Archive for March, 2010
Legos Are a Renewable Resource
March 10th, 2010 | Comments
Tags: kids, mamas, savings, Shopping
Parents have cornucopias of junk. Rubbermaid boxes overloaded with gadgets and gizmos of all shape and size. Puzzles, books, animals, tops, drums, kazoos, blocks, teethers, jack-in-the-boxes, wing-dings, do-hickies, whatchamacallits. And yet everyone invests in these same objects again and again. All the Mama B’s on your street are buying the same toys. Why not organize a swap? A toy library?
The allure of a new plaything vanishes after a little while… give it a couple weeks, a month, and the glow of the new fades; soon that cherished Mister Potato Head is growing extra eyes in a corner. Share him! Make some other rugrat’s day—and save her mama big bucks. Later, when he’s returned to you, little Jenny gets the sweet pleasure of re-acquaintance.
Invite trustworthy friends to join. Label objects. Rotate in and out monthly. Sanitize. It’s green, thrifty, and keeps life fresh. Sorry, Toys R Us—Smart B Us Mamas.
We Like it RAW!
March 9th, 2010 | 3 Comments
Tags: Food & Spirits, Health & Fitness, healthy food, raw honey
We first started writing this blog under the cover of relative obscurity, (before we became really big bitches- at least that’s what they say about us now), we wrote about experimenting with rough raw stuff. We were addicted pouring big money into our habit, we tried everything we could get our hands on. Some of the stuff was nasty, dirty looking, foul tasting–sure to make us ill. Some of the stuff was so refined and processed we felt nothing. Then we found perfection. It was as though Smokey the Bear married Marshmallow Fluff.
Oh!
We forgot to mention we’re talking about honey. Raw honey. For those of you who missed our earlier ranting and raving on the pleasure of yummy raw honey we thought we’d share our earlier post hoping that you’ll share with us your favorite honey variety. Enjoy!
You know our obsession with finding the little things that make a bitch happy. That spoonful of sugar…well, not sugar anymore if we can help it. These days we’re all about honey. No, we’re not members of the healthy food police, but we do like to eat as well as we can. For example, when given the choice we take brown over white rice and wheat over white bread. Organic over non-organic. Unprocessed over processed. And honey over sugar in all the right places: in our tea, spread on toasted Eli’s health loaf, baked into our favorite ancho chili blue corn bread recipe (we’ll share, we promise). We’ve been experimenting with raw honey. Interesting. We’ve tried it all. We’ve explored the gamut of ‘raw’ honey—from the kind with a faintly feral hive odor and bits of bees in it (at least we thought we came upon wings and stingers) to a very pricey, waxy, raw clover blend with a bland odorless flavor. We’ve worked hard to find you the world’s best most delicious honey…and in our search we discovered something divine. It’s a lovely blend of that classic Smokey the Bear-container honey, fragrant wildflowers, and marshmallow fluff. 365 Organics Wildflower Raw Honey from Whole Foods is the one we love!
Tell us about your favorite raw honey and where you buy it.
Talking about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
March 8th, 2010 | 1 Comment
Tags: dragon tattoo, girl with the dragon tatoo, movies, new cinema, simple pleasures, sneak previews, talk cinema, Travel & Entertainment
 In the book we talk a lot about following your passions, about finding simple pleasures in life, and about doing things that help you learn and grow. One of our passions is going to the movies. Old movies, new movies, foreign flicks, comedies, documentaries, dumb ones, weird ones, cartoons… we’ll see just about anything. (We do draw a line at gratuitous violence.)
We just got back from Talk Cinema (“sneak previews of essential new cinema followed by lively conversation”). Today’s screening was The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo– a movie made from a book we wholeheartedly recommend (after you read The Bitches, of course). The filmmakers did an amazing job bringing the story to life. If Talk Cinema is available in a city near you, make certain you check it out.
A simple small splurge for any Bitch on a Budget.
B’s Give Back: The Power of Art
March 6th, 2010 | 6 Comments
Tags: Giving Back
A modern woman is in touch with her own needs– and the needs of others. That said, it’s easy to give back when time and money are plentiful. We wonder: when cash is tight, when we feel so overburdened ourselves, how can we find the energy/time/resources to help others? With this question in mind, every weekend we bring you examples of women who find creative, meaningful ways to give. Click ‘comments’ above and tell us what you do! You might be featured here as an inspiration next Saturday.
Today’s Queen B of Giving Back is Veronica, who writes about bringing art (and her whole family) to a children’s shelter:
I volunteer at a children’s shelter teaching art on the weekends. I bring my two girls (ages 6 and 10) and now my husband comes too. we go every other Saturday. the kids range in age from 12-18. some are working to go back to their biological home while others are up for adoption. however we all know how hard it is for a teenager to be adopted. the shelter is also a SAFE PLACE for runaways and sometimes the kids that come in are runaways from other states. this shelter works REALLY hard at reuniting the children with their families as long as it is safe for the children. the staff at this shelter are really the parents of these children, as well as the mentors that volunteer their time every week. we love going and some of the children have been there since I started teaching. some of the things we have done include – soap, candles, frames, lots of painting, paper mache, shaving cream art, origami, Xmas crafts, paper making….i usually ask the kids what they want and try to accommodate them. as a family we have also cooked meals with the children, played board games and just hung out. my children love going to the shelter as much as my DH and I do. we would strongly encourage families to volunteer together if possible…the benefits are priceless.
How do YOU give back?
Read Between The Lines
March 5th, 2010 | Comments
Tags: Food & Spirits, Health & Fitness
We never deny ourselves great food. Nope, us Bitches on a Budget believe wholeheartedly in yummy, satisfying, healthy, occasionally indulgent food. Our favorite food mantra comes from Julia Child: “Everything in moderation, including moderation.”
Food should make you happy… it should titillate… it should be fun, social, diverse…. it should keep you healthy… and it should be delicious. It is such an essential part of living it should be something you are literate about. That means not only knowing the provenance of your eggs and fish but also the nutritional composition of what you’re eating.
 In our book, we offer practical tips to help you become a more savvy, self-determined purchaser and eater. The first step to being an empowered consumer is learning to read a food label. Yes, B’s—time to get literate.
Click here to learn the basics. Trust us, you don’t need to be a math major to get your head around this stuff—browse for a few minutes and you’ll get the gist.
Here’s a link to an interactive site about making your calories count. (Although little sets our teeth chattering more than the euphemistic question “is it good for you” referencing caloric values.) Certainly we don’t want to overeat, but a smart B’s goal is a nutritionally balanced diet. And here’s the straight story on so-called “good for you” foods. Remember, a smart consumer knows that eating fat-free or reduced-fat foods isn’t always the answer to weight loss! (Never again make the whole-box-of-Snackwells-in-one-sitting-cause-hey-they’re-fat-free mistake. No more. Better to indulge in one of your own homemade chocolate chip cookies made from rich, natural ingredients—recipe to come soon, we promise.)
Our message? Eat what you like. Just don’t be gullible. How we eat says so much about how we live… so let’s start eating like the self-aware, fun-loving, empowered women we are.
Disco Ball In Your Pants?
March 4th, 2010 | Comments
Tags: Beauty & Grooming
Does this ever happen to you? You undress and your partner’s overwhelmed, flushed, delighted. He smiles appraisingly. Then, as his eyes land on your lower region, his face falls and he says, “Nice, but I wish you sparkled a little more.”
Ladies, welcome to the world of Vajazzling. Vajazzling? Huh?
We are repulsed and mildly amused by this new trend to replace a normal pubic area with glitter. Evidently it was popularized by Jennifer Love Hewitt, who announced on national TV that she’s a modern Vajazzled gal. Now it’s not enough to have an unnaturally hairless pubic region. Yours has to twinkle with crystals—Swarvoski, obviously. Is this where a modern woman wants to spend her hard-earned money? We’re all for playfulness, for fantasy, for women decorating themselves as they see fit. But this just flat-out disturbs us. Our culture has moved so far from a natural state of things—we’ve ceased to appreciate women as they are. (For another example, see our Huff Post story on Victoria’s Secret’s new ad campaign.) Can’t we feel good about ourselves without these high-priced, utterly artificial gimmicks? A little playfulness—great. Spending $$$ to have a stranger glue shiny rocks to your freshly waxed pubic bone? Sorry, we’re not getting it. (If you’re still curious, you can watch a Vejazzling procedure here.)
If you must indulge, do it with your partner. Be crafty in all the right places! Dim the lights, light a candle, pull out the non-toxic glue, a shaker of silver glitter…You know what they say: “the couple that ‘Jazzles together…” Well, not sure how to finish that one.
Another gripe? They call this “vaginal adornment.” Uh, hello? Anatomy lesson, anyone? The vagina is an internal organ.
Let’s hope this trend dies out soon.
Be a Video Star Contest
March 3rd, 2010 | 1 Comment
Tags: Beauty & Grooming, Contests, Food & Spirits, Health & Fitness, savings, Shopping, Travel & Entertainment
We never give up. (It can be kind of an annoying habit or a great strength–depends who you ask.) Anyway, we have this vision– the greatest piece of installation art on a Facebook fan page ever! We like to live without rules, be on the edge, we don’t know of anyone else doing this–besides this is FREE entertainment. Like all great art we’ve given it a cool post modern name: Video Contest: Script #1. Script you ask? Yes we going to give you two sentences that we want you to start your video with, the idea behind this is that we are a united community of struggling B’s all with the same problem. But each and every one of us although we share the same human struggle of being ‘bitches on a budget’ has their own unique way to look at this and we want to know what it is.
Video yourself (nothing X rated please) and post your videos here (click on the comments section right below the title of this post). As they come in we’ll re-post them on our fan page . You’ll be able to watch everyones and then we’re going to figure out a way to have everyone vote on their favorite videos. (Still working on it) Here it is start practicing your script:
Hi. My name is _______. I’m a Bitch on a Budget. Yesterday I went out and bought ________ and today I’m ashamed. Here’s what happened (share your sad tale of buyers remorse):_________________.
[bubblecast id=289806 thumbnail=475x375 player=475x375][bubblecast id=289806 thumbnail=475x375 player=475x375]
Finish your video with: Bitches on a Budget–I need help.
Lights, camera, action.
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