Misc. Things I Like

I decided to share a few random things that have made me happy lately. The list in my head was longer, but as I sit to type I can only remember a few things.

Brien and I decided that could get a warm winter coat this season. (I have a nice wool jacket, but it's not a good option for playing in the snow.) After much consideration I bit the bullet and purchased this coat from LL Bean shortly before Christmas. I had $40 in gift certificates and free shipping, but I still had to pay about $100, and that was difficult for me. (We will likely be living in cold climates for a long time, so this is an investment, but growing up in LV I didn't have to worry about winter gear.) A few weeks later I received an ad in the mail and my parka was on sale for $95! I called them up and since my coat was still in stock they refunded me the $45 difference. So in the end I paid about $50 out-of-pocket for $140 coat and I finally felt good about my purchase.

Awesome update. When I went to LL Bean to link the coat I saw that it was reduced to $80. So my blog saved me another $15! Woo hoo!! I feel even better about my purchase.

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While in UT at Christmas time we were able to get a deep freezer (thanks to our parents who gave us money for Christmas rather than a lot of presents.) It may seem lame, but since things are expensive here we look forward to now being able to buy in bulk and freeze. It's a Kenmore chest freezer with 8.8 cubic feet of space. It was on a closeout price because of a small dent in the top.

Price examples from Ely: regular package of Oreo cookies $4.59; 1 gal. milk $3.59; chicken $2.99/lb.(that's the cheap chicken); extra lean ground beef $2.49/lb when it's on sale, regularly$3.29; mayo (regular sized jar) $4.27; gas is currently about $3.25/gal for 85 octane.

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Happy Coscto moments

If you want an environmentally friendly laundry detergent I recommend Wintree. It costs about $11 and lasts for a long time. It's compatible with high-efficiency machines and it's a UT company.

They sell Skippy Natural in Chunky! If you haven't heard of it, this is a peanut butter that has no hydrogenated oils and you don't have to stir it like other natural peanut butters. It tastes great, like normal peaunut butter. I had purchased Skippy Natural Creamy at the grocery store and liked it, but being a chunky peanut butter lover, I also had chunky, hydrogenated peanut butter in my pantry. Now I have a year's supply of chunky peanut butter and I won't have to feel guilty when I eat it. (I bought this in UT, so I don't know if they have it in LV.)

We already purchase the organic free-range chicken broth from Pacific Natural Foods, but this time around we bought the Roasted Red Pepper Tomato soup, and it's wonderful! We will be on the look-out for more of their products to buy.

Brien tried the Nature's Path cereal Pumpkin Flax plus granola and he loves it. He even went on to the website to look into having it delivered to our house! He was kind enough to let me have a bowl of it and it was a good, tasty, granola. I don't get to eat much of it because I bought Grape-Nuts and Special K for my cereal selections from Coscto.