Month: November 2008

Categories
save $

Internet Price Matching

Since the animal food/melamine fiasco about 2 years back, I’ve been giving my cat subcutaneous fluids prescribed by her veterinarian. I’ve recently had the idea to try to purchase the saline fluids online and found that they were WAY cheaper than the vet’s office. What I would have spent $43 on at the vet’s office, I would have been able to purchase online from an animal supply/pharmacy website for $8.88, plus free shipping with a coupon code. When I found that out, I jumped at the deal. The only catch was that the website had to contact the vet’s office to verify the presciption. I got a call from the vet’s office today stating that they would price match the online price if I would bring in a copy of the prices. Why don’t they just give you an honest price to begin with??? That was annoying. Anyways, I purchased from the vet’s office at the lower price, and I didn’t have to wait for the shipment to come in. They also said, they’d always price match supplies if I would just bring in a current print out of the price from online. It just makes me wonder… how many other things am I buying locally at an insanely overblown price that I might be able to get price matched with an online vendor? I know that some stores won’t even price match things that they sell on their own website for a lower price. They say that they need to pay for the shipping. One example is Walmart. Walmart will price match products that are advertised for lower prices in their competitor’s circulars, but they won’t price match their own website. What’s with that?

Categories
health save $

Foaming Handsoap – Make Your Own

We began using foaming handsoap since Sean has trouble getting the regular soap well distributed on his hands. He does a much better job washing his hands if the soap is pre-foamed. I was about to run out and buy some foaming handsoap refills when I remembered that we had some regular hand soap left over. After looking on the internet, I found out that you can make your own foaming handsoap by mixing regular handsoap with water and putting it into a foaming handsoap dispenser. It’s nothing special about the handsoap mixture that makes it foam. It’s just the dispenser. So if you spend a buck on a new foam soap dispenser, then you can refill it cheaply with regular hand soap + water. The Internet concensus seems to be soap + water in a 1:5 to 1:7 ratio, although some recommend 1:10 ratio to be extra frugal. I found the 1:10 to be a bit too watery though. Some people even add a bit of rubbig alcohol to the mix to make “anti-bacterial” soap. That seems like overkill to me, especially after reading this. Need a review on how to properly wash your hands? Just remember, “Happy birthday to you…”

Categories
food

(Cauliflower) Mashed Potatoes

Okay, I have Gestational Diabetes, which means I have to watch my intake of carbs and starches. I LOVE mashed potatoes and since I was making mini meat loaves tonight, I thought it would make a good side dish. But since I have Gestational Diabetes, I thought I’d look for a healthier alternative. I found this video and tried it out, but tweaked it just a bit. Instead of adding milk at the end, I added garlic and herbs gourmet spreadable cheese (about a cup or an 8 oz. container, Rondele brand, available in the special cheeses section of the grocery store). This gave it a wonderful garlic mashed potatoes flavor, and made it nice and creamy. I asked Nathan if he noticed anything strange about the potatoes or if they tasted different. Since he knows I’ve been using Splenda these days, he asked if I put some in the potatoes… silly man. Then he tasted the potatoes again and said they just tasted like mashed potatoes. He was surprised when I told him it was actually potatoes and a head of cauliflower. So there you have it. If you’re brave enough, try it out. I might even try just mashing cauliflower next time and leaving out the potatoes all together. The dish is higher in fiber, lower in starch, but still really tasty. This side went really well with the mini meat loaves I made. I made mini ones since they’re quicker to cook than a whole meat loaf (25 minutes in the oven). Yay for quick dinners!