Every Monday, I answer a few of the questions that my readers send me. If you have a question you’d like me to answer in a future Q&A post, just leave me a comment here or email me (thefrugalgirl [at] gmail [dot] com) and put Q&A in the subject line. I look forward to hearing from you!

I’m a long time fan and a rare poster who loves your blog. In fact a while ago I decided to try to “declutter” my email inbox and I unsubscribed from a bunch of blogs, except for two which I just couldn’t part with, yours and J.D. Roth’s Get Rich Slowly. I was so saddened to see that he and Kris are separating and both sad and a bit angry when I found out that he had sold his blog (for quite a sum). So that’s my question for you, would you ever consider selling your blog and if so would you feel obliged to share the news with your readers (or just let them find out by themselves, like JD did)?

-Fereshteh

Aww, I’m honored to be one of the two you kept in your inbox…that means a lot to me!

I do understand why J.D. didn’t share the news that he’d sold his blog.  From what I understand, it’s common practice when blogs are sold, and he signed an agreement that basically prevented him from telling his readers.  And if the speculation is true and he received more than a million dollars for selling, I can hardly fault him, especially because at that point in time, he was considering quitting blogging anyway.

Would I ever sell my blog?

Well, I don’t think will really be an issue I’ll have to face.  As the Dough Roller points out, personal finance blogs are more prone to being bought than blogs like mine.  That’s because personal finance blogs “cover debt, credit, banking, investing, credit cards, retirement, and a litany of other topics related to money. Each of these topics relates to industries that are willing to pay large sums of money for marketing and online exposure.”

The odds of anyone ever wanting to pay a pile of money for a frugality blog are really slim to none.

That said, I’d be very hesitant to sell my blog.  I like having total control over what goes on here, and sometimes, I’ve seen blogs go down in quality after being bought.  Some seem to be posting almost nothing but infographics in an effort to improve SEO, and some bring on staff writers that don’t have the same feel as the original blogger.  Plus, I don’t really like it when a blog’s Twitter account is run by someone other than the person that writes the blog.  It starts to feel really robotic.

I really, really prefer to read blogs that are run by a person, not by an investment group or business…I just like the personal feel, I guess.  And since I know a lot of you feel that way too, I want to keep my blog the way it is.

I’m wondering how you organize your photo files.  By months? By dates? or something else? 

I noticed you have two cameras as do we and I’m trying to find the best way to organize the files so I don’t mix them up. 

Kiki

Yep, I organize them by month.  If I made a new folder every time I imported pictures, my files would be a total disaster!  Months are perfect…they keep my files neat and it’s very easy to find something if I need to go back and look for it later.

I keep all of my pictures in my own folders, and Joshua imports his into his own monthly folders.  That way we never end up accidentally deleting each other’s pictures!

It seems your family doesn’t have pets. Have you decided never to have pets? If so, why? Do your children pressure you to get pets, and if so, how do you deal with it?

-Dar Winn

We do actually have some pets!  Joshua has a gecko and we’ve got two fish tanks as well.  Joshua plans to buy a tarantula in the spring as well.

So, we’ve got pets…we just don’t have any cats or dogs.  I personally would very much like NOT to have a cat or a dog (I prefer pets that live in enclosed areas, not my house!), and fortunately, my kids haven’t expressed an interest, so it’s not even been an issue.

That’s not to say I think pets are a bad choice for everyone, or that frugal people shouldn’t own cats or dogs.  As long as a family can afford to feed and take care of a pet properly, I think it’s perfectly fine to make room in a budget for those sorts of expenses.

Frugality, to me, is about spending your money in ways that reflect your priorities.  For me, that means I’d rather spend money on cameras than dogs, but that may be different for someone else.

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Every Monday, I answer a few of the questions that my readers send me. If you have a question you’d like me to answer in a future Q&A post, just leave me a comment here or email me (thefrugalgirl [at] gmail [dot] com) and put Q&A in the subject line. I look forward to hearing from you!

I had a question on how you store your bread. I have been making more bread in an attempt to transition to 100% homemade bread, I am inspired by you! But I was wondering how you store your bread when you bake 2-3 loaves at a time. Do you freeze one or two, if you do, what type of bag or container do you freeze it in?

Kristen B.

Yep, that’s exactly what I do…I bake three loaves at a time and freeze two.

Since most plastic storage bags aren’t long enough for bread loaves, I typically reuse commercial bread bags for freezing. I just shake them out after I use them and stuff them in a drawer to be used again. They can last a long time that way. I also sometimes use old cereal bags…I just squeeeze the air out, roll the end up tight, and secure it with a chip clip or clothespin.

Cereal bags probably wouldn’t be great for long term storage since it’s harder to get all the air out of them, but my loaves of bread are usually only in the freezer for a few days, so it works fine for me.

I was wondering if you could share some experience of vacuum cleaners with me, I have had a cheap bagged one that my neighbor gave me when they emigrated for around 9 years and its started to smell and lose suction quite a lot.

Seeing as though you have children and such I was wondering what your vacuum of choice is?

- L.H.

I wish I had something really helpful to say, but I don’t.  I currently have a Kenmore vacuum, but I’ve owned probably at least 4 vacuums before this one (including a bagless type).  I’ve had a hard time finding one that lasts for a long time, and that frustrates me.

I have had some success at making my vacuums live longer by cleaning the belt and filters, and by clearing clogs from the hoses (one time I found a glue stick in there, and boy, my vacuum worked a lot better after I pulled that out!)  But I wouldn’t say I’ve found a vacuum I would heartily recommend.

I was blessed to receive a KitchenAid mixer from my husband for Christmas (second hand – even better!), and have begun baking bread regularly. Early success, followed by a few failures, but I’m back on track.  You seem to use your mixer to mix the dough, but then knead by hand. I’ve been using the dough hook to do the kneading for me – am I missing out on something great by not kneading by hand?

-S.S.

I do this mostly because my mom did it that way.    She tried the dough hook a few times, decided she ended up adding too much flour that way, and switched to finishing up the kneading by hand.

So honestly, I’ve never really even tried using the dough hook!  I’m so used to kneading this way (my mom taught me when I was in my early teens), I’m kind of stuck in my ways now.

I’d say if the dough hook is working well for you, then by all means stick with that method.  Just be sure not to add too much flour (that’s the most common error new bakers make.)

I have noticed your pictures of you and your skin looks so good and I was wondering if you use sunscreen. If so what kind? I was told to use sunscreen but they all break my face out.

-Julie

Oh, my skin is definitely not perfect…I’ve got moles, zits, and scars.

And I’m starting to get some wrinkles too.  Fortunately, I do have somewhat oily skin, so hopefully the wrinkles won’t take over too soon. 

The makeup I use has a built-in sunscreen, I believe.  Maybe you could find a hypo-allergenic, unscented sort?

Hopefully my readers will have some good advice for you.  My skin doesn’t seem to be terribly sensitive, so I don’t really have the voice of experience that you need.

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Ok, people.  Share your vacuum-cleaner and sunscreen advice!

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Every Monday, I answer a few of the questions that my readers send me. If you have a question you’d like me to answer in a future Q&A post, just leave me a comment here or email me (thefrugalgirl [at] gmail [dot] com) and put Q&A in the subject line. I look forward to hearing from you!

OK, silly question, I noticed you have stuffed animals in your grocery pictures every week. Somehow this has only really dawned on me lately even though I’ve been reading your blog for well over a year. Are they the new ones you buy every week on your grocery shopping trip or are they just for decoration?

-April

A lot you asked about this after the latest grocery picture. Way back in the early days of my blog, Joshua hid a stuffed spider in among the groceries, and that spider made a lot of weekly appearances thereafter.  The girls wanted to get in on the action too, so they started putting a few stuffed animals in the photos as well.  It’s all just for fun, and Sonia and Zoe are especially pleased to think that their stuffed animals are famous because they appear on my blog. 

So, no, none of those are new…they’re just stuffed animals that my children already own.  If I bought new stuffed animals every week, we’d have no space in our house by now (even though we buy them fairly infrequently, we’ve already managed to amass quite a collection!)

I’m curious whether or not you have ever used whole wheat instead of buying flour…and if you know anything about the benefits of that. I’m considering the costs and the added benefits for my family (currently we buy bread and freeze it) of making our own bread but going a step further and getting whole wheat and milling it into our own flour.

-Stephanie

Yup!   I own a grinder and I mill all of my whole wheat flour.  I share more about that on my FAQ page.

If any of you are newbies to my blog, go check out the FAQs! I’ve answered a lot of the most common questions there.

I have a question about the homemade yogurt. Can I use 1% milk? Have you tried it? I am trying to lose some weight and the extra fat in the whole milk will hinder that a little but if the texture and flavor will suffer I will skimp elsewhere.

-Susan

You certainly can if you wish.  The yogurt will not be as thick and creamy as when it’s made with whole milk, though.  To combat this, you can try adding some powdered milk to the mixture before you stir in the starter.

I personally feel that the whole milk is totally worth the extra calories, simply because of the lovely texture it provides.

My husband is trying to start his own business of selling firewood. I know that you teach piano, and I was wondering how you would handle taxes and finances.

-Clarissa

I take care of all that myself…I use Quicken to keep track of my income and my business expenses, and when tax time rolls around, I always use Turbo Tax.

My piano teaching business and my blog are both sole proprietorships and I file a schedule C for each of those.

You can’t use the free edition of Turbo Tax if you need to file a schedule C, but the deluxe version, which you’ll need, is totally worth the money.  Doing your own business taxes if you’re a sole proprietorship isn’t really that hard if you’ve got Turbo Tax to guide you.  It’s really, really, really user-friendly and takes all the guesswork out of filing.

I love Turbo Tax, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in doing their own tax preparation.

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This post contains affiliate links.

Every Monday, I answer a few of the questions that my readers send me. If you have a question you’d like me to answer in a future Q&A post, just leave me a comment here or email me (thefrugalgirl [at] gmail [dot] com) and put Q&A in the subject line. I look forward to hearing from you!

When I posted a photo of my fridge, several of you wondered why I keep oranges and peppers in my fridge. I’ve never kept peppers anywhere else (and they seem to do fine in the fridge!), but I do sometimes keep clementines and oranges on my counter, especially when I’ve got more than could possibly fit in my fridge (see the clementines on my table?). But I find that if I keep them out of the fridge for too long, sometimes they start to go bad. So, if I’ve got more than we can use in a week or so, I put the extras in the fridge.

Also, someone had written me a while back looking for a good book on education.

Unfortunately, I’ve lost the email conversation, so I thought I’d just share the recommendation here! Upgrade: 10 Secrets to the Best Education for Your Child is one of the best books I’ve read on the topic, and though it’s written by a homeschooling dad, the book is about how to get the most out of any education method you choose for your child.

The main point I remember from this book is that parental involvement is THE key to a great education.  Without that, even the greatest educational methods don’t work that well.  And with parental involvement, even not-so-great educational situations can be improved greatly.

I am still not sure why you focus on moldy food or what was wasted. Did you waste a lot of food before?

-Shannon

Ha!  I definitely did.  In fact, my ridiculous amounts of food waste are the whole reason I started blogging!  Check out the piles of food in this old post.  Or in this one.  And those two posts were written after I’d been working on my food waste for over three months…it used to be way worse than that!

It might seem silly to write about wasting a cucumber and a few green beans like I did last week, but writing about my food waste every week keeps me accountable.  Even almost four years into this journey, I know I’d waste way more food if I didn’t have to show it to all of you.

I am really trying to work on my food waste reduction and I need some resources on how long food stays good in the fridge.

-Jessica

StillTasty.com is THE best site for this.

You can type in all sorts of foods and it will tell you how long those foods are safe to eat.  I shared a little more detail about StillTasty back in 2009, so go check that post out for more info. Or just go straight to Still Tasty!

Also, your nose is a really helpful tool.  If something smells off, throw it out.

I feel us readers should be filled in on the nose stud in a future post. Did it hurt? What was the motivating reason? Would you let the girls do that? I never saw it before, but it looks so cute on you!

-Debbie

Nope, it wasn’t super painful. At first it felt a bit like someone had punched me on that side of my face, but that wore off pretty quickly.

I decided to pierce it because Mr. FG had mentioned to me that he liked nose studs. He rarely expresses opinions about what I do as far as my appearance goes (“You look nice whatever you wear, Sweetie!” is usually his attitude.) So, when he suggested something, I thought I ought to take it seriously. But, it took me about a year to actually decide to do it, mostly because I was worried about what people would think. I eventually decided that I just valued Mr. FG’s opinion over other people’s.

For the record, Mr. FG would change most anything about his appearance in a heartbeat if I asked him to, so this isn’t a one-way street kind of thing.

I didn’t do it because I’m getting into body-mod or anything like that…I just did it because I love my husband. So, don’t expect to see me show up with a tattoo or anything. This is it.

None of my girls are faintly interested in piercing their noses (Sonia and Zoe don’t even have their ears pierced), so that’s not an issue at all.

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Today’s 365 post: Pepperoni, Mushrooms, and Cheese

Every Monday, I answer a few of the questions that my readers send me. If you have a question you’d like me to answer in a future Q&A post, just leave me a comment here or email me (thefrugalgirl [at] gmail [dot] com) and put Q&A in the subject line. I look forward to hearing from you!

Two quick ones today because my life is busy right now.

My husband and I have tons of books, some we need and some we don’t. I am hoping to sell the latter online. Do you find Craig’s List, Amazon, Ebay or (?) easier to use?

-Anna

I actually prefer to sell my books on half.com, an Ebay company. I’ve written about my love for half.com before, so go check that post out. Half.com is WAY easier to use than Craig’s List or Ebay because you don’t have to take pictures or make a listing from scratch…just enter the ISBN, choose the appropriate condition and price, and your book is ready for sale.

I noticed you make cd covers for your family photography sessions and I have to know how you did that?!??! I only give my clients a cd with edited pics but I don’t have a clever cover!!

-Lauren

It’s actually super easy! I use Picasa (a free photo editing program) to crop a photo to a square shape, and then I use the text tool to add a title and date.

I print the photos on 8.5×11 paper, choose the 5×7 option, click “shrink to fit, and then I can fit two square photos onto one piece of paper. The finished photos need a bit of cropping to fit inside a CD case, so just make sure you don’t put your text too close to the edge of the photo.

And that’s it!   Easy and cheap.

By the way, if you’re giving photos as a Christmas gift, this can make the presentation a whole lot more gift-worthy.

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Today’s 365 post: I love my white Goodwill plate.

Joshua’s 365 post: Wanna guess?

Every Monday, I answer a few of the questions that my readers send me. If you have a question you’d like me to answer in a future Q&A post, just leave me a comment here or email me (thefrugalgirl [at] gmail [dot] com) and put Q&A in the subject line. I look forward to hearing from you!

A while back, a number of you had submitted a little pile of questions for my mom. I compiled them, sent ‘em over to her, and she recently sent me all of her answers. There are more questions than we can fit into one Q&A post, so I’ll run another Ask Frugal Girl’s Mom Q&A post in a few weeks.

How have you maintained your marriage for so long?

-Missy

I have been blessed with a husband who is pretty much a “kindred spirit”, as Anne of Green Gables would say. He is my best friend, and he is a particularly kind man. We approach life much the same way, enjoy many of the same things, share our faith in Christ, and have fairly even-keeled temperaments.

So I haven’t felt that maintaining our marriage has been a lot of work or that I can take much credit for our relationship. We do have our differences and can frustrate each other at times. I think calmly talking things out is really important.

It is also good to remember that many of the irritants of daily life are just not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things and a bit of grace about those goes a long way.

What’s your best advice about mothering? Do you have any good parenting book recommendations?

-Lauren

My best advice has to do with my spiritual outlook on life which not all of you may share. I would encourage parents to do their best to deal with the heart issues their children have and to try to show them what glorious good news the Gospel of Jesus Christ is. Along that vein, I would recommend the book, Shepherding a Child’s Heart, by Ted Tripp.Take every opportunity you have to teach and train your children from the Bible.

In a more general vein, I would recommend spending lots of good quality time with your children. It is a wonderful investment of time. They are gone from your home in what seems like a flash. (I know that when they are small it does not seem like that could be true, but it is.)

You will never regret reading books, going to the park, playing a game, or working along side of them teaching them a skill. Hug them; tell them you love them; encourage them honestly (don’t flatter them).

What was it like to homeschool back before it was as prevalent as it is now? What was different back then?

When we started homeschooling it was not nearly so popular as it is now. As a result, it was also more misunderstood than it is now, and less accepted. There was less available initially in the way of support from other homeschoolers and co-op groups, etc.

I did not find this particularly difficult though, as one reason I homeschooled was to get away from being tied to a lot of activities and an outside schedule. I personally did not experience opposition or social pressure regarding our choice to homeschool, though some people did and some probably still do.

How did you feel confident you were teaching your kids enough? I’m going to begin homeschooling in the next year and I am terrified!

-Angela M

It is not hard to come up with a list of subjects normally taught in the public schools. So, if you choose curriculum that covers those subjects, you can be fairly sure that you are covering what you need. It is not like you have to think up yourself what they need to learn. Initially I chose one curriculum company which, upon examination, seemed to do a good job of covering things, and we just went with that. As time went on, I did branch out some and substituted other books in for some subjects. I would suggest talking to others in your community who homeschool and ask them how they chose their curriculum and why. You will probably get some good ideas.

Kristen and her older brother had attended kindergarten at a local Christian school, so I had a pretty good idea about what went on there. I just tried to duplicate that for the two youngest, which gave me a pretty simple approach to kindergarten, which Kristen has also adopted and blogged about.

I also had my kids take some standardized tests occasionally and those seemed to bear out the fact that they were doing just fine in their educational development.

What technique did you use to teach Kristen such good writing skills?

I don’t think I can take great credit for Kristen’s writing skills. I believe reading profusely is one of the best ways to learn to write well and Kristen has always been an avid reader, reading pretty much everything in her path. I think that greatly aided her in becoming a good writer.

Writing regularly also makes good writers. I did make our kids write regularly, and I did spend a fair amount of time with them editing what they wrote. I don’t have any magic curriculum to recommend.

I think learning about English grammar is helpful too, but much of what we know about English grammar comes from reading. We probably learn the most about English grammar by having to learn another language, where you can’t rely anymore on your instincts for grammar.

So… primarily, read a lot, write a lot, and edit your writing. Secondarily, learn about grammar and try learning another language.

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Today’s 365 post: Caroling, caroling, now we go…

Every Monday, I answer a few of the questions that my readers send me. If you have a question you’d like me to answer in a future Q&A post, just leave me a comment here or email me (thefrugalgirl [at] gmail [dot] com) and put Q&A in the subject line. I look forward to hearing from you!

When I did my Q&A about Aldi, one of you had submitted a question about Aldi’s double-seater shopping carts (wondering if all Aldi stores were going to switch to these). I actually had no idea that any Aldi stores had these Costco-type shopping carts, but I emailed my contact at Aldi, and she said that they do indeed, and that the decision about whether or not to switch to these carts is a store-by-store decision. So, you all will just have to wait and see if these new-fangled carts come your way!

Being the nosy person I am, I am very interested to hear more about your current schedule. What does your daily schedule look like now? I’d love to see an updated “day in the life” sort of post.

Also, I’m very interested about your decision to have your personal schedule closely follow your husband’s rather than you’re children’s- meaning the times you wake up and go to bed- as that is not something I hear of often. Has that changed now that he has such an opposite schedule? How has that affected the quality time you spend with your husband?

My brother-in-law works nights and my sister-in-law works days and I’d love to be able to share some advice with them. This schedule is new for them and with a new baby in the mix, I know it must be difficult to maintain a close relationship. Thank you!

I promise I’ll do an updated schedule post once we get this figured out a little better! We’re still working out the kinks.

As for your other questions, my husband’s schedule is the only one that’s set in stone. Since we homeschool and I’m self-employed, the kids and I have the flexibility to adapt to Mr. FG’s varying job schedules, it makes sense for us to be the ones to bend!

I personally find that staying on the same sleep schedule as Mr. FG is good for our marriage…when we operate on different schedules, we don’t get much of any alone time together and we just feel less connected.  His schedule has been ALL over the map since we’ve been married, and for the most part, I’ve always managed to make my sleep schedule match the one dictated by his job (for the last two years, that’s meant sleeping from 8:30pm-4:40am and now it means sleeping more like 11:00-7:00 or 11:30-7:30.)

I don’t think every couple necessarily needs to do this, but for us, keeping our sleep schedules coordinated seems to be the right choice.

Your brother-in-law and sister-in-law are definitely facing a bigger challenge than we are, though, since they both have inflexible schedules.  I don’t know quite how I’d handle that situation!

I have just come across your blog, and I am loving it! I have a blog of my own, (www.athomefordinner.wordpress.com) and I love working on it, but I find that I fall behind on it. You mentioned in a recent post that you have a blogging calendar. It left me wondering about what this is and how you put it together.

Sarah

Hopefully you won’t be disappointed when I share that it’s nothing remotely fancy!

I simply print out a free 5-day week calendar (I recommended that calendar-printing site when I wrote about some of my favorite free internet sites) and I fill in post ideas for all of the days.

I don’t think I’ve ever perfectly stuck to a whole month’s worth of blog post plans, but brainstorming and writing ideas down for a month helps me to be more organized and helps me to do prep work for posts (for instance, taking photos of something I made or something I bought).

Also, if I have a blog post idea written down, that puts that topic into my brain, and I can think about it while I do other things.  This pre-pondering helps me to be more efficient when I actually sit down and write the post…while I was folding laundry or doing dishes, I already kind of sorted out what I wanted to say!

(Rachel Meeks talks about this in her book, Simple Blogging, which I highly recommend if you want to simplify your blogging life!)

I just read a older post about a pair of cute shoes you found at Goodwill.
I do a lot of shopping at 2nd hand stores. I look for both clothing and household items. One of the qualities I look for is washability.  I get a queasy feeling putting my feet into shoes that other people have worn. I do look at the shoe rack for water shoes and slippers because I can throw them in the wash, other shoes I just pass by.
What, if anything, do you do to kill germs on second hand shoes?

Linda

The pair of shoes you’re referencing appeared to be in brand-new condition, so I didn’t worry about sanitizing them.  They didn’t seem any more dirty than shoes at a regular retail store (which have often been tried on by multiple people).  But then again, I’m not the most germophobic person on the planet, so you might want to consider that when taking my advice!

Because I like to get the most bang for my buck, I generally won’t buy shoes second-hand unless they’re in brand new or nearly brand new condition. So, the shoes I buy are not normally very dirty.

I’d say that if unwashable second-hand shoes squick you out, it might be better to just buy brand-new shoes. Some people say that buying brand-new shoes is better for your feet anyway, and you shouldn’t feel like you absolutely, positively must buy everything used.   Do what works for you!

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Do any of you bloggers use a blog plan? And if you’re a second-hand shoe shopper, do you have any helpful advice for Linda?

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Today’s 365 post: She’s a blur.

Joshua’s 365 post: A tree!  What a surprise!

Every Monday, I answer a few of the questions that my readers send me. If you have a question you’d like me to answer in a future Q&A post, just leave me a comment here or email me (thefrugalgirl [at] gmail [dot] com) and put Q&A in the subject line.

Before I answer today’s questions, I wanted to tell you that today is the last day that Tell Your Time is on sale for $0.99.

To get your copy, click on this image:

And enter discount code ONLY99 to get your priced reduced. Don’t forget to enter the code!

My husband, like yours, recently got a promotion. YAY! But with this promotion came new work hours. He was working 9 am until 6 or 7 pm Monday through Friday. He now works 5 am until 3 or 4 pm. I was wondering if you had any tips for us?

When your family was on this type of schedule, did your older kids go to bed earlier as well? My 11 year old son is having trouble with getting in bed at 9:00 pm.

We are very grateful that my husband got his promotion, especially since there are so many in our area without jobs right now. But, I never thought his schedule change would cause this much chaos.

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

-Kathy

Ooh! That’s a hard adjustment, considering that he had such a normal schedule before. I sympathize with you, because that’s how it was when my husband started his early hours…he’d had quite a flexible daytime shift before that.

I know just how you feel…being thankful for a promotion or just a job at all, but still feeling a little like, “Ack! What in the world am I supposed to do with these hours???”.

When we were on our early hours, Mr. FG and I headed to bed around 8:30, and Lisey and Joshua put themselves to bed between 8:30 and 9:30 depending on the night. Since they’re 10 and 12 and can be trusted to do what we tell them, that worked out just fine.

My kids sometimes complained about our early schedule (and they sometimes are unhappy with our current late schedule), but I just gently remind them that Mr. FG and I don’t think this is ideal either, and that we’ve all got to just make the best of it.  I also remind them of the upsides of whatever schedule we have, and I remind them (and myself!) that we’re really grateful that Mr. FG has a job at all, and we’re even more grateful that he got a promotion.

Hang in there!  Hopefully you guys will adjust soon.

My usual grocery bill each week wavers in the $100 range. We also get organic produce from a CSA (local farmers). Last week, trying to tighten our belt and make less of an impact on the environment and the world, we decided to leave out the meat and meat products. I was shocked when our grocery bill was only $54!  I had not realized the financial impact of buying meat.

Now, I know you buy beef in bulk to save money and support local ranchers, but have you ever considered going vegan or partially vegan? Maybe one or two weeks a month? Have you done this and how did it work?

For us, if we “went vegan” one week a month, we could save $600 a year, which sounds terrific.

-Millicent

Going vegan wouldn’t work too well for us, mostly because Mr. FG loathes legumes, and those are a large part of a vegan diet. And I personally would be a very sad person without my butter, milk, cheese, and eggs.

We don’t eat a ton of meat, though…generally speaking, our breakfast and lunch meals are vegetarian. Our protein at those meals typically comes from yogurt, cheese, milk, eggs, and nuts.

Though I’m not personally convinced that a vegan diet is the ticket to health, I definitely don’t think that animal products have to be present at each and every meal, and if eating vegan part-time works for you, then go for it!

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Today’s 365 post: Tiny playing cards

Every Monday, I answer a few of the questions that my readers send me. If you have a question you’d like me to answer in a future Q&A post, just leave me a comment here or email me (thefrugalgirl [at] gmail [dot] com) and put Q&A in the subject line.

(note: This first question hit my inbox before the most recent spate of unhappy comments happened here on my blog, and I blithely typed up my advice, intending to publish it a few Mondays ago. Given that I totally let the comments get under my skin this time, though, I certainly cannot claim to be an expert. So, fellow bloggers, take my advice as coming from one who’s in the trenches with you and is just as susceptible to discouragement as you are! And know that I fail to follow my own advice sometimes.  Ahem.)

I recently started blogging and just got my first negative comment! It was a letdown. The person had read my post and responded to it unkindly (and unfairly), I thought. I have comment moderation enabled so I just deleted the comment rather than posting it. But it kind of brought me down this morning!

What’s your advice for dealing with unkind comments?

Christina

I’m so sorry to hear that…I know firsthand how much negative comments can sting. People can be surprisingly unkind on the internet. It’s almost like they forget that there’s a real live person on the other end of the blog, a person with feelings.

When I first started getting negative comments, they bothered me even more than they do now, so be hopeful! Your skin will probably get thicker with time. I tend to be a people-pleaser, so dealing with negative comments has been a good growing experience for me.  Painful, but good.

Here are a few tips for dealing with negative comments.

1. Take some time before you respond.

My first instinct is to type up a defensive response, but I usually can produce a more level-headed comment when I’ve had some time to ponder the negative comment.

2. Win the commenter over with kindness.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen it happen here on my own blog…when I respond to a rude commenter with kindness and patience, 9 times out of 10, that person comes around and answers back politely. Resist the urge to sink to the level of the rude reader!  You may win over that commenter, and your readers will respect you for your restraint.

3. Don’t feel like you have to defend yourself indefinitely.

This is a temptation I’ve given in to far too many times (cough*that infamous couponing post*cough. Sometimes defending yourself can just complicate matters, and a wiser response is something like, “I’m sorry you feel that way, but I’m doing what I think is right for my family.”.  That sort of ends the conversation.

4. Humbly look for a nugget of truth in the comment.

Sometimes rude comments do have a valid point couched in unkind words, so don’t be too quick to dismiss the whole thing.  If there’s something to learn from the comment, take that to heart.

5. Remember that you can’t please everyone.

No matter what you do, someone, somewhere on the internet will be upset.  For example, people have criticized me both for not feeding my children enough fruits and vegetables AND for not feeding them enough rice and potatoes.

People may also make unreasonable demands of you and expect you to tailor your blog just to their liking.  You’ll exhaust yourself if you try to keep up with that, though, so stay true to your goals and beliefs, and don’t let demanding people derail you.

6. Consider the source.

If a negative comment comes from a long-time faithful commenter, you may want to take it seriously. But if it’s a comment from someone who seems to be a troll or who hasn’t been reading your blog for long, recognize that comment for the ridiculous thing that it is, and brush it off.

For an example of this, check out the following recent comment (I didn’t change the spelling on anything!):

SIGH, another, dime a dozen, stay at home “frugal” (read husband pays for everything, while god zombie mombie pretends to stay busy)mom who will delete any commetns that dont kiss her butt and whorship at the alter of the boring, mombie

I just let those kind of comments slide right off my back…they’re so crazy, you have to laugh at them!  Being called a god zombie mombie is downright hilarious, wouldn’t you say?

7. Talk to someone about it.

Poor Mr. FG has to listen to some of my negative comment rants, but talking about it with him really does help me to feel better, and he also helps me to see if the comment has any validity.

If you’re a Christian, it’s also a good idea to talk to God about it…I try to pray for wisdom, and for help to be patient and kind when I respond.

On a separate note, there are a few things you can do to help reduce the number of negative comments you receive.

1. Don’t pretend to be perfect.

When people see someone who is trying to appear flawless, they’ll be on a sharp lookout for any fault to point out, but if you own your imperfections, people will be less anxious to talk about your flaws.

2. Try to see things from other people’s point of view.

When you blog, remember that your post can be read by anyone in the world.  When I remember that, it helps me to think more carefully about what I’m saying and how I’m saying it…I put more thought into my words when I blog than I do when I’m just shooting the breeze with a group of like-minded friends.

3. Don’t be all “My way or the highway!”

Or at least don’t be that way when you’re talking about stuff that doesn’t much matter.  What you do may not work for everyone else and it’s good to point that out.

Hang in there!  I think you’ll find that most blog readers are just lovely people….I know that’s certainly true of my readers.

Love your blogs…have painted furniture following your suggestions. Now I want to repaint my kitchen cabinets. Have you painted previously painted kitchen cabinets? If so…I’d appreciate your guidance. They are white now although you can tell the paint has soaked right in and they are kind of rough to touch. I want to repaint them white so need advice on what kind of paint and basic instructions.

-Karen

I haven’t painted mine (I’m stumped on color or I would!), but I’d treat those cabinets the same way I treat furniture, except that I wouldn’t stress about sanding them down to bare wood. Just sand them enough to make them smooth and to take the gloss off of the finish. Also, I wouldn’t use the spray primer I recommend, unless you can take the cabinets outdoors. Spray painting inside is a bad idea!  Just use the brush-on primer that Rustoleum makes.

I strongly recommend using the exact Rustoleum brush-on paint I recommend in my How to Paint Wooden Furniture post…using other paint will give you a rougher, less professional finish.

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Today’s 365 post: I’ve been shooting in manual a bit more.

So!  You guys had a lot of questions about Aldi after reading about my trip to their headquarters, so I decided to pull them all from the comments and answer them in a post.  This will be a little longer than a usual Q&A post, but I wanted to get all these questions answered in one place!

Before I get to that, I just wanted to address a concern that was raised about my trip to Aldi’s headquarters…that I am raving about Aldi simply because they whisked me off to Chicago.   If you’re new here, you might not know that I’ve shopped at Aldi for years and have blogged about them of my own accord for years as well.  I try really hard to only work with companies that I can honestly endorse, and since I’m a satisfied Aldi customer, working with Aldi was a no-brainer.

Also, someone asked how Aldi found me (I can’t remember who!).  I checked, and just as I thought, they did a search for value bloggers that talked about Aldi, and I came up. 

Where does Aldi stand on organic foods? I shopped there for awhile but decided I’d rather switch to things I know are 100% chemical and pesticide free.

-Jessica

Well, Aldi decides what to carry based on demand and sales volume.  They’re trying some organic products as special buys to see how well they go over with their customer base.  So, I guess if you see organic foods at Aldi, buy them to show your support!

I’m definitely not going to say that Aldi’s food is a better choice than local, organic, unpackaged food.  If you can afford to eat only that type of food, I think that’s great (and I mean that most sincerely!).  But for the many Americans who don’t currently have the budget for organic, local food, I think shopping at Aldi is a great way to stretch the food budget.

I love to shop at Aldi’s. I can’t buy all my groceries there, but Aldi shopping does save me money. Just out of curiosity, who were the other bloggers that you mentioned?

-Jill

I met Amy from MomAdvice, Briana from Bargain Briana, and Shel from MommySavers.  I’ve never met up with any bloggers before, so this aspect of the trip was so much fun.

A few questions/comments, since you seem to have the “in” with the HQ:
– nutella equivalent. Please please PLEASE bring this back on a regular basis. Please. And thank you.
– canned pumpkin. I tried this a few years ago and was not a fan. It’s the only thing I really don’t like, so I stick to Libby’s. Sorry, Aldi.
– the plan on the Clybourn store in Chicago was quite well-executed. I LOVE that Trader Joe’s is right upstairs for my tofu and yogurt starter needs. Good call, Aldi/Trader Joe’s management.
– everything else – huge fan. I wax poetic about the store to my coworkers. I write thank you letters about things like their ketchup bottle and soymilk container redesigns. I ask about the nutella and the spinach and the seasonal items. I always get a personal letter back.

-Molly

As far as I know, the Nutella is going to be a regular product!  I saw it in the Chicago store I visited, and it was not a special buy.

I used Aldi’s pumpkin in baking and didn’t notice a difference.  Hmm.

You are SUPER lucky to have a TJ’s and an Aldi right by each other.  Almost as lucky as me (I have a Goodwill next door!).  I visited a Clybourn store in Chicago, and didn’t see a TJ’s right there (there was a Dominick’s next door, though).  Are there two Aldi stores in Clybourn??

Loving this series! A few questions:
What’s the connection between TJ’s and Aldi’s?
Did you get to see/meet any of your blogger friends?

-Diane

Aldi and TJ’s are owned by brothers, but they are completely separate companies.  So, any product similarities are coincidental.

I didn’t get to meet any blogger friends that I already knew, but it was still super fun to meet other bloggers…it was lovely to talk shop with other people who do what I do!

Aldi does so much right – from ecofriendliness to good service and of course, those great prices. But much, much of the packaged snack food contain hydrogenated oils, which of course, extend shelf life and are much cheaper as an ingredient. But hydrogenated oils are on the don’t buy list according to ALL the major health organizations.

-Kathy

I try to avoid buying foods with hydrogenated oils in them as well, and I still find that I can buy many, many of Aldi’s products.  I double-checked on my last two visits there and none of the snack foods I bought had hydrogenated oils in them.  Hopefully Aldi will phase out hydrogenated oils entirely, but in the meantime, I recommend just shopping carefully and only buying Aldi products that work with your dietary concerns.  I think you’ll still find a lot of good food to buy!

My question for you is what did you see that you didn’t like, or struck you as having room for lots of improvement?

-WilliamB

Well, I’d like to see more of their produce without packaging (more on that later).  Also, I think it would be great if they sold more whole grain foods (they do sell plain oatmeal and some whole grain cereals, crackers, and breads).

Of course, like any grocery store, Aldi sells some food that I wouldn’t personally buy, like prepared foods, frozen meals, mixes, frozen pies, and so on.  But if I were to avoid every store that sold food I can’t wholly endorse, I couldn’t really shop anywhere.

Other than that, I can’t really think of anything!  I mean, there’s the odd Aldi product I’ve disliked (I’ve mentioned that before), but I honestly didn’t come away from my trip thinking their model needs lots of improving.  Is it perfect?  Nope. In an ideal world, we’d all buy organic, unpackaged, unprocessed food that was grown and produced within 50 miles of our homes.  But this world is not ideal, and I think that Aldi does a good job of making groceries affordable for the average family.

Megyn

I asked that question too!  The dairy all comes from dairies that aren’t very far from the stores, and they try to source produce as locally as possible (obviously avocados can’t be terribly local in my area, but my store often carries berries, melons, squashes, and other produce from nearby states). So, the apples at the Ohio Aldi store are likely not from the same orchard as the apples in a North Carolina Aldi.  I think they mostly do this because it’s cost-efficient and helps to keep their produce fresh, but regardless of the reasons for it, I’m always happy to see local produce in a store.

Aldi has a lot of distribution centers so that the food doesn’t have to travel far to be delivered…this helps them to maintain higher standards of freshness.

I’m not sure where the ingredients for their packaged foods come from, though…I’m sorry!

I would love to shop at an Aldi’s but we don’t have one. Kristen, do you have any pull with Aldi’s to suggest they move into NM?! Thanks for the tour though.

-Judy

At this point, Aldi only has US stores east of the Missisippi (edit: Apparently, I was mistaken on this, because a number of you said you live west of the Missisippi and you have Aldi stores.  Whoops.)  However, they’ve opened over 80 new stores this year alone, so perhaps they’ll expand westward in the future!

I’m new to your blog but am loving it. I do have a question about Aldi that maybe you can answer (maybe you already have and I missed it). I shop at Aldi fairly regularly but one thing that really bothers me is how they package their produce. It drives me crazy how some things (like peppers) are packaged on a styrofoam tray and then plastic wrapped. I hate buying anything that has styrofoam since it is so bad for the environment. I also see a lot of waste when one of the peppers in the container is bad but the other two are fine. The perfectly fine peppers go to waste because they are plastic wrapped to that terrible tray with the bad one.
I’d also like to see organic dairy, meat and produce options at Aldi. On your tour did they say anything about heading in that direction?
Thanks!

Ginnie

I hate that too, as I mentioned earlier.  And I said so to the district manager that gave us a tour of the Aldi store.  More naked produce, please!!!

I also told him that I would be delighted to never see another styrofoam tray in the product aisle.

They package a lot of their produce because it makes it faster to scan and also because the packaging protects the food by keeping it from getting bruised and banged up.

The manager I spoke with seemed slightly surprised that I disliked all the produce packaging, so perhaps they’re not hearing this message from their customers.  If you hate the packaging, let them know!  If enough customers speak up, maybe we can at least get them to reduce the packaging (just shrink wrap instead of shrink wrap AND a styrofoam container).

Traditional grocery stores are packaging more and more of their produce these days too, so it’s kind of hard to avoid.  I love to buy unpackaged produce locally, but when that’s not available, I’m stuck at the grocery store.  I try to faithfully buy the produce that Aldi does have unpackaged (cucumbers, avocados, grapefruits, mangoes, pineapples, pomegranates, pumpkins, melons, etc.), and I will also buy produce that comes packaged at every grocery store (outside of a farmer’s market, I’ve never seen naked grapes, berries, or grape tomatoes, and spinach always, always comes in a bag.)

I do try to avoid the unnecessarily packaged produce and buy that at Weis instead (I watch the sales there to make this less painful financially!)

We have two Aldis near us but both are not in the best neighborhoods. Nevertheless I decided to try it out after reading all of your recommendations and I didn’t care for them for that reason. Also, I don’t like the debit card/cash only aspect. I never ever carry cash (except on vacation) and we get a fee when we use a debit card. This is a much bigger deterrent than the neighborhoods (we use a credit card exclusively and pay off the balance each month in full b/c we get 2% cash back at the end of the year which is awesome). This post almost makes me want to see if I could find another store and maybe try it again though.

KimN

Aldi doesn’t accept credit cards because credit card companies charge merchants a fee every time a customer uses a credit card.  It’s part of their cost-cutting business model.  My debit card charges me a $0.25 fee when I use it at Aldi, so I try to carry cash with me.  But! Even if I have to pay the $0.25, though I figure I’m still way money ahead for shopping at Aldi.

I LOVE Aldi! The prices are what drew me in, but I haven’t found one Aldi brand item that I’ve been dissatisfied with. I love how well they treat their employees and the fact that the same measures they employ to keep costs low are also efficient and adding to Earth sustainability. My question is: What about their meat? I have never purchased meat from there and I’ve heard other Aldi regulars say the same. I guess I assume maybe it’s lower quality, but maybe I just need to try it and see what I think.

-Emily

I’ve actually never bought meat at Aldi before except for cured meats (bacon, bratwurst, ham) and seafood.  I buy a quarter of a local cow for my beef needs, and I buy local, unpackaged chicken, so I don’t need to buy any of that at Aldi.

Based on my chicken sampling in Batavia, I’d say their chicken is good (better than Perdue for sure!), and the spiral ham we had was really tasty too.  I have not tried their beef, so I can’t comment on that.  The district manager said it sells relly well, though.

I live in the Chicago and would love to know which Aldi you visted (if you remember). I haven’t been to Aldi in quite a long time and the one on the NW side of the city I shopped at was just okay. I’d love to give it another shot!

-Bethany

I checked with someone at Aldi (I had no idea where exactly we were since I wasn’t driving and I was busy chatting it up with another blogger on our ride there!), and the store was in Clybourn.  The address is 2600 N. Clybourn, Chicago , IL 60614

Go check it out!  It’s the nicest Aldi I’ve ever seen and I’m super jealous that you can shop there. 

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Ok.  I think that about covers it.  I do have another post idea percolating in my head because I want to talk more about the concerns that Aldi only sells junk food, but that one is going to require a bunch of pictures, so it might be a little while in the making. 

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Today’s 365 post: Pumpkin Guts

Joshua’s 365 post: Another Jumping Spider!