Most moms are on board with clipping coupons, shopping sales and living frugal lifestyles; but when it comes to making energy efficient choices in their homes, few of them practice the same budget stretching tactics. 

Pick up any magazine or newspaper and you’ll find articles about skyrocketing gas, oil, electricity, and water prices.  Authors point to the drastic economic and environmental impact these events have on the world.   Our energy crisis is no longer an abstract concept, important only to congressmen and science gurus.  This issue affects homes across the globe by dipping into bank accounts and making substantial withdrawals. 

What’s a Girl To Do?

We all need to learn energy saving techniques and put them to good use. It’s not a difficult concept and you’ll save money too; energy efficient homes and apartments cost less to heat, cool and light.

Start with easy jobs, like turning off the faucet while brushing your teeth, unplugging cell phone chargers and turning off lights when leaving a room; these simple changes immediately reduce  utility bills.

Today

• Unplug countertop appliances you’re not using and purchase a few compact florescent bulbs.

Did You Know?

An ENERGY STAR qualified compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL) will save about $30 over its lifetime and pay for itself in about 6 months. It uses 75 percent less energy and lasts about 10 times longer than an incandescent bulb. 

 This week

• Properly inflate your car’s tires to increase efficiency and performance.
• Fix leaky faucets to stop wasting water and electricity.

Did You Know?

If each TV, DVD, and home theatre system purchased in the U.S. this year is ENERGY STAR qualified, we will prevent more than 3 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions per year.  Blu-ray Disc players can qualify as a DVD product under the current ENERGY STAR specification. 

This Month

• Pick up a tube of caulk to seal drafty windows and doors.
• Use Energy Star’s Save Energy @ Home Tool to learn how to save energy, money and the environment.

Did You Know?

Homeowners can save up to 20% of heating and cooling cost by properly insulating doors, windows, floors, ceilings and walls.

Within Three Months

• Research energy efficient appliances, and related federal and state tax credits.  Start saving for your purchase so that you avoid potential credit woes.

Did You Know?

If you purchase an energy-efficient product or renewable energy system for your home, you may be eligible for a federal tax credit – 30% of cost up to $1500.00.  Some states also offer tax credits and many utility companies offer rebates on ENERGY STAR appliances. Not all ENERGY STAR rated devices are eligible for tax credits.

 Within Six Months

• Install a programmable thermostat; the average user saves $180.00 a year.
• Purchase only ENERGY STAR rated devices when  searching for new machines.  If applicable, put receipts and additional  paperwork with your year-end tax documents.

Did You Know?

ENERGY  STAR qualified models are, on average, 10% more energy efficient than non-qualified models.

Anytime This Year

• Hire a home energy auditor or DIY. An audit helps you determine how much, and how efficiently your home is using energy and identifies possible improvements.

Did You Know?

Most of the energy used in your home goes to heating and cooling. 

You can save energy and money while  living well, having fun and showing Mother Earth a little love. 

What are your thoughts?  Have you taken advantage of rebates or tax credits? Are ENERGY  STAR devices really better for the environment?

Resources:

Did You Know? – ENERGY STAR Program

Energy Star Kids

Partnership for Home Energy Efficiency

Stop Global Warming

1. Energy Efficient Dishwashers vs. Hand Washing: Which is Greener?
2. Utility Savings at Home Part 2: Energy Costs
3. 6 Ways to Save Money on Winter Gas Bills

When I wrote last week’s book review for Tried It Tuesday, it occurred to me that I’ve really read a lot of books that truly have impacted our household & finances. Here are the 10 books that have made the biggest impact on our budget:

Personal Finance Books

Enjoy Your Money!: How to Make It, Save It, Invest It and Give It
Price: $15.99

If you read my review last week, you know why this is at the top of the list! It is by far the most enjoyable non-fiction book I’ve ever read. While it is a non-fiction, personal finance book, it’s set up as a story, with characters who meet in an effort to achieve the financial peace their parents lack. J. Steve Miller teaches valuable lessons on earning, saving, investing and being charitable through the stories & lives of the Counter Culture Club—4 high school students who learn from their financially savvy teacher, Mrs. Kramer. I wish I had started my life with the lessons in this book. I can only hope to start my own children out with the strong background these characters received.


The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness
Price: $16.49

If you’ve spent anytime in the world of personal finance blogs, you know we’re big fans of Dave Ramsey! His no nonsense approach to debt management has helped countless families dig their way out from under a mountain of creditors. His zero budget envelope system will change the way you think about your paycheck. The hubby & I each read this book, and, while we’ve had some setbacks along the way, I’d like to think we’re making good progress. We’ve only recently taken his full advice and switched to a cash budget system—it’s already making a difference in our spending habits.


The Courage to be Rich: Creating a Life of Material and Spiritual Abundance
Price: $10.88

This was the first personal finance book we ever read. I have to admit it’s been awhile, but I do know it was Suze Orman who really got the hubby & I talking about money. In our case, she is spot on with her belief that fear, shame & anger keep people from properly managing their finances. Bringing it out in the open not only allowed us to manage finances & create a budget together, but it gave me the courage to talk openly about finances & money saving online, making this website possible at all!

Frugal Living Books

It’s All Too Much: An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life with Less Stuff
Price: $10.20

On the surface, this is a book about clutter & organization. However, Peter Walsh talks a lot about what clutter is costing you. How much are you paying for each cluttered square foot in your house? Are you spending extra money on a storage unit? Is your expensive car in the driveway because your garage is full of junk? While I don’t have the clutter & organization completely under control just yet, it has forced me to carefully consider every purchase, preventing new clutter & unnecessary expenses.


Shop, Save and Share
Price: $3.99 (Out of Print—available from 3rd party sellers)

This is the book that started it all! While, I was pretty frugal & piddled with coupons for years, Ellie Kay kicked off my extreme frugality and gave me my start in the art of couponing. Her commitment to sharing from her abundance really spoke to me and has always been a part of this site. From the charity section on each grocery list to Giving Inexpensively, I’ll always honor the lessons she taught me by helping others to share from their excess as well. Sadly, the book is out of print but I am thrilled to discover an entire Ellie Kay arsenal—I clearly have more reading to do!


Vinegar, Duct Tape, Milk Jugs & More
Price: $6.78

You probably already know about my love of vinegar. And, it should come as no surprise that the hubby is a duct tape fan. After all, he is a guy. A guy who carries around a duct tape wallet. Seriously. This book on 1,001 Ingenious Ways to Use Common Household Items to Repair, Restore, Revive, or Replace Just about Everything is perfect for us! It includes tips & tricks for reusing ordinary items around the house. From cat litter to toothpaste to hair spray, this book has great ideas to double the use of things you’ve probably already purchased!

All New Square Foot Gardening: Grow More in Less Space!
Price: $13.50

When we first moved into our home, I knew I wanted a vegetable garden—but my thumb is pretty much the opposite of green. (What is that? Red? It’s been awhile since art class.) Our first summer we got a few tomatoes & green beans, but at least we had a good plot established (not by me—I bartered with our buddy who’s a master gardener). A few years ago, I found this book and my garden & budget have thanked me ever since. Mel Bartholomew’s square foot garden concept grows a lot of veggies in just a little space! The soil mix & plans he recommends have resulted in richer dirt each year. This is the first year we have added nothing to our garden bed—it was full of dark, rich, organic soil already. The worms are loving it, and I can’t wait to see the vegetables we produce this summer!

Lessons on Food (But Not Really Cookbooks)

Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
Price: $15.61

Once we start harvesting the veggies from our backyard, we can’t use them up fast enough! That’s where canning & freezing comes in. And, of course, Ball is the expert on home preservation. This book taught me everything I know about canning. Okay, so that isn’t much but I like having the reference when it’s time to experiment with preserving something new. Last year, my mom & I froze 16 dozen ears of corn. That was definitely a new experience, and the corn lasted all the way to the next season (or, would have, if my daughter hadn’t left our garage freezer open for 2 days last month).

Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children
Price: $5.98

Long before Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, I read this book by Ann Cooper & Lisa Holmes. Similarly based on the tragic state of our school lunch, the book offers practical, how-to advice for packing a suitable alternative. While I’ve ready (and considered reading) numerous books on nutrition that are filled with depressing stats & frighten me away from the grocery store altogether, this one skips the scare tactics in favor of real, solid help. It reads like a how-to manual, with specific ideas & recipes children love to find in their lunchbox.

Make-A-Mix
Price: $13.57

Okay, so this one’s a cookbook! But, not really. Instead of making muffins, cake and bread, the book includes recipes for making muffin mix, cake mix and bread mix. The idea is you can store a giant tub of homemade muffin mix in the pantry, then measure & add wet ingredients as needed. The concept is pretty similar to once-a-month cooking. It is especially helpful for those who require or desire a specialized diet, whether that is sugar free, gluten free or organic. I can easily modify the recipes for use with gluten free flour, providing easy access to mixes that would otherwise be too expensive to store.


Read any good books lately? I’m always looking for recommendations!

1. {The New Home Ec} Your Local Library: More Than Just Free Books
2. {The New Home Ec} 10 Ways to Save Money on Books
3. 31 Day Budget (Day 31): Examining Your Budget (Again)

Tonight, I fixed the pork chops for dinner. I loved how simple the whole process was. The meat arrives flash frozen, and it was super easy to defrost the chops & get dinner started. It actually took less time to defrost the 1-pound package than it takes for a wrapped package from the grocery store, since each piece is individually wrapped. I opened the package, mixed creamed corn & a packet of onion soup, poured it over the pork chops and baked for an hour. The meat was tender & tasty!

Omaha Steaks wants to help you celebrate Frozen Food Day too! (After all, where would we be without a freezer stocked with our favorite meats, meals & treats?) They have offered the chance for our readers to purchase the Grilling Favorites combo for only $39.99—a savings over 71% of its original price. The Grilling Favorites includes:

4/5 oz. Top Sirloins
4/4 oz. Boneless Pork Chops
4/4 oz. Boneless Chicken Breast
8/3 oz. Gourmet Franks
4/4 oz. Omaha Steaks Burgers
PLUS 6 FREE Burgers

You also have the chance to win a $20 reward gift card! Simply leave a comment here, and let us know what you are most looking forward to adding to your menu. You can earn additional entries by:

• Subscribing to our site by email or RSS
• Following Inexpensively and Omaha Steaks on Twitter
• Tweet: RT@omahasteaks I’m spending National Frozen Food Day with Omaha Steaks!
• Writing about this giveaway (blog, forum, public Facebook note)
• Tweeting about this giveaway: Win a $20 @OmahaSteaks gift card from @Inexpensively! {link}

For your extra entries to be counted, be sure to leave an additional comment directing us to your entry. Only one additional entry per method (i.e. While multiple tweets are appreciated it, only one will count as a drawing entry.) The contest runs until March 9th at 11:59pm est. One winner will be notified by email on March 10th and receive a $20 reward gift card from Omaha Steaks. Winner will have 48 hours to complete the claim form or a new winner will be chosen.

There are numerous products and tools designed to help you live your life. Some will work, while others won’t. Each Tuesday, we’ll share something we’ve tried so you won’t have to spend money until you know it’s worth it! Our selections usually include items that will also save your family money while others will save you time or just make your inexpensive life easier to manage. I was provided with a Grilling Favorites package from Omaha Steaks to try for this review, but the opinion is 100% real.

1. Tried it Tuesday: Angel Food Ministries
2. Meat Saving Tips
3. Beat the Heat: Grilling with Sauces

I never really thought about calcium and vitamin D until my middle child’s broken leg 6 years ago. Her orthopedic surgeon mentioned the importance and gave me a list of foods that would be good for her, to aid in healing and strengthening her bone. Yogurt was top of the list and it became a go-to snack. Nancy O’Dell talks in this video about why Yoplait is the choice for her 2-year-old.

My girls prefer Yoplait because it is smooth and creamy. Plus, even the littlest Sokol has no problems opening the containers (which can sometimes be a bad thing—she’ll eat 4 or 5 a day if I’d let her). The hubby, however, prefers a fruit on the bottom yogurt. He is often disappointed, though, as Yoplait doesn’t make one. They tend to the be a better deal at the grocery store so, naturally, it’s often my first choice. (In fact, there are several coupons available right now, including printable coupons HERE and HERE.)

If you’re looking for a real deal, how about free? You have the chance to win a Get Strong & Healthy gift pack of your own! MyBlogSpark has provided 2 gift packs for our readers. Winners will receive a coupon for free Yoplait yogurt, the Yoplait yoga mat & bag shown above and Nancy O’Dell’s book. Her book shares the advice and information she wishes she had known during pregnancy. To enter, leave a comment here—share something you wish you had known before becoming a mother or your tips for balancing a health lifestyle.

You can earn additional entries by:

• Becoming a Facebook fan of Yoplait and Inexpensively
• Subscribing to our site by email or RSS
• Following us on Twitter
• Blogging about this giveaway
• Tweeting about this giveaway

For your extra entries to be counted, be sure to leave an additional comment directing us to your entry. Only one additional entry per method (i.e. While multiple tweets are appreciated it, only one will count as a drawing entry.) The contest runs until October 12th at 11:59pm edt. Two winners will be notified by email on October 13th (as selected by Random.org) and must reply with their mailing address within 48 hours or a new winner will be chosen. Open only to residents of the U.S. & Canada and cannot be shipped to PO boxes. **Please note: the free coupon is not valid within the following states: ID, LA, ND, NJ, NV and TN.

Congratulations to Holly, winner of last week’s Harry Connick Jr. giveaway!

Related posts:

1. Eating Healthy On a Budget
2. Eating Healthy on a Budget
3. No Time to Cook: Emergency Supplies to Avoid the Drive-Thru

]]> http://inexpensively.com/deals/reviews-giveaways/get-strong-healthy-yoplait-yogurt-giveaway/feed/ 37 http://inexpensively.com/deals/free-visit-to-mary-todd-lincoln-house/ http://inexpensively.com/deals/free-visit-to-mary-todd-lincoln-house/#comments Sat, 26 Sep 2009 21:01:29 +0000 FrugalFemina http://inexpensively.com/?p=4614 Related posts:

1. Free Fun at Two Sisters Pumpkin Patch
2. Free Fun at Bramble Ridge Orchard
3. 23 Days Until Christmas: The Gingerbread House

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Front of the Mary Todd Lincoln House

Have any of you participated in the free museum day today? Bradley and I did! There were several participating museums within driving distance, but we chose the Mary Todd Lincoln House in Lexington.

We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside, but I found this great video that gives you a good idea of what we saw:

A Little Historical Info.

The house was originally built as an Inn, but Mr. Todd bought it from the bank after the original owner couldn’t afford it anymore. He turned the ballroom upstairs into bedrooms–including a cute little nursery for the little ones. We learned that the little kiddos had to sleep sideways in the bed so they could fit all of the kids in one bed. If you watched the video above, you know that’s a lot of kiddos!

I knew I would like Mrs. Lincoln when they told us at the beginning that she bought this Chocolate Pot from Tiffany & Co. because her favorite drink was hot chocolate. I could drink hot chocolate every day of the year! And I want the good stuff. Not those sugar-free packets that are all thin and watery. Give me some CHOCOLATE, y’all.

One of my favorite parts of the tour was seeing the picture of how the house looked before it was restored. Picture someone’s unfinished basement with water damage in complete disrepair, and that’s about what the house looked like. They really did an amazing job restoring it and were able to keep it fairly authentic since they had a list of what was sold at the auction. Apparently, this was the first place anyone restored to honor a First Lady.

Back of the Mary Todd Lincoln House

At the end, everyone was commenting on how well-behaved Bradley was, and I said, “Yeah, I figured you all cringed when I walked through the door with a two-year-old.” They had no comment! But he did great, and they said he obviously loves his Mama, because he was giving me lots of kisses and hugs during the tour.

They have a great gift shop in the Warming Room at the end of the tour that seems very fairly priced. Bradley and I bought this book about Abraham Lincoln.

I LOVE books, movies, etc., based on true stories, and the staff at the Mary Todd Lincoln House packed in a lot of great info. So go see it! Parking is free, and it’s right behind the building. Tickets are free for children under 6, $4 for children 6-12, and $9 for adults. School tours, including homeschoolers, get in for $3/student and $5/chaperone. Or you can go for free on a free museum day! Just remember to print out your admission card before you go. I saw some people at the door who had to pay because they didn’t know you had to print out the card.

1. Free Fun at Two Sisters Pumpkin Patch
2. Free Fun at Bramble Ridge Orchard
3. 23 Days Until Christmas: The Gingerbread House

How does it work?

You must pre-order your food unit. Once you determine the closest host site to your location, you can order and pay online. The  Signature box feeds a family of four for one week and costs $30. There are also Senior boxes and special add on boxes. Once a month, Angel Food Ministries delivers food to a host church. Saturday I picked up my first food unit from Angel Food Ministries. I bought the $30 Signature box.

When you pick up your food, you do need to bring a box or ice chest to collect your food in. There will be tables set-up and you simply walk around and collect the items that go with the unit you bought. There will be plenty of people there to assist you!

What do you get?

The menu always changes. For the month of September, the following was included:

The dessert this month ended up being Nestle Tollhouse cookie dough. I was very pleased with how fresh everything looked. The sweet potatoes and green beans were flash frozen making it easy to use just a small portion. The steaks and pork chops have minimal fat and are frozen individually. The eggs are fresh and don’t have an expiration until the end of October. The potatoes and onions are fresh as well.

My only disappointment was the 4lb bag of chicken thighs. They are frozen in a large clump. For my family, we would normally get several meals out of that quantity of chicken. I will have to defrost the whole bag at once due to how it was packaged. I will have to get creative with chicken recipes when I decide to defrost the thighs!

Thoughts

The quality of the food was good. Nothing was expired or even close to it. I was surprised to see name brand products in the box. Even with getting these items on sale at the grocery store, it would be hard to match the $30 in one trip. Angel Food Ministries has done studies nationwide and the cost of the same foods fell between $42 and $78.

I will order from Angel Food Ministries in the future. Take a look at the October and Holiday menu. The Holiday unit is very tempting; $36 for a Thanksgiving meal! May be a great gift for someone in need!

1. Tried It Tuesday: Babycook
2. Tried It Tuesday: Reynolds Handi Vac
3. Food Bank Shortage

My favorite part of Amazon magazine subscriptions is the free shipping opportunity. Of course, magazines always ship free, but the cost of each magazine will also help you reach the $25 minimum purchase for free shipping on anything else you order. Take advantage of the September sale to get free shipping the little things you’ve been eying or get a jump on holiday shopping (only 107 shopping days until Christmas!).

1. Tried It Tuesday: Laptop Lunch Box
2. Tried It Tuesday: Keurig Single Cup Home Brewing System
3. Tried It Tuesday: Reynolds Handi Vac

Kristen is a 26-year old stay-at-home mommy to a temperamental yet lovable 1-year old boy and wife to a hardworking, entrepreneur hubby. She’s been blogging since 2006, chronicling her struggle with infertility, loss and beyond – although she recently began her own review/giveaway blog to share her love of research and great finds with others. She lives by the motto, “it’s not so much about counting the days but making the days count.”

I should begin by saying that I am not much of a cook. The kitchen and I are more like frenemies. I only cook out of necessity so I don’t starve. But when I gave birth to my son, Nate, I just knew I wanted to breastfeed and when the time came, I knew I wanted to try my hand at making baby food. Maybe it was my newfound motherly instinct but I had to know what exactly was going in my boy’s tummy. If I couldn’t pronounce it or identify it, it wasn’t going on a spoon – or anywhere near him for that matter. So, as his 6-month birthday approached and I began researching homemade purees, I stumbled upon the Beaba Babycook at Williams Sonoma.

I was immediately intrigued. A steamer, blender and defroster all in one little machine? How convenient – especially for the lazy “chef” like me! Not to mention all parts that come into contact with food are BPA-free [polypropylene (PP) or polysufone (PSU)] and dishwasher safe. Who wouldn’t want to give this device a try? With a $150 price tag, I wasn’t sure if it was going to be worth it. But I thought about the amount I would spend on jarred food ($10/week minimally – more for organic baby food brands) and figured it would pay for itself in just a few months. So, I begged my husband to buy it for me as a Christmas gift. And like a good hubby, he did as he was asked I couldn’t wait to test it out and get the real scoop.

The first thing I noticed was the design. Very European – simple yet stylish. The neutral green color is something that can fit in with just about any kitchen décor. Unlike my dull blender, I was not ashamed to have the Babycook on display on my countertop. But did it perform as good as it looked?

The Babycook surpassed my expectations. It was so incredibly easy to use, even for a novice like myself. The instructions were straightforward and easy to follow. Add the recommended amount of water to the reservoir (there’s a handy guide to help you determine which level to use), add diced food to the basket and place inside the blending bowl, attach the lid and turn the knob to the “steam” position. Voila! In 5-15 minutes, you’ll have fresh, healthy steamed fruit or veggies for your little one to enjoy. The machine was super quiet in action, so I could make batches of purees at night without disturbing my sleeping baby. It even has an automatic shut-off feature so you don’t have wait beside the machine, staring at the clock. You can *gasp* relax or multitask while the Babycook does all the work for you.

Once steamed, you just remove the fruit or veggies, place them into the blending bowl (with or without water or juice to thin), cover and turn the knob to the “puree” position. You control how thin or how thick you want it to be with the length of the pulse. Done! It’s easy as pie. Probably even easier than pie! Use the enclosed spatula to scoop out and feed immediately or into a refrigerator/freezer-safe container for later use. I personally use 2 oz. Baby Cubes, as they are BPA-free and have individual lids for easy thaw and transport, but a plain old ice cube tray would work just as well. Cleanup is a breeze – just rinse and throw in the top rack of the dishwasher. The blade is removable so you can also handwash if you prefer.

The Babycook comes with a small recipe booklet to get you started. However, I would recommend that you purchase a separate baby cookbook or use online resources such as www.wholesomebabyfood.com to supplement this and add a variety of baby food recipes to your arsenal.

The only disadvantage I can think of with the Babycook is that the cooking basket is not very large. I can max it out with 2 medium-sized diced pears. But it’s so easy and fun to use that I don’t mind cooking more often! Also, a bigger appliance would be bulky and awkward. The small size allows for more counterspace, which is in-demand in most kitchens I’ve seen. Also, I found the lid to be a bit tricky to work at first. You have to align it just so in order for it to click into place. But after a little practice, it’s now like second nature.

I’ve used my Babycook to make simple dishes like Vanilla Pear, smoothies like Blueberry Banana Yogurt and complex dinners like Chicken with Apple and Sweet Potato. Each time, my purees have come out exactly like I desired. They smell and taste delicious and my son gladly gobbles them up. Mission accomplished.

Bottom-line: Do you need the Beaba Babycook to make homemade baby food? No. You can get by using a steamer and a blender as mamas have done for years. But the Babycook certainly makes it fun and ultra-convenient. That, my friends, is priceless.

1. Tried It Tuesday: Reynolds Handi Vac
2. Tried It Tuesday: Laptop Lunch Box
3. Tried it Tuesday: Angel Food Ministries

I am also a fan of budget music. I’ve often browsed used CD sections of music stores and perused numerous garage sales for music that folks decided to thin from their collections. Online music may not yet be that low cost, but it’s getting pretty close, and it shows with my 50G+ library.

The biggest contributor to my digital collection, apart from my ripped CDs, is eMusic. Amazon’s MP3 store is a distant second and my iTunes showing is minuscule.

Both emusic and Amazon have large libraries and between the two you’re bound to find what you’re looking for, but each service operates a little differently. Amazon is a pay as you consume service. You can spend $100 this month and $5 next month, at your leisure. eMusic is a subscription based service. You choose your subscription level, 30 credits for $11.95, for example, and you have one month to download your music on a “use it or lose it” basis. At the time of this writing, both services allow you to re-download previously purchased music, though you must subscribe to eMusic to have this feature.

If you’re looking for new and interesting music, eMusic is the place to start. As you rate music, eMusic fine tunes its recommendations to you. They also have a wonderful system of “Editor’s Picks”. I’ve had very good luck with those and am currently thoroughly enjoying Dragonslayer by Sunset Rubdown. If you know what you’re looking for and it’s standard radio fare, Amazon’s MP3 store is the place to start. We recently grabbed the soundtrack to the Hannah Montana movie for Heather and our kids.

Getting your music from a combination of both sources is the way to go for me, but my first stop tends to be eMusic. I generally only subscribe for a month at a time. Every couple of months or so, I get a “Please come back!” email with a bonus 50 or 75 free songs with my subscription. I’ll resubscribe, download my music and generally cancel that month. I’ve tried multiple variations and found that it takes me at least two months to grok that amount of music.

1. CardMobili.com: Store Loyalty Card Storage (Ad)
2. 2010 Black Friday Times: When Does Your Store Open?
3. Finding Freebies

Laptop Lunch Boxes are a Bento-style container featuring several fun colors for your children to choose. The box is perfect for waste-free lunches, but even if going green isn’t your thing, the ease of packing a lunch without searching for baggies or trying to find just the right sized lid will make it worthwhile. Each laptop contains 4 containers—2 small squares and 2 larger rectangles (including 1 with a lid). They are just the right size for portioning leftovers, creating new meals and including the snacks your children love.

Also included in the kit is a cookbook with great, healthy lunch ideas and silverware so you can eliminate the expense of plasticware or save your child a trip to through the lunch line. All containers are dishwasher and microwave safe (however, the lid is not designed for the microwave). There is also a full laptop lunch system that includes a drink container and insulated carrying bag, though we have found that the kit will fit into many available lunch totes.

Just in case the girls were slightly disappointed at not getting to choose a new lunch box this year, we made a nice event of the annual backpack selection (on sale, of course). However, they are already excited about using their laptop lunches and planning their packing choices. Not only are they a hit, but they are still in great condition (minus 1 lid that led to the discovery that the lids are not, in fact, microwave safe). Each day, I am confident my girls leave for school with the perfect amount of food. The divided containers help me to visualize the variety of foods they will need for proper nutrition. I just cannot say enough great things about this lunch tote or the bento method of packing.

1. Waste Free Lunch
2. Weekday Lunch Savings
3. Start a Lunch Co-Op at Work