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I work fulltime, and I’m beginning to see a disconnect between me and my son. I am very grateful to have a family member whom I trust to take care of my son while husband and I are away at work, but I feel that I’m missing out on the bonding.

Last night, it was impossible to soothe him. He kept wiggling out of my grip and lunging forward to his grandma. And when she left the room, he screamed bloody-murder. As a mom, it breaks my heart that he prefers his grandma over me. I think I failed as a mother.

For those with babies such as myself, make your own baby food

I started off by buying those jarred baby food. Not only did my baby refused to eat store-bought baby food but it was very expensive. Those little jars costs around 0.80 cents a piece and I really question how healthy it is to feed a baby food that was made months ago and vacuumed sealed. I’m sure it’s safe, but why not feed your baby fresh food especially when it is so simple to make? With your own fresh and healthy stock as mentioned below in Vicky’s Money Saving Tips Part I, just toss in your vegetables. After a few minutes of simmering, toss the whole thing in a food processor and grind it up so that it’s the consistency of your baby’s liking. Baby’s happy and mommy’s happy that she’s saving money.

Take advantage of coupons and sales

I was never a coupon-person. I never liked the idea of sitting around and going through the crap load of junk mail to save a few cents here and there. I soon found out that there significant savings in coupons. I learn quickly what I need and don’t need so browsing through the advertisements has become a breeze, but that came with practice. I started off by buying anything that had a coupon attached to it even if I didn’t need it. Things just ended up sitting in my pantry or refrigerator until I eventually just had to throw them away when they started taking up space. That’s the wrong approach to saving! You only save when you use coupons for items that you are already going to buy. I know that’s just so obvious but there are those, such as myself, who needs a bit more guidance. Just think of it this way: 50 cents off a $1.00 item. That’s a 50% saving. But if that item was not needed in the first place, I could have saved 100%! Now, that’s some serious saving! Couple the coupons with existing sale items and you will find yourself saving even more! I always look forward to the monthly book of coupons from my favorite store, Costco. There are huge savings on items that I would otherwise buy for regular price. It’s double the saving power when you shop with coupons at Costco! Yes, I love Costco.

Speaking of Costco, try to buy household items and office equipment at Costco

Costco offers a very, very generous refund policy. If you aren’t satisfied with your product or it becomes defective after some time, you can simply return it for a full refund, no questions asked (usually). The best part is there is no time frame. Simply return it at anytime. Of course, there are limitations on certain products such as cameras, TVs, and computer. They can only be returned within 30 days of purchase but that is still very generous. Their generous refund policy eliminates the need to spend money on repairs or replacements. Simply return it and get a new one! I also love the fact that if you misplace your receipt, no problem. They can simply look it up in their system. In short, Costco rocks.

Shop at discount stores

You just may find hidden gems. I always knew discount stores exist, but I always credited their low price to their low quality. One day I noticed that there was a packed parking lot in front of a Factory to You store so I decided to check it out. I soon found out that I landed the jackpot for baby and children clothes. Their baby and children clothes were surprisingly of high quality and were half or more off the retail price! I found the exact same items that I see at department store, but here they were selling them for dirt cheap! Baby clothes are already expensive and they are only worn for a short period of time so I was very relieved to find a place that offers good quality clothes for such a bargain. There isn’t a big selection, but hey, children aren’t very picky. Take advantage of the young stages while you still can. I recently bought an 8-piece gift set for a baby shower for only $9.99. A similar piece at a regular department store would no doubt cost me around $20 or more.

Well, those are my tips to living smart and on a budget. Do you have any money-saving tips? Please comment and share your ideas.

With the current economic crisis and mass lay-offs happening all over the Bay Area, many are really strapping down their finances to make sure they can support themselves in case they find themselves unemployed. I have always been very frugal and my frugality has helped me and my family save nicely. We have an emergency fund but most importantly, we live comfortably. I would like to share some of these tips and hopefully help others save a little cash. It may not seem much now as you cut small costs here and there, but believe me, it really adds up.

Pack lunch for work everyday

We used to buy lunches at work every day. That’s approximately $7 per person per day. With 5 workdays every week, that’s $70 of lunches for the two of us. That adds up to $3,360 a year! That’s a lot of money when I can easily pack my own lunch, and most of the time, it’s better and healthier than what I normally purchase at the fast food joints. Keep in mind that this figure is only for two people. If there are more people in the family, the figure spent on lunches alone would be much higher.

Buy nonperishable items in bulk

Costco has become my second home as I shop there very often. I stock up on Costco’s Kirkland brands since they are lot cheaper. However, there are a few items that I prefer not get the Kirkland brand and rather pay a little bit more for brands of higher quality. Regardless, I’m still saving at Costco.

Buy perishable items in bulk and split them among multiple households

For example, I can buy a much larger quantity of asparagus at Costco for the same price as Safeway’s asparagus. However, my family doesn’t normally finish it all so we would split the item among multiple households. I may not save, but it doesn’t cost me any more to help others to save.

Run multiple errands in the same vicinity

If I’m already at Costco, I might as well pull up and get some gas at their stations. If there’s a Safeway nearby, I might as well get what I need there that I couldn’t get at Costco. Not only do I save money on gas, but I get things done in a more efficient and timely manner.

Think of creative ways to use up every scrap of food

No food goes to waste in our family. We use every piece of grocery purchased whenever possible. That nice store-bought rotisserie chicken? Well, don’t throw away the carcass when you are done with it. Put it in a pot to simmer. Let it set and scrap off the fat that floats to the top and you got yourself some great homemade stock! Vegetables such as celery and carrots losing its firmness? Throw those aromatics into the stock pot as well for a richer flavor.

Discover the wonders of freezing

I freeze just about everything. Have left over pork roast? Wrap that sucker up and freeze it away for a future dish. Since I buy almost all my canned food in bulk, I always end up freezing the remaining content. The only things that you cannot freeze are your vegetables and fruits because they will lose their firmness when you defrost them. However, if firmness doesn’t matter such as tomatoes for spaghetti sauce, then by all means freeze away! I also have one rule of thumb in my kitchen: no new dishes will be made until all old dishes are completely done. This works out very well when your husband is not a picky eater.

Prep your groceries ahead of time

Time is also money so save time by prepping your groceries ahead of time. When you bring home that honking piece of meat from Costco, cut it up, marinate it and put it into individual bags. You are already marinating a portion of it, why not just add a bit more seasoning and marinate the whole batch for future use? And by putting the pieces into individual bags, you not only preserve the quality of the meat (more surface area, more ice crystals that can penetrate and damage the meat), but defrosting will be quick and easy. Perfect for when you have no time and patience after a long day at work.

Vicky’s Money-Saving Tips to be continued…

Sushi is delicious, but it can get expensive eating out all the time, especially for the fresh and mouth-watering kind of sushi that makes my tummy very happy. I occasionally eat at the Sushi House in Alameda and often get the Lion King roll (baked salmon roll). Every bite is savored as each morsel of the Lion King roll is just pure heavenly goodness.

The Lion King roll is essentially the California roll (sushi rice with imitation crab, avocado, and cucumber) wrapped with salmon and baked, and topped off with a special house sauce. I was surprised that the house sauce had only three ingredients, and aside from trying to thinly slice the salmon, making the Lion King at home was quite simple and budget-friendly:

Recipe for the Secret House Sauce:

Whisk together:

• 1/2 cup mayo – I used regular American mayonnaise such as Hellmann’s. I think if you use the Kewpie Japanese brand mayo, it might be tastier and more authentic.
• 1-2 tablespoon of Sambal Oelek brand chili sauce. Sriracha brand is just as good.
• 1 tablespoon of roe (Masago)

Recipe for the Sushi Rice:

• 3 cups sushi rice (Kokuho Rose brand)
• 3 1/4 cups water

Rice Mixture. Heat together on stovetop until sugar dissolves:

• 1/2 cup rice vinegar (Marukan brand)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt

Cook the rice and toss the mixture in once the rice is done. Fold the mixture into the rice slowly so that you don’t break the grains. It took us a few times to get the sushi rice right. We screwed up because we did not label our seasoning and mistaken our salt for our sugar. We thought it was odd that the sugar never melted with the vinegar. But our knuckle brains (My sister and I) decided to proceed anyways and poured the salty mixture into our freshly cooked sushi rice! Our rumbling tummies weren’t happy that we had to wait another hour to cook up another pot.

Prepare your cucumber, imitation crab, and avocado by cutting them into strips.

Spread a thin layer of sushi rice onto some green seasoned seaweed, add a strip of cumber, imitation crab and avocado. Roll up your sushi rice with a bamboo sheet.

Prepare your salmon by cutting them thin and lay them on top of the roll. Spread a generous amount of the house sauce on top of the roll and bake until the salmon is nearly cooked. Top it off with a bit more masago and some decorative baby greens.

Slice that sucker up, grab the soy sauce, wasabi, and pickled ginger and enjoy! Great homemade Lion King roll that costs a fraction of what you would pay at a restaurant.

The only expensive thing for my meal was obviously the salmon but I bought a generous fresh slab at Costco and made quite a feast out of it. To eat the amount that we did, I’m sure we would have rung up a $70+ bill at Sushi House. And there is still a generous slab of salmon left over for another tasty treat next weekend! W00t w00t!

To end this post, here’s a recent picture of my son. Look at that face, just look at that face.