Let’s get this party started!

Alex’s mom, Connie Williamson, says she tries to give her son healthy food but doesn’t always succeed.

“When he gets up on his own, he’ll go find what he wants,” she says. “He’ll get a hot dog bun, or get a piece of bread. He’ll get an ice pop or something.”

And that’s exactly what he did early one morning, before his family headed out to the local food pantry. Alex ate a blue ice pop for breakfast.

How about starting by not purchasing ice pops? Then teach your kid how to make a more nutritious breakfast. Eggs are less than 2$ per dozen, and I pay around 5$ for 2.5 dozen. My nine year old can make scrambled eggs. On the stove. This is a new development. Before he was allowed to use the stove he microwaved them. Even subsidized housing tends to come with a microwave.

Connie Williamson says it’s not easy on a tight budget. She spends hours driving around each month looking for deals. She has to stretch $600 in food stamps for herself, her husband, Alex and two teenage girls.

“You can get leaner cuts of meat, but then they’re more expensive,” she says. “You can get fresh fruit every couple of days and blow half of your budget on fresh fruits and vegetables in a week’s time, easy.”

I buy tubes 72/28 ground beef. The fat cooks off anyway, and it’s cheaper than its 90/10 counterpart. When I make hamburgers with it, the fat helps it stay together so I am not adding even more filler, like egg. Same with meatloaf. I buy tougher cuts like london broil and use a crock pot to slow cook them all day long until they are all but falling apart. I buy whole tenderloins and cut my own filet mignon, usually at 4$ a pound no less!I stock up on chicken breast when it’s down to 1.25$ a pound. I’ve bought chicken and meat by the case before in order to save a buck or twenty. Just repackage it and freeze it.

I am lucky that I am able to get organic, local produce every week. I spend 75$ and get around 50 pounds of food. Not a bad price and always delicious. Half your food budget should be on fresh produce, IMO.

But when Alex was thirsty after a walk, his mother gave him a plastic water bottle filled with orange soda.

Elaine Livas, who runs Project SHARE, the local food pantry, says she sees it all time.

“A gallon of milk is $3-something. A bottle of orange soda is 89 cents,” she says. “Do the math.”

Livas says low-income families might know milk is better for their kids, but when it comes to filling a hungry stomach, a cheaper high-calorie option can look pretty good.

I think milk is actually less per ounce than most soda. I could be wrong. I know for sure water is less. Your kids don’t like water? Neither do it. Buy some lemons, squeeze em up! Make some lemon-water (not sugar laden lemonade, just flavour your H2O with a spritz or two) and serve it up!

I only buy 100% not from concentrate juices for my kids. And I water them down. And I stock the fuck up when they are buy one get one.

via Eating Nutritiously A Struggle When Money Is Scarce : NPR.

There is more. More about cooking, and buying high-calorie processed foods and some other stuff. And yes, people are going to be fat and not eat well if they buy high calorie processed foods. Which are cheap. But it is still cheaper to buy fresh (or flash frozen) fruits and veggies and make your own than buying premade crap in a box.

The bottom line here is, we need to teach people how to shop and how to cook, not throw money at them and expect them to know what to do with it. What’s the old adage, give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime. Same idea. I took a 5$ london broil tonight (a tough piece of meat, and usually pretty cheap), two cans of potatoes, a bag of carrots and a box of beef broth and tossed it in a crock pot for six hours. It was delicious. It cost me, at most, 12$ and there was enough there for all eight of us, so call it $1.50 per serving. If we were a family of four there would be leftovers for lunch, dinner or to turn into stew. As it is there is broth left and I think I might make a stew with it as I have another london broil in the freezer.

Last night I put all of our monthly bills and expenses for each pay period from now until January 6 down on paper. I proceeded to flip my shit and look into shutting things off. I then realized I don’t have much to shut off and looked into other things to do.

I’m calling AT&T today to see about dropping our plan down a level. If it won’t cause my contract to reset it will save me 20$ plus taxes a month. I looked into turning our DSL down, but it would only save 5$ and cut our speeds in half and isn’t worth it to me. I looked into turning off the house line, which would save me 13$ but would make my DSL go up 10$. Not worth it. We’re locked into DirecTV for another however long, which is no big in and of itself. We pay that and not rent, so…. we win. I’m running out of options here.

The last guitar payment is in September. The last fridge payment is in October. We owe camp 390$ by mid-August. Mrs. P’s starts in August and is a partial payment that month but is 185$ on the first starting in September. Then 520$ in recital fees by the end of October.

I need to start selling myself, or at least my wares, to make ends meet!

I’m thinking of selling my snack bags and other small, easy to sew items on Etsy.

All this and I’m still spending it like it’s water. I picked up some chore cards (Etsy, of course) for the kids. I decided it’s time for them to get weekly allowance (and not Bank of Mom allowance, but real cash allowance) and gosh darn it, they’re going to earn it! I got this set, and this set, and this set, and two of this set. I did not get the personal growth set or the blank set or the reward set. There are enough in the other sets that don’t apply to our home that I can flip them over and make my own. I’m also making my own board to hang them on. Why Jenn, why not make your own cards too? Easy. These already have cute clip art on them, are laminated, ready to go, and every other time I’ve tried to make my own they go ignored. Don’t worry. The kids paid for these themselves and will have to replace the money out of their own pockets too.

I’ll let you all know how it goes once they arrive and get implemented.

Then I have to go back to the general dentist for one filling and one spackle-ing. Not too pricey but pricey enough. Then another cleaning in four weeks… this never ends. I am hoping it ends soon! There goes my new computer

shoes on the shoe rack = $0.10/day (or up to $.070/week)
dirty clothes in the hamper = $0.15/day (or up to $1.05/week)
brush teeth = $0.25/day (or up to $1.75/week)
bath or shower = $0.25/day (or up to $1.75/week)
dishes to sink = $0.14/day (or up to $0.98/week)
toys away = $0.25/day (or up to $1.75/week)
room clean = $2.00/week
clean clothes away = $1.00/week

reward points (redeemable for stuff)
homework = 5 points daily
bag up = 5 points daily
read 20+ minutes = 5 points daily

It works out to $10.98/week if they do everything. I am keeping track of it in a fanciful app on my phone called Kids Rewards (no affiliation) so I don’t have to actually pay out every week. It keeps track of what they have “in the bank” and I can deduct when they decide to spend some or when we give them cash. The program deducts money/points if they don’t do something (and I mark it as undone), but I’m not sure how much I’ll utilize that. Maybe if I consistently see things going ignored, but right now I don’t think I’ll bother. Oh, and it can go into the negatives. That might come in handy as well later on down the line.

Eshiva has a slightly modified list going on – she gets cash for having a clean room, but everything else is on reward points. I think she is still at an age where she does better with a tangible reward than an abstract (like cash).

For myself? I downloaded Things for both my mac & my phone. I set up simple daily things to do, as well as weekly. It spreads out my to do list, and I just check it off when it’s done. It syncs too, which is why I went with Things. I can set it up on the computer in 1/5 of the time as it takes on the phone.

I am not as unorganized as needing these systems makes me sound, but they will keep me on a better schedule than I was on before and should help keep the kids on one too.

Dorian slept out last night at his friends house. We wound up there from 7:30 to 12:30. J picked Michael up from work around 10, and we hung out for a bit. I kind of reached the end of my “Jenn out of the house” limit, so we came home. M & E crashed as soon as we got here. I dropped Michael off at work today and I’ll head back over there later to pick D up.

Went to the food store this morning. I spend about five times as much in food over the summer as the rest of the year. It’s insane. I bought four loaves of bread, another gallon of milk, tons of lunch meat & cheese, ribs & corn for Father’s Day, pot roast makings, cabbage, peppers, OJ, rice, and whatever else makes up the obscene amount of money I spent on “in between” shopping today. Yep, this wasn’t even my *big* trip. I do that next Friday. Eight people consume *a lot* of food.

Michael has to work on Sunday, which sucks, but he’s booked at least. Dad requested ribs & corn on the grill, so I’ll make that and (hopefully) have it ready by 5 or 6. I got three racks of ribs and 12 ears of corn. I forgot potato salad… I might just make some more.

Michael brought home his “spare” rotary machine for me. I want to set it up as a shader and see how it does. Monday, I think. Always Monday, huh? He brought it home last Monday. I don’t know where the time goes, but it sure goes somewhere.

The tooth I went in for is not a problem. I have some gum erosion because of early gum disease (thank god I didn’t keep that labret, right?) and what I thought was a cavity is “mature plaque.” Yum.

I do have four cavities, small ones. I didn’t even know about them, so they can’t be that bad. They are cutting me a break on it, 150$ a pop instead of they 195$ they charge people who have insurance. I also need a deep cleaning (they Novocain you up for this and scrape under your gums), which is another 105$

Hello Bank of Dad, I need to make a withdraw. I made an appointment for two weeks from today, and he’s going to go with me and charge it and I’ll pay him back. They offer that credit card… thing that is from GE Money Bank, but we used that about three years ago to pay for our glasses and I settled the account with GE for less than we owed. I didn’t expect to get approved for it again, and frankly, at 29% interest, I didn’t want it. Dad is just happy I went in and can get this easy stuff taken care of – my moms mouth cost them over ten grand and that was with a discount, and he footed the bill for Michael’s mouth as well. I think he is happy to not have to pay for more than it came to. If I could put it off till after December we would have it, but I don’t want to wind up with something worse. It’s the first time I’ve been to a dentist in over ten years – last time was when I had my bottom wisdom teeth cut out. I think I was 18.

Then I was asked if I had braces, I said yah, and he was all “you don’t wear your retainer?” I said, ah, I had braces when I was eleven. I am sure I had a WTF? face on too.

Oh! It’s been talk to Jenn about her tattoos & ears week too. I had kids all over my arms & ears at therapy on Thursday, and the dental assistant who did my x-rays asked about them, and the dentist himself was all “I guess it’s a good think you’re used to needles” (fucker) and the counter girl asked about my stretches – it’s been a weird body modification oriented kind of week.

Went to the EvilEmpire* this morning. Didn’t they realize their new logo looks like a golden asshole? Guess no one pointed it out. Spent way too much, but the boys got shorts and shirts and undies and socks. Eshiva got a dress. I need to do laundry and find the rest of their clothes. UnderBed tends to eat them, no matter how many hampers we have out to collect dirty clothes.

I also got sunblock (two kinds!), tiki plates for the kids party next month, a new shampoo to try (the first ingredient is aloe and it’s rosemary/mint – hoping it works well on my hair), and some misc. other stuff. They are a time and money suck.

Been chatting with an old friend of mine. Haven’t seen him since we were in our teens. Yah, old friend indeed. I wish he was closer than Arizona. Of course, the world would explode if we were in the same state and in touch, so maybe it’s for the best.

We put 800$ away towards Michael’s new car. At that rate, we can afford more car than I expected, as we’ll have a larger down payment. Here’s hoping it keeps up.

Went to school this morning for an awards ceremony. Dorian made honor roll again. Malachai did not get an award, but we took a photo of him and his best friend holding his award. I am going to print it so he can take a copy for the kid tomorrow. They were both soooo excited. I didn’t realize my boy was short – he is one of the shortest in the class. He might also be one of the youngest – he turned 6 right before school started this year – are kids turning 6 before or during first grade these days? I know Dorian is one of the oldest, because he just missed the cut off, so he’s sort of a year back. Mal just makes the cut off (my boys are 2 years apart in age, but one year in grade).

So far today we have cleaned the front room and 3/4 of the kitchen (I did not really mop because we’re having a new dishwasher delivered and installed today and I plan to mop *after* – um, and I suck at mopping anyway).

Michael has had a massage, which cost me an arm and a leg but hopefully made him feel a good bit better. I may have to budget them in more often than once every five years.

Eshiva had dance class and Michael came down from the salon to watch her this week (usually I take her) so I could get home and finish cleaning. Yes, I am one of those people who can’t have people just “drop in” because my home is lived in. Not dirty, don’t get me wrong, but we have stuff. A lot of stuff.

I made a personal sized pot of coffee in my french press. I used a kona blend and lots of cream and it’s delicious. I feel decadent.

I panicked over the state of our money. I invited my aunt & uncle out to dinner tomorrow night at a not so cheap place, and offered to pay for it. I had the money before a trip to Target and a few smaller things that ate it up. I am returning an item to Target and I had some money in savings to cover my ass (I was all excited to be a grown up and pay for a *nice* dinner for us for once) but I am really hoping I get some paychecks in the mail today. I am not really banking on it (ha ha) but it sure would be nice. I did the responsible thing and paid off a credit card last week and shredded it so we wouldn’t use it. Had I not done one of those things, I wouldn’t be in this crunch. Being responsible sucks big fat monkey balls sometimes.

I had put off buying those raffle tickets for Michael and Sara. I reminded myself last night talking to Leila, so I totally bought their tickets on Friday the 13th. I hope they win. Had I not bought the tickets I’d have the money too lol

I told Michael to bring the tattoo equipment back in the house – he needs to bring tubes home from work. I have had three people in the past two weeks buy “guns” and start right out working on people. I did the apprentice thing and worked on fruit (not the human kind) and said fuck it because I got bored and irritated and stagnant. The green monster pushed me out of my rut and while I am not down with attacking my own legs (I am a snob. I have one godawful piece not done by an apprentice, I do not need godawful pieces done by people who don’t know what the fuck they are doing, and that includes me. I am a hypocrite and I don’t know what I am going to work on that isn’t fruit, but I’ll figure something out.) I do have a couple of simple pieces I had planned to be my first pieces on myself. While truly I believe I can do anything, this makes me nervous and Michael didn’t stroke my ego enough to make me think I was ready for people. Maybe I’m not. We’ll see I guess.

I used my not-so-fancy and not-so-new lights from my uncle to take some photos the other night. I was super happy with some, not thrilled with others, but I was in a hurry and was distracted by children, so all in all it was a great learning experience.

I am putting together a box of stuff for the craft swap. It’ll be fun!

I want this but I cannot justify 40$ for an electric paper punch, plus the extra for supplies to make cute little books. Too many people already sell them on etsy to try and fool myself into selling them and recouping my money. I love little books though and I will be making some with my manual paper punch, paper, ribbon and the kids later today.

Hows that for stream of consciousness?

Most of them are from 12 – 7 and not conveniently located to me. Did I mention they are from 12 – 7? I am available in the mornings before 12. There are some Saturday hours, but Michael works on Saturday too. Fuckers.

There is one date, two weeks from today, relatively close by and from 4 – 8. Michael is going to head down there while I keep the kids home.

VPK saves us 25$ a week for PreK at the place we’re looking to send Shivie next year.

I am just so angry that we were at the fucking building and they couldn’t take ten minutes to take the goddamn paper that was already filled out and hand me the certificate.

Also, Michael was rear ended last week. He took his car in, but the effing insurance sent him to a body shop. We needed a mechanic. His check engine light is blinking on and off (which is a change from it just being on all the damn time) and the engine isn’t firing the right way. Our ins. was useless, and he’s left a message with the other ins. to call him back, he wants to see a mechanic.

We took the van in for an oil change and brake eval. 600$ later, I will have new brake pads, a new serpentine belt (I have been told that the serpentine belt is near impossible to break or wear down – I’ve replaced it in three different cars, methinks someone is lying to me about that fucking belt), brake fluid, and some other gobbledygook. As it turns out, we have the money this time and don’t have to beg, borrow or steal. Yay!

I am so sick of today already.

I did go to the gym yesterday and got some fliers and stuff. Tackle football starts soon (I don’t think it’s for my boys, but it starts soon lol) as does soccer. I got some fliers for various dance classes for Eshiva, so we need to pick one.

I didn’t find much for Malachai. I did find one karate class that offers a 100$/3 months intro rate, and then it’s 50$ a month after. There was one other class, I can’t remember what it was, that I need to talk to him about. If they choose karate, I might enroll both of them. I’ll find the money somewhere.

I also grabbed the book of sports, so I need to find out when that stuff runs. I am selfish – those sports are all outside and I hate just sitting outside. I also am not big into sports, so I guess that doesn’t help either. They are my kids and I’ll stick it out and cheer them on regardless, but I am not happy thinking about it. I don’t mind hanging out outside with them to play, but I am not all about organized sports and other parents. It’s totally my own fault I don’t have any friends here lol Picture Jenn the Soccer Mom! I promise you’ll at least get a chuckle lol