Lauri Ann's New Life

Whose not looking for ways to save money these days? Even the people that still have a job and have money to spend are living in fear of spending it in case tomorrow the 'other shoe drops'. I know my BF has been out of work for a year next month. We had no clue anything was wrong when he got canned. Everyone said how well liked he was, how good he was, blah, blah, blah. We thought he would be there until he couldn't work any more. Everyone thought he was terrific. Everyone but one very important decision maker, and it was his choice to let the BF go.

Like everyone else who has had their incomes cut, either by losing hours or their job, we are cutting corners in any areas that we can. One of those places is groceries and consumables, those items we need or want that we use again and again. Thank goodness there are so many sites and blogs on the internet right now that are playing to the economy and offering substantial discounts, deals, or free shipping. I for one, am back to clipping coupons also. Between the coupons and buying the things that are on sale, you can cut substantially off the cost of groceries.

One site you're probably not going to see listed with the rest of them is a site called Aisle 19. Aisle 19 is a site that is free to join, but it's by invitation only. Inside there are more than 600 stores (Target, Safeway, etc) and service sites (Restaurants.com, 1-800-flowers). If you already shop online with a creditcard, this is a great money saving site. If you shop with a card that gives you cash rewards, that's even better because this site gives cash rewards on almost everything you buy. It's like getting double, plus there are a lot of deals they don't offer anywhere else and many have free shipping. All of this together can save you quite a bit.

If you would like to see how it works you can go here and watch the little 3 minute video and then go here as my "invited guest" to sign up. Happy saving/shopping!

Every day there's more news about how many new cases of flu have been discovered and where. The latest numbers that I have seen:

Officials have confirmed at least 93 cases in the United States, including 51 in New York, 14 in California, 16 in Texas, three in Maine; two in Kansas, two in Massachusetts, and one each in Indiana, Ohio, Arizona and Nevada. CDC also said Michigan had two, but state officials maintained only one was confirmed. As of yesterday a 23 month old in Texas who traveled with it's mother from Mexico, is the only victim in the US that has died, and they have discovered 2 more cases in San Mateo, CA this morning.

I have to confess, until this happened I have never really understood what a "Pandemic" was. I just thought somehow it was connected to an "epidemic". I never really paid attention during SARS or the bird flu because it never seemed to get so out of hand so fast. Now it's hitting close to home so if any one else doesn't understand it here you go-

A pandemic is an epidemic that spreads around the whole world. Pandemics also often cause more severe disease than epidemics.

I think it's very important to keep the public informed and remind them of ways to prevent getting it. Unfortunately informing the public also means panic in most cases. Once again "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" and most of it is just pure common sense precautions you would take in any situation where you may catch an illness from someone else.
According to the news here, in some places there isn't a face mask or bottle of anti-bacterial soap to be had. While these are great to have on hand, according to a lot of physicians they don't really help much. The main things to remember are to wash your hands often, don't touch any of your sinus cavities (eyes, nose, mouth), and stay out of places where people are breathing on you, sneezing, or coughing. If you have symptoms yourself, take precautions not to infect others. This means no matter how guilty your boss makes you feel for calling in sick, STAY HOME. Wash your hands often, cover your mouth and nose when sneezing or coughing, and throw tissues away immediately.

The initial symptoms of this flu virus are like those of the regular, annual flu viruses: fever, muscle aches, runny nose, and sore throat. Nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea may be more common with this swine flu than with the regular flu, although to me those are the things that always defined a flu vs. a cold, etc. People should seek medical attention immediately if more serious symptoms develop.

For adults, teens, and kids age 3 to 12, the most worrisome symptoms are:

Shortness of breath
Persistent vomiting
Confusion
Dizziness

For children younger than 2, the most worrisome symptoms are:

Very rapid breathing
Not interacting normally, not eating or drinking normally, being unusually irritable, or appearing unusually sleepy
High fever and rash
A bluish color of the lips and skin

Adults should be considered contagious until at least 7 days after the start of symptoms; with children, it may be 10 to 14 days.

Another symptom of the panic is people are starting to order Tamiflu online without a prescription and self medicating. This is really scary. The regular yearly flu shot is ineffective for this particular strain of flu, so people are looking for other answers. I saw on one of the message boards this morning where someone was bragging about being "all stocked up without a prescription" and telling others where to get it. According to one of the health newsletters I get-

Let's not forget that Tamiflu comes with its own problems, including side effects like nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headache, dizziness, fatigue, cough…the very symptoms you're trying to avoid. And let's not forget that Japan banned this drug for children back in 2007, after links to suicidal behavior.

They are in a dead heat to find a vaccine for this and unfortunately if they come up with one they won't have time for clinical trials to see how effective or how dangerous it is, so the best thing is to do what you can to protect your own immune system. Personally in our house, we use Nutrilite Triple Guard Echinacea. I know there were a couple of headlines that say it doesn't work, but between my kids and my customers, you'd be hard-pressed proving to them it doesn't work. My kids reach for it as soon as they feel like they're coming down with something and I don't even have to remind them. LOL.

Oh, and by the way, cooked properly it's as safe as it ever was to eat pork. LOL.

Another salmonella outbreak causing death and sickness everywhere and it's not due to some foreign country but once again, our own plants here in the US.

I noticed we're out of peanut butter as I write this. Trying to do a little research as to which ones were not recalled first pointed me in the direction
Peter Pan peanut butter. They have taken out a pay-per-click ad plus an ad in print with a coupon, to alert consumers that they are not part of the recall. That's all well and good until I looked up ConAgra foods (which to me anything that tells us up front it's a con probably is). It appears they recalled Peter Pan themselves for salmonella back in 2007. Do I think they learned anything from that and trust that their plant is spotlessly clean? Probably not, at least not enough to go buy Peter Pan.

Another peanut butter not on the recall list is Jif, owned by Smuckers. I had switched from Skippy (also not on the list) to Jif awhile back as they are one of the few commercial peanut butters that also don't use high fructose corn syrup. I don't care what they try to tell you in TV commercials, high fructose corn syrup is not a good thing, but that's an article for another day.

It's amazing to me the top food producers whose food has been included in the recall. Nestle, Famous Amos, Little Debbie, just to name a few. If you would like to see the full list, they have it on the FDA website. It's pretty shocking how far reaching it is. A lot of the foods we buy under our grocery store's brand (Whole Foods, Trader Joe's) have also been recalled because they used the peanut paste in their products.

I guess the only "safe" food is food we grow or process ourselves, but even that's not necessarily true. They say to kill salmonella food has to reach a temperature of 140-165 degrees but how many people really use a thermometer while cooking? How many people freeze food thinking that will kill the bacteria. For now I guess I'll protect myself the best I can and hope they hire more inspectors at the FDA.