Oct 31, 2010

Reminder: Last day for 40 free photo cards at Snapfish

Today is the last day to get free 4x8 photo cards at Snapfish - each set of 20 is $14.99, and you can get one set each using codes BABIES and BABYMAIL. Shipping for each set will cost $5.99.

I used my $10 credit from buying a greeting card from the fall catalog, which was automatically applied to each order, so I paid less than $4 out of pocket for two sets of photo cards. I'm not quite ready to make our holiday cards yet (waiting on someone to send me the photo that I think we're going to use), so I made thank you cards instead. Between birthdays and the holidays, they'll come in very handy in the next six months.

Since you're only paying shipping, you won't get cash back even if you go through a shopping portal like Ebates. At times like these, I like to make a point of shopping through my favorite sites' affiliate links to help support them. I'm not a Snapfish affiliate but most of your favorite mom bloggers probably are, so head over to their sites and take a quick look around for an affiliate link (you can tell it's an affiliate link because it will direct to something other than "snapfish.com" before going to Snapfish).

Happy shopping!

Oct 28, 2010

Meet My Blogroll: Wild for Wags


Wild for Wags is relatively new to my blogroll, but it's the perfect example of a "niche blog." Christie does one thing - share the deals at Walgreens - and she does it better than anyone.

In addition to listing the weekly deals at Walgreens, Christie gives a helpful heads up on hot upcoming deals, and I especially enjoy her "Updates from the Field," in which she posts helpful tips. For example, she'll report on deals that aren't going through the way they should, unadvertised deals, and clearance finds.

If you shop at Walgreens, I highly recommend subscribing to Wild for Wags!

Oct 26, 2010

Recipe: Slow Cooker Steel Cut Oatmeal

This shot is of oatmeal that's in my slow cooker as I write this up. The liquid on top will absorb as it continues to cook. I love the flavor of the ingredients below, but you can use all water, or use more water and sub in some cream or half & half, increase or decrease the sugar to taste, etc.

Slow Cooker Steel Cut Oatmeal
Serves 6

1 1/2 cups steel cut oats
4 cups water
2 cups milk
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients in slow cooker and cook on low for six to eight hours - the time will depend on how hot your slow cooker runs. Mine is done in about six hours (in the photo, it's been cooking for 4 1/2). I've found that if I let the oatmeal cool completely in the refrigerator, it doesn't stick to the sides much.

I freeze the oatmeal in individual-serving portions and serve it with some dried fruit and approximately one tablespoon of brown sugar.

Oct 25, 2010

The Effects of Becoming a Work-At-Home Mom: More shopping and a bigger stockpile

Ever since I quit my job, I feel like I have too many jobs to count: there's my "official" job of blogger, which is now my primary source of income; and then there are the roles in our home, including chef, chauffeur, housekeeper, laundress, etc.

One of my most important jobs has been to save even more money, since our income has been reduced so drastically. I'll admit that this aspect of the transition to being home hasn't been stress-free. Even though I know intellectually that we're fine, I do get a little panicky thinking about how much less we now bring in. So reducing expenses has been a big priority for me.

In the last month and a half, I've been making more trips to the store than I used to, and it shows. When there's a great sale, it's now easier to hit multiple stores or do multiple transactions in order to stock up more. In fact, I've found myself staring at something in the store that's at my target price, but which I have plenty of at home - and I realize that I can, and I should, wait for an even lower price. So I've forced myself to walk away, although it feels strange.

At the beginning of this phase of my life, I was hitting multiple stores almost every day and I started to burn out. Now, I make only one or two more trips to the store than I used to each week, and I'm feeling much calmer about my schedule and mile-long list of things to do.

My hope is that this way of shopping will result in a comfortable stockpile of everything we need at rock bottom prices. I can adjust my weekly menus to use what we have on hand, which will keep our grocery costs down.

And anything that keeps our expenses down is a good thing!

Menu Plan Monday: Busy week ahead!


It's something of a crazy week here at the CFO household, so we'll actually be out three of the next seven days. I've got a ton of pasta after all of the recent sales, so I want to make sure we're having at least one, if not two, pasta dishes each week for the next couple months. Here's what I'm thinking:

Monday - Chicken pasta salad, using chicken that was leftover from Friday's dinner (I'll put steamed broccoli and roasted tomatoes in the pasta salad, so it's a complete meal).

Tuesday - Grilled pizza using artisan bread dough, and salad. I bought nitrate/nitrite-free pepperoni at Whole Foods yesterday, the only place I've been able to find such a product.

Wednesday - Dinner out.

Thursday - I'll be alone with the boys this night, so I'm going to need something super easy. Plus, we won't get home until dinner time, so I'm thinking it's the perfect night for frozen chicken nuggets and fruit.

Friday - Baked pasta, using my favorite bolognese, artisan bread, salad.

Saturday & Sunday - Dinner out.

The results of my attempts to mix things up for Alex's school lunches have themselves been mixed. He says the meatloaf and pizza rolls I packed last week were too cold, but the leftover pizza was good. I'm going to keep experimenting, and we'll see how things go.

See more weekly menus at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Oct 21, 2010

The Effects of Becoming a Work-At-Home Mom: Refinancing Our Mortgage Again

Early last year, we refinanced our mortgage because rates had gone down enough that we were able to get a rate that was 7/8% lower. This time, we will get a rate that's another 2/3% lower, so we'll be at 4.125% (I'm hoping that it will be even lower by the time we close, though I don't think that's going to happen).

The last time we refinanced, I was all about saving money and lowering our overall payments. But back then, I didn't foresee myself no longer working at this point in our lives.

This time, I am all about the lower monthly payment. After all, I've quit my job and make a miniscule fraction of what I used to make.

We can certainly continue to make our monthly payment now, but I like the wiggle room that a lower monthly payment will give us. And we'll continue to pay extra on the mortgage, just not as much as we used to. We may, in the long run, end up paying more for the house than we would have if we hadn't refinanced. But we're confident it will be worth it - I am so much happier now than I was when I was working full-time, and I think that as the kids get older, I'll be even happier that I am around a lot. I've always wanted to have the house that the kids hang out at after school, so I know what my kids are doing.

I have to admit though, that I'd forgotten how much paperwork is involved in a refi. And, I'm waiting for the appraiser to arrive right now!

Oct 18, 2010

What I Learned At The Dentist: Brushing and Flossing really matter

I have to admit that I was not the best when it came to brushing and flossing as a child, a teen or even a young adult. I think I would have done better back then if only I'd known what I know now: brushing and flossing properly makes a huge difference.

I just got back from the dentist, who explained that there are three components to the creation of a cavity: the tooth (which is pretty much the same in everybody), bacteria, which secret an acid that eats away the tooth enamel, and sugar, which the bacteria eat to produce the acid. The genetic component in dental health doesn't really have to do with the creation of a cavity, but the composition of saliva is affected by genetics and can range from practically killing the bacteria on contact to being an ideal breeding ground for it.

The things you have control over are the sugar and the bacteria. You can minimize the sugar by avoiding foods that are sugary and stick to the teeth. My dentist singled out fruit roll-ups in particular, because they have so little nutritional value and can stick to your teeth for up to six hours while the bacteria eat away at the sugar and your enamel. He also said that it's better to eat six candy bars at once than to eat six candy bars over the course of a day. And, he emphasized that it's important not to let babies suck on bottles of milk/formula all night, saying that he's seen two-year-olds with ten cavities because of it.

You can minimize the bacteria with good brushing and flossing habits, and I'm doing my best to instill those in the boys so that they don't have to go through what I'm going through now. (I'm ashamed to admit that just over half of my teeth have some kind of filling.)

He showed me the digital x-rays of my teeth, and pointed to some bone loss. He could tell, somehow, that it was from not flossing properly when I was a teenager. Thank goodness my recent good dental hygiene habits have halted the bone loss. The dentist said that he removes more teeth due to bone loss than decay, so it's important not to lose the bone that holds your teeth in place!

As I mentioned last year, flossing in the shower is what converted me to a faithful flosser. If you have difficulty sticking with it, I highly recommend trying this!

Menu Plan Monday: Keeping costs down


Now that I've been home for about a month, I finally feel like I'm starting to settle into a rhythm, if not a routine, and I'm really looking to get our grocery costs down even more, while still buying organic or RBST-free dairy, antibiotic and hormone-free meat, and lots of fresh produce, much of it organic. I'm also looking for alternatives to sandwiches that I can send for school lunch (more on that in an upcoming series of posts). So here's what's coming up this week:

Monday - Meatloaf, artisan bread, steamed broccoli. I think meatloaf will make a great room-temperature school lunch, so I'm going to make some extra meatloaf in muffin tins to stash in the freezer.

Tuesday - Chicken enchiladas (defrosted in the fridge the day before, then baked for fresh flavor), roasted grape tomatoes, salad.

Wednesday - Baked pasta, artisan bread, salad.

Thursday - School event

Friday - Fish tacos with homemade taco shells, shredded lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, avocado.

Saturday - Leftovers.

See more weekly menus at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Oct 14, 2010

Which is the best overall drugstore to shop at?

There's a thread over at A Full Cup about which drugstore you would pick if you could only shop at one. It got me thinking about how I feel about the different stores. I like them and dislike them all for different reasons, but here's a summary of my thoughts:

CVS
  • I think CVS is the most straight-forward, and therefore the easiest, of the three major drugstore chains to shop at.
  • The limits are usually clear, and because of them I don't spend the entire week thinking, I have a few more coupons, I could/should go again.
  • I transfer my prescriptions back and forth between CVS and Ralphs to get gift cards, so I usually spend nothing out of pocket when I shop at CVS.
  • I have the least trouble with coupons beeping at CVS, and when there is trouble, the cashiers are pretty good about how they handle it.
Rite Aid
  • Of all the drugstores, I think Rite Aid is the easiest to make money at, because there is usually a $/$$ coupon available to use on items that are free after coupons and/or +UP rewards and/or Single Check Rebates.
  • SoCal deals start on Fridays, which can be great if there are coupons expiring on a Saturday, but it also means I'm usually struggling to figure out the deals for myself if I want to go on Friday or Saturday because deal blogs haven't posted their match ups yet.
  • I have the most trouble with coupons at Rite Aid, out of all the drugstores. I think it has something to do with the way their computers are programmed (coupons seem to beep a lot more often at Rite Aid), as well as a lack of training, despite the official coupon policy (pdf).
  • I usually spend the most out of pocket at Rite Aid, even though I make the most money there, because I have to wait for the SCR check to arrive before I am "reimbursed."
Walgreens
  • Most stores don't really have limits (or if they do, they're daily), so you can buy more at Walgreens than any other store, usually limited more by the number of coupons you have than anything else.
  • But the one Register Reward per transaction limit (per deal) makes for a greater number of transactions.
  • The items to coupons-including-Register Rewards ratio makes Walgreens the most complicated to shop at.
  • Because the Register Rewards values are usually low, I have to do a lot of transactions to minimize my out of pocket expenses, which is inconvenient and something of a deterrent.
  • Most stores don't seem familiar with and/or welcoming of multiple transactions (although I spoke to the manager of a newish store recently and she assured me that I am welcome to do as many transactions as I want unless they have very limited stock - yay!).
I find that I go through cycles at the drugstores: For a couple of months, I'll go to Walgreens several times a week, then for a couple of weeks, it'll be Rite Aid, then the next few months, it'll be CVS. I won't avoid the other stores but I'll only go once a week at most during their downward cycle. So I can't really pick just one store I'd prefer to shop at the most.

But if I had to pick, I'd probably go with CVS, just because it's the easiest and most convenient for me. But I'd sure be sad about missing out on all of the deals at Rite Aid and Walgreens too. So I'm glad and grateful to be able to shop at all three!

Which one would you pick if you could only shop at one of the drugstores?

Oct 13, 2010

Works for Me: Freezing Bread

My parents always froze bread when I was growing up, so I've always done it too. But the other day, my friend K. mentioned that she kept having to throw out stale bread and buy a fresh loaf for her son's school sandwiches. And I realized that not everybody freezes bread to keep it fresh. But it really works.

I've found that store bought sliced bread usually freezes great and it's easy to peel off just one or two slices at a time.

My homemade sliced bread seems to be more delicate, and I find that I have to freeze it with the slices staggered in order to guarantee easy removal. As you can see in the photo, I just slide the staggered slices into a zip top freezer bag. They never last long enough to suffer freezer burn (I make a loaf every one to two weeks, depending on how many sandwiches we eat).

K. was worried that the bread would be frozen and/or soggy when her son went to eat his sandwich. But I assured her that bread defrosts very quickly, and would be thawed enough for her to cut the sandwich by the time she was done making his sandwich. Using an oil-based condiment such as mayonnaise (me) or butter (K.) prevents the bread from becoming soggy.

Find more Works for Me Wednesday Tips at We Are THAT Family.

Oct 12, 2010

Guest Post: 5 Ways to Save Money on Dinner

This is a guest post by new mom Kimberly Palmer, who is the author of Generation Earn: The Young Professional's Guide to Spending, Investing, and Giving Back,which was published by Ten Speed Press this week. The following post has been adapted from the book. Kimberly will be hosting free book giveaways on her Alpha Consumer blog and Twitter feed this week.

Before my daughter was born, I spent hours cooking each week. I looked forward to it: First I would pick out complicated recipes, usually inspired by the Food Network, and then I would plan the menu and get the ingredients. Now that I’m a mom, I don’t have that kind of time for my cooking hobby any more. But that doesn’t mean I’ve given up on saving money with home-cooked meals – I’ve just adjusted my strategy.

Here are five ways I save money – and time – on my family’s meals each week:

1) Treat roasted chicken like the new pasta. By that, I mean that roasted chicken can bulk up almost any dish, from baked ziti to tomato soup to homemade pizza. I recently made baked ziti using roasted chicken, pasta, a jar of tomato sauce, and cheese. The total cost? $15.33, for at least four meals. (It would have been cheaper but I opted for organic chicken breasts.) We not only had a great midweek dinner, but I now have an extra meal in the freezer for a night that’s
too busy for cooking.

2) Stick with online grocery shopping. It sounds indulgent, and in some ways it is – I pay about $6 per week to have my groceries delivered. But I save far more than that, because I can more easily find coupons and compare prices online, and I can also plan my meals for the week more easily, which prevents last-minute takeout emergencies. Most importantly, it frees up my weekends for fun family time.

3) Apply my grandmother’s lessons. While visiting my grandmother recently, I asked her what her favorite go-to dinner is. She shared her spaghetti recipe, a delicious combination of ground beef and red wine. And because she’s my grandmother, which means she lived through some tough times and knows how to stretch money, it doesn’t involve expensive ingredients. In fact, I usually have most of them in my cupboards already. Now, I’ve incorporated her spaghetti recipe into our regular rotation of meals.

4) Make substitutions that don’t taste cheap. Barefoot Contessa, who shares her excellent coffee-making technique in Generation Earn, has some great fish recipes, but she seems to often suggest using the most expensive cut of fish. Instead, I replace halibut with tilapia, or whatever white fish is on sale that week. For other dishes, eggs or beans can sometimes replace meat. In fact, eggs, which are still pretty affordable, despite their rising prices, can often create a meal on their own, in the form of a soufflé or strata.

5) Celebrate our favorite pauper’s supper. [Cathy here: I love the term "pauper's supper" - It makes it sound like a special event.] Every family should have one of these – a cheap meal that you would never serve to guests but that family members love. For us, it’s something from my childhood: Grilled tuna and cheese sandwiches. Now, even my husband loves them, and when my 11-month-old daughter gets a little older, I plan to make her love them, too.

To learn more about Generation Earn, visit www.generationearn.com.

Oct 11, 2010

Menu Plan Monday: Is this going to be my pattern?


Two weeks ago, I didn't follow my menu plan for the second half of the week, and the same thing happened last week. Again, I firmly believe that having a menu plan I don't follow still helps me stay on track with cooking, as we didn't eat out. BUT - it does seem silly to make a plan if I'm never going to follow it. :P

Monday - Roast Beef Hash (using beef leftover from last Friday, because I cooked the beef on Friday instead of Thursday), Salad, Buttermilk Biscuits

Tuesday - Breakfast: Pancakes, Scrambled Eggs with Cabbage, Sausage

Wednesday - Shoyu [Soy Sauce] Chicken in the Slow Cooker (I'll write up a recipe for this soon), Rice, mystery veggie from the Farmer's Market

Thursday - Chicken Enchiladas (from the freezer), Refried Beans, Salad

Friday - Japanese food (if i can find appropriate ingredients at a new, closer market)

Saturday - leftovers

See more weekly menus at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Oct 8, 2010

Balance and the Working Mom

I have a free subscription to a wonderful magazine called Working Mother,which, as you might guess, is aimed at working mothers. The current issue has actress Amy Brenneman on the cover, and there's an interview with her featured inside. The interview ends with Brenneman talking about her need to act and work, saying:
I can't pretend that I don't exist. I need to try to find some sort of balance for all of these needs. Knowing, of course, that it's not going to be a perfect balance.
The end of her quote really struck me, probably because I tend to strive for perfection and then feel badly when I don't achieve it. Balance, though, was always the key for me when I was worked at an office, and I'm finding that it's still the key for me now that I'm working at home.

Because I'm realizing that even working at home, there simply isn't time to do everything. I've been home for several weeks now, and I've barely scratched the surface on my list of things I've been wanting to get done for months.

I'm learning to prioritize my days, and especially to set realistic expectations of what can get done, and when. As I mentioned before, I've concluded that the stress of chasing every deal simply isn't worth the savings, so I'm not shopping much more than I used to. And I'm learning to how to set aside time to blog, so that I can do my "job" here better for you. Because it's all about balance :)

Oct 6, 2010

Update on (Our) School Lunches

Thank you to everyone who sent help yesterday after I asked for school lunch suggestions. I really appreciate them! I'm happy to report that the cream cheese & applesauce sandwich was a hit with both kids, although I think 50% applesauce makes the mixture too thin. I'll try a 2:1 ratio next time, and I need to work on my cinnamon raisin bread technique too, since the bread was a little crumbly because I put the raisins too close to the edge.

Gina's suggestions have me thinking outside the box a little bit, and I'm wondering if Alex would have taken some cold pasta bolognese leftover from Tuesday night's dinner, or if he'd eat some cold pizza rolls. He also loves shredded chicken in pita, but that's a meal that usually takes him some time to eat, and time really seems to be a huge issue for him.

It rained all day today, so the kids ate in the classroom instead of going to the cafeteria, and Alex said that he has plenty of time to eat when they eat in the classroom. (Probably because they don't have to head to recess on the playground after eating when it's raining outside.) And indeed, he said he ate everything today. So I'm making it a priority to give him easy to eat foods. For us, that means mainly finger foods, but hopefully as the school year progresses, he'll get the hang of eating quickly (but just at school - I don't want him wolfing down food at the dinner table!).

As I get the hang of what to pack for lunch, I'll take some photos and share my what's working for us. I do like the bento-style of packing a lot, and I do it even with sandwiches. :)

Oct 5, 2010

Musing: On School Lunches

The school lunch menu is less than thrilling to me, full of the usual suspects you might expect: chicken nuggets, hot dogs, pizza, PB&J, and spaghetti and meatballs. I know these foods have decent nutritional value, though knowing my child, the healthy side dish would end up neglected - and that's assuming he ate the main course, which is hardly a safe assumption. I worry, too, that the quality of ingredients used in the lunches is on the low end of the spectrum - highly processed, all conventionally grown and raised, and possibly full of additives.

Mark Bittman accuses American school lunches as being "third world" today, but I think that's a little unfair. I can tell LAUSD is trying to be healthy, by serving at least some whole grains, providing a vegetarian option, and serving more than canned fruit cocktail. Of course, I'd love to see a more sophisticated menu with fresh fruit and vegetables, and locally sourced ingredients, freshly prepared on campus. And while I know that there are some schools that do this (Alice Waters and her Edible Schoolyard program come to mind), it's just not something that's universal in LAUSD.

In fact, even though our elementary school is one of the best in the district, I've attended many meetings at this point and I haven't heard a single suggestion regarding the school lunch menu. I'm actually okay with that, because the focus has been on making up for the district's budget cuts and making sure the kids still get PE, art, a nurse, etc.

Also, as I mentioned before, time to eat is an issue in kindergarten. One reason to pack a home lunch is more time to eat, since there's no time spent waiting in line for food. I'm trying to get Alex to leave all of his leftovers so I can see how much he eats every day, but for some reason, he keeps throwing all the food out.

I tried packing warm food in a thermos but Alex says the food didn't stay hot. The problem here is that I can't tighten the thermos top as much I normally would because then a small hand can't get it open. And while there is some adult supervision, I don't want him to waste precious eating time trying to get someone's attention so his thermos can be opened. Given the obvious safety concern, I'm trying to stick with cold foods.

I've been packing a lot of sandwiches, but it's tough to find a deli turkey that's also free of added hormones, antibiotics and nitrates. I've found one at Whole Foods that Alex seems to like, but I'm sure he'll get tired of it quickly and we'll need to take a break. I've done homemade Lunchables, too, but those take more time to eat than a sandwich and he keeps saying he didn't have time to finish his lunch.

Tomorrow I'm going to try a suggestion I found online for a 50-50 cream cheese and applesauce sandwich on the cinnamon raisin bread I made yesterday. Any guesses on how that will go over? ;) And any suggestions on sandwich ideas would be welcome. (Note: We don't do PB&J - any other kind of nut - due to food allergies. But oh, how I miss Nutella!)

Oct 4, 2010

Menu Plan Monday: Any menu plan is better than none!


I strayed from my planned menu for the second half of last week, but we didn't eat out, so I truly believe that any menu plan is better than none. It keeps me thinking about cooking and eating at home, rather than planning to go out. You'll see that I've just moved the meals planned for last week that didn't get made to this week. :)

I drove out to an Asian foods market on Friday, and picked up some sashimi, fresh salmon and condiments. Japanese food is my favorite type of food to go out to eat, but I've gradually begun serving more traditional foods at home. Preparing a delicious meal for a fraction of the cost last week taught me that we don't have to go out for me to get my Japanese food fix, and the leftovers were delicious on Saturday. The market I went to was pretty far away, so I'm going to try to find one that's closer.

Meanwhile, here's what on tap for this week:

Monday - Miso Chicken, Rice, Butternut Squash prepared Kabocha-style

Tuesday - Pasta Bolognese, Artisan Bread, Sauteed Zucchini (and I'm hoping to have some leftover shredded zucchini that I can use to make a Chocolate & Zucchini Cake)

Wednesday - Grilled Pizza

Thursday - Shredded Beef Sandwiches, vegetable from the farmer's market

Friday - Breakfast: waffles or pancakes, bacon, eggs

See more weekly menus at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Oct 3, 2010

Update: Computer Issues

I'm going to skip the starter drugstore transactions this week because we had to do a full system restore on my laptop. I'll get the best deals for Rite Aid posted later, but posting will be light while I get all my shortcuts back on my computer. Thanks for your patience and understanding!