Be A Better Grocery Shopper With This Surprising Tip

Hello dear readers!

Before I resume with the 21 day blog challenge, I would like to share an update with you. On Friday, we were rear-ended by a careless driver and I sustained a mild whiplash from the impact. Today, I am pleased to report that the pain in my neck is about 90% gone. I have slight discomfort when I move my head quickly, but since my neck was recovering so nicely on its own, I decided to forgo any physical therapy on it for the foreseeable future. Plenty of rest and relaxation with Ghost Adventures streaming on my computer to keep me entertained has done much to heal my neck. However, being sore and having a VERY active baby climbing all over you are not terribly conducive to writing a blog, though we recently were given a baby jail and a walker by a friend who was cleaning out her home. Those have helped somewhat with giving me a break from parenthood for a short stretch of time.

It is also Ash Wednesday, so I hope y'all remembered to go to church today!

Anyway, back to day 18 of the challenge. This prompt was a bit of a challenge because I really couldn't think of what to write which fit! The subject will be skewed a bit towards my Arizona perspective, but I do think there is something worth considering regardless of where you live here in the US.

Since we receive food stamps, and I am extremely blessed to have a husband who cooks, we do lots of grocery shopping during the month. Sure we shop at Walmart and the local versions of the national chains like Kroger (Fry's in Arizona), Safeway, Albertsons, but we also shop at several local grocery stores that have limited markets outside of Arizona (Basha's/Food City and El Super). With our alotted amount, we actually can make it to the end of the month and still have food to eat!

What is the secret to our success?

Mexican grocery stores.

Here in Arizona, we have a high Mexican population. Others may be uncomfortable with this reality, but I honestly don't mind it because there are benefits that come from living among others who are very different from you. Food stores are one of them. It never fails-here in town the cheapest vegetables and fruits can be found in Mexican grocery stores like El Super and Food City. The national stores try to compete and sometimes have decent deals, but it's almost always consistently the Mexican stores with cheap, quality produce.

One of my regular haunts, El Super. This is from one of their stores in California. Pic found here

In addition to produce, the Mexican stores usually have good deals on pop and meat, though they aren't always consistent about effecting them. Many times, we have gone to Food City to buy vegetables and found the 2L bottles of pop to be selling for more than $1/bottle and beef flap meat selling for more than $3.99/lb. It's annoying sometimes, but that's life.

Of course, like anywhere else, there are things you avoid buying at Mexican grocery stores. They tend to be bad about selling cereal and baby foods (both horribly overpriced), frozen foods, dairy products (unless they're Mexican cheeses, then they're ok), alcohols, and most juices. Canned foods can be hit or miss, depending on what is being sold. I've bought cans of vegetables for $0.50/can when there's a sale, but would stay away from soups or canned spaghetti like Chef Boyardee because they were vending for FAR over the $1/can max price I'd be willing to pay for the product.

You may wonder if people look at my husband and I with strange looks when we go shopping in these stores since we are clearly not Mexican and speak Spanish poorly. The answer is no because NOBODY CARES! We're all too busy maneuvering around carts left in aisles as we try to get to the tomatoes and celery at El Super and inching our way past the meat counter traffic jam at Food City, just like everyone else and nobody looks twice at us. Unlike the adherents of the Republican Party, I'm just as comfortable in a Mexican grocery store as I am in an American one.

Thank you for reading this post and please don't forget to share, comment, and subscribe!

Picture of the Day

Hi everyone!

I'm sorry I haven't written for a few days. My husband, my daughter and I have all come down with colds! At Midnight Mass, we were seated next to a family with several small children, some of whom were coughing. Instinctively, I knew we were gonna catch whatever bug they had and sure enough, my hubby starts feeling funny right about the middle of Mass. Naturally, the cold spread from him to the baby and now me. Fortunately, this is only a mild cold, and we are already beginning to feel better. This is not the first time any of us have gotten sick from somebody at church.

Since we are all on the rebound, I chose to accompany my husband to his job training at the mall today. It was a short training, only about two hours or so. I walked around the mall a bit, hung out at Sephora and sampled various cosmetics. It was from that venture that today's picture is the star of. I'm really starting to expand my makeup field away from just eyeshadows and into other realms like foundation and lip products.

I love you @sephora! #makeup #beauty #lipstick #eyeshadow #swatch #nofilter

A photo posted by Tamara Tamtam Morris (@tr0u8ad0ur_520) on Dec 30, 2015 at 1:44pm PST

Unfortunately, I did not walk around the entire mall. The baby became hungry and I wound up spending time in the woefully inadequate "nursing lounge". Sure it was private and kinda dark with a changing table and a rocking chair, but the room itself was small and cramped. The rocking chair had absolutely no padding whatsoever on it, so it was quite literally a pain in the ass to sit in. Oh well, this is the price us mothers pay for existing in a society that despises children. Perfectly normal behaviors like nursing must be banished elsewhere lest someone get the wrong idea about what a tit is REALLY for.

And that was how I spent my day.

The Windfall

A merry Christmas Eve to you all!

The material joy of the season has come a few days early. While I'm not much of a consumer owing to my low income status, I was thrilled to discover some unused gift cards from Target and Walmart that were given to us as Christmas presents last year. When we moved from our old trailer into this new one, I tossed the gift cards in a box along with other odds and ends, put it in the closet, and forgot about it. I only rediscovered the cards recently after I was looking through boxes in the bedroom for some vintage ornaments to put on the tree. A quick check online confirmed that the gift cards not only were still valid, but had some money on them. We could finally get some Christmas presents for ourselves!

Behold, my newly upgraded makeup kit. I can now fulfill my grandmother's request that I put some effort into my appearance on Sundays and special occasions.

We did buy a few needed items with our gift cards, but I used what was left over to finally buy some long overdue cosmetic items and seriously upgrade my makeup game. I now have properly matched foundations (one a tinted moisturizer and the other a full-on liquid foundation for when more heavy-duty coverage is needed), concealer, bronzer, blush, lip products, and even a new set of face brushes! I will be doing reviews of the products in an upcoming post, but for now, I can sit back and enjoy the gifts from my unexpected windfall. With tonight being the Midnight Mass, what better opportunity do I have now to debut my new look.

Merry Christmas.

My Makeover

Hello again, dear readers!

Today, I accompanied my husband to his job training at the mall. I walked around the mall with the baby for a few hours while my husband did his job. It was crowded, and I have no money, which made stopping by Sephora painful because that is my absolute favorite store in the mall.

However, despite the chaos of Christmas shopping, I finally got my long overdue free makeover! I was color matched for foundation at two different places (Sephora and Bare Minerals; I came out as fair in both places), and got some great advice for choosing blush (something in the mauve range), lip colors (same as blush), concealer, and bronzer colors (go for light browns/cinnamon colors). I got some free samples of foundation from Sephora, but it was Bare Minerals that did the actual makeover, as seen in the pictures below.

Nice, even tone with zits and blemishes covered

From the side. Good coverage and some defining blush

Close enough

Since I was mostly interested in foundation, I didn't get the full makeover. However, I'm generally pleased with the result even though the flash from my camera made me look like a cadaver. My skin is pretty clear, thanks to my minimalist regimen of twice-daily washes and nightly coconut oil moisturizing.

We wound up leaving an hour later than planned because the wrong schedule was communicated to the trainees. I didn't mind it since I took my time walking around the mall and seeing the Christmas displays, but my husband was mildly annoyed. Since we were all hungry, we stopped at Safeway on the way home so we could get some snacks. I'm currently in love with their bakery's cinnamon rolls.

And that was how I spent my day.

First Day of Work

Hello again, dear readers!

Today was my husband's first day at work. Technically, it was training for his job, but it still counts as work because he was getting paid for it. They had to meet at a Sears store at the mall close by my former apartment and where the company's office is, and from there, my husband and a few colleagues spent the four hours alotted for their time learning how to use the scanning equipment, filling out some paperwork, and practicing taking inventory for the store. My husband was miffed about using a scanner that ran a Windows program (being a die-hard Linux penguinista, he views anything having to do with Microsoft as being the spawn of Satan), but managed to behave himself. He said it was an overall positive experience.

Before leaving, however, my husband had worked himself up into a fury over his new haircut. Since he basically kept his hat on from the time we left the barber shop, my husband didn't see that the hairdresser butchered his haircut until about an hour before he had to report for work. Instead of doing a Caesar cut like he asked, she gave him an uneven mop crop. This after he described to her exactly what he wanted, even giving her an idea by pointing out a style on one of the other customers there.

Not a Caesar cut. The pomps of Rod Blagojevich and Justin Bieber mated and pooped this monstrosity out on my husband's head

Combed out, it was apparent where she'd messed up. My husband was furious, but refused my offers to trim his bangs and some of the gross unevenness so as to bring about the appearance of balance. He blamed her not knowing how to cut hair on anyone who wasn't Mexican, as there are differences in hair type between the races. He claimed that his cousin thirty years ago did a better job using a bowl and some kitchen shears. Not wanting him to be late or do something stupid, I told him to put his hat on and say he was having a bad hair day until we could find another barber. Fortunately, when he got home, my husband reported that his colleagues and superiors didn't mind his chop-job haircut. So long as it was short, they didn't care.

Having survived the first day, he goes back tomorrow for a few hours to finish up training. Since it'll be for a shorter period of time, I can come with him and hang out in the mall with the baby for a bit. Having frequented this mall in my old bourgeois life, I have nothing to fear about showing up. Consumerama, here I come.

The Bourgeois Ghetto

Hello dear readers!

Today was a busy day. Last week, my husband was called into a job interview for some kind of inventory management position, and yesterday the company called him in today for a second interview. I was hopeful, since getting a second callback meant that he'd passed the initial background checks and that the blackball the CIA put on him all those years ago is beginning to lift and crack apart.

The company office is located clean on the other side of town from where we live. I knew this area, as I had lived nearby during my last two years of college. Across the street from the corporate park where the company's office was located was a well-to-do strip mall. While my husband did his interview, I went across the street to the mall to pass the time and walk around for a bit.

One of two or three fountains at the mall

It did not hit me until I started walking around the mall, with its artsy-fartsy boutiques and eateries, just how ghetto I'd become. I felt very out of place due to my low socioeconomic status, as well as my blue jeans and Tux the Linux Penguin t-shirt, compared with the other shoppers and diners with their business casual attire. While there were nice fountains with rose gardens and places to sit in the courtyards, the whole place was just so manicured, it made me wince. At some point, the pursuit of perfection becomes an obsession with a facade. That point was driven home further as I walked past a sign set in front of the stairs to the second floor, advertising various plastic surgery specials from the clinic upstairs.

I've been away from my old bourgeois life for three years, and now as I walked around this mall, I was reminded why I stayed away from it. The image-heavy focus of the mall's wealthy clientele was overwhelming. I was surprised that nobody had set up loudspeakers pulsing the phrase "it's all about appearances" throughout the mall like the way dystopian thrillers have PAs droning the party's lines all day to the subjects.

Fortunately, nobody seemed to care that I was there, pushing the baby in her stroller around the mall. I did see a few families with small children walking around in and out of the stores. I walked around the stores and browsed the wares, though even if I had money, I never would have paid the price amounts they were asking. They weren't really in my taste either. Most of my time was spent in a Native American shop, as I misunderstood the "Indian" in the store's name, and chatted with the proprietor about the various Native goods in the shop and the baby. I was amused to see the model papooses she had for sale.

When my husband was finished, I went back to the office park across the street from the bourgeois mall. The company told him they'd contact him next week once they talked to management. In addition to his long hair, which he agreed to cut as a condition upon hire, he brought his hardy sippy cup with him and it gave the staff conniptions because it looks dingy on the outside. I thought what the company was doing with my husband by stringing him along like this was absurd, but because it's an inventory job, they apparently put appearances above everything else a candidate might bring to the table in terms of experience and skill. Just like the mall across the street, the company was ALL ABOUT APPEARANCES! This whole area, with its wealth, was a bourgeois ghetto. Unlike my ghetto, where people maintain at least some semblance of community because poverty makes that happen, this area used its money to build up a cultural wall to keep the "undesirables" away.

As we drove home, I thought about our experiences in the area today. Prior to our trip here, we went to noon Mass at the Cathedral where the deacon gave a sermon on how wrong it is to judge people by appearances. It seemed that God was telling us something with our trip to the bourgeois ghetto. Either He did not approve of us being in this place either, or it was a call to be more charitable towards others. We'll just have to wait and see how this plays out. In the meantime, I'll stick to my ghetto. At least I feel at home there.

Beauty Weekend Steal

It's the weekend!

My beauty tutorial binge-watching has got me itching to upgrade my makeup collection. I can stand to get some liquid foundation, blush, bronzer, highlighter, and even some eyeshadows. Brushes would be especially nice, given that some of my favorite eyeshadow brushes were jacked by my daughter's former godfather's prostitute girlfriend and I have yet to replace them cuz I don't have the funds to do so.

While looking around some various bookmarked makeup sites I have to see what weekend deals were going on, I saw the following bargain worth checking out:

The ELF Midnight Eye Kit

Get your exclusive midnight eye kit featuring our Day to Night 10 Piece Palette for just $6 (a $21 value!). Use code EYES on purchase of $25+. Offer Valid 12/3-12/7

It's a good deal. I've owned ELF cosmetics in my previous middle-class life, and they are a good budget brand. This would make a great Christmas present for yourself or someone you know.

Have a safe and happy weekend everyone! Stay beautiful.

Fuck Black Friday

Greetings, dear readers.

Today is Black Friday, otherwise known as the start of the Christmas shopping season and the high holy day of consumerism. Though the name of this uniquely American holiday is of obscure origin, Black Friday is marked by people lining up outside of stores in the wee early hours of the morning and stampeding in as soon as the doors open to score goodies. It's a day marked by outrageous images and videos of fights over toys, clothes and electronics, police arrests and the occasional hospital trip or death caused by shoppers high on the adrenaline rush.

Rocky got it right. Pic found here

But for my family, we will have none of that nonsense.

As the crudely-worded title of this post implies, I have nothing but contempt for Black Friday. The reason is simple-people lose their minds over it! It's like a giant pig fest with people swarming the stores and malls, going into debt buying things they or their families may not need or ever use. It's stupid, and to risk an arrest record over it is even MORE stupid!

I admit, in times past, I too engaged in Black Friday shopping. I never could wake up at 2AM and go camp outside of Best Buy to score DVDs or whatever, preferring to sleep instead. It would usually be around noon or so when my brother and I would head on over to the mall and shop. We never went crazy with our expedition, but we did buy stuff.

Scenes from Black Friday 2011. My favorite Sephora eyeshadow palette

The one time I've ever owned (and probably will ever own) MAC makeup. This was a smoky eye set.

As my socioeconomic status plunged following my college graduation and entrance into the work world, I began to appreciate why someone like my husband despised the materialism embraced by the middle class and sought to distance himself as far away from it as he could. Does my despising of Black Friday and the crass materialism associated with it have a class aspect to it? Absolutely! Because I lack the income to go shopping on such days, I see it for the contrived farce that it is. Even when I had money, I thought Black Friday was stupid. Poverty has merely reinforced that observation.

I should clarify that I do not scorn Black Friday shoppers who exercise control over their behaviors and spending. Just the wild ones have caught my ire.

So in spite of the ads and calls to shop on Black Friday, my family and I stayed home. I would rather save money and give my child the gifts of time and experience instead of toys which she'll lose interest in after an hour or so. Materialism is a god most unworthy of a sacrifice.

Sweet Friday

Happy Friday!

It was a whirlwind day today. First, I had to drag my sleepy ass to the doctor's office cuz my husband had his ultrasound and liver biopsy scheduled after last weeks visit for bloody semen. The technician took some pictures and told my husband he'd get a call with the results. While my husband was examined, I hung out in the lobby with the baby, watching all the mommies with their babies going in and out.

With that little errand finished, we decided to take advantage of the relatively cool morning air and do some shopping. After running to Dollar General to get cheap cat food, it was off to Target. When they were here, my grandma gave me a gift card for $25 for Target that one of her friends got for the baby shower she threw. Thankfully, there's a Target not far from where we live, so we decided to go. That gift card bought some clothes, which we're not exactly running out of, but this behbeh is growing way too fast. At 4, almost 5 months, she's almost outgrown her 6-month size clothes!

A cute kitty cat dress from the clearance rack that we just HAD to get for her, being the cat lovers that we are! While it's sized as being 18 months, I think she'll fit into it now with plenty of wiggle room. Of note, it's a Little Golden Book brand (specifically, "The Shy Little Kitten")

Bulk pack of onesies (there were five in the package). These are probably the most useful article of baby clothes in existence. These are 12 month sizes, which she also can wear now cuz Gerber (which was the brand of these onesies) runs small on her

In addition to clothes, I was once again reminded of what a racket the baby industry is. Since the baby is going to outgrow her carrier soon, it's time to start looking for an upright car seat or booster seat. Car seats, as parents know, are not cheap. What makes them even more of a pain in the ass is that they've got the full force of the law behind them, as children who are not properly restrained in a moving vehicle can result in stiff penalties for parents. Seeing that these seats held children up to 100lbs, I was outraged as I had stopped sitting in car or booster seats by time I'd started preschool, and I sure was less than 100lbs then! Granted, I was always big for my age, which probably saved my mom alot of traffic tickets. Also, there's a 20 year gap between me being in preschool and now, which is alot of time for research and crash tests. Car seats may be a justifiable racket, but they're still a racket any way you look at them.

After Target, we took a quick trip to Food City to get some groceries, and ended our venture with lunch at Panda Express. I'd suggested the place to my husband because on this day in 2011, we met at St. Gianna Oratory, the Latin Mass church in Tucson, AZ. This day would change both our lives forever, though neither of us would know it for several months. A small treat like Panda was a celebration of that happy day. After giving in to a major food coma, I was also reminded why we seldom eat out. I've never had food coma from my husband's meals.

And that was my day. Tune in tomorrow for more adventures!

The Thrill of the Save

It's no surprise that when you live on a fixed income, it's important to save every penny you can. This is especially important when it comes to food. Since we get food stamps, this means careful budgeting and shopping so as to stretch our allotment as far as we can.

And you CAN use coupons with food stamps! Pic found here

Yesterday, with our food stamp allotment topped up, we went to our closest Safeway to go get some stuff. Since Tuesday is the last day for the weekly sales, there are a whole bunch of "clear-out-the-crap" sales which can be scored (Wednesdays are when the new weekly sales fliers are released). And  score did we! Fresh tomatoes on the vine (we're trying to resurrect the plant in the garden, which drowned in a monsoon storm and has temporarily halted our homegrown tomato supply), ground beef (20% is our preferred fat content cuz it doesn't have to be drained), coffee creamer, plenty of pop, and some breakfast stuff. I was a little disappointed that there wasn't any ice cream on sale, as the last time we'd gone there was a fire sale for our favorite brand, Blue Bunny, and the whole freezer shelf was pretty well cleared out. Guess that was only for the Labor Day weekend.

Well, when it came time to check out, the tab was well over $150. But because my husband had his Safeway card, the grocery savings from using that card dropped the total by about half. It was probably the biggest savings we'd ever done in one trip (our savings usually average around $20-$30), and it felt good.

Now, to take some of those savings and find some Blue Bunny on sale...I wanna get at least one more tub before the cooler weather arrives.