I just wanted to say that I appreciate all the comments. I'm right in that this is an interesting topic, right? My DH could pretty much care less! Of course, I do 100% of the shopping and 95% of the cooking... :tongue_smilie: Another question I have for the thrifty budget spenders is: Do you often serve two starches at a meal? (Ex potatoes and bread.) . If my reading of the USDA My Plate table is correct, then a meal of fish, apple slices, rolls and potatoes would count as "1/2 your plate" being fruits and veggies. I don't currently do this, but am wondering if that is a way to save money.

Good point! I was thinking Costco shoppers would know what I mean. But maybe the packs aren't standard. 16 cups Kale 10 cups spinach 2 watermelons 5 avocados 4 heads? celery 4 English cucumbers 9 cups snap peas 10 lb. carrots 1 fresh pineapple 1 bag frozen pineapple 2 lbs. tomatoes 3 lbs. grapes 1 (giant) bag frozen pineapple 1 (giant) bag frozen strawberries

Well now I'm so curious that I'm willing to open myself up to scrutiny and shame! :tongue_smilie: Here's my receipt from Costco for our veg for the week. Are these the same Costco prices you pay in your part of the country? P.S. The grapes and watermelon were a big splurge for us. I don't normally buy out of season produce. This was our special Valentine’s Day treat instead of dessert. Normally we eat apples, pears, oranges and bananas all winter.

Am I the only one who's "mommy radar" has been activated? Something seems wrong about that other troop. Are you sure there wasn't something else going on that your son hasn't told you about? Maybe the crying/stress reaction was also from relief. Relief at leaving a situation that was worse than he was letting on... (Hope that's not the case.)

Thanks to all of the posters. Beaners, your list was awesome! I wish I could try those salmon burgers from Costco btw, but I’m allergic to soy. I’ll need to figure out another good, cheap fish. This March I'm going to actually try following the Thrifty Food Budget, with the two servings of fish each week etc. My food blogging friend Rose who lost an amazing amount of weight on Weight Watchers, is going to help me. One thing I'm realizing is that our family currently doesn't eat a lot of potatoes or frozen vegetables. So here's a question for the frugal mamas: What's the best way to use frozen veggies so that my family will eat them?

Any favorite stores in Seattle for good deals?

Does the $600 include eating out?

I should add, I mathed it all out and this is what the USDA My Plate requirements for my family of four would look like each week: Vegetables: 73.5 cups 7 cups dark leafy green 20.5 cups red and orange 21.5 cups starch 6.5 cups beans and peas 18 cups other But I should add that the USDA counts 2 cups of greens as one serving. So really 7 cups of dark leafy greens is only 3.5 servings a week for all four of us.

Yes! Little vent... I hate it when people say "Nobody's ever bored in my house. I give out chores to people who are bored." That never works with my DS. If that works for your kid then we are dealing with two different species.

I've been obsessively analyzing the USDA food cost charts this past week. I think of myself as thrifty, but there's no way I'm meeting the "thrifty" budget which ends up being about $5 a day per person. (And yes I garden, make my own chicken stock, clip coupons, buy in season, go to multiple stores to shop sales etc.) Food takes such a big bite out of our own budget, that it's easy to obsess over my grocery bill. (I even starting a Pinterest board about it with a food blogger friend of mine.) What we are doing well, is filling our plates up with half vegetables and fruits at (almost) every dinner. But that costs a lot of money! I researched it, and I'm spending about $2.5 a day per person on fruits and vegetables. Where we live that's like eating an apple, an orange, a small salad and some carrot sticks. Are vegetables a luxury? The other USDA things are thought provoking too. Fish two times a week? We're not doing that, although I'd like to. So here's my question... Can you feed your family for $5 a day (per person) AND fill their plates up with half fruits/half vegetables AND afford fish two times a week?

Old spinach from the garden works fine. I also will buy the giant tubs of organic spinach at Costco for $4 and use that. It's really yummy if you happen to have Granny Smith apples, but usually I'm not that organized.

We do green smoothies too. I've always wondered how many servings go into a green smoothie, so I finally brought out some measuring cups to figure it out. 2 servings veg, 1 serving fruit, in a pint glass.

Peanut butter and candy.

We use our whiteboard to write a daily Morning Message.

Wow. Thanks for the links. I'm going to order that book from the library.

Has anyone seen this http://playspent.org/ ? It lets you see what it's like to be a single mom earning $9 an hour and trying to make ends meet. There's a bunch of things about education in it that are really heartbreaking. It just shows yet again how poverty factors into the "Waiting for Superman" discussion.

Here's a piece from my blog that I wrote for teachers about Home School Communication. Basically, I think teachers should send out one email or classroom newsletter a week.

A fellow WTM mom and I have a SOTW Pinterest Board here if anyone is interested.

I've been mulling over the movie for a while too. What I finally decided to do was create a page on my blog called "For Teachers". It's meant to help with home-school communication so that teachers can share with parents ways that they can help encourage learning at home. None of the suggestions cost any money to implement. If I was a parent at one of the drop-out factories, and my child didn’t get chosen in the lottery to go to one of the higher performing schools, the first thing I would do would be Google "Didn't get into KIPP" or "Alternatives to Charter School". I thought I could find good search words like that to title my post. But I couldn't! That's not an apparently common search term. So on one hand you have parents who for whatever reason (money/education/social experience) are ready to go bananas and Google everything if their kids' educational dreams get thwarted. On the other hand you have parents who for whatever reason (lack of money/lack of education/degrading experiences due to poverty issues) don't have the energy to go bananas and Google everything, or else don't know that other people do that. Maybe they don't even have a computer, or time to go to the library and use computers that are available. I’m not saying any of this with any judgment. But I think that this difference between parenting styles (and how poverty influences that) is a big contributing factor to how schools perform. The documentary didn’t mention that at all. One last thing, when I didn't Google KIPP Alternatives I found this link, which seems to indicate that the KIPP experience isn't as rosy as "Waiting for Superman" would lead you to believe.

Thank you everyone for the advice. It looks like Vancouver it is!

We have to wait for our passports to come. So maybe May?

I finally ordered my kids’ passports! Now we’ve got an itch to go to Canada. (We live near Seattle.) So, if you had a 3 year old and a 7 year old, which would be more fun: two nights in Victoria, or two nights in Vancouver? Plus, what should we do when we get there? Our budget is $600. Thanks for the tips!

Hard Copy, 3rd edition. FYI I tried over year ago to host an online book group for the WTM here on my blog. It was really interesting reading all of the comments and hearing different points of view about each chapter. The only problem was, I fizzled out about posting by chapter 14. I really should start it up again!

I don't know if this will help or not, but this is what my son did Afterschool when he was in Kindergarten and the beginning of first grade: Afterschooling K/1st. If I were you, I'd go through my books at home and mark the backs of them with the appropriate Guided Reading Level. (Or you could use DRA). That way your own knowledge of the reading level/comprehension ability of your boys will be spot-on. That will help you when you advocate for them with the teacher.

We've been making homemade phonics books with dot stampers recently. They are a fun, free alternative to Bob Books. Of course, we use Bob Books too! :)