Mothering Many

Just a couple of things real quick this morning, before I tackle the couch of disaster, write yet more lesson plans and take kids to the doctor. Oh, and shower. Must shower.

Happy Tax Time, and if you have a new baby, it’s even better. If you have a cute new baby (and aren’t they all?) it could be almost fantastic. Yeah, a fantastic tax time. Amazing thought that, huh?

It’s a contest from TurboTax called “America’s Cutest Last-Minute Tax Deduction.” Parents with children born in December 2007 are invited to upload a photo of their newborn to the contest’s web site, where their fellow taxpayers will vote for the cutest and most original photo of the baby. The winner will receive a $5,000 savings bond ($10,000 upon maturity). The site is www.CutestTaxDeduction.com. The contest ends January 9.

That’s today, so hurry up! Good thing we live in the digital age, huh?

Moving on to the food part, my friend Amy showed me this site, and I thought you would all enjoy have a peek at this. The article is on food for a family of four in 1952. Be sure to click the picture, because the full version is awe inspiring.

It’s been almost three weeks! I cannot believe all we’ve accomplished in school in that time! I’ll be writing more plans this week, believe it or not. I”ll post a littl eon it, but nothing like the in-depth series I did when I charted the term. In fact, I plan to use those posts I wrote befre to help keep me on track when I write the next 3 weeks worth of plans.

Things are a bit tighter for us this period, what with the sports and all, so I’m glad there isn’t much to buy. The way the term falls on the calendar, I won’t need anything except art/craft supplies until after Christmas. And that’s good, because I really don’t want to deal with private student loans at this stage of the educational game, ykwim? We all know that leads to student loan consolidation later, and with the number of students I have, I don’t think even student loan consolidation would help us out of that debt spiral.

Back to the art stuff: The kids seemed excited in a rather vague way about a couple of projects in the DaVinci book, but not enough to remember the projects when I asked what they wanted to do. However, frescoes were covered in the history I do with Batman and Spidey, and they were quite intrigued with that, so that’s what I bought supplies for. Not having to go to BigTown to get what I needed did weigh heavily in my decision, considering that Sunday was the only day I could do that, BUT the brakes on the van were gone to the point that I could hear metal on metal, and Sunday was also the only day dh could do that, and so, brakes win. Anyway (darn those rabbit trails), I got pie pans, plaster of paris, pipe cleaners, watercolors and brushes. We will make a mess and have great fun, and perhaps some art will even occur, as if by accident.

I mentioned not too long ago that I was considering giving the children an allowance, and I’ve done that. We’ve had three weeks worth of allowances, and I have docked Batman 20% of his new shoes (he lost his other pair), and I have docked Country 60% of a set of blinds (she broke the old set). Luckily for her, I charged her based on the replacement cost of plain vinyl blinds and not the nice wood blinds that I’d like to be getting. Interestingly enough, those charges came out of the first week’s allowance. It seems that once the kids figured out there was money to be had, but that I would withhold it for negligence, it became worth while to be paying attention. Go figure!

Believe it or not, I think I’m actually saving money!

I was just looking back at the post I made Saturday evening, and all the helpful comments I got. Except the one about my shoes. That one wasn’t helpful at all, and it just made me mad, LOL! I’ve decided that I might need to do some shopping. I very rarely buy clothes for myself, because it’s hard to find stuff that fits, but….yeah. Maybe it’s time. Perhaps I can find something to match my hot air balloon shoes! As much as I hate shopping for clothes for myself, that would make it worth it.

Speaking of shopping, I found a place to get discounts on products for your baby. It’s a site you want to check frequently, because all the deals are “while supplies last”. That means you may or may not find what you are looking for (hehe, just like when I go shopping for me), but if you do find it the price will definitely be right (which may or may not be the case when I shop for myself).

What has all that got to do with the title of the post? Well, according to my kids, I’m a clothing loser (at least sometimes), but I bet that site right there makes you think I am the baby shopping winner.

I am thisclose to just ripping up my living room carpet. Seriously. I vacuumed yesterday, and….the thing is filthy. I’m scared to try to clean it, because it’s already bare in spots, and I am afraid that cleaning it would make it worse. Unfortunately, there’s just plywood underneath, and I am afraid the kids would get splinters.

I looked at Coupon Chief this morning to see if they had coupons on flooring. I found discounts for Home Depot, but the cost is still more than the amount of loose change in my pocket. I’m pretty sure it’s going to be laminate flooring once I finally get around to doing anything. I have about 340 square feet, and the Pergo is roughly $50 for 20 square feet, so I’m looking at $850, even with the coupon. *cough, choke, sputter* BUT! Pergo Presto is warranted against wear, staining and fading for 25 years, so while I could get cheaper flooring, I really think it would be worth it to splurge on the Pergo.

Technorati Tags: flooring, Pergo, Coupon Chief

We had something for dinner last night that was so good, I have to share. While I was doing the grocery shopping, I bought 3 of the 16 inch pizzas from the deli area in Wal-Mart. Those things are huge, and they are good. And they are inexpensive! I think I paid about 10 bucks for a meat one, and it had plenty of toppings, and yet the pizzas were not greasy.

My kids love to eat “out food”, but it can easily cost $50 bucks for us to get dominoes. This is a quite reasonable alternative. And 16 inches is a ton of pizza. Admittedly, we’ve been off our feed lately, but the 9 of us could not finish 2 of these.

Technorati Tags: pizza, Wal-Mart

Here’s a tip I use when food shopping. I learned it from another mom of many years ago. Calculate the cost per ounce of foods, and don’t spend more than ten cents per ounce. In addition to saving money, you’ll find that the foods you can buy for this amount are typically healthier than the pre-processed expensive stuff. I’ll admit that I don’t always follow this advice myself, but when I do, it saves me a bundle. And even when I don’t follow it exactly, I still try to keep the cost of our food to $2 per pound or less. That means that if we splurge on steak one night, we eat a meatless meal on another night.

From my email:
OK, what do you think about Ziploc bags? My husband kind of banned them and we have to use the Tupperware, but I just don’t think that they keep the food as fresh as a Ziploc would. I guess it is kind of like your cloth is best post, but didn’t know what you thought.
Alli

I don’t use very many Ziploc bags, and truthfully only buy them when I have a specific use for them. What I do use are the Ziploc containers. I used to be a Tupperware dealer long ago, and I do like the Tupperware products, but several years ago, they priced themselves right out of my budget. The Ziploc containers are cheap enough that I feel like I get my money’s worth out of them. I use them in the freezer, in the frig, and also for dry goods storage occasionally. And they are totally awesome to send/take food in because I don’t have to stress over my dish!

I don’t use those in my laundry either. Fabric Softeners coats your clothes, and that will cause your towels to not be absorbent. And most of them reek, IMO. Most of what makes your clothes nor feel soft is detergent residue, which you can avoid by using the small amount of dish detergent I discussed earlier. A little vinegar in the final rinse will also help with that. Use the Downy© ball that you already have, or the fabric softener dispenser on your machine.

One good use of the fabric softener sheets is for “fresheners” if you need to store off-season clothing, which we do. I find that if I toss a dryer sheet in the bins, I don’t need to wash them (again) when we unpack them.

Technorati Tags: fabric softener

I have a dirty little secret to share, but it really helps me clean up. I do not buy laundry soap. Ever. I use dish detergent instead, about a tablespoon for a normal sized load, about a tablespoon and a half for a super capacity machine (guess which one I have?). Try it and see how it works for you.