I'm BAAACK

Yep, tis I. and I am back. Not really back to couponing, just back to blogging about my thrifty family life. Things are pretty well here. I am working, R is working. The freezer is full, the pantry is full. The basement pantry is not full but full enough. I have some slightly blurry updated pics of the stockpile to share




I found ground beef on a 3 day sale for $1.48/lb last week. Needless to say, we went a bit buckwild stocking up but we are absolutely FULL in the ground beef section of the deep freeze. Awesome, yes?...I think so.




and now on to the pics
The formatting went all crazy but you get the general idea..yep we are stocked. Bring on the snow!

blog from 8/13 that I never posted...oops

Wow. Haven't blogged in a couple weeks. It has been a rough couple weeks.

O got 2nd degree burns on a slide. I contacted the zoo where she was hurt and got nowhere. I was not suing them or anything, just wanted to let them know so other parents were aware this could happen. After talking to our doctor, I decided to do a newsstory for a local TV station, which turned out good and bad. Good because the news story went well. I think I did a pretty good job, but bad because I was completely amazed at the rude comments I received. Anyway, it's done and over and I feel good about doing it so whatever.

Because of Liv's injuries I will miss a total of 1 week at work. ouch! That hurts the checkbook, especially since R was only working 32 hours that week. We will survive though. I missed 4 days last week and will miss part of a day tommorrow because of a follow up appointment for her infection.

I am almost done with Christmas shopping. My employer is offering their employee additional discount (the regular discount is pretty substantial and they offer more above that for a limited time twice a year) so I bought everything that I wanted to get people for Christmas. I ordered the items today. My total was just under $150...some of which was stuff for me and R for now. I hated to put that on the credit card but I will pay it off ASAP and not have to worry about Christmas shopping later in the year. Christmas is always such a hard time. We have 3 birthdays to celebrate (me, K and my mom), and I end up working a lot of hours and generally only get one day off a week from Thanksgiving until Christmas and I would HATE to spend that one day off having go shopping.

Per Mary's request

I am blogging today :)

Not much new to report really. I am back to couponing a little bit. I got some coupons in a magazine and one was for hunt's ketchup which was on sale this week at a local store I got two bottles for 98 cents. Can't really beat that!

Hubby has started back at the employer he was laid off from. They called him on the morning of the day he later found out that his employer at the time was cutting his pay. It sucked. So he made a decision to return to his previous employer. He liked it there a lot better. He had better hours, more hours and more pay. This was his first week back and he (and the rest of the family) are much happier.

My job has picked up hours wise, which is nice and not nice. I like the early out days when we finished in 6 hours or less. Those were the good days. Pretty much from here through the end of the year, the early out days will be at a minimum.

2 weeks ago I was able to do some Overtime and that check was nice! Not as nice as I had hoped because they took out more for taxes and 401K then I was anticipating but I was still able to send $300 to my car. I now owe under $1000. I should have it paid off before the end of the year. Hip hip Hooray!!!

We are still plugging along with our plan to be debt free. Once the car is paid off I intend to continue to put that amount away each week...for savings for a car, house repairs, new tires for the jeep, whatever. It will be so nice to be able to put money away.

putting me to the test

The next couple of weeks, and perhaps longer, will be a test for my frugality. R's hours are being cut to 32/week. Currently he is scheduled 40 but they have been sending him home early each week so he has been getting 36 hours or so. Cutting out another 4 hours won't be so bad considering that it will cut out some hours that we need a sitter for. With his current hour cut, it doesn't help out with the babysitting but this way it will help cut out possibly 8 hours depending on what day he is off. Thankfully I have a good stockpile of stuff we need. I do need a few things next week from Walgreens (vitamin shampoo and conditioner is free after RR!).

Today we got new shoes (doesn't help out the thrifty-ness but they were necessary for both R and I). We love Skechers and the outlet had them buy one get the 2nd half off so $68 for 2 pairs of shoes....not exactly thrifty but they were needed.

We stopped at the amish produce stand and got a giant sweet onion and 3 green peppers for $1.50. The kids love fresh green peppers and eat them like apples. A trait inherited from R. We went to our favorite bent and dent and scored!! Not on food stuff though. They had boxes full of tylenol cold liquid and caplets. 50 cents for each package of caples and 50 cents for the bottles of the liquid. IDK why they had them, didn't have a chance to ask. I assume because they are close to date but not expired. They were all still sealed and in date but expire in the next month. No biggie for us. I got a couple boxes of pills and 2 bottles of the liquid. I also picked up some markers for work and a few grocery things for us and for my brother. He is currently unemployed and they are hurting for $$ (who isn't) so if I can help them out $5-$10 here and there I will. I got them some bacon, margarine, and cat food. In a few days I plan to pick them up some diapers from Walgreens on sale. I can't help alot but we have been in that situation and every little bit helps tremendously.

Back to school sale

Even though neither of my kids are of school age, back to school sales are a perfect time to stock up on art supplies for the kids. We get markers, crayons, paper, etc.
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The coupons lately have not been for anything we need so I have been slacking in that department. Since Walgreens got rid of the easy saver booklet I can count on one hand how many times I have been in there are actually bought something. I went last night to check out the vitamin shampoo and conditioner that will be free after RR's in a couple weeks. I might get a couple to try but won't be stocking up. While I was there I picked up some stationery sets for K and our neice for Christmas for 50 cents each and I got some jaw clips for my hair for 45 cents for 3. I am hoping to go back today and pick up a couple more packs of jaw clips (on for my mom for her Christmas gift basket) and the other stationery sets (perfect for the neice and Kaitlin. They are really cute sets with stickers, stamps, pens, cards and envelopes..originally $2. Definitely would not pay that for them!)
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I picked K up a new shirt the other day from the place where I work. They have an employee only store on site which sells unused returned goods, samples, defective items (seam not sewn evenly or stuff like that) for super cheap and they also change the discount every week. All the tags are colored and depending on the color of the tag your discount could be 30% to a whooping 75%. I scored yesterday with K's shirt being originally $5 but 75% off that. AWESOME! It was a sample so it was perfect!
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Lately we have been shopping the sales at the grocery store. Only buying was we truly need for the week (bread, milk, bananas) and then stocking up on what is on sale that we need or want. This week we bought 8 cube steaks, 1 jar of grape jelly, 4 malt cups, bakery bread, milk, mac n cheese, 6 lbs of ground chuck, diet coke 2 liters, (on sale for $1!!) and some discounted day old cupcakes since the kids were good while I shopped.

We made a trip to my favorite bent and dent too. I got a HUGE bag of the hashbrown patties for $3, southern style hashbrowns for $2, and some other miscellanous things. I added some green pepper and onion to the southern style hashbrowns. YUM. My picky little K ate 3 HUGE helpings with ketchup of course :)
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Work is really picking up so it is nice to have so many groceries in the house. I don't have to go shopping on a weekend if I don't want. I can stop after work before I pick up the kids and get the few things we need.

Fortunately my work is picking up because R's work is falling off quickly. This week he worked 37.5 hours. Last week he had 36. The only reason he had the extra 1.5 hours this week is because he had to wait for a truck that didn't show. He got alot of his coworker finally at one point and the co worker told him to just leave. He had been sitting there for over an hour with the lights off all he had to do was load one skid and then lock up. It was a last minute order and shipping and there was a lot of miscommunication (it happens A LOT where R works!!!) and he thinks the poor driver was never even told he had a pick up there. It would not surprise me, considering the company where R works decided they would cut everyone to 36 hours a week, then said 32 hours, then STILL did not have anything figured out by the time they left on Friday evening. So he still has no clue what hours, how many hours, what days, or pretty much anything at all about his job next week. Whereas I know I am working Monday, Wednesday, Friday for sure and potentially Tuesday. I orginally requested Tuesday off but no longer need it so I am going to try to work. My boss was off Friday so I won't know until Monday.

new updates

It looks as though DH will be working for at least another month. Last Thursday they got in some orders. Hopefully more orders come in over the next month. The owner of his company is out of state on vacation so nothing is definite until he returns and make a decision but at least we know he has work for a month.

I am still plugging away at work. I figured out the issue (something I was doing that was making my job harder for me than it needed to be) and am currently working on rectifying it so my job should become easier within the next week....hopefully.

We had a nice 4th of July. Nothing fancy. I enjoyed a 4 day weekend. The first day was spent doing much of nothing. Just running some errands and we took the kids to the lake in the evening. Friday we did not do much either. Saturday the kids and I took a 4 hour total trip to see family. It was nice. I packed snacks for myself and the kids as well as juice and soda so we only stopped once and got some fries. K and I had to use the bathroom and it was the first place off the interstate so we stopped. O has really been expressing an interest in the potty lately so she has been going on it sometimes as well. More often than not she just sits there and claps and says "I big girl momma" but I will take it. It is a sure sign that she will be ready to potty train shortly. We are getting close to the end of our diaper stockpile so I will start to work with her a little more. She is not quite 2 yet so no hurry but to not buy diapers at all anymore would be so awesome!

We ate at the family picnic so we had really no food expense either and because next payday my check is going to be small because I was sick, my parents paid for my gas to drive there. I told them no to worry about it, I would figure out a way but they insisted and gave me $20 to cover gas (which more than covered my gas expense). I never ask them for money, I would rather go without something myself or raid my change jar than ask someone for money but they knew I had missed 10 hours of work last week and was only scheduled for 24 to begin with and ended up getting done a couple hours early the other day I worked. Ah well. We are purchasing my dad's birthday cake (which will be about $20) so it evens out. Today we mowed lawn, grilled some pork chops, and never left the property at all.

updates

nothing much new here. Just living life. Still on a couponing hiatus while we eat from the pantry. I still check the coupons ever week but lately there has not been any deals that I needed so I am still taking a break.

We recently scored a great deal on Mountain Dew. $4 a case...yep a case 24 cans. This week Walgreens has 5 12 packs for $12 which I will also be getting in on. R should be set for soda for a while.

I recently received a raise. R's work is very slow but as it turns out I am making just 18 cents less an hour than he is on his regular shift but making 12 cents more per hour than him when he works days. Since his work is slow, we do not know what might happen but are prepared for him to get laid off again. We have a plan in place. What will happen is I will go back to working 5 days a week. I should get 36-40 hours per week then. He will get a little unemployment. He will keep the kids everyday rather than paying the sitter to watch them and I will be the breadwinner again until he gets called back to work or finds something else. Is it what I want? well no, but whatever keeps us afloat. Do what ya gotta do! It will be quite the change. Because my checks are for groceries, the sitter and paying off my car, we will do a switch and his unemployment will go toward my car and groceries and my checks will go toward the household bills, like his currently do. We can make it work. I have faith in us and mostly my financial management skills. :)

Thrifty cooling down after a hot parade

The kids were hot after the parade so I set up the pool and filled it. When O woke up from her nap, the kids went and had some fun....thrifty style. Like the redneck waterslide? They sure did. I think we need a bigger pool however. The girls are getting too big for our mini pool.

What I will do for my kids

She got me to ride on that with her tonight and I am terrified of heights. Absolutely terrified. So that is the ONE ride she wanted to go on. I tried talking her into the tilt a whirl, my favorite ride but nope she wanted to go on the ferris wheel so we bought our tickets and got on and I held on for dear life while my 3 1/2 year old was looking over the side and saying mom, I hope they stop when we are at the very top so I can see the whole world. and here's me..uh huh...then K... wouldn't that be sooo cool mom? then me...yep.that would be just FANTASTIC. I would love that...all the while praying that we wouldn't get stuck on the top. Of course we did and she is peaking over the edge and saying wow look at the little people...and I am sitting there, knuckles turning white holding onto the edge of the gondola with one hand and the pole in the middle with the other. Then the little turd starts rocking the gondola. Not cool at all. But that is how much I love my daughter...willing to conquer errr...somewhat supress...my fear of heights.

we get home and she tells R "mom is a scaredy cat. She was 'fraid of the ferris wheel. what a dork!"

t ball was a bust

T ball was a bust for K. She hated it. We left early. She hit once and ran the bases and ran up to me and said she quit and that was that. I asked her once we got home if she wanted to try again next week and she said yes so we'll see I guess.


In other news, R told me today that the owner of his company had a meeting with the accountant for the business and it is not looking good. SIGH...another round of layoffs coming? IDK. I hate this instability right now. I know we will be fine should it happen again but still. IDK what R's unemployment would be. So let's hope that it doesn't happen but if it does, it does.

2nd day of vacation

not going so well

I woke up with a headache. I tried for an hour to just let it work itself out with some excedrin but it wasn't going away. I put the kids in their rooms to play and I laid down for about an hour. I ended up falling asleep but I woke up without a headache.

I had to take the kids to the sitter while I had a doctor's appt. I did not want to take them because I was having some personal stuff done. I told the kids that we were going to the sitters but we had to clean the house first and they moved very fast.

Now we are home and they are "resting" in their rooms because K has her first t ball game tonight and needs some rest beforehand.

putzing

Today is the 1st day of my vacation. What have I been up to in this 4 hours of vacation I have had so far? WORK! HAHA That is what I do on vacation. I am not the beach sitting, margarita sipping, feet in the sand type. I have issues with just sitting still. In fact, even as I sit here typing this, my feet are tapping and my mind is running. So far today I have:

gone to the store to get some deals ($2 12 packs of soda, $1 generic oxy clean, etc).

Took the kids outside to play for a bit

made a batch of laundry detergent

currently doing my 2nd load of laundry

As soon as I am done with my break, I am going to tackle the housework. All while trying to keep the kids quiet so R can sleep.

I was so upset last night. Yesterday was the first day of the $2 twelve pack soda deal and they had NO regular diet cola, only caffeine free. I don't need caffeine free, I drink soda for the caffeine. If I wanted caffeine free I would drink juice, water or milk. LOL. I was in a rush so I didn't ask last night but figured I would go in and ask today and sure enough, I checked first and there was a huge pallet of it. HOORAY! My plan to get a bunch will work. I have 7 coupons for it limit of 5 12 packs per coupon. I do not plan to buy 35 12 packs though. 10-20...enough to last awhile. The next booklet will come out in 2-3 months and they usually have the $2 12 packs in the booklet. I probably won't even buy enough for 2-3 months because diet coke should be on sale soon and that is my favorite soda.

great deal on strawberries

Our local Aldi had the pint size containers (I think they are a pint anyway...they are the ones that are normally $3.99 ish at my local store) of strawberries for 49 cents! Yep 49 cents!! We got 6. They are the same brand that we would normally buy. We do not buy fresh produce at Aldi because we have had pretty bad luck with it going bad quickly but for 49 cents I will take my chances. They are sooo good! Glad I picked up 6.

a Funny

click on the comic to see it all.

Because I am so obsessive

about our finances, I went on turbotax last night and estimated our return for 2009. I have to say if I did it right (and the tax laws don't change too much) we will be sitting with a nice chunk of change in the bank. We will have more than enough to get our new furnace and pay the bills we need to. Hooray!

not much thrifty to report. Went to a garage sale yesterday and spent $1.50. I got O a Dora PJ set, K a Tinkerbell dress and a butterfly rug for her room, which I ended up putting in the bathroom.

The sun is out now so I am going to take some laundry out to dry.

Just when I feel

like something has to give, it does. I got out of work early today. We had a slow day so I was able to get done in just over 5 hours. I was able to leave the kiddos with the sitter for just over an hour while I mowed the lawn. R will be getting off early tonight which will be really nice because he will be home to help with the bedtime stuff and then I can have some help tonight with the housework. I have no laundry to do tonight. The yard looks great. R picked up the house before he went to work today. So I am able to sit here and relax for a little bit. I am going to take the kids outside in a bit to play and just enjoy the nice weather.

so. tired. worn. out.

I am exhausted, mentally, physically, emotionally. I just cannot do one more thing for someone else. I haven't been sleeping well but I get up at 5:45 every morning for work. I get ready, eat breakfast and pack my lunch, then I get the kids up by 6:30. I get them dressed, give them breakfast and then it is out the door. Then I drop them off at the sitter and I go to work. I bust my butt for 8 hours and then come home, make dinner, try to keep the kids occupied and get some quality time in with them. Then it is dinner, baths and bedtime. After they are in bed, I try to keep up on housework, laundry, dishes and being thrifty. I can't do it all anymore. I am so burnt out. Thankfully I have 3 more days this week, then the weekend. I work on Monday and then I am off for a week. A whole glorious week. I am going to sit down one night and make a list of everything I want to accomplish during this week (besides enjoying time with my kiddos). I started a mental list earlier. Mostly it is stuff that will make my life easier while I am work a lot. I want to stay thrifty but I am finding it harder and harder to fit in things. I refuse to cut quality time with the kids so I am trying to fit in more during the weekend in the way of housework and thrifty stuff. UGH!

So where is Rodney you might ask. He is working 2nd shift but he does help. He picks up the house, we take turns mowing the lawn. Rodney does whatever I ask, I just have a hard time remembering to ask him. He does put away dishes when they are in the drainer drying and he will do dishes. It is really hard for him to help out at night without waking someone up so he doesn't help much, if at all, at night but he does do little things during the day before he leaves for work that make my life just a bit easier.

I know many people have it much worse than me. At least I have the option to work only part-time. Thankfully starting the week after vacation, I am only available 4 days a week. I think my stress and anxiety comes in part from adjusting to this new job. It is a whole different world from my previous department. We work 8 hour days. There is no calling you off if they are not busy. There is no days where you are available but not scheduled. You are scheduled every day you are available. Sure we might get done early but generally we work at least 6 of the 8 hours. I know that many people are without a job now and would love to work so I am definitely not complaining. I just need to figure out a better way to balance myself and find out what is the most important things and what isn't and how to do what I feel is important and skimp some of the not so important things.


My mental list of to do's for next week:

• price everything upstairs for the garage sale (this is a HUGE task! I was so organized with it for a while but then slacked off and now I have a bunch of stuff to price)
• get rid of the cans in the garage
• get a big container and grate 4-5 bars of soap so I have pre-grated soap next few times I need to make laundry detergent. This will cut about 20 minutes or so off my prep time for making the laundry detergent.
• go through and declutter the house.
• reorganize laundry room and kitchen cabinets
• sort kids clothes again and take out all long sleeve stuff
• household inventory for insurance
• stockpile inventory for insurance
• SLEEP, NAPS,
• weed garden
• clean garage and get ready for garage sale (garage sale is not for a month yet but I need to clean it well so I can just sweep, set up the tables, set out the stuff and rake in the cash. LOL

UGH! my vacation is a work-cation.

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I think the kids (especially O) can sense my stress. As I was finishing type this post, O hugged me and said cuddle. So we sat on the couch and cuddled (all 3 of us) until their bedtime. So sweet!

Can't always be the cheapest person around.

Nope it can't happen. Case in point: I went to the grocery store tonight to use more of the $1 bag of cheese coupons and to get some A1 and raspberries on sale. Raspberries are a special treat because they are usually so darn expensive. The kids and I love fresh raspberries but they are so expensive normally. Anyway I had coupons for A1 $2/1 and $1 off beef when you buy A1. I should have been able to use both the $2 off A1 and the $1 off beef together as they are for different things but the one coupon requires the purchase of both and the other requires just the A1. Evidently that is a many vary thing because the computer would not take off all 4 coupons. So I decided to just use one of each to get $3 off. We really didn't need the meat but I was at a self checkout, the store was very busy, and the kids were getting whiny and wanting their raspberries. I got flustered when the coupons wouldn't all work and I just put 2 back in my purse and said oh well and proceeded to pay. Had I been thinking I would have used one of each but I was so flustered I used the $1 off when you buy beef ones and not the $2 off A1 coupons. Dang! I cost myself $2 in coupons PLUS the $5 ish for the meat that we did not really need. It was on sale so that was ok but still ugh! $7 I did not need to spend. Sure we will use the A1 and the ground beef but dang it. I wanted it to work out. At least I still have the $2 off coupons to use at another time but still. I hate when I get flustered like that and screw up. I can't be perfect and it was worth the trip for the raspberries alone. They were so good.

We also got 2 snuggle fabric softener ($2.99 in store special and I had $1 coupons making it $1.99 each.

frozen shredded cheese

I used some of the mozzarella I froze last time it was on sale when I made lasagna today. I defrosted it overnight in the fridge and you could not even tell it had been frozen at one point. Good thing to keep in mind for the future.

K and I went to the store this evening to pick up milk for over at the sitter's this week and I got more of the $1/bag cheese to freeze. The sitter and I have a pretty good system down. I buy the milk they drink for over at their house for the girls (2%). If the girls are there 4 or 5 days I buy 1 gallon, if they are there 3 days I buy 1/2 gallon and if they are there less than 3 days I don't buy and she supplies it. It works out pretty well. If they are there 5 days there is usually just a couple glasses left at the end of the week so the sitter keeps it. This is pretty fair considering she supplies 99% of the food. I supply the juice every week, snacks about once a month and all the diapers, wipes, bug spray, sunscreen, tylenol, lotion, etc. whenever she needs them. When the kids were still using formula and baby food I supplied all that too. It is only fair. Now the kids have breakfast there (some mornings, but not all) 2 snacks and lunch. Lunch is whatever the sitter is making for her husband that day. Snacks are usually a piece of fruit, some yogurt or ice cream, or cookies or veggies or whatever. She always gives me a rundown of what they ate that day and bathroom business and if there were any behavioral incidents. She also tells me about O's nap (or lack thereof). I couldn't ask for a better sitter.

let's talk grocery shopping

Last night, I was having a hard time falling asleep. Instead of laying in bed tossing and turning, I went to the grocery store to get a few things that I was going to have to get today anyway. While there I was using some instore coupons for $1 bags of shredded cheese (did you know that if you freeze it you can still use it on pizzas, in lasagna or whatever else?) and $2 gallons of ice cream. The cashier handed me a bunch more when I checked out which made my day. They mail these to people so you can generally only get one set of the coupons but sometimes the cashiers have a few that they give out. Hooray! As I was wandering the store, I saw they had big containers of cottage cheese marked down to 49 cents because they were expiring today and tommorrow (can you freeze cottage cheese?). I picked up two but they had a bunch more so I was thinking if I could freeze it I would pick up more. But anyway this brings me to my original reason for this post, my grocery shopping way (which I posted about before) and why I do NOT meal plan for the most part. I do meal plan kind of. You see I will think a day or two ahead about making a roast because I know it will be a busy day at work or we have a bunch of things to do that evening so I will throw something in the crockpot in the morning so we can avoid fast food. In general however I do not meal plan. I find it difficult to plan what to eat for a week ahead, let alone 2 weeks or a month like some people do. We have some fall back meals that we make if all else fails, spaghetti, mac n cheese, hamburger gravy over mashed potatoes or egg noodles, hamburger helper, etc. I know a lot of thrifty families do meal plans based on what is on sale that week and that is a good idea but it just does not work for us. I prefer to look into my stockpile and decide what sounds good. That is why I have a stockpile. I can make what I feel like eating that night with little to no extra expense. Which brings me to grocery shopping. Since I do not meal plan I can pick up a stellar deal on something that is expiring soon (like the cottage cheese-normally $2.49 a container so $5 per lasagna that I got for 49 cents each last night) and use it right away to make dinner). Last night worked out pretty well for me in terms of dinner for tonight. A pan of lasagna normally costs:

Noodles $1.69 for generic

cottage cheese $5 total

Shredded cheese $4.38 for 2 bags

meat and sauce I already have here (but I don't remember the costs right now-it's early, cut me some slack...lol)

$11.07 a pan not figuring in the meat and sauce.



1 pan will last us about 3-4 meals



tonights lasagna

noodles $1.69 for generic

$.98 cottage cheese

$2 for shredded cheese



$4.67 for tonight's dinner



nice huh? That is a huge savings.



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I have noticed that even though I am still on a couponing break I am still deal hunting and using a few coupons here and there. I am slacking terribly lately on keeping up with the deals and as a result we have run out of bacon, a summer staple for BLTs. But in all fairness we have a huge stockpile of stuff and I am watching what I buy and basically just buying for the freezer and pantry whatever is on super sale and using what we have here. So still doing the usual just not the couponing part of it. But I have noticed that I haven't really missed much. Everything that has coupons out is stuff that we haven't needed or wanted so this break has been pretty dang nice.

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I will be back later with more. Kids are up and it is cleaning O's room time.

talking thrifty

I just LOVE when people talk thrifty to me. I was chatting with this older lady at work. She is probably in her 60's. Nice lady. She was telling me some things she has started doing lately to save money. The conversation originally started with gardening and turned into a thrifty conversation. As we were talking, I mentioned making my own laundry detergent. She was very intrigued and asked for the recipe. As I was telling her about it, my boss walked up and overheard and is also interested in getting my recipe. Since I don't follow any exact recipe, I typed out what I do and my notes on where to find the stuff needed locally.

I hope they like it. I do. I made more last night and used it tonight and this batch is much better than the last one

rockin' the housework today

After work the kids and I got takeout for dinner (a rare treat!) and we played outside for a bit. I pulled some weeds while they played. After we came back in, the girls had a drink and some ice cream while I started cleaning. During their bath, I started a new batch of my homemade laundry detergent. We found out that the culprit of R's and O's breakouts with the last batch is borax so I have been omitting the borax and so far so good. I used castille soap on this batch this time so we will see how they react (if at all) to that. So far the fels naptha and washing soda recipe works well. We will try the Castille soap and washing soda this time. I added a dash of fabric softener to this batch as well. We are no longer cloth diapering. I just do not have the time with working like I am and O's waist was getting a bit too big for the one size bumgenius that I use and I am not buying more cloth diapers for the hopefully short time remaining that O will be in diapers. Because I am not cloth diapering anymore, I am able to add the fabric softener to the laundry detergent (you cannot use additives with cloth diapers). I sold the cloth diapers to a friend and she is getting good use from them. WIN WIN!

So now the laundry detergent is made, I am working on my 2nd laod of laundry, the dishes are done, the house is picked up, the bathroom is cleaned. All I need to do yet is take a shower and go to bed!

good news today

My new boss at work is an old neighbor. She was about 4 years ahead of me in school but her brother was in my class. We know each other pretty well. We were talking today about scheduling because there is an issue with my old job and my new job. I won't get into the issue but I told my new boss that I really only want to work part-time. We can afford for me to only work part-time and that is what I would prefer to do. It will take a little longer to pay off my car I realize but the time spent with my kids is more important than the time I spend at work, making money to pay off my car. I only get to keep about 1/2 of my net pay anyway. After I pay the sitter I get just slightly over 1/2 of my net pay each week. I would gladly give up getting my car paid off two months early just to spend more time with my kids. I explained to this boss (since she knows my family, I feel more comfortable sharing family stuff with her than I would with any other boss) and I also explained that I do not NEED to work other than to pay off my car. I explained how our bills work and how we budget. She has 2 children of her own and completely understands my desire to be home with them but needing to work. She has no problem at all with me lessening my availability to just 3 days a week, in fact it was her idea. I am so happy that I have an understanding boss. For the time being I am going to be available 5 days, then as of the week of 6/15 I am taking vacation. When I come back, I am changing my availability to 4 days and then as off 7/1 I will be available only 3 days a week for awhile. I am not sure if I will make this permanent or not. It would be a nice balance of at home and at work time so we will see how it works out. My desire has been to be home with the kids but still have time away, among adults. Working part-time just might be the answer to that. I need to be available to work on Fridays and Monday so I think I will make the other day I work Tuesdays. 2 days off in the middle of the week sounds nice to me!

Thrifty family fun day

We used our free passes for the train trip today! Our official kick off to a summer of fun!

pics here and short videos here and here.

un thrifty Saturday

We ended up spending quite a chunk of change yesterday.

Glove for Kait for T ball $9.29
2 pairs of shorts for the girls $2.00 each
New shoes for K $12.99
Haircut for me $15
new gas cap for my car since the old one broke $18
lunch at Taco Bell $10
gas for the jeep $40
T ball tee, ball and bat set for practice for K $10
dish drainer thingy to set on the sink because I lack counter space $5.32
new hat for R for father's day $3
Aussie 3 minute miracle hair repair stuff for me $3.48
__________
$131. 08 yesterday. Youch! the jeep needed gas anyway.

Kait needed the glove but could have done without the set but R wanted her to have one so she could practice since she gives up on she gives up on things easily if she is not good at them right away. LOL. So he thought if she could practice at home she won't give up so easily once t ball starts.

Shorts were not a necessity but they were cheap and the girls only have like 4 pairs each.

The shoes were a necessity. Not those ones per se but Kait did need new shoes.

I was in dire need of a hair cut. It has been 6 months or longer and I had a poofball going on.

new gas cap was not necessary but was annoying. The threads on mine wore so it would not screw in anymore and was always loose. It is attached to the car and has a cover over it but I hated that it was loose.

the dish drainer was not necessary but is so useful. The bottom part actually sits over the sink. It is so nice. I do the dishes, drain them, and set them in the drainer and set the drainer over the sink. I have counter space once again!

K is on a team

We signed K up for youth t ball last night. She will be playing with 3-4 year olds for 1/2 hour every Wednesday night. The cost was minimal ($5) and she received a t-shirt. We still have to buy a glove for her but I looked online and can get a cheapy kids one at Kmart and use my discount and get it for around $10. She is an "official t-baller girl" now <---- her words. She is excited about playing and really excited about other kids being there. She has not had much time around kids her own age or having to listen to directions from people other than me, her dad, her sitter, grandparents and my brother so this will be a whole new experience for her. I hope she enjoys it.

Saturday R and K have a special day planned. They are going to look at gloves and out to lunch and he is talking about getting her a t ball holder thingy so she can practice at home.

a giveaway

My friend Jenera is having a give away on her blog. Check out her photography and enter to win. She is a great up and coming photog.

busy week

My employer had a big sale over memorial day weekend and that made/makes for a busy week for us employees. Good because our checks will be nice. We are paid overtime for hours over 40 a week and also for anything over 8 hours a day. Today I got one hour of OT pay. Sweet! Tommorrow I will have another hour of OT and Friday I will have one or two hours of OT and won't have to pay a sitter because my mom offered to take the kids all day. Hooray. That saves me about $40 maybe more if I work OT. Thanks mom! It is bad because we have to work extra hours and while I like the extra money, it is a bit tricky finding someone to watch the kids if I need to start before 7am. My sitter's husband has recently started a new evening into early morning shift and he is sleeping when I drop the kids off. It is not a big deal on nice days, the sitter takes the kids to the park and downtown for doughnuts and shopping for a few hours so her hubby can sleep but on rainy days, like today, she has a hard time keeping the girls quiet. I always feel so bad when I have to ask her to take the kids early. She says not to worry about it but I do. That is just how I am. Hopefully his shift change will only last a month or so, like the last shift change did, and then we will be in the clear once again. Sometimes I think how much easier that aspect of life was when I SAH but that is just not an option at the present time. I thought about finding a different sitter but then it doesn't pay for me to work because I would be paying so much more in childcare.

R and I have discussed me quitting work and staying home once my car is paid off and we have an emergency fund of $1000. We already have more than that but I want to add another $1000 after my car is paid and then stay home. But then I think about how much he dislikes one aspect of his job (not that it is a big portion-just one guy that is constantly belittling and degrading R and that pisses him off in the worst way. Not that he would quit over it) and I think I should stay working even when I don't need to just to relieve some stress from him. He says it would relieve more stress if I were home but IDK. We have $1700 on my car and $1000 in savings until we have to make a decision.

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

uber cheap bras at Lands end right now

Lands end has a bunch of bras in the overstock section as low as $3.99 each. I have one use left from a free shipping promo I got in my email. If you look and are interested, I will gladly share the free shipping promo code. -gone

It actually worked out to be cheaper on these for me to order as a non employee. Figure that out! Employees are not eligible for the free shipping (or any other promos) so it would have cost more to order them with my discount. I ordered 5 for a total of $23. I have 3 LE bras currently and I love them. They are the most comfy bras I have ever bought and at $3.99 each I can't pass up the deal.

enjoying my new (and not exactly thrifty) phone

We came to the end of our cell phone contract in February. We did not renew and get new phones at that time because R was laid off. I have had my same phone for 2 or more years and it was showing its age, numbers sticking, not dialing, not exiting programs, not picking up calls, etc. The old girl is tough though. She went through a lot of abuse including but not limited to: a fall from the top of my car, being driven over, being frozen with some groceries in the freezer, left in the blistering sun of my car, left in the frozen tundra of my car in the middle of winter, left on top of the stove while I was baking, numerous falls from my hand to the concrete, dropped from the stroller and stepped on, being dunked in the toilet, and being left in the fridge at work with my lunch. Not to mention numerous spills, splashes, throws from kids with temper tantrums, and juice spilled on her numbers. Yeah my Nokia was a tough old bird but she has been retired now. To a drawer just in case my new phone (yet to be named-K names items) decides it does not like the abuse.

My new phone has an MP3 player and a camera. I stepped up. She is metallic purple. I love her. I hope she is as dependable and tough as old bird was.

I got R just a cheap camera phone. He wanted something simple but then he started playing with my new phone and really likes it so I am going to exchange his tommorrow for one like mine....in red.

Dinner on Conagra tonight

A couple weeks ago I was emailed a survery from Conagra foods. I took the survey and received a coupon for a free box of banquet chicken, any size. Armed with that coupon as well as one from Vocalpoint for a free box of Kashi Waffles, I headed to the store. I picked up some AA batteries on sale as well. Saved 84%. We had the chicken for dinner with some mashed potatoes. DH basically lived off Banquet chicken before we started living together. I never buy it so it was a nice treat for him. Even the kiddos enjoyed it.

Planning our thrifty family summer fun

In the past couple of days, R and I have begun our talk of summer plans. The goal is to spend as little OOP and still do things the kids will enjoy. Some of the things on our list are:

*riding a local tourist attraction-we got a coupon in the mail for 1/2 price admission for adults and the kids will be free
*visiting a local science exploratoy. $3 admission with coupon (kids are free again I think)
*a ski show ($3 admission for adults and free for kids with coupon)
*trip to the free zoo-about an hours drive but well worth it. We pack a lunch (or sometimes go out to eat) and make a day of it.O will enjoy the zoo this year. Last year she was kinda small for it and only really saw the giraffes from her seat in the stroller but she did like them.
*hiking trip to a not so tourist place that we took the kids to last year. They loved the view from the top of the bluff
*R wants to take K fishing
*We also have 4 tickets for a free ride on a steam train. It takes a meandering track in the hills around here. K is in love with trains. I think she will enjoy it.
*we plan on attending fireworks for 4th of July, the festival parade (which can last 1 1/2-2 hours!!), and the festival celebration in our town. In August there is another parade and fireworks in a nearby town that we hope to attend.
*a tentative on our list is the Circus. We drove past the grounds a couple days ago and K was so excited. She really wants to go so we will try to make that part of our summer plans.
*and a first for the kids...the county fair. I have yet to take the kids to the county fair and I want to so hopefully we can fit that in this year.

My story is featured

Katherine from becentsable (link below in the links I like section) has posted my story this weekend. I shared with her a few weeks the story of my husband and I. Check back on her blog later in the week for my guest post on bartering. Unfortunately my brother and I will not be bartering much in the near future as his girlfriend is currently in labor. Their first child should be making her appearance any time now. As he adjusts to life as a new dad, his time will be spent in more important ways than working for me but I will continue to barter with my neighbors and our kids' sitter. Our sitter is actually working on a barter of her own right now. Her car needed some work and she is bartering for it. I am so proud of her.

My brother's girlfriend is receiving a new mommy basket from us with items from the stockpile. She is pleased. She enjoys my stockpile as well.

***************************************

We have some big plans this weekend, aside from seeing our new neice.
*We need to do the first weeding of our garden (weather permitting).
*The radishes we planted in the old garden spot are ready for thinning out.
*cleaning the garage so I can begin prepping for our garage sale (date TBD)-I have already started pricing my items but it is much easier to take stuff out to the garage and work a little bit each night after the kids are asleep.
*I hope to stop at a few garage sales this weekend. This is city-wide garage sale weekend and I was unable to go to any today with work and then checking on my brother's girlfriend in the hospital. I had planned to go after checking on her but I had a fainting episode in the hospital and once I recovered I decided that I should just go home.
*Ridding the garage of the collection of aluminum cans. We had an amusing trip last Saturday. My brother came over with the truck and trailer. We loaded up all the aluminum cans from my parents' house and our house and took them to the site that collects them and pays per pound. We arrived and there was no one there. Then we saw the sign "no longer accepting aluminum cans on Saturdays". Oh man! So we thought we would just go to one of the two local grocery stores, where a truck comes to collect and pay out on Saturdays. No such luck at either store. So we drove back to my house and unload all the cans. My garage currently looks like a recycling facility but once we receive the cash for those cans, it is worth it. The cash from the cans goes into the kids' savings accounts. K likes to tell me that she is going to get rich from cans. She is so into the money aspect of the cans that when we go for walks, she will pick them up and put them under the stroller after she crushes them. We have started taking along a bag for her cans. We are working on the recycle and good for the environment aspect of picking them up but at 3 1/2, the only real concern she has is feeding her "piggy".

This weekend we decided that we would drive by the store first and make sure the truck is there BEFORE we load up the cans yet again.

This store is either gonna hate me or love me

I was able to get more Kelloggs coupons for the deal my local store is running this week, 5 boxes of Kelloggs for $9. I ended up getting 11 more boxes of cereal tonight for a grand total of $8.80. Savings of 75%.




Earlier this afternoon the kids and I went there and got the cat food with savings of 100% (which I posted previously) and in a seperate transaction, I saved 62% on bagelfuls (which we LOVE), 2 boxes of Kelloggs raisin bran, and 2 loaves of bakery fresh white bread (so good! and was on sale for 50 cents per loaf!).


So either this store is going to
A. Love my business
or
B. Hate me and my coupons

so far it seems to be neither. They don't bat an eye when I use a bazillion (k's word for the amount of coupons I had today) coupons. They shouldn't, they get reimbursed but tonight I went to a different Walmart than I one I went to earlier today and the cashier scrutinized every coupon. She was so into my coupons that she forgot to remove one of the items out of my bag that I said I didn't want. She said the coupon was not valid on the size I had selected so she handed me back the coupons. I told her to void off the items and I would just take the rest of my transaction ( I knew it was ok but I was not going to argue. I will just go to the "nice" Walmart sometime and use them there). Well she removed 9 of the 10 items but voided off 10. So I got one free. I didn't realize it until I got home and was putting away the stuff so I called the store and told them what happened. The manager asked for the bar code on the item and then said just keep it. Don't drive back. I wasn't planning on it. I intended on returning the item next time I was at a Walmart and taking in my receipt and telling them what happened.

the coupon master

I recently ordered some coupons from thecouponmaster.com. They arrived today. I ordered on Sunday and they were mailed on Monday. I am pleased with the service I have received from thecouponclippers.com but from where they are located to where I am located I will not always receive my coupons in time for the sale. It is not their fault and I have received excellent service from them as well. I have been looking at other coupon clipping services because I sometimes need the coupons ASAP so I need a closer service. This one seems to fit the bill. I am pleased and will definitely order again.

Savings of 100%

Check it out! 100% savings. Wow! My best ever! So proud of that! .83 for $15.12 worth of cat food. .83 was tax...that is all I paid. Sweet huh?!?

Walmart deals today

The kids and I went to the park/zoo in the next town over to enjoy the nice weather. Since we were already in that town we made a Walmart trip. I got some pretty good deals.


8 packages of Oscar Mayer weiners $1.50 each
6 kraft BBQ sauce .98 each
4 cases of pepsi $5.48
Huggies wipes .97
popcorn chicken for our picnic $1.96
6 potato wedges .67
ranch dressing for the chicken .58
1 bottle of diet pepsi for me 1.25

used 4 $1/2 Oscar mayer coupons (made them $1/pack)
used 5 $1/1 Kraft BBQ sauce coupons (free plus .02 overage on 5 of the 6)
used 1 .75/1 Kraft BBQ sauce coupons
used 1 $1/1 huggies coupon (free and .03 overage)
used 4 $1/1 pepsi case coupons
got the diet pepsi free. The vending machine said please make selection when I went to put my money in. I hit the diet pepsi button and out popped a bottle of diet pepsi. I didn't have to pay for it. IDK...must have been my lucky day. There have been plenty of times I have lost money in vending machines either from it not giving me my change or not reading that I put money in and not giving me that money back so this freebie was probably actually not free but it was today. LOL.

Total before coupons was $45. After coupons I paid $30. Awesome!

free samples

check them out here

thrifty landscaping

is all about reusing (at least to me). I am currently in the process of making our lanscaping less high maintenance.


The trees in the backyard~I have always had big rocks making a border around the base of each of three trees and then I would fill the area with mulch. The next year I would add more mulch and the third year I would take out all the mulch and start fresh. It sucked. It was not hard to maintain but required at least a couple hours of labor every year. That is not really much when you don't have kids but now with kids, work, the garden, the dog and everything else on my plate those 2 hours have better places to be spent so this year I changed the landscaping. This year I am only boardering 2 of the bigger trees. I am filling in the area of one tree with larger and smaller rocks (pull or spray roundup on the weeds and go-my kind of landscaping and maintenance) and around the other tree I am placing white marble rock that I am digging out from my current "rock garden".






I am taking the pavers from the edge of my rock garden and making a walkway to the front porch (which K and I are going to plant some flowers around later-we got a big bag of seeds for free from the sitter). We used to have stepping stones surrounded by mulch and big rocks. It looked nice but was kind of a pain to maintain. I think the mail carrier will like our change. I am pretty sure she was tired of stepping on wet mulch after a rain. One year I got this bright idea to use cocoa bean mulch. I could not stand the smell after a rain. My rock garden is going to become lawn again. Bet that will make the meter reader happy. He has to step in all the rocks to read the meter.




In front of the front porch we have 4 hostas which are surrounded by lava rock. We are taking out the lava rock (edited~I decided to leave the lava rock) and filling in an area that will never grow anything (besides hostas) and making that look pretty with big rocks and will put some sort of lawn ornament over there. We are taking out 3 flower beds (which only grow weeds) and making them part of the lawn once again.




three flower beds I took out today




I am stumped on what to do on the other side of the house. We have a couple hostas and lillies of the valley there and the central air unit. It needs work but it is mostly shaded so I am still deciding.



As you can tell from above, I am reusing everything that we already had to redo the landscaping. Nothing will go to waste (except for the old mulch from the front walkway). All the big rocks in the rock garden will go around the trees in the backyard. The edgers become a walkway. Whatever marble is not used will fill in potholes in the driveway. Yep, I reuse everything possible.

A non landscaping project that is going to require R and my brother is replacing the railing on the side porch. It is loose and broken in spots.( It broke completely off one side today so I put a piece of lattice there temporarily until R can fix it) I came up with an idea and they are um.....well.....less than thrilled. I want to take the white lattice (that I already have! it is just sitting in the garage BEGGING to be used) and have them make a frame around it with 2 X 4's and then mount that to the sides of the stairs and the small deck. It would be very easy to decorate for holidays and on the back side it would make a really nice area for my morning glories to climb. R is not so thrilled about morning glories climbing that because he is afraid it will bloom on top and bring the bees. I agree BUT I also said that the morning glories are right there anyway. They grow up the side of the house and frame the picture window in the kitchen. They do that every year without any direction from me and the picture window is right by the deck. It is no different than having the lattice there. And a benefit for him is that the dog will no longer be able to jump off the side of the deck and get tangled so he has to go out and untangle her. The sheets of lattice that I have are actually big enough to frame in the whole area, sides up to the roof. I have an idea in my head of how that would look but R's idea is that it would look stupid. I think it would look really nice in the summer with the morning glories climbing it but he says no. I will let him win that battle since he will be doing most of the work. LOL

the railing that broke today

looking through my local grocery ads

there are no deals I want to take advantage of this week. Of course, the week that I am only working 2 days and would have lots of time for "deal getting". Figures. But that just means extra time to spend with the kiddos and working on the yard.

Poor K

Ok here's the deal. This morning the neighbor's granddaughter (L) came over and asked if K could come over and play. I let her. I was outside I could hear them and I know the grandma was watching them. K plays ok with L, the one that is just a couple months older than her but H (the one that is 6 ish) and K do not get along at all. So anyway, this afternoon H and L came over and asked if K could come play. This morning went really well so I said sure. Grandma was out in the yard over there so I yelled across that I was going to clean the house some and would open the window and listen but wouldn't be outside. Grandma said ok I am just cleaning the garage so I will watch them. Well K was there less than 20 minutes. I went outside to take out garbage and K comes running down the sidewalk, BAWLING. I went across the street and brought her home. I got her calmed down and she told me H was bossing her around and would not let her play with anything. I believe it because H has ran her over with her bike before when K was about O's age. And I have seen her pushing her sister down and just general meanness. I don't like K to play with her but I let her play with L. So anyway K is still snivling and saying I don't have any friends mama. Why are those girls mean to me? I am thinking H was being mean because there is another girl over there too, one I don't know. How do I tell her that she was just being a showoff? How do I explain that some kids are just not fun to play with? I gave her some extra hugs and kisses and told her that if H is mean well then K doesn't have to invite H to come over and play with her on the swingset or in the yard or let her ride the 4 wheeler only L can. K likes that idea.
IDK what exactly happened and IDK if Grandma stepped in the house for a minute or something but K was coming home by herself. Which I don't like. I do not like her crossing the street by herself. It is a really quiet side street but still. So anyway, later on K and I are going to talk about crossing the street by herself. Thankfully I was right there when she started coming. She knows to check for traffic but still...... Maybe later I can find out from the grandma what happened completely. I am not going to go off all bitchy but my daughter came home bawling this afternoon and this morning she was fine....the only difference is H is there. Coincidence? I don't think so.

Well K is better now. She just asked O to be her friend and O said uh huh and they hugged. They are sitting on the floor together right now. K has her arm around O and O rested her head on K's shoulder. Gonna try to get a pic. I love how resilient K is. It just sucks that she has to deal with all the nastiness in the world (well her world anyway). I hate seeing her so sad and saying I don't have any friends Momma and why are those girls so mean to me? Makes me sad.

Later Grandma stopped and she told me what happened. Basically from what she could gather, the other girl told H that she did not want to play with babies and H was trying to get rid of K and L. So we got it worked out.

deal of the day

6 boxes of Kellogg's cereal for $4.80

2 fruit loops
2 apple jacks
2 frosted flakes

My fav local store had them on sale for 5/$9-or $1.80/box
Total before Coupons $10.80
Total after Coupons $4.80
used 6 printable coupons from coupons.com for $1 off each box. Total was .80/box for cereal that the kids love for snacks. Great deal!

Contest Winner

was Jenera. Thanks for entering everyone. All the answers were good but we really liked the following:

I ALWAYS cruise through the clearance sections at Target because I can almost always get the things I use regularly for almost free when I use coupons too.

I try to buy in bulk for a our staples in groceries. I also do not buy any prepackaged food with the exception of spaghettios here and there for when I don't want to cook for Aidan. I try to make everything from scratch if I can.

My mom's day gift from K

Our local store does a cake decorating day for kids. They get to decorate and bring home a cake for Mom for $2.99. Kait and I went today and she made the masterpiece above for me for Mothers' day.

Yesterday I got a picture handmade by each of them. Pinecones and leaves and rocks glued to construction paper. Beautiful!!

Garden fence is done.

It works pretty well to keep the littlest gardener out but it upset her as well. She was so mad when I planted the cauliflower and she could not get in by me. I explained to her why I put the fence up but she does not care. At least the investment will be protected. I will let her come in the garden later, when the vegetables are growing so she can see them and learn but while the plants are so fragile it is best to keep her out.

A pic of the fence

garden fencing

is not cheap! $12 for a 50 ft roll of 2 ft high poultry fence. While I do not really need to fence the garden from animals, I do need to provide some proctection for our crops from little gardener feet. My littlest gardener is obsessed with the garden and really wants to be in it at all times. That would be fine except my littlest gardener has no idea that she is not supposed to step on the plants. Sigh. Better to spend the money on a fence than on produce, right? We need about 24 more feet so back to the store we will go after the littlest gardener wakes up from a nap.

free 8 X 10 photo at Walgreens tommorrow 5/6 only

use code mother during online checkout to receive one free 8 X 10. I am really excited about this. I need an updated pic of the fam for our wall.

The garden and more!

The garden is almost all in. Tonight K and I will plant the potatoes and this weekend we will do the onion sets. Next week we will do the cucumbers and decide if we will plant more tomatoes OR more cucumbers or something else. Then we are set.

We worked hard today. We planted 3 tomato plants, 3 green pepper plants and the rest were seeds, green peppers, green onions, carrots, radishes. We could have used even more room and I thought 6ft by 10 ft was good. HA! Dad knows me better than that and did it bigger than I wanted and now I am glad he did. I had more seed packets than I thought. We should have a nice harvest this year. My hope is to make homemade salsa, preferrably using only stuff from our garden! What a treat that will be!

Here are a few pics of my oldest little gardener (AKA hippie as R calls me and them) and the garden. Click on the pics to enlarge and check out the expressions on her face.

And for comparison's sake...the radishes from this year and what last year's garden was. You can't really tell the complete size because of the weeds but it ran the length of the garage and as far out as it is currently. Small huh?...yep, we expanded.

and this years garden

and finally...K and the tree we planted when she was less than 18 months. I have a pic of her by that tree last year and when we planted it but I can't find it right now.

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I picked up some ground beef on sale today. I also got 3 bottles of BBQ sauce $1/bottle and 5 jars of salsa $1/jar. I will repackage the ground beef tonight for the freezer. I also stopped at Walgreens and purchased the last 15 cent deodorant I had a coupon for. The cashier tonight was the same one from the other night and I mentioned that I sent a compliment in on Walgreens website about how well I thought she handled the situation. She was very appreciative of that and also told me that the lady apologized to the manager for her behavior but did not apologize to the cashier. Go figure!
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R got stung by a bee yesterday afternoon. Luckily it was in the calf because he is very allergic. He was able to go to work but came home early. He complained of dizzy and just generally not feeling well. I was scared when I got the call because I know how allergic he is and he would never carry an Epi pen before. Now he does. I made him an appointment with our family doc today and he got an epi pen...finally. After 6 years of marriage and nagging him to get one, he finally relented. It took a lot of pushing from me and his parents and this incident to make him decide that he needs one. I feel much better about the situation now. I was so scared last night. Had he been stung higher up on his body, he could have died. He has stopped breathing because his throat will swell shut after a sting. In our 6 years of marriage, this is only the 2nd time he has been stung. Last time was about a year ago. He was stung by a small bee and not even 5 minutes later, was swollen and had a nasty rash. That still did not convince him to get an epi pen but this last incident has and I am grateful!

Walgreens tonight-rude customer!

OMG this lady was absolutely horrid. I know she owns her own business and she lost any and all potential business from me with the way she treated a cashier at Walgreens tonight. It was absolutely horrible. So I went into to get milk and 2 right guard deodorants. Planning on doing 2 seperate transactions back to back. No big deal. I checked out whom was cashiering before I grabbed 2 (there is one cashier, not the one tonight, that gets really wierd when I want to do multiple transactions in a row and gets flustered so I usually just do one when she is there or do one and then go to my car and come back. I never do 2 big ones back to back..just one or 2 items and I almost always let other customers go in between). So anyway, I grabbed my stuff and went to the register. This cashier is always so nice. Never questions my coupons, knows everything I do is on the "up and up" so she never has issues with me at all. Any this lady is standing at the front screaming at her. "This is not customer service! I want a manager now! I am so pissed off at this store right now. This is an outrage." I hear the cashier page the manager and I am just hoping it is the b****y manager because this lady is being obnoxious. I tell the cashier I would like to do 2 transactions if possible, shifting my eyes toward mrs. loud and obnoxious and the cashier says sure no problem, she needs to speak to the manager so I will have time. I said ok. and mrs. loud and obnoxious says VERY loudly "damn right I need to speak to the manager." I said "excuse me, I do not think you are part of this conversation. I am trying to conduct my business and do not appreciate the yelling." Mrs loud and obnoxious shuts up because here comes the manager around the corner...not the one I was hoping for. Mrs loud and obnoxious proceeds to tell the manager that the cashier was so rude to her. She was overcharged for whatever and the cashier said ok and called for a price check instead of checking the price herself. Then Mrs loud and obnoxious tells the manager this is the worst customer service she has ever seen and this cashier deserves to be fired, and blah blah and she wants a refund and DEMANDED a gift card for her "troubles". She was checking out when I walked in the store. It was not like she had to drive home and come back . The lady was screaming at the manager as well. So anyway when the manager walked away to check the price, I followed the manager and told her that the lady was screaming at the cashier when I walked up there and I thought the cashier handled the situation very well and that I have never had any issues with that particular cashier. I wanted her to know that it was not this cashier's fault that the lady is such a witch. I can't believe how that customer treated the cashier. It is not like she could leave her register to check the price of something when there are other customers there. Does she expect the cashiers at Walmart to do that?!?! I hate when someone is rude to "my" cashiers...the nice ones...that make my shopping experience at Walgreens good. I just sent in a comment about this particular cashier last month so I didn't know if I should again or not but I am glad I said something to the manager at least...letting her know the whole story.

I did end up sending a comment via Walgreens website about the incident. No obnoxious B*tch messes with MY cashiers!! Not the good ones!!!

Walgreens trip today

2 transactions

$2.99 right guard deo.
-1.00 coupon
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$1.99
.016 tax
_____
$2.15 OOP got back $2 rr

Did that twice. 2 deodorants for 30 cents. I have 3 more coupons so 45 more cents. Sweet! With the deodorants I got yesterday, R will be set for many months!

I will use the $10 RR I get this week for Pepsi that is on sale in a couple weeks.

The weekend

Not only did I have the trip to Walmart yesterday, we stopped at ET foods (will detail that trip later), had a cookout, R helped my brother switch out engines on a lawn mower, and I did 2 loads of laundry that I hung out to dry. Today is even busier with a deep housecleaning scheduled, grill cleaning, more laundry, a trip to the inlaws, a Walgreens trip or 2, and stockpile inventory.

Yesterday ET foods trip:

5 boxes of 20 count fruit snacks $2.25 each (the kids love fruit snacks and for a normal box of 10 count packages it is $2.25 at my local store)
3 boxes Eggo waffles .75 each ($2 something at my local store)
3 packs oreos $2 each ($3 at my local store)
OB tampons $1.50 (these are so great for work!)
3 bags Ore Ida fries $1.75 each (2.75 at my local store)
1 box captain crunch crunch berries $1.65 (not sure what it is at my local store but I KNOW it is more than $2/box)
1 box of cookie crisp $1.65

I love going to et foods. I know I have said that before. I love the surprises everytime I go.

total $28=paid $10

Mom and I took the kids and went shopping yesterday. I was able to walk out of Walmart paying only $10 and got 3 bags of items.

8 buddies bars (had $1/1 coupons for johnson's baby items making these free)
2 small bottles of Johnson's baby lotion (had $1/1 coupons for these as well making them free)
6 trial size bottles of irish spring body wash (clearanced for 50 cents each and I thought my coupons would make them free plus overage but I read the coupon wrong :( but I bought them anyway because they smelled so good!)
1 container of juice for $1
1 hair detangler spray for $1.17
2 deodorants for R (had 2 coupons for free deodorant)
6 boxes of mac and cheese (50 cents each)

$2 of my transaction was tax. Geez!

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quick grocery trip tonight~saved 92%!!!!

I ran to the grocery store tonight (ok I drove but still...it was a quick trip) after the kids were down for the night. I forgot how nice it is to go shopping by myself. R got done with work early the last 2 days because he had to start earlier. It has been nice having him home in the evenings :)

I got 13 cans of stored brand canned fruit. They were on sale for $1/can except the pineapple, that was on sale for .89/can. I also got 4 boxes of purina cat food, a small box of store brand sandwich bags, and 4 boxes of cereal. I had coupons for the purina (free~I was hoping for the overage...the coupon was for free up to $2.19 and the cat food was $1.89/box. I was hoping that they would just scan the coupon and it would take $2.19 off but no such luck but hey free is free!), and the cereal. Kelloggs cereals are on sale for $2/box at my local store and I had $1 off coupons for each box. Kelloggs cereals are normally $3.79/box at this store so even $2 is a good price but $1 is awesome. So between the cereal, the free cat food and the fruit, I made out with a 92% savings on my shopping. I know the pineapple is normally $1.09-$1.19/can but I am not sure the regular price on the other fruit. I forgot to check but I think it is $1.39 or $1.49/can. The kids and I love fruit as a snack. We all prefer fresh but hey...we'll take what we can get.

Don't forget to enter my contest. Details are in a previous post. I need more entrants! Keep the ideas coming!!