Healthcare Tips

For those of you who don't already know this, I am a Registered Nurse, and when I do work (which not very often anymore, only about 2-3 times a month) I work in the Emergency Room.  With this healthcare bill passage looming, I think it's time to post a few tips for you because, I believe as a nurse that this bill is going to seriously hurt a lot of Americans, and most of my cohorts in the Emergency Room agree based on what we deal with on a regular basis.  So it's going to be more important than ever to stay healthy and not have to use the healthcare system except when you really need it.

• Vomiting one time is not a medical emergency.  Vomiting many times and not being able to keep any liquids down to compensate for the fluid loss, or adding in fever or diarrhea deserves a call to your doctor (who has your medical history available and can make the determination on whether or not you need immediate medical attention).  And remember vomiting has a functional purpose too, it's not all bad.
• Fever of 100.5 is not a medical emergency.  A fever of 105.0 however, is a different story - and please don't not treat the fever because you don't want to 'mask the fever', we want you to treat a fever that's high instead of letting it just get higher and higher and possibly have febrile seizures.  If the fever is 102.0, treat it and call your doc to see what they think-.  Also remember that fever too has a functional purpose and is also not all bad - it's your body's way of killing off bacteria and viruses.  Most health professionals don't even recommend treating a fever under 101.0, but if you're concerned or want to hear the opinion of someone who knows you personally, ask your faily doctor or nurse since they know your history and can give you more personalized information based on your medical history.
• Eat healthy - people who eat nothing but junk don't have the optimal physical condition to naturally fight off infections
• Exercize - people who exercize regularly are generally healthier (this doesn't mean you need a membership, this means get your butt off the couch and clean your house, cook your own meals, work in your flowerbeds, walk the dog, play with the kids, go for a walk, etc)  MOVE MORE!!!!
• Wash your hands - this can't be said enough, but wash your hands with plain old soap and water several times a day - when they are dirty, before you eat, after using the bathroom, and after play.
• Don't be a germa phobe - things like over using hand sanitizer, scrubbing every surface with bleach like a mad woman and spraying lysol on everything is not necessary.  DO take precautions, DO practice good hygiene, but DO NOT obsess to the point of craziness.  And believe it or not (and you can research this for yourself) exposure to normal germs is good for your immune system.  Now I'm NOT saying to go lick the dog or the gas station bathroom floor, but if your kid eats a God-knows-how-old Cheerio out of the corner of your living room, don't head to the ER to get his stomach pumped either.
• Call your doctor's office for questions, that's why they are there
• Invest in one of those home remedies or home medical manuals, they have lot's of great informaiton out there (and you can find them at most thrift shops)
• Get plenty of sleep - this also helps you fight off infections
• Get annual exams, once a year check ups for healthy adults is a good way to catch problems before they become BIG problems.  Regular cholesterol, glucose, triglyceride screenings are helpful in making sure you are doing your part in maintaining good health.
• Immunizations - this one is controversial, so all I'm going to say is to do your research and make your decision then take whatever precautions are necessary depending on what your decision is.  We personally did not get the H1N1 vaccine, but my kids are also not in public school or daycare, so our risk was lower than some other groups.

Anyway, more to come on this later - I'm not into writing posts that may make your eyes pop out :)

PAID OFF AGAIN!!!

As of today, my minivan is PAID OFF!!!

Our family's overhead is now decreased by $650 a month.

Next up , the computers!!

Homeschool Planners

If any of you homeschool, or have just looked at some of the websites, you know that most every company also has their own pretty little planner with 'everything' in it.  Some cost as much as $40.  $40!!! 

There are also, several sites that offer free printables for homeschool planning and household planning.  My favorite is http://www.donnayoung.org/ and the best part is, she is still adding to the free database.

So go check her out, there are tons of homeschool planning resources, but there are other things too like household planners with calendars, timers, checklists, etc.

Free, did I mention Free!  Not $40!

White Vinegar for Urine Odor

I have a 3 year old who is potty trained but still has accidents, and not all surfaces can be thrown in the washer.  Case in point - your car's seat cannot be put in the washer.  So, I have heard before that white vinegar added to your washload will get the urine scent out of clothes - and that is true, I have used it for about a couple of years now.  A couple of days ago however, I had to get the scent out of something - so here's what I did, I used clean towels to soak up as much as possible, then I took my White
Vinegar and Water Cleaning Solution and spray and medium mist (enough to dampen the surface - more than a light mist, but not a soaking either) and I just left it there.  It took a couple of hours to air dry but the urine scent was gone.  The area does not smell like vinegar either.  I mean if you stick your nose right up to the surface (I did just to check to make sure the urine odor was gone) you can get a faint vinegar smell.  But it's very very faint, and only if your nose is stuck right up on it.  Move 3 inches away, and you can't smell it at all.

I have used febreeze a lot for many household surfaces, and it works well, but urine and feces are tough odor and vinegar generally kills both odors well.  This is very important if you have small children :)


*** I generally use a 1:10 white vinegar:water ratio for my home all purpose cleaning, and this same stuff is what I sprayed on the area.  If you have pets it may take a higher concentration, or even straigt white vinegar spray.  Let me know if you try this.***

Cash for Groceries

Most people have heard of this 'cash only' system for buying groceries - I have wanted to do it, but keep getting back into the debit card rut.  We definitely do not use credit cards - for anything, but it is easy to lose track of extras when you're swiping the debit card.

Can I do it? Can I really go to a cash only?

My husband gets paid on Monday, and when I deposit his check on Tuesday morning I am going to keep out $75 for groceries, and try to do $75 weekly on the cash system and see if I make it - I'll let you know if I can pull it off or fall on my face!!

Homeschooling

This post is not going to try to convince you to homeschool.  However, if you are interested in learning about it, email me and I'll be happy to give you any info I have.  Anyway, this post is about spending wretched amounts of money on homeschooling.

There are too many types of curriculums to list, but I will say that the 'all-in-one' packages can easily be $1000 per student per grade level.  The only time I would recommend one of those is in the case of Missionaries, who are going to be overseas and need everything handy at any given time or if you live in a remote area where you either can't get to the library easily or you plan on being snowbound for a few months.

I personally put together several things to form my curriculum.  I start by going to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction Website and looking at what the state has the other kids doing in that particular grade level.  I actually print it out and as we cover the topics, I check them off in red ink so I can have the visual of 'complete.'  Anyway, the only real curriculum items I purchase are math and learning to read materials.  Things to complete Science and Social Studies are easily found at even small libraries, and literature is probably either in your home already, at the library, or in the thrift store.  I do Handwriting and Grammar at the same time through copywork.  I read my son the sentence, have him look at the words and we work on pronounciation, then I write it on writing paper and skip lines so he can copy it on the line directly below.  We talk about how words are spelled and what types of punctuation are used and why.  a Kindergarten doesn't need to diagram sentences, but when we get there, we can do it the same way.  Plus, he gets practice writing lots of different letters instead of a boring page of nothing but the letter p which would bore both me and him stiff in about 10 seconds.  I would rather kill 2 or 3 birds with the one stone and one time frame and move on.  Plus copy work helps with retention.

Anyway, everyone has their own particular style of homeschooling, but just because someone tells you to 'buy this because it's the best,' don't jump into it, just wait and look around.  Best for their kid is not necessarily best for yours!

Ultra concentrated Bleach

Don't be fooled by this gimmick.  Bleach, whether it's regular or 'ultra-concentrated' is only 6% sodium hyperchlorite 9the chemical compound that makes bleach the whitener and disinfectant that it is.  Ultra concerntrated also has 6% which means, it is not really concentrated, it's just thicker because of the other compounds they put in it, water is not removed, other stuff is added.  Read your bottles of bleach and you will see that all of it, regular or concentrated is 6%, don't be fooled. 

Spring Planting

This is also a reminder to get your flower beds, gardens or porch pots ready for spring planting - a homegrown tomato is cheaper and tastes better than the grocery store variety, as does lettuce, green beans, herbs, cucumbers, and most any other thing you can possibly grow - plus, if you start from seed, it is even cheaper!  A packet of about 100 tomato seeds costs about 1.50, one tomato plant costs about $2.99.  If you're planting a whole garden, that makes a huge impact on your start up costs - and if you have tons of produce, sell it on a roadside stand and recoup virtually all of your investment.

PAID OFF!

Hey! Look to the right!  As of today, ourtruck is paid off!  Next one up, the car, followed by the computers, followed by the boat!!!  Of course I will eventually change the boat from years to dollars, but it's embarrassing!

On a motivational note, if you have a 'pay off list' or 'debt snowball' that you're working on paying off, please post it somewhere that you will see it everyday to remind yourself of your goals!

Breakfast Choices

Breakfast can get expensive quick - for instance, if your kids eat poptarts, they cost about $2.50 for a box of 8, and let's face it, since they come 2 in a package your serving size is 2 even tough the package says the serving size is 1 (at about 300 calories per 1) - so anyway you get 4 servings of poptarts for $2.50 which makes them cost about .63 per serving.  Now if poptarts were a nutrient dense, filling and lasting breakfast, it would be okay - just a little on the pricey side.  Now let's look at some other options:

• Eggs - currently $3 for 18 = .17 per egg, full of protein and other vitamins and only about 70 calories each, and oh, by the way, they are nature made not chemically concocted - although that can be debated a little depending on your egg supplier - I get mine from local farmers, but still a regular grocery store industrially laid egg is closer to as God intended than a poptart ;)
• Oatmeal - about $3 for the 42 oz round box (not the instant stuff) = .10 per serving (1/2 cup dry which equals almost a full cup cooked), and 30 servings per package.  A complex carbohydrate powerhouse, minimally processed, few if any chemicals added
• Pancakes - the homemade kind are cheap as dirt, they cost about .65 per recipe and one recipe feeds more than one person, and of course, the homemade kind are less polluted by stuff you can't pronounce
• Muffins - there again, the homemade kind are about .75 per recipe and one recipe makes 12 muffins, and you can feed several people on those also
• Cheese toast, waffles, biscuits - CHEAP> CHEAP> CHEAP!!!

The best options, I think is to mix and match.  Serve each child a scrambled egg with a side of pancake, muffin or oatmeal.  The next day, give them cheese toast or something simple like that on your leftover homemade bread (use real cheese of course).

My kids rarely eat boxed cereal or poptarts, or anything like that.  We eat homemade pancakes, biscuits, muffins, waffles, cheese toast, etc.  They enjoy the occasional cereal treat, but that's what it is, a treat, not a daily staple.  And while my kids are realtively picky eaters, they do well with breakfast, and that makes me happy since it's the meal that carries them through their busiest part of the day and the part of the day most of their intense learning takes place.

Vacation Spending

My family and I are on vacation in the western part of NC this week.  We love to ski, and skiing is very expensive, there are a few ways to save a few bucks on this wonderful sport though:

• Clothing - we buy our ski bibs, goggles, etc at yardsales through out the year.  The boys have bibs that cost $1 each and they worked fine.  We also have hand me down coats that fit well (thank you snippity!), and we purchased new waterproof ski mittens out of the 'sale box' at the local ski shop here for $13.
• Ski Days - go during the week, because the weekends are usually marked up $10-$15 dollars per person per day, ditto for the night skiing - opt to sleep instead. 
• Food - the resorts generally have lockers you can rent for .75-$1.50 each, so rent 2, put your shoes, etc in one and pack a lunch cooler to put in the other because a bottled soda is $2.25, a cheeseburger is $5, a grilled cheese is $3.50 and French fries are $3.50.  It's cheaper to pack the cooler and pay for the locker a couple of times if you need to go into it more than once than to even buy one soda!!!
• Purchase ahead - if you have a set week you go on vacation, many resorts will offer discounts for buying your tickets at least 2 weeks ahead
• Special discounts - the resort we ski at offers family value packages for skiing, and they also give you 50%-100% off of a child's lift ticket if you bring your receipt or proof of rental for hotel/condo locally

That's all I have for today - please enjoy your favorite sports, but don't go broke doing it!!  Plan ahead and save your hard earned money for other things, like more sports!

Homemade blocks

In my household, we love blocks. We are pretty hard on them too!

I have purchased cardboard blocks. They work pretty well, but can get expensive. However, since we are so hard on our toys...they get messed up. I've come up with a solution to add to our collection, while making use of what would be waste items. I saved cardboard food boxes. I stuffed them full of shredded paper and crumpled newspaper. Seal closed with packing tape or hot glue, and you have a great toy. Pictured are pasta, bacon and easy mac boxes. I've also used frozen waffle and cereal boxes. My kiddos use these to build castles and towers...but these are versitile, because the kids use them in the kitchen area to cook and grocery shop.

Homemade Toffee

I have never made toffee, until last night.  A relative of my husbands called me to get an opinion and bounce off some ideas about a recipe he was trying that wasn't coming out to his liking.  So we talked and went over some things, and he led me to a toffee recipe on cooking for engineers.  So I went to it and BAM I fell in love  - this may be my favorite cooking website because it goes into wonderful, readable technical information about cooking, which is right up my alley.  Anyway, the recipe was easy, had plenty of pictures, and I made the toffee which turned out perfect.  When I calculated the cost, the homemade is about $1 less (or more) per batch than buying the bag of pre crunched toffee bits, and I use those a lot for different recipes.  BTW  one batch and one bag are approximately equal weight.

Follow the link and enjoy some homemade toffee.

http://www.cookingforengineers.com/recipe/159/English-Toffee

Budget Billing

I don't know if this one actually saves you money so much as making how much you need available for bills each month more predictable.  Dominion North Carolina Power offers a service called budget billing, which means they average your past 12 power bills and just bill you that same amount every month.  This way, you don't have those large upswings in summer and winter.  I just started it this month, so I'll let you know how I like it.  It was easy to sign up for, right on my account page on the website.  They do reevaluate their average every 4-6months, so it's not a free for all for leaving all the lights on either;)

Popcorn

Here is a really easy, fast and cheap way to make popcorn in the microwave.
Items you need:
popcorn kernals (the big, cheap bags work fantastically!)
a brown lunch sack
a piece of scotch tape

Open your brown bag. Add 1/4 cup unpopped kernals. Fold top of bag over once. Tape it closed. Place in microwave, and cook until popping becomes slow.(Just like prepurchased microwave kind...mine took 1:30). Remove from microwave and open carefully. You can add a little bit of spray butter & a sprinkle of salt if you don't want to eat it plain.

This is so much easier than pulling out the air popper...and WAY cheaper and healthier than storebought! The brown bag can be reused many many times...

Public Domain Books

Public domain books are basically books old enough that the copyright is expired.  That means you don't have to buy a copy in order to read it, you can read it for free online, and I'll list several sites for you.  The trick to public domain is that the book was initially copyrighted prior to 1923 or the author has given permission for it to go into public domain.


http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

http://www.authorama.com/

http://www.feedbooks.com/publicdomain

http://www.clasic-literature.co.uk/

Another great find!

yesterday, I found a near perfect Matthew Henry's Commentary in one volume for $2.  now I normally read this online for free, but at that price and in such great condition, I can have a printed copy too!!

Leftover Bread

One of the pitfalls of making your own bread is that it goes stale pretty quickly - usually within about 2-3 days.  Alas!  My heart distresses over waste! (Yes, I'm embellishing a bit :)  Anyway, when my bread is going stale, I just go ahead a replace it with a fresh loaf and slice up whatever is left of the stale and put it in the freezer in a big (gallon or 2 gallon) size ziploc bag.  You see stale bread is perfect for french toast  or bread puddings or those casseroles that require stale bread.  I personally love to use my stale bread for french toast in order to create my favorite concoction ever - the Monte Cristo!  And with a sandwich like that, you need your bread to hold up a little :)

If you want to know what to do with the bread loaf heels - buzz them in the food processor and freeze them - you now no long have to purchase bread crumbs!!!

Syrup Update

I don't know how may people actually try some of the things I post up here, but I hope a few people do.  A few months ago, I posted a Homemade Syrup recipe.  Now, I actually use this recipe and I will say that I haven't purchased pancake syrup in about 6 months - but I have also learned a few things about doing this that I would like to share:

• don't place syrup into jar until it is completely cooled or you will have crystallization issues (of course if you are a homeschooler and need a science project, this a perfect example of crystallization project)
• If you over-sugar the mix in order to get it really thick, you will get crystallization because a liquid mixture can only hold a certain percentage of sugar molecules before they start reforming again, when the mix is heated, it can hold more molecules, when it cools, if it is too concentrated, they will reform.
• If you get crystals and don't want to waste the syrup, put the liquid and the crystals back in a pan with some water and reboil (I love organic chemistry).  then you can cool again to package, or serve warm.
• If you serve the syrup warm or hot, your pancakes don't cool down very much while eating

Okay, that's about it for the kinks I've noticed in doing this - enjoy!

Half.com

This is my new go-to books website.  You just type in the name of your book (or ever how much you can remember of it) and it pulls the list for you.  You click on the correct title and wha you get is not a file on 1 book (like Ebay), but a list of all of the books of that title and edition for sale listed by condition.  For instance, if you type in 'Nourishing Traditions' you get a few book covers to choose from, you click on the one you want and then your list pops up.  You get several listed under new, very good, good and acceptable.  There are also further descriptons available and you can see how sellers are ranked with the star system just like ebay.  You also pay with paypal.  I have purchased several books from them and so far I highly recommend it as a go-to source so you don't have to pay full price for a book you may need to buy rather than just rent at the library.  Of course finding it at the thrift shop is still cheaper most of the time, but you have to ravel to many and dig and you still may not find it.  I have a long term list for things to pick up 'just in case I see it on a thrift shop shelf' but more urgently needed items I get at half.com


****Correction - I was mistaken!  You can't use paypal - I hope you can soon though :)