You Save Fifty Cents Here...

Looks like this recession is trickling up now.  In the past week I've seen two instances of this effect.  In case you're wondering what I'm referring to by trickling UP, it means the first part of the recession affected the working man and consequently because of him spending less, businesses either went under or were forced to cut back, thus now impacting the b2b's (businesses that service other businesses) who survived in 2009.

But hey, I only took Economics 101 so what do I know...especially since that was way back when UH tuition was cheap and the campus was well maintained.  What I do know is that people are still losing jobs and if there had been course in Money Conservation at the UH, I would've been at the 404 level! 

So off the top of my head, here are a few suggestions for penny-pinching.  There are also tips on conservation and health, too...

1) I've mentioned this before:  BUDGET Basic Cable.  You really don't need "Basic" Cable for almost $50/month when there's $13/month Budget Basic (we get about 30 stations--more than enough!).

2) No shame...you don't have to buy fancy Tupperware.  I've been called "Miss Cool Whip Container" and look, this means my ecological "footprint" is that much smaller.  If you can't use all of the containers, recycle the #1's and #2's OR drop them off at a school or daycare OR sell or give them away at your garage sale.

3) Buy vitamin and herbal supplements online.  Even with shipping it's cheaper than shopping at the stores PLUS the supplements are generally higher quality.  I just ran out of calcium and went to Walmart.  Not only were their calcium supplements (all brands!) more expensive, they had a multitude of "bad" ingredients (fillers, preservatives, etc.).  I couldn't bring myself to buy any of them!  Incidentally, my favorite shampoo, Jason Natural Tea Tree Oil Scalp Normalizing Shampoo, which sells at stores for over $9, is just $4.55 at Swansonhealth.com! 

4) Turning off power bars does save a few dollars a month!  If you can't turn off the whole bar, unplug those chargers at least.  I unplug our modem and router every night too. You'll be pleasantly surprised to see your electric bill showing a difference. 

5) If you've got a tissue hog in your household, try buying single-ply toilet tissue.  Usually Safeway has the best price on this. 

6) Rather than buying new books, go to the library.  If you can't bring yourself to do this, go to Amazon.com and buy used books--as well as DVD's and CD's.  You'll save---again, even with the shipping added!  There are bestsellers for just a penny each! (Shipping=$3.99)

7) Something I just started doing is recycling water.  You could buy a contraption from Costco for saving rainwater from your gutters to water your yard, but I do this on a smaller scale by just catching rinsewater from vegetable washing or other "clean" rinsing in a bowl and transferring it into a plastic gallon bottle to use later for soaking dirty dishes or watering the few plants I bother to water.  (Growing vegetables is a great way to save money, but I did not inherit that skill from my dad, unfortunately).

8) I make healthy "snack bags" for Jordan's lunch bag instead of sending chips/cookies, etc. Costco's selling an excellent beef jerky (Pacific Gold) which uses no preservatives or HFCS (high fructose corn syrup). Cut them up into small pieces, add nuts (preferably raw/unsalted), raisins or other dried fruit cut up (I use mango, cherries, dates, or blueberries), Mini Wheats cereal pieces, chocolate chips, a few potato sticks or rice crackers. It's fun to make these bags and you can totally control the ingredients--use your imagination! Make sure to buy the ingredients on sale or by bulk.   By the way, I also put these same ingredients in a small bowl for myself to snack on during the day.

9) Home lunches--or brownbagging--is another obvious money-saver.  Have you tried banana/peanut butter/jelly sandwiches?  Use whole wheat bread and sprinkle some cinnamon on the bananas and you're getting even more health benefits! 

When you make your dinner salad, just make a bit more for your lunch the next day to save time.  Leonard's naturopathic doc, Dr. Ancharsky, recommends at least 6 ingredients for your salads.  Typically I use spinach, lettuce, cilantro, red cabbage, sweet peppers, celery, brocco sprouts, carrots, tomatoes and/or cucumbers.  For kick, add some jalapeno peppers or artichoke hearts.  Top with tuna or chicken or how about salsa and cheese for a Mexican salad? 

Instead of sandwiches, try a wrap.  You'll get less calories this way and you're able to load more healthy fillings.  Costco sells a flat bread in an oblong shape that's ideal for wrapping.  Jordan likes Mexican wraps (similar to a burrito with refried beans, tomatoes, lettuce, sweet peppers, salsa), but again, anything goes and they're easier to eat than a sandwich, too.

10) Lastly, ladies--ahem-- if you place them carefully, you can cut your pantyliner bill in half if you cut your pantyliners in half! Hint: Kotex Longs. Hey, you might think "Awww, it only costs $1.29 a box!" but remember the saying "If you take care of the pennies, the dollars will take care of themselves!" And what about Russell Peter's Chinese shop guy? "You save fitty cent here, then you go to another shop, save another fitty cent... then you got a DOL-LAH...then you go to the Dollah store and buy yourself something else!" (video below).
 



I know I have more ways to save money while keeping healthy, but these are the ten I came up with today.  I'll add more later!  Don't forget.. Russell Peters will be at the Blaisdell Concert Hall on Nov. 27!

Releasing Our Kraken

I thought I'd just write a quicky to say that I saw Sex and the City 2 and enjoyed it.  I would write more in its defense, but someone already did, so why waste my time?  All I want to say is that despite the bad reviews (most critics are male, btw),  I think of SATC as entertainment and escapism and frankly, I preferred this second movie to the first, except for the absence of Gilles Marini. My favorite scene was the gay wedding with Liza Minnelli.  My favorite guy in this movie (besides Mr. Big, of course), was the Indian butler played by Raza Jaffrey and I got a chuckle reading about how he's being stopped on the street these days and praised for how he stirred Carrie's hot milk.  OMG, that sounds a bit suggestive, but believe me, it's totally just a tender scene.  I've read the critical reviews and heck, we women are just as entitled to mindless fluff as men are entitled to theirs:  "Release the KRAKEN!!!" (I've always wanted to say that!).  Our Kraken is surely Samantha during her hot flashes.  (Sorry for the finger photo, but it pretty much represents Samantha as a Kraken, after all!)

So please, go and see the movie and don't be put off by critics and even if you've seen the pirated version online, go see it on the big screen, where you can actually hear the jokes and not be confused by extraneous noises while the movie was being videotaped in the theater.  [It actually happened twice I watched the pirated version online. I heard a cough in a quiet scene and thought someone else was in Carrie's room, then later a cell phone rang and I wondered why no one in the movie was picking up. *LOL*]

On to books! If anyone has suggestions for a good book for me to read that does not involve raping/murdering, excessive violence or excessive romance, please leave a message in the Comments.  I notice I'm becoming more picky about what I read and have been leaving a lot of books unfinished lately.  Maybe because as I get older, I know I have less and less time to waste on 1) overly flowery prose (Dean Koontz cannot let a man simply walk down a street without describing each bush), 2) predictable plots (of course the cute guy will end up loving the homely girl then her cheating bf will try to get her back), and 3) overused phrases (such as Stephanie Plum constantly "blowing out a sigh"). 

I still enjoy Maeve Binchy, but I've read all of her books.  I enjoy Maeve's plots that involve multiple characters so I also loved "Pillars of the Earth" and "A World Without End," except I don't care for the violent war scenes.  I'm now discovering "discovery" thrillers and currently reading Douglas Preston's "Tyrannosaurus Canyon" and "Almost Adam" by Petru Popescu.  Just in case I don't finish them, however,  I also have "Sein Language" by Jerry Seinfeld, and Dave Barry's "Boogers Are My Beat"  (Uh oh...but you have to admit, that's neither overused nor predictable!) standing by.  I just pray there are no Kraken-sized boogers in that book!!

Selflessly Sacrificing My Bejewled Blitz Time

At least I donate blood.  There are times I feel guilty when I read or hear about people who do so much: they work fulltime, raising five kids, and yet have time to keep fit as well as do volunteer work.  As they say, if you want something done, give it to a busy person.  Shame on me, I have a flexible schedule working at home and yet I don't do volunteer work and "keeping fit" means bouncing my BodyBlade six minutes a day.  I count vacuuming as part of my exercise time---ok so that adds another whole ten minutes a week, wheeee!

So to help alleviate my guilt, I donate blood a couple times a year and write this blog.  I have very small veins, so hey, it's a big deal to get gouged and bruised twice a year.  [I've learned, however, to ask for the "expert" and 99% of the time they're able to hit the mark on their first try---thank goodness.]

As for my other public service obligation, here are some of the latest tips I'd like to share:

1) If you're worried about home invasions, today I received an email that suggests using your car remote's horn button as a security device.  Leave your car keys by your bed at night and if you hear a suspicious noise outside or someone breaking into your house, hit the horn button on the remote to start your horn beeping.  Chances are the burglar won't stick around to see if anyone in the neighborhood noticed the annoying blaring in the middle of the night.  Additionally, when you're out, be sure to carry your remote car keys in your hand while walking to your parked car to use as an alarm if you're threatened.

2) The latest quick tips gleaned from Dr. Oz's shows and Dr. Mercola's site:

•  Choose salmon over tuna, and smaller/younger fish (sardines, iriko) over bigger/older fish to lessen your mercury exposure.
• Eat these foods for longevity: jicama, kale, sweet potatoes (esp. the purple ones!), teff, amaranth, millet, mangos, dates, and apples (organic if possible).
• Interesting and hopeful news: the AMA (American Medical Association) Journal will have a regular feature looking into the massive overuse of medication and treatments that patients don't need.  Hel-lo!? Is the Medical world finally acknowledging what the Naturopathic world has been saying all along?  The 2012 Paradigm Shift is going to happen, I tell you!

3) Hopefully you recycle plastics, whether or not you get paid.  Don't forget that besides the usual juice, shampoo, and vitamin bottles, you can also toss into the plastic bin any container with the #1 and #2 symbol, such as those big rectangular containers from Costco that you get vegetables or baked goods in, tofu containers, or those ridiculously hard-to-open blister packs that batteries and electronic devices are sold in.  I'm telling you this because I only recently realized these are recyclable...duh!!

4) News Flash!!  Ok, so it's old news from a few months ago, but I just heard that finally Stephanie Plum will be immortalized on film!!  Although I've been hoping for years for a Plum television series, I heard today that Janet Evanovich's beloved Jersey Girl, Stephanie the Bounty Hunter, will be played by Katherine Heigl in "One For the Money," based on the first Stephanie Plum book (there are now sixteen plus a few "in betweens").  I'm not so thrilled with Katherine Heigl getting the part, but will reserve judgment until after the movie comes out.  Stephanie's fans, from what I see on various message boards, are not happy with her casting either.  We'll soon find out if Heigl can act or not.  Meanwhile, the casting of Ranger is oh-so-perfect in Daniel Sunjata (on the left) who appeared in a Sex and the City episode as a sailor.  Wow, I was hoping I'd see him again!  Morelli will be played by Jason O'Mara.  The big question now is who will play Grandma Mazur and Lula?  Showing my age, I always picture Estelle Getty "Golden Girls" and Jackee Harry (see photo below) "227"--I swear she IS Lula--when I read the books.  I also imagined Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as Ranger and Chris Noth as Morelli.  Oddly, I could never picture Stephanie, but someone mentioned Debra Messing and yeh, she plays "bungling" well.  Unfortunately these actors are all too old--or in Ms. Getty's case, gone--for the parts.

Ok, I've done my good deed so now I can go back to Bejeweled Blitz.  Oh shoots I just remembered I have a report due...oh yeh, Monday....hmmmm....lots of time.   Hey, at least I give blood!