Magazine Mambo

We get a number of magazines at our house, and since we don't have ipads or kindles, they are all of the paper variety. I get Real Simple, Country Living, and Better Homes and Gardens; Keith gets National Geographic, Sports Illustrated, and ESPN. Even Bert gets a little magazine with stories and rhymes called Babybug. While we are really good about recycling things, our magazines don't usually go straight to the curb. They get passed on and read at least one more time before being recycled.

The magazines I get usually go to my mom, who in turn gives me Organic Gardening, Family Fun, Cooks Illustrated and Reader's Digest. I then pass Family Fun on to a friend who has a son Bert's age and also babysits two other boys, and Organic Gardening, Cooks Illustrated, and Reader's Digest on to some other friends. Those friends stop by with magazines like Cooking Light and Whole Living when they are done with them.

Keith's National Geographic goes to his mom. We haven't found someone to pass the sports magazines onto yet, as they come every week and the information is so timely. So unless there is a particular article Keith wants to share with someone, they do usually hit the recycling bin.

Whenever I see my mom-mom, she usually has a pile of Good Housekeeping and Woman's Day magazines to share. When I'm done with them, they most often go to my mom as well.

All in all, a lot of reading material passes through a lot of hands before being recycled. I do have to apologize though if you are one of the people who gets a magazine after me because I have likely torn out recipes or ideas that caught my eye.

And if you are wondering about Bert's magazines, so far we have held on to all of his because he loves to go back and look at them. And after Bert's form of "reading", there won't be much left to pass on to another literary tot.

And one more note on the recipes I pull out: I immediately trim them and glue them to a 4 x 6 notecard that fits in my recipe box. I found the pile of magazine pages shoved in a folder and hidden in a cabinet were never getting explored and new recipes were never being tried, but if I put them in my recipe box, I am more likely to add them into the dinner rotation. If we try one and don't like it, I pitch it. Likewise, if I find that it's been in the box for awhile and I never bothered to get the ingredients around, I toss it. I don't feel too committed just because I glued it to a notecard.

So if you have nothing to do this weekend, go through your stacks of magazines and then pass them on to someone else who might enjoy them. Happy Friday!

One more side note: Most of our subscriptions are gifts, but we do pay for the National Geographic ourselves. A few months ago, we got the renewal notice and a 2-year subscription was listed at about $45. Knowing the subscription wouldn't be up for a number of months yet, I set it aside. In the meantime, I saw an ad in a coupon flier offering a 2-year subscription for $28 to new subscribers. I called the customer service number and simply told them I saw the advertised rate for new subscribers and asked if I could get that rate for renewing my existing subscription. The customer service rep didn't skip a beat and told me it was no problem to get the lower rate. Definitely worth the call.