Outta here

Well, just as the school year is rounding out and I am supposed to be around more to blog, I am being whisked away to Bermuda on a cruise ship. I know, it's horrible. I am running around for last minute errands and trying to find some shorts that fit my curvy self and don't have a 6 inch gap in the back! Horrible, huh? I am packing and cleaning and ahh...how nice it will be to relax on a beach. I'll let you know how it goes! Hopefully I will have lots of time to brainstorm ideas for future blogs. Goodness knows I am coming home to the tasks of purchasing a car and a refrigerator and doing all my little home projects, not to mention training for the triathlon. Lots to write about.

Don't forget AAA for summer discounts

I just peeked at the list of summer discounts for AAA. Amy and I are taking advantage of the $33 price for Hersheypark tickets through the end of June valid on week days.

You can also go to Six Flags Great Adventure for $30 (that is a steal) or Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom in Allentown for $30. With tickets more than $50 a pop, families can spend hundreds of dollars on admission. Not to mention souvenirs, food and other incidentals. And did you know you can get tickets to Regal Cinemas for $6.75 all the time? That sure beats the nearly $10 it costs at the door.

Ode to black beans

I am in love with black beans. I don't know when it started, but I can't stop eating them. I stock up on cans and cans of them at the grocery store. I eat them with rice, chicken, shredded pork and other dishes. If I can add beans to a pile of leftovers, I will. I LOVE black bean soup at Panera. I love black beans with my Mexican entrees. I just love, love, love them.
I should try to soak them, and make them that way. But it's always easier just to pop open a can.

Maybe I can find a good recipe for my own black bean soup.

To work or not to work, that is the question

I know it's a terrible dilemma. My paycheck continues to come through the summer, but I don't have to work. I will be writing for the newspaper, but there is always Cracker Barrel, too. But lately, I have been so fed up with working there. My schedule is complicated, since Nate works some weekends and has off others. He doesn't want me to commit to weekends, but I don't want to work weekdays. I have dreams of running errands and doing things on my own when no one else is around.
I want to work on home projects and go to Roots in Lancaster. I want to got to Eastern Market on Fridays and go for long runs and bikes in the middle of the week. These are all activities that aren't possible when you work full time.
I don't want to commit to anything this summer, because once fall rolls around, I am enrolled in two masters' classes and am starting a very demanding job as a full time learning support teacher. It's exciting, but I think I need a break before all the chaos and excitment starts.
Who knows, maybe I will just sit down and talk to Cracker Barrel, then I can make a decision from there.

When it's OK to waste

The last several batches of cookies I have made have failed to get plump. I know some people like flat, crunchy cookies, but I am not one of them. My mom makes the most killer chocolate chip cookies in the world. They are plump and lumpy and full of gooey goodness.
I consulted my mom on this problem. We decided it was probably the old baking soda I have been using, but I refused to throw it out. Not sure why. I am slightly obsessive compulsive about wasting. After making some white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies for a bake sale at school that were flat and crunchy, I have decided that enough is enough. I think it's OK to throw away the 33 cent box of baking soda (which I am sure is what I paid for it because it has the price sticker on it) and invest in a new box that will reincarnate my plump and lovely cookies. I know, it's scary to throw away food and baking ingredients when you are a frugal saver like me. But when it's just not doing the trick anymore, it's time! Phew, I feel better now.

$1 coupon doubler at Giant

Did you happen to see the Sunday circular?
Maybe I am super psyched because I haven't gotten the Sunday paper in some time and I miss my circulars and coupons (typical York County resident).
There are 4 coupon doublers for $1 and plenty of $1 coupons in the circular to use them with. I always use them on shampoos and soaps since those items are not likely to expire before I can use them. Saving $2 on four items ends up saving you $8. And, if you need to stock up on sodas for summer picnics, now is the time to do it. It's $10 for four 12 packs of Pepsi products at Giant. That's $2.50 a 12-pack. And I don't know if you've seen regular prices lately, but they are $5 or more for a 12-pack. CRAZY!
Cutting and matching coupons and sales is a great activity to do while watching TV.

Lovely weekend

I am so proud of Nate! When he booked our room at the Yorktowne, he asked if they offered AAA discounts! I am rubbing off on him. It saved us at least $10.
There are so many little ways you can save a few bucks that can add up to a lot.
Although our weekend wasn't cheap overall, we did save a little bit by taking advantage of coupons and deals.
Our weekend started at Cobblestones, where we used a 15 percent off coupon that was on our baseball game tickets for the next day. That saved us several dollars. We had a lovely dinner complete with Sam Adams Cherry Wheat beer (YUM!). Then we headed back to the room to take a nap. The Louis C.K. show at the Strand was pretty good. He is very crude at times, but has a great message to give. We ended the night at the bar in the Yorktowne and ordered a pizza. The kind bartender hooked us up with the phone number for some pizza place I never heard of, but it was probably one of the only ones that delivered past 10:30 p.m.
Sunday we enjoyed brunch at Mezzogiorno in Central Market (which yes, is open and very busy on Sunday mornings.) I ordered the French toast special with berries and marscapone sauce. It came with a side of meat, which I didn't want, so Nate saved $2 by ordering his eggs and toast without meat and ate mine! That's team work.
We ended up at the Revs stadium to watch them play poorly and lose 6 to 1.
All totaled, I figure we saved at least $25 bucks with a few smart decisions. Hey, it's not much, but it's a tank of gas, right?

Staying close to home

I sort of celebrated my one year anniversary two weeks ago. We just had a light lunch and spent time with family. What I didn't know was that Nate planned a little mini vacation in York. I know, it's not far away or fancy, but the fact that he took the time to make plans really made my day. It's happening this weekend. After dinner at an undecided location, we are seeing a comedian at the Strand-Capitol Performing Arts Center on Saturday night. Then, we are camping out at the Yorktowne Hotel and finishing off the day Sunday with a York Revolution game. Having moved out of York city a year ago (I can't even believe time flew so fast), I am excited to go back downtown and explore and take in the great sites and activities.

My piggy bank is emptying

No matter how hard I try lately, saving money seems to be impossible. If it's not one thing, it's another. Our cars have been giving us little problems here and there. Nothing major, just oil changes, a/c charging and air compressor. The refrigerator needed to be repaired and then the lawn mower broke and we needed another one. There went another $300-plus. We started a garden and as happy and excited as I am to see it bloom, the treatment, wheel barrow and other instruments Nate said we needed added up to more than $100. Somehow I spent $179 at BJs a few weeks ago on only a few items. That is why those memberships are BAD. I don't want to complain, because we are so much better off than so many people. We are leaving on a cruise to Bermuda here in a few weeks and when we return, we will be getting a puppy. I have the summer off, which can't be beat. Sometimes I just wish saving were a little easier.

You eat what?

The conversation started with a container of baby carrot sticks leftover from lunch.
I met some high school friends at Long's Park in Lancaster for a day of prayer event. Knowing that one of them hadn't eaten, I brought all I had -- the carrot sticks.
"Here ya go," I said. "I know it's not much, but all I had to dip it in was mustard, and I don't think too many people are keen on that?"
"Mustard?" the two ladies questioned.
"Yeah," I said, "it's really good. Gross sounding, but really good. And very low in calories."
"I like peanut butter on mine," one said.
"Peanut butter?" I asked with the same astonished expression on my face she just gave me.

That's how our food habits form. Those of us adventurous enough try our friends suggestions sometimes are able to pick up new and exciting food ideas. Mustard on carrots came from Nate, my husband. I didn't want to believe it was good, but now I love it. In college, my roommates ate ketchup on raw broccoli. That is one habit I did not pick up.

But isn't it cool how food ideas spread? I mean, America is the place were hundreds and thousands of food ideas converge. Some we adopt, some we do not.

I never had roasted vegetables until a former coworker invited me over for dinner. Now, that is my favorite way to eat vegetables.

I never had sushi until Amy took me to Blue Pacific for a spider roll. Now, I eat it all the time, raw and all.

Isn't it fun to remember where you first tried certain foods?

Saving on movies

It's like $10 to go to the movies. And that is just the price for an admission ticket.
I know some people can't wait to see the movies, but I can. If there is a preview of a movie I want to see, I usually forget. So, I type it in Netflix and save it for later. Netflix is $18 a month. Nate and I get a good mixture of movies and can never say there is nothing on TV.
I also love to use DVR. I look through to find more recent movies and record them for later watching. I did this with "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," "Bridge to Terebithia" and "The Notebook." Weekends on ABC Family are great for movies. Especially the cheesy girl movies staring Lindsay Lohan and Hilary Duff...my favorite lazy day movie.

Dinner on the quick

There is no challenge that I love more than opening the refrigerator and looking at what I have to pull together a meal. It's much easier when Nate is on night work. I will eat just about anything, so it's a tad easier. Last night, I pulled the last of the pork from my wedding (yes, I know that was more than a year ago, but it's still tastes fine and I haven't died yet) out of freezer. As it was defrosting in the micro, I cracked open a can of black beans. As soon as the pork was done, I warmed it in a pan with the beans and cooked some leftover rice in the micro. In about five minutes, I had a lovely little mixture of pork, beans and rice. I added some bruschetta for that cool, crisp, vegetable taste. YUM. It was a great fusion of flavors that was quick, cheap and used some leftovers.
I threw something similar in my lunch!

Refrigerator repair

Ah, the joys of being a homeowner. If there is one thing I don't know how to be frugal about, it's appliance repair. A few days ago, we noticed that our refrigerator and freezer were not keeping temperature the way it was supposed to, even when cranked the whole way to the nine setting. Then it was discovered that it was really just the tops of both sides that weren't working, and that the bottoms were doing OK.
Finally on Thursday I made a phone call to Miles Maytag Repair man. He was booked (apparently refrigerator repairs are a big business.) He wasn't able to come out until today. $163 later, our refrigerator is fixed. And do you know how much the part was? $20 or something...the rest labor. And he was at the house for about an hour, Nate said. You do the math.
Nice, huh?
I don't want to complain because at least we didn't have to buy a new fridge, but dang! That is a lot of money for an hour of work. At least we supported a local business in this tough economy.