Nohe 5

It's Too Darn Hot!

Living without air conditioner isn't really that bad, except for the hours of 4 PM to 8 PM.  For some reason, right at 4, the humidity shoots us and the air feels heavy and thick.  Breathing is more like drinking air.  My skin feels sticky and I just don't want anything to touch me.

Of course, this is the time of day when I am cooking dinner, so the whole situation is exacerbated by a hot stove or grill, stress to get the meal done and a gaggle of hungry, whinny kids.

By 8 o'clock, dinner is done and the kids are usually in bed and hubby and I retreat to the basement which is about 15 degrees cooler than the rest of the house.  It is like walking in to a pool as we go down the stairs, each step getting cooler and cooler.

We have fans in all the rooms and once the sun sets the temperature drops off really quickly.  We stay hydrated and play in the kiddie pool.  Plus, I really think that because we don't live in the extremes of cold in the house, hot outside, cold in the car, hot at the playground, ect., that we are much more acclimated to the heat.  Sure it is hot, but when we are outside with friends, we don't seem to be as bothered by the heat as those who live with AC.  Plus, since we know that it will be just as hot in our house as wherever we are, we are willing to extend outdoor activities.

It is easier to write this post now, at 7 AM, before the heat of the day reaches a whopping 95 degrees, but nonetheless, aside from a steamy evening, living without AC really isn't all that bad.

PS- I do love to visit people who do use the AC, so don't hesitate to invite us over. :)

Methodical Mischief

I think that I am in trouble folks.  As Teddy is getting a little bit older, I am getting a sharper picture of his little personality and it looks like there will be troubled waters ahead.

While Jack is very out there with the turmoil he creates, Teddy is much more subtle.  Yesterday, he sat very quietly and emptied his entire cup of juice into his bib (Jack would have just thrown it across the room).  I guess he was trying to figure out how much it would hold.  I can tell you, the bib will not absorb a whole cup of orange juice.  I guess I won't be giving Teddy "spill resistant" cups, but rather the "spill proof" ones from now on.

Also, Teddy has become rather opinionated.  He has food that he just will not touch (green beans) and food that he goes nuts for (Total Cereal).  Gone are the days when I could plop him on the floor with any random toy.  He knows what he wants and can get quite crabby when I can't read his mind.

It is not all doom and gloom though.  There is nothing Teddy likes better than to roll around on the floor with his brothers and sister.  He just thinks that the big kids hung the moon and stars.  He laughs with them, "sings" in the car and just about loses his mind when one of them walk in the room.  The good news is that feeling is mutual among all the siblings.  They are a very happy bunch.

It is such a blessing to watch my little angel, as Nicholas calls him, grow in to his personality.

They Are Lucky There Isn't a Circus in Town to Give Them To

I worked really hard this morning doing laundry, teaching school and getting all of my other chores done so that I would have a little time before dinner to sew.

Unfortunately, while I was making this...

...the children were making this out of my potted herbs...

Just Another Day in Paradise

My day started with a kid puking in the hall.  My day ended with another kid peeing in the same hall.  All I can say is that thank God in between nobody's diaper leaked.

Just another glamorous day in the life of a stay-at-home-mom.

Shopping Tip #4 – Coupons Are Free Money (if you use them correctly)

On Sunday morning I am like Edward Scissorhands.  Coupons are a flyin’.  I actually can feel my heart skip a beat when I find really good coupon.  If you ask my daughter, she will tell you, “Coupons are free money.”  There is however a bit of an art to coupon clipping.

The first thing is to only clip coupons for things that you will actually use.  If you want to try a new product, a coupon is a good way to make it affordable, which is exactly what the companies are hoping you think.  Doing this is fine, but in the end it will add to your bill not subtract, because you are buying things beyond your normal purchases.

Next, this is one that took me a little while to realize, using a coupon on a more expensive item when there is a cheaper version available does not save you money.  On my last shopping trip I had a 25-cent coupon for a five-pound bag of sugar.  Sugar was already on my list so the coupon was a good deal (see rule 1).  The bag of sugar would normally have cost 2.50 and the coupon brought it down to 2.25.  However, the store brand cost only 1.89.  The coupon did not bring down the cost of the item to lower priced option, therefore it was better to not use the coupon and instead buy the store brand sugar.

This type of thing happens a lot with personal hygiene products.  I am a Suave girl.  It’s reasonably priced and a quality product (a good price with a lousy product isn’t worth the money you save).  For a while I kept coming home with more expensive soaps and lotions and my grocery bill showed the strain.  I thought that just because I had a coupon I was getting a better deal.  Don’t be afraid to give up a coupon if you are actually going to pay less without the use of a coupon.

Now I am not saying that you should use the cheaper item just because it is cheaper.  However, like discussed in Shopping Tip #3, so many items in the grocery store have negligible differences.  So why pay more for advertising?

The next thing to do with coupons is to try to stack them with store specials.  Last week I was able to get cereal and sausage so cheap because I found a store that had them on sale and then I saved even more by using a coupon on top of the special.  Coupons are typically good for several months.  So, unless you need something right away, save them until the item goes on sale.

Finally, if you want to get the best coupons, you have to get a Sunday subscription to a larger newspaper.  I found a great deal in which I could subscribe to a year of the Sunday Washington Post for only 50-cents a week.  That is a dollar off the newsstand price.  All I have to do is find one good coupon and the paper has paid for itself.

I almost forgot.  It is important to keep your coupons well organized so that you can find them easily.  Here is a picture of my coupon organizer.  It is really almost embarrassingly big.  I got it at Michael’s and I used a 40% off coupon so it was only about $6.  Would you expect me not to use a coupon on my coupon organizer?

 

NEXT: Shopping Tip #5- Comparison Shop Online

From the Mouths of Babes

Last night Nicholas came in to the kitchen and announced: You know Mom, I have two dads.

Me: Really? (bracing myself)

Nicholas: Yes, one is your husband and the other is God.

I love this child so much.  He has wisdom beyond his years.

Shopping Tip #3- Store Brands, Not Just White Labels with Black Letters Anymore

When I was growing up, I remember seeing generic canned food.  There would be a can with a plain white label with big black letters that said, “BEANS.”  There was not other information that I can remember.  Quite frankly, generics were a little scary, but not so any more.

The way I look at store brand or a second tiered product is, “They don’t advertise so they can save you money.”  My kids can tell the difference between a bowl of Malt O’ Meal Honey Nut Scooter and a box of Honey Nut Cheerios, but they like them both equally.  But when it comes to things like chicken broth or flour, the only place I can tell the difference is at the cash register.

Plus, our main two grocery stores, Giants and Wegmans (yes I know that I said horrible things about Wegman’s in the past and it is still not my favorite, but you can check prices on-line which is a tip for later) have store brand lines of organic foods.  This does not make the organic version the cheapest version, but, because it is a store brand, it makes it much more affordable.

For example, at Giant the Nature’s Promise (the store brand) organic butter is $4.50.  The Horizon (name brand organic) butter is $6 and the Organic Valley butter is $6.80.  Regular non-organic butter is $3.50 for the store brand and $4.69 for Land O’ Lakes.  So, by going for the store brand I can afford the organic version.  Sure it is a dollar more than the non-organic store brand, but it is 19 cents cheaper than the non-organic name brand.

Even with non-organic items, check the ingredients against those in the name brand.  Especially with non-food items, you will find that they are almost exactly the same and at a fraction of the cost.  All that advertising to convince you that a brand is better doesn't make it better, it just makes it more expensive.

NEXT Shopping Tip #4 – Coupons Are Free Money

Shopping Tip #2- Grocery Store Specials- Because There Are Very Few $5 Coupons

Wednesdays and Sundays are like mini-Christmases to me, but without all the stress and decorating.  Those are the days that my store circulars come out and they are the basis for my list making.

You can clip coupons until your fingers bleed, but you are rarely going to find a “Buy One, Get One Free” coupon.  However, stores have these deals all the time.  So if you have a $5 item, you’ll be getting it for $2.50.   I like to look at things in terms of per item and percent off.  Even though I have to buy two, I am getting each for 50% off.  Percentages are a good way of looking at things, because they put it in perspective.  “Buy One, Get One Half Off” sounds like a better deal than “25% off,” but that is exactly what you are getting.

Eating according to what is on sale takes a little getting used to.  We can’t just say, “Hey we feel like X tonight,” if X wasn’t on sale this week.  By the same token, it forces you out of your rut of making the same things over and over because you have to find a way to cook what is available.  It is like when we started to buy most of our fruits and veggies from the farmer’s market.  You learn to eat what is available.  This reason is also why I make up my menu at the same time that I make up my grocery list.

One final note on store sales, when you find a really good deal, especially when you can add a coupon on to a store deal (like I did with the cereal last week), and it is something that stores well (dried goods, paper products, personal hygiene items, frozen meat), stock up on it.  It is tempting to think how much lower you grocery bill could be this week if you only bought one or two of an item, but 8 will last you longer because when you run out you just have to go to your own pantry instead of back to the store where you will be paying full price.  So stocking up not only save you money per item, but it keeps that item off future shopping lists thus making them cheaper.

 

NEXT Shopping Tip #3- Store Brands, Not Just White Labels with Black Letters Anymore

Shopping Tip #1- Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance

When I was a kid, my dad was always saying, “Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.”  What can I say, the man has a way with words.  However, he was absolutely right.  When it comes to grocery shopping, the first hurdle to overcome is planning.

When I sit down to plan out my grocery list, I also plan out what we are going to be eating for the next two weeks.  For a long time, grocery shopping was preceded by throwing away copious amounts of spoiled food.  I had bought it on a whim and then never used it.  Now, there is not one bit of food that comes in to this house without a specific plan as to how it is going to be used.  By the end of the two weeks, my cupboards are looking a lot like Old Mother Hubbard’s, which is a very good thing because it means we ate what we bought.

For lunches we eat left-overs, sandwiches or mac ‘n cheese.  Those things rarely change so I know that I just have to stock up on lunch standards.  Breakfast is cereal, oatmeal (from the big box not the individual microwavable servings) or eggs.  Snacks are fruit or popcorn (Invest in an air popper and then you can get a bag of popcorn for about $1.25 that will last you a month.  Microwave popcorn is a horrible for your wallet and your health.  Popcorn is a great snack that is low in calories and high in fiber and fun).  Dinner is where I get to be creative.

I plan out 14 dinners, but I don’t assign them a night.  Life is too unpredictable to be tied to making a certain dish on a certain night.  I work in 2 to 3 pasta nights in to the mix.  These are for nights that are just too crazy to cook a big meal and where you would normally want to go out to eat because it is all just too much.  Plus, pasta nights are cheap nights.  Throw in a salad or a side of veggies and you are done.  I also have 1 or 2 Brinner Nights.  This is when we have breakfast for dinner.  We will have pancakes or waffles or a fancy frittata.  Mornings are too crazy for me to make a big fancy breakfast, but that kind of food tastes good so I do it at night when I have more time.  Plus, it is generally not that expensive.

For the rest of our dinners, I look through the pantry and the freezer to see what we have already.  Then I look to see what is on special this week at the grocery store (more on specials in the next installment).  I make a list the meals noting the cookbook and page number of the recipe on my list.  It is so much easier to stick to eating at home when I don’t have to think about what to cook.  I just go to the list, knowing that I have all the ingredients for those recipes, pick one and then cross it off the list.  I try to pick recipes that are not too complicated, but still tasty.  Rachel Ray is good for this as are recipes from magazines.  I may make a special note if the recipe has to come early in the rotation because of easily spoilable food, but other than that, once the list is made my thinking about dinner is done.

I have found that knowing what we are going to eat for two weeks works best for us.  Any shorter and I feel like I am going to the grocery store all the time.  Any longer and food won’t last till the next grocery trip.  Plus, every trip to the grocery store is a study in temptation so the less I am in there the better off we are.

Next time- Grocery Store Specials- Because There Are Very Few $5 Coupons

Beach before Budget

I will be gathering my tips for grocery shopping this week.  But before I do that, I thought I would share some pics from the beach.  It was Teddy and Jack's first trip to the big sand box.  Jack of course loved it, but Teddy was not impressed.

Have a safe and happy Independence Day!