April 16, 2014
I’m half-watching an Animal Planet show that was on lemurs, craggy cliffs and hawks (I think), and it’s now turned into something on tenrecs. Apparently they can have up to 42 offspring at a time!
We do a lot of our grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s, and while we’re there, staples like milk and OJ tend to make their way into the basket. It’s cheaper there, comes in the plastic jugs that I like better than the paper carton version that had to be torn open, but carefully or you’d spill, and, well, cheaper. By 33%. But here’s the thing. That dratted milk always went off within a day or three of the date. Always. It seemed like the faster we drank it, the faster it went off the next time. The first few times, I took it back and got a refund with a vague feeling of triumph for not having been cheated.
But it kept happening. And after a while it hit me: I was buying the cheap boots and having to replace it more regularly, wasting time and gas. Good grief, I don’t want to go to the store twice a week, every week, for free/new milk! Quality guarantees with full refunds are great until it’s clear that the quality isn’t actually going to improve.
So now I go across the street and pay a dollar more for the same amount of milk, in a paper carton with a nice twist off cap because they do that now, and just figure, I pay more for good milk I’m actually drinking.
MONEY
I’ve been seriously exploring new investment angles and chatting with a friend about real estate rentals, he shared this site that compares rents. It’s neat! Also, egads, I love talking about investing and money with friends who actually know this side of me, we geek out over money philosophies like whoa.
SaverSpender on the value, over time, of negotiation. Seriously, probably one of the most valuable things I’ve learned from the PF community & PF mentors? Negotiate. Obviously I have to do it differently than say, men, who are expected to negotiate while women are damned if they do and damned if they don’t but all things considered, if I’m going to be damned anyway? I’m going to be damned WITH the money, thanks. My approach has changed a lot over time and with experience, and with different working relationships, but I’ve gone into every job in the past 8 years eyeing my opportunity to grow and to grow my salary.
This article on testing the social signaling (if you’re REALLY rich, you’re confident enough to wear frumpy, hobo-like clothes to go shopping) described in this article was interesting. I’d enjoy being mistaken for super-rich as far as service goes, but believe me, the assistants in Nordstrom aren’t fooled by my bopping-around clothes, I surely wouldn’t be looked at once, forget twice, in a truly high end store. (hattip Katherine) I am rich in confidence though… 🙂
THINKING THINGS
Lester Spence: Tragedy, White Supremacy and American Politics (hattip Cloud)
Speaking of Cloud, I loved this post on her daughter, Pumpkin, turning seven. This is the kind of thoughtful, truthful and hopeful post that makes me feel a bit better about the future and the idea of parenting. My view of parenthood is irrevocably colored by my family’s experiences, and mostly stark and heartbreak-colored; I look to smart, engaged parent friends to show me that there is good in it too.
Tungsten Hippo on short ebooks. I’ve always disliked short books because they end too soon (and I hate goodbyes) but looking at them as a taster flight is a great recalibration.
John Scalzi on the four levels of discrimination (and being sexist versus being A sexist)
Cara, a photographer I adore, on 5 days with her children, firmly reinforcing my belief that we should never be outnumbered by our kids & also I don’t know how friends do it.
NEAT THINGS
Anne Hathaway and Jimmy Fallon Put a Broadway Spin On Rap Songs
Frenchie puppy talking back
Partly a GoPro commercial but an amazing video nonetheless
February 19, 2010
My sous chef wouldn’t allow me to display all of yesterday’s haul in its true glory (and stole one of the grapefruits).
Though I love farmer’s markets, I usually hate mornings. The latter lends itself to instant gratification -it’s SO much easier to snuggle back under the covers after my frosty nose tests the air, generally, so I’m grateful to local produce markets that offer fresh selections at great prices when I emerge from my den, starving.
What came home with me?
2 huge bundles of spinach
2 slender bunches of asparagus
1 bundle of green onions
1 gorgeous head of broccoli
1 less gorgeous cauliflower
1 large bunch of green grapes (in the bowl)
3 grapefruits
4 Roma tomatoes
2 minneolas
6 bell peppers (trying to stand up in the back)
How much did it cost?
$18.24
I’ll also use the spinach in salads, and in some Indian recipes I’m hoping to make with a native cook-friend next week. The broccoli is wonderful steamed and maybe dotted with a little cheese — that was the first solid food I ate after my dental debacle two weeks ago!
P.S. the Chicken and Roasted Peppers turned out rather well ….
March 27, 2008
Celebrations:
C1 has a birthday today, and she’s invited the ‘mates to a karaoke bar for the evening. She has Friday off, however, and we don’t, so that could be a touch dodgy for us toilers. Or painful. Transportation’s always iffy when it comes to weeknight partying as well. The car’s still in the shop, and I hate to drive the gas guzzlers more than 10 miles, given the hundreds I’m already shelling out for gas. Still and all. It’s her birthday. As she’s reminded us every day: she’s “getting old.” Maybe I’ll gift her some Centrum Silver and wish her well on the kar-a-o-k-e-ing. 🙂 Lord knows I just want to giggle at the drunken karaokiers, singing in public’s a no-go for me. I know it’s “just one night” but that’s one night after a few outings this month. The car shop said they’d call me if the car was ready earlier than Friday. Must … decide ….
Free Stuff:
Boy Coworker normally picks up my train pass for me as the transit lady knows us, and will send our ticket with whomever to save me a trip. Sweet, but it also gets me out of a walk, so I told him not to ask for it, but take it if she offered. No need to be rude, after all. He turned it down when she offered anyway, because they’re doing a giveaway for people who fill out their survey and buy a transit pass for the month of April, but that means you have to go over to her office. Whee! I grabbed pouting C1 (“but, what about me? I buy a yearly!”) immediately and we trotted on over to get our free $15 Starbucks gift cards. We both got our $15 gift cards with nary a problem, and now I have a Starbucks cushion for when coffee drinkers or friends want to meet for coffee. As I don’t love Starbucks and don’t love coffee, I always grimace at the idea of giving them my own, real money.
I didn’t bring lunch yesterday, but we had leftovers from ordering in last week, and I’d still a bit from the weekend. Today, we’ll be having birthday lunch so I didn’t have to pack anything last night, and Friday’ll be leftovers again. I love having free lunches that I don’t have to think about.
Frugal Eats:
Oh! And my grocery shopping last weekend saved dinner last night. I’d picked up a few packets of Indian food from Trader Joe’s, but left it in the cupboard since we still had fresh groceries. Since I walked home from the station, PaDucky didn’t come home to make dinner until after I’d already cooked a new pot of rice. He walked in, stumped about what to cook, whereupon I produced the two packets of yellowfin tuna curry and a potato and vegetable mixture, the name of which escapes me, and voila! Dinner! Dinner for about $5 and in about twenty minutes, all told. PaDucky usually doesn’t like what I pick for dinner, preferring to cook some sort of Chinese or Vietnamese food, but he actually seemed amenable to my selections this time.
The night might have been marred by the discussion with my brother but rescuing dinner, as I so rarely do, redeemed it. It’s really the little things in life, folks.
May 14, 2007
As Moneydummy noted, the price of eggs has been astronomical of late. The local grocery store prices a carton of 18 eggs at 4.50, BOGO. At first, 36 eggs for 4.50 might sound like a bargain, but it’s really not. That’s a dozen more eggs than we need for the next 2-3 weeks, and encourages both the waste of money (1.50) and the eggs (1 dozen).
Luckily, I had my cell phone with me and checked in with MaDucky who advised me to go to Longs Drugs. It turns out that their regular price is less than half that of Vons’, and only cost me 2.50 for 2 dozen eggs. Certainly worth the $2 savings and knowing that none of the eggs will go to waste. Yes, it cost me an extra 5 minutes to stop at another store, but it’s just across the street from my house anyway, so I didn’t go out of my way either.
Another option that just occurred to me is Trader Joe’s. I know BoyDucky always goes to TJ’s for his eggs because they’re 99 cents/dozen, but if they have a few other basics at lower prices than Vons’ sale prices, it’d be worth splitting the trips, again because TJ’s is just across the street from my house. I should have checked it out yesterday instead of making a beeline for Longs but I had juice and yogurt in the car, and tunnel vision to boot.
Next week, I plan to scout Trader Joe’s for their pricing on staples like milk, eggs and bread, while trying to avoid those landmines of specialty goodies they always have. I love good food, but with the price of gas these days it’s important to make sure the grocery dollars are stretched as far as they can go!
