We eat out a lot in the Angry Household. It’s a really bad habit, I know..We are trying to break that though. Ok, maybe a little. But when we are home, we eat a lot of hot dogs. Angry Husband has quite the obsession with hot dogs. I really don’t eat them, because they make my stomach do bad things.

But a few months ago, I stumbled across some cool things at Sur La Table. Angry Husband loves that store. I got these baskets and liners for sandwiches and BBQ’ed food. It gives that restaurant feel to our food. They are also very easy for clean up. Angry Toddler was confused at first, because he usually sees them at restaurants. They are pretty inexpensive, plus you could make the liners with wax paper.

I just like having fun things like this at home. It’s perfect when you eat out on the backyard patio.

Photo from Sur La Table website.

1. Make a list of everything you need before you leave for the grocery store.
2. When making your list, check your pantry, cupboards, fridge and freezer for what you already have.
3. Do you research. -Check out the store circulars and compare to see which products are on sale at which store.
4. Buying your meats at one store and your produce at another could save you big bucks.-Check your Sunday newspaper, magazines and online for coupons.
5. Surveys say that using coupons could save you 15-20% on your bill.
6. The average value of coupons today is $1.29.-Join your stores’ frequent shopper card clubs for additional savings that can be combined with coupons.
7. Never go shopping when you are hungry.

*Best techniques for shopping once in the grocery store.

1. Don’t follow the path that the grocery store lay out for you.-Stores try to steer customers to the produce department or bakery section first with their selective smells. They are designed with alluring deals on products you never thought about buying.
2. Start shopping in the middle aisles were all of the unemotional foods are (boxes, cans and jars of food). You can more easily avoid the store’s marketing tactics there.-Once you’ve hit all of the aisles, the temptation of the produce and bakery won’t be as strong.
3. Don’t always trust that the promotions at the ends of the aisles are the best deal.-Take chips for example, a staple for your BBQ. I have seen huge displays of the large size at $3.99 a bag. But just around the corner on the regular shelf was a comparable brand, same ingredients, same nutritional and same size bag that were just $2.19.
4. Dairy case vs. cheese table.-Every BBQ must include cheeseburgers but cheese can be quite expensive. Keep in mind that cheese is sold in two different locations in the supermarket, in the dairy case and on the cheese table. An organic mild cheddar goes for $6.99 for 8 oz. on the cheese table, while the same-sized package of the store’s private label brand, which is also growth-hormone free is just $3.29 a package.

Check out a great website, Simple and Delicious. It has great ideas for simple, quick, and budget friendly meals.

I’m trying to learn new ways to save money and to be a little more frugal. I’m going to start a series now with the all the tips I’ve been learning along with some things that the Angry Household is doing. It’s going to be titled, “Angry Julie on a Budget”. Stay tuned!

Photo from Hebrew National’s site!

I was off work this past week for five days. It was a nice break from my hectic schedule. Angry Toddler has been in swim lessons for the past two weeks, so we’ve spent most of our free afternoons driving him there. On Friday, Angry Toddler and I went to the Discovery Science Center with my BFF, Stacey and her daughter, Stella. I will blog about that tomorrow.

On the 4th, I started my morning off with doing the Surf City 5K in Huntington Beach. I’ve done that run the past three years at least. It’s a fun run, not a race. I have declared it “not a race” because they don’t use timing chips and my time is never accurate. This year, it was off by at least six minutes (epic fail). The good thing about the race is the costumes that people dress up in. It gets very patriotic. I wore some blue shorts, and a red tank top. It was soo hot during the run. But I finished. I came home and took a nap after. Angry Husband wasn’t too happy with my nap, but I was.

In the early afternoon, we went to my BFF’s parent’s house. They have a pool, plus Angry Toddler’s BFF, Stella would be there. The days of getting totally wasted on the 4th are gone. Now I all I want to do is look for events that will entertain Angry Toddler.

I got my entertainment very early that afternoon. My BFF’s 50 year old aunt decided to a wear a thong bikini at the small family BBQ and pool party? Ummm, small children were present. We did not want to see that. She paraded around like nothing was going on. I made Stacey take a picture with her iPhone. I had to capture the moment. I TwitPic’ed it yesterday..you can find it somewhere on my Twitter account. I don’t want to post it directly to the blog, so that everyone can find it. She left the party later that evening, but before that, she put some mesh pants over the thong. How nice of her.

Anyway, we had a good afternoon. Angry Toddler was able to show off what he learned at swim lessons. He’s an expert at going under water. The kid who doesn’t want his hair washed, will happily dive under, go figure.

Stacey’s parents have a turtle pond, which Angry Toddler loves. Me not soo much..turtles kind of creep me out…plus they have a small swing set.

After leaving Stacey’s parent’s house, we headed to another party. My parent’s friends were having a party at their house. We had to do a drive by and hang for at least an hour..Angry Husband and I were sooo tired.. We eventually left and made it home for our HOA’s fireworks show.

I didn’t take any fireworks pictures, because last year Angry Husband told me that my pictures sucked. I didn’t even bother bringing a camera this year.