6.07.2009

It's My Birthday and I'll Vacuum Seal Sugar and Flour If I Want To...

Well actually my birthday was yesterday, but as it's just a day that now puts me closer to 40 than to 30, we're not making a huge deal of it, OK? I spent most of the afternoon organizing our consumables shipment... separating out the food items from the cleaning supplies. We don't want the movers to pack them all in the same boxes (which they did last year and ruined several items). Now I don't care if they want to box up the toilet paper or paper towels with the snicky snack foods, but packing up soap items with chips is a horrible idea. As we know from previous experience, soap tasting chips are NOT that yummy. Blech! I also stole a fabulous idea from a friend in Chennai (hi Edith!) and after purchasing 50 pounds of flour and 40 pounds of sugar, I individually vacuum sealed each bag. Vacuum sealing serves two purposes... to keep them somewhat fresh, and to protect them from the bugs.

Many of you have asked me how much we spend on consumables each year. While we do buy in bulk and try to save as much money as we can, items like medication, alcohol, and now baby items are very pricey (one week of formula alone is $23 a can). We hit the $3000 mark last week, and we still have several items to purchase.... holy expensive batman!

Matt's closest childhood friend Dave was here visiting on Friday and Saturday, so he spent the weekend catching up on the past 6 years since we last saw him and his family. It was great seeing him again and look forward to getting the families (along with Matt's other Stamford friends) together sometime next summer. Hint-Hint!!



15 comments:

Crystal said...

Wow, 40 pounds of sugar!! I have to know how are you vacuum sealing all that?

Glad you got to have time with an old friend! Happy Packing~

Kim said...

Happy Birthday!!!!

And holy cow.. 40 lbs of sugar!! wow..

Jen said...

Oh why does formula have to be so expensive? I just don't get it.

Oh and happy birthday.

Keys to the Magic Travel said...

I completely understand buying the consumables. And all the things that you can't get in India - or that are too difficult/expensive to get. But what is flour and sugar like there that you need to pre-purchase it?

And happy, happy birthday!

Mom24 said...

Hope your birthday was wonderful. What a terrific present you got this year. :-)

Kirsten said...

Happy, happy birthday.

And holy cow that's a lot of sugar.

Robin said...

Happy birthday my friend! I hope it was a wonderful one.

As for the age thing, you'll get no sympathy here - I'm actually hitting that second milestone you mentioned in less than a month. You're still a young whippersnapper in my book ;-).

Unknown said...

Sorry I missed your big day!... You can get sugar & flour in India can't you? Gosh; I thought Norway without VELVEETA was bad...

Hope you had a great b-day!

Michelle said...

What a great way to spend a birthday!

Mine was Thursday, and I didn't do a lick of manual labor. I didn't even change out of my PJs.

Kelly said...

Happy Belated Birthday; hope you had a great day!!

One of the reasons I breast fed for so long was because I was too cheap to buy formula...honest!

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday!

Our movers were here today to see how much we have to ship. I cringed, it seemed like so much (and we still have stuff in storage in Baltimore too, lol). I couldn't imagine trying to sort out food things to ship too.

Anonymous said...

June is a great month for birthdays! Mine is today. Happy belated, fellow Gemini!

Criminy on your consumables! You make me look like a novice!!!

Christy said...

Oh, I hear you on the birthday thing! Being closer to 40 than 30 isn't really all that much fun! But I hope you had a happy one anyway! :)

3 Peas in a Pod said...

Happy belated Birthday Jill!! Looks like you're busy, busy, busy.

Hope all is well with you and the kiddies.

Much love from NJ,
Sue
xoxo

Michelle said...

Happy belated birthday to you! Sorry it was spent with all the pre-packing preparations though! I can't imagine having to purchase consumables that way and figuring out how much to buy - I would never figure out to buy 50 lbs of flour - wow! Sounds like everything is coming together for moving back to India - praying all the paperwork for Grady goes through quickly!

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