Super savings Saturday

Does marked down make anyone else happy? I know it does me! After several disappointments in the the lack of markdowns, I found some decent ones!

2 packs of stew meat, marked down to $3.84 and $4.45 each, saved $1.90 and $1.64

1 roast $8.10, saved $3.45

1 big pack of Carne Picada(great for chili, 2 servings!) $4.90, saved $2.09

3 2.25 pound packs of 93/7 hamburger, $6.50 each, saved $2.78 each

1 5.5 pund pack of 93/7 hamburger, $13.50, saved 5.99

Total saved on meat, $23.41

These weren't on any special sale, I just had coupons about to expire and they are things we use anyways

2 Always pads $5.47 each - 2 $0.50/1=$4.97 each

2 Always Infinity pads $6.97 each- 2 $1/1= $5.97 each

2 Quaker Oatmeals $2.88 each -2 $1/1=$1.88 each

2 Starkist Tuna pouches $0.78 each-2 $0.50/1=$0.28 each

1 Bounty paper towel $1- $025/1=$0.75

1 Ajax dish soap $0.78-1 $0.50/=$0.28

1 Dawn Dish Soap $0.97- 1 $0.25/1= $0.72

2 Glade candles $2.50 each - $1/2= $2 each

Duracell batteries $5.97(what is with Walmart not carrying small packs?)- $0.75/1=$5.25

1 Emerald breakfast to go $3.98- $1/1=$2.98

2 Halls cough drops $1.18 each- 2 $0.50/1=$0.68 each

Total saved $10.75

Saving $ by carpooling and not having a vehicle

Carpooling. Who would have knew my hubby would jump on board with this. He doesn't exactly have a job where this is an easy thing(he's a brick mason) but it helps when you get on a crew with a person or 2 that lives in your area! It all started about a month ago.The company boss put together the best guys for an out of town job. Joseph was in that group. They had the option they could either drive themselves the 3 hours or claim a spot in one of the 2 company trucks going. He decided on the company truck.

During the first week, he got to talking with the supervisor and found out he lived near us. This came in handy when they got back last week and were put on job together again in town. His supervisor asked if he just wanted to ride with him.(company vehicle). Heck yea! His boss had to drive right by our house anyways to get to the job site, so it saves us money on gas. In fact, in the past month, we've only put in $50 worth vs $50 or more a week. (granted he worked out of town for 2 weeks of that and I can't drive his truck)

Last July, my truck quit working. We narrowed it down to the fuel pump, only a $100 part but my truck still isn't fixed. Actually, it hasn't been too much of an inconvienence, until now. Thing 1 has soccer started, and her coach is pretty adament about having practice ALL THE WAY ACROSS THE CITY, instead of at a couple nearby fields like they did last season. sigh. So far, we've worked it out(barely!)



For my grocery trips once a week, I pay my step dad $5 to pick me up(he uses that time to run errands my mom needs for the week) and take me to the 2 stores I've been going to(Aldi's and Walmart) For excursions, we use the bus. Total spent each month, about $40. I'm saving $65 a month in insurance(because the vehicle is sitting, we dropped it) and $80 or more in gas.

There will come a time when the truck is fixed so I'm enjoying the savings while I can!

Menu Plan Monday

Joseph ended up spending most of the last 2 weeks out of town working, so me and the crew ate light. Which means that a lot of my menu plan is carried over(which makes it good on the budget!)

Breakfasts

Cereal

Oatmeal

Toaster streudal

Lunches, find your own

Dinners

Pot roast with potatoes, carrots, and mushrooms

Onion soup with cheese and bread

Beef stroganoff with mushrooms and green beans

Chicken pot pie

BBQ beef, coleslaw

Lasagna, salad

Spaghetti, salad, bread

Baked whole chicken, baked potatoes, carrots

Cheeseburgers, tater tots, peas

Grilled hot dogs and ribs, pasta salad, deviled eggs, corn

Pizza, salad

Chicken strips, scalloped potatoes, green beans

Chili, cornbread

52 weeks of cleaning

I decided to conquer the toybox this week. Prob because it's in the living room and was spilling out everywhere! I also had to tackle this when Baby Girl was at school or she would have had a fit!

Here's the before:

I took everything out and put in 4 piles: Stuff that is someone else's, stuff she doesn't plkay with with, stuff she plays with, and stuff I have no idea why they are in her toybox :)

She has a lot of little stuff that were at the bottomof the toy box...I put her blocks and small toys in small storage tub and her play food in this bag and set it by her kitchen

Here's the after. Much better. Mr. Potato has all his parts again, the storage tub outside her box holds her wooden blocks and small cars and toys, Polly Pockets are back in their container, toy she "borrowed" from bubby and sissy are back with their owners, and the ton of stuff she doesnt play with is safely ina box in the basement to be sorted for a yardsale.

Project Simplify:The paperwork

With 3 kids(2 heavily involved in activities and in Middle school) a hubby that has a regular job and a self employed job, and then myself with freelancing and projects going on, paperwork tends to multiply like crazy around here! And fast! I get it all cleaned out and then a week later, it looks like I didn't do a thing!

The befores and during:

Just stuff I, not sure why I even held onto

Under the desk

top of the desk

More desk

by the desk

Old stuff from a file box







The after's:



Stack of 12 magazines to be taken to the laundromat



Magazines to be read

Under the desk

Desk

The bad thing is, in another week or so, I'll have to do it all again!

Decluttering the inbox

Anyone that has ever signed up for an offer or ordered something online has usually missed the tiny fine print(or been in a hurry) that to not recieve future blah, blah, blah from us, please uncheck the box.

So then you see this 6,329 times a day

Ack!

So as part of my decluttering mission, I'm tackling everything, including my inbox! So instead of just clicking delete, I take a couple more seconds to totally unsubscribe, making even my inbox a little less messy.

That works for me!

Booking It 2011

Due to a wait on the library hold lists, I'm behind on the scheduled readings. Grr. I did finally get The Happiness Project in February, and I just picked up Mansfield Park a couple days ago. sigh. Thankfully for next month, I own Artisan bread in 5 minutes a day so I won't be dependent on the library.

Here's what I read in February:

The Happiness Project

Micah

The Mistress of Nothing

Danse Macabre

Self Sufficiency for the 21st Century

Speak

The Titan's Curse

The Sea of Monsters

Super savings Saturday

This week was my big shopping week so the amount of money I spent on groceries was obscene. Aldi's, Walmarts, and Dillions all claimed their portion of our money. Top it off, Thing 1's birthday was this weekend, so that added some extra to the bill.

No coupon savings at Walmart or Aldi's, but here's what I managed at Dillions:

Transaction 1
1 Charmin toilet paper $5.99-$3 e coupon=$2.99
1 3 muskateers candy bar $0.99
2 Crunch bar @ $0.50 each

total $4.48-$3 OYNO from last week=$1.48, saved $9.15 or 90%

Trans #2

4 Toaster Streudal $1.99 each-2 $0.50/2 e coupons-$1/2 coupon=1.49 each

3 Hamburger helpers $0.97 each-$1/3=$0.63 each

1 Duncan Hines cake mix $1.99-coupon for free cake mix= FREE

5 Totinos pizzas $1 each-2 $0.40/3 ecoupons-$1 coupon=$.64 each

3 Kroger Brussell sprouts $1.69 each(no sale, Joseph just loves these!)

1 Kroger syrup $1.99(no sale, forgot at Walmart)

1 DiGiorno Pizza $4.77-$0.75/1 ecoupon-1.00 coupon=$3.02

1 California pizza kitchen $4.77-$0.75 e coupon-$1 coupon=$3.02

1 Honey Nut Cheerios $2.18-2 $.55 e coupons-$1 coupon=$0.08

1 Always pads $5.49- $0.50 ecoupon-$2 coupon(from a home mailer)=$2.99

plus minus $3 OYNO from last week

total $25.81, saved $35.48 or 55%

Project Simplify:The closet

I actually started on my room this week before I found out about the challenge! I didn't get a fabulous pic of the closet but this gives you an idea:

Here's the piles of stuff that were sent to a local donation center...tons of coats(kids and adult, yes both were in my closet), formal dresses that were too small for Thing 1, a bridesmade dress I wore when Thing 1 was about 18 months old(and she turns 14 in 2 days!), brand new dres pants that I will never wear, and tons more! Gone! Bye-bye! Outta here!

See all the empty hangers? Wahoo!

It felt great to just let it all go!

Check out Project Simplify for more closet makeovers!

The bedroom, dum dum dum

Ok, let me start out by saying any haters can send an email to the addy on the right of the page(I don't hardly check it anyways!) Yes, I know my room is a mess. It's never high on the priority list to really get done. I finally decided to get around to it becasue I had 3 baskets of laundry sitting in the living room that needed to be put away. Oh, and yes, I know there's blankets hanging on the windows. I still need to shop for curtains(we've lived here, cough, 9 years) but seeing how I hate shopping, this is the easiest solution right now

Here's the disaster before:

The entry to the room

Eck, between the beds

Our bed and dresser

The closet(that bed frame is a big ole pain. I really want to get rid of it but Joseph won't let me! We lost the hardware and instructuctions when we moved here, so there it sits)

Joseph's area

The drawer under Baby Girl's bed

Afters:

Baby Girl's jammies now fit under her bed, along with the extra sheets

Big pile o'donations..this included several things of Baby Girl's coats(kid's and adults), dress pants(many new), shirts, formals that are too small for Thing 1, and a Bridesmaid dress I wore to a wedding when Thing was 18 months old(she turns 14 this weekend!), plus a few other things

The bed and dresser

The closet, free space and empty hangers

Joseph's gaming center :)(oops! forgot the duster!)

Between the beds(that's paint on the floor, it was here before we moved in, eventually, it'll get redone)

Looking in from the doorway. I placed our towels in the basket(since we have no linen closet)


Phew! I think I worked 3 hours on Monday on the room and then another 1 or so Tuesday on it.
There's a cabinet at the head of Baby Girl's bed I had originally planned on moving to the basement but we've decided to get a loft bed and a set of bunk beds and move her into the other bedroom with the Things, so I will use the cabinet for towel and blanket storage.

Wordless Wednesday

Sometimes I'm a genius......

Since my washing machine and dryer are both broke, I have to trek 2 blocks to the laundromat. I borrowed my mom's wheeled shopping cart(a life saver, let me tell ya!) The other day when I started out I noticed the little cap that keeps the wheel one was missing. Ugh! I searched high and low for it....it probably ended up in the stomach of the puppy! So I started looking for something to fix it because I needed to head out! I tried several things and nothing really stayed on well. I sat down at my desk to rummage through the drawers when I seen a pen. I figured "what the heck, try the cap". Thankfully, it worked! It's stays on snug and the wheel didn't fall off!

That definitely works for me!

Menu Plan Monday

Another month behind us! Wow, February flew by! I finished it with $60 left in the budget. It would have been more but our Girl Scout cookie order came in($28) and then Baby Girl wasn't feeling well and didn't eat for a week so we were enticing her with Pediasure(holy moly, that stuff is expensive!), popcicles, Cheezits, tater tots, anything to get the thing to eat! After 2 IV bags of fluids(4 days apart) and a hefty does of antibiotics, she finally starting eating again(after she lost 2 pounds). The dr. never found out what was wrong with her.

Joseph is working out of town all week, so this week will be cheap and easy meals, then we can bulk them back up when he comes home. Plus Thing 1 has a birthday this weekend!

Breakfasts

Waffles

Cold cereal

Oatmeal

all served with fruit

Lunches, Find your own

Dinners

easy week:

Pizza, salad

Breakfast sandwiches, fruit

Cheeseburger macaroni, carrots

Hot dogs, mac and cheese, green beans

Cheeseburgers, tots or fries, celery sticks

the remainder of the 2 weeks:

Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, corn

Pot roast with potatoes and carrots

Spaghetti with italian sausage, salad

Onion soup with cheese and bread

Beef stroganoff with mushrooms, green beans

Chicken pot pie

Beef enchiladas, rice

BBQ beef, fries, coleslaw

Lasagna, salad

February decluttering update

I was just thinking I didn't do a whole lot when I realized, oops, I did actually get stuff accomplished. I get frustrated sometimes because I work my booty off and it doesn't even look like I've done anything around here. But, I'm working on keeping it up, hopefyully one day, I can tell a difference!

Here's one thing I did, and another

The Things were in charge of cleaning up the basement and we got rid of 8 bags of trash, 1 broken high chair, and 1 broken laundry basket

Plus I took 17 magazines to the laundromat.

Ok, that's it. A lot of my time is spent on maintenence of everything. Plus Baby Girl was sick for a whole week and watching DVDS with a 4 year old while she lays on you doesn't get things done.

I just have to plug away, a little a time, although I would really like to throw everything out in the front yard, minus the TV, couch, beds and appliances.

But then, I would STILL have to clean that up.