I can do this

No one could ever accuse me or my sweet husband of being talented Do-It-Yourself people. We are far from it. Over the years, we have become very talented at saving money to pay others to do things for us.

When we first became homeowners, we quickly learned our limits, not that we didn't try new things, but we knew when to call in the professionals. Snake a drain? No problem. Replace hardware in the shower? Easy. That is until the ancient, corroded pipe snapped off in Jason's hand. Time to call the plumber. Take down the ceiling tiles? Maybe. Until we discovered lead paint behind them. Professional time.

We did attempt to paint a room... once. Isn't painting the number one easy DIY project? Everyone says that on TV. We tried it. I wouldn't call it a disaster, but the end result wasn't very pretty to look at. Not really the effect we were going for. We haven't painted a room since.

I find our DIY aversion rather peculiar since we both come from hardy DIY stock. Jason's mother can wield a power tool like no other. If she can't do it herself, it probably isn't worth doing. On my side of the family, my father is meticulous with a project once he gets going and sets his mind to something. His strong suit is landscaping and gardening, another area we struggle with. Jason's philosophy is "if it's green and grows, I'm mowing it" and that's just about the extent of what he wants to do in the form of yard work. I'm not much better. I try, every year I try, to stay on top of the weeding and the edging and the deadheading and trimming. It just all seems so never ending that I lose my motivation, get overwhelmed and give in to the weeds.

I'm determined to change.

In November, we finally put a hardwood floor in our living room. I say "we" as in we paid a very nice local business to install it. My part of the project consisted of picking the floor and then staying home while the floor was installed. Tough, huh? What I didn't expect was that the new floor would lead to another project (don't they all?). I didn't realize that to install the floor the existing wood baseboard molding needed to be removed. I suppose someone must have mentioned that to me along the way, but I must have blocked it out. Much to my dismay, the molding suffered some damage being pried off and later reattached to the wall. We now had a beautiful floor and marked up, ugly baseboards.

My first reaction was to cry. My second was to hire someone to fix it. The more we talked about it the more we convinced ourselves we could do this. The affected areas weren't all that big once you looked around the room.Wood filler. Sand. Paint. We could do this.

Today I pulled out my brand new putty knife, donned some rubber gloves and started scraping filler into the dents and nail holes. I can do this. Maybe if I keep telling myself that, I'll start to believe it. Stay tuned for sanding. One step at a time.

The boys and their tools

Around the same time the new motorcycle appeared in our garage, Noah got a new bike and all of a sudden our garage has become an accident waiting to happen. My gut reaction was a shed, but trying to find a solution that didn’t cost quite so much, we decided a bike rack was in order. Did you know bike’s these days often don’t have kickstands? So take a bike with no kickstand, a lazy kid who just wants to leave their bike anywhere and a messy garage in need of cleaning… you can imagine the chaos.

Weighing the options, Jason looked online and found a few bike racks we could buy, but then found plans to make a simple rack out of 2x4’s and 2x2’s. Last Christmas Noah got a tool set and he has been dying for some kind of project other than tightening drawer knobs, so we decided $25 spent on wood and hardware was a small price to pay to give Noah and Jason a fun project.

First step was to review the plans and determine what they needed followed by a trip to Home Depot. They then shut themselves in the hot garage for two nights. There were various lessons learned such as “righty, tighty, lefty, loosy” and “measure twice, cut once.” But the end result was well worth it... a new bike rack that was exactly what we needed, as well as some quality guy time with wood and tools. What is it with boys and their tools? I’ll never understand it.

Our "cheap" blueberries

Yesterday we went blueberry picking with the intention of filling our freezer. All winter long Jason and Alanya eat frozen blueberries on cereal and oatmeal and this is the time to stock up on fresh berries dirt cheap. Ran into a bit of a problem though. I had asked Jason if $27 cash was enough, and he said sure based on what they picked last year. Problem was I didn't pick with them last year. Imagine our surprise when the girl weighed our berries and told use we owed $34.

How embarrassing.

So I get in the car to find an ATM, but remember we are in the middle of farm country. I had to drive almost five miles to the nearest one, had to pay a bank fee for a machine that was out of network, had to drive five miles back to find that Jason had bought the kids water bottles since they had picked berries for an hour in the hot sun.... cheap blueberries? I don't think so.

Good neighbors

We never got a garden in this year because of some major tree work we had done. Good thing too because they had to drop a large section in the garden area and we would have lost anything that was planted. There's always next year.

In the meantime, today I stopped at our favorite veggie stand that opens up about a mile or so from here and got the most spectacular tomatoes. Alanya and I enjoyed them with a light sprinkling of kosher salt. Luckily I drive by this stand often!

Yesterday our neighbor, who has quite the garden and fruit orchard in his backyard, invited us over to pick raspberries. He also sent us off with a few peaches fresh from the tree. Alanya, Jason and I enjoyed the raspberries... they are so delicate! Much to our delight this evening he invited us back over to pick again because of the impending rain tomorrow. We brought home another overflowing container of raspberries and another good handful of peaches.

Rule number one to home ownership - always stay on good terms with the neighbors who grow fabulous fruit and veggies!! Hopefully he'll invite us back when the blueberries need picking!!

Yard Sale Update

After a long day I am now the proud owner of $100, a sunburn, and a new side chair for the basement. Yesterday morning we arrived at the church parking lot at 6am and started setting up. I am always amazed at the people who show up that early at yard sales and don't buy anything, or try to get rock bottom prices when the day hasn't even started yet! Our goal was to not come home with any of our stuff at the end of the day.

About two hours before the end, we started putting more and more in the "free" box, and it was a good move. I was happy to have a child walk away with a free puzzle or toy than have to bring it home. When we were done, we packed up everything left and my mom took it to the Salvation Army. We both made $100 and cleaned out our houses a bit.

I couldn't let the day go by without my own find though. I bought a new chair that will go great in the new family room or in the den. I think it has sat in a corner of the church rectory for 20 years, and I'd be surprised if it has seen more than a handful of tushes sitting on it! For $15 I think it was a steal!

Frugal Friday... not so much

Some Fridays I like to look back over the week and reflect on the choices we made. Where did we make smart choices with our money, and where could we have done better. This week was a week of extremes.

- I spent the week sorting through things for a yard sale our church is having on Saturday. My mom and I are sharing a spot and both of us have been busy asking save, sell or dump? Our goal is to get rid of the things, but if I can get a dollar for something I would normally freecycle for nothing, all the better. I hope to make a few dollars and enjoy some time with my mom.

- I had to stay home yesterday when the carpeting in the new basement family room was installed. It took eleven and a half hours! The poor guy. The good side of that was I stayed home instead of going out shopping and it forced me to pull together a meal from the fridge and pantry.

- Last weekend I took advantage of some Memorial Day grocery sales and got a number of things for pennies.

And on the opposite side of frugal...

- I ordered a new pair of shoes as my feet have been bothering me.

- We spent money on mulch and flowers last weekend. Every spring it kills me to do that, and I swear I will put in more perennials, but I never do.

- We made the last payment to the contractor for the family room.... gulp! Six months ago we never in a million years have guessed we would be spending all this money on a new room in the basement. But here we are, and we are very excited about it. Stay tuned for before and after pictures! I just pulled out the camera and my batteries were dead. Typical.

***For more frugal ideas check out Jennifer's weekly post here***

Frugal Friday - a little bar of soap

Who was it that decided in our society that in order to wash your hands you had to have a little pretty plastic bottle with a pump and liquid soap inside? About 10-15 years ago it seems there was a shift to liquid soap, and not just good old Dial. Now people splurge at Bath and Bodyworks for scented soaps that they can change with the seasons. Have you even priced a bottle of liquid hand soap to a plain old bar of soap recently? You may be surprised.

This whole bar soap vs. soft soap occurred to me two summers ago when we were at Disney World. Our hotel suite had two bathrooms so every day we got a complete refill on soaps and shampoos. Two sinks, plus a mini sink in the kitchenette and two showers... that's 5 mini soaps. Now, stay for a week. We're talking 30-35 bars of soap. How crazy is that? Then I wondered about all the barely used bars of soap in hotels when people stay just one night. I'm sure they just get thrown away. Such a waste. Ever since then I always throw a sandwich bag in my suitcase to put the used, usually damp and sticky soap bars in to bring them home. Naturally with all these mini bars of soap sitting around I decided I would no longer purchase liquid soap. If a bar was good enough for my grandparents, it is good enough for my kids. Can you believe a kid was over once and asked "where's the soap?" I think the kid didn't know you could actually wash your hands with a bar of soap!


So my Frugal Friday thought is to bring back the bar. Every time you save a mini bar of soap from the trash that's at least a few pumps of liquid soap you don't have to buy, and a few more pennies in your pocket.

Frugal Friday

After a crazy few weeks around here, I wanted to stop and reflect on what we did this week to cut expenses and reduce waste. What I didn't do was menu plan, which is a big no-no when it comes to frugality 101. But on the flip side I didn't stop in at a store to buy something for dinner at the last minute or order out. So, what did we do this week?

• Stocked the freezer - I used leftovers to make some "quick grab" frozen lunches for Jason. I also made up some cookie dough, scooped it out and froze it so I can make a few quick cookies if the kids have a friend over, or we want a quick treat. Last night I made dinner rolls and simply doubled the batch which allowed me to put a dozen rolls in the freezer for later.
• Fit in some sales - I took advantage of some promotions and sales which allowed me to get some Easter candy for the kids for next to nothing. As long as I peruse a few of the websites once a week, I can keep the deals on my radar and it doesn't take too much time.
• Consolidated insurance - We recently switched car insurance to the same company as our home insurance. Not only was it a better deal, we received an additional discount on our home insurance. All it took was a quick phone call to run the numbers.
• Finally, I got around to putting a small patch on a pair of Noah's jeans. Knowing he will be in shorts 24/7 in two months, it kills me to get him new jeans because of a small hole in the knee. Today he told me that the kids in his class were asking him what the thing was on his pants. These are 10 year olds. What has this world come to if pants get tossed immediately when you get a hole in the knee?? Their parents were probably all traumatized back in the 70's by Sears Toughskins with the big hard square knees!

**** For more frugal ideas, check out Jennifer's Weekly Wrapup on Getting Ahead ****

The falling price of milk... an update

In early March I posted about the falling price of milk. I thought $2.19 a gallon for skim was pretty great. Just a quick update to report I just paid $1.98 a gallon. How low will it actually go?

Falling prices??

Earlier this week I posted about how a year ago we paid more than a dollar more a gallon for gas when we drove down to Florida. In the midst of this crazy economic crisis, people losing their jobs, stores closing, prices rising, the relatively low cost of gas is a small thing to be thankful for. The other day I discovered there is someting else too, the price of milk.

My family goes through a lot of milk. A few years ago when my kids were really little I would put 5 to 6 gallons in my cart at a time. Crazy, I know. Now it is more like 3 at a time, but I still am very aware of what I am paying for them. I always buy store brand, as I don't see an reason to pay more for a name brand milk as I can't tell any difference whatsoever. The 'expensive' grocery store near me had a gallon of skim milk for $3.69 not so long ago. The cheapest was at BJs for $2.99, and sometime $2.79. I would go out of my way to stop there for milk if I was driving by. However, a few weeks ago I noticed that the expensive store was selling it for $2.99, and much to my surprise, BJs was selling it for $2.19! A few months ago I read in article about wholesale clubs, BJs in particular, and it said the new CEO believed cutting the price on the basics to draw people in was good practice. Looks like they moved forward with that in addition to a drop in the price of milk overall.

So, the reality is ice cream manufacturers are downsizing their packages due to high costs, but the price of milk has dropped? Go figure. Maybe a better option would be to get a cow to graze in my back yard near the compost bin. The neighbors would love that!

Florida by the numbers

After a wonderful trip to Florida, we had to race up the Eastern seaboard yesterday to try and beat a major snowstorm. We pulled in at 6:30 pm and the snow started a few hours later. We woke up to about a foot of snow and no school. Beach day to snow day in what seems like overnight. I am spending the day doing laundry, picking up and putting things away, but in the meantime... a quick "Florida by the numbers"....

1,601 - The number of miles exactly from our driveway to my parent's driveway.

26:13 - The number of hours it took us to drive straight through from New Hampshire to Florida. Actual driving time was 23:55 hours.

10 - The number of stops we needed to take on the way down. Our quickest pit stop was 6 minutes in Santee, South Carolina. For all five of us to get out of the car and get in to use a bathroom, we really can't knock much time off this. And believe me, we tried!

$230.95 - The total cost of gas for the trip.

$1.87 - The average price we paid for gas. Flagler, Florida had the most expensive at $2.09 and we paid the least, $1.77, just north of Richmond, VA. Last year we paid $3.30 a gallon in Daytona, Florida!

8 - The number of days the kids got to swim!

Florida... Road trip survival kit

Last year after we completed our second round trip drive to Florida and back, I actually did something smart. I created a document and wrote down all the things I learned. What I brought that worked, what I should have brought, how I should have packed it. I just found the list and I'm thrilled I did this as you really do forget the specifics of what to bring and all the possible scenarios that could pop up. The biggest issue for us has been that Alanya gets car sick, and we have cleaned up more vomit on Interstate 95 than you probably care to know about. The first thing on the list surprisingly enough is a "Vomit Care Kit". For the record, she finally is old enough now that we feel more comfortable about giving her medications, so we do give her Dramimine now and so far so good. So for anyone out there planning a major road trip, here is my survival list.

Vomit Care Kit – Febreeze, Gallon Ziploc with top turned down, Wet Wipes, Paper Towels, Dramamine and Trash bags. Some of these things are useful for other parts of the trip, but are essential if vomit does arise. The febreeze is a must-take now. The last thing you want to do is sit in a car for hours when it smells. Buy a small bottle and find a place to put it. You'll be happy you did. The gallon ziploc with the top turned down (one of my cyberfriends pointed out the necessity of having it already open!) lives in the pocket in front of Alanya. If necessary, write "vomit bag" on it so it doesn't get used for something else by mistake (have done that too!). The wet wipes are good for cleaning people and car interiors. Although the Lysol ones would be nice for the car, you can make do with the people ones for both tasks. Paper towels are necessary for mopping up, and we suggest two dozen grocery shopping bags for garbage, bagging dirty clothes, and anything else that comes up. The dramamine should be chewable, just in case a tired cranky child revolts and refuses liquids or pills.

Items for Adult Passenger – earplugs, eye mask, pillow, blanket, crosswords, notebook and pen, Trip-Tik, book light, phones and charger. The adult passenger has two primary jobs, sleeping and entertaining the driver. I am a very light sleeper, so the sleeping aids are a must. Earplugs drown out kids and road noise. I made an eye mask out of an old dark colored towel and an elastic headband. We also bring a small pillow and a small fleece blanket as the driver will often keep the car cool to stay awake. Once the passenger is rested, he now needs to entertain. We save crossword puzzles from the paper for a week or so and do them together. The notebook and pen are for logging expenses, gas purchases, and time travelled, as well as brilliant ideas that pop up in the middle of the night. Jason and I still have a list of dream trips we want to take from last year. The AAA trip-tik or any other map is obvious, but the AAA version shows rest areas, rest areas with bathrooms (yes, there is a difference!) as well as exits with food and services. A small book light is good so the driver isn't inundated with the blinding overhead light, and the phones and charger is obvious to have nearby.

Important extras that need to be accessible – Advil, Children's chewable tylenol or advil, Band-aids, Immodium, Tissues, Paper Towels (select-a-size for napkins), glasses and sunglasses. All of these items should be within reach of the adult passenger so they can be retrieved without stopping. Ok, maybe not the Immodium, that likely requires a stop, but the rest should be in grabbing distance.

Food – Prepackage 5 of each kind of snack. Prepare a second set and put in a plastic shoebox for the return trip. Wraps are easy to put together on the road for lunch (pb, hummus, turkey). I've learned through trial and error how to pack the food. We bring lots of food, primarily so we aren't tempted to spend money along the way. One year, everyone had a snack container and I'd open a large bag and fill everyone's container, but this proved messy, and it left me with open bags. After a few refills, the kids thought they could pick and choose and it took more time than it needed to. Last year I came up with the 5 of each kind approach and it worked well. But the lightening bolt idea was packing the snacks for the return trip before we left. We take two days to drive back, so having snacks on hand is even more important to save money. As soon as we arrive in Florida, I take the box of snacks out of the car and put it in my parent's garage and it stays there until we are ready to leave. I also can't emphasize enough that when you are in the car for so long, you need real food, fresh food. You can only live so long on cheez-its and granola bars. We bring grapes, apples, orange slices, baby carrots, celery sticks, sliced cucumber, cherry tomatoes, and bananas. Also good is nuts, dried fruits, cheese sticks and gogurts. Last year, 20 hours into our trip we stopped for lunch and we pulled out a pack of wholewheat tortillas, some turkey, hummus and filled it with veggies. Much better than a cheeseburger and fries.

Drinks – Use straight ice on the beverages in the hard cooler. (Cold packs for the food.) Fill all water bottles with water and refill smaller containers. Again, we learned here when at 4 in the morning we wanted an ice cold Diet Coke or Starbucks frappucino and they were lukewarm. Beverages need to be in straight ice. The food on the other hand will do fine with the cold packs. Limit the drinks with the kids or you will be stopping more than you care to. We give all of them a water bottle to hold at their seat, and refill from a gallon in the car when needed. A juice box or a soda as a treat will perk them up if you stop to let them run around. The kids need to get out and move, so every time you stop, jog up and down the sidewalk a few times to get the wiggles out, or play tag while waiting for others who are finishing up in the bathroom. Tired and sleepy kids make good companions on road trips.

Kids – dvds, blankets, pillows, book lights and activity bags. The importance of the dvd player can not be over emphasized on a trip like this. We actually have two, one with a double screen for the boys in the backseat, and one with a single screen for Alanya in the middle. She really doesn't watch it much because of her car sickness, but it will distract her when she is in a good mood to watch it. And as far as dvd's, I should start asking around now to see what I can borrow from friends. I try to borrow some, and I have also gotten some from the library. The only problem is you can only check out a dvd for one week, so I have to go online while in Florida and try to renew them during the vacation. If by chance someone put a hold on one of the movies, I won't be able to renew, and will get a fine, so this isn't the best option. They each bring a small blanket and neck pillow (I made them each one out of fleece last year). They also bring a stuffed animal or two, a notebook, pen, book to read, game boy... whatever they bring though must fit in their backpack and their backpack must be with them at their seat.

Packing – Pack all the things you definitely won’t need on the ride together and put those bags on the bottom. (Exception, easily accessible clothes for vomit-prone children). This seems sort of obvious, but sometimes obvious goes right out the window on a trip like this. We have stood in the rain in the parking lot of a Waffle House in South Carolina trying to dig through the back of the van looking for something... anything... to put on Alanya. Have one change of clothes for everyone in one bag on top.

Now that we are approaching one week away, I'll actually start piling things in a staging area, and I'm sure I'll be updating this list as I get going. Stay tuned!

My $400 automotive repair

Remember Bruce, our 2001 Honda Odyssey? The only headache we have had with the car is with the automatic power side doors. They are a blessing when you have babies and car seats and shopping bags. However, on rare occasions when the weather is just right... if rain water or melted snow gets in the doors, and then that water freezes, the power motor can burn out when the door is frozen shut. It is a huge pain and an expensive pain. It has happened to us twice in the 8+ years we have had the car. And it costs over $400 to replace the motor and repair the door. Each time. My friend has the same car and she has had it happen twice too.

After the last time I went online to see if there was anything I could do to prevent it. Well, I found this one random site that said it is often a fuse problem and you just have to remove a specific fuse for 30 seconds and put it back in. I didn't believe it would work. A few weeks ago one of the doors froze and I had the chance to try it. Can you believe it worked? I simply got a flashlight, removed a fuse and then put it back! A $400 repair, fixed for nothing. Woohoo!

My friend called me this morning because her battery died and after AAA jumped it, one of her doors wasn't working. I got in there, did my thing, and voila! So you have to wonder... does the Honda repair place know this trick? Do they do it and charge $400? Do those repair guys ever Google "broken power door" and see what comes up, which is all I did? It sure does make you question expensive repairs you are told are necessary.

In the meantime, I am triumphant with my success. There is no power door I can't conquer!

Florida... 12 days until takeoff

Ok, so takeoff isn't the right word, but "12 days until backing out of the garage" doesn't sound as good. Yes, we drive to Florida, and yes we know people think we are crazy. Yes, I have looked at a map and I know we live way up in New Hampshire at the tippy top and my parents are in Florida way down at the bottom. Yes, it's a lot of advance planning and the ride itself takes 27 hours to get there of straight driving. So why do we do it?

There really are two main reasons. The first is obviously the money. We require five round trip plane tickets which if we were lucky a few years ago we could get for under a thousand dollars. Not anymore. Then once we are down there we need to rent a car as the five of us can't all fit in my parent's car, so that is about another $500 for the week. For just getting there, that's a lot of money, particularly if we like to go down every winter. When the kids were little we tried skipping a year, but we missed it too much. Our week in February in the sun does so much for our emotional health, we won't give it up. When we drive, we figure we can get there for about $500. Last year we paid around $3 a gallon for gas, and spent around $200 on fuel. On the way home, we get a hotel room in North Carolina and do the drive in two days, so another $100 for that. Tolls, about $100 roughly. And we'll throw in another $100 for stops for food, Starbucks, and more Starbucks. (How do you think we get there in 27 hours without stopping?)

We've heard the arguments about the cost of wear and tear on the car, and knowing Jason he has worked up a spread sheet on it, but in reality, what the heck is a car for if you don't drive it?

The other reason we like to drive has to do with the time it takes to get there. We know we "lose" days of our vacation when we are in the car instead of sitting on the beach. But the trip itself has become part of the vacation. When was the last time you sat with your husband and kids and just talked for hours? Or played word games? Or sang songs? Or did crosswords together? When was the last time you and your husband told each other your dreams while your kids snored quietly in the back? Those hours are special too. Jason said he actually prefers to drive because he has 27 hours to leave work behind, and when he finally sits down on the beach, he is ready to enjoy it.

Yes, getting on a plane is convenient and quick and we do like to fly. But there is something about the drive that does something for our family. We find each other again.

Coming soon... Laura's road trip survival list!

Frugal Friday

Life Insurance. It doesn't seem frugal as it is a lot of money that you don't really get anything for. And in fact you don't want to actually get what you are buying. However, it's necessary. And if in fact it is needed, it then becomes an item for discussion for frugal Friday.

It isn't a happy thing to consider. No one wants to think about it. But find one person who actually needed it and benefited from it, and you will understand. For example, I have three small children, ages 6, 8 and 10. It will be a good 18 years or so before I can really expect them to take care of themselves financially. What if, God forbid, something happens to Jason? Yes, I'm an educated person, and I am intelligent and talented, but could I enter the workplace and make what he makes to keep our household going? No. Plain and simple. No.

Looking at it from the other side, if I kicked the bucket... sure, I have no income, but would it be easy on Jason? He would have to pay for before and after school care for the kids, as well as full time child care for the summer. That adds up. He also pointed out that he won't have the time to shop around to find all the money saving deals that I do. Kids need clothes? He'd go online to Gap and order three jeans for each and a few shirts and fleeces. Then he might even pay extra to overnight them so he wouldn't have to do laundry. So is my "job" actually worth money? Yes.

Both working and at home parents need life insurance. When Noah was born, money was tight and we got the bare bones with a ten year term policy. Our payments were low (mine are $12.99 a month for a $250,000 policy) and we hoped that in ten years we'd be in a better position that we would need more. Noah is now ten, and we need to re-think things. We are now blessed and have so much more in our lives. A beautiful home.... mortgage, insurance, maintenance. Three beautiful children... clothes, activities, COLLEGE. Time to rethink our financial needs.

A few weeks ago we set in motion applications for increasing our life insurance. I had my phone interview today, and happily I said "no" over and over. I guess I'm pretty healthy. Yes, $35, $55 or $100 or more a month is a ton of money, and it adds up to nothing Insha'Allah (that's God willing in Arabic, and a favorite phrase of Jason and I) but in the end, it's the right thing to do. We love our kids too much not to.

WTF is TVP?

TVP? Otherwise known as Textured Vegetable Protein. It's a food, a meat substitute to be precise that is high in protein. Yesterday I went to the store hoping to pick up frozen Boca Burger Crumbles, which is technically TVP colored and molded to look like scrambled hamburger, to put in some veggie chili. My store didn't have any, but much to my surprise, I was in the health food aisle and saw a bag of dry TVP. I'd never heard of it!

Dry TVP is rehydrated by soaking it in hot water, and then can be used in chili, soups, whatever you want to increase the protein in a vegetarian meal or stretch a meat meal making it healthier. A 1/4 cup serving has 80 calories, no fat, no cholesterol, 4 grams of fiber and 12 grams of protein. It sounds like a dream food. The ingredients are simply defatted soy flour that is mixed with water to make a dough and then dried. No preservatives, no colors, no nothing. And if that isn't enough... it's cheap. A 10 ounce bag cost me $2.89, and I'm guessing I'll be able to get at least 8 meals out of that little bag.

I brought home my little bag and plumped up my TVP. It smelled like soy, no surprise there, and was pale in color. Like tofu, it takes on the flavors of what you cook it in. I used it in my chili, and then made taco meat with lean hamburger and used the TVP to double the volume. I won't lie to you, it's different, but you'd be hard pressed to find the difference when mixed with the hamburger. Ben and Alanya gobbled down the chili and didn't say anything other than it was good. I never lie to the kids about food or try to hide things in our food. They didn't say anything, so I didn't offer it, but after we ate I told them. Some kids would have announced they didn't like it after all. Not these kids. Ben shrugged and today asked for a thermos of it in his lunchbox! Tonight's taco meal was just as successful, and it all got eaten.

TVP, my new discovery. I'm excited. And hopefully I didn't offend anyone with the title of this post. When I wrote it, it made me giggle, and isn't that what this blog is all about? My parents just figured out LOL and TTYL, so I should be safe that they haven't yet figured out WTF. Tee hee hee.

**Editing this to add** My mom emailed me and said "WTF you are CRZ!" Next thing you know she'll actually start texting people!!! You go Mom!

Frugal Friday #2

Last Friday I did a look back at everything I had done that was frugal over the course of the week. As I sit here today, I'm not sure this is going to be so easy. Last week was all about shopping, but this week was definitely not a shopping week. Probably the most frugal thing we did was Jason and I sat down this past weekend and planned our meals for the week based on things we had in the freezer and fridge, and I just picked up a few things to round it out. I knew what we would have, and it kept me out of the grocery stores all week.

Another regular money saver for us is packing lunches. I was thinking about this today as I packed up three lunchboxes (Jason packs his own). Alanya would eat hot lunch at school every day if we'd let her. When she first started school, we let her pick and choose because it was still so exciting for her to have a hot lunch. But at $2.00 a pop, that really adds up. Ben likes to say that I could feed our whole family for a week with $2.00 and a few coupons. Probably not, but he's on the right track. The rule had been two hot lunches a week, but we weren't really sticking to it. If it was a busy morning and the kids all said they wanted hot lunch, it was easy for me to agree. New rule is once a week. Period. Don't think my kids are suffering, this isn't the lunch we'd get 25 years ago in a crumpled bag. Today Ben and Alanya both had hot chili in their thermos. (I just got chewed out by them because I put the wrong thermos in the wrong box! Ben was not very pleased he had the Hannah Montana thermos, and Alanya said there was way too much chili in hers! Ooops!) We had the chili for dinner this week and it has two kinds of beans and is loaded with vegetables. Hope they aren't forever labelled in school as 'the gassy kids'. Noah took peanut butter and jelly on two leftover pancakes. For Noah it's always pb&j, it's the vehicle that carries it that changes for him.

This year while packing lunches I also changed the way I did drinks. Fifty cents to buy milk? Are you kidding me? I have reusable plastic drink boxes and they take one for lunch and one for snack. When this school year started I switched from two milks to a milk and a water. The kids stopped complaining after two days, and I save a full gallon of milk a week.

What else did we do to save a little? We moved forward with refinancing. Paid bills online. Wore warm socks and shoes and a sweatshirt while home so I wasn't tempted to turn the heat up. Threw a snack in my bag when I went out in the morning so that I wouldn't impulsively buy anything to eat. It's the little things that add up. Thanks to Jennifer at Getting Ahead for encouraging me to reflect a little!

My frugal partner in crime

Being frugal, being green, buying local, reducing waste and consuming less.... over the last thirteen years of marriage Jason and I have travelled the spectrum of all of these, focusing on one more than another at different times. Sometimes they conflict, but more often than not, they work in conjunction with each other. One thing I have determined is that having both of us on board has made it much easier. If you cook beans and rice instead of steak, and your partner isn't ready to make those kinds of changes... forget it. It will be an uphill battle from day one. Luckily Jason has been my biggest cheerleader and teammate. But how did we get here?

Almost nine years ago we had one child and I worked. Noah was in daycare, but with two incomes we were doing ok. We owned a home, drove two cars, had a gas grill with a pool in the backyard. When we decided we would try for a second child, we ran the numbers and realized it would be a break even proposition if I continued to work. If I stayed home full time, we would need to change our ways a bit, but it could work. I started researching frugality and budgeting and soon discovered The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyzyn. This massive book really opened my eyes to the possibilities. Not only could I stay home with my kids, we could actually save money and become debt free. We started small, cutting back on eating out, cooking from scratch more, reducing energy usage. We were off to a good start. I got pregnant, just like we planned. But then a month later Jason got laid off. Now our situation had taken on a whole new level of urgency. Luckily we were both willing to work together to make it work.

All these years later, our immediate motivations may be different than a new baby and a lost job, but we both still work hard at this "job" I have which is being home.

Freecycle, part II

Well, if this doesn't prove what goes around comes around. As I mentioned earlier, we have been purging and giving away a lot of things with Freecycle. Well on Saturday, we had loaded up the van to go to the dump and I happened to look at the Freecycle posts. Someone in our general neighborhood was offering two white Ikea bookcases. We are desperately in need of good quality shelves for our playroom, and Jason told me to try for them. Within 10 minutes the owner of the bookcases and I were exchanging emails, and about 40 minutes later, they were in our house. Turns out the people lived only a few streets away! They just about look like they came straight from the store. Jason calls it good karma for all the stuff we have passed on to others.

I don't care what it is, I'm just happy to have real shelves!

Do you Freecycle?

The drama of the December ice storm is still playing out here with the latest chapter being the impending demo of our basement walls. Our insurance agent pulled back some paneling, and the mold is everywhere. We've decided it all has to go due to Jason and Ben's allergies and the health problems that are possible because of mold. Some rooms will have sections of the walls spared, and others will be stripped down to the studs. Sounds simple until you look around at all the stuff.

Like any basement, ours is full of stuff. Some stuff we use, other stuff we don't. Jason and I are on a crusade to purge, de-clutter and simplify. I went and got a 2009 sticker for the dump in anticipation. But what about the stuff that we've just outgrown? The toys, the old VCR, the kids' highchair that I thought would be so useful to keep? The answer is Freecycle. Freecycle began in 2003 in Tucson as a way to gift and receive items that would otherwise end up in a landfill. Have a working VCR you don't need in your basement? You create a post offering it to anyone who wants it, and you'll start receiving emails from people who would be happy to come by your house and take that VCR off your hands. Someone offering something you could use? Send an email, and you just may be the person chosen to receive it.

I've given a lot more than I've received through Freecycle, but that's ok. I think it's easier to get the stuff out of here instead of saving it all for a nightmare of a yard sale some day down the road. Yes, these people are strangers, and they are coming to your house, but I usually just leave the item on my front step and rarely even have a conversation with someone. Freecycle critics say that people pick up free stuff and then re-sell it. Well, more power to them I say. If you have the energy to clean up this bucket of toys and sell them on ebay, good luck.

Yesterday I finally posted something I have thought about posting for some time... our Rescue Hero collection. Noah wanted to be Billy Blazes when he was five years old. One of his birthday parties was a massive Rescue Heroes obstacle course covering the entire front yard. Every time I thought about passing them on, I'd discover the kids playing with them again. A friend of mine was going to take them over two years ago, but we never got around to getting together to make the exchange (sorry Christine!). But Billy Blazes and friends have sat untouched for well over a year now. I had Noah pick some of his favorites to keep, and the rest were offered. The mom who picked them up had two little boys who couldn't wait to get their hands on them. She told Jason she had just had some of her stuff picked up that afternoon so she had plenty of room for this new treasure. That's what Freecycle is all about, passing the good stuff around.