Resturant Review

Last night the hubby and I had a fantastic date night. The first one in over eight months, might I add. After some good ol' fashioned skee ball and a movie, we headed to a new restaurant that opened in downtown Hilo, Hawaii.

Pineapples, is a cute, hip little joint with aloha spirit and a friendly staff. Although we didn't have the kids with us, we noticed its very kid friendly, ready with highchairs and booster seats.

We started off the evening will olive tapenade. This really hit home for us, as we used to have it all the time living in California. It was very tasty; we just wish it came with more bread! Yum yum!

We each ordered drinks to go along with our delicious dinner. My husband had the shrimp scampi. The shrimp was cooked perfectly, and the wine sauce was creamy and to die for. I had the coconut crusted fresh fish served over jasmine rice. That meal was perfection; I really enjoyed every aspect of it.

Not having the kids with us meant not having to scarf down our dinner and instead take our time and enjoy the live music. Darryl Castillo, a local police man from Hilo, plays acoustic guitar every Friday night. He takes requests and played everyone from Frank Sinatra to Bruno Mars. I just wished my husband and I had cash to give him a tip. Who carries cash anymore anyway?

You may not care or even think to ask how their restrooms are, but I do. Their restrooms were beautiful. Nicely decorated, clean, and big!

Overall we were very impressed and will be dining with them again. You can expect to pay, on average, $25 per person. Well worth it.

Reservations are recommended, although we got there at 6pm and had no problem.

Thank you Pineapples, we had a great time!

http://pineappleshilo.com/

Product Review

Product:

Pepsi Next

My family and I, in general, are not Pepsi drinkers. We prefer Coca-Cola products overall. However, during a recent shopping trip at Safeway, we picked up "Pepsi Next" only because we had a FREE offer.It offers 60% less sugar, and 60 calories for every 12 fl oz. So why not try it?

Well, we shouldn't have tried it. I'm not a fan of diet soda to begin with, but I thought it may taste better having SOME calories, right? This was not the case.

You have been warned. Don't buy it. It's too sweet and leaves a chemical taste in your mouth.

No thanks.

Fitness

Well it just so happens that I have time to do a second post this afternoon.

I'd like to do it on fitness, since I recently had a baby and I am eager to lose the last ten pounds of baby weight.

I said in my very first entry that I'd be putting some "Pinterest" pins to the test. This one is the oh-so-popular "Couch to 5k" pin. Which can be found here:

http://pinterest.com/pin/148900331402260413/

I was very excited to try it out, it's a ten week program that that gets you 5K ready. The first day instructed me to walk 5 minutes, jog for 2, and then walk again for 5. I found this annoying. I had to keep looking at my phone to see when the time was up to move onto the next segment. I would much rather just run a mile every day, or run a certain distance and keep improving on it on a daily basis. I get a thrill knowing I ran a 9 minute mile, for example, and the next day I would try beating that time by a few seconds. That's what gets me goin'.

So overall, I'm not impressed with the pin. I think its a great way to get someone motivated, but at the end of the day, do what works for you and what your comfortable doing.

Spend Your Money Wisely, Part II

Well the second half of this blog had been delayed, and I apologize for that. I'm down to just one kid this afternoon, as my parents took our daughter for a couple hours so I can get a few things done around the house. So lets jump right in, shall we?

I left off at looking through the store ads, and once I was done with that I would be ready to make my meal plan and shopping list.

My meal plan is made with Microsoft Publisher, just a blank calendar that I adjust monthly with the new days. I would attach it on this blog, but for whatever reason it isn't working. You can use whatever is easiest for you; a wall calendar, a piece of paper, you name it. I find that using the computer saves more time and I am able to erase things much easier.

Once I have my calendar created, I go through the coupons I've clipped and the sales I have written down and begin making meals out of them. So if I have a coupon for a frozen CPK pizza, that would be one meal, and I would put it on the calendar. Each day has:

B:
L:
D:

on it. (B) Breakfast, (L) Lunch, (D) Dinner. So the CPK meal would look like this:


B:
L:
D: CPK Pizza


now I know dinner has been planned for that day. I keep doing this until as many meals are done with the coupons and sales that I already have. I also try to make the items last as long as possible, If I buy bacon, I'll not only use it for breakfast, but I'll use it in a BLT sandwich one day as well.

Once my calendar is as full as I can get it, I start to make my grocery list. All the sale items and coupon items  go on this list. I try not to buy anything else, I try to only buy things I have a coupon for or that is on sale. Occasionally I'll need to add a few items. For example, that BLT sandwich, I still need the L & T, so I add lettuce and tomatoes to my list. Then, I go through each day on the calendar, writing down any additional ingredients I'd need to make actual meals out of the coupons and sales list.

One document that has really come in handy is my "price comparison sheet" I made using Microsoft Word. I have been to many stores, writing down the price of frequently bought items. This way I know the price of an item BEFORE I go shopping, and I can get an idea of what I'll be spending at checkout. I write down the item, where it can be found and the price. With that done, I add the price onto my grocery list and get a running total for the day. If I'm over budget I should know before leaving the house, and I can adjust accordingly.

It sounds like a lot of work, but it isn't so bad. Once you get into a rhythm it really does work. I saved over $80 at Safeway the other day. I was pretty proud about that. It may not be "extreme" couponing like you see on tv, but like I said earlier, this is Hawaii. We don't double coupons and food is already slightly higher than what you'd pay on the mainland.

Quick Tip

I'd like to add a quick tip to yesterday's post to save money while shopping. A good family friend, more like family, kindly reminded me that Target also offers a great debit or credit (your choice) card. My husband and I signed up for the debit card, which is linked to your checking account. It's completely free, no hidden fees, and just for using it you automatically save 5% at check out. Plus one of the perks of having the card is that you get FREE shipping from www.Target.com. For us folks on the islands, that's a HUGE perk. Shipping anything out to the mainland for our friends and family is a big expense, so we buy it through Target and have it shipped directly to the recipient. This worked great for a couple baby showers that we couldn't make it to on the mainland last year. We've urged almost everyone we know to get one, in the case they want to send us something. Why not do it for free?

In addition, don't forget to bring your reusable bags. Target will give you $0.05 cents off your bill for EVERY bag you bring in. It's not a lot, but like I said before, its the little bits that add up and save you money. (It'll be hard NOT to forget soon, Hawaii recently passed the plastic bag law and will charge you $0.10 if you forget yours.)......This includes Panda Express, FYI. We got an order to go, and we were charged for the bag.

I like to pass along this kind of information; if you do your homework there's no reason to lose that silly ten cents for a bag.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/05/16/11720480-hawaii-first-state-to-ban-plastic-bags-at-checkout?lite

Spend Your Money Wisely

So many of my friends and family have asked me to share my coupon/meal plan that I have created for my family. Over the past year, my husband and I have learned to really stretch our dollar, and make every meal count. This blog will be a two parter, because lets face it, there just aren't enough hours in the day to get anything done with a two year old running around the house, and a two month old who needs to eat every two hours.

I first got inspired by watching "Extreme Couponing". How did these families make it out of the store with hundreds and hundreds of dollars worth of merchandise and wind up having the store owe THEM money? It just didn't seem fair to me that I, a stay at home mom, should have to pay full price for anything at that point. Why pay top dollar, when I can, at the very least, get $0.50 off an item. Every little bit counts, and it's the "little bits" that add up to some pretty serious savings.

Of course, living in Hawaii, extreme couponing just doesn't exist. Retailers don't accept double coupons, because we have everything shipped in from the mainland  There isn't a whole lot of wiggle room when it comes to negotiating the price of an item. It is what it is here. However retailers do except manufacturers coupons, as well as their own. That's what counts.

So where do I start? I start by hitting the world wide web for coupons. We shop every two weeks, because the stores are just to far away for us to drive into town every week. Gas is too expensive, so we save where we can and stretch our meals to last at least two weeks. I start by visiting www.Coupons.com I look for items that I need, as well as things I may be interested in trying or eating for the next two weeks. For example, I've been seeing manufacturers coupons for frozen CPK pizza. Normally we stay away from frozen prepackaged foods because, lets face it, most of them taste terrible. But we're from California, where CPK was one of our favorite places to eat. CPK doesn't exist out here, so I was willing to try one of their frozen items. Turns out, it was a pretty good substitute for the real deal. So I clip that coupon and put it aside. I keep doing this until I've seen on the coupons that site has to offer that week. Next, I move on to www.Target.com. Target is one of our major stores on the East side of the Island, so we like to take advantage of their low prices. A good tip for you to remember, Target allows you to "stack" coupons. Meaning, you can use a Target coupon AND a manufacturers coupon for the same item, allowing you to save even MORE money. Very few retailers allow this. Target.com has a great coupon selection and they also put out a weekly ad that I like to scope out. When the stars align just right, I'll find something on sale in the ad that I also have a coupon for. That's when you save the big bucks, so to speak. Once I'm done with Target, I move on to my third and final website. www.Safeway.com also offers great coupons and deals. They have a "Just for you" section that everyone who shops at Safeway really needs to check out. They have a coupons page, a personalized deals page, and their weekly store specials section. I check out all three, starting with the coupons page, and doing my usual routine. Then on to the personalized deals page, which is basically coupons, but more specific to the things you buy or may be interested in buying based on your previous purchases. Not everyone gets these deals, so its important to watch the register carefully to make sure you're getting "your" deal. After all that is done and I've finished browsing Safeway's ad, I'm ready to make my meal plan for the coming weeks.

Well as I said at the beginning of this blog, which I started hours ago, this is a two parter. Stay with me and I'll post how I prepare my meal plan and tips on how to save more money later in the week.

Have a great day!

The Kick Off

Mommy in Paradise, isn't a blog just for Mommy's. It wont be your typical blog about my kids, and how I think fellow parents should raise their's. Its a blog for anyone and everyone out there looking for new ideas, recipes, and ways to save money. I will even be putting those oh so popular pins on Pinterest to the test.

I am a wife, living on the Big Island of Hawaii looking to save money for my husband and two kids, ages two and almost two months. So please stay tuned as I express my ideas, and theories on you lovely folks.