took a little break

I haven't had much in the way of thrifty news to blog about lately. We have been busy. Over the last week so much has happened:

• My new neice was born
• My dad scored the kids a wooden swingset with a platform, slide, 2 swings, a glider, and rings for free. He took it down where it was located and hauled it here. R and dad spent a good part of Saturday setting it up.
• We had a cookout on Saturday for our anniversary and R's birthday
• Sunday we went to my brother's to pick up a Barbie jeep he got the girls for free!
• Today we had a cookout at the in-laws
• our neighbor's MIL had seizures and I was asked to watch their granddaughter but I had to work
• I worked a whole lot
• I got a bunch of stuff done it the yard
• R tried to mow lawn Friday and the pushmower wouldn't work and the rider was cutting lopsided so he gave up. I managed to finish up with the rider and then Saturday we got the pushmower fixed and finished the curb area and between the bushes.
• Sunday the kids and I went to the outlet mall. I am not wearing shorts to work this year as my psoriasis is getting progressively worse and spreading on my legs. I am not ashamed or embarrassed by my psorasis but I hate the stares and questions so I avoid them by not wearing shorts in public. People look at me like I am either a freak or contagious or maybe both and it is just not worth it to try to explain it to 100 people a day so I avoid the situation. Well because I am not wearing shorts, I needed to get some yoga pants or athletic pants that are light enough that I won't sweat a ton yet comfortable enough that I can constantly move in. I had a $10/$50 coupon for Old Navy. The outlet had a ton of sales, $3.75 or less for kids shirts, $4 for kids shorts, $4 for men's plain tees, and most everything was 50% off. I ended up getting 4 shirts for K, 1 pair of shorts for each, 1 shirt for O, 1 shirt for R, 1 shirt for me, and 2 pairs of yoga pants for myself. Then we went to Childrens' place. Holy Sale! I could have spent all day in there. The racks were so full I had a hard time pushing the umbrella stroller with O in it without running into something. I only ended up spending $4.21 there. I did not have enough time to look at all the racks as the store was super crowded, O was getting tired, K was getting hungry and bored and I was getting annoyed at all the people practically tripping over O in the stroller to try and beat me to a rack. The employees were restocking the racks as the shoppers were in there and the people were running to the newly stocked racks. I happened to be at one of those racks, browsing for gifts for my new neice when it was restocked. WOW people! It was a 99 cent rack but geez the people were insane. We ended up getting a shirt for O for $1.99 and 2 shirts for our neice (here on out called S) for 99 cents each.

busy busy. I haven't been doing much at all in the way of coupons. Heck, I haven't even been in Walgreens in a couple weeks. I went to the grocery store last Thursday and used some coupons to get Lawry's marinades cheap and a few other things for good deals but for the most part we have stuck to home and not done much at all.

I am trying to thriftily come up with a way to put something on our deck. The railings rotted and broke. It annoyed me so I took off the railings and had R help me put up some lattice. The idea in my head is not what we ended up being able to do and honestly, I hate the way it looks. I think tommorrow night, after the kids are in bed, I am going to take it down. I know R will be annoyed that we spent so much time on it this weekend but it looks stupid. Maybe once it was finished it would be ok but right now it looks stupid and we don't have the $$ to put into it. I could have put the money I spent on clothes this weekend into it but I didn't and we need more money than we have available to make it right. We would have to add some (about a 2 1/2 ft by 4 ft section and I would like to add a bench as well) to make it "right" but I don't have even the slightest clue how to do that and with R doing weekend "work" (he has to go in on evenings and/or mornings on weekends to check the machines. They run 24/7), he doesn't want to start something and not be able to finish it.

On a side note, have you seen the "sale" price of bush's baked beans lately? This is one of the very few things we are brand loyal to. They are on "sale" here for $1.50/can for the big cans. CRIPES! I remember with DH and I were first married (6 years ago last Saturday) they were 88 cents a can at Walmart. I was able to get the big cans at the bent and dent for 60 cents just a year ago. Now I can't even find them for under $1 anywhere, even the bent and dents. Normally price at my local store is $2.09. It sucks because O loves baked beans but she gets them all over and I hate opening a big can for just her.

So anyway that is what's new in our world