The Grocery Game - trial run

The Grocery Game is a service that compiles information on how to best use coupons in the stores you normally go to.

I've heard about The Grocery Game forever, but never tried it or got much into coupons at all. It just didn't seem to pay. In our household, there are 2 adults and no kids; we're vegan and use natural products such as Tom's of Maine and Seventh Generation. We eat very little processed food such as cereal and boxed mixes. I shop at a local co-op and Trader Joe's, with an occasional foray to Whole Foods. I just never saw a way for coupons to pay off for me. At $1 for 4 weeks though, I thought I have to at least try it. I will be blogging about my results periodically as a non-typical user.

I am curious to see how it goes. I almost never go into a regular supermarket - living in the Los Angeles area, there are multiple options nearby. The reason I decided to join was that Whole Foods was on the list, but their prices seem high to start with so I will try to report some results here.

I almost only shop at natural food stores, so i am concerned about using it in regular grocery store. whole foods is on list, but prices are high to start. I don't shop at regular supermarket - i'd weight 300 pounds!

Jet Blue - why didn't I know about this?

Last week, we were away on vacation. We went from Los Angeles to New York City via Jet Blue Airlines, and the experience was great. Since my family is mostly on the east coast, I fly a few times a year and have never taken Jet Blue.

The first thing I liked was the price. It was among the cheapest flights we could find on the schedule we needed.

The second thing I liked was the optional legroom. For about $25 per person per flight ($100 total for us - $25 x 2 people x 2 flights each for round trip), we were able to purchase seats with 4" of extra leg room. At 5'3", leg room has never been much of a consideration for me, but at 6'4", it's very much on my husband's mind! Even though I don't need the legroom, it did make for a more comfortable fight.

The third thing was the wide, generous seats. They were similar to seats I've seen in first class. On our flight out, a very tall man with a linebacker build sat next to me, and we both had plenty of room.

The fourth thing I liked was my own Direct TV in the seatback in front of me. I watched several hours of "junk food for the mind" TV in both directions and the 5 1/2 hour flight was done in no time. There is also satellite radio with dozens of channels.

Finally, the operation was just generally well-run. We encountered no long waits anywhere, the boarding was logical and organized, and there was plenty of room in the overhead bins even on a full flight. On our flight to New York City, we were detoured to Rochester due to thunderstorms. The crew provided complementary pizza, soda and bottled water for passengers even though they were in no way responsible for the delay.

I will be flying Jet Blue again.

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Bringing a new gadget into your life

I'm not a big gadget and electronics person. I often don't buy things because I don't want to invest the time in the selection process or in the process of integrating the new toy into my life. I did not have a TV for about 7 years for these reasons. My life was busy, full and fun and I just couldn't see giving up the fulfilling things I was doing even for a few hours to buy a tv and install it into my life (set it up, get rid of box, read and file paperwork, get cable, get dvd player, etc).

But some new gadgets are inevitable. Even the things I have need to be replaced periodically. I've always had sort of a vague process of what to do, but it never seemed to be complete. Here is a checklist from lifehack.org (written by Lori Marrero of The Clutter Diet) of what to do when you bring home a new gadget. This is a great and really comprehensive checklist for all the steps of buying and beginning to use a new toy. It was really helpful to me, and maybe I'll invest in a new toy or two soon now that I know exactly what to do with it once I bring it home.

Eating while traveling - be prepared

Eating healthy while traveling can be a challenge for anyone. On top of wanting to be healthy, I'm vegan and I need to eat 5 times a day so keeping myself fed on the road can be require some effort. One thing I do is to pack a few food accessories in my luggage to make eating on the road easier. Many people are able to just stop in the nearest restaurant and grab something, but that's not realistic for my 5-times a day eating.

I do pack a few snacks to take with me, but I usually buy the bulk of things at my destination. I often end up with half-eaten bags of nuts, fruit or other snacks and no way to manage them in a hotel room. I bring rubber bands for this purpose, and if it's a car trip where we will have lots of food with us, I'll bring chip clips as well but for packing light rubberbands can't be beat. I also pack a few napkins and hand wipes for on-the-go eating. I only bring a few napkins with me as these are easy to accumulate on the road. If it won't overburden my luggage, I bring a set of camping silverware (knife, fork and spoon that snap together). I've been stuck trying to find a fork late at night while trying to enjoy leftovers in my room. Too often, I remember the leftovers but forget to ask for plastic silverware. I also like that I don't consume any plastic this way.

What other pack-ahead food accessories help you eat well on the road?

Being specific with contractors

Here's something I learned on our recent garage door replacement - don't expect an installer to think outside the box to solve your problems and advise you. I say this not as a criticism of installers or contractors, but as a way to clarify their mindset. Someone who is a contractor or installer but is not specifically a design/build contractor does exactly what he is supposed to and nothing else. This can be a good strategy to get your jobs done right.

Where being too specific can be a problem for me, the customer, is when I think I am asking a comprehensive question but I'm not. In our case, when we were meeting with the garage door installer to select a door, one of our biggest criteria was headroom when the door was closed. We explained that Chris is 6'4" and that we may want to finish out some of the space for various purposes later. So, maximizing headroom when the door is open is really important.

After establishing this, we decided on a one-piece door because less of the door is inside the garage when it is open, so there is less head room eaten up by the door. What we didn't count on was the opener motor being mounted less than 6' off the ground. The headroom provided by the door is great, but right in the middle of the garage our headroom is reduced by a lot.

Where did the breakdown occur? What I asked was "Which door has better headroom when open?" What I wanted to know was "Which door will maximize headroom in the entire garage?" So, the lesson is ask your question in many ways. I will also now ask a general question such as "Headroom is our main concern. We want to do X with the garage. Which door will best accommodate that and why?

"Just" for laughs

I am always on the lookout for something to make me laugh, and The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks does that often! It's a humorous look at abused and misused quotation marks and how those pesky little buggers can give your note an "unintended" meaning.

Check it out here

Further dividing tasks at home

Yesterday, I described the contexts I use to manage my work at home. The context refers to the physical setting for the work. In my case, I use @admin (at my desk), @home, and @work clothes (when I'm dressed for messy jobs). I use another concept which is my maintenance list.

Living in an older home, maintenance is a constant project that I spend at least 30-60 minutes a day on. My maintenance list includes all sorts of recurring tasks, even if they are not house-related. The thing about my maintenance is that it occurs in all of the contexts I use at home. Need the yearly tree trim? That's an @admin task - call the trimmer and schedule it. Need to trim the ivy? That's an @work clothes task. Need to oil the shredder? That's an @home or @admin task. Need to wax the counter tops? That's an @home or @work clothes project.

I have maintenance as part of my daily routine, and I can just pick off whatever tasks suit the context I am working in.

Using GTD contexts at home

One of the core principals of GTD is keeping your to do lists by context, i.e. in the physical setting in which you need to do them. When I first began working at home, I mistakenly assumed I had only one context for my work (both employment and house remodeling, my other work right now). What I've learned over time is that when I am working at home, I have several contexts from which to pick.

One context is @Administrative. This means I am sitting at my desk with my phone, computer, files and paperwork nearby. In this context, I take care of mail and bills, filing, phone calls, appointments, etc.

Another context I use is "@home," which just means I am home. I use this for light cleaning or maintenance tasks, decluttering, and small household chores.

For messy or big jobs, I use my "@work clothes" context which means I am at home and in my paint-splattered jeans, heavy shirt and work boots. I use this context for anything messy such as painting or trimming ivy, or anything really physical like moving boxes or assembling furninture.

Arguably, there is some overlap here. Almost everything on my @home list is also on my @work clothes list since anything I can do just by being at home (even in clean clothes) can be done in work clothes. I separate my @admin from @home by whether or not I am sitting at my desk or not.

Some people may not need this level of separation, especially if they rarely have need to don the work garb. I've found it works great for me though, especially when I am deciding what to wear that day and when to put on nice clothes for the day. I often pick one day a week to spend just in work clothes and knock a bunch of tasks out that day. It also helps when I see something messy that needs to be done. I know the next time I'll be in a position to address it.

How do you use contexts (or the concept of them) at home?

Things not to do at a wedding

Here's a good reminder of how to be a good wedding or party guest. I'm surprised that some of it needs to be said, but you can never be too considerate at someone else's event. For a humorous (and sometimes sad) taste of how bad it can be, check out Etiquette Hell .

Understand yourself by examining your home

This is a great essay by Pam Young I found in the flylady yahoo group. It talks about how your home is a reflection of you, and it's problems reflect your problems.

Here is a great line that really got me thinking: "Our homes are like a personal therapist in that everything in them has our reasons for being there." I immediately began thinking about all the stuff in my house and why I have it. A lot of things that are here are things that accumulated during the remodel and are just awaiting proper disposal. This got me thinking about how I am spending my time and why I am tackling the disposal so slowly. Could I re-prioritize so I don't spend too many more years living in a construction zone?

A small, but important phrase she uses is "our reasons," as opposed "a reason." The sentence has a different meaning because of this phrase. The stuff in my house doesn't have it's own reasons for being there, it has my reasons. I really thought about what values were at play in the situation. I allocate my time based on what's important to me, and while this area gets some regular time, it's not enough to plow through the mess as quickly as I'd like. I also place a tremendous value on proper disposal. It takes time to Freecycle or find a suitable home for things. For now, I think I'm making the best use of my time but I'll continue to evaluate.

Bad options for kids' meals

As a follow up to yesterday, here is a piece on kids' meals. Most of us would think that a meal made for a kid would be portioned appropriately for a kid, but that's not usually the case. It seems they just slightly scaled down the monstrous adult portions we already know are unhealthy.

The 20 worst restaurant foods

Men's Health Magazine had this startling piece on 20 really bad restaurant foods. I'm somewhat knowledgeable on calorie counts, but this was just mind-blowing! What was really shocking was that some of the foods they mention I could picture someone ordering to try to be more healthy. Most people would assume that a turkey burger is a healthier choice for a restaurant meal, but check out Number 17, the Bella from Ruby Tuesday. It has 1,145 calories before any extras like french fries. I haven't eaten beef or turkey in many years, but I used to eat turkey burgers because they were lower in calorie.

We all know that many people have weight issues in this country. I am not saying that each individual is not responsible for his or her weight and health, but food choices like this don't help. Most people know that huge sodas or big orders of fries are not good, but it's hard to imagine that a salad contains 1,450 calories.

Proper use of sunscreen

This is an informative article on using sunscreen. Avoiding sun damage is not as simple as just applying sunscreen before you go out in the morning. There are other factors such as:

Does your sunscreen have the correct ingredients?
Are you applying enough?
Are you re-applying often enough?
Are you using any medications or products that might make you more sun sensitive?

Check the article out, and have a sun safe remainder of the summer!

Consuming bags to recycle

For years, I used paper grocery bags to collect my recyclables and take them to the bin outside. In the back of my mind, I knew this was silly - yes, the bags are recyclable and end up in the proper bin, but isn't it better not to use one in the first place? Now that we have been living in our fixer upper for over 2 years, I am finally getting to some "settling in" projects. One of them was to revamp my recycling and stop consuming new grocery bags for this use.

I started out by thinking about where to collect my recyclables. My outdoor bin is right outside the side door in the kitchen, so under the sink is a perfect place and was where my paper grocery bag was. I measured the space, which was tricky since it was not an even, rectilinear shape. I found the largest height, width and depth I could manage for an under-sink bin and set to shopping. I found this at The Container Store, which fit perfectly in my space. It is smooth plastic, which is good for easy cleaning. It has a lid, which I wanted, but the lid is open at front so you don't need to open it for small items.

So far, it has worked out well. I rinse the bin with a hose before it gets too dirty and that saves me from scrubbing nasty food residue. I now keep my remaining stash of paper grocery bags in my car and have gradually been buying new reusable bags every time I need one. I'm pleased to report that I haven't consumed a new paper bag for my regular grocery shopping or recycling since June 10!

I know this isn't the biggest step, but I wanted to show that being greener doesn't always require plans on a grand scale. This was also a project I put off for a long time because I didn't know how to make the shift. Once I sat down to think about it and plan the project, it was easy (measure, find and buy bin, put bags in car, start using new system). I got stuck because I didn't take time to plan it because it seemed like too simple a project to plan. In the end, a little planning was all I needed to get this important step moving.

Avoiding bad homeowner associations

Homeowner associations can be really great or really bad, but before you buy a place that is governed by one make sure you do your homework! When I bought my first condo, I put it into my purchase agreement that I got to see several years of financial statements as well as bylaws, etc. before I was obligated to go through with the purchase. I was a financial analyst, so I felt comfortable reviewing their financial status. Get someone to look at the financial status if you need to, but make sure you know what the status is. There could be a $30,000 new roof in the future with no savings set aside for it.

I did some homework when I bought my place, and fortunately it all worked out. In retrospect, I should have done a lot more. The real way I learned this lesson though was through someone I know who got badly burned by buying into a condo development with a terrible HOA. They were remiss about collections, inconsistent in their application of the rules, and were in terrible financial shape. The dues they collected were barely enough to pay regular maintenance, so when a big issue popped up there was simply no money available. Emergency special assessments were common, and I can't imagine anyone likes finding out they owe thousands of dollars in a few weeks.

Another important thing I found is that it is really important to understand which activities are allowed and not allowed. Some HOA's have restrictions on things you might not imagine such as pet ownership, flag and holiday displays, hanging laundry, outdoor storage, gardening, grilling, window shades, paint colors, noise and parking to name a few. These are not necessarily bad, especially when lots of people are living in close quarters. Just make sure you are comfortable with the rules of where you will be living.

Here is a great piece in the LA Times about avoiding bad HOA's.

How to ask for and maybe get a contractor discount

One of the things a good contractor knows is where to buy materials. Many stores offer a substantial contractor discount on materials. I saved 30% on the cost of my bathroom tile by getting a contractor discount. Since I am not a contractor, you may wonder how I did this.

I did a lot of materials purchasing for my remodel. I shopped extensively and often went to specialty supply stores rather than just Loew's or Home Depot (e.g. a store that sells only tile). The specialty stores often offer a contractor discount and you need to do only two things to get it:

First, ask for it. The discount was never posted or publicized but many stores offered it. Every store where I got a discount knew I was not a contractor.

Second, provide the license number of the contractor you are working with after getting the license holder's permission.

That's it. It was very simple and saved me thousands of dollars (really!). I suggest always asking for permission to use someone's license for this purpose. All of my contractors were happy to let me do this, and it saved any future embarrassment at having done something behind someone's back.

Art supply stores

Have you ever been to an art supply store? I'm not talking about a typical craft store like Michael's, although I like going into Michael's (BTW - I enjoy receiving their weekly email. It contains coupons and sales notices). The kind of store I mean is an art supply store that caters to artists such as painters, sketchers and sculptors.

Since I don't paint, sketch or sculpt, I don't actually use much of what is sold in an art supply store. While I often find great stuff for storage or home projects, what I really enjoy is the inspiration and the potential I feel when I am there. Each object is raw materials or equipment just waiting to be turned into something fabulous. I bring a notebook with me to write down ideas because there are just too many in my head to remember. I always leave feeling energized and creative. It's a great way to charge my batteries for project on our fixer upper.

I never fail to find a new product I didn't know existed. It can be very tempting to load up with all sorts of materials you'll never use. Make sure that your trip to the art store only adds useful things, inspiration and beauty to your life. Whatever you want will probably be available next time you visit, so take some time to think before you buy.

Do you have a place that provides you with inspiration? What ideas do you get from all those supplies?