My Current Obsession-Liquid Stevia

I am NOT getting paid to say any of this, NOR am I getting any free product. (But hey, Stevia makers-if you want to send me some free stuff, I won’t ‘return to sender’. Hint, hint.)

Biceps and I are on the path to paying off my student loans, our rental houses and our personal home. (You can read about that here.)

That said, we are trying to find extra ways to trim our budget without feeling like we have no life. We still want to enjoy life and its simple pleasures.

Our morning cup of coffee is one of our life’s simple pleasure. I require a tiny amount of sweetness added to my coffee-Biceps, on the other hand, requires a lot of sweetness added to his.

We were buying Splenda packets-but at $7 for 200 packets, I realized we were spending $.21 (4 packets for Biceps, 2 for me) every morning sweetening just our coffee. This amount didn’t include how much we were using to sweeten strawberries, yogurt or cereal. That may not sound like much, but over the course of a month, I was buying close to two boxes of Splenda and spending $14 to sweeten our lives.

I also didn’t like how Splenda was processed-it is zero calorie due to the fact that the sugar is run through chlorine. I did a little research and was dumbfounded at what I thought was a “safe” sweetener actually isn’t safe at all-and it could cause weight gain. Bummer.

“The inventors of Splenda admit around fifteen percent (15%) of sucralose is absorbed by the body, but they cannot guarantee us (out of this fifteen percent) what amount of chlorine stays in the body and what percent flushes out. New chemical sweeteners (like Splenda) and the sweetener blends (aspartame, sucralose and acesulfame K blended together in one product) may be causing users to show signs of weight gain, disruption of sleep patterns, sexual dysfunction, increases in cancer, MS, Lupus, diabetes, and a list of epidemic degenerative diseases.”-source

Since I am always looking for ways to save some serious dough and I am also wanting to decrease our nasty intakes, I decided I needed a better option. My mother-in-law convinced us to try liquid stevia, due to the fact I couldn’t stand the licorice aftertaste of the powdered Stevia.

We have found love. The 8 oz unflavored Stevia was about $7 at Whole Foods. The flavored Vanilla Creme Stevia was on sale for $11. (I ended up liking the unflavored more than the Vanilla Creme.)

We only need to use a few drops to sweeten our coffee or yogurt. The 8 oz bottle was purchased at the end of January and we still have 3/4 of the bottle left.

Knowing what we know about aspartame and sweeteners, I love that we are no longer ingesting nasty toxins and are replacing it with a natural herb. And knowing what we know about our budget, I love that we are saving money. I’ve figured over the course of a year that we will save approximately $140 a year on sweetener.

Boo yeah.

Vintage Paint by Numbers

Many times when Biceps and I are out on tour, milling about in some thrift store, I see them. They call to me.
They tell me they need a home, that they are sweet and colorful and lonely.
But, like my retro refrigerator dishes, I have been banned from buying anymore Paint by Numbers.

So my obsession currently stops with these below.

This was my first paint by numbers. My virgin purchase, if you will. I fell in love with this forlorn puppy, and for $12 it was mine.

He resides in our guest bedroom, and if you ever visit, he will watch over all of your goodies and not let Cowboy sit on them.

I bought this at what was advertised as an ‘Estate Sale’.
‘Estate’ it was not. The house was weird, stinky and had an entire notebook filled with the lives and deaths of numerous bunny rabbits the owner apparently kept.

I disinfected Jesus properly as soon as I got home.

Grandma Greiman painted the next three you will feast your eyes upon.
This one was never framed or displayed in her home. I am excited to exhibit it in my home as soon as I can convince Biceps it fits into our decor.

Notice Grandma’s take on the colors on this painting versus the one above I bought at stinky rabbit house?
We recently found out that Grandma is color blind. How cute is that? She has never known this all these years!

This paint by numbers, I believe, is the creme de la creme. I slept many a night under the watchful eye of Jesus at the farmhouse in Iowa. This was my one request when she decided to move to town.

I needed Jesus. And Jesus was given to me.
Isn’t that just typical of Him?