A Visit from the Cleaning Wizard

So as I have mentioned before, there has been a fair amount of havoc around here. I'm a mom of three kids, I'm not getting enough sleep and as those who know me well can testify, I am a chaos magnet. A side effect of all of this is that I have been losing the constant battle of me versus the mess.
 A few months ago I made a new friend at play group, we'll call her Sarah. :) She has three very active boys and newborn baby and still manages to keep the chaos to a minimum. For awhile whenever I went over to her house I was fairly amazed at the fact that she managed to keep things clean. And I have seen and heard plenty of examples of destruction from these boys, it's not like they are low maintenance. (Meanwhile when she came over to my house she said it was like seeing a vision of what her life would be like post-baby. I told her not to worry, it would only be this bad if she's crazy enough to have 4 surgeries right after having that baby.) One day Sarah showed up on my doorstep with her cleaning caddy and while our babies laid on a blanket and our kids played together we attacked Thing 1's room. The progress that we made in an hour and a half was nothing short of astounding. I snapped a picture and sent it to my husband. (I'd post the picture, but it doesn't mean very much without the before shot.)  He asked me if a wizard had visited our house. Almost. Here are some tips that Sarah gave me as we cleaned.

• Tackle one room at a time, and if you can, do it with a friend. :)
• Take at least half the toys and pack them away. Rotate them when the kids get bored or request one that they can't find.
• Throw things away. Be ruthless. (Apparently throwing things away is one of Sarah's favorite-st things to do. And she always throws away all McDonald's toys. It made me think, instead of buying the Happy Meals in the first place, I may just pay my kids $1 every time to not get the toy. Then they can save up for something nicer.)
• Don't leave the room to put things away. You're wasting time and energy. Give yourself 3 (or 4) containers. 1. Put away (elsewhere in the house) 2. Throw away 3. Give away (4. Pack away- toys or seasonal clothes.) 
• Teach your children not to hoard. It's a tough thing, kids like to collect things with little or no value. And Thing 1 is the 'hoardiest' child I have encountered. Really, I adore her, but she wants to save every ribbon, every paper, every broken balloon, every rock and every leaf.  It's not conducive to keeping her room or the rest of the house clean.
• Hangers are your friend. Kids have a tendency to 'dump' shelves and drawers. Hang up as much stuff as you can.
• Clorox tabs help keep your toilet clean between scrubbings. (Sarah said without them and with three little boys she had to scrub her toilets daily.)
• Pumice stones are great for removing any hard to remove spots on the inside of your toilet bowl.
• Energy efficiency toilets are much harder to clean. We have a regular toilet in the bathroom that gets used the most and a "low-flow" toilet in our master bath and I couldn't figure out why I spent twice as much time scrubbing our master toilet with lesser results. Sarah enlightened me. So I may be saving some water with that toilet, but not to make up for the wasted time, energy and cleaning supplies that I have to put into maintaining it. This is a case where I don't think trying to save the environment pays off. If only dual-flush toilets were easily available in our area like they are in Europe.

I think that the biggest enemy to maintaining a clean house is clutter. At first when Sarah was strongly pushing me to throw stuff away, it was slightly uncomfortable. I felt like the guests on 'What Not to Wear'. They know that they don't dress well, but they have a hard time parting with their old clothes that are what make them poorly dressed even though someone is giving them $5000 to spend on new better looking clothes. There's an emotional attachment to the old clothes. I feel the same way about the clutter. I know that if my house is ever going to get clean I have to get rid of a lot of the junk. Part of me says 'But I spent money on this junk! How can I throw it away?' or 'But (fill in the relative) gave them that toy, sometime I will get around to fixing it.' Yeah, well I have to get over that, uncomfortable though it may be. The reality is that I am not going to get around to fixing broken toys and having a clean house is more important to me than having a bunch of junk.

Book Review: How to Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half with America's Cheapest Family

To give me some ideas to make it through my pantry challenge, I read How to Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half with America's Cheapest Family: So Many Innovative Strategies You Won't Have to Cut Coupons by Steve and Annette Economides. I enjoyed reading it. It has lots of great suggestions, even if sometimes it's a little on the cheesy side. I love that the authors emphasize that your time is at least as valuable as your money. They spend $350 each month feeding their large family, and they don't do it by hitting the loss leaders at 6 grocery stores per week. The strategies that they use work for them because they provide them with more time with their family. And their basic suggestions aren't new or revolutionary, but they do elaborate with lots of examples that have worked for them and other families who read their blog.

• Have a plan- plan your grocery list, plan your meals, plan your money
• Look at ads, then coupon and price match 
• Stock up on good deals
• Shop once per month
• Cook once per month & freeze multiple meals
• Get your family involved
• Organize your kitchen/pantry/freezer in a way that makes shopping & cooking efficient
• Learn to cook and eat at home
• Garden

 That's the basic premise of their book. These down-to-earth ideas are all things that we have heard before, but I think the key that really brings it all together is having a plan. This is true when it comes to most things, whether you're talking about feeding your family, saving for college or running a business. You have to decide that your are going to save money on your groceries and how you are going to do it.
 At the end of every chapter they have suggestions for which ever level you're at. If you're a beginner there are suggestions for you, there are suggestions for those with some experience who are trying to do better and then there are even tips for the experts. In one of the book reviews I read, someone complained that all of the ideas in this book were great if you have a large family, but irrelevant for most people. I have to disagree with that. They have suggestions that work for the young, old and in between. There are ideas that can work if you live by yourself or are part of a family of 12. You just have to pick out the ideas that are relevant to your situation.
  Here are some of my favorite tips from the book:

• Buy produce in bags, you get more for your money. Produce bags have to be a certain minimum weight, but often weigh more than that and are usually cheaper per pound than loose produce.
• Share recipes with friends to get new cooking ideas.
• Put a small plastic basket in your cart where you put all of your "impulse buys". Before you get to the check-out evaluate if you really need any or all of those items.
• Picky eaters can easily sabotage frugality. Find creative ways to get them to eat what the rest of the family is eating.

Reducing Stress at Thanksgiving

 First of all I have to say thank you to all of my readers who have stuck with me despite the fact that my posts have been very sporadic. Life has been crazy. Having three kids has thrown me for a loop and of course life had several curve balls on top of it. Blogging was pushed to the back burner, but I'm finally feeling a little more on top of things. This week I went to a RS meeting on getting organized and I thought I would share some of the things that I learned. (And then I can have all the info here and toss the handouts so they aren't cluttering my house.)
 Here are some suggestions they gave to make the big Thanksgiving meal go a little smoother and more enjoyable.

• Plan the meal in advance, divide up assignments between guests that are coming. Just because you are hosting the party doesn't mean that you need to stress over everything. Assign someone to bring snacks.
• 2 weeks ahead of time- order a turkey (hope you've done that already)
• 1 week before- clean out the fridge, use up any leftovers and mostly empty bottles of condiments
• 3-4 days ahead- if using a frozen turkey, put in the fridge to thaw (1 day for every 4-5 pounds)
• 2 days ahead- make pie dough and refrigerate, toast bread for stuffing (if you're not just using Stove Top, ;) ) and pecans for pie.
• The day before- trim and peel vegetables, caramelize onions and make pies
• The morning of- prepare potatoes and refrigerate, make sure everyone has breakfast so they're not irritable all day
• 3 & 1/2 hours before- bring turkey to room temperature, start roasting, make glaze
• 2 hours before- cook side dishes, put egg beaters & a bowl in the fridge so they can fluff up whipping cream faster
• 30 minutes before- while turkey and potatoes are cooling, cook stuffing and make gravy
• After the meal- get everyone involved in putting away and cleaning up.

I hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving!

Maintaining a Clean House

Maintaining a clean house is just about that, maintaining. You've got to keep the mess at a certain level. If you aren't constantly taking small steps to keep it under control, things get out of hand and quickly. How you run your house depends on your household, needs, circumstances, etc. Here is the dynamic that we have going on our house:

• My handsome husband- really great about playing with and teaching our kids when he's not at work full-time. He has recently become a vegetarian (with lots of allergies), which means that meal preparation requires more thought and planning and take-out or instant meals are rarely an option. 
• Thing 1- 5 years old and just started Kindergarten. She loves to help as long as what we are doing doesn't involve the word "clean". (Pull weeds, scrub toilets, sort laundry, fine, clean room-no way) A real sweetie-pie who is everyday is saying 'teach me, play with me' and loves to help with the baby.
• Thing 2- A three year old ball of energy and oh my goodness he's going to be a heart-breaker. It's really not fair that a boy have such gorgeous blue eyes and such long eye lashes. I adore him, but he can be difficult, especially when it is too hot to play outside. He's a adjusting to not being the baby of the family and it's a big adjustment. A couple weeks ago he single-handedly convinced my sister-in-law that she is not ever going to have children. His favorite job is throwing away poopy diapers. Don't ask me why.
• Cindy Lou-Who- Almost four weeks old, and a little easier than my previous two (yay!) However, she still wants to breast-feed most of the day.  I love, love, love that she's getting fat rolls.
• Then there's me- mommy, not sleeping as much as I would like, but hanging in there and enjoying a whole lot of sweetness.

That's my family and meeting their needs is more important than a spotless house. However, some of those needs include maintaining some amount of cleanliness. On every given day, my house is not has clean as I would like it to be. But I'm trading that for the little sleep I can squeeze in and time with my family. Here are the things that I do to try to maintain a state of livability.

• Every morning I make my bed. It is the largest feature in my bedroom, and if it is made the whole room feels cleaner. (Learned that one from my MIL)
• I have my kids pitch in a little at a time. Before my kids can have treats, play games or watch movies they have to 1) get their stuff out of the living room and 2) pick up and put away five things in their rooms. They also have to pick up the last game that they played with if they haven't done so. They also are rewarded for doing chores beyond managing their own messes.
• Every day I get rid of at least five things. Junk mail, newspapers, magazines, etc.
• When I get bills I pay them and file them immediately so they're not cluttering up the house.
• When I go grocery shopping I take the recycling bins with me. (They could stand to be emptied more often.)
• I wipe up spills as they happen.
• I sweep every other day, and mop at least once a week. Ok, sometimes it's like three times a week. The house isn't clean if the floor is sticky. (Not to mention where I live, food and spills on the floor attract insects.)
• Once a day I pick up the living room, and every other day I vacuum. Unless you're walking in through the back door, it's the first room you see and it takes up a big chunk of the house. If this room is a mess, the whole house feels so.
• At least once a day I wipe down the counters and the kitchen table. (Ok, I'll be honest, that's not entirely true, but that's my goal and when I neglect it, it just makes more work later.)
• At least once a day I load the dishwasher. Even on the rare evenings when there aren't enough dirty dishes to run it, I load it so I can empty the sink.
• Then I scrub the sink. It takes two minutes, some Ajax and a scouring pad, but if the kitchen sink is clean it improves the appearance of the whole kitchen. (Learned that tip from the FLY Lady.)
• About every other day I wash a load of laundry. Part of this is because baby creates so much dirty laundry, and part of it is it's much easier to deal with when I handle it one load at a time.

Awesome Deal on Skippy Peanut Butter from Amazon

Now normally my blog is not the place to come when you're looking for the hottest deals. There are many other bloggers out there who just do a better job. But if that hot deal is super convenient and involves food storage, I promise that I will let you know about it.

1. Select one case of Skippy Natural Peanut Butter-Super Chunk from Amazon.com. (The price is listed as $13.23) Also available in the Creamy variety

2. Select Subscribe and Save. This should bring the price down to $11.25. (You can have it delivered as often as you want, and cancel later if you please.)
3. At checkout enter code TOTALUNI (This should bring your total down to $9.32) Although for some reason my total came to $9.27, not complaining. That makes it $1.55 per jar, shipped.
4. This same set of instructions also works for the Skippy Creamy Peanut Butter- Natural with Honey for a few cents more.

Amazon prices fluctuate, so I would hop on this deal NOW.

Thanks Freebies to Deals!

Tips for Cleaning- Spring and Otherwise

Some people would consider me a somewhat of a clean freak. My best friend (and former roommate) has said that she would feel comfortable eating off my kitchen floor at any time. Perhaps I have developed this reputation because when I am stressed about something I cope by cleaning. It's my productive outlet. There are other parts of my house that leave something to be desired. People who know me in real life know that unless I'm really stressed about something I don't have the energy to keep my entire house clean from top to bottom. I am a mom to small, active and adorable little persons who not only require lots of time, but also create lots of messes. One day I spent four hours just spot-cleaning dried boogers off my walls. True story. The point of this rambling intro is that I am not any kind of expert on house cleaning, (Not that I really think I have fooled any of you into believing that I am.) but I have found several articles that I thought were worth sharing. Plus I added my own most useful house cleaning tips that I have discovered through trial and error.

1. Clean up spills as they happen. (It saves so much effort!)
2. Boiling water is your best defense against dried-on sticky spills, just be careful.
3. Spend 5-15 minutes every day getting rid of clutter.
4. Organization is half the battle.
5. I send hard plastic bath toys through the dishwasher and foam letters through the washing machine every time that I clean the bathroom.
6. Play music while you clean.

Dawn can really cut down on the effort needed to clean your bathroom.-I Dare You To Eat It

The key to keeping a house clean with small children underfoot is getting them involved.-The Mom Blog

Many of things that are just cluttering up your house may be useful to someone else.-The Bellingham Herald

Some things to consider when cleaning out your garage.- Seattle Pi

Recipes for making your own all natural cleaning products.- Funcoast.com

I Dare You To Eat It Presentation

I have had several friends who were unable to attend Liesa Card's presentation last Thursday ask me for handouts. Here's the thing, she doesn't really do handouts. She feels that they are usually a waste of paper and just get thrown away. Instead she provides everyone in attendance with a half sheet of paper and a pencil so they can write down points that they feel are important (plus she handed out bookmarks with her website address so you can check out some of the recipes that she has up there for free, but I already put the link above). So I thought that I would write down the things that I thought were important here on my blog. Of course what I write here doesn't do justice to her entire presentation, but here we go.

• Using your food storage should consist of 3 things: A one year supply of staples (grains, beans, etc.), a 3 month supply of items that you regularly use in your cooking (sauces, canned vegetables, etc) and fresh ingredients (meat, dairy, produce). Meals that are a mix of these three are far more likely to be eaten by your family.
• Thomas S. Monson has asked us to live in the present. At the moment the present includes the grocery store. The First Presidency has never asked us to stop going to the grocery store.
• Food storage doesn't have to be weird, in fact it's best if it's not. Some examples she gave of food storage meals that her family eats on a regular basis include white bean chicken chili, tuna noodles, sloppy joes, beef borgie and shepherd's pie.
• If you have your ingredients on hand, you can use your food storage to put together meals faster than you can pick up take-out, but they're healthier and cheaper too.
• You can get a year supply of food storage for a family of five for about $1200. Yes, that is not pocket change, but with some planning and some effort it is doable. Find a way to save $100 a month and put that towards food storage. As you use it, it will save you money.
• Food storage can make you a better mother. There is an peace and assurance that come with knowing that whatever the world has to throw at us, at least I have the means to feed my family. "I won't fail them when it comes to food."
• Food storage is not about fear, it is about peace. We have been asked to store food, not in a spirit of fear, but because of the blessings that will come from having it.
• Food storage is almost like a secret blessing from the First Presidency and people don't realize how it can make their lives so much easier.
• If we ever come to a point where we have to use our food storage, we will wish that we had kept the furniture in the garage and food storage in our house.
• If the 'what if' happens, we make adjustments. If a disaster happens we're still having white bean chicken chili. It may or may not have chicken, it probably won't have cheese or sour cream or tortilla chips, but it is close enough to what they are used to that the family will still be comfortable eating it.
• There are three tricks to using your food storage: 

1. Keep 6 open cans of food storage IN YOUR KITCHEN. (wheat, pasta, beans, oats, rice and potatoes)
2. Gather a three month supply of ingredients and keep them in your kitchen. (She uses 30 recipes and buys the shelf ingredients in groups of three. i.e. 3 bottles of spaghetti sauce.)
3. Get a binder and start collecting food storage recipes that your family is actually willing to eat. It doesn't have to be fancy, just a place where you have them together.

 If you want more information I Dare You To Eat It can be found at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Deseret Book. Anyone who reads my blog on a regular basis knows that I mention this book a lot. Liesa does not compensate me in anyway to promote her book. I promote it because it has changed my life, makes my job as a mother so much easier and I believe that it can make the lives of many other families easier too. And if you live near me I do have a few copies that Liesa gave me to sell at a discounted price. I am not getting a cut, I'm just trying to share the good information.

Another Awesome Deal from Amazon: Subscribe and Save

So I had planned on taking the week off from blogging, and I generally prefer that my content is information that is continuously useful, not just quick hot deals. However, this deal is just too awesome not to tell you guys about.

I am kind of picky about my toilet paper. Even when it is not on sale and I don't have any coupons, I buy Charmin. I just does a better job. Enough said. That's why I was excited when I saw this deal on Amazon. I just bought 40 rolls of Charmin Ultra Strong Big Rolls (176 sheets per roll) for $22.14. And it will be delivered to my house in 2 days. And it will be continuously  and automatically delivered to my house, at that price until I cancel it. I will never run out of, or have to shop for toilet paper again. Wahoo!

Here's how it works. Go to Amazon and find your Charmin. The variety I bought is listed as $26.34. If you sign up for Subscribe and Save and you will get an additional 15% off, bringing the total down to $22.39. You can have it delivered every 1, 2, 3 or 6 months, depending on your needs, and you can cancel at anytime. If you click on the coupon under the listing before you click the subscribe button, it will take off and extra 25 cents. If you prefer the Charmin Ultra Soft variety, you can get 45 Large rolls for $20.14 with Subscribe and Save.

I've also found that Amazon is the best place to get Huggies diapers. If you use Subscribe and Save, you can get size 4 for 16 cents per diaper. You can also get deals on many other health and personal care products such diabetic supplies, energy bars, batteries, cleaners and baby wipes. And if you use any of these on a regular basis, it can save you a lot time and money.

Food Storage Ingredients That Made Their Way Into Our Turkey Day

Sometimes I hear people say that using your food storage is difficult, time-consuming and unrealistic. I beg to differ. Having the following items on hand makes my holiday that much easier. Plus when I snag these items when they are really cheap it saves me money, too. Obviously these are not the only things that we are eating, but combined with fresh ingredients, once again my food storage has reduced the stress in my life.

1. Evaporated milk- in the mashed potatoes
2. Canned potatoes- Precooked, and easy to mash, plus they taste much better than potato flakes
3. Apple pie filling
4. Stuffing- I have many talents, making stuffing from scratch is not one of them.
5. Bottled gravy- ditto
6. Cranberry sauce
7. Peanut butter- I make a fabulous peanut butter pie that I serve with hot fudge, I'll have to put the recipe up here sometime.
8. Green beans- Green bean casserole, of course.
9. Cream of mushroom soup- ditto
10. Sliced almonds and french onions- ditto
11. Canned crushed pineapple- Dumped it on the ham and let it roast.
12. Canned pumpkin- in the cheesecake 
13. And last night I am made Taco Soup using black beans, kidney beans, canned tomatoes, chicken broth, canned chiles, canned corn, and dried carrots. It's fast, delicious, warm and the kind of meal that I feel like preparing after I've spent all day cooking.

 Does anyone out there have any great holiday recipes that include your food storage?

Thanksgiving Helps

I think I'm almost ready for Thanksgiving. In the past week I finally took down all of the Halloween decorations, bought a ham, found a Thanksgiving tablecloth on clearance for $1.75 (Wahoo!), and have been clearing space in my fridge to make room for pie. Today I'm going to rent a carpet cleaner (My carpet it looong over-due) as well as a couple of last minute produce items.  And I think that's it. Probably forgetting something. In the interest of not stressing about things that don't matter that much, I decided that I am not cooking a turkey. There will only be 6 adults and most of my family prefers ham anyway. (There will be a small turkey breast.) And ham can be cooked in my crock-pot!
In my internet searching I have found the following ideas that can help you make a great Thanksgiving meal.

• How to Slow Roast a Turkey in a Paper Bag- Someday I am going to try this.
• How to Carve a Thanksgiving Turkey- They make it look easy enough I feel like I could do it.
• How to Make Perfect Gravy-I'm going to try this. Making gravy is not a talent that I posses.
• Tropical Sweet Potato Casserole- This is my sweet potato recipe that turned out pretty well.
• Printable Thanksgiving Party Favor

And here's the post I wrote for Thanksgiving last year.

Food Storage Friday: Ways that Food Storage Can Simplify Your Holiday

This week I spoke at a local church gathering about how food storage can make your life easier during the holidays. Although I don't feel like food storage is very holiday specific, because food storage can simplify your life ALL THE TIME. Here is more or less what I said, plus pictures. :) (Ok, more like more. It's easier for me to present in blogpost form and I don't have the time restraints.)

1. If you are prepared you shall not fear. That phrase applies thousands of aspects of life. Food storage is a great way to prepare for the unexpected. Food storage is the Lord's insurance plan. Isn't that why we have insurance, to help protect us from the unexpected? Why not have insurance where you know that you will use the money that you put into it? It is direction that He has given us through a prophet to help us prepare for whatever may come our way. (Yes, I know that many of my readers are not of my faith, but food storage can still bless you too! Just stay with me here.)

2. Food storage is like Christmas shopping. If you plan a little at a time it doesn't have to be overwhelming. A few cans here, a few cans there.  

3. Using your food storage can save you trips to the grocery store. This can save you time and money.  And frankly I try to spend as little time as possible in the stores during the holiday season to protect my sanity.

4. Food storage doesn't have to be strange and can simplify meal planning. Some common examples: chili, wheat bread, mashed potatoes, sweet and sour chicken, oatmeal cookies, chicken alfredo. Do any of those sound strange? 

 5. Using food storage can save you money. $50 worth of rice can feed an adult for 4 months. Now granted, no one wants to eat plain rice for 4 months, but you can use it to stretch your grocery budget. You can take an average meal of meat, veggies, and sauce/gravy and add rice. A painless way to stretch your budget for mere pennies a serving. If you can incorporate food storage into your meals just once a week, think how that can add up.  Pictured below is my taco salad that I use beans and rice in.

6. You can substitute food storage items for things you are missing. (I think I may have to write an entire separate post on this one. ) Get to know what's in your pantry and how you can make it work for you.  

7. Adding food storage items to your diet can improve your health. Most of  the food storage staples are whole grains. The average American diet can stand to have more whole grain in it. When you increase the fiber content in your diet not only are you getting more "roughage", but if that fiber is the soluble variety (as found in beans and oats) you are also lowering your blood sugar and cholesterol.

8. If you are familiar with your food storage you can prepare meals quickly leaving more time for holiday activities. Store things that you like and your family will eat. It doesn't have to be elaborate, in fact it's probably best if it's not. If you store spaghetti sauce and pasta, that totally counts. If you have it and know what to do with it, you can have a meal ready quickly.

9. There are only 2 things that the Prophet has asked us to purchase: Temple clothing and food storage. Think about the significance of that. If you are a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and believe that the Prophet is inspired of God, don't you think that it is important that we follow his council? If you plan, prepare and sacrifice to build your food storage, blessings will come. I promise. And who isn't interested in blessings?

 10. Having food storage puts you in a position to be more Christ-like. When you are prepared, you are prepared to share. I believe that when it comes down to it that's what this whole holiday season is about. Being grateful for what we have and then giving to others in remembrance of Our Savior. There, the holiday season = food storage. (Just kidding, but it certainly helps.) And you don't have to have lots of money to start preparing. You can start right now. Several years ago, my aunt who lives outside of Seattle decided to take the food storage council to heart. She didn't have a lot of money to invest in food storage, but she did start storing water. She saved juice and soda bottles, cleaned them out and stored her water. Her friends and neighbors thought that she was insane. The Seattle area is never going to have a drought, she was never going to need the water that she was storing. Then one winter they had a very hard freeze and every one of her neighbors' water pipes broke. Because she had water stored she was able to share with them and help them in their crisis. (And it helped that her water pipes happened to not break.) That's just one example, there are hundreds. When you have a little set aside it makes it easier to give when canned food is collected for the needy, or when a neighbor is ill and can use a pot of chicken soup. When you have food storage you are prepared to literally feed His sheep.

Happy Purchases Today

1. Important service announcement: Costco is once again stocking Dino Nuggets! Is anyone else as excited about this as I am? My family has been missing these in the past few years. They taste so much better than the other kid-geared chicken nugget options out there, and per pound they were less expensive than the other chicken nugget options at Costco (although not by much). I only found it because my son was being uncooperative, ran away and tried to hop into someone else's cart. They happened to have Dino Nuggets in their cart. Dino Nuggets! I was really excited about it and that man looked at me like I was crazy. Oh, well it's not the first time.
2. I have reached that point in my life where my marriage is outlasting the wedding gifts that we received. I suppose this is a good thing, but in the past month my food dehydrator, my toaster, a skillet and my blender have kicked the bucket. I bought one blender/smoothie maker from Amazon. Now normally I am a loyal happy Amazon customer, but this one sucked. It leaked and couldn't even blend frozen fruit. Definitely returning it. (I hate returning things by mail, it's such a pain.) Today I went to Bed Bath and Beyond with the intent of buying the Ninja Blender, but they didn't have it in stock. So I brought home this the Ninja Blender/Chopping System. I used it to make Creamy Tomato Soup this evening. I am really happy with it. It's great when you need to blend multiple things and don't have wash the container immediately because there are three, plus it's super fast. (This is not a infomercial, if you want to know more details about the product you can google it.) I am sharing this because I'm really excited about my new purchase. It's totally going to make cooking easier for me because I use my blender a lot. And after coupon and rebate it was $40.99, compared to $68.90 on Amazon. Hooray!

 

Reader Tips on Getting Ready for Christmas

And here are some of the great tips that people listed on how to get ahead on Christmas:

• Family History gift- time consuming, but valuable and they're doable if you spread the work out over a year
• The Target Clearance Sale- unadvertised and happens in January and July
• Make presents, start looking for ideas in September and start the making in October/November
• Buy one of those key locked large rubbermaid storage chests with three shelves. Buy things for each child,  wrap it and sit it on their shelf. Shop all year and not have a huge closet stashed with gifts to dig out
• Do most of my Christmas shopping on Black Friday, to make the holidays more stress free and enjoyable. Usually hit Target and Walmart and any other store that has an item I want or need.
• Look for free deals on photobooks at online sites like Picaboo and Shutterfly. Great family gifts for the price of shipping
• Enter giveaways for a chance to win presents
• Clip coupons 
• Cyber Monday & other forms of online shopping
• Do lots of shopping close to Christmas, businesses are dropping prices to compete for your dollar
• Don't travel more than twice in December and never back to back weekends
• For the holidays, make a list of all the goodies and extra traditional snacks. Then decide which ones to make this year. Then, put them all on the calendar for which days to make which things. 
• Whenever I see something that someone would like, I file it away mentally or make a note of it. I start doing actual shopping in September or October, usually, and it takes a lot of the stress off. 
• Used bookstores, they save a bundle, and used books have extra character. 
• Make photo calendars.
• Buying baking ingredients in bulk during the big loss leader sales in November. Check the store flyers and plan ahead! 

Time Saving Secrets for Moms plus Linky & Giveaway

I have two full-time jobs. I take care of sick kids and then I take care of my kids. Since I have gone back to work full-time in recent months I'm finding that sometimes my time is more valuable than money. My job as a mom is so important. My kids will never be 2 & 4 again. Now is the time that I need to be with them, to let them know that they are loved and help them to learn so they can grow into strong and productive people. Now is the time to enjoy their discoveries. However, this doesn't change the fact that my husband is currently going to school more than full-time and somebody has to pay the bills. (This is a short-term situation, only 2 semesters and then we're back to part-time working mommy. :D) So I thought I would share a few ways that I have found to cut corners without cutting out what is important.

1. I buy my diapers from Amazon. I hate buying diapers. I hate that they are so expensive, they're just going in the garbage. I hate that whenever there's a really good deal on them if I am not at the store within the first 3 hours there aren't any left in the size I need. However, if you buy them by the case from Amazon they are delivered to your house within 2 days (free shipping, baby) and are a significantly better deal than your average Walmart/Target prices, even without coupons. And you can have them shipped to you on a regular basis so you don't even have to think about it. I love that.
2. Bountiful Baskets I know lots of people have been talking about how wonderful this produce co-op is for awhile, and I finally jumped on the bandwagon. (I was somewhat afraid that if I bought one most of it would go to waste before we could use it. I hate wasting food.) I split a basket with a friend and got a lot of fresh produce, for less money and less time than if I had gone to the store/farmer's market myself. Plus I love the randomness. It forces me to add variety to our diet. 
3. I hired a cleaning service. This one was a little painful at first, and made me feel somewhat guilty paying someone to do something I can do myself. I just wanted someone to help me with the deep cleaning, which I really just don't have time to get to. It is kind of expensive to have someone else come and clean my house, but they can clean at least twice as fast as I can and more thoroughly (probably at an even faster rate if you take into account they are not distracted by small munchkins.) After they were done, I was so happy. I love it when my house is clean. It removes so much stress. And the next day I had off instead of worrying about cleaning my house I played with my kids. It was great.
4. I've stopped clipping coupons. Well sort of. I only clip the ones I need. Here's the system I use.
5. I use my food storage. (Usually with the aid of my crock pot) I know that I talk about food storage a lot, but since I've been working more I have been using it more than usual. When I plan my meals around what I have, not only am I saving money I also spend far less time grocery shopping. It may sound a little crazy, but give it a try and see if using your food storage doesn't make your life easier.

Now for the very first linky on my blog! Share what brilliant time saving hacks you have found that give you more time for the things that really matter. And of course a giveaway. This month I'm giving away a $20 Amazon giftcard. So here's how you can win it.

1. Be a follower. New or old, it doesn't matter. Just leave a comment telling me that you are interested in the giveaway. And if you don't follow through Google Friend Connect, just mention how you do follow.
2. Link up a time saving secret. Or you can just leave one in the comments.
3. Become my friend on Facebook. (FB is where I talk about any great deals that I am snagging, and if you're my friend and I find a great FB offer I will pass it on to you.)

 This giveaway runs from now until September 28, 2010 at 2359 MST. The winner will be announced September 29, 2010.

Saving Money on Textbooks

College textbooks are a racket. You all know it's true. But they are often vital to successfully move forward towards your career. (My first semester of nursing school I paid over $800 (and that was several years ago) for textbooks from my campus bookstore and I got most of them used. And then I didn't even use about half of them. Murg. Like I said, it's a racket.) Despite what some college bookstores would like you to think, buying online is a FANTASTIC option. This fall my husband is going back to school. He ordered all of his textbooks from Amazon.com. Amazon charged $102 for used textbooks vs. $220 for used textbooks from our local college bookstore, and he got all of them  delivered within one week. When I was in college my campus bookstore really like to push the idea that getting your textbooks online would prevent you from being successful in your classes, you'd get the wrong book, it would be late, or other such problems. Not if you're smart about it. (Then when their scare tactics didn't work, they just wouldn't release the textbook lists until after school had already started, so then you really were more likely to get your books late. :S)  Don't fall for those tactics. College is expensive enough. Here are some helpful tips to make sure you get what you are looking for and save some money too.

1. Shop by the ISBN number! It will be a 13 digit number located above the bar code of the book. Every book has one. Often classes will provide this number in your syllabus or in some correspondence to you before class starts. Remember there are numerous books with the same title, and multiple editions, especially with textbooks. Searching by the ISBN helps you to make sure you are getting the correct book and edition.
2. Give yourself time.-Order your books as soon as you can, to make sure you get what you need by the time you need. Usually you want to give yourself two weeks for delivery.
3. Look at the ratings of the seller. Amazon Marketplace is a great place to purchase used textbooks. But look at the feedback that previous customers give on the seller. They can usually tell you if the seller follows through and ships their items in a timely manner. Happy customers like to tell other people about their good experience. Also take into account that there are people out there who like to complain instead of take responsibility for their own stupidity. 'This seller gets a 1-star rating because this is not the book I wanted.' Even if it was the correct book for the ISBN #.  Angry costumers are even more likely to let people know how they feel. Many good sellers may still have a few 1 or 2 star ratings. Look at their overall ratings over time or their percentage of positive feedback.
4. You can trust Amazon proper. Although they have a smaller selection of used textbooks. I have on rare occasion known people who have had problems with something they ordered from Amazon, wrong item, it was damaged in shipping, etc. But everyone who contacted Amazon had the problem fixed, either Amazon replaced the item or gave the customer a large discount. I have used other textbook websites with mixed results. Amazon takes away so much hassle.
5. And of course, buy used when you can.

  Between my husband's and my own time in college using these tips has saved us thousands of dollars.

And right now Amazon is offering a great deal to college students. If you go to the Amazon Student page, you can get a free membership to Amazon Prime for one year. Amazon Prime gives you free unlimited 2-day shipping with no minimum order size. Amazon is also offering deals on many back to school essentials beyond the books. Check out their savings on clothes, school supplies and stuff for the dorm.

Disclaimer- Yes, Amazon does give me a very small fee for putting their banner on this post. But I wouldn't promote them if what I said weren't true. I love Amazon. I have snagged many great deals there, they sell quality products and they are reliable. Shopping through Amazon makes my life easier.

A Few Thoughts on Coupons and Organizing

I have a love/hate relationship with coupons. I love saving money on my groceries. There's something very satisfying about looking at my grocery receipt and consistently saving between 50-60% on the things that my family uses anyway. However, I hate clipping coupons. There are so many other things that I would rather be doing. It's so tedious and seems like huge waste of time to cut out all of those coupons and use less than half of them.  I've heard people say that clipping coupons at all is a waste of time, that their time is more valuable that the 35 cents that is potentially saved.  To those people I say "You should see all of the stuff I get for free when double coupon days comes around." (A pic of one trip with double coupons is above. Not all of it was free, but I saved about $70.)  And I don't consider myself a hard-core couponer. There are some coupon clippers out there who have some mad saving skills. An hour or two of organizing, searching and clipping generally saves me $50 a week. To me that's worth it. Beyond that there's a point of diminishing returns. Here's the coupon methods I've tried and what has and hasn't worked for me:
Coupon File Folder: Fine for beginners, but if you take more than one newspaper, this quickly becomes insufficient to hold all of your coupons. It is nice to have it all with you in one place and it easily fits in your purse. I used to take 3 newspapers, but I decided that 2 provided more than enough coupons for my family of four. Even with cutting back to 2, that's a large amount of coupons.
Drawer/Box o' Inserts: When my newspapers arrive I write the date on the front of the insert, skimmed through the contents and dropped in my kitchen drawer, which eventually was transferred to a large shoe box. Yes, I wasn't clipping coupons I wouldn't use, but I did spend hours digging through the drawer/box trying to find the inserts that I was looking for. I hated the mess I made every time I was looking for a coupon.
Coupon File Box: I actually didn't do this, but I do like the idea. I bought the box, the index cards and the envelopes and decided that although it would make me very well organized, I just don't want to spend that much time clipping coupons. If you do want to be that organized, go for it. You will probably always be prepared with any coupon that you need.

Coupon Binder: I used to see some women with coupon binders with baseball card page protectors full of coupons and was somewhat in awe. Not enough to do that myself. It seemed like more work than it was worth. Recently on PYP blog, one of the writers demonstrated the method that she uses for organizing coupons. She has a 5" 3-ring zipper binder that she puts all of her inserts in. She staples the multiple sheets together and puts them in plastic page protectors. I bought the 3" zipper binder and a new stapler and then decided I didn't want to do that. If I ever am cooking and shopping for 8, I will probably re-examine that method, but for now I don't need that many coupons. But it is nice to be more organized than the Box o' Inserts method.  I put every dated insert in its own page protector. I also have a small coupon file which holds various coupons from stores and the mail. My binder was $18 on Amazon, has plenty of room for inserts, my coupon file and has a few more files on the left where I store receipts, coupon booklets and restaurant coupons. When I make my grocery list I cut out what I need and put those in an envelope, with my list written on the outside. (I always refer to the grocery lists at PYP when making my own, it saves me a whole lot of time and money. They're fantastic.) I leave the binder in the car, in case I really need it, but frankly juggling my kids in the grocery store is challenging enough without searching for coupons too.

What have you found to be the best way to organize your coupons? Do you find coupons to be worth your time?

Happy Birthday to Me! I hate you DMV

I am writing this in hopes that it will save someone else in the state of Utah a lot of wasted time and frustration. This morning my eyes popped open and I thought "Oh blast, it's my birthday and I need to renew my driver's license!" So I got up, got dressed and looked quickly online. Nope, you can't renew online in the state of Utah. (Lame, my husband didn't go through any of this when he renewed a few years ago. He didn't pay or do anything. They just sent him a renewal sticker in the mail. But then he'll have an under 21 license until he's 30. hehe) Now you need to be there in person with positive ID (birth certificate), social security card, and 2 proofs of address. I searched, but couldn't find my birth certificate. My license is positive ID is it not? So I hurried because I wanted to be there before it got busy. I got there and they said I can't even start my application without a birth certificate. The DMV is 40 minutes from my house. At least the scenery is nice on the way there and back.

 Hurricane, UT is gorgeous.

 If you pass this rock you have gone too far.

I went home did some more digging through boxes and found my birth certificate. (I really need to be more organized. :S) Drove back to the DMV, where I  stood in line again. Then they told me that my birth certificate wasn't valid because my name isn't spelled correctly on it. In the area where I was born, English was not the predominant language. So a French spelling does not even compute. Someone at the county clerk's office christened me with a Hispanic name.  My parents filled out the paperwork to get my name changed, but instead of changing the actual document, they stapled a little piece of paper to it saying that the spelling was incorrect. Over time this piece of paper fell off and was lost. When I needed my passport I requested a new copy. Again, official certificate with a post-it stapled to it.  The DMV told me that this was not valid.  My birth certificate is not valid? That's great. What in the free world am I supposed to do about this? It took me three months to get my invalid one last time. I might have gotten really frustrated, except I had brought my passport, RN and marriage licenses as back up. I promise I am who I say I am. I would not spend my birthday at the DMV otherwise. Then I waited for an hour and a half. When they called my number I stood up and said "I won!" like I got a prize or something. A few people around me laughed. The employees probably have heard that a thousand times. Or maybe not. It seems that the only people who even pretend to be happy to be at the DMV are those getting their license for the first time.

So I got up to the desk and my forms of address are not sufficient. One of them is a magazine, and that is not valid.(I was in a hurry.) My vehicle registration perhaps? Nope, old address. Auto insurance? Nope, doesn't have my address printed on it. I went out to my car where I found some junk mail and another magazine. No good. So I have to go back. If I go back today I don't have to wait in line again. I don't know if I can bring myself to go to the DMV for a third time on my birthday. At least they gave me a temporary license that's valid for awhile. The people there are nice, they just have to enforce some stupid rules, and I suppose it's not their fault that the county DMV office is located miles from anything. And on the bright side I think it's the best driver's license picture I've ever taken. And I had a couple of hours going back and forth that I could rock out to the radio instead of to something toddler-oriented. And I have some lemon Cheesecake Factory cheesecake to console me. :) Painful lesson learned: Rushing does not save time.

Giveaway Scout

Recently I discovered a site that I thought was pretty cool: Giveaway Scout. Thousands of bloggers and businesses link their giveaways on this search engine. Bloggers and businesses get more traffic and people looking for free stuff can go to one location to easily browse through giveaways to find one that is of interest to them. Everybody wins.

Chicago- Part 1: The Museum of Science and Industry

Between my brother's wedding and reception, we had a couple of days to kill, so we drove north a few hours to Chicago. I had heard great things about the Museum of Science and Industry, so we decided to check it out. I had a BOGO coupon from the Chicago Entertainment Book, but we found it to be more cost effective to buy citypasses. Who knows when or if we'd be back there? The CityPass seemed like a great way to get the most of our Chicago experience. An adult Chicago CityPass is $69, children 3-11 are $59.  Under 3 are free. The CityPass is a convenient little booklet of tickets that you pick up at your first attraction with your voucher that you print upon payment. It also includes other bonuses like admissions to shows at the attractions, but most importantly it saved us HOURS of waiting in line. It includes admission to the Shedd Aquarium, The Field Museum, Adler Planetarium, and the Museum of Science and Industry and the Skydeck Chicago or the John Hancock Observatory. (When I saw the line at the Aquarium, I was ready to turn around and give up. It really looked like we would be there for at least three hours, fortunately I spotted the CityPass line, which took about 15 minutes.) The CityPass is good for 9 days, starting the day that you visit the first attraction.

Museum of Science and Industry

If you buy tickets online they are $15 for adults and $10 for kids. If you buy at the door, it's $23 for adults and $16 for kids. Parking is $16. As I mentioned above there's a 2 for 1 in the Entertainment Book. Also here's a link to another 2 for 1 coupon. Here's another 2 for 1, but it can only be used with an American Express. Free days for the museum can be found here. Hours are from 9:30-5:30.
This place came highly recommended, and I will not deny that it is amazing. However, we would have enjoyed it more without our children, or if they were a bit older. (My kids are 4&2.) It is geared more towards school-age children and up.  Without small children I would recommend planning on staying for most of the day. For small kids 4 hours was more than enough. It was very crowded and my kids were easily shoved away from the interactive exhibits that they were interested in. (I hate reprimanding other people's children, but it had to be done a few times.)  Also while we were there, several of the interactive exhibits were broken. My husband and I wished that our kids had the patience for us to read more about the exhibits. Mondays are the least crowded day at the Museum of S&I, if you have the luxury of picking that day. It has three large floors full of science exhibits that explain things like weather, physics, how the body works and technology. Even though it was crowded and we didn't get to see some of the things we wanted, I still felt like it was worth it and highly recommend it to anyone visiting the Chicago area. It's a fantastic way to teach your kids about science and technology. Cool things to check out there that we didn't have time for (meaning our children had lost patience): The Coal Mine Exhibit (the wait was an hour and a half) and Imax theaters.

This pic is great, but it doesn't do that place justice. Also when I was there I would say there was at least a thousand more people in the room.

This room was my kids favorite (also not a shot that I took.)

 If you have little girls, you absolutely must stop by Colleen Moore's fairy castle with all of its detailed miniatures in a back corner of the ground floor. The detail is pretty amazing.

Another tip, if you want to see the baby chicks hatch, the best time to see them is during the afternoon.