I made my own yogurt... who am I !?

One of my good friends, Lauren, recently blogged about making your own yogurt.  She promised me that it was SUPER easy and that "anyone" could do it. I can assure you that I am not "Suzy Q Homemaker"-- but Lauren was right, anyone can make their own yogurt!

If I haven't convinced you yet, here are some other things to consider:

1. Many popular commercial yogurts are made with high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, gelatin, artificial flavors, artificial dyes and more. When you make your own yogurt, you can control the ingredients and can choose to adjust the sweetness to your liking.

2. Yogurt is inherently a super food, rich in protein, calcium and probiotics. If you're on a weight-loss mission, the protein in yogurt can help you feel full longer and eat fewer calories. Research suggests that the probiotics (active cultures) that are teeming in yogurt can reduce the risk of colon cancer, improve immune system function, aid in alleviating constipation and diarrhea, prevent yeast infections and promote the absorption of vitamins and minerals.

3. If your family eats a lot of yogurt, you can save money (although it IS more time intensive than picking them up at the store).  One gallon of milk produces 4 quarts of yogurt at essentially 75 cents a quart.

Before I started on my yogurt making adventure this week, I read a few interesting posts about how to do it. I found them to be spot-on and easy to follow.  I will spare the time of posting my how-to pictures and just direct you to the websites below:

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/10/you-can-make-yogurt-in-your-crockpot.html

http://www.npr.org/2013/11/06/243014945/yes-it-s-worth-it-to-make-your-own-yogurt

http://www.makeyourownyogurt.com/

What can you do with all of this yogurt?

Here are some ideas:

1. Make your own frozen yogurt!  This recipe for "Luscious Lemon" looks yummy and easy

2. Some of my St. Louis friends who are apart of a Baby Led Weaning group called "Little Foodies of St. Louis" enjoy making yogurt bites for their babes.  Elizabeth is too young to enjoy these-- but I am sure that she will LOVE them when she is a bit older.

3. There are plenty of yummy meat recipes that use yogurt as an ingredient including this Tikki Masala Recipe.

I hope that you enjoy making yogurt as much as I did!  Please let me know if you get a wild hair and decide to make it.  I would also love to hear your success stories and tips!

8 Reasons Why this Sorority Girl Uses Cloth Diapers

I have several friends who are pretty well-known "bloggers" who I recently asked if they would be willing to write a guest blog for me on a topic of my choosing.  I was excited when my friend Stasia agreed!  I consider her my "go-to" friend on all things cloth diapers.  She (and Lauren) really normalized cloth for me.  Without their good influence, I would have never considered going the cloth route.  Stasia has recently started a side business as a cloth consultant. She's super sweet and helpful... so if after reading this blog you have questions, feel free to message her!  She's great. I hope that you enjoy her post.  If you are interested in doing a guest post for me, please let me know!
-Sarah


Hey!  I am Stasia from Our Life on a Budget.  Sarah and I went to UGA together and are sorority sisters. Blogging has been a fun and easy way to keep connected.  She so graciously invited me over to her blog to tell a little about cloth diapering.  So without further ado...

 "8 Reasons Why this Sorority Girl Uses Cloth Diapers" 

So let's cut to the chase… I pretend to be crunchy, but I am not as crunchy as I would like to be.  We (yes, my husband is on board) have been cloth diapering our baby girl since a week after she came home from the hospital.  I am telling y'all cloth diapers are not hard and I'd even venture to say they are pretty easy :).  


1.  Cloth diapers are SOOOOO cute….  

Of course I would start with how stylish they are.  Pampers has been trying lately with the Sesame Street diapers, but they still don't even hold a candle to the prints on cloth diapers.  I mean just check out a few of my latest favorites.

The non-print diapers… awesome too! They can be used as bloomers, making your life easier with every diaper change .

You might have seen the trendy baby legs around lately… those are also especially cute with cloth, or as I like to call it fluff.

2.  Cloth diapers are as easy to use as disposables...
I tell people all the time.  These are not your grandma's cloth diapers; they function just like disposables. We {being those in the cloth diaper world} call these "dad-proof," "babysitter-friendly" diapers all-in-ones and pockets.  Those are the ones I recommend because they are easy. Directions: Put under your baby's bottom, pull top up, fasten via velco or snaps… that's it.  

3. Cloth diapering does not make your laundry that much harder…

Do you have a baby?  Then you have more laundry to do, plain and simple.  Throw in another 3 loads a week, not that big of a deal.  Washing goes like this- throw them in the washing machine, give them a good rinse on cold, and then throw in your detergent of choice (I use Tide, see I am not that crunchy) do another cycle on hot. To make sure I get all the detergent out I sometimes do another rinse and spin.  So basically I have to hit 3 buttons to get them clean.  I like to line dry mine, but I also line dry most of clothes.
4.  Cloth diaper or disposable-  "Poop is still poop"...
But what about the poop? This is usually the first question I get.  Did you know that you are supposed to flush the waste even if you use disposables? 




Source 
Okay so nobody does that, but really the poop can be easier to deal with in cloth.  First of all if you are breast feeding it does not smell and you can wash the diapers as is because breast milk poo is water soluble (fun fact, right?). Once your baby starts eating solid food you have a couple of options:

*plop it into the toilet

*rinse it in the toilet

*or use these super convenient flushable liners

I generally go with option one or three… they are just a little easier!  And the good thing about flushing the waste, is the smell is gone.  No need for a diaper genie, no lingering smells, no "honey, please take the trash out  RIGHT now."  That is what makes me think that cloth is so much better than disposables here… less stink to deal with!
5.  Cloth diapers are accepted a daycares...
After the question about poop, the next comment I usually get is, "I work, cloth diapers aren't accepted at daycare." In most cases this statement isn't true!

Source

The website I listed above is awesome.  It tells which states allow cloth diapers and provides specific links to the regulations for each state!  So, in most cases you can cloth diaper in daycare!  My little wears them to her preschool and the teachers don't mind at all.



6.  Cloth diapers save you money... Cloth diapers are an investment that will save you money in the long run. I have spent about $400-$450 total on a supply of cloth diapers and all the accessories that will last me from birth to potty training (I also buy quality brands new, you can cloth diaper for cheaper). When you have to shell out that money up front- it does hurt a bit. But when you calculate it out you are saving SOOOO much money- like thousands of dollars.  And if you cloth diaper with a second child, you will save even more by reusing the diapers again!


You can see here just how much you can save depending on the brand.

7.  There are no late night trips to CVS…
You have everything you need, in your house, all the time, one less thing to worry about… and as a mom this is HUGE :).
8.  Cloth diapers really do help the environment...
Okay so my last point is completely crunchy, but it is also completely true.  I got into cloth diapers to save money and because they are cute, but this has had a great impact on me since I have started cloth diapering.  I really love that I am helping the environment!

Source- And that is just one year… just multiply those disposables by 2 or 3 and make them dirty...

If this girl can cloth diaper (and love it) you can too!  Interested and want to know more? Want me to help you get started?  Just have a question?  I would love to hear from you!

stasia08 [at] gmail [dot] com

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How to Travel on the Cheap

I just looked up the weather on my phone. 53 degrees. In. The. Middle. Of. April. BLAHHhhhh! This has been the longest winter EVER. Days like today make me really miss college Spring Break beach trips.  Ooooh what I would do to be in a lounge chair on the beach right now.

While I daydream about tan lines and pina coladas, I would love to share with you my money saving tips for travel.  For the last few years, I worked as a fundraiser for Washington University where I travelled a lot for my job.  I've travelled enough to earn gold status at Marriott and Starwood Hotels, A+ Status on Southwest Airlines and Yelp Elite. Here are some of my best suggestions:

Rental Cars:
I'll be honest, this is an area where it doesn't always save you money to go with the cheapest option.  Priceline's "name your own price" used to be my go-to for rental cars, but TRUST me, their pricing model is deceiving  and the frustrating forty-five minutes you spend waiting for the car at the counter isn't worth the $10 you think you might save. I am a very big fan of Hertz Rent a Car and am a "Gold" member (it's free to be gold. Just sign up online: https://www.hertz.com/rentacar/member/enrollment). When you rent a car as a gold member, most airports will let you by-pass the long rental car line. They will have your car and paperwork ready and your name literally in lights above your rental car. The Hertz at Hartsfield in Atlanta is truly the best.

 You can save an average of $10 a day by saying "no" to the optional rental car insurance. According to USA Today, 34% of consumers surveyed by telephone bought a rental car company's insurance just to make sure they were covered. For most of you, this is a waste of money.  It is likely that the credit card you are using to secure your rental car provides free rental car insurance. If this is a new concept to you, I recommend reading this: http://thepointsguy.com/2013/03/maximize-monday-choosing-the-best-credit-card-for-car-rental-insurance/

Many car rental companies offer incentives for casual weekend travelers.  Enterprise Rent-a-Car (my second favorite car rental company) offers a $9.99 a day Friday through Monday special http://www.enterprise.com/car_rental/deeplinkmap.do?bid=002&cust=MSWSRTA.

Hotels:
I have so much to say on this topic and would be happy to answer any of your individual questions.

For the casual vacationer, I have a few favorite sites:

BetterBidding.com is one of my favorite websites.  Their primary goal is to promote informed bidding on Priceline and Hotwire.com.  You can search their active message boards to get a good idea of how much hotels are going for in your search area. For example: Hotwire.com listed a 4 Star St. Louis Ballpark area hotel with a 95% rating for $59 a night. According to BetterBidding, it is likely the Hilton as several recent travelers purchased a similar deal.

Travelzoo.com is another website I often refer to when booking personal travel.  They not only list great deals from other travel websites (their free weekly e-mail has the Top 20 Travel deals each week) but they have great local deals--similar to Groupon--but often much better!  Check out this list of Fort Lauderdale deals as an example: http://www.travelzoo.com/local-deals/Fort-Lauderdale/deals 

When traveling for work, I do not recommend using a discount website like Priceline because they will not let you cancel your reservation if your trip plans change.  My recommendation is to pick a brand--Marriott, Hilton or Starwood-- as the loyalty travel perks really are worth it! In my opinion, Starwood is the most generous with their loyalty travelers.  Once you reach gold status, they will upgrade you to the best room available, offer free Wi-Fi and an alcoholic beverage at check-in, free breakfast and their hotels are generally in fun areas. If the idea of "earning" your gold status sounds exhausting, try calling their customer support line and explain that you will be traveling a lot for work and want to be a loyal ___ customer.  Ask if they will extend gold status to you in exchange for your promise to stay at their hotel when you travel (it worked for me!). The downside to Starwood is that their hotels are usually only in larger markets (i.e. Dallas, Orlando, Chicago) or resort areas (Scottsdale, Fort Lauderdale, Vail). There is a Marriott hotel in just about every city in America in some form or fashion (Renaissance, Courtyard, Residence, etc.).

If you work for the government, you likely qualify for a state or federal government discount. This can save you A LOT of money!! If you are traveling for work and you work for a 501C3, you likely qualify for the state government discount at hotels. For example: If I want to book a room tonight at one of my favorite Atlanta Hotels, the JW Marriott, it would cost $299.  If you qualify for the government discount, the room rate is only $133 a night. Big difference! Even though I was never questioned or carded, I only used the government discount when traveling for work-related travel.

Sometimes, you can actually get a better price or a more unique experience if you stay in a Bed and Breakfast instead of a hotel.  For example, when I travel to Dallas, one of my favorite places to stay is about $100 cheaper than a comparable area hotel (http://www.baileysuptowninn.com/). Innkeepers are also more willing to negotiate on the price if they you make last minute reservations. For a directory of B&Bs, check out: http://www.bedandbreakfast.com/.

If you are traveling to a town with a university, don't discount the university hotel.  In my opinion, these are sometimes the best! The Georgia Tech Hotel is located on 5th Street in midtown Atlanta and is often half the price of the nearby Marriott Courtyard.  I can vouch for the university hotels in Durham, Athens, Ann Arbor and Atlanta.

If you are traveling alone (especially if you're a female!) I recommend staying at a hotel near or inside a mall. The Westin at the Houston Galleria is one of my favorites!  The reason for this suggestion is 1) it's nice to be near a mall if you forget something  and  2) after a long day of travel, I enjoy working out or going for a walk.  It's not always a safe idea to walk/run outside by yourself in an area you're not familiar with. If you stay at a hotel connected to a mall it's easy to "power walk" the air-conditioned mall floors. Many malls even have security during the wee-hours of the morning in case you decide you want to run the stairs before the mall officially opens.

This post is getting rather lengthy... later this week I will blog about finding great restaurants on the road, site-seeing on a dime and will give you more advice to help you plan a budget trip.