Baby Food

My friends who know me at all, know how cheap (I prefer the word "frugal") I am. Jack started eating baby food about a month ago. I was very lax about it, since he was a preemie and behind developmentally. I didn't want to push it on him if he wasn't ready, but at the same time, I would like my breasts back eventually. He likes it, but I don't know how much he actually ingests and digests.

So, I am cheap. Super cheapo. I have the disease "If it wasn't free, I paid too much." I am always looking for a deal. Hence, all the furniture in my house is cheap crap. Maybe that has to do more with having kids, but I hate spending money. So I make baby food.

This started out of necessity when Grace was born and not having any money. I would buy a bag of frozen veggies on sale for $1, mash them in my baby food grinder, and freeze the food for future use. So now veggies are about $1.75 a bag. With one bag I can get about 8 jars of food. At the grocery store, 8 jars is about $4.50 if you are lucky. And this adds up. Right now he eats 1/3 jar a day, but that will go up and up to about 3 jars a day. That is a $1.70 savings each and every day.

So all you do is cook whatever food you want to make, so it is over-cooked, nice and mushy. If you have a babyfood grinder like I do, you grind away. If not, a food processor or blender works well, but are big containers so there is a lot of scraping. Then you use old baby food jars (from things you can't make at home like bananas, prunes, peas) and fill them about 2/3 full. Label them, with tape or marker, then freeze. Viola! You have home-made, healthy, cheap babyfood.

OK - don't try peas. I have tried it and it's very hard because you have to practially skin each pea to get the mushy stuff inside. It takes time, and is frustrating. It will clog your baby food grinder. Also, bananas don't save well. Use fresh or buy it. The best things to make are: carrots, sweet potatoes, green beans, apples, pears). Do NOT try: peas, broccoli, bananas, strawberries.

I still don't have any money, but if I did, I think I would still make my own food. You know what is in it, it's very easy and the babies like it. Viola!

Underoos

I just went shopping for new bras and panties. I know it sounds silly, but it makes me feel good when I wear matching undergarments. I feel like even though no one will ever see them, I look nice under all those layers. It makes you feel pretty and sexy to wear nice things like that.

For men: equate it to a new pair of socks. The kind that's slippery on most floors because they haven't been washed. They fit your foot exactly, not too tight, and are extra soft. That's what it feels like to a girl to have on fancy panties or matching undies. It's just a nice feeling.

Yeah! I have matching fancy undies! This feels better than school-clothes shopping!

R.I.P. VHS

I read a newspaper article a few weeks ago, that the last supplier of VHS is shutting his doors. No more VHS. Whatever is left at stores is it, people. Why, I ask is VHS dead? I understand it doesn't age that well, supposedly, and DVD's have a better quality.
My son sits in the other room watching He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, made in 1983. It's a VHS. It's as old as my little sister. The quality seems just fine, for the time it was made. It was a hand me down, from a hand me down, from a hand me down.
Here are the reasons I love VHS:
1)It's virtually kid-proof! They throw them, bang them and can put them in the VCR themselves. My kids aren't allowed to handle DVD's because of too many scratched movies or broken disks.
2) They are so cheap! You can buy your kids a whole library of Disney movies for about $1.99 a movie at Goodwill. That's economical.
3) Many of my old home movies are VHS. The ones from my childhood are classics. We used to make our own Saturday Night Live-style show in high school at sleepovers and those are hilarious! I made a few high school and college projects with camcorders, and help from the techie editing guys.
4) They last longer than people think. (see reference to 1983 movie above). AND if you accidently pull the tape out, just wind it back up. If you scratch a DVD, you can't really undo that.

I admit it. I am a closet VHS lover! They rock!

List of things

I think everyone has a list of things they want to do before they die. Even if you've never written it out (sorry, Oprah I'm a bit busy). But I think most people have a few things in their head that they would like to do, even if in their wildest dreams.

On my list would be: skydive, be debt-free (like not even a house payment), run a marathon, meet the pope, travel to 5 continents. Plus more I'm sure, if I actually wrote them down.

I asked my children's father (for lack of better term) what he wanted in life. And his list consisted of robbing a bank, and knowing what it's like to kill someone. Seriously. He said, "oh, I'd never do it, but I've always wanted to know what that feels like." Seriously? There can be no moral compass there at all. That was a huge moment for me when I realized he truly was pretending to be someone he is not.

So back to me, because it is my blog. I am going to tackle one of the things on my list this year. I figure, I am not getting any younger, no time like the present, I want to do something crazy (not kill-someone-crazy, but normal-person-crazy). I registered for Grandma's Marathon. You are probably laughing because I would be too. But if I tell people I will have more motivation for my training. I can't quit, because then I'd have to tell you all I've quit. And Lord knows how I hate being wrong.

Whew, glad I got that off my chest. Rachel came up with a training schedule to make it very easy for me to follow. She is my Yoda and I do what she says. Wish me luck.