Yes, the four horsemen are indeed coming. Hell hath frozen over. Aldi takes credit cards.
I had heard on the frugal grapevine that they were rolling this out and that many stores had secretly been accepting credit cards for months, but now it is official.
https://www.aldi.us/en/customer-service/faqs/method-of-payment/
and not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse because I just bought eight more mouse traps. If you recall, we have a bit of a mouse problem in our house as they have set up shop in the drop ceiling above our bed. Ewwww. Anyway, while I was at the store I perused their selection of 50% off Christmas decorations. This year our various strands of decorative lights had all given up the ghost and I am way to frugal to pay retail. At 50% off though I caved and bought a few strands of Christmas lights to do some last minute decorating. I figure in two days everything will be at 75% off so that would be the ideal time to stock up for next year.
Today, with Shae’s help I also finished making our homemade ravioli that we are giving away to friends and neighbors. 
So far we have made a basic spinach & ricotta, butternut squash & gorgonzola, butternut squash & goat cheese cranberry, and our final most refined one was sweet potato & gorgonzola ravioli. We experimented with different dough recipes, rest times, rolling thickness, and cut out diameters before finding what we considered to be a tasty ravioli. I’ve made over 250 ravioli and at 2 minutes a piece it has definitely been a gift from the heart. Next year it may be back to easy and quick sugar cookie cutouts. Now that’s a sentence I’d never thought I would hear!
Here is one last frugal tip before I sign off and enjoy our traditional Christmas duck. If you are driving, make sure that your car tires are fully inflated. Under inflated tires reduces gas mileage and prematurely wears the tire. I checked all four tires on our car and found that they all needed some topping off.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night (except for those damn mice).
Happy Mother’s Day! If you are looking for an exemplary mother, besides your own of course, then the book and movie, The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio is a great place to start. We just watched the film on Netflix and it was truly remarkable the amount of love, perseverance, and frugality that the mother possessed.
Chili, pumpkins, beautiful Autumn foliage and of course influenza, yep it’s that time of year again. The flu shot (vaccine) can be found almost everywhere nowadays. Our local pharmacies have more signage out advertising the flu shot than an election campaign on November 1st. Some employers, like Shae’s, even have flu shot drives on site.
Last flu season (Oct 2013 to May 2014) only about 34% of 18-64 year olds were vaccinated but the same age group made up 61% of hospital cases. So the myth that flu only affects children and the elderly is totally bunk.
This year, in order to help protect Frugal Boy and our sanity, we each received a flu shot.
So what exactly is the flu shot and how does it protect you from getting sick? Each year, researchers try to predict what strains of virus will be prevalent in the upcoming flu season. They then grow those viruses in chicken eggs, deactivate the grown viruses, and combine them into one big slurry that is your vaccine. The inactivated viruses in the vaccine cannot make you sick, they are for lack of a better word, dead. Your body however doesn’t know the difference, so it produces antibodies to fight off the ‘dead’ invader. Once your body has created antibodies to counter the viruses, you have an immunity to that particular strain of influenza. This immunity takes about 2 weeks to develop from when you receive the vaccine so if somebody in your house already has the flu, you’re probably too late to get protected.
It is difficult to say how effective the flu shot is because there are many variables for each year and individual. If you’d like to read more, the CDC has a webpage dedicated to the topic.
Finally, the conversation of the flu shot wouldn’t be complete without talking a bit about side affects real and mythical. Unless you have an allergy to eggs or latex, the basic needle stick in your arm flu shot will only give you a sore arm for a couple of days. There are a few nutters out there that claim that mercury in a flu shot causes autism. They are full of crap, and here is what the vaccine information sheet has to say about that,
Some inactivated flu vaccine contains a very small amount of a mercury-based preservative called thimerosal. Studies have shown that thimerosal in vaccines is not harmful, but flu vaccines that do not contain a preservative are available.
So take off your tinfoil hat, and if that is too much to ask for, just get a darn flu shot that doesn’t have preservatives.
Shae’s shot took 5 minutes out of her day (employee clinic), mine took 25 minutes (doctor’s office). Walgreen’s and CVS are probably somewhere in-between. The cost is a whopping $30 without insurance. If you’re reading this blog, chances are good that you have health insurance. So go get vaccinated and save yourself from several days of misery!
Today is the Illinois Primary election and as primaries go, it is predicted to have a low voter turnout (25-30%). Many voters are either apathetic or simply don’t know about primary elections. Unlike general elections where a candidate from each party squares off against the other (Obama vs Romney), the primary election decides the party’s candidate for the general election. So if you complain that there are never any good candidates in a general election, it’s because you didn’t vote for them in the Primary!
Also, primary elections include many local positions and questions. For instance, our county sheriff is being elected today because there is no democrat challenger, so whomever wins the primary vote for sheriff gets the job. We have a semi-closed election in Illinois, meaning that in the Primary you can pick what ballot you want (Republican, Democrat, Green, NonPartisan, etc.). The next primary you can choose a different one! Choose the ballot that gives you a greater voice in the outcome of the elections.
A big local impact that will affect citizens directly is a proposed increase in sales tax from 7.25% to 8.25%. If you only ever vote in general elections, you may be missing out on the chance to voice your opinion on matters that affect you.
We took a family walk to our nearby polling place this morning.
Frugal Boy wasn’t impressed with the democratic process. We’ll have to work on that attitude.
