2008 February

Sanitation expert or a maintenance engineer

February 20, 2008 By bigbinder 4 Comments

This month, A.P.’s preschool is focused on community helpers. You know, police officers, veterinarians, and garbage-men. I loved the idea of highlighting different professions. That was, until, the biggest event of a preschooler’s life – the day you get to bring the snack, the day you are the special helper – fell on “Sanitation Engineer” for A.P.

How do you make a cute snack for that? I searched and searched for an idea. I tried to focus on recycling and find little snack containers that looked like recycling bins. I thought about making little rats.

Yes, I realize that I am insane.

Finally, I gave up and A.P. schlepped in with some boring crackers and juice. Oh well, he was still thrilled to be the special helper and I learned an important lesson. It’s not about the cuteness of the snack, it’s about the experience your child has. Who am I kidding? I’m still looking for a garbageman snack.

In the my search, I found a quick little craft we will do tomorrow if we can find enough toilet paper rolls in the recycling bin. It is making binoculars out of them. The blog I saw it on is ParentDish. There are no real instructions; just tie them together with a ribbon and decorate them. I think both the kids would have fun with this, and if I can just think of some kind of ‘safari snack’ to serve to them we’ll be all set.

By the way, thanks for everyone’s sweet wishes about this week! We are doing very well now that everyone under 5 is in bed.

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Filed Under: I Just Feel Like Blogging Tagged With: toilet paper roll binoculars

Change of Plans

February 19, 2008 By bigbinder 5 Comments

I had planned to bring you a delightful post after our trip to Pizza Hut today for Tasty Tuesday. The fun part about the one we go to (Kalamazoo and 44th) is that it has a little play area, so if you go with a friend, as I was planning to do, you can actually have a decent conversation while the kids play.

For the millionth time this winter, the weather interferred. So I have nothing tasty to share with you, sadly.

Later, my husband came home and announced that he was going to St. Louis for work tomorrow and his plane leaves at 6am. I laughed and said I would take him to the airport, ’cause that would be funny, wouldn’t it? To get the kids up at 4am to start the next 5 days of alone time with the kids? I didn’t think so either.

I immediately ran to the grocery store, and to Blockbuster to stock up. My husband had to run a few errands as well. Then his car died. I immediately called him a taxi for the morning. Even the taxi guys said, “Man, that’s EARLY!”. Yes, yes it is. Which is why I will still be in bed.

So I’m going to apologize in advance for any bloggy crabbiness over the next week. It’s the weather, and my husband being out of town, and possibly mercury poisoning. OK probably not the last one.

But did you hear about this? The Southeast YMCA was evacuated yesterday because of a mercury leak. Yep, I was there, plugging away on the elliptical machine. Someone came around and very calmly and politely asked us to finish up, and explained the circumstances. I hopped off, grabbed Maybelle from the nursery, and flew out into the parking lot a sweaty mess. What a way to start the week!

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Filed Under: Tasty Tuesday

Menu Plan Monday

February 17, 2008 By bigbinder 6 Comments

SUNDAY

Oven-Roasted Turkey Breast

Green beans (frozen ones from this summer) with some feta sprinkled on them.

Fresh baked bread from frozen bread dough.

MONDAY

Sherried Beef

This is a recipe from my Grandma, and one of my husband’s favorites.

3 pounds stewing beef cut in 1 inch cubes (do not brown)
2 cans cream of mushroom or celery soup
1 envelope onion soup mix
3/4 c Sherry

Pour into a casserole dish, cover and bake for 3 hours at 325°. Serve over cooked noodles.

Peas

TUESDAY

Waffles – I got me a waffle iron. Look out.

Ghetto Blintzes

This is my own creation, resulting entirely from my inability to make pancakes. Despite my best efforts, I make crêpes. I also tried to make crockpot yogurt with disastrous results. I will spare you the graphic description as the word “yucky” is quite sufficient.

I was left with a huge container of unsweetened, plain yogurt which we never eat. I mixed the yogurt with some a little strawberry jam, and rolled it up in the failed pancake. Although they are good, their origins being unsuccessful cooking attempts should probably not have the honor of blintz or crêpe in it’s title. Therefore, we declared them ghetto blintzes. They are delicious.

Bacon

Fruit

WEDNESDAY

Dinner at church

THURSDAY

Mufaletta Sandwiches. I’m just going to make these out of turkey, salami, and green olive bruscetta and call it good.

Baked beans. Secret family recipe, sorry

FRIDAY

Stuffed Shells (Meatless)

Salad

SATURDAY

Total craziness. First, a birthday party. Then we split up and two of us head to a Griffin’s game and two of us head to a dinner to organize a huge annual bike trip you will undoubtedly hear more about. We’ll eat what we can, when we can, and it will be delicious I’m sure.

For more menu plans, check out “I’m an Organizing Junkie!”,

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Filed Under: Menu Plan Monday Tagged With: Menu Plan Monday

Donuts, Alpacas, and Dairy Cows

February 17, 2008 By bigbinder 1 Comment

Kids rolling down a grassy hill I suggested a while ago that joining a parenting group can help restore, or at least prevent the further erosion of, your sanity. A monthly calendar of activites can be very reassuring. After a while, though, they can all start to look alike as the calendar planners get into a rut. I am currently in this rut, and I have been going over past calendars to try and spark some ideas.

I realized that we’ve gone on some great group tours over the past few years, and I’d like to share them with you.

First, did you know that Krispy Kreme did tours? They are quick, and fun. Perfect for the attention span of the preschool and under crowd. Oh, and free. Perfect for the budget of, well, anyone. The best part is when they wheel a huge vat of chocolate out. Each kid gets to dip their own donut, then decorate it with sprinkles. Tours are only done on Tuesday mornings, and they book up QUICK. Just call the store and ask to schedule a tour and they will give you the available dates.
Michaels also does tours. This is different than the Saturday events you might have heard about; it’s a private activity just for your group. The kids start out in the classroom (in the back of the store) and make a fun and easy craft. We did sand buckets with foam stickers. Then the employees take the kids on a tour of the store if they are interested. The cost of this is just $1 per kid at the 28th Street location and I would imagine it is the same or close at other stores.
Most of the fire stations around give tours as well. This includes the surrounding communities as well; just give them a call to arrange a tour. You might want to read this post first about the grouchiest fireman ever. After that trip my group decided to stick to the Kentwood Station because we have always had great success with them.
Blandford Nature Center set up a tour for us last year, and it was one of the best tours. It started with a story time, then we took a little hike, then made a craft. It was $2 per child. They’re going to be busy with Sugarbush for the next few months, so late spring would be a good time to book. Mmmm, Sugarbush. Now I’m thinking about pancakes with fresh syrup…
I blogged about Dairy Discovery already, but it is worth mentioning again. It was so fun for the kids to see an operating Dairy Farm, and our tour guide was wonderful. You can read about that here.
We also took a tour of an alpaca farm. This was fun too, and the kids got to pet an alpaca and also take home a little bag of alpaca hair. Fur. Whatever. They also learned very interesting and little known alpaca facts. The most memorable thing for me on this trip though was that A.P. discovered a huge hill was PERFECT for rolling down and effectively ended the tour as the other kids followed his lead and lost interest in pretty much every thing but the hill. The farm was Circle R Ranch in Caledonia.
If you have a facility or meeting space, you can have the Kent District Library come to you with a Play, Grow, Read! Make and Take Literary Program. This is amazing. They have the entire program, all crafts and activities related to early literacy (pre and early reading) skills in these suitcase type bags, and they just set up shop and take over. You can read another review of that program here. This is also free. More info on that awesome program is here.

These are my tour guide tips:

Have an estimate for the number of kids and adults when you call. Ask when the need to have a definite number and make sure you call back on that day.
Make sure you have the pricing information worked out, and see if there are any deposits required.
Make sure the members of your group have very good directions, and know that the tour may start without them if they aren’t there in time. Some places get very annoyed when they have to wait, as they have other groups scheduled after yours. Just trust me on this one.

Hopefully, this will help jazz up your parent group’s (or preschool, or any group with young kids) calendar in the coming months. Please send any new ideas my way!

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Filed Under: I Just Feel Like Blogging Tagged With: Dairy Discovery, Fire Station Tours, Grand Rapids Krispy Kreeme Tours, Michaels

Think Summer

February 16, 2008 By bigbinder Leave a Comment

Summer Camp Photo Album

Today at Centerpointe Mall, there is a Summer Camp Expo and Education Fair. This used to be two separate events and at held at Woodland Mall, but they have been combined and moved. I’m going to check it out, mainly because it will confirm my suspicion that I won’t be surrounded by snow for the rest of my life. It’s hard to believe, but I think it’s true. If there are summer camps, there must be a summer. Right? RIGHT??

Also, we are making some education-related decisions for both of our kids. Here is one decision I have already made: I will not be spending $15,000 on preschool. You heard (read?) me right. I got this email about a Preschool Process Seminar the other day and thought it was a typo. Nope. My cousin lives in New York and it’s the real deal.

NYC Pre School Admissions Process You will spend at least $15,000 a year to send your child to nursery school..
…Isn’t it worth $35 to be sure you’re making the right choice? What you need to know NOW to get a head start on the process Nursery School.

For more details (on the Centerpointe Event, not Ivy League Preschool), click on “Big Binder’s Calendar”. It’s up at the top of the page, after “About Big Binder”.

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Filed Under: Thank Goodness it\'s Free Tagged With: $15, 000 preschool, Centerpointe Mall, Summer Camp Adventure Expo & Education and Enrichme

My Final Frugal Tip

February 15, 2008 By bigbinder 3 Comments

Well, for now anyway. This isn’t so much a frugal tip, but a way to get some more cash, or at least Meijer Gift Cards. I wrote about this in another post, but only about a week after the birth of the Big Binder Blog. Since I now have more than three readers (thank you!!) I will bring it up again.

When A.P. was a baby, I learned about Innovative Consumer Research from my friend Chris. It’s a testing company and we sampled baby foods, toddler snacks, and other foods and food related products. He absolutely loved it. I hope that every job he has in the future he gets such satisfaction from. After about the age of three, the tests really taper off, so we signed Maybelle up too. She thinks she is in a restaurant, and actually places orders with the taste testers.

The tests are about 30-45 minutes, and the compensation is between $15 and $20 in the form of a Meijer Gift Card. Occasionally, there are ‘take home’ tests, but most of them are on site. It’s convenient to schedule; an automated system calls you when there is a test available, or you can call in to check.

To sign up, call 1-800-991-3388 for a packet. They will send you instructions for getting a panelist ID and more information about how the program works.

Eat up, baby!

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Filed Under: Feature Friday Tagged With: Innovative Consumer Research

Frugal Family Feeding

February 14, 2008 By bigbinder 1 Comment

As promised – this week continues with frugal ideas guaranteed to ward off a personal finance recession.

The other day my husband commented to me that I didn’t cook like I used to. I couldn’t figure out if this was a compliment or an insult, so I asked him to elaborate.

“Well, before we had kids (oh, this is going to be an insult) you used to make all of this stuff that was super-fancy and seriously better than restaurant food (OK not a total insult).

I explained that two the two major factors were (duh!?) time and money. Always on guard for my job security as a stay-at-home-mom, I also explained that with kids, even if I went back to work to solve the money issue, I would not have time to prepare the meals once served at Bistro Binder.

Rather than finding recipes and then buying the ingredients like the good old days, I buy what is on sale and find recipes around it. This is what my Menu Plan Monday posts are all about. I don’t post our meals because I think it is extremely interesting information; I do it because hopefully someone else can use some of the recipes.

I realize that not everyone has the ridiculously huge (but very well loved) supply of recipes that I have, nor does everyone have the desire to build a menu from scratch. With that, I bring you some menu plan solutions. These include menus, recipes and grocery lists.

Menus4Moms has two versions of their menu planner. One is free, and you get the same recipes and grocery list as the ‘paid’ version.
Saving Dinner is a service you pay for, but there are free samples on the website.
Forest Hills Foods has a weekly menu plan with recipes, and you can build your list right on the website. You can also print off coupons too. It’s swell.
Meijer has a similar menu plan with recipes, based on many things that are on sale that week. For some reason they make it hard to find. It is under “Healthy Living” rather than “Food” on their website.

If you find any awesome recipes out there, please let me know. My poor husband is practically wasting away from starvation over here.

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Filed Under: Menu Plan Monday Tagged With: frugal menu

I'm A Cheap Date!

February 13, 2008 By bigbinder Leave a Comment

Since tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, I thought I’d highlight some inexpensive ‘date’ ideas. Of course, these can be used at any time, not just V-Day.

What pops into most people’s minds is going out to eat. And why not? It makes you feel like you are dating again and not some old married couple eating tuna noodle casserole while your kids try and shout over each other. Not that this has ever happened to us of course. A good place to start for discounts and coupons is the Entertainment Book.

The Entertainment Book is currently $15 at Walgreens and Blockbuster and probably lots of other places too. Sense to Save has written a blog post about how to get an Entertainment Book with a rebate, making it nearly free.
Check out Restaurant.com. Here you can buy restaurant gift cards for about half of their value (it varies with each restaurant, and special offer). For example, you spend $25 and get a $50 gift card. Watch the restrictions closely though.
Grab a copy of Grand Rapids Magazine. There is always a ‘buy one get one’ coupon for a local restaurant.
Grand Rapids Tightwad did a post about a cheap date at Red Robin and even a movie afterwards. More movie deals are here.
Between you and your spouse, you each have one birthday per year. You don’t have to admit which birthday it is to get the deals I mentioned in my post about restaurants with birthday meal deals.
You could always ship the kids out, and make a meal at home. You can spend a lot at the grocery store and still come out less than you would for a restaurant meal.
Have you been to the new GRAM? Me neither! We went to the old one with the Friday Night music thing but I think it has been spiffed up since then. Here is the website, click the date you are interested for the specifics. Admission is quite reasonable; and there is a gourmet buffet for $10 and cash bar.
There are plenty of opportunities to see theater and live performances in Grand Rapids. In fact, one culture snob I met in the Detroit area saw a play here and was “shocked at how good it was”. I suppose he thought the actors would all be wearing overalls and have straw hats regardless of the role. Get your Entertainment Book back out, or look in your Culture Pass for coupons to the Civic, Actors Theatre, Wealthy Theatre, Jewish Theatre of Grand Rapids, Devos Performance Hall, and Circle Theatre. Also check Calvin, GRCC, and GVSU for live performances of all sorts.
You could visit one of the breweries around town and taste a few local beers (or grab a growler – just remember someone has to drive). Some suggestions are Founders, Hideout Brewing, Schmohz Brewing, and Grand Rapids Brewing Company. Or, you could attend a wine tasting hosted by Art of the Table; more info is on the website.
If coffee is more your style, there are lots of places to choose from that stay open past the normal daytime coffee shop hours. Try Beaners, Frenz, Urban Mill, The Bitter End, or 76 Coffeehouse.
On the other end of the spectrum, you could go indoor rock climbing at Higher Ground. Think of it as a trust building exercise.
You could skate at the Rosa Parks Circle rink.
If you are too lazy and would like to watch other people skate (I fit snugly in this category) again with the Entertainment Book for a buy one get one ticket coupon and catch a Griffins Game. I also did a post about deals on tickets here.

Need some more? Last year on a blog called Shalee’s Diner there was a “50 Cheap Dates” post. I found some I haven’t already thought of that you might like:

Go out for desert instead of dinner.
Get restaurant gift cards for Christmas.
Go to the batting cages.
Have a progressive dinner or supper club with friends.

That ought to do it! Here are the dates; romance is up to you.

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Filed Under: I Just Feel Like Blogging Tagged With: frugal dating

Better than a dollar movie

February 12, 2008 By bigbinder 1 Comment

retro family watching TV Being frugal sometimes requires a bit of extra legwork. OK make that pretty much always requires extra legwork. In keeping with my frugal theme this week, I will now explain my elaborate system for never paying for movie rentals.

First, I used a coupon in my Entertainment Book and signed up for a free year of Blockbuster Rewards. They charge $9.95 a year for the service. I don’t care about the rent five get one free business; but you get a coupon for one free rental a month. I just toss the rest of the stuff out. Next year, when I get my new Entertainment book, I will just sign up again.

Second, I have an account with e-Rewards. The website is here. It’s a survey site, and you are ‘paid’ to take surveys, but you don’t get cash. You ‘buy’ different things with your account. I buy six totally free (not buy one get one) rentals at Blockbuster each year. So does my husband.

OK so now we’re at 24 rentals a year. Remember that we have basic cable – no HBO, TiVO, or Pay Per View. Anything other than our 13 channels and we’re out of luck. Movies are important to us. Also, it allows me one more opportunity to control the advertising content in what my kids watch. I can see you rolling your eyes, so let’s move on.

Next, of course, is the library. Go to Blockbuster.com or IMDB to find out the DVD new releases. Then sign on to your library account online, and search the catalog for the movie. When you find it, place it on hold. Detailed instructions are here. The library won’t have them all, but you will be suprised at how many they do have. Of course you will have to wait until it becomes available, but this past weekend I went to Blockbuster to get “Snow Buddies“, which came out less than a week ago, and they were out. I went home, and in the meantime the library had emailed me a notification that Show Buddies was ready for me to pick up.

One other way to get free rentals at Blockbuster is by making sure to ask for it. If you are looking for a movie that is “Guaranteed In Stock” – and it’s not – you get a coupon for a free rental. You have to use it for that movie, and for that store, but still, it’s free.

If we have used up all of our free coupons and the library holds are backed up, I can offer two “in a pinch” solutions.

One is to sign up for a free trial of Blockbuster Total Access. This is the service where you choose movies on the Blockbuster website, then they are shipped to you. If you cancel before the trial period ends, you don’t pay anything. The nice thing is that for every movie you get in the mail, you can take back to the store (instead of mailing back) and get a free movie. You also get a coupon for a free movie each month with this service. I actually like Total Access, but it’s almost too many movies, and I start to resent them sitting on top of my TV, unwatched.

Second, our credit card has points you can cash in for gift cards. It’s mostly restaurants; none of which we are crazy about so we cash in our points for Blockbuster gift cards. And of course; use a rent one get one free coupon from – you guessed it – the Entertainment Book.

There it is. Extra effort, yes. Free movies every time – totally worth it.

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Filed Under: Thank Goodness it\'s Free Tagged With: Frugal movies

Such Talk!

February 11, 2008 By bigbinder 2 Comments

Big screen TV I keep hearing – and I’m sure you do too – that there is talk of a recession. Of course no one has any idea if this is really going to happen, and from what I can discern, what exactly a recesion is.

Regardless, it is probably time to clamp down a bit on spending. Don’t tell the politicians I said that though. If you talk to them, tell them I promise I will buy a big screen TV with my Economically-Stimulating Check. Or maybe a car, or a new house.

I dedicate this week to frugality. In all honesty, I could probably write another blog about being frugal – but there are a ton of blogs out there about this already. I will try and bring you the ‘best of the best’ from the blogosphere while keepin’ it real; and local.

Tasty Tuesday is one area that grew out of my frugality. While of course I enjoy dining out with my entire family, my husband is not as adventurous as I am when it comes to food. Also, he eats a lot, has expensive taste in beer; therefore costs a lot to feed.

I am getting this post out a little early so you can plan a Tasty Tuesday of your own tomorrow. I have had it posted on my calendar all month but in the spirit of frugality, will highlight it here. Tomorrow is Free Pancake Day at IHOP. They will give you a free short stack (3 pancakes). They accept donations to the Children’s Miracle Network as well. You can read more about that here.

Have a Tasty Day; look for more frugal tips tomorrow!

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Filed Under: Tasty Tuesday Tagged With: Free Pancake Day, frugality

Keep In Touch

Sanitation expert or a maintenance engineer

Change of Plans

Menu Plan Monday

Donuts, Alpacas, and Dairy Cows

Think Summer

My Final Frugal Tip

Frugal Family Feeding

I'm A Cheap Date!

Better than a dollar movie

Such Talk!

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