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.

I could spend a couple of hours leisurely wandering the aisles at a well laid out food store checking prices and getting the most for my money. I get kind of panicky when I am in a rush and always wind up forgetting this or that or spending way too much.

This week we tried the new Winn-Dixie, which is just outside of my town (quite literally, on the other side of the road that is the division) and we heard great things about. We signed up for the tracking card that “gives you great deals!” and got going.

This weeks list include things like romaine, iceberg, jalapenos, Parmesan cheese (something I never skimp on), feta, re potatoes, red onions, parsley, cilantro, dill, carrots, cream cheese, cheese singles, gumbo veggies, crackers, flank steak, chicken breast, ribs, shrimp and a handful of other things.

I did not coupon shop this week because a) most of what I needed were not typical coupon items and b) I wanted to see how much of a deal Winn-Dixie was on it’s own. I did go armed with the Penn Dutch ad so I could comparison shop against known prices of things I needed this week. I wound up spending just shy of 110$ there and making a trip around the corner (one street down and across the street) to Penn Dutch (where I spent just under 70$). I also spent 75$ a week on mostly local organic produce from Annie’s (which is less than I would spend on the same amount of food at say, Whole Foods). On any given week I spend between 200 – 250$ on food, not bad for a family of 8 eating mostly local/organic food.

Winn-Dixie didn’t really impress me. They had a great produce section, but a smallish organic section. The rest of their naturals & organics were kind of squished in where ever they found room throughout the rest of the store and not where I’d expect them to be (cereal with cereal, pasta with pasta, etc..). Their prices were comparable to Publix/Doris’/Penn Dutch/Broward Meat & Fish. I think I’ll stick with Publix for my weekly shopping, it’s closer.

Point of this blog? Most of my money is saved by making a menu, having that menu revolve around either what I already have or what is on sale (I got pork spare ribs for 1.59$/lb so I grabbed three racks for about 21$, enough for two dinners if everyone eats a normal portion) and sticking to it.

This weeks menu includes jambalaya, pot pie, brisket (I got London broil instead, but for what it’s for I can sub it out), flank steak, vegetarian gumbo, vegetarian chili, a party (BBQ) and leftovers. I’ll also get lunches out of five of those.

I picked up the slicer/shredder attachment for my Kitchenaid last night to replace my busted cheap ass food processor (I had a great ancient Cuisinart, but the bowl broke and I couldn’t get a replacement, so I picked up a cheap ass Hamilton Beach one years ago) that I had to Mcgyver to make work (I was missing that square oblong thing that makes the slices/shredder disk work). I got smart. I was gonna spend 50$ anyway, so I figured I’ll save counter space with an attachment instead of a whole new appliance. Yay me! Yay Gram for giving me money for it So I can now easily shred my potatoes and onions for my latkes. I am using a recipe from the Vegenomicon this year and the ones I made last night were amazing! I want to add some spinach and feta to them – anyone think I can still deep fry them, or will I be better off in a pan?

Eshiva is home puke-y today, so I’ll be able to clean and cook in between making sure she is ok.

Everything is wrapped. Gram & Zaide gave me a check to go buy for all the kids so I went to Target last night and didn’t spend half the money and I think they now officially have WayTooFuckingMuchTM. It’s all good – we got new wooden play food for Eshiva for the kitchen set, Dorian got some Star Wars stuff that Michael picked out for him, so I’m sure he’ll love it, and we got Malachai FunKeys on clearance. He is way into anything involving online right now, and these you plug into the USB and they unlock games and stuff online. I think the rest of their money will go to clothes. They are growing way too fast.

They each have about 12 things to unwrap, but at least 4 of those things are for all of them, and I wrapped everything individually (like Dad got Mal two Goosebumps DVDs – they got wrapped individually instead of together). I am trying not to feel guilty over being so commercial, but… I bet this is the last, or one of the last Channukahs with the great grandparents, and I want them to enjoy it. I know “stuff” doesn’t make the holiday, and it wont. We’re lighting everyone’s menorah this year (so we’ll have at least four going lol) and having people over most of the week. I’m pretty excited about it actually.

I hope Eshiva is feeling better by Sunday – the kids are supposed to sing at Chabad on Sunday, and they wanted to go the the Channukah festival too.

It’s a pretty small device. I’d like something a bit larger for him to keep it in so it doesn’t disappear again. Ideas? I was tempted to knit a cord around his headphone cord (big over the ear types, not tiny in the ear types) and put a little bag on the end so as long as the headphones are plugged in, the mp3 played would just sit in it’s case, attached to the headphones.

That is more work than I want to do today. Knitting a tube around a headphone word just isn’t on my list of “fun” for things to do today.

So… ideas? I can’t exactly superglue it to his arm

Now that I am done bitching about the chosen venue… There were some great artists there last night, and some not so great. I guess it’s same group we see every year. As soon as we got there we stopped by the Ink Fixx booth and said hello. I got a silicon grip for my grip (to booth the size and absorb some vibrations – the size was the enticement for me!) and we both got a bad ass Ink Fixx tee. Then we walked around the main room, stopping at some booths. We stopped at King Pin and Michael got a new bottle of ink and some stencil stuff and priced some other things. We made our way the rest of the way around the room and then checked out some other rooms.

We ran into the lovely proprietors of Rockin Mamaz and had a great chat and got to catch up with some old friends (who knew!) and got some awesome swag. Malachai got a shirt, Dor & Esh got wrist cuffs, Michael got a shirt and I got a bad ass bag. I joked on the way home I’d rather spend 40$ on a purse from someone I know than 20$ on a purse from Target. *shrugs* Support local business!

We looped through the last room after that and then headed home. All in all? The money we spend to go in goes to charity (after expenses of course, but they routinely donate multiple thousands of dollars a year from this event) so it’s not a waste, and hey, we got to get awesome swag this year too

Today is Malachai’s 7th birthday. He spent the morning helping to clean the living room (we’re having company tomorrow, and hey, he had a party last weekend) and is now playing Lego Batman with Dorian. I suspect it will be a low-key kind of day.

We both brought half of our meal home – there is enough left for another two meals! I’ll be slicing his and bento’ing it for him for dinner tonight.

I got a bundle of new shirts last night – Target has them on sale, yay! They are the “tissue” weight ones I like, with cute prints on them. We picked on up for Eshiva too, but I need to add a modestly panel to the v-neck (we got it in an X-SM to be a dress, but it comes down a little too low in the collar).

I picked up a set of curlers so I can get that soft 40′s curl instead of the curl I already have. I’ll give that a try tonight after I shower.

We spent part of Sunday at a friends house, which was nice. Had a good time and I hope to head back down there again sometime. Then we rushed back home so I could finish cooking & preparing for family to come by. Gram, Zaide, Molli & Larry came over and we feasted on chicken, ribs, watermelon and a delicious trifle I made (yum, homemade amaretto whipped cream) and chatted and it was nice.

I think that wraps up my weekend. I still need to hang my stupid pot rack. I have to bring the ladder in and find the studs and mark them. Then I need to lay out the rack and figure out where the hooks need to be. It’s a process. If I miss the studs and wind up using toggle bolts, I can only put 40 pounds on it, which makes it a useless pot rack, so hope for studs!

I have had something in my right eye for two days. I think it’s an eyelash, but I can’t get it out and it is annoying.

I double paid a bill, so I am broke till the 24th, which sucks. At least I had the money to cover the double payment, but I feel so effing stupid for doing it to begin with.

I have an idea for a new style tattoo needle, Michael is going to bring his soldering gun and needle jig and stuff home so I can test it out. If it works, it will have limited use (like dedicating an entire machine specifically to this needle, so it’s not gonna be the next big thing lol it will be nice if it does what I envision it doing though!) but if it makes things easier, is it worth it? Well, maybe just for me lol

The Orkin man came to take care of the bee nest that was under the kids fort part of their swingset. We need to get out there with gloves tomorrow and pull the planks up and get rid of the actual hive, and then hose it down but good. He said not to touch to powder or let the kids touch it. Joy. We put some stuff in the pool today to keep it clear and algae free. I need to recover it and turn the pump off. I know, not running the pump 24/7 doesn’t help, but I can’t run it 24/7 as the outside socket doesn’t work.

Is there more? I bet there is, but my brain is mush right now.

Jul 13 2009, 08:37 AM
What’s everyone doing today?

We’re hitting up GoodWill to find some dresses for Eshiva, who has decided that the boys hand me downs aren’t good enough anymore. She wants dresses. Lots and lots and lots of dresses. Miss Priss over here *groans*

Then we’re off to Target for a new first aid kit and some undies for Dor (who is so going to outgrow me by the end of the summer if he keeps this up). I need to curb my spending, but I also need a complete first aid kit to toss in the car when we pick it up, not just a box of bandaids.

Then I need to clean out the van and I think I might actually wash it for DH. I still feel bad he got fucked out of “his” new car and the “family” got a new car instead. It just made more sense, and this one has rear air so…. I get the new car and he gets the old car. I want to try and make it nice and new for him. It’s been kiderrized with spilled drinks and stuff, but I can at least wipe the dust and dirt out lol

Then we’re off to pick up the car! They said it should come in sometime today, they would detail and wax it and all and then call us.

I will not have any exciting “things to do today” after today.

Oh, todays Things are (in addition to my everyday things) clear all floors, change the bed clothes, clear off the desk, create this weeks menu and tidy out front. The last three things were actually yesterdays, but I wasn’t home yesterday sad.gif At least Monday is an easy “chore” day.

Jul 14 2009, 08:35 AM
What’s going on today?

Today is an easy chore day for me (sweep & spot mop), but I should do some stuff that I didn’t do yesterday.

We *should* be picking the car up before noon. We should have had it yesterday, but apparently it was coming from the Gulf coast and apparently they didn’t fucking leave till like, 4PM. Fuckers. So, it will either be ready and we can walk out the door by noon or it will wait another day. They said they could deliver it to Michael at work, but WTF? Like he has time to deal with that shit at work. We’re also pissed they drove it from the other coast, so my new car? Not quite so new now.

Malachai has therapy from 1 – 2:15, and I was planning on letting the kids swim today after, but we had a bees nest powdered yesterday evening and the bees are pissed off. Orkin is coming back today to put this powder stuff down again, and tomorrow we can pull the planks on the playset and remove the hive. Yep, the bees are under the fort part of the kids swingset. Smart bees, right? Long story even longer, now I need to find something else to do today because out backyard has angry bees in it.

Second, and for my own records, I am still stumped on this whip shading thing. Lining = check. Solid = check. Watered down black to make greywash = check. Whipshading = fail. However, we have an entire huge collection of tattooing dvd’s and whatnot, so maybe one of them explains it in a way that I get? I kind of got it down, but I had to turn the power way down. While Michael said some artists do that for shading, I’d like to figure out how most of them do it without doing so.

Third, I must have these shoes. Someone should get them for me. Yes, I want them in yellow. My Olssons recently broke, and needed re-soling anyway. Was it a hint? A shove to buy these beauties? I don’t know. I have a check coming that will cover them though…

and forth, my new system is working! The kids are keeping up on their daily personal hygeine and daily chores and so am I! I haven’t stuck to it 100%, but my floor is swept, my counter is cleared, and my laundry is (still getting) done. I’ve done four loads in the past two days and it’s pretty much all put away. I cleared out five baskets of clean clothes. (Don’t think me a clothes horse, it was five different people worth of clothes) The compost is out (Michael took it out this morning), the trash goes out tonight, the children and bathed and dressed and fed and we’re getting it done quicker and earlier in the day! They even earned homework points today for starting the Hebrew summer work (and if they finish the book, they get a prize when Hebrew school starts up again, so they win all around on that one).

I made rice today, which turned out over starchy and mushy. I thought a rice maker = idiot proof rice? Apparently not. I made Stitch & Mickey shaped unigari (with fake crab inside and furikake outside), and a terrible krab roll for Fish to take to work. The rice was just wrong Also sent him a handful of fake crab, and some fruit and some soy and furikake on the side. I’ll figure out this bento thing. I just need some practice. I’ll also figure out the rice lol