A Vitamin a Day...

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I have trying to focus on making healthier choices for my family so when we ran out of the usual vitamins I give my kids something hit me...

I am paying more attention to the ingredients on the food I am buying but what about the vitamins I am buying?

I flipped the Flintstones Vitamins bottle over and read exactly what ingredients I was letting my kids eat each day and I was floored because this is what I saw:

Sucrose, Sodium Ascorbate, Fructose, Ascorbic Acid, Microcrystalline Cellulose, Stearic Acid, Gelatin, Vitamin E Acetate, Niacinamide, Maltodextrin, Invert Sugar, Magnesium Stearate, Starch, FD&C Red #40 Aluminum Lake, FD&C Yellow #6 Aluminum Lake, Artificial Flavors, Mono And Diglycerides, Aspartame†, FD&C Blue #2 Aluminum Lake, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Acetate, Folic Acid, Beta-Carotene, Vitamin D3 (Cholecalciferol), Vitamin B12.

Ummmm, yuck? What is with all of the added junk, artificial flavors and dyes?

After seeing that, I decided to go for a more natural multivitamin for my kids- something that preferably wasn't hopped up with crap I would't even let my dog eat.

I ended up buying Nature's Plus Animal Parade Gold vitamins and was much more pleased with their ingredient list:

Xylitol, Natural Color, Citric Acid, Guar Gum, Natural Cherry Flavor, Magnesium Stearate, Certified Organic Gold Standard Whole Food Blend [Organic Acerola Extract, Apples, Broccoli (Brassica Oleracea) Sprout, Cauliflower Sprouts, Collard, Cordyceps Mushroom Mycelia, Kale, Kale Sprout, Maitake Mushroom Mycelia, Nettle, Parsley, Beet (Beta Vulgaris) Juice, Carrot (Daucus Carota) Juice, Spirulina (Arthrospina Platensis), Reishi Mycelium (Mushroom), Shiitake Mushroom Mycelia, Spinach (Spinacia Oleracea), Tomato Juice, Wild Bilberry, Wild Blueberry (Vaccinium Angustifolium), Wild Lingonberry, Pure Chlorella], Rosa Canina (Rose Hip), Whole Brown Rice, Broccoli (Brassica Oleracea), Mangifera Indica (Mango) Fruit, Carrot (Daucus Carota), West Indian Cherry, Papaya Fruit, Mineral Aminoates (whole brown rice chelates)

Were the natural vitamins more expensive than the Flintstones ones? Yes, heck yes. I am willing to pay it though because I want to do what I can to make sure my kids aren't being pumped full of junky ingredients. In my opinion, it really is a sad state of affairs that to get healthier vitamins for your kids you have to shell out a lot more cash. Why can't mainstream companies and even store brands pay more attention to what they are putting in their children's multivitamins? I am all for companies making a profit but when they get into the business of people's health and then add junk to their product to increase their profits they are doing to huge disservice to us all.

If you're feeling daring, why don't you look and see what is in your child's multivitamin?

No Junk For You!

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(make sure you say the title of this in the voise of the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld, otherwise it just doen't sound too interesting)

When I started to coupon, I mean really coupon, over five years ago after I had my first child I was a complete coupon psychopath. I ran from store to store getting tons of free stuff, some because we needed it and lots because it was free. At that time every blog that I followed was the same way with pictures posted daily of piles of crap that was bought for free or at least 90% off.

Fast forward to today and I have seen a major shift in what people are buying- it seems that many have turned from "if it's free it's for me" zealots into being more intentional about what they bring into their homes. The piles of Pop-Tarts, Keebler cookies and Betty Crocker fruit snacks have diminished into more produce and natural foods. (my view may be screwed though because I don't really follow too many deal blogs and the ones I do follow I have been reading for awhile- I am sure newbie couponers with newbie blogs are more coupon crazy then us old-timers)

I have also been making this shift to feed my family better, though junk still has a special place in my heart and I still let my kids have treats. I'll never be someone who buys no processed food and all organic because there are just some things that I refuse to give up and try telling my husband to quit the soda- that would be total grounds for divorce. I actually looked back on my grocery shopping posts to see if I have been doing good buying healthier food and guess what? I am not full of hot air; I have literally put my money where my mouth is (meat from Whole Foods is killing me but it is a commitment I made and one that I will keep).

At the same time, I don't in any way think that anyone else should do exactly as I do. If someone else want to buy different types of foods for their families who am I to look down on them? I am far from perfect and have been known to be a completely lazy mom so how can I tell someone else that they are terrible for giving their kid a Pop-Tart? There are some morning where I wish I had a giant box of Pop-Tarts to throw at my kids so they would leave me alone and let me sleep for fifteen more minutes. That is actually one reason why I don't buy a lot of junk food- I am lazy and if it's there I will let my kids shove their faces with it, especially on the days where I am feeling overwhelmed being the mom of three kids under the age of five- which actually seems like it's every day. The moms who do buy said junk most likely have more willpower than me and are able to ration it out properly.

Speaking of Pop-Tarts, my mouth is watering right now thinking about the S'mores flavor. Why oh why can't they make a dairy free S'mores Pop-Tart? And if the did you bet your life I would hide the box form the kids, not because I would want to keep the from eating junk food but because I would want to keep them all to myself.

How Exciting... A Price Book

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I am extremely disorganized in my everyday life. I wasn't always like this, it justs seems with each kid that I birth I lose grasp on organization a little bit more.

This equates into me losing things, missing out on coupons/rebates and in general just spending more money. Due to the fact that I am transitioning over to buying higher quality meat and more natural foods my grocery bill has gone up. I need tp pull myself together to try a wrangle it to a more acceptable amount.

Things are easing up a bit at home because the baby is getting older and is starting to actually enjoy playing on the floor instead of having me hold her 24/7. At night she has been taking a nap from seven or eight to around ten so I actually have time to get things done and sit sans baby in my lap or attached to my boob.

I am going to begin to make more of an effort to plan my shopping trips and be more mindful of what I am buying. I also would like to eventually get back into the drugstore game when I feel that it won't take too much time from other aspects of my life.

Right now, I am going to start a price book for the stores I shop at. It is not going to be anything fancy but it will help me to see who has the best prices on things I buy.

Even if I don't end up lowering how much I spend, I at least want to know that the money I spent was well spent instead of knowing that the things I bought were dumb impulse buys. Good luck to me because I will need it.

Stocking Up on Meat at Whole Foods

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In an effort to feed my family higher quality food I have been buying all natural meat, mostly from Whole foods.

Has this been expensive? Yes, yes it has but I don't care because the meat isn't pumped up with weird stuff and it just simply tastes way better than the stuff that the grocery stores sell.

To attempt to keep the costs down I have been keeping an eye on Whole Foods' sales every week to see what I can stock up on.

Whole Foods runs their sales from Wednesdays to Tuesdays with the new ads coming out on Tuesday evenings.

This week, in my neck of the woods (good old Massachusetts) the following meat is on sale:

Split Chicken Breast $2.99 a pound (normally $4.99)

Boneless Center Cut Pork Chops $4.99 a pound (normally $7.99)

Beef Bottom Round Roast $4.99 a pound (normally $6.99)

I may make a trip on Friday to pick up some pork chops and a roast. I bought some pork chops last week and they were so tender and yummy but they will taste even better at $4.99 a pound instead of $7.99 a pound. The split chicken breast is great too; I used some tonight to make a teriyaki chicken/broccoli/noodle stir fry.