Coupons can be awesome

Today I needed to pick up the last few items for the weekly grocery haul. I decided to peruse a few coupon databases online first and I found a sweet deal. Target put all their Kraft cheese products on sale for $2 each. The www.becentsable.net blog alerted me to the sale AND linked to a page with a $5 off 5 Kraft products coupon. So five 8-oz blocks of cheese for $1 each. We eat a lot of cheese, so SCORE. One in the refrigerator and four in the freezer.

I could get used to that.

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Grocery savings #1

my first attempt at frugal grocery shopping was moderately successful. using the tips from the book about budgeting and savings i read last week, be centsable by chrissy pate and kristin mckee, i was able to plan my weekly menu around sales and use a few coupons. i had to buy a few high ticket items like claritin and diapers, but i still did ok.

total savings from clubcard and sales plus five coupons...thirty seven percent.

not too shabby

also, i am typing this on my phone and blogger wont recognize capitalized letters, numbers or symbols. just fyi. i did not turn into a thirteen year old girl with my lack of proper punctuation.

Budget budget budget

Jon and I are embarking on a new journey. One that involves getting very serious about getting out of debt entirely, living frugally, and making the most of what we have. I'm going to write about the journey here, even though I know talking about money and finances is often taboo. Writing will help me work thing out in my mind and keep me accountable.

We watched this show called "Til Debt Do Us Part" on MSNBC, which is kind of like SuperNanny for couples in financial trouble. There isn't very much detail in each show, sadly, but the host has one main message: USE CASH. Each variable spending category you have gets a fixed weekly/monthly budget, that amount goes into a jar at the beginning of the week, and that's all you get. Done. Seems pretty extreme, but Jon and I are going to give it a go.

The big variable categories are Groceries, Restaurants, Retail, Entertainment and Misc. Our average budget for these categories is going from $1850/month down to $750/month. Ack! That includes groceries, diapers, milk, clothes, hobbies, date nights, books, cleaning supplies, lunches out, medications, anything else. Big decrease. Maybe too big? It's a starting point, so we may have to play with the numbers as we go forward. I'm optimistic, though.

I'm going to try to work the whole coupon game. (I just got $107 worth of diapers for $77 with two coupons!) We're going to do some serious meal planning and all our cooking at home. I'm going to be cutting back significantly on soda consumption. Jon is going to learn how to process his own film. Little things will take us far.

This is pretty big for us. Go Team Lew!

Big Red Vase

When things go missing in our house, like, say, a thumb drive with important documents on it or a $100 rebate card you got in the mail yesterday, the most likely location is the Big Red Vase. The Big Red Vase is  three-foot-high wooden vase that sits next to the book case in the living room. It has of late become the favorite hiding spot for Evelyn's stolen loot. We'll often walk by and see a DVD perched precariously on top, or a big soda cup wedged inside the lip. If $100 gift card was sitting on the table but is no longer there, look in the Big Red Vase. I'm glad we have a go-to place to search first when something is missing. Better than the heating vent!

Evelyn also has taken to being a cowboy. She loves it. Jon had a brilliant idea of getting her a pair of cowboy boots and she has worn them nearly every day since. Every morning she asks to wear "cowboy clothes." Not sure what that means, but today it means an orange t-shirt with hot pink and polka dot shorts. Best baby ever.

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

Evelyn "reads"

Who wants to see the most adorable thing ever?

This video was taken using my new phone and I haven't quite figured out all the settings, but you get the idea.

Micro-trauma

I'm wearing a wrist brace. Also, sometimes, one of those tennis elbow straps. Seems I have one of those new-fangled "repetitive stress injuries" like carpal tunnel. Only I don't have carpal tunnel. Just a perpetually sore wrist and occassionally sore elbow. My doctor calls it "micro-trauma" that just builds up over time. It probably got exasperated by a meeting of three different events confluencing onto my wrist at one time. First, new keyboard at work that makes me slam the keys down to type. (I think I'll go keyboard shopping today and just get my own keyboard, something with a light touch.) Second, starting a new (awesome) knitting project that requires a lot of twisting and cables and such.  Third, our neighbors gave us a backyard swingset that Evelyn LOVES. I'm pretty sure she could swing for hours and hours. But she can't pump yet, so we have to push her, and that is just another straw on the wrist-camel's back.

So, ouch.

A week in a brace at all times, then wearing the brace when I do "hurty" things like complicated knitting or maybe typing. Totally sucky.

Nuts

Did you know that many nuts and most cereal grains have something in them called phytic acid, a sort-of "anti-nutrient" that keeps your intestines from properly absorbing all the good vitamins in the food? One way to neutralize a big portion of the phytic acid is to soak the nut or grain in water for 8 hours or overnight, and then to dry it (in the case of nuts) in a warm oven for 12-24 hours.

I decided to try this out, since I love Almonds and they are really good for you (in moderation, of course). I soaked the nuts in salted water for about 8 hours, then spread them on a cookie sheet, sprinkled a little salt on top, and set them in my oven (set to "warm" or about 170*) for the next 14 hours. What is interesting is that the almonds taste different now. Sweeter. Crunchier. Richer. Quite tasty. And less stomach discomfort if I overindulge just a little! Occassionlly I get an almond that didn't dry all the way through and it is chewey and almost...malty, maybe? But still good.

I will definitely try this again with my next batch. Maybe next time I will sprinkle them with curry powder or tamarind powder or cinnamon before I dry them. Yum!