Just a Quick Hello & A Tip (Teri)

We have been so far out of the blogging loop lately that I almost forgot our password! We are missing all of you and wish we were better at keeping up. During May and through the summer we are reminded often of those brave men and women serving our country in the Armed Forces. I stumbled on this on one of my friends blogs, and thought I would share it. Did you know you can share your expired coupons with overseas military families? You can mail them to them and they can use them up to 6 months after they expire. How cool is that!?! Here's the post with more info. If anyone has any actual experience with this, please share, we'd love to hear about it.

Guest Day Thursday: Hot Lunch Tip

We are so excited to have be able to share a great tip with you today (I know, don't faint, we have posted something 2 days in a row, but today's was pretty much a cheat since all we had to do was copy and paste. Hey! What do ya know it's even Thursday today, so I guess we can still call it Guest Day Thursday, hehehe). While blogstalking Teri ran onto this tip and thought it was such a great idea, she asked Don immediately if he would share it with you! He agreed, and so enjoy his great tip for homemade "hot" lunches!

Hi, I'm Don Carey, a full-time software engineer, part-time author, and over-time husband and father. I want to thank the 2 Sisters for inviting me to be a guest on this blog. I'm excited to share our handy little trick for sending hot lunches from home to school and work.

Both of our girls have food allergies, so when our oldest started kindergarten nearly eight years ago, we thought it would be best to send lunches from home. Not wanting to go the soggy sandwich on stale bread route, we came up with a system for sending hot lunches, and it has served us well.

The first thing I do in the morning is boil water in the teapot. Today's lunch menu is tortellini soup, so I also started some water in a second pot.

Once the water in the teapot boils, I pour it into our trusty little thermoses - one for each of the girls. There's usually one for me, too - no need to make lunch twice. But today I decided to pass on the tortellini soup in favor of left-over pizza in the fridge. Yum!

While the boiling water heats the thermoses, I make breakfast and heat lunch - either on the stove, or in our handy little toaster oven. This is also when I nag the sleepyheads.

Yum! Tortellini!

Now mix in the soup.

I empty the water and fill the thermoses with hot food. We usually try to plan our dinners so there are leftovers to use in lunches. Soup, stew, chili, and pasta dishes all work great. We've had mixed results with nuggets and burritos - they stay warm, but tend to get soggy.

Casseroles all work very well. Except for tuna casserole, which is never good. Ick! Yuck! Blech!

I then pack the thermos in an insulated lunch box with the sides, snacks, utensils, and a bottle of water. Today's menu includes goldfish, grapes, a granola bar, and bunny-shaped sugar cookies, just in case you were wondering.

All in 30 minutes or less. My only fear with this method is that one day I'll accidentally forget to fill the thermoses and send my children to school with nothing but hot water for lunch. But so far, so good.

My youngest still asks for hot lunch at school once in a while as a treat, but the 7th grader insists I pack her lunch every day so she doesn't have to wait in the long cafeteria lines. And she insists the food is better, too.

Mystery Monday: Blogger P’s and Q’s

We are finally back (hopefully) for the long haul. We just had a lot of catching up to do at home, and not projects were getting done to speak of, so there was nothing to post. We are glad to be back in the saddle again, it feels good!

Okay, how many of you are old enough that you have been told to mind your p’s & q’s. We certainly have. Our grandma (that we miss a lot) and our mom both have told us that. (On a side note: do you know how that saying came about? In the “olden days” in a pub when they would get rowdy they would be told to mind their pints and quarts, thus p’s and q’s) Well, we want to know if there is any such think as blogger etiquette?

We have set some standards for ourselves, but that’s about it. There are no hard and fast rules for blogger etiquette that we know of, so we are asking you to share with us.

The couple of “rules” we have set for ourselves are these. Be polite, if you don’t agree with something, or you don’t like a project someone has posted, just mind your mom and “when you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all”. We wouldn’t want someone posting hurtful things on our blog, so we aren’t going to post them on yours. If we do disagree with you, and we leave a comment, know that we NEVER mean to hurt feelings, EVER. Secondly, if we join a bloggy party, it’s to network with other bloggers, and see what else is out there. Therefore, if we join a party, we only do so if we have time to visit at least 3 of the links and COMMENT on them, thus if we don’t leave a comment we visit another link. We feel that if we don’t have time right then to do this, we wait to join or don’t join at all. The last thing you will never see on this blog is swear words or vulgarity. If you do find something we believe offensive, we are sorry, that’s who we are. But, we will never offend your eyeballs with abbreviations or slang for swear words (ie. texting lingo), or with any vulgar thoughts. If you find anything like that on this blog, please let us know, we want to fix it. Last but not least, if you follow us or comment, we try to return the favor. Okay, so we don’t follow everyone who follows us….maybe that’s a “rule” we don’t know about, but anyway. If you follow us, we try to link to a blog you may have through your profile, and visit some of your posts and comment. If you comment, same thing, we try and visit your blog and comment. We have missed some of you, so if you have a blog and we haven’t commented on it, we probably don’t know about it, leave us a link in the comments section or email it to us at 2sisters2gether@gmail.com and we will be sure to visit.

That’s our version of blogger etiquette, what’s yours? We want to know how to improve our relations with other bloggers and enjoy our stay here in bloggerville!

Mystery Monday: Coupon Organization (Teri)

If any of you visited us clear back in October, you may remember this post, where I talked about saving money on groceries. If not, go back and read it, see if any of the tips would work for you, or if you have any more for us. Today I’m going to share with you how I organize my coupons.

In this post I shared with you that I use a website called Pinching Your Pennies to help find the “deals”. There are many sites out there to help you know where to find the best deal on things you buy, but I like this one the best for a couple of reasons, first off, it’s FREE and who doesn’t like that price. Secondly, they have teamed with Grocery Smarts to make a customizable printable grocery list of deals. With this system I also get multiple Sunday papers, thus getting multiple sets of ads (I get 3). This requires that I organize them so that I can find them. Thus my coupon crate.

I know you are wondering why you would need an entire crate to organize your coupons. The reason being is because I don’t clip them, at least not until I’m ready to use them. The way the PYP website works is that it tells you what is on sale, how good of a deal it is, and where to find the coupon you need for this item. I save my coupons for 5 months (If you count, you’ll know I don’t have 5 months worth, my dh threw about 3 weeks worth away because they were causing clutter….I could have throttled him), then I toss them, by this point they will all be expired. As you can see I have multiple categories.

Everything behind the Smart Source tab is that type of insert, ditto for Red Plum, General Mills and Proctor and Gamble, these are your “brands” of inserts. I also use printed coupons, and I print the ones I will use when I see them, and them I save them for when I need them. If you want a good tutorial about how to use your coupons, how to read the website, etc, go to the Utah Forum on PYP and they have some great tutorials (not sure if the other states do or not, but the same general principles that apply in Utah will apply elsewhere as well). It’s great for beginners (and seasoned couponers as well). Each week of coupons is put in it’s own sheet protector to make it easy to pull out all 3 inserts together.

I write the date the insert came in sharpie on the upper right hand corner of each insert so that I easily spot what weeks coupons I’m looking at.

After I have made up my shopping list and printed it out, I clip/print the coupons I need and fold them inside the list and put them in an envelope to take with me. It may not be a perfect solution, but it works for me (I pretty much copied my friends organization, so it’s not even an original idea……THANKS SUNNIE!!!) If you want more tips on saving on your groceries, click here to take you to my post from October.

I also have folders for restaurants, stores and services (things in here range from Children’s Place % off coupons to ones for oil changes), and one for clipped coupons which doesn’t have anything in it right now.

So I guess today’s mystery is:

Do you have a coupon organization system that works for you?

Linked to:

Favorites Linky Party @ They Byrd Nest; Frugalicious Friday @ Finding Fabulous

Mystery Monday: Cleaning Products

We thought today we would share some of our favorite cleaning products with you.

Micki’s Favorites:

I love to use all natural cleaners that work great!! I know I am being preachy but they really are better for you and the environment. They are also better for my son who has asthma. These 2 are ones that I use everyday. The Mrs Myers Clean Day I use on my counter tops in the kitchen and bathrooms. The lavender is my favorite scent, but I like the lemon verbena too. The Holy Cow window cleaner I use on all the glass and mirrors in my home and it works great!! Smells great too!! I do not care for the Holy Cow multipurpose cleaner. It works well but smells really bad. I am really into the way my cleaners smell, because if they don't smell good, neither does your home (she forgot to tell you, especially when you have to cats, sorry Mick, had to add that).

Teri’s Favorite:

I LOVE Method brand multipurpose cleaner. I use it on my counters and table. It cleans well, smells good, and is better for the environment. I agree with Micki, if your cleaners don’t smell good, your house sometimes doesn’t either. I haven’t jumped on the natural product bandwagon as much as Micki has (or as much as I should either), but I do like it when I can use less harsh cleaners. Here’s what the company says about their products (I took this right from their website).

All method products contain natural ingredients. When you see the word "natural" on a method label, it means that 100% of its functional cleaning ingredients - things like soaps, detergents, solvents and enzymes - are either found in nature or derived from natural sources.

We use natural and naturally derived materials from renewable or abundant sources wherever we can. If we can't find a natural ingredient to get the job done, we'll use a safe, green, man-made version instead. In all cases, we only use ingredients that have passed through a comprehensive green and health screen: ingredients we have confirmed to be totally safe for people and safe for the environment.

"Natural" is still not a standardized or regulated term. So while we could, we won't call a product "natural" if even one of its functional ingredients isn't natural or naturally derived. When it comes to labeling our products, we hold ourselves to a high standard because we believe that a natural cleaner should actually come from nature.

The mystery: What are your favorite cleaning products?

Mystery Monday: Inexpensive Gift Ideas

In an effort to make the holidays more affordable, I am sure that you are looking for inexpensive gift ideas just as we are. Here are some fun ideas that are easy and don’t cost much. These are great for neighbors, teachers, the lady down the street who helps you by watering your flower beds, whatever.

Recently I had to do some thank you gifts for some community people who came and helped out at the kids school. I had a budget of $20 to do 10 gifts. I didn’t want to do a small plant or something like that, as they ranged in age from college kids to retirees. I came up with this simple idea, it was about $28, so they were just shy of $3 each. You could do them for a little less if you changed what you put in them. I bought a variety pack of Ghiridelli chocolate squares to fancy them up and then I bought decorative pens and packs of peanuts from the dollar store. I bought the “takeout” containers from Michael’s using a 40% off coupon, and the ribbon was on sale for 1/2 price. I then printed a small thank you note on a shipping label to seal them with.

Another easy and inexpensive idea is the old standby jar gifts

Here is one of our favorite recipes to use as a jar gift:

Sandcastle Brownies:

1/3 cup chopped nuts

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/3 cup flaked coconut

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup baking cocoa

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Additional ingredients:

2 eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a one quart glass container, layer the first seven ingredients in order listed, packing well between each layer. Cover and store in a cool dry place up to six months. Yield: 1 batch

To prepare brownies: In a bowl, combine eggs, oil, vanilla and brownie mix; mix well. Spread into a greased 8 inch square baking pan. Bake at 350º for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Yield: about two dozen.

*This recipe is from Quick Cooking Collector’s Edition

For more inexpensive gift ideas head over to Just a Girl

Mystery Monday: Teri’s Grocery Savings Tip

In these challenging economic times who doesn’t want to save a little dough? I do! I used to coupon, but it would take me so much time, that I quit…..for a while. I have recently started couponing again, and with the tutoring of a good friend (THANKS SUNNIE!!!), I have become more efficient. It also helps that I have a couple good friends who coupon as well, and so we share info on deals with each other. Here are a couple of couponing tips for you:

1 – Use the internet to learn what is a good deal and what isn’t. I primarily use a site called Pinching Your Pennies, from their main page you can link to forums for your state, and even for the military commissary. They use a 5 star system and tell you what is a good deal in the weekly ads. There are other great websites out there, but a lot of them you have to pay a monthly fee, and I just couldn’t justify that.

2- Subscribe to multiple papers so you can get multiple coupons. I subscribe to my local paper and I get 3 copies every Sunday (they also made me subscribe to the weekday paper). I more than recoup this expense every month. A lot of paper companies will let you get up to 5 or 6 copies, but this was too many for me to use.

3- Ask the advice of a seasoned pro. They may have a system that works really well for them, or at least some ideas you can use.

4- Don’t expect to be a pro overnight. I learn more every week. Also, expect to invest some time, especially at first. But it’s so worth it when you can get things for pennies or even free (and don’t say to yourself, I’m not going to do this, because we don’t eat processed food…..you use toilet paper and toothpaste don’t you?).

Look for more of my tips for what works for me to come up in future posts.

Now for the mystery part (that’s the part where we get to ask you a question):

What are your tips for saving money on groceries???

We are linked to Frugalicious Friday @ Finding Fabulous

Mystery Monday:Teri's Laundry Tip

Okay, first off, I DO NOT claim to be a stellar homemaker. I am a disorganized mess most of the time. I do have one little laundry helper that I LOVE! I sometimes don’t sort the laundry quite as good as I should, and even when I do sometimes something sneaks in where it shouldn’t. I also have a preteen who does her own laundry, enough said. Needless to say, I have had pink underwear and pale blue socks that used to be white from time to time. I found something that has pretty much completely eliminated that problem. It’s called Shout Color Catchers, and it’s made by the same people that make Shout Stain Remover.

This product has been a life saver for me! It does add a little cost to my laundry, but not a giant amount. In every box there is a coupon for $1 off 2 boxes. If I use the coupon and buy 2 boxes at a time, it costs me about 18 cents a load. I have rarely found this on sale, but it’s worth the added pennies per load to me. If I am washing a load that has new clothes (especially jeans) in it, sometimes I will throw in two. They go right in the dryer with your load of clothes, so you don’t have to worry about fishing it out before you dry your clothes. Here is what they look like when they come out of the dryer after catching all the loose dye, one is from a red load and one from a dark load.

So, here’s the mystery part of Mystery Monday:

What are some of your best laundry tips?