Super Savings Saturday

I went to Dillons again in hopes of more mustard. No such luck :(. Well, aside for the last 2 Spicy.

Here's what I did get;

(All Cart Buster items...get $5 off WYB 10 items)

2 bags Lay's Chips @1.99 each

3 Edge shave gel $1.89 -3 .55/1 rounded to $1= $.89 each

2 French's Spicy Mustard $.99 each-2 $.30/1 doubled=$.39 each

3 Fuze drinks .79 each

Not pictured: 1 4 pack Angel Soft tp $1.12- 1 .45/1 doubled=.22

Paid $10.24, saved $13.75 or 57%


Here is trip # 2

A Tale of Two Halves and the Price of Convenience

Onions, that is.

I needed about half an onion for the lasagna last night. So, I got it out and ready to chop.

Now, a few months ago, I would have stuck the half that I didn't use in the fridge and forget about it until I got around to cleaning it out.

Yuck.

Definitely not anymore.

After I tossed what I needed in the skillet to cook, I took out the onion bowl from the refrigerator and chopped up the rest.

Now there is chopped onions available for whoever wants them.

I looked the other day in the produce section at Walmart and a small container of chopped onions is almost $2. Seriously? You can buy a 3 pound bag of onions for $1 more and get tons more out of it.

(And I totally get people that HAVE to buy it like that, just not sure why someone would voluntarily pay that price, lol)

I know, I know, it's all about convenience.

The high price of convenience.

Block cheese(at Walmart, GV Brand) is .26 ounce. Already shredded, .28

Now, I will admit, I hate to shred cheese, but I do it. Or I pass it on to one of the kids to do.

Convenience.

I have to admit, when I worked full time, anything that saved me time was worth it..already shredded cheese, bagged lettuce, precut fruit, bakery cakes, shredded potatoes, frozen pizzas, and even paper plates all graced my kitchen.

Convenience.

Now, I'm not perfect. I still buy deli meats and don't slice my own, individually wrapped American cheeses, string cheese, and occasionally, a bag of precut salad.

Baby steps.

This is posted to Works for Me Wednesday, Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways, and Frugal Friday

Spring Cleaning Challenge

Heavy emphasis on challenge, mmkay?

I stink at the whole cleaning/organizing/decluttering thing. There, I said it. I'm easily distracted by Baby Girl...and Facebook. I'm  natural pack rat which makes things even harder. I know, I know, it takes time to change a 35, uh, 29 year habit but it's getting there. 


 I was going to tackle our bedroom because it's the most cluttered, but Mother nature threw me a curve ball and ordered RAIN for this week so Joseph is camped in there playing Civ 5 most of the time since the house is full of hooligans because they are on Spring Break.  So, I'll do the living room. It needs it.



Here's the before:

And Afters

 (Yes, I picked up the bowl and toy. I hadn't swept the floor when I took this)

The DVD/game shelf took the longest time with everything taking about 2 hours.  While I had the couch pulled out I cleaned under it. I worked from one side of the room(starting with the DVD shelf) around to the other, from top to bottom.


After everything was in it's place, I dusted, wiped, and rearranged. I wanted to put the space heaters up but the weather forecast is calling for temps in the 30's at night next week.


Now I need to get the rest of the house to match!

Weekly goals

I need a "I survived a rainy Spring Break with my 3 kids plus one more PLUS my husband being home all week" t shirt.

Seriously.

Needless to say, the house is upside down because when we DID get 2 sunny days, we were gone, lol.

TONS of stuff to do this week, mainly in the housekeeping department.

Ongoing:

Stay caught up with library books

Declutter

Weekly

Cut and organize coupons

Do laundry and put completely away

Clean living room

Clean kitchen

Wash truck

Work on back room

Take Baby Girl to the dentist

Make eye appointments for the crew

List stuff for sale

Menu Plan Monday

Monday, Monday

The good thing about this Monday is the crew is back to school and won't be plowing through the food.

Hopefully :)

Here's the plan for the week:

Breakfasts

Cold cereal

Eggs

Oatmeal

Bagels

all served with fruit

Dinners

Ham and beans, corn bread

Lasagna, salad

Sausage and rice with beans, carrots

Homemade pizza, salad

Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, corn

Bacon and broccoli quiche, fruit salad

Super Savings Saturday-Mustard anyone?

I got a little excited over the sale at Dillons...I mean, mustard for $0.39? Yes, please!

Me and the crew did a quick stop into Dillons and here's what we got:

10 French's mustard Cartbuster event:buy 10 and get $5 off Sale price $0.99-10 0.30/1, doubled= $0.39 each! Plus they had samples of Dijon Mustard on each and a $1/1 Dijon coupon!

15 cans of chicken of the sea tuna $0.69 each

10 Fuze drinks Cartbuster price WYB 10= $.79 each

4 12 packs of Coke $12

12 Powerades $0.59 each

Spent $43.88, saved $37.15 or 45%

Staples

I had $26 in Staples Rewards that were about to expire  and figured I would get me a camera bag for my new camera. While there, I seen the rebate on the computer paper(which we always need)

Spent $2.13 OOP and I should get that back for the paper. Plus I exchanged 2 empty ink cartridges for some more $ in Rewards

Spring Break: Frugal Style

Spring break is so welcomed by my older crew...their last long break was Christmas and the stress of the end of 3rd Quarter is over. Now they are in the "home stretch" on the countdown to summer vacay. This also means that I had a crew to deal with for 9 days. And this week, thanks to the rain, were very LONG days!

I was afraid this week was going to get uber-expensive but I think I managed to keep it reasonable

Here's what we did:

Saturday:watched movies since Thing 2's GERD was acting up

Sunday: went to SDC using our season passes, spent $10 to bring a guest, $10 in gas(approx), and $15 on snacks. We brought lunch and water bottles. We could have not bought food at all, but it had been years since we've been and we had to get a couple funnel cakes :)

Monday: took Thing 1 to get her learner's permit($3.50), did the weekly laundry and went swimming at the YMCA(have a family pass)

Tuesday: went to the second run theatre since it was $1 day, spent $6 on admission, $12 on  snacks

Wednesday: went to local bounce house since we have a family pass, spent $8 at McD's on dollar menu lunch. rented Hugo through Redbox, $1

Thursday: Took kids to Bass Pro, took Thing 1 driving and watched movies on the DVR. Sold a dress on Craigslist, made $10

Friday: staying home since Joseph took truck. Kids have friends coming over.

Saturday: going back to SDC(weather permitting). Done informed the crew we are not buying snacks unless they use their money. Taking picnic lunch again and water bottles. No guest this time so will only spend $ on gas.

Sunday will be usual stuff: laundry, cleaning, early bedtimes :)

So, for the week we will be out about $75(adding in gas for this weekend's SDC trip) or $65 after the credit for selling a dress :)

Not bad

I could have done a LITTLE better, cutting out the McD's trip and saying no snacks at the movies. If the weather had cooperated and they could have spent most of the time outside, we would have stayed home more.

That's ok though, it was a fun, exhausting week!  

Here's what you can do to have an inexpensive break:

1. Set a budget for admissions, gas, food, etc

2. Utilize any yearly/free passes that you may have

3. Check locally for activitites. We have tons of stuff to do here, some free, some not

4. Spend it at a park, lake,  or Nature Center..we have plenty of those here, it just rained :(

5. Pack a lunch. And a snack. And drinks.

5. Think outside of the box.

No need for expensive vacations!

This is posted to  Frugal Fridays, Works For Me Wednesday

Weekly goals

The Things are on Spring Break so it will be interesting to see how much stuff actually gets accomplished this week, lol. Plus it's supposed to rain for 3 days, gah. I really don't have too much planned although I would like for them to actually go through all of their clothing while they are home(I know they have a bunch that doesn't fit)

Here's the plan:

Ongoing

Declutter

Stay caught up with library books

Cut and organize coupons

Weekly

Call in prescription refill

Catch up Netflix DVDs and some DVR'd movies

Work some on my bedroom and the basement

Make it to the Y 3 times

Take my mom her newspapers, and a foot tub

Attend a picnic(if it doesn't get rained out)

Take truck to get heater/AC looked at

Wash truck

Go to Staples: take in ink cartridges for recycling credit, use Rewards(Get camera case)

Menu plan Monday

It's Spring Break for the Things. And it's supposed to rain 3 days :(. That means I might get one last round of a soup and chili for dinner this week.  I have a few carryovers from last week, since we did leftover night 3 times.

Here's the plan;

Breakfasts

Bagels

Eggs

Oatmeal

Cold cereal

all served with fruit

Dinners

Bacon and broccoli quiche, fruit salad

Baked pork chops, scalloped potatoes, green beans

Chili with cheese and fritoes

Pork fried rice

Potato soup, bread

Project Simplify:The Fridge

The refrigerator can go to heck fast around here. Mostly stuffed with leftovers, space disappears quick!

Monday night was a planned leftover night, so here's the pics I snapped beforehand

 The shelves

Door, ugh. Yes there are 2 open containers of milk!

Omg, this thing was packed! 2 leftover nights, some things straight to the garbage, and some to the dogs later, it's a little less stuffed. The kids managed to drink most of the milk and a few things were added after a trip to the store but everything left is not on its way to becoming a science experiment anytime soon, lol. I also found 3, yes 3 open bags of croutons, so I combined them into one and vowed to hide the unopened bags in the pantry so the crew won't open any more.

 The inside after...drinks where I can find them(I think I need a new Coke box for sodas, lol), breakfast stuff on top shelf for my half asleep mornings fixing Joseph breakfast at 5 am. All the yogurt, cheese, and sandwich meats in the middle, and large stuff on the the bottom.

A little improvement on the door...there's not really anywhere else I can put these things and condiments definitely get lost on the shelves, lol

Easy Cake Template

I'm getting a bit more bold on my cake decorating, even without having took any classes. I wanted to make Thing 1 an Angry Bird cake for her birthday and getting the shape was easy, I was worried about the details. I brainstormed on how I was going to do it without a molded pan to guide me. I looked around and then one day when Baby Girl was coloring, I realized I would try to use a coloring sheet. Searching the Internet, I found a good one of the red Angry Bird and printed it out:

It was the same size as the pans so I knew the scale would work. I cut out the eyes and beak and used toothpicks to position them in just the right spot. I did the red frosting, then the white, leaving only a blank space where the paper was

I removed the eyes and applied the white:

Then I was left with the spot for the beak:

I filled in that area then all that was left was the outlining

Easy peasey

Ta-da! An Angry Bird!

So next time you need a template for a cake, look no farther than a coloring book!

This is posted to Works For Me Wednesday, Frugal Ways, Frugal Fridays

Signs of Spring in the city

Ah, Springtime. Even here in the city we can find the signs. Birds chirping, leaves returning, and our lovely seed starters shooting up!

We started this group about 2 weeks ago and they are really taking off. Baby Girl wanted to grow some food this year so that's what we are doing. We have hot peppers, lettuce, broccoli, carrots, corn, bell peppers, beans, peas, and I've lost count of what else. Plus we still have another tray to get going with sunflowers, okra, asparagus, cauliflower, and more!

Tray #2 planted a little over a week ago. Joseph needs to get the ground tilled so all these can go in!

Easter lilies in the front yard

Our neighbor's beautiful tree

Weekly goals

Since party weekend is over, I can concentrate more the decluttering part of my routine.  I actually made it to the Y twice for myself last week...I wanted 3 times buteverything was nuts and out of whack so I considered that a victory.

Here's the plan

Ongoing

Declutter

Stay caught up with library books

Cut and organize coupons

Weekly

Clean out drawers in my bedroom

Work some on basement

Make it to the Y 3 times

Make eye appointments for the crew

Take Thing 2 to the Ortho

Take Thing 1 to get her learner's permit

Take Thing out out for dinner on her birthday

Grocery shopping and Sam's

Continue listing items for sale

Menu Plan Monday

Crazy week is over and hopefully this one will be fairly uneventful..ok, ASIDE from Thing 1's 15th birthday Tuesday :)

Here's the plan

Breakfasts

Cold cereal

Oatmeal

Eggs

all served with fruit

Dinners

Split pea and ham soup, bread

Hamburgers, tater tots

Chili with cheese and fritoes

Broccoli and bacon quiche, fruit salad

Cashew chicken with rice, asian slaw

Smoked sausage with rice, green beans

Booking it

My one hour a day reading schedule is starting to pay off...granted, some days it's hard to get the hour in, but I'm keeping up pretty good with the library books. I think I do need to up it because aside from library books, I have books I've purchased that I need to get to!

Here's the bunch I read this month:

Dead Reckoning

The Dirty Life

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years

Madame Tussaud

World War Z

If you are interested in these yourself, check out my Amazon store to the right. I added these already, plus check out last months reads.

Disclaimer; it does include affiliate links and I receive a small compensation on each order!

Weekly goals

Crazy, crazy week here. Mostly involves a LOT of cleaning since we have a house full of people on the weekend. I'm trying to delegate more stuff to the Things. At 15 and 12, yes they have chores but I think they can handle more than usual. I'm doing everything myself and it's just making me fizzle by mid week.

Ongoing

Declutter

Stay caught up with library books

Cut and organize coupons

Weekly

Attend Thing 1's cheer banquet(Monday)

Clean living room-Thing 1

Clean bathroom-Thing 2

Clean their bedroom-Thing 1&2

Dining room and kitchen-Me

Make cake and cupcakes for Thing 1's parties

Go to Target to get cake pop pan I seen last week

Make the Things eye appointments, prob one for Baby Girl also since she starts school in the fall

Attend craft show at Thing 1's school Saturday morning

Get laundry completely away

Go to the YMCA and work out 3 times

Pretty much scrub house from top to bottom

Wash the dogs-Thing 2

Attend a Gardening on a Budget class(Wednesday)

Take Thing 1 to purchase her birthday present(she wants a pair of Tom's shoes, she def needs to try them on!)

The usual grocery shopping

Go pay Baby Girl's soccer fee

Circus!(Sunday evening!)

Menu Plan Monday

This is a crazy week and my menu shows(at least I'm attempting to even make one, lol) Saturday night I will have a houseful of teenage girls and I don't have a clue what's for dinner...maybe a sandwich bar? ugh. I'll figure it out. Hopefully

 Here's the plan:

Breakfasts

Oatmeal

Cereal

eggs

all served with fruit

Dinners

Cheer banquet Monday night so that's where we will eat

Sloppy joes, fries, carrot sticks

Whole baked chicken, stuffing, green beans

Nachos with chicken, tomatoes, and olives, fruit salad

Round steaks with gravy, mashed potatoes, corn

Chicken wings, salad

Super Savings Saturday

I almost missed the Tylenol Precise deal at Walgreens! All my usual stores were sold out all week and then on Saturday, I went across town to a specialty meat store and decided to stop at the Walgreens next to it. Score!

7 Tylenol Precise $5 each(normally $7.99) - 7 $5/1= FREE!

Walmart

Not extreme couponing but I had a few things I wanted

4 Texas Croutons $1.36 each-4 .40/1=.96 each

13 Martha White muffin mixes $.98 each-3 $1/3-4 $.35/1=.65 each

1 Edge shave gel $2.44-.55/1= $1.89

8 16 ounce velveetas $3.83 each-8 .55/1=$3.28 each

February decluttering update

I did so much work, but yet it seems like I just barely chipped away this month.

I hate that.

Sometimes, I wish I had a magic wand so just poof it all into oblivion. Or a magic snap like Mary Poppins :)

I did this, and this

I also donated 3 Walmart sized plastic bags full of stuff

22 magazines taken to the laundry

2 Walmart size bags of coupons donated to a local place that sends them overseas

I sold 1 figurine, 2 Wii games, 2 wooden purses, and 47 scratched video games, making $41 on all of those things