And no I didn't bring my own food.
Step 1: Locate your cheapie theatre. Find out what day they run the discount admission. In our case it is Tuesday and it is $2 a head. The total was $10 because they charged me for my one year old. Yeah I know.... but I'll give them a pass because this is the discount theatre and they operate on razor thin margins.
Step 2: Pack plastic cups and ziplock bags for the number of children with you.
Step 3: Go to the theatre, purchase tickets, then purchase the largest size popcorn and the largest size drink. Get everyone to agree on the beverage before you get there. This is essential or there will be a war.
Step 4: Once in the theatre, divide the popcorn into baggies, and pour sodas into the cups. Remind them to make it last.
No, I don't give the toddler soda, but I give her small amounts of popcorn broken up. The large popcorn and soda is enough to supply my three older children with their own individual snacks with a little leftover for me. On discount day there is a dollar discount for getting the large popcorn and soda, making them $9 together. If I get my kids their own kid's packs, with roughly the same amount of snack, it costs about $18 and there is none left for me and no popcorn for the toddler, so this saves a ton of money.
In addition, the discount day turns out lots of kids, and there is always some child who behaves worse than my kids would ever dare behave, which allows me to truly relax and enjoy the movie without having to scrutinize every peep they make.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Petty Vent
I want chickens. My HOA forbids them, therefore I am sadly deprived.
Why bother with chickens?
Because having my own chickens would mean I could have organic eggs for under the cost of regular ones. My family eats 2 to 3 dozen eggs a week, so we just can't do organic, save for a sale, which is rare.
The quality of fresh eggs compared to commercial is huge. If you doubt it, buy a dozen organic eggs and make a cake.
If you are allowed to have chickens look into it, you have a big opportunity that many do not.
Why bother with chickens?
Because having my own chickens would mean I could have organic eggs for under the cost of regular ones. My family eats 2 to 3 dozen eggs a week, so we just can't do organic, save for a sale, which is rare.
The quality of fresh eggs compared to commercial is huge. If you doubt it, buy a dozen organic eggs and make a cake.
If you are allowed to have chickens look into it, you have a big opportunity that many do not.
Saturday, March 2, 2013
When bread goes stale.
Recently I posted on how we buy bread from the day old outlet and freeze what we won't use immediately. Normally this works fine, but occasionally we mess up and do not rotate the bread quickly enough. What to do?
Well, don't throw it out. As long as it is not molded it can be used, and I don't just mean for the ducks. If you break it up and place it on a tray to go fully stale, it makes good stuffing. Another option is to break it into chunks, season and toast into homemade crutons with your oven.
If you have stale bagels, definitely do the crutons. Bagels come out very tasty as crutons.
Think before you throw out. If it is truly spoiled and is not tainted with meat or dairy, consider composting it. Make the most out of "waste".
Well, don't throw it out. As long as it is not molded it can be used, and I don't just mean for the ducks. If you break it up and place it on a tray to go fully stale, it makes good stuffing. Another option is to break it into chunks, season and toast into homemade crutons with your oven.
If you have stale bagels, definitely do the crutons. Bagels come out very tasty as crutons.
Think before you throw out. If it is truly spoiled and is not tainted with meat or dairy, consider composting it. Make the most out of "waste".
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Gas Just Spiked
Why yes it did. Big spike overnight. About twenty cents. What to do?
Well my first suggestion is to go get gas even if you are not on empty. Think who usually has the most expensive gas and check there. Hopefully they haven't sold out of their previous shipment and are lower.
Here is what I do on an everyday basis. I have set my gas budget at $50 a week. I put $50 in and I make it last. Obviously I don't get the same amount of gas each week. I watch my gauge and if I become concerned about getting to the end of the week on what I have, I prioritize and make sure I group my errands so I make it the week. I also pay attention to how I am starting and stopping my car. I change my route as I go to take advantage of downhills and I drive so I optomize being able to use physics to move my car. If I see I need to stop, I glide towards the light as much as I can without disrupting traffic. A lot of the time it will change and I don't have to fully stop and start. I pay attention to how I am driving, and I make it on that $50.
I am saving roughly $10 a week by driving by imposing a gas ration on myself.
Well my first suggestion is to go get gas even if you are not on empty. Think who usually has the most expensive gas and check there. Hopefully they haven't sold out of their previous shipment and are lower.
Here is what I do on an everyday basis. I have set my gas budget at $50 a week. I put $50 in and I make it last. Obviously I don't get the same amount of gas each week. I watch my gauge and if I become concerned about getting to the end of the week on what I have, I prioritize and make sure I group my errands so I make it the week. I also pay attention to how I am starting and stopping my car. I change my route as I go to take advantage of downhills and I drive so I optomize being able to use physics to move my car. If I see I need to stop, I glide towards the light as much as I can without disrupting traffic. A lot of the time it will change and I don't have to fully stop and start. I pay attention to how I am driving, and I make it on that $50.
I am saving roughly $10 a week by driving by imposing a gas ration on myself.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
The Change Jar
If you have kids and they either go to a school building other than your home or have activities they go to, then you probably have an annoying problem.
It is the endless requests for teeny, tiny amounts of money. The fifty cents for popcorn day, the seventy five cents for the vending machine at dance, or the change to spend at the school store.
I find this annoying on a couple of levels. The first is that to put this in your budget is tedious. The second is if you don't, it gets away from you fast. Any time you have a petty cash situation, you pretty much are blindly spending. When you are blind that almost aways equates to spending way more than you think you are.
The way most parents hande this is they hand over dollar bills. I don't like to do that because I don't trust my kids to get the change back to me, and I don't trust whichever fourth grader is volunteering at the cash register to make correct change.
At this point some of you are thinking, "who cares it is a dollar?"
This is when I want to reach through the internet and shake you and say "WAKE UP this is why you don't understand why you seem to be burning through money. Your kids are dropping it all over the sidewalk!" It adds up people. If you give your child a dollar a week for whatever, and they spend half and lose the other half, that is $26.00 a year. I can feed my family dinner for almost a week on that, and we all know you are giving your kids way more than that a week.
This is what we do instead. We have a change jar next to where our keys are. We have a drawer in the bathroom near the hamper. Whatever change we find, in our pockets, on the ground, in the car, dropped around the house, we put in these two locations. We take change out of the jar to pay for this stuff. We give them exact change. This teaches them how to count change and also how to be responsible for money, because if they lose it, then they won't have enough to get their stuff. If they decide they want to save it, they have to be careful, because if I find it anywhere besides their bag then I put it back in the jar. Problem solved.
By the way, this same technique works for adults who want to get stuff out of vending machines or pay for parking meters, etc.
It is the endless requests for teeny, tiny amounts of money. The fifty cents for popcorn day, the seventy five cents for the vending machine at dance, or the change to spend at the school store.
I find this annoying on a couple of levels. The first is that to put this in your budget is tedious. The second is if you don't, it gets away from you fast. Any time you have a petty cash situation, you pretty much are blindly spending. When you are blind that almost aways equates to spending way more than you think you are.
The way most parents hande this is they hand over dollar bills. I don't like to do that because I don't trust my kids to get the change back to me, and I don't trust whichever fourth grader is volunteering at the cash register to make correct change.
At this point some of you are thinking, "who cares it is a dollar?"
This is when I want to reach through the internet and shake you and say "WAKE UP this is why you don't understand why you seem to be burning through money. Your kids are dropping it all over the sidewalk!" It adds up people. If you give your child a dollar a week for whatever, and they spend half and lose the other half, that is $26.00 a year. I can feed my family dinner for almost a week on that, and we all know you are giving your kids way more than that a week.
This is what we do instead. We have a change jar next to where our keys are. We have a drawer in the bathroom near the hamper. Whatever change we find, in our pockets, on the ground, in the car, dropped around the house, we put in these two locations. We take change out of the jar to pay for this stuff. We give them exact change. This teaches them how to count change and also how to be responsible for money, because if they lose it, then they won't have enough to get their stuff. If they decide they want to save it, they have to be careful, because if I find it anywhere besides their bag then I put it back in the jar. Problem solved.
By the way, this same technique works for adults who want to get stuff out of vending machines or pay for parking meters, etc.
Friday, January 25, 2013
Bread is Crazy Expensive
Yeah.... no it is not.
"Oh then you must be baking your own bread. I don't have time for that Carey."
Yeah... no I'm not.
I mean I can, and I have. I make absolutely delicious bread. I also can make my own biscuits and tortillas. I do save money that way, but it is time consuming..
Guess what? I buy bread for only pennies more than the ingredients to make it. I can get a 20 count flour tortillas for $.79. I can get a 20 count resturant grade hamburger buns for $2.
I even get bagels for about $1 a bag.
How? It is called the wholesale bakery. They buy up bread at or only a day or so past the expiration date and sell it for a fraction of the cost. They have all sorts of stuff, including whole wheat. You just have to check carefully that it isn't way past dates or for mold (rare). It is just as good as the stuff you pay three times as much for. I promise.
Caution: you must freeze all that you will not consume within a week of purchase. Otherwise it is totally fine.
"Oh then you must be baking your own bread. I don't have time for that Carey."
Yeah... no I'm not.
I mean I can, and I have. I make absolutely delicious bread. I also can make my own biscuits and tortillas. I do save money that way, but it is time consuming..
Guess what? I buy bread for only pennies more than the ingredients to make it. I can get a 20 count flour tortillas for $.79. I can get a 20 count resturant grade hamburger buns for $2.
I even get bagels for about $1 a bag.
How? It is called the wholesale bakery. They buy up bread at or only a day or so past the expiration date and sell it for a fraction of the cost. They have all sorts of stuff, including whole wheat. You just have to check carefully that it isn't way past dates or for mold (rare). It is just as good as the stuff you pay three times as much for. I promise.
Caution: you must freeze all that you will not consume within a week of purchase. Otherwise it is totally fine.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Let's Talk About Eating Out
Seriously, this is my biggest achilles heel. Some people splurge on shoes, others handbags, but my deal is I enjoy eating in resturants. Less common, but still money down the toilet, I really enjoy the occasional Starbucks.
Today I purchased a chicken biscuit and a medium drink on my way to my one year old's well child visit. It cost me $3.98 and it tasted heavenly. It tasted heavenly not just becaue it was from Chick Fil A and I swear they must sprinke some sort of addictive controlled substance into their food, but also because I did not have to cook it. This was the first time I had purchased any food from a resturant in over a month. If you saw me with a frappuchino in hand, those don't count because my mom gave me the gift of Starbucks for Christmas.
At this point, I am sure many people are wondering what the big deal is about one stinking chicken biscuit for $3.98.
It matters because I am easily able to feed my family of 6 dinner for $4, in fact I do it all of the time. I am not talking rice and beans either. I made a turkey pot pie with leftover turkey from our Sunday meal for $4, and that thing could rival any resturant pot pie out there. It was sinfully delish.
Sure one time is not a big deal, but it is a slippery slope that adds up. I went through a stage when I was pregnant with #4 and suffering from really bad all day sickness that I was hitting Chick Fil A once a week for over $20 on days that my husband worked late. I was spending nearly $100 a month on Thursday night dinner, had not even fed my husband, and knew that I could easily buy a whole week's groceries with that $100.
It adds up. All of the trips through the drive through are flushing hard earned money down the toilet. I am sure that the $1200 I spent on our weekly Chick Fil A trip that year could have gone to something way more important, like cover our OOP perscription drug cost for the year, towards paying our house off, or retirement. It coud have gone into the e fund which always gets hit in the winter, or towards college.
Easy to avoid in the lean months, easy to fall off the wagon in the fat ones.
Today I purchased a chicken biscuit and a medium drink on my way to my one year old's well child visit. It cost me $3.98 and it tasted heavenly. It tasted heavenly not just becaue it was from Chick Fil A and I swear they must sprinke some sort of addictive controlled substance into their food, but also because I did not have to cook it. This was the first time I had purchased any food from a resturant in over a month. If you saw me with a frappuchino in hand, those don't count because my mom gave me the gift of Starbucks for Christmas.
At this point, I am sure many people are wondering what the big deal is about one stinking chicken biscuit for $3.98.
It matters because I am easily able to feed my family of 6 dinner for $4, in fact I do it all of the time. I am not talking rice and beans either. I made a turkey pot pie with leftover turkey from our Sunday meal for $4, and that thing could rival any resturant pot pie out there. It was sinfully delish.
Sure one time is not a big deal, but it is a slippery slope that adds up. I went through a stage when I was pregnant with #4 and suffering from really bad all day sickness that I was hitting Chick Fil A once a week for over $20 on days that my husband worked late. I was spending nearly $100 a month on Thursday night dinner, had not even fed my husband, and knew that I could easily buy a whole week's groceries with that $100.
It adds up. All of the trips through the drive through are flushing hard earned money down the toilet. I am sure that the $1200 I spent on our weekly Chick Fil A trip that year could have gone to something way more important, like cover our OOP perscription drug cost for the year, towards paying our house off, or retirement. It coud have gone into the e fund which always gets hit in the winter, or towards college.
Easy to avoid in the lean months, easy to fall off the wagon in the fat ones.
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