Cent Saving Saturday: Healthy and Cheap

Okay, maybe cheap is a poor choice of words.

Cheap makes me think of hookers and this post is NOT gonna be about hookers (maybe next week!).

I guess the word I’m think about is inexpensive.

Healthy and inexpensive.

That’s what we’re going for today.

Because over here at Casa de Dummies one of the main obstacles for purchasing more health conscious items is the fact that I’m a sugar-addicted food whore who would sell her eggs for a chocolate chip cookie cost.

I know that the few cents I save by buying something less nutritious could easily wind up costing me more in health care, and worry, and years off of life in the future.

But still, I’m a natural born bargain hunter so I sorta get the shakes when I make myself grab for the more expensive, albeit more healthy option, especially when the transfer priced item is sitting right there on the shelf, lookin’ all sexy, calling my name.

Except when it comes to shoes.

And handbags*.

Anyway, point is, I have been trying to make more health conscious food selections for myself and The Dudes even if it does mean the items I choose aren’t on sale at the Club Card price.

‘Cause it’s worth it, you know?!

So, a while back, I got this cool book that you all have probably heard of by now: Eat This Not That! for Kids! I take it to the store and spend hours trying NOT to buy all the crap food we like.

And, last year I participated in this healthy food campaign with Loony Tunes.

But, lately I have noticed that I’ve fallen off the healthier-food-choices wagon.

The holidays and winter ALWAYS do that to me.

When I’m confined to the house for long periods (aka 10 straight freakin’ days) I can seriously go days without eating anything other than cookies or cookie like products.

I feel all nasty and fat afterwards, and I make all kinds of New Year’s resolutions pertaining to the pack of hot dogs I’ve sprouted on my back, but every year I do it anyway and hope that I can trash talk myself into making a change.

So, that’s what I’ve been doing lately (for what ever reason I respond better to self put downs than I do to self motivation); trash talking myself into action.

I’ve been back and forth; one week I work out consistently and stay away from the cookies and the next, not so much.

At the moment I’m forth (after being back in celebration of Snowmaggedeon) and I have been exploring some waist friendly, but still remarkably tasty items that even The Dudes enjoy without griping, gagging, or begging for mercy.

For example, instead of regular juice boxes we have tried H2Organics Kids Nutrient Enhanced Water. We received a sample of it from the company and we liked it enough that I bought a box of it for them (they liked the Orange Tangerine and the Strawberry Apple, but the Grape Berry one did fall into the things-that-make-dudes-gag category) to take to school and practice.

We aren’t usually drinkers of flavored water (they like unflavored water just fine), but these work out because we’ve failed at the reusable plastic bottles (they always lose the tops), and the disposable ones too (when I send regular water bottles with them to school they break probably because they are like little tornados on their backpacks for some reason).

Another one of the Dumb Family’s current faves are the frozen Yoplait Smoothies.

Holy delicious snack option Batman!

The Dudes freakin’ love these things, and I’m a bit of a converted fan myself.

Initially I didn’t even try them because I’ve never been a fan of yogurt to drink, but they looked so good I decided to give it a go.

And, yeah, they’re pretty awesome.

They are super easy to use (just pop them outta the freezer, add milk, and blend) and you can add stuff to them (like bananas or strawberries or rum other stuff) to jazz ‘em up a bit, but they really don’t even need it.

We got to try these courtesy** of Yoplait and My Blog Spark.

They sent us a coupon for the smoothies and a cool single serve, portable blender (that I use for frozen coffee drinks, too!). See…

Pretty sweet, eh?!

So sweet in fact that you are sitting over there at your hizzouse right now getting all jealous thinking of ways to end Dumb Mom and her unstoppable ascent to the top you wish you had yourself a fancy, schmansy single serve portable blender for making Yoplait smoothies in, right?

Well I don’t want to disappoint you so hows about a giveaway?!

All you have to do is go to the Yoplait site and tell me which of the three flavors you think you will like the best, leave a comment here with your answer by Friday (2/26), vote for my picture toe win the Intel Access Your Core Contest using the button on the top left and wait to see if you’re the big winner next week.

Easy peasy.

And just like that you could win (what you see pictured below) and forever be in my debt as someone who has saved cents courtesy of Dumb Mom.

Stick with me people… I’m the way of the future!

*I’d rather be cute than healthy any day!***

**Courtesy means free. You’d think people would realize that, but for whatever reason I have to spell it out. SO here goes: courtesy means F-R-E-E.

***Let me rephrase. I’d rather be cute than healthy which is why I’m a tub, but I will sacrifice my cute for my kids’ health. I swear it I will.