Well leave it to a great-grandma to come up with some inspiration, motivation and a just enough spoiling to get a wayward daughter back under control a bit. Deciding that the DSD was feeling a bit overwhelmed when she realized that as of tomorrow she'll be behind by yet another rent payment, and hasn't seen her daughter most of the week for the hours she's working (so naturally feels guilty and wants to do those little impulse buys for her daughter more than ever) The Gigi has come up with a plan for a family vacation to Disney World (it's a short enough distance to travel with the kids)

But there's a catch.... the kids can go regardless, but DSD can only go along if she has paid off her debts completely . And if so, to avoid the urge to impulse buy for the little ones for now out of guilt, she'll also get a spending allowance above what we're all going to naturally drop on the GBs, for her to spoil the kids as well.

So it's just a little bit of a spoiling for her, a special treat for doing well, and something for her to look forward to at the end of the tunnel aside from... okay I'm caught up on my bills and haven't any fun in ages, my kids hate me cause I'm always working, and I still don't know how I'm going to pay my rent again at the end of the month because I just HAD to buy the kids something now that I'm all caught up.

We're also putting our foot down on the potty training of the youngest.... She spends about $70 a week in those stupid pull-ups for her daughter who is just a little pee machine. The GB will go through at least 7 or 8 pull-ups a day if she's out running around and not drinking as much as she probably should. On the cooler days or days where she thinks she's a camel at an oasis she can wet right on through 12 of them without breaking a sweat (and that's just in the 10-12 hours I'm watching her.)

So that's a ton of money that the DSD doesn't really have, being wasted because she's not been following through with the potty training when she isn't working. So that's going to be nipped in the butt starting Sunday when the buggins goes back to mommy.

Next thing on the list is her food shopping... She buys "Velveta" mac 'n' cheese... She has the food budget of ramen noodles 5 nights out of the week... she buys a lot of shrimp, clams, crabs... you name it if it's expensive seafood she buys it.... she has the budget of generic hotdogs twice a week... And there might be some debate of me giving the GBs Kool-Aid as opposed to "fruit juice", but honestly I only use 1/3 of a cup of sugar and about twice the water that's called for on the little 25 cent packets. There's just enough flavor and just enough sweet that the kids love it and can drink as much as they want without getting canker sores from all the vitamin C they put in the fruit juices.

Tell me I'm a terrible gramma for giving a 2 year old water, pert near sugar free Kool-Aid.. I don't care, it's cheap and keeps the kids hydrated and happy, they even love to help make it up (I put it in a recycled juice bottle that has a cap so after we add the sugar, and half the water they can shake it all around and just have a blast shaking the bottle... cheap, hydrating, happy and a good 10 minutes worth of entertainment Kool-aid )

But anyways, there's an supposedly AMAZING grocery store "near-ish" to us. Called AIDL, you pay a quarter to get a shopping cart but get it back when you return the cart and you have to BYOB(ags) But they have bagged salad on sale for $0.69 for a 12 oz bag, fresh chicken breasts for $1.69lb and so forth... I mean just huge savings over what even Sam's Club offer and you have to pay to get in there. But AIDL you don't, other than the returned fee for a shopping cart. One downside for someone like my DH going there is he likes his brand name foods and makes enough to enjoy them...

For the DSD she might like the brand named foods, but doesn't make nearly enough to enjoy them so she might as well go generic or she's going to be starving . Another downside is they carry a limited stock of items, if they sell out.. they're out, so making a list before going down of exact planned dinners, not so much... making a list of how many meals you need to buy, and knowing how much you can spend... yeah, much more important. It's a sort of plan meals on the fly sort of store but again only if you were going down for just one weeks worth of meals. Even if you can't get all the sides and such to go with the meals, the deals on meats that can be broken down, sealed and frozen... now that's where the money is saved.

And the Gigi of course has yet another trick up her sleeve when it comes to the food shopping aside from finding such a cheap discount store. DIY microwave meals, since the DSD works such odd hours and doesn't always have time or the energy to cook a meal right then... we're going to drag her shopping one day and spend the rest of that day or the next cooking up meals in advance. Vacuum sealing them and having them all set to be pulled from the freezer whenever and tossed in the microwave, in boiling water or even cut open and dumped into the slow cooker to be ready when she gets home at night, and since she has the little ones who don't eat a full portion of the anything we can make up little buggins baggies for them from left over portions of whatever we're making up.

It might take some getting used to, but I think she'll get it down, even if she doesn't fall in love with the DIY TV dinners, at least getting some major savings on her food and learning how to buy in a bit of bulk should help her out some... the girl doesn't seem to know anything about coupons or sales flyers either when comes to planning for meals....

Someone please tell me this isn't going to be as long a road as I think it is... That someone has been able to get through to a wasteful kid at some point and show them... look! coupons!!! FREE MONEY!!!! You're buying it anyways, why not keep $3.00 in your pocket or $0.50 it's FREE MONEY!!! Or oh look! the family size chicken packets are buy one get one free and you were buying chicken anyways... buy the big family packet and get 8 chicken breasts for less than the price of the 4 chicken breast you were going to buy in the little packet (at least at our grocer, if it's buy 1 get 1 they just half the price makes it kind of funny cuz they advertise both buy1 get 1s and half off sales )

It is seriously enough to drive me nuts sometimes... And at the grocer I can't count the number of times the baggers have offered to go and grab a flyer for a coupon on something someone just bought and if it's a young kid in line they say "nah don't worry about it" while most everyone that looks about 30 and up says "oh yes please.. thank you so much..." Doesn't matter how much the coupon is for, a bit of change or a couple of bucks, the kids just always seem to blow off the offer. WHY?! You didn't even have to clip the coupon... you didn't even have to search the flyer... someone is basically asking you... Excuse me kiddo would you like five bucks? To which they respond ... Nah I'm good....

Now what if they were offered a $5.00 bill... how different do you think the answer would be? It might actually even end up the complete opposite cuz the 30 and up crowd would think it's some kind of scam, while the younger ones would be going WOOT! 5 bucks!!! But not if it's a coupon for $5.00 off something that's already in their grocery bag, nah we're cool we don't need THAT it's not like it makes a difference.