I thought Swagbucks was one of those things I would always stay away from on the internet, but when I saw how quickly points could add up to Amazon giftcards, I decided to give it a try. Now, from “Deal”icious Mom, I’ve learned:

Also, just recently they added EuphoriaBaby.com. Eupohoria Baby is an online baby and maternity store based out of South Carolina that sells toys, towels, organic clothing, and cloth diapers among other things. The great news and the reason I am mentioning this site is because you can cash  in only 10 Swagbucks for a $5 gift card to EuphoriaBaby.com! That’s a huge steal!

I maximize my swagbucks by always searching through them first, even when I’m pretty sure Google will give me a better result. Yes, it eats up 10 seconds of my day, but it’s worth it. So worth it, I might just cash in my next 60 points at EuphoriaBaby for one of these, since my 4 year old still dotes on his dolls he got at Hanukkah…

Our nickname for taking control of our finances is BROKEWATCH. We describe things when we’re chatting online during the day as VBWC (”very BROKEWATCH compatible”) or deny each other purchases citing, “Sorry, not during BROKEWATCH.” I’ve been reading a finance guru because I lack even the most basic sense of household money management and we rotate referring to him as Dave Barry, Jeff Ramsey, or even Gordon Ramsey when it comes up in conversation.

I find that a little humor about it definitely helps, especially when we’re working really hard at it. For example, this weekend. We were out of town in Atlanta, our first jaunt without kids since, well, since we’ve had kids. We had free airfare from winning a raffle and a free hotel room from DH’s accumlated points since he used to be a frequent business traveler. We had relatively inexpensive tickets to see the world’s finest baseball team. We opted against a rental car for public transportation and set ourselves a strict food budget limited to our cash on hand and a starbucks gift card we got via coinstar.

And you know what? It was kind of fun. I liked the sense of challenge it gave us. We were more creative, for sure, and everything tasted that much sweeter.

Here’s a repost from BeCentsAble today:

Who doesn’t love the microwavable rice in a bag that’s ready in minutes? The convenience factor is great, but the expense to your family and the environment — up to $3 for a bag of rice, the excess packaging and the concerns around microwaving plastic — got me wondering if there was a better way. I spent a little time hunting around the web for instructions of how to do it myself, and I did so with great success!

How to make your own microwavable rice:

1. Following the standard directions for your type of rice (I used white organic basmati), multiply out the recipe so that you are using 2 cups of uncooked rice.
2. Cook the rice according to your directions.
3. While preparing the rice, cover a large, edged cookie sheet or roasting pan with tin foil.
4. When the rice is finished cooking, spread it on the pan in a thin layer and allow to cool.
5. Place it in the freezer.

That’s it! I left it in the freezer overnight and then broke it into chunks to fit the containers I had. It made four portions that I then microwaved for 3 minutes each to use, and the rice was perfect. I’ve baked it in a casserole and used it as a side with no texture or taste problems.

I used about $0.60 worth of uncooked rice to make $4.00 worth of microwavable rice. Enjoy!

Lots of stuff, make sure to read all the way down…

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You know why I’m participating in MPM so much these days? It helps me write my shopping list at my desk at work. I just look up this post on Google Reader and I’m good to go

Sunday - Pizza night, a few days late!

Monday - Baked Potato bar

Tuesday - Queso burritos (from the Whole Foods rotisserie chicken sale, of course)

Wednesday - Tater tot casserole (with homemade cream of mushroom, so hopefully it won’t be too scary. This is the first time I’m trying this, so we’ll see how it turns out!)

Thursday - Pasta with beans and greens

Friday - Take-out. P will be at MIL’s, so we’ll put the babies to bed and enjoy a quiet dinner.

Saturday - Chicken chili

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Also on my shopping list, a FREE Happy Bites Organic Toddler Meal! PDF coupon via Attention Target Shoppers, but since we have no Super Targets in my entire state (boo!), I’ll be getting mine at Whole Foods. Note the expiration date (12/21/08) and get yours this week, too.

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I have a pile of coupons (well, three piles, actually) for Seventh Generation cleaners, diapers, paper products, and some other natural/organic household and baby misc that I will be posting tomorrow. The catch is that they expire 12/31/08, but I know someone will get some use out of them.

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Totally unrelated question: I cut up a few of my husband’s old plain white t-shirts to knit some dish scrubbers, and was pretty excited by the results and how fast I could knit them up. I made two today, while hanging out with the little boys and doing the last of the holiday packing and card writing, so I think they averaged less than an hour a piece! Does anyone know a resource for cutting the shirts more efficiently? That took me a lot of time and came out uneven (in a bad way) in a few too many places.

I have an enviable, first world problem: I have too much food.

That is, I have a refrigerator, a basement freezer, and a pantry cabinet that are (1) disorganized, and (2) stuffed to the gills. We have bulk purchases, leftovers, items bought on sale, frozen meals friends brought over when I was on bedrest or after the triplets were born, and it is a mess! In advance of starting solid foods (and freezing and making a lot of baby food), I’m declaring bankruptcy.

I got this idea from my husband who told me about the idea of email bankruptcy, or deleting everything you have when you get too far behind and then starting fresh. Since I’m not going to throw food away, clearly, the only other option is to use it all up, no matter what, before letting any more in. Not to say we won’t buy anything, because that’s unavoidable, but no more pasta, no more frozen pizzas, no sauces, just produce and dairy until the cupboard is bare!

The best part about this frugal goal is that I may be able to avoid (except for buying milk) grocery shopping for quite some time since we have an amazing farmers market in our neighborhood. Eggs, cheese, bread, sausages… all fresh and local. I don’t have time to take stock of everything I have and post detailed meal plans, so we’ll just be taking it as it comes. I also have no idea how long it will take, so this is really an experiment in the true sense of the word!