First Place!

Ken has been doing photography for many, many years now and this was the second year that he entered the Tangent Lab photography contest.  Out of the five entries he submitted, one was accepted as a framed print and two others were included in the digital “show”.  Last night we went to the show and learned that Ken had won First Place in the Open category!  I am so proud of him!  Here’s a couple of pics of him at the show.

Ken hates it when I take odd angle shots but I wanted to get him, the photo, AND the ribbon!  He looks so proud!

Accepting his prize – 2 cool gift certificates and some cash!

Grocery Shopping

Although I’m not fond of the required grocery shopping, I do enjoy saving money.  Today I only did a partial shop in order to maximize my savings but I thought I’d share what I did today.  Aldi’s is my favorite place to shop for cereal, meat, milk, some canned items, and fresh fruit/veggies.  Even though Dillons had milk on sale for $2.99 a gallon, Aldi’s price today was $2.75 (skim).  Aldi’s have yummy 100% whole wheat bread the kids like to choose their own cereal at a fraction of the cost at other grocery stores.  I did go to Dillons to pick up some eggs as they were on sale for $.99 a dozen whereas Aldi’s were $1.53.  Since Ken and I are currently on the South Beach diet, we eat a LOT of eggs (5 dozen a week, usually!)

Earlier in the week I went to Walgreens because their sale was pretty good.  I purchased a box of Electrasol dishwasher tabs for $5.99 (if I had been watching the sales better, they were $3.49 the previous week!)  I had a coupon for $2.50 off and then the Walgreens EasySaver catalog had a rebate of $1.50.  A $6 box for $2 wasn’t too bad!  I still have to go to Walmart as Aldi’s didn’t have the fat-free version of most of the dairy that I need (cottage cheese, ricotta, etc.).  You may think that it’s a lot of running around just to save a few bucks but if you plan your trips and the fact that I only grocery shop once every two weeks, it’s really not that bad.  And I’d much prefer the money in my pocket instead of theirs!

Moms, if you’re interested in saving money, check out Money Saving Mom.  I am there on a near daily basis finding new ideas in which to save money!

Ah. . . the Weekend!

I look forward to the weekends primarily because it’s two days away from work and a chance to spend time with the family.  I enjoy going to church on Sunday mornings and having the chance to be revitalized for another week.  I frequently find that they’re way too short, though!  Saturday and Sunday are the only days I have to clean the house (no energy during the week), do the laundry (maybe the ironing, if I’m lucky), and grocery shop (if necessary but only go every other week).  In the past I’ve made a list and then everyone chooses a job and gets it done.  Is it done to my specifications?  Well, not exactly but some day it will be.  It gives the children a chance to take ownership in something they can do for the family/house and it definitely helps me out!  Does anyone have any suggestions in  how to make this better?  I’d love to hear from you!

goin’ even more green

I am SUCH  a nerd.  Last week I got a letter from our current waste collector, Waste Connections, about a change in the recycling program.  I have been recycling for several years now, beginning with dropping off newspapers, magazines, aluminum, and glass (then not now) back when Jocelyn was a baby in 1999.  I finally got into the curbside where they would pick up my papers, magazines, plastics #1 and #2, and aluminum.  I’ve been enjoying that convenience of curbside pickup but feel that I could do much more, particularly since I was taking regular 8 1/2″ x 11″ paper from home to my children’s school who were participating in a different recycling program.  That and as a teacher, a lot of paper is wasted at school as well.

So, to get back to this letter that I was thrilled to get (no, that’s NOT sarcasm!).  The letter said that they instead of our current curbside pickup they will be providing me with a “large 95 gallon wheeled recycling cart equipped with an RFID (radio frequency identification) tag.”  Yay, no sorting!  All of my recyclables go in this big cart and then I wheel it to the curb on my designated day.  And do you want to hear something even cooler?! Because they’re going to weigh my cart, I’ll get reward points that I can redeem at a bunch of different places such as Bed, Bath n Beyond and Dick’s Sporting Goods!!!  And even better?  They accept even MORE recyclables!   Like what, you might ask?  Well, corrugated cardboard, chip board from boxes such as cereal, pop, shoe boxes, etc., newspaper, magazines, junk mail, phone books, light colored papers, plastics #1-#7, steel cans, aluminum cans, clean aluminum foil, AND glass containers (clear, amber, green, etc.)  WOW!!  The more you recycle, the more you earn!  So, I have to wait until Jan. 26th for this program to start and in the meantime my garage is getting stocked full of the new kinds of recyclables I can recycle shortly!  Even though my school doesn’t currently participate in a recycling program, I’m going to provide a crate for recycling paper that I can take home to benefit from too!  If you want to see if this program is available in your area, check out www.recyclebank.com.

4 down, 10 to go!

Buddy relaxing by the fire with his favorite toy Kong.

Buddy, being a lab mix, is prone to being overweight.  That’s just the nature of the breed.  When we took him to the vet in November for his kennel cough vaccination, he weighed in at a hefty 74 lbs. — way too heavy for a dog his size.  We tried cutting back his food and he became naughty, grabbing food off the counter or worse yet, our plates!  We played with him in the backyard until he gave up and ran away.  Cutting back on his treats worked for a bit and we were told that frozen peas and green beans were fine for him as well as carrots.  Today we took him in for his rabies vaccination and he’s lost a total of 4 lbs !  We’ll celebrate that small success and work on the rest.  He should be about 60 lbs. so he’s going to have to go on a diet and more exercise plan just like the rest of us for New Year’s!