The City Mom

Keeping a balance

2010-05-15T16:04:00.000-07:00

In my own life, I find it really hard to keep a balance. I overeat, I overwatch TV, I don't exercise at all. People say "just do it in moderation!" like it's a new idea and I laugh and laugh. Moderation, for me, is almost impossible. Sometimes it really is impossible.

But somehow, with the boys, I'm a little better at it. Not perfect, not at all, but better.

I am very good at feeding them healthy food, but somehow I'm also good at relaxing about it and not making it too strident. We have McDonalds once a week. They eat cake and cookies, and meat when they're at my parents house. And the other day their Aunt Deborah bought them a treat that was a big hit. So this is what their after-school snack looked like:

Ooh, what a lovely snack! Is that healthy kiwi? Yes! Yummy healthy oranges and organic apples? Of course! And...what else? A cake? A...twinkie?!?!

Yes. A twinkie. And not just a twinkie:

A Shrek-themed green twinkie. Yuck. It was a big hit. :-)

We have a winner

2010-05-11T11:46:00.000-07:00

Rainy days always relax me. I think the pressure is OFF for being outdoorsy and productive, so you can hunker down, wear pajama pants, and enjoy the day inside.

While Jack resisted his afternoon nap, I decided to try these energy bars. I wasn't in love with the earth balls and this recipe used a lot of the same basic ingredients, so I was skeptical.

To say they were good would be an understatement. Let's say this: they were GOOD in a sincere OMG way, not in a "pretty good for vegan" way.

I played around with her recipe a bit, and frankly I'm glad I'm writing this down so I can replicate it!

1 cup raw almonds
1 cup (plus 2 more) dates
2 dried apricots
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 tbsp raw pepitas
1 tbsp sesame seeds
1 tbsp raw sunflower seeds
3 tbsp dried coconut
1 tbsp goji berries
1 tbsp dried cranberries
vegan chocolate chips, melted in a small saucepan with flax and hemp oils to make it spreadable

I ground the almonds to a fine powder, then added the dates and apricots until everything stuck together. Added in all the other ingredients and ground well. Spread it in a pan, covered with chocolate, and froze for 10 minutes. It was dense, chewy, sweet (but not overly sweet - I was worried about the dates), and delicious.

Slipping the vegan through

2010-05-07T06:40:00.000-07:00

I try to volunteer for anything at Nate's school that keeps me from having to actually participate in the classroom. I help them with craft projects by prepping materials at home (peeling crayons, cutting out shapes, etc.) and I always volunteer to cook if they need food.

This week was "teacher appreciation" week and there was a luncheon on Wednesday. I offered to make my version of summer rolls, which is tasty and surprisingly vegan. I don't miss the shrimp at all!

They're rice paper with the traditional noodles, thick slices of avocado, cilantro, and chives. I served them with a bottled asian dipping sauce (I usually use a peanut sauce but the school is nut-free so that wasn't an option).

I love showing people that vegetarian / vegan food can be so delicious that you'll never miss the meat!

Lunchbox

2010-05-04T15:58:00.000-07:00

A flash from the old days: Nate's lunch for tomorrow!

Sandwich is a ww tortilla spread with hummus and lettuce, sprinkled with wheat germ and flax seed, with a squirt of organic hemp oil for bonus omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids.

Then (clockwise): chocolate cat's cookies from Trader Joes, baked sweet potatoes (canola oil), an earth ball, mandarin orange, dried peach, and teeny-tiny pickle.

Snacks for after school (one for each boy):

Organic watermelon, kiwi, raw almonds, goji berries, apple slices, dried peach slices, raw cashews, and a mandarin orange.

Yum.

Ice cream for dinner?

2010-04-30T16:43:00.000-07:00

Sure!

Pulled a few cans of organic coconut milk out of the pantry and decided we'd make some ice cream. Needless to say, Nate and Jack were enthusiastic helpers.

I just used the coconut milk, cacao powder, sugar, and cinnamon. Set it to stir and waited for the results.

While the boys watched (and dipped in a finger once or twenty times for tastes), I made up some bowls. I put in raw almonds, raw walnuts, organic raisins, and a crushed-up oatmeal cookie.

(I love the irony of drinking my most favorite, guaranteed not-particularly-healthy, snack while I load my kiddos up with wholesome nutrition. But man do I love a cold Caffeine-Free Diet Pepsi!):

Ice cream all ready to eat:

Dinner!

Upping the ante

2010-04-29T16:03:00.001-07:00

So a few weeks ago I stumbled over this blog called Green and Crunchy and it was so inspiring. She is a super-healthy vegan home-schooling Mom to five little ones and she got me fired up about healthy eating!

I've been working on a small kitchen redo to give me more storage and counter space (I'll unveil before and after pics when it's done in a few weeks) and I'm using the smidge of extra space to implement some things I learned on her site.

Mostly, I'm working way more raw nuts and seeds into their diet, as well as flax (oil and seeds), wheat germ, goji berries, coconut milk, cacao powder, and a few other healthy add-ins, sometimes sneakily. Both boys have gotten a bit pickier, and initially balked when I started sprinkling "toppings" on top of everything I gave them. They're used to it now, but I'm still in the habit of using a small coffee-grinder to grind up an assortment of walnuts, almonds, cashews, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds into a powder and mixing it into whatever I can. It's fantastic!

So, a few meals from recent days:

From the upper-left: pickles (Nate's on a pickle kick right now), broccoli sauteed in canola oil with Soyaki on top, an apple salad with peanut butter and my nuts-and-seeds powder mixed in, banana-sushi (tortilla spread with pb, sprinkled with flax seeds, wheat germ, and cacao powder for a chocolate kick), and some leftover mac & cheese with the nuts-and-seeds powder mixed in and sunflower seeds visibly sprinkled over the top.

From the upper left: pear slices, a teeny-tiny pickle, sweet potatoes coated with flax and canola oils and minced garlic then baked, an "earth ball" (recipe below) and goji berries, tortollini covered in EVOO and some cheese sauce with the nuts-and-seeds mixture in and some sunflower seeds visibly sprinkled on top. These boys don't know how good they have it.

So, earth balls! Recipe here at Green and Crunchy. I made our first batch a few days ago and, frankly, it was a little much for me. Weird texture. But Stewart and Nate both loved them, and Jack finally tried one tonight and liked it as well! So that recipe is a keeper, and I'm thrilled.

I made ours with 3/4 cup raw almonds and 1/4 cup raw walnuts in the food processor until powdered, then added in a cup (combined) of mejdool dates and dried apricots. Once it was sticky enough to stay together, while it was still processing, I added in sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, coconut flakes, and vegan chocolate chips.

I'm looking forward to making this again and trying out different combinations! The freeze-dried strawberries from Trader Joes are calling my name...

More fun at Giant!

2010-03-24T07:25:00.000-07:00

Total haul:

8 boxes organic cereal
2 big bags Chex Mix
2 boxes Toaster Strudels
2 tubs frosting
4 boxes brownie mix
5 4-packs of yogurt
5 Warm Delights

Net cost before sales and coupons: $87.93
Net cost after sales, coupons, and $10 OYNP coupons: $6.36

Amazing cereal deal at Giant!

2010-03-23T09:05:00.000-07:00

So Giant Food is having a "buy $20 of GM products get $10 off your next order" deal, and the $20 threshold is triggered by the SHELF prices, not the sales prices. Lots of bloggers have covered the deal, so I won't go into details. Except for this one:

Five boxes of Cascadian Farms cereal @ $4.29 (shelf price) each = $ 21.45
Minus sales price ($3.29) = $16.45
Minus peelies on box ($1 off two boxes) = $14.45
Minus $10 off next purchase = $4.45 for five boxes of organic cereal. That's 89 cents / box (savings of 80%).

I've done that three times, and today I went back and did it twice more with a twist:

Four boxes of cereal + 2 Betty Crocker cake mixes (shelf price $1.79) = $20.74
Minus sales prices (BC = $1 / box) = $15.16
Minus peelies on cereal = $13.16
Minus $10 off next purchase = $3.16 for four boxes of cereal and two boxes of cake mix.

Yeah, I'll be doing that a few more times. Today. :-)

I LOVE COUPONS

2009-12-31T09:17:00.000-08:00

Fun little shop this morning at Giant. Please note that some coupons I used may have been expired - I never check and Giant doesn't seem to care.

The Corn Flakes were $8 for 3 huge boxes, plus I got the 12-pack of Pop Tarts free. I had three $1/off coupons for the Corn Flakes, so the total cost for the cereal & Pop Tarts was $5.
The soups were B1G1 (at $2.50) and I had 4 coupons for $.50/2. So the total cost for each can was 75 cents.
The Healthy Choice meals were on sale for $3 (from $3.70) and I saw coupons on another aisle for $1.50 off each! So each one cost $1.50, and on the days where Stewart uses one for lunch instead of hitting Chipotle we save at least $5 that day!
The Honey Bunches of Oats were B1G1 (at $3.49) and I had coupons for $1/2, so each box cost $1.25.
I also had a coupon for $3 off the whole shop that I got randomly last time I rocked the coupons at Giant, so I used it today.

The whole shop cost $72.16; after Bonus Card and coupons was a net cost of $21.68. I LOVE COUPONS.

Super-cheap pizza - this is why I love the internet!

2009-12-16T08:58:00.000-08:00

I am so grateful to the other frugal bloggers out there - deals like this make my life easier and cheaper. Time and money are some of the best gifts a Mom can get!

Right now you can take-out a large, one topping pizza AND a dessert of Cinnastix for $5.99. That's an incredible deal and I'll probably take advantage of it tonight (today is gymnastics day and I'm running around the whole day!) I already checked it out and it's working just as advertised.

Thanks to Moneywise Moms!

What do you guys think?

2009-12-14T17:03:00.001-08:00

I was thinking about spending one full month shopping only from Trader Joes and blogging about the daily meals and snacks that I can make from there. Does this sound at all interesting to anyone other than me? Goodness knows it would add to the work-load around here, but it's hard for me to resist a challenge...

Thoughts? Opinions?

If you're going to be buying booze anyway...

2009-12-14T07:47:00.001-08:00

Ran across an unexpected rebate offer in the Washington Post this morning. It's a great deal if you're a DC resident and planning on buying booze anyway.

Beer & Wine:

Receive $15 when you buy any six packs of 8 beers or more, or wines (750ml or larger), out of the following options:

Sterling Vintner's Collection Wine
BV Coastal Estates Wine
Rosenblum Cellars Vintner's Cuvee
Guinness Draught
Smirnoff Ice Premium Flavored Malt Beverages
Parrot Bay Tropical Flavored Malt Beverages

Spirits (aka: "the good stuff"):

Receive $15 off 3 bottles or $35 off 6 bottles (750ml or larger) out of the following options (I'm including a selection; there are more offers listed). I assume you can only buy one of each bottle for the rebate.

Smirnoff Vodka (any flavor)
Crown Royal Blended Canadian Whiskey
Captain Morgan Original Spiced Rum
Jose Cuervo Especial Tequila (Gold or Silver)
Smirnoff Cocktails (any flavor)
Johnnie Walker Red Label

Check page A11 of the December 14th post. This offer is valid 12/13/09 through 1/17/10 and is limit one offer per household. Another easy way to save some money if you were planning on stocking up for the holidays!

Another great deal from another great blogger!

2009-12-07T10:12:00.000-08:00

I used Money Saving Methods to learn all about online offers. I give her all the credit - she walks you through everything and has tons of links available to find great offers.

Today I found another great post from her showing me how to get three free Bluetooth headsets.

I love free!

(And if you get one of these for a Chanukah gift, forget you ever saw this!)

Simple ways to save

2009-12-05T16:37:00.001-08:00

Sometimes saving money is a hassle; I'm always working to make sure that the savings I'm getting are worth the time I'm expending doing it. I'm just not driving to four different stores to save $4. I've talked about this balance ad nauseum so I won't start preaching about it again.

One of my favorite, easiest ways to save money is with coupon codes. It usually takes less than a minute for me to save 5, 10, or even 25% off an online order I was already going to make.

Today I was able to do something similar. Our dishwasher is officially broken and I simply can't live without one. (Okay, I won't live without one, but it's almost the same) So I headed to Sears today to look at the Kenmore ones in person (our previous Kenmore lasted 9 years and was a workhorse!) Found a reasonably priced one at $375 target=blank target=blank that had all of the bells I needed and none of the whistles that I didn't (who needs a stainless steel interior?)

I'm about to check out when I remember reading a blog post yesterday about a VIP sale they're having - I thought it was today but it's actually tomorrow. The guy happily took my name and credit card info and said he'd just ring it through tomorrow instead of today. For a two minute conversation, and the time it took me to read that blog post, I'm saving 10% off my order - $37.50. That's a pretty good hourly wage, tax free!

I don't enter the codes from diaper boxes, I don't save Pepsi caps, I refuse to order freebie samples to come in the mail - it's nickles and dimes and just not worth the time to me. But to save $37.50 for 2 minutes of work, that's more than worth it.

Thank you to all the frugal bloggers who help me find these deals! I couldn't be doing this without you.

City farming

2009-12-02T09:37:00.000-08:00

My old friend e-mailed me this link this morning. Very neat ideas; check it out if you want to garden in a small space!

Window Farms

(Almost) free batteries!

2009-11-29T17:02:00.000-08:00

I love a good battery deal. Paying for them online (and having your husband pick them up on his way home from work) makes it even sweeter.

I could type it out, but I simply did exactly what Life as Mom did. Details, directly from Staples, are here.

Each week from now through December 26th, I'll get $26 worth of batteries for a grand total of $1.56 in tax. Love it.

Edit to add: I've read this through several times and the offer is valid for each Staples Reward customer - I can't find any prohibition on multiple family members doing the deal. So I just signed Stewart up and did it again - wheeee!

Target fun!

2009-11-17T09:39:00.000-08:00

Printed out a million coupons and headed to Target for a little more fun:

All forty (!) of those wipes were $.97 each, so paired with the Target $1/off coupon they were free (I can't tell if I paid sales tax on them; the receipt is downright confusing).

The Chinet plates were $4.74 each, and were on a "buy 2 get a $5 gift card" promotion. I did two transactions and used 2 coupons (from here and here). After the value of the gift cards, I paid $1.24 for each pack of 32 plates. We don't use paper plates often (usually only when a bunch of people are here for a meal and I don't want to waste time cleaning) but they're awfully nice to have handy.

The Glade deal rocked and will rock more when I submit the receipts for the Johnson Rebate deal afterwards. See all the details here at MoneySavingMom.com! To make my deal even sweeter, I used 2 "Buy 2 refills get 1 free" coupons that I found in a recent insert; my cashier was happy to take them in addition to all of the others.

So in total, I spent:

* 40 packages of wipes: zilch (savings of $38.80)
* Chinet plates - $1.24/pack (savings of $14)
* Glade candles and refills - earned $2 and will submit to SC Johnson for $10 back (savings of $27)

Net cost: earned $7.04 after SC Johnson rebate
Net savings: $79.80

*Smooch!* Love you Target!

Almost free games from Toys 'r Us

2009-11-12T11:18:00.000-08:00

Another fun deal today!

Toys 'R Us has all of these preschool games on sale from $8.99 to $3.99 right now, and they're also offering a $10 gift card when you buy $25 worth of games. You can make the deal even sweeter by pairing it with a rebate offer from Hasbro giving you $2 back on each game!

So it works like this:

* Buy 7 preschool games at $3.99 each (cost with tax in Maryland: $29.61).
* Get a $10 gift card to bring the net cost down to $19.61.
* Submit for the rebate (cost $.42 to mail it off) and get $14 back from Hasbro.
* Net cost for all seven games: $6.03! (Price with tax before sales, gift cards, and rebate: $66.71)

So nice, I made my Mom do it right along with me. I honestly have no idea what I'm doing with all of these games, but with all these kids around and their friends I'm confidant they'll be put to good use.

Easy deal at Target

2009-11-12T10:49:00.000-08:00

There are some good deals at Target right now but my two favorite (and easy replicated) are these:

Use the Target coupon here to print out as many coupons as you want for $1 off the new Target brand (Up and Up) wipes. The boxes of wipes were $1.57, so they cost me 57 cents after coupon, and the toddler flushable wipes were $.97 so they were free after the coupon. You can bet I'm going back for more.

I wanted to get Nate the Leapster Tag system for his "big" Chanukah present, so I bided my time until I found this great deal:

Target just reduced the price from $49.99 to $39.99. I paired it up with a Target coupon for $10 off (in the Target holiday coupon book in the stores an in the newspaper last weekend), and a manufacturer coupon for $10 off found here. Voila: $19.99!

I love coupons so so much.

Baking-day round-up

2009-10-15T09:23:00.000-07:00

The motivation lasted through 8 pm last night (don't ask me about today) and I was able to finish my baking-day plans (with an extra item thrown in!)

Made a quadruple batch of my favorite peanut noodle sauce and froze it in small plastic cups so I can grab one or two any time I want one. I usually put it on whole wheat noodles with whatever veggies are in the fridge/freezer.

It starts off like this:

then thickens to this:

and then I drink it on the spot. I want to, anyway. Froze it like this (see the one on the right, how easily it pops out of the cup? Plus the cups help protect from freezer burn.)

Froze up the pasta sauce (I blend up cans of beans, pepper slices, and spinach and combine with pre-made jarred pasta sauce):

Then I got inspired and decided we'd make a double-batch of those delicious Fake It Samosas - we had some for dinner and froze the rest after baking. I plan to throw them in the oven as needed.

So anyway, this is what I ended up with at the end:

I think this cold weather is making me "nest." I wonder what I'll make next!

A small "baking day"

2009-10-13T18:52:00.000-07:00

I totally admire Crystal for her baking days (especially now that she has three little ones at home!) I came back from our mini-vacation at Bethany with more motivation than I've had in a while and got inspired to do a little freeze-ahead work today.

First, the easy one: a bunch of rice for the freezer for lunches for Stewart and evenings when I don't cook (this is the second batch):

Breakfast is the most annoying meal of the day for me (we normally eat in the car on the way to Nate's school), so I decided to try these muffins that I read about on, where else, Money Saving Mom. I made a double batch and froze them. I tested one by microwaving it for 30 seconds (someone has to do the dirty work) and it heated up beautifully. I love this recipe! Bananas, applesauce, peanut-butter, and only one egg!

Last, I made some refried bean roll-ups - I combined 2 cans of refried beans, a baggie of brown rice, a can of diced tomatoes, and some seasonings, and used half of a whole-wheat tortilla for each one. I did use a tiny sprinkle of cheese on each one (less than a teaspoon on each one) so not a vegan recipe, but a good hand-held size for the boys. Froze them, too!

I don't know if it'll be tomorrow, but this week I plan to make up a batch of healthy pasta sauce and a huge batch of my favorite peanut noodle sauce. I made some last week and tried freezing it in large spoonfuls; it defrosted beautifully - I can throw it on whole wheat noodles with peas and corn and have a really easy good dinner for the boys. If it happens, I'll make sure to photograph it!

He did it! Stewart ROCKED the coupons!

2009-07-28T06:16:00.000-07:00

I did give him easy ones, but I'm very impressed with the job Stewart did on the coupons at Harris Teeter:

Bagelfuls - on sale for $2.49, used $1 off for a net cost of 49 cents each
Oreo Cakesters - on sale for $2.99, used $1 off for a net cost of 99 cents each
Morningstar Farms veggie burgers - on sale for $4/box, used $1 off for a net cost of $2/box
DanActive - on sale for $1.99, used $1 off to make them free!
CapriSun - on sale for $2.69, used $1 off for a net cost of 69 cents
Activia yogurt - on sale for $1.99, used $1 off to make them free!
Buitoni - costs $2.29, used $1 off for a net cost of 29 cents each

Today is the last day of super coupons and I'm going to try to go by. I've been so sick the last 4 days and my Mom is here helping me today, so I'll either nap the whole day or take advantage and get us both to HT to pound through the last 40 coupons. Hmmmm...nap or free food? They're both so great! :-)

Harris Teeeter super doubles visit #2!

2009-07-26T13:38:00.000-07:00

So much fun I had to do it again. Stewart's hitting Harris Teeter without me after picking Nate up from a birthday party this evening - I gave him some really easy ones. :-)

Terra Chips - on sale for $2.99, used $1 off for a net cost of 99 cents
V8 Splash - on sale for $2.50, used $1 off for a net cost of 50 cents
Capri Sun juices - on sale for $2.69, used $1 off for a net cost of 69 cents per box
Activia yogurt - on sale for $1.99, used $1 off to make them free!
Danimals yogurt - on sale for $1.99, used $1 off to make it free!
Danimals smoothies - on sale for $1.99, used $1 off to make it free!
DanActive smoothies - on sale for $1.99, used $1 off to make them free!
Hormel Compleats - costs $2.69, used $1 off for a net cost of 69 cents
Silk Soymilk - cost $3.69 each ($7.38 for two), used $1.25 off for a net cost of $2.44 each
BumbleBee Tuna pouches - cost $1.39 each, used $1 off to make them free!
Buitoni linguini - cost $2.29 each, used $1 off for a net cost of 29 cents each!

Nate was just asking for those crush cups the other day; I love being able to treat him sometimes!

Harris Teeeter super doubles

2009-07-24T07:54:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the very long silence! The house closing has turned into a nightmare; I think all will be resolved by Tuesday but it's been harrowing.

All of the balls in the air got me into a little funk a few weeks ago and I've been doing the bare minimum to take care of my kids and the house. Yesterday I woke up feeling a bit better; today was better yet. Perseverence.

So I got myself over to Harris Teeter today for super doubles (they're doubling coupons up to $1.98). Some fun deals to be had!

Kraft dressing - on sale for $3.45, used $1.50 off for a net cost of $.45
Terra Chips - on sale for $2.99, used $1 off for a net cost of $.99/bag
Buitoni pasta - costs $2.29, used $1 off for a net cost of $.29
Wholly salsa - on sale for $1.50, used $1 off to make it free!
Wholly guacamole - costs $1.99, used $1 off to make it free!
Oreo Cakesters - on sale for $2.99, used $1 off for a net cost of $.99
Capri Sun juices - on sale for $2.69, used $1 off for a net cost of $.69
Starbucks Frappaccino - costs $1.79, used $1 off to make it free!
Bagelfuls - on sale for $2.49, used $1 off for a net cost of $.49
Juicy Juice immunity - costs $2.99, used $1 off for a net cost of $.99
Frank's Hot Sauce - costs $1.29, used $1 off to make it free!
Sure deodorant - costs $2.59, used $1.50 off to make it free!
Danactive yogurt drink - on sale for $1.99, used $1 off to make it free!
Activia yogurt - on sale for $1.99, used $1 off to make it free!

This goes on for another 5 days and I will definitely be back for more. The Oreo cakesters are a fun treat to put in Nate's lunches and at 99 cents a box it's a steal. The CapriSuns will be a special every-now-and-then treat I can surprise him with. Free yogurt is great for smoothies (not vegan, I know.) Got the Bagelfuls free a few weeks ago and Nate loved them; whatever I have to do to get him out the door in the morning is good with me - definitely getting more at 49 cents a box!

Off to clip coupons for tomorrow!

Falafel bento

2009-07-08T19:36:00.000-07:00

It was all I could do not to eat these before I finished packing them up.

When Stewart and I honeymooned in Israel, I had at least one falafel sandwich each day. I came home 27 pounds heavier than I was when I left, and I squarely blame falafel. I love falafel.

For today's lunches I used a time-honored family passed down from my Mother - I bought a mix at Giant. Stir in some water, let it sit, form into balls, and fry the heck out of it. I paired it with a hummus/tahini mix and tomatoes and cucumbers from the garden. I wrapped Nate's up for him but left Stewart's in pieces so he could mix it up any way he likes.

Snack: cherries, celery, carrots, cucumbers
Lunch: falafel wrap, extra cucumbers and tomatoes, M&Ms
Snack: new dry mix of raw almonds, pretzels, and Cheerios snack mix (discontinued at 50% off)

Stewart:

Lunch: whole wheat tortillas, falafel, cucumbers, tomatoes, hummus/tahini, and carrots for dipping. Pack of M&Ms tucked under the tortillas of course!

Another two reasons to love Trader Joes

2009-07-08T02:51:00.000-07:00

Two more of my favorites:

A full pound of organic raisins for $2.69. They're great snacks for the kids; I throw them on cereal and into trail mix and keep a little baggie in my purse for those times the kids are hungry when we're out of the house. Fabulous.

Veggie dogs, which I find totally completely inedible, are a reliable fast meal for the kids who somehow adore them. I roll them up in a whole wheat tortilla for lunches and just cut up in pieces for Jack. Good protein, good for their bodies, no animal products, and buying them at the regular grocery store was sending us to the poorhouse at $4.39 per pack. At Trader Joes they're $2.99 a pack and freeze beautifully - I just pull out a pack whenever one's used up and keep in the fridge overnight. In the morning I have another set ready to go. Voila.

Another two reasons why Trader Joes rocks. Stay tuned for more fascinating posts soon.

Boring Bento

2009-07-07T09:04:00.000-07:00

Today's lunches:

Nate:

Stewart:

Bento from the backyard

2009-07-06T18:47:00.000-07:00

The leftovers from yesterday's harvest showed up in today's bento:

Nate:

Snack: watermelon & the last mandarin orange!
Lunch: pasta salad with tomatoes, basil, and cucumbers from the garden, fresh corn from Charlotesville. I flavored it with a scoop of tahini, olive oil, garlic, kosher salt, red wine vinegar, and a little lemon juice. Yum! Carrots, celery, and M&Ms on the side.
Snack: leftover leftover leftover chex mix with raw almonds

Stewart:

Lunch: same pasta salad, carrots & celery with hummus on the side, M&Ms.

Harvest

2009-07-05T17:24:00.000-07:00

Got back from a nice weekend away to find a nice harvest waiting for us:

Most turned into dinner tonight; the rest became lunch for tomorrow.

For dinner tonight I sliced the tomatoes and just put a little salt and basil from the garden on top. Sliced the cucumber and carrots for dipping in hummus. Boiled water for corn (brought home from Charlottesville this weekend) and dropped the purple and green beans near the end - served the corn and beans with a little butter and salt. Delicious dinner.

Check back tomorrow for a post on what became lunch!

I lurve a good deal

2009-07-05T17:18:00.000-07:00

I'm not doing much of anything with coupons these days; too busy with the house and everything that's going into getting ready for the closing and the work I'll have to do before we can rent it out.

So when a great deal smacks me in the face when I'm walking through the store, I'm all over it.

The 8 ounce size of my favorite brand of hummus was on sale from $3.99 to $1. That's 75% off, no coupon needed, and they don't expire until September 12th. I went a little crazy. I'm definitely looking forward to trying all of the fun flavors they had!

Mexican lunch

2009-07-02T09:14:00.000-07:00

Made "enchilada-sagne" last night - a recipe from my dear friend Emily. It uses up tons of stuff in the cabinets, especially the refried beans I keep getting free at Harris Teeter with triple-coupon days. It's not vegan; I used good-old cheese on top. Tastes best cooked forever in the oven until melty and gloppy and gushy.

Packed up the leftovers for lunch today (cut Nate's up for him).

Nate:

Snack: carrots, snap peas, green beans (from the garden), tomatoes (from the garden), hummus
Lunch: enchiladasagne, chips, salsa, M&Ms
Snack: leftover "Mommy Mix"

Stewart:

Lunch: enchiladasagne, chips, salsa, veggies, mandarin orange, M&Ms

Super quickie lunch

2009-07-01T06:10:00.000-07:00

So tired. Allergies keeping me up all night. Nothing fancy to show for today; I skipped Stewart's entirely (the $8 he'll spend at Potbelly was well worth the extra 4 minutes of sleep).

Snack: watermelon and a mandarin orange
Lunch: veggie hotdog rollup, snap peas, M&Ms, cherries, blueberries, and cucumber slides.
Snack: leftover "Mommy Mix" from yesterday

Sushi bento

2009-06-30T08:31:00.000-07:00

I made sushi for dinner last night and decided to see if I could get it to "keep" overnight for lunches today. After I made each roll I wrapped it tightly in plastic wrap; this morning I took them out, sliced them (thin for Nate) and put some soy sauce on the side. They were cold but the rice was still tender; I'll quiz Stewart about how it tastes after it's had a chance to come to room temperature by lunchtime.

Nate:

Snack: "Mommy Mix" (aka: a bunch of things from the snack drawer mixed together)
Lunch: sushi (one roll with veggie burger & cucumber inside and one roll with veggie hotdog and cucumber inside), snap peas, M&Ms.
Snack: cucumber slices and cherries

Stewart:

Lunch: Avocado & cucumber sushi, cherries, snap peas, and cucumber slices.

Quickie Bento

2009-06-28T16:30:00.001-07:00

Tons to do tonight; quick post on tomorrow's Bentos. Nate's camp goes on field trips on Mondays so I have to pack in disposable gear.

Nate:

Snack: carrots & snap peas
Lunch: veggie burger wrap w/peanut sauce, mandarin orange, cucumber slices, M&Ms
Snack: chex mix with raw almonds mixed in

Stewart:

Lunch: Veggie burger wrap with peanut sauce, avocado, and lettuce. Sugar snaps, carrots, cucumber slices, raw almonds, letter cookies, and M&Ms. Yum!

I love Trader Joes

2009-06-27T04:23:00.000-07:00

This is the first in a series called "Why I love Trader Joes more than just about anything." I'll randomly feature two items when the mood strikes.

Today's first fabulous item is the Melange a Trois:

This item is a one-pound bag of frozen bell pepper strips. It costs $1.69, which is less than you'd pay for the whole peppers at the grocery store. They don't cheap out and use mostly green peppers which I appreciate. It's frozen, so you can whip it out anytime and add it to whatever you're cooking. I use it with pierogies, enchiladas, in soups, stir-fries, and anywhere else I can stuff them. For you meat-eaters I could see them in ground beef for tacos or hamburger helper, or sauteed with veggies over chicken. Heck, add them to whatever you want - it's $1.69 for the bag! Wish they were organic, but you can't have everything. I bought six bags today.

Our next featured item is a bag of raw almonds:

It's a whole pound of raw almonds for $4.49. So healthy for the kids, easy for snacks, travels well...need I say more?

So that's today's installment of "Why Trader Joes rocks and I love it so much." Stay tuned to see what's next!

Two days of Bento plus some Nate

2009-06-26T08:16:00.000-07:00

Things have been a little crazy around here; I took Nate to Sesame Place yesterday which threw off our whole schedule.

Here's the Bentos from Wednesday (Stewart was conveniently too busy to eat it that day so he used it yesterday while we were at Sesame Place):

Nate:

Snack: Raw almonds, pretzels, veggie sticks
Lunch: veggie hotdog rollup, snap peas, cherries, pole beans, mandarin oranges, M&Ms
Snack: pretzels filled with PB, dried apricots, dried cranberries

Stewart:

Lunch: Salad with lettuce from the garden, mandarin oranges, dried cranberries, edamame, blueberries, and raw almonds. On the side are cherries, a few dried apricots, M&Ms, and salad dressing.

Here's a picture from Sesame Place just for fun:

And here's the Bento I sent off with Nate this morning. Stewart took the day off (it's our anniversary) so we'll eat together at home.

Snack: raw almonds, pretzels, letter cookies, and veggie sticks
Lunch: pasta with indian-spinach sauce, carrots, and tomatoes cooked in. Snap peas, mandarin orange, and blueberries on the side. I forgot the M&Ms - we'll see how that goes!
Snack: cherries, dried apricots, and dried cranberries

Now I"m off to pack for a weekend away without the boys. If you were planning on calling, don't - I'll be sleeping for the next 48 hours.

Garden update!

2009-06-23T12:02:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I talked about the garden, huh? I've been taking some photos but just haven't figured out a way to tie the whole post together so I think I'll just put the photos out there and let them speak for themselves.

Everything has been going great except that I have early blight on the tomatoes. The little guys have been ripening; I hope to get at least some big ones ripened before the plants die off. According to what I've read I'll just have to take a break from tomatoes for 2-3 years. Last year that would have really upset me but now that I've grown so many other vegetables I feel good about all of the other things I can grow.

So...

Green beans! Never grown those before. These were the bush beans; the pole beans haven't beaned yet.

Tomatoes! The little guys are ripening; no action on the big guys yet.

Yesterday's harvest:

Lettuce in the "ground":

Lettuce in the bowl just before it became dinner:

Progression shots:

May 21st:

May 26th:

June 12th:

June 21st:

Today's moment of Bento

2009-06-23T08:46:00.000-07:00

Just didn't have the energy to do Stewart's today so he's left to fend for himself on the mean streets of DC.

Since Nate can't take $10 and go get himself a sandwich and some chips, I obviously made his lunch:

Snack 1: Raw almonds, veggie sticks, pretzels
Snack 2: apple slices and edamame (I just love how they look together!)
Lunch: fake-chicken patty in ww wrap, cucumber slices, mandarin, carrots, green beans from the garden, and the obvious pack of M&Ms

Wish I fed myself the way I feed my kids!

Healthy is as healthy does

2009-06-22T16:00:00.000-07:00

I get a lot of e-mails about the healthy lunches, and it's true that they are. I'm pretty conscious about what the kids eat but I try not to take it too far. It makes me feel good to be taking care of them in this way, and I hope I'm laying a good foundation for them to eat well and to enjoy all sorts of flavors and dishes.

The key to the healthy meals, for me, is prepping the food ahead of when I need them. In my fridge right now is a big bowl of washed cherries, another of washed blueberries, and yet another of cubed watermelon. I have sandwich bags with chopped celery and sliced cucumbers and cooked shelled edamame. All of the snacks and dried fruits are in zip-lock bags so I can grab them, serve them, and put them away faster.

One key strategy is washing the produce as soon as I unpack it. When I'm putting the groceries away I'll just leave the apples, celery, peppers, and the rest on the counter. Then as I go about my business in the kitchen I can see what I need to wash, chop, and prep before putting it away. The celery gets chopped into short lengths, washed, and bagged. Apples are washed and de-stickered (those things are annoying!). Blueberries are washed and put into a bowl - I pad the bowl with a few paper towels to keep the berries on the bottom from going bad too quickly.

I do a lot of the prep work while I'm already in the kitchen so I don't have to spend a lot of extra time on this kind of stuff. If I'm already cooking dinner I'll throw an extra pot of water on to boil and cook a bag of edamame to keep on-hand. If I'm chopping onions for dinner I'll slice up a cucumber and bag it for snacks. Any time I open a new bag of almonds or raisins or veggie sticks I'll pour the whole thing into a zip-lock bag and store it that way.

The other easy way to get this kind of work done is working when I'm on the phone. My friend Kara called a few nights ago and while we gossipped I chopped up and entire watermelon and stored it in two bowls in the fridge. The boys and I have been enjoying the heck out of that watermelon ever since.

Today we decided to meet up with my folks and go watch my sister play softball. I was able to throw together snacks in about 10 minutes:

So that's all good and healthy and proper, right? But...

My general thinking is that if 2/3 of what they eat is healthy then I'm not going to sweat the rest. It really frees me up when they grab cookies at a party or eat nothing but doritos at our neighbor's house. In fact last night we were hanging around and I got a yen from my childhood: Nate and I hit the grocery store and got all the fixings for ice-cream sundaes and that was dinner for them last night. Big scoops of ice cream, bananas, chocolate syrup, whipped cream, and all the sprinkles Nate could sprinkle. It was a fun night.

Lunch blog

2009-06-21T19:15:00.000-07:00

On Mondays Nate's camp takes field trips so we have to pack lunches in disposable containers. I wasn't sure what would hold up so I went with an easy lunch:

Snack: apple slices and shelled edamame
Snack: pretzels and raw almonds
Lunch: veggie hotdog rollup and a bag of cherries

I didn't cook much this weekend so I didn't have an obvious main course for Stewart's lunch. I pulled this out of my hat and I've got to admit I'm pretty proud of it:

Lunch: Two whole-wheat tortillas wrapped in wax paper; I included a bunch of hummus and cucumber slices so he can make two wraps. Apple slices, shelled edamame, cherries, and a fun-pack of M&Ms tucked in.

Yum!

Friday's bento!

2009-06-19T09:39:00.000-07:00

So I opened up Nate's lunchbox yesterday to clean it out and this is what I found:

For a minute I seriously wondered if I'd forgotten to actually put his lunch in there. There's honestly not a crumb left. That's a great feeling!

Here's what they went off with today:

Nate:

Snack 1: pretzels and raw almonds
Snack 2: blueberries, sugar snaps, and a mandarin orange
Lunch: veggie burger wrap, carrots, apple slices, and one square of dark chocolate

Stewart:

Lunch: brown rice, tofu/chickpea curry, sugar snaps, mandarin orange, and 2 squares of dark chocolate

Day 4!

2009-06-18T10:30:00.000-07:00

Didn't post this last night because I didn't finish until this morning. Poor Jack has been so sick the last two nights and Stewart and I have gotten very little sleep. He's napping peacefully now - thank goodness for Motrin!

Nate:

Snack 1: dried apricots, raisins, and fresh (from frozen) edamame
Snack 2: veggie sticks (Trader Joe's) and pretzels filled with peanut butter (also TJs)
Lunch: veggie hot-dog wrap, sugar snaps, tiny mandarin orange, cucumber slices, and the ubiquitous M&Ms

Stewart:

Lunch: pizza-flavored veggie burger wraps (with tomato sauce for dipping / spreading), blueberries, mandarin orange, and veggies with hummus for dipping. M&Ms hidden under the blueberries.

So far Stewart's only comment about today's lunch is to [pretend] whine that I didn't peel his orange like I did yesterday. :-)

Day 3!

2009-06-16T17:08:00.001-07:00

Still trucking along! I can see a pattern emerging with Nate's two snacks. Those cute little dividers to keep things separated can't hold up to a preschooler flinging his lunchbox all about. Thus, one "wet" snack and one "dry" snack and no soggy yuckiness to clean up at the end of the day.

Nate:

Snack 1: Pretzels and "letter" cookies (from Trader Joe's)
Snack 2: Fruitabu fruit roll-up, edamame, tiny mandarin orange
Lunch: Last of the pasta salad from yesterday, sugar snaps, carrots, and hidden pack of M&Ms

Stewart:

Lunch: Pierogies (from tonight's dinner - sauteed with peppers and onions and drizzled with "crack" dip (thusly called because it's horribly addictive salad dressing from Giant)), edamame, tiny mandarin orange, letter cookies, and a hidden pack of M&Ms.

Now it's time for an early turn-in and a less-tired Mama tomorrow.

Day 2!

2009-06-15T16:32:00.000-07:00

Bentos were a big hit today - here are the ones for tomorrow:

I made some whole wheat noodles to go along with tonight's dinner; I used the rest to work out a yummy lunch using my favorite peanut noodle recipe.

Nate's:

Snack 1: tiny mandarin orange, apple slices, shelled edamame
Snack 2: chex mix (free from Target!) with raw almonds mixed in
Lunch: peanut noodles with corn and peas mixed in (and a tiny square of chocolate (free from Target!) hidden underneath)

Stewart's:

Lunch: peanut noodles with corn and peas mixed in, cucumber slices, edamame, and two squares of chocolate (free from Target!)

Jack's:

Snack: cucumber slices, mandarin oranges, apple slices, and shelled edamame
Lunch: peanut noodles

Today went so smoothly and easily due to the prep-work ahead of time; I just hope I can keep it up! It feels so relaxing to know how much is already taken care of for tomorrow.

First day!

2009-06-14T12:15:00.001-07:00

Nate starts camp tomorrow for the first time, and he'll be going all-day for the first time. I admit these past two weeks, with no school and no camp yet, have been a little rough but we've also gotten a lot closer - I'm going to miss him! I also admit that I'm looking forward to it a lot. I have all sorts of fantasies about how much I'll get done during the day. Probably I'll just shop online for more Bento boxes, but at least I'll do it without feeling guilty that I'm neglecting him by not building the 173rd Lego tower of the day with him.

I have to send him, each day, with two snacks and a lunch. I already have the Lock & Locks for the food and yesterday I picked him up two lunchboxes at Target and let him choose. One was super-cute and non-character with a neat thermos attached. The other was a Transformers one. Guess which one he picked? Yup, Transformers. I hate the character thing, but I saw it and I knew he'd love it and I had to let him make the choice. That's what the first day of camp is all about, right?

Here's what I packed for his big first day:

Snack 1: cucumber/hummus sandwiches and pretzels filled with peanut butter
Snack 2: raw almonds, dried cranberries, and veggie sticks (Trader Joes)
Lunch: Veggie hotdog wrap, mandarins, sugar snap peas, carrots, and a little fun-pack of M&Ms hidden underneath.

As long as I'm packing Nate's lunch I figured I'd start packing Stewart's lunch:

Salad (with lettuce from the garden!) with mandarins, dried cranberries, and avocado. Cucumber/hummus sandwiches and carrots, and a fun-pack of M&Ms hidden under the dressing.

And as long as I had everything out, I figured I'd prep Jack's snack and lunch to make my day even smoother tomorrow:

Snack: veggie sticks, pretzels filled with peanut butter, cucumber slices
Lunch: veggie hotdog chunks, mandarins, avocado slices, dried cranberries, and raw almonds

It took me about 30 minutes to put these all together. I'm going to try to use the same ingredients for the lunches, even if the end product isn't the same (for example, the foods from the kids snacks were the toppings for Stewart's salad.) I'll work leftovers in as much as I can, though I haven't been cooking at night much these days (we scrounge a lot).

Do you guys like seeing these? Should I try to keep up the bento posting?

My biggest and best money-earning tip

2009-06-13T09:00:00.000-07:00

A lot of frugal blogs, including this one, focus on all of the small ways to earn and save money. Most of the time, that's our best way to do it and for a lot of people it's the only way

But my biggest money-earning tip is this one: invest in real estate. Beg, borrow, steal - just get yourself in real estate. Think this is a bad time? It's not. There is no bad time, even when prices are sky-high. But right now when interest rates are low and housing prices are down is the best time in 10 years.

The easiest first step is to buy your own home. When you're buying a personal residence, you qualify for lower interest rates and down payments, and often there are subsidies for first-time buyers. Interest rates are going up right now but they're still very low, historically, and there many people can still qualify for mortgages. Fair mortgages that they can afford.

We have been very lucky in this area, and we've also worked hard. Stewart bought the home we live in before we started dating and I moved in here in 2003. He had the foresight to anticipate what this neighborhood was capable of and the house now has plenty of equity in it.

In 2003 we tapped that equity with an equity line and used it as the down payment to buy a house right across the street - we refinished it and now rent it to a great group of "kids" (they're in their 20's but seem like kids to me!) In 2003 they were still giving out equity lines on investment properties, so we got one and used that as the down payment on another investment property a mile away. We happily rent it to another great set of "kids."

My rule of thumb, based on the reading and research I've done on real-estate investing, is that I need to be able to charge in rent my total expenses plus 25%: so if my total expenses are $2,000, I need to be able to charge around $2,400 in rents. We do this and more on the two properties that we already own.

Each month I am able to pay the mortgages plus an extra 10% to help pay the mortgage off sooner. I'm also able to send about $1,000 to the equity lines to help bring those balances down. The balances are coming down slowly, but they're coming down. If there is a repair needed I break even that month, but I never go into the red. In about 13 years the equity lines will be paid off and in about 20 the mortgages will be paid. We will own those two homes free-and-clear and someone else will have paid every cent of it.

We intended to buy another but prices went up past the point I was comfortable with. There was no way to even pay expenses, let alone allow for any overage to protect us when the house needs repairs. So we waited, and waited, and waited.

About 8 months ago I decided to test the waters and started looking at properties online. It looked promising, so we found a new agent and I started looking. A month ago I did a blitz-weekend of property hunting and found 8 that looked like they might work. I ran the numbers, analyzed everything, and Stewart and I picked the two most promising out of the bunch. Went back for one more look and put an offer in that very day; we found out the next day that we got the house we bid on. We're currently under contract and on July 17th, it will be ours.

It's the crown jewel of our "portfolio." Two units - a four bedroom upstairs and a separately-metered two-bedroom downstairs. New kitchens, new bathrooms, new carpets, refinished hardwood floors. Central air, front porch, back deck, four parking spaces in the back. Plus it's one block from the Metro, four from Safeway, and about 8 from the new development in Columbia Heights. It's a gem.

Original woodwork:

Master suite:

Main unit kitchen:

Front porch:

Main floor:

We were able to use the balances on the two equity lines to put down the down payment. We did have to increase the equity line on our primary residence to do it, but we made it by a hair.

The market will fluctuate, housing prices will fluctuate - just buy a good house with good features in a good location and a good price. If you know that, no matter what, you can pay the mortgage with the rent you take in then it's worth doing. In 30 years the house will be paid off on someone else's dime. If the house is worth more, that's icing on the cake. If it's worth less, drat. Doesn't matter - you didn't buy it. It's a free house, and that's worth a whole heck of a lot.

For reading, I really recommend anything by Robert Shemin. His focus is on making money by being a good guy - a good landlord, an honest person who treats tenants well. I've implemented many of his techniques and have had a wonderful 6 years as a landlord.

I'm happy to answer any questions you have about this kind of investing. It's worth it, I promise!

Bento madness begins

2009-05-31T14:39:00.001-07:00

I'm a little obsessive about new gadgets, new ideas...some stick, some don't (yoga anyone?)

So far we're still going strong with the bento fun. I've spent the last few nights trolling around for vegan bento ideas*. I found a treasure-trove at Vegan Lunch Box and I've made a refrigerator list of meal and snack ideas. I plan to do a magnet system like Biggie does but I haven't picked up the supplies yet. For now a list of ideas, along with a mental list of what food I have on-hand, will have to suffice.

Today I made Nate happy with an easy fun snack. Didn't think of it myself, obviously - thanks goes to the internet as always. I have no idea what the strawberries are around the top - I just know I had a ton of fresh ones ready to go bad and I needed to fit them in somewhere.

* We're not vegan, not even truly vegetarian, but I like to omit animal products as much as I have the energy to deal with. I keep the house mostly vegetarian (we have brisket at Chanukah and when I'm dieting I use Lean Cuisines with meat in them for a cheap filling dinner). The boys eat vegetarian hot dogs and veggie burgers; we eat a lot of veggie chili and sweet potatoes and peanut butter and nuts and salad and tofu. If we're at a ballgame, I'm getting a hot dog and so are the boys. I don't mind the occasional drive-through for McNuggets and a Quarter Pounder. If I'm at a restaurant I'm sometimes ordering a steak.

I don't subscribe to the all-or-nothing mentality of these kinds of situations; I think the less we eat of animal products the better we're treating the animals, the earth, and our bodies. It doesn't have to be ALWAYS or NEVER to make a difference. So I keep us as vegetarian as I can manage and as vegan as I can stand. I don't read ingredient lists for minute traces of dairy - if the bulk of the product is vegan it passes my test.

We're definitely whittling out the things that are easy to replace: we use soymilk on cereal and skip the cheese and sour cream at Chipotle. I buy string cheese once every 6 months or so and only the occasional organic yogurt for smoothies (though I made a vegan smoothie yesterday and Nate went bananas for it, so that might be heading out too). I feel good about our progress and about being conscious about what we're eating and it's moral implications. More progress to come, I'm sure.

Bento jackpot!

2009-05-29T12:09:00.001-07:00

Nate starts camp in a few weeks and I'll have to send lunch along for the first time. So excited to do some fun lunches for him, and I'll start making lunches for Stewart as long as I'm adding that task into the schedule.

Just a simple one I gave the kids at the playground yesterday (fake-chicken patty, carrots, broccoli with a little asian dressing on top):

Did a bunch of research about the different types of bento boxes and really liked the description of Lock & Lock containers. Found a few here and there online but shipping was crazy and I would have had to order from 3 different stores to get the styles I wanted.

I found a listing at the Bento Store Locator at Lunch in a Box for a grocery store in Wheaton - I dragged the boys out there this morning on the way to pick strawberries at Butler's Orchard. Total jackpot! Tons and tons of different sizes of Lock & Lock containers and all of the divided ones I was coveting.

They only had a few "character" bentos but that's fine with me - they're not dishwasher safe and goodness knows I'm not hand-washing them. I'll use Ichiban Kan to buy a few more cute ones, some belts, some internal dividers, and some cute little sauce-containers and I'll have a good stock to get started with. As I do more and more, I'll figure out which ones I'm using the most and get a few extra of those.

And, most importantly, I'll stock up on a few Lunchables or something for the days I slack off. Gotta be prepared.

The Great Urban Race!

2009-05-02T17:11:00.000-07:00

A month or two ago I saw a posting for the Great Urban Race and felt like I finally found the secret of life. I have loved scavenger hunts my whole life, and am obsessed with The Amazing Race. I got my equally nerdy sister on board and signed up to run today's DC race.

It was just as much fun as I thought it would be. And we were just as good of a team as I thought we would be.

There were 340 teams of 2 people, and my hope was to come in the top 100. Deborah was pushing for the top 50. I thought we'd done pretty well, but I was thoroughly shocked by how well - I still can't really believe it. As it turns out, we crossed the finish line 27th but when three teams in front of us got big time penalties (for mistakes they'd made during the race) we ended up 24th, qualifying to race in the National Championships in New Orleans! We have no idea if we'll go for it, but we were really proud to have done so well, and to get medals hung around our necks at the awards ceremony.

We strategized a lot in the days up to the race, and decided on some techniques:

* No laptop during the race but we'd bring one to the start line, use it to frantically Google when we got the clues, and plot out our route with that information. Then we ditched the laptop with friends of my sister who worked in the restaurant where we got started (alternate plan: ditch the laptop in the trunk of my car)

* Take the time at the beginning to make sure we understood where each of the 12 spots would be around Virginia and DC, and plot our route carefully to get through the stops in the smartest way possible.

* Use the iPhone and Blackberry Google and Google Maps features.

* Take the time to read each clue carefully to make sure we didn't end up with a time penalty at the end.

* Use friends as resources to help us with tough questions. Our Mom and Dad ended up being a huge help too!

(All of these strategies were totally legal)

Check the bottom of this entry to see our 12 clues (we were allowed to skip 1).

We started at the Crystal City Sports Pub and ran to the Metro, taking the blue line to Rosslyn. Hopped off and made our way to Ledo's Pizza to do clue number 9. We didn't make good time getting there and ended up on the wrong side of Route 50. Other teams were on the wrong side too and made their way to the pedestrian bridge; Deborah and I scaled down the embankment and crossed on foot. Mavericks. Got the spaghetti and moved on.

Headed on foot to the next two clues in Arlington. Ended up walking up a taxing hill that really slowed us down. We hit a CVS to try to find a shower liner (clue 1) but they were sold out. Made our way to the comedy venue in Arlington (clue 8) and I rocked the house with a joke that Deborah's friend supplied us with ("What kind of cheese isn't yours? Na-cho cheese!") We got our tickets and headed to Combat Sports International (clue 7) for our workout. Talk about insult to injury - we had to do push-ups, kicks, jabs, and lunges!

Headed to the Courthouse Metro to catch the Orange line to McPherson Square. We jogged north towards the cluster of clues around Thomas Circle. Got our picture taken at the statue of Martin Luther (clue 10) and tried to figure out how to handle clue 1.

This was another place where DC knowledge came in handy - when the second CVS was also sold out of shower liners, I stopped in at the 7-11 just north of where we needed to be. Bought a popsicle there (clue 6) and they directed me to a little store that sold me a liner. In truth, they actually GAVE me a liner because all I had was a credit card - I'm going back tomorrow to give the nice guy his $1.60.

We dropped the liner off at N Street Village (clue 1) and jogged south to work on the cluster of clues around the White House. First we took our picture of 12 or more people (clue 2) and had our picture taken holding up 19 fingers (clue 4). Huge thanks to Mom and Dad for solving this one for us! We actually took two pictures: one with 19 fingers up and one with 20 - the clue was open to a bit of interpretation and we didn't want to take any chances!

We got a little hung up finding the exact location of the bench (clue 5) in Lafayette Park, so we pulled a weak one and scanned around for other teams. When we saw people in orange sitting and having their picture taken, we headed their way and joined in. Voila.

We jogged off to the ESPN zone and took way too long getting a good picture of one of us shooting a basketball. Shockingly, this is the best of a whole group:

More jogging, then walking, then jogging, then walking...we had planned to make our last stop the American Indian museum (clue 11) but realized the Hirshorn was a lot closer (clue 12). Thanks again to Mom and Dad for unscrambling the letters and heading us in the right direction - the Crouching Spider statue!

Deborah planned it perfectly to jump right onto the Yellow Line, just a few blocks away, to get us straight back to the finish line in Crystal City. We had the frustrating experience of getting into the Metro and finding a 12 minute wait - lots of teams caught up to us while we were waiting for the train.

When we got to Crystal City, we were determined to just gut it out and run the whole way but our bodies just weren't up to it. We did our best, and towards the end I pushed Deborah to run a bit more. We had stayed ahead of the group we were trying to beat, so she asked what the point in keeping pushing was, and I said so we could do the best we could do. We gutted it out and ran the last block and then gasped for breath for 10 minutes.

As we crossed the line, the guy checking people in told us "You're right on the cusp." I swear by everything holy that it never crossed my mind that it meant anything - I honestly figured it was the cusp of the first half verses the second half. A few minutes later Deborah came over to tell me that we were in shot of the top 25 and 6 hours later I honestly can't believe it. In the end, the winning team came in at about 2:30 and we came in at 3:08. Mapping it out, it looks like we covered about 5.5 miles - jogging and walking when we had to.

Whether or not we go to Nationals, this will not be the last race we run!

12 clues:

1) Find a DC organization whose mission is to "empower homeless and low-income women to claim their highest quality of life by offering a broad spectrum of services and advocacy in an atmosphere of dignity and respect." Choose one of the three items below and deliver it to the guy with a guitar there:

a. A new size 42 - 54 D or DD bra.
b. A new shower curtain vinyl liner.
c. A new set of twin sheets.

You must get a 'brochure' after delivering your item to receive credit for this clue.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

2) DETOUR (choose one of the following two):

a. Take a picture of 12 or more total real people with at least two real people wearing a shirt that clearly says 'Washington, DC."
b. Take a picture of 12 or more total real people with at least two real people wearing a Washington Nationals shirt.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

3) Solve the following puzzle (it was a cryptogram). When solved, it told us to "Find the Super Shot in ESPN Zone and take a picture of one teammate shooting one of the basketballs with super shot clearly visible in the picture."
_____________________________________________________________________________________

4) The Obamas decided to have a slumber party last night and were trying to figure out who to invite to the White House. Malia, being the older child, choose to invite double the amount of Sasha. Sasha invited an odd primary number of friends, the next one up from her age. Barack said it was unfair for only the girls to have guests over so he had a few of his buddies join the party - the other living presidents. Michelle then felt left out so she called up her girl friends, Hilary, Condoleeza, and Sarah to come by as well. Then she thought about it and uninvited Sarah. Grandma Robinson decided to invite all 69 of her Chicago friends to show them the White House. If each guest and each Obama / Robinson slept in their own room, how many rooms in the White House were unoccupied that night?

Take a picture with the White House clearly visible and the answer of the above clue shown by teammates holding up the proper number of fingers.

Leah's note: depending on the reading of "their own room" the answer was either 19 or 20. We took a picture with each one held up, just in case. Mom and Dad solve this one for us - thanks guys!
_____________________________________________________________________________________

5) Victor Hugo wrote that genius and this were "one and the same."

Find the commemorative spot that marks where "the Park Bench Statesman" would wait for his.

Take a picture of both of the teammates sitting on the bench with the bronze plaque set in granite block clearly visible in the picture.

Leah's note: INSPIRATION and genius are one in the same, so we had to look for a bench where Bernard Baruch waited for inspiration.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

6) Return to the finish line with one of the following items:

a) A toothpick with an American flag attached to it.
b) A wooden Popsicle stick.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

7) Take the short lesson at Combat Sports International. After successfully completing your lesson, the staff will give you a flyer. You must return to the finish with this card! This clue is only available from 1 pm - 5 pm so strategize accordingly.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

8) Comedians are waiting to judge your best joke. Find the venue in Arlington where T-Rexx is scheduled to perform later tonight. If your joke makes the judges laugh, you'll get a ticket (return to the finish with this) and the clue is complete. If your joke doesn't make the judges laugh you must perform another joke. Your joke can be simple and does not have to include both teammates. Our judges are looking more for effort than hilarity.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

9) Find the Rosslyn Ledo Pizza. Go directly to the buffet table, take one strand of spaghetti, and take picture of both teammates eating it Lady and the Tramp style (one teammate eating it on each end).
_____________________________________________________________________________________

10) Take a picture of all teammates in front of the specific statue of "The Philosopher" shown on the right.

Leah's note: This was a hard one to find on Google. Searching on "The Philosopher" didn't yield anything. When I looked closely at the photo, I thought it said Martin Luther, and I knew that clue 1 was right next to the church that houses Luther Place (another DC advantage). We tried Googling Martin Luther and found it right away. Thank goodness for good eyesight!
_____________________________________________________________________________________

11) Take a picture of all teammates in front of a real Bombardier in the National Museum of the American Indian.

Leah's note: This is the one we skipped.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

12) Unscramble the following words and take a picture of all teammates in front of this sculpture:

GONCHUCR RIDEPS

Leah's note: I had studied the clues from previous years and had seen that Anagrams were a frequent clue. I loaded a great Anagram program on my iPhone, but when I tried to use it on this clue it didn't find anything! After the race I realized that it was searching in the sub-category of English Names, not all words. We wasted at least 5 or 10 minutes working on that one, and finally Mom and Dad figured it out for us!
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Harris Teeter triples

2009-05-01T11:20:00.000-07:00

Easy run at HT, helped out by my long-suffering Mom who handled 20 coupons for me:

Aquafresh: $1.99 minus $.75 coupon (tripled) = free - donation
Huggies wipes: $3.29 minus $.75 coupon (tripled) = $1.04 each (69% savings)
Wet Ones: $2.89 minus $.75 coupon (tripled) = $.64 each (78% savings)
Ban deodorant: $2.59 minus $.75 coupon (tripled) = $.34 each (87% savings - donation)
Ortega refried beans: $2 for 2 cans minus $.75 coupon (tripled) = free + overage
Granola bars: $2.50 minus $.75 coupon (tripled) = $.25/box (90% savings)
Applesauce: $3.54 minus $.60 coupon (tripled) = $.87/package
Frank's Hot Sauce: $.33 minus $.50 coupon (tripled) = free + overage

The whole trip cost about $12 and was worth every penny!

Harris Teeter triples

2009-04-01T11:25:00.000-07:00

Using my newfound "sanity meter", I had decided to skip the Harris Teeter Triple Coupon week. But I realized yesterday that I needed more milk for the freezer, so off we went.

I made it easy and stuck to just a few things I'd really use.

The grape tomatoes were on sale for $1.25 each and the boys munch them like crazy. The half-empty one was emptied by said boys right there in the grocery cart.

The dole fruit cups were on sale for $2 each and I had 3 coupons for $.75 off 2 (tripled). So each package of fruit cups cost me 86 cents!

The ziploc bags weren't on sale, but we always need them. Each package cost $2.45 and I used coupons for $.55 off (tripled), so each package cost me 80 cents!

The Ken's dressings were on sale Buy 2 Get 3 Free and I had coupons for $1 off 2. So each bottle cost me 48 cents!

The Muir Glen tomatoes were totally NOT needed since we have so many, but I can't resist the price. Each can cost $2.39 and I had coupons for $.75 off (tripled). So each can cost me 14 cents. Can't pass it by.

The end!

Eating out of the pantry - empanadas!

2009-03-31T07:08:00.000-07:00

Okay, I was pretty proud of this one:

Eyeing the random stuff in the fridge yesterday I realized I had a bit of a theme going: leftover chili, shredded cheddar, guacamole, and salsa. I wanted to do something fun with it and rememebered a recipe from Real Simple for Fake-it-don't-make-it Empanadas. I dug out some frozen pizza dough from Trader Joes (1 pound).

Defrost pizza dough and separate into 6 portions. Flour and roll each into an 8-inch circle (I find that the Trader Joes dough really retracts and won't easily roll thin. I rolled each into a small circle, let them rest, and then stretched them when I was ready to fill them.)

Add the filling of your choice - I obviously used the veggie chili. Make sure not to get the topping too close to the edge so it won't interfere with a tight seal:

Add the toppings of your choice - I used up the rest of the defrosted shredded cheddar:

Stretch the dough over the top and press it to seal it. Brush the top with some oil and put onto a greased cookie sheet.

Bake at 400 for 10-15 minutes (until lightly browned):

Serve with guacamole and salsa. Eat. Yum.

Eating out of the pantry

2009-03-29T08:43:00.000-07:00

This week's been going great. I love working my way through the stuff we have on-hand!

I made a big batch of quinoa with black beans - the only thing I had to purchase was the cilantro (it's just not worth making without the cilantro flavor).

The kids are working their way through some junky snacks that I don't want to buy again, but can't bear to just throw out. Mini pringles, Chex mix...a bunch of crap that I got for free at Shoppers Food Warehouse a few weeks ago.

I also made another batch of frozen yogurt pops with the rest of the blueberry yogurt from SFW and 2 bags of frozen blueberries I dug out of the freezer. Nate loves them and it was a great, healthy way to use up some stuff that's been sitting around for too long.

I also found some bagged-up soup frozen from a big batch I made a few months ago and ate that for lunch for several days instead of using new cans of soup, and I've been throwing frozen organic veggies from the SFW trip into just about everything I feed the kiddos. I'm definitely making headway on the storage items we have!

Last night we had friends for dinner and I decided to stick with the plan of using mostly items from the pantry. Whenever we have people over I try to do a totally vegetarian night without saying anything about it - it's part of my "eat less meat" campaign to show people, without being pushy, how delicious and complete a meal can be without meat. I took a look at what we had around to come up with a meal: I had tons of Wholly Guacamole in the downstairs freezer that I got for more than 50% off, shredded cheddar from Safeway for more than 50% off, salsa from Giant that was more than 70% off. I had tons of half-sized boxes of Wheat Thins I got free at CVS, organic diced tomatoes from Harris Teeter for 90% off, and tons of cans of beans. So...

Munchies: Wheat thins and baby carrots with dips: guacamole, salsa, and homemade hummus.

Main course: veggie chili made with frozen diced onions and other frozen veggies, canned beans, and canned tomatoes. Toppings: shredded cheddar, guacamole, salsa.

Voila! I didn't have to buy a single item, I used up tons of things I already had in the house, and I cooked a healthy delicious vegetarian meal. Very happy.

Pantry challenge!

2009-03-24T11:05:00.000-07:00

Thanks to some great grocery deals the last few weeks, my freezer and pantry are overflowing. So my challenge for a few weeks is to make meals with the random odds-and-ends (one lonely box of tomato soup?) plus all of the food stored up. Produce and a few good grocery deals are the only reasons to set foot in the stores. I'll try to blog meals as I can!

Last night I made simple "mexican eggrolls."

Easy peasey.

Start with eggroll skins, refried beans, some cheese if you're not vegan, and salsa. If you have the energy (I did not), sautee up any vegetables in the fridge and add them in. What I get a thrill about is that I got every item I used, except the eggroll skins, for more than 50% off with sales and coupons. Fun.

Mix everything up in a bowl.

Follow the eggroll skin packaging for directions on wrapping them up (remember: less is more when it comes to filling eggrolls).

Fry 'em up in a pan and voila!

Money saving yummy hummus

2009-03-23T16:47:00.001-07:00

So we eat a lot of hummus in this house.

Since we stay mostly vegetarian at home, I'm always conscious of the kids getting enough protein (I recently did a check, and they should be getting 12 grams a day. They get that by lunch!)

We eat hummus once a day on average. Jack eats it in celery and on small pieces of whole wheat tortilla. Nate eats hummus wraps and does a lot of dipping of carrots & other veggies.

As I picked up yet another five dollar family container of hummus, I took a look at the ingredients and decided to try making the darn stuff myself. It just didn't look that complicated. And guess what? It's really not complicated. And my favorite part is that it's yet another recipe where you can throw in whatever you have laying around that sounds yummy.

To start, you need a big can of chickpeas (you can save money by buying dried or on sale, but it'll be $2 at most), olive oil (probably about $.30 worth), lemon juice (about $.25 worth), and tahini if you want (about $.75 worth if you're using the urber organic fancy kind from Whole Foods. Probably cheaper elsewhere). In this recipe, I also roasted a few heads of garlic and used some chives from last year that I discovered growing in the backyard. Tough little guys!

I've tried this in a blender. Don't do it. It doesn't have enough force. Finally gave the food processor a whirl (get it?) after a recommendation from a neighbor and it turned out beautifully. Best hummus ever.

Put in the big can of chickpeas, some squeezes of lemon juice, and about 6 tablespoons of tahini. Put the lid on and start it up. Through the top chute, slowly add olive oil until it gets to the consistency you want. Don't flinch when you're adding in the olive oil - it's so good for you! Once it's all blended, add in any herbs you want, give it one last mix and start eating!

Jack actually said "mmmmmmm" at his first taste. That's as good as it gets.

Spending like there's no tomorrow

2009-03-22T18:07:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks have been a spendfest here, and I couldn't be more happy about it.

I know this goes against the grain of most frugal blogs out there, but I hope I'm not like most frugal bloggers I read. I take a lot to use, but I leave behind the idea of frugality as the main goal. Living well is my main goal, and while most of the time that means eschewing the expensive side of life to keep our long-term goals in mind, sometimes that means spending money on the things that make us happy and healthy.

Stewart discovered a great organization called Meetup, where people can start local groups to meet up (get it?) with people with shared interests. There are biking, sewing, knitting, philantrophy, singles, travel group and more. The best one we've found is our local Adventure group. So far we've done an orienteering course and we're doing an Easter Egg scavenger hunt/orienteering course on April 11th. Being Jewish means having fun on Easter, right?

Another one I'm so excited about is in May when my sister and I are going to "sleepaway camp" for a weekend! I didn't do this as a child, and she did, so it'll be nice to experience it together.

Now that Jack is getting older, and I feel comfortable leaving everyone behind for a weekend, I feel like I'm getting my life back. But I'm getting it back better than it was before - I feel so motivated to experience as much of life as I can. I was rather lazy before these kiddos came along, and I have so much time to make up for!

I'm planning a weekend in New Orleans with my friend Dave in July (free hotel and meals, just have to pay for the flight) and a girls weekend with some friends in August.

I've also enrolled Nate in some fairly pricey classes - gymnastics and swimming. Living in DC means a lot of great things, but there's not much in the way of cheap "community center" classes so we're left signing up for classes with private organizations. He had his first gymnastics class last week, and we did his first swim class together today. Pure joy on his face the whole time.

I know none of these things are "necessary." I know we can do without them. But I don't think I'll ever regret spending the money on them, and I know for sure I'd regret skipping them in favor of saving the money. I'm happy to cut coupons, skip some meals out, bring lunches on our outings, buy used items on eBay, and keep a constant eye on Freecycle. I'm happy to buy used cars, shop at Payless, dress my kids in hand-me-down, and get books from the library. But unless things get really bad, I'm not willing to skip the fun things in life when we're so careful in other areas.

And I count my blessings that I'm able to make these choices for my family. We are so lucky.

Grocery trip today

2009-03-20T09:56:00.001-07:00

A fun, easy trip to Giant today. I've instituted a new "sanity policy" in my life and I just can't put as much effort into the details of the trips, so no photos and no specific breakdown. It was nice to shop only one store this week - they had everything I wanted and needed, so no Safeway, Harris Teeter, or Shoppers Food Warehouse for me. It's very sad when you're relieved that the inserts don't show any great deals coming up - less pressure to take advantage of them!

Total before Bonus Card and coupons: $295 and change
Total after Bonus Card and coupons: $122 and change

It's nice to provide healthy, sometimes organic, food for my family and get such huge savings at the same time. I bought veggies, strawberries, a watermelon, organic soymilk, organic frozen waffles, soup, and tons of other good stuff. I also got another 15 boxes of Electrasol / Finish dishwasher detergent with the expired $2.50/off coupons - the boxes were on sale for $3.50, so a net cost of a buck a box! I don't think we'll need dishwasher detergent for at least two years. Seriously.

Creativity

2009-03-13T12:00:00.000-07:00

Last week, I had the pleasure of meeting Gretchen from Notes from the CocktailMoms and her sweet son Zane. The boys are almost exactly the same age and I think they got along well; I don't really remember because I spent most of the time babbling at Gretchen.

She's everything I want to be when I grow up: gentle, practical, idealistic, and, crucially, clean: she's definitely showered and changed her clothes recently. Cute clothes. Most importantly she's truly creative. The gift and craft ideas on her blog blow me away with their cuteness and practicality all combined up.

I love doing creative things, but I lack any creativity to come up with the projects in the first place. Anything fun or witty I've cooked or created I found trolling around on the internet or in cookbooks.

A perfect example is the rainbow jello I finally got a chance to make:

I totally stole it from here. I love making things happen, I just never have a single idea about WHAT to make happen.

So if you see any projects or crafts or recipes you think might be up my alley, point them out to me! I'm always on the prowl for something fun to do.

And definitely check out Gretchen's blog and her store. You'll be impressed. target=blank

Blooming

2009-03-12T16:40:00.000-07:00

The "babies" are doing beautifully. It is truly amazing how fast they're sprouting and growing. These photos are taken five days apart:

and

and

Snacktime - easy, healthy and fun

2009-03-06T12:06:00.000-08:00

I had to make snack for preschool, and I still have a ton of yogurt in the fridge from the Great SFW Trip, so I dug up this cute recipe:

Take 16 ounces of peach yogurt, 16 ounces of partially-defrosted frozen peaches, and 1/4 cup honey. You can obviously use any flavors of yogurt and frozen fruit that suits your fancy. Blend it up however you like, divvy it up into 24 small cups, and stick a Popsicle stick 3/4 of the way in. After they've frozen you can pop them out and roll them in sugar sprinkles - I just did the tops. Both boys are loving them and think they're getting a treat!

They're alive!

2009-03-05T23:43:00.000-08:00

The seedlings are sprouting! I hooked up the grow lights now that they've broken through and now our bedroom's like a disco.

Good Harris Teeter trip - without coupons!

2009-03-05T10:38:00.000-08:00

Had a nice trip to HT this morning with only 3 coupons in my wallet! These deals are good through March 10th.

The gallons of organic milk are on sale from $5.50 to $5 (savings of 10%). They freeze great, so it keeps me out of the store every few days. The savings is even greater (41%) when you figure that my local store (Giant) only carries half-gallons and they're always at least $4.29 each ($8.58/gallon!)

The ketchups were on sale for $2 each (down from $2.99) and we're a Heinz family here. The dearth of coupons wasn't keeping me from my beloved Heinz!

The grapes were on sale for $.99/pound, and all of you with kids know how many grapes two small boys can go through.

The Palermo's pizzas were back on the fantastic Buy 2, Get 3 Free special! The price went up from $5.99 to $6.99 per pizza, but it still works out to just $2.80 per pizza after buying 5! The pizza is great, plus they have some fantastic vegetarian options (usually "Cheese" is the best a vegetarian can do, flavor-wise). Our favorites are The Napoli (pesto, fresh mozzarella) and The Messina (spinach and goat cheese). I bought a few Margharitas for the days when we have picky kids over as guests.

The Steamfresh bags (selected bags only; I think it was peas, corn, broccoli, green beans, and the bags of rice) were on sale from $3 to $2, plus they were also Buy 2, Get 3 Free! I happened to have coupons for $1 off 3.

Between this trip, my Safeway trip, and last week's trip to Shoppers Food Warehouse, our freezer is full. I love that feeling.

$36K Challenge - February update

2009-03-03T10:51:00.000-08:00

Well it came right down to the wire, but it looks like we will make our $3,000 payment against debt for February!

I was just about to post that we were only going to be able to send around $1400 when a check came, via UPS Overnight AM delivery, for a huge 2-day job that Stewart did in September 2008. He told me about it at the end of January, and I have harangued and pestered this woman for a month about payment. She gave me a thousand promises and excuses and yesterday I left her a message that said "This is my last call on the matter. If we don't have payment by COB on Tuesday, I'll simply turn this account over to collects."

Voila - $1,650 in the mail today!

So, by the hair of our chinny-chin-chins, we made February's goal. Extra work had been very light this month, and not much is scheduled for March either so I'd be surprised if we make next month's, but I do have a few sales in the works on eBay and we'll keep our fingers crossed!

Cheap Morningstar Farms, finally!

2009-03-02T12:39:00.000-08:00

I didn't have the energy to take a picture before throwing all of my finds in the freezer, but here's a quick rundown.

We eat a lot of veggie burgers and "fake" chicken-strips, but they're very expensive. Morningstar Farms is $4.50 a box (4 veggie burgers, 4 "chicken" burgers, or 7 "chicken" tenders in a box). I always check around online but can never find coupons for these!

So thank goodness for a great deal at Safeway this week. They're running a "Buy $25 in selected frozen foods, get a coupon for $10 off your next frozen food purchase" promotion. Plus the Morningstar Farms items were on sale from $4.50 to $3.50.

First transaction I bought 8 items at $3.50 each ($28) and got my $10/off coupon.
Next transaction I bought another 8 items at $3.50 each, minus the $10 coupon, minus the $1.50 coupon that spit out on my first transaction ($16.60) and got another $10/off coupon.
Last transaction I bought 3 items at $3.50 each, minus the $10 coupon ($.50).

Total before sale and coupons: $85.50
Total after sales and coupons: $45.00 - savings of 47%

These kinds of sales really help with items that don't normally have coupons in the Sunday papers. The boys already ate the "chicken" fingers for dinner last night and had a burger each for lunch today!

Forgot to add that the inserts had a coupon for a free 2-liter of Pepsi with any $10 purchase - I was able to use the coupon 3 times since I did 3 transactions. Any faithful reader knows about my Diet Caffeine Free Pepsi addiction so three free 2-liters is a nice little bonus!

Starting the garden

2009-03-01T07:09:00.000-08:00

It's amazing that it took a full week of putting "Start seedlings" on my to-do list to finally get around to it. We had a tough week after some scary news from the pediatrician, but I also went real-estate hunting, put in a bid on an investment property (didn't get it) and I'm tying up some loose legal ends with our current rental houses as well. So poor seedlings didn't get started until about a week after I wanted them to but I think we'll be okay.

I bought two of these APS seed-starting systems to provide the seedlings with a constant water supply from below. I used the 40-block one for plants that will need to be transplanted at least once before putting in the ground (regular tomatoes, grape tomatoes, hot peppers, bell peppers, and eggplant) and used the 24-block one for the herbs and broccoli that will stay there until being put outside.

I went to Home Depot to spend my free $500 gift card on supplies and planned on buying a small shelving unit to put my seedlings and grow lights on. But as I was picking out the one that cost $104, I realized that I've sold off a lot of my eBay inventory and haven't filled it back in yet, and that I have plenty of space on the shelving in our bedroom (yes, shelving in the bedroom. Romantic, yes?)

So, I consolidated my inventory and cleared off two shelves. I put down a cheap shower curtain liner and positioned it to wrap up and over the seedling shelf. I'm not supplying any heat to the seedlings so I hope wrapping it in the liner will help keep some moisture and warmth in there. I put down a towel to catch drips and then lined the whole thing in free aluminum foil to reflect as much light as possible back onto the bottoms and sides of the seedlings. Voila!

Now let's just hope it works!

Stealing from Shoppers Food Warehouse

2009-02-23T12:04:00.000-08:00

Holy cow. Through Wednesday SFW is doubling $1 coupons and tripling coupons up to $.50. I honestly couldn't fit my purchases into one picture, so here are three shots in no particular order or grouping:

Price before coupons and tax: 304.13
Price after coupons and tax: $15.33

I could have done better but I messed up the order of one of the transactions. Boo. On the other hand, $304 worth of food for 15 bucks? Including 16 bags of frozen organic veggies and tater tots? Fantastic.

As part of figuring out how to manage everything in my life, including some new real estate work, I'm not going to log out all of the details of my transactions. If anyone wants any details, though, just leave me a comment and I'll be happy to help!

CVS last week (helpful, huh?)

2009-02-23T11:55:00.001-08:00

Love CVS.

I made $17 to walk out of the store with these.

Mylanta x 10: They were discounted to $3.75 and each generating $3.50 (or something close to that). I used four coupons for $4 off 2, and two coupons for $1 off one. Made about $17 on this deal! Kept 2 and sent the rest to donation.

BodiHeats were priced at $4.30 and each had a coupon for $1 off. They're each generating $3 ecbs this month, so I spent about 30 cents on each of them. Totally worth it. Half for us, half for donation.

Gillette Fusion Gamers were on sale for $7.99 and generating $3 ecbs. I had very old coupons for $4 off which went through with no problem. Free. Kept these for fun presents for people.

Neutrogena facial soaps cost $3.30 each and were part of a "Buy 2 Neutrogena products, get $10 ecbs" promotion. I made $6.60 buying the darn things and I'm keeping them. So there.

Colgate Toothpastes were free after ecbs and I paired them with coupons for $1 off. Made $4 buying them. They'll all be donated.

Check back later to see a really super fantastic extra double fun trip to Shoppers Food Warehouse.

I'm SOLD on online offers

2009-02-16T20:34:00.000-08:00

All credit goes to Carrie at MoneySavingMethods.com

I read her posts. I analyzed the factors. I bombed the first offer because I didn't read Carrie's easy instructions carefully enough. I rocked the next one, and the one after that.

Last week I got this lovely Home Depot card worth $500:

Today I picked up these Mobil / Exxon gas cards worth $500:

I can't count it towards income for this month since it won't be applied against debt. But they'll save us tons on gas, and even let me splurge a little on garden gear for this summer (items I would likely have had to buy anyway, but now they'll be free! Free! Free!)

My plan for next week is to start a third card, and I'll lay it out step by step so you can see which card I picked and which deals I'm using. I convinced the FedEx lady to give it a try. Are you next?

Hello again!

2009-02-16T13:46:00.000-08:00

So sorry for the long silence. First I was prepping for a trip, then I was on a trip, then I was recovering from a trip. Phew. A "vacation" with two small kids just isn't a vacation anymore. A great trip, yes, but not a vacation. I'm bushed.

But coming home the Saturday of Presidents Day weekend made life a lot easier. Stewart's home from work today and I got a ton of planning done for the garden (schedule of seed starting, when to transplant, etc.)

I also got a little breathing room to finally make this:

I'd seen a few recipes on the internet (this one is pretty) and when I came across a Valentines version in Parents Magazine I knew I had to make it. It turned out much prettier than the photo shows - it's one layer of dark red, one of pink, and one of clear. I repeated each one twice and it set beautifully. I'm going to surprise Nate after dinner tonight (I meant to make it for Valentines day but it just didn't happen).

It was actually a lot easier than I was expecting from the description of the rainbow one. I heated a saucepan with two cups of water and when it boiled I took it off the heat and added 3 packages of sugar-free jello (two raspberry and a strawberry, if you want the gory details) and one .25 ounce packet of Knox gelatin. I dipped out 2/3 cup into a separate bowl and whisked in 1/2 cup (plus 2 tbsp) plain yogurt to make the pink layer. In a third bowl I measured 1 1/3 cups white grape juice and sprinkled 2 more packets of gelatin on top. After letting that rest for 5 minutes, I heated it in the microwave for 1 minute and stirred to dissolve the gelatin.

Take an 8x8 square pan (really, it should work with any small pan in any shape) and pour in half of the red mixture. Put it flat in the fridge and let it set for 15 minutes. Then pour in half the pink mix, and so on. Let the final design sit in the fridge for a few hours and it's done!

To remove it from the pan I sat it in hot water for a few minutes and turned it out onto a cutting board. When that didn't work I dug around one of the sides with a knife until it started peeling out. I just used my hands to ease it out the rest of the way onto the cutting board and cut into 1-inch pieces. Very pretty!

It's very easy to make. Halfway through I got engrossed in the gardening planning and the mixes I hadn't poured in yet congealed. I freaked, then realized that if I just heated them up for a few seconds they melted right back into pourable form. Whew. You can just do a layer, let it sit for however long, and come back when you get another chance. That's my kind of recipe.

Come on back for fun financial news tomorrow!

Rebate Tracker

2009-01-31T10:19:00.000-08:00

Today I signed up for Rebate Tracker. No idea why I didn't do it years ago.

They have most rebates already in their system so you don't have to keep track of all of the data before you send off your rebate. You enter the details about when and how you mailed it and voila, everything is stored for you. I made sure to enter the phone number for the offer since that was the only detail missing. I'm sure an Excel sheet would do the same job, but I kinda like gadgets - especially the free ones.

Fun at CVS

2009-01-31T10:15:00.000-08:00

Two transactions this week added up to great CVS savings.

Cost before ECBs and coupons: $22.66
Cost after ECBs and coupons: 99 cents!

The Buddies were $1.39 each - I had 2 coupons worth $5 off, leaving a cost of 1.95

The Ambi soap was $2.19 minus a CVS coupon for $2 off any Ambi skincare item

The Mentos were $1.69 each, on sale BOGO. I had eight coupons for $1 off, which actually helped negate the extra cost of the Buddies and the Ambi.

Cost before ECBs and coupons: $47.83
Cost after ECBs and coupons: EARNED $3.16 (after sales tax, I earned $2.30)

The Gillette shampoo was $4.99 and generating 3 ECBs. I used 3 coupons for $2 off, making them FREE

The OneTouch meter was $19.99 and I had a coupon for $20 off (needed this for a family member)

The Almay soaps were $.99 each, and part of a "Buy $10 of Almay, get 5 ECBs deal." I bought 11 of them and had seven coupons for $1 off. So I spent about $4 and earned $5 ECBs.

The Glade warmers were each $.99 and generating $2 ECBs. I earned $2 just by buying them!

I'll have a post up tomorrow on this week's Simple CVS deals. Check back soon!

Fun at Safway

2009-01-31T09:48:00.000-08:00

Hit Safeway last night to take advantage of some good deals. Everything worked out just fine; had a little fun with the cashier to boot. I like to put my club card and coupons in at the end, so I get to watch the price drop. The total before coupons and cards was $195.17. I handed him my card and he speculated that the total would drop to about $180. Pshaw. I told him "You're underestimating me."

After club card and coupons, the total dropped from $195.17 to $75.08. Plus I get to submit for about $10 worth of rebate. Seriously fun.

Here are the deals I took advantage of:

Four 12-packs of Pepsi for $7.99 (did this twice). I paired it with some $1/2 peelie coupons that I found right there on the packages! Saved 75% on these.

Red Baron frozen pizzas were BOGO at $6.69. I paired four of them with two $1/2 coupons from the circulars. Saved 57% on these.

Lucerne cheese was on sale from $3.49 to $1.49 (I had to do separate transactions - the limit was 2). The 6 sharp cheddars will go in the freezer and get pulled out one by one for my favorite Sweet Potato Burritos. They're the perfect size! Saved 57% on these.

Orville Redenbacher popcorn 3-packs were on sale BOGO at $3.49. I paired them with 3 $1/2 coupons from the circulars. Saved 64% on these.

Campbell's Chunky soup was on sale from $2.79 to $.99 - limit 10. Paired these with five $.50/2 coupons from the circulars (which doubled). Saved 82% on these!

The avocados were on sale from $1.50 to $.77 each and they were beautiful. I bought 6 to use for sushi rolls and summer rolls this week. Yum. Saved 48% on these.

I bought the three Tostitos dips to use for the Pepsi Frito-Lay rebate. It's not a money rebate, but they'll send $15 in coupons ($10 of which is for Pepsi which you can tell I drink a lot of). So the three dips will end up being totally free.

The strawberries were on sale from $3.99 to $1.88. Bought two pounds and chopped them up for snacks this week. The kids love me today! The grape tomatoes were for snacks as well.

Next up, a post about CVS savings last week. Wahoo!

36K Challenge - January Wrap-up

2009-01-29T16:57:00.000-08:00

As I reported a few days ago, we did make our monthly $3,000 savings goal for January. It's a tightrope walk figuring out how much information to share and how much to keep back, so forgive me as I feel my way through this.

Here's a basic breakdown of how we made our goal:

eBay sales from fixed inventory: netted around $500
eBay sales from consignment selling: netted around $300
eBay sales from selling a camera we decided we could do without: netted around $440
eBay sales from other items I finally got around to selling: netted around $130
Total eBay income: $1,370

Extra income from photography jobs: netted around $1,305

Additionally, Stewart got a bonus at work which brought us above our $3,000 savings goal for this month. As soon as I make our bank deposits, I'll send that check off towards our equity line debt and watch the balance fall even farther.

February is going to be hard. We don't have any more big-ticket items to sell on eBay, Stewart only has a few extra jobs lined up so far, and no surprise Holiday bonuses are likely to be headed our way. My plan is to work hard at selling those small items I have lying around that can be gotten rid of, to chase one account that never paid Stewart for a big job several months ago, and to work hard to keeping our spending in check. I don't know if we'll make our goal, but I'm darn sure going to do my best to make it happen. Either way, we're heading in the right direction.

Simple CVS - week of January 26

2009-01-25T13:27:00.000-08:00

Most women I know just don't want to deal with coupons, but that's no reason to miss out on some of the great deals out there! I'll focus on the Simple deals you can do at CVS, Walgreens, and Rite Aid using only the weekly specials and internet coupons that anyone can print out. If it's a complicated week, I'll lay out a Simple Walkthrough scenario to help the first-timers get a sense of how to get the best deals.

As always, I recommend you check Money Saving Mom if you want the full-list of everything you can get at CVS each week.

____________________________________________________________

There are no fantastic deals at CVS this week, but there are a few decent deals worth mentioning.

Buy $20 in Pepsi products, get $10 ECBs. The products are all on a good sale ($1.25 for a 2-liter and $3 for a 12-pack) to start out with. Getting them half off on top of the sales price is icing on the cake. If you buy Pepsi anyway (and goodness knows I do) then this is a great deal.

Goldfish crackers are BOGO at $2.19, making them $1.10 each (no limit)

Buy 1 Head and Shoulders, Gillette, Pantene Restoratives or Expressions Shampoo, Conditioner, Mask, or Balm at $4.99, Earn $3 ECBs (Limit 5)

Buy $20 in Huggies products (wipes 42-80 ct ($2.50 each), baby wash 15 oz ($2.50 each), or jumbo packs of diapers or pull-ups ($10 each)), get $5 ECBs. Not a fantastic deal, but 25% off of a sales price isn't bad if you're already going to buy them!

Buy 1 Gillette Fusion Gamer, Venus Breeze Spa or Embrace Sister Razor 1 ct. (available in stores January 30th) at $7.99, get $4 ECBs (50% off!)

____________________________________________________________

Here are the Simple Monthly deals while you're there:

Soyjoy 6-packs are free - pay $6, get $6 ECBs. Limit is 5. This is a great donation item if you don't think your family would eat them.

Children’s Throat Cooler Ice Pops 6ct is an easy Moneymaker - pay $4.99, get $4.99 ECBs (limit 5) To make it a Moneymaker, buy 2 at $4.99, use this printable coupon for BOGO and you'll pay $4.99 and actually get $9.98 in ECBs! Do it twice and you've MADE 10 bucks on the deal!

NasoGel Drip Free gel spray 1.52 oz is free - pay $7.99, get $7.99 ECBs (limit 2) - pair it up with this printable coupon for $2 off and you'll have another money-maker.

I did jot down a few pointers for beginners which clarifies some questions about ECBs. Give it a gander before heading out for the first time, and please let me know if you have any questions!

Simple CVS - week of January 18

2009-01-22T08:16:00.000-08:00

I've decided to launch a series called Simple CVS. So many of my friends are so busy, nearly-overloaded women. They'd take advantage of the free, or nearly free, items at CVS (and Walgreens and Rite Aid) but they're not going to be making multiple trips, doing multiple transactions, or walking in with multiple coupons.

This series is going to focus on trips to CVS that anybody can do, and do quickly. I may list a few items that need coupons, but only if they're internet printable ones that anybody can quickly access. I'll talk about what you can get weekly and monthly, and maybe put up a few scenarios to walk a newbie through a sample transaction.

As always, I recommend you check Money Saving Mom if you want the full-list of everything you can get at CVS each week.

This week is almost over, but here's what looks great:

Buy 3 Hallmark cards, get $3 ECBs (limit 5). There are plenty of 89 cent coupons along the bottom row; buy 3 for $2.67 and get $3 ECBs! You can do this 5 times for a total of 15 cards.

Buy $20 in Pepsi products, get $10 ECBs. The products are all on a good sale ($1.25 for a 2-liter and $3 for a 12-pack) to start out with. Getting them half off on top of the sales price is icing on the cake. If you buy Pepsi anyway (and goodness knows I do) then this is a great deal.

Here are the Simple monthly deals while you're there:

Soyjoy 6-packs are free - pay $6, get $6 ECBs. Limit is 5. This is a great donation item if you don't think your family would eat them.

Children’s Throat Cooler Ice Pops 6ct is an easy Moneymaker - pay $4.99, get $4.99 ECBs (limit 5) To make it a Moneymaker, buy 2 at $4.99, use this printable coupon for BOGO and you'll pay $4.99 and actually get $9.98 in ECBs! Do it twice and you've MADE 10 bucks on the deal!
NasoGel Drip Free gel spray 1.52 oz is free - pay $7.99, get $7.99 ECBs (limit 2) - pair it up with this printable coupon for $2 off and you'll have another money-maker.

I did jot down a few pointers for beginners which clarifies some questions about ECBs. Give it a gander before heading out for the first time, and please let me know if you have any questions!

That's your "Simple CVS" for this week. I will make sure to get next week's up earlier in the week so you'll have longer to take advantage of it.

Now get out there and get your freebies!

A nice (frugal) day!

2009-01-22T07:55:00.000-08:00

A very hectic morning yesterday ended successfully; Nate is officially signed up as a Little Explorer camper for this summer, and his best friend Sophia will be going to the same rec center. Typical of anything related to the DC government, it was an enormous hassle filled with wrong turns. But, all ended well and we moved onto our noon play-date with a few of Nate's friends and their Moms.

Jack took an early nap and our playdate ended at 2 so I had an unanticipated opportunity to hit the mall. I had a few return to do and I needed a birthday present for little Ben.

I had such a nice time there with the boys. I let Jack out of the stroller and he toddled along behind us. I remembered to bring my stash of "local coupons" and was able to use the coupon for a free pretzel from the pretzel place (from the Entertainment Book) to get them a nice treat. We sat on a bench in an out-of-the-way area and the boys munched and ran around. Nate has a Mommy-sense for Jack's safety; if Jack started to walk too far away from us, Nate would run over, take his hand, turn him around, and guide him right back towards me.

Nate had originally been turning Jack around by bumping him with his body; one of the times he did that Jack fell down and cried for a while. I immediately told Nate "it was an accident, don't worry" and comforted Jack. Nate thought for a few minutes and said "I won't bump him hard again." He is already such a great helper, a good brother, and an empathetic kid. I could not be more proud of him.

It was a great day together, and the cherry on top was knowing that it cost us almost nothing. Heck, I made $175 with the returns I made! Go us.

My great big enormous Burpee order

2009-01-18T15:19:00.001-08:00

This is the year of the expanding garden, and I'm trying a bunch of new items that I've never grown. Last year I added in cucumbers and carrots, but other than that it was the standard tomatoes, red peppers, hot peppers (for friend Dave), and herbs.

This year I'm adding in lettuce (looseleaf), Romaine, spinach, broccoli, sugar snap peas, bush beans, pole beans, and eggplant. I may have overshot a bit but I'm choosing to be optomistic and hoping I'm graced with an extra-green thumb this summer.

Here's the plan:

Romaine lettuce: Little Caesar
"Perfect for small gardens and easy to grow."

Lettuce, looseleaf: Heatwave
"Thrives in the heat, and remains productive and tasty longer than all others."

Spinach: Baby's Leaf Hybrid
"The flat green leaves are sweet tender and very easy to clean."

Carrots: Little Finger
"Tiny gourmet great for salads."

Broccoli: Green Goliath
"Large headed, tight budded, blue-green variety."

Bush beans: Tenderpick
"Great flavor, similar to Tenderpod, with improved germination."

Pole beans: Purple King
"Beans that yield steadily all summer until frost." <-- That's a catchy one, huh?

Cherry Tomatoes: Sun Gold Hybrid
"Rapidly becoming the most popular cherry tomato of all time."

Tomatoes: Big Beef Hybrid
"Extra large, 10-12 oz., red fruits are firm, juicy and highly flavored."

Sugar snap peas: Super Sugar Snap V.P.
"This incredible pea is even better than the famous Sugar Snap."

Cucumber: Slicing, Straight Eight
"A cucumber superstar, this classic has excellent flavor and is widely adapted."

Eggplant: Burpee Hybrid
"Continuously produces many oval, medium-sized, glossy, purple fruits."

Sweet pepper: California Wonder
"HEIRLOOM. The Standard Bell Pepper"

Hot pepper: Hot Lemon (Heirloom)
"From Ecuador, as hot as any Cayenne, but with a truly unique flavor."

Basil: Sweet
"Classic herb, used in tomato sauce, pesto and salads."

Rosemary
"Fragrant leaves flavor meats, poultry and potatoes."

Cilantro

Chives

January goal - reached!

2009-01-16T10:21:00.000-08:00

I'm thrilled to announce that, barring some major expense coming up this month, we've already met our $3,000 savings goal for January. My husband got a surprise review a few days ago and a small bonus tacked onto it. Given the economy and the turbulent times, we're ecstatic.

I still haven't figured out how much is reasonable and safe and still open to disclose on this blog, so I'm not going to talk numbers right now. But I'll do a month-end wrap-up and talk turkey then.

In the meantime, props to my hard-working husband!

Cheap produce treats this week!

2009-01-15T11:38:00.001-08:00

I'm not going to do a full grocery store analysis, since there are so many great women out there doing it. Just want to point out a few great finds this week:

Safeway has the small containers of blueberries on sale 10 for 10! I seriously might buy 10 at that price. We love them on cereal, for snacks, for smoothies...
Safeway also has grape tomatoes on sale BOGO. Their prices are inflated in the first place, so I'll wait to see them before I decide whether or not to buy. We love them for snacking, so I hope to find that the sale price is fairly reasonable.
While you're already at Safeway, the Goldfish are on the 10 for 10 sale, and Cheerios are 99 cents with the super-coupon from the weekly insert. There's also a coupon on the back for a free Tall Tea at Starbucks - I wish I liked tea!
Giant has red seedless grapes on sale for 99 cents a pound! They're not organic, and I hate that, but it's an amazing price and I'll be buying plenty. Jack is like a vacuum cleaner when grapes are around.

That concludes your weekly produce wrap-up. Tune in next week, same time, same place.

The power of coupon codes!

2009-01-14T16:49:00.000-08:00

The irony of trying to save money this year by growing plants from seed, instead of buying "starts" at the nursery, is that I have to spend money to buy gear to grow those seedlings.

A few days ago, I sat down at the computer to order a few things from Gardeners.com. I picked out a few items that I thought could last for several years - two self-watering containers in which to grow seedlings and some seed-starting mix (in place of soil). Each of the containers was $19.95 and the seed-starting mix was $6.95. The shipping and handling was going to be $10.50, for a total charge of $57.35.

It was expensive, but necessary, and I thought it would save me quite a bit in the long run (seedling "starts" are around $4 each at the nursery, and this year I'll be using the new gear to grow about 60 starts).

Before I checked out, I put "Gardeners.com coupon code" into Google and found a promising code that said it had given 15% off to previous users. I figured it was worth a shot and entered it into my order under "catalog code." It did not, as promised, give 15% off; for some shocking reason, it took off quite a bit more.

Suddenly, each of the planters that was previously priced at $19.95 showed up as costing $9.95, a savings of $20. The germinating mix went from $6.95 to $5.50, a savings of $1.45. Processing and delivery went from $10.50 to $9.95, a savings of $.55. And a mysterious "discount" of $3.81 popped up at the bottom, for a total bill of $30.84 - a total savings of $26.51 (46% off!)

I spent 10 minutes, at most, finding and using the coupon code. I used that code on items that I would certainly have purchased anyway, so the $26.51 represents true savings. It amounts to earning about $160/hour, which I think would be a pretty nice salary. Not bad for a few minute's work!

Getting started on the garden!

2009-01-11T17:00:00.000-08:00

I've been working on my garden plans for a few weeks, figuring out what to plant this year. I'm trying to add something new each year as I learn more and more about container gardening.

I'm trying to expand this year, and thinking about mounting window-boxes along the fence all the way around our tiny yard. We have great sunlight but no more room on the brick-patio, so I decided that if I can't grow OUT I'm going to try growing UP! I'm keeping an eye on Freecycle for people giving away window boxes and mounting equipment, and a few weeks ago I saw a post of someone giving away compost.

Trying to keep costs down this year, I know that if I want to expand I need to find a way to stretch the organic potting soil that I purchased last year. At almost $20/bag, it's very pricey and each container uses quite a bit of it. I knew that mixing in some compost would help improve the soil that was used last year, and stretch it at the same time.

When I went to pick up the compost, it really wasn't compost at all - it was a big pile of leaves. Certainly compost in the making, but not compost yet. I scooped out as much as I could from the base of the pile where it was wetter and darker, and then took about 6 trash bags of the dry leaves on the top.

I've never tried composting before because I thought that you needed to use food scraps to make it work, and putting food in your backyard in DC is a great way to attract DC's mascot: the RAT. But I did some research, and you can do a decent compost with just yard waste so I decided to give it a shot this year!

Step 1 - Set up the compost bin (cost: free thanks to a City of Rockville program my Mom took advantage of):

Step 2 - Fill with a layer of dry leaves and yard debris (cost: free from Freecycle):

Step 3 - Sprinkle a layer of soil to provide some stuff that the internet says I should provide to make the compost do whatever it is that compost does (cost: free; extra bag from last year):

Step 4 - Add some of the wet leaves that are slightly more compost-ey:

Step 5 - Add a shredded-up newspaper to provide some stuff that the internet says I should provide to make the compost do whatever it is that compost does:

Voila! Compost bin.

If I can find more leaves I'll fill it to the top, and then start on the second one I've got ready to go. With proper care and turning, I should hopefully have some beautiful compost come April!

Tonight I'm curling up with the Burpee catalog and picking out all of my seeds. To keep costs low I'll only be growing one or two types of each vegetable so I have to pick carefully. It's so nice to think about summer while it's so cold outside!

Sushi love

2009-01-11T05:57:00.000-08:00

Yesterday my sister called to see if we wanted to go for lunch at our favorite all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant, and I paused for a second thinking about this frugal challenge. I ran the math in my head, looked at the boys, and told her "Absolutely! Let's go!"

(photo from a trip last year)

Even without the math, I probably still would have gone. Eating out is an important ritual for my family, and it's our only real luxury. We just don't buy fancy clothes, new books, music, or gadgets; the only thing we could really cut back on is eating out. Everything else we spend money on is pretty necessary; health insurance, bills, and groceries.

(Jack taking full advantage of all-you-can-eat)

With the math, it was even more appealing. Stewart could take the opportunity to work out and do a few things at home that he wanted to do, and Deborah and I would take the boys alone. With tax and a nice tip, my share of the bill would be $20, and they don't mind if the boys eat as much as they want. For three of us, that's a great deal and would fill us up for most of the day.

(Nate and Deborah on our last sushi trip)

We went, we ate, we had a great time.

Being frugal isn't the only goal in our lives. Somtimes we'll spend money that others would choose to save; for us, these are experiences we don't want to miss out on together. Walking that balance beam is hard, but necessary, and so far I think we're doing a pretty good job.

I'm curious to hear about other people's "non-frugal" choices. What are your luxuries? How do you walk that line between keeping the larger goal of a happy, healthy family in mind, while still working to be smart with your money?

Cooking school

2009-01-10T14:24:00.000-08:00

A few years ago I was lucky enough to take a weekend cooking course at L'Academie de Cuisine (the Recreational School, of course!). The information I learned was so helpful that I thought I'd pass it along!

The course was a Primary Skills Weekend; here's the description:

"Join Susan Watterson for an overview of a wide variety of cooking skills, techniques, and products. This intensive, hands-on weekend class will cover proper techniques for handling and preparing stocks, sauces, meats, poultry, fish and shellfish. Knife skills, various cooking techniques, and classic & contemporary food preparations will be addressed."

I can't fully express how wonderful this course turned out to be. The instructor was top-notch, funny, and incredibly helpful. At least 10 times a day, I learned something that was worth the cost of the course by itself. I'll try to make a list of those things here, so as to share the "wealth" of the course (I'm sure some of this is already known to most of you, but it was news to me!):

1) When sauteeing, use a high heat, no olive oil (the smoke point is too low for the necessary high heat), and DON'T MESS WITH THE FOOD. Put it in the pan, and let it be. When you can move it without leaving any meat behind, it has formed a nice seal and you can turn it over.

2) Tongs are really great for sauteeing, and other kitchen stuff.

3) Marinades aren't one-size-fits-all: for a tender meat, use a low acid marinade. For a tough meat, use a high-acid marinade. Sounds obvious, but it never occured to me before!

4) Chicken fat doesn't give chicken stock flavor - chicken fat gives it fat. Collagen from the bones gives it flavor.

5) You can't carmelize food with a non-stick pan.

6) Mushrooms are sponges. Don't wash them to clean them - they'll absorb the water. Just brush them with a cloth (unless they're really filthy).

7) When cooking meat to temperature (aiming for a specifc done-ness), the meat has to rest for at least 1/3 of the cooking time. So if you cook a steak for 12 minutes to get it to 145 degrees (medium), let it rest at least 4 minutes before cutting into it.

8) Don't forget that foods keep cooking even after you take them off of the heat. So if you want the steak to end up at 145 degrees, take it off the heat a little before it reaches 145.

9) Trichinosis dies at 137 degrees. Stop overcooking pork.

10) Don't try to tenderize a tough cut by pounding it. Use a good marinade, cut across the grain, and make sure not to overcook.

Not bad, eh?

A super-easy way to earn a ton of money!

2009-01-08T14:20:00.000-08:00

Ready? Follow along:

1) Get engaged

2) Buy a nice ring when you're both single with great incomes

3) Have a random person ask if you'd remember to insure your ring

4) Insure your ring (Cost: something like $100/year)

5) Get married

6) Have children

Now for the important step:

7) lose your ring. Really lose it.

8) Turn the house upside down

9) Twice

10) Faint

11) Have bad dreams

12) Remember about the insurance policy

13) Find the rare opportunity when both children are sleeping at the same time

14) Call the insurance company and explain your stupidity.

15) Fifteen seconds later, learn that a check for an absolutely enormous amount of money is on its way to you. I can't believe how amazing my company was and how great they were to me. I was totally honest about losing the ring and evidently "Stupidity" is covered on our policy. They reimbursed even more than what we'd paid for the ring since they reimburse for what it would cost today.

The thing is, the amount of money we spent for a ring when we were childless and had two incomes is way more than I could ever justify spending now. So we're going to easily make our January savings goal. February's, too.

My plan is to put the whole check ($8,700.00) towards our equity line debt. I'm giving myself $3,700 to use for a ring whenever I feel like shopping for one. I plan to look at some of the great estate sales to find a "pre-owned" set - thusly avoiding the "blood diamond" issue and also increasing my buying power.

But for now I'm just sinking it all towards our debt and plowing forward as if it hadn't happened. We'll still aim to make January and February the old fashioned, non-stupid way. And when people think I'm an unwed mother, well then I'll just fit in with my neighborhood all the better. :)

Cheap diapers and other adventures!

2009-01-07T12:21:00.000-08:00

I rarely hit the Shoppers Food Warehouse, but this week's deal was too good to pass up:

Spend $30 on a list of products, get $15 off your next order. Pampers diapers and Bounty paper towels were both on the list so I whipped out the coupons and hauled Jack over this morning.

The Bounty was $10.99 per pack, and I had coupons for $1 off. I paired those with one pack of diapers at $10.99 and out came a coupon for $15 off my next order. Voila!

I did the rest of the transactions with 3 packs of diapers each, and used as many Pampers coupons I had on-hand. Since I'm not often there, I used up the final $15 coupon to buy Cheerios, a few cheap bagged salads, and some cans of beans (always cheap, always needed around here).

But! This was fun: after 4 of my transactions, I got a coupon that said "Save $5 on any baby care purchase." Sweet, right? I tried using them on the diaper purchases but it didn't work. I checked with a manager and he said it was for things like wipes and creams. Okay, tried it on some wipes and again it didn't work. A manager worked for about 15 minutes and managed to push two of the coupons through and I got 4 packs of Huggies wipes (I love Huggies wipes and they're a rare treat around here) for just $2.52!

I got a little frustrated at the hassles and took my complaint to another manager. Told him it was fairly unclear what the coupons could actually be used for, and that the floor staff was trying their best but having a lot of trouble with the coupons. He took my last two $5 coupons and handed me $10 in cash. Now that was truly sweet.

Sales price for diapers, wipes, and paper towels (including sales tax): $219
Final cost for diapers, wipes, and paper towels: $96

Savings of 56% on my favorite diapers, wipes, and paper towels! Good day.

Harris Teeter triples

2009-01-06T16:10:00.000-08:00

I promised to update with a post about what I bought during Harris Teeter triples days. I ended up just going the first day; I'm pretty stocked up on zip-lock bags and such from their last triples fest.

9 big cans of organic diced and crushed tomatoes - retail: $2.50, after $.75 coupon: $.25 each!
3 jars Prego pasta sauce - retail: $6, after $.75/3 coupon: $3.75 ($1.25 each)
4 2-packs of kids toothbrushes - retail: $2.99, after $.75 coupon: $2.96 ($.74 each)
ziploc bags - retail: $2.00, after $.55 coupon: $.35
Arnold bread - retail: $1.99, after $.75 coupon: free!
Pounce cat treats - retail: $1.50, after $.75 coupon: free!

Total for everything shown: $9.31!

Challenge notes

2009-01-06T09:00:00.000-08:00

So far so good on our big 36K challenge. Stewart reports at least three times he would have bought himself a little something and passed, and we're both feeling proud of that. We're not going to be able to keep a super-strict view on how each month went; with the way our extra income works, he might work an extra job this month and not get the check for another 6 weeks. So we'll have to play it a little loose and just go by what we actually have in-hand each month.

But we know that keeping an eye on our spending, and working to get extra income, will pay off. This week I've already listed four big eBay items that I've been putting off, and have spread the word that I'm willing to babysit a bit for friend's kids. Stewart's working on some big photography jobs, and doing his part by keeping spending in-check and supporting me when I go out "hunting" at CVS or the grocery store.

How are you guys doing on your New Year's Resolutions?

Cheap Pampers at Shoppers Food Warehouse

2009-01-05T18:41:00.000-08:00

I rarely make the trek out to Shoppers Food Warehouse in Arlington, but this deal's calling my name:

Spend $30 (on a list of products) and get $15 towards your next order. That's half price, and with the $1 coupons from previous inserts, that's pretty darn cheap diapers. The other items on the list that sounded promising were Progresso Soup and Bounty paper towels. You can check the insert here target=blank for all the details.

I planned to run out tonight but have run out of steam. I'll haul Jack out tomorrow while Nate's in preschool, and return some items to Old Navy while I'm there (that counts as income, right?)

I'll update with photos after the kiddos are in bed tomorrow. Tonight I'm going to sit on the couch, watch some West Wing reruns, and do a little planning on the garden for this summer. I love that Burpee catalog!

HUGE fun with CVS this week

2009-01-05T11:55:00.000-08:00

This is a great week for beginners to get started at CVS. There are quite a few true freebies (even without coupons).

It all came together for me this week: the coupon for $3 off a $15 purchase, the great coupons on January's freebies, and a Sunday paper with 5 sets of inserts this week!

There are a few situations at CVS when you can "earn" ECBs - usually when you have a coupon to use with a true freebie (ie: buy something for 3 bucks and get 3 ECBs back) - if you have a $1 off coupon, you'll pay just $2 and still get 3 ECBs. Usually when I have an opportunity to earn more ECBs than I've spent, I resist the temptation to buy extra (free) items. I'd rather just walk out with more ECBs than I had when I came in, and save them for trips like the one we did on Sunday where Stewart was sent to buy 2 big tubes of Balmex (stat!) for our delicate little flower whose bottom was on fire. Since I buy organic milk and (most) food, there's not too much I can stock up on even when I get the chance.

But! This trip was a winner:

I did 6 transactions to maximize the $3/15 coupon, and used these to save on January's freebies:

$4.99 ECB wyb Children’s Throat Cooler Ice Pops 6ct (Limit 2) - this is actually a limit of 5. Buy 2 at $4.99, use this printable coupon for BOGO and you'll pay $4.99 and actually get $9.98 in ECBs! Do it twice and you've MADE 10 bucks on the deal. Pair it up with the $3/15 and you've made at least $13.

$7.99 ECB wyb NasoGel Drip Free gel spray 1.52 oz (Limit 2) - pair it up with this printable coupon for $2 off and you'll have another money-maker.

The Garnier Fructis is on sale for $2.99 and is generating $2 ECBs. Pair it with a coupon for $1 off from the 11/9 RP and it's free! (limit 1)

The Soyjoy bars (6-pack) is a weekly, unadvertised, freebie - buy one pack for 6 bucks, get 6 ECBs. Limit is 5! I think they're god-awful, but I keep trying them on Nate and the shelter gets the excess.

I'm not going to lay out scenarios, since you can never be sure which items your CVS will have in stock. If it was me, I'd be doing separate transactions that get you just above $15 so you can use the $3/15 coupon.

One idea: One transaction with 2 Throat Coolers and one NasoGel. Your total will be around $18 before coupons. Give them the $3/15, then the BOGO, and then the $2 off the Nasogel. Your net total will be around $8 and you'll get $18 in ECBs! Do it twice and earn $20 just walking in the door.

Like I said, I'm usually just happy to walk out the door with my items and with more ECBs in my hand, but this time I let myself buy a few extra newspapers. Actually, I bought 19 extra newspapers, and still came out 11 bucks ahead.

Here's what I ended up using (on two accounts):

$3/15 coupon six times (saving $18)
Throat Cooler BOGO coupon three times (saving $14.97)
NasoGel coupon four times (saving $8)

After turning around and buying the 19 (!) newspapers, I still ended up $11 ECBs ahead.

If you're just getting started with CVS, you can find an excellent tutorial here: Money Saving Mom.

Get out there and get your free stuff!

A couponers happy news

2009-01-05T10:17:00.000-08:00

I live three walking blocks from a grocery store and I'm fairly happy with it. It's a simple store with plain-old aisles (instead of these islands of produce all over the place that seem so trendy at Whole Foods and our new Safeway). I can walk up and down and see what I need to bring home. Did I mention it's three blocks away? With a parking lot for the days I need to bring home heavy stuff?

And they know us there, the women stocking the shelves and working the pharmacy call out to Jack when we stroll by. Everyone stops to say hello to him and coo over him and I ask about their grand-babies and it's pretty nice.

So imagine my delight when I picked up their circular for this week and learned that they're now doubling coupons up to $.99 every day! I will stop by this week to test it out and make sure it's really working. Thanks, Giant!

CVS bought my holiday gifts!

2009-01-03T11:47:00.000-08:00

In addition to giving me most of the supplies for my Oreo Truffles, CVS also gave me 10 wonderful holiday gifts to give away:

I donate most of the freebies I get to Bread for the City, but I don't donate makeup or housewares since most clients are homeless. I also keep back some very expensive things, like $10 razors and such. I paid $1 for each red reusable bag from Target - I thought it gave it a holiday feel. Then I took a lot of the goodies I've collected this year and divvied them out.

I gave these out to people I thought might appreciate some "luxury" stuff - our favorite cashiers at the grocery store, two of the women who work at Bread for the City, a few homeless friends we see each day, and the mailman (for his wife). Love spreading the CVS joy!

Harris Teeter January 1 - 7 - Triple Coupons!

2009-01-02T14:35:00.000-08:00

It's triple coupon time at Harris Teeter again, and this time it's running for 4 days - the first through the fourth. I went last night to scope out the deals. There aren't a lot of opportunities to combine a good coupon with a good sale, but there are a few things worth mentioning:

Great / free deals:

* Pounce cat treats look to be $1.50 always, so you can use the $.75 coupon (12/7 RP) anytime. Last time I was at HT they didn't give overage, so there's no reason to waste the coupon during triples week. Just use it anytime for it to double.

* Arnold soft breads are on sale for $1.99. Combine with the $.55 coupon (10/12 SS) to get it for $.34! We don't use too much bread, but it's nice to have a few cheap loaves in the freezer to use when the need arises.

* Daisy sour cream (the large 16 oz ones) are on sale for $1.67. Combine with the $.60 coupon (11/16 SS) to get them for free!

* Muir Glen products - my favorite reason to hit the triples sales. I found the large 28 oz cans of organic diced tomatoes on sale for $2.50 (down from $2.69). Combine with the $.75 coupon (12/7 SS) to get each large can for $.25!! I bought nine. :)

* French's French Fried Onions are regularly priced $2.49 for the 2.8 oz size. Use the $.75 coupon (11/9 RP) to get it for $.24!

Good deals:

* Muir Glen soups. Gotta say that I'm not a big fan. They're organic and good for you but I don't like the few flavor choices and I think they're pretty bland. But if you like them, you can get them regularly priced at $2.99 - combined with the $.75 coupon (12/7 SS) to get each can of soup for $.74. That's a very cheap can of organic soup!

* Neither Spray 'n Wash nor Shout were on sale, but if you need them you can use the .75 SNW coupon (9/7 SS) or the $.75 Shout coupon (10/5 SS) to get them for less than a dollar each.

* Wholly Guacamole - got any of those $.50 coupons (9/14 SS) left? The one-packet size is regularly priced at $1.99, making them just $.49 after the coupon triples. I buy as many as I can and throw them in the freezer. Then when company (or a craving) makes a visit, we've got tasty munchies.

* Prego pasta sauce is on sale - 3 jars for $6. Use the $.75 off three coupon (10/5 SS) to get each jar for $1.25.

* Sure deodorant is regularly priced $2.50. Use the $.75 coupon (10/19 SS) to get it for $.25! I prefer to wait for them to be free at CVS, but that's a really great price for deodrant.

What else do you guys see out there?

Frugal report: January 2

2009-01-02T12:52:00.000-08:00

Today was great for taking advantage of our city and neighborhood.

First we walked down to the National Building Museum to meet an old friend of mine and her 3 year-old. The boys hit it off wonderfully and really clicked. My friend and I haven't seen each other in 10 years but it was really like no time had passed at all. Jack charmed everyone he came in contact with.

I packed lunches to bring, but I did buy some special groceries for the event so it wasn't totally cost-free.

Transportation costs: none (walked both ways)
Food costs: $8 (for 3 toddlers and 2 adults)
Entertainment costs: none (museum is free)

In other news...

My good friend on the street works part-time as a yoga instructor and occasionally needs babysitters in the afternoons and evenings for her daughter Sophia, who happens to be Nate's best friend. In in the spirit of our challenge, I mentioned that my doors are officially open for babysitting jobs.

She called today and I babysat Sophia for just over an hour this afternoon. She and Nate played and had a great time, and I added $15 to our income.

So much for city life being so expensive, huh?

Challenge notes

2009-01-01T19:31:00.001-08:00

For January 1st-

We're willing to: work harder and longer to earn extra money

We're not willing to: compromise mental or physical health chasing a dollar. If we need to cut back our hours, we will.

Today's frugality included two trips to pick up items I got for free on Freecycle - the first was for some soft lunchbags for Nate and Stewart, and the second was for some compost for the garden. It wasn't quite compost, but it was well on it's way; I'll do some more work on it and by this spring it should be ready to help enhance my container garden.

One of my frugal plans is to expand the garden this year to provide early and late season veggies, and my goal is to do it by having to purchase as little as possible. I'll try to grow my own seedling this year instead of buying them, and condition the soil I've already purchased with free compost. I'm also hoping to use Freecyle and yard sales to find a bunch of plastic window boxes; I have a scheme in mind for expanding the footprint of the garden this year! More to come on that.

Today I also took a trip to Harris Teeter to take advantage of Day 1 of their Triple Coupon days, and to pick up gallons of organic milk for Jack. I used to spend $4.39 for a half gallon of organic milk at Giant; I finally found Harris Teeters gallons for $5.60! That's a savings of $3.18 a gallon. I buy 6 at a time, take them home, pour a few cups out of each gallon (so they don't expand and crack), and throw them in our basement freezer. They defrost perfectly and save us a fortune.

So that's my frugal work for today: Freecycle and Harris Teeter gallons of organic milk. How was your day?

Our big 2009 challenge

2009-01-01T19:04:00.000-08:00

In 2005, we spent a small fortune to repair some structural problems in our house and finish our basement, installing a full bathroom while we were at it. That same year, we ended up with no maternity coverage while I was pregnant with Nate and had to spend another small fortune to get COBRA coverage.

We put all of that money on our home equity line, and we're doing fine slowly paying it down. We've gone from about 70K in debt to about 58K. It's our only debt, but we'd sure like to see it gone.

Our big challenge for 2009 is to try to increase the rate we're paying it down dramatically to a tune of $3,000 per month. This will mean reducing what we spend (duh) and chasing extra income.

Right now, Stewart works full-time in IT, and works as a professional photographer at night. He'll start marketing his photography more intensely, and also try to pick up some extra computer work for people who need some help with their home computers.

I'll have to start back with eBay, something I've been avoiding for a few months. Oh well, I can do anything for a year, right?

We'll be using Mint.com to track every dollar we spend, and we'll do our darndest to put every single dollar on our credit card (which puts 2% of purchases into the kids college funds). Since we pay it off each month, we get the benefit of the contribution to the college fund, and we get an easy way to track and catagorize our purchases.

I hope to blog every day or two about our progress, about the little things we're doing each day to keep us on track. I'll also talk about what's going on in our minds; why we're making some compromises and not others. And I'll be showing off the great deals I'm getting at CVS, Harris Teeter, Target, and Giant Food!

Is anyone else having a big yearly challenge? What are your goals for this year?

Bento gear

2008-12-31T06:40:00.000-08:00

We've been doing Bento lunches and snacks a lot, and I finally found some silicone cupcake molds on sale at Target. I shouldn't have waited for a sale - they're so helpful for making the Bentos!

Here's just a snack Bento Nate ate at home. You can see why the silicone cups really help - we eat a lot of "finger food" so it helps keep everything in it's place (a nod to Mama's anal side!) Raw almonds, dried cranberries, and hummus for dipping.

Entertainment Book rocks!

2008-12-29T17:09:00.000-08:00

I got my two free Entertainment Books today and I'm thrilled. They paid for themselves on the front cover - $20 off at Safeway! The savings comes in the form of four $5 off $50 coupons, which I'll absolutely use (several times over).

Even if I end up having to pay $5 for each book when I opt out of automatic renewal next year, they'll still have MORE than paid for themselves. I got a chance to skim through them today and there are at least 4 restaurants that we like in there, including $5 off of a $15 at Baja Fresh. There are also coupons for rental cars and movie tickets. Since we're very good at limiting ourselves to places we already would have gone, and not letting the coupon persuade us to spend more than we'd planned, we'll really take advantage of these deals this year.

I'm so happy with how things went that I'm going back to Cashbaq tonight to buy another 2 books!

My best helper

2008-12-29T11:05:00.001-08:00

I spent some time last week making up a batch of homemade cleaners from the Clean House, Clean Planet book. My favorite is the daily cleaner; can't remember which one. It uses Borax, liquid soap, water, and distilled white vinegar.

It really works! Scrubbed out the fridge yesterday and it's almost as effective as the caustic stuff. The best part is that since it's in a nondescript bottle, I was able to fill an identical bottle with water and have my favorite helper "help" me clean.

Nate would help me with every task, every day, all day if he could. I'm getting better about swallowing my need to cross things off of my list and slowing down and letting Nate help with as much as I can manage. Today he helped me by putting the laundry in the washing machine one...piece...at...a...time.

Anyway, he doesn't know cleaner from water and I don't worry about what he sprays water on. So he helped me clean the spots off of the floor, clean the front of the dishwasher and the stove, and mostly he felt good about helping and I actually got some cleaning done. And honestly in 6 months or so, he's actually going to be quite helpful around here!

Could he be any cuter?

Super-cute snack

2008-12-22T20:07:00.001-08:00

Saw this in a magazine at the doctor's office; I have no idea which magazine or when it came out. It's got both of my son's favorite foods and was easy to pull off. Nate asks me to make him a flower every day now!

Outer layer is grape tomatoes cut in half, inner layer is whole grapes, and I used hard-boiled egg for the center (the magazine used fresh mozzarella). The magazine used a cute sprig of fresh basil on the stem for the flower stem, but I don't usually have that laying around - I just used green gel food coloring.

I love getting to make something pretty during the day, I love feeding the boys healthy snacks, and I love making my Natey smile.

Free Entertainment Book?

2008-12-15T11:34:00.000-08:00

Want a free Entertainment Book?

There's a lot of buzz going around about a free Entertainment Guide book, so I took a swing at it. I think it'll work. At worst case, I'll pay $5 for each book ordered.

Wanna give it a shot? Do this:

1) Sign up for Cashbaq. It's free, so no problem there. You'll earn $5 for sighing up.

2) Click through their site to the Entertainment book in the upper right-hand corner. You'll get $10 off of each book by ordering through Cashbaq. You'll also get a $5 discount when you order a second book. When you're checking out, sign up for the auto-renew program which will give you another $5 discount on each book. They'll give you a warning next year before they ship out the next one, giving you a chance to cancel. They may charge you a $5 fee at that point, but the word on the street is that they won't.

3) In a few weeks, Cashbaq will credit you $10 for each book you order. The money's yours to use however you like - you can transfer it out to a Paypal account or ask them to send you a check.

Seems pretty simple to me. The prices vary depending on where you live, but here's how it worked for me:

Cost of first book: $30
Cost of second book: $25 (net cost of $55)

Less discount for signing up for Cashbaq: $5 (net cost of $50)
Less $10 off of each book through Cashbaq: $20 (net cost of $30)
Less $5 off of each book for auto-renew: $10 (net cost of $20)
Less $10 off of each book from Cashbaq): $20 (net cost: Free!)

I ordered 2, and may well go back for more.

Let me know if you have any questions!
Leah