Our favorite frugal place for breakfast

Oh, IKEA, how do I love thee?  Let me count the ways.

My husband has had IKEA in close proximity to him for most of his life; I, on the other hand, had never been to one until I was 19 years old.  So he thinks I am fascinated with the place because it is still somewhat of a novelty for me.  Regardless, there are so many things I love about this store.

There's the endless inspiration attained from walking through the perfectly styled showroom.  There's the classic fresh/modern/functional/simple Swedish design.  There's the affordable furniture, which is why about 75% of the furniture we have purchased came from there.  There's the inexpensive housewares which are much cooler than other big box stores, and cost way less (49 cents for a coffee mug!  $3.99 for a kitchen rug! just about any frame you'd want for under $10!)

And then, there's the restaurant.  It's not fine dining, but it's cheap, good, not terribly unhealthy, and European.  It's basically a cafeteria, but that's what keeps the cost down.  They have specials every day of the week, and a Swedish food section should you want to take home a bag of Swedish meatballs, lingonberry preserves, muesli, caviar, or salmon paste in a tube (cue vomit sounds).

Lucky for us, Monday is Rob's day off, and it's also free breakfast day.  From 9:30 to 11:00 you can simply show up and get a plate of scrambled eggs, bacon, and potatoes.  For us, we get 2 regular plates, ask for a smaller third plate for Liam, then I get a free cup of coffee with my Ikea family card, so we only pay $1.61 for Rob's lingonberry juice.  It's not the most gourmet breakfast ever (powdered eggs, thin bacon, frozen potatoes), but it's tasty and most important, free. Also, the same breakfast is only 99 cents any other day of the week.

If you live near an Ikea, check out their restaurant specials for a cheap meal out!

A List. And a dinner plan.

1.)  Forgive my absence since my last post; due to the nature of my last post, you might have guessed that I was trying to regain peace and balance and sanity.  If you guessed this, you were right!

2.)  I did a non-frugal thing and bought some Vibram FiveFingers.  They were more expensive than probably the past 3 pairs of shoes I've bought combined, but they are AWESOME!

3.)  Our garden is really flourishing and I love it.  We've already harvested lettuce, green beans, a few zucchini, basil, green onions, and spinach.  There are lots of little green tomatoes out there too!

4.)  In my last post I wrote about Liam now crawling and getting into EVERYTHING.  We went out and bought one of those baby gate play yards, and it's possibly one of the greatest inventions ever.

5.)  If you like to sew like me and have a little boy, check this out: 25 things to make for a baby boy.  It's refreshing to see this after seeing countless dress/frilly/girly tutorials on the web!

6.)  I've also written about doing the Supreme 90 Day workout before.  Overall, I'm very pleased with this system, and for only 20 bucks, you really can't go wrong.  I'm on day 21, and it really does produce results.  However, I'm looking to really lose weight, and thought I've lost inches, the scale hasn't budged. at. all.  Frustrating, given how hard I'm working, but I do feel stronger and more in shape.  So I decided to do another fairly non-frugal thing, and I ordered Insanity.  I actually did get a pretty good deal though...I bought it used on Amazon and had about $45 in Amazon gift cards from using Swagbucks, so I only paid about $40.  (Compared to almost $150 brand-new).  It's going to be hard, but I'm excited to put forth the effort to see results!

7.)  Is anyone else a little angry with Netflix for raising their prices?!?  We now pay $9.99 per month for unlimited streaming of TV shows/movies on the Wii and unlimited DVD rental (1 disc at a time).  In order to keep it that way, we'd now have to pay $15.98.  Still cheaper than cable, but irritating.

8.)  Happy Bastille Day!

9.)  Here's our dinner menu this week (week of 7/10):

Monday: Pasta with red sauce, steamed peas
Tuesday:  Beef with Peppers, rice
Wednesday:  BBQ chicken in the crock pot (easiest thing ever.  Put chicken in the crock pot, cover with BBQ sauce.  Cook on low for 5-6 hours.), corn on the cob, baked potatoes
Thursday:  Swedish meatballs (from the freezer), mashed potatoes, sauteed zucchini and onions
Friday:  Homemade pizza
Saturday:  leftovers
Sunday:  Shredded Chicken Sandwiches (a NW Ohio specialty!)

Vacation Discoveries

So, I've decided that my dream job involves being on vacation full-time, forever.  Sounds fair, right? 

Ha.  Seriously though, this week has been so nice.  And it's not over yet, but I will be so sad when it is. 

We've gotten to spend time with family we don't get to see as much as we'd like.  And sleep in (till 8:00, that is).  And do fun things like visit the zoo and Cedar Point.  And attend bridal showers and help out with preparations for my brother's and soon-to-be-sister-in-law's upcoming wedding.  And spend countless hours doing things like watching Star Wars (Rob) or the Food Network (me), or playing with an almost-crawling baby on the floor, or hitting little plastic wiffle golf balls around in the yard, or taking long bike rides, or making impromptu trips to get ice cream or coffee more times than we'd care to admit.

Also, I personally have gotten to stay up WAY too late surfing the web every night and not feel guilty about it, because I'm on vacation after all, and surfing the web usually brings me some sort of epic inspiration/motivation/creative ideas....usually.  Sometimes it just means I have wasted an hour on Facebook. 

But I'm going to focus instead on some of the wonderful things I've discovered this week--and since I've hardly done any cooking the past few days, and am generally doing non-domestic things instead, I decided to share with all of you some of the things I found and want/want to do NOW love.  

1) Cloth Diapering 101.  Okay, so this one is kind of domestic.  I just thought it was cool how my last post was about cloth diapering, and then this popped up on one of the blogs I usually read.



2)  Knitted Minion. 
 
How cute is this?  I must make one IMMEDIATELY.  Regardless of how useless/impractical it is.  If you haven't seen 'Despicable Me,' go rent it.  SO CUTE.



3) Fila Skeletoez

 I know the whole barefoot-running thing might just be a fad (though I do understand the health benefits), but I have to confess that I have wanted to try out the Vibram Five Finger shoes for awhile.  They're really expensive though, so I was glad to hear that Fila has made a cheaper version.  I tried on a pair today...they're SO comfortable!  Definitely hope to get a good deal on these sometime.



4)  This area rug. 

 

Liam will, literally, be crawling in a matter of days.  *sniff*  It is so adorable to watch him try to figure it out, and though he's been scooting himself around the floor for a couple of weeks, in just the past 2 days he's really been trying to propel himself using his legs, and has also pushed himself up on his hands and toes.  This also means that our beloved wool kilim rug, which last summer seemed like the perfect choice for our living room, is no longer practical as it is not soft at all and will produce rug burns like crazy.  I guess we weren't thinking very far ahead with that one.  We're going to be getting something like this one that is simple, soft, inexpensive, and newly-mobile-baby-friendly to use for awhile.

5) Supreme 90 Day.  I will admit, the pictures on the website are so cheesy that I couldn't even bring myself to put one here.  Anyway, I have been interested in doing the P90x and/or Insanity DVD workouts for awhile now, but they are SO EXPENSIVE.  Even used, they're still pricey, and I have now lost a handful of eBay auctions trying to get my hands on a set.  Then I heard about Supreme 90 Day, and have read countless reviews which say it is a great alternative.  The best part?  It costs $19.99.  No joke!  I ordered mine from Bed, Bath, and Beyond today (with free shipping!) and am excited to start.  I'll share my (hopeful) recommendation and results after I give it a try!

I think I'll stop there for now.  I have added approximately 2 dozen new bookmarks to my browser in the past week!  Perhaps I have too much time on my hands....?  Oh, and if any of you have feedback about P90x/Insanity/Supreme 90 Day, let me know!!