When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Growing

The pictures above are veggies that will soon to be ready for picking, with the exception of the tomato. We have a few tomatoes which we need to pull now. We planted the garden with the intent to eliminate the extra money being spent to buy some veggies at the grocery store. Needless to say, our garden is a late bloomer so we've had to buy our veggies. Except for spaghetti squash; I refuse to pay the high prices which I've seen to be up to 3.99 a lb. Don't get me started on cucumbers; they are 85 cents now which is ridiculous compared to the 50 cents I only paid during spring time.

The pictures below are tomatoes that Steve picked. The mystery has been solved...the veggie sliced in half was a spaghetti squash and not a watermelon. It did not have a chance to mature. It appeared the pesky animals chewed it off from it's vine.

Not bad for a garden which everyone ignores, never gets watered, and it is littered with weeds.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

In most PA townships around my area, recycling is a requirement and I'm glad. However, there is a specific listing of material which can and cannot be recycled in our area. A lot of times, we are still discarding plastics that really should be recycled because it's not a specific number. This leaves me perplexed. Why is it that we are not recycling EVERYTHING that we can? Why is it that lids cannot be thrown into the recycling trash can along with their bottles?

Our family has quit buying bottled water. Because we use well water, we filter our water through a pitcher. Steve and I know fill containers with water and drink them throughout the day while at work. At first the thought of not having bottled water was quite foreign to me because carrying a bottle of water is as common as carrying your drivers license. Having well water eliminates a utility bill (it's free) and because we are replacing the pitcher filter every 2 months, we are only spending $5 per filter which is costing us only $30 annually. A pack of 24, 16.9 fl oz water bottles were $5-$6 per week. That is a bi-monthly savings of $35-$42 for an annual savings of $210-$252. With the extra savings, Baby Fowler will actually have formula. KIDDING! Seriously, this money will be put towards other things more important like a weekend trip to the beach, recreation sports for the girls, college funds, Christmas presents, etc.

Also, has anyone seen how expensive canned soda has gotten? Oh my word! A 12 pack now averages about $4-$5 for name brand and that is even when the grocery store is having a special. This is also something we do not buy and not only because it's expensive, it's just too much sugar for the girls. At home, we make our own tea and use Crystal Light drink mixes which are fairly cheap at your local bulk warehouse store. The girls are big into Capri Sun flavored water pouches and are also inexpensive to purchase.

Also, plastic sandwich bags are not recycled in our area either. I'm not sure if it's just not possible or again, if it doesn't meet the criteria of what the township will recycle. When I was little, my Mom would wash and reuse aluminum foil. Thank you Mommy, you are a genius! I told Steve that I want to start washing and reusing our sandwich bags before discarding them. Between lunches for everyone, we use about 15 baggies per day. This may sound gross to everyone because as a kid, it sounded gross to me. However it's a way to reduce waste and save money. Of course this doesn't stop Steve from making fun of me. He told me last night that as a kid he had to reuse his toilet paper by washing and drying it. Go ahead, baby, poke fun! You'll be thanking this fat chic for extra money in the bank.

If anyone has any other good ideas on how my family can reduce waste and put a little extra back into our pockets, let me know. I enjoy annoying Steve and the girls with my "people are starving so eat your dinner" and "don't throw that away, we can reuse it" speeches.

Weekend in Review

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to...

Okay, there was no crying involved except for those who fell like Jasmine. Poor girl! Steve and I had Bubble's 9th birthday party at Roll-R-Way, which is a small skating rink in the York area. This is a wonderful example of the lesson we all had to learn as a child...don't judge a book by its cover. The outside of the roller rink did not do the inside justice. There was a disco ball, funky lights, and up to date music (which as time went on caused me a huge headache, which is a definite sign of old age). The kids skated for four hours and we had 45 minutes in the party room. The only negative is that you think the 45 minutes is enough time to round up sweaty hyper kids, keep them still long enough to actually eat something, push Bubbles along in opening her gifts, and once again make the kids stand still long enough for cake and ice cream. WRONG! We were given free passes which we were supposed to hand out to all the kids who attended, but we totally forgot. Now, we have 15 passes to use between Bubbles and RB. That's okay because even though we tried to keep everything to a minimal, we still spent a small fortune which is why Steve wouldn't allow me to accompany him when he paid the bill. So the free passes will come in handy. Luckily for Steve and I, we didn't spend a lot of money on Bubble's birthday gift. HOW MUCH DID WE SPEND YOU ASK? Well, I'm so glad you did because here's another chance for me to illustrate our creative ways of saving mucho dinero. We bought Bubbles a SpyGear tank which she can use to spy on us and listen in to what we are saying. The original price tag was $100 and Target was overstocked with them during the Christmas season. By early February, it was marked down by 75%. I traded in my gas points and received a $25 Target gift card, so the total was $0. Of course, this tank required 12 batteries, but we already had Target gift cards totaling $10 from a few weeks ago which was part of a promotion with cat litter. So even the batteries were free! Hallelujah! Later that night, both Steve and I felt a little like "Jon & Kate, Plus 8" when we attempted to feed 9 people with hamburger helper and a pound of beef. We did by making sure everyone filled up on Crystal Light Rasphberry Ice and butter/jelly bread.

Rednecks in the big city...

Sunday, we spent the day at Washington, D.C. visiting the Air & Space Museum and the Natural History Museum. It was a little chilly, but the sun was shining brightly. The metro is always a fun experience for me and after so many times of riding it and having to pee so badly, I've gotten smart and made everyone use the rest stop before we arrived at the Greenbelt station. Along with Steve, Bubbles, RB, and myself was Kathy (real name is Kandace, but Jasmine kept calling her Kathy the first few times of being around her that we all adopted that name for her as well) and Lizzie. Kathy is RB's best friend and Lizzie is Bubble's best friend. Everyone was well behaved until the end. I still can't get over how kids act when they are tired. You would think we had 50 lb weights strapped to their butts the entire time. Come on ladies, toughen up! Steve is old and I'm pregnant. I just like to take this time to thank a good samaritan who helped us by giving us a package of tissues. Poor Lizzie's nose started to bleed and while Steve was looking for the bathroom, which is difficult to do in the Natural History Museum, some lady walked by and noticed our dilemma and gave us tissues. An act of kindness is very scarce in this world nowadays, but we were witnesses to the fact that it still exists yesterday. Thank you kleenex carrying lady!

No caption necessary on this one

Bubbles being swallowed by a Great White

Is this really necessary?

Our dangerous journey up the metro escalator onto the streets of D.C. If you tried to look backwards to see how far up you were, you lost your balance because it looked like a straight fall down....ARGH!

Poor Lizzie! I wonder if some of the attendees though she was an exhibit?

Hey, this is the same psycho look RRF had before her daily regimen of prozac.

I just saved money...no, it wasn't on my car insurance

I am so super excited that I must post this! I love being frugal and because each of us are trying to survive in this economy, I get to be even more spastic with my frugality. Unforunately, Steve and I use gas to heat our home along with our hot water tank. In the summer, it's great because we are using A/C. The winter weather is not the only thing that can be harsh...so can our gas bill. I must say this is a new thing for me...switching gas suppliers. It's kind of like re-negotiating your interest rate with credit card companies. I've just never been one to do that. Well, no sir-eee bob. Last month both Steve and I had mini-attacks trying to understand why our gas bill was so high. We spent more money paying for the gas to be supplied to our house then actual usage. How is that possible? I thought I was going to have to actually sell my other kidney this time (HAHAHAHAHA, come on Jackie, that was hilarious!). In a matter of just 2 months and after switching gas suppliers, my per Ccf (not really sure what type of measurement that means) has dropped from $1.43 to $0.729. Hollaback! I'm so super excited. Of course, it's a little annoying because pretty much every quarter, I have to call up each supplier and find out who has the lowest rate and then pretty much jump back and forth. However, as long as there are no penalties for early terminations by switching and reswitching so much, I'll do it!


This summer the girls and I are going to be making our own summer dresses. The summer dresses are pretty much just sewn together using one sheet of material, but yet each store seems to charge over $20 for them. What?! It's going to be a fun way to spend quality time with the girls and save money. If only I can get Steve to wear dresses then we won't have to spend any money on his clothes this summer. We are also going to attempt to grow our own vegetables and displaying our progress on this blog will keep us motivated.

What are you doing to save money?