Quality of life (real estate, rent, mortgage)

[bresdo]

My girls love Nutella the chocolate hazel nut spread and I was in heaven when I found it on the shelves at Cost U Less. They booth don't like the PBJ sandwhiches. My oldest just got back from the Mainland and brought back 2 big salami's which will last for a good while.

[Jimbo's]

Originally Posted by Jungjohann

Have you by any chance tried the PBJ&S sandwitch??? Absolutley addictive, and the preperation is soooooo simple!!!! Just get a full french roll, slice it right down the middle, fill with one cube butter, one 12 oz bottle of Guava Jelly,(secret, get the jelly out of the bottle first), one twelve oz bottle of Peanut butter, (not da crunchy stuff,, dat is actually peanut shells, don ask me how I know) and one 12 oz can of da epicurions delight,,,,,,SPAM!!!!!!! Put em in da microwave, set on STUN,,,,, for 12 seconds, an enjoy!!!!!!! What could be more simple?????? This can be followed by a few 12 oz cans of your favorite,,,,,uuuurrrrpppp,,,,, scuze me,,,,, beverage....All the best,,,,,,Captain Frietis............

the devil made me do it

Man you kill me LOL

[hotzcatz]

Originally Posted by kani-lehua

you not getting any lamb from pam, hc?

My friends mom will give me half for processing it for her so it would be hard for Pam to beat the price. If my friend's mom's sheep just have ewe lambs then I'll look to buying some from Pam.

Originally Posted by kani-lehua

and by the way, i L-O-V-E pbj sandwiches. love it with guava jam and/or strawberry preserves. never tried the honey?

Put the honey on first so it gives the bread a good texture. If the bread is still warm, it is even better. Yum!

Maui08
-Okay, seems like when I said we are spending $500 a week on groceries and household items I am painting a picture of a family who is obese and does not eat healthy......? -This is not the case. We are only buying normal items: soups, bread, fruit/veggies, milk, juices, sodas, water, frozen pizzas (for the kids , chicken in all sorts of styles, eggs, toilet paper, paper towels, soaps, trash bags................ What is everyone else buying or not buying?

That's mainland normal, that's not local normal. Where's the rice?
***Most canned soups are really expensive here and the good ones are even more expensive. Making soup is stone easy and much tastier if you do it yourself. Doesn't take that long, either. There are lots of tasty recipes at epicurious.com Although, if you start making home made soup, they will eat a lot more of it since it tastes a lot better.
***Any tasty bread is gonna run $5 a loaf or worse. It does take a bit to make good bread, though, so you may be stuck with this expense.
***Veggies are getting expensive these days, a farmer's market or farm co-op might be helpful. If you have any neighbors with fruit trees it might be worthwhile to smile nice and chat with them especially since it is citrus season.
***Milk can be quite expensive, we get a gallon a week and then either dilute it a bit with water to stretch it further or freeze half and replace that half with instant milk. Makes the cheaper instant milk drinkable.
***Replace sodas with brewed iced tea. Doesn't take long to make and will save loads of money. You can refrigerate the tea in the water bottles you save from the bought water.
***Save a week's worth of water bottles, refill them and put them in the refrigerator. Some tap water actually tastes better than some brands of bottled water and some brands of bottled water is nothing but tap water anyway. It is also an ecological nightmare to wrap water in plastic and ship it to the other side of the planet.

Try making a big pot of soup and freezing the extra for later. Also switching the soda for tea and refilling the water bottles with tap water should save several hundred a month, perhaps?

[hotzcatz]

Originally Posted by Jungjohann

Have you by any chance tried the PBJ&S sandwitch??? Absolutley addictive, and the preperation is soooooo simple!!!! Just get a full french roll, slice it right down the middle, fill with one cube butter, one 12 oz bottle of Guava Jelly,(secret, get the jelly out of the bottle first), one twelve oz bottle of Peanut butter, (not da crunchy stuff,, dat is actually peanut shells, don ask me how I know) and one 12 oz can of da epicurions delight,,,,,,SPAM!!!!!!! Put em in da microwave, set on STUN,,,,, for 12 seconds, an enjoy!!!!!!! What could be more simple?????? This can be followed by a few 12 oz cans of your favorite,,,,,uuuurrrrpppp,,,,, scuze me,,,,, beverage....All the best,,,,,,Captain Frietis...........the devil made me do it

You must be related to my DH, he puts crispy bacon on his PBJ sandwiches. Eeuwe! You need at least a six pack to wash them down with!

[HawaiiboundNelli]

Hotzcatz - those are great ideas...I think I"m going to keep that milk one in mind, especially when my son comes home from the job corp - that boy goes through the cereal and milk soooooooooo fast! We love making sun tea - so much cheaper than soda,very tasty and so much better for ya too! With the freezing, I like to make large quantities when I cook, take out what we will eat that night, and put the rest in single size or family size servings to freeze. They work great for nights I don't want to, or don't have time to cook, and also works great for single serving lunch during the week!
Nelli

[HawaiiboundNelli]

oh and you are right - gotta have the rice! hehe

[Jungjohann]

I don't think anyone here on Maui can complain about the electric bill if they're running AC. And, if you've got it set at 80 degrees, (never seen an AC unit that would do that), you're actually heating your place up, not cooling it down. I live in Kihei as well, right up from Kamaole Beach 1, don't even know if the AC works any longer, cause I never use it. So, turn off the AC, get some ceiling fans if you don't have some already, should save you about half that electric bill, and, that 275 bucks will buy you a Spamload of Spam. Also, as was mentioned, when you cook, cook BIG TIME!!!! Make enough stew, or lasagna, soup, teriyaki chicken, whatevers, and freeze the leftovers, it'll save you money, and cut down even further on your electric bill.......The more items in your freezer, the less electricity it uses, frozen items act like a battery as it were, and store the cold, which can come in really handy during a power outage. If you want to stay really cool, just wander around naked all day, (you might want to keep that behaviour restricted to the indoors only though,,,, but,,, then again???????) And, I've always found that a PBJ&S sandwitch tastes much better when you're in the buff, pig skin that is........ All the best........You must be in the REALLY hot part of Kihei, right about now I'm trying to remember where my sweater is,,, I think I've got one,,,,,,,,somewhere.....

Aloha and okolemaluna, Chicago, 36-28 degrees, Maui, 82-75 degrees, today, take your pick

[maui08]

Actually, we have it set at 80 because the temps will go up to 87 in the unit if we turn it off! We have our ceiling fans running and from time to time will open the windows and doors when the breeze is good. Having it set at 80 does not heat up the unit and is actually quite cool when it blows.

-The food suggestions.......thank you for the advice. I think we'll stick with the high grocery bill and struggle. Can't imagine adding water to milk to stretch the life of it.....and as far as making soups from scratch along with other dishes you guys must have lots of free time as I could not imagine trying to accomplish this with a full time work schedule and getting the kids to and from all of their events during the week.

[HawaiiboundNelli]

actually I'm a single mom, so I have to do everything myself (cook, clean, run errands, bring in the money, and shuffle the kids around, as well as whatever else has to be done) - that said, my son has taken a liking to cooking, so he helps out some on that, and the kids help out around the house with other chores and such too so we work together to be more efficient and have more "fun" time together. And, cooking from scratch and making large amounts to freeze for the week actually saves both time and money. I only have to cook a couple times a week, and the kids get good home cooked meals all the time. It really does not take extra time to make more - and it actually costs less to make a larger portion of something than to make it twice (not only less on the food costs, but less on the electric/gas, less energy to make it, and less waste in the end).

The bottom line is this - Sometimes to make things work, you have to change the way you do things. If you are unwilling to do this, then ya just can't complain about it.
I am really beginning to understand the "hawaii has a way of spitting those out that don't belong" saying.

[maui08]

That is true for all areas of the country. I have lived pretty much everywhere as I was in the service for many years and have seen people come and go from every neck of the woods. I don't view it as Hawaii is spitting people out or away as if it has some sort of power but rather the simple fact that people are different and hold onto things that are important to them and some let go of these things.

By the way, I am not on here "complaining" but rather I was asking a question. If folks can live on spam, box noodles, rice and milk mixed with water then more power to them. I am just simply speaking my opinion that life on Hawaii is not worth this sacrifice for us any longer. We have lived here for over 15 years so I would not say we are getting spit out but that we are making decisions wisely.

You sound a lot like the typical main land transplant that leaves everything behind and simply comes here to "survive" the island life. If that is all you want and desire out of your life then again, more power to you. However, we have kids who are only getting older and I don't want them to be stuck here after graduation with only an community college to look forward to or maybe a job at the local Walmart or Mcdonald's.