feed them and have them "chase" her (she runs around the coop and they run after her). They come over to us whenever we walk up to the coop. Sheba met her demise (I'll spare you the story) and Sierra was pretty matter of fact about it. The worst part was we told her we killed it because it was hurt and she got all wide-eyed and concerned. Then it dawned on me....anytime she continues to do something after I told her not too, I tell her, "I don't want to hear you crying when you get hurt" (an extension of our "karma" lesson: as a toddler, we'd tell her to stop running, she wouldn't, she'd fall, and we'd say, "well, that's karma" as we picked her up. She got to the point where she'd fall and just hop right back up and say, "karma!" and keep going). Anyways, it occurred to me about 2 seconds too late that the poor kid would probably think we were gonna kill her if she got hurt. We had to back peddle and explain you can't take chickens to hospital when they're badly hurt. Once we got through that explanation, she was okay with the whole ordeal. Josh is dreaming of raising meat birds too, so might as well get this sort of thing out of the way now!
Allow me to show you our week in pictures:
Sedona has figured out how to use a sippy cup. She doesn't always remember she has to tilt it up, but if you hold it, she can drink from it. She has also learned to make "beautiful beautiful music" (or so she thinks) by banging it as hard as she can against her high chair tray. This has also led to the implementation of the "3 drop rule". We only pick things up twice, the third time you drop it, it's gone (because, yes, gravity works EVERY time. Newton proved it, no need for an 8 month old to question it). P.S. on the TV in the background (we ditched TV, not movies we rent from the library ;-) is Fraggle Rock!!! The only thing I remember about fraggle rock is getting in trouble for asking to watch it (long story that most of you already know), so I had to watch the movie
And oh to have the life of a baby. One of the books I read recently had a comment about how it must be wonderful to be a baby--to wake up one morning and realize you have body parts you didn't even know were there. Okay, when I say it, it sounds kinda creepy, but you get the point. Babies are absolutely amazed by TOES!! It's pretty fun to watch (not so fun to change her--she throws a complete hissy fit until you finish and let her have her toes back). Sidenote: she was sick this week, so she went to the doctor and her weight gain is actually doing better--she's up to 17 pounds now! We still have GI issues we're working on, she sees the GI doc on the 17th.
She's still trying to crawl and still not succeeding. A few times she has scooted both knees forward at the same time, but she's just not getting the concept of moving her hands. Have no fear, she practices constantly. 3am is one of her favorite practice times
Another Sedona/Sierra comparison pic. I think it's really easy to tell them apart now (I don't know how Sedona has managed to keep so much of her hair, most of Sierra's fell out and had to grow in again), so I won't bother labeling ;-)
My latest frugal living adventure---homemade laundry detergent! I think it's gone quite well. Price comparison--my "stock up" price (the price that's reliably cheap enough to justify buying 6 months worth) on laundry detergent (All or Purex free and clear liquid) is $3.00/100oz of non-concentrated stuff. According to the bottle, that's 32 loads worth. Making my own detergent, it only costs me $0.32 for 32 loads worth. It took me 15 minutes and I saved $6.53 (this recipe makes 78 loads worth). Directions:
Buy laundry soap bar (regular ol' ivory soap works too---one guy even uses Lever 2000--any bar soap), washing soda (not baking soda) and borax. This involves a *slight* investment (about the same as one bottle of ready made laundry detergent), but the ingredients last you a LONG time.
If you have laundry soap, use 1/3 of the bar. If you use regular soap, use the whole bar. Grate the soap (just use a regular cheese grater). I missed a pic of this part because the camera batteries were recharging. Mix soap with 4 cups of water over medium high heat until soap *completely* dissolves
Mix in 3/4 c. of Borax and 3/4 c. of washing soda. It gets kinda thick at this point. Stir to dissolve completely
Put 4 cups hot water (just the hottest from the tap) in an appropriate sized bucket. Stir in your detergent mixture, then add another 1.5 gallons (6 quarts) of hot water. Stir and let sit. You're done!
Use about 1/3-1/2c per load of clothes. It won't suds up as much as commercial detergent, but seems to clean just as well. Also, after it sets up, the consistency is kind of liquid with chunks of gel (actually, it's gel on top and liquid on bottom if you don't disturb it at all), I have mine in a scoopable container, but I suppose if you had it in an old detergent bottle you could just shake it up before measuring it out.
In garden news, Our potatoes have gone nuts. 51 of the seed potato pieces we planted ended up sprouting, some of them made 2 or 3 plants. If this hay bale thing works, we will have LOTS of potatoes
While adding hay, we found a very very large spider "friend" Not sure what type this is. We have seen garden spiders (the huge black and yellow ones) around here, but this one's new. I suppose it can eat really big bugs!!
We also started our "three sisters" planting today. We made rows (9 rows, 15 feet long) and planted corn today (every foot, so somewhere around 135 plants :-o There is a small section of baby corn, but most is sweet corn. Sierra of course immediately asked if the baby corn was for Sedona LOL
If you're looking to plant corn and want to save yourself the back breaking part of the work, I have an awesome 3 year old I can lend you....poke holes in the ground with a long stick and she happily does all the ground work of dropping a kernel in and covering it with dirt ;-) Just a reminder, the 3 sisters concept means planting corn, then after the corn sprouts, planting pole beans (that will climb the corn stalk) and any sort of squash/melon (the furry/prickly leaves grow all in between the corn/beans and keep critters away from the corn). The beans and corn compliment each other at a soil/root level as well.
The tomatoes are very happy to have moved out to the garden, they're getting huge already!
The strawberries are also happy--the bigger plants are already loaded with lots of berries, just waiting for them to grow/ripen!
And the chickens are HUGE! we have another month or so before they start laying eggs, but they look like chickens now! Sierra loves to feed them and have them "chase" her (she runs around the coop and they run after her). They come over to us whenever we walk up to the coop. Sheba met her demise (I'll spare you the story) and Sierra was pretty matter of fact about it. The worst part was we told her we killed it because it was hurt and she got all wide-eyed and concerned. Then it dawned on me....anytime she continues to do something after I told her not too, I tell her, "I don't want to hear you crying when you get hurt" (an extension of our "karma" lesson: as a toddler, we'd tell her to stop running, she wouldn't, she'd fall, and we'd say, "well, that's karma" as we picked her up. She got to the point where she'd fall and just hop right back up and say, "karma!" and keep going). Anyways, it occurred to me about 2 seconds too late that the poor kid would probably think we were gonna kill her if she got hurt. We had to back peddle and explain you can't take chickens to hospital when they're badly hurt. Once we got through that explanation, she was okay with the whole ordeal. Josh is dreaming of raising meat birds too, so might as well get this sort of thing out of the way now!
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Fair Game
I just finished reading the Valerie Plame Wilson memoir Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House.
Now, I like to think that as I'm getting older I've gotten pretty good about being open minded--I'm willing to listen to all sides of an argument, and in the end, I may not agree with you, but I try to look at both sides of the issue before making up my mind. I think it's important to be fair even when it's not popular (I've learned that one the hard way). So my little disclaimer is that I am a big opponent to the Bush Administration--I'm still working on figuring out the mentality of people who still have "W 2004" bumper stickers...I just don't think it's something to brag about. I won't go so far to call myself a democrat, I'm not a huge fan of a lot of them either and I'm not a straight ticket voter. But, I really really despise Bush, and especially Cheney. I also recognize that a book by Valerie Plame Wilson about the outing of Valerie Plame Wilson is bound to biased. But even assuming you took this book with a large grain of salt and only believed...say, half...of what she writes, it should really scare you about the powers and liberties the executive branch in general, and the Bush administration specifically, have taken. And it just fed my already highly developed "creeped outedness" about Cheney.
The incredibly interesting thing about this book is the "redacting". Since Valerie Wilson was an employee of the CIA, she was required to submit her manuscript to them for redacting prior to publication. Here's the absurd part: We all know who Valerie Wilson is. We all know who she worked for. But apparently that's still technically classified, so she is not allowed to talk about it. The CIA (or White House, if you're wearing your tin foil hat today) refuses to declassify it. So...you and I can talk about it, but she can't. As a result, huge chunks of the manuscript were blacked out by the CIA. She and her publisher made the choice of publishing the book as is---with gray bars in place of the redacted text. That leaves big pieces of the story missing. Then the publisher hired a journalist to write an "afterward". The Afterward covers just about everything that's been blacked out in Valerie's text (because, even though it's "classified" it's mostly public domain now and the journalist was able to find the information else where and site her sources for the information).
Anyways...well worth the read. She does a resonable job of showing both sides of the story. She may have a tone of outrage about it, but she does quote news sources that contradict her story, so you do get some of that.
Now, I like to think that as I'm getting older I've gotten pretty good about being open minded--I'm willing to listen to all sides of an argument, and in the end, I may not agree with you, but I try to look at both sides of the issue before making up my mind. I think it's important to be fair even when it's not popular (I've learned that one the hard way). So my little disclaimer is that I am a big opponent to the Bush Administration--I'm still working on figuring out the mentality of people who still have "W 2004" bumper stickers...I just don't think it's something to brag about. I won't go so far to call myself a democrat, I'm not a huge fan of a lot of them either and I'm not a straight ticket voter. But, I really really despise Bush, and especially Cheney. I also recognize that a book by Valerie Plame Wilson about the outing of Valerie Plame Wilson is bound to biased. But even assuming you took this book with a large grain of salt and only believed...say, half...of what she writes, it should really scare you about the powers and liberties the executive branch in general, and the Bush administration specifically, have taken. And it just fed my already highly developed "creeped outedness" about Cheney.
The incredibly interesting thing about this book is the "redacting". Since Valerie Wilson was an employee of the CIA, she was required to submit her manuscript to them for redacting prior to publication. Here's the absurd part: We all know who Valerie Wilson is. We all know who she worked for. But apparently that's still technically classified, so she is not allowed to talk about it. The CIA (or White House, if you're wearing your tin foil hat today) refuses to declassify it. So...you and I can talk about it, but she can't. As a result, huge chunks of the manuscript were blacked out by the CIA. She and her publisher made the choice of publishing the book as is---with gray bars in place of the redacted text. That leaves big pieces of the story missing. Then the publisher hired a journalist to write an "afterward". The Afterward covers just about everything that's been blacked out in Valerie's text (because, even though it's "classified" it's mostly public domain now and the journalist was able to find the information else where and site her sources for the information).
Anyways...well worth the read. She does a resonable job of showing both sides of the story. She may have a tone of outrage about it, but she does quote news sources that contradict her story, so you do get some of that.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Gas Prices
Well, since it looks like we'll be staying over $3/gallon for quite a while (and inching up to $4/gal or more), it's time for a gas prices post. Unless you own a hybrid (and I don't), it's costing you roughly a dollar for every 5 miles you drive now. In my life, this means I'm paying a dollar everytime I drive to pick Sierra up from school. Other things in a 2.5 mile radius (5 mile roundtrip)---WalMart (ick, but I find myself needing to go there a few times a year anyway), Lowe's, HEB, Walgreens, Luby's, Brazos Natural Foods....basically everything I need except the pediatrician and family medicine doctors. Josh's work is about 5-7 miles each way. SOOO......Josh's work is an easy bike ride away, and all those other things are perfectly good walking distance with both girls in the jogging stroller. Yes, it takes a bit of time, but I'm combining exercise, recreation and fresh air with my gas saving time. In a couple more months Sedona will be able to support her head and a helmet and then we can bike everywhere. OR, I can spend $1 for each of those trips by car. $1 doesn't seem like a whole lot at face value, but I've been paying attention to what I can buy for $1 besides gas......4lbs of sugar (on sale), 1/2 pound of butter, about 2 lbs of flour, 2 "crack tacos" from jack-in-the-box (I know, they're probably not even food, but they're so addictive), a large Sonic drink at happy hour...you get the idea. Start paying attention to what you can get for a dollar and then remind yourself that you already used that money to drive to the store in the first place.
I do still drive plenty, but we're doing our best to limit ourselves to one tank of gas for each car each month (which comes up to about $100/month). So how to increase gas mileage?
1) Make sure your tires are aired up properly--makes a really big difference right away
2)Coast--or as one article said, drive like you don't have brakes. If there's a red light up ahead, take your foot off the gas and coast to it. Make it a game--can you keep the car moving all the time (less gas to use if you're just keeping a moving object moving)? Don't accelerate quickly. When you get to the street your house is on, coast along at 20mph without touching the accelerator--make use of that gas you already pumped into the engine. Of course, there's a limit to this and even when you're just coasting to a red light somebody's gonna get frustrated with you. Just laugh to yourself and mutter about the poor fool that's wasting their money on extra gas.
3) Drive a little bit slower--Our car's mileage is best at about 65 on highways. Going 70 really doesn't get us there that much faster, but it does use more money.
4) If you have cruise control, use it.
5) If your car has real-time miles per gallon on the dash, use it. Whenever I get in the car, I flip the switch on my dash to see what my average miles per gallon is, then I set it back to real-time mpg and see how much of my drive I can stay above (and therefore raise) my average. Note: don't watch this so much that you're not watching the road ;-)
6) A lot of people say to turn off the a/c, but I live in Texas with two small children....I'm frugal, not a masochist ;-)
I do still drive plenty, but we're doing our best to limit ourselves to one tank of gas for each car each month (which comes up to about $100/month). So how to increase gas mileage?
1) Make sure your tires are aired up properly--makes a really big difference right away
2)Coast--or as one article said, drive like you don't have brakes. If there's a red light up ahead, take your foot off the gas and coast to it. Make it a game--can you keep the car moving all the time (less gas to use if you're just keeping a moving object moving)? Don't accelerate quickly. When you get to the street your house is on, coast along at 20mph without touching the accelerator--make use of that gas you already pumped into the engine. Of course, there's a limit to this and even when you're just coasting to a red light somebody's gonna get frustrated with you. Just laugh to yourself and mutter about the poor fool that's wasting their money on extra gas.
3) Drive a little bit slower--Our car's mileage is best at about 65 on highways. Going 70 really doesn't get us there that much faster, but it does use more money.
4) If you have cruise control, use it.
5) If your car has real-time miles per gallon on the dash, use it. Whenever I get in the car, I flip the switch on my dash to see what my average miles per gallon is, then I set it back to real-time mpg and see how much of my drive I can stay above (and therefore raise) my average. Note: don't watch this so much that you're not watching the road ;-)
6) A lot of people say to turn off the a/c, but I live in Texas with two small children....I'm frugal, not a masochist ;-)
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