shopping local

Shopping locally is all the rage for "socially conscious" shoppers this year, but economics has to play a role, too. For example, there is a local independent toy store here that I just love. They have stuff there you can't find anyplace else. The shop keepers sprinkle pixie dust on the children and blow bubbles (they're not weirdos, just a lot of fun). There isn't a licensed cartoon or movie character in sight. Stuff is built to last. And unfortunately, the prices will break your bank account, too.

See the poll to the right about Christmas gifting? I would love to get the girls this princess dollhouse/castle from Melissa & Doug. Amazon.com is selling it for $57 with free shipping and no tax. The sweet, independent toy store is selling it for $125 plus tax. I would consider it for $57 (as a gift to both girls). I can't and won't consider it for $125. I've looked for used ones on eBay and Craig's List, but they must be awfully popular -- only new ones are available, and Amazon's price was the best by far.

Online retailers seem to have the edge over "brick and mortar" much of the time. But I have found independent online stores with great prices, too, and I try to patronize them as much as I can. They're local to someone, I guess. So what do you do? Shop local or go for best price no matter what? Oh and by the way, I found it at my local We Be Toys (TRU) for $99...so they're not always the best price, either.

Experimental Eating: Tues - Final Results

On Tuesday I calculated that we spent $5.65!

On Wednesday it was $9.45

Thursday -- I didn't calculate because I got the hang of it -- we did not spend more than $11. Ditto Friday.

I'm glad the experiment is done.

Day One Results - Experimental Eating

$10.54!

(Is this good??? I should ask that before the exclamation point). Lunch was the most expensive meal because Chad bought stuff after he ate his from-home lunch at 9:30. Mutter mutter, that snacker, mutter mutter.

Breakfast:
Ilsa had cereal with strawberry yogurt and frozen raspberries, 1/4 cup OJ
Ingrid had two slices of toast, frozen raspberries and water
Steph had granola with strawberry yogurt, coffee and OJ
Snacks:
String cheese sticks, Ritz crackers - am
Popcorn, carrot sticks, "ants on a log" (apple wedges with PB and raisins) - pm - the traditional snackier snack
Lunch:
Ingrid & Ilsa had Mac & Cheese and a fruit smoothie with OJ, banana, yogurt, yoney and frozen raspberries. They also had cake as a reward for being very agreeable to the "food game" thus far.
Dinner:
Grilled bone-in chicken breasts (hugely on sale - couldn't have done it without the sale price)
Green salad with tomatoes, yellow peppers (from our garden), cukes and homemade dressing
Rice
Cake - I've got to get this huge thing out of my fridge...

Experimental Eating

"Do you think you could feed the four of us healthy, fresh meals for five days on $45?" Chad asked this question a couple of weeks ago. I replied, "Are you joking?" So began the saga of the J. family "food game" as it has become known in our home. We had to sell it to Ingrid, especially. She is our little snacker...grazer...7 meal a day girl.

The rules
1) Freshly-prepared meals (as little prepared foods as possible); fresh produce;
2) Common pantry items don't count, such as herbs and spices, salt, mustard, ketchup, incidental sugar or flour;
3) Dry rice, cups of flour or sugar, oats and pasta do count;
4) The experiment will last from Monday breakfast through Friday afternoon snack (technically it's not a week, but we're just starting out...);
5) I can pull protein (chicken, beef, pork, seafood) from our chest freezer. I've had some amazing steals recently.

So yesterday, I went to the local grocery store and Commissary (that's the grocery store on a military installation for you civilians). Sunflower Market specializes in both an amazing assortment of hard to find produce, deli items, imported foods, organics, local produce and bulk. They also have some of the best prices around. The Commissary claims to save military members 35% on their grocery bill. I think this is accurate. These two stores are my best-bets in Almost Mexico, Arizona. I kept a mental tally (next time I'll bring a calculator) and got out of both stores for a combined $55. So we missed the mark by $10...and I was scrimping.

My meal plans:

Breakfast
Oatmeal (rolled oats, not prepared, which we have never done anyway) or toast made from healthy homemade whole-grain bread or cereal with yogurt. Some kind of fruit is required, but it can be frozen like blueberries or blackberries. I get coffee...I'm gonna need it.

2 Snacks
(For the girls -- I don't really snack) Mid-morning and mid-afternoon. These have been a stumbling block for us...the girls are constantly wanting snacks, and we need to reign this in...just because it's become a bad habit. If you read the blog post below about popcorn popper, this will be a best-bet...1 pound of bulk organic unpopped popcorn at Sunflower is only 99 cents! (A one pound jar of Orville R's cost me $3.95 at Target.) They like dry cereal, and healthy cereal at that...so that's simple. Cheese and crackers, fruit, whole carrot to munch, etc. Nothing prepared other than crackers or cereal.

Lunch
Mac & Cheese - they dig it. I make Kraft (aaakkkk - but how can you beat 15 boxes for $9.75 at the commissary?) but I use nonfat plain yogurt instead of milk and butter instead of margarine.
Grilled cheese on homemade whole grain bread.
Cheese and crackers
Cheese quesadilla
Peanut butter sandwich
Kosher hot dog
Plus a homemade fruit smoothie, fruit, veggies, etc.
Some kind of a dessert...a well-chosen dessert goes a long ways towards promoting goodwill with the girls since I'll be saying "no" to the repeated snack requests.

Dinner
This is where I get to cheat a little bit. I can pull from our stash of amazing bargain meat that I've purchased recently. The local Kroger-brand store (Fry's) had bone-in chicken breasts for .49 cents a pound. I bought about $30 worth! They also had family packs of lean pork loin chops - I got 10 chops for $1.99!!! Both items were loss-leaders -- I talked to the butcher because I wondered if these were close to pull date. Nope. I have lean ground beef chubs from Costco.

Monday: Grilled chicken breasts, rice, fruit, veggies
Tuesday: Chicken caesar salad with the leftover chicken from Monday, homemade focaccia
Wednesay: Corn chowder, green salad, leftover focaccia or fresh bread if focaccia is gone
Thursday: Pasta with either pesto or marinara and meatballs and salad
Friday: dinner will be out as a reward...we think pizza (of course -- where else do we go these days if we go out?) But, Chad doesn't know that I actually bought ingredients for homemade pizza (the cheese and toppings) within the $55, so we COULD stay in. (I always make my own crust.)

Now that I've shopped for this once, I'm going to do it for a true seven day week, but I'm going to say we need $60. I think these are going to be key: extras like cookies, snacks, and breads have to be homemade; there's no room for chips, cookies, lots of crackers or prepared foods in the budget; items have to be on sale, or the cheapest in their category; shop for produce that is in season.

Suggestions or sarcasm is welcome.

Make your own...it's better ya know

My girls love popcorn, and I calculated the cost of microwave popcorn in individual bags to a one-time purchase of a popper. So, about a week ago, I bought a microwave popcorn popper from eBay stores. It was about $10 plus a nominal shipping fee. No moving parts; as simple as simple can be. A bowl and a lid. We have made popcorn almost every day since it arrived. I bought a jar of bulk Orville Redenbachers popcorn at Target for about $3. (I know there is way better popcorn out there, and I'm intent upon finding it. Know of any? Comment me!)

I also noticed something else; I don't want to be gross, but I had always been hesitant to eat popcorn myself because my stomach was not the same for 3 or 4 days afterwards. No problems now. All of this to say.........what in the world do "they" put in boxed microwave popcorn? It can't be good for you!

Get one. It's nifty.

For 3 1/2 years now, I've been baking my own bread. At the beginning I used a bread machine; now I just use my stand mixer. I've even found no-knead recipes that only require a big bowl and a wooden spoon. I lost about 5 pounds the first month of breadmaking, and I was eating the same sandwiches that I did before. What in the world is in commercial breads, even so-called "healthy breads"? I can count on my hands and feet the number of loaves we've purchased since then.

When Ingrid was an infant, at the suggestion of a good friend, I decided to make her baby food -- I made 95% of what she ate, only purchasing prepared stuff for trips or emergencies. She really hated the Gerber jarred food after getting a taste of mommy's! I gave her regular rolled oats instead of the boxed powdered kind, just as soon as she could physically handle the texture. She still eats them for breakfast and she's 4 1/2. Think about the cost of a pound of sweet potatoes versus the cost of a jar of Gerber. A pound made enough to feed her for a couple of months.

I also made my own yogurt for a while (I gave that up because I found really good, organic and reasonable yogurt had become readily available even at the Base commissary - you civilians, that's just the grocery store on Base). Read this article by Dr. Sears about how to know good yogurt from not so good. It's really enlightening, and you may never buy Yoplait again: http://www.askdrsears.com/html/4/T045700.asp#T045705 I always keep two big tubs of yogurt in my home: a Stonyfield flavored (strawberry or vanilla) and a nonfat plain, which I use all the time for salad dressing, smoothies, as a sour cream substitute and in baking.

We make our own fruit smoothies instead of buying them in little bottles.

I make my own salad dressing. Good grief, this is a 1 minute way to save a ton of money if you eat salads! Here's a simple beginning recipe which works as a springboard for lots of flavors:

• 1 part olive oil
• 1 part vinegar of your choice (balsamic, white, cider, wine, red wine, japanese)
• Some dijon mustard
• a bit of sugar (raw is great)
• Dried herbs
• Maybe some garlic (powder or fresh)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Okay, you bored yet? I better stop, besides Chad is telling me he's "seven minutes" away from walking out the door, and the girls are still napping...