Small Kitchen Appliances Worth Having

A friend of mine is getting married this summer and it got me thinking about all the "stuff" I registered for when I got married.  Some of it I've definitely used.  Others...not so much.  So I thought I'd put together a quick list of the items I use all the time and consider worth their weight in gold.

1. Rice Cooker--I use it to make quinoa and all different kinds of rice.  I recently made copycat Chipotle Cilantro Lime rice and it was awesome.  I use this all the time because I can set it and forget it.

2. Crock Pot--Great for set it and forget it meals.  I especially like making crock pot lasagna in it.  I use it at least once a week.

3. Stand Mixer--I have a Kitchen-aid one.  I use it to make icing, pizza dough, cookies, etc.  It's a multi-functional machine and you can buy all sorts of attachments for it so it does even more.

Those are the small appliances I use all the time.  I have a few other things I use a good bit (a set of reusable containers, measuring spoons and cups and kitchen utensils) but these are all things that end up on one's registry anyway.  Hope this was helpful.  :)

Greening Your Dog's Poo...

Yeah, I went there...While I think its great that people are responsible pet owners and buy bags to bag their dog's poo, I do it a little differently.  I don't buy bags for dog poo, I reuse other bags around the house.  Grocery bags are ok as long as you check to be sure that there are no holes... My favorite though are bread and bagel bags.  Not only are they hole free, since the bread has to stay fresh, but they are usually very strong.  The best part is that they are free!  These are bags I was going to throw away anyway, why not reuse them?  I'm not adding to the manufacture of new bags (of which I would have to pay) and I'm being a little more green.  

My New Favorite Place to Shop

I've been a long-time admirer of Trader Joe's and their business model.  There are no Trader Joe's factories.  Their model is a lot like a small, privately owned grocery store.  A lot of their products are made by the big companies, but Trader Joe's keeps the cost of their products down (sometimes in half) by having a contract with these big companies that doesn't allow them to advertise their affiliation with making products for Trader Joe's.  This is great as a consumer because I don't have to coupon (which also costs a company money to do) to get a great deal on great food products.

They have pretty good prices on organic.   Organic at the regular supermarket is almost always outside of my budget.  I have a heart attack just looking at the $6/half pint price of organic blueberries (one of the dirty dozen veggies/fruits)!  Trader Joe's prices on some of their organic products are pretty good compared to your regular grocery store and oftentimes it looks and tastes better too.

They have a wide variety of different foods.  I love that I can get different types of peanut butter (including something called cookie butter), different kinds of gourmet type noodles, sundried tomatoes, and chia seeds, etc.  There's a lot of really healthy stuff at reasonable budget prices.  Heck, you can try something you've never had at Trader Joe's and if you don't like it for any reason, they'll take it back and refund you.  Why not try something new?

And here's another big reason I like to shop here--taste.  The stuff I buy at Trader Joe's almost always tastes better than similar products I buy at the grocery store.  I can pay the same amount for TJ's wheat crackers as I can on Meijer brand wheat crackers.  And I think TJ's taste better!

It's a little bit further for me to travel to Trader Joe's but I think I might try to do it more often out of principal of price and taste.

Wondering where some of Trader Joe's products come from?  Check out the following article: http://www.chow.com/food-news/64791/trader-joe-s-exposed/

Coupons With Minimums Equal to Your Discount

I love when I come upon a great coupon.  I'm not an extreme couponer by any stretch of the imagination (See my rant on extreme couponing here).  I do keep an eye out in my email and in my mail for great store coupons that come my way.

I recently came upon a $15 off your first order at thredup.com (an online resale boutique) coupon with no minimum to spend.  I paid just shipping costs for 2 pairs of shorts and a pair of pants for my 3 year old.  The pair of pants I ordered apparently had a very small stain (I couldn't even find it for a really long time) so they gave them to me for free!  Oh and gave me a credit on my account (I didn't actually spend any money on this order so I basically got a free credit).

I got an email from Thredup the other day for free shipping, one day only.  I bought 2 pairs of shorts for my youngest and didn't pay a cent (since I used the credit from the pants).  The shorts I ordered came in the mail the other day and again, one pair must have had a stain because they refunded it as well (I have yet to find the flaw, by the way...).  I now have $4 in credit sitting in my Thredup account.  This is a major bonus because I can either cash out (and make myself $3.99 on everything I've purchased from Thredup lately) or keep it in my account and wait for another free shipping day and get more free stuff.

I also got a JCP flyer the other day.  I was surprised to find in the inside cover a $10 off your purchase of $10 or more coupon/code.  I used it to buy my son 3 pairs of pj pants for next year and had them shipping to the store (i.e. I didn't have to pay for shipping).  I got 3 pairs of brand new pj pants for $2.12.  Not too shabby....

The moral of this story is check those flyers for retailers you get in the mail or your email, you never know what kind of deal you can work out with the coupon and clearance items....

*The above is not an actual working coupon, just a nice example of a coupon with a minimum that's equal to the discount :)

For All the Students Out There

This post is for you!  My husband recently went back to school to get his PhD.  We don't have cable and I have two kids running around so often getting to the store for things other than groceries can be difficult.

We looked at getting an Amazon Prime membership but wasn't sure it was worth $79 to us at the time. However, we did find that my husband qualified for Amazon Student, which gave us a discount on Amazon Prime membership (only $39 for a max.total of 4 years).  Half price?  It was a no brainer!

We've had Amazon Prime for a year and its been great!  We enjoy access to the instant videos on Prime which are free with our membership and free 2 day shipping.  With all the incentive groups out there (Swagbucks and E-Miles) that offer Amazon gift cards as prizes for earning "bucks" or for depositing miles, it makes it a no brainer too.

Get In Shape for Less

It's the New Year and that means resolution time!  I think its safe to say that almost everyone puts "lose weight" or some iteration thereof on their resolution list at least once in their lifetime.  So here are some tips to keep the cost low on your quest to be fit!

• Check out workout DVD's from the library.  It's free!  No gym membership required!  My library even has some Zumba dvds.   
• Search the web for workout videos.  You'd be surprised what you can find.  Try Youku.com in addition to Youtube.  I've found some Zumba videos there...
• Check out a membership to your local YMCA or Rec. Center.  Usually its less than $100 a year and it may include classes as well as gym and pool usage.  
• When in doubt...search Pinterest.  There are many things posted on getting in shape/losing weight on Pinterest and you may just find the blog/inspiration you've been looking for.  Here's a link to one of my boards that has some fitness stuff on it to get your started.  

Hope this helps you on your way to a slimmer/more fit YOU!  And Happy New Year!

Holiday Cards...Can they be done on a Budget?

It's the most wonderful time of the year....Time for holiday cards....you either love 'em or hate 'em.  The big question is, though, can you do them on a budget?  I think the answer is, "yes."  Here are some tips for budgeting for cards this year.

1. Look for deals for free cards.  Shutterfly, Treat, and Cardstore all provide codes around this time of year for free cards.  All you pay is shipping.  Heck, Cardstore even ships them for free so they are completely free!  You may need to sign up for their emailed newsletter to get a code or search retailmenot.com or raininghotcoupons.com for a code.

2. Postage...its a killer...I suggest only sending cards to those people you are really close to and maintain a relationship with more than just at the holidays.  It really cuts down on the number you need to send.

3. Still having a hard time justifying the money for postage?  Adjust what you are spending on gifts.  A lot of our gifts this year are handmade.  I've pinned some great ideas on my Pinterest board and have even used some of them in the past couple of years!  (What good are Pinterest boards unless you use them? Right?)