Blog Trip – Day 2… cost of living

Wow, gas has sure gotten expensive this Summer! Thankfully it has gotten a bit cheaper than it was in June… and it has stayed cheaper than the surf town we drove through in California in June! Down there it was $5 PER GALLON!!!

Gas in Arlington, WA is getting back down around $4 per gallon, especially if you use Costco or Safeway (love the $0.10 cent discount!), but that is still a bit on the pricey side for my wallet. Especially since I got a new car payment in May. Good thing the new car gets more than 4 miles to the gallon! That is our biggest gas saver!

Fortunately, we have most of the shops that we need close at hand, so I only have to fill up every 2 weeks… well, as long as I pay attention to how much gas I have left! If I do need to head down to the city to get something, I will make sure that I have a list of everything that I need to get while I am down there, and hit every store that I can in one trip! This way I only have to make the drive once every couple of weeks or so. Yes, I have to make the trip somewhat often, because I miss things like Trader Joe’s, Pacific Fabrics, a BIG Joann’s, and the Apple Store! Add in the Costco Business Center (a totally different store than a regular one) and you see why I have to make the trip occasionally. Around every 3 months we also hit Ranch 99 (a big Asian Market) to stock up on some of our essentials.

However, we are lucky to have some big box stores nearby… Smokey Point has a large shopping center called Lakewood Crossing with Costco, Target, Michaels, Office Depot, Linens-N-Things, Best Buy, Petco, etc. And I can’t forget The Plant Farm!

Lakewood Crossing also has a Boston’s Gourmet Pizza, Red Robin and Cold Stone…no, we aren’t THAT far out into the country! Even with all of this nearby I personally try to avoid the big box stores and shop at Indie websites… support your local, small business owners! And by local, I do mean those here in the good ol’ USA (and Canada… they are good neighbors!)

To save extra money, we also have a few ways to avoid the supermarket. We get our veggies fresh each Thursday from Garden Treasures, a local CSA farm. This has a two-fold benefit… cost… we paid only $475 for a Summer of produce – one box a week from May through October – AND I somehow feel obligated to use up that week’s worth (or more!) of produce before I pick up the next week’s installment. Yes, we eat LOTS of veggies around here!

We also have a small garden with sweet onions, garlic, blueberries, red currants, raspberries, salad greens, peppers, tomatillos, snow peas and long beans. The deck garden has carrots, strawberries, lettuce, broccoli and flowers. The apple tree and cherry tree should start producing next year *fingers crossed* and the herb garden is already doing quite well. We have rosemary, spicy oregano, pineapple sage, Summer savory, curry, chives, marjoram and lemon balm. Yep, we are pretty well set on spices! My cardamom hasn’t done much yet, but I hope to be able to add that to our pantry next year!

The other big way we cut down on expenses is by having our milk delivered each week. Yes, the milk itself costs a few dollars more, but I don’t have to step foot into a grocery store and face the inevitable impulse buy temptations! Smith Brothers Farms offers milk, cheese, eggs, FABULOUS cookie dough and more! We usually just get milk, but it is so handy to let our milkman know that we also need eggs, cream, cottage cheese, or cookie dough this week, and not have to drive to the store!

Smith Brothers is available for most of Western Washington, so if you live anywhere from Olympia to Camano Island, take a look at the website! The milk is as near to organic as they can be without growing their own feed… coincidentally, that is the only reason they don’t have the “organic” label on the cartons.  They do offer fully labeled organic milk now as well, but it, of course, costs more.

We buy in bulk when we can (I love Costco!) and I bake most of our bread. My sandwich bread recipe is located here. School lunches are packed each morning, and we either recycle plastic bags from the store (the girls school gets $5 for each BIG bag of them) or we use reusable fabric grocery bags like these.

Since I joined Mamas On The Compact, we aren’t shopping for new very often. We find things we need on Freecycle, Craig’s List or a second hand store. The girls each got ONE new outfit from the outlet stores down the road this year, and then they traded in some old clothes that were too small at Other Mothers down in Mill Creek… and got about 4 more outfits each! The only cost for those was the gas to get there (which we combined with a few other stops to make it worth it!)

That is how we are saving a few dollars here in Arlington, WA. What are you doing to save money with gas so high?