Green lunch

Charlie isn't lunching in true NYC fashion.  That is, he's not eating out.  He still totes his lunch to work each day.  It's cheaper, I'm convinced, although I do intend to do some number crunching soon.

We continue to try be thrifty and green, and those two usually go hand in hand.  In an effort to stop using plastic bags all together, I moved to packing lunches in wax paper and reusable containers over a year ago.  Giving up ziploc snack and sandwich bags didn't exactly give me extra cash in the bank.  I'm going to have to use those containers for a long, long time to break even, but I derive a great sense of satisfaction in knowing our house is not adding plastic bags to landfills.

In the past Charlie's lunch contained at least 4 plastic bags.  That's 20 bags per week, and over 1000 bags per year that were being added to landfills.  And that's just one lunch.  Imagine if I were packing lunches for a family of 4 each morning.

Right before moving I found reusable baggies, and I love them.  I think Charlie likes them too.  Who wouldn't smile when pulling out their sammie from this:

Sammie, carrots, and chips

They are dishwasher safe and are easily rinsed out in the sink.  I've got six "sandwich" size bags.  I'm interested in trying the "snack" and "sub" sized bags as well but these have met our needs so far.  Occasionally he'll get a container if he's getting a gooey dessert, but for the most part, it's a few lunchskins tossed into his "briefcase."

Baby Food

Freddie is like a little bird when we are eating. He looks longingly at your cookie or burger. It is pretty pitiful. I just have to give him some of whatever it is, no matter what it is for the most part. He really, really enjoyed the gingery cookies on our Delta flight last week. I have been doing better at figuring out what he can eat from the meal I am cooking for dinner and try to set a little aside before making it too salty or spicy for him to enjoy.

Baby food is expensive. I figure when I give Freddie jarred food I am spending $2-3 per day currently and as he gets better at eating that is only going to go up. So in addition to feeding him foods we eat, we've been making our own food!


The Beaba is awesome and was well worth the $150. I know we will more than break even on it. It steams and purees the food all in the same little container.


I almost just invested in a regular steamer and food grinder, but I am *so* happy with this. It is small enough that I don't mind it on the counter so I can toss in stuff that I am preparing for the "adult" dinner.


After steaming and pureeing, the puree gets poured into an ice cube tray. The 2.5 cup pitcher will produce enough food to just about fill up an ice cube tray. The cubes are then popped into plastic bags for storage. I figure Bug is eating about 3 cubes per meal along with some rice cereal or oatmeal.


So far we've got:

• apples
• pears
• pears and pineapple mixed
• sweet potatoes
  
• acorn squash and corn mixed (a favorite of his)
  
• acorn squash
• butternut squash
• peaches
• mangos
• blueberries
  
• blueberries and pears mixed
  
• carrots (really likes one cube carrot and one cube apples mixed)
  
• spinach (likes this mixed with some baked potato)

I think we'll browse the produce section tomorrow and dream up some other yummy purees for you, my dear Freddie. Looks like we need more veggies.

Penny Pinching

Turned in the 2 DVRs today.

Total savings: $37.20.

I'm finding ways. Everything adds up. Yes, I have always known this but now that each penny counts and we are paying extra close attention to how every single penny is spent, we are finding ways to save money. Charlie commented that even without The Bug as an expense it probably would have been a good idea to do this and put that money elsewhere, i.e. in our IRA accounts.

Ah, well.

Next up, moving from three checking accounts (his, hers, ours) to one, maybe two.