Baking Good Bread to Save

Photo from freedigitalphotos.net

So it is no secret that we are trying to save money however we can.  In addition to making our own laundry soap, dishwasher soap, and spray cleaner, we’ve also been working on finding a good recipe for easy sandwich bread.  My goal was to be able to shy away from the store bought bread since the prices average between $3 and $4 a loaf for the healthier brands.  

Here is what I was looking for in a recipe:

• Soft crusted with a texture that mimics store bought bread
• Easily adaptable to pan baking since I don’t have a bread maker
• Makes two or more loaves at a time
• Uses  whole wheat flour and no “junk” for a healthier loaf of bread

I set about hitting the interwebs, and tried a couple of recipes.  We have some of the Bob’s Red Mill wheat flour that I was planning to use, so I checked that site first....  The recipe was good, but the bread was a bit too dense to really fit what we were looking for.  After a bit more poking around, I came across a blog called “Tammy’s Recipes”.  I gave this one a shot, and right out of the gate, it was a hit!  According to her breakdown in one of her  recent posts, it only costs about a dollar per loaf to make your bread at home!  I can handle using a hand mixer for a bit and doing a bit of baking to save some cash! The full recipe for this wheat/white bread is on her blog that is listed above, but here are the single loaf ingredients:

1 cup warm water (110-115 degrees F)

1 tablespoon milk

2 tablespoons oil

2 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

2 teaspoons instant active dry yeast (active dry yeast will work also; get more info on active vs. instant active dry yeast here!)

Not much to it really!  I would highly recommend checking it out if you want to try baking your own bread.  It is very easy,and if you have a mixer with dough hooks, it takes like five minutes to get the ingredients together and then the rise/baking time. 

Going Easy on the Meat (and the Wallet)

Chop it up.  It'll last longer.
Photo by Worakit Sirijinda

Something I took into consideration this week when I was setting up my menu and grocery list was reducing how much meat we use.  We are a family of carnivores, and unfortunately our budget (and our tummies) show it. 

Meat is expensive.  It’s hard to find quality, lean meat for less than 1.99 per pound.  Frozen chicken breasts are usually as good as you’re going to get, but who wants to eat nothing but chicken day in and day out?  If you want to eat some steak, you’re going to be paying at least 3.99 per pound (the cheapest I can usually find for petite sirloin).

So we have a few options here.  We can either drop the meat entirely and go vegetarian (yeah, right), we can continue shelling out for menu plans that feature meat as the main part of the meal, or we can make meat an “accent” and have occasional meals that don’t feature it at all.

We have opted for option number three.  Take a look at our meal plan for the week.  Notice anything?  Most of those meals are just using a little bit of meat.  The Golden Chicken and Caesar salad only used two breasts to feed the whole family.  The split pea soup is using a cup of leftover ham that was in the freezer.  I bet we'll have enough of that soup to eat for the next few days, too.  The steak salad is using a leftover hunk of London broil, maybe about a pound total.  Even that chicken and rice dish only uses two breasts because we chop it up and toss it in the rice.  The pasta salad had just a smidge of turkey pepperoni in it, for a little burst of the flavor every now and then.  Tonight’s spaghetti pomodoro recipe doesn’t use any meat at all.  Score!

Because we buy our meat when it’s on sale, we want to make it last as long as we can.  Doing this, we can make a bag of frozen chicken or a nice hunk of steak last two to three weeks.   There’s a ton of different meals you can make that stretch meats out like this:

• Chili
• Spaghetti
• Stir-fry
• Salads
• Soups

One of the big benefits of doing this is that you will need to find another type of food to round out your meal.  May I suggest going heavy on the veggies?

Set up your menus for the week and give this a try.  Go through your freezer and see what’s hanging out there.  Can you get through a shopping trip without purchasing any meat?

My Amazing Half-Price Grocery Bill

Shopping the produce section does wonders for the grocery bill.
Photo by kratuanoiy

Last night we hit the grocery store to get our supplies for the week.  On Thursday, I set up our meal plan for the week, with a focus on whole foods with lean proteins, whole grains and lots of veggies.  I was expecting our bill to be kind of high.  My jaw practically hit the floor when the total came up.  It was easily half of most of our grocery bills. 

How was this possible?

1. We didn’t have to buy many proteins because our freezer was well-stocked.  As I pointed out to Gavin, though, even if we had needed to buy a bag of frozen chicken breasts, we still would have come in under $100. 
2. We used a lot of items that were already in our cupboards.  However, we saw a good sale on the whole grain pasta we liked and bought a few boxes to keep.
3. Bagged salad was on sale for super cheap this week.  We decided that once it goes off sale, we’ll just buy whole heads of lettuce instead -- the good stuff, not iceberg.
4. Most of our purchases came from the produce and condiment aisles.  We barely touched the rest of the store.  

What meals are we having this week?  Are we going to be eating meager rabbit-food meals?  Nope.  Check out our meal plan:

Friday (last night):  Golden Chicken with Tomatoes and Olives, brown rice, tossed salad (this was AWESOME by the way, and we had enough leftover – yay, portion control!—that Gavin could take some to work for his lunch today).

Saturday :  Greek-Inspired Pasta Salad (this has tomatoes and artichoke hearts in it, so it’s pretty much a full meal)

Sunday:  Chicken Caesar Salad (we’re going to marinate the chicken breasts and cook them up earlier in the day)

Monday:  Spaghetti pomodoro, with tossed salad (we are making a few modifications to the recipe based on what we have on hand)

Tuesday:  Steak salad, French bread (we have a loaf of French bread in the freezer from Christmas, and we are using the last of a London broil – this will stretch the meat so it goes farther)

Wednesday:  Crockpot split pea soup (split peas are CHEAP, and the ham is more Christmas leftovers out of the freezer)

Thursday:  Chicken and rice, salad (not very creative this time, but it’s a simple meal that everyone likes)

Lots of variety, lots of flavor, nobody is suffering here.  And I can use the leftover from the grocery budget to put toward a bill!  Everyone wins! 

Expenses Expand to Fill the Income Allotted

Her relatives are cheetahs.  Never forget that.

While feeding Minerva (our cat) the other day, I had one of those brain-lapse moments and opened the freezer instead of the cupboard.  As luck would have it, Elias noticed and started laughing at me.  Then he started asking why anyone would keep cat food in the freezer.  I recalled seeing a type of specialty raw cat food that you do, in fact, keep in the freezer.  I told this to Elias, mostly to demonstrate that looking in the freezer for cat food really isn’t as nuts as it might have looked initially. 

“How come we don’t buy Minerva that kind of food?”  Elias asked. 

“Because it’s really expensive and it’s not exactly within our budget,” I answered. 

“If we had a lot of money, we could buy Minerva that kind of food,”  Elias said.

Well, yes, I suppose we could.  At that point the little wheels in my head started turning.  What other little “improvements” would we make if we could improve them?  Although our income was essentially double at this time last year, we really weren’t any better off then.  With the cut in income, we cut down and cut back on every little item that wasn’t essential.  When we had more money coming in, we simply frittered away the extras on those things that were “upgrades” from the bare minimum. 

I think these sort of little expenses are part of the reason that so many people feel like they are constantly broke and can’t figure out why.  People don’t think about these kinds of expenditures.  After all, when we purchase the “upgrade,” it’s usually only a little bit more expensive.   We deserve these little luxuries, we tell ourselves.  Even when it’s just the more expensive cat food. 

I’m not saying deprive yourself of every little luxury in your life.  But the next time you start thinking of making an upgrade to something, ask yourself if a) you can really afford it, and b) you really need it.  After all, if your cat is like mine and spends most of her time laying around purring, I don’t think she really needs an evolutionary raw-food based diet.  She’s doing just great on the Whiskas.  

Catching up on the Financial Peace Planner: Stuffitis

The problem with wanting the best
Image by Danilo Rizzuti

Have I been procrastinating on keeping up with the Planner program?  You bet I have.  One of the goals of this blog is to make myself accountable and practice building good habits.  But it’s so darn easy to fall back into the old habits.  Procrastinating, pretending my bills don’t exist, putting off the hard work.  It’s a lot easier to write fun blog posts about chicken recipes and try out new and cheaper ways of doing things than it is to face up to the major problems. 

Major Problem Number One:  According to the Planner, I have “stuffitis.”  I try not to.  But I do.  Apparently if you check more than one statement in the little quiz, you have it.  I checked two, so it’s only a slight case and, most likely, curable.  Gavin has this condition far worse than I do.  That’s not me placing blame; he’s totally upfront about it. 

Here’s the statements I checked:

1.  “It’s not unusual for me to say ‘It’s only a few dollars extra’ when I’m shopping for something I want.”
2.  “So I spent $100 on a pair of running shoes.  The top of the line lasts longer.”

I can sit here and try to justify those responses (and believe me, I can justify damn near anything), but I’m not going to.  I’m going to accept that this is a problem.  It does no good to catch a great deal on chicken if I go out and blow $40 on a dinner out because I didn’t feel like cooking.  I have several bills piled up on my desk that I could be putting that $40 towards, and there’s really no excuse. 

I do like to have nice things.  When I can get nice things at a lower price, it can sometimes be seen as a justification to purchase something I don’t really need.  This time of year is especially difficult.  I don’t just like to have nice things, I like to give nice things.  It’s fun to have someone unwrap something you got them and see a big smile on their face because it’s just what they wanted. 

If you look around our place, you might say “How can these people be in financial trouble?”  We have two desktop PCs, our son has a laptop, we have a flat-screen TV, an Xbox, a Wii… and that’s just the living room.  Well, the PCs have been mostly cobbled together (it’s nice to have a hubby who knows his way around a computer), the laptop was purchased several years ago and is no longer of much use other than as a word processor, the Wii was purchased as a family Christmas gift quite some time ago, and the Xbox and the flat-screen were both donations from people who had more than one. 

So why don’t we just sell these items and pay off the darn bills?  Well, I work online, and Gavin sometimes has to communicate online with his job, and we both really like our games.  So, come to think of it, I actually meet one more of the criteria for “stuffitis”:  “I can’t get rid of my boat/truck/Andy Warhol print.  That would leave a huge hole in my life.”  Just substitute TV/computer/Xbox for the other items.

I’ll keep working through Chapter 2.  This is usually the point where most debt plans make you actually pull out all your bills and figure out your debt.  I have to confess:  I’m pretty scared of that part.

Cheap and Easy Meals with Chicken

Stir-fry is a great way to use chicken breasts.
Photo by Sura Nualpradid

Today we scored a really good deal on chicken breasts.  We got a 10-pound bag of frozen chicken breasts for $1.66 per pound.  That’s a lot of chicken at a really good price.  So, what are our plans for all that chicken?

Chicken Tacos

• 1 lb. chicken breasts (frozen is okay)
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 packet taco seasoning
• Soft or hard taco shells
• Favorite taco toppings

Place the chicken breasts in the crockpot.  Mix the taco seasoning and chicken broth together.  Pour over the chicken.  Set to low and cook for 6 to 8 hours. 

When chicken is ready, shred with forks.  You can add in another pound of chicken breasts to have leftover meat for nachos or enchiladas.

Poor Man’s Cordon Bleu

• 1 lb chicken breasts
• Laughing Cow cheese wedges, or cream cheese
• Ham lunch meat
• Shake ‘n’ Bake or bread crumbs

Flatten the chicken breasts using a meat mallet.  Spread each breast with a cheese wedge, or about 2 tbsp. of cream cheese.  Place a slice or two of the lunch meat over the cheese.  Roll each chicken breast and secure with a toothpick.  Cover outside of the chicken in Shake ‘n’ Bake mix or bread crumbs.  Place in a baking dish that has been sprayed with cooking spray.  Bake at 375 F for 45 minutes or until done.

Mexican Chicken Soup with White Beans

• 1 lb. chicken breasts
• Onion
• Minced garlic
• 1 tsp. dried oregano
• 1 tsp. dried cumin
• 2 15-oz. cans white kidney beans
• 3 cups chicken broth
• Cheddar cheese

Cook chicken breasts in a nonstick skillet with about 2 tbsp. of olive oil until they are no longer pink on the outside.  Place in a slow cooker.  Add a little more olive oil to the pan and cook onion (however much you like, I use about ¼ of a sweet onion), a clove or two of minced garlic, oregano and cumin, just until the onion is soft.  Add this mixture to the slow cooker. 

Drain and rinse the kidney beans, then add to the slow cooker, along with the broth.  Stir well. 

Cook on low for about 8 hours.  When cooking time is complete, use forks to shred the chicken.  Mash beans against the side of the crockpot with a large spoon to thicken the soup.  Garnish with shredded cheese.

Chicken Stir-Fry

• 1 lb. chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
• Assorted fresh vegetables, we like carrots, snow peas, celery, mushrooms, sliced
• Canned, sliced water chestnuts

Sauce ingredients:

• ¼ cup soy sauce
• 1 tbsp. minced garlic
• 1 tbsp. rice vinegar
• 1 tbsp. ketchup
• 2 tsp. minced ginger
• 1 tsp. sesame oil

In a large skillet or wok, cook chicken in 1 tbsp. vegetable oil or wok oil over medium-high heat until cooked through.  Add vegetables and cook until desired texture is reached.  Add water chestnuts.  Mix sauce ingredients together and add to pan.  Cook a minute or two until sauce thickens slightly.  Serve over hot rice.

What are your favorite ways to use chicken breasts?

Getting Deals at the Grocery Store

Comparison shopping pays off.
Photo by Ambro

Okay, so we’ve established that I don’t rely on coupons to whittle my grocery bill down to nothing.  However, I do make an active effort to get our food bill as low as I can.  At the same time, I don’t want to eat beans and chicken soup every day. 

I use a combination of several tactics to lower my grocery bill.  I plan meals, shop the ads, shop different stores, use coupons WHEN PRACTICAL, and buy in bulk when I get a good deal.  Here’s my weekly approach to shopping:

1. Scan the ads.  My go-to store is Fred Meyer.  Not only is it practically in my back yard, it seems to have better sales and lower regular prices than Safeway or Albertsons.  I can occasionally catch a really good meat deal at Albertsons and I’ll go for that, but as a general rule, if it isn’t on sale at Albertsons, it’s going to be more expensive than anywhere else.  Unfortunately, Winco doesn’t have a weekly ad so I never know what the sales are going to be, although they do make a point of beating other sales.  They also don’t have a great selection of lower-fat foods and their produce can sometimes be crummy, so we don’t go there all the time. 
2. Look for stock-up items.  What am I looking for in the ads?  Deals on the proteins that I’m going to build my meals around.  I’m looking for really good meat sales.  If I can spot a really good one, I plan to buy several pounds so that I can get a few meals out of it.
3.  Plan my meals.  The goal is to always have enough meat for meals in the freezer (from previous stock-ups) that I can pull meals straight from the freezer and never have to buy meat that isn’t a good deal.  I see no reason to ever pay more than $1.99 for chicken breasts.  This doesn’t mean that I have to have 7 days’ worth of meat – we don’t have meat in every meal.  To keep Gavin and the kids happy, though, we usually have it four to five days per week.  Spaghetti nights or breakfast for dinner (pancakes and eggs) can fill in the blanks. 
4.  Look for coupon deals.  Once I’ve made my main meal list and built my grocery list around that, this is when I look for coupon deals.  I go through the ad with my coupon binder and look for “matches.”  This is the only way to use coupons.  Combine them with a sale and you can get a really good deal, especially on stuff like bath wash, toothpaste, baby wipes and stuff like that.  Normally I would also add detergent and household cleaners to that list, but I don’t know of any coupons that knock detergent down to a penny per load!
5. Fill in the blanks.  Some items we need pretty much every week:  Milk, eggs, yogurt, veggies, fruit, bread… These are our regular staples.  Occasionally we need some cereal, cheese, peanut butter and stuff like that.  I try to catch bread when it’s on sale and stock it in the freezer.  I need to get Gavin baking more bread! 

What’s your shopping technique for keeping costs down?

Homemade Household Cleaners: Homemade Laundry Detergent

In our quest to continue to find more ways to cut back, we have been experimenting with homemade household cleaners.  Since the spray cleaner was such a success, we decided to go ahead with laundry detergent next (plus, conveniently, that’s what we were scheduled to run out of next). 

I prefer liquid laundry detergent (it just seems like powders don’t rinse clean), so I looked around until I found a recipe I liked. 

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Fels-Naphtha – this is a bar of soap that can be found in the laundry section of your grocery store.  Apparently you can use Ivory soap as well, but we went with the Fels-Naphtha since everything I was reading recommended this.  At Fred Meyer, it cost about $1.50.
• Arm & Hammer washing soda – Take note:  not baking soda, washing soda.  This was right next to the Fels-Naphtha at Fred Meyer.  The cost was about $3.50.
• Borax – We already had a box on hand from the spray cleaner experiment.  How convenient!  But, also found in the laundry section.  This was about $3.00 when I bought it.

Directions:

1.  Cut off 1/6 of the Fels-Naphtha bar.  Although most instructions tell you to grate it, it's actually really crumbly.  You can actually just chop it up with a knife the way you would baking chocolate.

The crumbled Fels-Naphtha

2.  Dump the chopped Fels-Naphtha into a large saucepan.  Add 3 cups of hot water.  Heat gently until the soap melts.  This took a little while for us.  Also, be careful how much you stir it, since it gets foamy.

1/4 cup washing soda

3.  Once the soap is melted, add ¼ cup washing soda and ¼ cup Borax.  Stir gently until completely dissolved.

1/4 cup Borax

4.  At this point we were ready to transfer the mixture to our big stainless steel mixing bowl.  First, we dumped 2 cups hot water into the mixing bowl, then gently poured in the soap mixture and stirred a bit to mix.

The melted soap combined with water, washing soda and Borax.

5.  We added another 11 cups of hot water.

At this point, the mixture needed to “set.”  We put it aside to cool.  Our whole kitchen smelled really soapy.

After letting it set for a few hours, we checked back on it.  It was congealing all right!  Using a funnel, we poured it into the detergent bottle we kept for the occasion.  Reduce, reuse, recycle!  This part was kind of tricky.  It definitely took both of us.  The consistency was rather uneven and gloppy, but apparently that’s pretty normal.  The important part, after all, isn’t what it looks like, but what it cleans like. 

Mmmmm, yummy!

This stuff is supposed to work out to ½ cup per load of laundry.  We decided to really put it to the test.  We had Elias bring a blanket from his bed that was in definite need of washing and ran it through with the new soap.

When it came out of the dryer, it smelled fresh and clean!  Victory!  Hopefully it doesn’t gel too much as it sits longer.  We’ll see how it goes and I’ll update you as needed.  The best part?  The cost of this stuff works out to about a penny per load.  Try to beat that at the grocery store.

Let’s see, what can I make next?  What else have you guys tried that’s been successful?

 

Saving Money on Holiday Shopping, or Is It Really That Time of Year Again???

Making my list and checking it twice.
Image by Sicha Pongjivanich

Holiday shopping.  I don’t know about you, but those words strike fear into my heart.  We can barely make the bills as it is, and now we have to fit even more into our overstretched budget?  While I would love to say “The heck with it!  Everyone is just getting homemade gifts this year!”  the reality is that that option would never fly.

I have an 11-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl.  They aren’t going to be happy with handmade doodads or coupons for hugs.  The older one has already amassed his list for the year and, as usual, it’s pretty heavy on the electronics.  The younger one isn’t quite as picky, but she still knows her mind and knows what she likes.

Here’s the good news though.  There’s still ways to keep from taking such a heavy hit.  Here’s some of the strategies we’re going to be using this year to keep from getting evicted the day after Christmas:

1. Starting early.  Since summer we’ve had our eyes open for gifts for the kids.  We started talking about it with the family a while ago too, so they know what to look for.  I’ve already picked up a game for the oldest that was part of a buy two get one free deal, and I have a Hello Kitty playset stashed in the closet for my daughter.
2. Buy used.  The kids couldn’t care less.  Fortunately, most of my family who I am buying for doesn’t either (or if they do, they don’t say anything because they know we have a limited budget).  Places like Gamestop and Half-Price Books are great if video games and books are on your list.  Used clothing from a quality consignment shop can go a long way (my daughter will be getting clothes from here). 
3. Shop online.  While this might initially seem more expensive since you have to pay shipping, it actually saves us quite a bit.  We can comparison shop and get good deals, and Amazon usually suggests used options for cheaper that can still be purchased through their site.  Plus, if you are doing most of your shopping at once, shipping is likely to be waived.  For me, the best part of shopping online is that I know exactly what I want to buy and I’m not swayed to buy more when I see the stuff on the shelves.
4.  Pick little items up here and there.  For the next few shopping trips between now and Christmas, we’ll be picking up small items and stocking stuffers on our regular grocery runs.  Some great inexpensive stocking stuffers that kids love include coloring books, crayons, and candies.  My daughter loves to have her nails painted so I’m going to stick a couple of inexpensive nail polishes in her stocking.
5. Know when to say when.  It’s easy to get caught up in the spirit of the season.  Everyone has all sorts of neat knick-knacks out and goofy little doodads, and I already catch myself seeing random items and saying “Oh, that would be perfect for so-and-so!”  But once the shopping is done, it’s DONE.  Don’t let yourself get caught up in the whole “Just one more” game.  Retailers are counting on this and you will quickly blow your budget.

Make a plan, make a budget, and stick to it.  We’ll get through this, I swear!

Is a Good Deal Worth the Added Stress?

To what lengths would you go to score a great deal?

Photo by digitalart

With Thanksgiving nearly here, you know what’s coming next:  Black Friday. It’s practically a holiday in its own right.  When I was working at the hospital, the day after Thanksgiving was a paid holiday.  But what a strange juxtaposition, when you stop and think about it.  A holiday of giving thanks for all that we have, immediately followed by a holiday in which we desperately try to get more. 

While the original intent of the first shopping day following Thanksgiving was to help people get a head start on shopping for gifts for friends and family, it has devolved into a mad scramble to get the very best deals on stuff for ourselves.  Seriously, you really think anyone is going to give away that Blu-Ray player or TV they just scored a mad deal on?  

While I would normally be all over a good deal, I make a point of staying home on Black Friday.  Part of it is to make my own statement, and part of it is to avoid becoming part of the problem.  Good deals are great, but not when they come with the stress and craziness that is often attached to Black Friday sales.  Everyone knows the horror stories.  People being trampled in the mad crush to get that incredible deal and getting killed for their desire to save a few bucks.  Why do we do this?

Last night Gavin was telling me about a co-worker of his who was heading down to Best Buy right after his shift (on Tuesday, mind you) because he wanted to get the deal on the $200 42-inch TV.   Okay, granted, that’s an awesome deal.  But really?  He’s going to camp out for two days and miss Thanksgiving for it.  He’ll probably save about $400, but at what true cost?  He’ll need to eat for those two days, so I assume he’s going to be spending money on fast food.  He’s going to be cold and wet, it’s a typical Seattle Thanksgiving, after all.  And isn’t his time itself worth money? 

This opens up the question:  How far are you willing to go for a good deal?  I’ve detailed my efforts to make my own cleaners and broth, and I’m going to be incorporating more of these “DIY” efforts as we go.  I clip coupons (I’ll be talking about that later), but not to the point where it takes over my life.  I watch for sales, but I’m not going to drive to four different stores to get my shopping done.  And you’re never going to catch me camping out for two days to pay money for an item that, let’s face it, I don’t actually need.

Would I like a new TV?  You bet I would.  The color is going out on the old one and games designed for HD look distorted on it.  But for the time being, it’s perfectly serviceable.  The kids are happily watching Go, Diego, Go even now and I haven’t heard any complaints from them.  Well, except that the older one would rather watch Astro Boy, but that’s a whole other issue.

So what about you?  Are you hitting any Black Friday or Cyber Monday deals?  Are they for you or for gifts?  Are they for items you need or items you want?

Our Trip to the Trading Post

I'm always on the lookout for a great grocery deal.

Image by digitalart

Grocery prices keep rising, so finding the best deals on food has been a real challenge.  We usually shop at Fred Meyer, watching the ads and planning our meals around any good deals we can find.  Some weeks, we can score a great deal, while other weeks we fall flat.  I hate paying more than 1.99 a pound for any kind of meat, and I can’t figure out when ground beef, originally the staple of most cheapo diets suddenly became just as expensive as most cuts of steak.

While at a dinner this week held by Wraparound (a service that helps us coordinate care for our son), we were told about a special deal going on at a local store called the Tukwila Trading Post.  I vaguely knew where they were, but I had never checked them out.  The deal was pretty good:  For twenty bucks, you got a 4 lb. boneless ham, a 3 lb. boneless turkey breast, gravy, a can of corn, a pack of biscuits, 5 lb. of potatoes, and 1 lb. of carrots.  That’s enough ham and turkey for several soup and casserole recipes. 

Something I noticed when I worked it out though – it was a good deal, but not a “OMG THAT’S INSANE” deal. The way the show it in the ad, it’s buy the ham for $20 and the rest is free.  Okay, but it’s a 4 lb. ham.  That $5 a lb. and I wouldn’t spend that much on meat.  Once you subtract the regular prices from the $20, you get about $14 for the meat, which works out to about $2 a lb.  About what I normally aim for. 

They did have some pretty decent sales.  I scored a ton of pork loin, also at 1.99 a lb. and I’m going to get a bunch of meals out of that.  But the rest of their prices were, for the most part, higher than Fred Meyer.  The ad had a number of one-day deals, for example, if I had gone on Thursday I could have scored boneless, skinless chicken breasts for 1.49 per lb. as long as I got more than 10 lbs.  We would definitely go through 10 lbs. of chicken breasts, and that’s about the lowest price I’ve ever seen them at, so I wish I could have caught that deal. 

I think the trick with this place is going to be to keep an eye on the ad and just make a special trip for the super good deals.  The meat all looked like it was in pretty good shape, but some of the produce was kind of funky.  The apples that were on sale were a bit mushy (except for the Fujis, those were in pretty good shape), and some of the kiwis had mold.  Considering that it’s the weekend before Thanksgiving, I was actually surprised by how empty the store was.  Maybe everyone else got their cheap stuff and left already.



EDIT:  Please see this post to see why I will never be shopping here again.....

Republic Wireless: Testing a New Type of Cell plan!

Let’s face reality, your cell phone is here to stay.  Everyone has them... well, almost everyone.  We actually had ours get cut off, because we couldn’t afford it.  We didn’t have iPhones, or even “Smartphones,” with the expensive data plans.  In fact, I think I am the only person in my IT department that doesn't have a smartphone of some sort.  The plans are very pricey and even the “cheap” ones would run us up to $100 a month plus taxes between both A’mee and me.  So we are actually cell-less for the time being (and that has taken some real getting used to). 

A couple weeks ago I was on Engadget and saw something that really turned my head… a beta program for Republic Wireless.  They were offering a new type of prepaid service that highlighted an “unlimited everything” plan for just $19.95!  OK, they had my attention!  Like any other prepaid program, you have to buy the phone.  I signed up on the website to get news about the launch, which was scheduled to happen about a week later.  I then got an email offering a discount code for their phone (the LG Optimus) for just $99.00, saving $100 off the top.  So we made plans for the launch day to sign in and get two phones and test this service, since this was right around when we were expecting to get our money in.  Being a beta test, I knew it would have some bumps, but wow.

The site went up and down all day.  Apparently, the site received well over one million hits the first day.  I don’t care who you are, that will crash just about any server around.   We were finally able to sign in, and we got our confirmation emails shortly afterwards.  Hers was from Republic Wireless, but I was confused when mine came from Phonebooth.com.  After checking the forum, I found out there was a transaction issue that caused a number of orders to be routed to a sister company by accident.  I sent a message over, but their communication is a bit spotty right now.  I honestly believe they got absolutely hammered.  Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who are pissed off that they didn’t get instant shipments.  The forums are full of trolls right now.  Luckily, you can easily see the patient ones who are saying, “I am surprised they are still trying to work through it all.” 

Yesterday, we got our promised updates.  A’mee got an email stating that she was in the beta and to stay tuned for her ship date (since they have to prep the phones manually); my e-mail stated there was an “issue” with the transaction, and I have a slot in the beta, but not in the first batch like A’mee.  I am frustrated by it, but I am trying to be patient with them. 

So that drama aside, here is how the plan works….

You get a phone loaded with their software.  They have partnered up with Sprint to offer the cell coverage side of the plan.  The main focus of the plan is based around Wi-Fi.  They are asking users to primarily connect via Wi-Fi, since there are hotspots just about everywhere most people go, be that work, home, Starbucks, or even McDonalds.  You are monitored on your usage, and they have what is called the “Customer Use Index” or CUI:   an app on the phone that will help track your usage between cell and Wi-Fi connections to help keep you on track. There is a catch, and for some it may be a deal breaker:  If you go over the cell allotment too often (stated in forum posts as being for several months in a row, etc.) they can actually cancel your service with Republic.   Personally, I don’t see that to be an issue.  We have Wi-Fi at home, I have it at work, and most of our usage will be with texts, but even then, it won’t be hard to stay within the cell tower usage.  So we wait for our phones.  The hardest part for me is that I am pretty sure A’mee will get hers well before I get mine.  The beta is slated to run for at least the next 60 days, so we will see how it goes.  I will be updating as soon as there is anything worth reporting.    I just know that even with any cancelation fees we pay to get out of our contract, we come out ahead with the drastic reduction in the monthly plan.  

Check out their site or find them on Facebook or Twitter for any other information.  I am really excited about this, being as how this is not only cheap, but they are also going to be our first smartphones.