Archive for the ‘Family Life’ Category
Cooking VS Baking
Tuesday, September 16th, 2008
Are you a cook or a baker?
I think I am a baker more than a cook. I have always preferred baking over cooking food. I don’t have some inner quality that cooks do. Maybe it has to do with the rush of cooking – everything is going at once and you have to time it just right so something doesn’t burn or get cold waiting for everything else to finish. I can do it – but I don’t really enjoy it. Hence, I would feel safe in saying that for most of my married life, The Hubby has done the majority of the cooking. And before I was married, I ate chocolate bars for dinner (and I’m not lying!)
–Side story (kinda like a side dish – get it? I’m so amusing, aren’t I?) When we were first dating, The Hubby would come to visit me at my place of employment – a news stand/bookstore place. I’d generally get 30 minutes for dinner, so most of the time I’d grab a Hershey’s bar (with almonds – I need protein, after all!) and get some homework done. Once he got wind of what I was doing for dinner, that changed quick! He’d take me out to the local diner, about 2 doors down from the store I worked at. He’d ply me with sandwiches, burgers, fries, pizza – whatever I wanted. He insisted that I needed to eat more than a candy bar for dinner! So – he has always been in charge of dinner! —
So – back to the main dish point – cooking is not my strong suit. But, baking, however is a different story. I don’t bake much – I don’t want to give you the wrong idea – but I do like it. Lately I have been on a baking kick – from bread to cookies (and Rice Krispie treats too!). It’s a bit more laid back than cooking – no one is timing how long it takes to get it to the table. When I was a kid, I loved making apple pies and used the leftover pie crust (homemade, of course!) for cinnamon rollups. Hmmm… even the thought of them makes my mouth water.
So with this baking kick, I’ve been bringing baked goods to our movie nights. Another one is coming up this week, so I’ll have to think about what to make in the next few days. I was contemplating cupcakes, but that seems kinda … lame. I want something a bit interesting… maybe merengue cookies and some brownies…
Happy Baking!
Posted in Family Life, Food, The Hubby, when I was a kid | Comments Off on Cooking VS Baking
Coupons
Saturday, September 13th, 2008
So, in keeping with the theme of my last post, let’s chat about coupons.
I used to be a hit and miss kind of person with coupons. I had a little accordion file holder to put them in, rummaged through them once in a while, had plenty of expired coupons in there, and generally mis-managed the whole thing. So, I stopped using them. I mean, they weren’t really saving me money, right? And it was such a hassle – cutting, sorting, finding them (you know – stuff they teach you in kindergarten).
So for a long time I paid full price (or sale price, if I was lucky) for everything.
Then, about a year ago, I read online about The Grocery Game. For a fee, you could sign up for a list of items on sale at your local store. They would tell you if the item had a valid coupon and what the sale price was, and factored in the coupon discount, and advised if it was a great deal, a good deal, or nothing to be impressed with. So, I signed up, paid my fee, started to cut the coupons again and imagine my surprise when I looked at the bottom of my grocery store receipt – I would save (on average) 30% off my bill. That was awesome!
So I picked up my accordion file again. But, now my problem was I had TOO MANY coupons! I was clipping everything I could – buying a paper plus getting my dad’s coupons was piling up my stockpile. So I turned to the trusty Internet to help me out. I found The Couponizer. It was exactly what I wanted. It was a bound “book” with pockets for each category. It had space to put the coupons I planned to use for a shopping trip, plus a spot for the ones that were expiring that month. It also came with a mat to use to sort your coupons after you cut them out. All was within easy reach in the provided clear plastic zip bag to tote it around in.
But, after a while, I stopped paying for The Grocery Game (actually, my credit card had expired and I hadn’t noticed! When I went to cancel my account, it was trying to get me to enter my updated information!). I still used the coupons, but I generally just looked at the sales circular and bought as I needed/felt I was getting a good deal. But my coupons were still growing, and I outgrew The Couponizer.
I decided to try my hand at designing my own version. I found a 4×6 photo book with about 50 sleeves. I set up my categories – a bit more in depth than what I had before. I also planned to use 3 sleeves per category – one for coupons that expired this month, one for coupons that expired next month, and one for coupons that expired later than that. I used this system for about 4 to 6 months and I really liked it. Except for… well, it was kind of a pain to get the coupons out of the sleeve. They were top loading sheets, but it was still awkward sometimes trying to get them out. So I started to plot and plan a new system.
I researched on the internet (you expected that, right?) and heard about a lot of people using a binder system. Lots of them used the baseball/trading card sheets for their coupons. Some were very elaborate – one slot for each brand or all alphabetically arranged by brand. I really didn’t want a binder that big, and having already tried the top loading sheets, I knew I wouldn’t be happy with it for long. Plus, those baseball card things aren’t cheap. So I had to find something else. I liked the binder idea, but not the traditional size. A quick look at Staples.com showed a smaller binder size – a 5.5 x 8.5 sheet. Looked good to me – but then I had to find something to put the coupons in! I didn’t see any sheet protectors – and I thought they would be too deep to work efficiently anyway. So I came up with my own idea – take a regular sized piece of paper, fold in half and then create a pocket out of paper to hold the coupons. It was the pocket that proved problematic. I didn’t want anything too big so I wouldn’t be able to find the coupons or too small that they would tend to fall out.
I don’t know about you, but I have a tendency to buy things I don’t need… at least right now. I have stuff I bought years ago, just waiting for me to find the right job for them. And I found the right job for something I bought 4 and 1/2 years ago when we first moved into our log home. I was at an art supply store and saw this clear film in 3’x5′ sheets. I was thinking of using them to make some inexpensive frames for some pictures, but never got around to it.
So, I cut a strip of this clear material about 3.5 inches wide and 11 inches long. I taped it (with packing tape, not regular scotch tape) to the cardstock and voila! I have a not too deep, not too little, see through pocket for both sides of my binder page.
I organized my categories and printed them out on the cardstock (I hate my handwriting!). I decided to only use a “expires this month” and “expires later” pocket for each category. I liked being able to flip the book open to see both of those at once – it seemed it would make finding coupons easier while shopping while still making me sort through them on a monthly basis.
I’m pretty happy with my project – all told it took about 4 hours to complete. The binder looks a bit overstuffed – I wish they had a larger width than the 2″ – but I like it and it seems to be fairly easy to deal with in a shopping cart.
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Money Savings
Sunday, September 7th, 2008
So lately I have been doing my best to save money. And by that I mean, either not spending it or not paying full price for any particular item.
This actually takes work. I spend time on the Internet, looking up coupons and sales (did you know you can print some coupons from websites nowadays?). I check the flyers and the coupons I have on hand. I make up my list for the stores I am going to go to.
I now go to more than one store. It used to be that I would just go to the grocery store and buy everything there. The only exception to that was the monthly trip to Costco to get paper goods, bottled water and weight loss shakes. Now, I go to my grocery store, but I have added CVS, Walgreens, Walmart and Target to the list of places to get my deals.
So today, I went to CVS, Walgreens and Stop & Shop. Here’s the breakdown:
CVS: $6.56 OOP (out of pocket) bought 2 packs of Kotex and 2 packs of Lifesaver candies. I used 2 coupons to get to that total. CVS has a program called Extra Care Bucks (ECB), which is basically money you earn when you purchase specific items. I didn’t have any ECB’s from any previous purchases, but when you do, it’s cool to see the prices go down even more.
Walgreens: $12.14 OOP on my first transaction bought Windex bottle, Crest Pro Health rinse, 2 Listerine bottles and a can of Scrubbing Bubbles. I had manufacturer’s coupons, plus Walgreens Register Rewards to bring down that total to 12.14. Register Rewards are just like CVS’s ECB’s – free money for buying specific products. In theory, you use the Register Rewards (or ECB’s) on your next transaction… which of course can be about 2 seconds after you have earned them! So, on my second transaction, with the Register Rewards I earned and Walgreens + manufacturer’s coupons, I spent $12.18 on: 3 cans of Progresso soups, Chex mix, Centrum chewables, Neosporin ointment, Tylenol PM and a 4 pack of Duracell AAA batteries. So overall, according to the receipts, I have “saved” (aka not spent) $33.95.
Stop & Shop: According to my receipt, I saved $21.00 and the amount charged was $48.32. That $21.00 was made up of Stop & Shop card savings, personal thanks savings, and manufacturer’s coupons. This is very low for groceries – but I didn’t buy much meat or junk food this week.
I still have Target on my list – they have soda and Nutrigrain bars on sale. I may or may not get there – it’s not particularly close to home, but if I end up taking The Boy to karate, I can drop him off and run there quick during his class.
I have also started a price book. This is basically a reference guide to determine what I have paid for an item (either on sale or regular price) – so I can tell if the deal I have in front of me is really a deal or not. I have it set up in Excel for easy sorting. Categories I have:
Store
Date
Category (this matches my coupon organizer book)
item
size (1 lb, 16 oz, 3 packs, etc)
Price Paid
Unit Price (automatically calculated by Excel)
Sale/Regular price – so I can tell if the item was at a regular price or sale price
I just made this on Saturday, and already it’s helped me out. I’ve read for a while that you really need to have a price book, and now I see why. I can now figure out if a unit price is good or not. And this is particularly helpful in this age of “grocery shrink”. Ever hear of that? It’s when the size of a product is reduced, usually slightly or not enough to notice a change in packaging size – but the price stays the same. So, for instance, say you paid $2.00 for a jar of peanut butter. And then two weeks later you pay another $2.00 for a jar of peanut butter. But the first time, it was 32 oz. and the second time it’s only 30 oz. But you couldn’t tell looking at the jar on the shelf – the company changed the bottom of the jar and took away those 2 ounces. So instead of paying $0.0625 per ounce, you are now paying $0.0667 per ounce. And with a price book, you can figure that out instantly.
The other benefit of the price book is I now have a “bottom line” price. That means, I won’t pay anything above that “bottom line” price for an item. I now will not purchase any soda if I am paying more than $0.25 per can (excluding deposit).
Of course, it is a bit weird to realize that a square of toilet paper can range from $0.00161 per sheet to $0.00323!!
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Movie Night
Saturday, September 6th, 2008
Well, we went to our Movie Night last night. A very good choice from our friends who hosted this time. It was a film we’d never heard of – Banlieue 13. It’s a French film – we watched it in dubbed English, so no subtitles to read (although, sometimes we get so loud while watching a movie, maybe we should have had the subtitles on!).
It was a very cool action film, about District 13B in France in the year 2010 (the film was made in 2004). Things got so “bad” that they had built this wall around the district and basically abandoned the people in there. There were guards to make sure no one got out – and no one wanted in. So it was pretty much a city within a city run by mobsters/drug runners/bad guys.
The hero of our movie, Leito, was born in the District, and waged his own personal battle to keep his building “clean” – no drugs, no property damage – a bit of an oasis in the hellhole of District 13B. In the opening scene, he is dumping about 10 or so packs of cocaine down the tub, while the mobsters are tracking him down and trying to get it back. The coke goes down the drain and the mobsters retaliate by kidnapping his sister. He breaks into the mobsters building, grabs his sister back and takes the boss out at gunpoint to make sure they get out of there safely. They head to the last police station – but they are actually vacating the premises on the government’s orders. But the police are of no help – they are actually going to make things worse for Leito. They throw him in jail and let the mobster walk free – and let him take the sister as a prize!
Then, six (days, weeks, months – we don’t know since no one in our group knows French and it was a title on the screen) later – they are showing this cop – Damien – taking down an illegal gambling parlor. After his heroics (taking out a battalion of bad guys by himself), he is shown to the governor’s (president? police chief? I dunno – it was someone “in charge”) office and given a special task. A “clean bomb” was stolen and is now in District 13B – and if he doesn’t get to it and deactivate it, it will blow up and destroy everything in a huge radius. So he gets set up to “escape” police custody and befriend Leito – playing up the fact that the guy who “killed his family” has a girl (Leito’s sister) doped up and on a leash as a “pet” and his out to get him.
Leito is no dummy – he recognizes the cop for what he is and they work out a deal to save his sister and defuse the bomb. There are crosses and double crosses. (If I tell you much more than that – it may ruin the movie for you!) In the end, they save the day (that’s no shock – it’s a movie, after all!).
But outside of the story line, the really intriguing part of watching the movie was watching Leito and Damien move and fight. The actor portraying Leito is David Belle, the founder of the Parkour “movement”. With this type of action, one moves quickly and efficiently in any environment, using only the abilities of the human body. Both Leito and Damien use this style while fighting and fleeing – and it is mesmerizing to watch. It reminded me of the scene in Casino Royale (the Daniel Craig Bond movie) when they were running on the construction site.
And when the credits rolled, it was interesting to see Luc Besson’s name. I knew I had seen it before and the trusty internet had all the answers (as usual!). Luc was involved in The Fifth Element (one of our favorite sci-fi movies), The Transporter movies (which I haven’t seen, but would like to), and Nikita (French)/Point of No Return (US).
So – a very cool choice by our friends.
Our next movie night host has already picked out her choice. She spilled the beans… all I can say is “I was born a poor black child”.
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Please God, don’t let this happen to me (or my mother!)
Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008
The Hubby and I were at a WalMart – not our usual store as we had just dropped The Boy off a friend’s house out of town for a party. We needed to pick up some more seed for the lawn (more on that sometime later) so we stopped at this Super Walmart.
Since it was a Super Walmart, on a Sunday, it was busy. We had to park fairly far away from the entrance. As we were circling around trying to find a parking spot, we were shocked, shocked I tell ya, to see what we saw. We both burst out laughing and decided that pictures were required. Having my handy dandy camera in my purse, plus my camera phone, The Hubby went into stealth mode and this is what I have to show you:
Yes, that is a pierced navel.
Yes, that is a cigarette in her hand.
Yes, that is a two piece bathing suit.
Yes, that is her mother.
Please God, don’t let this happen to me or my mother!!
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3 Squares
Wednesday, August 27th, 2008
That is not a reference to three square meals a day (The Hubby would tell you I wouldn’t know what that is anyway).
I recently saw a discussion (online, of course) on the realization that this one particular family of 2 adults and 1 child in diapers went through 10 ROLLS of toilet paper in ONE month. Let’s just ponder that for a moment…. 2 adults… one month… 10 rolls. (Try not to let your imagination go too wild – I can’t catch you if you faint over!)
The poster made a concerted effort to track toilet paper usage for the next month, and by the mere process of tracking it, they cut down on usage.
Then they made the effort to cut back. She went to four squares per visit to the loo. They cut down to about half of their “normal” usage.
The intriguing comment she made was really about her grandmother, who lived “in a rural area” without “city water” – meaning they had their own water well and septic system. You know, like we do here. Well it seems to cut back on paper going into the septic system, her grandma had a “pee rag” (that was incredibly hard to type – it conjures up all sorts of images that I just don’t want to have).
While we never went that far, with up to six kids in the house, plus the two adults, toilet paper was an issue at our house when I was growing up. Well, it wasn’t always, but after some particular incident (no – it wasn’t me!) the 3 Square Rule was put into effect. So for a long period of time, we were issued our 3 Squares and that was it. And generally speaking, that was enough.
This has been on my mind for the last several days for a couple of reasons. One, it is just so bizarre to read about other people’s toilet paper habits. (And yes, it’s kinda weird to be writing about it too). Two, I have been sick since Sunday and have spent lots of time in the bathroom – I seem to have gone through 10 rolls myself! And three, having read the comments about how wonderful it was that the poster had cut back and “saved the environment”, it just seems to be further proof that Al Gore truly has invented the Internet just to push his green agenda. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that!)
Posted in Family Life, when I was a kid | Comments Off on 3 Squares
Sick Day
Monday, August 25th, 2008
Ick… I hate being sick.
I spent yesterday in three places: the couch, the bed and the bathroom. I spent today in two places: the bed and the bathroom.
I have done nothing productive – AT ALL.
Urggg!!
I am starting to feel a bit better, so hopefully by tomorrow I will be all set to get everything done that I need to. I still have to get The Boy some school supplies (school starts Wednesday!). I guess I won’t have a chance to clean up his room before he gets back from his camping trip. I need to get my grocery list organized (as well as my menu plan) and then drag myself to the stores. Plus, there’s some work (you know, the kind you get paid for) to get done. And it would be nice to be able to pay some attention to my husband.
The Hubby has been very good to me while I’ve been under the weather. He even went over to take care of the chickens and goat for me last night. He’s made dinner, cleaned up the kitchen and made sure I’ve eaten and kept hydrated.
He’s a keeper!
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Wasted Days and Wasted Nights
Thursday, August 21st, 2008
no, not the famous Freddy Fender song, but my life in front of the computer.
It amazes me that I have spent the last three and a half HOURS in front of my computer. In that time, I signed up for numerous coupons, freebies and read interesting (and not so interesting) blogs. I found a coupon for $5 off a $20 purchase at Walgreens (good on Friday and Saturday only) – so I spent about a half hour or so figuring out what to buy and how much it was going to cost. (Hint: lots of stuff at about 40% off overall).
But is it really wasted? I mean, there are worse ways to spend my time. TV comes to mind. Of course, the tv was on for some of the time I was in front of the computer, but I wasn’t paying it much attention. The Hubby was playing the XBox mostly, so what else could I be doing? Cleaning? Nah… Organizing? Maybe… Finding things for the tag sale I have planned in my head? Probably should be….
On the other hand, there are better ways to spend my time. I could be reading a book, learning something new, or writing a great blog post.
Oh, wait… I just did!
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We’re All Hanging In
Wednesday, August 20th, 2008
Well, the first two days of “animal watch” have gone almost without a hitch.
Every year, my parents take the grandkids camping. That means a whole week of just me and the Hubby… and my mother’s animals.
This year, her menagerie includes: 4 kittens, 6 hens, 1 rooster and a GOAT. Yes folks, a goat. A baby goat. A cute, lovable baby goat that thinks he’s a dog and wants to follow you around everywhere and be with you and keep you company and cries when you leave him. Yup, that kind of a goat. Plus, he jumps. And he has horns, which are a bit stubby, but still not pleasant to feel at the back of your legs when he is trying to get your attention.
The trip started on Tuesday, so that was an easy day. All the critters were pretty much taken care of for the day. All I had to do was get everyone settled for the night. My mom has the chickens trained (yes, apparently is possible to train chickens) to go into a cage at night. So all I have to do is close the door (I don’t know why she didn’t train them – or maybe the goat – do to that part of it!) and lock them up for safety from the predators that like chicken at night (no – I am not talking about The Hubby!!) Then in the morning I let them out, put out some hay for everyone to munch on and we’re good to go. I go back in the afternoon to take care of the kitties and back at night to put everyone away for the night.
Tonight I was a bit later than I thought I would be and it was actually dark when I went out there. So I had the flashlight with me. As the light scanned over the pen, there were eyes looking back at me. I was a bit nervous that I was going to have unwanted visitors in the pen. But no, all was ok – sort of. The door to the small pen had gotten closed and the goat and several of the hens got stuck in the larger portion of the pen. So I had to pick up 4 hens and 1 rooster and get them into their night time crate without causing too much commotion. All while the goat was trying to get my attention and give him some food (hungry little guy!)
But we’re all hanging in there!
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The Poconos
Thursday, August 14th, 2008
When I was growing up, we never took vacations. Our family would go with my father on “business trips”. He would do what ever it was he had to do, and my mom would take the kids all over the city we were in (remind me to tell you about Washington DC sometime!). There was one trip to Florida that resulted in my parents buying a timeshare (a long tale all of its’ own, including egg shells in scrambled eggs).
So, apparently my parents started putting a priority on taking vacations. At the very least, they were now committed spending money on them. I was about 15 at the time, so my older brothers were 19 or 20 and out of the house by that point.
My parents decided to take vacation – but without any of us kids. I highly suspect the last time my parents had gone anywhere alone at that point was probably their honeymoon (and I think their honeymoon was just somewhere local – no where fancy like Hawaii). So, I was left in the care of my grandparents who lived across the street from us.
Towards the end of the week, my parents called my grandparents. Apparently they missed me. Missed me so much that they wanted my grandparents to drive me to them in the Poconos to spend the weekend before their vacation time was over. And my grandparents agreed to do it.
Now, I am not sure who (mom or dad) talked to who (grandma or grandpa). I’m not sure how it happened, but apparently history was being made. My grandmother HATED travelling (which I never knew until she had passed away). So somebody did some arm-twisting to get it done – I’m just not sure who did it. In all honesty, my grandmother was a softie, so she may have wanted to make me feel good by letting me go. My grandfather could be a bit gruff and shall we say, set in his ways. She may have had to convince him that “we should take the poor girl to see her parents”. Or it could have been my grandfather saying “Let’s go drive her – it’ll be nice to take a trip”.
So we drive from our lovely little hometown and worked our way to the Poconos Mountains. I think we left on a Friday after school was out, so of course we were driving when it was dinnertime. So we started looking for a place to stop and eat. The roads we were taking were, as family tradition dictates, back roads – little 2 lane highways were God forbid if you get behind a truck you are so stuck! So we find this place. In my memory, it is a German restaurant, but really the thing I remember is how dark it was – dark furniture, low lighting.
We get seated. The hostess gives us each a glass of water and the menus. I am hungry (after all, I am a growing girl!) and so looking forward to dinner. My grandfather looks at the menu, looks at my grandmother, looks at the menu and says, “We’re leaving.” I look at him; I look at my grandmother. I look back at Grandpa. Clearly there will be no discussion. Grandma is a bit distressed – they served us water! – but she also knows it’s no good to argue. We get up, walk past the hostess, me looking at the floor and wishing there had been bread at the table before he looked at the menu.
We get into the car. He says, ” I’d never pay that much for dinner – that’s too expensive! We’ll find something down the road.”
Now, I have no idea if we actually did find anything “down the road” before we got to the timeshare. All I can remember from that drive is sitting down and getting up without a word to the staff.
But, on to the “making history” portion of the story…
My grandparents actually had a pretty good time (I think). I have some pictures from the trip – just to prove that my grandma actually was there. One of them is of my grandfather, on the second floor of the condo, looking down at me. The stairs were a spiral staircase – which, when I think about how hard it got for grandpa to walk is amazing to think of. But the one I have to share is this one, actual proof that Grandma left her safe little hometown to make her granddaughter (and her daughter in law) happy:
And this was apparently the last trip she ever took out of state before she passed away from cancer. I am so glad she went and had a good time!
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