Why We Don't Do Halloween- And Why It Doesn't Impact You In Any Way.

Halloween has seen a surge in popularity in recent years, and has gained traction as a holiday for adults as well as children. 92% of Americans are planning to celebrate Halloween in some capacity, as each year the celebrations get bigger and bigger. Because of the surge in popularity surrounding this holiday, I've received a surge in questions on why we abstain from the holiday. This question is often met with an onslaught of personal opinions about the holiday, and a general sense that I'm a horrible parent for depriving my child of such revelry. So in order to answer all of your questions about why I don't participate in Halloween, here is the top 10 reasons we have decided not to celebrate the holiday. 

#1 I don't feel obligated to celebrate the holidays of other cultures or religions. 
I don't celebrate Ramadan, Diwali, The Assumption of Mary, Ash Wednesday, of Yule- so why would I celebrate Halloween? Just because it has mainstream appeal (due to clever marketing) doesn't mean my child is having less of a childhood if we don't do it. We don't ask Jewish people why they don't celebrate Christmas, so why does a person meet so much judgement if they choose not to celebrate other holidays?  I'm not Catholic. I'm not Celtic. I don't need to celebrate holidays that don't have anything to do with me.

#2 We don't need to get wrapped into the consumerism of this holiday. 
According to USA Today Americans are projected to spend $7.4 Billion Dollars on Halloween this year. That is $7.4 billion dollars on outfits people will wear once, pumpkins that will rot, and decorations made by prison camp workers often detained for their spiritual practices. (If you want to learn about a SOS letters found in Halloween decor last year please check out this story.) We already have more stuff then we need, and Halloween is just another reason to procure more.

#3 I don't want to subject my daughter the objectifying costumes that have become the standard for women.  Girls costumes are often focused on beauty instead of competence, and tend to be revealing even in child's sizes. Little girls who are exposed to sexualized messages early tend to internalize sexualization that can lead to a host of problems including low self esteem, eating disorders, depression and lower grades according to a professor at the University of Texas in Austin. Further more according to this study women who reveal more skin induce an emotional response, and are seen as less intelligent and competent. Yet here we are:

 

The little boys are given costumes with a baton to do his job. The little girl gets go-go boots. The little boy is given a medallion associated with the social status of being a count. The little girl gets a short skirt and lace up corset. These costumes are the male to female equivalent from the same manufacturer. We are teaching our little girls to be less then are, and reinforcing with our boys that it's okay to see them like that. This is not something I'm okay with.

#4 We don't need copious amounts of sugar procured by begging from strangers. 
Although parents have banded together with the teal pumpkin to show signs of candy free homes for children with allergies this year, Halloween in previous years has been a nightmare for children with allergies or food sensitives including my daughter. Even if your child doesn't have the reaction my daughter does to artificial colors, and even if you are okay with GMOs, the lasting damages of diets high in sugar can't be ignored. Researchers are now starting to call Alzheimer's type 3 Diabetes. So what happens when we reinforce ideas that sugar is treasure worth going door to door begging for?

#5 My child isn't your child; she doesn't react the same as your child does. 
Most people assume that the reason we don't celebrate Halloween has to do solely with our spiritual values. I would be lying if I said that wasn't a part of the reason, but there are many components to our decision. Starting around the beginning of September when my daughter sees the first Halloween decor go up in stores she starts to have nightmares. Some how pre-adoption trauma got a face, and that face is a witch. In the months of September and October I spend time comforting, snuggling, and reassuring a scared little girl that she is safe, and that the period of time when she was frightened and feeling abandoned is over. Most people who judge our choice to not participate in Halloween don't know that about this. My child doesn't react like your child. Your child doesn't react like my child. And if you don't have children, you should really just cool your parenting judgments in general. We live in a society where it seems normal to push our values on each other. How about we all just stop?

#6 Many states are passing laws that stop pedophiles from passing out candy to children. My state has not passed these laws yet. 
What do you get when you combine registered sex offenders, a night of interacting with children while passing out candy, and sexualized costumes as stated above? Well, in my household we are not going to find out.

#7 My child isn't missing out on anything! Really. 
We have found alternative activities to avoid Halloween. My daughter isn't missing out on any 'fun' with the less triggering activities we do. During the autumn season we celebrate the harvest. We go to the pumpkin patch and gather pumpkins, which are not carved, but are used for their seeds, chicken food and other useful things. Apples are eaten, leaves are collected, crafts are done and pumpkin everything is eaten. Despite studies that show people who are grateful are happier, the thankfulness and gratitude that used to take center stage in this season has been over shadowed by Halloween. Christmas season seems to start on November 1st, and Thanksgiving has lost footing to consumerism. I'm glad we continue to celebrate, reflect, and be thankful past when everyone takes down their pumpkins and moves on, we are not missing out on anything.

#8 Halloween is as much for the parents as it is for the Children. Admitting that was good for me.
We might all have a little Peter Pan syndrome and don't want to grow up, but for parents it's more then that. We like to see our kids in cute little costumes. We like to get complements on how cute our child(ren) look in their little costumes. Moms everywhere have so much pressure to do these amazing holidays like we see on Pinterest. And then post them on Facebook, so we can compare ourselves with other moms who are also doing over blown Pinterest inspired holidays who also posted on Facebook. Allowing myself to not be ran ragged by holiday pressure has been good for everyone in my family. Sitting Halloween out, has been a way for me to not give into the pressure I feel from our society and instead follow what I feel is best for my family.

#9 Just because it's a big deal to you, doesn't mean it's a big deal to me. 
You love everything about Halloween. That's great. You also love bacon, women, and pastel pink. That doesn't mean I have to. We have a tendency to seek out people who are the same as we are and have shared values and ideas. It's called tribalism and can be seen all over American politics, and social issues. So I get it! When someone comes along doing something a little bit different it feels threatening. It's been the same story for all of human history, and it's pretty natural. Let me assure the entire world, my choice to not celebrate Halloween in no way impacts the safety or security of your tribe. It's not a moral statement to the world, there is no need for a witch hunt (see what I did there? Pun totally intended!) It's just not that big of a deal to us. And we don't have to be the same.

#10 And the best reason why we don't celebrate Halloween: None of your business! 
When we were blessed with the ability to adopt our daughter it felt amazing to finally be her parents in a way that was complete. After a long battle she was 100% wholly ours, and we were hers. Before that we had to ask the state before we did anything, including cutting her hair, or going camping. It was a hard road we traveled to become her parents, and we are not willing to give up those parental rights easily to every opinion that blows past us. Rest assured our independent home study, the state of Washington, and the state of Oregon, felt we were reasonable stable parents and granted us custody. It should be good enough for you too!

If anything our family's choice to abstain from Halloween means more type 3 diabetes inducing candy for your children. It means one less person to compete with on Pinterest for coolest Halloween mom. And let's be honest, you don't want to mess with my mad pumpkin carving skills. Just because I don't do it doesn't mean I can't sculpt a masterpiece out of squash. The truth of the matter is, my choice to have my family abstain from Halloween doesn't negatively impact you in any way.  So if you love Halloween then go for it, pursue it with the level of passion and reckless abandon that you see fit. And I won't judge you for it. And I will abstain from it, with deep rooted spiritual and social convictions. So now that you know I'm not just the raving mad evangelical you first pinned me as, maybe you can spend all of that energy you devoted to judging me on something more important? Like getting ready for Halloween.

I will not judge others parenting styles, I will not judge others parenting styles....

I will not harshly judge other people’s parenting styles!

The other day I was at a family gathering when someone said something that shocked me. A parent of two of the other children informed their mom upon first meeting my little girl that she was “not very nice to them because she stuck her tongue out at them” And was “A brat”. At that point I must have had a look of shock on my face, because I was floored by what this parent was saying to me! My daughter is 4 years younger than these little girls, and had been in our home a grand total of 3 weeks when we took her to her first family function. Considering all she had to overcome, and that suddenly after 4 years of being a foster kid she had a real forever family sticking her tongue out at someone is the least of my worries. I nearly told her “Yes, introducing an adopted child into the family would be a great time to teach your children about understanding, grace and love.” But this parent is the type of parent who can’t really see past her own parenting style. So I bit my tongue and instead let her know that I’m very proud of little girl and that she is doing the best she can, and covered my offense.

But it got me thinking, am I the kind of parent who can’t see past their own parenting style? To consider other children’s individual needs and what they have to overcome? Do I give little girl’s friends grace? Do I teach her to have tolerance towards the children she comes in contact with? I think about the little friends she has, some of them really high energy, some of them momma’s boys and girls, some of them with sensory disorders, or little diva complexes and a lot of wonderful special little people! None of the parents of the children in our social circle are doing a bad job at parenting. They are all doing the best they can. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t tell each other what we are doing with our children or what is working for us or more importantly what didn’t work, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to work for them. I can bribe my daughter into cleaning her bedroom by playing Funky Town by Lipps Inc, I realize that will not work for most people….okay I don’t know if that works for anyone else!

I think the most important thing about parenting is trying! If a person is really trying then their child will reflect this. I find the harder I try with little girl, the harder she tries and we me and we both have a better life. Trying also requires me to set up structure and give her safe boundaries to operate in so she knows what is expected of it. I just hope that we as parents can be a little softer with each other, easier on each other. None of us are perfect parents, and all of us are learning, so when a parent either hasn’t learned how to work on something you’ve got down, or what you did didn’t work with their child cut them some slack, smile and be happy that you child doesn’t do the same thing. Hopefully they will do them same thing when your child is driving them crazy!  

Mother's day- if you wait until you are ready

With Mother’s day being last weekend I thought I would share a little blog about my own journey to motherhood.

We had always had plans of adopting a child… when I was older! 30 seemed to be the magical age when adoption seemed to be within our future. Not only because 30 is the legal age to be eligible to adopt in places like China, but also because 30 feels stable to me. At that magic age my husband and I will be married 9 years, he will be done with school, we will be out of debt besides student loans and the mortgage, and we will be in our house for 5 years, more than enough time to make any improvements we needed to make before we bring a child into the mix. 30 was the age I was going to be ready to be a parent! 30 was the age where we would have our lives in order. But it’s been said before, that if you wait until you are ready to have kids, if you wait until you can afford it to have kids, you’ll never have them.

During the summer of 2012, 3 months before my 28^th birthday we brought home our daughter. A beautiful brown eyed 4 year old full of energy, opposition, and just enough sweetness to make us still fall in love with her. She had been living in foster care at my parents from the age of 2 and had a pretty rough start to life. We had decided after much prayer and consideration that we would try to adopt her. We started before she was a freed child, meaning her biological mother was still in the picture, and went through a roller coaster ride of nearly 2 years before we were able to take her home. In this time we grew as a couple, grew as a family, and learned to rely on faith more than we ever had before. I have never been so stressed out, or cried so much in my entire life as at one point it looked like we were not going to be able to adopt her. We were very bonded to her, and she was very bonded to us. Every time she said “I want you to be my daddy.” To my husband, my heart broke a little bit more as we explained to her that we would have to just wait and see. I gained weight, gray hair, and more than anything else maturity as we went through this process.

This year, a week before Mother’s day we were able to finally legally adopt her! To change her name and let her know forever and ever she is ours. It was an unconventional way to build a family, but for my husband and I, it’s the only way that seemed right. This past year has been filled with building special amazing memories with our little girl, and going from being a couple who stayed up late, had tons of alone time and had little routine to thinking about this little girl first in every possible way. Like all parents we jumped in with both feet and even with knowing it would change our lives in every way, still had no idea how significantly it would change our lives. People become parents through a lot of different means, Birth, Surrogate, Adoption, Marriage, Death, and Fostering. All methods of becoming a parent are noble and good as long as the parent is willing to love their child, and work hard to set them on the right path to becoming decent human beings. For those people who every day make the choice to be the best parent they can be, they deserve honor regardless of the method they became parents. To them I gladly applaud you, on a Sunday, that isn’t a Holiday, but a day you continue to be a fantastic mother and lay down your life for your family.    

Reflections on freezing

We are almost done with our spending freeze. I can’t believe how fast this month has gone!

Tonight we got sandwiches for dinner because we had a pre-planned thing. We were doing a “bring your own sandwich” get together with family to talk about my brother’s upcoming wedding this summer in Minnesota. It was nice when talking about how expensive that weekend is going to be, to know how much power we really have over our own spending. There is something really empowering about not giving into every want need and desire that comes across our minds. To not allow the constant marketing to fuel inside of us a burning pit of discontentment. Every dollar we don’t spend we value even more then the dollars previously. I hope that we can become even more frugal in the future.

That brings up something that has been rolling around in my head. I’ve always been somewhat frugal.  Even from a young age I had a natural impulse to save money. While my brother and sister spent their allowances, I was naturally inclined to stock it away until I saw something I really wanted. I’ve always had the urge implanted in me to seek out sale items, and things discounted. I’ve always taken a sense of pride in finding the best deal possible. And yet while I hand over a stack of .50 cent coupons there are times that I have $5.00 lattes in my hand. I realize now that I have a false sense of being frugal. How can I value pennies while throwing away dollars?  

I’m not saying that every second of my life needs to be a fiscal tight rope walk, but maybe the times that I should splurge should be further apart than the way we have been living? What if instead of all of those lattes I saved my dollars for something really special, like a tropical vacation? Or never having to make another credit card payment? I’ve long felt my quality of life go down when I did not allow myself things like lattes, or new shoes but my quality of life should not be built around things. Instead I should seek out memories, experiences, and financial freedom! With this my life will truly be what I would like it to be.

Would you like a little whine with your coffee?

We are coming up on about a week of our spending freeze. The hardest day was a day without enough coffee. I was so tired! I sat at my desk thinking about the coffee cup that sat just a few feet away. I kept envisioning myself taking a dollar out of my wallet and walking downstairs. Who would know, except me with a little extra pep in my step? After sending a very whiny text to my husband about not liking it when I don’t get what I want (okay about 15 texts about not getting what I want.) I was done dreaming of dark roast and sucked it up. A Few hours later I did happen across an expired thing of Starbucks Via in my desk drawer that I consumed with only a little bit of complaining.

Reflecting on this week, it makes me realize how self-indulgent I am. Not getting enough coffee can spoil my day when there are people not only far off, who are not getting enough food. I am sure they have more grace then I exhibited complaining about my coffee during a self-imposed fast on our spending. What would it be like to really go without? To have a sense of want, not because of greed, or being accustomed to more, but to want because I don’t have the basic things that sustain life? I have a slight pain in my stomach thinking about this situation and to experience that kind of hardship. Honestly it’s something I pray we never have to go through. It has made me realize though, how much I take for granted and how much we are truly blessed with every day.  

I will continue on with our spending freeze, with a lot more grace and gratitude than I’ve exhibited in this past week, and can hopefully extend that past the spending freeze into my daily life.

Spending freeze! Day 1!

After last month’s failure in couponing we decided to take even more drastic measures. Instead of allowing ourselves the gray matter of discounting and couponing it’s time for a spending freeze! A spending freeze in our house is a time period set aside by us, where we do not take money out of our checking accounts unless it’s vital, or preplanned. Gasoline to get to work for example would be considered a vital expense.  A bill like our daughters preschool is preplanned or something we already expected to pay. The rest of it we are not allowed to buy!

Why do we do it? It allows us to really reflect on our spending habits, and reset them. We have a few leaks in our budget. I’m guilty of spending money at coffee shop right down stairs from my office without thinking about it. Other things we are guilty of are quick meals out and about due to poor planning, or because I’m too tired to cook after a long day. And of course there are the impulse buys, and retail therapy we are all guilty of.

Tonight I kicked off the spending freeze by looking at what we have in the fridge and mentally planning some meals based on those items. It’s about making do with what we have, and hopefully at the end of this developing a better sense of gratitude for the things we are provided instead of always wanting something else, or something extra. I’m going to try to update my blog at least once a week so you can follow along in our success, failures, and attempts to better account for the way we spend our money.

In the spirit of being a shameless self-promoter you can also check out the food I make during our freeze at http://laurasmaking.blogspot.com/ to learn how I make do with what we have on hand, or make a recipe when I don’t have everything I need to do it.

A week of couponing and price checking

This past week with the couponing has been hard. Our week has come unraveled and I would be lying if I said we had been perfect on using discounts and coupons for everything. We have had to grab something to eat a few times and I didn’t have a coupon or discount for every time- although we have tried to eat at places that cost significantly less then I would have spent if we were not trying to save money, like this very shabby little Vietnamese restaurant we haven’t visits in ages where the cost is very reasonable. I am not going to dwell on my discounting failure though; instead I would like to talk about the things I’ve learned this week.


Due diligence:

I’ve always just assumed that things are cheaper where we have always gotten them, because once upon a time I price checked them. Costco was one of those places. We’ve always bought giant bags of Iams dog food from Costco because it was less. I found out though Walmart actually has food for less if I order it into my store and use a $3.00 off coupon. More due diligence though, had me looking at generic labels and comparing. Kirkland dog food seemed to have the same ingredients as the branded food, and as we opened up the bag it looked exactly the same. We will be saving about $18 dollars a month.

We also found this month eggs were less at Fred Meyer then Costco with a coupon. I was really proud of my husband who went to pick up these eggs and walked in with his coupons in hand and his head held high.

We also signed up for the Target Red Card debit card after looking into it and realizing it was really worth the deal. I had always planned to look into it, but never have. I shop there anyway so I might as well save 5% on my purchases. We needed things like deodorant, kitchen cleaner, and shampoo. Just having them route the purchase through my red card alone saved me $4.00 on my purchases today. It’s going to be extra appealing to me as I always hit target for clearance for clothing. An item at 70% off is now going to be 75% off and I’m okay with that as I’ve been dressing myself (and my family) almost exclusively with Target clearance for a while now. There is always a risk that I’ll shop there more now that I have this card, but I’m already a pretty loyal Target shopper, and pretty thrifty so I'm not really worried.

Shopping today for food was also successful with a $10 off $75 at Safeway, as well as some great deals for buy one get one free deals on things like sausages my daughter will eat, a sale on milk, and Chex for 1.52 each. I love watching the club card, and coupons reduce my total down, chipping away at it little by little until we saved 49% total on our grocery bill and over $120!

Finally we found some really great savings at Michael’s craft stores. Between 40% off coupons, BOGO sales, and a $10 off of $30 coupon we managed to spend money for a few upcoming art projects for a savings of 50%.

Over all I’m happy with my savings this month as it’s been over $200 in our household expenses so far this month. We are still learning to save money, and still finding ways to make our money go further but having Josh start to pay more attention to price, examining coupons and looking for red clearance stickers has been the greatest achievement of all!

Our Couponing Challenge

A few weeks ago on my daughter Birthday we decided to take some money given to her by her great aunt and go to Toys R Us. Because I’m one of those couponing people I already signed her up for the Toys R Us birthday promotions and got a $3 off coupon in a birthday card. So we took the $5 and the $3 coupon and found a toy for $8. When we came home with our $8 stuffed zebra my husband expressed that he would have bought the zebra without the coupon and just spent the extra $3. I guess it made an impact on him realizing how much money can be saved if you look for discounts because he challenged me to only buy things I can get on discount, with a coupon, or otherwise on sale.



So with February just around the corner- and it being a shorter month we decided it would be the perfect time to do a month of couponing, discounting, and only sale shopping. There are a few rules we decided to attach to this challenge to make sure that we are saving the most money and they are as follows.

1) The only things we are allowed to pay full price for are staples- milk, eggs, whole grains, and dried beans. If I can get a coupon for these items though they need to be used.

2) We are allowed to buy an item at Costco without a coupon if it is less than a couponed counterpart at another retailer. These items must be price checked online with other retailers, and a coupon for the item that could be used at another retailer must be present.

3) Fresh fruits and vegetables, meat and other items like these are allowed to be purchased without a coupon as long as we purchase the items that are on sale, and produce will be checked against the produce stand we often use.

4) We are able to buy the generic if it’s less than the name brand counterpart with a coupon. We are not allowed to buy the generic if we do not have a coupon for the name brand counterpart.

5) We are going to go out of our way to use the gas stations that we have discounts at, and websites like www.fuelmeup.com or www.gasbuddy.com to figure out what is going to be our best purchase price. We will also plan to fuel up when we are in the area of the less expensive gas stations.

6) Eating out is allowed only if we can find a coupon for the restaurant or can apply a discount. (Very happy my Starbucks card gives me a discount.)

This experiment isn’t aimed to totally change the way we shop, but rather is intended to make us focus in more on what are staples and what aren’t, get in the habit of price checking, and grabbing the discounts that are right in front of us that we are not already taking advantage of. I’m already a Jr. crazy coupon lady, and find ways to shave the family budget, but let’s see how much better we can do! Having Josh on board for this is going to make a big difference in our couponing and saving.

This challenge starts February first and I’ll keep a blog for the month to keep track of the savings, the discounts and the things we’ve learned.

Don't wish us luck! Wish us willpower!

Courting supermarkets

Here is what I like about clipping coupons and watching sales. The realization that supermarkets are really compeating against each other for my business. I am a little more empowered to purchase from stores that are offering deals that appeal to me. I've never really seen myself as having any real power over these giant shelve lined stores. I've felt something like a consumer pushed around in a current of other shoppers. As if my cart is being pushed down a track, pushing past things I have no intention of buying. They will make sure I see them though, those impulse buys that they want me to believe I really need. Watching shoppers, and figuring out how to get them to spend more has been a very profitable industry for a very long time. From placing the sugar filled cereal in view of the children, to making sure we enter through the area where the produce is (let's face it, produce has the highest mark up!) and filling end caps with items that are appealing to most shoppers and easy to throw into our carts. Today was different though, I started out with a list of things I needed to buy, and most of them items that were either on sale, or that I had a coupon for. As I strolled the isles on a busy Sunday afternoon, I had no need to see what was on sale isle by isle, because I had already visited the weekly ad in my Sunday paper. In fact I had reviewed all of the store ads, and went to the stores that offered the best deals for me. I told myself that I would try couponing for a month to decide if it is something that I want to continue doing for my family. But right now with a total monthly savings of over $150 dollars, and having more food then we normally buy for the money I've spent due to a little bit of planning, I already feel like this is something we will continue. I keep checking my bank account, and expecting to see it go down at a rate higher then t is. Now I just need to find a way to organize all of those little slips of paper!

Laura coupon deal of the day!

I went to Walgreens, because Josh was out of deodorant. He likes the old spice one, mostly because I think he is entertained by the commercials. (Good marketing makes an old man product hip!) I had a buy 2 deodorant, get a body wash free. At walgreens the deodorant was also buy one, get one 50% off, and I had a coupon for a dollar off that. So here is how it broke down. 4.99 Deodorant 4.99 Deodorant With 50% off- 1.00 = 1.50 Second deodorant 4.99 Body Wash Free! Should have been 4.99+4 14.97 but instead cost me 6.49 But the best deal of all is knowing next time Josh forgets to tell me that he is out of deodorant, I can simply go into the laundry room, and bring out a brand new deodorant. I've saved so much money so far, and only on things I actually buy! Why haven't I done this before?

Couponing

Am I already turning into one of those crazy couponing people? You know who I'm talking about right? the crazy woman who keep enough cereal to withstand any natural disaster in the garage just because they had a coupon? Okay, so maybe I'm not THAT bad, but I have to admit that there are currently 6 boxes of cereal in my laundry room. I couldn't resist the free milk, or the cheap prices. $5.00 is really cheap for 3 boxes of cereal (inflation is really starting to be a problem.) and then to get up to $4.00 back in milk it makes it an outstanding deal. We also did double coupons for soy milks, meaning my normal organic milk that costs over $3.00 a container cost me a whole 1.27 after a double coupon, and the all natural darigold sour cream that was on sale for 2 for 7 ended up costing me 1.12. I have to say, another happy day in my coupon adventures. I also discovered that several store club cards will allow you to load your cards with coupons so you don't even have to lug all of their store coupons around with you. HOW easy is that? http://just4u.safeway.com/couponweb/myoffers.aspx?pid=15136&nid=10&zid=pp27&mod=pscrd If you would like to try to load coupons to your safeway club card as well

First Weekend of being a Scissor Saver!

After a long winter of silence I decided it’s time to post on my blog again. As always I tend to be focused on food, and spending money. With the cost of food starting to go up, and the speculation of fuel related inflation to all food items getting worse around June, I decided it’s time to start saving money. Determined that there had to be a way to get more bang for my buck, I’ve decided that it’s high time to start clipping coupons. Let me fist explain, I’m the kind of girl who has never really used coupons (at least not for groceries, I’m a sucker for the Bed Bath and Beyond coupons.) Who will get a save .50 coupon on package of something I buy often, and throw it in the trash thinking “Whatever, it is worth .50 cents to me to not have to lug this thing around.” Even if I know in a month I’m going to buy that item again. Recently though I realized that coupons are only a part of a much bigger picture and it’s really all about timing. I’ve always been quite the sale shopper. I wait until things are on sale to purchase them, and if something else is on sale, I’m okay with switching brands to save a little bit of money. But what if I could hit a sale AND use a coupon? Suddenly my .50 coupon, mixed with a dollar sale turns into $1.50 an item sale. So this weekend I decided that it was time to start this couponing endeavor. It started out with a dog food coupon at Costco. Nearly $40.00 bags of dog food with a $10.00 coupon limit of 2. But we went 2 days in a row because we had a little bit of extra money that we could spend on dog food this month, and are totally sure the dogs will eat it. We have over two months of dog food in our storage bin, and saved a bit of money in the process. Today was my first attempt at grocery store couponing. I’m not saying I’m any good about it, but I saved some money, and saving money in any capacity means I’m not bad at it either. Today the coupon shopping took place at an Albertsons store, because the Sunday paper had a double coupon ad, and an offer that if you buy 3 boxes of cereal that you get 2 gallons of milk free. On top of that I had a $1.00 coupon for the brand of cereal that I intended to purchase and a double coupon for the cereal as well. I also had $1.00 off soy milk, and another double coupon. I also had a coupon for lunch meat, and the same applied with double coupon day. All in all I walked away with a voucher for free milk on my next visit worth a $4.00 future milk purchase and I’m looking grand total of 48.1%! Total money saved this week clipping coupons: - 51.70 less $2.00 newspaper = 49.70 in total savings. I have to be honest here, not all of these savings will be realized this month, as the dogs will not eat all of the dog food this month, but even divided up between two months that is still a grand total of 24.85 realized this month, and 24.85 in food will not have to buy next month. I think this will be a money saver I continue to work on. I have more coupons to use, and am planning another trip tomorrow, to another store in order to finish my grocery shopping.

Kraut Fail!

It didn't work out, it smelled horrible, and I couldn't even eat it.

Josh and I threw it away laughing and gagging at the horror. Will I try to make it again? I don't know yet. I really love cabbage and I don't want to start to hate it due to keeping it fermenting in my house.

That is all for now.

Sauerkraut- Almost done!

I used this recipe http://www.wildfermentation.com/resources.php?page=sauerkraut to start my sauerkraut. It sounds so easy, but today I scooped the bloom off of the top of the sauerkraut.....GROSS! As I was gently scooping away this white scum off the top of my brine I had a fear go through me. What if I give my husband botulism? What if under this milky brine the kraut didn't turn out? what if it's gross? But everything I've read said that surface bloom is totally normal. It's strange to work at something for a month and not know if it's going to work, and it's strange wondering if something I've made could make me sick or not. It's made me realize how spoiled we are with our food!

Everything is so clean, neatly packaged and ready to eat. I can tell you how to check and see if something is expired on a supermarket shelf, but not how to check the food in my own kitchen. I have a fear of home canned foods, a fear of home fermented foods. Part of this fear is because I've never really been exposed to these practices. Besides my Grammy's jam I've never really seen anything canned, and no one in my social circles ferments their own food. (Okay so we have some friends who make beer, but that doesn't count! ) This is all new to me, and I've realized that I, among a generation of people have never been equipped with the ability to be self sufficient for the sake of convenience, relying on supermarkets and food processing plants to provide us with our food in a safe and healthy way.

The only problem? I don't really trust food processing plants! So I have a new goal to go along with my budgeting adventures, to find a way to change my mind about food preserved at home. Having a German style feast for my husband's birthday where I will showcase my home made sauerkraut is the first step. Here is to hoping it's going to turn out...If not lucky for me I can still buy it in jars at the supermarket.

Another month, another budget

Another month, another budget. I love monthly budgets because every month I get to try again! Another challenge of balance eating great tasting healthy food, while not breaking the bank. This month should be extra challenging because it's TURKEY SEASON! And that means a few extra expenses in groceries. But there are a few things that are going to be on sale because of the season, and I plan fully to take advantage of some of those deals. Whole turkeys, cranberries, and cans and cans of pumpkin are on the menu this month! Not to mention squash. I find them to be a kind of a pain to cook, but they are so cheap to purchase, and make a great fall decoration until I'm ready to use them.

I also plan to make an adaption of this recipe:
http://hurstbeanblog.com/2010/10/22/pumpkin-white-bean-stew/
Made vegetarian of course, and with out the heavy cream. Adaptions will be made to add depth of flavor and taste.

Another month! I'm looking forward to the challenge. I'll let you know what I come up with.

flexibility in menu planning.

I'm learning that in menu planning, having a little bit of flexibility goes a long way in helping me stick to my menus.

Friday night I found out we had a party to go to last minute so I didn't end up making the dinner that I had planned on the menu. So I froze the mushroom stock, because it was a beautiful stock and I still plan to use it.

Tonight I have had a pretty bad migraine, and so we decided to reheat the left over chili from last nights dinner instead of eating the polenta. I've discovered having at least one day in the week that centers around easy to freeze items, or a pantry item like polenta, adds a lot of flexibility for me to not only do something different when I don't feel well, but also allows me to take stock of what I have in my fridge and use it before it goes bad.

Tomorrow night we are going to have Thai curry with red peppers, because I need to either use or throw away the tofu and the red peppers. If I don't use the tofu up it goes from .38 cents a serving to $1.19 a serving because I'm throwing it away, and I'm not getting any real savings out of the deal.

So Tuesday's menu will becomes Thursday's, and Friday's menu from last week will become Friday of this week. The polenta will stay a stock item for an easy start to a week night meal any time down the road.

In other news, I am trying my hand at making fresh sauerkraut. I have to admit the idea of fermenting food myself, or even realizing it's fermented really grosses me out a little bit- but it's cheap, and very nutritious, and very good for digestion. Plus understanding and being able to ferment foods might open up a whole new way to save money by allowing food to ferment instead of throwing it out- or at least to make some hard cider!

I'm learning a lot about budgeting, menu planning. and challeneging myself as a cook. Honestly we have never had this much structure to our meals, and I'm really enjoying it. Plus some of the money we've saved on not always running to the store has aided in buying a few bottles of decent wine that I'm enjoying with my husband tonight! I would call that a win!

Pear, Gorgonzola and Walunt Salad with warm chicken and dijion honey wine vinaigrette.

I've been on a hot and cold salad kick for the past two days- and a wine kick, today was a special day.

Yesterday we made Asian cabbage salad with hot tofu and rice and a sesame Asian dressing. So good! It's warm and comforting, and cool and crisp at the same time. I was pleased. I really feel like cabbage is highly under rated in our culture. It stays forever, tastes good, and is really inexpensive.

I was so inspired by my salad yesterday, and these beautiful walnuts that a patient brought in for us. I decided that I would make another hot and cold salad today instead of the sandwiches and soup I was planning on making.

Today's menu: Pear, walnut and Gorgonzola with warm chicken and a honey Dijon white wine vinaigrette.

Vinaigrette:
1 tbs honey
1 tbs Dijon mustard
1 tbs normal mustard
2 tbs olive oil
wine to thin
pepper to taste
mix honey, mustards and oil in a container until oil is fully mixed in and it creates and emulsion. Then add wine to thin it out.

Salad:
1 bag spinach, or mixed greens
1 ripe pear, julienned
1/4 cup walnuts chopped
sprinkle of Gorgonzola
dressing above
Mix in bowl

Chicken:
1 chicken breast (or quorn "chicken" is you eat like me)
t tsp dressing above
Brown chicken in pan, or on grill- glaze with dressing in last five minutes of cooking.

plate salad (there will be left over dressing, don't over dress your salad!) and then top with warm chicken sliced.

The best part of this recipe is it's crazy easy- impressive with home made dressing, and there is plenty of white wine left over for drinkin. Honestly it's really not that expensive to prepare either.
1.99 bagged salad
.80 Gorgonzola
.00 for walnuts (but these are not that costly in a bulk section)
.58 Bartlet pear
1.19 white wine
.12 Dijon mustard
.02 yellow mustard
.78 local honey
.32 olive oil
1.00 chicken breast (guessing on this, but you could also do eggs for protein as it's really inexpensive)
Grand total:
3:40 for Josh's dinner with chicken
4.59 for mine because I had a glass of wine with dinner.

Trying buying that in the restaurant for this price.

Mushroom Stoganoff and menu planning-

First of all I have to confess- trying not to eat out has been a total failure! I was under the weather some last week, and that really effected things, because Josh really can't cook! He can make eggs and rice, but that is the extent of his talents in the kitchen. So we are starting over with the eating out freeze.

I have also planned 2 weeks worth of menus, and bought the ingredients for them. I also came to a new realization. Josh doesn't mind eating the same thing over and over again and neither do I! So why am I racking my brain trying to come up with new and interesting things to cook, when my husband and I are both happy with a menu with a little more simplicity? For example Josh really likes eating chili and watching football on Sunday. If every Sunday were to turn into 'Chili Football Sunday.' then I could plan my chili every Sunday and cook it in the crockpot. EASY!

I'm not saying Chili Football Sunday might not get a little old after a few month, but at least for now I think it's an easy way to do things.

So here is my menu for the next two weeks:
Monday: Mushroom Stroganoff with peas over wheat noodles (v) (c)
Tuesday: Asian cabbage salad with grilled fish or tofu
Wednesday: Soup and sandwiches
Thursday: Pizza with pre-made dough from trader joes and side salad. (v)
Friday: Mushroom and wild rice soup (v) (c) (Stock made with Stroganoff-this is more a left over night, it just looks brand ne.)
Saturday: Curry quinoa with apples and honey mint glaze and warm chicken
Sunday: Chili Football Sunday! (c)

Monday: Grilled polenta with mushroom demi-glaze and side salad (v)
Tuesday: fish or fake chicken soft tacos with black beans and sweet chipotle broccoli
Wednesday: Soup and sandwiches
Thursday: Left over chili made into tamale pie (v)
Friday: Curry and coconut milk soup (v) (c) with thai potstickers
Saturday: unsure- Often times we go see my parents on Friday night- so Friday night might be moved to Saturday
Sunday: Chili Football Sunday! (v) (c)

(v)=vegetarian
(c)=Crock pot meal

A lot of these meals are really simple and easy- but I do also have some simple meals as back up plans- suck as pasta, and cold sandwiches with salad in case I have a day I just don't feel like cooking!

Finally here is how I made the Mushroom stroganoff.
Ingredients:
3 cups chopped button mushrooms
1 onion diced
2 gloves garlic
2 cups mushroom stock
2 pads of butter
1 cup white wine divided
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup frozen peas
1/4 cup flour
2 Tbls Sour cream
1/4 cup chopped parsley
8oz egg noodles

In a crock pot add
button mushrooms
onion diced
gloves garlic
cups mushroom stock
pads of butter
1/2 cup whit wine (1/2 cup to drink ha ha ha)
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Set to low heat all day.

Day of:
Cook 8oz of egg noodles or wide whole wheat noodles until done- drain and set aside.

Mix handful of flour with 1/2 cup of water until there are no lumps and mix into crock pot.
Also mix 1 cup of frozen peas
Cook on high
Mix in 2 Tbsp of sour cream and 1/4 cup of chopped parsley

Top egg noodles with stroganoff

It was delightful!

My pumpkin day!

You might not have known this- unless you've heard my complain about it (and there is a good chance you have) but there was a pumpkin shortage! I couldn't find the canned pumpkin anywhere. Lucky for me a friend who often hears me complain about things like this read an article saying the shortage was over and that week I went to the store to get some! I've been dying to make pumpkin chili as I first thought about this back in late August, and haven't been able to make it. FINALLY!

I made it with pinto beans I cooked in my crock pot yesterday. Using home cooked beans allows me to not only save about 1.50 per pot of chili, but also allows me to control the salt and preservatives in my food. I used the crock pot again today, because I'm in love with cooking dinner while not actually being in my kitchen.

Here is the recipe:

2 cups uncooked pinto beans, soaked, cooked and drained.

2 cloves of garlic minced

1/2 white onion chopped

1/8 cup of vegetable oil

1 green pepper, diced

1 can of diced jalapenos. ( I had a bad experience with fresh ones sans gloves, so I go canned on this even though it costs more.)

1 large can crushed tomatoes

large tomato can filled halfway up with water

1 can pumpkin puree

1 handful or 1/8 cup of diced cilantro

2 tsp cumin

A large splash or about 1/8 cup of apple cider vinegar

about 5 shakes of pumpkin pie spice

Salt and pepper to taste

Cook in crock pot all day long (about .87 cents per serving w/o cheese)

It was pretty good, spicy and mildly sweet. Next time I'll use apple cider instead of water to add a little more sweetness to the chili and more of a fall flavor. And maybe another 1/2 green pepper.

Of course pumpkin chili is best sprinkled with sharp cheddar cheese, and paired with pumpkin beer.

As far as pumpkin beer, there are a few to choose from. Stay away from blue moon. It's as though someone sprinkled some pumpkin pie spice into some coors. GROSS! I had my pumpkin chili with Buffalo bill's brewery Original pumpkin ale. (about 1.50 a beer)

I am excited to say the total cost of this meal w/sprinkle of cheese and a beer was: 2.62! I would say this is a budget friendly meal. :)

Stop and think savings

When trying to avoid temptations of spending, you realize that they are all around you. We are a consumer driven nation with messages on what we need, what we should want, and what we should have bombarding us at all times.

Stopping and thinking, and going by a list have been my best tools of defence right now. I went to Costco Friday night, and managed to stick pretty close to my list. I can't actually think of anything I got that I didn't need for our weekly meals, including things that make easy meals and will hopefully cut out a restaurant meal or two. This is where the big savings come in.

Stop and think was also a great defense. I nearly bought something Friday that I really didn't need, and would have been a total waste of money! I'm talking something I would wear once maybe twice a year. I had the purchase form totally filled out, and just sat there. After about half an hour of leaving it up on my computer I decided that it really wasn't something I needed and closed the window. Glad I did!

So there I am, not frozen, but still trying to make smart choices.