Thursday, March 12, 2009

The best thing since sliced bread is...

....three-cheese sliced bread from Panera!! Our usual bread is a whole grain, HFCS-free bread by Sara Lee. It became 'our bread' because of those qualities and because we can find it at the bakery outlet and get it for half the grocery store price, which means we don't spend close to 10% of our grocery budget on bread every week.

It's a good bread, but it gets a little tiresome every now and then. And it's not really the right bread for certain things, like french toast. Well, we had Monte Cristos on our dinner menu one night this week, which is basically a ham and cheese, french toast sandwich (I know, not the healthiest choice, but we replaced an egg with 2 egg whites we had in the freezer...) So, since we've been doing really well with our grocery budget lately, coming in under budget every week, we decided to splurge (but not go over budget!!) on some 'fancy bread' this week.

That's where the Three-Cheese bread from Panera comes in. It is very tasty and HFCS-free (actually free of any sweetener) although not whole grain, but that's fine by me since it's not all-the-time bread. We've used it in our Monte Cristos, as a breakfast bread with an egg scramble on top and for cold ham and cheese sandwich. I can't decide if we should eat the rest or freeze it so we can enjoy it sometime down the road...

If you told me a few years ago that I'd be this excited about a loaf of bread, I'd call you crazy. But I'm really happy for us that we've been able to stick to this grocery budget and even work in ways to 'splurge' every now and then. And it's just plain tasty :-D

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

A Tried and True Argument: Leaving the Toilet Seat Up

Aaron leaving the toilet seat up has never been something that bothered me. I think part of the reason is that I haven't really had to deal with someone who leaves the seat up on a regular basis. I know that when we only had 1 bathroom, the seat would get left up occasionally, but it was the exception, not the norm. Now that we have 2 bathrooms, I think his seat is up all the time, but it doesn't effect me!!
I've discovered over the last few weeks why this might be an annoying habit though. I work in an office that usually just has another female and 2 males working. There's 1 bathroom in the office (which presents it's own unique challenges for a pregnant woman who seems to have to pee all the time!!) and I swear that 75% of the time when I go in there, the toilet seat is up. I despise having to touch it to put it back down.

But, then I think about a possible alternative. What if they didn't put it up in the first place?? The possible mess there just grosses me out even more. And I suppose there's this argument as well...


Maybe no one else has really thought about this, but what do you think about the age-old toilet seat argument??

Monday, March 09, 2009

"Mortology"

Let others know a little more about yourself, re-post this as your name followed by "ology"

***********FOODOLOGY***************
What is your salad dressing of choice? French - boring, I know.
What is your favorite sit-down restaurant? Carlos O' Kelly's, Cheesecake Factory
What food could you eat every day for two weeks and not get sick of? Chips & Queso
What are your pizza toppings of choice? Italian Sausage and Zucchini
What do you like to put on your toast? Peanut Butter or Cinnamon & Sugar
Chocolate or Vanilla? Chocolate for sure!!

***********TECHNOLOGY***************
How many televisions are in your house?3.
What color cell phone do you have? Pearl (fancy name for shiny white)
Do you have a laptop? Yup - it's our only computer.

***************BIOLOGY******************
Are you right-handed or left-handed? I'm right-handed.
Have you ever had anything removed from your body? A few teeth...
What is the last heavy item you lifted? Nothing too heavy recently...probably a gallon of paint.
Have you ever been knocked unconscious? Nope.

************BULLCRAPOLOGY**************
If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die? No way.
If you could change your name, what would you change it to? I wouldn't. Even if I do have a horribly to pronounce and spell name, I like it :-D
Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1000? I don't think so. I don't really do spicy.

************DUMBOLOGY******************
How many pairs of flip flops do you own? A few - I'm too lazy to go upstairs and count.
Last time you had a run-in with the cops? Haven't had one.
Last person you talked to on the phone? Someone who called in at work.
Last person you hugged? My hubby.

**************FAVORITEOLOGY****************
Season? Spring.
Holiday? Thanksgiving, Christmas.
Day of the week? Saturday. I get to sleep in and snuggle.
Month? Either June or October.

***********CURRENTOLOGY*****************
Missing someone? Yeah, it's been too long since I saw a few of my friends.
Mood? Content.
What are you listening to? The TV and the 'whir' of the exercise bike.
Watching? Nothing really - "Rules of Engagement" is on, but I'm not paying attention.
Worrying about? Finances.

***************RANDOMOLOGY****************
First place you went this morning? To the bathroom.
What's the last movie you saw? Some weird movie about summer camp.
Sleeping Alone Tonight? Nope - I'll have Aaron on one side and my snoogle on the other.
Do you always answer your phone? If I'm available when it rings....
Its four in the morning and you get a call, who is it? Better be somebody with an emergency!!
If you could change your eye color what would it be? I wouldn't.
What flavor do you add to your drink at Sonic? I don't eat there...
Do you own a digital camera? Yes.
Have you ever had a pet fish? Yes. Several, but cleaning the aquarium wasn't really my thing.
What's on your wish list for your birthday? A great weekend away with my husband and daughter.
Can you do push ups? I used to be able to do a couple...but it's been a while.
Can you do a chin up? No.
Does the future make you more nervous or excited? Definitely a lot of both.
Do you have any saved texts? Nope.
Ever been in a car wreck? Nothing too bad.
Do you have an accent? I sound normal to me....
What is the last song to make you tear up? Actual tears...it was a father-daughter dance at a wedding a couple years ago.
Plans tonight? It's tonight already. I plan on watching "Medium" and going to bed.
Have you ever felt like you hit rock bottom? Not really.
Name 3 things you bought yesterday. Nothing - we didn't leave the house.
Have you ever been given roses? Yes.
Current hate right now? Uncertainty about my job status and my constant craving for junk food.
Met someone who changed your life? Of course.
How did you bring in the New Year?Playing the Wii at my in-laws!!!
Would you go back in time if you were given the chance? Maybe, but the whole "butterfly effect" idea freaks me out.
Have you ever dated someone longer than a year? Yup - then I married him.
Do you have any tattoos/piercings? I have one tattoo and I used to have a belly button ring, but I took it out.
Does anyone love you? Shyeah!!! I'm very lovable :-D
What songs do you sing in the shower? I'm usually just trying to stay awake.
Ever had someone sing to you? Yes.
Do you like to cuddle? Uh, yeah - who doesn't??
Have you held hands with anyone today? Yes.
Who was the last person you took a picture of? I think of myself with the self-timer.
What kind of music did you listen to in elementary school? Ace of Base was my first CD...and the Grease soundtrack!!
Are most of the friends in your life new or old? New-ish.
Do you like pulpy orange juice? I'm not a fan of citrus-ey juices.
What is something your friends make fun of you for? I don't know - they're nice enough not to do it to my face.
Have you ever ridden an elephant? No, my life is rough.
Do you like to play Scrabble? Sometimes.
What are you saving your money up for right now? Chloe and possible unemployment.
When is the last time you ate peanut butter and jelly? It's been a while. We go the peanut butter and honey route lately.
What were you doing 12 AM last night? Finally sleeping.
What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? For seriously?!? It can't possibly be time to get up!!

Monday, March 02, 2009

Frugal is my (our) middle name!!

I've always liked being able to find a good deal. And if I can save money, sign me up!! I'm always trying to come up with ideas to save a little here and spend less there. Sometimes, it takes my lovely husband a while to warm up to my ideas, but he's usually pleased with the end result. Here are a few of our latest money-saving adventures.

--We're going to make our own laundry detergent. After a lot of research, we've decided to use the Duggar's recipe. There are only 4 ingredients - water, borax, washing soda and bar soap. We were able to buy everything below for less than $10 and we can make many, many batches of laundry detergent from what we bought.


I think the cost for the portion of ingredients needed to make 1 batch (10 gallons) is ~$2. According to the recipe, we should get about 640 loads of detergent, which means each load only costs about $0.03. Currently, we use the All Free & Clear concentrated HE detergent. A bottle that claims to have enough for 32 loads costs around $7.99, which works out to $0.25 a load. Although $0.22 might not seem like much, if we average 10 loads a week after Chloe arrives (I'm not sure how many we'll need to do since we're cloth diapering...) that's a savings of $2.20 a week and $114 a year. That's pretty good!!

And...if we do average 10 loads a week and 1 batch of detergent has 640 loads, then it'll be more than a year between making detergent, so the time investment is pretty much negligble. In addition, homemade detergent has fewer chemicals so it's not as hard on your clothes or as harmful to the environment. Bonus!!

--We like it when we can be frugal and green at the same time. Along the same path, we like it when we can eat healthier and save money. One of the biggest things we're trying to do to eat healthier is just knowing what we're putting into our bodies and avoiding unnecessary sugars, preservatives, etc... A few months ago, we made our own vegetable stock. We threw all the ends of onions, skins from carrots, brocolli stalks, etc... into a Ziploc bag and kept it in the freezer until we had enough. Then we froze the stock after we made it and pulled it out as needed to make soup this winter. After seeing a great deal on whole chickens at Hy-Vee, we decided to try the same thing - making chicken stock. We didn't have an immediate need for the amount of meat we'd get from the chickens though, so we shredded it and froze in usable portions.

We ended up getting 10 12oz. portions of shredded chicken and 2 quarts of chicken stock. A 12 oz. can of shredded chicken costs $2.18 and a quart of chicken stock is $2.89, totalling $27.58. We spent almost exactly $7 on the 2 chickens, which means we saved over $20!! Our total time investment was probably about an hour - and $20 for an hours time isn't too shabby in my opinion.

--Then there are times when the only way we can spend money, is to try to save some in the process. (I'm not sure if that'll make sense to anyone but me!!) We've been wanting a new bed for a while now. Our bed is over 20 years old and only a full. The size didn't bother us too much until I got pregnant and started having trouble sleeping, which meant lots of tossing and turning, and then the addition of a very large pregnancy pillow. Apparently, the pillow and I don't leave a lot of room for Aaron...
We decided to use some of our tax return to buy a Queen size bed. Aaron did a lot of reading online and decided a Memory Foam mattress would be the way to go. We still had a definite budget to stick to, and we couldn't get the mattress we wanted and a box spring. So my handy husband built us a platform!! We were able to get some 2x4's leftover from another project (thanks Steven!!) We had to buy a couple pieces of plywood, which cost $68. The cheapest box spring we found anywhere was $200, so that's a $140 savings!!
And...thanks to my husband making smart cuts, we'll be able to use the scraps to make a couple shelves for our office. So chalk up another one for the frugal Mortvedt's!!