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I needed some whipping cream for a recipe, and asked hubby to get some when he went to the store. He told me there was a some in the refrigerator. I said it was heavy cream, and he said “well what’s the difference?”

So I went on a search to find out. It all comes down to the fat content:

• Nonfat Milk: 0%-1%
• 1% Milk: 1%-2%
• 2% Lowfat Milk: 2%
• Whole Milk: 4%
• Half-and-half: 12%-15%
• Light Cream: 18%-30%
This my brother’s guess as to why Tim Horton’s tastes so good. Light Cream is also known as Coffee Cream
• Whipping Cream: 30%-36%
• Heavy Cream: 36%-44%
• Manufacturer’s Cream: 44%+
- This is pourable English double cream (no stabilizers, emulsifiers or preservatives) Upstate Farms does make it. You would have to contact them to see where you can purchase. Same for Byrne Dairy.

FDA milk regulations.

You can use generally heavy cream as whipping cream, but beware of using ultra pasteurized cream as it is heated to a much higher temperature that pasteurized cream. While ultra pasteurized has a longer shelf life, ultra pasteurized is difficult to whip. If you live in a state that only offers pasteurized or ultra pasteurized whipping cream in the dairy department, you might be better off purchasing organic.

Here is a fascinating milk products and production relationship chart.

If you are based in NYS, looking for a particular type of dairy cow product and unable to locate it, you could contact the Cornell cooperative extension for a location near you where to purchase. There is an office in every county in the state.

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The holiday season can be a financial challenge for even the most savvy saver. Here are some tips and ideas to save a few dollars on your holiday decor:

• Use natural items found in your backyard – from holly to evergreens, natural or spray-painted with glitter paint, outdoor sprays brought inside can grace everything from tabletops to fireplace mantels.

• Use fresh oranges with cloves for a quick, fragrant decoration tabletop decoration.

• Ornaments inside a glass bowl or, on top of a wooden platter, make for a quick, festive, inexpensive decoration.

• Put a mirror under it! A mirror under sparkle and sparkle – be it paint, crystal, or an ornament – adds reflections and makes everything look festive!

• Wrap empty boxes in traditional holiday wrapping paper for a cute entryway piece. Add a basket of pine cones, and the scent of cinnamon for a warm and inviting holiday entrance.

• Bring three cinnamon sticks, a few whole cloves and a splash of nutmeg along with three quarts of water to a simmer on the stove for a great whole-house holiday fragrance.

• Remember to search stores such as Target, Pier 1 and Kohl’s after Christmas holiday sales for deeply discounted decorations. Store for next year!

What are some of your favorite inexpensive Holiday Decorating Tips and Ideas?

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Last May, I wrote a post for people to watch out for thieves. It is time for another reminder.

WATCH FOR COUPON THIEVES! It seems to be an epidemic lately!

Here are some tips to help avoid people stealing your coupons:

• Install carabiner onto the end of your binder, and hook it to your cart while in the store.

• If you use a coupon box, use a strap to secure your box to the cart. The idea is to deter a walk-off.

• Treat your coupons like cash. You would not leave your money in your cart, would you? So don’t leave your coupons unattended in the cart.

• Do not store your cash, gift cards or rewards with your coupons.

• Mark your coupon storage equipment with a Name and Phone Number (use a free google voice number, not your real number) in case the coupon binder/case is recovered outside. Sometimes people are looking for cash and when they see coupons, they dump it.

If you coupons are stolen:

• Report the theft to the store manager, and ask then to review the tapes to see who stole your coupons. While it may not help you get your coupons back, it will alert the store to a problem to hopefully prevent future incidents.

• If you have gift cards, cash, etc you can file a police report. Again it is doubtful it will help you, but it will put the store on notice that they have a thief in their midst.

• Call back to the store and ask if it was “found”.

What are your suggestions to deter or prevent coupon theft?

Coupon Organization Methods

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Many of you who have been reading Coupons, Deals and More for years now may have heard this story … at the very least bits and pieces of it, so please feel free to skip the boring parts.

A long, long time ago, I got married at what is quite young by today’s standards. A year after we married, my ex-husband got a “dream” job where everyone thought we would be set for life. His starting salary was $8.88 an hour at the local electric company – and no, that was not great money in the mid 80s.

I was working too, so our income was enough to (barely) pay the bills. I got pregnant with Sonny-boy though, and we decided that when we considered the cost of child care, my staying home made the best financial sense. Child care + travel + clothes + lunch + taxes would have pretty much consumed everything I was making. And, by this time my ex was up to 10 bucks an hour, so we figured by scrimping and moving to a lower rent apartment, we could make due until a better job came up for my ex at work.

The best laid plans …

The better job did not appear as hoped, and our situation was getting pretty bleak. I had always used coupons casually from the time I earned my first paycheck at 17, but now I had to figure out how to get that grocery bill waaaaay down. I started hardcore couponing to get anything and everything I could for free. I would then do the applicable rebate on a product (back then it was easy no cash register tapes were needed, and P&G would pay you four times for the same purchase via their different offers) to get money to pay not only for food, but other necessities as well. There was more than one month that rebate “income” paid the utility bills.

All the extra free items I gathered were then sold at yard sales. Back then I did not have the luxury of donating goods – we needed every penny would could scrape together.

Over the years things got better financially … the ex did get a better job with the company, Sonny-boy went to school and I was able to work part time outside the home. But, I never stopped couponing – not in good times nor in bad. Whether you coupon as “the game” or for dire necessity, couponing does get into your blood.

I am curious – what prompted you to begin couponing?

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After our time in South Dakota and our drive over the the mountain, we finally arrived at Yellowstone.

On our drive through the park we did see buffalo, but the ones at Custer State Park were so much more impressive that hubby declined to stop and let me take pics. The distance really was great at Yellowstone.

I did manage to get a quick pic of what may be elk (or deer I donno) … in between dodging the rubbernecking cars and the park police trying to shoo the folks not pulling over.

Our main focus was on geysers though. We saw small ones, percolating ones, small ones blow, big ones blow. It really was worth the trip to see!

The big ticket item we went to see in Yellowstone was Old Faithful.

This is Old Faithful sleeping (probably perking):

And Old Faithful blowing:

(That last pic was taken with a droid! Amazing, huh?)

A few words about Yellowstone: We decided to do this trip about two months ago so there was no room at the park inns. We stayed off site in a Holiday Inn that was $275 a night!! And the internet was dog-slow. The food in town was crazy expensive. I do not think we had a restaurant bill under $30 … and that was breakfast!

If you are planning a trip to Yellowstone, either book a year in advance and get a hotel on the grounds ($150 – $200 a night) and bring all your food in a cooler and eat out once per day, or camp and bring all your food period.

All-in-all we had a very nice vacation. I have now been to 49 states (I am missing Oregon!), and am busy trying to figure out how to plan a trip to that last state without getting on a plane.

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Hubby and I left Rapid City to drive to Yellowstone. I wanted to make sure we took a detour though North Dakota and stopped, just to say we had been there. That meant that while the ride to Yellowstone was doable in one day, it would be long, so we decided not to push it. Instead we spent the night in Billings, Montana, and took the “scenic route” to Yellowstone.

And what a scenic route it was!!!

We are driving along and I was saying to hubby “gee, I wonder if there is a tunnel or if we go around?”

Wrong on both counts! We went over the mountain!!

There were these ground squirrels or chipmunks running around begging for food. Hubby found them fascinating, especially how they begged for food off this one guy, and he kept feeding them!

Me? I preferred the view. This picture does not do it justice. It was simply amazing, but cold and windy. While it was 100º everywhere in the country, I had a heavy wool sweater on. The mountain top was about 55º.

Cold enough that the (dirty) snow never did melt…

When we got down the mountain, we completed our drive to Yellowstone.

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I have been to nearly all 50 states. I have wanted to go to a few northern states on a long car ride for several years now to visit the states I had never been to. Since I had a conference in Colorado, hubby and I decided to visit his brother (in Illinois), drive on to my conference, and then take a week’s vacation traveling through SD, ND (quick in an out), MT and WY.

Our first stop was Rapid City, South Dakota. We spent several days in the Rapid City area, and do not have enough good things to say about it! It was beautiful, inexpensive and the people were very, very nice.

Of course the main draw is Mt Rushmore.

Now even though I knew that you could not get very close, I still have to say it: What a bust.

Everything is framed for an optimal view, but because of how far away you are it is difficult to get a good perspective on how difficult an endeavor this was. Hubby took that pic above with a zoom lense, but we could have just as easily bought a postcard.

On the way down the hill, you saw George Washington in profile and THAT was when you were impressed. It was closer and you were better able to see just how massive and detailed the carvings are. Too bad I did not have my camera out at that time.

So, seeing how “eh” we were about Mt Rushmore, we decided not to go to Crazy Horse. Instead we went to Custer State Park.

As we were driving to the park (had not yet entered or paid), we were greeted by this fellow coming down from a cliff.

There were two motorcyclists ahead of us that got a tad, er, skittish, and the buffalo gave hubby “a look” as he passed by the car, but I have to say that was probably the highlight of the trip! It was so cool to have a buffalo within arms length!

We drove through Custer State Park for a while, and I swore that that one escapee was the extent of the 1300 buffalo in the park. And as for other wild life? Pffft was what I was thinking, when what should happen, but we rounded a curve and saw 20 cars pulled over for the “mooches”. Even though the signs say “DO NOT FEED THE WILDLIFE” the burros never got the memo and were mooching crackers and vegetables off of the people in the parked cars.

And this guy was serious – he saw hubby chewing so came over to investigate!

Our next wildlife encounter was this buffalo taking a drink of water. We scrambled back to the car when he started stomping the ground.

So why did the buffalo cross the road?

To get to the other side of course!

And he was just the start of the herd of buffalo that was waiting for us:

We did quite a bit of shopping at the Christmas Tree Store, wineries (not grape wine), Sioux Indian store, and several other establishments.

We truly enjoyed our time in Rapid City, and found the state to be very lovely indeed.

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