Category Archives: Nico

Apr 22

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day everybody! One of my Resolutions for 2008 was to become more Eco-Friendly, or Eco-Nico as my hubby calls me 😉 I am hoping to do my part to lighten my footprint on the Earth.

Last weekend I counted all of the light bulbs around the house. I wanted to see just how many more I needed to switch to CFLs, it was 23. I already have around 10 switched to CFLs, so 23 more is a big amount of light-bulbs, and a pretty big chunk of change too. I would like to have all of the bulbs switched by Summer, and this week was a great place to start. Walgreens was running a sale on CFLs 2/$6.00! I purchased 2 bulbs and placed them in the kitchen and dining room, two of the busiest rooms in the house. The old bulbs were recycled to my hubby’s workplace 😉

I love to use Natural Light around the house, whenever I can. We live in an older home, and luckily we have some pretty big windows. I gave all of the windows a deep clean yesterday, and now they can let in more of that lovely sunshine 😉 It puts me in a better mood too, must be all that vitamin D!

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Once Dylan started on solids I noticed all of the baby food packaging that we were using. I’ve re-used as much as I could around the house. I’ve used the packages to organize my Nicostuff supplies, keep the junk drawer tidier, and to pack lunches. Those little glass and plastic packages come in very handy.

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Glass is another item that I can’t throw away. Aesthetically it is very pleasing to my eye, and it is another great way to organize your home. I’ve reused a large glass jar to store (ahem) girly supplies in the upstairs bathroom, and a parfait glass for the downstairs bathroom. Vases also make great containers to store kitchen supplies in.

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My next step is to recycle more. Locally it is difficult to find a place that recycles, and already one of the plants in our area has shut down. I was happy to read that this Spring/Summer our local Wal-Mart is going to offer Recycling Drop-off on the first Saturday of every month. They will have bins available to recycle aluminum cans, plastics, glass, and newspaper. It is a great start for our community!

Do you have big plans for Earth Day? How have you made your home more Eco-friendly?

Apr 17

Nico in the Pursuit of Savings, All Shopped Out

Thanks again to everyone for reading along with me on my savings adventure. It has been an interesting journey, that has taught me a lot about shopping and saving locally. I was really surprised to see how much prices can vary from store to store, even if I didn’t have to drive that far.

Just for fun, I made a chart of my fifteen items and all of the places that I shopped. You can really see the price difference when you view them side by side.

Items

Wal-Mart

Walgreens

Dollar General

IGA

Woods

 
Cat Food

$3.84

$4.49

$2.25

$1.79

$1.99
Kitty Litter

$1.68

$2.29

$1.00

$2.99

$1.79
Kleenexes

$1.24

$1.00

$1.00

$1.25

$1.00
Toilet Paper

$1.32

$1.00

$1.10

$1.65

$1.00
Diapers

$10.67

$9.00

$8.00

$10.89

$9.97
Baby Food 2pk

$0.98

$1.39

$0.00

$1.19

$0.99
Baby Food Jar

$0.72

$0.89

$0.00

$0.85

$0.75
Gerber Puffs

$1.92

$2.49

$0.00

$2.29

$2.09
Saltines

$0.96

$2.00

$0.85

$1.35

$0.99
Coca-Cola

$3.98

$3.00

$1.99 (6ct)

$3.50

$3.33
Bread

$0.96

$2.19

$2.40

$1.09

$1.00
Eggs

$1.70

$1.50

$2.25

$1.50

$1.50
Milk 1 Gallon

$3.40

$3.49

$3.90

$3.19

$3.69
Flour 5lbs

$1.58

$2.99

$1.25

$1.79

$1.99
Sugar 4 lbs

$1.98

$2.79

$1.65

$1.69

$1.69
 

 

 

 

 

 
TOTAL

$36.93

$40.51

$27.64

$37.01

$33.77

I was surprised to see Walgreens on the high side of the prices and Wood’s on the low end, although the week that I shopped at Wood’s, many of the Baby Items were on sale.

Wal-Mart still seems to be the best bet for One Stop shopping, and with my two busy boys in the cart that is usually what I have to do. Walgreens is still one of my favorite places to shop, their pharmacy is great, and overall they had the best Customer Service. Dollar General is the best place to shop locally for Baking Supplies, and Cat Litter, they also had great Customer Service too. Wood’s and IGA both run fantastic sales, and incentive buys to save on fuel costs. Those might come in handy as the price of gas continues to rise.

Shopping all around town has also taught me a lot about our community, and sadly a few places that we really need. I think that our little town would greatly benefit from an Aldi, and a Bakery Outlet store. Both stores would really help out with the rising cost of groceries, and maybe get the existing shops to lower their prices, just a bit.

For the most part I’ll stay shopping local, unless gas prices magically drop and I can shop at Dillons and Aldi along with the local shops;) I’ll also be checking those sale ads weekly to see where I can save even more.

I’ll still keep my fingers crossed that maybe one day we’ll get an Aldi or a Dolly Madison Outlet 😉 A girl can dream, and this girl is dreaming about lower grocery prices…

Apr 16

Stars From Nico’s Kitchen

I love Stars, I make bracelets with Star shaped beads, and Thade loves Star shaped Grilled Cheese sandwiches for lunch. I thought I would get out my cookie cutters and see what else I could make Star Shaped.

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I had my heart set on baking a Cherry Pie, but I didn’t want to make a traditional crust. I decided to roll out the dough, and cut it with a small Star shaped cookie cutter. I loved the way that this Pie turned out. It was so pretty and tasty too.

I needed to fill the cookie jar, and I thought some Star Shaped Sugar Cookies would do the trick.

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I topped a few of the cookies with Icing and Sprinkles (Thade’s favorite), and the rest were covered in Melted Hershey Kisses (my favorite). Sugar Cookies are another cookie that I’m not a fan of making, the dough is so sticky, but the work was worth it. I had a batch of delicious cookies that would rival any Bakery cookies.

 

Do you have a favorite cookie cutter in your collection?

 

 

Apr 15

Happy Tax Day!

Happy Tax Day, if you are happy about tax day 😉

We don’t have too much planned for today, I’m still catching up on the mountain of dishes in my kitchen. Thade has a make up Soccer Game this evening, so I’m hoping for some warmer temps today. I think it is supposed to be 60 today and 70 tomorrow 🙂 Maybe Spring is finally here!