Sense to Save

Earn a $20 bonus from ING Direct when you use your debit card

I received a notice via postal mail and e-mail today to let me know how I can earn an easy $20 from ING Direct.

Here’s the fine print:

Use your Electric Orange Debit Card for your next 5 purchases and you’ll get $20 back.

Here’s How:

1. Make 5 purchases of at least $10 each anywhere MasterCard® is accepted
2. Your purchases must show up on your November statement.
3. We’ll deposit a $20 bonus into your Electric Orange by 12/15.

To learn more, visit ingdirect.com/spendwise

I was planning to use my ING debit card to pay our insurance premium next month. Now, all I have to do is use it four other times, and I’ll earn that little bonus.

Of course, it’s only a bonus if you’re using it to pay for things you normally would. If I use the card just for the sake of a bonus, that’s no deal at all!

If you don’t already have a savings or checking account with ING Direct, click over to my referral links page. If you make an initial deposit of $250 or more, you’ll get a $25 bonus in your account.

Overcoming some menu-planning challenges this week

Planning a menu this week was a bit stressful for me. My diet definitely needs improvement — I need more protein, whole grains, and greens. I decided to attempt to follow the Brewer diet this week to see if that gave me more energy.

Oh man. First, it’s a lot more food than I’m used to. And second, figuring out how to incorporate all of the food groups into a day was a bit tricky. It took me a few hours to get a week’s menu mapped out. Listed below are the dinners I came up with, but I didn’t want to list my breakfasts, lunches and snacks because it’s just too much to type out.

Once I put together my shopping list, I was frustrated when I realized the list would cost about 3x as much as what I usually spend at the grocery each week. I try to keep it at $50 or so, but my new list with tons of meat, produce and dairy would likely cost about $150. Great.

Another complication: I’m trying to stick with just using cash this month, just as an experiment to see if it would reduce my spending. As a result of my earlier purchases this month, I had $92 with which to buy groceries. Yes, I could have grabbed some money from our checking account. But I wanted to make this shopping trip work on my terms.

I went through the list again, this time eliminating pricey items that we didn’t really need. I cut string cheese, apricots, asparagus, sunflower seeds, and a few other nutritious but unnecessary items.

Shane and I ventured over to stores we hadn’t yet tried — Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods.

I was pleasantly surprised by some of the prices at Trader Joe’s. The food quality seemed to be reasonably healthy, and in many cases, foods were mostly natural and in some cases organic. We picked up some produce and a few canned goods, and spent about $20 there.

Whole Foods was just a few blocks away, so we decided to see what the fuss was all about. My goodness, that’s an expensive place to shop! I bought two boxes of tea — one red raspberry leaf tea, and another that had red raspberry leafs and other things that are supposedly good for pregnant women. Will it help? I don’t know, but I’m willing to give it a shot.

After that, we went home to drop off our purchases and went to Aldi.

Calculator in hand, Shane and I weaved our way through the aisles. Prices on some products had recently dropped (for example, a dozen eggs were $1.19, I believe) and I was happy to discover we would come in under budget.

We looped back through the store and added a few more items. I picked up a gallon of apple cider for $3.49, and Shane grabbed a jar of peanuts for $1.99.

I much prefer my usual method of menu shopping — making meals from things in my pantry, basing my purchases around sales and what sounds good, and using my budget as a guideline instead of a strict amount to follow. But, this week has shown me that with a bit of extra work, you can basically follow a nutritious diet and still stay within your budget.

Dinners:

Beef with broccoli and steamed rice (we had this last night — it was delicious and quick!)
Spinach quiche, whole grain bread
Baked chicken with rice, steamed carrots, whole grain bread
Salmon, peas, rice
Chicken noodle soup with extra veggies and beans, whole grain bread
Spaghetti and meat sauce with added veggies, side salad
Beef fillets, mashed potatoes, broccoli

Check out more menu plans at Orgjunkie!

$630 for an umbrella? I hope it has a water-repelling force field around it.

Nordstrom had its grand opening at a Pittsburgh mall this weekend. We took a quick stroll through both levels, and I was underwhelmed. It’s not a big store by any means — you can see all corners of it from just about anywhere in the store. Oh and the prices? Wow.

They want $79 for a pair of infant blue jeans. Have they lost their minds?! I won’t pay that much for a pair of jeans for myself, let alone a baby who might wear them for a few months, if that. I don’t have anything against people who pay $79 for an adult-size pair of jeans, because at least they’re going to get a few years of use out of them, hopefully. And they’re probably not going to get poo poo on their pants. But for a baby? Please.

With Nordstrom as an anchor, other high-end retailers have opened in that section of the mall: Tiffany & Co., Louis Vuitton, Kate Spade, Coach and Juicy Couture.

I don’t know how the new luxury retailers are going to fare, given the down economy and the fact that Pittsburgh is the 5th poorest big city. So, ah, good luck to you, Tiffany, Louis and Kate. I don’t know about other Pittsburghers, but this one ain’t going to spend $630 on an umbrella. One high gust of wind, and that thing is going to invert just as much as a $10 one from Target.

If I’m going to lounge around my apartment, I’m not going to don an ugly tracksuit that refers to myself as “her majesty.” And I’m certainly not going to pay $256 for it.

Here’s the kind of mall shopper I am: I bought three tank tops from Old Navy for $2 each and a cookie from Mrs. Fields for $1 something.

We also got a free sample of tea from some tea store.

I’m not saying that I think people should only spend a few dollars on clothes here and there, and I’m certainly not trying to be a frugality snob.

Someday, I would like some nicer, more durable clothes (though I still don’t want to ever pay full-price for any item). I don’t have much fashion sense at all — you’d know that if you saw me or my closet. Soon enough, I hope to box up my maternity wear and get some clothes that don’t say, “I still sort of look like a college student, but I’m married, have a baby, and I’ve completely given up on my appearance.” No, I don’t want to look like that.

I just don’t think I could ever justify spending that kind of money on a status symbol.