Monday Q&A | Snacks, Pasta, and Homeschool Storage

Every Monday, I answer a few of the questions that my readers send me. If you have a question you’d like me to answer in a future Q&A post, just leave me a comment here or email me (thefrugalgirl [at] gmail [dot] com) and put Q&A in the subject line. I look forward to hearing from you!

Hi! Two things before we get to questions.

I know you guys always love it when I am real and I just wanted to tell you that if you want more of that sort of thing, you should go like my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter. I’m not a total downer at those places, but I do share stuff that I wouldn’t normally blog about (like the time when Sonia left an open bottle of mouthwash on the office floor right next to the rolling chair and I ended up with minty-fresh tile for a few days).

Anyhoo, I’m not going to try to tell you that my Facebook and Twitter feeds are life-changing, but if you want to know more about what I’m up to or what I’m thinking, those are the places to go.

I’m also working on compiling your questions for my mom and for Mr. FG, so if you’ve thought of a question you wanted to ask them, speak now! You can email your question to me or leave it as a comment here.

As a mother of four and former homeschooler on a budget, I totally get so much of what you do/write. One question I have is about snacks since I haven’t seen them mentioned on your menu planning days. My kids (ages 2, 4, 7, and 9) are in the habit of having a morning and afternoon snack each day. I think this started at the pediatrician’s request when my oldest was about a year old and dropping drastically on her growth curve. We’ve never gotten out of it. I’m not convinced it’s all bad because I do still have quite little ones who probably still need to eat more often. But sometimes I feel like it’s the snacks that add to our food expenditures””even it if is something like fruit or pretzels, yogurt, etc, and not processed junk food. And two snacks a day means eight extra dishes to wash each day too! I’m just wondering if your kids snack, and, if so, what that looks like.

-Jo

My kids don’t typically have a snack between breakfast and lunch because we eat lunch pretty early (11:00). They do, however, sometimes get hungry between lunch and dinner (usually Sonia and Zoe are the ones who are hungry).

To tide them over, I try to offer them something easy and that has some nutritional value. I also try to limit their options to things that they will only eat if they’re truly hungry (for instance, I wouldn’t offer them crackers or granola bars because they’d eat those even if they weren’t very hungry).

The usual options are produce (bananas, carrot sticks, cucumber slices, grape tomatoes, apple slices, etc), or nuts. Occasionally I’ll let them have some cheese as long as we’re not too close to dinner.

All of these snacks can be eaten by hand and most don’t even require a plate, so they don’t up the number of dishes I have to do. And except for the nuts (which I consider to be worth the money), these snack options are pretty inexpensive.

Why no pasta? It seems like every menu planning, etc. never includes pasta. Pasta is a relatively frugal option with so many topping/creative possibilities – do the kids not like pasta?

-Laura

Lisey actually loves pasta! She requests Stuffed Shells almost every birthday (much to Joshua’s chagrin because he’s really not a pasta person).

We do eat some pasta….I make pasta salads (I’ve posted a number of them here), we eat a green salad with chicken and tortellini regularly, we love ravioli with pink sauce, I make a tortellini soup in the winter, and on our takeout date nights, I often cook up a pot of spaghetti for the kids.

So, I’m not opposed to pasta! On the other hand, it’s not like pasta is fabulously nutritious (I rate it the same as white bread), so I don’t feel terribly compelled to try to add more of it into our diets.

I was wondering if you could tell me how you organize your homeschooling supplies. When I was a kid, we had a partially-finished basement which served as our school room, so all of our school books and supplies were obviously organized down there. But I don’t have a designated school room, and am a little baffled about where to store textbooks and all of those awkward school supplies (especially with a grabby toddler). Any tips??

-Cate

I have a bookshelf where I shelve the books we’re not using (obviously I save Joshua’s nonconsumable books to use with my girls), and on one shelf, Sonia and Zoe both have a pile of books for the current year. We carry them upstairs each morning when we start school (we do our work upstairs by the kitchen table) and then put them away downstairs when we’re done.

Joshua typically does his schoolwork at a desk in the office, so his books are stored in an old Lego bin by the desk. Lisey also has a bin for her schoolbooks.

Pencils and crayons are stored in two plastic bins which live in a cabinet in my kitchen and rulers are stored in a drawer in the kitchen and also in a drawer in the office.

Do you have any spare cabinets in your dining room or kitchen? Could you buy a bookshelf unit with some cabinets in it? Or maybe one of those units that has spaces for cube storage?
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Readers, what are your thoughts on these questions? Share away!

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Today’s 365 post: This is not her regular suit

Joshua’s 365 post: Ocarina!