I'm hip!

Not exactly. But what I am about to post made me feel very "in the know." (Yes, I am a certified geek!)And before I go farther, this is not a kid specific post.

Thumbing through the latest issue of Parenting magazine, a gift courtesy of my friend Jill (many thanks again, I LOVE IT!) on page 61 they list a bunch of healthy veggie snacks. Included in this list are Calbee Snapea Crisps. According to the graphic, the snacks cost $2.98.

We have been getting these same snacks at Trader Joe's for $1.49 for awhile now. My son eats them and enjoys them, but I devour them! Think 'Hot Fries' of junior high days, minus the seasoning. They are so yummy, and while no where near as healthy as real peas, they are much better than chips or candy.

The Snapea Crips are great, and once again it appears Trader Joe's is doing a good job of keeping the price low. I highly recommend these snacks, especially if you can get at TJs, way cheaper than chips or other munchies, and healthier too.

NoVa moms

Got this listing from one of my favorite resources, the DC Urban Mom Blog. Its a listing of all the fall consignment sales for kids clothing, etc. I have heard great things about these sales and look forward to checking out. Will post a review once I go.

http://www.our-kids.com/static/?f=dcfallconsignment

ps...If you want to sign up for DC Urban Moms, just Google them. I didn't want to bog down this post with multiple links.

A note about this blog

Some friends have suggested I try to make some money off of this. You will notice I am still working out the kinks of Google Adsense. I am clueless when it comes to this sort of thing. I felt like I had climbed Mt. Everest when I realized how to install the widget so the posting could emailed...so figuring out ads is going to be like traveling to outerspace when, and if, that ever happens.

But I wanted to make clear from the getgo, that the words you read here about my preferences and dislikes are mine. I like, ok LOVE, Trader Joes. But if they go expensive on me in a certain regard, I will call them out on it (i.e the price of their blueberries went up bigtime over the last two weeks or so, as a result my son didn't get any). I also like Giant and Safeway and Diapers.com. I know these things because I shop there. I have tried shopping at Shopppers Food and just have not been impressed. And while I adore Wegman's (who doesn't?) its too far away and in many cases too expensive. The meat and seafood at both Giant and HT are just as good, and cheaper.

What I want to make clear is no matter what the ads say, whatever you read is influenced solely by my experiences. As a former journalist the idea of promoting something just for show makes me ill. If HT or Diapers.com advertises on this site, great. Same goes for Shoppers or even Wal-Mart (which incidently we don't have one close by as far as I know, so thats why I don't shop there) that's fine too.

Rest assured, what you read is how I really feel and not what some ad tells me to say. You have my word.

NYT on our changing times

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/29/business/economy/29consumer.html?hp

Interesting piece. $4 lattes = $20/week = $80/month..thats a gym membership! I will talk later on my coffee saving ways, but in the meantime thought this was good on where we (as a country) used to be, and where we might be going.

While the cat's away...the mouse will play

Ok, not really. But I thought the title was fun.

But this is sorta true. You see while my husband and I agree on most things, one thing we definitely do not agree on is the air conditioning. I would have it off almost all summer, except maybe when its 100 or more outside and humid. He would have it on until fall when we immediately turn on the heat. We are not alone. The Washington Post did a cute piece on this issue earlier this month.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/01/AR2009080101839.html

I once lived in a downtown DC apartment with no AC. I lived there quite happily until boyfriend-now-husband elicited the pity of our friends who donated an AC to the cause. Its not that I love the heat, I actually hate it. Would rather live in Alaska than Florida. But AC is expensive and I have always been averse to putting it on.

My aversion worked well this summer. Admittedly DC was not THAT hot early on, but still hot enough that we otherwise would have had it on. Later when it became clear that our son got his sleeping genes from Dad and couldnt sleep in even moderately warm weather, we had to turn it on. The difference was profound.

July bill: $46.32
August bill: $76.25

I have no idea what September bill will be, I admit I am a bit terrified. What I do know is that my husband was out of town for business, and when I saw the extended forecast for temps AT WORST in the low '80s and many in the 70s, I turned it off.

When he came home tonight and saw the windows open and fans running he lamented, " I take it the AC is off for good." Yup. It is. Back to saving.....

The moral is pretty clear. You don't NEED AC, generations survived for 100s of years without it. And by not having it on all the time, you cut your costs and don't dread the bill.

On a freezer bag kick

Freezer bags are expensive! The gallon bags which have areas for you to write on can set you back. I would give you an exact figure except for the fact I so rarely buy them because of their cost.

So what do I do? If you freeze a lot of ground beef or chicken (I do!) that you buy in bulk, you can reuse the bag over and over again. Either wash the the bag when its empty and put to the side, or when you see you are running low on the chicken* go buy more and place in the bag with the frozen bits.

What about bags of vegetables or left over pizza or small pieces of steak? I reuse the bags I get at Harris Teeter or Giant in the deli department. They have a snap or a ziploc-like feature and are the perfect size for opened bags of veggies.

You can't escape buying freezer bags...but you can space out the purchases.

*Boneless/skinless Chicken is on sale this week at Magruders (www.magruders.com) for $2.49/lb!

Mish Mash

Several nuggets tonight...

First, I will be the first to admit when I am wrong, or when I give bad advice. Earlier this month I bragged about buying three gallons of milk since the price was right and my son goes through it fast...or so I thought. Today though he got sick, and I believe it was because the milk was 9 days old in my fridge (despite the fact date of expiration was Aug 30). I think the main reason was because the milk was in the door and not on the shelf. This is something I remember hearing about in the past but never paying attention to. Now I will.

Lesson learned: Don't buy more than 2 gallons of milk at a time, and don't store milk in the door.

Second, as per my post on ziploc baggies and snack bags. Safeway has Doritos on sale, $2 bag.

Finally, Harris Teeter has another coupon special, haven't seen this one before. They will double coupons up to $1.98, so that means you could conceivably get $3.96 off an item.

Happy Shopping!

Diapers

This is the first post dealing with kidlets. I am going to try to space these out, but it's timely since we just got our newest batch and my old roommate emailed me about them today.

Last Thursday after dinner I placed an order with Diapers.com, the online site where we order all our diapers from.It was pouring down rain when I ordered and the rain continued throughout the weekend. I have been a fan since my friend Holly recommended it, but the proof really is in the pudding.

In addition to ordering 160 size 3 diapers, we got disposable mats to go under the high-chair for our son's adventures in food, as well as a small board book. The total, once you included coupons and credits: $48.97. Perhaps the best part: the diapers arrived at my doorstep during my son's afternoon nap on Friday....less than 24 hours later!

Giant sells 72 diapers for roughly $20. Multiply by two, this is $40, plus tax and the haul of carrying to your car and its more money, less product and lots of hassle.

Target sells the 160 diapers for $41, and will ship them to you for free if your order is more than $50, but does charge tax.

Diapers.com doesn't charge tax and doesn't charge to ship if you total order BEFORE credits come to $49. Credits are easy to acquire. Everytime someone who I referred to Diapers.com buys from them, I get $1 credit toward my future orders. And it gets better, complete win-win, when friends say I referred them, they get $10 off their first order! I have had complete orders of diapers cost me under $30 when combined with credits. It is a no-brainer to me to order from there, and no where else.

Diapers.com sells lots of stuff besides diapers. Their motto is "We deliver everything but the baby." We have ordered food, clothes, diapers, diaper rash cream, etc. They once delivered food that broke (it was jarred baby food), when I called to complain, they refunded the cost of my food, shipped me a new container of food (even though 11 of the 12 jars were fine and usable) and gave me a $5 credit for future purchases.

The hassle of not having to schlep the diaper box from store to car to home is enough of a reason to order diapers online, whether from this site or a more traditional store. But the discounts and recommendation-friendly program associated with Diapers.com, not to mention swift customer service, means I won't ever get diapers anywhere else.

Lunch money

That was the name of my ING savings account.

I set it up a few years back and each month it would deduct $25 from our checking account and put into a different non-accessible-by-me-unless-on-the-computer-and-then-only-three-days-later account.

This account built up a pretty nice nest egg. I am not sure what if anything I ever envisioned using it for. But as of today the account has roughly $26.30. I have dipped into this account several times over the last few months to pay our credit cards in the months that they have been higher than normal.

Saving is not hard, and in many ways its pain free. I never missed this $25 since I never saw it and never had to do anything with it. I set the account up years ago when the banks were offering high interest rates, but now that times are different the premise is still a strong one. And when our "challenging times" end, I will resume the deduction.

Save WHATEVER amount you think you can each month, $5, $25, $50..whatever works for your budget. Then when you really NEED it, it will be there. Were it not for this savings we would have had a harder time staying debt free over these last 9 months.

A final note, this savings is different than our normal savings account. I can and will talk more about that later. The purpose of a savings account like this is to give a little cushion or bounce when you need it if unexpected things come up.

Make your own snack bags

This money saving tip comes courtesy of my friend ML, and the timing comes courtesy of the good people at Target and Harris Teeter.

Remember last week when I got the great deal on snack bags. When all was said and done I probably paid less than $1 for 50 Ziploc snack bags which they promote on the outside as good for 100 calorie snacks (they give your more than a dozen combos of what makes an approx 100 calorie snack). 100 calorie snacks seem to be all the rage. I admit I love the Oreo variety.

This week in its circular Target advertises as a sale Doritos 150 calorie snacks. A box of 10 bags, each with 150 calories costs $3.99. It doesn't say what the regular price is. But when I was in Giant today I checked out their selection. They had regular Doritos for regular price at $3.99. I checked the servings size and it too had 10 servings, 150 calories each.

So you are now saying, well that's the SAME PRICE! In today's cosmic universe, yes. But normally the snack bags are more expensive, and frankly I didn't even see them at Giant. And you can always find Doritos (or Oreos or whatever else your favorite snack is) on sale and buy at that time.

The moral of this post is, buy your own snack bags and make your own 100 or 150 or 75 calorie snacks. When you buy the prepackaged snacks all you are paying for is the extra bags. When you make them yourself you save money...and heck you probably help the environment too (if you really wanted to be thrifty you could reuse the snack bags over and over if its the same snack which would even save you more...don't laugh, I do this with my son's crackers all the time!)

Bananas Bananas!

This is clearly a Bargain of the Day if there ever was one!

Trader Joe's sells their bananas EVERY DAY for 19 cents each! Most other stores in my area are either 2 for a $1 or 50-60 cents a pound. Our son loves bananas so the savings add up. I usually go to TJs on Fridays and buy a bunch of our staples from there at one time, and bananas are always on the list!

Happy Saturday!

A second use for hand towels

When we bought our condo during the height of the housing craze we didn't check the bathroom as closely as we should have. Shortly after we moved in we realized that our window sill in the bathroom was in some serious need for sanding, repainting and just general repair. To be polite, while I love my husband dearly, I did not marry Mr. Bob Villa and I am not Martha Stewart.

Rather than try ad nausea um to fix the sill, or pay for someone to fix it, I placed a hand towel down and put our shampoos etc on top. I change the hand towel about once a month, and four years later, the sill is pretty much the same as it was when we bought it. And since the towel collects all the soap remnants and other "shower junk" I will continue to use even once our window sill is fixed because it makes for no mess clean up -- just throw the towel in the wash with others and that's it!

Paying (much) less than half price

Last night in the waning hours of Harris Teeter’s special triple coupon sale, meaning they would triple the value of any coupon up to $.99 cents (maximum amount off is then $2.97), I managed to make it to our local store.

This is what I purchased (regular price per item in brackets):

Two boxes of Betty Crocker Hershey Fudge Brownies (2.99)
Three boxes of Hamburger Helper (2.19)
Two boxes Betty Crocker Blueberry Muffin mix (2.99)
Lysol Kitchen Cleaner (3.19)
Lysol Bathroom Cleaner (2.99)
Lysol Regular cleaner (4.19)
Ziploc Snack Bags (2.39)
Twix (.99)
Snickers (.99)
Harris Teeter Dish Soup (1.97)
Fructis Shampoo (3.99)
Pepperidge Farm Honey Wheat Bread (3.99)

The total for these purchases, without coupons came to $43.22

I paid, including tax, $18.63!!!

Now, one could very easily argue we don’t NEED blueberry muffins or candy bars. Fair enough. But by being able to have these things as little treats down the road, it makes the hard times that much easier. And we do NEED bathroom cleaners, snack bags and sadly at my age I do need good shampoo (I used to be a Suave girl, until my hair started falling out!)

By cutting all coupons and using them when the time is right, you can save big time. I only wish I had more coupons I could have used last night! I will keep my eyes posted for future triple coupon sales.

Date your staples

I have alluded to this in the past, but since I am going on a coupon spree tonight (more later) I thought this was the appropriate time to talk about staples. You know coffee, detergent, soap, plastic bags, aluminum foil, etc. If you know how often you need to buy these things, you can look for the coupons at the right time and save money.

For example, instead of just realizing you are OUT of aluminum foil, if you date it and get in the habit of knowing the roll you buy will last two months or so, when you are approaching that deadline, you can start scouring for sales and coupons...instead of waiting for the last minute and paying full price.

The big chains aren't always cheaper

This is another two-fer

First, today I bought three gallons of milk. I did this because my local family grocery story (Magruders) has a special sale it seems nearly every Monday and Tuesday. Milk costs only $2.39 gallon. Considering my son goes through about two gallons a week, and milk can cost anywhere from just under $3, to $3.50/gallon elsewhere, the savings add up. Obviously I bought way more than he needs right now, but as long as you check the expiration date (this milk bought tonight is good for 7 days after Aug 30) you should be fine.

Magruders (www.magruders.com) has a bunch of things cheaper consistently from the chains, even my beloved Trader Joes. I often buy my chicken and ground beef there, depending on how well stocked our freezer is. Leaving tonight I noticed they offer the chance to sign up for email alerts and special savings. I will do that later and pass on what I learn.

You may not have Magruders, but every town has its local store. Back home in Baltimore it was Grauls. I didn't regularly go to Magruders, even though it was super convenient. But I happened to check back in there a few months back and remembered what I saw. It pays to check out these stores, and also check their ads in the paper when your food section comes out.

Second, this article was online today in the Washington Post.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/recession-road/2009/08/_silverthorne_colorado--anita.html?hpid=artslot

Lucky for us, we are not in these straights (and God willing we never will be). There are good days and bad days. Some people never ask something as simple as "How are you doing" (which would be very much appreciated) and others never stop asking "Any job news" (which is demoralizing and frustrating since if there was, we would tell).

We have leads from time to time, but so far nothing has stuck. We continue to have faith in each other and in God that all will be ok. But we do get frustrated. One of the silver linings of this time (I keep looking for them) is we are even more money conscious than we were before, and when WHEN these times end, we will never go back to spending haphazardly. Everything will be budgeted. These are things our parents and grandparents had to do, and we have learned that lesson the hardway.

Bargain of the Day -- Eggs

BoD -- 12 Large Eggs at Trader Joes are always .99 cents! While I can't give exact price for the other stores (I know, I know I need to get better about that, working on it) I know they usually run more than $1.50 and sometimes close to $2.

Have a great weekend!

Reuse your vegetable oil

This is probably the first of many that will come from my mom. When I was growing up she made (and still does!) the best crab cakes. I remember her leaving the deep fryer out for a long time after dinner was over. She was letting the oil cool.

Tonight I made my take on my friend Theola's chicken fingers. I will pass that inexpensive yummy recipe on sometime down the line. To make her chicken fingers you have to deep fry the chicken. I NEVER use vegetable oil. In fact very little of what I cook with has any oil at all. But this recipe requires a lot because its what you fry the chicken in.

This tip only applies if you use your veggie oil for the same thing, over and over. After you have used it, let it cool. Either turn deep fryer off or take pot off stove. Once the oil is completely cooled, as in ok to put your infant son's fingers in -- not that you would -- transfer back to the original bottle, and use again next time.

I am sure there are probably health reasons against this, so don't sue me if you do this and get sick. But my whole life growing up I never got sick and my mom did this with crab meet which I have to assume is just as bad as chicken. You can't tell the difference and why waste money buying the same thing over and over again. Use your judgment as to how often you should start over, and you will always lose some of the oil in the cooking process. But now you know, that big jug of veggie oil can go a long long time!

Happy eating!

Lunch in bulk --a weeks worth for about $10.

Two jobs ago I worked in an office and one of my colleagues would go out almost daily and buy lunch from the sushi bar or hot/cold bar. I remember thinking at the time how foolish this was because s/he was spending at least $8/day for a meal that looked ok, but not that great.

I have always been cheap. The name for this blog comes in part from my freshman year roommate, Big Bird (we didn't like each other too much) and she got sick of me saying I was cheap, so she introduced me to the word pecuniary. I changed it slightly for this, but you get the point. Anyway, since I began working in an office I have always been on the lookout for bargain frozen foods. And for a little more than what my colleague paid for ONE lunch, I could usually get for the whole week. How?

It seems every week either Safeway, HT or Giant always has the Frozen meals on sale, 4 for $10 or sometimes even 5 for $10. And it wasn't just the Lean Cuisines or WW varieties, but Marie Calendar and Boston Market. Now these meals in and of themselves are not that filling but if they make up the bulk of your meal you can then buy (or better yet bring as well) your drink and a bag of chips or something. My husbands office did not have the best of microwaves so this didn't always work for him, but if you have a functioning microwave, go for it. And if you don't and there are enough of you in the office, maybe consider splurging for one. In the end you will wind up saving money, big time.

Triple Coupon Alert!

Harris Teeter, at least the one in my flier area which came out yesterday and I read last night, is offering TRIPLE COUPONS UP TO 99 cents from now until next Tuesday. That means if you have a coupon that says 90 cents off, its actually $2.70 off! What's great about this deal is that usually when they do it (maybe once every six weeks or so, if memory serves) its only for the weekend, but this is for the whole week!

Happy Shopping!

Money in a bottle

Two points for today. First, money matters.

A good way to "save" money without even trying is putting spare change at the end of the day in a bottle or jar. We use one of those big plastic water bottles. Our plan usually revolves around summer vacation. We need money for gas, and gas has not exactly been cheap of late. For our vacation we drive to Upstate New York, about 11 hours from home. We easily spend $100+ on gas. But instead of charging this and making our vacation more expensive than it already will be, we use our change. Some years I have had as much as $130 in the jar!

One way to build up this nest, is to literally put all the spare money --change and bills $5 and under -- in the jar at the end of the day. It helps if it is difficult to get the money back out. Set a start and end date.

The year we had $130 we were helped by selling some things on Craigslist, so that was unusual. But this past year, even despite our challenges we still had more than $50. I can't say how much exactly because Chevy Chase changed their policies. They used to have a money counter you could use for free to count your coins. Then they changed it so you were charged if you brought in more than $100. Now, a few weeks ago when I went in, they charge you if you have more than $5. I am not paying some machine to count my money for me. So, we carried around the bag for awhile, used it to pay meters, park fees, ice cream, and anything else random. But we are asking God for a lot right now, and the other night I decided it would be nice to just donate the bag. So I put it in the Sunday collection.

Its great to see the money grow and it was always exciting to see how much money we had in there after the year. We are not perfect so we definitely raided the cookie jar from time to time, but getting in the habit of putting our money away and saving for a rainy day is fun, especially if you can watch it grow.

BARGAIN of the DAY: We had to go buy Dishwasher detergent today. It was 2.5 months since we bought it last. We paid $3.50 for it at Giant, 75 oz, powder. This compares with more than $5 for Cascade powder at Giant. We were at Target yesterday and their powder detergent was $3.79 I believe.

I got lucky at Giant, my seltzer was on sale too. So two one-liter bottles for $.80, not bad!

UPDATE: Aug. 22, 2009 -- I purchased Electrosol brand detergent, that was on sale. I should have just bought the generic Giant brand, if memory serves it was the same price and I have used in the past. I am very disappointed in the Electrosol, it leaves a film on my silverware and glasses that reminds me of an old detergent commercial (Cascade perhaps?) Anyway, haven't decided if I am going to keep using or scrap all together, but wanted it out there -- Electrosol, not so good :(

Sunday Surprise -- Voice your concerns to those who can do something about them

Two weeks ago my old roommate came back into town. We both took our sons, ages 14 mons and 22 months, to The Carlyle Grande in Shirlington. The food was fantastic and the service was swift, but without getting into all the blow by blow details, the service was bad. Very bad. It was clear this service was as a result of our little guys, despite the fact they were amazingly well behaved, we were seated in the back away from most others, and came early so as not to take up tables during prime time. Judy, who had worked in fine dining restaurants before, was irate.
She complained to manager when we left and we thought that was it. She was going to write a letter later, after she returned home. But when she got back to her hotel, she told her husband who was even more irate. He returned to Carlyle to talk to manager, who in turn refunded the cost of our dinner and pledged to have another manager call Judy in the morning.

Sure enough, at 10 am, the other manager called, and offered to treat us all (4 adults, 2 kids) to dinner the following Sunday to use as a teaching experience. They were very apologetic that we were treated so poorly and wanted to make it up to us.

I will say from the get go they went above and beyond. This second time around the food was just as good, but the service was nothing short of spectacular. I noticed also there were several other families in there with young children. Two of the managers stopped by our table to check on us and the waitress (different from week before) was spot on. Ironically our boys were more fidgety this week, but luckily the Dads were there this time to help us take them outside.

I wanted to write this to you women because in these challenging times we are all looking to stretch our dollars as far as we can, and aren't going to waste a dime on something that isn't entirely worth it. I can't say for sure if our first waitress was just having a bad day or was just all around poor, but everything, and I mean everything about their response indicates to me that they want and welcome children in their restaurant. My husband and I (both of us are currently unemployed) don't go out hardly at all anymore, but would return there in a heartbeat if the chance came about.

The lesson learned from this is twofold: 1) Carlyle is a good place to take young children, and is also a nice place for adults and 2) if there is a problem with service, make sure to bring it to the attention of those who have the power to change it. I am not sure I would have gone back there, if things had been left how they were when we first walked out. But now that I know they take parents and service seriously, I look forward to it (not to mention getting the crab appetizers, and filet specials....yummy!)

Saturday Savings Sugar

The other day I was searching through recipes and one said I needed turbinado sugar. What? Never heard of that??? I had my husband Google it and it turns out that turbinado sugar is raw sugar, you know the sugar that comes in the brown packets that are in all our favorite coffee shops.

How often do you need turbinado sugar? I cook fairly regularly and I can say in the four plus years I have been married and cooking regularly, this was the first time I had come across a recipe that called for it. So instead of spending xxx amount for a bag of raw sugar you may never use in your daily life, swipe a few packets every once in awhile from Dunkin' Donuts or Caribou. (I do not like Starbucks). I am not advocating taking a fistful of sugar, but if you take one or two packets once a week, and keep around the house, when the time comes you will have your sugar since each packet is a tablespoon.

Whether its raw sugar or regular sugar, save yourself a few dollars and lots of cabinet space and take a packet or two...you will be grateful in the long run.

The First Friday Feast

Cook dinner at home. That is perhaps one of the biggest money savers we have encountered since these challenging times began. We were never big go out to dinner people, but would on occassion out of desire or sheer laziness order food to either deliver or go pick up and bring home here. Not anymore.

There are so many magazines whether its Cooking Light, Good Housekeeping, Food & Wine or even the website Epicurious.com which will allow you to search recipes by time and ease factor. Last night we had pork chops I had bought on sale, with corn -- and for the hubby asperagus -- and the whole meal probably cost less than $5 total! Our dinner tonight, homemade pizza for each of us, cost probably $6 total.

In this blog I plan to write a lot about the stores, brands, tricks and places I like best to find bargins. Trader Joe's will make numerous appearances. So will Giant, Harris Teeter and Safeway, since those are the stores in my area. We also have a Shoppers, but I have been decidedly not impressed with their quality, so haven't gone in years. I also love Target, or Tar-ghee as we used to say years ago before it really was the place to shop.

I am not a chef by any stretch, although I love watching Food Network. I am also extremely cheap, or perhaps a better phrase is pragmatically thrifty. You won't find suggestions to sell your clothes at consignment shops here, or run around to 10 different stores each week. While I am sure both of these work and help save money, they are too time and energy consuming.

Happy reading, and I hope happy savings as well.